Pilot - Meat and Potatoes

Blake Webb and Tyler Hardwick, both from Blue Springs, Missouri, are starting their own podcast. They discuss the history of the Kansas City Chiefs football team, highlighting the ups and downs over the years. They talk about the team's offensive strengths in the 2003 season, with notable players like Willie Roaf, Will Shields, and Priest Holmes. They also mention the struggles the team faced with poor defense and a series of mediocre quarterbacks. They touch on the pride of Chiefs fans and the heartbreaking losses the team has experienced. Overall, they emphasize the improvement of the team in recent years under the leadership of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Yo, this is Blake Webb in Independence, Missouri, starting our own pilot podcast here. A little history from me, I grew up in Blue Springs, which is right next to Independence. I played a lot of football growing up, a lot of sports, and just kind of got a wild hair here with Tyler to get this thing going. So Tyler, do you want to introduce yourself and talk to them? Yeah, my name is Tyler Hardwick. I also grew up in Blue Springs, Missouri. It's about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City, for those of you who do not know, home of the Chiefs, the best football team in the entire world, and the current dynasty that has been dominating the NFL. We went from America's sweethearts four or five years ago, everyone rooting for us to win, we hadn't won in a long time, to where everyone's already sick of us, we don't really get any love, and everyone just assumes you're a bandwagon fan, even though I was going to games when we were winning two games every season. I still don't get why we're getting hated on, because prior to the Mahomes and the Andy Reid era, we were just so bad, and when you look at Mahomes and Andy Reid, their PR, the way they handle themselves, they're so clean. How can you not love these two, and how can you not love this team? I think what it boils down to is, they're not on their team. That's all that it is. It's the same reason why everyone hated the Patriots and hated Tom Brady. Tom Brady cheated all the time. That's true, but it doesn't matter. What it boils down to is, they wouldn't have cared if Tom Brady was a cheater if he was on their team. At the end of the day, their team is losing, and the team that's winning is our team, so we're catching all the flack. The Patriots hate, have you noticed how they were the most hated team in the country, and nobody hates the Patriots anymore, because the Patriots suck again, and nobody's even worried about them. They were just the most dominant team in the NFL for two decades. There's a lot of mediocre teams in the NFL this year, I thought. So when you see these really super competitive games in the playoffs, it's awesome to watch. But I want to talk a little bit about those terrible teams that me and you grew up with, or was growing up with, like the Tyler Thigpens, the Nemat Castles. Okay, well let's start back about as far as we can go. So when I was young, we had one really good season in 2003. We had probably the most incredible offensive line that any team's ever had. We had Willie Rofe, Will Shields, Brian Waters, Casey Wigman, and a few different right tackles throughout the few seasons there. But for the most part, we had five very good offensive linemen. We had four potential Hall of Famers, three Hall of Famers. And now you're looking at, what, we have a decent offensive line, but it pales in comparison. I mean, our left tackle was Willie Rofe. Willie Rofe's arguably a top five left tackle of all time. Will Shields is arguably a top five right guard of all time. Brian Waters is a top 15 or top 20 left guard of all time. They're all Hall of Famers. Casey Wigman could be a Hall of Famer in the future as a center. He could get in on one of the down years for sure. And on top of that, we had Tony Richardson, Hall of Fame fullback, one of the best fullbacks of all time. And a lot of people don't remember this, but we also had Jason Dunn. He was our backup tight end. He was basically just a sixth lineman. You see a lot of teams now, like the Lions, what happened when number 68 was eligible and they threw it to him and he wasn't eligible because of number 70 was standing next to the ref or the ref fucked it all up or whatever. But that didn't have to happen with Jason Dunn because he was just an extra offensive lineman, but he wore 86. So he was out there to be a tight end, but he was about 280 pounds and the best blocking tight end I've ever seen. And you add to that that we had Priest Holmes on that team and there's no question why the Chiefs offense was so high powered. Unfortunately, our defense was abysmal during those years and the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. And this was not the first time that the Colts knocked us out of the playoffs, but the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning knocked us out. After that season, we had a couple more good years of offense, but our team didn't really make the playoffs. We struggled and then all the way up through the 2010s, like some of the guys that you mentioned, we had Damon Huard. And I remember I was a big Damon Huard guy because he led the league in passer rating for like half a season, one year. And that was the best thing that we had to cling to. After Trent Green got that concussion, that was the best quarterback we had was half a season and Damon Huard. He had a passer rating almost as high as Mahomes career passer rating for one half a year. It was pretty incredible. I thought we might lead the playoffs that year. We didn't. We had a lot of 2-14 seasons, 4-12 seasons, some 5-11 seasons. A lot of mediocrity. Yeah, not a whole lot of playoff threats. And before Andy Reid, a lot of people do not know this, but the Chiefs had actually won the fewest division titles in the division by a wide margin. So we had at the time only won eight division titles. Everybody else in our division was tied with 15. So that means that the division had been pretty volatile and pretty open during the times. Obviously, the Broncos dominated in the 90s, but it had always been a pretty open and even and fair division. The Chiefs were the ones that got shit on more often than not. We hadn't been good really since the 70s. Boy. And you know what really stood out to me about at least our fan base? Because we were