Deets and Watson's been making meats and cheeses the right way since forever. What's that mean? It means never cutting corners, ever. It means cooking, not processing. It means our Virginia brand ham that's cooked to perfection, then twice baked to layer the flavors. It takes more time, but you can taste the difference. We come to work every day to do it the right way, even if it's the hard way, because if it's not right for us, it's not right for you. Deets and Watson, it's a family thing since 1939. Hear that? Pumpkin. That's fall calling. And the pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks from that first sweater to late autumn weather. It's all a fall in just one sip. Order ahead on the Starbucks app. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now, you're multitasking, but what if you could also be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers you save by switching save nearly $750 on average and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. So multitask right now. Get your quote now at Progressive.com, Progressive Cash Relief Insurance Company and Affiliate's national average 12 months savings of $744 by new customers surveyed, who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. National savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. Last night was the first night in NFL history that there were two games played and both coaches who lost have almost identical names. Mike McDonald and Mike McDaniel and Michael Holly, you might appreciate this because anytime I hear those names in close proximity, I think of one line from our somewhat shared youth. It's McDaniel, not McDonald, the rhymes are Darryl, but the burgers are Ronald's. The burgers are Ronald's. Thank you. All right, your quote run DMC, there we go. I knew it. I knew there was something there. All right. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no. Oh, no. Oh, man. You know what? You know what? That kind of works for me. I, I don't know, we may have to try that out now. My first thought was horror and now I'm looking at it saying that ain't all that bad. Mike, I like, look, look, your fit, your fit there is much better than mine. The glasses are fire. I love your glasses. How about the three stripes, shout out Adidas, the three stripe, you know, jacket. Oh, the whole, and the watch. Oh, I want your fit there. You got the hat. You got everything. So good luck. And run. And by the way, by the way, oh, oh, by the way, we have, we have adjusted the graphics on the program to reflect our new titles. Well done on the fly. You are his excellency and I am future Pulitzer prize winner when hell freezes over. So, you know, take that ambassador. We see your ambassador and we raise you even more than that. So, and Halloween's coming up in a few weeks. I could get that. I could, I have a feeling aspects of it wouldn't be all that cheap. I could get that together for the, for the one kid per year who actually walks up to the top of our hill and knocks on our door. We don't even have one. I used to say, if anybody comes up my hill and knocks on my door in Halloween, I will give them a brand new $100 bill, although I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking. But we, when you live on the top of the hill, it's just not, you know, you got one hour. They give them like one hour nowadays to trick or treat. You're going to a neighborhood with a high concentration of houses that are all very closely packed together, maximum candy receipt in that hour. Yeah, you got to, it's a, it's a new, it's a new day now for, for trick or treating. Now you have with the parents, the parents are involved and so what you do is you leave, you know, depending on the neighborhood, you leave like a couple of buckets of candy and you have a little cute sign that says, take one or two. Some people don't, some people will maybe take three or four or take your whole bucket. Then you go out and there's, you know, people have little red cups and they have a little bottles with, you know, contents in there, you know, you walking around, it's going to be fun for the kids should be fun for the parents too. So it's a different day and I remember trick or treating and you go to some houses and you say, I don't go to that house because those are the people who were, they were just so evolved, they wouldn't give you candy, they might give you raisins or they might give you something, you know, a nice, healthy treat. Yeah, exactly. Come on, let me tell you, let me tell you about, you know, how you could be a good citizen of the world. No, thanks, by the way, Halloween this year, I think it's a Thursday. Yeah. So Wednesday, October 30th, if you'll do it, look, I don't have much to do, I could get a run DMC shirt or run PFT shirt and that hat. Now you got a lot more to do, you got the glasses and the ring and the watch, you got a lot more to do if you want to really pull this off on October 30th. Gary in the back, send me the, send me that image so I can get to work on, on all the various pieces of it and we'll see what we can do. I do have, I do have glasses, but they aren't quite as good as the ones that they put in the, in the, these are the, these are the prop goofy glasses I keep around for effect whenever. Oh God, they're so dirty too, but I, this was from 12 years ago when, oh God, when who was it? It was Brian Westbrook used to do PFT in the afternoon and we had a bet about the Eagles game or a Chiefs game or something. And I said I dress up as Andy Reed if something happened and I had to dress up as Andy Reed. So I had the fake mustache, I had the hat, I had the big coat, the big coat still downstairs somewhere, the glasses for whatever reason just stayed up here for 10 or 11 years. So that's, that's what I have going for me. Fake glasses, the lenses are not prescription, but they're so dirty you can't see through them. Okay. So we're going to try to cleanse the lens for the future, the crystal ball, the future of the Jets head coaching job. Odds are already out there as to who the next coach will be. A lot of the usual suspects, the guys who have bubbled to the top of the presumptive point to get a head coaching job in the next cycle list, but Ben Johnson is the favorite. Bobby Slowick, a name we hear. Mike Grebel, that's intriguing. Jeff Albrecht does well enough to keep the job. I think 12 games is too many for him to hold it together if it was just three or four maybe. With Kingsbury, he's doing well with the commanders. Aaron Glenn's out there, he used to play for the Jets once in a while while he was the, and is the Lions defensive coordinator, Clint Kubiak doing well with the Saints