[FULL SHOW] Can They Survive Without Him?

We had to wear pads in December, and that's not fair. Can you be any softer? From coast to coast, when it comes to football, Mark Schlereth and Mike Evans are talking nothing but the stinking truth. This is a leadership issue. This is an optics issue. This is your quarterback. There's certain things that always tell the truth. Physicality in the run game always tells the truth. Yoga pants always tells the truth. Now, here's your hosts, Mark and Mike.

Hey, welcome in to the Stick 2 Podcast. Alongside Mike Evans, I am Mark Sarr. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. Whether it's Apple or Spotify you listen to us on, watching us on YouTube, want to make a special shout out to all our Odyssey Radio Network folks. I mean, I tell you what, spread across the nation, we appreciate you so much. Mike, how are you, buddy? I'm doing great. We got a lot to get to here on the show, including Question Mark coming up here in a little bit, but some news to get to. And it's not great news if you're a Green Bay Packer fan, but maybe not surprising. Micah Parsons with the news that he's going to be out until probably at least midway through the season.

This is a very competitive NFC North. It's a very competitive NFC in general. Can the Packers survive without Michael Parsons? I think they can. I mean, offensively, I still think they're a really damn good team, right? And then you have to start looking at complementary football. If you're Matt LaFleur, you've got to think about how do we win games with a defense that loses our primary go-to war daddy?

And that's how we used to talk about guys like a Micah Parsons. Every time you break the huddle, ready, break, you find Micah Parsons and you say, how are we going to block this crazy SOB? How are we going to get this done? And so that hurts that defense without question. They've got a lot of young players on the defense that went out and got Hargrave, who actually played in Philadelphia when Jonathan Gannon, their new defensive coordinator, was coordinating Philly's defense. So I think that combination is really good. I love Jonathan Gannon. I think he's a really good coordinator. But you lose your war daddy. You lose your guy that everybody...

He says, man, we can't block that guy one-on-one. And let me just tell you the effect that has on you as just an offense in general. When you've got a guy that you have to break the huddle, find, and understand how we're going to block that guy, that creates opportunities for other guys. I've always said this as a player and as an analyst. If we don't have a fear of going five one-on-ones, we're going to whip your ass. Because if we can just go five one-on-ones, that means what? That means we can protect our quarterback and get five guys out on the route.

and you can't cover five guys out in the route, somebody is going to be open. Because in every defense, I think about defense this way, Mike. Think about three circles. Are you ready for this? You've got three circles. You've got kind of outside the numbers and an inside circle in the middle. And you go three deep that way, separated by two seams. So there's nine areas of a defense you can attack. There's only seven defenders in coverage. What does that mean?

there are two areas that have to be covered by one guy. So if that guy plays deep, you throw it short. If that guy plays short, you throw it deep into that zone. So there's going to be a defender that's going to be responsible, or two defenders that are going to be responsible for two guys, for two defenders that are going to be responsible for four different kind of zones. And so it's a throw where they ain't league is what it is. Well, when you can go five one-on-ones...

You can cut a defense up. Absolutely cut them up. But if you've got that one guy that you have to account for, and that's Micah Parsons, this hurts Green Bay. So for Matt LaFleur, it's about how can we control the tempo of the game on offense? How can we run with Josh Jacobs? How can we throw the ball? They're going to get their tight end back in Kraft, who is a phenomenal player. I think they're going to be okay. I think they'll be able to weather the storm. But will Micah Parsons come back and be Micah Parsons? That's a great – that was going to be my follow-up question. What are the realistic expectations for what kind of player and what kind of impact he's going to be able to make? Yeah, I think there's a way to use Micah Parsons.

the way I always believed he should be used, and that is put him in multiple areas, right? Have him on the defensive end at one position, like at one point, have him rushing the passer from defensive end, have him as middle linebacker rushing the passer from there, have him as outside linebacker dropping into his own, using him to free up other guys, but also, I believe, when he's an off-the-ball player. and all of a sudden you have to account for him whether he's off the ball because sometimes we've got to turn him over to a back. Those things matter and then you really start screwing with an offense of how we're going to protect against this guy. I've always thought that when Dan Quinn left Dallas and Dallas decided to move him just to a defensive end spot, I thought they completely mismanaged him. Even though he's incredibly productive, I thought it's so much easier as an offense if I know where this guy's going to be every play.