terrible for a long time, but you just see how much pride we have in our fan base. I'm glad all that's coming into fruition here in this era of Chiefs football. But man, do we have some heartbreaking losses in the playoffs. We had some heartbreaking losses in the regular season. Tough to watch. Yeah. And I mean, to try to put this into perspective for people that maybe aren't Chiefs fans, give you the meat and potatoes of the situation. If you didn't know what it was like, I was born in 1995. Like I said, we had that one year in 2003 where we got knocked out by the Colts immediately. Other than that, we were never a threat to make the playoffs. Uh, after Trent Green and Priest Holmes and all them, fast forward almost 10 years, and then we had Matt Castle. So we thought Matt Castle was the best thing since Slice Brad, he was the best we were going to do because he had just taken the Patriots to a 10 win season. I remember that trade. He took us to a 10 win season, and that was like our peak. Like that was about as good as it was going to be for a Chiefs fan. If you really, being a Chiefs fan was all about being delusional enough to say, that your team might actually be good one day. Which is, I think, where a lot of Detroit Lions fans were up until this season. I know. You know, really think that your team might be good enough one day. And then you fast forward through that litany of quarterbacks. I mean, we went through everybody. Brody Croyle was the name. Croyle, and I believe he was 0-9 as a starter. Yep, yep. Tyler Sigpin, of course, who's already been mentioned. One of my personal favorites was Sigpin because he had legs. He made stuff happen. He had some magic to him. He did. He was... Just on a bad football team. Really bad team. And I think on a different team, Sigpin actually could have had a little bit of, you know, major success. He's a good player. Out of the other quarterbacks that we named, Brody Croyle, Tyler Palco, Damon Hewart, and Tyler Sigpin, I think Sigpin probably had the most potential out of those four. The best quarterback that was on the Chiefs in my lifetime before Mahomes was Trent Green. And Trent Green, of course, after those major concussions, was just never the same. He was really talented, though. I would have loved to have seen that. I was going to ask you about that regime. The Dick Vermeule, Gunther Cunningham. You had Tony Gonzalez. You had Trent Green. You had Dante Hall. What did you think about that regime? Well, here's the thing. Carl Peterson at the time, he did an excellent job of building offense early. He was doing... He was putting together an incredible offense. But we just didn't have the players on defense. Fast forward about 10 years after he built that one roster, though, which was a lot of free agents. Didn't necessarily draft all of those guys. Guys like Willie Rofe were acquired through free agency. He didn't do anything. So we had really about two decades that we were stuck with a GM who seemingly was okay with being an 8-win team every year. He didn't really ever go above and beyond to bring anybody in. You never saw him draft a guy like Peyton Manning. You never really heard much about it. I mean, our best receivers there for a few years were Johnny Morton and Eddie Kenison. Most of which, if you aren't Chiefs fans, you've probably never even heard of either of them. But the Chiefs fans, we all remember them because there were two or three years where those were our guys. We had those two. We had Dante Hall, the return punts and kicks, and Tony Gonzalez. And other than that, we had to run the ball every play. One guy who we have not mentioned yet, though, who was a highlight through all those years. Actually, there's two. Dustin Colquitt, who is arguably the best punter of all time. He transcends regimes. He stayed in there for a while. Dustin Colquitt never made mistakes. The Super Bowl that we lost when Tommy Townsend fumbled the ball and everything, it was like choking the game. Dustin Colquitt wouldn't have made those mistakes. And that was the first year that we got rid of Colquitt. So I'm still a little salty at Tommy Townsend for those mistakes. And I like Tommy Townsend. But if we had kept Colquitt, that wouldn't have happened. And I think we would have won that Super Bowl. I specifically remember a game against the Denver Broncos where he pinned them on the one three times in the same game. On the one. I've never seen a punter do that. He's the best punter of all time. He always seemed to pin guys inside the 20. And he was on a bad team. Like, when you're putting the ball six, seven times a game and you're still able to pin him inside the 20 most of the time, he's literally, in my opinion, the best punter ever. His pins inside the 20 speak to that. He's close to the top all time. And he's not nearly to the number of punts as some of the guys that are above him. And then you look at Jamal Charles. Man, he's a baller. I wish he was playing today. Yeah, Jamal Charles is probably the best player outside of who we have right now, the best football player in Chiefs history. At least when we're talking about guys that spent their careers here. That's talking a lot, too, because we have Tony Gonzalez. We did have Tony Gonzalez, but a lot of people don't understand. Jamal Charles, to me, was, outside of Barry Sanders, the most talented running back I ever got to see. Okay? He was great. Jamal Charles was incredible, and he was on a really bad team. Teams knew we were going to run the ball. Teams knew he was getting it. They couldn't stop him. And he still has the highest yards per carry of all time. And he didn't run behind those lines that Priest-Holmes did. If he had had those offensive lines, he would have averaged 10 yards of fucking carry. As good as Priest-Holmes was, Jamal Charles was better than Priest-Holmes. And if it wasn't for those two ACL tears, Jamal Charles would probably still be playing today. He'd probably be on the latter side of his career. But those injuries derailed him, all right? So I say all of this. We get into all of this so we can get into the meat and potatoes of this podcast, which is this week, all right, tomorrow, the Super Bowl, all right? So let's jump from the blast to the past that we just had, and give everybody a little bit of background on us, and on the Chiefs, and on how we feel as Chiefs fans. And let's just talk about the future and where we are today, okay? So this season was