First Things First - LeBron James to miss award threshold, Steelers to wait on Aaron Rodgers, Nick’s Tiers, Shedeur QB1?

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

(0:00) Drake Maye’s shoulder concerns, Bills AFC East favorites, Should the NBA eliminate the award threshold? (28:25) Steelers willing to wait for Aaron Rodgers, Should the Chiefs draft Jeremiyah Love? (41:50) Wemby scores 40 in Spurs win over Lakers (47:07) NIck’s Tiers (01:11:51) Drake Maye’s mistakes according to Julian Love (01:22:07) Has Shedeur Sanders done enough to be the Browns’ QB1? (01:28:38) Packed Stats, What has Wemby proven to the league? (01:51:50) Who is the best long shot to make Super Bowl LXI? (02:03:00) Should the Browns want Shedeur Sanders to start? (02:09:39) NBA Tanking is out of control Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York. It's a show that has an issue with birthdays. We missed K.W.'s birthday yesterday. We wished you a happy birthday. Not on the air. I'm not saying you didn't. Okay. But it was my birthday.

Sorry, buddy. They bring out a little dessert. Guess I may candles? One. Oh, my one? You wanted 54 candles? Wanted more than one. One candle?

My baby? What? That's how we're starting the show. I just didn't want it more than one candle. Fire has. We should have done it on the show, though. No, I don't like talking about it. You don't like doing it on the show. What?

You don't like what? No one knew. We all forgot you led the show the day after your birthday with your birthday. I don't like talking about it. And then you said, I don't like talking about. I don't mind talking about it in the past tense. I got you. But I don't like being in the moment.

I got to look. Nick doesn't like celebrating his birthday on the air. I do. So celebrate mine with crumble cookies. You act like you don't, but you really do. You really want to. I was still in Drake May morning, though. And I only don't like to celebrate my birthday because I like my age to be a bit of a mystery.

People are like, wait, he's a grandfather. But wait, he's out to four in the morning. Nobody can quite figure out how old I am. America. That's a compliment. No, exactly. I know. It just adds to the intrigue.

Possibly live. Our first things first today. Why Josh Allen, the bills are favorites to get to the Super Bowl. Again. Yeah. I mean, I're always, perennial favorites. Gotcha. Yeah.

Friend of the show, Josh Allen. And September champ. I think, do you think it would be nicer to Josh Allen across the board? Us? Yeah. I think our show is nice to John. He was great. He was great.

He was great. I might pull a puncher. He's great to have him. Meanwhile, it's Patrick Mahomes getting his version of CMC. Wow. Jalen Hurts got his version of CMC, Sequan Barclay, then Seekwong, then Brock Pardy got his version of Seacquan

Barkley that was CMC. He might get his version of Seacquan Berkeley and CMC. And finally, way too early edition of NFL tiers. Great job by the committee. It showed. What?

Way to her. What? I'm going to give them a pass because it's so early. I thought the committee did except a mess. And as a mess. object disaster. I'm interested to see because you are an empiricist.

Yeah. You like to have actual data to support. A lot of these are going to be team X. I have them Y because I just feel it. No, there's not. There's going to be a lot of those. There's not. There's not one positive stat besides the surgery went well.

I'm very nervous. Listen, if you take issue with me like my faith in the Chiefs, that's one thing. The rest of the tiers are unimpeachable, unimpeachable, and I will have data on my faith in the Chiefs. With a different goat quarterback coming off in ACL after winning three Super Bowls, how that set part of his career win. When did he suffer that injury? We'll get to that KW. Late in the, I mean, now we're talking about doctors on the show.

20 years ago, modern medicines evolved greatly. We start with Dr. May's showing. He's shoulders. Surgery's now. Speaking of, injuries. Yeah. His shoulder, not perfect, but not unplayable, not an excuse, but also not an explanation. Drake, Mage being very fair and I thought mature, bro.

Take a listen. Okay. Just get some time off. You know, time is the best healer. And, you know, I definitely just need time off. You know, nothing that, you know, needs any, you know, thing to be done. Just some time away and time to, you know, get some rest. It's time away from football.

Okay. Did this change how you viewed Drake's Super Bowl? First, I want to say because while I can't say I watched the entire press conference, I watched more than that clip, Drake's answer was perfect. Yeah. This is now the second, actually, AFC East quarterback, who I feel has dealt with his shortcomings in a loss in the playoffs better than his biggest media defenders have. Drake May made it very clear.

He was not blaming the shoulder. He didn't run, he didn't, you know, lie. He acknowledged. He got banged up in the Broncos game in particular. He'd been banged up throughout the year a bit from the sacks. But he did not blame it on that. So I want to give that young man a ton of credit. I thought he handled that entire thing really well.

As far as what we take from his Super Bowl and his playoff run in projecting him forward, I think it would be a massive mistake for Pat's fans and for the Patriots organization to simply be like, yeah, you know, not quite as bad, but similar to what happened to the Broncos. Our quarterback got hurt. Like, what do you want from us

as opposed to acknowledging that the struggles were coming pre-Super Bowl and, Dust, if we show my second graphic, he actually, from a passing perspective, played better in the Super Bowl than in the three playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl.

And most of that was late. It was late. Gatorade was slurring. It was slurring. It was stirring. It was a great point. It was stirring. But the reason I'm saying

the team needs to acknowledge that maybe the shoulder did impact his game, but is not the reason for it. How do we? try to make sure it doesn't impact the next time he's in the playoffs. Because, so he has now had in his very short career, 33 total games, more five-sack games. Yeah.

Then Peyton Manning in his career. Wow. Seven versus four for Peyton. Wow. Then Patrick Mahomes in his career, seven versus five. Then Dan Marino in his career, seven versus two. That's wild. Tom Brady, who played more football than anyone ever and only missed time with injury once, the ACL,

only had 10 five sack games in his entire career, playoffs and regular season. And none of those guys were mobile. Right. And so Drake has, and Mahomes mobile, obviously, to a degree. So 102 total sacks, those Mike Vic Randall Cunningham running stats that we showed from last year, which speaks to extra punishment and just getting beat the hell up, particularly in the playoffs,

but a track record of it in his career. All of that to me is, guys, we have to not only do a better job protecting him, he has to do a better job protecting himself because the reason I find the Peyton and Dan Marino's stats important, brew, is those guys didn't go their entire careers with elite offensive lines. They just understood, throw it away, get rid of it.

Sorry, were sacks like that watched in early Dan Marino? Sacks 1981 to now and Marino came in the league in 83. So, yes, like it is, I couldn't go to quarterbacks older than Marino, but you can start with the Marino draft and you have their whole career, sacks game by game. And so. Maybe you should have hung in the pocket a little. Well, sure.

Maybe it would have won a Super Bowl. I don't know. But that to me is what's noteworthy about this more so than he was a little banged up. Yeah, I mean, to your point, they've got to this offseason improve the offensive line. And maybe Will Campbell, I mean, you know, the knee he played on a bad knee, so maybe he'll be healthy and that'll improve it. But he's got to get rid of the ball quicker. It's just as simple as that.

That was kind of a strength of his and, you know, holding on to the ball, extending plays. That article we referenced yesterday, Was it Jeremy Fowler maybe? Yeah. But he talked about that being one of his strengths he could extend plays. However, it also can lead to bad sacks. So he's just got to work that out as a young player. And I think he will and can.

But as far as changing my view of him in the Super Bowl, no, not at all. I'm with Nick in this. Number one, he was, it's just sore. Number one, like if he were going to, if he was announced, I'm getting surgery tomorrow or something like that, then it would change it. And I'm not trying to belittle the injury, but it's a sore shoulder, all right? And very sore because he had to get a shot for it.

But it's not enough for me to look at and say, oh, that's why he struggled. Secondly, as Nick said, he was struggling before the injury. The injury was in the Denver game. Second half of the Denver game. He struggled, you know, he wasn't great against the Chargers, obviously. had some big plays but also some bad plays against Houston and then was not very good in the first half against Denver

before the injury. And then even in the Super Bowl, you showed it, and we're not going to glorify it, but he threw for 295 yards. He threw a picture perfect pass to Mack Hollins for the touchdown in the fourth quarter. So he still could throw.

His inaccuracy was not because of the shoulder as you showed with your graphic. It was throughout the playoffs. And so, no, I'm not going to make this give him a pass because of this. But I just think he has to learn from it. And he will and move on. So you are not moving him. When you look at your power ranking of quarterbacks,

are you taking this rough postseason for Drake May and knocking him for it? Well, I do not have him entering next season as like a definitive or as a top five quarterbacks. back. Okay, that's all right. If that's the argument, I feel like he's still right there, right below that. As long as he's still in the mix on top five, I think it's fair. Oh, absolutely. I don't think he, I mean, I think the five are, unless you want to say Burroughs not, but Lamar, Stafford, Josh Mahomes, like, those are all fair. Yeah. And I thought he could have, I thought my prediction going into this playoffs was he was going to take Burroughs spot. And so that you don't think he did it. No.

I mean, and it's the, I just think where this, and this is, you know, the quarterback wins stuff, I do not put a ton of value on playing poorly in a win. I do put value on what I thought Darnold did in the Super Bowl, preventing turnovers playing smart in a win. And we, you know, we disagree in the margins of how poorly his playoff run was prior to the Super Bowl. But yeah, so it hurt him in that he didn't get where I thought he was going to get, but it didn't move him out of that. He is first in line along, you know, he is standing next to him, Caleb, I got to include Darnold.

Jalen Hertz, like whoever that, Herbert, like that next grouping is that big fluid second tier is where. As long as he's first in line, I feel like that's a way. Well, I don't know if he's first in line. He's up there. I don't know if there is a first in line. Right. I don't think there's a first. But I do think if someone wants to say, hey, that great class of quarterbacks, it could be Drake number one, could be Caleb, could be Jaden assuming he comes.

I think it's still all. I think that's fair. Like, and Caleb was not as good as him this year. No. But I'm just saying. And didn't get a chance to play Seattle. That's the only thing I put back against. It's all fair.

It's similar to your LeBron Jordan. Echoes of your LeBron Jordan argument. Like, LeBron gets knocked for getting, being so good. he gets to his final, the final stage and loses. Now, you can say, like, well, LeBron always plays well, like, okay. Then I would say different sports. No, but I mean, so I would think it's unfair if Drake May had played at his regular

season level up to the Super Bowl in the playoffs. We probably would be saying he played poorly in the Super Bowl. And then be like, well, Caleb didn't play poorly in the playoffs. That, to me, would be unfair. But if we were to, I think we would agree between Caleb and Drake May, they play six playoff games this year, the two best ones were Caleb's. And so because of that, like, that's to me where I think it's fair. Can I ask you another question?

