Vikings Fire Adofo-Mensah, Cardinals Hire Mike LaFleur, Rams extend McVay and Snead & More

17:56So where does that leave us?

17:58Patrick Claybon:I see all these questioning of LeFleur taking the job but there are only so many of these jobs you do need to take them when they become available and you can get a chance especially at a place where the power structure may be more amenable to your thought process because of a lack of success that they've had you can get a good portion of control there if you're able to do something

18:21Ollie Connolly:that's true but I think it's Matias and Ford's franchise right now they kind of gave him the keys. And for instance, if there was a scenario where Mike LaFleur thought, I don't actually think we're going to do better than Kyler Murray. I kind of would like to see what I could do with him.

18:39Patrick Claybon:That's the safest option to have another administration be able to say it's Kyler's fault. That's the safest option for him.

18:47Ollie Connolly:But I bring that up to raise the point. Don't you think, Ali, like even if he wanted to, I don't think he's going to have that decision-making power because I think I would have to imagine the front office and ownership kind of are presenting the job as like, okay, we're moving on from Kyler. What do you want to do at quarterback?

19:07Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, I would presume maybe there was a conversation of, well, we'll explore the idea he could return if there's not a great offer out there or we can't wiggle out of the contract in some way. Even it's easy to just throw it on the Jets and say, yeah, the talent was poor and I'm not judging by the output. I'm judging by what he was in control of and the decision-making process and him just going back to McVay and then getting the shine of being in the orbit of that. Well, McVay's not coming with him. He's competing against all those guys in a loaded division. What added advantage does he give to you?

19:38Gregg Rosenthal:He's not a great decision-maker. He's not built sustainably elite offenses on his own back. He's not a play-calling savant. So I just find it completely befuddling that he's going to get more power, more responsibility, and somehow that's going to get you anywhere close to the top of that division.

19:55Ollie Connolly:Jordan would be a great person to talk to here because she's she's covered him so closely. I I don't I don't think it's I'm out of school here where she she thinks highly of him. I think he's a sharp guy. He's an impressive guy. He's the type of guy that Sean McVay looks at and been like, hey, when he is available, I want to make him my number two. That that goes a long way. He does have knowledge of this division. Maybe he's like a little crazy to be able to take on this, to think, okay, I can take on this job. That shows me a little bit of confidence. Maybe he thinks he has some knowledge of the rest of this division too.

20:31And Mike McDonald, like there's so much cross-pollination too.

20:34Ollie Connolly:And you can, you can sell yourself on that. I don't think you can overlook like the life changing money. I mean, that's like people always say, like, you're always like, why would he take on this job? Yeah. Like how many people do you know, wouldn't take a 500 % raise, maybe even more than that, for the next five years and change your family's life financially when there's zero guarantee you're ever going to get that opportunity again. Most people are just going to take it.

20:58Patrick Claybon:A raise where you can call every single one of your boys and be like, hey, you want to come work with me? You can raise the village off this one chance. If it's three years and you get fired, they have to buy you out? Cool. Right.

21:11Ollie Connolly:Let's do it. Right. I mean, it's not ideal. and maybe a Hall of Fame coaching career it does not make. But I also think if I was Mike LaFleur in this weird world, yeah, you bet on yourself. You hope for the best because bird in the hand. Let's kind of just big picture look at, look, they hired LaFleur. The Clint Kubiak thing is in weight, but we basically know the 10 jobs that have been filled around the league. couple defensive coaches, mostly offense. You have John Harbaugh, who's kind of straddling the line there as more of the CEO type of coach. A lot of young coaches, certainly. Robert Sala is the only person of color to get a job, but there are no black head coaches hired in this cycle.

22:06Ollie Connolly:And, you know, you look at the league now and there's three black head coaches total with Todd Bowles, Aaron Glenn, and D 'Amico Ryans, two on the hottest of seats. Aaron Glenn especially, but Todd Bowles too. He's got a win now. And I think there's frustration with a lot of the coaches in the league, a lot of the people covering the league, and certainly myself too, that this keeps happening. And you look back at recent cycles, and it does kind of go in,

22:42Ollie Connolly:trends depending on the time of year. But I think what's been consistent is we always come back to this trend. And so there are a lot of black defensive coordinators right now, at least compared to how many there have been historically. There's very few offensive coordinators. I think only two right now. We're going to get to one who got an elevation in a second. But it's hard not to notice when you take a step back, Patrick, of what this coaching cycle was like in general.

23:11Patrick Claybon:Yeah, and I think whenever there's only 32 or something, the sample size is really going to shift dramatically depending on small numbers and subsets. And obviously Mike Tomlin having his position for as long as he did and no longer being there changes the way things look. Because I know that there's always a lot of discussion about Rooney Rule and applications. There's a general societal discussion with regards to hiring practices and opportunities and who gets them that I think the NFL, through the discussion of the Rooney Rule, is able to facilitate. I know globally where there's been substantial discussion with regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion that has dramatically shifted over the past few years, and I think a lot of people got in, made their money, and decided a certain aspect was no longer going to be supported by certain people, and they have made their money and gone to a grift elsewhere.

24:03Patrick Claybon:But I do think, you know, it's important to have the discussions, right, with regards to who's getting hired, what's the decision process like. We've got multiple, we've got a son and a brother being hired, brother not in that capacity that we're currently discussing. And, you know, the 49ers are back with another head coach as the defensive coordinator, where you're able to get quality guys with a lot of experience back in certain positions because of the way that they're viewed as black coaches. And, you know, they're still not necessarily going back to Limbaugh on countdown days, but the capacity for black coaches to have discussions about offense, you know, you don't necessarily get tabbed as the offensive genius in a lot of places.