It's so much easier to call your protection schemes against that particular player. When I don't know where he's going to line up, and all of a sudden he's off the ball and we still have to account for him, we still have to turn our protection that way, we still have to do a bunch of stuff, now you know what that requires, Mike? Communication. All of a sudden, we thought he was going to be lined up at defensive end, but now he's off the ball. What do we do? How are we going to change that? Are we going to change from a slide to just a base where we count him as Mike and turn our center over to him? So now we're taking away the slide. There's a lot of things that go into your mind, and I think he's a much more effective player and has a bigger impact. Even though his numbers might not be as big, his impact is larger. We welcome, of course, all of our great football affiliates around the country on the Odyssey Radio Network. And for all you folks in D.C., there's a new sense of optimism about...

the commanders this year. And it comes from Dan Quinn, who you just mentioned when he was in Dallas, but now with the head coach of Washington, he said that for some reason, the energy, the attitude, the connectivity wasn't there last year compared to the year before. And they went five and 12. He feels like it's back this year. Why wasn't it there last year? And what are the reasons why you should feel like as a commanders fan, it is back? Yeah, I think, I mean, I think it started right off the bat with the McLaurin.

contract issue, that was a problem. I thought defensively with some injuries, defensively with some age, they just weren't as fast or dynamic on the defensive side of the ball. I think they've addressed some of those things through free agency, through the draft. I will say this, Mike, when it comes to certain guys on any roster, there are guys that you have to identify how important, how valuable, not only from a production standpoint, but how valuable they are within the context of your locker room. And McLaurin is one of those guys that has so much respect. And I have talked to coordinators about Washington's offense. And they're like, this dude is so hard to defend against. And he's the one guy, when we play Washington, we can't let him beat us. And it was back Philly, back in the time, we're like, McLaurin just kills us. This dude just destroys us. And so in the community and everything else, he's great.

There are certain dudes in a locker room that you just, if you mess with them, it messes with the chemistry of your football team. And I think he happens to be one of those guys. So when he's not happy or they can't come to an agreement or whatever the case may be, I think that will affect everybody within that organization. And then, you know, I think offensively, obviously the injuries to your quarterback and everything else, you know, played a huge role in that. But, you know.

It's interesting because I think Dan Quinn is great. I think everybody that I know that has played for Dan Quinn will talk about Dan Quinn's energy, what he brings, the competition level, and just the connectivity that you have as a football team, how you want to go out and play hard for Dan Quinn for whatever reason. It just wasn't the same last year. And obviously, Dan's saying, man, I feel really good about where we are right now. So it goes deeper than just simply having Jaden Daniels in and out of your lineup and then ultimately out of your lineup. Yeah, absolutely. It goes beyond that. This is one of the reasons Brandon Ayuk is tied right now to the Commanders. Everybody thinks that Brandon Ayuk is going there.

And I don't know if you heard George Kittle the other day talking about Brandon Ayuk and saying, man, he looks great. I used to go out and watch him, you know, watch him work out before, like before meetings and stuff. And, you know, could still run 22 miles an hour. He's one of the fastest guys on our team. And then all of a sudden stop on a dime. But then he went on and I paraphrased it. Good luck to whoever signs him. Good luck with all the other stuff you got to deal with. And that concerns me when all of a sudden you say, hey, our chemistry is better and our connectivity is better and everything is better.

But man, the athleticism this guy provides opposite of McLaurin, that could be really, and I'm just like, be careful what you bring in to your life. Be careful what you bring in to your organization. Be careful because that's the type of stuff, and I've said this a million times before and I'll say it again, the gravitational pull of a bad dude on your roster is 10 times stronger than all the professionals you have. which is crazy, but I've always said this. You could have 50 guys that are total professionals. You have three guys that are prominent players that are turds. The gravitational pull on the young players on your roster will be far greater by the three turds than it will be by the 50 professionals. Why? I don't know. I really don't. But man, I've seen guys come in and ruin young players. I mean, ruin them.

You're listening to the stinking truth podcast. Hey, congratulations to Clint Kubiak. You are a first time NFL head coach, but your first time as a head coach is with the Raiders, the down and out dysfunctional Raiders for so long, but. Are things changing in Raider land? How about this quote from Kirk Cousins, who has been brought in to be maybe brought in to be the temporary starter for a while, the bridge guy until Fernando Mendoza is available and ready to go, or maybe just be the mentor to Fernando Mendoza from week one. So here's Kirk Cousins talking about Clint Kubiak. Well, Clint Kubiak ran the most productive OTAs I've ever been a part of. So do the Raiders, are the Raiders finally in good enough hands that they're set to turn things around? Listen, I've said this many times.

