Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on good things happening to the Silver and Black thanks to Antonio Pierce, NFL news, more.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation Las Vegas
00:06 Raiders Insider Podcast and that's our guy, Johnny Guitars.
00:10 [Click]
00:11 [Music]
00:21 [Music]
00:41 All right, there he is, Johnny Guitars. So, John, we got a lot to cover today.
00:46 Everyone loves your riffs, by the way.
00:48 Excellent.
00:50 All right, we got a lot to cover today. On Friday, I debunked a rumor that Antonio
00:58 Pierce only got a two-year deal because Mark Davis doesn't believe in him, which is just stupidity.
01:03 And all of that. I talked to, you know, Devante Adams, who gave his first public comments on
01:12 Getsy and, man, he was like a kid in a candy store. He couldn't hide his excitement.
01:18 A lot of good things happening around the Raiders and Antonio Pierce is changing things. Josh
01:26 McDaniels, very buttoned up, very starchy, very what you'd expect an NFL head coach that doesn't
01:33 say much. AP, if he feels it, he's going to say it. I mean, such a breath of fresh air.
01:40 Are you surprised the new aura, the new way people are looking at the silver and black?
01:48 A little bit because it's such a contrast from McDaniels, but not after seeing things like
01:55 in-season hard knocks, the relationship between the Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and his players,
02:00 and even watching the NFL honors, again, somebody referring to their coach in the first name. So,
02:07 this is a change and a transition and era is moving forward. And we are seeing it with some
02:14 of the coaches that are not going to work next year, and we're seeing it with guys like Antonio
02:20 Pierce. So, it is a little bit of a surprise. It's certainly an adjustment. This is the massive
02:25 trend. This is the way all this stuff is going. The old school coach, maybe it'll come back around
02:30 again, but it's not coming anytime soon. The collective, the Raiders are presenting themselves
02:37 with Pierce as their leader, but as like a collective, we're all in arms and arms, not like
02:42 I'm running the team, you guys are playing for me. - Right. John, are you surprised?
02:49 I'm trying to think of how I want to word this. I love this new wave in the NFL, Dan Campbell,
02:58 D'Amico Ryan, Antonio Pierce. I like this new wave of let's bring in the younger, I mean,
03:08 Vrabel, let's give him credit. He started it. I like this wave. I think it's good for the NFL.
03:16 They're going away from the stodgy business partner, a guy that looks like he could be
03:21 your accountant. I like where it's, no offense to accountants, I got a good one, but I love it.
03:29 I think it's great for the league. I think it's brought a breath of fresh air. AP,
03:36 not afraid to speak his mind. I think the Raiders are learning he's not going to be handled.
03:42 You're not going to handle him if he wants to say it. I mean, he goes on radio row and he talks
03:49 about the new OC, so okay, they release a press release. I mean, I like it. He beats to his own
03:55 drum. He knows I'm going to get fired for losing, kept for winning, so I'm going to be me. Again,
04:02 D'Amico Ryan's that way. Dan Campbell, I like it, John. What are your thoughts?
04:06 It comes with an acceptance that there's two kinds of coaches, those that have been fired
04:12 and those that will be fired. That is the ending for way more than 90% of them, so we understand
04:18 that. That seems to jibe. What you're seeing is guys who played in the early 2000s, really not
04:28 gone from the sport very long, all of a sudden that's what we're seeing being elevated right now.
04:34 Now, there's still a lot of young guys that were offensive coordinators. We see those head coaches
04:39 across the sport. We also saw maybe a couple coordinators fall on their face, like the
04:43 Chargers coach that probably wasn't ready. I actually think that the players are more ready
04:49 to be head coaches, like Ryan's, Campbell, and Pierce, than some of those other guys.
