Solomon Wilcots, SiriusXM NFL Radio

Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey. And Westwood One brings it to you, streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelsey. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. So I'll say, Melissa, how are you first? And then we'll ask Solomon how he's doing. I'm doing great. I appreciate you coming on. You are a true pro. You know that? You really are.

I try to fool enough people over the years. Are you surprised that your Bengals are not here? Yeah, I'm heartbroken that they're not here.

But, you know, we mature, we grow, and we get over it, right? And look, you've got to give the Kansas City Chiefs a lot of credit. They were able to exploit three of the five starters missing up front on that offensive line. They moved Chris Jones around. He was just playing that front line like a piano, right?

Attacking each and every weak area. And he was able to get to Joe Burrow. You and I both know, you give Joe Burrow time to throw, you give him enough time to operate, he's going to slice and dice you. There was no doubt in my mind the Bengals were going to win that game. But once that sack occurred and then you hit Patrick Mahomes out of bounds, here comes Harrison Buckner, right? For a 41-yard field goal.

He either had to kick the 60-yard or he wouldn't have made it. But I thought that game was going into overtime. You know what it was? I think after the Bills game, a lot of people, and we all know how good Cincinnati is, but you looked at that Bengals offensive line and you said, oh, they missed three out of their five starters?

Yeah. And Joe Burrow didn't have to break a sweat. A lot of people, they looked at that Kansas City defense, and they did not realize that it was the second most sacks in the league. And it kind of felt a little bit similar with the Eagles where that Eagles defense got disrespected heading into the game. And that defensive approach that Kansas City had, and you're right, Chris Jones was just wonderful. And he's the reason, as great as Mahomes is, Chris Jones is the reason why they're playing this game.

There is no doubt about it. And listen, offensive linemen, you don't even notice them. You don't even think about them until you don't have them, right?

Then when you don't have them, it becomes the story, it becomes the topic. Well, I tell you who notices every single week, defensive linemen. They're always studying the opponent's offensive line. They're always trying to find the weak point of access to get to the quarterback.

If you've got three of them, they're going to find it. Even if you've got one weak link on that offensive line, defensive coordinators will exploit it, because if you can disrupt the opposing team's quarterback, it's the shortest pathway to victory. Let's face it. Each and every year here at the Super Bowl, I look out, and you can see that sign across the way. I know a column's blocking it right now, but you see Mahomes, and you see Jalen Hurts.

And I start to think, the next few years, like, who's going to be here? And in the AFC, Mahomes, Burrow, Josh Allen, maybe eventually Herbert and Trevor Lawrence. But then you look at the NFC, and it's like, okay, I could see the Eagles maybe getting back.

But after that, there's not a face in the NFC that I look at, and I go, ooh, I could see them being in there a few years. It's not Kirk Cousins, not Dak Prescott. Look, we're not even saying Aaron Rodgers. Well, he's gone. Did we take him off the list?

No, I agree with you on that. He's getting traded to the AFC this year. There's no doubt, and that's where I think the San Francisco 49ers have to really begin to think about, are they going to be able to groom that guy? Are they going to be able to go out and trade for that guy? How are they going to marry what is an awesome team, right, to either be able to develop a quarterback or either go find a quarterback?

Because right now, the Eagles are playing with house money. And Solomon Wilcox, I look at it, and I think I change my answer on this every day throughout the season. Before the year, I was like, okay, maybe Brady. And then, all right, Brady retires now, so that throws it all out of sync. Brock Purdy would have been the guy before the NFC title game, then he gets hurt. Don't you got to kind of go back to Trey Lance? You gave up all those picks for him.

No, they do. And you and I both know the 49ers love the idea of winning and working with a quarterback on a rookie contract. Like, you know, because you got to sign Bosa. Do you bring back a Brandon Iuke? They just awarded, they got to carry Christian McCaffrey's contract and just awarded Deebo Samuel with a deal.

Look at George Kittle. So, no, they've got, I think they love the idea of being a quarterback-friendly team, but someone who can leverage everything that Kyle Shanahan gives you to get production out of the quarterback. So, I think it's going to be both guys going, working at it, but I think their initial plan, there's no reason to come off Trey Lance at this point. But you got to keep an eye and continue to develop Brock Purdy while bringing Trey Lance along. And if Purdy can't get back on the field till August or maybe September, if Trey Lance can't win the job this year, then he's really cooked.

Yeah, that's right. No, this is his year. He's got to begin to show, and he's got to be able to stay on the field. There's no doubt about it. There's a lot riding on this offseason and going into 2023 for Trey Lance.

I was talking about this, though, 40 minutes ago. The Ravens continue to put Lamar Jackson in a bad spot. They don't get him a number one wide receiver. Lamar and the Ravens are nowhere close at a contract agreement.

