H4 Mike Sando, The Kicker

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1:01They just make it so simple. Tim Trader, the sales manager, does a great job of making sure you get into the vehicle you want. Jordan and finance is great to work with. He's super easy to get out the door with and then Robbie Brooks, service manager. Cannot tell you how much I enjoy getting service done. Used to dread it. Used to hate it, but they just make it so easy at Roberts Robinson. Of course, free lifetime powertrain warning on all new vehicles. It's only available at a few Kansas City GM dealerships. It's available at Roberts Robinson. Don't settle for three for 36 when you can get that lifetime warranty, cover things like the engine, the transmission, the transfer case, all the things that are important. It's at Roberts Robinson. Find them online at robertrowbinson.com. See for yourself why they just make it easy at Roberts Robinson. Let's welcome Mike Sando. He makes it easy to talk NFL football with him. Mike, how are you, sir? Hey, thanks for having me back. You threatened with me last time that I would be not that coming back jokingly. Yes, because you pick the Colts how dastardly of you and you were, you were pretty damn, pretty

2:02damn right. Me and Curtis had the Colts and the points. We both thought the Chiefs would win our right, but it was pretty close and how it went, you know, that that's a tough one. Well, if you remember, if several years ago, the couldn't the Colts beat him, I always feel like Chris Ballard and his chiefs, ex chief, you know, it sits all that, sits around all off season, figuring out a way to beat the Chiefs. They played him tough before ultimately their defense isn't very good. They, they, you know what, the Colts have been a house of horrors. I think it's been more, you know, I mean, I think there's a lot, you know, you got to go back to the 90s with Lynn Elliott, Miss and Field Wolves against the Colts and Jim Harbaugh beating him. The no punt game with Trent Green and Priest Holmes against the Peyton Manning Colts and then a 28 point lead with Andy Reads first year and 13. Those are, I think it's those playoff years. We have had regular season losses. They in 2019 when they won the Super Bowl, Pat lost to Jacobi Preset, you know, it's going in for Andrew Luck. I just ugly game is like the one game that year that they just looked like, you know,

3:03like terrible. So it does happen, right? There is a history there. Seven years later, we all predicted luck could be long out of the league and Preset would still be a starter. That's right. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly. You can't predict this stuff, Sandou. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's, I want to hit on a couple of things before we get to the chiefs and let's start with Ben Johnson. Talks about being the highest scoring team comes out scores 59. He's anointed the wonder kid. Then he loses his quarterback, which happens in the NFL and he only scores three points in the rain. Are we about to get, you know, listen, I'm not saying that anybody is going to go out and be great when they lose their, their top quarterback. But we've seen any read loses top two and beat a playoff caliber team in the Minnesota Vikings with Matt Moore and almost beat a packer team. That was a playoff team with Matt Moore. So we've seen guys have success with the backups. What do we make of the Yinn and the Yang, the good and the bad of the first two games of

4:04Ben Johnson? Well, I, I look, rainstorm. They had eight explosive plays. It wasn't like they didn't do anything. They had possession three times inside the 15 and didn't score any of them. And two of those by the way, Caleb Williams was not in the field at the end of the drive. So, and one of me wasn't on the start of the drive. So look, I don't think anyone's, I think if I was 25 NFL teams, I'd probably read or have been Johnson to my coach, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I think that's I like him. I think he's really good. I'm excited to kind of see what he can do with a different quarterback. There's a lot of talk when he had Caleb Williams before Caleb Williams seemed to be on this upper trajectory that he's so off schedule, you know, would even would Ben Johnson rather have somebody who just runs the offense. So look, they invested in Tyson Badgent. I know he's been hurt. He had a concussion or is in the protocol. So it could be rocky a little bit here in the short term, but I still think he's good and just needs to show the ability to switch gears when things don't go well.

5:06And they did that pretty well last year. I mean, they had seven games. I think they won that they trailed them the final two minutes. So my money's probably on Ben Johnson, but look, it's tough in this league to, you know, lead the league and scoring and all that type of stuff. Is it a lesson though that you don't want to be saying things like I want to lead the league and scoring? Is it, you know, is that something that should be, you know, does bulletin board material exist in the NFL? Like when you put that out there, does that put a target on your team and you get a better effort from the opposition? I think you get the better effort from the opposition when you put up 59 points. You know, I think that gets people's attention. If you're just talking and not backing it up, I mean, yeah, you're just going to, you're probably going to be made a fool because look, you haven't backed it up and you're saying it, right? I don't know if the other teams are doing anything differently. You haven't proven it. Look, they scored 59 points and you're talking, yeah, I think it gets people's attention. And certainly in the division, the Vikings, you know, have Brian Floresis had good, you

