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00:00The New York Jets have a new head football coach. His name is Aaron Glenn, a
00:05familiar face and name in the organization. A first-round pick by New
00:10York way back in 1994. Spent eight seasons in the defensive backfield for
00:16Dane Green and after four years as Detroit's defensive coordinator, Aaron
00:21Glenn, now the new head coach in New York. DRS, we talked about this yesterday, Aaron
00:27Glenn interviewing with the Jets in Florham Park on Tuesday afternoon in
00:32person in the hope was for the Jets they would not allow Aaron Glenn to leave
00:37without an offer and a signed deal to become that next head coach. But he did
00:43depart back to the Motor City, mulled it over for about 24 hours and yesterday it
00:48became official. Aaron Glenn, now the new head coach of the New York Jets. Been
00:54there, done that, right? Aaron Glenn knows the Big Apple. Drafted there as a
00:57first-round draft pick. Played good football for the Jets, so he knows the
01:00organization per se and the fan base, which is a great start, which helps you
01:03to get in that honeymoon stage like, hey, he's one of our own. But let's understand
01:07this, you know, you talk about the X's and O's, which we'll find out what type of
01:10coach he is, but you wanted really to pick the brains of the Detroit Lions
01:14organization and say, this is how we're gonna restart our team in that mold
01:18where the city, the town, the fans are going to buy into this. We're gonna play
01:22hard-nosed football, we're gonna be aggressive and these players gonna give
01:25it their all in the field because that's something we haven't seen from
01:28the Jets, particularly this past season. You fired Robert Sala to get a look at
01:31Albrecht as a defensive coordinator and it seemed like all of the town on the
01:35football team was just soft at that point. Nobody wanted to fight for
01:38anything. It was different factions, the Aaron Rodgers faction, the offense, the
01:41defense, players holding out, players not giving it their all. We've seen that here.
01:46I think that ends on day one, which is fantastic because that's half of the
01:50battle. You must start that foundation and building it up. Now, the only issue
01:53is, this is a veteran team. Can you teach those old dogs new tricks? That's always
01:58the question marks that are going to pop up. Is this the complete rebuild saying,
02:01I have a vision for this football team and the vision right now is unclear
02:04because the players I have, I'm not really going to use the future because
02:08it's not really a young team. It's a veteran-laden team, which starts with the
02:12quarterback on the offensive side. How about some of those aging linebackers or
02:15Hassan Redick getting a little bit older, holding out, getting a lot of money and
02:18not performing at all. So I do think the culture is going to change and that's a
02:22good thing. But for me, when I pick head coaches, I always start on the
02:26offensive side because that's the key ingredient. You can always find a solid
02:30defensive coordinator to coach your defense, i.e. the Philadelphia Eagles
02:33getting Vic Fangio, fixing the worst defense in the NFL and turning them into
02:37the best defense in the NFL. But the problem is always on the offensive side.
02:40I'm going to give the Jets the benefit of the doubt because I don't look at
02:43this higher and say, this was a bad one. Could this work out? Yes. Do you need a
02:46new foundation? Do you need a coach that's going to be able to stand up in
02:49front of your players and get the best out of them? I think you will and we'll
02:53see how it plays out. And there's been a lot of conversation about that. Even
02:57Aaron Glenn, as the Lions were getting ready for an NFC division around match
03:02up against the commanders, was asked about his defensive background and where
03:05the NFL is going right now. And the idea of successful head coaches often coming
03:10from the offensive side of the football, being those creative whizzes that have
03:15success as a head coach, because you can fill out your staff to address the
03:19other needs. Aaron Glenn barked back at that and said, listen, I'm a football
03:24coach. I happen to work on the defensive side of the ball, but I spend a lot of
03:28time studying offensive systems and in those offensive meetings around our
03:33organization. Donny, for a team of the New York Jets, where Aaron Glenn is now
03:38the seventh new head coach that was hired since the end of the 2000 NFL
03:43season, it seems to be a similar philosophy. Six of those seven,
03:48including Glenn, first time head coaches with a defensive background coming from
03:55a defensive coordinator role or something as a defensive assistant coach
04:00around the National Football League. The lone exception of that is Adam Gase, who
04:04was also a disaster for the New York Jets. It's just an interesting thought
04:10for the Jets on how they want to approach things moving forward. I think
04:14Aaron Glenn, by all reports, by all indications, hearing from those around
04:20him on either side of the football in Detroit, they think this guy is a genius.
04:25They think this guy will get the most out of his players each and every
04:29moment. I hope he has success, but he enters a scenario with the New York
04:34Jets, an organization that has not made the NFL postseason in 14
04:40consecutive years, by far the longest drought in the National Football League,
04:45but also the longest postseason drought in any of the four major men's
04:50professional sports leagues in North America, including the NBA, NHL and MLB.
04:57And Donny, in the 14 years missing out on the playoffs, half of them,
05:02including this past season, the Jets won five games or fewer. It is a large
05:07task for Aaron Glenn to come in and turn things around right away. It is.