a down year for the Chiefs. Chiefs fans are really down on the Chiefs. Chiefs players were even, I think, down there throughout part of the season. We had a litany of mistakes. We had four games that we lost this year because of one play. And when I say because of one play, I literally mean because of one play. I don't mean, like, this could have happened, and this could have happened. Like, no. Literally, the game we lost to the Lions, we lost because of pick six, because Karius Tony tipped the ball up. We lost that game. He had another tipped interception that went for a pick six later on in the season. We lost that game, all right? Those two losses would not have happened if it wasn't for tipped interceptions. We had one loss because MVS dropped a wide-open bomb from the home against Buffalo, I believe. Perfect throw, hit it right in the mittens. I think that was Philly. Might have been. You're talking about Philly, because that was the game winner at the end. It was the game winner at the very end. Hit it right in the hands, dropped it, end of the game. Gotta catch that, man. Well, thankfully, last week in the playoffs, he turned around and fell on his back to make sure he caught that pass. Ah, it looked the same way. It did look the same way, and he caught it. He turned around. Instead of trying to catch it on the run, he turned around and fell on his back and caught it. He caught the ball, all right? So if it wasn't for those three, that's three more wins we should have had. We would have been one seed. And then on top of that, we had the offsides. That was against Buffalo. The offsides on the play that never happened. The greatest play that never happened. Travis Kelly throwing a pitch to Canarius Toney in the open field. That'll go down as one of the most legendary plays in Chiefs history, because you won't ever see it on any highlights because it didn't count. And it only didn't count because Canarius Toney doesn't know how to line up offsides, which, crazily enough, is exactly why the Chiefs got eliminated by the Patriots and didn't go to the Super Bowl a few years later. Because Dee Ford didn't know how to line up offsides. So you end up with these weird struggles, these weird ups and downs throughout the season. So we had a bad year. We lost four games by one play. And that's why it doesn't shock me that we're in the Super Bowl. Because if you're one play, one bad play away from winning four more games, but you still make the playoffs. We were close to could have been an undefeated team, but we were 11 and 6. That's insanity. It's crazy, too. And we had the hardest playoff run. We had a negative 23 degrees game against Miami at home. And then we go on the road to Buffalo and on the road for the AFC Championships against the Raiders. And those are the three best teams in the playoffs, in my opinion. I know C.J. Stroud's a baller. I know the Texans. They have tons of different draft picks in the first round on that team now. They looked really good. But in my opinion, Dolphins, Ravens, and Bills, I just felt like we went through a gauntlet. And they did it with savvy defense and elite quarterback play. And it's just great to watch. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, what the Chiefs had to do was beat the basically two two seeds and a one seed to get to the Super Bowl. Because the Dolphins were quite literally a two seed all season up until the last game. So we beat two two seeds and a number one seed to get the right to play another number one seed. So it's arguably the toughest Super Bowl run of all time, especially when you factor in the fact that the Dolphins were one of the highest scoring offenses in history. The fact that Josh Allen had 15 more touchdowns than Lamar Jackson or something, didn't win MVP. But 15 more touchdowns. One of the highest scoring offenses in the entire league. And they had a good defense to boot. Albeit, the Bills did have some injuries on defense. I know that's what their fan base is going to be screaming. I'll give it to them. If Tredavious White was out there to guard Kadarius Tony, Kelsey probably would have had to catch some more passes. But at the end of the day, it doesn't make much of a difference. Because the Chiefs are back. And Mahomes is back. This is six years now in a row that we've been to the AFC Chiefs. I'm going to get into that. How about that? When ushering Mahomes in as a starter, you jump up from, what was it, 27 to 10. You had a starting quarterback already in Alex Smith, who was one of the best game managers in the league. But they take a risk on a dude with relatively no footwork. But you could see all the raw talent there. And you sit him behind that guy for one year. And then once he comes to the league, he takes it by fire. And they host five AFC championships in a row. And his first away playoff run was this year for a sixth AFC championship. What do you think of that? Well, I mean, it's statistically very improbable. Obviously, I think the Patriots went to seven. And that's the record. They went to seven straight AFC championships. And they hosted five of them, just like we did. So we did have a chance to break their record this year by hosting six in a row. But we didn't get that done. So I doubt we'll break that record. It'll be tough to replicate these last few years. But what it boils down to is just Mahomes. I mean, if you look at it, he's dealt with a litany of different receivers. And I, quite frankly, miss some of the other guys. If you think that this year didn't have me missing Albert Wilson and Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson and guys that were just reliable, you're crazy. Justin Watson had like 340 yards receiving or something. I think he was our top receiver. Sky Moore only had like 240 yards. Kadarius Toney only had 170 yards on the whole season. MVS only had like 240 or 280 yards. I mean, you're getting down to these guys combined didn't have as many yards as Tyree Kill had this season. And if you don't think that eats at you as a Chiefs fan, knowing that you had Tyree Kill just a couple years ago, it definitely does. Because if we still had him and Kelsey, best believe our offense would still be putting up 40 points a game like it used to. Man. But it's just not quite the same as it once was. Yeah, but they found a way. Mahomes found a way. Mahomes and Andy Reid. They put together a crazy game plan and they ran the ball more. I've seen Andy