I believe the league is a better place when the Raiders are relevant. Now I hate the Raiders with a white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. And I opened a can of whoop-ass out to the tune of being 11-1 against them during my career in Denver. So they were my personal good things. All that, all that, you know, I mean, we just, we went... They were your slump busters. Right, we went Shawshank Redemption on them. Manny Dufresne, if you know what I'm talking about. We just put it to them. But the bottom line is, I always thought the league was better when the Raiders were relevant. I love this by Kirk. Because Kirk in, you know, his last couple, his Minnesota, his last couple years in Minnesota, and then, you know, his time in Atlanta, you know, it didn't pan out very well. And it was dysfunctional and all those different things. But...

I love this because Clint is quiet, but he's one of those dudes that just knows what he wants, knows like he is his father in Gary. And it's just going to be all business. And they're going to be a good team with a philosophical approach to football with this is our identity and we are not wavering from our identity. My fear is, okay, my fear is. How many voices are in this organization? And will Clint actually be empowered to say, ah, not on my watch. That's not what we're doing. When you've got spy tech from New England being the general manager, you've got Brady in everybody's ear, you know, being a part owner. You've got, you know, you've got Mark Davis, like the dysfunction of that organization over the years. I kind of point to the same dysfunction that the Jets have when, you know, the owner is picking players based on their Madden rating. Like, come on now. So like, that's what concerns me. Will Clint be given.

ultimate authority to basically say, ah, because the minute your authority gets circumvented, whether it's spy tech or Brady or Mark Davis, if it gets circumvented and the players start to believe that you don't actually have organizational control, guess what happens? Players lose respect for you. And when they lose respect for you and the tenants that you preach and all the different things, the, you know, just the identity that you want to develop, Mike, that's when things fall apart. Coming up next on the stinking truth podcast, we will ask Mark. if he buys all the runaway hype that seems to be surrounding Joe Burrow and the Bengals, and is Brendan Soresby being set up to be a scapegoat for both college football and the NFL? That's coming up next on the Stinky Truth Podcast all across the Odyssey Radio Network. We continue on with the Stinky Truth Podcast all across the Odyssey Radio Network. All you great football cities and football fans out there listening, we appreciate it. And as we get set for this upcoming season, Stink, there's no doubt that one of the clear-cut...

really hyped teams of the offseason has been the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow. And just that sense that the Bengals are ready to pop. And I'm curious if you share that same runaway hype. Yeah, well, they've made some defensive changes, right? They bolstered the defense. People are excited about that. Joe Burrow is healthy. They have weapons. You know, we always talk about the weapons. I don't call them skill players. I call them periphery players. The outside guys like Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins. And we're ready to go. And you know, Mike, and I've talked to you about this a bunch. Joe Burrow is my favorite quarterback in the NFL. I just think he's that good.

But there is a fatal flaw to Zach Taylor and the Cincinnati Bengals. Would you like to know what that fatal flaw is and why I don't believe the Bengals will be a playoff team? Fatal. Fatal flaw. All right, let's hear it. Okay, the fatal flaw, and I've actually had this conversation with Joe Burrow. Sat down with Joe Burrow and had this one-on-one conversation about this. Their propensity to think that they can play the entirety of the game in shotgun.

And that is a problem. It's a problem in this league in general. Everybody plays in the shotgun. Yes, everybody does play in the shotgun. You're 100% right. It's the amount of time you spend in gun. That's the problem. The amount of plays, the percentage of plays that are run in gun, that's the problem in Cincinnati. Let me tell you why that's a problem. Are you ready for this? I've done the research, okay? I'm just going to show you this right now. You see all these green and pink and all that stuff. Okay, I'm going to tell you about percentage of guns. For those listening across the Odyssey Radio Network, Mark has the most beautiful,

organized penmanship color-coded yep like i like to joke it's the penmanship of a seventh grade girl yeah you even put little hearts over your eyes i spent a lot of time i do i spent a lot of time at the kitchen counter going through this these are according to next gen stats okay so you know here's my here's my issue a couple of issues um with shotgun versus under center okay and under center is hard and it requires quarterbacks that come from college that have played nothing but gun to actually start to understand the footwork and how the footwork of every drop ties to the timing of every route, and it's easier to do it at a gun because you're sitting back there already, right? And so the timing and all those things, easier to do, and it's easier to just implement early in gun. So here are the things and the problems I have with gun. One, it really limits what you can do in the run.

