NFL Season Wrap-Up in The Break Room : Final Records, Fresh Firings (Ep. 16)

Welcome back to Misery Sports Co where the office coffee is bitter, the spreadsheets never balanced and our biggest wins are the tiny moments nobody notices. That’s right. I’m Trevor, your VP of heartbreak, your director of disappointment. And I’m Zach, your supervisor of suffering here at Misery Sports Co. We don’t tally touchdowns. We tally sighs. Last week we checked in on the Charlotte Hornets who continue to redefine so close yet so far so very very very far. This week we’re back in the NFL trenches for the season wrap up and the inevitable coaching shuffle. But before we dig through the wreckage, let’s make a pit stop with our first sponsor Trevor. What do you got, folks? You better get in here quick because these won’t last long. From the scenic village of Baltimore, Maryland, comes the newly available Lamar Jackson Organic Duck. For one lucky person, you’ll get to pin your hopes, dreams, and literal employment to the most athletic quarterback of this generation who cannot, will not, and frankly, should not keep serving up duck. You’ll forget how bad they taste when you see him run. But just like Thanos, those ducks are inevitable. What will it cost? Everything. With Lamar Jackson’s organic duck. Thank you so much, Lamar. Uh, he has terrorized the Browns, so I can’t say much about him, but, uh, you know, he’s always the best running back in the backfield, so he always is. I think last time the Titans made it to the playoffs, we lost to him too. So I don’t really want to speak, but it’s one of my favorite times of year when it’s a close game and he launches one. And wouldn’t you know it goes right to the other team. Always serving just a bit outside. That’s tough. Well thank you Lamar. Now it’s time for the weekly earnings report, where every team’s performance is a line item in our ledger of misery. I will start over here. Um, you know, in a lot of ways, this is the most magical time of year for Titans Nation, because we can build the hope on maybe this next coach is the one, the one to be the cam whisperer. The one to get us back to the playoffs and out of the cellar. It’s all riding on this. So we have the break room later where we will talk about what’s going on with coaching searches and the coaching carousel. Uh, I will ponder with Zach if we would rather, if we prefer a wide cast net for our coaches or if we like it to be a little more selective. The Titans have definitely gone one way on that as a little bit of a spoiler alert. My goodness. Um, so that’s been dominating my Titans life the past week is who is going to be our head coach reading lots of tweets. It’s always fun to see this person’s maybe visiting the Titans. We’ve completed random interviews with some people. I will try not to flip my desk over when I tell you all of the candidates we have interviewed in the break room, but more more coach talk coming up later in the podcast. Uh, we did get some fun news, which I wanted to mention here. So okay, for a three and fourteen team, how hilarious is it that we had two count them two first team all pro players, not second team. Honorable mention, not just Pro Bowlers. First team all pro with Jeffrey Simmons on the inside of our defensive line and Kim DK returning kicks. How hilarious is that? There we go. We got some all pros in there. That’s something to build around, Trevor. That’s something to build around. It is something to build around. You’re never in a good spot when you want to build around your kick returner, but. That’s kind of where we find ourselves. Uh, and I will say that it’s been cool to see we’ve talked about it on this podcast, how the, um, best players, some of the leaders in the locker room are loyal to a team that’s been so underperforming for so long. So it’s been cool to see and some exit interviews. Jeffrey Simmons saying like, go watch the cam Ward tape. That’s why I’m here and watch the tape like I’m staying here because of the rookies and how big of an impact they’re making and how much I believe in them. So that’s it’s been really cool to see that. So that’s been nice. You know it hasn’t been nice Zach. All of my other sports teams, all of them uh the Mavs are booty. We were going to trade Anthony Davis finally to just get him out of here. It’s bad juju. We just need him out. We had convinced some teams that they should give us, like, expiring contracts and picks. Who wants to take street clothes on? I don’t know, but we had done the work, but we didn’t shelve him. We just let him keep playing. And then he broke his hand. Not great. Uh, it’s funny, we tweeted