Mike Sando | Longtime NFL Insider

How do we measure road trips? In miles traveled and memories made. In scenic views and backroads that don't show up on your GPS.

And in the wrong turns that turn out to be the right decisions. It's not about how far you can go, but how far you're inspired to move. The 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid goes the extra mile with class-leading 53 mpg combined.

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Movement that inspires. 2023 Niro HEVSX fuel economy claim based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy for entry CUV class. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits, and your vehicle's conditions.

See fuel economy.gov for more details. How do we measure road trips? In miles traveled and memories made. In scenic views and backroads that don't show up on your GPS.

And in the wrong turns that turn out to be the right decisions. It's not about how far you can go, but how far you're inspired to move. The 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid goes the extra mile with class-leading 53 mpg combined.

Farther for all. The all-new 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid. Kia.

Movement that inspires. 2023 Niro HEVSX fuel economy claim based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy for entry CUV class. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits, and your vehicle's conditions.

See fuel economy.gov for more details. Longtime NFL insider now with the athletic podcast host. He's got part of that hall of fame selection process that he gets to do every year.

An AP voter too. Mike Sando joining us here on the show. Mike, what's your reaction to what we just saw on Thursday Night Football?

It is so unbelievable. You know, there's been a couple games here recently. Of course, the Tom Brady one against the Saints, right? Where the Saints are complicit in giving away the big lead. And then I even thought over the weekend there was no way the Ravens were going to win. They couldn't do anything on offense the whole game. And then they suddenly put it together with a late drive. So this tops them all because Baker Mayfield, like what time? Think about this. Think of the way the NFL schedule is during the week.

Baker Mayfield is claimed on waivers Tuesday. Well, it's player's day off in the NFL. So on Wednesday in a short week, do you think you're practicing at full speed live?

It's probably a walkthrough. This guy didn't even really practice. And sometimes it looked like it during the game. And then to do that, I don't care if the Raiders are bad, but to lead 98 yards needing a touchdown, not a field goal, that's way harder because when you need a field goal, you know, we see teams do that.

You got to go the whole way and cross the goal line? It's just, there's no way you should be able to do that with not only, it's not like he's joining the greatest show on turf Rams here. He's not stepping in for Tom Brady like Matt Castle did when you got a stacked squad. We don't even know who's playing for the Rams. Like they're showing on the sideline, Cooper Cup on the sideline, Stafford on the sideline.

You couldn't even name other players. It's unbelievable. It's a shame for the Raiders. Amazing for the Rams and just a great win in a lost season. And they've played tough. They played Seattle tough. They competed against the Chiefs when they were a 15 point underdog.

I give them credit. It's funny that you mentioned Tom Brady, because I was thinking about that too. He threw the touchdown pass against the Saints on Monday night football with three seconds remaining on the clock.

But we have seen him in those situations countless times. Baker Mayfield throws his winning touchdown to Van Jefferson with nine seconds to go. You really can't cut it a whole lot closer, not to mention there was an interception that was negated on the drive by a penalty.

Absolutely, and there were penalties along the way. If you look at that drive, they got a 15-yard penalty. So the Raiders get a sack and they're all happy. Baker Mayfield gets up. It's a loss of nine early in that drive. And somebody, I forget who it was, knocks the ball out of his hand.

It wasn't egregious at all. But that's a 15-yard penalty. So your nine-yard sack turns into a six-yard gain. Then later in the drive, they have a third and four, the Rams do. And the Raiders, neutral zone infraction, give them a first down.

So you have to be complicit. There's a reason no one ever does these types of games like this, because the defense has to be complicit. And the Raiders and the Raiders were then. Did you see at the end, did you see what Mayfield put on the postgame show?

It was hilarious. He said, to be honest with you, I was completely shocked they would line up and press coverage with 15 seconds left. And then Ryan Fitzpatrick, who went to Harvard, says he had the defensive coordinator went to Yale. I mean, that's just one of the all-time great lines, which the Raiders defense coordinator, Patrick Graham, did go to Yale. So amazing for Mayfield, amazing for Rams, but it takes two teams to make something like that happen. And the Raiders have now, I believe, lost four games this season where they led by at least 13 points, which is really hard to do. Oh yes, they are leading the NFL in that dubious category. So Mike Sandow is with us from Seattle. You say that about the Raiders being one of the worst losses in their history.

