Mailbag Monday: Contract-year players, best QB + coach upgrades ever, the importance of aging on rosters, and more

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1:59Robert Mays: Welcome to The Athletic Football Show. It's another Mailbag Monday here on The Athletic Football Show. You guys know the drill. Got a ton of great questions yet again. I say this every single time we do one of these. I'm going to continue to say it. I really appreciate how engaged everybody is with sending in questions, how thoughtful so many of the questions are. It's just one of those small things that I'll just never take for granted, like how engaged and thoughtful and smart and fun our listener base is. And your guys' ability to contribute to something like this, I think is rare and cool.

2:32Robert Mays: And I just will never tire of acknowledging it and letting you guys know that I have a lot of gratitude about it. So thank you to everyone who sent stuff in. Really enjoyed doing this yet again. Let's get to another mailbag with Michael Beller and Derek Klassen right now.

2:52Robert Mays: it's another mailbag monday here on the athletic football show as always very excited to dig into your questions with our producer michael beller and my co-host derrick class and beller let's just get right into it no reason to beat around the bush here we got a lot to get to so i don't want to waste any time before we start digging into the questions absolutely not let's get to it blake burr with the first question for us he said you guys did the afc supporting cash show last week. So this is a little bit old of an email and then the NFC one as well. Baltimore number one in the AFC, but do they even crack the top five or six in the NFC?

3:29What do you guys think? Robert, take this one first.

3:31Robert Mays: I think it's important to remember that I was tearing these teams in the NFC before we start this conversation, right? Because I think that part of me, if I'm trying to stay consistent with how I've been ranking these teams, it would be hard to put Baltimore behind Philly because of the questions about the play caller with the Eagles. I think the easy answer for me is Baltimore would be in the first tier of teams. Like they would be with the teams I had one through five, which were the Vikings, the Rams, the Niners, the Packers, and the Eagles where they would fall in that group. I think my answer is probably right in front of the Eagles and behind those other teams.

4:09Robert Mays: Again, if I'm being consistent with my criteria here, because we know what Todd Monken is. There's a level of certainty there, but I definitely think they're a little bit further down the list than they would be in the AFC. Like they're not the clear cut team. And I think you probably put them at like four or five if I were redoing this whole exercise. Yeah. I think for me, the conversation probably starts after two for me, the one and two where Minnesota and Philly just based on the talent on those two teams, I think it was kind of overwhelming. Then I think you can start to get into the conversation.

4:39Like I had the bucks three and I think they're a more talented roster, but we know that Mankin is one of the best play callers in the NFL. And so I think that is where, like, I think four, then I had like the Rams and then the Packers. Like that, like three to five range with like the Packers, the Bucks and stuff like that, that's probably the range for me.

4:57Robert Mays: Blake brings up a really good question that I'm going to ask you. Okay. If you think about Lamar with Kyle Shanahan, does it change where you would rank the Niners in your supporting cast rankings uh i don't i i don't know maybe a little bit because of what kyle shanahan could do specifically with lamar but i still think all of the other questions about like every skill player being hurt and the offensive line being bad outside of you know one and a half players i just i don't know i i i would probably bump them up a little bit i will say that's probably the team I should have bumped up anyway.

5:39Like they should have been fourth or fifth for me anyway, but maybe if they did have Lamar Jackson, I would have bumped it up.

5:44Robert Mays: I was hoping that would be just a way to reframe it for you and make you even a little bit more excited about it. Like you dropped Lamar onto the current Niners. Does that make you think differently about how good the Niners supporting cast is? It might honestly. And like, especially too, I remember Kyle Shanahan specifically when Lamar Jackson was coming out of college, kind of talking about him fairly effusively. So it would get me going a little bit. Let's get to the next one, Bauer. Okay, guess what? This is another question from a Blake about the supporting cast episode. So let's just tie the bow on those right now.

6:15Blake Sheridan writes in and says, after your recent episode about NFC supporting cast, I had a question about how heavily you weigh the skill of a play caller, particularly on offense. You, Robert, had teams like the 49ers, a team that won six games last year and has multiple questions on offense, ranked congruently with stronger rosters like the Lions and the Buccaneers because of the Shanahan factor. As a younger NFL viewer, I view play caller as the single most important factor to offensive success when previously it felt like the quarterback was the undisputed key. As older viewers, time comes for everyone, Derek.

6:48As older viewers and people who have been following the game much closer and longer than me, do you believe there has been a similar change in scale to the offensive play caller versus roster construction? And if so, when do you believe this change started to take place? Derek, why don't you take this one first? So I actually think the older versus younger framing of this is actually pretty instructive because, again, I started covering the league in like 2013, 2014. That's right when Kyle Shanahan was doing the stuff with the Browns and right when Sean McVay took over for Washington once Kyle Shanahan left.

7:19So to me, those guys being the baseline for what we've done in the NFL for the past like 15 years and me jumping into the league right when those guys were really taking off. In my mind, the offensive play caller has always been really, really important because of what I saw those guys do at the very starts of their careers. So I do think obviously quarterback is still the most important position, but I do think that maybe when I was, I don't know, maybe I just wasn't as tapped in when I was younger as to like how much the play callers were doing. But ever since I've been covering the sport professionally, to me, the play callers have always been super, super important.

7:54Robert Mays: yeah I think this question where I mean Blake saying that he thinks the play caller is more the most important thing the quarterback is the most important thing like having one of the best quarterbacks is still the most important thing even if things have changed around the quarterback and I do think it's a little bit different now than it probably would have been 20 years ago Sean McVay still would not go for as much in a trade as Josh Allen would like Josh Allen is still I think more valuable than any single coach could be. And I think those four quarterbacks at the top probably make up that group.

8:27Robert Mays: So I still think the truly elite quarterbacks are the most important thing you can have. But I do think that play callers have become a little bit more influential and a little bit more important for a few different reasons. Back when in this previous version of the NFL with the previous collection of elite quarterbacks, Rogers, Brady, Brandt, Manning, Breeze, I think that the game was a little bit more static and quarterbacks had a little bit more control over how the game went. And I think as the game became a little bit more dynamic in like the 2010s and into that like 2015, 2017 range with McVay and all those guys, I think you saw just all the layers, all the motion, all of those aspects of it.

9:04Robert Mays: And I think that's when we started feeling the difference between having a difference making play call or not having one. And I think the reason or part of the reason that it's happening right now is that the flatness of the football world and how ideas and information travel means right now, if you don't have somebody who's consistently staying on the cutting edge, you're going to fall behind, right? Like people can access any play and any idea from the football world at any time now. And so I think the evolution is just happening so much faster because of that, that if you have somebody who's average or below average as your offensive play caller, you feel it immediately.