24:53Patrick Claybon:And there's so many different factors that go into it. But we can do better than three. We can do better than three.

24:58Ollie Connolly:And, like, look, Steve Weiss was on Twitter, you know, commenting, and everyone's comment was like, you've got to hire the best person for the job. And, of course, Steve's response is like, yeah. That's the point. Like, everyone knows that. I think it gets to something that it's a good point, Patrick, about, like, that the NFL has tried to systematically, like, address the topic in a way that that it's bigger than that to me it's never been about the rooney rule like the rooney rule does what it does it's gonna like help or not but it's not really about

25:33Patrick Claybon:it's not really about the rule yeah the global problem is not you you can go to a credit union right and get a better rate on a car loan but it's not necessarily solving the relationship between labor and capital like you need there's fundamental global issues uh at play that that generally need to be addressed and you know as a league with regards to hiring and interviewing that's not going to be fixed but it does allow us the capacity to at least have the conversation

25:57Ollie Connolly:so one of the one of the changes uh in terms of the black head coaches in just in terms of numbers is raheem morris losing his job in atlanta he lands in san francisco and he is the new defensive coordinator he was on that washington staff back in the day which is a crazy one to look back on and now he is working under Kyle Shanahan again. And I believe he was on the offensive staff for him back in the day. So he was working under Kyle Shanahan. I always remember this one night Jeff Darlington took me to Hooters as like a young reporter at the Combine who didn't know anyone. And I was like, really?

26:38Ollie Connolly:Tell me more about Jeff Darlington

26:40Patrick Claybon:and Greg Rosenthal out in the town.

26:42Ollie Connolly:I mean, you know, he was a young guy at NFL Network. Yeah, y 'all both were. So as I, we knew each other when I was at PFT. PFT was a good spot to meet people because everyone kind of wanted to be mentioned on PFT. It was like, you know, especially at the time. But now it's like a little power broker seat. You know what I mean? And even just as Mike's, you know, assistant.

27:04Patrick Claybon:A small organization of outsiders. Yeah.

27:07Ollie Connolly:You know, you met people. Anyways, I always remember going to Hooters during that combine and meeting the entire Shanahan coaching staff because he was boys with all of them. And they all showed up at the Hooters and were just having some wings and beer. And that was pretty much the next decade of coaches in the NFL was that exact group, Ali, including Raheem Morris.

27:30Gregg Rosenthal:All having a good time. What a setup.

27:31Ollie Connolly:What a setup. Everyone was fine. It was like a 7 to 8 p.m. actually get some food in our bellies before going out type of situation. It wasn't anything too crazy.

27:42Gregg Rosenthal:Just there for the wings, I understand. Can I just say it on what Patrick was talking about? The thing that is disappointing when you reflect on the cycle as a whole is if you take the league by its own criteria, just in this cycle, they massively tilt towards previous head coaching experience, whether the NFL or college. And then when you look at the defensive guys they hire, you mentioned that some of the great black coaches in the league right now are on the defensive side are in that genius vein, right? It's Brian Flores. It's guys like that. and yet it's more in the vein of rah-rah coaches they hire on the defensive side who have those kind of CEO capabilities of the defensive guys who were hired.

28:21Gregg Rosenthal:Jesse Mintz would be the one exception and so it is frustrating to say that Vance Joseph, Brian Flores, guys who have a real schematic advantage right now and that might cycle out in two or three years because that's the way defensive football works are just completely shut out and overlooked at a time when they really would inject something fresh and new into a franchise and give you a real chance to actually win some football games rather than just kind of set the 10 or big top picture of what the franchise would look like with this hope they would be there for 10, 15 years.

28:48Ollie Connolly:It's a great point that those two guys specifically are providing a schematic advantage that's been proven that some of the offensive coaches that were hired certainly haven't been proven and would be logical hires. Brian Flores doesn't benefit from that, although he did get paid. We'll get on to him in just a second after the break. And yeah, Raheem Morris to San Francisco. Not that I thought they were really in a different tier to Seattle in L.A., but this hire to me just makes this division a total bloodbath. Good luck, Mike. Right. Just I think it could be an upgrade from Salah. Who knows?

29:31Ollie Connolly:Either way, though, you're replacing Salah Ali with a different type of coordinator, but one where you can see the work a little more on screen and I think could take advantage if they have any shortcomings and they're going to get healthier on defense back to being right at the top of of the Super Bowl contender list next year.

29:49Gregg Rosenthal:I think what it will do is allow Raheem to be able to push Kyle Shanahan more into the modern influx of defensive style where it's not just the four down and rush and drop into deep coverage every time Shanahan has maybe veered away from that slightly whether it's steve wilkes or nick sorenson it's a really short leash before they return exactly to what robert salla ran before those guys were in town then he brought robert salla back so this is kind of threading the needle to me where maybe there can be a smidge of evolution uh with reen coming in whether it's more of the blitz stuff on late downs maybe it's changing the structure on early downs which i think is probably more essential for them but they're close enough aligned they speak the same language where if they do want to default back to just some of the Robert Sala football, they're close enough where it won't be this kind of friction and tension as it was when Wilkes was there.

30:35Ollie Connolly:Yeah. I can already feel like the off season conversations in my mind, bubbling of just these, these three teams and going after each other. And as, as much as I've thought the Rams and the Seahawks were the best two teams in the NFL this year, if you add Nick Bosa and Fred Warner and get a little healthier and make some good off season moves, the 49ers with Raheem Morris are right there. I can hear everyone in the back looking at this long rundown and thinking, for the last 40 minutes, there has been an In-N-Out truck delivering free, fresh hamburgers, cheeseburgers, animal-style, fries, that's it.