05:13But also, when you're a coach, these are some of the circumstances that you
05:16like. If you're handed a great football team and underwhelmed, well, you're a
05:19really bad football coach. You're gonna get the benefit of the doubt in New
05:22York as long as you proceed two different ways that I said. If you're
05:25gonna stand up in front of that microphone and say I have a clear-cut
05:28plan and Aaron Rodgers is not back or Aaron Rodgers back from day one, I've
05:31already told him my exact scenario. Here's how we're gonna proceed. So you
05:33know what? I like that. Or is it up to Woody Johnson and his 17, 18-year-old
05:38son, Brick Johnson, on whether Aaron Rodgers is coming back and then we take
05:42a look at Aaron Glenn, who's just a head coach in name and doesn't have a lot of
05:46say in the organization. But this is what we talked about then, where the fact is
05:49he flew in like we can't let him out there. We're gonna offer him the contract
05:52and he left there. He was hearing things that he didn't like, like, okay, head
05:56coach reports directly to the general manager, then the vice president, then to
06:00me as the owner. Hold on now. I want those communication lines direct because
06:03if I need a quarterback, if I need a linebacker, I want to make a draft pick, I
06:07get the last say here. Also, what's the compensation? And we talked about it
06:10yesterday. He got at school five years and probably got a hefty pay raise than
06:14probably what a first-time head coach is going to get. So I think things worked
06:17out in his favor. They wanted him and he wanted that job, but I think he did the
06:21right thing with him and his agent, stretching that out an extra half day to
06:25make sure he got exactly what he wanted out of that team. Absolutely. So DRS, the
06:31last time the New York Jets even had a winning record in an NFL regular season
06:35was 2015. Did not make the playoffs that year despite double-digit wins. Aaron
06:42Glenn, now the fifth head coach around the NFL that played for the organization
06:47he now leads. And for the Detroit Lions, they have to fill out their coordinators
06:54with Ben Johnson, of course, departing for Chicago. We'll hear from Ben, the new
06:58leader of the Bears, in just a little bit. And Aaron Glenn, the new head coach of
07:03the New York Jets. So still four head coaching vacancies around the NFL,
07:08including in Jacksonville. What are the Jaguars going to do, DRS? They need a new
07:13head coach and a new general manager. Trent Baalke is out. We'll break down why
07:18next. An absolute stunning move in Jacksonville that perhaps was made two
07:24weeks too late. Trent Baalke, the GM in Jacksonville for the previous four
07:30seasons, is now out as the general manager of this Jaguars franchise. Fired
07:37yesterday. It was Monday, January 6th, the day after the end of the 2024 NFL
07:44regular season, that Doug Peterson was let go by Jacksonville. But Trent Baalke
07:50was retained by ownership, led, of course, by Shad Khan. And it was rather
07:56surprising, DRS, because all around the National Football League, people were
08:00like, okay, I can understand firing Doug Peterson. But why in the world would you
08:05keep the embattled GM, Trent Baalke, to lead a new coaching search? And then we
08:11got reports that Shad Khan said the new head coach that will be hired will
08:16report in to me. And over 16 days later, Jacksonville then fires Trent Baalke.
08:24DRS, try to make some sense of it, if you wouldn't mind. There's no sense to it.
08:30And also, if you remember, I believe it was an interview where those two, talking
08:33about the owner and the general manager, sat side-by-side and was
08:36asked the question, like, what happens if, like, the new coach doesn't like the GM?
08:40He's like, yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, I probably would get rid of the GM at that
08:42point. Now, it's like, what are we actually doing in Jacksonville? What type
08:45of effort? Because at least you want a solid front that you're presenting here
08:49to the workforce, which means, like, no, this is my general manager. He's in
08:53charge. He's going to make that decision. End of story. So at least you know what
08:56you're getting into. But then you hear the owner going like, well, if they don't
08:59like him, yeah, sure, we can always get rid of him. It's not a big deal, which
09:01then says, why did you keep him anyway? And it's from the initial point when we
09:05opened the show. It's simple. You're an NFL owner. You have dozens, let's just
09:10say, of people that work under you that are your eyes and ears for the
09:14organization and around the NFL. Hey, Mr. Khan, just want to let you know, I have a
09:18couple coaches here that I'm back-channeling. They're saying it's going
09:21to be an issue with this general manager, whether or not they want to take
09:24your job. The minute you hear that, that's an issue. Because most coaches
09:28would say, love that GM. Can't wait to get in the building. Let me sell you all
09:31my ideas. We would be a match made in heaven. And the minute that you're
09:34hearing the coaches that you know are going to be head coaches this cycle
09:38telling you, it's nice that you're open. That might be an option, but we don't
09:42like your general manager. We're looking elsewhere right now. There should have
09:45been a change made immediately. So now, it's great that you got rid of the
09:48general manager who, around the NFL circles, wasn't very liked. But you got
09:52rid of him two and a half weeks too late, where you might have had a chance at Ben
09:55Johnson. You might have been able to say, hey, look, come down here. It's a great
09:58place to live. Low taxes. You're gonna pick your general manager. You'll report
10:02directly to me. You have Trevor Lawrence. We'll give you whatever you
10:06want to try to succeed. And also, in a division that you can win. It's not like
10:10saying you're going to go to Vegas and look at the tough trials you're going to
10:13have. The Chicago Bears. There were some appealing things that you could have had
