Titans Hire Robert Saleh, Dolphins Hire Jeff Hafley and Offseason Previews for 49ers and Bears

19:23Jourdan Rodrigue:It's a tough place to win. And turns out it was a tough place to win. Right. He didn't win very much. Right. Exactly. So he got like extra credit that he was like somewhat competitive. They were they were bowl eligible, which there is better than average. that that should be pointed out. His defenses in Green Bay were fine. Got a lot of love from kind of the film watching community as being a creative defense fell apart when Michael Parsons left. But kind of a clean slate. It's always really hard to know which of these head coaching hired are going to work and which won't. So I tend to not have like huge strong takes going into it.

19:57His is just more like, okay, I believe it. He must be great in a room too, like Robert Sala. Must be. because a lot of this is like, who's good at interviewing? And Salah, it does not shock me. All the reporting is like, he was just great in that interview. That actually, Borgonzi, you know, if you're believing the reporting, it was like that he wanted Nagy, but Salah was just so good in the interview that he got the job and Halfley is apparently really impressive. A lot of people who know him well say a lot of great things about him.

20:27Colleen Wolfe:Well, think about what you would want as, what you would want in a head coach for a team. You want a motivational speaker. He wants someone who's going to have charisma and who can carry the room and be that have that energy when they walk into the room, because they're going to have to have so many players from different backgrounds and just different personalities all follow this one person. So that makes sense to me in terms of like his actual scheme and how things will pan out. He's a wide nine guy. So Chop Robinson maybe ends up like benefiting from this. just thinking about the way that he plays a little bit.

21:03Colleen Wolfe:I don't know. I mean, I think that this is a nice pairing for Jeff.

21:07Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah. What you hear about, like what John Eric Sullivan really liked about him and John Eric Sullivan has watched for 20 years, people come and go in and out of that Packers building because he worked his way up from an intern in that building and watched the regime changes and watched the dynamics with all the different coaches. And he was the one that he wanted. Halfley was the one that he wanted. I would say that he's probably one of Matt LaFleur's better coaching hires and certainly on defense that Matt LaFleur has made. And this is, I think, a bigger question for the Green Bay Packers moving forward about what Matt LaFleur is going to do infrastructurally, especially with an organization that does not have a stellar reputation of paying assistant coaches competitive money to bring in some of the best people into those jobs.

21:54Jourdan Rodrigue:He now has a guy who got the, I guess, LaFleur bump a little bit. So maybe that helps bring people in like the Sean McVay bump. You know who really got the LaFleur bump? The reporting from Albert Breer was Matt LaFleur's influence was big in terms of their research on hiring Robert Sala. Because LaFleur was in that Tennessee building, too. And they talked to him a ton in the months leading up. And they were like, oh, by the way, how is that contract going? Right. And it is funny because I'm just thinking like, yeah, Matt LaFleur is happy to hurt one of his NFC rivals and get his buddy a job. It's just all messy.

22:28Jourdan Rodrigue:But with Halfley, you hear about EQ with players. You hear about infrastructural vision, which is really important when you're trying to rebuild something or build something out a little bit better. You hear about attention to detail, great teaching, explanatory nature. So I think, you know, we'll have to see, obviously. But John Eric Sullivan being as process oriented in that organization as he was for so many years, to me, gives this Halfley hire a little bit of a bump toward the positive. Definitely, because there is a familiarity between those two. And that relationship is just so vital. And so you're going in kind of knowing that that's a strong relationship.

23:08That's massive. Halfley's resume is interesting. You know, he had those BC jobs. He mostly was in the NFL as a defensive backs coach. He was on some crazy staffs. He started on the Greg Sciano, Tampa Bay Buccaneers staff. Real ones, no. That was a wild ride. He was on the Kyle Shanahan Brown staff, coaching up our friend Andrew Hawkins. Although Hawkins was on offense. But I'm just saying, on that staff, so was Mike McDaniel. That was a wild one, too. He was on Chip Kelly's 49ers staff and then stayed for Kyle Shanahan's the next year. The Packers were really reliant on turnovers. It's interesting to think about their free agents because sometimes, you know, whether they could jump over on defense.

23:47Quay Walker and Iqbari are both free agents. So maybe they will hop over to Miami. And then Malik Willis, a guy he got to be in the same building with has been kind of connected even before this all happened to the dolphins as a possible replacement. So that would be interesting. Let's get to New York where John Harbaugh had his introductory presser.

24:07Jourdan Rodrigue:And he didn't say the bills job just opened. No, he did not. And you know what? Sorry. Sorry, we're swearing a lot today. We're giving you guys an Eric. A lot of problems. We're giving you guys some work here. Let's actually listen to John Harbaugh answer a question of when he heard from his original mentor in the NFL, Andy Reid.