offense. Brian Flores, look, there's, we can do a whole segment and eventually will at some point do a whole segment on whether or not anyone's going to have the courage to give Brian Flores a head coaching job, giving to the suit, the NFL, the Giants, the Broncos, the Texans and the Dolphins. And that case is still, still working through arbitration in the court system, but those are the ones, Michael, and we're going to do a draft of who we think is going to be the next coach of the Jets. But I look at the guys at the top, why would they go there? Anybody who's got choices is not going to choose to work for Woody Johnson. They're going to go somewhere else. If you're Ben Johnson, he said no thanks last year to the commanders and the Seahawks. He'll definitely say no thanks to the Jets. He should not, if you're going to bet on that and I would not bet on something like this, I wouldn't bet on anything because you're eventually going to lose over time anyway and you'll win once and you're just going to say, hey, I can, I'm good at this. Nobody's good at it. That's why the house always wins. Don't waste your money on Ben Johnson. I'd be stunned. They would have to grossly overpaid Ben Johnson and basically have Woody go back to the UK and stay there for Ben Johnson to take that job. I used to think that, and I, see, I feel that way. See, I feel that way, Mike, and we're, we share, we share the same thought there. But I'm looking at the NFL, these coaches, I can't think of the last time a coach turned on an NFL job. It happens in other sports. It happens in the NBA. It just happened in the NBA a couple of years ago, a Warriors assistant decided to stay with the Warriors rather than go to the Charlotte Hornets because, hey, it's the Charlotte Hornets. Sorry. But in the NFL, you got an opportunity to be the boss and bring in your own coordinators and, you know, get a major salary boost, major, at least doubling your salary, sometimes tripling your salary. Even if it's a bad organization, those guys would take it. So I think you go to each of those guys, nobody would turn it down, even though they should. I disagree with them. We agree on most things, but look, I, and here's what happens, I think, as the two sides begin to talk before any formal offers are made, this is the smart way to do it. And this is how I used to settle lawsuits on both sides. You don't put your final offer out there. You just say hypothetically, if this were to be offered, would it be accepted? And I, something broke down with Ben Johnson in Washington, we all thought that's where he was going to go. And then all of a sudden he wasn't. And then they started to put out, oh, he wanted so much money, it was shocking how much money he wanted, which I think is a load of crap, frankly. I think it's just the team spin as to why he left them at the alter Josh McDaniel's, bailed on the Colts. So it's not unprecedented. And I think if you're somebody who has choices and has options, you, you look at a bad organization and say, I'm not going to go there. And I think that Johnson and Sloak will have options. I think that Vable will have options and Vable came out of a place that's low key dysfunctional in Nashville, frankly, I know Titans fans aren't going to want to hear it because you can't fire the owner. He's not going to want to go to a place that is high level and openly dysfunctional like the Jets. So I really do think that, that there's a lot more strategy into that because you typically have one shot. And if you go to a place that's going to wreck you just like the Jets wrecked quarterbacks. If the Jets wrecked the coach, then the coach has to hope that some other owner is going to say, we know it wasn't you, Robert or Todd or Adam, although Adam was on his second chance. So he's not getting another one. We know it's the team. I just don't think you want to do that. You want to wait for your for a better spot to be successful if you can. I forgot about McDaniel, that's a great example, but then McDaniel's when he turns down the Colts and goes back to the Patriots and the thing is when back to the Patriots Tom Brady is still there and they're a perennial Super Bowl contender. He felt like, Hey, I'll be able to pick my next spot and it took him four years to get another opportunity with Vegas and that was after winning the Super Bowl, you know, getting the three straight Super Bowls when he won in 2018, he's still he wanted the, he wanted the Browns job that Kevin Stafansky got. He wanted some opportunities, but people looked at him and said, Hey, you're the guy who accepted a job and turned him. Maybe that was his problem. He accepted it and then turned it down. I guess if you quietly turn it down, people don't look at you like they can't trust you. That's a good point. Or if it never gets to the point where you turn it down when you're having these hypothetical conversations and you remove your name from consideration like Ben Johnson did. That's the more artful way to do it. And it's a small industry. It's 32 branches to one company, although they're all separately owned. They can always go in a different direction and they can always justify going a different way. That's why I go back to Flores. It is going to take a lot of courage for someone to hire him because you're going to piss off the league office, John Mary, the owner of the Giants, you're going to piss off the Texans. You're going to piss off the dolphins because they've all been sued by Brian Flores. And God forbid that somebody who still wants to work in this industry would have the audacity to try to advance his or her legal rights. But I've seen that you become pariah the moment you do it. It's wrong, but it's going to take someone with a lot of courage to buck their partners and the league office to give Brian Flores a job because I think Brian Flores would be a great candidate. However, Michael, there is another dynamic at play here. We're going to get to the draft in a second, but what teams tend to do, they go for the exact opposite of the coach they just fired. So if it was as simple as red and black on a roulette wheel, offensive or defensive, I'm putting all my chips on offensive that they're going to get an offensive coach because they just had a defensive coach. It's time to flip it over to an offensive coach. Look, the last coach was offensive in Adam Gates. They flipped it to defensive before that. It was defensive in Todd Bowles. So it doesn't hold all the way back to Rex Ryan, but at the same time, that's a big factor here. We want somebody who's the exact opposite of Robert Salas. So offensive guy, I think is more likely than a defensive guy. Yeah, I