9:42Robert Mays: And I don't think that necessarily would have been the case 10 or 15 years ago. You would have felt the difference if you had a below average quarterback versus a really good one. But now I think that same thinking applies to the play caller, even if at the tippy tippy top, the quarterbacks are still probably a little bit more valuable. And I also wonder a little bit like how much the practice structure has changed that, like when you had more practice time years ago and like quarterbacks could just see some of this a little bit more like the value of them and what they could do on the field and what they were able to handle pre-snap and all that was a little bit different.

10:15Whereas now that there's a little bit less practice time, I think there's more of a value on like, okay, how much can the coach clear that gap for us and what we might've gotten value out of as a, you know, in practice.

10:27Robert Mays: That's a good, that's a good thing to bring up too. Just like the coach taking things off the plates of the players and how much that matters now. But I think that the play cars are probably more important than they've ever been just because of how fast the information is traveling and like how quickly you can get found out. I think you just separate the good from the bad in really obvious ways now and ways that you probably couldn't before. But I still think the quarterback is ultimately going to be the trump card and ultimately what matters the most. Okay, guys. Peraf Patel has our next question.

10:57He says that this will hopefully bridge Robert's love for food and the NFL. If you had to design or suggest your ideal pregame restaurant visit followed by watching a game in person for this upcoming season, What city combo would you pick? So this is a game that is actually happening this season. Bonus points for suggesting a whole city visit for the day, meal, bar, drinks for postgame, nightlife recommendations, all that good stuff. And then Robert will indulge the recent vacation a little bit. Also, your favorite singular mouthful of food while you were in San Sebastian.

11:29Robert Mays: I'm going to handle this slightly differently because I don't want to talk about restaurants I've been to necessarily just because there's so many good ones that it would be hard to pick. If I were building a day this year for which game I would go to and where I would want to eat, there are three American cities that I feel like I haven't spent enough time in to eat at all the restaurants I want to. Number one is Philadelphia. Philadelphia has a really good restaurant culture and there's so many places just because I'm only there for like one night a year that I haven't been able to go to. And always, it seems to be I'm there on the wrong night.

12:02Robert Mays: I'm there on a Monday and everything is closed. But I went to a place called Her Place Supper Club in Philly last year that was really, really good for dinner. But they've got a bunch of places. They've got a Thai restaurant they call Kataya that's really good that I haven't been to. There's a place called Friday, Saturday, Sunday that's there that's supposed to be really, really good. So Philly is just a place that I would go for an Eagles game and just eat at one of the many very good restaurants that Philadelphia has to offer. Minneapolis, I've said this many, many times that the Twin Cities is the most overlooked and underrated food destination in the country.

12:32Robert Mays: like they they're uh the james beard awards were recent and the uh best chef great lakes was from the twin cities and so that's a restaurant i haven't been to the best new restaurant in america the james beard awards was from minneapolis orst paul so just going up there for a vikings primetime game and eating out on friday saturday before you went to the game on sunday i think you can make yourself a really really fun weekend in minnesota and the last one even though the logistics of it are a little bit different because of where the stadium is situation situated. I haven't spent a lot of time in San Francisco as this version of myself as an adult.

13:08Robert Mays: I was there a lot in my twenties because I lived in LA. And so you'd pop up there, but from 2011 through 2019, I was like mostly drunk and broke. So I didn't really go out to a lot of nice restaurants. So I'm very, very excited this year to be there for a week for the Superbowl because it's just a city I haven't explored in that way whatsoever. So those are the three cities, I'd probably say with a primetime game with either of those teams, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Minneapolis in some order, because I've, I've not been able to try all the places I want to in any of those spots. That is, that is one of the few cities I might actually, uh, have a good restaurant for you.

13:47In San Francisco, I went to, I, three years ago, I went to the legal legends world championship there and they, we had an insane dinner. One of those nights, um, that I don't remember the name of the place now I'll have to find it later specifically to send to you, but I definitely will. It was it was phenomenal. It was like a 12 course tasting menu, all that all that jazz. It was a really, really good time. My choice is a little bit more like simple. I love like I don't I don't research restaurants and stuff to the same degree, but I love seafood and I love the chance to watch Lamar Jackson play live.

14:19So October 12th, they play the Rams at home in Baltimore. I think that to me would check every single box I need for like a weekend watching an NFL game.

14:27Robert Mays: Just go eat a shitload of crab while watching Lamar Jackson play football. I really liked that one. That's what else do I need? The second question that Pirov had, uh, my favorite bite, uh, in San Sebastian, it's hard to pick. It's, it's one of the coolest food experiences I've ever had. And I cannot wait to go back there, but we had dinner at a restaurant on our second night there. And though one of the courses was, it was a lobster chow and mushy. And so chow and mushy is like a Japanese savory custard. And so that part of it was great. But in the Basque country specifically, for a very short amount of time in late spring, early summer, they have these types of peas.

15:02Robert Mays: They're called Guisantes Lagrima. And they're really hard to harvest peas. And they're only in season for a very short amount of time. And so they call them a green caviar. They're very expensive and very hard to access. And so they had these little peas on top of the Chalamushi. Peas are some of my favorite food. Like I shelled peas is truly one of my favorite flavors in the whole world. And the chance to have the best pea while on this trip, I just, I didn't even know it was a thing until we were there. And we had them multiple nights in a row because all of the nice restaurants had them while we were there because they were in season.

15:37Robert Mays: So eating those peas with like a crazy good shallan mushi, which is already a food that I love, that is probably the bite that will stick with me the most. I don't know what I thought the answer was going to be, but it wasn't going to be that Basque food, by the way, though, is phenomenal. So that makes a lot of sense. I mean, truly, the food culture there is just crazy. It's just that's what you do. You just kind of eat. And that is something I can absolutely get on board with. So I'm very excited to get back there at some point in my life. OK, guys, we move on from food to head coaches and coordinators.

16:12Sam Melanson writes this one in and he says, why do we see more culture setting offensive coaches like Dan Campbell in the NFL. There seems to be a generalization when it comes to who becomes head coaches. They tend to fall in one of two general buckets. You've got the schematic offensive wizards, and then you've got the culture setting defensive guy. It suggests that defensive minded coaches are better equipped to handle the CEO duties of an NFL locker locker room than an offensive coach. And that makes no sense to me. I hear Robert mentioned all the time how being a head coach is a completely different job than from being a coordinator.

16:41So the premise that being a DC versus an OC better equips you to be a head coach has never tracked for me. What are your thoughts on this? And are we collectively overgeneralizing these traits? Derek, take this one away first. I think there are a few ways to go with it. I think part of it is that with the offensive guys, it's that in a lot of cases when they take a job, they want to continue calling plays. And so you just don't have the bandwidth to be a CEO style coach. Whereas I think for one reason or another, defensive guys are a little bit more willing to kind of branch out, let other guys take on some certain responsibilities, all that other stuff and really oversee the entire operation.