24:32Colleen Wolfe:Andy's a man of few words. And his four words to me were, change can be good. That's what he said. Change can be good. and he was excited. He's fired up for us. He's a good friend. And, yeah, we'll try to do it. You know what? How about we do this? How about we deal that right now? We'll sign up for that deal right now, what he did in Kansas City. Let's do that. I watched this entire press conference. I'll have what he's having. Joe Thomas for N Steaks. Yes. Hall of Fame beef. Just send him Patrick Mahomes. He did talk very glowingly about his quarterback, Jackson Dart, and said he had done a lot of research.

25:17He said his dad even was watching all the Giants tape and was noting how they really controlled the line of scrimmage, he thought, on both sides of the ball. And noted how good the offensive line was, which I think was a good note from Papa Harbaugh there because their offensive line was quite underrated last year. And I thought the stagecraft of the press conference was fascinating. fascinating. Joe Shane starts the press conference. So it's usually ownership. Now, John Mara was, you know, the controlling owner along with Steve Tisch, but he's the, you know, the face of it. He's has a cancer battle right now.

25:52And so that clearly is part of it. His brother, Chris Mara, was really involved in this whole search. And he spoke to the media eventually afterwards and said he's been doing a lot. But it was really interesting to have Joe Shane up there introducing John Harbaugh. And then, you know, if you're watching us on YouTube, you can see that the pictures that they take afterwards, you know, usually again, it's with ownership. And they made sure to have Joe Shane smiling up there, the GM with John Harbaugh.

26:20Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, look alike. And look at if you're just doing, you know, a little, they're both holding the helmet. Now who's holding more of the helmet is my question. I think it's Joe Shane, but that's because he needs to, because John knows he's really holding the juice in the organization. It took a minute, but eventually John Harbaugh was asked about the structure of him now reporting to ownership directly instead of Joe Shane. And ultimately, John Harbaugh has the final say on personnel and big football matters.

26:53Colleen Wolfe:To me, it's really not that important in the big picture and big scheme of things. I think it's kind of over, you know, overblown just a little bit in terms of how it works. But the main thing is that it works, you know, and that we work together. That's what matters. So that's kind of what I was used to. And it felt like a good way to kind of start off. And I think Mr. Mayor was happy about that. It seemed like it made sense. And I'm just happy. But I don't think it really matters. I think we're all going to work together. And I promise you, we all report to the boss, right? I just love him saying it doesn't really matter.

27:29when extremely credible reporters, including Ian O 'Connor at The Athletic, has it down that John Harbaugh himself sent a shrug emoji to Ian O 'Connor saying, are you still sure you're going to be the Giants head coach? This is Saturday morning over, you know, 48 hours after, more than that, after all the reporting that he was taking this job with the basically primary, if not only problem that they had in terms of running up the contract was that he didn't want to be reporting to Joe Shane. So I just find it fascinating that he's up there. Oh, that's it. That's funny. You bring that up. That's not an issue at all.

28:10And then they have Joe Shane talk to the media afterward and said the thing is like, oh, it doesn't matter at all. It almost completely blew up this hundred million dollar deal. But it's fine. Yeah.

28:19Jourdan Rodrigue:And the biggest the biggest move the Giants have made in years and, you know, perceived bell of the coaching ball. And we'll see how it goes, because if that's how things are starting, which is everything's fine. We're all having fun here. We're all easy peasy. I'm breezy up at the podium kind of a thing. But then there's these little moments, a little comment that the media little things. There's been some some rumbling, some concerns. It's going to be interesting to watch and things are going great now. They had a big win in New York, but what happens when it's actually time to shift power dynamics?

28:53Jourdan Rodrigue:Because mark my words, it will be maybe sooner than later soon time to shift power dynamics there, and then we'll really see. I think between him and Joe Shane, they know. He's just running everything. And Elliot Wolfe, I think, is a good comp in New England where he's still doing press conferences and stuff, but Mike Rabel is in charge of everything and Elliot Wolfe is one of the people working for him. And that's basically I think what's happening and John Harbaugh is the man and I think that John Harbaugh

29:21Colleen Wolfe:has kind of earned that too yes with yes tenure in the league like dude knows ball of course you don't want a brand new first time head coach that maybe hasn't even called plays or anything like that before coming in and then having like full roster control it almost feels like that's too much but for an established head coach that has done this time and time again that has to be a stipulation because if they have someone that they were not brought in with and then it's an arranged marriage, that's that seems like it is trouble.

29:50Jourdan Rodrigue:In any of these overhang GM scenarios, something has to give if the GM is keeping their job and a real deal head coach. And I hate this term, but like an alpha head coach comes in like something has to give on the GM front. You saw it just happened successfully, might I add, in Chicago and you saw it happen almost 10 years ago. in Los Angeles. And like this, this is one of these things where that dynamic is so much more important than these guys are up there talking about in public. Right. And that's what I say, like John Harbaugh, the thing that the criticism that I think is fair for Joe Shane, and he's, he's taken a lot of heat.