Reid running the ball more than he pretty much ever has. Yeah. And I like what Isaiah Pacheco brings to the table. Man, he runs angry. I love watching him run. I like watching him run a lot too. He's got a lot more big play potential than Clyde does. But Clyde looks better this year. Yeah, you can see it. And I think a lot of that is, I think he's trying to stay on this team. And I don't mind keeping Clyde around, honestly, as long as it's cheap. If Clyde wants to stay here on this team, I know he's trying to work on off the field stuff, becoming like a doctor just like Tardif did, I believe. If he wants to do that, I would love for him to stay on the team. I would love for him, because he's a great pass protector. If you're a good pass protector who's running back, there's a good place for you on the roster. Oh, yeah. You know, as long as you can pass block. Yeah. And he's also, on top of that, he's been running better this year and he's been a good change of pace back. I don't mind keeping him around. But what we can't do is undersell the fact that Jarek McKinnon was just taken off of injured reserve and could potentially come back for the Super Bowl because he was making some big plays before he got hurt. Yeah. And he was actually getting pretty much all of the carries that Clyde Edwards-Lair has been getting. So the real question is, do you give McKinnon the snaps or do you continue to give them to Clyde Edwards-Lair? And I almost lean towards McKinnon because he's got experience. He's been there. He's been in the big moment. But your hump is so long. But how healthy is he right now? How football-ready is he right now? Those are things that, you know, it's up to the Chiefs organization, obviously. Don't let us know. I hope and pray that Skymore doesn't play. I feel like Skymore has been a liability, just as much of a liability as Kedaria's Tony is. Yeah. And I think our teams looked better without them. And the fact that they're both back for the Super Bowl kind of stresses me out because I feel like we're going to play them. And they're unreliable targets. They drop too many passes. They don't do things the right way. They just don't get shit done. Yeah. They don't get open. They can't block in the run game. I don't really know what they provide to the team. Like, they don't provide... Like, I believe, like I said, I think Kedaria's Tony had 17 or 170 yards. I think it's 27 catches for 170 yards. Somewhere in there, yeah. I was looking at that the other day. On that season. Which is terrible because you can... I don't want to talk. The NFL record for catches in a game is 20, okay? And the NFL record for receiving yards in a game is 296. So the way I look at it is, if you're not at least, at least doubling those stats on your season, you didn't really contribute to the team. That's how I see it. Like, if you're not getting 500 plus yards and 30, 40 plus catches in a season, you didn't really contribute. You might have been on the team. You might have been out there here and there. But you didn't really... You're like that player in Madden that I throw to once a game. You know what I mean? Like, you really didn't matter. Yeah. I couldn't... Anybody else. There could have been a homeless guy out there and he would have done the same. Yeah. Okay? And that's where I am with Sky Moore. Like, I feel like we could go sign some guy off the street. Just some young athletic young buck. And he'd be just as good as Sky Moore out the box. Just wouldn't cost millions. Sky Moore, to me, was the biggest bust. It's unfortunate, too. Maybe a bigger disappointment than Sky Moore is Nikko Hardman. Because Nikko Hardman, we could have drafted Terry McLaurin. Or... Or D.K. Metcalf. Yep. And I... Obviously, I say D.K. Metcalf all day. But even just based on the prototype that Brett Veach and Andy Reid seem to like, Terry McLaurin fits that. And we drafted Nikko Hardman instead. And look at the stark difference in their talent. Like, and Sky Moore, who's on the board? The guy I wanted. George Pickens. Yeah. George Pickens. I was talking about George Pickens all off-seasons. And who do we draft? Sky Moore. And I was like, OK, well, we'll see. I mean, I don't really like that. But we'll see how this works out. He didn't really play anybody in college. We'll see how it translates. And it hasn't translated well. I think they draft a... I think they look at personality, too. And they weigh that heavy on whether or not they're going to draft a player. I saw reports on George Pickens that he was a little tough in the locker room. So I think they draft a bit more on the team players. Also, I do think Sky Moore fits that prototype that they're looking for as well. So I think there's two factors. Yeah. I mean, I didn't really like the pick. I just... Personally, I feel like Brett Veach sucks at scouting receivers. I think he's very, very good at a few positions, though. He's good at D-line. He's incredible at scouting corners. Killing that, man. He's really good at scouting safeties. And linebackers. And offensive linemen. He has done just a stellar job across the board with his picks in all those departments. His wide receiver picks have been terrible. And if his wide receiver picks had been better, we would have three or four really good weapons instead of Rasheed Rice and Travis Kelsey. Yeah. You know? And that's what it boils down to. But MVS has got to go. We can't pay them after the season. What about Cedarius? What do you do there? I think you keep them because he's still on his rookie contract. Same with Sky Moore? Same with Sky Moore. You keep them on there? I think you keep them both because they're both on their rookie contract. But you have to? But to me, those are guys that you know are going to be your third, fourth, or fifth receivers next year. And you need to go find a one and two. What about Justin Watson? Or I guess a two and three. You can consider Rasheed Rice a one. Yeah. What about Justin Watson? I think Justin Watson's probably gone after this season. Maybe he finds a way to make that last spot for next year. But I mean, he's been an okay player. His catch rate's about 50%, which is meh. You know? I noticed with a lot of these receivers, their catch rates are about 50% for us. It makes you wonder where Mahomes is getting his completion percentage from. It must be running backs and Travis Kelsey. I think so. I often wonder that, too. But I think they would rather have their defense