Are coaches more valuable than non-QB players in today's NFL?
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Opening up the mailbag this week felt like opening up Pandora's Box. But, you know, the NFL version of Pandora's Box. In this case, it was filled with questions about Baker Mayfield, fullbacks vs tight ends in 13 personnel, Dave Canales and Brad Idzik, and a theoretical draft including NFL head coaches. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen, and Dave Helman follow in Pandora's footsteps on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Senior Producer: Katy Duffy
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays
Follow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_
Theme song: Haunted
Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs
Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. It's another mailbag Monday coming your |
| 0:05.0 | guys way. Really enjoyed this collection of questions. We only hit a few of them because there were a lot |
| 0:10.1 | of meaty ones that we spent a decent amount of time on, but that's a perfect scenario for me. It's |
| 0:14.7 | exactly what I want. So only hit like four or five of them, but because they were so good, |
| 0:19.4 | it was more than worth it. As always, sincerely appreciate everyone who spent the time to send these in. |
| 0:25.8 | Let's get to it with me, Dave, Derek, and our producer, Katie, right now. |
| 0:43.9 | It's another mailbag Monday here on the athletic football show. |
| 0:48.2 | We are deep, and now it's like the middle of May, we're deep into the offseason. |
| 0:50.6 | And the questions reflect that in a way that I appreciate. |
| 0:53.3 | Have a lot of good ones that we want to get to today. |
| 0:54.8 | Yet again, our producer, Katie, is stepping in for Michael Bauer. Katie, let's go here. Let's let it rip. What's the first one? |
| 1:01.3 | First one is Nat on Discord. This came up a little bit in the conversation about the Buccaneers, |
| 1:06.8 | but I'd love if the show could address it head on. What is Baker Mayfield? |
| 1:11.2 | What would it take for him to go to the Super Bowl? |
| 1:13.3 | What are the best, worse, and most likely paths for him over the next approximately five years? |
| 1:19.0 | Dave, this feels like a perfect question for you. |
| 1:22.0 | I disagree. |
| 1:24.4 | I had a feeling it would start with me as the Baker guy. |
| 1:28.2 | Okay, let's get this out of the way first. |
| 1:31.1 | This question made me realize that we're having a conversation, |
| 1:36.8 | we're about to have a conversation about the Mendoza line of franchise quarterbacks, |
| 1:41.1 | and we now have a quarterback named Mendoza in the NFL and I think that's |
... |
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