30:30Jourdan Rodrigue:Certainly. I think the fair criticism is that he has, yes, drafted talent and he's drafted guys with really good traits, but all together as a collective, like it just doesn't work. There has to be an actual identity for a team to not just go out and get guys who are perceived to be really, really good football players, but how does that person actually fit into a larger plan of your roster? And that's where John Harbaugh, I think, is really quite gifted as a team builder and where he doesn't bring you an edge offensively or defensively and maybe not even special teams anymore at this point. at this at the same time he does understand how to build an actual team and how to identify qualities i mean he better bring you an edge an actual team and that's where i think yeah you he better be in charge of that right and i don't think this is going to be a situation they were showing the sean mcdermott introductory press conference photos uh this week because it was so long ago he's so much younger you know now where did you find the photos that you used for for the podcast share because you had you had oh I had a good I had a good Sean McDermott I don't know I just remember seeing him in like a model shot and I was just like that's funny I'm gonna just burned in your memory I'm gonna save and keep it for someday nine years no it was from playing the long game last off season it paid off in a big way if you want to see Sean styling but like I completely now forget whatever I was going to talk about so hold on

31:57Colleen Wolfe:And I was just going to say that John Harbaugh and Jackson Dart, that feels like a nice marriage between the two of them because of the way that John Harbaugh just is the way he seems like a northeast kind of guy. And I don't know if that means anything to anyone else, but it's just like someone who is going to be totally straight with you and frank with you. And I feel like that's what Jackson Dart kind of needs. and I just think it's going to be a really good match. And I think he'll have some fun maybe mixing it up with me. It might not be like fun might be the wrong word, but yeah, you could tell Harbaugh right off the bat was like, this is different.

32:39Like this is very New York. And, you know, he's talking about like just how many people are there and how much he wanted this job. I believe that. I actually do believe that this was the job he wanted all along. He says his agent really wanted it too. and uh yeah it was just funny when he's asked about Shane and he used the word I expect our relationship to be phenomenally great it's going to be incredible that's what he said it's like okay

33:03Jourdan Rodrigue:like we this is this is when you talk about like the northeastern thing this is the thing where I laugh because with there's always that thing with him in Lamar where he wouldn't seem to know like what the injury was or what was going on with the quarterback or whatever uh or they were on different pages. It's like, oh, we don't talk about that. You know, like we're going to, everything's fine. You know, we don't talk about that at the family dinner table. Like everything's fine. It's just like very much that vibe. Let's take a quick break. And by the way, I was thinking of that, that Bill's press conference where it's very similarly, they had a GM help introduce Sean McDermott back then.

33:41Doug Whaley was the name. And at the time they were insisting he was going to be a big part of their future and they fired him in May. I don't think that's going to happen with Joe Shane. I think he's going to be there. They wouldn't have gone so hard in the paint just to fire him in May. But it is the John Harbaugh show in New York, and it's going to be fascinating to watch. And I agree with Harbaugh and his dad's assessment that there's a lot of good football players there. This does not need to be a rebuild. He kind of set the expectations that they can win right away. Let's take a break, wrap up the news, and then we'll do our off-season look-aheads and recommendation station.

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37:29Back on NFL Daily, few odds and ends here. Chiefs expected to hire Eric Biennemi as offensive coordinator, which is an interesting return. He was the guy during their best offensive days. I found it interesting, too, that they kind of just let Matt Nagy walk. That's a little worrisome, I guess, if you were thinking about hiring Matt Nagy. But I'm not sure if he's going to be a finalist anywhere else. But you hear a lot of players talk about how important Eric Biennemi was to them in terms of like the details and kind of being maybe, you know, if Andy Reid is like the nice guy, that he's maybe like the strict teacher and that that combination helped make them great.

38:12And so Reid wanted Eric Bien-Ami back.

38:15Colleen Wolfe:He's back. Yeah. When I first saw it, I had to double check to make sure that I was actually like I had to reread it a couple of times. I'm like, oh, well, that's great. But it is very interesting letting go of Matt Nagy, especially with the history and the relationships that were already in place with Andy Reid and Matt Nagy. They spent a lot of time together. So for Andy Reid to then bring back Eric Biennemi, the players absolutely love this guy. And that's when they experienced their success. So listen, let's run it back. Let's see if this works.

38:50Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, I think it went really far too under the radar that he was in working with Ben Johnson, the architect of Kyle Menungay and DeAndre Swift's resurgence, and helped build out that offensive line with the very meticulous vision that Ben Johnson had for it. And we give Ben Johnson rightfully a lot of credit. But Eric Biennemi was the engine behind a lot of that, too. And Travis Kelsey, I remember him speaking about like, Eric Biennemi is the one that's like addressing the team for the most part and is on the details. And I heard more than a few people speculate during the season. It's like they really miss him because they are not like a disciplined football team now.