think you're right. You know, then just the way the league is trending anyway, but the offensive explosion, that was the number one thing. This offensive, hey, we got to get this next young, bright, innovative coach, somebody from the Shanahan tree, McVay tree, one of those guys, is being countered a bit by former player because that's what, all brick, if you listen to some of the reporting and some of the whispers, it's like players really respect that Jeff Albrick played. And he didn't play, he didn't play for a while, he didn't play at a particularly high level. He wasn't a great player. But I think a lot of NFL players now look at it, DeMico Ryan's, Gerard Mayo, they look at some of these guys, hey, he played in the league, he understands where I'm coming from. So I think former player gets, you get some bonus points on that one. All right, so let's get to it. Let's do a draft of the next Jets coach after this year. It could be Albrick. It could be anyone else. The world is completely open, anyone you want, Michael, I'll give you the first pick. And we won't hold you to this unless you're wrong, who's the next head coach of the Jets? Well, I heard what you said about offensive coaches, Mike, you make a lot of sense. I agree with you, however, with the first pick, and I'm looking at all my voluminous draft information, we're going to take former Pro Bowl player, Mike Vable, former head coach, Mike Vable. So I think he is perfect for the Jets culture if they will listen to him, played in the league at a high level, won championships in the league, has coached in college, coached in the pros, did a good job with Tennessee, it has been open to offensive coordinators doing something a little different than what he would do. I mean, he did have Arthur Smith there in Tennessee, and Arthur Smith turned around Ryan Tana Hill's career and was able to give Tennessee some success. The question is, well, Ambassador Johnson, listen, when Mike Vable comes in and says, you know what? I'm not going to call you ambassador. Okay. I'm going to call you Woody. I'm not, I'm just not doing that damn thing. But Mike Vable has called out, he'll call on anybody. He's gone at Tom Brady, he's gone at Robert Kraft, he used to make fun of Bill Belichick as a player in meetings, he is fearless, and I think he's exactly the kind of guy who will bring credibility to the Jets. Well, I think he would be perfect in that market. We didn't see much of it because nobody really paid attention to the Titans while he was there. But Vable, I think, will be if he would be the Jets coach, very colorful, funny, somewhere between Rex Ryan and Bill Parse sells. Not with that mean streak to the same extent Parse sells would have it. And not as, I don't know, goofy, like not in a funny way, just like bizarre goofy Rex Ryan, like there's a sweet spot between those two personalities that could really take over New York. I just think that Vable is going to have other options and he's going to know, I don't want this job. Unless Woody Johnson is, again, the ambassador to the UK, we won't know that with 100% certainty by the time they're hiring, but we'll, you know, it'll be, it'll be, the election will have been over. We'll know whether or not the president who wins in three weeks and six days is going to be the one who would appoint him to go back there. We might know it by the time we get to January. So that would be a factor, I think. Do I deal with Christopher or do I deal with Woody? And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Sola thought he was going to be dealing with Christopher and not. Woody, when he took the job in the first place. So I like Vable. I like Vable. Now, all of mine are off the board from the, if we have the graphic with the odds, none of mine appear on that list. And that's because I'm looking for guys that would be willing to take this job that don't have options for whatever reason. And I'm going to start with, and I'm cheating a little bit because the next name, if we had another page here who has 14 to one odds, along with Ryan Day, Joe Brady, Todd Monkin, the Ravens offensive coordinator, because the Ravens offense has my very good under Todd Monkin. And he's a guy who, he's older by NFL head coaching standards, although I think he's probably younger than me, but how, how many ships are going to come in to his port? How many options and offers would he have? And I could see the Jets saying, Hey, look, the Ravens, you know, and Joe Douglas has those connections to the Ravens. So it's easier to vet Todd Monkin makes a couple of calls, Eric to cost to John Harbaugh, whoever. Yeah, this is a good guy. We really don't want to lose him. Why are you sniffing around our guy? But that's how it works. Yeah. This is his chance. He's been around. This is his opportunity. I could see Monkin not having a lot of opportunities. And so taking the one that comes his way, if and when the Jets call. Oh, I like it. I like that. He's done a, done a really good job with the Ravens offense and he did a good job in college football. Offensive guy again, yes, makes a lot of sense and would take that job. He'd take it because we know it's just unspoken as you, as you get a little age on you in the NFL, people aren't really knocking down your door unless they want you to be a bridge person. Think of David Cully with the Texans, you know, he knew he wasn't long for the job. I didn't think it'd be one and done, but a respected older coach, but he only got that opportunity because the situation was that bad and it just needed somebody as a placeholder. But can I give you my second pick? My second pick? Yes. I'm going with this, uh, former player thing and it's somebody who understands the market. It's Aaron Glenn, also a defensive guy, but has been part of a rebuild. This is what, this is why I think he's an attractive candidate. When he got to Detroit with Dan Campbell and everybody else there, Brad Holmes, it was a mess and he saw he kind of coached through the mess and now they're a contender. And so I think with the Jets, he takes over to franchise, it is not going to be what they think it is right now. They, they got to take a step back before they go forward. I actually think they've overrated their position a little bit. I think they're a good team. I do not think they're a Super Bowl team. I know I'm in the minority on that. I don't think they're that great. So I think Aaron, Aaron Glenn needs to come in with the authority of knowing what it looks like. He was a part of a team that had Bill Parcells as a head coach and Bill Belichick on staff, Al Gro, uh, all the, all the parts, all the Parcells people. He knows