31:17Ollie Connolly:Maybe they have the shake. Can you get the fries well done in the truck? I would think you can get whatever you can order in the truck. And we're just honking, and we've barely made it. through this rundown. We got to take a break. We're going to speed it up. And we're going to talk of what the heck is going on in Minnesota right now.

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35:04Ollie Connolly:I think Claiborne's energy is contagious today because you guys didn't even mention how during that first segment my pen flew about 15 feet across the room. Total pros. I didn't want to put you on blast. Because my hands are flying around as they do. I thought you were angry at the pen. Chris Babona has already cut it as a social clip and sent it to me. I don't know if it's going to be a social clip, but he just thought it was funny flying across the room. Let's talk about the Vikings in a second, But let's give a little love to the Rams we were just talking about. It's time for Delivering Results, presented by Uber Eats.

35:41Ollie Connolly:When football makes you hungry, order Uber Eats. Sean McVay and Les Snead got new contracts on Monday. And, you know, if you can't make it to the Super Bowl, the next best thing is celebrating financial freedom, financial security. I mean, they had their financial freedom, but just extend those contracts out. You never know what could happen. Sean McVay actually spoke to the media on Monday, and he talked a little bit about Mike LaFleur leaving in Arizona and what could be next at offensive coordinator. Really happy for Mike, you know, awesome opportunity and shoot, we'll get to see him twice a year now.

36:21Ollie Connolly:So happy for him. I did think that this was something that could occur, you know, so we've got great candidates in house. You know, you obviously just based on the rules and I think what is the appropriate thing?

36:32Gregg Rosenthal:You know, you're going to do an extensive search to really just dive into, you know, what's going to be the best way to bring in new people that help us continue to build and grow towards where we want to be able to go.

36:44Patrick Claybon:Congratulations to Mike LaFleur and for the anti-Rams discussion on NFL Daily Contingency. That is Rams discussion about Mike LaFleur from Sean McVay. What anti-Rams discussion is it? So subtract 45 seconds from your overall tally. Congratulations to Les and Sean.

37:00Ollie Connolly:Is that a thing? It's still a thing. Well, it'll be short.

37:05Patrick Claybon:Eric's nodding.

37:05Ollie Connolly:I wanted to just put it out there because, you know, Nate Sheelhaus will be elevated, very likely, to offensive coordinator. And you're going to hear in the feed, 40s and free agents on Tuesday. I talked with Daniel Jeremiah. And I think Sheelhaus, he alluded to, really impressed some teams and some people out there with his interviews. So I think he could be a very hot head coaching candidate next year. But it is great. It is wild to think about less need and how close it sounded like he was to losing his job when the Jeff Fisher era went sideways. But he ends up staying with McVay. And here he is a decade later winning lots of game.

37:48Ollie Connolly:That was delivering results presented by Uber Eats. When football makes you hungry, get game day deals on Uber Eats, the official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. Now, the Vikings have fired Quesi Adolfa Mensah. Not a shocking move in terms of the decision. The timing was weird because, you know, he's just at the Senior Bowl. It's three weeks after the season. What changed from two weeks ago to last week to make them, you know, want to get rid of Quesi Adolfa Mensah? I don't know. I mean, you would like to think it's not Sam Darnold making the NFC Championship game. Either way, I really put this on ownership, Ali, because the same thing happened with the last coach GM regime.

38:39Ollie Connolly:And a lot's been written about this, and we'll get into it. I find this topic really fascinating, them firing him. And there's been a million really well-reported articles out there, and we can get into some of them. but a lot of them haven't really mentioned the fact that Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer also hated each other's guts by all accounts, and it was total drama. And the Wilfs, who have done a great job building a new stadium, and they score high on the NFLPA thing and everything, they're living in New Jersey. It's pretty well known that they're almost never there. And so I think you can look kind of globally of like, you just let the same thing happen again where you're talked about and written about as one of the more dysfunctional, you know, relationships in terms of coach GM and how you put those two guys together.

39:31Ollie Connolly:And you just did the same thing again. So maybe he deserved to get fired. And I think his record isn't great, but I do think you kind of got to look to the top of like why this even all happened in the first place.

39:46Gregg Rosenthal:yeah the timing is just bizarre it feels like they did this two-week order of going through the franchise and where they think where they think things went wrong this season and everyone just kind of pointed upstairs and said it was quasi and so they decided to throw him under the bus while he was at the senior ball um and that could be fair i think the track record has been really poor i think the free agent additions were significant misfires and i thought they were pretty solid going into last offseason the draft record has been an absolute mess and then he's made poor calls with the three biggest calls he's made at quarterback.

40:14Gregg Rosenthal:And when you have that many big misses, unless you have a good feel throughout the building and people like you and it feels like things are going in the right direction, then there's only going to be one decision.

40:23Ollie Connolly:Yeah, I would push back a little. The free agent pickups in his tenure have been good to great. I mean, the Blake Cashman year, Van Ginkle. Now, how much credit does he get for that? How much as Flores is like, it's all murky. There's been reporting that Flores and him didn't get along that like Flores, like one of the reservations he had in taking the job, I believe this was from ESPN or, or Matthew Collier was, which is purple insider. I was that Flores who has talked about their great relationship he has with Kevin O 'Connell and loving to live in Minnesota had an issue with, with questing and how that was all run.