So if I go gun near or gun far, okay, there's a quarterback in the middle, gun near would be strong. He's toward the tight end, so that's gun near. Gun far, he's away from the tight end, okay? So he's weak. If we're in gun far, the majority of everything we run, Mike, is going to be, if we're in gun left far, the majority of everything we run is going to be to the left, to the tight end, to a strong, so it's a strong mid zone. So here's what ends up happening to you. One.

You really limit yourself. You can't truly run wide zone because the snap and the quarterback cut you off from an angle where you can get downhill wide. So you really have to turn everything into mid or tight zone in your zone run concepts. So bottom line, two things happen. You know from an edge protection standpoint they can't get out there. So you know you're going to hold tight and fall back inside because that's where the run has got to ultimately cut to. The other thing the defenses do is they pinch or they flip.

their defense into kind of an over situation where they have an extra guy over there, or they have a better shade over there for their defensive players. So you're basically saying to your, to the defense, Hey guys, there's an 80% probability that we're going to run over here. And there's an 80% probability that we're going to run tight over here. So you're basically telegraphing what you're going to do. So it eliminates, it's just me guessing, eliminates about 30, 35% of your run ability of your run menu gone. The other thing that happens, and this goes back, I'll go back to coaching little league football with Peyton Manning, talking to his son, Marshall.

going what do you got to do in play action what's the best play action You've got to turn your back to the defense. You turn your back to the defense, you hide the ball, and you make people step up because of the potential of run handoff. And then you've got to snap your head around. You've got to post-snap. You've got to figure out what defense they're in. But it's the best way to truly affect a defense to get them to step up at the second level. Linebackers and safeties to stop their feet, to step up, and then all of a sudden there are wide open avenues to throw the football. When you play in gun, none of that happens. You play in gun and you're doing the fake with your chest.

to the defense. They see the ball. The ball isn't hidden. So what happens? They can play with more depth at the second level. And if you do hand it off, they can get there because when you're in gun, Mike, okay, when you're in gun, that handoff in the run game takes about half a second longer.

for a back to get the line of scrimmage when you snap it and gun as opposed to when you snap it under center. The running back is moving forward. He's not waiting. He's moving forward and the quarterback is moving to him. So you get to the line of scrimmage about a half second sooner, meaning I don't have to hold my blocks this long. All those different things. So that's why I hate gun. So do you have the research about how this correlates? Because this all sounds good and I don't doubt that you're...

You're completely, but does it bear fruit when it comes to the teams that do it under center a lot versus those who don't? So here's what I ended up doing. Based on my belief that you've got to play under center and you've got to play more under center, I took the top 10 next-gen stats, the top 10 under center teams in the National Football League versus the bottom 10 under center teams in the National Football League. All right. Okay, you ready for this? I am. I'm going to give you the top 10, one to 10, teams in.

teams that line up under center the most. Rams, 59%. Seattle, 54%. Buffalo, 50%. Detroit, 48%. Chicago, 48%. San Francisco, 46%. New England, 45%. Minnesota, 44%. Jacksonville, 39.29%. And Houston, 38%. Of those 10 teams, eight of them were in the playoffs. The Rams and Seattle ended up playing in the NFC Championship where Seattle won. And New England,

also went to the Super Bowl, okay? So eight of 10 teams that play under center, that assuming you know how to run the ball better, you do all those things, eight of the 10 teams ended up going to the playoffs, and three of those teams played neither an AFC or NFC championship game. Okay. Pretty compelling, right? All right. That sounds like more than just a coincidence. Okay. Pretty compelling. Here's the bottom 10 teams. You ready? Yep. Indy at 27%. Tennessee at 27%. The Jets at 26%. The New York Giants at 23%. Philadelphia at 23%. New Orleans at 20%.

Atlanta at 19%. Kansas City at 18.8, so 19%. Cincinnati at 17%. And Washington at 11, 12%. So of the teams that line up in shotgun, the bottom 10 teams from a shotgun standpoint, or the bottom 10 that line up the least under center.