6:08know, pretty good success against Ben Johnson. I believe he's five and one of those matchups. Check that. But, you know, it's a one week wake up call, but when your quarterbacks hurt, I do think it buys you a little bit of an out. Yeah, I did. Definitely. Listen, I, he's a brilliant offensive mind. There's no doubt about it. I think the question is just, will there, the same question has been asked about Nick Sireani and they've got two conference championships and a Super Bowl, right? He rubs people the wrong way. You know, can it, can it be a positive? And maybe does it rally as troops? Does it get them more fired up to play ball? I think the big difference between those two is that Ben Johnson really brings the goods in as a skimmer himself. I mean, he is, he is able to kind of put his thumb on the scale, so to speak, right? He can tip it himself. And I think Nick Sireani, the criticism of him is, God, the guy's out there running the element fans and stuff, but he's very reliant on having a great coordinator on each side of the ball to, to be effective and really good rosters. So that's why I think people get down on Sireani and they're probably two down on them.

7:12You know, I think he doesn't probably get the credit to deserve because we can't see tangibly what it is he does, right? The offense is, could crater with him, right? There's nothing he doesn't pull out of it. Yeah, I mean, he's had good coordinators, right? They've gone on to get, had coaching jobs. So in some ways, I would, I would think with Sireani, like getting good people and letting him do their job is good management. The question is, when you don't have the bastard, you've got a young coordinator and you need to help him along, can you step in and fill in the gaps? And yeah, yeah, and look at, so look at Jim Harbaugh right now. He's facing that. Jim, the Harbaugh brothers are like that too. They're big pictures, kind of macro coaches, right? They're, they're, they're running the program. They're in charge of hiring. They're going to do a good job over a long period of time. But when you're out in two and your offense can, can't get up its own way, you know, Jim Harbaugh is going to say that when they go and get tough, the tough gets going. You know, right? He's not going to come out within a new offense or fix it himself in a week. Or is, or is he meddling like doing no for sure that he's just out of the way on this one?

8:17No, he could be, you know, I think that was a issue that was something with Pete Carroll, you know, in times of crisis when, when Pete Carroll had issues, he would take over some of the offense. So I think last year you saw with the Raiders, it was a disaster because his coordinators were not on the same page as him and herreded guys or hired weirdly like Chip Kelly. And then when he tries to take it over in a moment of crisis, it gets worse, right? So I don't know what Jim Harbaugh is doing. He's obviously got a long track record. But the people that I know that know him best have always told me superlient on having great coordinators. Yeah. And he's had them a lot of times, perfect ones for him, but it's not working right now. Oh, it was just an Herbert the problem. I mean, I think that over a long period of time, when you see a quarterback that gets a huge amount of acclaim and doesn't ever break through, that goes on his record, right? I think somebody made a really good point on social media of all places yesterday. I saw they said, basically, which just in Herbert,

9:19lots of, it gets underneath people's skin when they show these great highlights of them doing amazing things because it doesn't result in the wins. But when people criticize them, they're not necessarily putting up a bunch of plays where he's terrible either. The implication being there really are a lot of things around him that have made it difficult. I think we've seen to some degree Pat Mahomes has dealt with that, right? We don't think Pat Mahomes has been worse as a player to last four or five years, but his production has looked like a third-tier quarterback sometimes, right? Yeah. So I think the difference there, I just say, as Mahomes has done it, he's been out gotten over the hump, he's shown he's the guy. And then, and Herbert hasn't. But I, you know, you're just going to drive people crazy if you stand by Herbert and the absent results for too long. I think he has to be held accountable to some degree for it and not being able to rescue it so far this year. Mike Sanders with us, our NFL insider from the athletic. Let's talk about the Vikings who put the loss on the bears. First of all, should we be surprised at this point?

10:21I mean, I think I think if you'd said, I think there are a lot of people. Fantasy players were all the big sleeper was Kyler Murray. Boy, you get him in McConnell. He's a quarterback whisperer. And so it's going to be good. So I don't know that everybody be like, stunned. The Vikings finished strong last year. If you said the Vikings are two and no, are you shocked before the year if you'd put that question to somebody? I don't think they'd have been stunned, but if they'd have said, yeah, and they did it with Carson Wentz. That would have been stunning, but this adds even more, doesn't it to the, the legend of Mike McConnell? Kevin O'Connell? Kevin O'Connell, excuse me. Well, I think I'm really torn on that. I had a good discussion with somebody I talked to a lot in the league about that because they're the, they're one of like four teams in the league starting the last season that when you look at their offensive production in their victories, they're one of 11 games, it's in the red, like they're, they're blow average. They're winning with defense. So when you have an offensive head coach like Kevin O'Connell, who wins with a dominant defense, there's only so much credit that he gets for that, right?