Certainly had some good highlights. You said, I knew that you were. No, he had some very good. Yeah, he had some. I mean, he. Look at my hair. No, well, you're fine with your hair, buddy. You're so on.

Well, Hobbs is yelling at me. My goodness. Rick my hair piece. It's out there. Can I ask you one other question before we move on? Mm-hmm. Do you agree with me that at this point, the NFL has no choice but to put some type of punishment on the Patriots for their Super Bowl injury report? If we are at Wednesday and the quarterback is, you know, the number one story is the quarterback's injury, the quarterback said, I had the shoulder shot up that he was dealing with something, in a, in, especially in the modern,

an NFL world where gambling is legal, if not encouraged. It is the quarterback of a Super Bowl team that I know no way to read it other than the team, let's call it, fudged information on the final injury report leading into the Super Bowl. I think the NFL is obligated, whether it's take a sixth round pick. No, you're not taking picks. I don't think they should do that. I mean, I mean, I'm not making that up. That has been a penalty for injury report stuff in the past.

But fine. I think it's very. But they have to do something, right? I think it's very possible. Maybe I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. But that the Patriot was like, okay, he's playing. He's fine. It's sore, but he's playing.

There's no question. We're taking him off the injury report. I will agree with you, Nick, though, in this day and age where people are betting money based on these reports and things like that, you have to leave you more. I don't think they should lose a draft pick, but maybe a fine or something like that. I just don't know the ins and outs of it.

If the NFL wanted to find the Patriots and you were the Patriots defense, isn't a fair defense. He was good to go. And so we didn't put him on the injury. But no, but that's what, I mean, it wasn't structural or anything. Yeah, and he was a full participant in practice.

And then he woke up and I don't know. I don't know how that works. He did Sunday morning updates of this guy you know, flu-like symptoms has been added Sunday morning

to the injury report. And Schefter tells us he's getting an IV and expected to play. I just think the quarterback of one of the teams in the Super Bowl said in this press conference

I hurt my shoulder in the AFC championship game. I had it shot up before the Super Bowl and he was not on the injury report the final one going into the Super Bowl. That to me is not great. Yeah.

Maybe, yeah, give us a number. nice symbolic find. Let a fire under the franchise. Meanwhile, we're going to stick in the AFC East. Bills, back in the top spot for the best odds to win Patriots at 2. Congrats to the Jets.

They are in third. Wow. That's stunning. And then Miami's in the basement. Do the bills deserve to be the AFC East favorites? Well, look, I don't think Wiles that your Patriots are going to repeat as AFC East.

champions, all right? Yeah. However, so I think the Bills will win the division. But I do think, Nick, just objectively looking at it, that there are enough question marks about Buffalo to where you could put the Patriots in. Now, the Patriots schedule is a monster. Bill's schedule is almost as hard. Yeah, Bills has got to be close.

But with you got, you got a new head coach. And we've, look, we've seen. I think Brady's going to be fine, but we have seen great coordinators that weren't great head coaches. He's in the same place. You would think it'll go well, but it's still a question mark.

Defensively, there is no doubt Sean McDermott was a huge part of that defense because they had injury after injury after injury seemingly year after year and he kept them atop the league defensively or in the top 10 every year in a regular season. So that is a big, big question mark.

They still don't have a number one receiver. Maybe they'll get one, but right now they don't. And so I don't, like this year, we've been saying they weren't, this wasn't their best team, but this was their best opportunity since the Chiefs were out. Well, what's changed other than coaching turmoil? So I just think there are a lot of questions about them where I don't think you should objectively put them number one in the division. So the schedule piece is really interesting.

interesting because some as tough as the Pat's schedule is, and some of that is home road stuff, and I don't have the Bill's Road schedule committed to memory. Because of the way the NFL's scheduling works, the Bills and Patriots play the exact same games, except for your three strength of schedule games. And as it happens, so the three divisions that the Patriots play the winners of, I bet this side of the table is going to be like, oh, damn, second place might be tougher. Yeah. So where the Patriots have the Jags, the Bills have the Texans.

Not good. Where the Patriots have Pittsburgh, the bills have Baltimore. And where the Patriots have Seattle, the Bills have the Rams, which are two excellent. So to me, they have a basically identical difficulty of schedule. And so it really comes down to, do you think, which is either of these teams likely to take a big step forward next year? I would say no. is either of these teams likely to take at least a somewhat significant step back, and that's where I will say yes to the Patriots.

Oh, I'm shocked. So this is where the playoff run impacts my projection. Okay. I now, I am less confident that when you play this level of schedule, you are going to get consistent A-level quarterback play. And so with the bills So it's not so much the team, it's the quarterback. Well, yes, I also think he's the best player on the team.

Or, you know, Christian Gonzalez, whatever. I think he's an excellent player. But I think the bills can survive the choppy waters of the regular season of a rookie head coach because I know what they're getting from their quarterback, basically over the course of a season, no matter what the schedule is. I now have in my brain at least the possibility of, oh, Drake May's current style, and maybe he will adjust it, of, I am hunting the big plays, I am, you know, I am going to stand here in the pocket,

I'm going to do these things, might have a weakness against the better defenses while absolutely annihilating, along with Josh McDaniel's game plan, the poorer defenses. And so that's where my, that's the scar tissue of. of the Patriots playoff run where they lost in a way that I didn't think the Pats were going to lose because Devens was excellent the whole time and the offense fell off. The Bills, if you told me how they were going to lose, it would be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

Like the bills, Josh played, you know, had a big roller coaster type of game and they came up on the wrong side of it. My only counter to that is you can name the quarterbacks who played well against the Seahawks on one hand and one finger and it's only Matthew Staff. Baker. Show. Baker. Two guys. Baker.

Baker. They scored 38. Baker played well. Baker played well. That's the whole list. Yeah. I also kind of give teams a one-off like we relax. Yeah, sure.

I think Daniel Jones, like a Colts, early Colts game. We can name the teams who played well in Denver against that Broncos defense. It was just Trevor Lawrence. And that goes over, I think, two years. Teams that played well against the Texans, it might be no one. Or maybe that was like a Colts. Trevor had a game. I think the Colts had a game.

Early on. but when they start. So I think it's hard to find anybody who really excelled. And that just shows you how powerful great defenses are. The question I have for you, in the whole table, did the bills just change their coach, or did they just change their whole identity as a team? So Sean McDermott, I almost felt like you were underselling what he did.

They were a defensive team with a superstar quarterback. They're scoring defense. When they were cooking, and we thought they really had great teams. They had the best offense, the second best offense, the fourth best defense, the fourth best defense. Then we're like, ah, they're not quite as good. But like you said, Brew, they have an easier run.

Is this just par-f? Is this what they're going to be? And we saw in Chicago a team that was historically defense, a defensive Chicago Bears team, just like the DNA of the team. You know what? I'm an aggressive O.C. We're actually an offensive team. The defense we're going to put in the back burner.

Well, look, I think their identity has been Josh Allen. Like for, you know, these last several years. Like, he is the identity. Defense has been very good. But we have not thought of, correct me if you think I'm wrong. We have not thought of them like we've thought of the Ravens kind of defensive, you know, over the last seven years. I know. Some of these teams that are straight, like we're thinking of Seattle right now.

We've never thought of Buffalo like that. We've just looked at it and been, oh, they're always in the, top five, top ten, but it's not like they've had this imposing defense that was, you know, intimidating opponents. So, but it is a legit question mark just because I think McDermott was great. And maybe one of the reasons they weren't ever that imposing was because guys seemed to always be hurt, Milano and just other players. So, but it's a legit question mark.

There's no doubt. Okay. What's up to the NBA? LeBron. sat out last night's game against the Spurs. It's the 18th game he's missed, which means he's dropped below the 65 game threshold for end of the season awards in Brew.

He's not the only one in danger of missing out. He's out. If you miss over 17, you miss 18, you're done. Joker can only miss two. Steph can only miss three. Wembe can only miss four. And Luca can only miss seven games from here on out.

your reaction to the 65 game rule kind of. Well, three of those guys, Yokic, Wimby, and Luca would likely be first team. Yes. Steph will be on one of the team, second, third, whatever. Well, Brown probably wasn't going to make it.

Right, right. But I actually think, I think this is a big problem. And these guys are not missing games. Like one of the reasons the rule was put in was because it was low management for so many guys. None of those guys are low management. They are just, you know, they've been legitimately hurt.

And if they can't be first team all-NBA or second team all-the-second or third-team all-in-B. Correct. It is going to be a joke, the all-MBA teams and some of the awards, too. Now, I actually believe that Adam Silver this weekend, Saturday, he'll do his annual, you know, meeting with the press at All-Star weekend. I think he should make an executive decision where he is saying, I am eliminating the 65 game rule. And trust the voters.

Because everybody that has a vote, they have a vote for a reason because they cover the league seriously. They're not just, you know, random people that don't know what they're talking about or know what they're looking at. They're not, if a guy plays 40 games, nobody's going to vote him MVP or something like that.

Like Janus, yeah. Janice is going to miss, if not the rest of the season. He'll miss so much that nobody's going to put him on one of those teams. But if Yokic plays 59 games and averages a triple double, he could perhaps still be deserving of a first team or second team, all NBA. And look, Bill Walton won MVP in 1978 playing 58 games. I look as a voter I have taken games into consideration the year the second year Nash won it Steve Nash a lot of people thought Shaq should have won it but Shaq played I believe 58 games

that year 59 games and I looked at that and it wasn't a rule but I just said yeah he didn't play enough games and I looked at Walton kind of as a precedent and so I just think that these guys are missing games because of injuries and the voters are smart enough to know to have in their mind what too many games missed is. So I just think this is not what the rule was put in for. So I think he should make that unilateral decision.

So I was going to talk about the you know, LeBron's streak ending, but we can do that another time. So I just want to meet you where you're at. as someone who cares deeply about the history of this league who spent countless hours on a project that

made zero dollars on it, just wanted to have done it the 50 greatest players last 50 years, the awards ballot and all NBA history, the NBA encyclopedia, is invaluable. It is snapshots of time of dominance of a position, dominant runs, all these things. And I hate that as long as the game has played the way it is currently played, where the injuries are ramping up, not ramping down.