10:17in Jacksonville. But you just burned those bridges for an entire season, where
10:20now you have to pick up the scraps and hope somebody likes you. And what is
10:24that? Setting your organization back another two to three years? Because
10:27that's the coaches you actually didn't want. But hopefully, somebody just took
10:30the job. Terrible. It is insane. And Donnie, to end out our show yesterday, we
10:36were discussing Liam Cohen, who seemed to be the front runner in Jacksonville,
10:40even by reports yesterday from the inner workings of the Jags organization,
10:45Tampa's offensive coordinator becoming the new head coach. But then he removed
10:49himself from the running. And of course, the natural thought was, well, nobody
10:54wants to work even around Trent Balke, which then leads to his dismissal just
11:00a few hours later. So what does Jacksonville do now? Do they hire a GM
11:07and start the coaching search again? We got reports that Robert Sala, former
11:12Jets head coach, is flying into Duval County today for an in-person meeting
11:17on Friday. Was that before Trent Balke was fired or after Trent Balke was
11:23fired? What exactly is going to happen with the Jags? And Donnie, you
11:27mentioned it. You have Trevor Lawrence. You have your franchise guy. We can
11:32debate whether we think Trevor Lawrence is a top 10, top five, top 15
11:36quarterback around the NFL, but it should be an attractive destination. And
11:41it is not. It is incredibly, incredibly chaotic. Look at the resume that Trent
11:48Balke put together in a four year run. That total 25 in 43. Urban Meyer was
11:57there back in the 2021 season. That should have been grounds for dismissal
12:02right away. The Jacksonville Jaguars should be an enticing location of the
12:07NFL head coaching vacancies. It is quite the opposite. Yeah, a division you can
12:12win a franchise quarterback that assigned that does have a lot of talent
12:16and was a franchise guy when you drafted him. A wide receiver that you
12:19hit a grand slam home run on him out of LSU and Brian Thomas Jr. You got a
12:24solid situation in your backfield. Good pass rushes on the defensive line. This
12:27should be a spot where teams and certainly coaches would love to get
12:31there and say, you know what? This team could be a problem over the next couple
12:34of years. Maybe there's a problem just with the owner at this point back. It's
12:38a problem for Jacksonville or on the early line next. The Wednesday of
12:43conference championship weekend around the NFL really should be fixated on who
12:49is practicing, but it was quite the opposite yesterday. It was a busy day
12:54around the NFL. Aaron Glenn hired as the new head coach of the New York Jets.
12:58Trent Balky fired as the general manager in Jacksonville and a new GM
13:03named in Las Vegas. The Raiders tabbing John Spitech as the new general
13:09to lead the front office. The previous two seasons, the assistant GM in Tampa
13:15Bay. He had worked Spitech with the Buccaneers since 2016, which means he
13:20was a part of the organization. Of course, when Tom Brady led the Buccaneers
13:25to a Super Bowl championship in the 2020 NFL season, Tom Brady now a
13:31minority owner in Las Vegas, but really it would seem is starting to call some
13:37shots one step further in the relationship between John Spitech and
13:41Tom Brady. They overlap for a season in Ann Arbor. Tom Brady's final year in
13:48Michigan as a senior Spitex. First, he was a linebacker. Didn't see all that
13:53much playing time for the Maize and Blue, but still many commonalities
13:58between the general manager now in Las Vegas in Spitech and his buddy and now
14:04new boss Tom Brady. Yeah, we'll see how it plays out. We'll see the moves
14:08they make because they do need some talent, which in turn means a
14:11quarterback of the future is probably the most pressing need that the Vegas
14:15Raiders need. But I can't fault this because you want guys on the same page.
14:19Like if you think Tom Brady, one of the best, maybe the best ever to play
14:22football, understand how to put a winning organization together. He was
14:26in New England, learned that the Bill Belichick and you saw how that went
14:29multiple Super Bowls, but then also had the ability to say, I'm going to leave
14:32that as an aging veteran and go to a completely new organization and I'm
14:36going to lift them to a Super Bowl myself. So he is going to get the
14:39benefit of the doubt for me. And I'm not saying this was a bad hire. You just
14:43like the common knowledge of this guy understands what I'm looking for. We
14:46could work together. The communication lines are open. I know the guy from the
14:50past year and also coming from a pretty good organization, the Bucks. He didn't
14:53pluck this guy from a bad organization with a lot of turmoil. I like what the
14:56Bucks have been doing and Brady won a Super Bowl there and they're competitive
14:59by winning divisions after divisions after divisions. So that is a positive.
15:03I just want to see what the game plan is going to be moving forward. Is this
15:06guy in charge where he runs things off of Tom Brady or is Tom Brady in charge
15:11saying what I say goes and this guy will be my mouthpiece perfectly while I
15:14operate behind the scenes. That's still to be determined, but we still have to
15:17give Tom Brady the benefit of the doubt at this point that he hired a good
15:21general manager that's ready to go in the NFL. A lot of familiarity there, of
15:26course, as well seems to be a good move in Las Vegas for spy tech getting that
15:31first shot at really calling all the shots worked under Jason Light, who has
15:35been a longtime general manager with the Buccaneers now going on 11 seasons
15:40about to embark on year number 12 in Tampa. That's pretty solid consistency
15:46within a front office and as we shared in various different roles the previous
15:52two seasons as the assistant GM with the Buccaneers, john spy tech was there
15:57since 2016, a stable foundation in Tampa, hoping to create the same, of
16:03course, in Las Vegas. The Raiders are a compelling organization at this moment.