17:20And, you know, I mean, like Pete Carroll, I think, was certainly this way. That's a good example of a guy who was willing to let other guys kind of take the reins and do stuff. And offensive guys, they just they get very it's their offense in a way that I think defensive guys don't always hold on to that. And some do like D 'Amico Ryans, I think, is very held on to like this being his defense, but not every defensive guy is like that. Whereas I think all the offensive guys are like, if my offense isn't putting up points, I'm going to start getting a little itchy here.

17:49Robert Mays: I think it's about identifying and understanding what your personal strengths are and what personal strengths you're bringing to the job. And I think a lot of coaches have said that, offensive coaches have said that when asked about whether they would continue to call plays. Their stance is, that's how my value is derived. Like I bring value to the team because I'm able to put the team in good situations as a play caller. And so I'm going to continue to do that. I think on defense, guys just don't see it that way necessarily. They don't think being a defensive play caller is quite as important where I need to be doing this in order to give my team the most value.

18:26Robert Mays: There are exceptions to that, obviously. Mike McDonald is more of a defensive version of the offensive guys we've gotten used to where the schematics are at the forefront of what he thinks he's bringing to the table. And that's why he's doing it. But I will say, I mean, we've had several recent examples of CEO type head coaches on the offensive side of the ball that have had success. Like Dan Campbell is an example of this. Nick Sirianni is, is an example of this. Nick Sirianni isn't the offensive play caller for his team. So I think it's just about what are, how is my role best divvied up? How is my time best divvied up?

19:02Robert Mays: If I can do more overseeing how the locker room feels, connecting with players, all of that, and someone else can be the play caller, I might as well do that. Jonathan Gannon was like this. I remember talking to Jonathan a couple of years ago when he was trying to figure out who he wanted to call the defense, whether he wanted to call it. And he was in a very honest way. He's like, I think Nick is just better at that than I am. Like, that's just not where my greatest strengths lie. So I'm going to handle a different side of this. Brian Dable did the same thing in his first year as a head coach.

19:35Robert Mays: He's like, I would rather be somebody who is touching every aspect of the organization and be able to be present in a lot of these areas rather than being locked in a room, figuring out the offensive game plan. So I don't think, I think that we see more defensive coaches make that decision, but I don't think that offensive minded CEO head coaches are off the table. I think that we've seen teams succeed with those in recent years when everything else is kind of right around them. And I think part of it, too, is just like where we're picking these offensive guys from. Right. We're picking all not all of them, but a majority of them from the Shanahan McVay tree.

20:09And it's like, yeah, the assumption is that if you're the next guy from that tree, you're just going to call the plays the way that everybody else in this tree has been calling the play. So like it's it's it's kind of just part of it is a fact by virtue of how we're hiring these guys in the first place.

20:22Robert Mays: Yeah, absolutely. And I've got it. But again, I think that we're going to see defensive coaches who are kind of in the play caller mold. I just think it's, it's harder to, I think this goes back to something we didn't put in the mailbag, but it was a question somebody asked. It's like, if you could build the best defense and the best offense every single year, which would you rather have? I'd rather have the best offense or rather invest in offense because offense is just more consistent from season to season. So I think that's why formulating your entire identity as an organization and like what we're going to be good at is we're going to have the best offense possible.

20:56Robert Mays: I think that's just a cleaner way to be consistently good than it is on the defensive side of the ball. So I think that's why somebody kind of drifting their focus away from I'm going to be the play caller here and looking at it more holistically. I think that may be the reason stated or unstated why defensive coaches kind of have more of a big picture view of this and offensive coaches might because their value as a play caller is just inherently going to be a little less impactful than the value of an offensive play caller year over year. someone who does not know much about having the best offense possible is our next emailer jason jconsoli and that's because jason has spent his life as a jets fan but he has a question based on a recent one that we received also he says tony the cowboy slash cardinal slash barris fan asked you guys a question on fandom that got me thinking about my own sports marriage dilemma i am a lifelong jets fan in my 40s as you can imagine i can count on one hand the positive memories i've had rooting for this miserable franchise.

21:53Recently, I was presented with an opportunity at work that would require me to relocate my young family, two boys age five and under, from New York to Dallas. Of the many advantages the move would give us, lower cost living, better work-life balance, I can't help but think this might be my chance to divorce myself from this god-awful team that's caused me nothing but pain and suffering since the 80s. My friends think I'm crazy for talking like this, but at the same time, no one can give me a compelling enough argument to keep the J-E-T-S jets jets jets chance going deep in the heart of texas it would be an amicable divorce like any ex-spouse the jets will always hold a special place in my heart but ultimately it's not you it's me more importantly think of the children what kind of a parent would i be if i brought this type of dysfunctional baggage across state lines with us what do you guys think is fandom really till death do us part or do you believe in life after love just like share

22:38Robert Mays: robert what do you got for this one this is a there's a lot going on here that this is a complicated question. I think you should mostly stick with your team, but I also think that people should take care of themselves. Your relationship with your team should be like any relationship you have in your life. I think you should evaluate all of your relationships under the scope of how does this serve me? Does this serve me in a positive way at all? And if the answer is no, then I think it's okay to reevaluate that relationship. With this specifically, I can understand saying, oh, you know, this has been awful.

23:13Robert Mays: Is it worth it? Here's the hypothetical I would bring up to Jason. Let's say the Aaron Glenn era hits. Okay. Let's say this is the next fun, exciting team. Let's say next year they draft a quarterback and you're dropping a quarterback into a team that has nothing but good vibes. You're going to be like Squidward looking out the window. though, if you're watching all the other Jets fans back at home, having the time of their lives and you missed out on it. Imagine being a Lions fan that jumped ship right before the Dan Campbell era started. Imagine being a Washington fan that jumped ship right before they got Jaden Daniels.

23:54Robert Mays: It'd be miserable. It would be absolutely awful. So I would just I'd consider that before you decided that this wasn't worth it anymore. Let the kids do what they want to do. You know, a fandom for kids of that age, I think is very different than it was for me or Jason or Bella or anybody growing up in a different era of things when you had less access to every single team. But for you personally, I would just play out the hypothetical that this Jets team is good and fun and that you suffered for with through all of that for absolutely nothing. but but but then what what what if it's not good and then three years from now he has to do the same song and dance with like whatever ex-coordinator they hire now and then on again they'll draft a quarterback like then you just get trapped in the same cycle I just like you're afraid to leave because you think it might get better but you're always gonna tell yourself it might get better that's the point that's the problem it's a terrible way to think about a relationship it's like that's how you get stuck in a terrible relationship but I, I don't know.