on the field a lot of the time. Get up early. Let the defense grind them out. Yes, but the Chiefs brand of football from three years ago was far more exciting to watch. Any play could have been 70 yarders. It's crazy. But I 100%, I miss Tyreek as a Chiefs fan. Even still, I'll admit that I miss him. He was the best receiver the Chiefs have ever had. I think so, too. He could just bust one out. Like, he could 90 yards, touchdown. Any time. He was incredible. I mean, now let's start steering away from our talk of the regular season here. We talked about the playoffs a little bit and our run. Let's talk about the 49ers. The 49ers have spent this last week, they're complaining about the field their practice is on. They're saying the Chiefs tackles hold too much. They're saying that the refs give the Chiefs too many penalties. Yada, yada, yada. These are all the excuses that I've been hearing. I haven't heard any excuses out of the Chiefs camp, which I think comes with experience. We've been here. We've been to the Super Bowl. They, on the other hand, they were here a few years ago. Not with Brock Purdy, though. They were here a few years ago, but they don't really seem to be carrying themselves with that championship mentality. They're already coming up with the reasons why they lost. And their fan base is kind of doing a lot of the same. So what I am looking for is a huge shift in terms of the way that the 49ers are going to play this game. So a lot of people are expecting them to come out and be that same team that they have been throughout the playoffs. And I just don't see it happening. The 49ers are not going to hang 30 points on this defense. The 49ers are going to have to try to run the ball and control the clock. And the Chiefs have a defense that you can run the ball against, but we don't have a team that anybody's been able to score on consistently. Yeah, they usually bend but don't break. Right. And we've actually been a bend but don't break defense since before Spagnolo even got here. Bob Sutton. The Bob Sutton defense. Good old Bob Sutton. Good old bend but don't break defense. We're used to it, as Chiefs fans. We're used to being a good defense, but we have a great defense right now. And so the 49ers, to me, their game plan is going to have to be to run the ball and control the clock. I don't think they're going to be able to do it. Yeah, I think Christian McCaffrey is going to need to have at least over 100 yards in the game. They got to get him going. And, you know, them lining Debo up everywhere, that kind of concerns me a little bit. But it just seems like there's a confidence there with this Chiefs team. And my confidence, especially this year, man, the defense is just, I'm just so confident in that, like, they've gone up against the best quarterbacks, and they've only allowed like 13 to 17 points a game, which is insane. On average, 13 to 17 a game. I don't know those exact numbers. They're just not giving up a lot. And I think Mahomes this year, I saw it in an interview, he indicated he really changed his game up to not turn the ball over and put the defense in bad situations. And honestly, just be a much more of a game manager. He's managing the game a lot more instead of being crazy magic Mahomes every time. Like, and he doesn't need to be with his defense. I don't know. There's just such a confidence that I have in the defense. And I know it sounds like I'm just praising the Chiefs, but I think I am going to pick the Chiefs. What do you got a score prediction? What do you think? I mean, I do. I do have a score prediction. I'm going to go ahead and lay out there. I have been saying 30-23 Chiefs. I don't think that the 49ers can put 30 points up on us. I think 30 is the magic number. I think it's a race to 30. 30-23. Yeah, the team that scores 30 is going to be the team that wins this game. See, I don't think they can score 30 on us. Now with that said, with Kadarius, Tony, and Sky more playing, that does make me a little more nervous because our offense looked less stagnant without them on the field. I don't know if you noticed the same thing. I think the wide receiver room is a bit more saturated. I think you need more consistency out there. And I think there's just a little too many guys in there getting in and out. So yeah, I do. I agree with you there. Well, thankfully we have Rasheed Rice and we have Travis Kelsey, and they're going to be the lion's share of the game plan. I think probably 70% of our plays will be run through Pacheco, Kelsey, or Rice. And as long as we do that, we run most of our offense through those three players, I think that we'll be all right. Joe Thune, of course, is not playing, our left guard. But Nick Allegretti did play very good in the Conference Championship. Yeah, he stepped in there. Against a very good defensive line. But we're going from a very good defensive line in Baltimore, the second best defensive line in the league, and the best defense in the league, to probably the second or the best defensive line in the league in the 49ers, but probably the third best defense in the league overall. But isn't it interesting how we had played, out of all the quarterbacks in the league, Aaron Rodgers not counting because he was hurt all season, we played four, now, of the top five young quarterbacks in the league in this one playoff run. The only quarterback that we didn't play, a young star who had a great year, was Dak Prescott. That's the only one we didn't have to worry about. We had to play Tua, who was on fire and was in MVP talks earlier in the season. We had to play Josh Allen, who, of course, was the only guy who got a vote for MVP besides Lamar. Then we had to play Lamar, who was on fire, then we had to play Lamar, now we have to play Purdy, who, up until he played the Ravens and threw five interceptions, everyone was saying Purdy was going to be the MVP. So, it seems like Mahomes is putting together the best Super Bowl run of all time. And if they are able to close this out with Tech N9ne there to witness, you know, the Red Kingdom, uh, I think that you start talking about him as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time already. And he's not even 30. And it's tough to say that, but it's also tough to say, what, he would have won three Super Bowls and been to five? And it's in six seasons? Unreal. Unreal. Well, the only one they lost was the Tampa Bay, so they've been to three, but they've