Chapter 1: What key NFL coaching changes are discussed?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. And we're coming to you live from the middle floor, tough studio, Boomer Esiason, Greg Giannotti. It's Boomer and Geo on the fan, simulcast across the country on CBS Sports Network and wherever you are on the free Odyssey app. Good Monday morning, MLK Day. I know a lot of you are off, but we are here breaking everything down.
Probably got some people watching, more people watching on CBS Sports Network this morning to break down Divisional Playoff Weekend. Two great overtime games, one blowout game, one halfway okay game, but man, I tell you, Last night, the Chicago Bears and the L.A.
Rams with this overtime game and a play if the Bears had gone on to win that would have gone down in Chicago Bears history as one of the great plays in their franchise history. And I'm talking the Bears have been around forever. Fourth and four, Caleb Williams' touchdown pass to tie the game in regulation. Just amazing. Josh Allen is out. There's some tears there.
We got a backup quarterback in Jared Stidham after Bo Nix breaks his ankle in the championship game. The Patriots are back, and the Seattle Seahawks dominate. And tomorrow will really be a John Harbaugh day over there at MetLife Stadium as they introduce the new coach. Good morning, Boomer. How are you? Yeah, good morning, Gene. A lot happened since we left on Friday.
And a lot of that surrounds the NFL. And the first thing I do want to say in regards to that is that you remember there was a report coming out of NFL Network that the deal wasn't done with John Harbaugh yet. Yeah. And I sat here and I told you, I said, there is no way in the world that John Harbaugh is going to back out on John Mara. There's just no way.
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Chapter 2: What were the highlights of the NFL Divisional Playoff Weekend?
And I wherever that report came or wherever they put that report out and putting giant fans in a little bit of state of shock with with the contract not being totally done yet. I just thought it was really bad reporting because it makes John Harbaugh look bad. And John Harbaugh is not one of these guys that is a Shiv guy. He's a guy that stands for what Raven football was all about for 18 years.
And Raven football had always been great. It was great in the preseason. It was great during the regular season. He won a lot of games. He won a Super Bowl. And he always did it, I think, with the ultimate amount of respect. You know what I'm saying? Of course. There is a reputation that he has as a coach and that reputation is basically impeccable. It's impeccable.
And I would just say that when that report came out on Friday, I was a little bit annoyed. Because my reaction to that report when you read it was the fact that this is ridiculous. He is not going down this path this far with Joe Shane, Chris Mara, John Mara, Steve Tisch, Jackson Dart. He's just not going to go all the way down the path that he went and then all of a sudden back out in the end.
And you're going to find out what he's going to say next. I think tomorrow or whenever this press conference is going to be, is that this is the New York football giants. This is the Mara family who are respected throughout the NFL and always have been. And there was no way he was ever going to back out going this deep into the negotiation and interview process.
So I just wanted to reflect back on that for a moment because that really, really annoyed me when you read it. It annoyed me when we left here on Friday and then, of course, on Saturday comes the news that he's signed the contract and he's happy with everything that he's got and who he's reporting to.
And I think Giant fans should really, really be happy that that erroneous report on Friday was just that, erroneous. Yeah, I mean, I never got too worried because of what you said on Friday, and I felt exactly the same way, especially with the John Mara angle of this and who John Orbaugh was.
And I never really got all that scared with some of the things that were being said because I feel like... Stuff like this happens in contract negotiations where they just have to iron out some details.
I just feel like the giant fan and the people who cover the team were just so in on this to the point where it just got over-covered to a point because the fan base was asking for information, information. Why isn't it signed? Why isn't it signed? Why isn't it signed? We need this guy. Oh, my God.
and it just got crazy where everybody just should have relaxed and understood that it was going to get done. But it is done, and tomorrow at noon will be the press conference, and Evan and Tiki and Sean Moresh will be there. Oh, great. So they'll be there. They better get them with an exclusive interview if they're going to be down there, right? Well, we are the voice of the New York Giants.
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Chapter 3: How does John Harbaugh's hiring impact the Giants?
Oh, my God. Oh, my goodness. This is what you're dealing with, Coach Harbaugh. Yes. Good luck. Right, absolutely. But I will say that, and it looks like Todd Munkin's going to be the offensive coordinator. And if you look back a few years ago, Lamar Jackson had two spectacular seasons under Todd Munkin's direction. And I think he's going to be great for Jackson Dart. It should be perfect.
And now it just comes down to who he'll select as his defense coordinator. And the other thing that happened on Friday, you and I were talking about where Kevin Stefanski was headed. And I really felt like Atlanta was the next best place. He would have taken the giant job had John Harbaugh not been available, by the way. I'm just telling you. Yeah.
So he ends up going to Atlanta and it's two Philly boys now running the Atlanta Falcons. That's, of course, are Kevin Stefanski and Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan, both from Philadelphia. And I think Matt Ryan is really, really stoked about getting Kevin Stefanski to run that franchise. And I think they're going to keep Jeff Ulbrich as their defensive coordinator.