41:04Ollie Connolly:The only thing I'd push back on, the draft record is horrible. The trades he's made in general have been bad, including some of the draft picks like Dallas Turner. The free agency was pretty good. I think you got to put the quarterbacks more on O 'Connell, ultimately. I just can't really buy a world where J.J. McCarthy isn't his pick on some level. And so it does feel a little untoward that all this after-the-fact burying of Questley, just like fire him and and maybe you don't need to bury yeah and i don't want to i don't want to

41:37Patrick Claybon:lump um you know my criticism of the global uh conversations um where there's a lot of in league circles and the the word around this i would just like some quotes uh regarding this this sort of rift um from somebody so i can get a little context into what was what was the particular issue between Kwesi and whoever it is in Minnesota, be it Kevin O 'Connell. I think that's where a lot of things were implied. And I also like to push back a little bit on Dallas Turner because I think his versatility is a guy who can rush and drop.

42:16Ollie Connolly:Okay.

42:17Patrick Claybon:Provide something that Brian Flores was able to utilize successfully. But the general overall idea that he missed on Sam Darnold collectively the planet earth might have missed on sam donald if that were the case i sincerely doubt there was a circumstance where after the way that the 2024 season ended questie was the only person in in in saint in in the twin cities that was like hey maybe this this whole sam donald thing isn't viable long term i feel like that was a belief held by more than just questie and if that's the idea that well he was wrong there so he's got to go then there's

42:56Ollie Connolly:more people that need to go it's been a it's been a lot of covering your ass types of reporting but when you look at the overall record the the draft picks have not really panned out you're right Dallas Turner's getting better Donovan Jackson could be good their guard that they drafted this year Jordan Addison's been a solid pick so the top picks um were fine the two 2022 draft where he traded down a few times and then took Lewis scene yeah and and JMO's being pretty successful

43:21Patrick Claybon:in Detroit.

43:22Ollie Connolly:Kyle Hamilton was another guy they passed on for, you know, Louisine. Booth, Andrew Booth was the pick, Ed Ingram. There were some trades around. If you kind of look, and Arif Hasan did maybe the best job of anyone at Wide Left. Go support people who are writing great content out there. He did a great kind of culmination of all of the mistakes that he's made, and probably the thing that stuck out to me the most was how unpopular Quesi is in the analytics community around the league where they don't think he really, you know, a like made the types of decisions that made any sense. Cause if you look at like the draft, the draft value charts, like he's given up in trades to move around the board, the equivalent of a number one overall draft pick plus, if you add up all of his moves over the years and a lot of his decisions were just kind of confounding.

44:13Ollie Connolly:And, and there was, you know, talk among a lot lot of people in these articles that like it was a sometimes he didn't build relationships where just people in the building did not like the way that he maybe uh did things and so uh it's a lot to talk about like a gm of like this mediocre team but i do think it was kind of like a fascinating window into covering your ass and quarterbacks and coaches and kevin o 'connell who maybe never really liked uh this marriage either and for a team that's won a lot of games ali over the last

44:41Gregg Rosenthal:couple of years yeah even that the stuff about the paternity leave and who that came from they won 14 games after the the offseason in which he took some paternity leave so it didn't seem to impact them all that much there i think the defense on the quarterback stuff is the most defensible stuff um the donald one is tricky he was in the building it is your job to make the big boy call whether you persist with the first round pick a quarterback or you bring back sam donald the daniel jones one i think he gets a complete pass on the daniel jones wanted a path to be a viable starter that to me is on o 'connell to either make a decision or convince daniel jones as a chance he has that viable path they put the money on the table to keep daniel jones there he just chose to go with the colts and it was clearly the right decision for daniel jones at that time um i think the free agent misfires are more in that 2024 class where it's not guys who are on the fringe of other rosters and brian flores turns them into superstars it's spending the big money on the two interior offensive lineman Ryan Kelly has the health concerns.

45:40Gregg Rosenthal:Will Fry's didn't play very well on the defensive side. They bring in two interior defensive tackles. None of them play as well as the undrafted guy Jalen Redmond, who's coached up by Brian Flores. So I just felt like the big moves were misfires. And then a lot of the moves on the margins were so beyond like the pale of league standard. It wasn't as though many of them were defensible.

46:00Ollie Connolly:Yeah. And I look, he loses this job. You got Andrew Berry, who we worked with kind of you know, holding up the quote unquote analytics flag in Cleveland. It's not great. It's not great for, for instance, my guy Alec Hallaby in Philadelphia, who essentially has been the number two to Howie Roseman for a while, but certainly the last handful of years, has been basically out of like the analytics, you know, portion of the building for a long time. And it's just like a flat out evaluator. But guys like him can't get jobs or, you know, because ultimately the people in these interviews just see, oh, if you've got like a good education and you at any point worked in analytics, it's just sort of an automatic cross-off for guys that are in these ownership meetings, like a Troy Aikman, frankly, or like in minutes, you know, like the second I saw Troy Aikman was in the Dolphin, I was like, okay, you know that they're not going in that direction.

46:58Ollie Connolly:And it's similar like in Atlanta, like when it's Matt Ryan, like Matt Ryan's not making those sort of hires. And so, uh, Questy turns out to be like an imperfect guy. The paternity leave thing, just even the conversation around it has just been, I don't even, it's not why he was fired. And like the, the thing that drives me a little crazy is like, no one even thinks that has any reason of why he was fired or, or anything. Uh, it was just guys have to pretend that they're, they're working hard, uh, like during the office. I know it was during training camp and it's a different work culture than other work cultures, but I also think there's a lot of BS of just pretending to work hard.

47:40Ollie Connolly:He was still at his house working during this entire time during training camp. It just annoys people in league circles.

