S4E37: Aaron Rodgers' Future, Build Around Geno? CFB Awards and guest Alicia de Artola

On this episode: Aaron Rogers' future is suddenly is a hot topic, Deion Sanders becomes the next head coach at Colorado, Von Miller injury, Jon Robinson fired, with the regular season over Brad gives out some college football season awards, NFL Week 13 "Game Ball", Can the Raiders make the Playoffs? Should the Seattle Seahawks build around Geno Smith? Guest Alicia de Artola (@PenguinOfTroy) from Fansided is on to talk USC Football and the NFL.


Today's Guest

Alicia de Artola

Alicia is a staff writer for FanSided.com and co-host of the Reign of Troy Radio podcast. She covers all sports from college football to the NFL, MLB, NBA, soccer and Formula 1 for FanSided.com

Episode Transcription (1ST HALF):

(Brad Fowler) Just like every week guys, got a lot I want to get to today. I'm gonna start with some football news, Von Miller out for the rest of the season. He tore his ACL in week 12 versus the Lions. It's really unfortunate for the Bills, a team that has Super Bowl aspirations as we know, this is a guy who was having a great year. He had eight sacks in the Bills, first eight games, but this is exactly why when the BillS signed him, I was critical of this deal. If you guys remember I said this was a guy that I think they really overpaid for. They overpaid for a 33 year old pass rusher who's past his prime. Now he's still a good player, Don't get me wrong, but a guy who clearly has played his best football already and he's coming off of an injury. This is his second torn ACL on the same knee. He also missed the entire 2020 season with an ankle injury. So injuries are starting to become an issue for him. The Bills signed them to $120 million deal with $51 million guaranteed. This is a deal that really came back to bite the Bills. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur saying recently that absolutely of course, we want Aaron Rodgers back next year. But my question is, why is this suddenly a topic? Why is this suddenly becoming a question? Aaron Rodgers future at Green Bay is all of a sudden a hot topic, and the Packers season we know has gone completely off the rails. Rodgers is the guy who appears to be on the decline of his career. Back to Back MVPs coming into the season. He doesn't look like the same player. We've seen a decline in his game he's missing throws that he used to hit in his sleep and the Packers are just not the competitive team that we've seen the last couple seasons. Here's the issue though. He signed a massive extension and the Packers have a third year first round pick at the backup quarterback spot. This is where it really gets interesting here because I think the Packers really need to play Jordan Love the rest of the year. I don't think it's going to happen. I think Rodgers is going to continue to be the starter and I think it's a mistake. They're not in the playoff hunt. You've got this kid sitting on the bench and he's looked pretty good and limited action granted this year, but he's looked pretty good when he's been in the game when the Packers aren't making the playoffs. So why don't let Rogers rest? You've got nothing to play for at this point. He's been dealing with injuries. They need to see what they have in Jordan Love because I don't think all these questions are circulating the media about Aaron Rodgers future being in question I don't think it's out there for no reason. Now moving to guy like Rodgers in that contract that big extension that I talked about. That's gonna be tough. It's gonna be really tough to move a guy like that, but he's the type of player even at 39 years old, that teams are going to try to make a move forward. Somebody's going to get aggressive and try to make a move for and Rodgers and make the deal work. I think that the Titans are actually a team that makes a lot of sense. Keep your eye on them. But with the way things have gone a Green Bay, if there was ever a time to really just shift gears right now for this franchise and have it work with Jordan Love I think this is the time, you've got two young wide receivers who are starting to play some really good football. They've got good running backs. And like I said, this story is out there for a reason where there's smoke there's fire. This is something to keep an eye on.