it out. You know, I think this is the perfect opportunity to hire Nico Harrison back just to fire him again. Uh, just just bad. I mean, and this isn’t like. Oh, Anthony Davis, I. I never knew that he gets injured like, this happens every season. Every season. This is what and like feel bad for him. I think he’s a very good player when healthy. But nobody gets older. And suddenly their injury history gets better. Like nobody does that. Like you are injury prone. We knew it was going to happen. Um, and so it’s been funny, like, this is the first time I can ever remember a player getting hurt, and everybody’s sad because that means he’s staying. But, like, you can feel the team getting demoralized. So that’s been that’s been a bummer. One in three in the past week. All bad vibes. And I’ll tell you what, the stars aren’t much better after going on a stretch for, uh, in six games we were zero three and three. We were two one and one in the last week, which is fine, but our road trip figure this one out. Our road trip started with Caroline in Washington. Makes sense. East coast. Right. That makes sense. Yeah. Then we go to San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Utah on the same road trip. What the miles do. So frustrating. Getting those points. Getting those. Yeah. They’re going to be able to upgrade I tell you what. Everybody’s getting upgrades. Um, yeah. When we get to overtime, we can’t win our last overtime win. Not in the shootout was November eleventh. And it’s just like, anytime we get there, you just know they’re not. That’s kind of what I’ve been dealing with. Uh, how about you, Zach? What’s been the damage this week? Yeah. Pretty similar. Uh, blue jackets are just bottom cellar dwellers right now, so they’re, uh, second to last. They. The Rangers are below us. Let’s let’s celebrate that. That’s something, uh, wanted to dig out while I do this. Recap some of the the teams that we’ve covered. Right. So the Ottawa Senators, uh, dead last in the Atlantic Division. So welcome, Ottawa. You’re still with us? Um, um, they have a so what’s crazy again is they have a winning record, the Blue Jackets have a winning record, and they’re just completely out of it at this point. Um, Let’s see. Wild cards at. Call it fifty four points. We’re at forty nine. That’s not terrible. Like we could work our way in Ottawa. We got a chance. Yeah, so we’ll see. I’m going to a game. I think I’m going to the game Saturday. Nice. Um, to watch them. So that’ll be fun. Um, NBA so I mean, it just it’s such a weird part of the NBA season just in general. Um, um, you know OKC has been rolling. They they have a Spurs issue. I think they obviously beat them the last time. But it seems like the Spurs definitely have their number. Um but everybody else is just fighting scratching and clawing right now. There’s not like a clear especially in the East. Um, New York’s leading their division at twenty five and fifteen. Uh, Detroit’s out in front right now at twenty eight and ten. Cavs are twenty three and nineteen. Yeah with JB Bickerstaff I mean of all people that is very funny. Pretty wild. He was former former Cleveland Cavs coach. Wasn’t good enough for us. So he’s going to take Detroit all the way. Um, yeah it is what it is. Cavs are at the seven spot. But if you win a few games you’ll work up into the the third or fourth seed. I mean it’s also consolidated right now that they just have to find their groove right around all star break and get healthy. I mean, that’s been the worst part right now. Um, but checking in again on some of these teams. So Washington Wizards, bottom of the Southeast Division. Um, Charlotte is second from the bottom in the southeast because of the Washington Wizards. So thank you Washington climbing yeah being that buffer yeah. New Orleans Pelicans they are dead last in the southwest. So um we feel your pain. Hang in there to all those different fan bases. We’ll continue to track you. See how your draft position’s going? Race to the bottom. That’s right. Well, the usual suspects fell short. Some teams limped to the finish line, some imploded spectacularly, and a few even surprised us in the worst way possible. That’s your earnings recap. Let’s pause misery for a second and check in with our next sponsor. Zach. Thank you. Trevor. Do you have no idea who to pick as your next head coach? Well, the NFL vibes, visors and very Bad Choices consulting group is here for you. Interview every coordinator, every retread, every guy who once held a clipboard near Sean McVay and convince yourself this time will be different. It’s going to be different. I tell you what. If you just like