47:47Patrick Claybon:And I do think with regards to those league circles, they do exist. Some of them are a little more inclusive than others. And when you have access to the agent insider complex, you're able to get certain narratives distributed out to people a little bit more. And perhaps people are a little more reluctant to offer these vague criticisms of you when there could be consequences for that. Where I don't necessarily think, you know, when Questy gets fired and there's this overarching, well, guys, if you had been paying attention to the league circles, you would have known this is coming. right when you hear that um it makes me think that questy didn't have access to those circles and so i would just it's a long-winded way for me to say and i'm very long-winded today my apologies me too to you guys um i would just like some quotes if somebody did something that other people didn't like i would just like the specifics of that story don't tell me that in general vague people that you won't tell me about didn't like person x for reasons that you're not going to tell me, tell me, what's the point of all this access that we're celebrating these hypothetical people for if you're not going to use us to provide me with the actual information with regards to what we're talking?

48:58Ollie Connolly:Because you got to keep the access. To do what, Greg? Right.

49:02Patrick Claybon:What's the point of the access if you're not going to tell anybody what the hell's going on? I'm sorry.

49:08Ollie Connolly:No, I get really frustrated with it, too. The last thing on the paternity leave stuff was the part that annoyed me was kind of circling back after the fact and saying, to be clear, it wasn't the Vikings who supported him throughout the entire process and did not hold it against him in any way. This was a storyline outside the building, not inside it. And I just don't believe that. I mean, yeah, it was a storyline outside the building, but I know how reporting works. And I also have seen Kevin O 'Connell at a podium, unprompted, bring up the fact that J.J. McCarthy chose not to be at that Thursday practice.

49:49Ollie Connolly:And that's when the whole season went wrong. And I really do draw a line between those two things because Kevin O 'Connell brought it up at the postseason press conference that J.J. McCarthy missed that practice. And that was the one practice that happened all season. And he's trying to have it both ways. And I think it's tough when things go against you for the first time in your career. And I think he's a very good coach and he seems like a good guy. But it seems clear now, like J.J. McCarthy is no longer his guy. J.J. McCarthy at one point was his guy. And just all of it's a stew that I find fascinating.

50:30Ollie Connolly:We got to move on. Talk about long winded. Let's talk about just kind of the influx of these young guys getting hired around the league. Declan Doyle is Lamar Jackson's new offensive coordinator. I believe the same age. Yep. 29. 29. Anthony Weaver. Not really a young guy, but let's just package these items together. Sorry, Tony. He's my age. He's fine. You know, just like Michael Fleur, by the way, a guest of NFL Daily. So Michael Fleur got that NFL Daily bump after doing our interview and training camp. If any coaches are out there listening, that's what can happen to you. Anthony Weaver is back in Baltimore.

51:09Ollie Connolly:Now he's the defensive coordinator under Jesse Minner. That's a fun staff. The Eagles have hired Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator just a couple years after he was in the league. He's coming from Green Bay where he was the quarterback's coach. Josh Grisard, who was just running the Bucs offense, is going to be the pass game coordinator there. So they're combining a couple of young minds. And then I'll include the Bills hiring Jim Leonard here as a defensive coordinator. he's in his 40s but young in terms of coaches hasn't been a coach for that long was just with Denver a lot of intriguing names there Ali what partnership stands out to you most that you're

51:50Gregg Rosenthal:looking forward to out of that group has to be Declan Doyle and Lamar Jackson this is the guy you're entrusting the kind of final embers of the prime to Lamar Jackson he's now in the documentary is John Elway right is he going to get one is he not going to get one that's how his career is going to go down the rest of the way and the guy we're entrusting that to is the 29 year old guy who's been coaching the league what four years at this point i am fascinated by declan doyle i think the pedigree is outstanding he's a excellent communicator is an awful lot of pressure i think to button a first time play call with a first time ed coach to say go and be the guy who

52:22Ollie Connolly:helps lamar get over the top he was with sean payton uh in new orleans and then he was he stayed there and he was with Dennis Allen in New Orleans. And then he ends up going to the Broncos as a tight ends coach for a couple of years. So he is from that tree. Then like, like Ben Johnson who worked under Sean Payton, he goes and works under Ben Johnson as a coordinator. But yeah, a guy who was in, in college, not that long ago, like he was a student assistant in 2018 when Brady was getting his last Patriots Super Bowl. That makes me feel old. And now he's an offensive coordinator with your guy. You excited.

53:04Ollie Connolly:That is a fun combo, though. Doyle, Minter, and Anthony Weaver. I like all three of them.

53:09Patrick Claybon:Yes, a brain trust. I would have liked some play calling experience. You know, you come up in the tree where these guys are not going to let go of play calling abilities, but you get a chance to see two of the best that do it. One of the best that's ever done it, in my opinion, call plays and go through that without the, you know, Worry about being the administrator and being the entire head coach of a team, which as an offensive coach, you'll have an opportunity to do if he's successful. Just snap the ball to eight, lock it up, and have people get open.

53:38Ollie Connolly:It'll be, it really makes them, they're always kind of the team I'm looking forward to most, or very often in week one or two, what are they going to do next? But especially this staff, I'm really going to be curious to watch them in September this year. Same thing with Philadelphia. surprising hire to kind of entrust Ali, Sean Mannion, who doesn't have a lot of experience as a coach to be a first time play caller. They're going back to that after, you know, struggling when they hired Brian Johnson a few years back, obviously this year, last year didn't go well with the first time play caller.