16:08We talked about what Aaron Glenn will have the arduous task of trying to do
16:12in New York to lead the Jets back to a postseason for the first time in 14
16:18years, more than likely will not happen in his debut year as the head coach in
16:222025. That could be a decade and a half 15 years consecutively of missing out on
16:29the playoffs. Now the Raiders made the playoffs just a few years ago, but the
16:33R. S. Since 2002, the Raiders have made the playoffs twice. Both of those years
16:39they reached the postseason in Las Vegas and or Oakland were the only two
16:44seasons the Raiders in the last 22 around the National Football League have
16:50had a winning record. And of course the Raiders still plenty of questions to
16:54address this offseason. First and foremost, who's going to be the head
16:58coach now that the GM is in place and then number two, we're not even drafting
17:03in the top five anymore. We have picked number six. What are we doing at the
17:08quarterback position? Yeah, that's the question and you're gonna have to
17:12figure that out. Is this one of those years where you hire a head coach and
17:14let you say to yourself, we're gonna play this through and maybe we'll just
17:18get one of those reads on the organization. How's it's doing and what
17:20we can go forward. That could be one thing. But let's also understand one
17:23thing about the Vegas Raiders because you're only as good as your ownership
17:27groups put you in that position to win. The reason I say that is let's remind
17:31ourselves Al Davis. It was a legend in the A. F. L. And the N. F. L. Back in
17:35the early 19 eighties, 1970s, the John Madden era. They were winning Super
17:40Bowls commitment to excellence. Just win baby. We glamorize that. And by
17:44the way, fantastic color combinations. But understand the businessman that Al
17:47Davis was, he actually fought. Think about this in this day and age to get
17:51out of Los Angeles when he was gonna be the only professional football team in
17:56L. A. Can you imagine what the Raiders would be worth today if they never
17:59decided to go back to Oakland after ST Louis acquired the Rams? Unbelievably
18:04horrible business decision. Then he goes back and ruins the ballpark up there
18:07in Alameda County Coliseum by putting in Mount Davis and holds the city
18:11hostage. Then sells his team out to go to Las Vegas, which is horrendous in
18:15itself, but also tutoring his son all along. Where's no business owning a
18:19team at this point and the run horribly? Is it a surprise? Absolutely
18:23not. Maybe Tom Brady can finally get something in that organization says,
18:27understand this. I'm here for the long term. I'm still young. I'm gonna run
18:31this team and with the five years we're gonna be respectable organization
18:34because it all starts at the top. Horrible business decisions made left
18:38and right by the Davis family. Maybe we finally got it right with allowing Tom
18:42Brady into our owner circle here and maybe he can guide us in the right
18:45direction. But you're right about the quarterback position. You don't win
18:48anything without a quarterback. And having said that, if you don't have your
18:51quarterback next year, good luck in that division because it's gonna get
18:54ugly quick. Yep, absolutely. So slandering Al Davis here on the show
19:01today. But Donnie is correct. Bad ownership. Bad ownership is the reason
19:06fans can blame players. They can blame a coaching staff. They can look
19:11specifically at a head coach or a front office. If bad organizations continue to
19:17be bad over a long span of time, a couple of blips on the radar of success
19:22and then everything else is failure. You can look in one spot in one spot only
19:28that is ownership, which leads us perhaps to our next team to discuss.
19:35That would be the Chicago Bears. As Donnie highlighted yesterday, as Ben
19:39Johnson walked into Halas Hall for the first time as the Bears new head coach,
19:43he should have looked around at everybody. Maybe not the poor staffers
19:46grinding it out on their 9 to 5, trying to make the Bears the best franchise
19:50they could be. But maybe the McCaskey family and say, Get out of here on the
19:54new sheriff in town. What we heard from Ben Johnson yesterday in his
19:59introductory press conference officially and of course the R. S. The
20:03main topic of conversation. Quarterback Caleb Williams entering year two in the
20:07NFL.
20:09Modern football in the NFL is quarterback driven. That is no secret.
20:15You look at you can look at analytics right now. Quarterback success is a
20:20higher predictor of winning and losing than turnover ratio, which has been
20:24for 20 plus years. Okay, that's changed. So there's no doubt Caleb played a
20:31large component into my decision. Um, he is a phenomenal talent
20:38that had as many quarterbacks do an up and down rookie year. Um, where I see
20:44my role is as a supporter of him. Uh, this offense will be calibrated with
20:52him in mind. We're gonna build this thing. This is not simply a dropping of
20:56a previous playbook down on the table and starting there. Nope. We're ripping
20:59this thing down to the studs, and we're gonna build it up with him first and
21:03foremost, and then with the pieces around him next.
21:07And we'll hear from Caleb Williams after the break. But D. R. S. A lot of
21:10reports yesterday out of Hallas Hall that if you can win an introductory
21:15press conference, Ben Johnson did exactly that in Chicago. Yeah, corpse
21:20could have won that introductory press conference of how bad that
21:22organization is. Hey, we got a casket up there with a dead body. Man, what a
21:25great hire by the Bears because of what we saw their previous hires and what
21:29they've been doing at this point. So for my money here, I loved what he
21:32actually said at that press conference because this shows the guy absolutely
21:35gets it. He's not saying, like, Well, I'm bringing that Detroit mentality.