You saw that on your Twitter. Why? Why is this one so tough to stomach? Well, I think, you know, there's going to be tough losses in the NFL, but when you have it on national TV, you've won three in a row, you're probably not going to make the playoffs. Like, if you look at the percentages or whatever, they're like seven percent, but it feels better than that. Like, you've won three in a row. Hey, look, we get to play the Rams. They don't even have a quarterback.

They just got Baker Mayfield. We're up by 13 points in the final whatever minutes of the game. I mean, that, and then we've already blown these games before. So to have all of that happen on national TV or, you know, Amazon is now national TV, felt like one of those games where, like, an owner has a reaction, like something's going to happen. You know, it just, it just, that's how bad it was, you know, and this type of thing just can't happen.

You know, you can't let that happen. Just the calendar year arc for Baker Mayfield. Mike, how would you describe from where he was on January 1, 2022 to where he is now? In one night, Baker Mayfield is a sympathetic figure, and I think we've all sort of seen the worst of him lately, right? I mean, whether we played that year injured and you just kind of, you know, that competitive arrogance that he has that people liked when he was a successful quarterback coming out of college.

When you sort of have that and aren't having success, it rubs people the long way. You can, wrong way, you can kind of picture him with his lip up a little bit on one side or use some bad body language in Carolina here or there. You just weren't really rooting for him lately. Now, to have him in this situation, a no-win situation, I think everybody felt great for him tonight. You're like, wow, this is really, this, what a positive reflection on him. So in one night, he kind of temporarily, maybe permanently, salvages kind of his career and reputation and just the feelings about him. He hijacks the narrative of himself and makes it a positive one. And this can't be taken away from him.

This is a big deal to do this. Like this may never happen again. Who's ever going to pick up a quarterback and play him without even practicing hardly two days later on a bad team and to win the game. And as you say, I actually found myself rooting for him tonight.

There's a first there. Although I say that, and then I think about the opener between the Panthers and the Browns. And I would say I was rooting for him to have a big game in that one, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because you felt like, you know, even though he could have handled himself better at certain parts along the way, he kind of got railroaded there at the end and was really put into an impossible situation in Carolina.

But this is a more impossible situation, isn't it? I mean, to come in on two days is just unbelievable to even think at one point during the game, they played audio of John Wilford, who was the backup and was starting, practicing the play calls in his car. And you know how these play calls are like impossibly long?

I mean, I don't know, I could barely study for my Spanish test in high school. These guys are, you know, in a short amount of time, he's wearing a wristband. How could you even recite a play? And remember, on the last drive, and I think this was actually a smart strategy by the Raiders, the Raiders were not calling timeouts on the last drive, because I think they wanted to see Baker Mayfield operate under stress. Don't give him time to go to the sideline and get the play from Sean McVeigh, right? He's having to sort of walk the high wire late in the game without any chances to even like, hey, what do we want to do here? What wait, what does the receiver do on this play again?

What do you like Baker? Is there a play you like in this situation? No, they're going total seat of the pants. That's the other thing about it.

Total seat of the pants all the way down the field, 98 yards. And I kind of feel like in some cases, not every time, sometimes it explodes miserably in his face. But in many cases, we've seen Baker Mayfield play his best football with his hair on fire. That is the situation that he prefers, right?

It just doesn't always work the best when he's under duress and making decisions. So yes, it was one kind of a crazy start to week 14. There was this documentary years ago on seven critical human mistakes are required for a modern jetliner to crash. That's what this is like, like seven things have to have you have to have the DPI, you have to have the neutral zone infraction, you have to walk by and swap the ball out of the guy's hand and get 15 yards. You know, all of the defense has to play man coverage that you can't believe and the coordinator went to Yale, not Harvard. You know, all of these things like have to happen for this to even be pulled off.

That's why it's so miraculous. And in between the two touchdown drives for the Rams, the Raiders have to go three and out. Because if they even get one first down, there's not enough time left on the clock. One first down, I think they were playing, you know, they had another fourth down earlier, a fourth and one where they punted and I kind of get it because you're like Baker Mayfield on two days. Yeah, you try to go 80 yards, right? I would rather almost have him trying that. I feel good about that even on a bad defense.

There's no way this should be able to happen. Mike Sandow of the athletic longtime NFL reporter and insider with us here after hours CBS Sports Radio in the wake of this crazy game to start week 14. And then we think about some of the other storylines this week. A lot of the attention has been focused on the San Francisco 49ers. Looking ahead to starting a rookie quarterback, not just a rookie, but the very last athlete selected in the spring draft against the Buccaneers who literally just snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat a few days ago.