say Sean McVay like you shared a bathroom one time with him. Like you’re in dude we’re we’re so hungry for the next Sean McVay. It’s wild. More on that in the break room. I just yeah. And before the break room, let’s visit the mail room real quick where we sift through this week’s social media chaos so you don’t have to. Zach, hit me with the best of the worst. All right, so in the mail room, I have one tweet of the week this week. Um, I stumbled upon another Jameis Winston gem. So Jameis was on the new Heights show with um the Kelsey brothers. And so really really cool podcast. Definitely recommend it. Um but here is Jameis reminiscing about uh, his introduction to the NFL. Here it is. Do you have a welcome to the NFL moment. Well yes I have a iconic welcome to the NFL moment. Uh, I got two I got two for you. Well my very first pass in the NFL was a touchdown. And a lot of people a lot of people can’t ever say that. Yes, it was. It was a Cody Simpson ball on the pick six. So my very first pass. Uh, that was that was a welcome to them. So you got my. So look, this is this is this this is the craziest thing, right? We both threw a pick on our first man. That’s why I knew you were my. Oh, my gosh, I remember that game because it was against the Titans. And I was thinking like he threw a touchdown his first pass. Like, I don’t remember that at all. That’s so funny cuz it was the big thing, right? It was you know it was Jameis Winston. It was Marcus Mariota. And we were like I don’t I mean Jameis is just like a gunslinger I’m not sure how this is going to go. And it’s it’s first pass as a pick six. So good gosh that was such a great game. Yeah good old Jameis. Well Trevor what do you got for us in the mail room I have two entries for us. Uh the first is from one of our beat writer. Um, kind of blogger. Beat writer folks. Mike Herndon, uh, for the Titans. He was reflecting on what’s happened with this coaching carousel and said, I pray that every Steelers and Ravens fan who have spent the last few years bitching about Tomlin and Harbaugh get to experience their own version of Brian Callahan for the next few years. And you know what? Mike, please. I hope that too. I want that so bad. They have no idea what a luxury that stability is. I want them to descend into chaos so they know what true pain is. You know they’re not Trevor. You know they’re not. They. They probably won’t. They’ll somehow find, like, a random coordinator from some team that was on nobody’s radar. And then they’ll be there for twenty five years. That’s what I’m predicting for both of them. Uh, second. My my winner. My tweet of the week is from Joe at seven forty one on Twitter. They quote, tweeted a Spurs fan who had mocked up a picture of Cooper Flagg in a Spurs jersey because the Spurs got the number two pick in that draft and said he literally would have solved one of our biggest holes on this team. And Joe responded with this is the greed they talk about in the Bible. Okay. And it is. It is because you have a team with Wemby and Stephon Castle, and you’re out here going, if we just would have got one more first overall pick like this would have this would have fixed everything. And that is the greed that they warned about in the Bible. Don’t be greedy like that. But this is from a from a fan base who had Tim Duncan and David Robinson and Tony Parker and Manu all running around doing stuff for championships. So, like, I get it. They don’t know any better. Wembley is insane. I mean, it’s it’s it’s hard to even comprehend when you’re watching him on a, on a basketball court how enormous he is. And he’s, he’s so young still. I mean, he has so much runway right now. I am so jealous. Well done to the Spurs for winning that one. That one lottery, that life changing lottery. Hey we we had it, what, twenty years ago? Twenty five at this point how many is twenty three with LeBron. So you just gotta roll with it. You just gotta roll with it. Too bad the Atlanta Hawks got Zach Russia or whatever the hell two years ago. They couldn’t win there. Aren’t they in between the Wemby and the Cooper flag trap. Yes. Yeah that’s like Anthony Bennett for the Cavs number one. It’s like what. Who is this person now at least with Anthony Bennett you got a consolation prize. That draft, those poor Atlanta Hawks got absolutely nothing but no. Uh, that is my, uh, tweet of the week, uh, heated debate about which tweet should be fired first. Uh, guess what? They’re all getting fired. We’ll send out some awards. I’m sure they’re in the mail. Yeah we do. We get it situated with the HR. And, you know, there was the union we were dealing with. I don’t