And this rule is in place. The project I did will be almost impossible for someone to do accurately 50 years from now. I'm not going to act like I didn't do what Simmons did and watch all the games and write an 800 page book but I put a lot of time into it but some of it is hey in the late 50s and 60s

what were the all NBA teams what were the MVP votes who were the dominant guys and I know it sounds silly but I care about this stuff in 50 years we were like oh wow Joker's run ended no it

you know what you know it's like like, oh, this guy made all NBA first or second team this stretch of time. Then, oh, he had a down year. It's like, no, somebody fell into his knee and he missed a month. That's all that happened. Well, to your point, because people would look at, let's say he plays 60 games. People would look at 60 and be like, oh, that was, he played basically the whole season, but didn't make all NBA.

Correct. Any of the teams. Like, so, yeah, 64. Unilateral, so you want him to say that. Yep. By eat it. Yep. I love that.

I think Adam Silver. Should do more. I've just decided. Yeah, I agree. I would like that. David Stern would do stuff like that. I know, but that hasn't been the way that's not it, but I like to. I think that's a problem.

Daytona 500 practice underway today. We will be hopping on planes tonight. Can't wait. And we'll be down at Daytona tomorrow. We've got a show from three to five and then Friday from 430 to 5. I check you are sitting next to Nick on the plane. My goodness gracious. You know what?

Had him dogs out too. No, I, that's, you guys, of all the lies, you guys tell us. At a certain point, everything. Fool me once in shame on you. I brought an extra pair of socks. You guys, I brought an extra pair of socks. This is the only one that makes me mad. He falls asleep and he puts the heel of his foot on my knee.

It's gross. Welcome back to the show. The NFL season has concluded. Mock draft season has been. begun. Joel Klat has the Chiefs taking Jeremiah Love at 9. Let's take a listen to Joel Klatte.

Now look at the Chiefs here at 9. This is the highest the Chiefs have drafted since trading up to take Patrick Mahomes back in 2017. And I think about what their offense could be with a back that has the ability of love

as a ball carrier and a pass catcher. They need to give Mahomes a little bit of a spark. Why not take Jeremiah Love here? I really love this idea of giving Mahomes his, Jemir Gibbs or Christian McCaffrey, a guy that can control the run game, but also be a real threat out of the backfield as a pass catcher. Love is electric. Very interesting. Do you like it? I like it. I don't love it. No pun intended, not stealing Bruce, but I just didn't know how else to say that. So I think there are a few specific players and then a couple specific positions where you could see them going at pick 9.

And because it's such a high pick, you know who they are. So I kind of tiered them for you. So what I would like them to do, if we put it up their dust, if either of the edges, David Bailey or Ruben Bain Jr. are available, that's who I want them to take. They have not had a dominant edge rusher since Frank Clark. And Frank Clark was only, God bless him for it, only dominant in the playoffs. And so I think we see year after year how important that is and the Chiefs just don't have it. Karloff, this is a fine player and Chris Jones does what he can do at D tackle. That's the value spot if either of those guys are there.

I wouldn't hate Jeremiah Love. It would be fun. I call it risky. But what is true is running backs that go in the top 10 will see on Ashton Genti or the top half of the first round. Bijan, love it. Gibbs, love it. Sequin, love him.

For net, it was excellent for a period. Yeah. Then Christian McCaffrey, Zeke, Derek Henry, Todd Gurley. Like, those guys are super valuable, at least on their rookie contracts. I wouldn't hate it if they take Caleb Downs, who some people thinks the best player in college football, but it's just such a non-value position. Or wide receiver only if no wide receivers have been taken.

The only thing I would not like at all is if they take an offensive lineman when I believe the left tackle is set with Josh Simmons. So Jeremiah Love, I guess, would be, if both those edges are off the board, it is who I would want. If they're either one of them are on the board, think you got to go D-line because it's such a expensive position so hard to find outside of it.

Look, I think your list makes a lot of sense, but I do like love there. You know, I mean, for Mahones, particularly coming off an injury, we want to see how this would allow him, assuming love was really good to kind of ease his way back. It is a great safety valve, especially again, maybe Kelsey's not there anymore. You know, so, and if he, their offense has been, even, know they need some defensive help. Even last year they were, what, sixth in scoring defense. The problem recently has been the

offense. The last three years they haven't been above 15 in scoring offense. And this year they were 21st. That may have dropped a little when Mahomes went out. But still, they were a middle of the road offense and they've been that for a while. If they can get a legit

running back in there who can not, and this guy, I mean, he averaged seven yards of carry for his career, essentially, and he can catch the ball as well, a difference maker like that, even if he's not quite Bijon or something, but if he's like close, that would be phenomenal for the chief. Yeah, that would be pretty cool. So for me, I don't like it. I love it.

I actually do love it. Like, to your point, obviously, Edge would be ideal. Give Chris Jones some help, unlock him, re-unlock him again. I totally get where you're going with that. But for this offense, his ability to catch out of the backfield. And I know we say these receivers or these running backs with Jamir Gibbs and Bijan and Christian McCaffrey and even Saquan, the value that they provide quarterbacks. When you have a quarterback, especially Patrick Mahomes coming off of an injury, you need that extra checkdown guy that you can just rely on that if I don't have it,

in my route progression. You know what? I can possibly scramble, but get it to him. He doesn't just catch like typical running backs. He was put in the slot. Like, I watched him against Arkansas. They put him at the number three position as a receiver. He runs a corner route, plucks the ball with his hands,

gets his feet in bounds. He doesn't catch like your typical running back. He understands what to do with his hands. You love guys like that. Very similar to reminiscent of Christian McCaffrey. I don't think he catches as good as Christian and not too many running backs do, but his ability to run between the tackles, outside the tackles on the edge, get outside the edge, has the breakaway speed.

He's not Jemir Gibbs by any means in that regard, but he kind of reminds me of a lady on bill. He has a little patience to him. He has a burst, power, height, physicality. He can protect. I really like this pick if they were able to get him. And we have seen, too. I know five years ago the running back position was incredibly devalued.

But look recently, McCaffrey, Barclay, Gibbs, you mentioned, just Kenneth Walker to third. It's an instant mismatch. Right. It is really becoming an important position again. Yeah, they've never had a thousand-yard rusher since Mahomes has been there. And they've only had one and a half seasons of what I would call above average running back play. Mahomes, first year's a starter, Kareem Hunt, before you got thrown off the team. He was an excellent player who obviously made some bad decisions.

Hopefully he's redeemed himself in a lot of people's eyes since then. And then Bacheco, his first year. But Pacheco, sadly, after he broke his leg, he'd just never been the same guy. But other than those season and a half, they've just been replacement-level guys. Let's head to Pittsburgh. Steelers are starting a new post-Tomlin era. So what's the narrative? Well, a successful Super Bowl champion coach was a track record of winning but has struggled in the postseason.

waiting to see if he passed his prime quarterback is willing to sign with the team, which would ensure that team wins around eight or nine games. Very little chance at the Super Bowl, however. So bottom line, Steelers are willing to wait for Aaron Rogers. Is this a mistake? Wait or not, even if he was ready to sign this afternoon. I mean, there's only one reason I would possibly consider bringing back Aaron Rogers. And that was if I really wanted him to mentor Will Howard.

But maybe some of that took place last year, or maybe that's just not Rogers. You know better than us. But that's it. Outside of that, I am not, why bring him back? Because a better scenario is putting Will Howard in there, and maybe he's not the guy. You win three or four games, and then you've got a high draft pick in what's, at least now, thought to be a strong quarterback class next year. You bring back Rogers. The divisions should be tougher.

We expect Baltimore to bounce back. Cincinnati maybe bounces back. But let's say they win nine games. At best, you're doing exactly what you did this year, which is getting the playoffs and get bounced in the first round. Like, I would, now, Greg, I'm not sold on Howard. I liked him at Ohio State. If I was Pittsburgh, and I haven't seen their name mentioned with this guy,

I would try to go get Malik Willis. Like that's who I would try to go get I wouldn't I'm not so much Kyler I don't mean you could take a test on Kyler but I would go get Willis but I've seen Miami and Arizona mentioned with him more so than Pittsburgh so I don't

think it would be a mistake because I think this is clearly about Will Howard and his growth and his progression. It's a lot of it in a sixth round. Right is he I totally under but when you listen to the press conference and you listen to Mike McCarthy speak it's very targeted at the growth and the development of Will Howard.

Simply put. And it's one thing for him to have that experience with Aaron Rogers. And I do think he's been better even with Zach Wilson and here in New York and all the young guys since Jordan Love. I just believe that right now with Mike McCarthy taking over as your play caller, it's different having a different system, different plays, different. verbiage and seeing how that quarterback school goes and how they work through things in the off season versus Aaron Rogers in almost mid stride season late late off season you don't

really know what you're going to get you're just now getting to know him now you know him you have a new play caller you go through the quarterback school together he gets all that educational tutelage and and then you see what you got from there from a wins and losses percentage I do. I think it puts them right back in the position of where they were this year. And for a lot of Steelers fans, they're like, we don't want that. But for the organization, they're about winning. If I'm Mike McCarthy and you're my boss, you're a member of the Rooney family, you sign me, and I ask you, what does success look like for me in year one? In year one, what do I need to do to have you come into my office and say,

Mike McCarthy, you did a great job. That's exactly what we wanted. What is your answer to me? Not have a losing record. Right? I mean, that's where you're going with it. Or develop our young quarterback. No, that's not me.

I was supposed to be the Rooney's there, right? You're the Rooney. You were the first on this, but I took a lot away from the fact that the Steelers finally running it back with Tomlin. Yeah. That, you know, that they, the, that they, it seems like they might value, and the head coach they picked, which is not a long-term growing pains, high upside is Mike McCarthy.

They value a high floor rather than a high ceiling. Like, you know what I mean? That's what they value. I definitely think this would be a mistake. This is not how I think you should try to build a championship level team. I also think this. I'm focused on the weight piece of this. And I forgot to look this up for the show.

I apologize. But Aaron Rogers, like, we know his process in the offseason what it once was, the darkness retreat and the date and the calendar when that took place. Aaron Rogers should not need more time to figure out what he's doing than Travis Kelsey. So Kelsey is going to let the chiefs know before free agency. Fair. What I'm doing. If the Steelers want to say,

say, hey, Aaron, there's no football business going on right now anyway, so take the next few weeks, fine. If we are, if this is like it was last time, where we are into, well into the, you know, the spring calendar approaching, you know, booking summer vacations, and we don't know what they're doing, that's an embarrassment for the Steelers. Because the argument for it, doing it last year was, yeah, we're going to wait because maybe we can win a championship. And instead, they got exactly what the realistic best case scenario was. Ravens have a tough year. You steal the division and get stomped in round one of the playoffs.

