Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Mike Florio talks NFL coaching carousel & Bruce Levine talks Cubs' acquisition of Edward Cabrera (Hour 2)
07 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's got a massive brain.
Mike Florio.
He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet.
NBC Sports. I'm sorry I'm late. I was talking to Robert Kraft. That isn't the time for an airing of grievances. Pro Football Talk. I got a lot of problems with you people.
Now, you're going to hear about it. On Chicago Sports Radio, 670 The Score.
Oh boy, what a day to talk to Mike Florio. How perfectly this lined up for us. And selfishly, I am happy for myself. He is the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. He is at Pro Football Talk on X and also on Blue Sky. He joins us on the Circa Sports Casino Hotline. Download the Circa app today. And he is on Twitch, twitch.tv slash Chicago 670 The Score.
Mike Florio, we basically did like an hour Mike Florio pregame show where we just went over like mystery team scenarios and all of these interesting possible other head coaching jobs that could open up. And keep in mind here in Chicago that when Craig Council became available, we all thought David Ross's job was secure until... Jed Hoyer told him it wasn't.
And the next thing we know, Craig Council's now the manager here. So there's never been a better day to talk to you now that John Harbaugh is available.
And this is one of those where. We saw it was possibly coming. We talked about it on Football Night in America in advance of the Ravens-Steelers game from Pittsburgh on Sunday night. But when it happens, it's still a surprise. And it's the kind of move... I had said this for years about Mike Tomlin.
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Chapter 2: What triggered the Ravens' decision to fire John Harbaugh?
If that doesn't tell you that things could change in the NFL, I don't know what does. Although, Mike, I will say this. Mike totally can't walk off after somebody asks him a question he doesn't like once he's doing TV and he's trapped on that set now. You have to answer those questions this time.
Well, that's right. And look, that's part of the shift that we've seen from coaches who will act a certain way in a press conference. And then when they're getting paid to talk, it's very different. The prime example of that is one William Stephen Belichick, who has a very different demeanor when he's getting a paycheck to talk than he does when he's getting a paycheck to coach.
Okay, I want to ask you about the coaches who are coaching this weekend outside of Tomlin. Listen, it seems like this is now or never for the Bills because there is no Patrick Mahomes. There is no Lamar Jackson. There is no Joe Burrow. Is Sean McDermott on the hot seat? And how desirable of a job would that be if it were to become open?
Because I'm looking at places John Harbaugh could go, not just the openings themselves, but what else could be open after this weekend? It would be a strange move, though, to replace a coach who has failed to take a generational quarterback to a Super Bowl with a coach who has failed to take a generational quarterback to a Super Bowl. So Harbaugh for McDermott would be, I think, a tough sell.
They're opening a new stadium in Buffalo. Owner Terry Pagula is going to have to make the call, but you only have so many years left of Josh Allen's prime. And even though they're a low seed, this is arguably the best chance they have to... to get to the place they've been trying to go since 1993, the last time the Bills went to a Super Bowl.
I think there's a question in Buffalo, and it makes the people in charge very nervous when we start talking about it, because I think they recognize they haven't done enough with Josh Allen. A talent question? Is it a coaching question? And then that sets up the possibility of a half measure where McDermott stays, GM Brandon Bean goes, or Bean stays, McDermott goes.
Or look, I think the right way to run an organization is to have everyone on the same footing. And we're either going to keep everyone or get rid of everyone. But if the bill's job becomes open with Josh Allen, I think that triggers the same reaction by the candidates as the availability of Harbaugh has triggered by the teams that are looking for coaches.
I think that becomes the number one job, no questions asked, if you can go work with Josh Allen and complete the job of building a team around him that turns the Bills into a Super Bowl champion.
We're talking to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk here on Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 670 The Score. Mike is the creator and editor-in-chief, and there's a little bit of breaking baseball news. Mike, I thought the hot stove here was dead.
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Chapter 3: How does the NFL coaching carousel impact teams this season?
Cubs close to acquiring Edward Cabrera, the right-handed pitcher for the Miami Marlins, that from Ken Rosenthal, but first Michael Cerami, our friend over at Bleacher Nation. So that news coming across. We will continue to collect more information, but the Cubs need a pitching help, so that's an actual out-getter.
