Speaker 1: The volume. This is Prime Cuts. The best of the
Speaker 1: Colin Coward Podcast. J Mac, Jason McIntyre, stop by thoughts
Speaker 1: on the Dalvin Cook Jets deal. John Middlecoff on why
Speaker 1: the Trey Lance situation Is it a disaster?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Grand Teriesmo is a new movie. I liked it. The
Speaker 1: story of a kid who's a gamer becomes a race
Speaker 1: car driver. It's really interesting. But first my top takes
Speaker 1: of the week. You know, I was thinking about something
Speaker 1: today because Ezekiel Elliott Zeke signed with the Patriots. Is
Speaker 1: that there are things in life that I seek value with.
Speaker 1: I've got very flat, wide size twelve feet. I'm looking
Speaker 1: for comfort with shoes. I'm not going to spend a
Speaker 1: lot on shoes. I want comfort, and I'm not looking
Speaker 1: for the ugliest pair available, but comfort Trump's style and fashion.
Speaker 1: Same with cars, cars to mere transportation. I know many
Speaker 1: of you have that testosterone car gene. Nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1: My wife's a Michigan girl. She loves cars. I don't care.
Speaker 1: So I seek value in cars. I probably own, you
Speaker 1: know ten cars in my life, eight have been used.
Speaker 1: And then there are things I just won't go cheap on.
Speaker 1: I tell my kids all the time, Education and experiences.
Speaker 1: You know, if we have to pay for an expensive
Speaker 1: college prep school, we were going to do it. And experiences.
Speaker 1: If I want to go on two vacations a year,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're going to stay at a nice
Speaker 1: hotel by the beach walking distance. So that's important in
Speaker 1: my life. Education for my kids, and experiences because when
Speaker 1: Dad's gone, you know, I want those to be great memories.
Speaker 1: And I think most of you, you know, there's certain
Speaker 1: things when I go to the store, I'll do value
Speaker 1: paper towels. I'm not going to do value in certain
Speaker 1: things like coffee. And I think it's interesting that the
Speaker 1: Patriots signed Ezekiel Elliott again, going for a guy they
Speaker 1: can get value with past his prime. He can be
Speaker 1: a three down back, but he's lost a lot of
Speaker 1: his horsepower. And they signed Devonte Parker. There's not a
Speaker 1: big market for him, signed him to three years, Juju
Speaker 1: Smith Schuster, not a huge market for him. I just
Speaker 1: think in twenty twenty three, Kyle Shanahan's not seeking value.
Speaker 1: He went and he spent a lot of money and
Speaker 1: to make a move for Christian McCaffrey, and they signed
Speaker 1: Deebo Samuel and George Kittle and left tackle Trent Williams.
Speaker 1: They're not seeking value, they're seeking greatness because the game
Speaker 1: has changed. And I think if you start looking at
Speaker 1: the teams at the top of the afc Odell Beckham
Speaker 1: wasn't cheap, Baltimore went and got him. Go look at
Speaker 1: Cincinnati running backs, wide receivers. Joe Burro's going to cost money.
Speaker 1: I think if you're going to seek value in the NFL, safety, linebacker,
Speaker 1: interior offensive line, if your quarterback's got a little bit
Speaker 1: of mobility. But yeah, I think Zeke is fine, but
Speaker 1: he's not close to Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook is still
Speaker 1: got I think traces of his prime left and I
Speaker 1: don't think Zeke is a bad signing, but I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a significant move. I think Dalvin Cook's a
Speaker 1: better player. But we've seen it doesn't matter if it
Speaker 1: was a hunter Henry Nelson Agolar at one point, Bill's
Speaker 1: Oways seeking value and there's just not a lot of
Speaker 1: it on the offensive offensive side of the football. The
Speaker 1: best talent evaluators you're never going to get Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: or Jamar Chase or Davante Adams. You're never going to
Speaker 1: get those guys on the cheap, certainly not in their prime,
Speaker 1: so I don't think it's a bad signing. But I
Speaker 1: feel once again New England. I feel like they have
Speaker 1: most of their offensive weapons, have moved out of their
Speaker 1: sweet spot athletically. Now Dalvin Cook to the Jets. My
Speaker 1: gut feeling on this, and he's a guy that can catch,
Speaker 1: he can run. I think he's just out of his
Speaker 1: prime but close to it. He can also block, so
Speaker 1: he's a three down back. But I think when Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers took some money off the table of his contract,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just altruism.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Aaron was like, Okay, i'll give some money back. What
Speaker 1: are you getting me? Get me another weapon? So you
Speaker 1: know it's I do think it was a bit of
Speaker 1: a brand pivot for Aaron Rodgers, who always sort of
Speaker 1: took the most money in Green Bay. And I do
Speaker 1: think it shows real growth for Aaron Rodgers and kind
Speaker 1: of a community team feel. That's cool. But he had
Speaker 1: to get something back in return, and this is it.
Speaker 1: Dalvin cooks a one year contract. I think he's a
Speaker 1: really good player. I don't think it's their number one need,
Speaker 1: but it does allow them to bring back Breecee Hall
Speaker 1: slowly and listen, we have an extra game. Now they're
Speaker 1: seventeen games. You know, you don't want to give any
Speaker 1: single running back two hundred and seventy five three hundred carries.
Speaker 1: They age fast. So I do think over the course
Speaker 1: of a season, Dalvin Cook allows you to bring Breecee
Speaker 1: Hall back a little more slowly if they could. You know,
Speaker 1: they both get over one hundred carries, but neither gets
Speaker 1: to two. That's probably a very good thing. The Jets
Speaker 1: now have Aaron Rodgers. I still think the offensive line
Speaker 1: is the primary issue. I don't think running backs the
Speaker 1: number one issue. But you got to give Aaron something,
Speaker 1: a toy, a weapon for him taking a fairly profound
Speaker 1: one time pay cut. The Cowboys also ended their holdout
Speaker 1: with elite offensive guard Zach Martin. Kind of surprised that
Speaker 1: they can now. They didn't give him top of the
Speaker 1: league money. Top of the league money's about twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one million for a guard. He got about eighteen from thirteen.
Speaker 1: I thought he'd been very well compensated. You know, the
Speaker 1: Cowboys get into a space and I think they they
Speaker 1: know the reality with Dak is the more you ask
Speaker 1: Dak to do, the more mistakes you have. And last year,
Speaker 1: again Zeke passed his prime offensive line in a rebuild.
Speaker 1: Michael Gallup was slow in the rehab coming back, they
Speaker 1: asked Dak to do more, and he tied for the
Speaker 1: NFL leading interceptions. And so I just don't think the
Speaker 1: offensive line is good enough now to lose their primary
Speaker 1: offensive guard in Zach Martin's a you know, first ballot
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame guy. He's arguably the best guard in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Certainly has been top one or two for
Speaker 1: the last eight nine years, eight time Pro bowler. So
Speaker 1: I'm a little surprised they caved. Jerry has often done
Speaker 1: that with older players that he or star players that
Speaker 1: he likes, Jalen Smith, a linebacker. It didn't work Zeke.
Speaker 1: They paid him two years early, probably shouldn't have. So
Speaker 1: you know, the Cowboys you got, Brandon Cooks is new,
Speaker 1: Dalton Schultz has gone, Zeke is gone, Zach Martin out
Speaker 1: kind of a drip drip drip, leading you to believe
Speaker 1: are we putting more on Dak's table than he's comfortable with. Also,
Speaker 1: Kellen Moore, the offensive coordinator's gone, So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things you've taken away from Dak. My guess is
Speaker 1: they sat down Stephen Jones and Jerry Jones and said,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of things have been taken away.
Speaker 1: Let's insert something back into the mix. The best interior
Speaker 1: offensive lineman the Cowboys have had since Larry Allen been
Speaker 1: a long time. You know, I was thinking about something.
Speaker 1: I had a conversation recently with a friend and he
Speaker 1: was going through a tough time, and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: there's an old saying about there's old as a silver lining,
Speaker 1: and I think about this stuff all the time. Time
Speaker 1: is I remember when my my daughter was a you know,
Speaker 1: not great, but a pretty good athlete, volleyball player, basketball player,
Speaker 1: and she started playing volleyball and liked it more kind
Speaker 1: of the community feel. She liked the girls better and
Speaker 1: volleyball than basketball. And you know, I had talked to
Speaker 1: her coach one time. She was doing like summer league
Speaker 1: where you you know, you get in the van, travel
Speaker 1: all weekend and play. It was in San Bernardino, and
Speaker 1: her coach, a former college player, said, you know, your
Speaker 1: daughter's pretty good player. She could play. And then about
Speaker 1: a year later, six months later, my daughter comes to
Speaker 1: me and says, I don't want to play sports anymore.