39:25And and maybe bringing back the enemy helps the Lions made their offensive coordinator higher. Drew Petsig as offensive coordinator. I heard secondhand that this didn't get like a lot of appreciation on the social, which surprises me because I feel like Petsig is is kind of a. favorite of the X's and O's set. I think he did a pretty good job in Arizona until last season. Cardinals fans feel less so about it, but there's some connective tissue between him and the offensive line coach, Hank Fraley. And so you already know going in, they have a relationship that can work out well together.

40:05Jourdan Rodrigue:I absolutely love this because, and I've been, you guys know, maybe to a fault, I've been really high on Drew Petzin all year for multiple years at this point. This is a dream come true for the play action passing game that Jared Goff loves to run, that they really want to continue and revitalize there in Detroit. This is a dream come true in partnership with that offensive line, getting them back to playing at their standard. And this is a dream come true for the tight ends group as well, for Sam Laporta to continue to emerge as one of the better tight ends in the league. We saw what Drew Petsing did when he funneled this offense through Trey McBride.

40:40Jourdan Rodrigue:I think that you also look at Amon Ross St. Brown as that F player as well. That is sort of that hybrid in the Kubiak system where you are basically both a receiver and a tight end and you're playing predominantly out of the slot. You're looking at the offense funneling through that player as well as the tight end position. I could not love this more as a fit for the Lions. And I think subtly one of the more underrated elements to this hire is Dan Campbell does not have to be as in the weeds in this offense. When you have somebody as experienced as Drew Petsing coming in to run the show, you're not going to have to worry about the things that were very clearly a strain on Dan Campbell when he took over play calling from John Morton by the end of the year.

41:21Jourdan Rodrigue:I think this is a phenomenal hire.

41:23Colleen Wolfe:And Petsing, he was, I'm excited to see him coach against the Bears and Ben Johnson, considering they were together at Boston College. And Petsing was a groomsman in Ben Johnson's wedding. Look at this. What a connection. Going deep. I know. On the research, I appreciate it. I'm checking out like the efficiency, the DVOA rankings of Petsing in Arizona. 21st his first year, 11th second year, and then last year fell off a bit of a cliff.

41:50Jourdan Rodrigue:Well, yeah, and you have to think, too, basically their first four running backs got hurt. They had a little bit of a mess at times on the interior of that offensive line. Two different quarterbacks, one who clearly fit better in that offense than the other, even though Kyler is a much more talented quarterback. And then a real struggle trying to get all the receivers into the mix the way that I think Cardinals fans really wanted Marvin Harrison Jr. to have this offense funneled through him, there was sort of a push and pull. Your most productive player is your tight end. So the Drew Petzin out of the Kubiak system is going to run the offense through the tight end.

42:27Jourdan Rodrigue:It just wasn't congruous, in my opinion. Yeah, it didn't work this last season. And he's landing in like a perfect spot. Actually, I wouldn't say perfect because the offensive line needs a lot of work and the expectations are sky high. So he will get blamed if things don't go well. Zach Charbonnet, unfortunately, did not have a good week in terms of the information on his knee. If you remember, he left the divisional round game against the 49ers with a knee injury that after the game, Mike McDonald said he didn't believe was too serious, but it turned out to be a torn ACL. And so he is now out, obviously, for the rest of the playoffs.

43:07And Kenneth Walker Jr. will have to take more of the load. And so we'll talk more about that on tomorrow's show, previewing the NFC championship, just some odds and ends before we move on to these look ahead. The Falcons have Jeff Ulbrich as their defensive coordinator. That was, that was rumored, but that's a, that's good to see. And they also are hiring Bill Callahan as their offensive line coach. Again, that's rumored that we had, we brought that up previously, but that is happening. Jay Glazer. I thought it was interesting said publicly he that Mike Tomlin's is done with coaching. He's not going back.

43:45Colleen Wolfe:Really? And I feel like Jay Glazer knows. I mean, you never know. Mike Tomlin could always change his mind, but it also seems like Mike Tomlin's not. If I was going to believe that someone's not going to change his mind, it would be Mike Tomlin.

43:57Jourdan Rodrigue:So maybe I think that it would be a really cool thing for Jay Glazer to get a TV teammate in Mike Tomlin and have the highest possible contract possible for Mike Tomlin, his friend, his longtime friend. And they're super close. So, yes, he would know. And then, you know, have it be so leave a little wiggle room. If Mike Tomlin gets the itch again, hey, who could blame him? Right. He's getting that money regardless. And they'll have to put it into the contract, obviously, if he if he leaves. And who knows? I assume that's the type of job he

44:29Colleen Wolfe:wants maybe the amazon job i don't know you can't tell me like in around thanksgiving that he's like and he's in a broadcast booth or he's on in a broadcast studio that at thanksgiving he's not

44:39Jourdan Rodrigue:like really wanting to be on a field somewhere or like i can do that better yeah maybe because there's gonna be a lot of those this year everyone's different he he seemed like a coach that was that was pretty burnt out from it and and some like look he's made enough money to live on it it depends on what he's going to value for the rest of his life. Cause he's a relatively young man, at least in terms of coaching early fifties, the saints resigned Julian Blackman, who's a safety for them, solid veteran. The only reason I point that out is like, I think that's the first like veteran resigning of the off season.