24:55Robert Mays: I just think that the potential downside of leaving before it gets good is better than any potential upside of the pain of rooting for that team or like what it would be like to root for the Cowboys in Dallas. Like just, just hang on to it. Like you've gone so far now. What are you really getting if you move on from the jets and talk and root for another team, especially the Cowboys? Like to me, it's just, so that's the complicating factor. And I've said somebody responded when we were so dismissive of Cowboys fandom and the process of being a Cowboys fan. There are two things I would say to that.

25:29Robert Mays: One, the idea of being a Cowboys fan and rooting for a team owned by Jerry Jones, operating in the way that Jerry Jones is currently operating, would drive me insane. Like the idea that your owner could do everything he wanted to make your team better and doesn't, to me, is almost a non-starter. two. Can you imagine something less interesting than choosing to be a Cowboys fan when you're not from Dallas? And in, in this particular off season and stuff like, yeah, there's no reason to do that. At least like 20 years ago, they were the team du jour from the nineties. And it was like, Oh, my dad was a Cowboys fan when they were America's team.

26:05Robert Mays: It even be, but even that, I think it's actually more interesting to choose it now because it's a little bit of a zag than it would have been 20 years ago. But at the same time, like if somebody asked you what you're a fan of X NFL team and your response is the Cowboys and you're not from Dallas, I would immediately think less of that person. That is pretty ridiculous. That is pretty ridiculous. That's that's the only part of this that makes it complicated. If it was a different team other than Dallas, I think I would be a little bit more like, yeah, you should just push push away from them. The thing I'll say about moving on from the Jets is like, I think a lot of people are going to say that it's weak and it's like disloyal to jump ship from a team.

26:45I think it takes a lot of guts to be like, I'm going to sever all of these old memories. I'm going to save my kids the trouble. I'm going to move into this this new section of my life as a sports fan. I think it's a I think it's brave. And again, this is sports, man. Protect what is fun to you. And if the Jets are no longer fun. You know, I don't know if the Cowboys are going to be fun, but they're not going to be the Jets, probably.

27:06Robert Mays: I think weighing it on both sides is difficult. Like the downside of if they stay bad and the upside of if they end up being good. But I think if you did the math on that and you thought about the satisfaction that would come with the right jets team in the end, I think that that math is probably in your favor. Like you're going to come out in the black. If that does end up happening. I say this, like being a Cubs fan was miserable for so long. It was so long. I cannot describe to you what 2015 and 2016 felt like it was worth every single awful moment and more. It was a tenfold worth it. And so the fact that that remains a possibility, even if it seems remote, I just want you to consider that before you sever ties forever, because I think there might be some regret if it ends up turning in the right way there might and i think that's the difference here like i don't have an experience like that where my ex-team was terrible for so long and then they were finally good but i guess it is a matter of like how long can you put up with it i don't know i don't know this long like come on i guess you've made it this long but then that's like some cause fallacy that's like you know it's like the kids are a different thing Like I, I don't think if you are a fan of an awful team, I don't think you should imprint that onto your children.

28:30Robert Mays: If you're watching jets games and they're around and they want to be with you and they want to spend the time with you and they develop the love for that team in part because you're doing it. That's fine. Like that, that just happens naturally. My dad wouldn't let me play football. I wanted to play football because my dad loved football and like it was just something that was around. but there was never a, you have to root for this team or you have to play this sport. It's just something I wanted to be closer to because of him. And if that ends up happening, that's fine. But I don't think you have to make your kids be jets fans.

29:02Robert Mays: If you continue to be a jets family, red zone is available. You know, they can root for Lamar or whoever they want to, because they have access to that stuff. Now. I think that's a fair spot for us to both agree on regardless of whatever your choices, leave the kids out of it. Let them pick whatever they want. All right, fellas, we are going to get to a bunch more questions, but first we are going to take a quick break. Football season has arrived, and with the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card, you earn an unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase, including at the stadium or at home watching on a brand new TV.

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31:15Connor Burke brings us out a break and says, We talk a lot about second-year leaps from players, but does the same thing apply to play callers? 11 of the league's current defensive coordinators were hired in 2024. Six of those, Anthony Weaver, Zach Gore, Denard Wilson, Jesse Minter, Jeff Halfley, and Chris Shula, were first-time defensive coordinators last year and more or less are fully in control of the defensive side of the ball for their teams. Which of these guys are you most excited to see how they evolve in their second season and who in this group has the potential to be the next Mike McDonald, where something they do schematically spreads across the league and they become a star head coaching candidate as a result?

31:50Derek, you take this one first. That's the million dollar question, right? Is who's going to be the guy who does something that a lot of other people aren't doing? That I think is a little bit harder to answer. I, of that group, kind of picked three that I'm really interested in for very different reasons. Denard Wilson is the Tennessee Titans play caller. He is the one that I have at top of this, most because I look at that roster and outside of some of the guys that they have up front playing defensive tackle, I was just baffled that they were able to get the defense to play at the level that they were able to get them to play at.

32:23And they do do some interesting stuff. They are one of the biggest like man in quarters teams on first down. No other team in the league ran man or quarters over 50 % of the time other than the Tennessee Titans. And so like that, that's a very specific style that they were doing it with. And so I just want to kind of want to see how he continues to iterate. And then the other two were obviously Jesse Minter did a really good job with the Chargers. But I talked about in our lingering question show, it was a little bit more of a simple defense than I think it felt like in the moment. And I kind of want to see how he expands.

32:52And then Anthony Weaver with the Dolphins. To me, one of the most interesting things any defensive play caller can do right now is send pressure and play some sort of too high behind it. The Chiefs and the Vikings love doing it with quarters. Some other teams love doing it with cover two. Anthony Weaver threw a lot of pressures with cover two behind it last year. So he's one of those guys who is a little bit on the forefront for some of this stuff. So those are probably the three names I'm most keeping my eye on.

33:18Robert Mays: This is a cop-out, but I think it's all of them. Like, I'm excited to watch what all of them do. Like, I think that Chris Shula did. And it was so funny, you know, talking to Chris and also just people in LA last year before the season. And this wasn't meant as a slight to Raheem Morris whatsoever. I think it's just a really good observation for how defenses can manifest differently when they're being called by different people. And so Raheem is a secondary coach by trade. Like that's what he did. His background is obviously super varied. He was an offensive coach. He's done everything. But when you think about where he started and most of his time, it's in the secondary.

33:52Robert Mays: Chris is a front person. And so one of the things I think was interesting when they were talking about how the defense might be different this year is like, just by nature, I'm going to think about defensive football differently than Raheem is because I'm going to start with the front first and work backward where he kind of started with the coverage first and worked forward. And if you look at some of the stunts and the games and how dynamic the Rams front felt last year, you saw that. And so I think that's just a very cool little detail. And I'm curious to see how they take that into year two.