Speaker 1: And my ex wife was a jock, played college sports,
Speaker 1: and now I'm kind of jockey. And I remember there
Speaker 1: was a day or two where you know, I kind
Speaker 1: of pouted and thought, this is no good. I really
Speaker 1: was looking forward to kind of, you know, traveling with
Speaker 1: her and watching her games. But what came out of
Speaker 1: it in that little moment of didn't get my way
Speaker 1: was actually the greatest thing that I think that had
Speaker 1: happened in our relationship is that our relationship changed. We
Speaker 1: got out of the sports realm into a more social realm,
Speaker 1: traveling realm. It was like an adult adult. It was
Speaker 1: like an adult to adult relationship. She was aging, and
Speaker 1: I didn't have to be a sports parent, right, just
Speaker 1: a taxi cab driver taking your game to game, tournament
Speaker 1: to tournament. And it goes to something that I really
Speaker 1: believe that the moments in my life that and you
Speaker 1: see it in sports all the time that you think
Speaker 1: of the pits, there's always a bright side. I remember
Speaker 1: when Michigan football was struggling with Brady Hoke, and I
Speaker 1: remember saying this on the air, Michigan is never bad
Speaker 1: for a long time in between Rich Rodriguez, Rich Rod
Speaker 1: and Bretty Hoak. I said they're going to go spend
Speaker 1: big boy money, and they did, and they got hardball.
Speaker 1: And this is the best Michigan roster this year that
Speaker 1: they maybe have ever had. It's loaded potentially fifteen NFL
Speaker 1: draft picks. So you know, the Colts God Andrew Luck,
Speaker 1: the Cavs get Lebron James because they're awful, Victor Webbin
Speaker 1: Yama to the Spurs because they were awful. There's always
Speaker 1: some sort of silver lining. It's the great duality of life.
Speaker 1: Life's never as good as you think or as bad
Speaker 1: as you think. And I was thinking about this the
Speaker 1: other day that in what I do for a living,
Speaker 1: I have a very large team of people that support me,
Speaker 1: assist me, and just sort of lubricate either my broadcasting
Speaker 1: at FS one iHeartRadio or the volume. So I'm very
Speaker 1: thankful for that. And we rely to some degree on
Speaker 1: social media TikTok a platform we're growing quickly in Instagram, Twitter,
Speaker 1: and so initially when Elon Musk took over Twitter, my
Speaker 1: takeaway was the media has an agenda, they'll be anti
Speaker 1: Elon Musk. I'm just going to go in and just
Speaker 1: watch it develop. I'm not going to take aside immediately.
Speaker 1: Too many annoying ads. Soon after that, too many violent videos,
Speaker 1: and I had filters on, but just too much stuff
Speaker 1: was getting through that was gross and I didn't think
Speaker 1: it just would put you in a good mood watching it.
Speaker 1: So my point is, what's the good news. I am
Speaker 1: never on social media anymore. I have somebody else run
Speaker 1: the accounts. The addictive quality of that account has disappeared,
Speaker 1: and that the truth is, I have now worked out
Speaker 1: for thirteen straight days for at least an hour, mostly
Speaker 1: ninety minutes. I've got a little passion project on the side,
Speaker 1: which I won't disclose now, but I probably will soon
Speaker 1: in a few months that I developed just because I
Speaker 1: had more time and have reconnected with a couple of people.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it in a while, and I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, Jesus, I was wasting a lot of time
Speaker 1: staring at my phone. And so I guess my point
Speaker 1: being is that we live in this outrage blender. You know,
Speaker 1: everything's the end of the world, and virtually nothing is.
Speaker 1: And if you have a bad day, or a bad
Speaker 1: team or a bad moment, I see Yankee fans freaking out. Now,
Speaker 1: It's like, folks, it's your first bad season and forever,
Speaker 1: your standards are high, your expectations are through the roof.
Speaker 1: Braves are great, Dodgers too, Houston's viable. It's a bad
Speaker 1: year for the Yankees. How'd you like to be the Mets?
Speaker 1: And it's the standard. It's normal. It's consistently bad or underachieving.
Speaker 1: Stuff's never as bad as you think. We're going to
Speaker 1: go into a football season. Everybody's going to overreact on
Speaker 1: Sunday nights and Monday afternoons and Monday nights to the results.
Speaker 1: Take a deep breath, enjoy life. If you're outraged on
Speaker 1: a regular basis, put down the phone. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of good out there, all right. We bring in jamac
Speaker 1: So how fitting Dalvin Cook signs with the Jets. He
Speaker 1: can block, he can catch, he can run. I still
Speaker 1: feel like he may have one more year of his
Speaker 1: prime left, whereas Zeke I feel like is three years
Speaker 1: out of his prime at least two. I feel like
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook, it feels like he's closer to his prime.
Speaker 1: Is that fair?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Certainly?
Speaker 4: I mean Colin listen, let's be realistic. Okay, and I'm
Speaker 4: not just saying this as a hyperbolic Jets fan. You
Speaker 4: know we had this interview schedule before the Dalvin Cook news.
Speaker 4: Tell me who has the best skill position players in
Speaker 4: the AFC East between the Bills, the Dolphins, the Jets
Speaker 4: and the Patriots. I've looked at the Cook numbers. There
Speaker 4: wasn't a drop off last year. The reason the Vikings
Speaker 4: had to get off of them was because of salary.
Speaker 4: They simply cannot afford him. And to build a team
Speaker 4: when you got to pay Justin Jefferson, the salary of
Speaker 4: Kirk Cousins the offensive line, like they could not afford
Speaker 4: Dalvin Cook. I don't think it had anything to do
Speaker 4: with the numbers and the drop off he instantly makes.
Speaker 4: The Jets have the best skill position players in the division.
Speaker 4: And if you want to zoom out out and look
Speaker 4: at the conference, I mean, we're not far I could
Speaker 4: say we right, We're not far behind the Bengals, who
Speaker 4: are obviously elite at receiver and that Joe Burrows better
Speaker 4: than Rogers. But you look at that Jets team, Colin,
Speaker 4: I'm being real here, Dalvin Cook, Garrett Wilson, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 4: that they're stacked.
Speaker 1: Okay, who's your number two receiver?
Speaker 4: So when you look at the depth of the Jets receivers,
Speaker 4: I think their depth far surpasses anything Buffalo has. Buffalo's
Speaker 4: top heavy with Stefan Diggs, Miami's top heavy. The top
Speaker 4: two guys are great the Jets depth. Alan Lazard, big
Speaker 4: six ' five guy, can go up to get it
Speaker 4: in the red zone. Mikole Hardman a gadget guy who
Speaker 4: they can do a lot of things with. You let
Speaker 4: up on the slot outside, like I know, we know
Speaker 4: Garrett Wilson's the one after that. There's a lot of threes.
Speaker 4: But Colin, like I like the depth idea above. You
Speaker 4: know you got a one in a two. One of
Speaker 4: those guys goes down. You don't have depth. The Jets
Speaker 4: are so stacked at receiver. And this Dalvin Cook saying, listen,
Speaker 4: we don't know how Breesce Hall is going to react
Speaker 4: coming back from injury. And Brece Hall if he can
Speaker 4: sit out the three three four games, if he's on
Speaker 4: the pup list. You know, Michael Carter was good. But
Speaker 4: let's be realistic, Okay, Dalvin Cook is a massive upgrade,
Speaker 4: and I'll challenge you Collin to find a team that
Speaker 4: got better at quarterback and running back in the NFL
Speaker 4: this offseason, it just doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Breese Hall, Dalvin Cook, Aaron Rodgers, Garrett Wilson,
Speaker 1: Corey Davis, Alan Lazard. I don't like it as much
Speaker 1: as you. I. You know, I think depth at receiver
Speaker 1: sounds good, but I like really great playmakers. My argument
Speaker 1: for receiving course is when you're one goes down Jamar Chase,
Speaker 1: can your two be a one? You know, if Mike
Speaker 1: Williams goes down, Keenan Allen has been a one. Jamar
Speaker 1: Chase went down, t Higgins looked like a one for Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Jets have that. I mean, if
Speaker 1: Cooper Cup goes down, Rams don't have a two. Van
Speaker 1: Jefferson's a three, So you know. I my takeaway was
Speaker 1: that Aaron Rodgers took a pay cut. It wasn't all
Speaker 1: for altruistic reasons. In the end, he made a deal
Speaker 1: with a team. You got to get me a toy,
Speaker 1: you got to get me something fun. And this is
Speaker 1: you know, they could use another tackle, but there's just
Speaker 1: none on the market. But there are running backs on
Speaker 1: the market and Dalvin's the best running back. This feels
Speaker 1: like one of those handshake deals all take less. You
Speaker 1: gotta get me another playmaker. That's what it feels like to.
