Shawne Merriman joins G&D and discusses how he thinks Patrick Mahomes could surpass Tom Brady in the GOAT conversation.
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00:00Sean Merriman is courtesy of bet online brought to us today
00:03Check out been online for the most diverse list of well over a thousand Super Bowl props including MVP
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00:13I love those days, of course broadcast odds game and player stats and a whole lot more Sean
00:19It's good to have you back on in the DMV. How are you, buddy?
00:22Hey, what's up, man? How's it going? We're chilling. What do you make of the Chiefs doing it again?
00:27This is now five Super Bowl appearances in six years after seven AFC championship games in a row
00:37That that just sound ridiculous even chanted, right
00:39It just sounds crazy the best even a possibility or this team even has a chance to have a three-peat Super Bowl
00:45I mean people go their whole entire careers
00:48You know and I can speak from experience of not have an opportunity playing one Super Bowl
00:52Let it on three back-to-back right and so, you know just what they've been doing is remarkable and you know
00:59You hate them for me personally. I don't like putting the crown on anybody too early
01:03So when people started talking about pashma homes and Tom Brady and comparison, I don't like it
01:09But I can't you can't fight it. You can't say hey, yeah, at least he's not up in the conversations of that go talk
01:16Well, where is he right now for you?
01:19Um
01:20He's not there. But I think you know people start bringing it up. You can't really argue back
01:25I think the conversation is wanted
01:28But you got to see this at the pace right at the pace. He's going he could surpass Tom here pretty quickly
01:35Because Tom played a very long time and the Super Bowls are spread out all the way to the ones in Tampa Bay
01:41But the pace the passion for home's going right now. It's pretty remarkable
01:44Did you cross paths with or no Andy Reid at all even from like Pro Bowls or anything like that
01:51I just wonder you know
01:53he is a unique guy because most of the offensive savants in the league are like younger guys who
01:59Came up as second generation NFL people. He is still doing it mid 70s and still as innovative as anybody. I
02:07Think that's the most impressive part because we see the NFL getting younger
02:12But every every five years or so, there's a coach that's getting, you know closer to age as players
02:17I think that Sean McVeigh was one of the first ones and really kind of reset the market and how teams are looking
02:23So, you know you look at the Andy Reid's and the Pete Carroll's even a Jim Harbaugh some of the guys that are Sean Payton
02:29They're still being able to coach for late not only to the players, but also to the game being able to change these formations
02:36Some of this stuff, you know that they're running now
02:38They didn't run 10 years ago, let alone 15 or 20 years ago. He's got well was in a middle a coaching careers
02:44So it just it just tells you a lot about who he is and the innovation and also surround himself man by by great coordinators
02:51I mean, you know, we talk about the read but you can't talk about the read without talking about spagnola
02:55You just can't because he's allowed these guys to be in a situation just as much as Andy Reid
03:02So we were actually talking about this a moment ago. It cures is your perspective
03:06so those few years where you were just
03:09frankly unblockable as a as a pass rusher getting upfield with close to 30 sacks over two seasons and
03:15Just unbelievable playing the run kind of the unsexy part of an edge defender right there
03:20We were talking about a guy here in Washington and Dante Fowler had a renaissance year for himself getting after the quarterback
03:26But you know, maybe it's not an every down role for him
03:29Just go into that part of it for for an edge defender. Is it almost like eating your salads?
03:33You can enjoy your main dish right like you do you go to the chore of eating the lettuce?
03:37You can have your steak and depend on the run early on
03:41Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know, the crazy thing is I know they throw the ball a lot and
03:46You know sacks is on is important
03:48but what you don't want to put on film is a guy that doesn't have the ability to play the run because now it just
03:53Makes you one dimensional when they bring you on the field
03:55They got to take you off at certain downs the first down the second down
03:58They got to bring you on the third so they have the ability to hold up against the run
04:01Just makes you a complete player
04:03And sometimes even when it's me or people talk about my career as you just said
04:06I mean, I love to play the run because the run some of them always a mentality for me
04:10It's like i'm not gonna let this guy push me around
04:13Uh, and i'm not going to be the weak link on this defense
04:16Um, and so, you know being an all-around player man is really really more important than sometimes going out getting a sack
04:23Sean merriman is with us on grant and danny's we look ahead the superbowl 59
04:28Interview made possible by our friends over on bet online. Let's go over to the eagles for a moment
04:34how much of a chance are you giving them and
04:37What impresses you most about philadelphia?