hosted, they lost to the Patriots his first year and they lost to the Bengals. You're right, the Patriots left us out. That was Tom Brady was on the Patriots that year when D4 was offside, you are correct. That was... So it's five runs, so it's six runs with him now. And three of those went to the Super Bowl, or four. Three. Three, yeah. This is the fourth. And so he's only, at the worst, we've only got to the AFC Championship. Isn't that, it's just crazy. It's crazy. I could never fathom anything like this when I was younger. And I couldn't see any kind of greatness in a Chiefs quarterform like this. And it actually came true. So I'm just, honestly, I'm trying to soak it all up. And just trying to not take it for granted every single year. And I hope we keep doing it. They definitely, what do you think about the whole dynamic of them being villains now? I mean, as a Chiefs fan, it's awesome. Because there's fatigue out there among NFL fan bases, other than the Chiefs. Of Chiefs fatigue, which is because they're always there. Yeah, they're sick of us already. They're, we're being villainized. You saw the boos in the media night this past week. What do you think of that? I mean, I think it's awesome. Like, I hope the players think it's as awesome as I do. Because what you guys— They seem to be embracing it. It's like we talked about at the beginning of this podcast, okay? There is absolutely nothing, nothing that is worse than just being a bad team year after year after year after year after year for decades. There is nothing worse. All we had to cling to was when Joe Montana was about to retire, and he left the 49ers, and he came here and took us to the playoffs. And then got knocked out in the playoffs. I was talking about that, yeah. And then Rich Gannon taking over for Bono, I believe it was. Might have been Gerbach. Whichever one it was, he took over for him. Led us to a 15-1 season. We're in the playoffs. Starter came back. Guess what they did? Benched Rich Gannon. Put the starter back in. Got knocked out of the playoffs immediately. Then we let Rich Gannon go, and he went to the freaking Raiders, and the Raiders won a Super Bowl with Rich Gannon, okay? The just crazy level of disrespect to Rich Gannon that the Chiefs pulled. And that was a Carl Peterson move, okay? Let's talk more about Carl Peterson. And then fast forward to 2003, same thing again. Get knocked out by the Colts, even though we had the best offense in the league, and we were 13-3 that year, and everyone thought we were going to win the Super Bowl. Knocked out in the very first game. Then we didn't make the playoffs again for a while. I think we ended up making it as a 10-16 one more year, and then got knocked out again by the Colts in a 28-point comeback. If you remember that game with Alex Smith as the quarterback, and Andrew Luck brought the Colts all the way back. The fumble on the goal line, and he just pops it right in there. Managing the game instead of putting your foot on that throat and putting the game away. That is why I couldn't stand Alex Smith. You got a big lead, go out there, put the game away. Don't just try to manage the lead. Put the game away. You know what puts the game away? The same way I win in Madden, all right? Throw another fucking touchdown, all right? I'm tired of watching you just try not to lose. You don't try not to lose a game. You try to win a game. You try to win, not try to lose. So, yeah, I agree. I agree with you. But let's get into this. So your Super Bowl prediction was what? Yeah, I'm going to pick the Chiefs, but it's not going to be a 30. I think it's going to be relatively lower scoring, like a 24-21, 23-17 game. So, and that's, other than the Bills game, it's kind of what the Chiefs games have been in the postseason here, versus the safety championship. Yeah, I mean. I think the Niners are kind of a similar team to the Raiders, or Ravens. So I think it's going to be somewhere in there. And I know the Niners, they're hungry, dude. Like we knocked them out last time. They're coming back for revenge. You saw what George Kittle said when he was sitting there, when we beat him the first time, when everybody was celebrating. He said, I'll be back. I'll be back with vengeance, you know? And they're coming back. You know Christian McCaffrey wants the Super Bowl. You know they want that. It just seems like there's this confidence with the Chiefs. It's tough to pick against them. It really is. It's really tough. They're so poise and savvy, and they got the coach, offensive and defensive sides of the ball. I think Spag should be in the Hall of Fame, to be honest, as a defensive coordinator. Not as successful as a head coach. But I just think there's just this poise with them that I just, it's tough to pick against them. I'm obviously, I'm going to be anxious during the game. I'm going to be nervous. But yeah, that's my prediction. We'll see. About 23-17 is what I'll take. That's my final. CA? Well, I mean, I'll say that Spag's defenses have looked absolutely incredible so far. It was a signing. When we signed him, I actually did like the signing, but I was worried that we were going to struggle to be able to do his defense because it's so complex. And I was worried that we weren't going to have the talent to run his defense. But after he came here and he got the defense established, the guys picked it up quickly, and you see what they do. His halftime adjustments are ridiculous. It seems like every game we come out in the second half and just shut the other team down. They're just on the same page with each other. That's why they draft these high character guys. That's why they don't draft these George Pickens. You saw what George Pickens, I see what you're looking at with the George Pickens pick, like the talent's there. It's just they draft these guys with high character. And when it hits the bed, you still got guys that don't blink, that are high character, and they're about the team. Yeah, but you know what I see? I see Terry McLaren, who is on the commanders, and is obviously not a locker room cancer. And that would have been a great pick, in my opinion. That would have been a great pick over Meikle Hardeman. I also see D.K. Metcalf, who no matter what anybody says, I haven't seen anything that suggests he's a locker room cancer either. I think that the problem is they're like, they're looking for a guy that's 5'10 and really fast. And that's what upset me about the