Speaker 2: Me, certainly.
Speaker 4: And listen, I'll just remind you the Jets went in
Speaker 4: a last season with Hey, our guy Zach Wilson and
Speaker 4: our running back is Michael Carter. Like they just did
Speaker 4: not have a lot last year offensively and still managed
Speaker 4: to win seven games. Like You've got to feel like
Speaker 4: the arrow's pointing up with the Jets. There's the only
Speaker 4: way it could be pointing is up. And I just
Speaker 4: cannot stress enough. You're going from literally bottom three quarterback
Speaker 4: situation in the league, arguably thirty second to instantly one
Speaker 4: of the best with Aaron Rodgers and I know he
Speaker 4: wasn't amazing last year, but he's very good and Wilson
Speaker 4: and Cook. This is the most exciting time for any
Speaker 4: Jets fan since Rex Ryan was dropping f bombs on
Speaker 4: hard knocks over a decade ago.
Speaker 1: You know, I talked about this on FS one today
Speaker 1: about I couldn't tell you the last New York team
Speaker 1: that overachieved, like I mean, I guess the Giants last
Speaker 1: year making the playoffs. But I mean the NFC was
Speaker 1: so weak. I don't feel like it was a triumph
Speaker 1: of any you know, great historic standard. But the Yankees
Speaker 1: and the Mets not good, Brooklyn Nets, kd Mess, Jets underachieving.
Speaker 1: And I said, maybe it's just coincidence, But I tend
Speaker 1: to believe that as the media has gotten bigger and louder,
Speaker 1: is that a lot of the front offices in New
Speaker 1: York are weaker and a lot of the ownership groups
Speaker 1: are weaker. And the Yankees farm system now is you know,
Speaker 1: nobody has the patience for it, and that I do
Speaker 1: think there is a unique volume and pressure in New York,
Speaker 1: and I do think it makes it harder on athletes.
Speaker 1: That it's just I mean, you and I are not
Speaker 1: people that hang out in social media. I've worked with
Speaker 1: people who hang out on social media, and so they
Speaker 1: hear the noise and they react to it. You and
Speaker 1: I don't more more into our families. But I do
Speaker 1: think young athletes average gms. I think I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm unfair when I say this. You lived out East,
Speaker 1: I live there for a decade. Sports radio they actually
Speaker 1: talk sports. I live in Los Angeles. Sports talk radio
Speaker 1: it doesn't even talk sports. It's all guide talk. You
Speaker 1: can't do that out East. People care more. It's louder,
Speaker 1: it's more intense. They call you out by names. I mean,
Speaker 1: like wfan is calling out people by names, and those
Speaker 1: guys hear it. So like my thing with the Jets
Speaker 1: is they've got to start three and three. They go
Speaker 1: two and four. It's ugly. Am I wrong?
Speaker 4: I think it affects teams. Yeah, you never want to
Speaker 4: go overboard. But that Buffalo season opener is extremely import
Speaker 4: and we touched on this on the show. Colin, Jets
Speaker 4: offensive line is the biggest weakness. Buffalo Bills have a
Speaker 4: top five defense in the league. If Von Miller plays,
Speaker 4: we don't know if he's gonna be back. And they
Speaker 4: obliterate the Jets offensive line the way they did the
Speaker 4: Rams last year. In the opener, you saw the Rams
Speaker 4: season just snowball and kareem into a disaster. Well, in
Speaker 4: week two, the Jets then travel to Dallas and Michael Parsons,
Speaker 4: who's maybe the defensive player of the year. Colin is
Speaker 4: just setting up as first two weeks you have to
Speaker 4: get a win. There's no zero and two. That Buffalo
Speaker 4: game under the spotlight of the New York media at
Speaker 4: night Monday Night football. I believe Colin, that game is
Speaker 4: gonna be enormous.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: Luckily Aaron Rodgers, he's not the kind of guy who
Speaker 4: gets worried, right, He's used to the spotlight in the primetime.
Speaker 4: But I cannot stress enough how excited I am for
Speaker 4: that game is still on doubt. But Colin, you know,
Speaker 4: if the Jets lose and Rogers Stings throws a pick six,
Speaker 4: it's gonna be the media is just gonna kill him.
Speaker 4: That's just what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I was watching the Raiders Niners, and I was really
Speaker 1: painted attention to the Niners. Although it was interesting to
Speaker 1: watch this young Purdue quarterback for the Raiders. It's like,
Speaker 1: is he this year's Brock Prudy. He was actually pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but you know, it's funny. There's this
Speaker 1: old saying in the NFL, or this belief is that
Speaker 1: when you get a new GM, you know, he's not
Speaker 1: loyal to the previous GM's mistakes than sometimes in GM
Speaker 1: to preserve his picks, like less Need whiffed on two
Speaker 1: two at well, if they had a new GM tomorrow,
Speaker 1: he'd bail on two two at well, right, but you know,
Speaker 1: less Need's going to be more loyal to him. Logan
Speaker 1: Bruss looks like he can't play guard. They drafted him
Speaker 1: be a guard in the third round. Now they've moved
Speaker 1: into tackle. So you know, there's this sense is you're
Speaker 1: more loyal to your picks to preserve your reputation. And
Speaker 1: you know, when I watched Trey Lance, it just doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Like he's just overwhelmed. He's not accurate, he's not as
Speaker 1: twitchy or athletic as they thought. And I think I
Speaker 1: think Kyle Shanahan is ready to just completely move off
Speaker 1: him because he didn't want him anyway, whereas John Lynch
Speaker 1: as John Lynch. But it was funny watching that game.
Speaker 1: Sam Donald looked really good, and I thought they're gonna
Speaker 1: go with Brock Purdy because he's a more accurate thrower.
Speaker 1: But when I watched Donald, and you know, I love Donald,
Speaker 1: I thought there were moments when he was with the Jets,
Speaker 1: he made some incredible plays. Do you think Sam Donald
Speaker 1: could start and win games if Rock Purdy's elbow didn't recover.
Speaker 1: Do you think Donald, like Baker, we kind of believe
Speaker 1: it's over nobody's gonna Do you think Donald as a
Speaker 1: Jets fan? Do you think he has anything left in
Speaker 1: the tank if he was a starter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is he like? Twenty six?
Speaker 4: I don't even know. He's in his mid twenties. He's
Speaker 4: got plenty left. I think this scary thing just listening
Speaker 4: to you break that down, Colum. It's like, wait a minute,
Speaker 4: party got hurt in January. Okay, even if it's a
Speaker 4: seven month injury, the season was still nine months away.
Speaker 4: You're telling me that they had to go pick up
Speaker 4: Sam Darnald.
Speaker 2: It's almost as if, hey, hey, what if we got.
Speaker 4: Sam Donald and this trade thing doesn't work out?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: No, Sam was just insurance for pretty and then Sam
Speaker 4: picked it up and we just lucked into Sam Darnald.
Speaker 4: And that's an easier way to kind of write off
Speaker 4: Trey Lance. Like Trey Lance and his agent should have
Speaker 4: put his foot down. Why are you bringing another quarterback?
Speaker 4: I'm ready, I'm back from injury. It's my job. You
Speaker 4: guys drafted me. Why would Trey Lance put his foot down?
Speaker 4: And I guess because he's like a young guy, you
Speaker 4: know this guy. I think somebody, somebody put up the
Speaker 4: stat I don't know on social media if you saw
Speaker 4: this that Trey Lance when you look at his college
Speaker 4: and NFL, has like fewer pass attempts than Geno Smith
Speaker 4: had in like the last two years. Something obscure, like
Speaker 4: he just hasn't played a lot of football and Colin
Speaker 4: now opening his third on the depth chart.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I don't think loyalty exists in sports. I know you
Speaker 4: and I kind of defer on this. What's the saying
Speaker 4: You're you're only loyal as loyal as your options.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I don't know that Trey Lance has many options right now.