54:15Ollie Connolly:And now you have Sean Mannion with the help of Josh Guzard, like a couple different voices, but it does make me kind of excited. too that they're like trying to think of someone who will maybe present some new ideas to the

54:30Gregg Rosenthal:Philadelphia offense I admire them bringing in multiple fall guys as they go through some rap everything losses and getting the inbuilt insurance policy of Josh Grisard if things go wrong by week eight we throw someone else overboard we promote someone else in the middle of the season I did I like them trying something a little different um manning from the floor cam that would be fascinating to see that work with that Eagles talent but it is telling to me that they were going down their list and they kept getting knocked back and kept getting knocked back until they ultimately settled on Sean Mania I think that tells you a little bit about what the rest of the league circles Patrick so loves thinks about the the situation and maybe the problems over there

55:09Ollie Connolly:in Philadelphia yeah Mike McDaniel I mean the the coordinators who had their choice of jobs at least according to the reporting didn't want it and that was Mike McDaniel and Brian Dable specifically the table would have been I don't know if I believe the table reporting that would have been a wild combination but would have been fun yeah fistfights look and Dom doing his job way they run that organization I mean the next fall guy might be Nick Sirianni now it depends on the level of the fall I mean they did win a lot of games this year they they weren't a disaster but if things went really wrong I think they might just who knows or or it could be Jalen Hurts well I've seen I've

55:48Patrick Claybon:seen the hurts criticism as though he has is rogers level in terms of dictating um you know how how the offense is going to be structured like we we got there quick well i think i think

55:59Ollie Connolly:you're structuring it to around his strengths but i take it back i actually think jalen hurts might be the next fall guy man we're gonna break down all these coordinators in more depth throughout the offseason uh without over sirianni well i'm just saying it wouldn't shock me i mean they've done it before. It wouldn't shock me if they draft a quarterback this year, right? At least as another option. For Nick Sirianni? It just wouldn't surprise me. Like a second round pick. Maybe not. Get rid of them both. But I just don't sense that Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman are just looking at their NFL team as like a lifetime appointment.

56:37Ollie Connolly:I think they're always willing to make changes. Jim Harbaugh or John Harbaugh rather was expecting to hire Todd Munkin. so they didn't get him. And now Brian Callahan and Cliff Kingsbury are reportedly in the mix for the offensive coordinator job. We just talked about the Eagles. There was a report initially from Jimmy Kemski, but backed up by our Mike Garofalo that Vic Fangio's future was potentially fluid in Philadelphia, but it was maybe more fluid a few weeks ago, and it's trending towards Vic Fangio coming back. But that could be part of the whole Jim Schwartz situation. in Cleveland where Jim Schwartz wanted to get out of Cleveland, but they have his contractual rights.

57:19Ollie Connolly:And as these jobs get filled up and we hear a report that Brian Flores is making$6 million a year from the Vikings. I mean, can Jim Schwartz say, okay, I want more than what he's making in Minnesota. Cleveland has paid over the years. I bet they'd be willing to do that. Maybe cooler heads prevail and he ends up in Cleveland. A couple other moves, Tanner Engstrom, who was the Jets offensive coordinator is now on Kevin Stefanski's staff. We got to move though. I did think it's interesting to see the report that Jody Allen could be selling the Seahawks after the Superbowl. Maybe something we talk about a little bit during the week, not a huge shock.

58:00Ollie Connolly:If you think about it, it's always been this weird in between. She's the sister, right? Of, of the Microsoft founder, of course, and Paul Allen and, uh, you know, it's kind of been this weird in between and, uh, it's believed that they could be selling the team after the Superbowl. That's new. The salary cap is going up by more than$20 million. We found out about that. And then it was announced on Monday. The saints are going to Paris, Ali. Are you, uh, trying to get on with the, the talk sport, see if they'll increase the budget. Although I don't know what budget they're paying you, um, and get you to Paris next year.

58:40Gregg Rosenthal:All right. It has to be done. me and the block party guys rolling around Paris is I think content

58:45Ollie Connolly:for everyone around. I would love to go watch an NFL game in Paris. There was a report that it's Brown Saints from a... But the NFL has not announced that. And we are the NFL. So we are not announcing that. And we're not even confirming it. Because I have to say, over the last few years, there have been more than a few incorrect reports about these games overseas and who will be playing in them. They always get the home team right, but sometimes there's a change. I know the Brazil change, for instance, the game was reported differently. It wasn't the Chiefs initially, and then it turned out to be the Chiefs.

59:25Patrick Claybon:So should we go with zeroing in?

59:28Ollie Connolly:I'm not even going to go zeroing in because with this type of reporting, I want it straight from the source. So I'm not trusting. Which is what I would prefer from all reports. Yeah, I would believe that the Browns are in the mix or something. but that there's something behind it. But who knows? There will be games in Melbourne. Melbourne. What accent is Melbourne? Well, that's how they say it. I tried to say it like they say it. They don't really say that. Melbourne? Like us Americans. But I made a mess of it. It's going to be in Rio. We're going to go to Munich. We're in Madrid. And then there's three games in London.

1:00:03Ollie Connolly:So that is a total of eight. I think that's the total number for 2026. Big number. It's a big number. Should we take one more break and come back and do a few surprises that we think will swing?

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1:01:55Ollie Connolly:Get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parm delivered. A day at the lake, that's a no. A Philly cheesesteak, that's a yes. An afternoon stroll, sorry, no. A burrito bowl, happily, yes. What about a day of sunshine? Not happening. A box of fine wines, yes, that is happening. Delivery is on its way. Okay, how about some clear skies? No, well then. How about some french fries? Yep, a little escape, no. A delicious bowl of grapes, yes, yes, that. How about a freshly cut lawn? Can't help you there, but barbecued prawns.