34:23Robert Mays: Jeff Halfley, when you think about how dynamic the Packers defense felt last year by necessity, because they weren't getting home and the ways that they had to pair a lot of cloud and too high coverages to protect some of their defensive backs with the need to manufacture pressure. A lot of that I think is outside of what we expected from Jeff Halfley in year one. And so that level of nimbleness and versatility, I'm just going to want to watch a coach who can do that. Like, well, how does that manifest in year two? How does that idea of, all right, this is what I got. It's not working exactly how I wanted it to.

35:00Robert Mays: How do I fix this? That's an interesting process every single time. So I can't wait to watch that again. You mentioned Jesse Minter. I think he did an excellent job in year one. What does that defense look like in year two as they start to build on everything? I'm a hundred percent with you on Denard Wilson and Anthony Weaver. And think about how much better the Ravens defense was in the back half of last season and you have Zach or who's like 33 years old now heading into his first fulls like a second season as a defensive coordinator think about Mike McDonald in year two versus Mike McDonald in year one like every single one of these guys I think presents a lot of intrigue as they head into their second seasons they're all worth watching and and I think because of the Mike McDonald thing the resurgence that the Ravens defense had at the second half of last year it it feels like or doesn't quite get enough credit for it because the obviously the mcdonald defenses were better and they were insane and then our first exposure to zach or for those first eight weeks or whatever they just weren't that good of a defense they didn't quite know what they wanted to do and like that should have been natural right first time play caller calling it differently than the last guy but it felt like we didn't quite appreciate when it got really really good that zach or was doing an awesome awesome job with that i mean kyle van nooy had like 10 sacks again that doesn't happen if the defensive play callers not doing a good job there's there's so many good defensive architects and play callers in the league right now and a lot of young guys which all of these are you know i think anthony weaver is probably the oldest guy on this entire list would be my guess and he's like 42 years old 44 so for the most part these guys are all like in their 30s and 40s and so i think that's really exciting because now jeff half is actually 46 but he presents much younger than that.

36:47Robert Mays: I think guys that kind of feel like a cool counterbalance to a lot of the younger offensive coaches, I I'm enjoying that. I think that's going to be a fun cat and mouse game over the course of this season. Kyle Kirchner with the next question. This is a question we've received a handful of times over the last few weeks. So we are going to answer it here. He sets us up with trick play specifically with wide receivers, getting the ball that they are now going to pass down the field. He says, why don't they just throw it away if their receiver is covered rather than running out of bounds a few yards behind the line of scrimmage for a loss.

37:17Is this due to their inexperience handling the ball behind the line of scrimmage or is it simply not coached? Robert, what do we got here?

37:23Robert Mays: I think the answer to this is pretty simple. And again, we're only answering as multiple people have asked this question. If you're running a reverse of some kind and it's a run play, the line are going to be downfield, but you're going to get a penalty of some kind if you end up throwing the ball. So I think that's probably the biggest deterrent. That is definitely the biggest one. And I will say, actually, I don't think it's that it's a ball handling issue because I would think, especially in the scenarios where it is a designed pass. The only reason you're calling those places because you actually do trust the guy to handle the ball, whether it's like I'm thinking of like Muhammad Sanu, Julian Edelman.

37:58It's like you actually are trusting them. So to me, it's not that it's that like you don't want to run the risk of illegal man downfield. because at that point, any wonky play is going to like you're risking that. It's even why RPOs, I think, are tricky in the NFL now. And the way that they are starting to call them is because like you're just risking illegal man downfield.

38:16Robert Mays: Nothing good can happen if the place coming back anyway. Only something bad can happen if you end up throwing the ball. And so I think that's why it's just not worth doing. All right, guys, little service journalism. Good job. Ellis Johnson with the next question here. And he says, do you think we look too much into free agency signings and draft picks as indicators of whether teams have gotten better or worse and not enough about the team simply getting a year older? I think that important players being one year older often has more to do with the improvement or regression of teams than it gets credit for.

38:47At this point in the offseason, the vast majority of fan bases seem to think their team has taken a massive step forward because of the players they added. But every year there seems to be a team or two that unexpectedly falls because some of their star players take a step back. And this brings me to another question. Which teams do you think could be most vulnerable to this type of regression this season that aren't being talked about? Derek, let it roll. i think this is this is a really good question and i think it's it's i do think that you have to weigh free agency and like especially first round draft picks pretty heavily in terms of like what can improvement be because you're just adding a new factor and because we don't know exactly what the value of that particular uh thing is yet you can sell yourself on the idea that it's going to like really amp everything up and that's why i do think uh that is important i do think think about the philadelphia eagles yes you add saquon barkley to the mix who again they're already like one of the most talented offenses but you add a guy that explosive coming off of a pretty objectively bad year then yes like certain stuff like that can happen you can go win a quinnion yeah and a cooper de jean that's a good point they are they are the example of like if you just add stuff then yes eventually if it all hits right then you can you can get there and i do think getting older though I do think that that is important and it's kind of why I'm betting on this year the Packers offense in general like I know we keep saying they don't have a star player but to me the fact that they're all so young have continued to play together in the same offense and offense I think is called really well I'm going to continue to bet on them because they're young and getting older and then the Bucs offensive line they're all like 25 years old and on contract for the next couple of years together that because they're going to get older together play together grow together that's why I'm betting on it so that to me like and they're a good example because like I think Ibuka is going to help the Bucs offense right but to me I'm more betting on them and betting on any sort of improvement because the young offensive line who we know is good is

40:43Robert Mays: going to keep getting better and playing together so this is fascinating you did not answer Ellis's question he didn't mention getting he wasn't talking about getting a year older as a good thing. He was talking about getting, being a year older as a bad thing. But here's the funny part about this. When I first read the question, I read it like you did not until we read it. Did I, did I, did I actually see, see what he was saying? Because that's the part I thought was interesting is that when you're thinking about why teams are going to improve, I don't think we account for growth from their in-house players enough as we think about that.

41:22Robert Mays: To me, the best example of this is the Broncos from last year, like the Broncos didn't do anything crazy in free agency in the draft. They drafted Bo Nix and obviously changing out the quarterback is a huge part of this, but the Broncos weren't this super aggressive team in free agency last year. The biggest things the Broncos did for why they improved were like Nick Benito getting a lot better as a young player. It was Cortland Sutton playing at a different level than he had over the last couple of years. And so I think that's the part I kind of locked onto because I identify that as something that we're not very good at picking up on because it's really difficult to do.