remember if we I don’t think we negotiate with them. We’re it’s still we’re in arbitration. So I don’t know if we can actually say anything right now. I think we’ve been advised not to. We’ll keep it sealed. Yeah. We’ll keep it sealed. Eventually we will have a conversation. It’ll come. The truth will come out. It’ll come to light. Yes. Um. And I’m gonna keep rolling and say, that’s it for the mailroom this week and just keep it going. I’m just gonna keep. Keep it going, baby. So now we’re going to give a quick nod to our next sponsor. This segment of the Misery Sports Company is brought to you by Jim Bob Cooter’s serial killer stadium package. Do you remember? Do you remember Jim Bob Cooter? I think he coached a lot. I think he coached the Lions one time. Well, he has had some free time, and he’s here to throw off your opponent as they get ready to battle at your stadium. Jim Bob has curated all aspects of the game day experience to be the most unsettling afternoon of your opponent’s lives. It starts with your stadium entry. Music. Forget Seven Nation Army. You’re walking into Death Cab for cutie, the acoustic shit, and no one’s singing or cheering. Fans have been instructed to silently sway back and forth. At this, at the start of the game, Jim Bob changes tones to throw off your opponent. Keep them moving. We’re talking flares, baby, but the fans don’t have them. They’re coming from the windows of the hospital that overlooks the stadium. Stop. Stop. It’ll it’ll have your opponents asking what’s wrong at the hospital. That’s all I care about right now. Why is no one caring about the hospital? Every first down, you get just a soundtrack of elementary school kids giggling with helicopters overhead playing. And every time your opponent scores a video on the jumbotron plays and it’s an old man sitting alone and he says, good job, I’m proud of you for scoring. But what do you think happens when we die? I’m so scared to find out. No one. And Jim Bob means no one is going to be at their best in your building with Jim Bob Cooter’s serial killer stadium package. Wow. That’s a lot. It’s a lot to unpack. I don’t even know what the starting price would be for that. For that. It’s expensive man. He charges a lot. If you don’t have a hospital overlooking your stadium. You gotta build one. So we’re looking at. So I was looking at Iowa. We’re gonna pilot. We’re preferably. It’s not a children’s hospital, but we’re gonna pilot it at Iowa and see what happens. The kids are gonna love the flares. Everybody’s gonna love it. Can you imagine, though, an acoustic song playing while your team comes out and everybody’s just silently swaying back and forth? That is unsettling, man. Yeah. Really unsettling. Had to look him up while this was going. Jim. Bob. Cooter, you’ve gotta get some respect on his name. He is the offensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts currently. Of course he is. Congrats on that six game losing streak. I had no idea. I remember him, but Holy cow, what a what a blast from the past. Well, yeah, we’re going to go ahead and put that that sponsorship money in the bank. Cash it quick. That piloted. I was going to go terrible. Maybe we’ll invest in his idea I don’t I, I don’t know he’s doing an a series of funding. So if you want to get in on the ground floor, now’s the time. Oh, man. Alright. Well, it’s time to head into the Office of Moral Victories, who barely survived the week but still deserves recognition. My employee of the week is none other than Brice Sensabaugh. So Brice Sensabaugh plays for the Utah Jazz. Um, who are definitely on the struggle bus. Could could definitely fit into Misery Sports Co um connection with Ohio State basketball right. So go bucks. He had his career high Just recently forty three points. So he had forty three on twenty two shots which is phenomenal fifteen to twenty two. Five of ten from three point range. The Utah Jazz lost by two points. Know what? Definitely a moral victory, uh, in every sense of the word. But, uh, shout out to Brice Sensabaugh. Wow. Nice one. Brice. You said he plays for the jazz. Yep. They are currently losing by thirty one to the Mavericks. So Struggle bus is correct because the Mavericks are cheeks so. But hey congratulations forty points. That’s that’s big stuff dude. That is big stuff. Well, uh, my employee of the week last week was Mavs point guard Brandon Williams. He’s been going through it. Mavs have been terrible. Uh, but this week it is none other than SMU guard Boobie Miller, who hit a game winning half court three at the buzzer that sounded like this. Into Miller, defended by Hammond from half court. Oh! It