You now know that's the best you can realistically hope for. To wait for that would be embarrassing for the franchise, in my opinion. March 9th, you can start negotiating. Yeah, so that's what I'm saying. I would tell him, hey, into the first week of March, in or out, We got places to be. Nice quarter for Wemby against the Lakers, brew, 25 points. 40 in the game.

He only played 26 minutes. Your reaction to your guy looking great. Well, what I loved about it, I mean, 40 and 12, of course, you love it. But the way he did it, Nick, the versatility he showed. He can do everything on the court. Handle, drive, shoot the three, shoot the mid-range, like, everything. And he did that last night. night. I've been at times bothered that when he just settles for three. Now, he's a good

three-point shooter. He's not just a guy that, oh, yeah, he can shoot a, he's gotten better. That's the one part of the game that's improved the most, man. He's a legit three-point shooter. But last night, instead of taking nine, which he did a few nights ago, I think he may even even taking 12 or he took nine out of 14 shots a couple games ago against Dallas. Last night, he only took six threes out of 20 shots. As you can see, he attacked the basket off the dribble. He posted a little bit, whether at the free throw line or on the block. And I don't necessarily know that you stationed him at the block, but he could flash across

the lane and post up on the opposite side. But he did it all. And that's what he can do. Don't just settle for threes. He also, Nick got to the free throw line to hit 10 or 12 free throws. He's an 81% free throw shooter. So this year, overall, he's improved in that he's gone from four, from four free throw attempts to seven a game.

That's important. He's dropped from nine three-point attempts to five a game. So overall, that's good. And Nick, I'm going to be honest, they're a contender in the West. Yeah. They're second in the West. They're 17 and 11 against winning teams with winning records. At second only to Detroit.

Are you saying they could catch, they're three and a half games behind the third? under you. No, I'm not saying they'll catch. I'm saying they have a chance to get to the finals. And win the championship. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. What's weird to me about the statistical profile you just described of. He's shooting less threes. He's making more free throws.

He's averaged his numbers this year to last year basically identical. Right. Slightly fewer minutes. But, you know, the and so it is when he started the first game of the year, he had a 40 piece, right? and we were like, is he already the best player in the league? He, you know, last night, to be fair, I don't know, could he have had 70? I don't know.

I don't know. Like, he had 25 in the, with three minutes left in the first quarter, he had 25. And obviously the Lakers resting everyone too. He doesn't play much of the second half. I do you think that once he starts playing 32 minutes a game, 34 minutes a game, that he is ready to be for that stretch of time, a 30-point-a-game guy. Because that's, for them, I think they have built, obviously, on the fly, a very good team, and he's already the best defensive player in the league.

He was arguably his first game in the league. In order for them to actually be able to win all four rounds, I think he's going to have to be close to, if not a 30-point-a-game guy, and that's the thing we haven't seen yet. I'm not criticizing him before. he's 22 years old. But I think that's the jump he would have to make for them to actually be able to win a championship. I think he's very capable of that.

I think it's the way they play. If you watch them play, it's completely equal opportunity to offense. It actually looks like they have so much talent because Dylan Harper is the top, you know, blue chipper, De Aaron Fox, Stefan Castle, all blue chippers. And then, of course, Wimby. It looks like they're just like not in a selfish way, but it's like I'm going for mine. They don't necessarily like spend an inordinate amount of time looking for Wimby. If Harper gets it, he's going to the hole seeing if he's got something.

Same with Castle, same with Fox, same with Wimby. I actually think there's times a lot of times where Wimby's like, I got to get my shots up. Like when he gets it, he's looking for his shot. And that's, look, it's been successful, but I do think, I think they're almost like, okay, we got a lot of talent, we got a lot of young guys, we want everybody to have the green light. We're not just going to look for Wimby, and let's see how it goes in the playoffs. Too much, do you think? I think, I would like them to look for Wimby and play through him a little bit more. I like that everybody feels like they have a green light.

Five-man basketball is better than one or two-man basketball, so I like it. But I think their approach is if this doesn't work in the playoffs, then we'll adjust next year we're young. But I just think they should look for him more because every night is a mismatch or every play. Tears next. I would have gone for 100. 25 in the first.

I come back to the bench. What do you think of 100? Listen, those highlights Luke Conard and Maxie Cluehler Garden him. I think he could have gotten it. Possibly why from New York. The show that likes the tears, okay? I was just trying to set a tease.

Somebody's in their feelings. Are you in your feelings? That's another youthful term. Listen, I can, if Brew critiques the work, I can deal with it because I know Brew also has segments he has to build outside of work hours. A lot of things he has to do. He's up late grinding tape. Yeah.

Absolutely. You, you got nothing but the highlight. thing that the every morning I get on the dock and there's 30 things and they're the producer put in there for you you're not right you're going to birthday parties after hours and then you come in and critique my hard work to be fair I did spend a lot of time yesterday looking for socks that you would like you won't feel like it's I'll be like hey man I got you these you'll be like wow that's nice and it will just be a little bit

you know, Ardenmore. Don't you put them on? I don't, yeah. I've never taken my socks off on an airplane. But we believe in due dates over here. You're due. The dogs are going to be out. That's just not true.

You're like Georgia football on that plane to Daytona. Second hour of first things first. I'm all the way on the other side of the plane. Just in case. Today, did Drake may have a tell in the Super Bowl? He did. Not great. Obviously.

And it was also just like he's not like staff. Oh, shoot. Meanwhile, is Chador locked in as QB1 in Cleveland? Very interesting. But right now, let me get you caught up to speed. What was happening last night? This is, I feel like we've been making fun of you too much. It might change this.

No, just read it. I'm curious what you wrote. Last night in a candlelit New Jersey salon with a sign out front that read highlights. Subtle but stunning. An elite committee of analysts, savants, and guys who want to wear a full NASCAR suit tomorrow, fought and toiled and burn the midnight oil to deliver the best segment in all sports. It's an honor and a privilege. It's time for way too early edition of Nick's tier. See, I don't mind the highlights lie because the audience sees me every day and knows it's

not true. My air's been the same color for a decade. It was in that in that Washington Post photo shoot. I mean, that's what made it pop because you don't generally do it. It was like blonde highlights. It looked good. We do think it look good. Yeah.

We want you to get highlights. Time for the tears. They are on you today. KW is going to after the show KW is going to say to one of the producers, you should have made him Marshall, change this to your name. Oh, no. Bottom of the tiers.

Oh, wow. Death spiral. Oh my goodness. Oh. I just don't know how these teams extract themselves from where they're at right now. Dolphins and Cardinals paid the wrong quarterback. They want to move on from them. That's going to be expensive.

The Browns really paid the wrong quarterback and still don't know what they're doing. And the Jets, I did a lot of research on this, still the Jets. And so I just don't know how those teams extract themselves from their situations. One playoff team? Odds are yes among these six. Yeah. That one of them gets it. The Saints got hot at the end of the year.

The Titans hope they can follow a poor man's version of what the Patriots just did. Defensive second time head coach, second year quarterback, taking super high, building off the year. The Steelers were in the playoffs last year, fired the coach. We know the story there. Vikings, this is big year for KOC, man. He got a lot of quarterback whisperer stuff for, wow, look what he got out of Sam Darnold. Now all of a sudden, Sam Darnold's like, I got that out of myself maybe. Yeah.

And so. That's interesting. Do you, so let's say J.J. McCarthy struggled in. You think, I would think they'd be crazy to get rid of K.O. Oh, I'm not saying he's on the hot seat. What I'm saying is part of the, he's been to the playoffs a couple of times, lost both times. I think both. Well, his playoff, yeah.

Right. And so, but his claim to fame is quarterback whisper. J.J. McCarthy ain't deaf. Like, say some sweet nothing's in his ear. Las Vegas Raiders, number one pick, new head coach, and the Giants who are going to be a very trendy pick. And I get it. Division seems maybe up for grabs a bit depending on what you think of Philly and people like Harbaugh. Their fans believe, and that's worth something.

Fans of all three of these teams think we're going to the playoffs. The Falcons finished eight and nine for like the fourth time in five years. The moment they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, they're going to be the best team in football. The Panthers made the playoffs and won the division. And the Colts, like, we were cooking and our quarterback got hurt. The, you know, they hope obviously assuming he's back and signed. They have to sign him and he has to be healthy, but their fans believe.

Anxious off season. Philly, Washington, Tampa. And that offseason will lead to, I think, an anxious regular season. I think in Philly, there's real concern. Is Lane Johnson going to retire? And how, you know, what does that mean for us? Are we going to trade A.J. Brown's whole new coaching set. Washington, we, I think in the national media, we're just like, oh,

Jayden's injuries, man. But it was more than just the quarterback got hurt. That defense that was an older defense looked old this year, and they fell far from obviously the unbelievable 2024 season for them. And Tampa, I thought Tampa could be this year Seahawks, not win the Super Bowl, but get there. A team that had been consistently, you know, 8, 9, 10 wins, not necessarily front of the marquee brand, but, you know, similar quarterback story, great wide receiver. those things. And instead, Tampa collapsed at the end of last year. And now I think everybody, whether it's Baker on it,

am I ever going to get that actual quarter, like star quarterback contract, Todd Bowles, got it, he goes into the year, maybe on the hottest seat on the Naren Glenn. They're actually the same. Bengals and the Cowboys. They both have owners that are a hindrance to winning. They both have statistically prolific quarter.

They both have excellent and insanely expensive or soon to be insanely expensive wide receiver duos. They both have a defensive plan of probably won't be worse, huh? Am I right? Like, probably? It probably won't be worse, guys. Just enough to make you believe. Lions, Rams, Chargers, Texans.

Lions, we know what the talent is. We also know for different reasons. reasons they have the defense or the team has kind of stumbled down the stretch the last two years. The Niners. I mean they they they damn near one little had the one seed with all those injuries last year. The Chargers have you seen the most yards in NFL history through six years is still Justin Herbert. Have you seen the throws he makes in September and October in the project in go count the summer too. Yeah. No doubt. Uh, Texans to meiko in the defense, they, they are. one of two teams in the NFL along with Buffalo

to have won a playoff game in each of the last three seasons. That's the full list, I believe. However, deep down, I think all of us feel like, man, Dan Kimball was right. The Lions best chance was two years ago in the NFC championship game. And the Niners are always going to be injured. And the playoffs are going to still be a thing

that happens at the end of the regular season for Herbert. And what's going on with CJ Strouds? since the lecture led to losing. Was it a fluke? Either direction is the question. Was the 2025 season a fluke? Is the question both of these teams have? The Patriots obviously are hoping the answers.