Deion Sanders becomes the next head coach in Colorado. You want to talk about a splashy, higher. Deion Sanders is as big of a personality as there is in college football right now. What this guy did at Jackson State was incredible. 11 and two last year 12 And oh this year, and it's not just what he's done on the field because he's been pulling four and five star players away from big power five schools like Ohio State, Oregon, USC, Alabama, Oklahoma. I mean, you name it, a lot of these kids that he's getting. We're looking at those types of schools. We're talking big time programs, some of the biggest programs in the country. He's been able to pull players away from schools like that and get them to play at Jackson State. It's been really incredible. Not only that, but he landed Travis Hunter, the number one ranked recruit in the nation last year. He's had a top 50 recruiting class at Jackson State. This is an HBCU an FCS program that is completely unheard of for a program like that and have that level of recruiting. It looks like he's going to take some of those Jackson State players with him to Colorado. Some of the reports and things that I've seen is that a lot of some a lot of his best players could be following him to play for Colorado, but this is a major challenge. This is going to be a major challenge because Colorado is quite frankly the worst Power Five program in the country. They have outdated facilities, a losing culture, a team that has had very little success in the last 20 years in the Pac 12 had its best season in years and it's pretty deep right now. They finished with six teams inside of the top eight team. So this league has suddenly become as competitive as it's been in years. Colorado was really one of the only teams in this league that was just a total bottom feeder. But he's gonna come in here with a big time opportunity and a clean slate so to speak, to try to build this program in his image. It's going to be fascinating. I really cannot wait to see how this whole thing plays out. Because Deion has shown that he can coach I mean, he's done it on the field, though. He's got the wins to prove it but most importantly, this guy can recruit like I touched on this guy can really pull in talent and to be able to do it like at a place like Jackson State is just incredible. Now he's going to have a much bigger platform and a much bigger budget at a place like Colorado at a power five school. So this is a huge win for Colorado. It's a huge win for the PAC 12 in this conference. But here's the thing. The Pac 12 conference is still on life support. This is still a conference that we need to watch and keep an eye on because they still have no media rights deal in place. And I think there's a reason for that this deal should have been done already. And I think it's not happening because of schools like Oregon and Washington. I think they still have one foot out the door. I think they're still thinking about leaving for the big 10 I think it's a very realistic possibility that those schools leave possibly even a school like Cal and Stanford could be leaving as well but I think for sure, the Northwest schools could be on their way out here sooner than later. So yes, right now, it's a big win for Colorado. It's a big win for the PAC 12. But in a few short years, it's going to be really hard to say where Colorado is even going to be playing whether it's going to be possibly back in the big 12 or the Mountain West this might not be as big of a job as it looks like right now. But in the short term, man, get your popcorn ready, because this is going to be a lot of fun to see what he can do with this roster, how quickly he can flip this roster with the transfer portal and with his recruiting ability and to get players to buy into what he's selling absolutely can't wait to see what he does in year one in Colorado. All right, with college football's regular season wrapped up I thought it'd be fun to give out the PGF college football awards. I got three awards I'm gonna give out here first player of the year. This one was a no brainer. Caleb Williams from USC, the quarterback. I've talked about him a lot this year because this guy is special. He is a big big time player. He tied for the most passing touchdowns in the nation with 37 add 10 More rushing touchdowns to that in only four picks all season, third and passing yards in the nation. He helped lead one of the biggest turnarounds in USC program history. This guy was absolutely incredible. They came up just short of a PAC 12 title in a college football playoff berth. But it doesn't take away from the special season that Caleb Williams had. He's going to be the Heisman, no doubt about it and he's a player of the year for me. Coach of the Year. This one was tough. There was a lot of guys that I think were very deserving of this award. But I think it comes down to one guy for me and that's Jim Harbaugh for Michigan. All this guy does is win. Everywhere he goes. That's all he's ever done is when not only does he win, but look at where he's gone. Look at what his team does after he leaves. That's even more impressive because his teams tend to fall off a cliff. When he goes to a different program or a different team. He's had success at every level, multiple conferences and at the NFL level, just an unbelievable coach that I think is finally getting the respect nationally that he deserves because when he kept losing the Ohio State people were calling for his job and I thought it was ridiculous because the guy was still winning at a high level. But now he's beat them in back to back seasons really beat them down. I mean, let's face it, those games weren't even close. He's kicked their butt in the last two years. And his team is undefeated once again in back in the college football playoff for the second year in a row. He's done it with less and that's what makes it even more impressive. Ohio State out recruits him but he out coaches them. Michigan is a national player again and it's because of him Jim Harbaugh Coach of the Year. The Freshman of the Year is going to go to Quinshon Judkins running back for Ole Miss. He was a star this year man was this guy so fun to watch. He finished in the top 10 in the nation and total touchdowns and rushing yards per game. He was only a three star recruit, but he had one of the best freshman rushing seasons in SEC history. And he broke the Ole Miss single season rushing record. Incredible year from this guy.