what it's supposed to look like. He knows the expectations of New York. I think he could go in and kind of give them a reset and give them, here's that word again, more credibility. Now, next one for me defies my, my prediction that the Jets will go exact opposite of Robert Salah and go for an offensive coach. How about Steve Spagnola, a guy who, for whatever reason, an age is probably the biggest one because he's 64, but he hasn't gotten another shot. He's got that history with the Giants in the same building when he was defensive coordinator there. He's done incredible things with the chief's defense. The chiefs are now quietly a defensive team, not an offensive team. And when you look at how many options, you get a quality coach that people aren't banging down the door to get. And from his perspective, this is my last shot. Yeah, I got to deal with Woody Johnson. I'll deal with him. I'll deal with him because I'm ready to try to coach again. And the mess he dealt with in St. Louis, when they were as dysfunctional as any team could have been, and his record showed, and I think he's been dragged down by that association with the Rams. Hey, if we're going to give quarterbacks the, well, okay, he got started with a bad team. Let's do that with Spagnola too. He got his first job with a bad team. And now maybe finally he gets taken seriously as a head coach and candidate for a team that needs somebody who can come in and there aren't going to be a bunch of guys rushing to be the Jets head coach. So Spagnola for me, who's your third one? And you can react to Spagnola first if you want, but I don't want to rush. No, I would say Spagnola is a good choice. And I, you know, it's hard to believe that he hasn't had an opportunity since that Rams job. They were still in St. Louis then. And you think about it, the team was really bad. People remember that he was head coach. His offensive coordinator for a year was McDaniel's. Now, you know, Josh McDaniel's is there and they averaged 12 points a game with Josh McDaniel's is there OC. So he's a good OC, but he couldn't, he couldn't save that franchise. Spagnola definitely deserves another shot. I hesitate to go to the next guys, number one on the board and back to what you're saying. Would he really want to take this job and leave a good thing in Detroit? But I already went on the defensive side for the Lions. Let's go offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. I know he has the opportunity to work with, or the ability to work with quarterbacks, but can he work with Aaron Rodgers if Rodgers is still there in 2025? I know he can work with Rodgers, can Rodgers work with him when he tells Rodgers, hey, I think we can do it a better way. I think we can be more efficient and a little bit more creative. That's the, that's my only hesitation there, not him, but what they allow him to do once he gets the job. And I personally don't think that Rodgers will be there next year. I've just kind of taken that as a given that this is it for him, that he's not going to want to deal with a coaching change. The new coach might not want him. Maybe they want the new coach to be the one who tells Aaron Rodgers to move on, but I just think that he won't be there. I think that after this year he'll realize it's time to move on with whatever he's going to do. Last one for me. And we've mentioned Josh McDaniel's a couple times. I'm tempted, I'm tempted, I'm tempted to put McDaniel's here because it's that Patriots rivalry, but things went so badly with the Raiders. I don't think Woody Johnson would go there despite the fact that dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. So maybe it makes it more likely he'd go after Josh McDaniel's. I think the better option and this falls into the category of offensive coordinator, career coach who never really thought I'll be an NFL head coach and all of a sudden the opportunity presents itself. There's no way I'm saying no. It's the Dave Canales model, the guy who took the Panthers job. I think a job nobody would have touched except him because I'm going to be a head coach. I never thought that would happen. Ryan Grubb, the Seahawks offensive coordinator, Gino Smith playing the best football of his career. There's that whole, hey, look, we couldn't do anything with Gino. This guy could. I think that becomes an attraction. The fact that there might not be a bunch of people trying to hire Ryan Grubb and it is that Canales. Hey, I better go the windows open. I better go through it because it's going to close quickly and never open again. So Ryan Grubb is my last one. You said a lot of people not trying to hire him are, but you can't that can't be the standard candidate like if you're the Jets, if you're Jets fans, they want the best and the brightest. They want. They want that person who wins the competition of like 10, 10 teams, one of them, but we got them. We got the best coach out there. Won't that won't that be what they're looking for? Well, yeah, but they're not going to want to go there. That's the thing. I mean, wouldn't David Tepper have rather had Bill Belichick, but there's no way Bill Belichick is going to go work for David Tepper. So he gets Dave Canales and you make it look like this is part of the sales job. This is one of the things on the post it notes when you're doing the conference call. Make it look like we got our first choice. Make it look like we got our first choice. So anyway, we put some options out there. If what he Johnson or anyone else with the Jets is inclined to listen to us do so at your own peril. We're going to take a break when we return. We could be getting to the point where they make a quarterback change, which really isn't a change in Pittsburgh. It's just QB one being QB one will break down the Russell Wilson versus Justin Fields and under him when PFT live continues right after this. You know, we all find ourselves in situations where we can feel a little bit nervous sometimes from me standing in a studio. The lights get a little hot. The anxiety runs a little high as I wonder whether or not the words are going to come out of my mouth the way that they are supposed to. 