04:55 I like some of the just plain mentorship that went on for Dan Campbell. He learned from a really
05:04 good coach. Antonio Pierce learns from Marvin Lewis, learns from Herm Edwards. He's learned
05:09 from some really good guys too. Tom Coughlin. Tom Coughlin, and he's got the stark contrast to
05:16 what no longer worked. Unfortunately for Josh McDaniels, the timing, like the wheels and
05:22 everything fell off all at once. Nobody wants that type of coach right now, and it's very unlikely
05:26 that it's going to come back. That guy's going to have to retool his business in another time,
05:31 in another place. So this is what the players appear to be driving. And when you look where
05:37 the Raiders are now, and you talk about the new offensive coordinator and Devante Adams talking
05:42 about how excited he is, that is what you probably have to have now. The days of, "We're going to run
05:49 the team. This is what we're going to do." Those days are over. I don't know how many people,
05:54 can you really remember the offensive coordinator for the Giants during the Parcells era?
05:58 Or, I mean, we know Sean Payton during the Cowboys era was around there, but
06:02 there was like a kind of my way or the highway. That I think is transition. Now it's like,
06:08 who can we bring in to get on the highway and take this ride together? One guy that needs a
06:14 little credit for that is Pete Carroll. There's a lot of things that Pete Carroll did with Ra-Ra
06:19 doing the way he did that some of these guys like Campbell and Pierce and Ryans, they're taking a
06:25 lot from Pete Carroll, which is not a huge surprise considering when they were in college,
06:30 when they were in the NFL, and how long Pete Carroll was around as well in Seattle.
06:34 Yep. I agree with you on that, John. I got to say this.
06:41 First of all, you and I are too middle-aged. Well, I'm a little bit older than you,
06:46 so that's not fair to you to call you middle-aged. But Pierce is shaking it up.
06:52 And I mean, he shows up at an event the other night, everybody's dressed up. Now you got to
06:58 know, the guy is buff. He looks like he could still play linebacker. He got muscles all over
07:04 the place. He's got the bald head. He's got the black shoes, the black suit with a black T-shirt.
07:14 I mean, he just looked cool. He speaks his mind. Hey, what do you think of the Chiefs and the
07:21 San Francisco 49ers, your biggest rivals being in the stadium? He goes, you can borrow it.
07:27 Get the hell out. I mean, he just, it's a breath. The NFL, I believe this, was getting too stodgy.
07:36 It was getting too buttoned up. And he's been a breath of fish here. I've got to ask you this
07:43 question. Two years ago, just two years ago, 24 months ago, if I'd have told you Dan Campbell,
07:51 D'Amico Ryans, and Antonio Pierce would be head coaches in the National Football League,
07:56 and Bill Parcells wouldn't, and Mike Vrabel wouldn't, and Pete Carroll wouldn't.
08:07 I mean, if you're going to a horse track betting that trifecta, you're going to make a lot of
08:13 money. Does it not show you how quick, and this is what I think is good about the NFL.
08:18 I think it got into a rut. And I think it's gotten out of that rut now, and it shows us
08:24 how good, and I'm not a Goodell fan, you know that. But it does show us how good this league
08:31 can turn on a dime and give you nine cents change when it needs to metamorphosis itself.
08:36 Well, if you win, yeah. The Belichick retirement is, I guess at some point we thought that would
08:46 have to happen. But you know, there was never one mention of Bill Belichick going to another
08:50 franchise during all the success in New England. So you just kind of counted on it. The idea that
08:55 he would be out at the same time at Pete Carroll, and also that Mike Vrabel would be standing on the
09:00 sideline for a year. Yeah, that is a huge surprise. I didn't see this run of players coming. If you
09:07 look at it on paper, you would have thought Pierce was a couple years away from being a head coach,
09:13 or possibly being a college head coach. But that's on paper. We think about Mike Tonglin,
09:20 we think about John Harbaugh. We're just looking at paper. We're not in those situations. Most of
09:26 us are not around those teams to know what's going on. Like, okay, that's a guy that's going to be a
09:30 head coach. So no, I wouldn't have expected to see that. Maybe one of those guys, sure.
09:37 Even when the Lions hired Dan Campbell, I don't know that that was an expectation.