goes. Down by two. A half court heave from, uh, for three at the buzzer. And honestly, when your name is Boopie Miller and you’re just tearing it up. Shout out to you, man. Congrats, boopie. Well done. Boopie. Well done. Promotions are imaginary, raises are non-existent. The union really needs to get that through their skulls. Uh, but the accolades are heartfelt. Now, a word from our next sponsor. This segment is brought to you by sports truthers connecting fans who know the refs, the league and the moon are all working against their team. Yeah it is. I like that a lot. I like that. Have you read have you read the stuff where, like, people are accusing Indian of cheating because they’re good? Like, what can we can we lay off of these guys? They they would be like one of the worst in, in history. And they’re crushing it. They are. And the tweets are so weird. It’s like, I can’t prove any of this, but I know in my heart they’re cheating. It’s like, no, maybe they’re just good. Ah, but I love the conspiracy theories. Like why not? Sure. And my favorite part about all conspiracy theories is that people think like they pull off this, you know, dark level conspiracy stuff. And then people go, okay, now it’s time to leave the clues. Like who? Who would do that? You’re never getting to that stage where it’s time to put in the clues so people can follow it. So ridiculous. I so it’s funny, I was just watching, uh, Dave Chappelle’s Netflix thing. It’s one of his more recent ones. Um, alright. So like, first, I don’t know, two thirds of the show. Pretty funny, right? Dave Chappelle like Chappelle show I am all about. So it had some good, good moments. And then all of a sudden he goes into these just off the wall conspiracy theories. I can’t even, like, cover them because they’re so bonkers. But it was just like it was right up there with sports truthers, man. Some people, they just want to dig into it. And, uh, unless it’s betting and point shaving, I don’t I don’t know that there is something there. I know it’s sad to see your heroes go down the rabbit hole. You just want to pull them out. What are you doing? Right? What are you doing? But thanks for the sponsorship money. We appreciate you. Keep at it. Keep digging those holes. Go find stuff. Keep sending us that money. Welcome to the break room, where the coffee’s cold, the opinions are hot, and in the NFL. Gossip is cheaper than therapy. So we wanted to take a moment in the break room and really cover the coaching carousel. Right. So there’s been a lot of firings in the NFL world. Um, ton of openings right now. We’ve got the draft coming up. We’ve got a ton of coaching candidates just coming out of the woodwork right now. And so we’ll cover all that. But Trevor, I wanted to start with the Tennessee Titans. What’s going on? What’s the latest and greatest in your search for the next leader? Well, it’s going okay. Um, don’t be so excited. No. My gosh, it’s just it’s fine. It’s going to be done soon, which is nice. Fans always like, we have our guys that we think are going to be the best. And usually it’s the hot coach like, oh, we think this guy could be something. We live in a world where once upon a time there was a small group of people. I was not one of them that said, Brian Callahan was going to be great. Okay, we live in that world. Uh, and so what Titans fans have always wanted the front office to do is cast a wide net. Like, let’s bring in a ton of voices so you can get a huge, big picture. We did not do that with Vrabel. We only interviewed for people with Vrabel. That worked out really well. They kind of backed into that one. We think, I don’t know. Um, well, with this one, we have interviewed nineteen people. To be the head coach of the Titans. Nineteen seems like maybe that’s too wide of a net. Like we were thinking like, I don’t know, maybe ten to twelve if you want to get crazy, but nineteen people. And on that list. Zach is former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, who has been in the NBC halftime show pregame show, and they brought him in for an interview. Now, was it, you know, a 4D chess move where they can be like, now he’s talking about them on TV because he wants to be like, The Titans are great, give me a job. Which he did. Um, we’re also assuming that a lot of these interviews are for coordinator positions. So that way you don’t have to go back through. And they can kind of say, hey, we’ve interviewed this person. We’re giving you the head coach job. What do you think about this person with offensive coordinator? Uh, I think we did that with Matt LaFleur. We did a very similar thing. Matt LaFleur