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It means our Virginia brand ham that's cooked to perfection, then twice baked to layer the flavors. It takes more time, but you can taste the difference. We come to work every day to do it the right way, even if it's the hard way. Because if it's not right for us, it's not right for you. Deets and Watson, it's a family thing since 1939. This time of year, Saturdays mean one thing and one thing only. College football. With sling, you get access to hundreds of games and the biggest network starting at $40 a month. That's just $40 a month. Sling takes your love of college football to the next level. It's a no brainer streaming games and saving on them too, and it's not just college football. Sling has live sports news entertainment channels you love and less of the ones you don't. So you save hundreds of dollars on live TV. Sling also lets you choose and customize your channel lineup so you can choose the channels you actually like to watch. Sling's cloud DVR lets you record your shows to watch on your schedule. There's no complex technology, no long-term contracts, and no hidden rigmarole. Get rewarded for watching college football. Sling lets you do that. Visit sling.com/play to learn more and get started. That's sling.com/play, sling.com/play. You know, I just told the team there's a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes in our business, and you know, that's an example of it. You know, that ball's on the ground right there in the red area, and that's the difference. I think we should begin referring to Mike Tomlin as future Pulitzer winner without the when hell freezes over disclaimer, because he's missed his calling. Not that he's found his calling, but he's just got a very creative, evocative, almost literary mind that if he wanted to write, if he wanted to create, I mean, that's skill to come up with those sayings. That's rare, and it's like he's got a different one every week, Michael. There's a fine line between drinking wine and what was the, drinking wine and doing what? Squashing grapes. Squashing grapes or squishing grapes. So good. So good. But I don't want him to find that calling. I don't want him to find the literary calling. Mike, we got the book, we've got the book we're going to be working on, you know, it's already October. So we don't have time. We don't have time to get it out before Christmas, but 2025. We can really have. We can pair it with some type of, it must be some Steelers anniversary, something, we can pair it with that and put out our Tomlin, our Tomlinisms coffee table book. And look, I have a rhythm of my Tomlin. I've spent my whole life in and around Pittsburgh. I'm a hundred miles south of the Golden Triangle as I speak, and I have a pretty good feel for the organization. And I believe they're going back to Russell Wilson. I think it's time. Justin Fields was not as sharp as we'd seen him in a big primetime game against the Cowboys. The Cowboys outplayed the Steelers, but the Steelers almost pulled the inside straight as they tend to do under Mike Tom. And you look at the stats and you're like, how the hell did they win this game? Oh, wait, there's only one stat that matters. Points they scored versus points. The other team scored and Tomlin knows how to will them to that kind of an outcome. Those didn't get them there when it was there for the taking against the Cowboys. And I feel like, you know, it's that Eastern Virginia connection that is so important to Mike Tomlin, Russell Wilson's his guy, Russell Wilson's healthy. He's going to be a full participant in practice today for the first time in almost four weeks or five weeks since he suffered the aggravation of the calf injury that happened back at the start of training camp. I just think it's all lining up for Russell Wilson. If he stays healthy, if he gets through this week of practice for Russell Wilson to be the guy come Sunday and it's the right game to come back for. Go face the Raiders, get your legs under you, road crowd, although the probably a lot of Steelers fans there and then you come home for Sunday night game against the Jets. And then you go to MetLife Stadium for a Monday night game against the Giants and then you have your bye week. It's working out perfectly, I think, for Wilson to come back now, get three games under his belt and then get ready for what is a very tough stretch run for the Steelers. I think you're right. I think it is going to be Russell Wilson's job and this is a bit of a turn because at the beginning of the season and I get off to a three and oh start and Justin Fields looks like he could be the answer and he's playing within that system and he's making smart plays and it just coincides with the losses. It's not just because they lost, it's how he looked in those losses. The Colts game, not so much. I mean he had to play at the end, intercept it at the end, that turned it to a three point game, which is a competitive game, missed some opportunities, some fumbles in the red zone. So yeah, that wasn't necessarily on Fields but Mike, Sunday night with the delay, the longest day in football, Sunday night against the Cowboys, they've got some injuries, you're at home, you should probably win that game and Justin Fields just did not play well. Didn't play well, didn't pass well and so if he had continued to do just a little bit of what we saw in the first couple of games, now we got an interesting conversation. Maybe Mike Tomlin spins it around and goes to Fields but I think he has no choice now. You got to go back to Russell Wilson because it seems like Fields is sliding back into some bad habits. And it's not a benching, it's QB1 healthy again. And I said within the past week or two, when you have decisions that are kind of out there down the road, they have a way of revealing themselves when it's time for an answer. The circumstances will tell you the right thing to do, so don't worry about future decisions. By the time you get to the point where you have to make it, circumstances change and often the decision becomes easier and I think this is an easy decision for the Steelers. And it's not a benching of Fields, who they still I think hope at some level will be the future beyond 2024. The present I think is going to be Russell Wilson with the fully healed calf if he gets through practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and is good to go when they make the trip to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders. Now let's pivot to the New England Patriots, where finally avoiding a mutiny, mutiny as we know from the team's own in-house media production, which was partially expunged because of the word mutiny, but mutiny avoided whether there was going to be one or not, Drake may will start week six against the Texans, some would say it's overdue, some would say it's right on time, I can't think of anyone who would say this is premature because why use a third overall pick in the draft on someone who isn't ready to play right away. The way the NFL is now, you're going to use a pick that high, you better use it on somebody who you think is ready to go right away. And I think