11:27I mean, clearly, Brian Flores, if he left, they, they might be in trouble. And so the composition of that quarterback group, to me, even though Connor Murray should be better there, they've got good weaponry, I think Kevin O'Connell is a good coach. He's a good offensive coach. He's won some games with some guys that don't have skins on the wall at the quarterback position. Like I still think there's only so far they can go. And just look at those guys, every one of those guys from Carson Wentz, Kyler Murray, Gigi McCarthy, have been questioned as a guy, right? Not just for their playing ability, but like as the leader of the team, they're not what you're looking for, right? I would agree. But you know, two of them of one, not one at all, but Carson Wentz was barreling towards an MVP with the Eagles in the year that they won their championship underdog Peterson. Kyler Murray's taking the Cardinals to the playoffs. Gigi McCarthy's won in college. They're all three top 10 picks. So there's a pedigree of what the league thought, or at least where, where they were taken by other teams that, okay, this is a guy

12:30that, you know, could be the franchise guy. I do agree with you and do your point. Listen, there's no doubt Brian Flores is great, but if he's so great, why is he not getting a head coaching job? Right? That's all Brian Flores. That's a separate issue. That's a separate issue. You know, you used to drive me, I mean, it's a separate issue when he's suing the league and when he was head coach with the dolphins, people really criticized him for his treatment of the players as a head coach and being being hard on him and being, you know, being too much of a hard ass. So there's no doubt he would be a head coach without that stuff going on, right? Well, no one's questioning his ability as a coordinator, but, but people, he's suing the league over possibly being blacklisted type stuff, right? Yeah. Well, yes. And I understand that. But that's like, that's his choice. That's part of who he is. You know, it's like Rob Ryan, Rex Ryan's brother was a, you know, a very accomplished offensive coordinator. He was a loudmouth and caused distractions and all those kind of things.

13:31You can be like, well, you know, I mean, that's because he doesn't know he doesn't shut his mouth. I know all of that is part of the package. Like I get it. People are wronged. Like everybody in every line of work. I mean, I can tell you about my mom, you know, back in the day being harassed and losing a job because she was a woman, but do you sue a federal judge like she worked in the court system? And like, you're never going to win get a judge to make a judgment against a judge. You're better off just moving on and go get your next job. Right? Lots of people have those situations in every walk of life. You just got to figure out the way to navigate them. Two things can be true though. They're really good on defense because of Randflores in Minnesota and as a ability to put together a scheme that can really cause a lot of problems without having necessarily high end town across the board. That can be true. And then well, then why isn't he head coach can be a separate issue, right? Hey, he wasn't certain things about how he coaches a head coach. Plus his ongoing lawsuits make him somebody and possibly, you know, the racial component is a

14:33factor here potentially too. In these owners aren't always comfortable hiring that guy. Let's just face it. I got lots of stories not just about your mom, but a lot of other guys in the league. Yeah. Who are who, you know, go into these interviews and don't feel like they connect with the rich white guy owner, right? They just can't connect on the same way. It's these are these are real realities that people deal with. And so that could be why he's not a head coach, right? There's nothing to do with whether he's a good defensive coordinator or not. He's excellent. Everybody would say that. Yeah, no, I agree. And that is a great, you know, we're giving all the list of the reasons why he doesn't get it. I don't dispute any of those things. I agree 100% with all of them. But it also is that is the game you got to play, right? Like if you want to win what's it to him to fit? Where's it to him to fight it? Okay. Yeah. We know, but we're we're we're we can't say that he's wrong for doing that. Oh, agreed. I agree. I'm 100% on on the same page. But just like if you want to,

15:34you know, win at a game, you have to play that game. You can't go play checkers when the other guys with chess pieces. You know what I mean? Like whether you like it or not, whether it's good or bad, whether it's morally right or wrong, the rules are the rules, right? Right. But so what extent in talking about the Vikings do we want to talk about whether or not, uh, Brian Flores is doing the right, taking the right path to get ahead coaching jobs. To me, that's a separate from our discussion of, hey, are the Vikings for real or these types of? Oh, agreed. Agreed. I agree. I think they are two separate things. But I also think it's a point of it doesn't mean that I do think it is a point when you say, well, the Vikings are winning because of their defensive coordinator. Like you need to shape the whole picture of what the defensive coordinator is, right? And I think they're, I don't think he was the right guy at that time in his career to manage the whole program. I do think that there is something to his McConnell and accomplished offensive mind. Do people agree they just things right? Yes. But is he also managing the CEO part of being a head coach? Well, yes, he is. And that's part of the equation to winning. Yeah, I agree. And that was