Getting back to the matter at hand, Mike, when it comes to the discussion surrounding John Harbaugh, we had seen the report that. Seven teams had contacted John Harbaugh's agent, Brian Harlan, within 45 minutes or so of him being announced as no longer with the Ravens. But there were seven calls and there's only seven job openings, which means the Ravens didn't call.
So we're trying to figure out who that mystery team was. If you had to guess who's mystery team.
Well, and it's possible there are more than one mystery teams because we're assuming that all six of the teams looking for coaches other than the Ravens made a call within the first 45 minutes. It's possible it's more than one. I ran through all the possibilities in an item that I posted an hour, hour and a half ago at PFT.
The Buccaneers are the first team that comes to mind because it seems like they're figuring out what to do with Todd Bowles, who went to three straight.
division championships but his record's 35 and 33 and they've seen a revolving door of offensive coordinators who are going on to be successful elsewhere now Harbaugh is not an offensive coordinator or a defensive coordinator he was a long time special teams coach but that was the first team I thought of another team that came to mind because I've been reading the tea leaves as it relates to the team that's coming back to Chicago on Saturday night for a playoff game
When Ed Policy became the president of the Packers, he said that there would be no new contracts for Coach Matt LaFleur or GM Brian Gutekunst before the end of the 2025 season. Both are signed through 2026. Policy also made it clear he's not a fan of lame duck arrangements. So that makes 2025 an up or out year for both guys.
And when you consider that the Packers have made it the past three years as the seventh seed, if they hadn't expanded the playoffs in 2020, the Packers would be on a four-year run.
of no playoffs i i can't help but wonder whether or not the current president of the packers called the son of former packers president bob harlan and said don't make any decisions until next week and again that's all speculation but brian harlan caused the speculation by specifically saying seven teams called he knew what that meant and he knew what it was going to do and i think one of the teams we need to look at is the green bay packers also the miami dolphins hey
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Chapter 4: What are the potential landing spots for John Harbaugh?
And the follow-up is, how in danger is the entire Chicago Bears coaching staff right now with all this going on? Guys like Al Harris, guys like Declan Doyle. I mean, we just saw John Morton get fired in Detroit.
Well, one of the problems with the hiring cycle is whether it's coordinators, whether it's head coaches, you have distractions created when your assistant coaches are on the list to be interviewed by these teams. That creates a major problem. There are
coaches who just hate the current system some people think that nothing should happen until after the super bowl that's not practical it fits with the timeline of the nfl maybe you have to adjust the timeline i don't know but it does create issues and it's another challenge for a coach of a successful team to have to to have to keep everyone focused on the task at hand when they're naturally going to be thinking about possible promotions elsewhere
We're talking to Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk, and that's the amazing part about all of this. It's a playoff week here for the first time in years. It's NFL playoffs at their, maybe one of the most exciting weeks that I can think of when you consider the level of competition just up and down the seeds. And here we are talking about
the teams who aren't necessarily playing. Like that's what makes us so compelling. You know, what do you think about this coaching cycle now that this is such a game changer? I think it's also just one of those times where it might be a potential sea change moment in the league.
Well, I think about where we were a week ago. We had a pretty good idea that the Raiders and the Browns were going to change coaches beyond that. Nobody knew. Nobody knew the Cardinals were going to change coaches, even though Michael Bidwell, the owner of the team, had to have known. Had to have known.
You don't go to bed the night after you finish 3-14 and wake up the next day with a lightning bolt moment that you're going to change your coach. And there's that video that's out there of Bidwell seeking out Jonathan Gannon for this bear hug. In hindsight, it was Michael Corleone and Fredo at New Year's Eve. That's what that was. Because he knew damn well what was happening the next day. So...
We're at seven, almost a fourth of the league, and that's not atypical. That's the way it works in the NFL. Because it's a zero-sum game with 272 games, there's a winner and there's a loser, except for a tie, which happened, what, once this year. There are going to be good teams, there are going to be bad teams.
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Chapter 5: How does Mike Tomlin's situation compare to Harbaugh's?