Nine of the 10 missed the playoffs. The only one to go to the playoffs, the Philadelphia Eagles. All right. Then I got to ask the most basic, obvious question. If it makes that much of a difference, why don't more teams do it? Why don't more coaches coach it? Because one, it's harder on the quarterback. He's got to understand it. And two, Mike, let's face it. Most coaches don't want to run the ball. Most coaches in the National Football League, they get to the point where they're calling plays.

you know, or they've got an offensive coordinator, most coaches don't understand how to run the ball. They were passing game coordinators. They were quarterbacks or wide receivers when they grew up, you know, and they don't understand the value. They don't. The Super Bowl champions, Seattle Seahawks, sitting down talking to Mike McDonald, okay? They changed offensive coordinators from year one to year two. And you know what he told me? He goes, the reason I went out and got Clint Kubiak was because that Mike Shanahan,

That style of offense that probably 60-plus percent of the teams run, that style of offense was by far the hardest offense for me to be a defense coordinator against. You'd think a Buffalo is a spread offense? Man, they can run the heck out of the ball. But I'm telling you, Mike, it's the teams that understand the value of running the ball, the value that it presents in a complementary football nature to your defense, and how it helps make them survive so they don't have to be on the field all the time. And if you can manage those things and then open up the play-action stuff, because the play-action stuff is where the majority of your explosive passing plays come from.

So those teams got it figured out, and the teams that just think you're going to sit back and throw it all over the place because that's how I'm going to become a head coach, those teams don't understand football. They don't understand the complementary nature of football. That's what it comes down to. Well, you look at those numbers, whether it's those top 10 teams or the bottom 10 teams, that does not feel like a fluke. It feels like direct cause and effect, and we'll see if more teams try to adopt right under center. Yeah, I mean, you would think that that would be a pretty easy correlation to make. Like, hey, listen, man, I understand if you get into first down and—

you're under center and you get one yard, you know, one yard carry. And now you throw your hands up and go, well, we got to play from gun. We got to, you know, we got to collect. Like, I understand that there are all these numbers. Anytime you put numbers out there, Mike, you've got to add some context to it, right? You got to add some layers to it. And so that can certainly happen to a team. But when you're the Cincinnati Bengals and you're at 17%.

under center, that just tells me that that's who you are. That's who you want to be. And I just believe one of the things you do to your quarterback when you're in those situations is you make your quarterback play on the high dive at all times. The other thing is you make your offensive line play on the high dive at all times. And one thing we know about Cincinnati.

You can tell me whatever you want about the numbers and time to throw and all that stuff. Their quarterback gets the snot beat out of him on a consistent basis. And so those are things for me that are just, that would be a non-starter for me. We're not doing that. Okay. Interesting stats and interesting trends. And we'll see which teams maybe at the bottom start to make a move up. Coming up next here on the Seeking Truth Podcast, question mark. We have a bunch of questions from you, the great listeners and viewers. We'll get to that coming up next.

Welcome back to the Stink Truth Podcast all across the Odyssey radio network. And this is easily one of the favorite parts of our show every week. It is Question Mark, where we take your questions, give them to Mark, get through as many as we possibly can, cover as much ground. So here we go. This first one comes from Eric in Indy, who asks, Mark, what do you think is next for Brendan Sorsby now that there will not be a supplemental draft?

I think he's going to spend a lot of time gambling. What else does he have to do? Work out and gamble. That's about it. I have told you this. The NFL has basically stated, yeah, we're not ready to take on that noise. Here's a guy that placed 9,000 bets while he was in college. Now, the colleges in Texas Tech, they just washed their hands of him because they got so much pushback when he had...

a judge that ruled him eligible to play. They got so much pushback from, you know, the rest of college football that they decided to say, hey, we got to split ways. So then he entered the supplemental draft and the NFL goes, we really don't want that noise right now. I mean, they're in bed with all the gambling, you know, all the gambling, whatever you, all the sites, all the gambling. So, but they don't want, they don't want that heat or that noise. So essentially he's just going to have to sit out for a year, train. He could go play in the CFL. That's about his only other way to play. Great. If he wants to go do that, go do that, whatever. But he's just going to have to sit out and then enter in next year.