D.K. Metcalf, was he's 6'5 and really fast. So like, why not? You know what I mean? He's a beast, he's huge. Why not take the extra seven inches, you know? But, pause. But it's absolutely ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. I think the 49ers are going to be the easiest Super Bowl that we have played in so far. So we got the Bucs, you got the Eagles, and a 49er team. I can see that. The Bucs, yeah. The stacked Buccaneers team. The Niners were stacked the first time we played them too. That team is better than the team we're playing tomorrow. I agree. They didn't have Christian McCaffrey. But I think that top to bottom, their roster was better. They had, I believe, three first-round defensive linemen on that team. Their defense was a bit more solid. And then the Buccaneers team we played was the most complete football team I've ever seen. The Buccaneers were a team that was a playoff Super Bowl threat for a couple seasons before Brady, but they literally had everything except a quarterback. They could not get a quarterback. They brought in Brady and they were immediately a Super Bowl team. That's how good that team was. That was the most complete team we've played. The Eagles were a more complete team than the team we're playing tomorrow, but the Chiefs are the weakest that they have been in the Mahomes era. So this is going to be our easiest Super Bowl as far as our opponent, but it's going to be our toughest as far as ourselves and our talent on the field. So again, I'm going to lean in. I think it's a race to 30. I don't think that they're going to be able to catch us. I think it's going to be 30-23. Yeah, that's another thing too. I see us just putting so much pressure. I see us putting pressure on Purdy that he hasn't really seen yet. Well, the Ravens did that and he threw a bunch of interceptions. So I could definitely see that. So final little topic of discussion here before we end this. So offseason, what do you think is going to happen? What is your prediction? So we have a few players that are obviously up to re-sign. We got namely Willie Gay, Lajerius Snead, and Chris Jones on the defensive side. MVS is due $12 million unless we cut him. We can save some money, but we still have to pay him a little bit. Here's what I'd do. I would clean out that receiver room. No MVS. I'd probably get rid of Tony. I would just clean house there. Honestly, I think you got to keep Sky Moore. I would get rid of Tony just because... I would not keep Tony just because he's on his rookie contract. I would build it back through the draft. This is a heavy receiver draft coming up. On the defensive side, man, it's so tough to say. And I did see that Brett Veach was trying to keep Jones and Snead. I just don't think we sign these dudes to big-time contracts. I know that's what Chris Jones wants. And I think that's what Snead wants. Snead's been on a seventh-round pick deal for four years now. He's won that bank, and he deserves it. Same with Jones. If I'm predicting, and I hate to say this, I don't think we're retaining either one of them. But I could eat my words, and I'll take responsibility for that this offseason if it does happen. But that's my prediction. So that's kind of what I'm seeing here. And I just think that's the thing. That's the difference. I think we're going to build. We're just going to keep building through the draft, because that's how you build a roster in the modern football, I think. And you capitalize on a free agent here and there. All right. Well, I disagree with you on that. I think we're going to try to re-sign both of them. I don't see that happening. We're going to try to re-sign both of them. I don't see that happening. I'm going to stick to my prediction from a few weeks ago and say, I think we're going to re-sign Snead and Willie Gay and let Chris Jones walk. I'm not going to say we let Chris Jones walk because we should or because we want to. But I believe we let Chris Jones walk simply because $35 million a year is a lot for one player. I think you tag him, though, and trade him. That's what I think. I feel like we should get something out of the player, in my opinion. I mean, you could franchise tag him again if you really wanted to. But at the end of the day... Get a second from him, maybe? Yeah, I mean, we could do that. I think at the end of the day, Veech is looking for something long term for both of them. But I could see us doing that, a trade feature there. It's going to be very difficult for us going forward because you have to think, we have Trey Smith and Creed Humphries and Nick Bolton and Trent McDuffie to re-sign over the next couple of seasons. Those are just guys on defense and offensive line. You know what I mean? Those aren't even receivers. We still need to figure out what we're going to do with a receiving core. It's going to be exponentially more difficult for Brett Veech. This is why I like him. Because he managed to rebuild an entire offensive line in one offseason. Never seen anybody do that before. He pulled it off. And not only did he pull it off, but he drafted an all-pro center and a pro bowl guard. That's pretty impressive. Mm-hmm. And then he brought in Joe Suny, who was already an all-pro. So you're looking at our offensive line at its core is three potential all-pros. And then our tackles have been a little mediocre this year. But to be fair, we lost both tackles last year. And he did replace both of them. And we're back in the Super Bowl. So the tackles that he brought in are good enough. They're just not as good as what we were hoping for. That's what I want to see is at least, well, we got Juwan Taylor now for long term. But we can get like a left tackle in the draft. A high-end left tackle or something for long term. I would love that. But we'll see how that goes. Yeah, I don't know how good this draft is for tackle. I keep hearing about how good it is for wide receivers. So we'll see. I'm not really interested in us drafting very many of the top-end receivers. Mainly because I don't think we have a chance in hell to get most of them. But I would love to see us get that guy from Washington if he's available. I can't remember his name. I'm blanking on his name. I'm going to have to actually look him up. But he was the second best receiver in college football this year. You think he falls to the end of the round? It's possible. Yeah, I know. I was hoping the same thing for Zay Flowers. Roma Dunzay. Roma