04:39Having run the table here in the nfc
04:42um, well
04:44they've had a lot of changes right not just with players, but coordinators that's kind of left and
04:49Um going on to other teams and for them to rebound and just pick up where they left off and actually
04:54Maybe even surpass what it at at some point and time has just been remarkable and you know
04:59they've made some key moves man, and and you know guys leaving the coming back down I mean that
05:04I I don't think people are talking about enough
05:06how big
05:07Them bringing saquon barclay and is and I think that you know
05:11We're all living in a moment, but five years from now or 10 years from now
05:14We go back and and they look if they actually go out and win that superbowl
05:18It might have been one of the most important decisions they've made in organization history
05:22So go into that
05:24That's sort of part of it because I understand from a giant's perspective believe it or not not wanting to pay a guy to
05:29You know run for 1500 yards and lose, you know still 12 games, right?
05:34But it made perfect sense for the eagles
05:36Go into that about kind of the running back market and and fits and those sorts of things
05:40What did you make of that entire saga?
05:42Well, you gotta look at this. Um, the running back position has been devalued so much in the last several years
05:49um
05:50That saquon bar we just talked about the history being made in saquon barclay coming in for the eagles
05:55He might make history again because he might have single-handedly reset the market for running backs
06:00And if you look at the running backs and the teams that's winning right now, what are they doing?
06:04What are they doing? Well, they're running the football and you know when you run the football well
06:09You can everything opens up you can you know throw the deep pass
06:12A.j brown now is in the mix smith is in the mix
06:14It's just you know now people are worried about that rpo action
06:18Taking the ball and getting it for 10 yards and stuff like that. So he just he makes that off his gold man
06:23So I really think that
06:24A lot of front offices and teams after the season want to sit down and reevaluate how they look at that running back position
06:30Well, I think especially if you've got a dual threat quarterback
06:33So we saw the ravens do this with lamar who just had his best season
06:38he can't convince me that some of that wasn't because
06:41of the
06:42Addition of a 2000 yard back in derrick henry and it's chick or the egg, right?
06:47I think henry was great in some
06:50To some extent because lamar jackson takes pressure off him too, but they both help each other
06:54You saw the same thing with barkley and with jalen hurts both those teams run
06:58Some pistol a lot of read option out of the gun, you know mesh point stuff
07:03If you have a quarterback
07:06That teams have to defend hat on a hat 11 on 11 with why wouldn't you prioritize the running back position?
07:12To help them after seeing what happened with the ravens and the eagles offenses this year
07:17I mean that that would seem like the most logical idea, right?
07:20And i'm speaking as a defender and there's nothing more demoralizing than the team that can run the football
07:25I mean you feel helpless
07:26Out there. They keep gashing and there's nothing you can do about it
07:29Um as a pass rusher, it just puts you on your heels the whole entire time
07:33you can never feel comfortable enough to pin your ears back and go because
07:37You know, they got somebody back there
07:39They can hand the ball off on the draw or some kind of delayed action who can really hurt you and so
07:44Again, I I just think that you know, derrick henry and shaquan and how they how they're playing right now those guys
07:50What they've done for that team
07:52You got to sit down as a front office and say look. I mean, yeah, we might have a all-star quarterback
07:56We might have a hall of fame type of franchise quarterback
07:59But we need somebody who can touch the ball 20 plus times a game and hurt you equally
08:05And shawn both these defenses are so good
08:07I know you touched on spagnolo in in in kansas city
08:10But just thinking of his counterpart vic fangio and you got two of them
08:13Maybe five or six best defenses in the sport going at it in such an offensive league
08:17What makes each of these defenses special and so tough to counter for offenses?