But I've said this, Mike, and I believe this, man. If I'm an NFL GM and I'm in charge of picking draft picks, that would be a guy that would get on my do not draft list just for being stupid. You're a quarterback. You know better. You got all the information in front of you. The college has got the placards posted in the locker room. They're talking to you about it all the time. And somehow you still fell victim to placing 9000 bets. That to me sounds like an addiction issue. And for me, I look at the quarterback position, the value of the quarterback position, the intelligence that has to be part of that position. I can't have that guy. I just can't. That's one of those guys I would just look at and go, you know, the juice ain't worth the squeeze. I just don't I just don't want to bring that around. And that may be unfair. Guess what? Life ain't fair. You are where you are.

because of the stupid decisions you made. And guess what? I don't want that to wear off of me. And I told you this back when you remember when Deshaun Kaiser during the draft process said, I've got the body of Cam Newton and the brains of Tom Brady. Boom, instantly I take him off. I'm like, hey, you're not on my draft board anymore. You idiot. Like, how could you even say that? So those are the things that I would look at and I would say, man, is this dude worth it? And my answer would be no.

Okay, let's get to another question. We talked a little bit about the Raiders earlier here on the show about Clint Kubiak. JC Rhodes, 4444, ask Raiders. Mark, 500 this season. No, I don't think they're ready to flirt with .500 yet. But I do like a lot of the moves they made. I like Rick Dennison as their run game coordinator, their offensive line coach, because they were a mess last year up front. I love getting Linderbaum from Baltimore. I think that's a big upgrade. They'll get their left tackle back. That's a big-time upgrade. Even though he played at Boise State, I love the running back. I think he is going to be phenomenal. And he's actually going to get into a system where there is, like,

there's a system it's not chip kelly there's an actual system that that is going to be you know one of those things that that work in the in the nfl um but 500 with either kirk cousins or a mixture of kirk cousins and and mendoza i don't think we're ready to win eight or nine games yet so i'll say no seven and ten yeah i would say six or seven games would be would be on the table for the raiders six seven i like it yeah why not this one this one from uh chief cat Ask Mark, do you really hate the Chiefs that much? Yes, I do. High points for honesty. Right. You've got to understand the difference between hate and respect. I respect the heck out of them. What they've been able to do, absolutely amazing. Andy Reid, I love him. Spags, I love him. I think they are phenomenal.

I have a ton of respect for them, what they've been able to accomplish, the way their quarterback has played, all that stuff. I have a ton of respect. Do I hate them? Absolutely I hate them. One of the reasons, they beat the Broncos 16 straight times. It was just such a beating of biblical proportions for years and years and years. We're doing radio in Denver. Yeah, do I hate them? Yeah. Do I think they got a lot of calls that went their way? I know they did. I know they did. Because they were so good that it was – I don't necessarily think the NFL demanded it. But I think you get to the point where you're –

Like, you're a ref, and you're as enamored as anybody else, and therefore you don't blow your whistle because you're like, did you see that sidearm throw? That no-look pass. I know it was the guy right in front of you was getting tackled, but you weren't watching your responsibility because you were watching Patrick Mahomes. Do I think some of that happened? Yeah, I do. Come on now. Did you guys get the benefit of a whistle or two when you guys were winning back-to-back Super Bowls here in Denver? Okay, so it happens. You've earned it. Right. I'm not saying that you haven't earned it. And I'm just saying it happens. And did we get that treatment? Sure, I'm sure we probably got that treatment. And ultimately, you were allowed to hate our guts for it.

Oh, you're a cutie. You were dirty. You cut people. Who cares? Cut people. We did things right now that the things we did at times as just football in general at that time, Mike, you'd be doing five to ten of the state pins for less than what we did on a football field back in my day at times. Here's one from Corey who asked, Mark, you have covered a lot of Panthers games last season. Don't I know it. What do you see as the ceiling for this defense with the additions of Devin Lloyd and Jalen Phillips in free agency and the pieces added throughout the draft? I like the Jalen Phillips.

move because I think edge presence has been a real stickler for them. Like there is nobody. Hey, Brown, Derek Brown is a phenomenal run defender, but he's like inside. He's not a, he's not a big time pass rusher. And I thought they had a couple of really good type of run defenders, really good inside core guys, but there's nobody that you're afraid to go one-on-one with. They don't really have an edge player. So I think that is, I think that Phillips helps you there. Devin Lloyd, I think Devin Lloyd's become a really good player, Mike, but.

I do think there's some spatial awareness things. Now, he had some picks last year, and he did all that stuff. But his superpower is his ability to blitz and to bring pressure. I think that's a really nice addition to this defense. You know, I think you look at this defense, this coordinator, man, everything has a check. There's a lot of mental gymnastics that you have to go through playing for Ajiro Evero. I think I said that right. I practice it all the time when I call the games, and then I forget instantly afterwards. He was here in Denver, and we had, I think, four different pronunciations. And I know it's Ajiro Evero. Ajiro Evero.