I saw they were like $100 million a part or something like that today, according to Jeremy Fowler. If I'm Lamar at this point, I'm begging to go to the NFC. Go to Detroit.

Go to Minnesota. That NFC, other than Hertz, is wide open. So, how come none of these NFC teams who are looking for an offensive coordinator are talking to Greg Roman? And then, where is the landing spot for Lamar Jackson? What kind of offense does he want to play in to help him be the best that he can be? You and I both know it's not as variable as it is for other quarterbacks who play in a more traditional style. So, trying to find the right fit, I think, is going to be somewhat interesting. And whether or not he can get it working, because I do believe they're going to put the franchise tag on him, right?

Yeah. We can see that coming. And then, how does that play out in the 2023 season? Is he going to be eager to play for a team that's not eager to reward him? I know that a lot of people pooh-poohed this, but how much of it was the injury down the stretch? And how much was it him looking at the contract and saying, I don't have my money.

I'm not 100 percent. I'm not going out on the field. I could argue they didn't want to pay him before the injury, when he was willing to bet on himself. When he was healthy, he was playing lights out.

They still didn't want to reward him. And the Ravens almost won the game with Tyler Huntley until he, just in stupid fashion, tried to extend the ball and be Air Jordan from three yards out. Yeah, no doubt about that. And imagine if Tyler Huntley would have won that game. The Ravens would be like, oh, do we really need Lamar?

Which would have been dumb. Yeah, but the production there does not equate to that of Lamar. Their point production was down per game. Tyler Huntley made the pro ball. Come on.

With two touchdown passes, Zach. You come on. Which is almost, look, all due respect to Tyler Huntley, because I don't want to be little. It's a joke. But yeah, thank you. It's a joke he made the pro ball.

Thank you. Even though the pro ball's now a joke. It's stupid that he was there. Dude, it's in the front. It's a dodgeball competition.

That's a dodgeball flag football. I didn't even watch it. That was entertaining to me because I saw the social media clips. Oh, man. You're telling a lot of truth here today. That's what we try to do. That's what we do.

I'll give you one more truth, too. Yeah. I know that Dan Snyder is a disgraceful owner.

The commanders are a good destination. Yeah. And I love Ron Rivera. Yeah. But bringing in Carson Wentz was dumb.

Yeah. And now, I can't believe that, is Sam Howell really going to be the guy week one? But then who do they get?

They got to get it right. I mean, I'm having a conversation with Derek Carr. Derek Carr, I'd love to be able to see what that looks like. Jimmy Garoppolo is a guy that wins, but you can't stay healthy, right? I mean, to me- He's hurt every other year. Yeah.

Like, think about it, though. Jack Del Rio is on that staff. He was the head coach for Derek Carr early in his career. I just think I would love to see Carr someplace where there's stability.

And I'm not so sure the commanders offer that. Because after next year, they could be making another change. Are they going to have ownership changes?

Can't be worse than this owner. There is no- Well- But the roster's good. I agree with you. I agree with you. Absolutely. Yeah. A great front seven. Good offensive line. Yeah. Yeah. Good running backs. The offensive line has taken some steps.

Brian Robinson Jr. is really good. I look at the commanders as, I can't believe I'm saying this, an attractive destination. I look at Detroit.

An attractive destination. I agree with you. Who was the team that beat these Eagles when it was like they were going at- Commanders.

Among the night. And Jalen Hurts was playing in that game. Yeah. Absolutely. So this game, I opened up the show with its Alma Wilcox. The Eagles are the better team. The Eagles should win this game. It's just the, hold on, you got 15 and 87 on the other sideline. See, you and I are sharing a brain. And every box- That's not a good thing.

I know. If you're listening, hammer the Chiefs. Hammer the Chiefs. It's like if you were checking a box, okay, advantage, defensive line or pass rush. Advantage, Eagles. Secondary play. Veterans over there for the Eagles, a bunch of rookies playing in the backfield defensively for the Chiefs. Advantage to the Eagles. Like every single running back. Look at all the running backs they've got. Quarterback run design.

Check, check, check. But if you get to quarterback play overall, you're checking Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Playing as simple as that. You know, I think he's the tipping point and you got to give him the advantage. He's found a way to score more points, have a better season without Tyreek Hill.

And here's the craziest part. These last two games, and this is not talking down Jalen Hurts. I think the world of Jalen Hurts and the way that he leads and the way that he keeps on improving year by year, he doesn't really have to do much so far this postseason.

And that to me is the biggest key of the game. It's not the Eagles offense being this high octane offense. Who's stopping that Eagles defensive front?