45:12So congratulations to the saints. I just like, all right, we're free time. We're in the mix. They have had a few weeks off. we have some finalists for different jobs. Mike McDaniel, Jim Schwartz, Nate Schielhaus, Todd Monken, Jesse Minter in Cleveland. The Ravens finalists, and this is not a final list necessarily, but in terms of their second interviews, it includes two of what were believed to be the known favorites, Anthony Weaver and Jesse Minter so far. Also includes the Bills offensive coordinator, at least until this week, Joe Brady. Joe Brady is also meeting with the Cardinals. So there's your little trip around the league.

45:52And right as we were taping, the Packers have released Trevon Diggs opening up some cap space. So that was...

45:59Colleen Wolfe:We hardly knew you. I was going to say, what did you like best about the Trevon Diggs era in Green Bay? You know what? I actually went back and watched his snaps of that first game because I was just curious. He had a good first game. He actually... I think he got that like, I'm out of Dallas. I'm trying harder now, a thing that happens sometimes. Let's talk about the 49ers and Bears. I mentioned I wanted to just do a little bit of a look ahead for the teams that are out. If you're a 49ers fan, Colleen, and you're not. Thank you. Thank you for starting there. That's really so nice of you. You did once take improv classes.

46:37I did.

46:38Colleen Wolfe:I did. And so this is like 10 years ago. Yeah. Yes. I will. Yes. And. And you didn't stick with it? I don't have a whole lot of free time to do classes. Well, so the problem is it's like six weeks or so, eight weeks, and you can't miss any of the classes uninterrupted. So with our schedule traveling, the only time to ever do it is right after the combine. And then didn't Bonetta try to get you back into there? Maybe it was Tamposi. Yeah, I signed up for a stand-up class and then the fires broke out. They canceled it and that was my only window. So who knows? Maybe I'll come back around. Okay. I don't know why I'm bringing this all up.

47:16Oh, yeah, because you're trying to put yourself in the mind of a 49ers fan. And how do you feel? Because you overachieved this year.

47:25Colleen Wolfe:Unconfortable, annoyed. You overachieved, but you're in this division with these two behemoths. What do you want to see this offseason from the 49ers? Some wide receivers. Okay. Would love that. Don't really know where they stand with Juwan Jennings, who is a free agent. He led the team with touchdowns. Obviously, the Brandon Ayuk situation is a situation that is done. It seems that divorce is happening. So they just don't have any depth there. They need, I mean, I know that Christian McCaffrey is an all-over-the-place type guy. You could crank him up to 700 touches next year. Yeah, why not? He's fine.

48:08Colleen Wolfe:but they definitely need some something there something more than what they have in general and then the other big question is who's going to be their DC after Robert Sala left yeah they're

48:18Jourdan Rodrigue:to me their biggest need is going to be pass rush it's going to be continuing to juice up this defense they've got a couple of young guys they just didn't have enough players Nick Bosa being hurt didn't help I don't think it's as simple as getting some of these players back from injury I think this is actually the year if I'm looking at this particular team building model that they're in, which other teams have done over the years, Tampa Bay being one of them, as well as the Los Angeles Rams this year now, after overachieving expectations becomes when you start to make some difficult decisions with some of the quote unquote weight bearing walls on your roster, who, who are you less confident could come back fully from injury?

48:56Jourdan Rodrigue:Who are you less confident? Who do you think will still contribute in a meaningful way as a weight bearing wall within this infrastructure? And so I think that those are some, some big questions, obviously to answer there. I thought about that too. And then I looked and look, they have$30 million in cap space, which is pretty good. And none of the guys that you would think like, would they already think about moving on from Nick Bosa? It's not going to help them financially at all. So there's no reason to, uh, Trent Williams, he's going to be allowed to play as long as he wants to. Yeah. And he wants to come back.

49:27Jourdan Rodrigue:That was one big point that I wanted to make. That's good. And so those are two, that's not going to happen. Uh, Kittle, they're going to wait for him to come back from his Achilles. It's not like they want to move off from him. Same thing with like Fred Warner is the only one that you could actually get like a little bit of cap space, but you don't, you don't need it. So there's no reason to me to, to move on. They're in a good space to, to push because there's not actually a lot of dead weight on the roster. This probably will not be popular with 49ers fans, but I do feel that Nick Bosa would be the one that you consider possibly.