Who knows? I just call him E-squared. E-squared if you're watching. Mark apologizes. Trust me, you're going to have plenty of opportunities to see Mark throughout the course of the season. I'll see you week two, probably, and week three, I would imagine. I looked at the schedule. I don't have the games officially yet, but I would imagine I'll see you guys back-to-back weeks, one in Atlanta, one in Cleveland. That would be my guess. Let me follow up with my own question about the Panthers. Bryce Young, do you see any reason to believe that he could be the long-term answer?

At quarterback for the Panthers. What year is he in? Is he going into his fifth year? Fifth year. And they haven't signed him to a long-term deal? They have not. Okay. So they can sit there and tell me all day long that we found our franchise quarterback. That this is our guy. The fact that I have not seen him sign a contract or even heard any rumblings about working on a new deal, what does that tell me or what does that tell you? Listen, man. Bryce couldn't be a nicer kid. And they've had some success. I mean, he's had some success.

Man, he is so small. And I just, I like for the life of me, I cannot believe that he is your long-term answer at quarterback. I do not believe that he is a franchise quarterback. I do not believe that he's going to become a franchise quarterback. I have been wrong in the past plenty of times. I think he's got some great leadership skills. I think he's got, I think the guys like him. I think all those things. But can you honestly see?

him hoist a team on their shoulders and carry them to promised land. What set them apart last year, really, what pushed them toward a playoff run last year and winning that division was Rico Dowdle. Yeah. Rico Dowdle brought some energy, some power. He had a five-game stretch. It was as good as any five games you've ever seen a running back have. That's really what put them over the edge. It wasn't Bryce Young saying, follow me. Here we go. Like, that wasn't the deal. You even talk, like, in a small person's voice there.

Right there. No, I would have gone, follow me, fellas. Come on, let's go. Let's charge. Yeah. Got one more for you. This is from Kevin in Milwaukee who asked, Mark, was Jimmy Haslam really involved in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade?

He was. Was he? So, okay, maybe I'll give you the background information. So Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, is also a part-time owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. Okay. And apparently he was influential in recommending that Giannis or that Milwaukee make a deal with Miami Heat instead of the Boston Celtics. So how about Jimmy Haslam? Because of the... Opt-outs and stuff like that. They were afraid that he might, you know, not stay with the Celtics. Celtics. So...

That was the concern there if they went and made the trade. So how about Jimmy Haslam being involved and at the forefront of the biggest NFL trade of the offseason? In Miles Garrett. And now with Giannis. With Giannis as well. Who do they get in return for Giannis? They got Tyler Hero. Did they give him a $300 million fully guaranteed contract? Like they did? Sean Watson. Right, Sean Watson. What's the most we can give this guy? What's the most? Too soon. I got one more quick one here. Really quick. What did you make of, this is my own question. Did you see the Ty Simpson story? How he has admitted that he loves to hear himself talk. Talk about birds of a feather here. But apparently he likes to, before he goes to bed, and when he first wakes up, he listens to recordings of him.

Calling out Rams plays. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I could see that. I mean, I walk around. I travel all the time, you know, during the football season. I walk around the airport asking myself questions and answering questions.

Like I'm doing a radio show, you know, and I'll ask myself a question like, hey, Stink, what do you think about blah, blah, blah? And then I'll just walk around the airport and go, oh, that's a great question. And then I'll start answering the question. You slay me. You slay me. That's great. I mean, and I walk around. I'm sure people think I'm crazy. Or they think I'm on the phone. You know, like I got an earbud in. I got no earbuds in. I'm just talking to myself. I constantly talk to myself about things like what I want to do and where I want to go. And I'm like, I catch myself in the car just having a conversation with myself. And so I think Ty Simpson's brilliant is what I'm trying to get to. He's an absolutely brilliant guy for doing it.

Nothing ever wrong with liking, hearing yourself talk. Amen. Take it from an expert. Amen. I am an expert. Hey, for everybody involved in the Secret Truth Podcast, the Odyssey Radio Network, we thank you so much. Whether you watch us on YouTube, check us out. Make sure you subscribe. The Secret Truth Podcast on YouTube, also on your Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day.