No, while the Ravens are hoping the answers yes. The Patriots are like, no, it's not a fluke. We're building on that and we're maybe not going to win more than 14 games. We're here to stay. The Ravens like, man, our quarterback suffered a handful of different injuries. He and the coach, whatever. We're going to be back. Flipside for the Patriots is easiest schedule in 25 years to what looks like a pretty tough one for the Ravens.

Mobile quarterback all of a sudden who's now not either been in or available for the playoffs three of the last five years. Is it on, you know, is this 20, 25 more of what's to come? JV. Seahawks Rams, who they hope to become the varsity this year. These teams played three games this year. They were both all three epics. They all three came down to the wire. The team that won the first and lost the last two, including in the playoffs. And they hope that the NFC North can be next year, this past year is NFC West,

that they can be the two front label teams, if you will, and fight each other out not only for divisional supremacy, but conference supremacy. Finally, the hunters, the Kansas City Chiefs. Now I get it. You make seven straight conference championship games, you win the most games, the league, you play the most games, you all this. And you have one bad year that was not simply due to the quarterback being hurt. They were bad before the quarterback got hurt.

And all of a sudden, a 30-year-old quarterback in his prime, who is universally accepted as at worst, the third greatest quarterback of all time, their old news. Not sure why. Not sure the argument for it. But I do know this. They are no longer the hunted. They are the hunters.

I'm excited for it. Because people like all these seems better than them. Question is, though, can they break through? They all had a chance this playoffs without the Chiefs there, without the Ravens there. I'd say without the Bengals there, but the Bengals are never there. Can they this year finally for the Broncos make the first Super Bowl in 30 or 28 years? For the bills in more than 40 years, for the Jags ever?

Closer than you thought. So here's what I mean. Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles played the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs. The Rams were down less than a score in the red zone in the final moments of the game for a chance to beat the Eagles. They failed on a fourth down, and the Eagles then curb stomped their way to a championship. This year, the Los Angeles Rams were in the red zone, down less than a score against the Seattle Rams, Seattle Seahawks, in the final moments. They didn't get it.

And the Seahawks then curb stomped the Patriots in this Super Bowl. The Rams have been maybe a playaway from not only winning a playoff game, but beating a team that no one else came close to. And what you guys demanded or Wilde demanded and you guys foolishly agree to them on, like, yeah, Mahomes Mountain. Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl. That should be a top. That's not how that works.

For tears, however, it of course does the champs. The Seahawks are literally the championship. champs and they don't have their quarterback retiring. They don't have major guys we expect to leave. They're atop the tiers. Greg? Better than I thought on second. What's I look at it?

Yeah, no. I'm sorry. Yeah, I was trying to support. Yeah, I completely disagree. With what? So this is what I, my takeaway from the tears right now is like it's, it's like eye candy your titles. You want to distract us with all these nice titles and was it, was it a fluke?

So you bring. the Pats who were in the Super Bowl all the way down. It's way too early. So finally the Hunter, so you have them up. Like, wait, wait, wait. The Chiefs, it's the tiers. They should not be this high. They simply should not be this high.

And this has nothing to do with me not just believing in this team. Should I be above any playoff teams? They don't deserve that right now. They do not deserve that. When you have a quarterback in question of whether or not he's going to even start the season, they do not deserve to be right there. I'm sorry, Nick.

Like, you can say they're the hunted, they're finally the hunters, excuse me, and that's fine, but they can hunt from well below, because they're going to have to. Got them beneath three AFC teams. Yeah, every other team that finished third or less in their own division is well below them.

So just because they have Pasoam... Oh, we don't know if they're going to have Patrick McHomes once again. And when we've seen... them without Patrick Mahomes, this is what they look like. Without Patrick Mahomes, they're not a good team. We know that, which is why I'm shocked that you just have them starting already weight far too high for the tears.

And again, don't be distracted everyone by the titles of the tears. It's still the tears. So if you count one, two, three, four, five, he has them as the sixth best team in the National Football League right now. No, that is not low. It's not low enough. Now that I think about that. You're right.

That was a strong take. So here's the thing. That would have felt more compelling if I hadn't just watched the AFC side of the playoffs. Because I don't know who you watched this postseason in the AFC. I'm like, oh, my God, watch out for them. Because I didn't see any of those teams. And you're right to at least question whether or not Patrick will be there for week one. I'm here to tell you he's going to be dancing at.

Travis's wedding and starting for the Chiefs in week one in September, but we'll see. But I am very confident that if they get in, and I think even if Patrick missed the first month, they could get in, that they will immediately regain their spot as the scariest team in the AFC since every team that will be in the playoffs will have something in common. Yeah, that team's knocked this out before in the playoffs. Maybe not the Patriots. We haven't played you guys. And so, yeah, I mean, we'll see.

I feel like there was a level of deference given to the 2010 or 2009 New England Patriots who hadn't won a Super Bowl in five years and were coming off missing the playoffs and their quarterback blowing out as an eight. But that the chiefs evidently have not earned, so be it. We'll see how it plays out. They were 11 and 5. Yeah. Thank you.

But you guys also were not coming. You guys hadn't. The Chiefs, you're right, were worse this past year, but they were far better than the 05, 06 Patriots, 07 Patriots, pretty great. The thing that I'm worried about, it's not a fun topic is that Tom Brady blew out his knee in the first game. Yeah.

And Patrick Mahomes blew out his knee. Again, don't be fooled. Don't be fooled by the eye candy. Well, that's how you think you're out here, buddy. That was a strong to make it. That was a strong take. And in a salute to that, first of all, Marshall, he does a fantastic job. The titles are, but it is, it's like two separate things.

The titles are great. I often love the titles, but then I'm like, but why this team shouldn't be this high or this low or whatever? And I apologize to Marshall for yesterday when Danny was making, I kind of a Marshall. Yeah, I'm sorry. Like he didn't exist. I'm sorry about that Marshall.

But anyway, I do agree with Greg, and I am saying Nick, the Chargers should be much higher. Here's how much. What? Put them on the third tier with D. Denver, Buffalo, and the Jags. And here's why. I mean, ever heard of Rashon Slater?

Several times. And I know you heard of Joe Walt. We mocked it on Joe Alt. Joe Alt, the best offensive lineman ever created. But first of all, they got a great head coach. I think we all agree with that, Jim Harbaugh. They've got. Done a bang up job.

They are bringing back to all pro bowl level or all pro level. tackles that they did not have this year. All right. They are bringing in Mike Freaking McDaniel to work with Justin Herbert. I get it. You can roll your eyes if it was he's the offense. He's the head coach. But he's the OC.

He is going to have a field day with Justin Herbert and defensively. And look, I've talked up Jesse Mentor. He went there. He helped the defense. And he's gone. Yeah, but it was some mentor. it was a lot, Harbaugh. Because Harbaugh, he's the one that was the head coach

when they went from like 24th defensively to first. Hardball, six seasons as a head coach, including San Francisco, never had a defense that was outside of the top 10 in scoring defense. So defensively, mentor or not, they are going to be legit defensively. And offensively, I mean, they got two good running backs, assuming they're healthy with Warren Hampton, Vidal, like,

I don't know what's not to like. Now, if you want to say playoffs, okay. But regular season, I think they're going to have a strong. They're my pick to win that division. I cannot believe that pretty soon you're going to be talking about how much like the Cavs and James Hard. I can't believe. No, this is not about Justin Herbert. This is about the whole team.

You're really in on Mike McDaniel now, too. I am. I like him as an OC. And they're bringing back their tackles. They, that's got to help. I think that I have a crazy take before you go, KW. I think the Chargers, people aren't going to believe this, are going to be who they've been my entire life. That's fair takes.

They're going to be, they're going to win somewhere from nine to 11 games. They're going to have some real, some moments we're like, oh my God, that this might be the year. It's the best game in football. Oh, holy smokes. Then they're going to finish somewhere around fifth or sixth in their own conference at the end of the day. That's what I think. We'll see that happening. Yeah.

I want to talk about the Texans, but before I do, a quick prologue about the Denver Broncos. I don't know why the Denver Broncos are above the Patriots. The Patriots had the easiest schedule in the league. Very true. The Denver Broncos had the second easiest schedule in the league. The Denver Broncos won the AFC were the number one seed because they got to beat the PAC. when Micah Parkers went down. They were losing that game when Michael Parsons was in the game.

Then they played, they went to Kansas City and beat, not Patrick Mahomes, they beat a backup quarterback, and then they beat the Chargers with Justin Herbert and everybody arresting. And while the Patriots had the easiest schedule and we're blasting teams, the Broncos had the second easiest schedule, and we're having great comeback wins

and we're waving the flag like it was a good thing. It's not a good thing. It should have been blasting those teams. And that's why I am selling all my Broncos stock. the next year. But I'm not here to talk about the Broncos. Wow, you did a bro. This take. Wow. Bonus take. That's a, the Broncos. Good. I didn't know they had the second easiest schedule. That was the and historically it's like one of the, it's like a historically 14 somewhere around there. All right, quickly, quickly on the Texans. I've decided to become

a Texans guy. This pencil is from the Girl Scout World Fair from Russia, 2004. I told you that my dad went and bought. Where did this come from? Now we're going to talk about this. He's trying to deter you. My father bought, when my father sees a deal, he bought, he bought maybe

30 pounds of pencils when I was a child. And he's like, look, I'll never have to worry about pencils. And they're all mistakes and like people, like misprints. Okay. All right. Sorry, as you were.

Wow. In any event, the Texans. He was right, though. They're the new Seahawks. The Seahawks blueprint, elite defense, great defensive-minded coach, and a quarterback who can get even better. So I've been saying that the Texans were actually the best defense. I mean, it's hard now because the Seahawks had the championship.

Points, they were 0.2 away, and Seahawks cut them. Yards, Texans were better. Sacks exactly the same. Touchdowns Interception goes to the Texans. Passer rating goes to the Texans. I thought the Texans were the best defense. I agree. And you saw Stafford was an antidote to the Seahawks defense,

but I saw Mahomes get eaten up by the Texans defense. I saw Josh Allen play one of the worst games of his career against the Texan defense. Patrick, excuse me, I saw Drake May play one of the worst games of your career. No, I'm sorry. Drake May actually played excellent. That was a truth. That was a true mistake. Two, quick on D'Amico.