21:38I'm bringing that Detroit playbook and here we go away. No, you have a
21:41completely different quarterback. But he goes, I'm talented enough that I
21:44will build a dominant offense that specifies exactly what my quarterback
21:48likes to do. I love to hear that home run higher by the Chicago Bears. And
21:54let's hear from Caleb Williams after the break. Live right here on the
21:58early line, live right here on the early line on sports grid, the
22:01introductory press conference for new Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Yesterday
22:06we just heard from him before the break on how he plans to incorporate his
22:10offensive scheme surrounding his new quarterback about to embark on you
22:15number two in his NFL journey. That, of course, Caleb Williams, the first
22:20overall pick in 2024. So enough of myself and Donny, let's hear from
22:25Caleb himself on his reaction to Chicago hiring Ben Johnson. Uh,
22:31extremely excited. Um, you know, when we when we called, it was Kevin,
22:38George,
22:40Ryan and Ted all on the phone. And, um, you know, I kind of, you know, said
22:46thank you to all of them. And then once I got off the phone, I kind of I was
22:50driving on the highway and, um, I don't know if it was safe or not, but I gave
22:53out a loud yell and scream of just, you know, excitement of just, you know,
22:59brings a bunch of clarity to the offseason. It brings a bunch of
23:02different things to the offseason. And, um, you know, I'm really excited about,
23:06you know, obviously the Bears and, you know, this org and being able to, you
23:09know, make this happen and, you know, keep Ben Johnson is our coach for a
23:12long time.
23:14I mean, Caleb Williams should be absolutely thrilled. The R. S. The Bears
23:18made the correct decision to get Ben Johnson, which surprised some around the
23:22NFL. But you heard from Johnson himself. Caleb was a big decision making factor
23:28in him taking on the Bears head coaching job. It should be a positive
23:33and beneficial partnership moving forward. Do you think it will?
23:38Yes, I do. Because you talent is what succeeds in the NFL and harnessed
23:44talent makes it even better where you can take a raw kid and say he has
23:47every tool I need. And we're not even calling like Caleb Williams is the last
23:51thing that's wrong. This guy's one. This guy is polished. This guy can do
23:54everything you need him to do. Now you get a coach that says I'm gonna take
23:58what you do extremely well and make you play even better. And that's
24:02unbelievable. I think it's gonna work out fantastic. Because if you're
24:05telling me I can run an offense with Jerry Goff, who is a statue in the
24:10pocket, has a decent arm here and some talent and look at what we did there.
24:14Now I can get a kid that can actually manipulate the pocket, roll out, use
24:18his legs and make every throw at the same time. Yeah, we're gonna make this
24:21work. So absolute. This is why we talked about it last year. Why was so
24:25puzzling when Ibra Fluz came back? Because now you have a job that every
24:28single offensive mind is gonna go. I want that job. I can't believe it's not
24:33available. But boy, I hope something goes wrong this year, because next
24:36year I'll want that job again. Exactly the situation there in Detroit with Ben
24:40Johnson eyeing up that position. Even last year, he could have the keys to
24:43the, you know, the fort there for Washington. And you were drafting a
24:47quarterback. You had an organizational change, and he probably still in his
24:50mind goes, You know what? I'm waiting for the perfect opportunity before I
24:53leave. Let me go back to Detroit. The perfect opportunity opened up in
24:57Chicago. He took that there. So you know he's not lying when he goes like,
25:00Yeah, they threw me a lot of money, and it was just time to leave Detroit. No,
25:03he wanted this job because of why this quarterback he wanted to coach.
25:08Absolutely. D. R. S. And we talked about bad ownership and what it could mean
25:12and plaguing organization. My best friend of the world, Luke Lambeau, huge
25:17Chicago Bears fan, grew up in Chicago because of him. I have sympathy for the
25:22Bears and try to understand what that fan base goes through. And each and
25:26every year Luke tells me if there is a good thing, the Bears will often spoil
25:32it. You hope that is not the case with Caleb Williams. You hope that is not
25:36the case now with Ben Johnson. You hope this could be the dawn of a new era in
25:41the Windy City. We shall see. But you would think D. R. S. Just put the pieces
25:46in place that this combination of head coach in quarterback this would be it.
25:53Ben Johnson, perhaps the most innovative play caller in the NFL right
25:57now, with great success, his three years acting as the offensive play caller in
26:02the Motor City. The Detroit Lions were a top five scoring offense each and every
26:07year. The Chicago Bears have not ranked in the top five in the NFL in scoring
26:12offense and points per game in over a decade since 2013. That is step number
26:18one in Caleb Williams, who was the first overall pick. Of course, the
26:22generational touted talent entering the NFL in 2024 had what I would say was
26:29actually a pretty good year if you actually watched him play football. But
26:32at times it was easy to pile on a disastrous rookie season for the Bears
26:38as an organization. You see those passing yards 3541. That is the fifth
26:45most in a single season in Bears franchise history, a franchise that
26:51despite being one of the most historic around the NFL has never had a 4000
26:56yard passer. Caleb Williams should be on track to see improvement in his
27:02game. And of course, the overall success for this Chicago organization in the
27:06year and hopefully years to come. Yes, absolutely. And we're hoping to hit the
27:12ground running. You saw Ben Johnson talk about this. I love when coaches set
27:15them up where they don't say like, You know what? This is a long rebuild. I'm
27:18gonna set my foundation here. He basically is telling you he's ripping
27:21it down to the studs. But you better expect that we are going to win right
27:24away. That's putting it into mindset of the offseason that this isn't a
27:27honeymoon phase. Let's see how it goes and really sink our teeth into in year
27:31number two. He's telling them, Get ready offseason here. We're installing an
27:34offense. We expect it to be flawless by week number one. If it's not, we're
27:38gonna work towards that for the remaining parts of the 17 to 18 week
27:42season that we're going to embark on. So the future is very bright. You got the
27:46quarterback, you got the head coach. Now we need to see some of those results,
27:49and I think we will.