08:21You know with spagnola just him alone. It's just timing. I mean, he caused some great glitches
08:26But his timing is impeccable. You look at some of these, uh, you know
08:30Situations where teams not even the third long in a second and seven
08:34Situation when they go out and get a sack now, it's you know, third and 13, right?
08:38And now he's still bringing pressure
08:40He's bringing guys up in the a gap off the edge and dropping them in the covers
08:43You just don't know what's going to happen. So his timing is impeccable and if angiel he's uh, what makes him great
08:49Is he got he knows where the strong points are with nolan?
08:53Jalen carter those guys up front. He knows who the playmakers are so he does
08:57different stuff different things to put those guys on one-on-one matchups and
09:01I play for a great defense coordinator wayne phillips, you know, his main thing was
09:05We're going to have you doing what you do great 80 percent of the time and what you don't do great 20 percent of time
09:10So that's why you didn't see me dropping a whole lot of coverage one. I hated it
09:14The second part is is that you know, that wasn't my strong suit
09:17I can do it if you ask me to I can cover around the back to the flat
09:20I can cover a wide receiver down the scene if you needed me to but that's not where the defense
09:24I was going to help the defense at the most and so these two great defense coordinators
09:28They put their guys in position to win
09:30What was the logic on 20 percent of the time you're going to have to do something?
09:34You don't want to just to show them something else
09:38Yeah, because you want to keep everybody honest
09:39You can't have me on the field, you know blitzing 100 percent of the time or coming off the edge or just coming
09:44Where i'm up to field all the time you have to show that hey, you know
09:47Maybe this guy can't go and drop and we're going to bring his safety
09:51Uh down from the other side and so when you're able to do that
09:54It keeps everybody honest or on the offense side of the ball
09:57Who do you like in the super bowl sean?
10:01You know, it's it's uh
10:03I went against the chiefs and mainly patrick mahomes and i'll tell you the the thing why I can't go against him a couple years
10:09Ago when he walked into uh to the afc championship game against in the super bowl. He was on that bump foot
10:14I don't you guys know they had a bump foot or bum ankle
10:17Uh, wasn't he went close to being 100 percent
10:19He iced that game on like a 15 yard run or something like that after that happened I said, okay
10:25We noted it was out in the public that he wasn't healthy
10:29And now he's sitting there and icing the game with his legs when you can't go against these guys
10:32So i'm going to chief. Um
10:36Now I don't want to take anything away from uh, the eagles and whatnot
10:39But the chiefs just found ways to win football games and you look at the stats and nothing jumps off the board
10:45They might have a average passing game. They might have an average running game sometimes on defense
10:49They might be in the bottom in the middle of the pack and you look at that scoreboard
10:53They won by one by seven and so you can't keep going against these guys anymore
10:58Sean, we appreciate you hopping on with us buddy. Thank you for the insight and we look forward
11:03To seeing your take on the super bowl after the fact
11:07You got it guys and make sure you download lights out sports tv as well, man
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11:14Um, and also we got a big fight coming up friday, february 7th
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11:26You're always making moves man. We appreciate it. Thank you
11:31Thanks sean
11:33All right, but be good. There's sean merriman tariff
11:36You know maryland has had great nfl talent. They've had players like vernon davis. Yeah sean merriman that have gone on and had
11:44Tremendous nfl careers stefan diggs pretty darn good player in his own right, you know, but yeah
11:50it's it's one of those things for a long time, this was a
11:52My buddy who would when maryland was they used to be in a conference called the acc
11:56You may or may not remember that but I had friends who went to uva who used to say like
12:00They never produced any pros. They're they're no good pros for maryland
12:04It's like their best player was like ej henderson who played for the vikings for a little while
12:08That was like the big gripe not the case now man. So talent goes through there for sure