16:37the discussion I was having when I was starting to bullet down to, hey, they're winning with defense, though, Connor was, look, there's an art to sort of, the head coach gets credit for hiring for us, for letting him do his job, right? Yeah. Some head coaches should be threatened by this guy. Exactly. And personality and wouldn't be able to work with him. And I think Kevin O'Connell is somebody in that kind of CEO role who can go to the podium. And you know, your, the team isn't nervous when he goes to the podium, right? He's going to go up, he's going to handle this thing well. He's going to generally handle these quarterback situations well, which is a dicey thing with three different guys and one of them is a hydraphic. And you got this coordinator to sue in the league and doing all these things on it, you know, getting a lot of the credit like it takes it, it takes a skill for the top guy to do that. Plus, I think Kevin O'Connell is a good coach of offense too. But let's just remember how they're winning the games, which to me, you know, has clearly been defense almost all the way through, you know, other than Kirk Cousins. I think he's done, O'Connell's done well with these veteran guys who have been established, but it's not like the young

17:39guys have come in and just taken another game to the next level. Well, I don't think Sam Donald was established when he won with Sam Donald. He, he established Sam Donald. Well, but I can tell you this, I was doing the podcast with Randy Miller's with the Saints and Randy told me just watching him in preseason. And with the 49ers said, this guy's going to get a contract. I can see it. He's, turned corner, right? We couldn't see it. But people who are in the league and have a good eye for this stuff could see that it started the term with the 49ers. I believe that the 49ers were a big part of Sam Donald's success. Absolutely. But he didn't succeed until that like everyone like, that to me is like, if the narrative is McConnell didn't do it, well, let me find the reasons why all his successes were somebody else's credit. Well, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, Sam Donald turned around on, on his watch. Well, right. Has he been better worse the same and Seattle. You think so? Yes. He's so in the changing. I mean, if you, if you made me, Tota Tau with Matthew Stafford in the championship game, it wins it. If you said like, is he, is he,

18:39is he the same or worse? And the options are what he was with the jets versus what he was with the Vikings, then I would pick saying he's clearly much closer to what he was with the Vikings than his early days when he was struggling. So I want to be clear, you know, there, there's new wants to this. But, but yeah, I mean, I hear, and that's listen, and I love this discussion because this is a reality that people don't want to, they want to assign all the credit and all the blame. I always say that like, what we want is a guy wearing a black hat standing in the middle of the street and we'll send out a guy wearing a white hat who guns him down and then everything's fixed. We want one villain that all the problems are right there. When we get rid of that guy, then it's all fixed, right? Or, or we, bring this guy in with the fastest gun in the West, and it's all fixed. Now the town was happily ever after. And you know, because that's how the, the, the movies portray it, they don't understand that there'll be another guy to come bully the town in two weeks after, you know, Clint Eastwood rides out to the, you know, to the, to the heat waves and heads off. It's not all fixed in that town. There, there's still going to be problems in the future and you got to constantly be working. And there's a lot of influences that come to it. And I think that's, you know,

19:42I mean, McConnell, in a way, I think there's a little bit of him that is Andy Reed. He hasn't necessarily found his Donovan McNabb. And to a degree, you could say, well, he kind of swung and missed what Jay, Jay McCarthy with the influence he had on that versus where, you know, Andy Reed made sure they took McNabb and didn't take a kill. He Smith, you know, didn't take Kate McNabb. Yeah. Who's in that draft as well? But you got a lot of stuff too with that GM that fired. You don't know who was doing well. I have a hard time thinking that Kevin O'Connell didn't want to keep Donald. Sorry. Yeah, that's, I think that's a fair point. Should they be going back to Kyler Murray? Probably. Look, look, you made that decision coming out. He lost it in 11 plays with an injury. I think you go back to it without totally uprooting either quarterback. Right? If you, if you stick with Wens, you've kind of, you know, you've kind of made a decision on Kyler Murray unnecessarily. I think Wens is going to get to play again. I don't think Kyler Murray's going to make it all the way through. But I think they can put him back in there. They've

20:42been winning with the defense this last game. They won nine to three. Wens did some decent things, but I'd probably go back to Murray. Yeah. He did triple the output of the coach offensively that they tripled the output of the coach that was going to set records for scoring. So let's do keep that in mind. Three times as proficient as a guy who thought that he could talk about scoring 38 points a game. I'm talking to Mike Sando here in the program. Is Tyler Shockwell, we're on the quarterback subject. Is either real deal there in New Orleans? I think so. You know, that was one that we were kind of on before the season, based on what people were saying who had faced him, you know, I do. I think we've seen some good good signs from him. I've heard good things about him in terms of his approach and all of that. That's one of the things I was talking about, you know, as a guy with Kyler Murray who had to have the clause in his contract, you know, to make sure he does his homework. From everything I've heard, Shucks, first one in there, spent a lot of time at the facility in the offseason, taken leadership role, you know,