09:42 From Campbell's perspective, you see a guy making progress, working with the right mentor, preparing
09:49 himself to be a head coach. Again, that was more behind the scenes than on paper. On paper, you're
09:55 looking at Josh McDaniels, you're looking at other guys that you know that have been proven. But yeah,
10:01 what looks like is happening is that it's flipping. Now I tell you, if Mike Tonglin would have moved
10:06 on from Pittsburgh, that would have been like, "Whoa, how much can we take at once?" Luckily,
10:10 he's safe there, of course, and wants to keep going. And I think when you look at some of these
10:16 new guys, also, you keep in mind Tonglin, there has to be some idea and envy around the NFL
10:25 of the stability of the Steelers. Now, the term of stability is not going to be what it once was.
10:31 Even Tonglin, those three guys, I'd be shocked if any of them coach as long in one spot as Tonglin
10:36 did. But there's stability. So if you're the Raiders, if you're the Texans, if you're the Colts,
10:43 if you're the Seahawks, who've had some stability, or if you're the Washington football team,
10:48 that obviously has not, everybody should be thinking and desiring stability. I say everybody,
10:57 because at this time, the Carolina Panthers are still the Carolina Panthers. Their owner doesn't
11:02 seem to get that message quite yet. But I believe the Raiders got it. We talked about one of the
11:06 advantages to hiring Antonio Pierce when he earned the job was to set a foundation,
11:11 set a highway for actual stability. That is valuable. There is some value in that,
11:20 even though it's a not for long, two-year cycle league, you got to set the road for stability.
11:27 And that's what looks like has happened with those three recent player turned into coach hires.
11:33 I totally agree with you. And the reason I went back 24 months is 24 months ago,
11:38 Dan Campbell was a coach that everyone thought was just kind of on his way out. Is he going to
11:41 get fired after one year? All right. I want to have our listeners to know we are not done talking
11:46 Raiders, but we're going to talk about the Broncos. We're going to talk about Kansas City.
11:51 We're going to talk about San Diego, excuse me, Los Angeles, because I think it all impacts the
11:56 Raiders. We're going to go around the NFL a little bit, which is why we bring John in,
12:00 but stay with us. We're not done with Raider talk. John, the Bears are going to get a new stadium.
12:04 A lot of people think, and you know I'm from this area,
12:09 I'm from lower peninsula, Michigan, that it's going to be in Indiana.
12:14 Who cares where it goes? Your thoughts on the Bears, the new stadium, because there's
12:20 some interesting things coming out about it. It's interesting for a lot of reasons. Boy,
12:25 do the Bears have an off season with all the draft picks, Justin Fields decisions,
12:30 and maybe they've got the right guy there making those calls to lead the way. Kevin Warren
12:35 transitioned the Big Ten in a massive way and maybe shocked a few people when leaving one of
12:42 the most powerful jobs in the sport to go lead the Bears, who haven't had, I mean, they've had
12:49 some runs of stability, but there seems to be leaks in the ceiling with the ownership. Sometimes
12:55 it's the city. What is it? So here comes Kevin Warren to try to sort all this stuff out,
13:00 and the Bears are buying land or talking about horse land out in Arlington, and then there's a
13:05 nice video showing how they're going to redo Soldier Field again, and now there's other
13:09 talks. There's even talk about the White Sox building a new stadium, turning the old one into
13:14 a soccer field. There's all kinds of stuff going on here. Kevin Warren is a pretty smart guy. This
13:19 is going to be real interesting. Let's see what they do. Everybody knows the lake. Everybody in
13:26 the country knows Lake Michigan. Everybody wants to see the Chicago Bears in a great setting,
13:31 and this is something that is going to transition that area, and the reason I say that is
13:37 are they going to put a roof? Are they going to have a dome stadium? The roof like we see in Las
13:43 Vegas, the roof that we will see in Nashville, the trending roof that we see, does it need to
13:48 be retractable? There's a lot going on here. This is a huge decision for the Bears. The draft picks
13:57 are big. They affect the next five to whatever, eight years. The stadium decision and what Kevin
14:03 Warren can pull together, this is a four or five decade move. It is fascinating to watch what's
14:10 going to happen in Chicago, and I think there's a real good chance that they're going to have a new
14:15 facility on the lake that is going to make people excited, and if it's got a roof, baby,
14:20 you can book a Super Bowl there too. It's going to be fascinating to see what happens.