42:00Robert Mays: Like, as you're thinking about the Eagles defense last year, obviously going out and getting Quinion Mitchell and Cooper Dejean is hugely important, Zach Bond, but the growth from Jalen Carter, from what he was as a rookie to what he was in his second year, that plays a huge role in And you can't automatically pencil that in because it's not necessarily going to happen. But I think that explains some of the variants and some of the misses with how we project these teams, because it's just really, really difficult to account for that sort of in-house improvement. Yeah. You don't actually know, like Carter took the huge step.

42:35We all thought Benton was going to, Keanu Benton for the Steelers are going to take the step and then he didn't. But, and then even with the Eagles, it's like, they're kind of the best of both worlds because they added all those new players, right? Like Quinion Mitchell, they added Cooper DeGene and they were huge hits and made them better. But also like N 'Kobe Dean played better and more healthy than he had ever before. Jordan Davis, I think it was actually better than he had been before. Even Milton Williams, who was a younger player for them, had taken a step like Nolan Smith off the edge.

43:01Like he had taken a step. And so all of their young guys took a step. So I do think those like mid 20s guys getting another year is always going to be successful. To answer the question of teams that were maybe scared or getting a little bit older. the reason I had the 49ers as low as I did is in part because of that like Christian McCaffrey's an older back Kyle Juszczyk is getting old by the way for a guy who is plays as violently as he does Trent Williams obviously getting older George Kittle even though he's coming off one of his best seasons like they're just a team where if a lot of those age cliffs hit at the right at the wrong time you're looking at something a little scary I don't know what other teams I would

43:38Robert Mays: necessarily throw in there as teams that are a little bit older and like regression might be coming for them i have one and i i really don't want this to happen because i think the best version of them could be awesome but like with the rams it you have matthew stafford who's an older quarterback davante adams is getting up there and even rob rob havenstein exactly he's 34 now like it's just there's a world where some of those guys can't play quite to their peak anymore. If you look at it, there aren't that many good teams around the league that are among the oldest teams in the league on either side of the ball.

44:14Robert Mays: Like Minnesota actually is, is older than you think based on who was playing last year, but now the quarterback's getting really young. So, I mean, I think there's a chance that the Vikings, that's all Harrison Smith, Harrison Smith, but also Stephon Gilmore last year. Like they had some older pieces that are no longer as central to their plans. I think the Niners offense is probably the best example. The Niners offense was the oldest offense in the league last year by a snap weighted age. And so that's even before you think about that group getting a year older. So the Niners potentially feeling a little bit creakier than you want them to is a good example of this.

44:48Robert Mays: Other than that, I don't think there are that many clear cut teams that like, oh, man, are they going to age faster than we want them to? I think the Niners offense is probably the best example. OK, guys, we are going to take one more break here and then we'll come back, answer a few more questions and get on out of here.

45:19BOMBAS.com.

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47:15Andrew Grubbs gets going here. Raiders fan, this offseason has been so positive, it got me thinking of how bad things felt just a short while ago. In one offseason, this team went from Antonio Pierce and Gardner Minshew to Pete Carroll and Geno Smith. I've been racking my brain trying to think about a time where a team has improved at those two important spots more drastically in one offseason, and I can't think of one. Is this the single biggest single season upgrade at coach and QB ever? Ever. Robert, what do you got here?

47:43Robert Mays: I think it's hard to do the coach part of this because I'm not sure how measurable it would be. Like, all right, what's the actual improvement from coach A to coach B? I will throw out two possible answers here that switched out their coach and their quarterback in one offseason. And I think the upgraded quarterback was arguably bigger for these two teams. The 2012 Arizona Cardinals, who were coached by Ken Wisenhut, had Kevin Cobb, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley each start at least four games for that team. The following year, they hired Bruce Arians and traded for Carson Palmer, which is a pretty drastic upgrade considering Carson Palmer started playing.

48:25Robert Mays: Carson Palmer that next season threw for 4 ,300 yards after those other guys were the collective four quarterbacks for those Cardinals teams. So the Bruce Arians can wasn't on thing, I think is a complicating factor, but that would be one of the ones I would throw out. And then one after Derek's heart here, the 2010 Carolina Panthers going from Jimmy Clawson to Cam Newton the following year. And John Fox was the coach, you know, John Fox has been a good coach. So maybe that upgrade to Ron Rivera isn't that extreme, but I think that one's absolutely in the conversation just by virtue of the upgraded quarterback.

49:02Yeah. The, the, you're both, you're both of those are playing after my heart. Cause the Newton one is, is in terms of like going to rookies, like I tried to hold off on rookies cause sometimes you just don't know. But that in terms of like rookie improvement that, and then luck the year after our two of the most insane, like we went from nothing to a very obvious superstar at the position. So those are good. And then the Palmer one is actually where my mind went first. like that Arians and Palmer team like they they were so good and obviously 2015 was the year they really took off but that that team was insane I had a couple of other ones though Andy Reed and Alex Smith in 2013 taking over for the Chiefs that's such a good one that's such a good one Romeo Cornell and Matt Castle beforehand which is like Romeo Cornell is a good defensive play caller but I think as a head coach it usually did not work out for him so that was one I had

49:51Robert Mays: that was one way and we've said that we've made that comparison between that chiefs team and this raiders team multiple different times this offseason and that's one more area where it's the simple act of how much of an upgrade it is yes i think is worth noting in both cases that's a really good one how funny is it too by the way that that and the cardinals one happened in the same year where they both went from like terrible quarterback and head coach and then instantly became 10 win teams because you change it sometimes it's that simple and then i did have one more Sean Payton and Drew Brees in 2006 replacing Jim Haslett and Aaron Brooks and Drew Brees immediately led the NFL in passing yards immediately you threw for like 44 hundred yards and they won 10 games so that that might be the best one honestly I think that's probably the best one getting a hall of fame quarterback and a hall of fame coach in one single offseason when you had below average results at both of those spots that's a really really good one I'm actually a little bit jealous that I didn't think of that one.

50:47And they won the Super Bowl, what, four years into that? Five years? Yeah, 2009. So I mean, that's pretty dang good. Okay, guys. Alec Atchins got the next question. He says, I've always been confused about the positions people claim, quote, you can find anywhere in the draft. I feel like I have most commonly heard this about running backs, receivers, linebackers, and most confusing to me, corners. What about the evaluation process or the different ways these positions are used in the NFL makes it so these ones in particular have such a high likelihood of vastly outperforming their draft position.

51:19In particular, the corner spot where the narrative has always been that it's one of the hardest positions in football and theoretically should be even harder for rower prospects drafted later on to adjust to. Robert, you take this one first.

51:31Robert Mays: We've talked about this in a lot of different ways. I think their receiver is probably, I would not include receiver in this. I think there are more receivers available than they've ever been, but I still think that there's probably more of a scarcity there when you look at how the position is rewarded and paid. Like there's always going to be a Puka Nakua every so often, or a third round pick that outperforms expectations. But I do think that receivers are still a highly drafted position for a reason. Linebackers, safeties, I think I would throw into this as well. And running backs there, you can find them in a bunch of different places for a lot of reasons.