Who's stopping that Eagles defensive line? Because we all remember that Super Bowl and I know Kansas City was out there two tackles, but we all saw Mahomes running for his life up against Tampa Bay and that game got ugly and no one was picking Tampa going into that game. Two things that you, excuse me, that you mentioned, you know, I like the fact that the Kansas City Chiefs have now multiple ways to beat teams. I think Patrick Mahomes is a much better quarterback than he was a few years ago when they lost that Super Bowl.

Which is crazy to say, but you're right. Yeah, he's become more patient, right? He's willing to take the underneath stuff. He's not always looking to hit the home run. That's why you see the large touchdown reception total next to Jerrick McKinnon's name.

Okay. A guy coming out of the backfield. The biggest game of the year. The Super Bowl is on Odyssey and Westwood One brings it to you.

Streaming live for free. Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

Again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl. Your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Patrick Mahomes, he never wanted to take a check down. He was always trying to push the ball down the field. Now he's... When you have Tyreek.

They made 100% sense. Now you take Tyreek out of that offense. You know Kelce.

He could walk out of bed. He'll get 10 receptions. But it's everyone else. You don't have 10 flying down the field. You gotta kind of methodically move the ball around. He's a point guard. That's what he is.

There's no doubt about that. He's an elite point guard. And two of one of your other points talking about just saying, you say, hey, all due respect to Jalen Hurts. Hadn't been carving it up with the arm as of lately. Do you know he's had zero touchdown passes in three of his last four games?

Wow. They've been getting it done by running the ball. He is at his best with the design runs and the RPO game, right? He's missed shots down the field that have been wide open each of their last two games. So now I don't know if it's because of shoulder injury. I don't know if it's because... He could have a nice ball to Devante Smith too. The one that wasn't caught.

The giant one I was talking about early on. But then yes, there was the other one that I still don't get how... How they missed that. The expedited review makes no sense to me.

How one week they're on top of it, boom, boom, boom, expedited review, expedited review, and then they don't have it. Because they don't have the camera angle. How do we not have the camera angle? It's 2023. This is not 1975 where we're watching Osama Wilkots play on black and white television.

This is 2023, we have every angle in the world. They cannot keep telling us something happened that we can see didn't happen. Don't tell us that was a catch because we saw it was not.

We saw it. I mean, so that's a problem. But you get me riled up too. I go to an NFL game, you have no clue what the heck a catch is, you have no clue how to guard a receiver because you get called for pass interference, you tackle someone no call, then you sneeze on them and you get a flag, roughing the passer is the biggest joke I've ever seen this year. I don't know what to... That's a big storyline in this game. How do the officials officiate the game?

How do officials stay out of it? Stay out of it, right? I could solve the catch, no catch thing.

It's easy, man. We messed it up. Back when the bird Emanuel play, you remember Rams go to the Super Bowl, Tampa, did he catch? Think about baseball. There is never a play in baseball where the ball touches the ground and they still deem it as a catch. Soon as that ball touches the ground, no catch. And we ought to go back to that in this game.

It eliminates the gray area. If the ball hits the ground, dude, you didn't catch it. I'm sorry. But then there's times where I'm watching it and you have a receiver that has two hands underneath it and the ball then starts to move and you go, that looks like a catch, but how it's written in the rule book, it's not going to be a catch. To me, if your balls are, if your hands are underneath the ball, it didn't hit the ground. I'm sorry.

Yeah. It just didn't hit the ground. I mean, if my hands are under it, the ball didn't hit the ground. One little snippet of the football hits the ground and it's incomplete. I don't think we're going to ever get that granular, in my mind, ball hits ground.

It's fair. No catch. Ball didn't hit ground. Catch. Spoken like a safety. If you create the nuance of a ball move, but hands are under the ball, the ball, yeah, it can move, but it went back into its chest. So okay.

Makes no sense. Let's go ahead and call that a catch and keep it moving. When I can keep it moving. But if the ball touches, like baseball, man, if I come, you're the catcher. I come sliding into home, cloud of dust, as soon as that dust clears, if you're holding the ball, I'm out. If the ball's on the ground, I'm safe.

That is so, you can't get any more defined than that. And you being an expert on television for all those years for CBS, and I know I'll probably catch some heat for saying this, but screw it, I'll say it anyway. And I've used some of these rule experts. The rule experts in the booth give you nothing.

Hey, man. This is holding. The guy grabbed outside the numbers, no crap.

But then when you have something that's so important, like last week with the officiating and how confusing it was, they're nowhere to be found. And look, I'm friends with a lot of the producers at CBS and Fox, I know that the producers have to tell the official, look, don't tell us what we're seeing. Tell us, give us an explanation, define the rule, tell us what is the rule and tell me how this play, right? How does it apply? How does the rule apply to this specific play? They're there not to tell us what, we can all see the what, right? The play-by-play guy told us the what, you're supposed to apply the rule, help us to understand application.