14:26 A lot of people say there's no extra property. Are they going to go play in Champaign,
14:30 in Urbana-Champaign, where they played the last time, which makes me feel old because I remember
14:37 when they renovated Soldier Field. Holy moly. Remember how long that was? Like a season or two
14:43 they're playing at the University of Illinois. Like, whoa boy. I don't like that idea. I like
14:49 the idea of them clearing something out, putting a new stadium in, and making the easy transition.
14:56 We're in a different era. A lot of people don't even remember when they went to University of
15:00 Illinois for those games. Could we really survive that? Could the Bears survive that?
15:06 That would seem more obtuse and really strange in the 2020s than it did in the pre-social media era,
15:16 the pre-iPhone-ish era. It just seems like that's a real big stretch, but it's not windy. The windy
15:27 city is not because of the wind. It's because of all the poles and political and gas that throws
15:34 around Chicago historically. So this ain't going to be clean. It's not clean already. Warren knows
15:39 it. I'm excited to see what he can do with it because this is the challenge of his career.
15:44 I think the possibility of moving it just across the state line in Indiana,
15:50 just for tax reasons and everything, people don't understand that's still very, very close to
15:56 Chicago. And people can still take the train out there. I think that's fascinating. And I think it
16:03 gives them a chip at the table that says to the city, "Y'all better get your crap together. We're
16:09 not overpaying just because when we can go a few miles to the east." I think it's fascinating.
16:16 All right, let's talk about Caleb Williams on cruise control. Explain what you mean by that.
16:21 Caleb Williams is from the D.C. area, the DMV, if you will.
16:26 When players go home to play professional football, it does not always work there.
16:32 No, no, no, no. The Washington football team had better do their homework. Let's take a little
16:38 history lesson. Way back when, there was a time when the Washington football team
16:42 looked like they were going to trade up to take Charles Rogers with the number one pick in the
16:47 NFL draft. They did not make that trade. Charles Rogers ends up in Detroit, the area he's from,
16:53 absolutely worst possible place he could have gone. The absolute worst possible place for his
16:58 career. That's one example. That went really, really badly. Some bad luck. It just was bad,
17:05 period. More recently in Washington, Chase Young went back there. Chase Young was basically kicked
17:11 out of Washington because he didn't play hard enough on a consistent basis. Chase Young's
17:16 reputation around the franchise was too often too complacent. That is the opposite of what you want
17:22 in your quarterback and team leader. I don't know Caleb Williams. I'm not telling you that he's
17:27 going to come show up and be complacent and get too many people patting him on the back.
17:31 But that team and franchise have to be remarkably aware of that. Their offensive coordinator should
17:37 know, and I'm sure he's already communicated with the brass there, and he better be darn accurate
17:42 or his professional career is going to take a hit. They got to know if this is a guy that can do that
17:47 or if he cannot, or if they're not sure. If you're not sure, you probably need to take the other guy.
17:53 Watch out for pros, especially quarterbacks, high profile guys who stay in their home area.
17:59 It does not always work. A lot of times it doesn't. To his credit, and this guy has not gotten
18:06 anywhere near enough credit for this yet, Aiden Hutchinson has done unbelievably well following
18:13 in Hall of Fame footsteps, for God's sake. In his hometown, he's playing in Detroit. Unbelievably
18:19 well. That is the exception to me. That's not the norm. The norm is Chase Young. Chase Young's going
18:24 to be much better in San Francisco, in Chicago, anywhere else other than D.C. And the really best
18:30 thing for him was probably getting out of there. The best thing for the Washington franchise is not
18:36 necessarily getting Caleb Williams because of this intangible factor. Sometimes home cooking is too
18:42 comfortable, baby. And as I've said for years, and the folks out there are probably going to say,
18:46 "Hey, it's not a bad idea." Complacency kills the cat a lot more than curiosity. Watch out
18:53 for complacency in the draft with guys going to their hometown areas. John, I've started really
19:00 pushing Todd Christianson to the NFL Hall of Fame. He deserves it. He should be there.
19:07 But I want to talk about the emerging changes in the NFL, in the emerging position of the tight end.
19:16 Let's talk about that. It's the X factor, baby. We've seen it. We now know it well, don't we?