21:43team believes in him, all that type of stuff. So we've definitely seen him, you know, on the field, do some good things. I think he sort of slipped through the cracks a little bit because he was older and had bounced around in college. And so he didn't have the cleanest pedigree coming out. Had it had an injury too, but everyone who plays him likes him. Why do they miss? Why did he last so long? The draft. What was the, it was just age? I know he was an older guy. Yeah, I think it was age. And then he, he, he, he, now this happens all the time, but he bounced around to two or three programs, had the age thing, and then had it had an injury issue too. So there was a lot of times when people are making decisions, especially in the first round, they're looking to, I don't know if this is right, they're looking to mitigate risk and there's risk with the perception that you're taking an older quarterback who has been injured and bounced around a lot of times people are just looking for reasons not to take a guy. And I think that, that happens even though I believe going into that, I believe coming out of that combine,

22:45I did a top top 10 of players in NFL draft, sort of mock draft. And I think I had somebody saying that this guy, you know, could be as good as he knows quarterbacks and taken that high on merit, but probably wouldn't be. And he wasn't. Yeah. I think he's good. Yeah. I mean, the Saints kind of got their cap, started getting their cap in order. Now they land the quarterback. Like no one's really been able to take control of the NFC South here for a little while. I mean, they're the team that looks like they're about ready to be the, the, the King Kong of that division, don't they? I agree. They still do some, you know, they resigned Alvin Kamara this year. I can't talk no sense to me, but, but like I think for the most part, they're, they seem like in the draft, they weren't, you know, leveraging a bunch of stuff for the future. For the most part, you're right. They've been on a path. They still occasionally do some things from like, huh? But I'm with you. I think that they're a pretty good team. And, you know, I thought, in fact, when I pulled the six executives before the year to rank the teams in each conference,

23:47three of the six had the Saints number one in the NFC South. So some people have kind of seen this coming. And I think we're seeing it happen. Yeah, that's interesting. Why are the networks so bad and picking their prime time games like what? We have the Falcons. You wrote about this three, three weeks in a row in prime time. Like, who, who amongst people who know and follow the league went, the team you got to put on TV is the Falcons. It really shows a weakness, I think, in some of these situations. Now, one of those, there's a week five game that's Baltimore. I'm sure it's going to be flexed out of there. That's the first week you can flex things out week five. So that could spare America, you know, from having three of these in a row. But, uh, to me, it's amazing how uh, uh, it sometimes off-season narratives can be bought, you know, by certain people, but not others. And to me, the, the Falcons did a bunch of stuff on the off-season that didn't make a lot of sense. But hey, Matt Ryan comes in, Matt, where's, what was, where was Matt Ryan working before?

24:47Networks, right? Yeah. Matt Ryan comes in, you know, and he, who knows what he's telling people, and, you know, he brings in Stofansky and, uh, you know, they get a good deal on two of the off-season. They're paying all these guys. Remember that? They're paying all these, quote-unquote star players and off-ents. And they did win their final four games last year, kind of, you know, so I could see somebody, uh, who's a network executive who's not really following this the same way as people in the league are maybe buying it. But I couldn't believe it. And I looked at this, and I wrote it, like you mentioned on, on Monday through week five, the Rams had four pre-, four national televised games that's most of the league alone in the second place with the Falcons of three. How does that happen? Yeah. And Seattle has like one. They're the defendants. That'd be the easiest no-brainer choice, right? Yeah. Can we get the Super Bowl champs on? Yeah. Yeah. But no, we don't, we don't see that. Let me ask you this. What are your thoughts? I'm Carly Erse Gordon

25:48walking the sideline with their earpiece in and visibly taking notes during the Colts game. Is that, I, I hear a lot of people and let me just get put it on the table and, and maybe set, take it off the table then. Well, it's because she's a woman. I have no doubt that there's more because of that. I think there are a lot of sexists and I think you, we talked about racism. I think all that exists in this world. And I have no doubt that maybe there's more, more venom to it or more emphasis put on it because of that that it's a woman on the sideline. And I think there are a lot of people that are intimidated by that. This is a woman with power. I don't bring it up because of that. That's certainly not, you know, I have two daughters. I grew up in a single parent home. My mom, I'm, I champion all things women. That's not the reason I bring it up. I've never seen a male owner walk around on the sideline, taking notes after saying, I'm trying to learn about these things to be right there kind of over the coaches shoulder like as we talk, my boss is not standing over my shoulder, taking notes about what I'm doing. That is out of the ordinary for any walk of life and it is for

26:52the NFL as well. In general, I would say, look, I don't think that's a good thing in general, right? The owner doing that. Now, the spirit of that individual is unique to that individual. And I have not heard privately. I could hear these things privately. No one's going to say anything about the owner publicly. I haven't heard privately a lot. I think people feel like she's hearts in the right place in Indy in general. That's not going to work with every coach that you bring in, right? The next coach comes in and may not want that. And it may be difficult. It may be something that has to be talked about. But I have heard good things about where her heart is that even though that idea of it is something I would say isn't a good thing, right? For anyone, this is Jerry Jones talking of having press conferences on Sunday night after the game that undercuts the coach, right? It does. It's hard to coach the Dallas Cowboys and hold them accountable. When everybody knows the owner is the only one who matters and he's there talking about the team, right? He's sitting in the agenda. That's a negative. To me, that's a factor of why they don't get over the top.