they should have started him from the get-go, at least they're getting him out there now, giving him 12 games if he stays healthy to have the game slow down for him and get him to his ceiling, whatever his ceiling might be. I'm with you, Mike, I thought that Drake may should have started the season as a number one quarterback, but I'll give it to Gerard Mayo and his staff, they had good intentions, they wanted to bring them along slowly because they feel that with more seasoning, you know, quarterbacks tend to fare better, okay that's fine, that's not really for me because you show me Aaron Rodgers not playing, I can show you Peyton Manning who did, you show me Carson Palmer who sat down, I'll show you Russell Wilson who started as a rookie and was a pro bowler as a rookie, so he can go back and forth, Dan Marino played, John Elway played, Joe Montana did and Tom Brady did and so he can go back and forth and there's really no definitive answer. The problem for the Patriots is that their guy who is going to be the mentor is in decline, like Jacobi Percet, it doesn't make sense to sit behind somebody who's not good and so that was the problem, he didn't meet his, he didn't hold up his end of the bargain, he was supposed to be just a very, you know, a decent unobtrusive starting quarterback and at times he was just, he'd hold the ball, he really was limited in what he could do, missed the very few open throws that were there or very few times were receivers, game separation, he'd miss him, so I think they had to go with Drake May, who is the better quarterback, they all agree on that, he's better than Jacobi Percet, the only question is, is this the best spot to throw him into, throw him into the Houston Texans, the wolves there, top five defense, really make Josh Allen look bad last week, make Caleb Williams look bad and that's Sunday night game in Houston, is this the best chance for him? I say, what difference does it make, you got the most talented guy, put him out there and let him figure it out. All right, what we're going to do is take a break because we actually have not one but two items of news that might not stay news for very long if we don't talk about them here. So, we're going to take a break, we're going to regroup, we're going to reconfigure and we'll have more P.F. to live for you, right after this, Tony in motion with cousins and they're going to cut it and it's caught, codero hodge, 35, 35, 35, 12 home safely, oh my goodness, welcome to the game, codero hodge is serious, a walk-off for codero hodge in the Falcons, snap to Caleb Williams, good protection, lines it up for D.J. Moore to the end goal, perfect goal, perfect catch, touchdown bears and the bears are pulling away from the pattern, to load it off, it was just a final tip, a positive to the left, okay, he kept it back to the middle, that's not running, take cases, into the open to the 45, 40, 35, 30, 20, 50, one, touchdown, take big speed, he's exploded for another score, 65 yards, how good is that? Myers is set, snap is good, kick on it's way, I got pressure up the middle and they swoop it up, running down the left side is Houston, he's the five and he's in for the score and touchdown, jump right over the suitor there, and block it, that is such a great play. This is 36 from the Vikings 38, they blitzfire, picked off by Van Ginkel, that is close, touchdown, and row Van Ginkel, cacophony authorities at Tottenham, roaches back to throw, looking for what he thinks is accepted, it's Stephon Gilmore, the Minnesota Vikings, they're going to go to five and out, a little bobble to snap at the pickup off the trip, he's being chased from a row, skip on to Van, Stan Hubbard, and finally swings in the back of the end zone, touchdown, Isaiah Lightly, oh boy, unbelievable, but that's like a no, no, no, yes, they're chasing the board, and the Ravens have defeated the Bengals in the wildest of the way. What a Sunday it was, great hump day homers, I knew we'd have Paul Allen in there, I didn't expect Simon and Nigel to make an appearance right afterward though, with the decisive interception in that Jets Vikings game played in London, that's a little nod for our friends watching on Sky Sports Action, I don't know whether their names are Simon and Nigel, I just have an impression over the years that those are fairly common names in the UK, so those are the first two that came to mind. I hear you're a big deal in London, I heard Paul Allen on the show, and I heard him do his Mike Florio call, you know, Florio out in the open, it was great, but he said that you are huge in London and that he's gone there, and what do you say, thousands of people have come up to him watching on Sky Sports, so, no, I told him, I told him when he went there, I told him when he went there that would happen, and you'll be big there now too on Sky Sports with us because the fans are so passionate and they have so little content, they flock to whatever they can get, and for whatever reason we're one of like only shows that is on on a weekday basis, and you know, at the risk of getting in trouble for saying things I shouldn't say about other shows that are out there, apparently there's another show that is too USA for the UK, that's how it's been described to me by our folks, and we fit the mentality and the mindset and the disposition of the folks in the UK better, so it's worked for the past five, six, seven years that we've been on there. Okay, let's get to some revised over under wind totals for 2024, now that we're five games in, we'll start with the commanders, they opened at six and a half, they are now at nine and a half, they're four and one with 12 games left, Michael Hawley, are you over or under nine and a half for the commanders for the balance of the season? Give me the over Gary Carter, commanders fan, give me the over because I did not foresee what Jayden Daniels is doing, I didn't foresee that, I thought he'd, you know, do okay and he's up and down, but it's perfect, it's the perfect mix, Dan Quinn leading the operation and the Kingsbury, Jayden Daniels relationship is just great for that team, so I think they are, they're going to probably win about 10 games, 10 or 11 games, I think they're going to win the NSC East, give me the over on the commanders. Yeah, I agree with you as well, in part because they, I think will do well against the cowboys and the Eagles, better than people expect, they have another game against the Giants, they really should have lost to the Giants the first time around, but I think this team is getting better as the season progresses, Jayden Daniels is getting better, he's getting more confident, he's becoming more