00:00And welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Always such a great pleasure to catch up with Joe Theismann, arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks to me in the history of the NFL, watching football as I did in the 1980s Super Bowl, of course, champion and MVP, and also great analyst on Monday Night Football for many years as well. I missed that. So I thought, let me get a hold of Joe and bring him back here on the show to go over the NFL this week and some coaching stuff as well. Joe, great to catch up with you again. How are you?
00:24Thanks, Craig. It is. It's a lot of fun to catch up. There are different people that I've missed spending time with, you being one of them, and love our conversations.
00:33Definitely so. So Joe, before we get into the games this weekend, because I definitely want your opinion and analysis on that, you know, certainly this is a unprecedented year for coaching in the National Football League too, with so much turnover, so many coaches, Joe, losing their jobs like we've never seen before, and then, you know, arguably getting rehired in other places too.
00:53What do you make of such turnover in the NFL this year?
00:57I think, you know, you can almost go team by team, and, you know, Cleveland has struggled, although, you know, Kevin Stefanski was, what, coach of the year two times during his tenure.
01:06John Harbaugh, incredible job. Mike Tomlin, incredible job.
01:10It almost was, if you won, you would stay.
01:15If you lost, you would go.
01:17Now, in so many instances, there really isn't any rhyme nor reason.
01:22I think, and as a matter of fact, in Baltimore, you know, Steve Bichotti, when he was going to sit down with John Harbaugh, I think they were going to talk about next year.
01:31And all of a sudden, I think John made the decision and said, I'm not going to come back.
01:36I'd like to move on.
01:38And, you know, of course, Mike did an incredible feat in Pittsburgh when you take a look at the things that he accomplished there.
01:43And then around the league, it all depends on who your quarterback is, to be honest with you.
01:49Does your quarterback play to a level to keep your job?
01:53That's really what you look at around the league.
01:56Yeah, and certainly Sean McDermott's finding out the quarterback that he had.
02:01You know, that's the most baffling one to me.
02:04Yeah.
02:04And I'm a little tired of watching the talking heads on television beat up Josh Allen.
02:11If it wasn't for Josh Allen and the things that he did through the course of the year, they would have never been in position like that.
02:18You know, we've all had games.
02:20I had a Super Bowl, for crying out loud.
02:22Super Bowl 18, I played bad.
02:24I just flat played bad.
02:26Okay?
02:27It's not the situation.
02:28It's not the ideal situation.
02:29You want to wind up not playing good football.
02:32In that particular game, I did not play well.
02:35Josh made a lot of mistakes in the division championship game.
02:38I mean, he just, you know, probably the one at the end of the half was, the fumble was, as you look back, probably the most critical from a time standpoint.
02:47You know, what are they doing with that much time left on the clock?
02:50And so many questions go around it.
02:51But I think that, you know, Buffalo's been that kind of a football team.
02:55And I get tired of beating him up.
02:57He's still a tremendous quarterback.
02:59I mean, he was an MVP of the league a year ago.
03:01You know, all of a sudden, you know, you have your bad games.
03:04And so, you know, Sean getting fired in Buffalo was a surprise to me.
03:08Yeah, me too.
03:09All right.
03:10So, Joe, I want to, really, the reason why I thought of you this week was because the AFC championship is coming up.
03:16And we have the Patriots and the Broncos.
03:19And an unprecedented situation has posed itself this week with a backup quarterback due to injury playing in the AFC championship game in Jared Stidham.
03:29And, Joe, I wanted your perspective as to what this is going to require from a player who essentially has not played for a couple of years to succeed against a team like the Patriots in the championship game.
03:41I think the most important thing that Jared's going to have to do is say it's not all about me.
03:46It isn't about me proving that I can play the position.
03:49I know I can play the position.
03:51He'll be familiar with the offense because he's been in the system.
03:54So that won't be an issue from communicating plays.
03:57The speed of the game will make a difference.
03:59Each level of the playoffs, it gets jacked up just a little bit more.
04:03The championship game like this one this weekend gets jacked up a little bit.
04:07Super Bowl, a little bit more.
04:09Everything's moving faster.
04:10All the decisions have to be quicker.
04:12That's going to be the hurdle that he's going to have to get over.
04:15And I'm sure Sean will put him in a situation where he feels comfortable early.
04:19That's another thing.
04:20If he gets off and you see a wild throw or a missed throw early, sometimes it takes a little while to reel somebody back.
04:27I don't necessarily believe that Sean's just going to start with a running game.
04:31I think he's going to be able to let him throw the football a little bit, get his toe in the water, and then move on from there.
04:37But certainly it's going to be one of those games where I think they want to find out what they have.
04:42Denver wants to find out exactly what it has as much as New England wants to find out what he can do.
04:47Yeah, I think we're all going to wonder that.
04:50I mean, Stidham did have nice games when he was asked to play, but it has been a while since then.
04:56And Joe, over in the NFC, real quick to this game here.
04:59I mean, certainly the mutual respect I'm sure you have for Matthew Stafford, who's still doing it at this age, is sort of incredible.
05:05Amazing.
05:06Maybe even the MVP.
05:07Maybe.
05:07We'll see how it works out.
05:08A little drag may could end up winning it.
05:10But Stafford's had this fantastic season going into Seattle to play on Sunday night in that environment.
05:17What do you make of this matchup?
05:18Well, it's not like he hasn't been there before, Craig.
05:20That's the most important thing.
05:21I had a chance to play the Dallas Cowboys three times in a season as we moved towards the playoffs and championship games and Super Bowls.
05:29It's not a question now about scheme or gimmicks.
05:32It's a question about mano a mano.
05:33The big thing in this football game, can the Los Angeles Rams or the L.A. Rams, are they going to be able to tackle better in the secondary than they have most of this year?
05:44That's where the key to this football game is.
05:46If they can't tackle Seattle once they get their hands on the ball, then it's going to be tough for the Rams to beat them.
05:53Last thing, Joe, before you go, certainly your organization that you played for for many years, getting ready to open up a new stadium.
05:59I've seen some stadium renderings.
06:01How do you think things will play out here with the commander's new building?
06:05It looks like, you know, the very best of any of them that I've seen so far with these renderings.
06:10Certainly, the designs are absolutely amazing.
06:12But more than just the stadium, it's the location.
06:15It's gone back to where old RFK is.
06:17They've torn down RFK.
06:18They're starting to do the site work there now.
06:20So that's exciting.
06:22You're going to take the old fans, the people that have gone to that stadium and driven that route so many times,
06:27and they're now going to get a chance to drive it again.
06:30Again, it isn't just the stadium, too.
06:32It's the entire area down there.
06:34The Anacostia area is going to get a whole shot in the arm in the Washington, D.C. area.
06:39It should be an exciting time.
06:41Five years from now, we'll all get a chance to take a look, see what it looks like.
06:45And I know that you will be out there, no doubt, on the first game of the Washington Commanders' new stadium.
06:51Joe, always great to catch up with you.
06:52My best to you and your family, as always.
06:54And I hope that we get a chance to do it again soon.
06:57Thanks for coming on.
06:58I look forward to it, Craig.
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