27:51Donnie, we kind of talked about this yesterday. One of the reasons people
27:54looked at Kayla Williams and said, Whoa, what's happening this year in Chicago
27:58is because this wasn't a first overall pick entering a bad organization with a
28:03wind total of 5.5. If they could get to six wins and show some signs of life,
28:08that would be considered a successful year. The Bears entered this year with
28:12an 8.5 wind total. The over had the Jews expected to be the playoff
28:16contender that we have seen out of Jaden Daniels with the commanders. And
28:20when you have one and two number one overall pick number two overall
28:25selection in direct comparison to one another that also doesn't paint a super
28:29fawn light on Kayla Williams. So I ask you this question entering 2025 with
28:35Ben Johnson in place entering year number two for Kayla Williams. What do
28:40you think the Bears wind total is going to be what it's gonna be set at or
28:44what we think they're actually gonna wind up with what it's gonna be set at
28:48wise. I would probably say almost identical to what you saw last year, to
28:53be honest, because that is a tough division that we didn't expect it to be.
28:56Maybe even that's off entering in this season because Minnesota was the wild
28:59card. Minnesota, regardless of quarterback, is going to be pretty good.
29:02But once again, the expectations of Chicago are higher. Even what they were
29:06last year, I expected to be identical to what we saw last year. I think that
29:09would be a fair price. And what is so fascinating is now you have a second
29:14year QB, a first year head coach expected to have a winning back for on
29:19the other line. Next, we welcome you back to the early line on this
29:23Thursday. So much news yesterday around the NFL. We haven't even really
29:28previewed Conference Championship Sunday. We will. We'll keep an eye on
29:33those practice and injury reports to start off our second of three hours. But
29:39to end out the opening hour DRS introductory press conference with Ben
29:43Johnson, new head coach of the Bears yesterday, intro presser for new GM in
29:49Nashville. The Titans, of course, hiring Mike Borgonzi, who spent the last
29:53decade and a half in Kansas City in some form or fashion as the new GM in
30:00the Titans after a three win season and the worst cover team the NFL has ever
30:04seen two and 15 against the number will be selecting first overall. They
30:10desperately need a quarterback. But you saw there in that quote, what exactly
30:17Borgonzi had to say about utilizing that first overall pick? Let's show you
30:22that quote. Once again, quote, we won't pass on a generational talent with the
30:27first pick in the NFL draft and quote, the RS draft season is smokescreen
30:34season. A lot of statements are said to provide just a little bit of a speckle
30:40of information, but then allowing people like us to overanalyze what exactly
30:45those combinations of words mean. What do you think? New Titans GM Mike
30:52Borgonzi meant by that? Let's first start with what was he going to say?
30:55Like, look, I took the job because you have the number one pick and we are
30:58going to pass over generational talent. We're going full back here with number
31:01one overall. So understand that. But also the lines moving because he said
31:05that generational talent means yes, I just picked my quarterback of the
31:09future, which we couldn't pass over because he is a generational talent or
31:13we picked another quarterback who we think is a generational talent or we
31:16picked the wide receiver, cornerback combination who could be a generational
31:20talent. This is what general managers are supposed to do. And also, if you
31:24really have your mindset behind the scenes, here's how I took the job. You
31:27know what? We need a lot of talent still here. We feel that maybe there's not
31:31a quarterback that we like or we can trade back to three and get said
31:34quarterback that we like and pick up a first rounder for the future here. This
31:38is all a smoke screen. You have to say things like, you know what? Behind the
31:42scenes, we want to trade this pick, but you must come out and say we're not
31:45trading this pick. Absolutely not. We have our guy that we like. We'll let
31:48you know, which means other teams are like, Oh, no, he's going to draft our
31:52guy. Let's up the ante to get that pick. Never show your cards here. Of
31:56course, he's going to say it's a generational talent and idiots are
31:59gonna buy like generational talent. That means cornerback wide receiver.
32:02No, it doesn't. It means absolutely nothing. So the market's changing and
32:06looking to bet a non quarterback now because of what the general manager is
32:10saying at an opening press conference when you haven't had any workouts, any
32:14vetting process or anything is hilarious. But that's what we do. We
32:18speculate and we run with information. What the general manager said here
32:22means nothing to who is actually going to draft come or should I say not
32:26draft come up in the upcoming draft entering week 17 of the 2024 NFL
32:32regular season before the Giants won outright as a touchdown underdog at
32:36home against the Indianapolis Colts when it seemed as though they would
32:40have pole position for that first overall picture. Or Sanders was an
32:45odds on favorite to be that first overall selection. Then after the end
32:49of the regular season, Titans secure that number one pick Cam Ward, the
32:53quarterback out of Miami minus money odds on favorite. Now Ward still
32:58remains the favorite, but it plus one oh five and Travis Hunter, the
33:03Heisman Trophy winner who can do it all boldly backed by 50 cents at plus
33:081 55 and should or Sanders now a much longer price at plus 3 60. Always
33:15fun. D. R. S. Borgonzi did say, by the way, yesterday that he is going to
33:20turn over every stone to make sure they address the quarterback position.