And the bad teams are going to feel pressure to become good teams. You want season ticket renewals. And for a team like the Browns, I think Kevin Stepanski was made to be the scapegoat for the failed Deshaun Watson transaction from four years ago. They're going to be selling PSLs to their new stadium. They need the fans to be willing to dig deep into the discretionary income and write the checks
So they've got to do something to at least create the impression they're trying to change. The best part is they can't lose any more games until next September, but they can at least create the impression for now that they're trying to win more games and get people to renew season tickets and buy those PSLs for the stadium they're going to be building in a few years.
At the other end of the spectrum sits the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles. I'm just curious because they had a chance to get the two seed, did not play their starters. Do you think Nick Sirianni is in any jeopardy with these head coaching, the carousel spinning the way it is right now? I mean, if they were to lose to the 49ers this weekend? I'd be stunned because they won the Super Bowl.
We went through this exercise in 2023 after they fell apart down the stretch. They were 10 and one. They won one regular season game the rest of the way. They were blown out by the Buccaneers in the wildcard round. And there's that great shot of Jeffrey Lurie in the luxury suite. And I don't think there's a word to describe the expression on his face.
It was a combination of like four different things. And it was almost like one of those paintings where if you look at it from a different angle, it gives you a different impression. But remember, we had a couple of days because the Cowboys got blown out that weekend by the Packers. The Eagles got blown out Monday night by the Bucs.
There were a couple of days where we're wondering, are one of these two teams going to make a move for Bill Belichick? The Cowboys ultimately issued a statement that Mike McCarthy's coming back. The Eagles, I think their attitude was, only a dysfunctional team feels compelled to issue a statement saying its coach is coming back. We just went to the Super Bowl. We went to the playoffs.
We're not going to make a change. Now, Nick Sirianni had to go in and meet with Jeffrey Lurie and explain how he was going to make it better for 2024, and the plan worked. I just think he has enough equity.
When you consider how he started his career with five straight playoff appearances and some of the things he's accomplished are very, very rare, I think that it would be a huge surprise if the Eagles would say, hey, we're going to upgrade to John Harbaugh, although that's where Harbaugh worked before he became the Ravens coach 18 years ago.
See, and there it is, the jigsaw puzzle that we just can't put the pieces together yet. Mike Florio, this has been a lot of fun, informative, and a good day for rabbit holes, that's for sure. Thanks for joining us.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Cubs acquiring Edward Cabrera?
Matt alleges that Haley's comments gave him, quote, unwanted attention and invasive commentary from the public, end quote, while adding that his family has been forced to endure the ongoing public circulation of these degrading and deeply personal statements. Your thoughts, Layla?
Well, he married an influencer by trade who's known to be public about things.
But I don't know that she was an influencer when they got married. They got married in 2015. They got divorced seven years later. He actually remarried to his current wife, Kehlani Asmus.
They have a child.
They have a child together. So apparently it wasn't a problem for her. Is that not correct?
I hate the fact that for him, this is something that has become public. But the problem is once you decide to sue, people like me who didn't know the story to begin with now know the story. So that's the flip side of taking action here.
So again, the lawsuit is a request for a jury trial and damages for an amount that exceeds $75,000. He claims in the suit, by the way, that Haley received substantial financial benefit, increased viewership, increased engagement, and monetization through various social media platforms and media coverage. And she had hinted that the biggest factor in their split was his quote-unquote size.
At one point, appeared to imitate how big it was by flopping her arm on the table.
What?
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Chapter 7: What challenges do the Cubs face with their pitching staff?
That's the point. That's why he's suing for $75,000.
But you didn't know about it before he sued her, correct?
Did you? No.
And that's why I think this is a problem. Sometimes you want to take legal action, but unfortunately, the story then entirety comes out and you don't want that to happen. More people end up hearing about something, even though he was wronged in her saying this stuff.
You know why I'm with him and not her? Because she had the nerve to, after the live stream went viral and made headlines, to come back and say she still cared deeply about Matt's privacy.
No, she did not. Not after doing that.
And the integrity of what we shared together. Those are her words, not mine. Come on, man. Come on, man. Look, you saw clout and you took that clout with you to the internet and said, I'm going to cash in on that clout.
Also, I'm not, you know, I don't think this is the 1920s by any means. So I'll just, I'll just point this out. This wasn't an issue before you got married.
Maybe they were saving themselves. I don't know.
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