19:22 We saw Gronkowski. We see Travis Kelsey practically impossible to cover,
19:27 dominating with the ability to catch the pass. We're going to see a fantastic tight end battle
19:33 here in the Super Bowl. I mean, really, two fantastic ones. And we're seeing such value out
19:40 of the tight ends because of their production. Now, we always talk and think players first,
19:46 how are they doing, what's going on on the field. The NFL has that whole other side of salary cap
19:50 and salary cap management. There is such a value right now in tight ends relative to production,
19:57 the really, really good ones, and relative to what they cost. They are not yet receiving
20:01 or being paid like your wide receivers. So whether you're talking about Kittle or whether
20:06 you're talking about Kelsey, you're seeing two of the best value guys. Now, the Raider angle to me,
20:14 and we may be jumping ahead a little bit, but I want to put a little nugget in the heads out there.
20:19 What do the Raiders do if Brock Bowers is on the board when they have to pick?
20:23 Now, they've got a tight end that looks like he's got a future, but if Bowers is clearly the best
20:30 player in the draft at that time, what do they do? I'm sure they've thought about it. I don't
20:36 know the answer, but that could be a weird crossroads. The value of the tight end is huge.
20:41 How do you say no? Well, watch for my next mock draft, because that's a guy that if
20:49 they're not able to get Jaden Daniels, let's say J.J. McCarthy's not there,
20:54 they need more tight ends here, at least one. I'm going to say at least one,
21:01 but it's fascinating to watch. You may remember last year in my question and answer article,
21:07 the first time I was asked, "Who are you hearing the Raiders are watching the most?"
21:11 This was months ago I put Bowers. That was months ago. That's what I love about the digital age.
21:17 It's all out there. You can go look for yourself. All right. Let's talk about the Broncos,
21:23 because they look to be in quite a quagmire. Let's talk about the Broncos here.
21:29 We're staying on the other side of the sport here, folks. We're talking about
21:32 the salary cap side. Now, everybody's going to get their hands ready and want to get ready and
21:38 start talking and dreaming about free agency. Well, guess what? The Broncos don't have a lot
21:44 of room to add free agents right now. That franchise is definitely in cuffs right now
21:50 from the Russell Wilson situation, which we are very confident is going to play itself out some
21:55 way, some form, I suppose, sooner than later. But that team is a little bit hamstrung when you're
22:01 talking about the salary cap. They do not have a lot of room to move regardless of what happens
22:07 with Wilson. That is something to keep in mind. Now, they have six picks in the draft. They do
22:13 not have a second round pick, which is a significant one. They've got some needs,
22:18 obviously, along both lines. They're going to have some, obviously, huge need or something to
22:26 figure out with a quarterback position. But what's interesting to me is that the damage the Broncos
22:31 did, mostly with the Wilson deal, is going to kind of keep them somewhat frozen solid
22:39 while the entire division around them is looking to make moves. You've got new coaches, obviously.
22:45 You've got new philosophies. You may have yet again a Super Bowl champion. The Broncos,
22:51 they're going to feel a little bit like they're stuck standing still, and they're going to watch
22:56 people go past them unless they draft remarkably well. When we watch free agency news, don't expect
23:03 to see a lot from the Broncos. They're stuck. And this is why we bring you on, because you and I go
23:09 around the league and talk about subjects that should be a big deal to Raider fan. And Raider
23:14 fan needs to understand, as you're watching other teams in your division improve, you've got the
23:20 Chargers that are $40 million over the cap, terrible position for the Broncos. This is a
23:28 lot of open field running, to quote the great General George Patton, opportunity here for the
23:33 Raiders. All right, let's turn to Kirk Cousins. In the interest of full disclosure, we know him.
23:39 I love Kirk, got a great relationship with Kirk, consider him a friend. I think ideally he would
23:47 like to stay in Minnesota. I believe that's where his heart is. We'll leave it there.