Coaches that have just gotten to the playoffs in the first three seasons. It's not a big list. So like, we know that he's a good coach. Like, wow, is he historically good coach? According to this graphic is, he's, you know, waiting to break through to that next round. They just kind of get stuck hit at ceiling. Four excellent coaches in Barry Switzer. And finally, so the question is just CJ.

We all, there was a point where we all just unanimously believed in CJ. And then we've kind of just, our stock is kind of lowered a little bit. So if you say, hey, can he be an MVP candidate? Like I think that was our highest of highs. We're like he's going to be in the running for MVP's. Maybe we're off of that. Can he be better than Sam Darnold and say, hey, man, you don't need to light it up. You just need to play clean football.

And our defense will take care of it. Maybe that takes a little bit of the pressure off. Maybe he's, you know, gets a little bit better in year four. And all of a sudden, the Texans are. in the Super Bowl. Oh, very quickly here. Maybe not. But I've got Russia on the brain because of that pencil.

Sure. Any historians out there remember a time in the 80s were the Russians, Soviet Union at the times, fighting the Afghans. And we wanted the Russians depleted. So we in the shadows aided the Afghans. Not because necessarily we cared so much because we were trying to help them defeat our enemy.

It's a proxy war. Kevin Wilde is currently fighting a proxy war on Drake May's playoff critiques. There's a part of that. On and the way he's doing it is, hey, the Texans team sure was awesome. The Texans defense was the best defense. Can you imagine someone scored 28 and through 3 Touchdown on the Texans.

Greg, after the bills, after Josh Allen was just lost. Everyone was like, this Texans team is the best defense. No one, draft teams you don't want to play. I'll take the Texans number one.

Yeah. The Texans are amazing. Drake May proxy war. And I respect it. The Texans. Buddy, I respect it. I'm, I'm the Texans guy.

I'm going to get a Cowboy. How are you the Texans guy? I just claimed I'm a Patriots guy. And I'm a Patriots guy too, but I'm a Texans guy too, but I'm a Texans. Head down to the Daytona 500 practice started today. That is just practice. They go much faster than that when they're racing.

And we will be there live from Daytona as we get ready for the Daytona 500. Tomorrow and Friday, we are there. The races on Sunday. Do you have a winner? We've been researching and saving that for tomorrow. Okay. Brew, are you ready? Saving that for tomorrow.

I'm not only am I ready. I am going to go into the first things first archives because we're going to. We've had one of the race favorites in studio to discuss his win from nearly a decade ago. Wow, I'm very interested in that. Super Bowl sound from the Seattle sidelines. Here's Julian Love on Drake May's Tells, where he basically predicts an interception. Take a listen. Classic young quarterback, he's, no, as soon as that backfoot hits,

as soon as the back foot hits, he's going to where he wants, but he's pausing for a second to confirm that he's open. He's not a blindly doing like Stafford. He's like a little hits there. Okay. You can show you jump that. Well, isn't this happening? I put my back foot down there and here you go. A little bit of a duck and it's an interception. The game was over in it. I couldn't, the audience. They had hope. Who did he say he's not quite like? Matthew Stafford. Oh, I thought they were right. Wow. Right there. Wow. Julian loves. Someone Someone send him a fruit basket. I. Guys have all fallen into a trap.

Oh, oh, please tell us the trap. You have all fallen into a trap. You know what the conversation used to be, Greg? Who's the best quarterback of that draft class? Yeah, I don't know. Bo Nix. He's winning a lot of games. Is it Bo Nicks or Drake?

Caleb or Drake? Oh, is it Jaden or Drake? Yeah. I haven't heard that conversation in a while. You know what I hear now? You know, I hear Drake May. He's no joke. Burrow. Drake May, he's 23. He's not as good as 14, 17 year veteran Matthew Stafford. They're not on the same level.

You got, breaking bad. You got me. He's not as good as I'll lay down my swords. The conversation is now not about Drake May and Caleb and other young interesting quarterbacks. It's conversations about Drake May, Josh Allen, Lamar, Joe Burrow, Matthew, Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. You got me. No. That's a nice thing. No, but so hold on. I'm out. This direction.

You guys win. Hold on. So, but that is. Good job, wild. That is you. I like that. But that is a massive concession from you. I know.

And because I don't think any of us are willing to concede your other point of it, which is that Drake May is no longer in the discussion with Caleb or J. I didn't put him in with Bo Nix. I just haven't heard it recently. But Brew had it yesterday. I mean, we literally, we've had it. Earlier today. Yeah, earlier today. I had my air pot.

And what that, and to me, because my read on that is, is, I guess, a little differently, which is, it is not that Drake May now is in the discussion with Stafford. It's quite the opposite. It's going into the Super Bowl, some folks, maybe some handsome folks who just had a birthday, were demanding he be neck and neck with Stafford, and now we have impromptu on the sideline, a player in the game explaining how he is not at all like Matt Stafford. Like that to me is a concession in the other direction,

and not that shocking because there's only, in the last, I don't know, 15 years, I don't know if there's a quarterback other than Mahomes, who by at this age was. Separated. Yeah, was as good as the best long-term veteran quarterbacks and, you know, kind of across the board recognized as such. Brady wasn't even that, but he's a different type of player.

Peyton was, but that's a long time ago at this point. And so, I mean, I don't think it's a glaring indictment on Drake May as much as I think it's a glaring indictment on some Drake May opinions, you know, leading up to it. Wiles, I got some good news and bad news for it. I'll take them both. I didn't agree

with your little tape you just did, but I thought it was creative. Oh, I thought it was I thought you were, yeah, it was cute. That's a good good one. I thought you were kind of stuck, right? And you found a way to wiggle yourself out

of it. Is this the good news or the bad news? It's kind of the bad news. I'm not sure. But the good, that's the bad news. The good news is this is great for Drake. See? This is just what he needed to hear. Maybe he wouldn't, if that, if Julian Love had not been miced up,

maybe Drake goes in the next season, not even knowing he had a tell. I mean, but seriously. Excellent. Like this is great news for him because now he's, you know what? I didn't even know I was doing that. Now he can work this offseason on eliminating that from his game. And look, second year quarterback, 23 years old, he's, we're not just saying he's going to improve because he's young and all that.

But he has things he really can work on. As all of the young quarterbacks. Brady, in his second year, even though he won a Super Bowl, still had a long way to go. Mahomes, even though he was still great that early, remember he talked about reading defenses and all that. So Lamar won an MVP a second year and has improved dramatically over that. That's what Drake, like this is great for him.

If Josh McDaniels should be sitting down with Drake playing this, like, man, look at that. Your take or the sound? Both, man. Well, both, but mainly the sound. So the week leading into the Super Bowl, I had my takeaways of how I, what I think I learned or wish I knew going in the Super Bowl and doing more, knowing that you can be more, right? This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Julian Love, grinding the tape, trying to find any and everything. Just one thing to give me a little distinct advantage because I can say that this wasn't Drake May all season long. This wasn't him pausing all season long. It became a thing once he was getting sacked. Well, he got sacked all season long. long but playing those type of defenses and they were getting extreme amount of pressure on him.

So now you start to hold that ball a little bit longer. Is he open? Is he not? You're playing much more tighter defenses. And so you become something that you hadn't been. Great job by him. For me, Drake May is going to be just fine. But this is what wins and loses football games in these moments.

The little, the smallest tail that you don't. know and one of those things that I remember I told you guys I did like the first week I was studying my opponent like crazy the second week I tried to watch myself and had Charles and Charles Woodson and Tremont Williams try to identify things that I wouldn't necessarily see of myself to to eliminate that. Those are it's that close when you're in those type of, well it wasn't that close for the Seahawks. But I mean those are the types of things. the things that you are willing to do to win that type of a game.

And that's also what I will say, because we've now heard about the Patriots offensive linemen having some tells on runner pass and how they were set, this on Drake May. Because the team is so young, you're a graphic about rookie snaps. Drake May doesn't even count for that second year player, but obviously very young. That, to me, is a missed opportunity by the Patriots coaches to not. either pick up in the prep or in real time, the same tell Seattle was. And certainly with the offensive lineman, I don't know how much you could, you know, how much Drake was doing it in the playoff run leading up to it, if that was specifically in the game.

My other takeaway from this in all seriousness is the great miced-up NFL moments are such a window into how specifically brilliant excellent football players. Like it is such, it is remarkable to me that a guy in the midst of the chaos who, again, think about like what Julian Love is actually seeing. The guy's 30 yards away. There's linemen. He's covering someone.

And he just has, you know, picked up on, I know this, maybe to you, this sounds obvious. No, it's a remarkable ability that, is specific to elite athletes and I think particularly impressive in football because of all the chaos on the field to pick up just a little tendency tell and then to be able to activate on it.

I think that's so cool. Yeah, it's one of those things that you pick up in film study and then once you get onto the game field, you need to see it one time to confirm, is this true? Is this what I saw? Once you see that, one time that's, That's how you're planning.

That's how you're approaching every single snap now. The tell I picked up on is when Drake, you can see the bottom of Drake May's feet like this. We're in trouble. It's a bad sign when you're seeing Drake May's cleats in the air. It's like me in the airport today. Well, this is, it's kind of, you see those dogs here in the best. But welcome back to first things first headed to Cleveland. They're either looking for a QB1 or it's obviously Shador.

Not a lot of middle ground. Here's Miles Garrett's take. That's what we're looking at as a guy. We're going to give him a shot to prove that he's a guy. So we're not going to give anyone, you know, that title until they go out there and earn it. And, you know, he was the last person to be on the field. And he showed some, he sold it from flashes. So we're going to give my opportunity to show we can really do.

All right, bro. Do you think he's done enough to be QB1? Well, I think Miles Garrett said it perfectly. He showed some flashes. We'll give him a chance. I don't think he had, I just don't think Stefansky and that staff, or mainly Safansky, believed in him. So even as he was starting those last few games, it almost felt like it was a grudging,

you know, let's see if we can work with him or whatever. I don't believe, he certainly hasn't earned like, oh, he's definitely our starter next year. But I do believe, and I do believe whatever they do, it should be a quarterback competition. However, I believe his name, like if it's just Gabriel and him and maybe a legit backup, like a perennial backup guy, that Shadur should be atop the depth chart. Now, maybe Gabriel outplays him and takes it from him, but Shadur should intercamp as the number one guy in a legit, fair QB competition. If they were to go out, and I'm not saying they'll do this,

But if they were to go out and get a Malik Willis or somebody like that, then no. I think in your mind you're thinking it's going to be Willis. I don't think you hand it to him either. I think it's a legit competition. Maybe nobody's at number one, but it's a legit competition. But if you sign Malik Willis, I... Well, I mean, Malik, look, Malik has shown more than Shadur, but I don't think you sign Malik automatically ready to hand him.