effective, I'll go over nine and a half as well, let's go Vikings, they opened at six and a half, it's now nearly doubled to 12 and a half, I'll go first on this one since I'm the resident recovering Vikings fan, there's no way they're getting the 13 wins, I'll take the under, the last time they were 5 and 0 they didn't make the playoffs, they finished 8 and 8, there's no way they're getting the 13 wins this year, and I'm not just saying that as some sort of a weird reverse psychology, take the under on the Vikings at 12 and a half. Yeah, that 13's aggressive, but I'm just surprised that you're saying no way they're going to get to 13, they're 5 and 0, okay 12 games left, all right, let's say they go 8 and 4, you know they didn't go 8 and 4 down the stretch, I am also going to take the under, I am, but I'm just surprised to hear you say that no way, there's a way, if you think they're legit, maybe that's the issue, you don't really think they're legit, you think the 5 and 0 is smoking mirrors, I don't think so. Well you know there's a question I think that we compose as to whether what the Jets did to their offense on Sunday is outlier, which was on Aaron Rodgers word of the day calendar at some point last week as he used it like seven times, or whether the Jets have provided the rest of the NFL with a blueprint, and the next time we see that Vikings offense, it will be against a pretty stout defense, the Lions who come to Minnesota, so we'll find out, but I'm scarred Michael by the fact the last time the Vikings were 5 and 0 again, they didn't make the playoffs, they finished 8 and 8, these next few games, if they can continue this coming out of the by, they need Aaron Jones back too, that offense is different without Aaron Jones on the field, all right the Bengals opened at 11 and a half, it's now down to 8 and a half, is that low enough to entice you to think that the 1 and 4 Bengals can go 8 and 4 to get to 9 and 8? Sad to say since the Addie Queen City, I'm going to take the under, and it has nothing to do with Joe Burrow, and that offense, the offense is pretty good, the defense is just not good, it's not good enough, so I really, I don't think they can go into any situation and say yeah, you know, we should be able to win this game, they really should have been able to win the commander's game, they really should have been able to win the Baltimore game, they can't stop anybody, they lost to the Patriots for goodness sake, so I think they'll score a lot of points, they'll be fun to watch, I can see a 7 and 10 season in Cincinnati though, I agree with you, I think that at this point, and maybe it's just hanging around Devin McCarty too much because as they started slow, Lee, get the adverb right, started slowly this year, Devin McCarty said, why does everybody always say they're just going to turn it around, you know, maybe they won't this year essentially, and I don't know that they're going to turn it around enough this year, 8 and 4 is a lot to ask for a team that's gone 1 and 4 so far, last one, Jets opened at 10 and a half, it's now down to 8 and a half, they're 2 and 3, so they would have to go 7 and 5 the rest of the way to get over the 8 and a half, are you of a mind, Michael, that Jeff Obrick, the interim head coach, and the real head coach Aaron Rodgers can get this Jets team to 9 and 8. I think you can get them to 9 and 8, but what does that get you, so 9 and 8 is not really what they had in mind, considering they won 7 games last year without Aaron Rodgers for the entire season, I think they have enough ability to get to around 500, that's what I think they are now, I think they're about a 500, they're slightly over 500 team, they'll be 9 and 8, probably not going to be enough to win the AFC East, they Buffalo still pulls out that division, so yeah, 9 and 8, give them the over, that's the good news, bad news, doesn't get you anywhere. Yeah, I'll still, I'll still, I don't know that this change is going to make them any better, and what I have thought they'd be 9 and 8 with Salah, probably, so I'll go under, because I really don't think this is going to give them what they're looking for, because again, Rodgers doesn't look like he used to, the defense is going to be lesser than it was, now that you have Salah out of the mix, I think it's going to be hard for the Jets this year, I'll take the under, let's take a break, before we do though, Draft King Sportsbook is the number one place to bet, touchdowns and new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly, download the app and use promo code PFTLive when you sign up, Draft King Sportsbook, the crown is yours, as always please bet responsibly and only with money that you can afford to lose, we'll be right back with some news regarding one of the pending lawsuits against the NFL, which isn't pending anymore, we'll be right back. It's been well over a year since Jim Trotter was fired by the NFL media conglomerate, and he sued, and one of the things he had working in his favor for whatever reason his contract didn't include an arbitration provision, which the NFL tries to use any time, any place it can, Michael. So, it went to court, was going to stay in court, and Jim Trotter's lawyers survived the initial effort, which happens in every case against the NFL to throw the thing out, faced with discovery, faced with depositions, faced with some tough questions based on, there's that word against circumstantial evidence that made it look like Jim Trotter became persona non grata because he dared to question the commissioner in a public setting on multiple occasions at Super Bowl press conferences about the lack of representation in the NFL media newsroom, the case has resolved, and obviously the terms will be confidential, but, Michael, Jim Trotter had a tiger by the tail, I have a feeling, and I don't know anything, as usual, life is easier that way, I have a feeling he pulled that tiger as hard as he could. Yeah, I've known Trotter for a long time, he's as solid, a man as you'll find, he's a man of principle, he's fearless, he's fearless in his personal life, he's fearless journalistically, so he will take on things, he will confront issues that a lot of journalists, frankly, will try to ignore gloss over or back away from, so I was really happy that he did, that he took on the NFL here and he did it publicly when he had felt like he had no other options, you know, for a couple of years in a row he would call out Roger Goodell at press conferences, as you can see there, and he had the data, Goodell was obviously uncomfortable, but Trotter wasn't doing it to draw attention to himself, if you know him, he's not really