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1:03:54Ollie Connolly:Back on NFL Daily. You know, when you're building this show out on Friday, you got big eyes, you know, big stomach of like, oh, I'm not going to get Patrick's thoughts on Super Bowl 60 the rest of the week on NFL Daily. I'll get him on NFL Network. People should check out Game Debut when it goes up. Our season finale. We got one more, Greg. Might be the series finale. We'll find out. I've been doing that for six or seven years. I mean, at some point we'll find out. I hope it's not, but it's been a thin slice of heaven, as Damoshek would say. Our picks champion this year, Patrick Claibon. Not in the postseason.

1:04:33Ollie Connolly:Not when it matters. That's a small sample size. I think the real wins happen in the regular season. And you took down an entire computer model in Cynthia and me by quite a big margin. So congratulations to Patrick. but I wanted to get your takes and I wanted to hear a few surprises, just things you're keeping an eye on for Superbowl 60. Same thing with, with Ollie, you know, it feels like it's, it's the end of the season. It's a big culmination, but I'm actually thinking about next week. And like, I kind of need you guys on the show next week too. So we're not going anywhere. NFL daily is going to be around, but for the rest of this week, in terms of talking Superbowl, we're not going to have your take.

1:05:13Ollie Connolly:So I'm going to, I'm going to get at least one surprise for, each of you of like one thing you're keeping an eye on for this Super Bowl.

1:05:21Patrick Claybon:Well, I'm keeping an eye on Greg. You know that one of my favorite things in the world is being right. I was wrong. I was very critical of my friend Greg Rosenthal when he pointed out the changes with regards to the Seahawks rushing attack around week nine where I thought that this was make believe. It was a result of scheduling. They are the 24th ranked rushing efficiency team. And now we're going into a Super Bowl against the number three rushing efficiency defense where I legitimately believe that Kenneth Walker III could be the Super Bowl MVP. Ooh! And I think that is my surprise that I am leaning on here, where I think the Seahawks' rushing attack, as you pointed out, was getting better.

1:05:58Patrick Claybon:Losing Zach Charbonnet does hurt. I'm not saying that minus Charbonnet equals plus more Walker, and that's plus good. I just think they're running the ball better. They need to, considering the way that the offense has been going, and it's working out there.

1:06:11Ollie Connolly:They had a corridor of games. It was against the Commanders, who they blew out, and they finished out that game well. But it was more against the Cardinals that got me excited. There was a second half of that game of a drive where they just kept... The Cardinals knew they were running. I think they ran it like 13 straight times. And I said, that's the moment their running attack really came to life. Now, if you look at the entire breadth of the second half, it was a little up and down. How do you think they are looking, Ali, on film, running the ball lately with Walker? Because it is a different attack too with Walker, but I guess those are two different questions.

1:06:49Ollie Connolly:Kind of the Walker of it all, but also how they're blocking it up.

1:06:53Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, the blocking it up isn't as impressive as Walker as he turns a lot of pretty poor opportunities into great opportunities. And I think that is the key for the Patriots is you can allow some churn. You just cannot allow the huge explosive play that tilts the game and gets Kenneth Walker, the Super Bowl MVP, the 30, 40 yard shot play. And the Seahawks, as they've changed the kind of run scheme there, has been putting more and more bigger bodies on the field, whether it's 12 personnel, 13 personnel, two backs. The Patriots have been excellent down the close of the season facing those specific looks.

1:07:22Gregg Rosenthal:They actually struggle more when it's a bit spread out and they can't have big bodies on the field themselves. When they can just go mass on mass, the Patriots have been able to find a real advantage there. So that is one of the key battles I think I'll look for, is can Kenneth Walker just make a big guy miss and find some daylight and hit an explosive run? or can the Patriots at least keep it neutral when it's kind of big on big in the trenches?

1:07:42Ollie Connolly:Yeah, because I think the Patriots defense really has turned a corner in the playoffs. The weather has been a factor and the opposition has been a factor, but they have dominated this postseason in just a way that they haven't before. And I do think when you look, they're a very sound, really well-coached, fundamental defense, really good at tackling, preventing yards after contact, after the catch. What worries me much when I watch them is like guys scrambling on them or guys just like making one on one plays against them because maybe not the fastest, most athletic defense at every position, certainly linebacker.

1:08:19Ollie Connolly:And so that's where Kenneth Walker to me. He's a boomer bus player. I think they miss her. I think they will miss Charbonnet because I do think he kind of does what the assignment is more often. But more importantly, I think he's just an asset on passing downs. He's just a little more consistent for them. So it's better to have two guys than one. But I think you're absolutely right. Walker could be the Super Bowl MVP. Why don't you give me a surprise, Ali?

1:08:43Gregg Rosenthal:A surprise, I guess, would just be the Seahawks offensive line in general. Ties into Patrick's point about the run game and Kenneth Walker. I think Anthony Bradford is shockingly like the pivot player of the Super Bowl. He is one of the strangest players to watch in the NFL. The right guard, the Seahawks, where for 90 % of the game, he's effectively throwing up on himself, snap to snap. torpedoes his own center just forgets the blocking assignment takes his own players out and then 10 of the reps are playing a true hall of fame level in which he will completely explode the point of attack and clear the biggest chasm you've seen on film all week so no one has a wider variance from between their best plays and their worst plays and patriots will hunt and try and attack that guy that is the entire style of their defense is a really small crop of blitz packages but it's just dressed up slightly differently each time and they just attack the weakling relentlessly and so i think they're going to try and put the game in the hands of it's milton williams one-on-one with anthony bradford or just attacking him with with different bodies so i'm not i'm not grinding

1:09:43Ollie Connolly:the the film all season long like ollie i'm usually doing the condensed games here and there special assignments i finally got to that seahawks nfc championship game later in the week last week and he had one of the worst games i've ever seen an offensive lineman have in a big spot and you're right there were a couple like fun snaps and everything where you know he is you can see what why people would get excited about him but he was a he was a problem for them and and so was sundell their their center who's come back from an injury and that that showed up on the san francisco tape i thought too where you know he got beat clean by cj west uh for a sack or or at least a pressure a couple times against san francisco and then you think about where is the strength of the patriots team, Barmore and Milton Williams.