Yeah, he did a really nice job for them last year. And one thing I do like about Todd Munkin coming to the Giants is he's not going to be the next head coach for somebody else. He's going to ride this thing out with John Harbaugh. Yeah, he wants to be with John Harbaugh. So if it works... then you don't have to worry about the young offensive coordinator becoming a head coach somewhere else.
You've got to start all over with the offense. These guys are going to be together. So if Jackson Dart and Todd Bunken start working well together, then that's great because they're going to stay together, which I think is really a tremendous thing. We'll see who the defensive coordinator is. But as we know, you can turn it around very, very quickly.
And one of those two teams that turned it around quickly, the New England Patriots, now have a game where they're going to be facing a backup quarterback with a chance to get that franchise back to the Super Bowl. Now, we've seen it before. Have not really seen it, though, happen in the playoffs. Now, we've seen, obviously, Nick Foles take over in the regular season.
You've seen Hostetler take over in the regular season. You saw Tom Brady take over in the regular season. Yeah, but those guys took over in the regular season. That's the case. Right, but we haven't seen this. Yeah, we haven't. And a guy go and win? Yes. In the playoffs? Yes. And lead the greatest comeback in the history of the NFL? My man Frank Reich? Oh, but I'm talking about win a Super Bowl.
I was talking about win a Super Bowl. Oh, I see. I thought you were talking about winning a game. Every guy that I mentioned prior to that was win a Super Bowl. So we've seen guys go and win. But they also played in the regular season. Right, right, right. Exactly. So this we had never seen before. A guy take over, do this, then win a Super Bowl. But...
If he wins this game, that would be absolutely amazing at this point. But we don't know, at least I don't know, a ton about Jared Stidham. I don't know if he's going to step in. I haven't seen him in practice. I have no idea. Sean Payton's going to be, of course, getting him ready. But this is a fascinating thing. And let's hope it's a fascinating thing.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Bills' recent performance?
Minnesota Vikings. 1986. I don't have the opponent, but it just says that stat line happened one time before by Boomer Esiason on September 28th, 1986. At Houston. Okay, I have to look up the game. I don't know, I'm just trying to think at Houston. That could have been the game that I did get benched in and I overturned the Gatorade table. That'll be great. 1986 Bengals season.
Bears.
The Bears. Oh, no, that was the third game, either the second or third game of the season. And, yeah, it was against the vaunted Bears defense. Yep, there it is. One o'clock game. And I'll never forget saying to my center, Dave Remington, man, it's hotter than hell. It was like 90 degrees and 85% humidity. Oh, we got the Bears. They're not going to want to play in this weather.
Oh, they kicked the living crap out of us. Yeah, I remember I hit my, I think I hit Anthony Munoz in the back with a pass that Wilbur Marshall ended up intercepting. Yeah, I was thinking, man, was there any way that this like came across your feed or anything yesterday? Because, you know, people are nuts with the stats or they sent you highlights of it, but... It's unbelievable.
But you know what? That game, you went on to have a season, a pretty good season. You were 10-6 that year. That was the year that we missed the playoffs and we were waiting. It was a final Monday night game and it was New England at Miami. And I think if New England had won, I think we would have made the playoffs. And that was the pre-expanded playoffs. And in week 16, you beat the Jets 52-21.
Yes, we got a little bit better as the season went on, yes. Yeah, beat the Jets in 1986, final game of the season to go to 10-6. Yeah, 52-21. But, yeah, so C.J. Stroud, that's brutal. And, I mean, if you're the Houston Texans and you have that defense and you saw the way that he has regressed from his rookie season, I mean, do you go into this offseason thinking we may have to make a change here?
We made the divisional round now three straight years and then lost three
pretty handily and you had straight years i don't care you had the best defense yeah i mean without a doubt yeah i mean nobody's disputing that i mean if you if you know that that's that's a chicago bear type of defense you know you got to play like jim mcmahon would play you would have to play like trent dilfer would play and you're not going to lose because you either have the 2000 ravens or you have the 85 86 bears yeah that's exactly who houston is as a defense
You know, people always give Trent Dilfer crap for being like the worst quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl. He didn't do this. Exactly. Exactly right. He knew what he had, and he limited his mistakes and was able to be a Super Bowl winning champion by doing the right thing. Well, Brian Biller told him. Yeah, look, we're going to run the ball with what I think was Jamal Lewis, wasn't it?
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Sean McDermott's firing?
There's no way that... I don't really remember the last time Aaron Rodgers talked about Mike McCarthy and if it was positive or not, but no, I don't believe. I know that at the end there it got a little skittish with the two of them, but I think Aaron Rodgers has spoken about his time in Green Bay both with Matt LaFleur and with Mike McCarthy.
as he has gotten older with greater appreciation than as he was going through it. Yeah, I mean, maybe they try something different and say, yeah, we have an opportunity in this AFC maybe to go after it one more time if we tweak this and tweak that. But it feels to me like this needs to be a reset, like a clear reset with a brand new head coach. And let's start over.
