Mike Pritchard | Former NFL WR, VSiN Network NFL Analyst

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash grow. We are really excited to welcome Mike Pritchard back to the show, former NFL wideout himself and in Las Vegas is the lead analyst for the Visa Network. And Mike, of course, we've got to start with Vegas.

It's the home of Super Bowl 58. Just a few weeks to go. What's the anticipation like in your city?

I mean, Amy, I can't describe it to be honest with you. It's something that I think the city is ready for. Vegas has been known to host big events and host them well, but this is the biggest one of all. I mean, for so long, Vegas has been the enemy to professional sports. But now Vegas is the best friend of Major League Baseball and NHL, the NFL, soon the NBA, I believe, as well. But there's no better place to hold a major event, a worldwide event in a global city like Las Vegas.

And we can't wait. You know, a lot of people, a lot of volunteers are confident to be involved. And certainly Vegas and the representatives and hotel operators are ready to host everybody from around the world. It's funny because for so long, Las Vegas has had this reputation that it was more about degenerate gamblers and it was Sin City, right?

That was the nickname. And yet for people who live there and people who are moving there, I keep hearing about what a great city it is for so many other reasons. So what do you like the most about Las Vegas? Well, I'm from here, one, from bias. I mean, there is so much to do here.

You know, there's a strip element, you know, the gambling element, a fight element which attracts people from around the world. But I can go 30, 35 minutes and go hiking. I can go a little bit further and ski, certainly outdoor sports, whatever you want to do. Growing up here, I did everything, ride my bike, play football, play all sports, just like anywhere else in America or anywhere else in this world.

And it's a normal life if you want it to be. A lot of people who lived here earlier on, because gaming was the only major industry here, you know, a lot of parents worked in the casinos and that was fine. But now we have multiple industries here and certainly a lot more opportunities than years ago.

So people are seeing the value of Las Vegas and certainly seeing what it has to offer as well. I love the fact though that even with all of the events and conventions and even now with championships and hockey and the WNBA and pro sports teams, still the Super Bowl is a big deal. It's huge.

It is. I was in Atlanta when I was playing for the Falcons when Atlanta got the Super Bowl in 92. And I remember the city at that point, you know, the New York of the South and hot Atlanta was a moniker too back then, right?

And there was so much going on. The Olympics were coming in 1996 and the city was vibrant, the city was growing and everybody was anticipating that Super Bowl. We just got to Georgia Dome and so we were going to be hosting a Super Bowl.

And it's so different. Years ago when Allegiant Stadium came online and I was here hosting a local radio show, I was informing the audience that we're going to get a Super Bowl. As soon as we get to the stadium, as soon as the Raiders relocate here, we're going to get a Super Bowl.

And it's going to be unlike anything you've ever seen in your life. We've already had the NFL draft and everybody was excited about that. So the anticipation for the Super Bowl is off the chain and a lot of people can't wait.

But yeah, I know what's coming and certainly I cannot wait for the NFL to get here. Mike Pritchard is a former NFL wide receiver and now is the lead NFL analyst for Visa Network, which is housed in Las Vegas. And he'll be rolling out the red carpet for the rest of us as we show up in the city for the Super Bowl.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. We'll call them coaching free agents that are available. It seems like it's the type of class, quote unquote, of coaches that teams would be salivating over. Potentially Jim Harbaugh, Bill Belichick if he wants to coach again. We talked about Mike Vrabel too so much on my show and the fact that he's surprisingly available. Even a Pete Carroll. So in your opinion, which of these coaches should be first on the wish list for teams? I mean, my goodness.

That's a nice list, right? You know, a lot of teams are there's a reason there's a unique reason why they're looking for coaches. You know, you take Carolina, they can't get it right. You know, Atlanta, a major disappointment.

You know, I think Tennessee, they probably want to go in a different direction, kind of like Seattle as well. But I tell you what, you know, Bill Belichick, he's after this record. He needs about 15 games, I believe, to break Don Shula's record. He's still motivated.

He still has energy. I don't know why teams aren't lining up. Certainly they're lining up to interview. But I mean, just give the guy an offer at this point.

What could go wrong, really, right? But, you know, with Bill Belichick comes power, though, you know, and I know Bill Belichick, he has a certain standard and he probably is going to want a lot and demand a lot. And you wonder if the teams are ready to do that. A lot of trends in the National Football League suggest younger coaches, you know, younger former player coaches are in vogue right now. And they're doing a great job. D'Amico Ryan, he's deep in the playoffs with this incredible run right now.

So it's really interesting. Dan Campbell, what he's doing with the Lions is incredible. Former players and charging up the organization. So I think Mike Vrabel is a can't miss hire.

I love the blue collar approach by Mike Vrabel. I was at a Senior Bowl. This was a Josh Allen, Baker, Mainfield Senior Bowl. And, you know, when you're in the media, you don't travel like head coaches in the National Football League, right, Amy? So we had to we had to drive to Pensacola, Florida, from Mobile, Alabama, to catch a connecting flight to get to get back to Denver.