Wow, I mean everywhere you look, it seems like the NFL has got these explosive headlines. No doubt, you can't predict this stuff that that like, you know, that Brock Pury would be playing. The 49ers may probably win the division with Brock Pury if they can hold off the Geno Smith led Seahawks, right? I mean, is that a storyline that we were thinking was going to be happening before the year? I mean, we didn't think, you know, Smith would start.

People thought it was going to be Drew Locke. And that's the race down the stretch while Matthew Stafford holds the clipboard for Baker Mayfield in with the Rams. It really is amazing how this league is like that to just have things you could never predict.

It's what makes it so entertaining. We've talked about two teams that have had disappointing campaigns in the Rams and certainly with the Raiders. But as you look around, what's another team that's kind of played out in a way that you didn't expect it to go so horribly wrong? So I'm just looking through here through the standings of who? Well, Green Bay was certainly one.

I think we don't have to talk too much about them. Indy, I think, has been way more of a train wreck than I expected. I mean, look, I thought Matt Ryan was diminished, but that's another one. If you told me Jeff Saturday would be coaching the team, you know, which, by the way, Jeff Saturday's Raiders beat or beat the Raiders, Jeff Saturday's Colts did. But I think that is another completely improbable storyline where we're going to have to talk about this completely improbable storyline where, like, we knew Matt Ryan was declining, but you kind of thought he'd be a steadying hand, right? And they would be maybe a 9-8, 10-17, and here they are, you know, completely, you know, just completely out of it and reeling and flopping around and doing stuff. And I think Denver, who would have thought Denver, right?

It would be that bad. I mean, I thought they would, I thought there was a good chance they would finish fourth in the division, but it was more on the strength of the division. 9-8 or something. And in that same division, the Chargers have seemingly made all these moves to get better and keep up with the Chiefs.

And while they're competitive, a lot of the time, they still don't have that winning culture yet. Not yet. Getting closer, I suppose, but not quickly.

Yeah. What is your reaction to what you've seen from the Patriots this season, also sitting at 500? So right now, if the playoffs start today, three teams in the AFC East make the playoffs and the Patriots aren't one of them.

And if you look at the percentage chances of making it, just, you know, those mathematical models or whatever, that's the order. It's like, you know, 98% for Buffalo, obviously, and a very high percentage for Miami. And then the Jets are like 50-50 and then the Patriots like 30% or 35%. So I think that's a fascinating storyline.

What if that happened? What if three teams made it from the AFC East and the Patriots weren't one of them and they're sitting there with this, you know, kind of weird setup with their offensive coaching staff and trying to get Max Jones through and everyone else has, you know, got something going for him here. The NFC East has been another one of those out of nowhere developments in the NFL. And I would still say the AFC East belongs in that category too. I think the Jets are ahead of schedule and the fact that the Patriots are the last team in that division is pretty fascinating.

Every team in the NFC beast, as I call it, is above 500. How did that happen, Mike, from where they were the last couple years? Well, I think no doubt, the Brian Davo immediate coaching, you know, sometimes it takes a while to make the adjustments and figure out how we're going to use our personnel.

Case in point, Chicago, right? Now, they obviously traded away their defense, but they figured it out. It took them six weeks to figure out here's how we're going to play Justin Fields.

It felt to be like Brian Davo came in and immediately they were like, you know what, we're completely limited here in the passing game. We don't have any weapons and let's just build something off of our athletic quarterback and our star running back and we'll just find a way to be in the games. And so that's just a great job, I think, of coaching. They're a team that's found a way to win some of those, you know, some of those close games. I think Dallas great coaching job by Mike McCarthy because that place has been all over the map and they identified early on, you know, early on they were going to be a defensive-led team and they're going to play a certain way. It's a little conservative, but they changed their style and played to the strengths of their team. And then they did that even after Dak Prescott, you know, came back.

So I think those are two really good coaching jobs. Surprisingly, I think Washington's defense has come around and I'm not 100% sure why. Maybe this is what it should have been the whole time because they've had a good front, but that defense has played pretty well. So, you know, Philly I think we could have seen was going to be a good team, but I think those teams have gotten some good coaching in that division that they haven't had, certainly to this degree, in a while. Great. It is definitely the best division in football.