1:10:27Ollie Connolly:And you think, okay, well, there's one advantage in a game where maybe Seattle has a lot of them. I don't know why I keep calling it surprises. I think what I asked you guys was kind of just like, just something that the average person isn't thinking about that could swing it. Maybe that's surprised. Maybe it's not. Anthony Bradford is a good answer. Do you have one more, Patrick?

1:10:47Patrick Claybon:Well, I don't, I don't necessarily think it would be a surprise. The Seahawks have one of the better punters in the NFL.

1:10:54Ollie Connolly:Okay. No, that's good.

1:10:55Patrick Claybon:It has been consistent. And I know that, you know, field position, field position, man football, time of possession. Like what we saw in that AFC championship game, there could be a severe punting mismatch here that could really, really make things rough for the Patriots.

1:11:11Ollie Connolly:A lot probably hurts Bill Belichick watching the Patriots and everything going on with them now in terms of just FOMO. but he must be aghast that the punter disadvantage. He would, he would never have allowed such a thing. Ollie, that that's a good, it's a good call. Yeah. I mean, I wanted like just some like left of center ideas and you're right. That's where, that's where I index. No, no. I think that's, I think that's, that's a good one. Why don't you wrap us up, Ollie, with something else that caught your eye?

1:11:40Gregg Rosenthal:I just think the Patriots are going to have to have three or four trick plays, something that steals a possession, wherever it's a fake punt, some kind of double pass. and I think they're going to have to uncork them early and fairly often. You're just not going to be able to get explosive plays on this Seahawks defense truly by design. Maybe you can spring one or two, but they limit explosives so much for you to take the check down and rally and tackle better than anyone in the NFL. They want you to drive down the field, you know, long extended drives. And just given the rickety-ness of the Patriots protection, I just don't know if Drake may can hold up for that for six, seven, eight series.

1:12:15Gregg Rosenthal:So you're going to have to try and steal possessions where you can with a fake pun or a couple of trick plays there or there.

1:12:21Ollie Connolly:Well, you don't have to ask Josh McDaniels.

1:12:22Patrick Claybon:No, he knows exactly what historical Patriots trick plays he's going to run. There's going to be Julian Edelman to James White. So I guess it's going to be Kayshawn Booty throwing the ball to Travion.

1:12:33Ollie Connolly:Okay, okay.

1:12:33Patrick Claybon:And then, you know, perhaps it's either that or it's the other Edelman postseason play where, you know, Josh just goes back through his moments in postseason history.

1:12:42Ollie Connolly:How about some, you know, they like the flea flickers. they certainly like the direct snap to the running backs on the goal line, which why don't you bring it back right after you just used it in the AFC championship and everyone got mad at you. That would be a Patriots move only because it didn't work. I don't even think that's a trick play because they do that enough that it just, it's a good play.

1:13:01Gregg Rosenthal:I think they've got to find one of the variable advantages we always hear about rise. He goes to the rule book like no one else. He sits on the competition committee like no one else. Remember the Michael Oman, the Ravens stuff where they had the eligible lineman, the fake tight end stuff against the Ravens in an AFC divisional round. They've got to find something that causes real controversy after the game that we didn't know the rule, but Vrabes and McDaniel did.

1:13:22Patrick Claybon:What if Mike's been sitting on the absolute most game-breaking rule violation that's not a violation for years and it gets unveiled this time, Greg?

1:13:30Ollie Connolly:I think it would be very fitting. I think it would be excellent. I've been thinking about that last Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl a lot lately. And that was fitting like in the that was coming, you know, that week was a lot about deflate gate. Right. And it just and just the controversy. And so let's let's restart it again. Let's play the hits. Let's play like Shane Vereen at right tackle or whatever. Was he the one I was trying to I was hemming and hawing trying to figure out, was it Shane Vereen who they were like playing as an offensive lineman to the point where John Harbaugh essentially lost his mind and lost the playoff game because of it?

1:14:12Gregg Rosenthal:that is right yeah they would have michael obanawanui on the line as a left tackle but the the running back would report as tackle eligible stood away from the formation absolutely bonkers way to to find the floor and the rule but if anyone can find it i think it will be frames shout out to shane vereen who i co uh hosted a super bowl between the eagles and the and the

1:14:33Ollie Connolly:chiefs uh with a few years ago on talk sport uh where ali gets it done uh year after year was outstanding doing the London games. Ollie, we won't talk to you, I don't believe, on the show before the Super Bowl. So enjoy it, my friend. Everyone check out Ollie on the Read Optional podcast. And yeah, we'll be talking to you next week. Same thing with Patrick. Check us out on NFL Network with Game Day View and check out NFL Daily in the feed shortly. We've got 40s and free agents. That's a weekly show. That's coming up. Cynthia Freeland and I will also get our final picks. It really bothered me last year when we never picked the Super Bowl.

1:15:16Ollie Connolly:Like we couldn't get the right time for her on Radio Row. So we're going to tape it before we go. That'll be coming up too. And then off to San Francisco. See you there.

1:15:28Ollie Connolly:Get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parm delivered. A little escape? No. A delicious bowl of grapes? Yes. Yes, that. An afternoon stroll. Sorry, no. A burrito bowl. Happily. Yes. A day of sunshine. No. A box of fine wines. Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now.

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