Speaker 4: And I think the headline that I did was Trey
Speaker 4: Lance to the Vikings. Let's just keep an eye on
Speaker 4: that as this Viking season unravels from Minnesota stuff I've
Speaker 4: been reading. Yeah, stuff I've been reading on Minnesota maybe
Speaker 4: not looking as great as we thought, Like thirteen wins, Okay,
Speaker 4: they'll go down to nine or ten, will they?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: You should start to looking like Dalvin Cook. I get
Speaker 4: to the Jets start looking at his numbers. You think
Speaker 4: Alex Madison can really replace those numbers from Dalvin Cook
Speaker 4: in the past and run game.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Madison's a good I play fantasy football. He's a good
Speaker 4: a handcuff guy. He's not a great starter. Like, I
Speaker 4: don't know, there's a world where the Vikings are like, oh,
Speaker 4: eight to nine. Yeah, let's move on from Krik Cousins.
Speaker 4: Who can we put in here on the cheap and
Speaker 4: then rebuild and fortify around him the way the Niners
Speaker 4: have really built what is kind of a blueprint for
Speaker 4: the NFL Right now.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've got most of my divisions down
Speaker 1: and in most instances, I'm just taking the best quarterback.
Speaker 1: And I think you've talked me into taking the Saints,
Speaker 1: although they're going to be thin at running back. Probably
Speaker 1: take the Saints to win that division. I'll take Carolina
Speaker 1: as a wild card team. Is there a team to
Speaker 1: you that won't make the playoffs? And it will shock
Speaker 1: people because we generally, you and I are both sort
Speaker 1: of more optimistic early in the season. Nobody wants to
Speaker 1: be a downer. After watching the Broncos, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it would be a shock, but watching them struggle
Speaker 1: in the first three series against Arizona, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this is not plug and play like this, this is
Speaker 1: really choppy. But that wouldn't be a surprise, because I
Speaker 1: think we all understand the Chargers and the Chiefs are
Speaker 1: really stacked rosters. Do you have a oh crap, they
Speaker 1: didn't make the playoffs team.
Speaker 4: I was going to save this for the herd. It's
Speaker 4: probably too hot for the volume audience, colle but you
Speaker 4: look at the Chargers and you're one in Brandon Staley.
Speaker 4: They were in Week seventeen Answer Raiders national television game.
Speaker 2: All they needed was the tie to get to overtime.
Speaker 4: Game ends in a tie and they both teams go
Speaker 4: to the playoff right and Staley messes that up, calls timeout.
Speaker 4: Raiders kick the field goal. Chargers missed the playoffs, but
Speaker 4: everything's looking great. We got justin Herbert. Year two, Herbert's injured,
Speaker 4: Stalley gets less aggressive. This is kind of an underplayed story.
Speaker 4: He started to get more cautious. Remember first year he
Speaker 4: was the head coach, led the NFL in fourth down conversions,
Speaker 4: one of the most aggressive coaches. Was very good, but
Speaker 4: the media got on his case. He started to dial
Speaker 4: it back. Last year started coach maybe a little scared
Speaker 4: they make the playoffs. He blows a huge lead. He
Speaker 4: enters year three and they drafted a receiver who you
Speaker 4: seem to like the kid Johnson TCU Quinton Job. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we like the offensive coordinator in Kellen Moore. But as
Speaker 4: you said, the division is loaded, the schedule is not easy,
Speaker 4: and the AFC is a gauntlet. If I'm picking a
Speaker 4: team to miss the playoffs, here's a crazy scenario. Chargers
Speaker 4: missed the playoffs. Decide man, we ruined Justin Herbert's rookie
Speaker 4: d We have no playoff wins, one playoff appearance. Staley,
Speaker 4: you're out of here. We're gonna make a Runnert a
Speaker 4: big time coach, and you happen to talk about a
Speaker 4: coach Monday on the Hurt that you know, it's facing
Speaker 4: some battles with the NCAA and had dabbled in the
Speaker 4: NFL last summer. I think it last February. He interviewed
Speaker 4: with the Vikings and he was, you know, I guess,
Speaker 4: chatting with the Chargers. The Carolina Panthers owner, his name
Speaker 4: is Jim Harball. Jim Harball obviously a loves California. It's
Speaker 4: time with San Francisco. What if the Chargers missed the
Speaker 4: playoffs seven and ten, eight and nine.
Speaker 1: That's not going to get it and you're not getting
Speaker 1: nine and eight is probably going to miss the playoffs
Speaker 1: in the AFC.
Speaker 4: So they missed the playoffs Chargers do they say, you
Speaker 4: know what, Sorry, Staley, the ship has sailed. Oh, Jim
Speaker 4: Harbo's on the market. And Jim Harbaugh sees I can
Speaker 4: get justin Herbert. You're telling me that's not getting Jim
Speaker 4: Harbaugh to the NFL.
Speaker 2: And a heartbeat.
Speaker 4: Now the only hiccup here. And you know, the owners
Speaker 4: of the Chargers have been out of notorious cheap skates.
Speaker 4: Maybe one of the kids gets his dad, Hey, dad,
Speaker 4: open up the book. We got to get Jim Harble
Speaker 4: in here. And Chargers missed the playoffs. But it's a
Speaker 4: blessing in disguise. They bring in Jim Harbaugh.
Speaker 1: So there's a new movie coming out that I just watched.
Speaker 1: My producers and I watched it. They send us a
Speaker 1: link Grand Turismo. It is a hard story to believe
Speaker 1: is true, but it is actually true. We're a middle
Speaker 1: class gamer, an optimistic motor sport executive, and a failed
Speaker 1: race car driver team up in what is one of
Speaker 1: the more inspiring unique sports stories in one of the
Speaker 1: most elite sports in the world. The movie August twenty
Speaker 1: fifth is when it opens up. Get your tickets now.
Speaker 1: It's called Grand Turismo. It is a true story. And
Speaker 1: I was told that I watched the movie. I had
Speaker 1: to google after. I'm like, give me a break. I
Speaker 1: never heard about this story, and it's all true. August
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, and we bring in the actual gamer who
Speaker 1: pulled this off, Yan Martin Borough, joining us on the
Speaker 1: volume When You're a gamer, and there was parts in
Speaker 1: the movie and I understand it's Hollywood, so not everything
Speaker 1: in the movie is true about your dad, you know,
Speaker 1: like all dads is thinking to himself, my son's playing esports,
Speaker 1: he's an e gamer. I want you to get a
Speaker 1: real job. And I thought to myself, is this Hollywood?
Speaker 1: Or could you tell us? Was their doubts by your family?
Speaker 1: Your mom supported you, but your dad was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I understand, like I'm a dad. Was there conflict with
Speaker 1: your dad or was that a little bit of Hollywood?
Speaker 5: Well it wasn't really. Esports wasn't a thing back then
Speaker 5: in motorsports. Anyway, twelve years ago, twenty eleven, I've had
Speaker 5: it all my life. I guess any millennial born in
Speaker 5: the nineties has had the same thing with PlayStation. All
Speaker 5: the games I've had it in school, coming home from school,
Speaker 5: you have to do two hours revision before that thing
Speaker 5: even gets turned on. Whatever, go outside, No, I want
Speaker 5: to play PlayStation instead. It's forever been a thing. So
Speaker 5: when I was talking to the producers and scriptwriters back
Speaker 5: in wow, this was twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: I mean it was.
Speaker 5: I just told my experiences. It's like, yeah, my dad
Speaker 5: wanted to be to outside and have a childhood like
Speaker 5: he did, but didn't quite understand that. I'm also socializing
Speaker 5: online with my friends with my microphone. And it's now
Speaker 5: it's kind of normalreas back then it's still you have
Speaker 5: different generation, not really understanding the current generation.
Speaker 3: So no, it's not Hollywood. It's that's how it was,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's interesting you say that, how old are
Speaker 1: you now? Because you sound like my sixteen year old
Speaker 1: son who says, Dad, I am socializing. I'm socializing on
Speaker 1: my computer.
Speaker 3: I'm thirty one.
Speaker 5: And even now it's it's another level because not only well,
Speaker 5: twelve years ago, I guess I don't know what if
Speaker 5: twitch was a thing. Back then, YouTube was barely a thing,
Speaker 5: but certainly online streaming wasn't a thing, whereas now you
Speaker 5: can have I don't know, like millions of people, hundreds
Speaker 5: of thousands of people watch you play a game and
Speaker 5: also socialize in the chat. That's something which is again
Speaker 5: for me, I don't do that because I'm in my
Speaker 5: thing is in real life. But when I look at
Speaker 5: these content streamers and it's like, yeah, they're so talking
Speaker 5: to so many people at the same time.
Speaker 3: It's like a social event.