52:04Robert Mays: They're not rewarded in free agency. So you can find capable starting caliber players in free agency at those spots where you can't at a lot of other positions. Like you're going to have guys like Blake Cashman. Yeah. It's just like a name out there, out there. Like there are not Blake Cashman's available at receiver in free agencies in free agency. Most years, like look at re look at free agency receivers or free agent receivers over the last like three or four years. It just doesn't happen very often. And I think the other part of this, and we've talked about this with linebacker, but I think it extends to some of these other positions.

52:37Robert Mays: they're not necessarily positions where success is derived and dictated by physical ability. So it's going to be harder to identify the best players and it's going to be harder to identify capable players at those spots, which is why you can find them a little bit later in the draft. And I think with corners specifically, part of this is just what's being asked of corners in the modern NFL. Like you can just hide your corners a little bit differently and a little better when you're playing as much zone and as much too high zone as a lot of these teams are. So they're just more available corners that can execute the scheme that you're trying to run.

53:15That's honestly how I approach the question is that positions that you can quote, you know, find later are usually because you're hiding them or dumbing down the scheme in one way or another to allow them to work. Like, sure, you can throw anybody out there at corner if you want to play a little bit more cover two or just play base cover three all the time. Like the Colts kind of got away with that for for a little bit like run stuffing defensive tackles we kind of talk about it as a position that oh you can just find them anywhere and it's like yeah because the use case is like no matter what front we're playing we're just going to put him in the middle on first and second down and that's going to be that and it's like not that complicated to get him out on the field um running backs like if your offensive line is so good the talent of the running back probably matters a little bit less and you can go a little bit cheaper there and kind of make that work and then corner you make a really good point like i think to play corner at the highest level and to be a Christian Gonzalez, Patrick Sertan, like one of the elite guys, it is really, really hard to do that.

54:09But you can just kind of not dumb down the scheme, but play a certain handful of coverages. We're not going to put a lot on the corners. We're going to ask our safeties and linebackers to do a lot. We're going to throw a bunch of BS pressures at you and we're going to win that way. You can get away with that as corner. If we were living in more of a man coverage world like 15 years ago, then no, I don't think that you could find corners anywhere. But you can you can find Cam Hartz now to give you decent zone coverage play.

54:35Robert Mays: Looking at corners specifically, okay, looking at the average salary for corners. And I think you can compare this to a position like linebacker, for example, here are the highest paid cornerbacks in the NFL in order. And Jair Alexander would have been on this list, but is no longer because he obviously got cut in order. Derek Stingley, JC Horn, Jalen Ramsey, Patrick Sertan, the second AJ Terrell, Denzel Ward, Marshawn Lattimore, Marlon Humphrey, Trayvon Diggs, Tyson Campbell, Lajarius Sneed, Jalen Johnson. The first one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight names on that list were first round picks.

55:10Robert Mays: Yeah. I mean, that's all but two, right? Yeah. Trayvon Diggs and Tyson Campbell are, were second round picks. Jalen Johnson was a second round pick. So the only guy I just, it's just Sneed. It's just Sneed. It's just Sneed among all of those guys. And so you do the same exercise for off-ball linebackers. Okay. Fred Warner was a third round pick. Roquan Smith, first round pick. Tremaine Edmonds, first round pick. Zach Ballin, second round pick, plays a different position. Jamie and Sherwood, Nick Bolton, Patrick Queen. Nick Bolton and Patrick Queen were second round picks, but Aziz Alshire, Terrell Bernard, Dre Greenlaw, Zaire Franklin.

55:48Robert Mays: We're talking about a different thing there. Let's get to safeties. Okay. uh, safeties, Kirby Joseph's the highest paid safety league. He was a third round pick. Antoine Winfield was a second round pick. Derwin and Minka were first round picks. Buddha, not a first round pick. Trevin Merrick, not a first round pick. Xavier McKinney, not a first round pick. Jesse Bates was a third round pick. Javon Holland was a second round pick. Cam Bynum was like a fifth round pick. Kyle Duggar was a second round pick. Jalen Petrie was a second round pick. So there's no first round picks at safety compared to all first round picks at corner.

56:19Robert Mays: And if you look at the receiver list, for example, that's a lot of first round picks again. So I think that's what we're talking about here is like the idea of being able to find them anywhere. It changes a little bit. Corner, though, is it's funny that the highest paid corners are all first round picks, though. It's about what you want out of your cornerbacks when you're trying to have this discussion. Well, and that's the thing. I think you can find playable corners anywhere, so to speak. You can't find the all pros anywhere. You need to find those guys in the first round. Yeah. And I think receivers kind of like that too.

56:52Robert Mays: I think there are more examples of receiver Puka Nakua. Yes. And the Puka Nakua is in the AJ Browns are going to happen every so often, but a lot of those guys are going pretty high in the draft these days. Ryan Hall has our next question. He says, Therese Paylor used to say the contract year is undefeated. The chief's 2022 draft class was among the best we've seen in recent memory. And that was a pretty loaded class overall. They have some incredibly tough decisions to make, as will many other teams. With that in mind, I'd love to hear about some guys entering contract years that could alter the NFL landscape going forward.

57:26Which players are you thinking about that are facing a truly pivotal year to earn a second contract, level up their demands or truly establish themselves as elite players at their position? Derek Lassen, take this one first. Yeah, I kind of viewed this mostly as guys who are. kind of in the Milton Williams-esque era like it's a great example and so to me that's like Abe Lucas could be this right where like if he has a really healthy and good season either the Seahawks are gonna end up paying him a shit ton of money or somebody on the market is going to be willing to pay him a ton of money and so he's kind of a player I had in that bucket AJ Epinesa I think is a guy who I like he's one it's a contract year for him but two they just brought and Joey Bosa to like kind of replace him.

58:11And I wonder if that's one of those things where he just gets a little bit, you know, fire lit under him and he kind of has a season where he goes out and maybe has 10 sacks and he's a guy who gets paid. Another passer rusher was like a dafeo way for the Ravens, obviously. Like if he has he's had decent seasons before and if he times that well, he could have another one. The one to me that I was looking at, not even from the perspective of a guy who's going to make the jump to elite, but a guy who I think has a chance to get like his last really good payday and is coming from a bad situation. David and Joku has very little competition in the Browns pass catcher room.

58:46And if he has a really healthy season, this is like his last chance to really go get paid. He's about to turn 30. That's what I'm actually like kind of interested in seeing how that goes.