49:58Like why, if he's not going to save you any money?

50:00Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm so glad you asked. Cause I was just about to say that Greg, because of draft picks. You need draft picks and you need draft picks to continue to build out and develop areas of your roster that you eventually will need to replace. Because I think with this quarterback and with the offense that they have, when healthy, especially if Trent Williams, and it sounds like he will, come back, you really could do this all over again, but you need better players on defense. You need more on defense. A healthy Fred Warner will help enormously with that. But without Robert Sala, you are overhauling now an entire identity of that front structure.

50:33Jourdan Rodrigue:And you started doing it a little bit last year with what they were doing in the draft. And now you're going to continue doing that. So you think about, and this is not like reporting, this is just what smart teams do. You think about who is going to give me the maximum return to replace, if it is inevitable, who can I make it immediate with and get a maximum return on said player right now to help build out positions of need. It does not sound logical to take a weakness and say, hey, we're going to move on from our best player along this defensive line in this pass rush. No, it does not sound good when I say it in this phase of the calendar.

51:10Jourdan Rodrigue:But when it comes time to actually restructure and look ahead to what this identity of this young defense has to be, that is something you look at. You're not going to get a retirement like the Rams got from Aaron Donald.

51:20Colleen Wolfe:They need to beef up their offensive line for sure. That's like a number one priority for them. They always kind of skate by on coaching and, and it just didn't work this year. Like they didn't run the ball well. And even the pass pro wasn't great with Bosa, unless they changed his contract, you know, he's coming off an injury. That would probably be like something where they have to show his wares in training camp. And by then, like you're getting a draft pick, that's going to be the same for, for 2026. They would take a pretty big cap hit to have to trade him before a free agency or anything like that.

51:52And he's coming off such a serious injury that makes it tough to do, but you never know. Not, not impossible. I, I think they're, I think fans that feel like they're like way behind the Seahawks and Rams, like things change. Juwan Jennings, probably Bon Voyage, but you never know. Maybe they'll bring him back. And yes, I'm glad you brought up Brandon Ayew because they can void the guarantees in his contract. So he is expected to be released. You were in Chicago for that game. What was, what was that like?

52:21Colleen Wolfe:Oh my gosh. The Loveland, the Loveland touchdown that moment?

52:27Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah. So the fourth and four, everybody is sort of thinking like nobody has left their seats right in the press box. And normally you go down, even in a close game like that, you go down like a minute early because you're going to get stuck in the elevator and then you might miss post-game press conferences. That entire media out there, they're so used to this happening, these late game drives and these comebacks that nobody left their seats. And it, when that moment happened, it was the absolute, like, I thought the atmosphere was going to blow off the planet, like how loud it was and just snow flying everywhere and icicles flying off people's beards and hats.

53:09Jourdan Rodrigue:And like, it was craziness. It was just the coolest thing. I texted Greg all caps. I can't believe I just got to see that in person. It's one of those things you never forget. Um, you know, overall with the, with the bears, like again, you want to talk about overachieving expectations. I do think you saw where they are going to want to continue to build. And a lot of that's on defense because Dennis Allen used his defensive backs pretty much to their maximum capacity to manufacture every single positive play minus one or two from the interior defensive line, um, in the pass rush and, and, and all of that.

53:43Jourdan Rodrigue:And I think that this it really shone a light on where the Bears need the most help. And that is up front along their defensive line.

53:50Colleen Wolfe:I was just going to say, I'm still thinking about how you describe the moment in the stadium with that touchdown. And to me, it almost feels like in Pulp Fiction where like the shot of adrenaline. Oh, yeah. That's that's what that mimicked.

54:05Jourdan Rodrigue:It was crazy. It felt like that watching it. And it was, you know, what was so cool too was, and shout out to Bears fans, because like that whole city, I love being in a football town. And it was this combination of, it was freezing cold and snowing and everybody's still out in the street, like walking to this game at this iconic stadium and the lake is frozen and you can see it out the window of the back of the press box, how the lake is frozen over and the flags are blowing sideways and the people gave Caleb Williams and the Bears a standing ovation, even in a loss at the end. And it just was, it was a beautiful moment and I love it.

54:47Jourdan Rodrigue:And it was so fun being there through the playoffs because like I said, I love being in a football town. And even when I'm like out eating dinner at a restaurant down the street and the Bills game is on like this fan base, it was packed with Bears fans and they were living and dying with every snap wasn't even their team they knew matt prater's field goal percentage on the season on his career like i i freaking love being in a football town during that time of year and they knew that the moment was there and they met it and and then you know on the other side when matthew stafford hits that play it was i know the first down but when he hits that throw to davante adams just the oxygen just just like it was like a black hole it just imploded like an absence of sound an absence of noise and it's like the creepiest feeling ever and it was the whole thing was incredible I was lucky I was very lucky to be there it's why you do it it's it's why you do it it's a classic and um like that that moment is gonna be remembered I was trying to think of an analog of like great moments in a losing effort that are remembered forever when we were we were struggling with it like like matt ryan's throw to julio jones in the super bowl against the patriots should have been remembered but people actually don't remember that one that much because there's still a lot of time left in the in the game it's not a scoring play it's it's it's not really that close to the the caleb's play uh to cole comet and if it's crazy because you think about commit and DJ Moore, who both caught, you know, commit catches the classic touchdown and DJ Moore catches one earlier.