23:52 If Brock Purdy costs the San Francisco 49ers the Super Bowl, now if they lose and he plays well
24:02 and they could have won, I think it's that big. I think he's there. And I'm a big Purdy guy,
24:07 by the way. But I think there's a chance that he could go to San Francisco if Purdy costs them the
24:15 Super Bowl. There's also a chance he could come to the Raiders. I'd like your opinion on Kirk
24:21 Cousins and what's going around with Captain Kirk. First of all, we see he can move pretty well. We
24:26 saw the NFL Honors little spin around dance move he did. And we talked about this on this show
24:32 weeks back that you want to keep an eye on Washington and Atlanta. Well, that dust has
24:37 settled now. He knows who's going to be there. I don't see any kind of direct tie or direct
24:42 inspiration that makes me think he believes that those are either a good fit or more likely to get
24:49 him a Super Bowl shot than if he stays at the Vikings. So as we sit here today and these
24:54 cards are being reshuffled, it looks to me more like staying in Minnesota is going to give him
25:00 the best shot to win. He has talked about the fact that this is not all just about dollars.
25:06 He has also talked about or somebody asked him about the possibility of playing for Bill
25:10 Belichick. Well, obviously that's out the window. That's not going to happen.
25:14 The interesting thing you mentioned is San Francisco, because we know the incredible respect
25:22 and honestly, career launch that Kyle Shanahan helped Kirk Cousins with. There's a great book
25:29 in there someday about the work they did and how they both took off and how much it took.
25:36 And there's no doubt that this would be a good fit. There's also no doubt that if the 49ers win
25:43 the Super Bowl, no need. And if Kirti plays really well, no need. But as we sit here today before the
25:50 Super Bowl, the options, I think for Cousins relative to who's got a better shot to get to
25:57 a Super Bowl, then if I stay in Minnesota, assuming Justin Jefferson stays there too,
26:03 they're now shuffling and they're narrowing. So the Jefferson wild card, I think is the one
26:09 to watch. If for some reason something breaks down there and he's either unhappy or not going
26:14 to play in Minnesota, that would seem to open the door more for Cousins. But if you're Kirk Cousins
26:21 and you want to get a Super Bowl, you've probably got less than four years to do so.
26:25 You've got to be really smart and he sure is football smart, remarkably football smart. I
26:31 bet he's already prepared. He's got the notes and everything. He's watching it flow. A lot of eyes
26:37 are going to be on him between now and say Memorial Day to see where he goes next. Who knows? It might
26:43 be right there in Las Vegas. Right. Chargers staying in the AFC West, the Bulls, 40 million
26:49 over the cap. But man, you and I both respect Jim Harbaugh a lot, but they're acting like kind
26:56 of a clown show there. What's going on with the Bulls? They're putting a big giant target on
27:01 themselves. Talking about we want to win multiple championships. This isn't the Big Ten. This is
27:09 not, this is ridiculous thing to say. You've already got a target on yourself. Okay. By far
27:15 and wide, you got to target yourself. Also, you're in the most competitive sport in the country.
27:19 The one where everybody knows the goal every year is to win a Super Bowl and people want to win
27:23 many of them. So it makes saying something like that less necessary and less wise. All they've
27:30 done is put a bigger target on themselves. Now they could go 10 and 2 and start the year and
27:34 be out of the gates and like, wow. Or they could be trying to make the playoffs in year three or
27:39 four. And if looking like this was a really bad idea, the point is there's no upside in putting
27:47 a target on yourself. There should be no need to motivate your franchise or your football team
27:53 before you've coached a week in saying something like we want to win multiple championships.
27:58 Come on, man. How well did that go for LeBron James? It was a mistake. It was a mistake.
28:04 Fantastic player of James, obviously won plenty, but they didn't win six or seven in Miami.
28:08 It's remarkable that somebody in 2024 would say something like that when being named a head coach
28:15 of an NFL team. That's it. Keep it inside type of thing. There's no reason to push that out. There
28:22 is zero upside. All they did was put the bigger target on themselves. That lightning bolt target
28:28 got bigger. And if you think anybody in the division or around the NFL is not going to
28:34 remember that or have a little trash talk about that next year on the field, you are crazy. It's
28:39 coming out and probably coming out in September. It's going to be fun. Listen, I know Jim. Respect
28:50 him. I like him. I like him. And he's a lot like Pete Carroll. He's a rah-rah guy. He beats to his
28:59 own drum. He's different than AP, but similar to AP. I think it's fun. This is why I like bringing
29:06 these former players back. Maybe he just likes friction. Maybe he, yeah. Oh, he does. He does.