interviewed, um for a coaching job, and then we gave them the offensive coordinator position, and that worked out great. But what’s your thought on like, how many people do you want to see through. Because my feeling is nineteen is too many. But what do I know. Nineteen is way too much. Um, I was trying to take a look at, you know, how many? Because it’s been a bunch for the Browns as well. I think we’re somewhere around, like nine to ten. Okay, coaches. That seems right. which I don’t. I don’t hate that. I truly don’t know what the answer is right now. On, on. Just like who the coach should be, I guess. Is there a feeling from Titans Town on someone they’re leaning toward, or it’s just like they don’t know, unfortunately. Is it Kevin? No. Well, he’s second. So it’s kind of the thought is Kevin Stefanski, um, or unfortunately Matt Nagy who I just why are we giving him another chance? It was so bad with the bears. And like when you go when you’re a coordinator under a head coach who specializes on your side of the ball, it is impossible to peel apart. Like, what have you done? Like, what have you contributed? So I have no idea. Like. What exactly he’s doing in Kansas City because Andy Reid is incredible, right? Like he runs the show. Yeah, but, like, what is he doing? I don’t know, and I really don’t care to know. But he has connections to our GM who’s been crushing it. He has connections to our GM. There’s a lot of smoke there. Everybody’s just kind of holding their breath. Honestly. Zach oh, I don’t know if I can say that. I was about to say, give me Stefanski. Don’t do it. I don’t know, like instead of I would, I would take Mike McCarthy in a heartbeat. I would take Robert Saleh in a heartbeat. Uh, both have either interviewed or are finishing up an interview this weekend. Uh, what are your thoughts on, uh, McDaniel Mike McDaniel out of, uh, uh, Miami? Yeah. The Browns, the Browns interviewed him. He actually was with Cleveland when we had, uh, the dude from Shanahan, from the forty Niners. Shanahan was our OC and McDaniel was on his staff. He’s a smart guy, just like I don’t I don’t know if he can lead the team. Like, I don’t really care as much about the X’s and O’s. And there was a tweet out from somebody. I forget who it was, but it was essentially like, oh, it’s a new era. And like Tomlin and Harbaugh are gone. And it’s not, you know, leaders of men. It’s it’s analytical guys and they’re younger guys. And I’m like, well, I guess on the one hand, like you can connect with the younger players a little bit more easily and maybe there’s a different way of doing it. But at the end of the day, like you’ve gotta hold people accountable, be disciplined. Uh, I don’t I didn’t see that from McDaniel. I didn’t he’s he’s quirky. He seems like a nice guy. I don’t I don’t really know him that well, but, um, I don’t know. We interviewed him. He’s sounding like he’s at the toward the top of the list. Mhm. Um, we took a look at our defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Mhm. Um I guess I don’t hate that. Like he it’ll be all right. He definitely had a great defense I can’t yeah. Can’t fault him there. But I mean, when I look at these candidates, you know, I just try to make a list. Brian Flores, Chris Shula’s the Rams DC. Now that one’s interest, I would sign me up for that. I think that would be great. Yeah. Did you ever hear Grant Rudinsky. I have no idea who that is. No, I didn’t either. Fair. He is a thirty year old offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars and apparently some hotshot that you know, oh, the Browns should get him and this that and the other. It’s just like, oh, here’s one clip of him talking about football and I just how it goes I don’t I don’t know I truly don’t know I don’t know if the right thing is to find a thirty year old head coach, that you can kind of mold yourself and bring him along. And we are not a desirable location. We have so much work to do. The defense is ready to go. Yeah, the offense needs a total overhaul, so I. Maybe it is an up and comer and you just keep Schwartz as the defensive coordinator. He’s under contract for a year, so he can’t leave. Literally. Yeah. Um, I just I’m when you look at the list, like Hafley mentor, Kliff Kingsbury, uh. My gosh. Jeez, there’s a lot of. It’s not a great list. No. And there’s a lot of people getting head coaching interviews that I would love for a coordinator position. Like if you got Schwartz and then had McDaniel as your offensive coordinator, that’d be great. He’s so creative. I think he could really play to the strengths of the talent that is there that you can get through the