27:54The Cardi Ursa thing is so unique, but I would say this, like that organization more than maybe almost any other has had the impulsive in some cases alcohol or drug-addled owner making ridiculous decisions. Go back to Jim Ursa's father. I mean, he was firing people during the games. Like went down, fired the GM before the GM could make it from the press box to the locker room. That type of stuff was going on, firing the coaches. And then we all know Jim Ursa, you know, the son had all kinds of issues. Substance abuse and was pulled over. But I think people felt like with him, he had a good heart, right? He had a good heart. He had good intentions. No, good intentions. Whereas the old man was like, alcoholic to the point where he's drunk on camera, you know, and really a destructive force.

28:58Jim Ursa was kind of a problem in his own way, but people felt he was heartless in the right place. And so he was still kind of beloved. I feel like Cardi Ursa is the next iteration of that, which is she doesn't, I don't think she has any kind of substance abuse problems or anything like that. She actually seems to have a good heart in this. So it really does bear watching. I haven't sensed that it's been a problem for them, have you? Yeah, I mean, I'm not close enough to know. I just, I think it would be difficult. I just think anytime, you know, the boss is there. I think there is some, there's some Ursa family traits there in the look at me. I'm on camera. You can sit in the box with the earpiece. Yeah. Look down on the sidelines and take notes. Now, you know, I, I, I Jeff Cheney and, and Sam McDowell, who, who I do a podcast with, they're like, well, but there's no better place to get information than the sidelines. Okay, I agree, but I don't know what you need to be on the sidelines for 17 games. Had min 17 games. Let's see if this is going to be the every week behavior. If that's it, you're craving the

30:02limelight because there's also, you can also get up, go sit in the coaches box, right? Go watch what your coordinators are doing. Go, go sit with your general manager and, and discuss what, what he's seeing, what, what, what is he like and not like? Because if she's going from spot to spot to spot around places where you can see it. And let's be honest, a lot of the work that creates winning is not the game day. It's when the cameras aren't there. It's around the practices. It's what are you doing to develop the draft? Where are your scouts? What's our process at the combine? A lot of it is not on camera. If you're there on the sideline, 17 times, you're craving the limelight. A little bit. Yeah, I think it's an interesting dynamic. I'll push back to this extent. I think one of the biggest complaints that, you know, front office people and coaches have, especially coaches, is that there's someone in the building who has that owner's ear and they're feeding them information, right? They're telling, they're getting them their narrative. So, a lot of times, you know, in the perception of coaches, it could be the salary cap guy or someone who has a

31:02natural rapport with the owner, maybe has a business background like the owner, right? Yeah. And they're kind of a football non-football guy. And they're the one telling, they're sitting with the owner during the game going, I can't believe we're not going forward on fork down here. I mean, we're just idiots. And the owner goes, the owner's not comfortable talking to the coach because the coach knows a thousand times more about ball. He can't bring it up to him. But with this guy who's kind of in between, that guy's sitting in the narrative. That drives the coach is crazy. So, in this case, if she's actually listening for herself and making her own notes and came up in it, you know, where she's worked at all levels of the organization, which I believe she's worked at multiple levels of the organization, hey, maybe she's getting a less filtered view of this thing and can make some better decisions for herself with all cards on the table, not some guy in the building telling her what he wants her to think. All right. That is Mike Sandor NFL insider from the athletic. He's brought to our friends at Roberts Robinson, where right now it's truck month 0% APR for five years for qualified buyers on new 26 Chevy Silverados 1500s and the 26 GMC Sierra 1500 trucks get there now.

32:07In fact, if you need an SUV, the Chevy tracks, you can get 2.9% APR for four years plus the highest trading value is always at Roberts Robinson. What are you waiting for? They just make it easy. Get to Roberts Robinson today. Don't forget senior citizens get 10% off on auto service on Tuesdays and Thursdays and if you're a military or first responder 10% off on parts and labor from the service department at Roberts Robinson where they just make it easy. We'll take a break. We'll come back. We'll get into Papahomes. You see all the way back as this offensive league. Where do the chiefs rank? We find that out with Mike Sandor. Our NFL insider next. Welcome back here on the program here on sports radio eight 10 WHB talking to our NFL insider Mike Sandor here in the program. He's brought to bear friends at Roberts Robinson home of the lifetime powertrain warning on all new vehicles only a few dealerships in Kansas City can say that Roberts Robinson can say it don't settle for three for 36 when you can get the lifetime warranty that powertrain is important engine transmission transfer case drive axle fluids and filters covered lifetime as long as you own the vehicle at Robert