Retool like your team says they're doing as opposed to a rebuild. Well, I mean, listen, if you are retooling, then you are going after assets that are going to be good for the next five years. And that's why I say if the Rangers are retooling and you're willing to get rid of some significant players and send them into a playoff run, then the Dallas Stars make –
the perfect trading partner because they do have a young budding star that's going to want a big contract. And much like when Chicago had to get rid of Panarin, it's kind of like where the Dallas Stars could be with Jason Robertson. Yeah, give us one second. All right, we'll give you one second there, Stephen Waldron, because I'm curious to see if we're doing okay with this.
Did we have Stefanski going to the Falcons?
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Chapter 6: How does the coaching situation affect the Buffalo Bills' future?
I don't remember. Here we go. I've got it in front of me here. Maybe they can put it up. So we had John Harbaugh going to the Giants. We had Stefanski going to the Falcons. Yes. So we're on top of that. Now, other than that. Brian Flores going to the Raiders. That's what you have. I got Sala going to the Raiders. I got Flores going to the Cardinals. We both have Halfley going to the Dolphins.
Yep.
Chapter 7: What are the options for the Bills' head coaching position?
So we might have nailed three of them there. And then the Browns, I don't know. We kind of just threw names at the Browns. Did I throw Jim Schwartz there that they would keep him? You've got Mike McCarthy going to the Browns, and I've got Mike McDaniel going to the Browns. I don't think Mike McDaniel is going to get a job this go-round. He'll get an offensive coordinator job. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I don't think he'll get a head job. I think that, you know, and again, what's interesting is what you want and what owners are looking for, number one, is they want a man that they believe exudes leadership. They always think when they hire a guy that that guy exudes leadership. So I don't necessarily know that Mike McDaniel is one of the smarter guys in the NFL.
I'm not going to take anything away from him in that regard. I just don't know if he exudes leadership when he steps into the room. You know, and the answer is no.
Chapter 8: How do player dynamics influence coaching decisions?
I mean, you're being nice about it, but he doesn't. But he may be different than what my perception of him is. I've never met him. I saw him on Hard Knocks. When they did the in-season Hard Knocks with the Dolphins, it was definitely better than what he is in front of the microphone when he's talking to the media. But at the same time, they were winning that year, and everybody was buying in.
And then when they started losing, and then they started losing faith in him, and then you heard about all the stuff about people skipping meetings and everything else and not taking him seriously. I mean, it's real easy to believe in a guy when you're winning. It's just when you hit that adversity, do you still have respect for him and didn't feel like the Dolphins did?
The other interesting guy that I haven't seen that he has gotten an interview or anything is Matt Burke, the defense coordinator for the Houston Texans, who was the game management coach with Rob Sullivan when he first got here. Yeah. Well, I mean, I brought his name up last week and said, I mean, the Texans have the best defense in football. How come this guy doesn't get any looks?
And I guess maybe that's because D'Amico Ryans gets all the credit. I don't know. I mean, there's, you know, Wes Phillips, who was the offensive coordinator for the Vikings, never gotten even a look by anybody because Kevin O'Connell runs that offense. So maybe it's the same thing. I don't know. I wonder if Joe Brady, the offense coordinator for the Bills, will get a couple looks.
Yeah, I haven't seen – I mean, I know he's been interviewed before, but I haven't seen it so far. It doesn't seem like he's at the top of the hot names. I still think that Shula – I think Chris Shula probably – it's the Steelers. That's the job that we didn't have on that list that had come open, and I feel like that's probably where they're going to go.
The Steelers are going to either hire – they're going to hire one of the two Rams guys. They're going to hire either Sheilhaus – who I knew nothing about up until the last couple of weeks, or Chris Shuler. That's what I think they're going to do. And then a team that... What about Jesse Minter? He's going to go to the Ravens. You think the Ravens are going to get him, okay?
That's what I think. I think the Ravens are going to get Jesse Minter. And he's definitely going to get a job. The people love that guy. Well, I mean, if he's going to get a job, they better hire him soon. Yeah, I mean, you're going to see a ton this week. You would like to think you're going to see a ton this week because a number of these teams have done... At least 10 interviews. Yeah.
Browns being one, the Dolphins being another, the Ravens have done a ton. I think of the Browns and the Cardinals, and I know it's one of 32, and it's a great job, and it pays a lot of money. Man, but you want to take a job where you can have success like what Ben Johnson did, what Mike Rabel did.
Basically, you'd be taking that job because no other team is offering you a job, and you get a guaranteed contract for probably five years and millions of dollars, and you're going to get paid that money no matter what. That's basically why you get one of those jobs, and you think, hey, hell, if I end up If I end up doing well here, this will be the greatest thing ever.
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