29:12 He loves drums. I mean, remember the Jim Schwartz handshake? You remember the
29:16 unbelievable story Frank Beamer says or tells about Samford? Look that one up if you haven't
29:23 seen that one, folks. It's unreal. Maybe he wants a little friction. If so, it could be a friction
29:30 filled offseason. It's really hard to understand. I scratched my head. You know, Sean Payton
29:35 maybe accidentally frictioned a little bit during the offseason, preseason in Denver. That wasn't
29:42 very wise. He's cleaned that up. He's not going to make that mistake again. Max Crosby said
29:48 something this week. I don't know if it was a great idea, but it wasn't as-
29:52 What do you think he said that was controversial? Well, he said that maybe we want to be like the
30:00 bad boys here in this new era of the Raiders. Again, I don't see a big upside in saying
30:05 something like that. All you're doing is putting a target on yourself. I'd probably mute that from
30:10 here. Antonio Pierce is like, "We're going to be disciplined. We're not going to beat ourselves.
30:15 We're not going to take a lot of penalties." They did a great job of that. You start saying you're
30:18 going to run around and be the bad boys and talk a bunch of trash. That sounds more like a Harbaugh
30:23 type thing that he said. I think that would have been better kept inside, but I don't think it was
30:29 as just not smart as saying we want to win multiple championships. There's no reason to say
30:37 that in the NFL. This isn't taking over a high school job for a team that hasn't won anything
30:42 and needs some rah-rah spirit. This is a professional football team in Los Angeles.
30:47 Fundamentally disagree with you. I think Max said everything right because it's
30:51 coming from a player. All right, let's get to the game tonight.
30:55 The 49ers versus the Swifties.
31:01 Here's the thing. We're going to take this back a bit to the basic fundamentals of the game. Why?
31:12 Because these teams are pretty evenly matched. When I look at this game,
31:15 this is not the Chiefs versus the Chargers or the Panthers versus the 49ers. It's two really good
31:21 teams. What this tells to me is as boring as it sounds, there's going to be more emphasis on
31:27 blocking and tackling the basic fundamentals. To me, I think one of the big keys is how well
31:33 can San Francisco run the ball? I know it sounds boring, but if you were looking for a cue,
31:38 let's see who's blocking and tackling better. Something tells me, and I have no better idea
31:43 than any of you folks out there, something tells me that this is probably San Francisco's time
31:48 and that they probably get the Chiefs on this one. Further down the road, I think the Chiefs
31:53 probably get one more Super Bowl during the Mahomes era. I think I see a 49er team that
32:01 knows they have to stop the run, that knows it's Bosa time. They're going to get a motivated Chase
32:07 Young. They've got Christian McCaffrey. These teams are really good. I think the blocking and
32:13 tackling is just a little bit better for Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers. I like the 49ers in a
32:20 classic NFL game, something like 27-24. I hope that you're right. I want San Francisco to win.
32:30 I'm saying 24-23 Chiefs, but I hope you're right. It's going to be a great game tonight. Of course,
32:36 I'll be at the stadium. I'll do my podcast after the game from the stadium. Look forward to seeing
32:41 everybody there. John, I appreciate you. Thanks for being with us again. Last question from me,
32:46 real quick. Yes. Because we're up against a time crunch. Off-season for the Raiders.
32:52 Are they on the uptick, neutral, or downtick? I think they're way on an uptick.
32:58 Yeah, I think they're on the uptick and they may have the biggest uptick of anybody in their
33:02 division, which as everybody out there knows, matters. It's where it starts. The off-season
33:07 starts in your division and it starts pretty much tomorrow. All right, everybody. This is
33:12 Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation, Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast.
33:16 Follow me on X, formerly known as Twitter, @HondoCarpenter. Follow me on Instagram,
33:23 IG @HondoSR. We'll see you all next week. He is Johnny Guitars.