Oh, wow. What you showed yesterday was three games over two years. Now, I think Malik is better, and I think Malik would beat him out. But I would be like, we're bringing you in for a competition. We like you. We think you'll be merge as our starter. But you've got to earn it. Like, has he done enough where he don't have to earn it?

If you're going out and you're signing Malik Willis, you have a plan believing that he's going to be one of your, he's going to be your guy. I agree. But in terms of this question, has he? done enough? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Like I totally get what Miles Garrett is saying and if, and I understand your point, if

the roster as currently configured with the quarterbacks that they have, even Deshawn, if they were to go to camp right now and say, you know what, ones go out, Shador should probably go out there. But it should be an open competition still. He should have the, he should be

given the benefit of the doubt to kind to be the one that's leading the house leading the the back of your mind yeah leading the the case of being the number one guy but seven seven touchdowns 10 interceptions 50 something i think was 56 percent completion percentage all of those things can improve i totally understand that but it wasn't to where it's a no-brainer yeah he's he's number one i mean the the season long numbers and we listen the the ranks are what the ranks are But the season-long numbers are, I think, evidence that he has not done close to enough to be like he's our starting quarterback. I agree with Brew that of the quarterbacks on the roster right now, I do feel like even though those numbers are not good, I just think he played better than Dylan Gabriel and showed more upside than Dylan Gabriel.

So I think, and I don't think Deshaun Watson is going to play another snap in the NFL. So I would have Shador QB1 on the roster right now. The Malik Willis thing, I think Malik Willis, because it is such a scarce quarterback market, is signing with a team to be the team starter. Whether that's a good idea or not. So let me take Malik Willis out of it. Say the Browns were to sign Matt Ryan. I think that then is a true competition.

Like Matt Ryan gets cut from the Falcons. And I think he is the... You mean cousins? Jeez, I can't believe... I was like... I was like, all right, keep going. I'm like, Philip Rivers, man. He's probably...

He's probably born in executive position now. It doesn't matter. Wild. Like, this is interesting. I've got such a weird Matt Ryan era. He is dead last era you made. He was Matt Ryan. You're a box.

He forgot he had signed. Sorry. I didn't know. You guys are all looking at me like I'm an idiot. Yes, Kirk Cousins. Thank you. Oh, that would be... If her cousins gets cut, but still wants to keep playing.

I don't think Cousins has right now the leverage, so to speak, that Malik Willis says. And he signed somewhere. I think that becomes a competition. It's like, hey, the young guy... Cousins is better, though. At this point, he's better than she do it. But I would want that competition. I'd want to see how much did Chidor grow?

How much did Cousins' atrophy over the year? Like, if it's close, I would have Tye go to the young guy who's super cheap, moving forward. So that's the type of world that I think he lives in. What is, and we don't have time of getting to do it. Now, what I'm,

what's interesting to me is, what number pick in the draft does there, if they take a quarterback this year, does that draft placement supplant Shador's year head start? Like, first round pick definitely. Yes. Second round pick.

No. No. Okay. But if they, let's say, yeah. So that's, if it was a first round pick,

not, you know, Mendoza, But it was a first round pick. So you're saying he would start as the number one quarterback going into training team? What I'm saying is if the Browns take a quarterback in the first round, they are going to, there will be a competition. For sure. And the competition, they will hope the first round pick wins it. Correct.

You know what I mean? They will be taking him hoping for that. Second round pick, maybe not. Matt Ryan also. He is the president. But you never know. Yeah, you don't know. He never know.

He never know. Justin Burland. He's probably younger than Philip Rivers. He might be. Plausibly live from New York, it's first thing's first overtime. Today, did Wemby just prove that he's a top five player in the world or even higher? Meanwhile, which team will be the next Seahawks? We discuss the long shots to win Super Bowl 61.

And finally, I know you're thinking, stats, they fell off wrong. They are cool like you would never have thought alongside Chris Bissardum. Wilde, Nick Wright, Parkins, Danny Parkins. Did you hear that Nick is going to get you an early birthday present because they are handing out James Harden beards at his debut. Are you excited for that? I've always wanted to be man enough to grow a beard, so I can put a fake one on. Can you grow a beard?

How's your toe touching thing going? It's not going well. Thanks for asking. How's your trainers? You still can't touch your toes? After a month with a trainer? I would be paid for four sessions with the trainer. I've done one.

Well, you didn't want. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? Buddy, I couldn't walk for a week. Well, that after the first session. I'm sorry. Yeah.

We're going to call the trainer. We're going to start the show. I'm sorry, the trainer. We're going to get him back on. He's been paid. Nice quarter for Wemby against the Lakers. 25 in the first. Some people thought he should have gone for 100.

Get a nice little cardboard sign. I haven't say 100 on it. That would have been cool. 40 in the game, which he only played 26 minutes. Here's JJ Reddick. He's one of the five best players in the world. He's put that stamp on himself. And, you know, it's more than, to me, it's like more than the counting stats with him

because there's such an avoidance of him defensively. Danny, your reaction. So I'm not terribly interested in the, is he already a top five player in the world? Can he be the goat? Like I think we sometimes rush to the finish line on this stuff. We've all been watching basketball our whole lives. I love basketball, the sport dearly. And I like that he is a one of one, like that I have never seen a talent like his.

And obviously that is partly just a size thing and, you know, God's gift. and genetics thing, but it's also a skill set thing, and it's a youth thing. Last night's game is crazy, and I'll just run through a few real quick stats, because the fact that the same player can be all of these things is kind of amazing. He is the first player, other than Steph Curry, to do this, which was 25 or more points on less than 10 or fewer shots. In the first quarter. Yeah, in the first quarter.

To start a game that way, we can do this going back to 1996, 1996. 1996, 1997. So it's like, a guy who's 7, 7, 75, whatever he is, and Steph Curry are on the same list. And obviously, Steph dominated by threes. But then for a game to have a 40-point double-double in 26 minutes or less, it's him and Patrick Ewing. Shout to Patrick.

Yeah. And you get a lot of Patrick Ewing graphics on the show. And you track that back to 82, 83. And then this one, Stat Mews put it out there first, so I'll give them the credit. He already has more 40-point games than Dunk. traffic I don't like. Is it because Duncan wasn't a volume score? It just, it just, it just borders on almost like

Tim Duncan's slander and I love it. Duncan's a top 10 player ever. It's just a legitimate yeah. It's just remarkable. I mean he's got a thousand more games. And he's not, it's not like you can just say because obviously earlier in his career, Duncan did play normal

minutes. Yes. And then Popovich got to a point where nobody played more than like 34 minutes. Right. But Wimby's not playing a ton of minutes either. So So, wow, that's... So I just find the, you know, Kevin Garnett, anything's possible when he won a championship.

With this singular talent, what's so fun is that on any night, anything is possible. If you went to that game last night and you were disappointed because LeBron and Luca weren't playing, you saw, like, a singular thing that LeBron

or Luca are not capable of doing in the form of Victor Wembenyama, and that, for a sport that's got a lot of issues right now, I really just think should be celebrated for the night that it was and not necessarily anything beyond that. I'm going to go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I know you said you're not interested in the top five. I know you are.

I am. I know. I know. It's fine. So, like, I think Redick is right. And I think he's fifth. And that also speaks to me to the importance of their chance to win a chance to win a chance. championship right now, which I know you think they can, Brew.

I think you think they can. I know you probably have the Cavs in five or something. Thunder over the Caves. But right, but because of what their record is, what their metrics are, their record against the Thunder this year in particular. And I think that is really important because I, the reason, My biggest, one of my biggest hesitations in the goat stuff for what's the career going to be is a real anxiousness of how many prime wimby years do we get.

Yeah. He could have the longest prime of any super tall guy in league history and still a shorter prime than most of the greatest players ever. You know what? Like the, there's never been a guy seven three or above that had a crazy, you know, 10 year, excellent run, depending on how tall you believe deep down Kareem was, but I don't think he was 7-3. And so I do think that, I think Joker, Shay, Janus, and this is the one people will disagree with me on,

Luca are right now this moment, better than him. He and Luke are obviously drastically different players, but I do think he's already brew better than Aunt, Steph, Cade, Tatum, when he's healthy, like, whatever the rest is. So I don't think that's like a crazy hot take by JJ running. No, I agree. I think he's top of out. I would even put him ahead of Luca.

I thought you would. Yeah, just because of the defense. I mean, Luca is fantastic of what he does, but this guy does it defensively as well. And I said earlier, Danny, like I said, they are a legitimate contender could win the championship. And you look at their youth and you think there's no way. But Oklahoma City last year was young.

And I thought that would hold them back. And then we usually, usually a team has to have a few playoff, you know, heartbreaks. Yeah. Even OKC had a playoff loss, you know, to Dallas a year before. But the previous youngest team never win it before OKC, Portland in 1978. I know I won't be here too long. No, no. But they had not made the playoffs before winning it that year in 1978.

They had Bill Walton, who was a great big man. And also similar to Wimby in this regard, had never seen a player in the league like Walton. Like there had never been like... As far as his past. Remember, Wilk led the league in a sense. I think Walton was a better pass. But I'm saying Walton was, in my opinion,

the first ever Bill Walton. And there was nobody and so and came into the league with... But it wasn't like this. No, no, no, no, I understand. But similar hype, by the way, because of who he was in college, like, oh, this is a franchise transformational guy, and he proved to be. Brew, I was like, I made a face not because you were going down in memory lane, but because for as long as we've been doing the show, you have had these sort of two rules, I'll call them, on playoff success. And one is you have to go through the gauntlet a few times before you're ready.

and two, you just didn't like young people. You didn't. I felt that. So as, I mean, maybe it was the thunder that broke you, but like it feels like you are now open to anything. Yeah, a lot of it was the thunder last year. And just looking at the league now with the way it's played, LeBron's talked about this, like the floor is so spread out that it favors younger, more energetic teams and depth. And they have both in San Antonio.

So they could win the league And he, the only Nick gets bothered by this. It bothers me because I'm obviously a big Jordan guy and I got LeBron's second. The ceiling, if he's healthy, now he has to win and accomplish things. Here we go. He should be the goat.