Speaker 1: So I had never heard of this story, and as
Speaker 1: I watched the movie, it's very compelling. I literally had Google, Okay,
Speaker 1: is this real? So you're basically a gamer, you get
Speaker 1: invited to the GT Academy, you win it, and because
Speaker 1: of an aspirational you know, motorsport executive and a driver
Speaker 1: who has real doubts about you, did you have? You
Speaker 1: come across as very confident. But I mean, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: this story there's a reason Hollywood wanted to make this story.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even sound true. Did you ever have a
Speaker 1: doubt gamer to getting in a car before that first
Speaker 1: race starts? Were you anxious? Were you nervous or did
Speaker 1: you have this sort of inner scoreboard and believe not
Speaker 1: there's advantages that I have over these drivers.
Speaker 3: Never thought of that.
Speaker 5: But I'm someone who's very headstrong, and I'm somebody who
Speaker 5: I think he has.
Speaker 3: A good.
Speaker 5: Building block psyche from my father telling me to a
Speaker 5: young age, and you would do something in life which
Speaker 5: brinsy purpose and that you're passionate about, and that for
Speaker 5: me is cars. So I'm a headstrong person, So that
Speaker 5: is all I wanted to do. So when the opportunity
Speaker 5: presented itself or this is a chance of becoming a
Speaker 5: race and driver, I was all in and that I
Speaker 5: didn't think I could win. I didn't think I could lose.
Speaker 5: It was this weird frame of mind during the whole
Speaker 5: process of entering entering it at home on my PlayStation
Speaker 5: and also get into the finals of the academy, where
Speaker 5: I was like a blinked race horse, where I didn't
Speaker 5: want to think about winning or losing it. It was just like, Okay,
Speaker 5: what's next, Let's do the best I can learn from,
Speaker 5: learn from my mistakes in the previous instructors' comments, and
Speaker 5: the next time in the car, don't make that mistake again,
Speaker 5: or let's improve.
Speaker 3: It was this weird mindset.
Speaker 5: I never thought that I had an advantage over anybody else,
Speaker 5: because I went in there with the understanding that I'm
Speaker 5: to be a sponge.
Speaker 3: That was my another thing.
Speaker 5: I remember thinking like, it's like all the information that's
Speaker 5: that it's going to be taught at me during this
Speaker 5: academy process at GT academy is going to be good
Speaker 5: information because all the drivers, all the instructors are currently
Speaker 5: current racing drivers or the ex professionals, So whatever they're
Speaker 5: telling me, it's going to be correct. I have no
Speaker 5: preconceived ideas of how to race at racing right, so
Speaker 5: I was just absorbing all of it, and I never
Speaker 5: thought that I had an advantage over anybody else. Really
Speaker 5: it's not. I was very much aware that I'm the
Speaker 5: first step of a ladder. Because there's people that were
Speaker 5: there at the academy who had had drifting experience of
Speaker 5: then track days, of then cart in I was the
Speaker 5: least experienced person of everybody there. And it was the
Speaker 5: same thing in entering motorsport. After the academy, I'm very
Speaker 5: much aware that I'm here to All I cared about
Speaker 5: is my progression.
Speaker 3: I didn't care about anything else.
Speaker 5: I want to make sure that my progression is exponential
Speaker 5: for as long as possible, so I never I was
Speaker 5: all I am is very headstrong. He was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: that's what I want to do, and I'll do it.
Speaker 5: I don't think if I'm no confidence in showing it egotistically,
Speaker 5: it's not really my scene. Even now, it's like, I
Speaker 5: don't say what I've done. It's like the people that
Speaker 5: put I guess you know, the school accomplishments MBAs and
Speaker 5: stuff in their bios is I'm just not that I
Speaker 5: have receipts of what I've done in the past. And
Speaker 5: the movie thing is fantastic. I never thought it'd be
Speaker 5: a thing because it's so random. So when it first
Speaker 5: got told to me, I didn't believe them and I thought,
Speaker 5: why me, I'm just racing my racing, That's what I've
Speaker 5: been doing.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting. And you're a gamer and then you're
Speaker 1: a driver. Once you'd succeeded it driving, did you go
Speaker 1: back to gaming sometimes and think, actually, it helped you
Speaker 1: as a driver, so you transition from gamer to driver
Speaker 1: when you went back to gaming. Are there things gaming
Speaker 1: in gaming that actually are advantages that drivers probably could use?
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 5: The main reason why drivers and I still use SIMS
Speaker 5: is because of the limited time you have on circuits.
Speaker 5: So in the off season, right from I don't know
Speaker 5: novemb till March, you there's no real drive and it's
Speaker 5: called here in the UK during those months, so you
Speaker 5: the next beastitting is being in a simulator. So yeah,
Speaker 5: it's just lapse, it's it's time in the seat. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's that. That's what it's currently useful. That's what I
Speaker 5: still use the SIMP for.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I've been in a race car twice now
Speaker 1: more of a stock car American version, which is not
Speaker 1: as slick as what you drove. My takeaway is, Wow,
Speaker 1: it's really hot in here and you better be in shape.
Speaker 1: So in the movie, the first time you were in
Speaker 1: that car, take me to the physical I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: did you come out of that thing and wake up
Speaker 1: the next morning and you were a wreck?
Speaker 2: You were?
Speaker 1: Was it physically more daunting than you thought it would be.
Speaker 3: It was an accluminative.
Speaker 5: It was an accluminative like sensation really, because during those
Speaker 5: academy days day one, day two, day three, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of feel fine. But then in the later days
Speaker 5: I was aware that my hands were starting to get
Speaker 5: quite sore, my forearms, my even my neck to a
Speaker 5: little bit to a point. And then certainly when I
Speaker 5: transitioned to really quick racing cars after the academy, we're
Speaker 5: actually racing.
Speaker 3: Then it's it became a thing. It became a real thing.
Speaker 5: Like there's muscles behind your ears, which you don't really
Speaker 5: work in normal day today life. But when you've done
Speaker 5: two days testing in a Formula three car at a
Speaker 5: track where seven to five of the corners out of
Speaker 5: seven a full throttle, and you wake up the next morning,
Speaker 5: you get lift your head up the pillow and your
Speaker 5: neck is just it's in bits, and you've got another
Speaker 5: day test and it's yeah, it's a thing. It's really
Speaker 5: gt cars. They get very hot, it's quite tot in.
Speaker 5: You have to be lean, you have to be aerobically fit.
Speaker 5: I train it every day, and not only because of
Speaker 5: my job, because I actually enjoyed training. It's it's part
Speaker 5: of my lifestyle. But yeah, you know, i've recently.
Speaker 3: I never did it.
Speaker 5: Before because I never would technology. But I had a
Speaker 5: recent name at Fuji in Japan. It's a twenty four
Speaker 5: hour race and I have this finished tracker my wrist
Speaker 5: and I left it on during the race and over
Speaker 5: two hours. I think I burnt eight hundred and seventy calories.
Speaker 5: It was average one hundred and fifty deep some minutes
Speaker 5: got the peaked at a one hundred and seventy five.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 5: So it's like it's your your stress for a long time.
Speaker 5: It's maybe the heat in a GT card. The heat
Speaker 5: really makes your body work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say a twenty four hour race,
Speaker 1: like Lemon's how, I'm just a novice. How do you
Speaker 1: get Obviously they're probably mechanisms to keep you hydrated, but
Speaker 1: you're burning through eight hundred calories every two hours? How
Speaker 1: do you eat? I mean, are you do you go
Speaker 1: into a race?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: You you don't want to go into a race like
Speaker 1: heavy and tired, so you want to go in fairly lean.
Speaker 1: How do you eat in a twenty four hour race
Speaker 1: when you're burning those kind of calories?
Speaker 5: I think for me, I've always ate at normal times,
Speaker 5: so I still stick to my during for the race,
Speaker 5: and during I still stick to my normal plan. I'll
Speaker 5: eat when I'm hungry. I eat my three meals a day,
Speaker 5: but it's.
Speaker 3: Not so much.
Speaker 5: When I get out of the car, you know I
Speaker 5: need to grab food immediately. It's more when you wake
Speaker 5: up in the middle of the night and then you
Speaker 5: know you're in the car, like I don't know, four am.
Speaker 5: And then it's planning your times of eating in really
Speaker 5: unusual hours because then you bought your body like I'm
Speaker 5: hungry for it's four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3: This isn't normal.
Speaker 5: It's an interesting experience because you're hungry at weird times.
Speaker 5: All I felt, all I've done really is whenever I'm
Speaker 5: hung just make sure I'm not hungry and I get
Speaker 5: in the car and then I'm fine.
Speaker 1: So you dominate a game like Grand Turismo, right, and
Speaker 1: that gets you on a track. Are there other games?
Speaker 1: As a gamer? Are there other games? Does it transition
Speaker 1: in esports that you're just good on almost any gaming
Speaker 1: platform you crush?
Speaker 3: Well, it's.