33:24And let me tell you something, Mike, if you turn to will love us with the
33:28number one overall pick in your pocket. Oh boy. It's gonna be a disappointing
33:33start to your tenure with the Titans. Donnie yesterday for the second
33:38consecutive day, Brian Schottenheimer interviewing in person at the star for
33:45Dallas's head coaching vacancy. They spent nearly four hours together
33:49earlier this week. Yesterday, another in person interview for a guy that's
33:54been in the organization with the Cowboys for the last three years. What
33:58more do you need out of Brian Schottenheimer that you don't know
34:01already?
34:02You don't know anything about that, because who knows if he's gonna get
34:05that head coaching job? Maybe Jerry's just bored. Like, man, we had a great
34:08lunch yesterday. You want to come back over for lunch? And let's just call it
34:10an interview and we'll spin it off. It'll be a great tax write off for me
34:13as I can have it as a business lunch, as opposed to my own lunch at this
34:16point. Who knows what the Cowboys are thinking? But, boy, oh, boy, if they do
34:19hire Brian Schottenheimer, just the laughs, the fantasticness, the
34:24amazingness of the coaching hires you could have had, and you wound up with
34:27Brian Schottenheimer. Boy, that's gonna be awesome to watch that fan base
34:30explode over that. A very familiar name in Dallas. It's kind of how Jerry
34:37Jones likes to do things. Power to next. Oh, we're having a lot of fun here on
34:43a Thursday. I mean, can you say that again? For all the people were talking
34:48about Conference Championship Sunday. We'll talk about NFL head coaching
34:52hires in just a second. But on the desk of pro football today, we've got two
34:57birds backers in Kevin Walsh and Donnie right side from regional
35:01Philadelphia. And then you've got Joe Lisi, who has always been a believer in
35:06a Heisman winner at L. S. U. Jaden Daniels. What are some of the stakes for
35:11Sunday in Philadelphia? Yeah, well, number one, we've already threatened
35:16Joe Lisa that it might not appear on pro football today on Sunday that we
35:19already laid that down. We can't be too optimistic on the opposite side with
35:22the stakes this side, but also sometimes like to have story time here on the
35:26desk. One of the best stories ever heard is like Joe Lisi is his name. So,
35:30you know, he talked. Hey, Joe Lisi, you know, named after whoever. But he had
35:34a funny story that said one time he was going to get a job and handed in his
35:37job application. The receptionist called him up and said, That's a great
35:41name. Joe Lisi. I think I'm gonna name my my daughter or my son Joe Lisi. And
35:46he goes, No, no, it's two words. It's Joe Lisi. Oh, but I like the name Joe
35:50Lisi. So there you go. Little background on Joe Lisi of how his name
35:54appears. And then we're gonna rise the stakes this Sunday. Should the Eagles
35:57beat the commanders? Joe Lisi's name on the network is just Joe Lisi from here
36:02on out. How about that? You like that? I think that could work like I have a
36:06handle like Donnie right side. How about just one word? Joe Lisi. That's
36:10it. Hold on a second. Did he
36:16space out the name? I must not. He wrote on the album because the
36:19receptionist loved the name. It goes. Oh, Joe Lisi. And he's like, No, my
36:24name's Joe Lisi. Like, still doesn't matter. I like the name Joe Lisi. There
36:29you go. Some kid out there right now is named Joe Lisi as the first name.
36:34That's it. That's probably factual. Oh, I never heard this story before. Great
36:39story. Actual tell it. Actual tears. Actual tears coming out of my. Yeah. Oh,
36:46my God. Mhm. See that hits you that right before we come into the break.
36:51I might need a second. You might need to enter the pole, brother. Oh, God.
36:55Here's the poll here at Sports Grid Network like to ask the public out here
36:59who they want to fade. And that question is so far, which NFL head
37:03coach Ira has been the best. Run this thing. What? Yeah, run the stinger.
37:07They're stinking like that. It's time for fade the public. Wow. Wow. Look at
37:18that. You know, we usually hear it. I was like, do we actually hear that?
