Albert Breer on Belichick’s HOF Snub, Rodgers’ Future, Eagles OC Job

All right.

Welcome in to the Beer Report for January 28th presented by State Farm.

It's a mailbag edition of the Breer Report.

As always , we'll have more answers to more of your questions on the print edition of the mailbag on the website at the MMQB.

com.

But as always, we're gonna answer three of your questions right here, right now from beautiful Mobile, Alabama, where we've been all week.

For the Senior Bowl.

First question is coming from Slippery Pete.

That's at Pinnett 0414.

As a fan of the NFL, how do I square Bill Belichick being rejected from the honor of first-ballot Hall of Famer for seemingly political reasons with legit with legitimizing anything and everything to do with the Hall of Fame retroactively and going forward.

That was quite a sentence, uh, Pete.

I think the important thing you wanna do when you're looking at this is to first look at the process and how this has changed.

Um, recently.

And so the way it works is you have your modern era candidates, those are the guys who you think of as like the, the, the players who are 5 years out, who are trying to get in for the first time, and they've grouped everyone else together now.

So what does that mean?

Well, you've got 3 senior candidates, so that's 3 players, um, that have aged out of the modern era category.

Those 3 players this year are Roger Craig, Ken Anderson, and ElC Greenwood.

And then you have 1 contributor.

That can be an owner, that can be somebody at the league office, that can be a general manager.

This year, the contributor is Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner, and then you have a coach.

And in this case, of course, the coach is Bill Belichick.

So those are the 5 guys that are up for induction into the Hall of Fame.

All the voters consider those 5 guys and they pick 3 to put through into the Hall of Fame.

So that is a total of 150 votes.

To get induction into the Hall of Fame, you need to carry 80% of the votes.

So 80% of those people need to vote yes.

That means of the 150 available votes that are split among 5 people, you have to score 40 of those votes.

And so that's where Bill is right now.

And, you know, Mike Sando, who's one of the voters and who's been voting for a long time, had mentioned there could be some people who are voting who look at it and say, I want to put this player in.

So I'm gonna put this player in over Bill because I think he's gonna disappear from the ballot next year, or he may never get back on the ballot, and Bill is going to have other chances at this.

There could be some people that aren't happy with the process.

Whatever it is, I, I think it's insane.

Because I think he's one of these guys that you look at and say, when his name comes up, and there are a few of these, all the presenter has to do is stand up.

Give his name and sit back down.

And there are very few people that are in that rarefied air.

That's Joe Montana, that's Jerry Rice, that's Brett Favre, um, you know, it's, it's Lawrence Taylor.

It's guys like that where no one really even needs to make the case.

And I think Bill's one of those guys.

He's got 2 more Super Bowls than anybody in NFL history.

He's got 6 of them.

He's got, um, as many wins as anyone with the one exception of Don Shula.

Um, you know, he basically created two separate dynasties, you know, in New England.

And so here's the problem to me, is the way that we look at first ballot .

I think it is insane the way a lot of people look at first ballot Hall of Famers.

They look at it as if it's like some elevated class.

So I have to make this person wait or I have to make that person wait.

To me, it should be much simpler than that.

You either are a Hall of Famer or you aren't.

And to me, what my criteria would be if I had a vote, be pretty simple.

The, you have to have been an elite player at your position, or an elite coach, or an elite owner or an elite executive for an extended period of time to be considered to go in.

And so then it becomes a yes or no question.

Now, Why would you, well you, when you, when you look at the numbers, could there be years where it works out and like you might think there's somebody who's deserving, you can't put in?

Sure.

Like the five names I gave you, LC Greenwood, Roger Craig, Ken Anderson, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft.

If you think 4 of those guys are deserving, and one of the guys gets left off, well, that's just the way the rules work.

So, to me, like it shouldn't be like, well, we can get that guy in later.

This is a yes or no question.

And who is the most deserving.

And what they're supposed to be doing is voting the three most deserving in, and there is no planet where Bill isn't one of the three most deserving people of that, in that group of, uh, in that group of 5.

And I've talked to some voters, um, you know, I talked to some voters about this when Belichick and Kraft got put on the ballot in the first place.

And some of, some veteran voters told me they thought it was gonna be 50, 50 for 50, that Belichick was gonna carry every, every vote in the room, be unanimous, sail in, and it was on the premise, like, how could anybody vote no?

And that's where I'm at.

I don't know how anybody could vote no for Bill Belichick.

So, uh, Pete, I don't know if that answers your question.

I, I think it's, I , I think it's gonna bring more scrutiny to the people who vote on these things.

Um, this, I think in the eyes of many people is the greatest coach of all time.

Um, Bill Belichick jumped the line, as I see it, um, because of his greatness.

Like Mike Shanahan deserves to be and look across the NFL.

Look how many, look how many, how many teams across the NFL are running some version of Mike Shanahan's office.

His, his influence on the league is undeniable .

And Bill Belichick jumped and rightfully so, because his resume is off the charts.

And so to allow for him to jump the line, right?

Tells you how he's seen, tells you what sort of candidate he is.

And it makes no sense to have him jump the line and then not vote him through.