And then you compare it with, say, the south divisions where there's one team above 500 among the eight that are in the south. So, Mike, before we let you go, I know you have the Football GM podcast with the great Randy Mueller, who's a former executive of the year in the NFL. We love to have him on the show, too. There was a bit of a stutter with a first-place team this week in the Titans firing their general manager mid-season coming off of a game in which they lost to a team in Philadelphia that now has one of the Titans' former receivers. How much do you think that had to do with the timing of this move? I think it had to do with it. I mean, I think it had to.

It'd be too coincidental, and we all know. I think there was a time during the season when, you know, Mike Frable was asked about, hey, how come you're so run heavy? And he made some kind of a flip comment like, well, who should we throw it to?

Or something like that. We've seen the video where, when they traded him, he got up and walked away from the table, you know. So that had to be part of it for the timing, I think, for sure. But I think it maybe was going to happen. I think it was going to happen anyway. And so it was interesting because you mentioned I do the podcast with Randy Mueller, which is on the athletic football show Feeds.

It'll plug there. But Randy was executive of the year in 2000 and was fired like a year later. So we had a conversation on the podcast that we recorded for today about that. And I think it just shows, you know, in that case, in Randy's case, it wasn't a power struggle with the coach. It was more just, hey, an owner can do whatever they want, right, at any time. And so I think this one feels a little bit more power struggle-y because you would see Vrabel's probably going to come out of this with more power. I don't think they're going to hire someone over him necessarily. He's kind of an empowered coach right now and a strong personality. So that's what this one looks like for them. And I don't know how that's going to work out.

You know, I'm not real excited about it. Even if you criticize John Robinson's draft record, which you can do, I think there's real risk in going this route. Certainly. There are only so many coaches who've had any success when they've combined not just their on-field duties, their coaching duties, but also that general manager route, or at least having the autonomy over personnel. It doesn't happen at a high success rate in the league. Tons of pressure, of course, and we see why because the razor thin margin between wins and losses, it exists in every game regardless of what the teams look like coming in. Yes.

You know, I saw a great note. Someone did this, the what if standings, and it was if you took every one score game and flipped the results, kind of on the theory that those are 50-50 games, right? Like the Vikings would be like one and 10 or something. Because they're 9-0 in one score games, which is impossible. They like hit the 19 parlay or whatever.

You know, you just can't do it. Isn't that amazing? It is. Maybe one in eleven if you flip the one score game. Man alive.

That is an interesting game to play. Down that rabbit hole, I can only imagine. All right, it's awesome to catch up with Mike Sando again. He's with the athletic now. He's part of the Hall of Fame selection process. He's an AP voter. He's got the football GM pod.

Look for him on Twitter, at Sando NFL. Okay, here's my promise to you because I always love when you come on the show. We won't go as long as we did between guest spots the next time, Mike. I promise. Okay, no problem.

And I thought you'd say we won't go as long on the conversation next time, but we won't go as long in between. So that's good. I sure enjoy it. So thank you very much. Have a great night. Happy holidays, Mike. Thank you.

You too. How do we measure road trips and miles traveled and memories made in scenic views and back roads that don't show up on your GPS and in the wrong turns that turn out to be the right decisions? It's not about how far you can go, but how far you're inspired to move. The 2023 Kia Nero Hybrid goes the extra mile with class-leading 53 mpg combined.

Farther for all. The all-new 2023 Kia Nero Hybrid. Kia.

Movement that inspires. 2023 Nero HEVSX fuel economy claim based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy for entry CUV class. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits, and your vehicle's conditions. See Fuel Economy.gov for more details.

How do we measure road trips and miles traveled and memories made in scenic views and back roads that don't show up on your GPS and in the wrong turns that turn out to be the right decisions? It's not about how far you can go, but how far you're inspired to move. The 2023 Kia Nero Hybrid goes the extra mile with class-leading 53 mpg combined.

Farther for all. The all-new 2023 Kia Nero Hybrid. Kia.

Movement that inspires. 2023 Nero HEVSX fuel economy claim based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy for entry CUV class. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits, and your vehicle's conditions. See Fuel Economy.gov for more details.

How do we measure road trips and miles traveled and memories made in scenic views and back roads that don't show up on your GPS and in the wrong turns that turn out to be the right decisions? It's not about how far you can go, but how far you're inspired to move. The 2023 Kia Nero Hybrid goes the extra mile with class-leading 53 mpg combined.

Farther for all. The all-new 2023 Kia Nero Hybrid. Kia.

Movement that inspires. 2023 Nero HEVSX fuel economy claim based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy for entry CUV class. Actual mileage will vary with options, driving conditions, driving habits, and your vehicle's conditions. See Fuel Economy.gov for more details.