00:00I like Mike Rabel and think he's very good.
00:03With that said, when it comes to coach of the year,
00:06I think we should really then narrow in on the side of the ball
00:12that is determining the season, okay?
00:16For example, if someone said,
00:19hey, I think Chris Shula should be assistant coach of the year.
00:26I'd say you're crazy.
00:27You'd give him a smack in the head.
00:29Why?
00:30Well, but the Rams won 12 games
00:31and the defense is the weak point of the team.
00:35Not that the Patriots defense is a weak point.
00:37They had an MVP level quarterback
00:39and their offense defined their season.
00:42I think then when I look at Mike McDonald winning 14 games
00:49with their defense being the leading star in that situation
00:55or when I look at Kyle Shanahan,
00:59who's all of his good players got hurt but won or even Liam Cohen where the Jaguars offense all of a sudden was humming like the best in football for two months.
01:11I'm more drawn to those than Mike Vrabel.
01:16That's understandable.
01:17I don't disagree with the breakdown.
01:20Again, I still wouldn't have a problem with Vrabel if he does win it.
01:26Again, we look at expectation.
01:28We look at where they are.
01:30We look at the ability to be 9-0 on the road or on a neutral field.
01:34I don't care who you play.
01:35In the NFL, that's a great feat to go into somebody else's building and come out undefeated.
01:41Yeah, that's true.
01:42Including one playoff win in Denver, right?
01:45Yeah.
01:46Even though it was a backup quarterback, still give them credit.
01:50But I agree with you about McDonald.
01:52I'm sorry.
01:52You know, when you have a quarterback, and we talked about this, that was run out of Minnesota, that didn't step up in playoff experience, right?
02:08Yeah.
02:09With a veteran team around him and Justin Jefferson and that group and all the question marks and they run the gamut and they win, you know, where they are.
02:20And that defense has been absolutely 28 games they haven't allowed a 100-yard rusher.
02:28I mean, that's amazing.
02:31And so I would give it to McDonald.
02:34But can I ask you this?
02:35Yeah, God.
02:36This is the—
02:37I just want to see if you agree with this.
02:38Sure.
02:39Seattle being as good as they are is more surprising than New England being as good as they are this year, right?
02:45Yeah.
02:45Well, I mean, I think—I would think so because, again, the perception with Gerard Mayo is, oh, they just needed coaching, right?
02:52And we knew New England had a soft schedule coming into the year.
02:55Yes.
02:55I'm not saying I thought they'd win 14 games.
02:57No.
02:57I thought they'd be in the playoffs, New England.
02:59Right.
02:59Yeah, no.
03:00I mean, I didn't in year one.
03:02But my point is, I didn't see McDonald's dominance, and now the emergence of JSN, the emergence of Sam Donald, the balance.
03:13But the defense is—I mean, the defense is the most physical I've seen in the league.
03:18I mean, there are very few defenses I could compare to them.
03:22They're back end.
03:23I mean, yeah, you could expose them at times the way L.A. did.
03:26I love Demon Worry coming out of school, too.
03:28Yeah, I'm just saying they are dominant.
03:29But I'll go back to this, and this is where we might get into a little bit of a debate.
03:35Okay.
03:35You know, when Dable won it, I was in the camp that I thought Pete Carroll should have won.
03:44Yeah, I remember.
03:44Okay, Dable had a 7.5 win total, won a playoff game.
03:48Yep.
03:48Pete Carroll was picked across multiple gurus and analysts to be at the bottom of the division with a 5.5 win total.
03:57He over-exceeded that.
03:58And he took that team to 9-8 in a first-round playoff game against San Francisco with a quarterback that nobody thought he could get productivity out of.
04:08And Geno Smith—forget Geno now.
04:10We're talking three years ago.
04:12Yeah.
04:13And we just—oh, it was hands down it was Dable because of Daniel Jones.
04:16But my point was, not expectation-wise, if we're looking realistically, the team that over-exceeded expectations more was Pete Carroll.
04:26I mean, he had 3.5 more wins than what the books, you know, thought of at the start of the year.
04:32Sure.
04:33We'll see you next time.
04:33We'll see you next time.
04:34Alright.
04:35We'll see you next time.
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