37:22But no, we used to hear. But now we have the true words of a genius behind
37:27there. Is he getting royalties for that, by the way? What is that? It's
37:32got to be Joe Lisi. Play it again. It's time for fade the public. Now, how
37:41many takes? How many takes was that? They couldn't have been one take. Oh,
37:45wow. I'm surprised. Yeah. From Joe Lisi. Joe Lisi. How we say that Joe
37:52Lisi. It's like the inflection there. Correct. Yeah. Joe Lisi. Joe Lisi. I
37:57like it. OK, so I just got to ask. And Friso, you can speak to us behind the
38:04scenes. That was planned before we started telling the Joe Lisi story that
38:08he was going to do. I mean, you talk about serendipitous. That is beautiful,
38:13beautiful stuff. So as we go to Sports Grid on Twitter so far, which NFL head
38:18coaching hire has been the best seven vacancies at some stage of this
38:23offseason, three have now been filled after Aaron Glenn hired yesterday by
38:28the New York Jets. Mike Vrabel for the Patriots, Ben Johnson for the Bears or
38:33Aaron Glenn in New York. Donny, I don't even think it's who's winning this
38:38ball, which is Mike Vrabel. Interesting in itself that Vrabel has edged out
38:42Ben Johnson with the Bears. Man, the public either does not think all that
38:47optimistically about Aaron Glenn. I don't even think it's that on the former
38:52Detroit, D.C. I just think it's the Jets and how they structure their
38:56franchise each and every time. Eight point four percent of the vote. That is
39:01it. Thinking Aaron Glenn might be the best head coaching hire so far. Yeah, we
39:06should add, you know, Aaron Glenn on this one. This is like, well, I don't
39:09really think I'm a great hire at this point, which I do think is quality. But
39:12is this just like Detroit, the Detroit fan base showing up here and just
39:16voting against everything that has Detroit? They probably hate Ben Johnson
39:20going to the Bears. We got to vote Vrabel. No, we can't give it to Aaron
39:23Glenn. He left. We got to go Vrabel. So I'm thinking that 50 and a half is one
39:27percent Patriots fans and forty nine percent Detroit Lions fans just angry
39:32right now that Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn have absolutely left the
39:35building. But to be honest, if it isn't that I'm being facetious, I'm really
39:39surprised that Ben Johnson isn't leaving this poll. Mike Vrabel is. I
39:42like the Vrabel hire, certainly to the Patriots. I think it makes a lot of
39:45sense. But I just think that you say, like, who is the prize possession going
39:49to a place where he can really institute what he likes to do, which is
39:53run an offense? I'm surprised Ben Johnson is in second place with about
39:5641 percent of that vote. Me as well, DRS, because Mike Vrabel is consistent.
40:01Mike Vrabel was incredibly successful in his six years in Nashville. Mike
40:05Vrabel had a winning record over the span of those six seasons. So it makes
40:10sense to go with the guy that is proven as a head coach in an organization, of
40:14course, that he knows very well. A lot of people thought and I think we're
40:18surprised that Vrabel was canned last year by the Titans and think of him as
40:23a highly successful head coach. So it makes sense, but it's not exactly the
40:28snazziest or most innovative or creative hire to bring Vrabel to New
40:33England. Of course, it was the first one done. It probably was done behind the
40:37scenes entering week 16 of this NFL season. I think Ben Johnson was the
40:42name as the hottest candidate in this head coaching cycle that everybody
40:47thought wherever he ended up, that would probably be the, hey, that's the best
40:51hire. That's an A plus. That's an A at bare minimum. I wonder if that has to do
40:56so much with Ben Johnson or more so Caleb Williams and some questions in
41:01Chicago. Again, I think we have tried to do our best to dispel the idea that
41:04Williams was the issue for Chicago this past season. It got my vote as well, Ben
41:10Johnson with the Bears because not only do I believe in Ben Johnson about to
41:14become a successful first year head coach, albeit with the inexperience at
41:19this level right now, but I believe in what his offensive scheme is going to
41:23mean for a talented Bears team right away. Yeah, I think the upside to like
41:28if you change it, which NFL coach has the highest upside with his team, it's
41:31got to be Ben Johnson because you're looking at an offense that was really
41:34bad last year and the upside is they're going to be a better offense than they
41:37will. But if you are looking for, let's just say this poll was changed to
41:40safest option to pick as a head coach, it might be Mike Vrabel going back to
41:44New England. The last thing I can think of is like 2-3 years you're fine
41:48Vrabel because he couldn't get more than six wins and that is a terribly bad,
41:52poor front office, which gave him not a lot of talent to work with outside of
41:56what you think is going to be a franchise quarterback. You're thinking
41:59he can bring that hard nose mentality, the same thing Aaron Glenn is supposed
42:02to bring from Detroit over to the Jets to sort of turn it around. So
42:06different ways you can read that poll, but we didn't ask all that stuff. We
42:09just asked which is the best overall coaching hire, which I am slightly
42:12surprised that it turned out to be Mike Vrabel. Patriots have the fourth
42:16overall pick. The Pats have more than $130 million in cap space this off
42:20season to bolster that roster around Drake May for Mike Vrabel to have
42:25success. Of course, he is hired Josh McDaniels to bring him back as the O. C.
42:29In Foxborough and Terrell Williams, Detroit defensive line coach who is now
42:34gone. Donnie, to your point, did Lions fans flood this poll and vote for
42:38Vrabel in front of their two former guys? Maybe they have not taken exactly
42:43kindly, at least to Ben Johnson going to divisional foe in Chicago. And I
42:49shared this with our T. E. L. Group chat yesterday that the Detroit Lions have
42:55not had a coordinator hired as a head coach of another team since John F.
43:01Kennedy was president. That's a long, long time. That means they've had
43:06coordinators leave and maybe be fired or go somewhere else, but not a
43:10promotion at a different organization. It is a first for the Lions. This
43:16naturally follows success. Both Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson now head coaches.
43:22We'll talk about conference championship weekend next.