Dunzay. Yeah, I would love for us to draft Roma Dunzay. I feel like we have a chance to get him potentially at the end of the first round. And he is the second best receiver in the draft behind Marvin Harrison Jr. With that said, some people think Roma Dunzay might go top 10. I've also seen it to where he drops outside of the, you know... Outside of the first? Outside of the first. So we'll see how it shapes out. But definitely we need... I want us to get a true number one option. Because I like what she writes. And I'm not going to say he can't be a number one receiver. But I want to see us get a true number one option receiver. You know, more of a big body guy. Kind of like, built more like MPS. A guy that can go up and get it 6'3", 6'4". Good body control. I want to see us get Mahomes, a guy like that. And I don't think we're going to be able to afford to do it through free agency. We're not signing T. Higgins. I hate to break everybody's heart. We're not signing any of those guys. Maybe, maybe if we get a good veteran deal on Marquise Brown. I would love to bring Hollywood Brown here. But I don't know how expensive he's going to be as a free agent. But I know he's going to be a lot cheaper than a lot of these other guys. T. Higgins is the one I want. If I got to pick out of all the free agents. He's going to get paid. But he's going to get paid a lot. He's going to get paid. He's not coming to Memphis City. He'll probably, based off what I understand of the NFL. He'll probably end up going to a team like the Commanders. That sounds like it. Maybe the Panthers. It's always a team like that that just pays some receivers 25 million a year. Tyreek Hill lucked out. He ended up going to the Dolphins. And the Dolphins got good right when he got there. Well, he had a clause in his contract that said he gets to dictate where he goes. So we couldn't just throw or trade him to the Carolina Panthers. But the teams that were interested from what I heard was the Jets and the Dolphins. Yeah, I mean, I think out of those two, he probably made the right choice. The Jets are generally where careers go to die. And I mean, Aaron Rodgers doubled down on that this year. He played, what, two plays? And I hope... You know me. I am a... I have stood by... I will say Aaron Rodgers is a better quarterback than Tom Brady is a quarterback. I have said that. I will stand by Aaron Rodgers as a guy who has been screwed over by bad general management. Same thing with Brett Favre, though. The Packers general management is abysmal. They don't do a good job of building good rosters, but they do do a good job of drafting quarterbacks. So they have the exact opposite of a problem that Brett Veach has. Brett Veach can't draft receivers. They can't draft anything except quarterbacks, all right? Literally, for some reason, the Packers never got Aaron Rodgers extra weapons. They never brought him in extra people to help. It was him and Devontae Adams and Aaron Jones, and they didn't have anything else. And they just, instead of getting him help, they drafted another quarterback that year in the first round. And that's just the nature of the Packers franchise. And I actually like how Jordan Love looks. Jordan Love looks good. He looks like he's going to be another elite quarterback. And if they continue that, though, imagine if they have another 15-year run by another elite quarterback, and they only get one more Super Bowl out of it, if that. That would mean that that franchise has gone through 45 years of elite quarterback play for only three Super Bowls. So far, they've gone through over 30 seasons of elite quarterback play for two Super Bowls. And that is bad management. That's not on the quarterbacks. It's not Brett Favre's fault his teams weren't better. It's not Aaron Rodgers' fault that his teams weren't better. They were, now I will say, in the last Packers playoff run before Aaron Rodgers left, they lost because of Aaron Rodgers. He played very badly. He did. He played very badly. I remember that. And that was Aaron Rodgers' fault, that game. But most of his playoff losses were not his fault. Most of his playoff losses were him throwing four touchdowns and losing anyway. And that's just what life as a Packers fan is. Like, they've just accepted it. The Chiefs, thankfully, are not in that situation. Our team is so good that despite all the bad things that happened, despite how we didn't really have much of a receiving core, despite how... They just overcome. We just overcome everything. And they believe in their guys. That's the thing. Like, they believe in their guys. And on top of that, it's coaching. I mean, let's be honest here. Mike McCarthy's an okay coach, but he's not Andy Reid. And what it's boiling down to is by the time it's said and done, Andy Reid might be widely considered to be the best coach of all time. I think he's number two right now. But he could be. He's like, what, third or fourth all time and wins. He's only like 61 or 62. People kept talking about how they think he's going to retire after this season. Andy Reid has not said that. And I don't think Andy Reid's nearly done. Why would you quit now? I know. I actually heard from Clark Hunt, the owner. He was on a radio show this past week. Yeah, he didn't understand that either. He thinks that Andy Reid's going to keep going for many years. Yeah. But I did see those reports. They were pretty odd. It could have been just buzz. Dude, no, he can keep winning Super Bowls and eating a cheeseburger right after. Yeah, every year. He could do this for another 10 years. And he's got Mahomes. Why not? Would you want to? Why not wait until Mahomes retires through this? If I'm Andy Reid, that's what I would do. I'm retiring. I'm not going to pull what Belichick did with Brady. Oh, get Mahomes out of here. I'm done. I want another quarter. Yeah, no, not that. And you're not going to do the, I'm going to try to do this without him. Like, no, ride this out. Ride this dynasty. Ride Patrick Mahomes. Literally. I mean, possible. But all the way to the promised land. Rack up as many career wins as you can. Get as many Super Bowls as you can. As many AFC championships as you can. And then afterwards, then you retire. I agree. And you can cap off his career that way. And we'll cap off this podcast with that statement. That's what I love. Appreciate y'all listening in to us. Like and subscribe to us. We are the Meat and Potatoes podcast. Go Chiefs.