Speaker 5: I think now I would never putting the hours required
Speaker 5: to be at a level where I'm the best because
Speaker 5: I don't find that enjoyable. But also, whatever I do
Speaker 5: want to same now is for my real life performance
Speaker 5: in the car, so I never go into that detail anymore.
Speaker 5: But I can jump on another They all have their nuances,
Speaker 5: they're all slightly different, but I can jump on another
Speaker 5: sim whether that be on PC or another title on
Speaker 5: PlayStation and be quick excite the racing game. It's what
Speaker 5: I've been doing since I was eight, so I'm kind
Speaker 5: of all right at doing them.
Speaker 1: You and I grew up. I think we spent a
Speaker 1: lot of our formative years as PAC twelve fans. And
Speaker 1: you know what's really happened with all this realignment is
Speaker 1: that if you were precious or idealistic or snooty, you
Speaker 1: got kicked in the head. Stanford has tried doing it football.
Speaker 1: They've spent money, cal never really has. They did the basics.
Speaker 1: They got better facilities, and with that they've still put
Speaker 1: a lot of good NFL players quarterbacks in the league.
Speaker 1: But the programs out west that said and they're good
Speaker 1: academic schools, USC Washington, you know those are real schools Texas,
Speaker 1: the schools that have said, wow, there is one athletic
Speaker 1: program that makes a lot of money, and we're going
Speaker 1: to commit to it if you have a good football program.
Speaker 1: You had multiple suitors, Like it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: feel bad for the PAC twelve when in a world
Speaker 1: where pillow fighting is on the air and slap fighting
Speaker 1: is a business that you as a college football conference
Speaker 1: could not get a television deal. I work at a
Speaker 1: TV network. We're dying for content, but arrogance too precious.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you hire somebody from a tennis channel
Speaker 1: to run your conference and they consider the Seers Cup
Speaker 1: as viable as the Rose Bowl, you get what you deserve.
Speaker 1: And so you either commit to football as an athletic
Speaker 1: department or you're lost. You just don't understand the way
Speaker 1: the entire pyramid of college sports works.
Speaker 2: The most embarrassing part of this whole deal is that
Speaker 2: I think the Big Ten and definitely the SEC, understood
Speaker 2: that football not only pays for everything, but the more
Speaker 2: success it has, everyone benefits. Yes, why in the SEC
Speaker 2: their basketball programs now pay coaches elite money. I was
Speaker 2: watching the USAM golf tournament. It's full of SEC kids
Speaker 2: from all over the They're great at the college baseball tournament,
Speaker 2: and Larry Scott viewed this as as some equitable endeavor.
Speaker 2: And that's not the way college sports has built. Football
Speaker 2: pays for everything and then everyone benefits. And what I
Speaker 2: wonder though, is how do they ever get to the
Speaker 2: point when the top fifty. However, many programs under the umbrella,
Speaker 2: you know, so fighting to get to the twelve team playoff,
Speaker 2: all abide by the same rules, same amount of conference games,
Speaker 2: no more playing Weber State and UC Davis those days.
Speaker 2: How do they ever get there? Because essentially, you're going
Speaker 2: to need a commissioner or a governing body that mandates
Speaker 2: basically universal rules. That Alabama, that Ohio State, Oklahoma State,
Speaker 2: and it feels like we're still a little bit far
Speaker 2: away from that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've always felt you need a scheduling czar in
Speaker 1: college football. I mean, why did the UFC and mixed
Speaker 1: martial arts but UFC overtake boxing because they had a commissioner,
Speaker 1: strong willed, a definitive Dana White. I'm gonna lease an
Speaker 1: island and boxing continually ripped off fans once a month.
Speaker 1: You get a UFC card. Even my wife enjoys going.
Speaker 1: You always get quality entertainment and your money's worth. Where
Speaker 1: college football has struggled to me, John, in my life
Speaker 1: is not passion, is not branding. It's too few great games.
Speaker 1: Everybody's avoiding an out of conference loss. So to me,
Speaker 1: the bigger the tournament becomes twelve to sixteen teams, the
Speaker 1: more willing Texas and Alabama are this year to play
Speaker 1: each other, USC Michigan. Now they will play each other.
Speaker 1: But those are the games I mean go to starting
Speaker 1: next week until the first Thursday of the NFL. There's
Speaker 1: about fifteen twenty days there and there's like three good
Speaker 1: college football games. So the sport's going to change. The
Speaker 1: tournament like college basketball is going to become the focal point.
Speaker 1: It's not going to erode the sport. What's eroded college
Speaker 1: basketball isn't the tournament. What's eroded it is the one
Speaker 1: and done culture. The teams aren't very good, the players
Speaker 1: aren't very good. So college football still has the three
Speaker 1: year minimum rule, but the sport's gonna shift, and it's
Speaker 1: going to shift to a The tournament is the centerpiece
Speaker 1: of it. More teams will be allowed in a little
Speaker 1: bit of an arms race. But I do believe more
Speaker 1: than a commissioner, because I'm not sure if you'll ever
Speaker 1: get that. I think we need a scheduling zar. Everybody
Speaker 1: plays minimum ten conference games, one out of conference game
Speaker 1: to help Like Ohio State can help out Youngstown State,
Speaker 1: Washington could help out Eastern Washington, Bama could help out Troy.
Speaker 1: If there's a regional team, you can help out. But
Speaker 1: but I think I think the sports changing and pivoting.
Speaker 1: I'm here for it because I believe it will deliver
Speaker 1: more really big games. Yeah, I mean one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: That's the best part of that the NFL. Right week one,
Speaker 1: you get Steelers forty nine ers. That's like the equivalent
Speaker 1: of Georgia USC Let's rock and Roll, Baby Bill's Jets, Yeah, Giants, Cowboys,
Speaker 1: you know that's that's really that one o'clock window, that
Speaker 1: red zone window. There's always four to five games and
Speaker 1: the one o'clock window are down to the final possession.
Speaker 1: Then you get the Fox window. Then you get Sunday
Speaker 1: night and Monday night. Now Thursday was you know, it
Speaker 1: was awful, But by and large the NFL's quality. Every
Speaker 1: window you get great games. We may go through Labor
Speaker 1: Day window. I think LSU plays Florida State. It's like
Speaker 1: I can live without seeing any other game. You have
Speaker 1: this huge three day weekend to just own the world,
Speaker 1: and it's a bunch of teams afraid to play each other.
Speaker 2: You know, one theory I have going back to the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty college football season, that was all on a whack,
Speaker 2: you know, from a training regiment, from a scheduling regiment.
Speaker 2: Beside Trevor Lawrence, who had a long resume and was
Speaker 2: destined to be a good NFL player. The other four quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: we got two in limbo right now in fields and
Speaker 2: Mac Jones. We'll see. I mean, by the end of
Speaker 2: the season they could be not viable for their team anymore.
Speaker 2: And then you got Zach Wilson and Trey Lance not
Speaker 2: even close to seeing the field. I think we look
Speaker 2: back and that's an outlier for quarterbacks because it was built.
Speaker 2: This is a great quarterback draft. But Zach Wilson played
Speaker 2: nobody and why you typically does right on a normal season.
Speaker 2: But remember the Pac twelve didn't play any out of
Speaker 2: conference games. I think the Big Ten did to they
Speaker 2: play all those teams they did in that season. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Trey Lance didn't even have a season, right so and
Speaker 2: Mac Jones. One thing in the scouting circle I always
Speaker 2: heard is, you know, Alabama didn't exactly tap out and
Speaker 2: go home for the summer in twenty twenty. They were lifting,
Speaker 2: they were ready to roll. They obviously are already talented,
Speaker 2: and they had a huge advantage that season, and you
Speaker 2: clearly see it when you get to the pro. Some
Speaker 2: guys another theory is some of these quarterbacks like a
Speaker 2: Brock Purty or you know mahomes that don't play on
Speaker 2: the most talented teams in college are used to figuring
Speaker 2: out ways to win. Or some of the Ohio State
Speaker 2: and Alabama guys have they're rolling in with like Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant Steph Curry on their right and left shoulders and
Speaker 2: it's just not even fair, right they have a stack team.
Speaker 2: So I think you see twenty twenty that college season
Speaker 2: all out of whack for the quarterbacks, and then I
Speaker 2: do think you see what the quarterbacks. You don't have
Speaker 2: to go to the elite school. Sometimes you learn going
Speaker 2: to the second tier power five school kind of learn
Speaker 2: how to play, learn how to win.