33:09Robinson plus getting the best trade in value and 0% APR for five years for qualified buyers on new 26 Chevy Silverado 1500s and 26 GMC Sierra 1500 trucks. Yes, it's truck month. Get to Robert Robinson. You can find them online at Roberts Robinson dot com. Let's talk chiefs Mike is pat my homes all the way back in your mind. I don't I don't think you can say that. I mean, it's two games that have been impressive from a statistical standpoint but it's really one game that's been statistical one game one game. Yeah, so I don't I don't think we can say that it was nice to hit a deep ball and all of that. Now the cults are like number 33 and defense after this game and they were number 34 before it. You know, they're they're just not good. So I want to see it play out over time. I I did one of the things I did in prepping for this. I said, okay, which chiefs offenses with Pat have been elite over the whole season, right? And I really basically came up with 2018, 19, 20, 21 and 22 were really the elite years. Okay, and then it's kind of gone

34:09down since it. Yeah. So then what I did was say we know those were elite years. Let's look at though let's compare those seasons through two games to this one. Okay, that's a good way to kind of look at the contours of it, right? Yeah. And what's so interesting is the Yards per game is as good or better than all but one of them. The offensive points per game is right there same as 2022 at 32. Points per drive a good notch lower. I'm going, okay, what does that mean? The EPA per play way lower like the second lowest of all these teams. And the EPA per pass play is like a fourth or a third of what it was before. And then the EPA per rush is off the charts high. So we can we know that that was that telling us is exactly what we're seeing is it's elite in a totally different way than it's been elite before because it's driven largely through the run game. And you know, is that going to hold how much of that just dependent on this running back? How much of that is sustainable? How much of that's going to win you a championship? I think we need to let

35:12that play out, don't you? I did you guess we don't have to let a play out. It's going to play out for us. So it's we get to keep gathering data and keep making a new assessment each week, but it is fun right now to look and say, okay, is this you you said it's elite in a different way? So you are calling it an elite offense then. Yeah, it resembles a little bit the 2020 team a little bit more worthy passing, you know, the passing component of it wasn't quite as strong as it was in some of the other years, but overall production pretty good. So it's different. It's fine. It's just how we wanted it to be. We said we wanted to run the balls. We can't hold them against them now. You mentioned those stats and that during that time when it was, you know, they were throwing it further and better and not running it as much or as well. Wasn't it was that the league, right? Are as is the way they're playing defense now. Is it like where do those EPA per play per drive rank compared to the league? Then versus then's league now versus now's league, you know, that would be

36:17an interesting part of the equation as well, right? And and it's so early. It's such a small sample size. We'll know more. They're probably going to pad the stats against the dolphins. We're going to find out if the Raiders are real over the next two weeks. As a schedule gets more difficult, we thought it was going to be difficult against the charger side. I don't want to take anything away from the Raiders. They did pass one test right there. You know, they'll head into the buy after playing the dolphins and Raiders on the road. So we'll do they pad the stats there. It gets a lot tougher after that for the chiefs. But you know, I do think that the biggest thing is that they have adjusted to what defenses are doing. And they're taking what they want against the defenses that are playing them now. And they weren't doing that the last couple of years. Hey, absolutely. Well, they're number one in the yards per game. And number two in offensive points for game, they're number four in points per drive. They're number four in offensive EPA per play number seven in success rate. I can go on and on. But they're number one in that EPA per rush. Yeah. That's a nice number two in yards per rush, right? Yeah. They're top 10 in the sac rate.

37:18They're top five and third down conversions. So I'm I mean, that is elite. They're elite for this season right now compared to the rest of the league. They're number four and explosive play rate. Are you kidding me? They've been down at the bottom, right? So we're taking this all day. Yes. We're we're following the chiefs. They one of the power rankings they've gone from 13 to 8 to four. Where do you think they rank? Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm fine with that in the top five somewhere. I would probably have Seattle of I think Seattle would probably be above them. Right now. And you know, look, if they played Buffalo at Arrowhead, who you know, a bill stands probably more nervous than chiefs fans. Yeah. So the bills are good up there. The bills are great and often sells tickets, but they're not stopping anybody. So I mean, correct. It's you know, again, and it's early that you play the game. You get into shoot out. Sometimes the tempo and pace of the game kind of dictate where everybody goes and, you know, where are they on their play card? How much they hold back for this game? And you know, it's there's a lot that goes into it. Yeah. Here's what I want to see is you've got the master