draft like that seems like a good pairing. I’d be up for that. Yeah, I think the only way is really to make him head coach. McDaniel. Like, I don’t think he’s going to be an OC of our team because we’re so bad. Like so bad. Yeah, you’re going to have your hands full with cheddar. He could be good, I don’t know. But like, there’s just going to be a lot of teaching, a lot of hand-holding. Um, so, I don’t know, I, I just, I’m okay with a wide net. Back to the original question. I like a wide net. I don’t like three or four people. Yep. Um, you need to get ideas. You need to understand how people tick and could lead a team. Um, I’m bummed because I thought you guys were going to have a chance at Harbaugh, but he, like, immediately went to New York. I know it really looked like we were going to have a shot because he wasn’t doing a lot of interviews, and we were collecting all of the leadership to fly to him. And, uh, it just didn’t come together. And I get it like big market, uh, historic team, good pieces there. Like, it makes sense. You know, you definitely can’t fault him, but it is such a poverty franchise thing to be, like, Used in like leverage against another team. Like we had the same thing. Remember when Peyton Manning was choosing where to go after Indianapolis, and it literally came down to the Titans and the Broncos, and it felt like he visited the Titans just to sweeten the deal in Denver, because our team was terrible. And he was like, well, I love Tennessee. You know? It’s got a special place in my heart. I was like, shut up, just go to Denver. And you know, when it comes to stuff like Harbaugh, it just feels like we’re constantly being used for for leverage. But that’s the plight of a poverty franchise. Yeah. And I think, you know, when you look at the the list of teams, which is pretty, pretty enormous at this point, we got the Cardinals with an opening. Falcons. Ravens. Browns of course. Raiders. Dolphins. Steelers. Titans I might even be missing one. But when you look at that that list. And obviously our teams both have warts. Yeah. Uh, which team would you say is the most desirable out of all those? I keep saying the Falcons at the top of people’s list and like, I don’t know that I agree with that. I don’t I don’t know. Yeah I think it’s fine. I think the Giants were a good gig. Um, from a certain angle. I think Pittsburgh’s great because you know that the ownership understands that it takes time to build and that you can also go through valleys on your way to peaks. So like the patience side of things and the stability from the the Steelers ownership makes that really attractive. Um, and I’m going to put on my two tone glasses and I’m going to say, you know what? The Titans are not a super bad gig. I can sell you on the pieces. Like I think cam Ward can be very good. I think we have a few pretty good rookies. We have a competent general manager who’s doing his best and is going to need another few years. But like we have the most cap room in the NFL next year. Uh, our leader wants to be here and is committed to the team. You literally can’t do any worse. If you win seven games. We’re going to be like, oh my gosh, you’re a miracle. So like, I don’t think we’re the best place out there, but I don’t think we’re the worst. What about you? What do you think? Yeah, I think, um, I’d probably say the Ravens are going to be a nice landing spot. You know, as hot and cold as Lamar is, he’s dynamic. And he will win you football games in the regular season. He’s not going to you know, it’s tough to see him winning a Super Bowl and and being able to put a team on his back because you have to be able to throw the ball at some point, right. But you’ve got the Bengals. You got the Browns I think the Steelers are probably trending downward. I mean, they have an old quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, who I don’t think comes back, you know with Tomlin gone. So I think they’re going to be ripping stuff off down to the studs this next season. Bengals could bounce back. You know Joe Joe had a tough season. Their offensive line is a disaster. But um the Ravens they look pretty good. I mean if you can get a good head coach in place, build up their offense a little bit more, their defense wasn’t as dominant either. But I think you’ve got a shot with this division. Yeah. And the the hopium that I have similar to you is like the Browns have a great defense. They they have so good a top five defense. Um, you just need to build out a stud offense, draft everyone from the offensive line and wide receiver room. Sign as many as you can and just figure it out. They did the