Speaker 1: No, this has been something I think I wrote about
Speaker 1: this in my first book, is that it's amazing that
Speaker 1: the greatest quarterback there's a quarterback from Miami of Ohio,
Speaker 1: better than any Ohio State quarterback ever, Big Ben. At
Speaker 1: one point, North Carolina State had Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: and Mike Glennon in the league and USC had like nobody.
Speaker 1: If you really look, I believe this, you should go
Speaker 1: to the college and not just sports. You should go
Speaker 1: to the college that best prepares you for your first
Speaker 1: job out of college. What prepares you for the NFL
Speaker 1: never getting touched as a Buckeye quarterback throwing drag routes
Speaker 1: that go for seventy yards to wide open five star
Speaker 1: receivers with perfect protection, or playing at Purdue or NC
Speaker 1: State or Boston College or Miami of Ohio or cal
Speaker 1: where Jared got that, you know what kicked out of
Speaker 1: him for three or four years. So if you look
Speaker 1: at where quarterbacks come from, you know Lamar Jackson, Louisville's
Speaker 1: a basketball school. You go out, go up and down.
Speaker 1: If you go up and down the league like Josh
Speaker 1: Allen Wyoming, like Mahomes, Nonpower, it's almost universal if you
Speaker 1: go up and down. And even the guys that went
Speaker 1: to the big schools Jalen Hurts got kicked around, had
Speaker 1: to transfer, Joe Burrell, Joe Burrow had to transfer. So
Speaker 1: getting pushed around, roadblocks, duress, not getting your way is
Speaker 1: a huge component what job prepares you for the NFL
Speaker 1: At quarterback one, throwing into small windows, running for your life.
Speaker 1: Often the second best coaching staff on the field, Drew
Speaker 1: Brees Purdue. You know Tom Brady goes to Michigan but
Speaker 1: was battling for snaps at Michigan. So I think that's
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning for a long time was the only quarterback
Speaker 1: for long time. Number one high school, number one college,
Speaker 1: number one pick. Great. I mean he was for it
Speaker 1: for a long time. That Lway was that Way high
Speaker 1: school college, you know, pro and he delivered. But it's
Speaker 1: usually I mean even Justin Herbert goes to Oregon good school,
Speaker 1: totally doubted. You know, three star recruit grew up right
Speaker 1: next to Oregon.
Speaker 2: They were not loaded with skilled guys on offense, which
Speaker 2: historically they usually are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had good oldlignment, but not good receivers.
Speaker 2: One thing I thought when Trey Lance was drafted by
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers, and I have one hundred percent
Speaker 2: changed my thinking, and I've seen it with James Wiseman
Speaker 2: and the Warriors, is you get this raw product on
Speaker 2: a great team and it's actually easier. Actually think it's
Speaker 2: the opposite. And you look this year with the rookie
Speaker 2: quarterbacks Anthony Richardson, C. J. Stroud and Bryce Young. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm a little different than you on Caroline. I think
Speaker 2: it could be a little bit of a rough year
Speaker 2: the other two teams for sure, but it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: like if all three of them are drafting in the
Speaker 2: top five next year. It's a big picture play where
Speaker 2: Trey Lance came into a spot where it was like,
Speaker 2: we're competing to be playing late in January. Anything less
Speaker 2: is unacceptable, and the core guys on the team, like,
Speaker 2: they're not into losing, They're not into you figuring it out.
Speaker 2: Like who on the Colts is really gonna get super
Speaker 2: mad if he's struggling, right, I mean, they're going through
Speaker 2: a transitional period right now. So I think when you
Speaker 2: are a young quarterback who's raw and the expectations are
Speaker 2: super low for your team, it's actually way easier you
Speaker 2: get to figure it out. And that doesn't mean you're
Speaker 2: going to become a good player, but you know, it's
Speaker 2: very rare, Like look at what Kansas City did. They
Speaker 2: gave him some breathing room and he's turns out Mahomes
Speaker 2: a multime out liar, Like, well, Mahomes is not someone
Speaker 2: to be used as an example. Even Josh Allen, they
Speaker 2: had blown the place up. They ended up making the
Speaker 2: playoffs that year, but it was a little lucky. Remember,
Speaker 2: I think there was like an Andy Dalton thing that
Speaker 2: got him in beat the Ravens or something. They were
Speaker 2: a wild card, but the expectations were low and he
Speaker 2: got an easy transition into the pros that if a
Speaker 2: top team drafts you and the expectations were high, if
Speaker 2: you're not like ready, especially clearly Trey Lance wasn't, it
Speaker 2: can be overwhelming and probably derail your career.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was thinking about this with Trey Lance.
Speaker 1: A four year Jet scout came out and just said, like,
Speaker 1: this doesn't work. He doesn't. He looks overwhelmed. And it
Speaker 1: just goes to show you how hard drafting a quarterback is.
Speaker 1: And I'll give you an example. So Mac Jones came
Speaker 1: in with several red flags, not athletic, had a temper,
Speaker 1: one year starter, surrounded by great players, then lands in
Speaker 1: New England with a defensive culture, yet he had an
Speaker 1: excellent rookie season. Trey Lance comes in, winning culture, big
Speaker 1: kid mobile, Kyle Shanahan. It's bad. Like one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I bought into Trey Lance was Kyle Shanahan will
Speaker 1: figure it out. So I was like, oh, this will work.
Speaker 1: So does it show you that if Kyle can't make
Speaker 1: it work. It was just a whiff. I mean, part
Speaker 1: of me is like like, like I understand James Wiseman
Speaker 1: for the Warriors not winning, and it's not because Wiseman
Speaker 1: can't play. He doesn't He's not synced up to Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's timeline, right, Like, like I get them just saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we got to get guys who can win. Now, NFL
Speaker 1: is different, Like if Trey could play, they would just
Speaker 1: figure it out. And I watched Sam Darnold with the
Speaker 1: same personnel play and Trey Lance, Sam looked like Sam
Speaker 1: looked excellent, And I'm like, we all talk about Lance
Speaker 1: pretty has not a great camp. Is it possible you
Speaker 1: live and you live and spend time in the area.
Speaker 1: Is Sam Donald potentially the starter?
Speaker 2: Well, I've heard that Kyle's had a long love affair
Speaker 2: would be strong. But he's always liked the player, and
Speaker 2: he saw what his strengths are in his offense, and
Speaker 2: let's face it, he views the quarterback position. If you
Speaker 2: remove Trey, I would say a little different than most
Speaker 2: like what the Andy Reids of the world and some
Speaker 2: of these you know coaches in the league want a
Speaker 2: little different than what Kyle Shanahan wants and some of
Speaker 2: his stuff you know he's never had in all of
Speaker 2: his successful years. You know, they had success with Matt
Speaker 2: Job in Houston, obviously, Matt Ryan, Jimmy Garoppolo. Sam is
Speaker 2: the best arm of any of those guys. Yes, And
Speaker 2: I think Sam fair or not, was in shitty situations
Speaker 2: that if you put let's just say a tray or guy,
Speaker 2: it would have been worse. I mean, no one was
Speaker 2: winning in the situations he was in with Adam Gase
Speaker 2: and even in Carolina. And I do think that brock
Speaker 2: Perty is not going to get treated like some top
Speaker 2: ten quarterback and if things are rocky and don't look
Speaker 2: like last season, he won't go to the bullpen. It
Speaker 2: was no different than last year. If Trey Lance hadn't
Speaker 2: broken his ankle and gone four or five six games,
Speaker 2: I don't know the exact number and then up and down,
Speaker 2: he would have gone to Jimmy Garoppolo. He was not
Speaker 2: given him seventeen games because that's not how this team
Speaker 2: is built. So I think there is tangible pressure on Perty, who,
Speaker 2: as he stated over and over, is going to be
Speaker 2: as lock starter for Pittsburgh. But he doesn't get to
Speaker 2: just go like zero to three. If they lose Week one,
Speaker 2: which is a very losable game on the road, they're
Speaker 2: a favorite. So that means Tomlin's an underdog. It's just
Speaker 2: gonna be a tough environment against a really good defense.
Speaker 2: I just he will go to the bullpen. Now, I
Speaker 2: don't know if that's Week two, week four, But Perty
Speaker 2: doesn't just get the leash of most of these blue chip,
Speaker 2: highly paid quarterbacks. And that's you know, part of this conversation.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen anything like a conversation over these
Speaker 2: backup quarterbacks for an elite team. It's it's they're an
Speaker 2: outlier situation, right, a Super Bowl contender who does not
Speaker 2: have a forty fifty million dollar quarterback. All the other teams,
Speaker 2: even in the NFC, Dak and Jalen, and then the
Speaker 2: top teams in the AFC Mahomes obviously Josh Allen and Burrow, Right,
Speaker 2: I mean, these are the premium players in the league,
Speaker 2: and then you got the forty nine ers. It's like
Speaker 2: Perty and Sam Darnold. So it just but we all
Speaker 2: kind of believe in him because we saw what they could.