38:19defensive coordinator in Steve's bag no, low. I want to see and the bills have a first time decordinator in Jim Leonard. Okay. How those two guys mold those units on that side of the ball? Where let's face it. The talent isn't necessarily overwhelming. It's not like anybody could go out there and have a top five or 10 defense with with who they've got. How do those units come together over the course of the year with player development? All of that I think is going to could answer, you know, which one of these teams emerges? Last question. Is Seattle surprised at how well can the walkers played through two games? You know, probably just a little bit, but I think that they realized, you know, that he his trajectory was really on the rise the second half of last year. So I would say they're not shocked, but I would say, look, I don't think anybody thought it would go this well, you know, yeah. Yeah, for sure. We're talking to Mike Sando, NFL insider. Let's get to our final four. Mike, I'll begin you with this. What's the Raiders final record? They stand at two and no right now. What are they finish? Yeah, maybe they

39:21get to 98, you know, I'll buy a little bit there that and I thought last year they would be better with Pete Carroll. And I think they could have been under a different setup, but that staff was so dysfunctional. I think Clint Kubiak has a staff on the same page and we're seeing a little bit more representative here. And I give him eight or nine wins. Okay. Number one pick in the 27 draft will be held by who? Say the number. Yeah, it might be Tennessee. Oh, that's not supposed to be the case. Well, I mean, I don't disagree with you. I think I think they're in the mix for it. For sure. Miami's in the mix. I can't see it. Atlanta's in the mix. You know, yeah. I think it's I think it's one of those three teams. Okay. Okay. Are the Halloween decorations up at the San Diego house yet? Well, we had we've had some internal discussions, high level discussions about this because we have a golden retriever in my wife, but a it's like a pumpkin plastic pumpkin

40:22thing with like a golden retriever and a golden retriever puppy coming out of it. The things like large enough that are actual dogs like who he's like bouncing around it like, oh, is this a real dog? Yeah. And she was she already has raised the idea of putting it on the porch now and I said, now we got to do it. We got to be within a month of it before we put it out there. So the funny part is she's going out of town starting Tuesday. So I was joking like, no, it's still when you get back, which would buy me like another 10 days and not having this thing out there on the porch, but I'm a more kidding than anything. I think we'll have it out there before she leaves. Okay. Probably by Monday. I'm a proponent if you love the holiday. Jump on it. Like you know, you want to know when the Christmas lights get turned on in my house? Oh, when when do you think right after Halloween on the outside the night of Halloween when we when we turn the lights off and we're not handing out candy anymore, I flip the switch on the Christmas lights. We do that and we love it and we leave it up longer too. I just love it. She puts it in the in the living room where the TV is and all of that like there's lighting and it just it's a tree. It just looks so cozy

41:26that I'm all for it. I'm like, I want this to go on for like a minute or a month. All right. And finally, chiefs and dolphins. What's your prediction on the game? Who wins? What kind of score are you feeling? Well, I already shot my shot on the chief losing to the cold so it didn't quite work out. There's no way I think they're going to lose at Miami. I will take the chiefs 37 to 10. I like it. Big finish for the Kansas City Chiefs. Mike, you're the man we appreciate it. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you. But first, he lost Feta, Delacatessen, end of the hour answer, who's the only player to hit at least 38 home runs nine years in a row. Like there's only four guys that have ever had nine 38 home receipts. Hank Aaron. Nope. Lou Gehrig. Nope. Frank Robinson. Nope. Left handed batter. I mean, I'm hitting all your favorites. Yes, that's not making me at all. He doesn't hurt too much. He's got to be one of my favorite players or people probably. Oh boy. I don't know. Rathiel Paulner. He was, I mean, what a career if you need to have the steroids linger on, but he was a tremendous hitter. Yep. Either way around it.

42:29You'll get a tremendous sandwich at La Feta. La Feta deli.com. That's La Feta deli.com to get the best sandwich you're going to find anywhere in town. It's at La Feta. Go see Adam and his great staff. They'll be happy to help you out. Let's leave you with this. The Royals lose nine to one. We haven't really talked about it today. Tough loss. They lose the series to the white socks. But in it, that one run was a home run by Salvador Perez. It's noteworthy. It's his 20th. It's the 10th time Salvador Perez has hit 20 home runs in a season. He becomes only the fifth primary catcher to hit 20 home runs 10 times in his career. There's a lot of those things where he's getting there. Is he going to put just ticket to the Hall of Fame? Yes. You think so? I think he has to do that. Why are you so confident? The last few years, the home run numbers up. I think he's gotten that number up there with the goal gloves and everything else. I think he's going to be a maybe not first ball. He's going to be in one or two years in. Yeah. I don't think he'll be first ball. I'd love to see him. David Leskey says 350 is kind of his magic number. If he could

43:31get it out to 350. So if he'd have one more 20 plus home run season, if he could get the 350, I'd have I think 400's an automatic ticket. I think he needs about another 100 or so RBI. There's kind of some marks where you look at like all these guys are they're in there. I don't think there's some of the counting categories that'll that'll help get them there, but I sure hope so. Wouldn't you love to see Salvador Perez giving a speech? It would be great. It would be absolutely fantastic. All right. That's it. We're done 20 hours from now. We'll see you too.