And that's a production thing. But what happens is, the guy's been up there now for so long, he's like one of the other guys. No, he doesn't want to be wrong. He doesn't want to criticize the league. We got to get out of that, man.

We got to begin to be strong enough in our jobs where we're there to do the job. Let's go ahead and do, let's allow our talent to speak for ourselves. Not worry about, did I piss somebody off at the league office?

Because you're not doing anybody any good. Well, here's my suggestion. You put the two of us in a booth, we don't need $18 million a year. We'll take a million and a half each. We'll be good.

Hey, look, I remember doing it, and look, I will tell you right now. You needed to be born 20 years later, $20 million a year. How do you think Brady will do in the booth? I know he's not going to do this year, he said today, but the next year. These jobs are really about, particularly in that role, tell me who the producer is. You put him in a booth with Fred Gardelli, they'll make TV history. Because the producer and the color analyst and the play, it's a team, right? He can't just go off into flights of fancy, talk about what he wants to talk about without the support of his team.

It's just like playing quarterback. And that's why I think, and I can't speak for Peyton Manning, I think that's one of the reasons why he's yet to do it, because he's trying to make sure he's dealt the winning hand. You have to have a play-by-play person that's willing to set you up and provide space within the broadcast for Tom Brady to be Tom Brady, right?

The production team has to orchestrate it and have visuals to support him, to give him the shots that he needs to be able to tell the story that he wants to tell. He's the burning bush, for crying out loud. And fans want to hear from only one guy if Tom Brady is in the booth. Tom, tell us what you think. He's the only one guy that's got seven Vince Lombardi trophies.

I want to hear from Tom Brady. Now, is the team, do they build it around him in that way? Does he have a play-by-play guy that's jockeying for, you and I both know how this can be now. Well, I think Burkhart doesn't have an ego. No, I agree. I'm not pointing to Burkhart.

I'm not really pointing to any one producer or play-by-play person. I'm saying this so that if you're out there in the universe and you plan on working with Tom Brady, hopefully you agree with everything that I'm saying because that's the right way to do it. So before we let you run, Melissa's here with us as a Macy patient on behalf of VeriCell. Melissa, tell us about VeriCell. So VeriCell is a cartilage repair that you use using your own cells. For myself, I had a bad knee injury. I kind of actually dislocated my knee. It was kind of like a football injury.

I tore my ACL, PCL, and MCL. And I was playing co-ed softball and I said I got it in the dummy next to me. Wanted it more. That is tough.

Come slide right into you. You know what? Friendly fire is what we call it.

It's funny but not funny. You said that. One of my best friends growing up as a kid, we were playing baseball in one of these leagues that we just got killed each and every Saturday. And I was pitching and he's playing third base and I screamed, or he claims I screamed I got it.

Never in my life. I'm the pitcher. I'm not moving. Look at the size of me.

I'm not moving. He comes running, runs into me, breaks his arm, he goes to this day, he still blames me. Yeah, you did. Oh yeah.

Somebody else's fault. You know, this is really, I think, phenomenal science brought to us by the people at VeriCell. It's called MACI, M-A-C-I. Go to MACI.com to find out about this procedure. If you have cartilage damage in your knee, roughly 12 million people a year in the U.S. go to their doctor complaining about some kind of knee pain. Roughly half of that, about 6 million, end up needing some kind of procedure to help fix damaged cartilage. Well, this is a procedure, and that's what Melissa did, went to the website and found out that they use your own stem cells to help grow your tissue. This is the only regenerative process where you can heal someone who's suffering from cartilage damage. They take out the healthy tissue, they do a biopsy to pull out a piece of healthy tissue of your own cartilage, okay, about the size of a Tic Tac, and they grow it on this collagen membrane. They go and put it back in, and it spreads.

It grows to adhere to the healthy tissue and to the bone to give you back your vitality in the knee. It's something that's very innovative, athletes are using it to return to play, and weekend warriors like myself also using it to continue to go back and play golf or skiing or whatever it is you do. And, you know, Melissa is a trained physical therapist, so she's someone who helps people to get back on their feet.

So if she can use it to get back on her feet, why shouldn't you? Would you beat Boomer Esiason in a round of 18 these days? No, not today.

Not today. Boomer is still that guy, but I got all kind of other things, and I'm sure Boomer's got some things, too. My better days in golf, unfortunately, are behind me, because starting with back issues and things of that nature, like my knees are great, hips are great, but being able to turn on it the way that I used to, it saddens me. That's why they protected those quarterbacks, even back then, right?

That's why Boomer's now able to golf at his age that way. Solomon Wilcox, thank you so much. Melissa, nice to meet you as well. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me back. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey, and Westwood One brings it to you. Streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs.

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey, and Westwood One brings it to you.

Streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs.

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey, and Westwood One brings it to you.

Streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today.