that kind of guy, he's not a hot taker, just the opposite, very thoughtful, very composed reporter, I'm happy for him, selfishly, I'm with you Mike, I wanted all the information, I wanted all to be public, I wanted the NFL to answer those tough questions and have it be something that we could look at, study and discuss and figure out who was telling the truth and who was stretching the truth? Well, and it's a chance to expose to the fans who rally around big shield that there is a soft underbelly that can be a little nasty, and this was a chance to see it, but my guess is Jim made a smart business decision, and as part of it, what he's going to be doing, he's creating the Work Plan Pre-Foundation, and he will be using some of the proceeds of this settlement to aid students in historically black colleges and universities with scholarships and resources as they pursue degrees in sports journalism and sports management, you don't see that very often when somebody goes through something like this, gets a settlement or a verdict to actually give some of it back, so he did this for the right reasons, and my guess is, my guess is, he couldn't say no to whatever the offer was, because he seemed to be 100% committed to seeing this through to the end, so kudos Jim, although it was going to be fun to cover whatever did happen in court if and when it had come to that. We need to take a break, we'll look at this week's Power Rankings right after this on PFT Live. Time for the PFT Power Rankings presented by our friends at Toyota, and look, no change at the top this week as the Chiefs won. I had some people still pushing me to move the Vikings to number one, the Chiefs are unbeaten, the Lions are, they have a loss, but if the Vikings beat the Lions, when they play week seven, okay, maybe I'd even move them to number one if they beat the Lions, I don't know, but there's the rest of the top half, the biggest riser you see Michael with the Cowboys, I moved him up eight, I thought they'd be worse without Michael Parsons into Marcus Lawrence, they did pretty well for themselves, and they dominated the Steelers, they should not have won that game on the final play of the fourth quarter, they should have had that game in hand by the time the third quarter ended. Yeah, the plus eight for the Cowboys, I don't have an issue with, and I'd like to argue with you on the 49ers, the best two and three team in football, but they're two and three and they keep, you know, squandering games, so they deserve to be at number 14 where you have them. I do agree if people are telling you the Lions, if the Vikings should be one, I don't think they should be one, they should be two, they should be ahead of the Lions, they're undefeated, the Chiefs are one, Vikings two, then I'd put the Lions at three, so that's just a small nitpick there. It's amazing to see the Texans. You like the Falcons? What do you think of the Texans at four? Oh, the Falcons, I like that, I do like that. I mean, they beat the Saints and the Buccaneers four days apart, and I think Kirk Cousins is getting better as the season unfolds. He's trusting his leg, he was spectacular, 509 passing yards. How can you keep him out of the top 10 after that? Yeah, you asked me about the Texans, what do I think about the Texans at four? I think that's what they have to be. Really, they got a loss, so really it's a matter of Texans or Lions. I think the highest they could be is three. I got the, no question, it's Chiefs, Vikings, and then everybody else after that. And who would have dreamed the commanders at number five? If you would have told anyone Gary Carter, any other commanders fan, number five before the season, they would say you mean fifth from the bottom, right? Not number, not number five, not fifth from the top, but there they are, and they've earned it, and five plays sixth this weekend. It's one of the games of the week, Michael, in the one o'clock window. Ravens hosting the commanders, holy crap, probably the biggest game between those two teams since they've been pressed together in somewhat tight geography. Oh yeah, I can't wait for that one, and the commanders, I mean, I know the Ravens, Ravens are probably favorite, if I'm not mistaken, the Ravens are favored, but six and a half, Gary tells me six and a half. Hey, Gary, I'm going, give me the commanders. Give me the commanders, give me the commanders and the points. That's too many points. All right, we're going to take a break. We'll wrap up this Wednesday edition of PFT Live right after this. Another little bit of news, oh wait, let me promote this because it's a huge game. It's Michael Hawley's Ohio State Buckeyes at the Oregon Ducks in a big 10 clash. I mean, these do feel like dystopian times, in many respects. The idea that Oregon is in the big 10 is just another one of those. Everything used to do in sports illustrated the signs of the apocalypse. USC, UCLA, Oregon, whoever else from the Pac-12 in the big 10 would be the latest sign of the apocalypse in SI. Mike, I'm still getting used to Penn State being in the big 10. They're the newbies, and they've been in for 30 years. It's still hard for me to Penn State's in. And by the way, yeah, I'll tell you, we got an argument next time we talk. I heard you say yesterday to West Virginia would have wiped the floor with Ohio State if the Mountaineers had won in 2006. I heard that. I heard it. Seven. You're probably right, but it's kind of disrespectful. By the way, I personally attended the first ever Penn State Ohio State big 10 game in 1993. And it was miserably cold. It was one of those days in November where it doesn't seem cold until you have to stand for four hours and you freeze the whole time. I still remember that experience. I think Ohio State won. I was cold. Great stuff, Michael. See you tomorrow, everybody. Hey, everybody. It's Rob Lowe here. If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's called literally the Rob Lowe. And basically it's conversations I've had that really make you feel like you're pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire, like Erin Sorkin or Tiffany Haddish, Demi Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J. Fox. There are new episodes out every Thursday. So subscribe, please, and listen, wherever you get your podcasts. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping King Supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouth-watering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices. Plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points so you can get big flavors and big savings. King Supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. [BLANK_AUDIO]