It's time for the NFL week 13 game ball is gonna go to Chandler Jones defensive end for the Raiders. He signed with Las Vegas in March and he's had a pretty quiet year up until last Sunday. He had a major impact with three sacks, five quarterback hits, two tackles for a loss and a defendant pass. This guy really just took the game over on the defensive side of the ball. The Raiders finally starting to put it together here with three straight wins. He was a big part of that this team might be better than their record. I'm starting to think that this team is really putting it together here. It might be too little too late, but Josh McDaniels has really proven that he's a pretty good offensive coach. I think we knew that. But with the rough started, they had a lot of people, myself included, were really questioning if this guy was a legitimate head coach. I think the jury's still out and don't get me wrong, I was guilty of looking a little too much at the win loss record and not really noticing the improvement of the Las Vegas offense. You look at the Raiders last year points per game. There were eight teams this year. They're nine yards per game. They were 11th Last year, they're eight this year rushing yards per game. They were 28 in the NFL this year. Their 11th We've seen a huge improvement on the offense on that side of the ball. And if you look at what the Patriots offense has done since he left, it also can show a direct link to the impact this guy has on the offensive side of the ball. The Patriots last year. points per game they were six yards per game. There were 15th in rushing yards per game. They were 8th this year. points were game 20th yards per game 24th rushing yards per game 23rd, So that patriots offense has seen a huge decline since he left. The Raiders are now alive for playoffs fine. This is getting interesting because at 5-7, they're two games back on the Jets for the seventh seed. Now they're going to need to go most likely 5-0 or maybe 4-1 to finish the year if they have any real shot of getting in. But if you look at the schedule, they play the Rams on Thursday night football who are 3-9. Then they play New England who's lost two straight, Pittsburgh who's playing better but that's still a very winnable game for them. Then they're gonna face the 49ers with rookie Brock Purdy now at quarterback so there's a big question mark there and then they play Kansas City in week 18. Now they could be resting their starters in that game if they don't have a shot at home field advantage in the playoffs. So these are all games that are very winnable for the Raiders and with them playing some better football here, winning three straight coming into this next week. Watch out for Vegas, they might just make a push here and make things interesting at the end of the year.

It's time for the Twitter poll question of the week @PGFpodcast on Twitter if you guys want to get involved. I love getting feedback from you guys. I love doing these questions and getting the reaction from you guys. Just a lot of fun. The question this week was should the Seahawks build around Geno Smith? Surprisingly 69% of you said yes. 31% said no. The poll question still up if you want to vote on it, but this is a really interesting topic now. He's a former second round pick who's now 32 years old and in year nine of his NFL career. He started his first two years in the NFL for the Jets and then became a career backup ever since until this season. He wins a starting job in Seattle and he's having a career year 72% completion percentage, 22 touchdowns, only six picks. This is a really interesting conversation because the Seahawks have a top five pick that they're getting from the Denver Broncos as part of that Russell Wilson trade. They've got another first round pick and a lot of other draft picks that they could use here. They're going to be in a position where they could potentially draft one of these top young quarterbacks in April. Later in the show. I asked today's guest Alicia de Artola if she thinks that they should build around him, I get her thoughts. She had a great take and I'm gonna give my thoughts on it as well. And guys the pick six betting pigs will be on Twitter later this week at PJF podcast. I totally dropped the ball last week PGF nation I apologize I totally forgot to post it. I did however post college football championship week betting picks from our PGF betting analyst Leland Betancourt not his best week of pigs but that's how it goes sometimes when you're making bets. I'll have six NFL picks for you guys on Twitter this week. So keep a lookout for it.

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