56:27And when I'm going through their situation in terms of the cap, I'm thinking, well, those are two of the likely cuts. DJ Moore, I think is a really strong candidate to get traded. He's due$24 million guaranteed next year. His production doesn't match that his role is easily kind of replaced by Luther Burden and they can save 16 million dollars by trading him and I think he would have a market commit is a little trickier like you might want to keep commit you might you might not um but he he got that contract from a previous organ uh you know regime regime and uh at least in terms of Ben Johnson wasn't there I know Ryan Poles was there DJ Moore, you know, impacted that last interception by Caleb Williams.

57:13And it was interesting to listen to Caleb on Monday on that misfire.

57:18Colleen Wolfe:Being able to just get on the same page in those moments. And it's, you know, small things like that, that show up in those moments that, you know, you may not have talked about, but being on the same page or talking about it, you know, maybe week one or week six, it shows up in week, you know, week 18 or whatever week we're in. I think that was kind of damning. He also said he hadn't really talked about it with DJ Moore yet. They're$4 million over the cap. So they are not on a knife's edge or anything, but they got to make some decisions because they have some really key free agents. The best part of their defense by far was the secondary.

57:54And most of it is eligible for free agency. Kevin Byard, who had a great rejuvenated season. Jaquan Brisker at safety. Nashawn Wright, who had a great year turning the ball over. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who somehow played 70 % of the snaps for them this year. I didn't realize that in the end. And so that's four key players in the secondary that they'll try to bring back.

58:16Colleen Wolfe:Right. And then on the other side of the ball, they'll have to replace Eric Biennemi. And what at this point then... And replace CJ Moore. They will need more weapons too. And Colcomit if they got rid of him. Right. That's true. I mean, yeah. And you just mentioned the safeties. The safety room is like totally thin, especially if they aren't able to retain both of those guys. But I'm just wondering, like, where do you then put the goals for Caleb Williams next season? What are the benchmarks that you're looking for? Because this whole year one with Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams was such a success.

58:51Colleen Wolfe:Then now where, like, the expectations are so high for them. And I love that for Chicago. But, like, what is fair? Where do you look for improvements. Yeah.

59:01Jourdan Rodrigue:I like that question because it's a pretty impossible and yet old, like exceedingly crucial thing for teams with a quarterback who's about to enter his third season. And then that's when you're really at the season, you're really starting to talk about, do we extend them early? Do we pick up the option? What is our, what are our next steps with this quarterback? And for me, it's like, I will never call the throws that he's able to make in these moments luck because there's takes, it takes skill. And I think it's like, oh my gosh, these lucky moments, these outliers. Like, no, that takes so much skill.

59:33Jourdan Rodrigue:But the thing with Caleb Williams is that you have to like even out the rest of it without losing the outliers that are positive. And it's a really impossible needle to thread. But if anyone can do it, you saw their partnership grow over the season. And Caleb really seems bought in to the process with Ben Johnson. He's talked about that openly near the end of this season. you have to lift the floor with him because for every insane, incredible moment you have at the end of these games, you also have some of the reasons why they are having to make insane, incredible come from behind victories. And that being a multi-turnover game, certainly not all on Caleb at all, but that being a multi-turnover game, I think you have to just even out some of the middle ground here.

1:00:21Jourdan Rodrigue:You have to lift the floor of what he can do. Yeah, he ends up, you know, throwing for 52 % completion in the playoffs after being, you know, dead last in the regular season. So I think it's just the down to down consistency, like figuring out the layups. But I do think the last five, six weeks of the season, he was a transformed quarterback in terms of his decision making in general. And the five interceptions in the playoffs are pretty odd because, you know, in two regular seasons, he was not making mistakes. And I think that's where film really tells more of the story here. like you're implying, Greg, because it certainly wouldn't be on him.

1:00:56Jourdan Rodrigue:And he doesn't make negative plays. He doesn't take bad sacks. He avoids pressure. He was, I think, the least sacked player in the quarterback in the playoffs and certainly followed suit from the regular season as well. So, you know, I think it's just like he kind of said it right there in his press conference, getting that communication and those details down early with everybody, including himself. We'll see how far they go this next year. I feel great about our final quarterback Island selections. That play really, you know, cemented Caleb. I think Trevor was ultimately a no brainer. Brock Purdy, like it ended in a tough fashion, but I think he did credit to the Island.