I was in Denver at the time. And on that flight from Pensacola was Mike Vrabel and his entire coaching staff. In other words, they made the drive from Mobile like we did.

They didn't have a private jet. They blue collared it, had a connecting flight from Pensacola up to Nashville at the time. So I just love the fact that he rolls up his sleeves and gets after it. And I think he's a can't miss hire. He's young enough and certainly motivated enough to be highly successful.

So let's say you're in one of these locker rooms. What do you need to hear from an incoming coach? What do you need to see in this coach to believe in him and to want to get on board right away?

A great question, Amy. I think credibility is everything. And a lot of times when coaches fail, they fail to establish credibility. And what I mean by that, you can have success somewhere else. But how do I know you're going to have success here? How do I know you have the right blueprint for success?

Which involves my career. So Mike Holmgren, I think that's a perfect example for your question. His first meeting with us as players, he set the tone. You know, he was straight front, straight and out front with us and really told us the truth. And we believed it. And if you if you believe in if you want to be a part of it, then you were sure that you wanted to stay. You were 100 percent confident.

If not, you were probably on the fence. If you're an older player and OK, maybe call your agent and say, hey, look, I got to see if I can get out of here. But if you're a younger player, you don't know any better and you want to impress a new coach and a new coaching staff. But I just love the fact that Mike Holmgren, there was no doubt that he knew how to get us to the promised land, which was a playoff on eventually a Super Bowl, which he did later on in his career there in Seattle. But I just wanted a coach to assert themselves and then certainly let us know that the blueprint for success is going to be in place.

And all you got to do is listen. All you got to do is fall in place and and everything's going to be OK. And once you have that level of confidence from from the head coach, then then everything else normally falls into place and everything good happens that you want to happen. When we hear this phrase, the coach has lost the locker room. Mike, what does that mean? Well, it means that guys are looking elsewhere. Guys are directionless. You know, the coach's message is not resonating. Certainly there's no credibility from that that head coach, that particular coach.

The message is falling on deaf ears there, Amy. I mean, you know, when you go rogue and you do your own thing, which, you know, guys with egos and guys getting paid a lot of money, that can happen a lot. So, yeah, you can't have that, though. I mean, it's a team is together. Everyone accomplishes Morris. Everybody knows the acronym and all that stuff. But it's so true. And and it's so true from the standpoint that everybody in the building has to be on the same page.

Right. You can't have a front office thinking differently than the coaching staff. And you can't have the front office and and the players thinking differently. I mean, you can't best dysfunction. So I think a head coach can unify and certainly have everybody on the same page with that message. But when they lose the locker room, certainly the guys are just on their own page and they're doing their own thing.

And that's never a good situation. We're always excited to have Mike Pritchard on the show from Las Vegas, home of Super Bowl 58. He's a former NFL wide receiver himself and now lead analyst for Visa Network. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio looking over some of the viewership numbers.

And I saw that you had shared some of them on your own Twitter account, but blows me away that on Saturday night for a game that was exclusive to streaming on Peacock, that 30 percent of Internet traffic was on that game. I mean, that's incredible power and attraction of the NFL Packers and Cowboys. The numbers through the roof. Does it ever just blow your mind that this league continues to suck people in? You know, it does it. If you're any business out there and you need to understand how to attract or how to market, you know, tap into the National Football League because there's nobody better.

Really? No, I think, you know, these owners and certainly the league, they have a way and they're never satisfied. Right. I mean, I think in any competitive situation, once you're satisfied, you might as well retire. But but the league is in a great place and certainly as a former player, I'm enjoying the benefits of the growth of the National Football League.

And it's incredible. They have a stated goal of twenty five billion annually and they're well on their way. And they want to go global, you know, and I think the NFL understands that streaming is a way to go global. You know, you have the network partners and that's all great and all the networks are getting the streaming, too.

But if you want a global audience, the easiest way to do that would be through streaming. And and certainly the NFL understands that. So they want to grow the game. They want to dominate just like we did as players.

And you have to you have to give them a round of applause for that. I mean, I know a lot of times PR can can kind of slow things down for the National Football League like like any business still. But when it comes to marketing and growth, I mean, there's there's nobody second there's everybody second to what the NFL presents. Coming up this weekend, the divisional round is always my favorite weekend of the entire NFL season because the games generally are so compelling. And we've got some really interesting matchups, some fresh blood, of course, the Detroit Lions and how long it's been. And you were in the NFL going back to the days when the Lions were last winners of a playoff game. We've got the Chiefs and the Bills. We've got the Packers and the Niners, two iconic NFL franchises. And then we've got this incredible story in Houston, Baltimore, best record in the league.