same. They did a similar thing. You know, with the last year’s draft and making sure that they found Schlesinger a great linebacker. Mason Graham is a fantastic D-tackle like they hit on some stuff. So now it’s just, can you flip that and do the same thing with the offense? Right. If you can. This division is there for the taking next year. Like it’s not as dominant as it used to be. It was always Big Ben and freaking Joe Flacco back then and Lamar. And now it’s like okay well everybody’s gone. Harbaugh’s gone. Tomlin’s gone. Joe Burrow could be good I think that. Does he care about football though. It’s that’s up in the air like he seems mentally just like broken and was begging for them to overhaul the offense. And they just brought everybody back. Yeah. He is getting crushed. Their offensive line is garbage. Their defense. Because I was just looking at some stats. The Bengals scoring defense is thirtieth twenty nine points a game. Their total defense is thirty first three hundred and eighty one yards per game. So they got a defense problem. Um, yeah. It’s it’s a wild time right now. And I mean, just looking at the draft. The Raiders you know they’ve they’ve got an opportunity to kind of set themselves up similar to the Titans their number one. So you gotta assume that’s Mendoza right. They’re going to get Mendoza bad spot to be. So what the heck do the Jets do. Because I just read that, uh, more Oregon kid. Yeah. Is going back to Oregon. I don’t know, what about the Bama kid? He’s debating coming back because, like, teams are throwing four to six million dollars at him. I think Miami was like, at six. Um, I the Jets are in a tough spot. I feel for them. They are, uh, I don’t know what you do there, so we’ll see. I just looking at the draft I mean, the Chiefs are the, I think the most surprising. Maybe the commanders to me the chiefs are are picking number nine this year. So welcome Kansas City to Missouri Sports Co. You’re going to be a a temporary member. You do belong here. Just admit it. Yeah. Um I guess any surprises or anything that jumps out I the chiefs and commanders to me are just I guess the Bengals to a little bit. But between those three who stands out as like the most surprising. Yeah I would agree with those two. The Chiefs being there reminds me of um shoot what year was it? I think it was twenty one where the Golden State Warriors had some injuries. And so they randomly had a super high pick and you’re like, what the hell? Like, this isn’t fair. Why do they have a super good pick? And then the next year they beat the Mavericks in the, uh, um, did we get to the conference finals that year? I think we did. Um, Mhm. And they go on to win the championship. So it’s like you know or I think it was the conference semis. But uh they definitely surprised me up there. Um this list Zach it just makes me sad because I keep replaying that stupid Cardinals game. And if the Cardinals don’t fumble out of their own end zone and just, like, hang on to the ball, we would be the number one pick. We don’t need a quarterback, and we would be getting like three first round picks from the Jets because they would be so desperate for Mendoza. So it’s painful to look at. I know Butterfly Effect and all that. Like maybe we would have won another game, but it’s just like, ah, you think about what could have been, what could have been, what could have been. Man that’s another misery sports Co mantra. Mhm. Yeah it is. We live by that. Yeah. Tell you what every week feels like the office is trying to fire us for having opinions about grown men throwing a ball. And yet we show up anyway, logging in to heartbreak like it’s our job. We’re not going anywhere. Okay, get that through your head. We’re not leaving. Okay, I’m going to reiterate what Zach said earlier. Let me scroll up here. Phrases are nonexistent. That is our official stance. Get it through your head. Union reps. It’s not happening. Stop with your threats. We won’t negotiate. Yeah. Oh, no. You’re going to go on strike. Who’s going to send out our tweet of the week awards that never go out? Oh, no, that that doesn’t scare us. Go ahead. Anyways, uh, in a sense, misery never punches out. Well, that wraps up another week of misery sports Ko, where disappointment is guaranteed, victories are rare and morale is purely optional. Follow us on socials, hit us up on X, send in your worst takes and let us know which team ruined your week. We’ll be back next time with more laughs, more groans, and maybe, just maybe, a moral victory or two. Until then, clock out. Especially go get your picket line or whatever. Rest up and remember misery loves company.