1:01:36I don't think there's any updates to the Island this year.

1:01:39Jourdan Rodrigue:Except for that one Jordan Love fan who keeps posting at me, the Island is a fraud. Well, you know, Jordan Love has a case, But ultimately, you got to make some tough decisions. I think the only candidate to possibly make it change is if if a surprising quarterback leads his team to a Super Bowl in the next couple of weeks. And that's Jarrett Stidham. Recommendation station. Let's before we go, Colleen, give us something that you've enjoyed listening to, reading, watching, whatever you want.

1:02:12Colleen Wolfe:both listening and reading because I, many years ago, like maybe 15 years ago, I read this book called Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Martin Truist. Of course you did. And I just decided to hit the reset button and do audio form for it. So I just restarted last night the book and it's such a fun book. It is like, um, it's basically a finding yourself type book, but it's done in a really fun, self-deprecating type way. And the main character is a guy who leaves this soul crushing corporate job to go and live in the islands of Fiji. And it's just all of the craziness that ensues after that. It's super fun.

1:03:04Colleen Wolfe:I would highly recommend it. It's a great vacation book too. Wow. Um, I feel like, so did you read his previous book? That's a drop. What was that? That was a drop. I feel like I'm really high. Okay. Not that I would know, but we were doing a bit when I said that about teams we were too high on or things that we were getting too high on in the off season. I want ESPN to know that. That was a great one. Um, yeah, that, that book was written by a man whose previous book was The Sex Lives of Cannibals. Gotta check that out. Because the islands that they go to Vanuatu I don't know how to say it but that's all I've ever said in my What is it?

1:03:55Colleen Wolfe:Vanuatu. Vanuatu. I think there was a history way, way, way, way back in the day of cannibalism. And so I think that's where that first book came from. But no, I highly recommend getting stoned with savages. Okay, let's do it. Jordan, you're up.

1:04:11Jourdan Rodrigue:You say with trepidation all across your face. No, I will not be helpful at all to this. What I could recommend to people who might be feeling overwhelmed right now or who might be feeling like it's all just a little too much or like they're very, very tired and would like to sleep somewhere else that is not an airplane to go and find a nice patch of grass somewhere in the sun. There's a lot that's not alive right now. If you can, or like go to maybe like some sort of a park or something or try to be warm somewhere and, or even like a heated seat in your car, like, and just sit there and deep breaths in and deep breaths out.

1:04:53Jourdan Rodrigue:And if you're happy, if you're lucky enough to be in grass, put your palms flat down on the grass, shut your eyes for a little bit and just be there for just a second. That's what I would recommend. Sit in the silence. I like that recommendation. Patch of grass. underrated and available in a lot of places everybody it's cold to what colleen was yeah it's cold in some areas um but that's buying some grass and literally touch it yeah yes it's beautiful um you know it's it's oscar season so i try to run through as many of the the candidates that i can okay uh although i still haven't seen marty supreme which was like the one i've wanted to see the most.

1:05:32So I feel like this is an incomplete grade, but after seeing them all, I think I've landed on sentimental value as my favorite. I don't know if you guys have heard of that one. Joachim Trier's book about this, this family, like a famous movie director who has a strained relationship with his children and then wants to make a movie sort of about their lives involving one of his children, who's an actress, Renata Renzva, I believe, is going to be nominated for like best actress and whatnot, but a sentimental value would be the one that I would recommend. But No Other Choice was a lot of fun. Okay.

1:06:07Hamnet, I wouldn't say it was a lot of fun. I would recommend the book there more, but I thought it was really good. I do love me some Jessie Buckley and she's, I think the favorite for best actress. So that's another good one out there. But that was my pick.

1:06:21Jourdan Rodrigue:Look at you. Sentimental value. Yes. Sorry babies on HBO Max. That was pretty good too. I haven't seen a movie in like years. I decided when my family was gone, go crazy.

1:06:31Colleen Wolfe:If you're not as cultured, patch of grass is always available. Yeah, patch of grass. Or an audio book about getting stoned with savages. Audio books are underrated. I am a, you know, a reading addict, I would say. In most books I read now, I like read 75, 80 % of it. And I listen to about, you know, 15 to 20 % of just when I'm on the go to like, keep, you know, just keep it going. It's nice when your eyes hurt from like looking at screens and stuff all day. You just want to someone read me a bedtime story. I love that.

1:07:02Jourdan Rodrigue:Don't let him leave the building. And yes, Hamnet's an amazing book. Hamnet. Yeah, it is. It is. It's an amazing book. Yeah. All right. Let's say goodbye. We're going to be back on Wednesday for our big mega preview.

1:07:19Colleen Wolfe:I just wait for next Tuesday. Oh, my gosh. Colleen has come up with. From the mind of Colleen Wolfe. A game slash interactive experience for all the listeners. We will see you next Tuesday with that one.

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