58:54Robert Mays: You had a couple of deeper cuts on yours than I have on mine. I went a little bit closer to the top of the market, but just guys that I think there's a decent amount of variance for what a good and bad season for them would look like. I think that there are timelines where George Pickens makes one year and like$8 million in his next stop next year. I also think there's a timeline where George Pickens makes like$25 million a year. Yep. In terms of shaping the market and like shaping the landscape of the league, that actually probably is the biggest one because money-wise, he would probably be the most per year.

59:30Robert Mays: there's just a ton of variants with him specifically less variants but i do think that a big season from him another big season from him could net him a ton of money if he takes a step back maybe he falls outside of that like top or second tier like nick benito like let's say nick benito gets another dozen sacks this year compared to a five sack season i think what he's getting paid there's a little bit of a difference there. And the last one I would throw out, I think it's closer to the Pickens one than it is the Benito one, Tariq Wollin. Oh, that's an incredible one. That's a, that might, I think that's more interesting than the Pickens one, honestly.

1:00:14That's a really, really good one.

1:00:15Robert Mays: But couldn't you see having Tariq, couldn't you see Tariq Wollin having the type of season where he's up near the top of the cornerback market? And couldn't you also see him having the type of season where he gets one year,$8 million. Oh, absolutely. I could see him being the guy that somebody signs like early on in, in free agency next year, where they're just trying to give him one more chance to see if we can fix him. Or he could have an incredible season in the second year of Mike McDonald's defense. And he's, you know, maybe not resetting the corner market, but he would be pretty high up there.

1:00:46And, and that one, not even for shaping the landscape of like free agency money all that stuff how good would the seahawks defense be if he plays to that level this year they would be unbelievably good we got a couple cool questions about like x factors

1:01:01Robert Mays: and like the most important players on certain units that we'll do as part of preview shows later on but i think to recall and may end up being a pretty big x factor for the seahawks and for that defense this year you better be they've got the worst offensive supporting cast in the league according to you know what you know what never been a better time to have the last question of the episode that comes to us from curtis hughes curtis says i live in eastern canada not really near any football cities and i'm heading to my first nfl game next season i can appreciate that this answer might be different for every person but what to you makes for a great nfl game day experience as a fan is it the seats tailgate being at your team's home field food the other fans, stadium, your team winning.

1:01:46What is it? Robert, you take this one first.

1:01:48Robert Mays: To me, it's just all atmosphere. And that can be a bunch of different aspects to it. I think that there are certain stadiums where the tailgate culture becomes a part of what it's like to attend a game at that place. And the two that immediately jump out to me are Kansas City and Green Bay. Like when you are going to Arrowhead or you're going to Lambeau, there are such huge parking lots around those places that the tailgate just becomes part of the experience. And I've always appreciated that. Like I went to, at the time it was a big 12 school, but it was, you know, big state school football team was really good.

1:02:20Robert Mays: And there was tailgate culture on that. That was really cool. But the first time I ever went to like a real SEC tailgate before a football game is when I went to see Alabama play LSU when they were one and two, I want to say it was like 2012 or 2013. I went to write a story about it and I've never experienced anything like that. so that element of it where you're eating cool stuff like there was a tailgate with like alligator and I had some of that and so just those kind of like fun foods everyone that's out grilling like that aspect of it I think is really fun but for me it's always what does the stadium feel like like is that place rocking in a way that is memorable to you and I think the two I come back to where I was just sitting there before the game and I was like I cannot believe I get to do this for work were a cup there with the Seahawks game when they played the Niners in week two of the 2013 season, because that stadium is so cool.

1:03:15Robert Mays: It's at like, I think the North end of downtown and one end of the stadium, I think it might be the South end of the stadium. There's like a huge staircase that you walk up to, to get to the stadium. And then it's kind of open. Like it's not a closed stadium on that side. They have seating there, but it's almost like a bunch of bleachers the way that it looks. So there's still like, you can see into the stadium, even though there is seating in that end zone. And so I always love that. Like you walk up into it and you're kind of like looking into the stadium in a way that you wouldn't be in others.

1:03:44Robert Mays: And then obviously that place is notorious. Like it's just loud as shit. It's unbelievable. And then the other one was the Minneapolis miracle game. When that stadium was new, that place was rocking. And so that to me is the most important thing. It doesn't matter if it's home or away, especially if you don't have a team that you're rooting for, like going to a place where you just feel how electric it is. That to me is what dictates whether or not is a cool or not cool experience. You want as much stuff as you cannot get from watching the game at home. That's what you want. So if it's the atmosphere, the tailgate and stuff, and that's why probably pick a fun city, right?

1:04:23Like I'm sure like Philly is really fun for the purposes of this. Like just a place where, you know that's the thing I I would want to pick a game where I know the home crowd is going to get up for it no matter what which like again Philly's going to be like that Seattle's probably going to be like that a place like that I think makes a lot of sense to me the thing I would say for seating is like if you are if you are really trying to watch the game obviously a higher seat is better you can see more if you are just trying to experience the sport the closer you can get the better and your view is going to be worse but there is something that you can't get from watching football on TV about like feeling how fast and how hard those guys are hitting.

1:05:01I think that's hard to do in person.

1:05:03Robert Mays: I think there's a better chance you'll find yourself in no man's land. If you try to sit close, then there is that you'll be close enough to actually get a sense of that. I would encourage people to sit a little bit higher up at an NFL game if they were going. Maybe if it's your, if it's your first, but I don't know. That's one of those things that I feel like if you get close enough, you can, you can feel it in a way that you're never going to on TV. Interesting. I've never really thought about that. I guess it's because I watch enough practices now where I've like seen it really, really close.

1:05:35Robert Mays: Yeah, but it's very different. It's very, very different. I think the sport where that's felt the most different to me when it comes to the experience of watching it on TV versus watching it in person is like hockey and basketball. When you're sitting really, really close for both of those sports, it changes. You can only sit so close in an NFL stadium. Like the stands are very far away from the playing field. So even if you're close, you'd have to be in like the first 10 rows, I think to really understand like the violence of it. And if you look at NFL ticket prices right now, it's hard to get into the first 10 rows.

1:06:12It's hard to get there. I'm just saying like, if you can, I do think there's an element of like hearing the crunch that close. That is it's, it's a little bit different.

1:06:21Robert Mays: I enjoy sitting up high. We had seats in the end zone when I was a kid. I always loved watching it that way. So even now I don't mind having being a little bit higher up so I can see everything unfolding as it's happening. So that's probably the advice that I would give. All right. That's all we got for this week's mailbag. As always, sincerely appreciate everyone who spent the time to send in questions really means a lot. We always get such great ones. I've enjoyed doing these every single week. So thank you very much for your role in all of that for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening.

1:06:52Robert Mays: We'll talk to you very soon.

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