I just, again, this one doesn't make sense to me and I wouldn't blame any fan for looking at the voting process with some skepticism after that.

Uh, question number 2 is from Ken McManus, that's at Coco Ken.

Uh, 53.

Arguments for and against Aaron Rodgers giving it one more ride with Mike McCarthy.

I know the relationship frayed a bit at the end in Green Bay.

Was it so bad that Rodgers would say, hell no.

They repaired their relationship.

Uh, my understanding is they, they get along great now.

They spent some time together, um, when, when, when Aaron Rodgers played against the Cowboys, when, when Mike McCarthy was in Dallas, and that relationship is in a really good place.

So if anything, The relationship with McCarthy would enhance the chances that Rodgers comes back and plays what would be a 22nd season in the NFL in a year when he's gonna turn 43.

Um, but it's not why the Steelers hired him.

That the Steelers did not hire Mike McCarthy to pull Aaron Rodgers back in and to, to get him to forego retirement for another year.

Um, this will be up to Aaron Rodgers.

I, I do think that there would, they'd be open to bringing him back.

Um.

What would be the argument for doing it for Aaron?

I think one thing that is, to me at least, interesting about where Aaron is and where Aaron has been, I think over the last two years, he's really tried to appreciate just playing football more.

And I remember having this conversation with him about how he went through a period where he wanted to be known for things outside of football.

And at the end, the last couple of years for him, it was more about I wanna just enjoy being a football player.

I'm gonna lean into just being a football player.

I don't need to worry about anything else.

I've got a limited time left to do this.

I wanna really have my have the best time I possibly can playing a sport I love.

And I think that allowed for him to renew his love for the game, to take a different outlook , look on things, and, and ultimately, if that's still there, that would be the argument for doing it.

The argument against doing it is pretty obvious.

He's older, he's had injuries.

The ability to get, it's not, and it's not just showing up for those 17 Sundays plus playoffs, it's the process of getting there.

And it's that somebody at that age has to do more to get himself ready.

So it's not so much, can I get myself ready to play on a Sunday.

It's, do I wanna lock in for OTAs?

Do I wanna go through the process of helping put in a new offense?

Do I wanna go through April and May and June, and then the month off and then go through a full training camp and do everything that I need to do to be in position to play a full NFL season.

So that, if he doesn't have that, well, then that would be the argument against it.

Question number 3, this is from Billy Blake, that's at_By_Blake.

What factors are keeping the Eagles OC job from being filled?

Billy, I, I think a big piece of this is kind of the track record that the Eagles have accumulated over the course of the last 5 years.

It's weird, but like it's almost like you win the Super Bowl or you're fired.

Um, under Nick Siriani, uh, Shane Steinhe was there for 2 years.

They get to the Super Bowl, he gets the Colts job.

The next year, Brian Johnson succeeds Shane Steinhe, an internal hire.

Brian Johnson elevated into the offensive coordinator role, fired after 1 year.

They bring in Kellen Moore, Kellen Moore wins the Super Bowl, he leaves to go to the Saints.

And then this past year, Kevin Petullo, who'd been a good soldier for Nick Siriani and he's done all the right things to get in position to become the coordinator, gets into that job and Obviously, things didn't play out the way that anyone had hoped, and he winds up getting fired.

And so, I think the, the prospect of going in there and do you have full control over what you want to do offensively?

Is the quarterback gonna be on board with what you're doing?

Can you build it for the quarterback?

Do you have the right infrastructure from a scheme standpoint to build it for the quarterback?

I think that's a part of, part, part of the equation here.

Um, there're all these different variables, and it's, you have to figure it out really quickly, because if you don't figure it out really quickly, they have this roster that's ready to win right now.

And if you're not performing, there's a good chance you're gonna be the one left holding the bag.

Uh, that said, I still think there are a couple of good candidates out there.

Jim Bob Cooter is one that would make a lot of sense.

He was on Nick Siriani's first staff in Philadelphia.

He's worked with Shane Stein since Steinhe got to.

Uh, got to Indianapolis, so he's been the offensive coordinator there for the last 3 years.

Um, and he's called plays before.

So, um, I know that the Colts and, and Shane Stein will be open to letting Jim Bob Cooter go for a play calling opportunity.

Um, and Going to Philadelphia would make a lot of sense.

A lot of things would line up if you were able to do that.

Um, then another name would be Matt Nagy, who, you know, I think is a really good OC, um, who wasn't calling plays in Kansas City, um, got caught in a little bit of a funky situation there at the end, but I think it's a ton of experience, he's a really good football coach, is a, is, is a guy who can connect and, and, and unify players.

I I, I just think that that could be one where maybe he's a little bit of a distressed asset right now because of where he's at, but he's got a lot of ability to call a game and he's worked with all different types of quarterbacks, so he might be able to, to, to find the fit there for Jalen Hurts.

Appreciate you guys coming out, as always, you can leave more.

Questions below on the YouTube page.

You can also get to, get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert_Breer on Instagram, at Albert R Breer on Facebook.

We have one more Breer report coming this week.

That'll be on Friday.

Then we're off to San Francisco.

See you guys then.