So I've kind of treetop there, Mike. What stands out to you about this weekend? Well, first of all, the point spreads kind of stand out to me, the Ravens being a heavy favorite at home and certainly the 49ers. And rightly so, I think, you know, a lot of people are probably pick those two teams to be in the Super Bowl and they're the two number one seeds. And a lot of times the number one seeds, they prevail and they get to the Super Bowl.

We know that. But I can't forget what we saw this entire year and how tight the National Football League has been. And every year we have outliers.

Right. I mean, last year outliers were the Giants. And certainly I think Seattle was an outlier. Not a lot of people expected them to get to the playoffs, you know, but they did. But this year, you know, D'Amico Ryans and C.J. Stroud, a rookie head coach, a rookie quarterback, not only winning the division, but now getting through the divisional round of the playoffs.

It's just incredible. So I think the talent gap and certainly coaching matters. A quarterback play matters. That still holds true. And I think there's a little bit of disrespect out there, you know, for Jordan Love and what that young group of players have accomplished. They're no different than the triplets in Dallas when you had Aikman and Emmett and Michael Irvin, all young.

Right. And then you just build this roster around them and they all grow together and they become a dynasty. And so I think the Packers could be on the cusp of that. I don't know how deep they're going to run with this this run right now. And they're pretty hot. Jordan Love's pretty hot right now, too. But they're a young core group of guys and you can do a lot with that.

So the future is right, right there. So I'm looking at those two games as being more competitive than what the point spread suggests right now. What do you think about the run the Bills are on now with six consecutive wins? And this Josh Allen, in my opinion, is the best quarterback in the league. As much as I love Patrick Mahomes, that offense has not been great this season.

What will be the major factors in that game? First time, by the way, for those who don't know that Patrick Mahomes is playing a road playoff game, which is crazy. Yet it really is. I mean, his career is incredible. We'll see what kind of quarterback he's going to be in this environment and the playoffs now.

But he's a Hall of Famer. I mean, there's no question about that. He's the ultimate competitor to, you know, the Buffalo reinvented themselves throughout the year offensively. I think the defense was probably underrated for most of the year. I, you know, it's an older defense. It's a banged up defense, but now they've replaced some of those older guys with younger players. And McDermott's doing a great job of getting these guys coached up and doing the right thing. So they're playing at a high level, certainly. But Josh Allen, you mentioned it, that team will pass or fail with him.

Right. And there's a lot of pressure on Josh. And I admired him with his journey, for his journey.

Here's a guy that didn't really get a lot of offers and he sent out letters to Division 1 schools and Wyoming gave him a shot. He's immensely talented, as we know. But, you know, there's so much pressure on him.

Sometimes he makes those critical mistakes. Something tells me now, though, with this makeup, and I think this is their last run with that roster. Everything's coming together for Buffalo at the right time. And they get Kansas City at home, right? They get to the two seed and it's incredible how they did that this year.

So it's an incredible story. I love the balanced attack now with Brady Collin plays and or more 50-50 when it comes to pass-run racial play selection. And that's really helped out Josh Allen. Just out of curiosity, as a guy who was a receiver, when you see a quarterback like Josh, and I know he's essentially a tank, running all over the place and taking hits, do you ever cringe over it or worry about your QB when he does that? Well, not a guy that size.

I mean, he is a tank. But, you know, I played with Elway and Elway was an incredible athlete, but a really tough, tough player. And he would get hit, you know, and back in those days, you could hit quarterbacks differently than you can now. But if you're Josh Allen and you're in a secondary, I mean, you're 40 pounds bigger than a secondary player, right? So I don't think he's intimidated by those guys. It's the linebackers and the defensive lineman that he has to avoid. But, you know, he does a great job of protecting himself, I think.

But he's a big enough guy to absorb all that punishment. And he runs when he has to. I mean, you have to design some plays for him because he's such a great athlete.

And I think that helps him settle down as a passer, too. Brady, again, has done a great job of being a coordinator now and understanding that about Josh. I think Josh is heavily involved in the play calling, too.

So it's just not playing a perfect game, but just not making those critical mistakes that we've seen before in the past from Josh Allen. If he can correct that, there's no stopping this Buffalo Bills football team. Cannot wait for the games this weekend, and Mike Pritchard will be talking about them on Vison, where he's the lead NFL analyst. Based in Las Vegas, former NFL wide receiver. Can't wait to invade your city in a few weeks.

And you can find Mike on Twitter at MIPritchard. Always good to have you. And I hope that we get to cross paths in person during Super Bowl week. Well, I'll have the red carpet out for you. So absolutely, absolutely.

I'll have the neon signs and everything ready for you. Around New Year's, we get a little obsessed with changing ourselves and forgetting the things we're already doing right. Like taking our supplements every morning or scheduling me time into our day. Therapy helps you recognize those victories and keep up the good work in the New Year without changing everything. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy so you can try New Year's same you with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash grow today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. When something happens to your car, you might say, No!

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