Speaker 2: They could have beat the Eagles of Party doesn't get
Speaker 2: hurt the way they were playing, but there is like
Speaker 2: this kind of elephant in the room weirdness with their quarterback.
Speaker 2: And that's just kind of the way it's been since
Speaker 2: Kyle's been there, because ultimately Trey Lance didn't work out
Speaker 2: because they were hoping that he would become that guy.
Speaker 1: So I think an interesting situation. I had a buddy,
Speaker 1: Steve Kime used to run Arizona. Yeah, he was at
Speaker 1: the Eagles camp last several days and he texted me
Speaker 1: the other day He's like, they are really good, and
Speaker 1: you know, Shane Steiken is one of these guys. This
Speaker 1: was Brian Dabele. So Brian Dabele was being talked about.
Speaker 1: I was getting comments about him, like three years when
Speaker 1: he got the Buffalo job. I'd get guys or like
Speaker 1: watch this guy. And then then everybody figured out, like
Speaker 1: when Josh Allen exploded, it's like, oh, so I thought
Speaker 1: the Chargers were going to hire Brian Dable because he
Speaker 1: had a relationship day Ball did with Tom to let
Speaker 1: go the GM. I think they roomed in college or
Speaker 1: they knew each other somehow, and they didn't. The spanosist
Speaker 1: actually said, hey, we want Brandon Staley because he was
Speaker 1: with a Rams, you know, you take somebody that's valuable
Speaker 1: away from the Rams, maybe he'd already been on the
Speaker 1: West Coast whatever, so and you get the situations like this. Well,
Speaker 1: the Chargers also told me several years ago Shane Steiken
Speaker 1: is really good and Justin Herbert behind the thirty second
Speaker 1: ranked offensive line with Anthony Lynn literally through thirty one
Speaker 1: touchdown passes. Then he goes and he kind of resurrects,
Speaker 1: and that's the wrong word. He takes Jalen Hurts his
Speaker 1: talent and essentially makes him co MVP of the league.
Speaker 1: So he leaves much like Dabell left Josh Allen. Josh
Speaker 1: Allen's still good, but the mistakes go up. There's drama
Speaker 1: this year and you could sense they missed day ball
Speaker 1: a little. No knock on Ken Dorsey. I'm really interested.
Speaker 1: I think Jalen Hurts like Josh Allen. He's a franchise guy, moves, throws,
Speaker 1: great leadership qualities, but you know you work with them
Speaker 1: and you still have contacts. I look at last year's
Speaker 1: Eagles team. They played a bunch of injured quarterbacks, backup
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and week quarterbacks schedule is much different this year,
Speaker 1: and I am interested. I'm really Pro Indie because of Steichen,
Speaker 1: and I remember when Sirianni called the plays, it was
Speaker 1: a bit of an s show. He handed it over
Speaker 1: to Steichen and instantly next week they were good. What
Speaker 1: do you expect from the Philadelphia Eagles this year? The offense?
Speaker 2: Well, a lot of players in the history of league
Speaker 2: have had great seasons, right, But to be a great player,
Speaker 2: it's doing it year in year out, especially a quarterback.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: That's what separated Brady Manning, Breeze, whoever, all the top
Speaker 2: guys every year. So there is pressure now on Jalen.
Speaker 2: They didn't have a choice. They had to pay him.
Speaker 2: One thing I've learned from in the scouting world talking
Speaker 2: about players and seeing guys that you've kind of bet
Speaker 2: against that failed, you bet on the person. And these guys,
Speaker 2: I think they didn't think three years ago he was
Speaker 2: going to be this good. But they hammered home how
Speaker 2: impressive this dude was. Yeah, how coachable he is, Like
Speaker 2: Sirianni can yell at him. He's a coaches kid, doesn't
Speaker 2: mind it. Saban Lincoln Riley, he can handle it. This
Speaker 2: is a tough, mentally driven football is his life. Teammates
Speaker 2: love him. That's why they wally pipped Carson wentzel Fast.
Speaker 2: Everyone gravitated to this guy and this is when he
Speaker 2: wasn't even that good. Yeah, and so to me, you
Speaker 2: don't bet against now. Is he going to maintain like
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl game every single game? Of course not,
Speaker 2: but I have I'm betting on him because I think
Speaker 2: he proved last year. He's a much better thrower and
Speaker 2: like com Sexty, their team around him, elite offensive line.
Speaker 2: Him and AJ Brown are perfectly This guy is kind
Speaker 2: of like the younger version of Russell Wilson. Jason Kelsey
Speaker 2: says he throws like one of the best deep balls
Speaker 2: he's ever seen. So he's a great go ball thrower.
Speaker 2: Devonte Smith's the stud. They have a tight end. They
Speaker 2: always got a million running backs. You're right though, anytime
Speaker 2: you move the coordinator in a psyching to get to him.
Speaker 2: I mean, he could be the next McVeigh Shanahan. You
Speaker 2: take a day ball, you take a quarterback as a coordinator,
Speaker 2: and then you take Anthony Richardson. I mean, this guy
Speaker 2: would be a legend around the league pretty quickly, right,
Speaker 2: But you know, I think the coordinator Ben Johnson, I
Speaker 2: think that's his name. The longtime Utah guy and bounce
Speaker 2: around the league.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is a good point. Stafford was
Speaker 1: at his best with Jim Bob Cooter the coordinator. Okay,
Speaker 1: so they got a lot of guys in Sirianni. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of cohesion there offensively. So I the schedule.
Speaker 2: Is going to be harder, right. I think the NFC
Speaker 2: East is the Cowboys. Those games are going to be
Speaker 2: more difficult the Giants. The mismatch last year was pretty evident.
Speaker 2: When the Eagles play the Giants kick their ass. I
Speaker 2: think that will get a little more competitive. Washington beat
Speaker 2: him one game last year. They played the Niners in
Speaker 2: the regular season. They played Seattle in the regular season.
Speaker 2: So it's just going to be a little bit more difficult.
Speaker 2: But I think when you get a guy that's proven
Speaker 2: that he can play in his lineage shows Alabama, Oklahoma
Speaker 2: right from college, blue chip guy, and he's such an
Speaker 2: elite character football intangible stuff, that's who you bet on.
Speaker 2: So is he going to be an MVP every single
Speaker 2: league or year, I don't know, But is he going
Speaker 2: to be a damn good player?
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, you know what, you made, just
Speaker 1: a great point. You said in scouting, you bet on
Speaker 1: the guy, and I think with quarterback, especially because you
Speaker 1: asked so much of that position and that guy. But
Speaker 1: I didn't like Will Levis. I didn't like his attitude.
Speaker 1: I didn't like Baker. I didn't like Jay Cutler. Once
Speaker 1: I learned about nothing against Baker Mayfield. But I didn't
Speaker 1: like the hoodspu and the cockiness. Cam rubbed me the
Speaker 1: wrong way. Jamis Winston I thought was silly. I liked
Speaker 1: Bryce Young, I liked Andrew Luck. I like Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 1: I remember meeting Russell Wilson as a rookie. It's such
Speaker 1: a great point. I never thought about it that way.
Speaker 1: The guys I have been hyper critical of. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had somebody tell me about Will Levis between the
Speaker 1: girlfriend on Draft night, the gun show at the combine,
Speaker 1: They're like, this guy loves Will Levis, Bryce Young loves football.
Speaker 2: And just because you're a great guy and love football
Speaker 2: doesn't mean I mean, this is pro football. It's hard, right.
Speaker 2: The forty nine ers bet a lot on Trey Lance.
Speaker 3: Part of it.
Speaker 2: He just doesn't see it when he's playing right. It's
Speaker 2: a fine line. This is one of the most competitive industries,
Speaker 2: probably in all of America to be a high level quarterback.
Speaker 2: But I do think Jalen proved last year of just
Speaker 2: seeing the field being much better as a passing quarterback
Speaker 2: and clearly benefits. You talk to the guys with the Colts,
Speaker 2: what was a big part of betting on Anthony Richardson.
Speaker 2: They like the person. My scouting buddies were like, he's
Speaker 2: really impressing these guys. Seems like a good guy. So
Speaker 2: you kind of bet on that with the talent. No
Speaker 2: guarantee because you know you're taking a big flyer on
Speaker 2: the talent, but you kind of bet on the guy.
Speaker 2: You feel better about it.
Speaker 1: The volume