If he stays, like what? He can do everything. Everything. Well, and again, like putting him ahead of that is like fast-forward so much. It's hard for me. But I'm just saying that's, And this was the take I made that potentially he can be the goat.

And as I said it, people thought it was crazy. If he's just Hakeem Ilajuwon, who is arguably a top 10 player, that is a bit of a disappointment. He's just such a singular talent. Like, listen, I would have thought coming into this year that it would have been impossible for them to just compete with the thunder. Just forget the goat, forget top 10, forget top. just for the spurs this year to compete with the thunder who overwhelmed the league as much as they did last year. And they've handled them. They've handled them thoroughly.

And it's largely because of how singular this talent is. I want to say one other thing on this. I do think if he is at this point pretty universally regarded as a top five guy, I think he is the first guy to have that distinction universally regarded as top five guy before we have seen him play. a single playoff game since LeBron. Oh, since LeBron. In year three, when he almost won MVP, that year, everyone agreed to his top five guy.

They might have been year two, I don't know. But he made his first playoff appearance in year three like Wembe's trying to. It is, there's none of these other guys, since then, from LeBron to now, so the last 23 years, got like stamped as, oh, yeah, because I do think everybody agrees. Like Reddick, you know, that wasn't that hot of a take, so to speak. I think most people are like, well, he's the best defender in the league. He's averaging 25 a game now on good efficiency. The team's awesome.

Like, yeah, that's a top five. Reddick was, he was right on the money on, it's more than the counting stats, particularly defensively. Because people might say, oh, he's not blocking as many shots as he seemed to be last. Guys are afraid to. Yeah. I mean, you see guys constantly going in and going right back out just because he's there. And they let him roam, which is smart. All right, we're going to focus on the other side of this game.

LeBron sat out. That's the 18th game he's missed. So he is now ineligible for any postseason award. It's the 65 game threshold that we thought was a good idea at first, but now maybe we're changing our minds. Games missed this season. Joker can only miss two more than he's out. Steph Wembe and Luca are all in danger of being disqualified for postseason awards.

Danny, your take on this. Well, so we don't have the time to solve the issue of how the modern game is played that leads to more injuries, which is then these guys actually have legitimate injuries and it's not a load management thing. I thought the spirit of the 65 game threshold was correct because of the embarrassment of load management. This is not that because there have been legitimate injuries attached to some of these stars, so that's silly. But so just on LeBron for a second, the record is 21, right? 21 times all NBA. He also has the record for most first team all NBA with 13. Malone and Kobe are second with 11.

Maybe someone will get to 13 first team all NBAs. But 21 all NBA seasons when Kareem is second at 15, that record will not be broken in my son's lifetime. And my kids are six and three. That record is, to be a top 15 player in the league for more than two decades is impossible. And there's another one to it. So let me do this real quick, Brew. Just because I have the graphics. So we can just roll through these, Christina, because it's not just 21.

It's 21 in a row. So that's LeBron. Kareem played forever. Kobe, you know, played 20 years, but actually probably would have played longer, if not for the injuries. Kobe wasn't 40, it wasn't the age. But no, I mean, that is, the gap there is unbelievable. This next graphic is the other thing, to your point, 13, 11, 11.

And then the consecutive all MBAs is the same place I was going as you, Danny. I think these are unbreakable records, particularly with what we know about modern basketball. like the and so there it is. That's the consecutive streak. I mean, shout out to Kobe and Carl Malone and those guys. And again, this is not a goat conversation because Jordan is certainly in the discussion and he's not on any of these graphics. So that, but it is, I think this is right alongside the scoring title, which is unbreakable.

Like these are records that will not be broken and will look like old pitching records when we look at them now from like the 1900s, like wait, he threw how many complete games? Right, right, right. Well, look, whether, I mean, he wasn't, he obviously won't make all NBA now, but regardless of that, what he's doing in year 23, I mean, it's just incredible, you know, it's so far beyond what anybody else did in year 20, 21 or anything like that. I wonder, I tend to agree with you guys as far as those records not being broken. I'm just wondering, players, athletes are playing longer nowadays across all the sports.

I mean, you even look at Steph and Durant who aren't going to, you know, they're not going to, but they're playing great at their age, putting up the numbers that they are. So I just wonder if, you know, if there's going to be, if they start playing a lot longer. But still, to make it 21 straight, that means you're not going to have a season where you never get hurt or you're never not great. Yeah. And if they keep a 65 game threshold, it's impossible. Well, and regarding that, I think Adam Silver should announce Saturday in his annual meeting with the press that he is unilaterally making a decision to get rid of that. Because you're right. I agree with the rule when they put it in.

Because you guys were just low managing to death. But now it's these guys are legitimately hurt. So if Yokish misses two or three more games or Steph or. whoever, they can't be all NBA. It's going to look ridiculous. And so I do think he should make that announcement. All right. We're going to turn back our attention to the NFL.

We're headed to Daytona today. So we wanted to have one final bite at going through the Super Bowl. I know you're thinking, I feel like I've seen all the cool stats. Well, hold on. We have one more edition of PAC stats featuring some cool stats. That's right. A little Super Bowl edition. Some things to kind of get us ready for the NFL off season here.

Excellent. Some cool NFL stats, because you guys know what else is cool? Well, we're not sure. What? Domination. Oh. Domination is the cool. That actually is probably too.

Well, yesterday I thought it was an interesting conversation. Like, how are we going to remember the New England Patriots? Well, so how are we going to remember the Seahawks? Maybe by being the most dominant Super Bowl champion by point differential since the greatest show on turf. I know you don't love how much I like point. differential, Nick. But it's like a scoreboard for the whole season. And I thought that's what your win-lost record was.

Well, no, because if you blow teams out, it's like keeping scores like it's making one big game. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, a tough schedule too. Tough schedule, tough division, obviously didn't play, you know, again, or the one seed. Since the greatest show on turf, best point differential by a Super Bowl champion. Brew, I know Nick doesn't like it. Do you think it's cool? I think it's very cool.

Thank you, Bruce. It's not that I don't like it. Yeah, you don't like it. I just literally don't. And this is maybe an issue I guess it turns out I'd have with point differential, which I think can be instructive, but I think people pay a touch too much attention to it. I do not think there is a football fan alive who thinks, if they were asked the question, hey, who's the most dominant champion this century at any point is going to,

say this Seahawks team. That's my, so that's my, I'm not, it is, I like the stat because I didn't know it and I think it's noteworthy, but I just don't think anybody feels that way, even with the recency bias of the game just happening. But I don't think at any one stat, even the ones that people claim that are, DVOA, EPA, it's not that one stat makes them the most dominant team ever. It's just how dominant was this Seahawks season? It actually is more dominant. than I think a lot of people have given it credit for. That one, that one, I think they are even today, three days removed from the Super Bowl, underrated to a degree.

That part I totally agree with. I'm not saying they're the best Super Bowl champion, but that point differential, it's in their favor. You guys know what else is cool, though? I'm glad you asked. A little patience. Having patience. Patience is like really cool. Patience is cool.

Thanks, Wild. Well, we're going to talk a lot about. Fernando Mendoza and Clint Kubiak and what they can do this year. So a rookie head coach, first time head coach, and the number one overall pick at quarterback. Average number of wins, only four and a half. Only once in NFL history has a first time head coach, taking a quarterback number one overall and made the playoffs.

And it was Chuck Pagano and Andrew Luck. It was a very unique situation because Peyton Manning got hurt. They had Reggie Wayne, they had Dwight Freeny, they had Robert Mathis, had T.Y Hilton. was Peyton Manning's team that just kind of lucked in the luck, no pun intended. Most of the time, it's like Kingsbury and Kyler, Ron Rivera, and Cam Newton, and they struggle out of the gate. So people are going to talk about how good can the Raiders be.

History says about four and a half wins. So, okay. Five wins? I mean, that's just in terms of got to have patience, cannot judge this thing off one year because it's a first time. Well, they underperformed last year. A lot of people thought they were one of the best teams in the league. Nobody thought they were one of the best teams.

I mean, a playoff team. I thought they could make the playoffs by benefit of strength, their schedule, Gino, Pete Carroll. I was wrong. God, nobody else has ever had a bad playoff pick. Also, let me not to infringe on your territory. But you know what you did there that I think is cool, Danny?

What's that? How generous you were. That's the nicest thing that's happened to T.Y. Hilton in years. That you're like, they had, Marvin Harrison, Robert Mathers, Dwight Freedy and T.Y. Hill. Yeah, good season. I was going back.

I was going to the top. All the favorites. I'm just saying. That was her. Reggie Wade. Yeah, Reggie Wade. Danny, Popque. How old is Mendoza?

23? 23? I thought he's 23. I thought he's 23. I think he's like, yeah. I think he's like slightly old. I slightly younger than Drake May. Yeah.

Oh, he's 22. Okay. That's not as old as I thought. I just wonder of like, I took a shot. NIL, there was like, the pan. pandemic years, we see guys coming into the league older.

Can they, yeah, like Bo Nix? Can you pop? He's like, actually, I've got a lot of quarterbacking underneath my belt. I think that that's a reasonable question, but I think, but this is as much a rookie coach stat. Right? I thought that was the kind of like, Kubiak is, we think he's good, but it's a roll of the dice. Mendoza, we think he's good, it's a roll of the dice.

When you put those two things together and not on a team that picked seventh. It has a team that the worst team in the league, it's going to take. I'm here in final, I'm here in final cool stat. Well, then it's only appropriate. You guys know what else is cool? What? What? Tell us.

Sam Munson. Let's talk a little Justin Herbert. Oh, sweet. Sam Munson. You said Super Bowl stats. Post Super Bowl. That is the quarterback rating gentleman of Tua and Jimmy G. In their first year being coached by Mike McDaniel.

We would all agree, even if you think that I'm a little too invested in Justin We would all agree that Justin Herbert's better than Jimmy G and Tua, right? Imagine what Mike McDaniel did with those guys. You give him the talent of Justin Herbert. You agree with that one. You agree with it. Of course. It's an empirically factual statement.

Nick is so mad. It's emanating off of them. I just think it is I want what's best for you always. Thank you. And I think totally hitching your wagon. Forget to Justin Herbert, but to. Mike McDaniel, you're running out of guys who in 11 and a half months, you're going to have to blame for the inevitable face point.

Like, you're on the record that Jim Harbaugh is excellent. You're on the record about that once you have Alton Slater, it's an impermeable offensive line. Now the guy who is the easy fall guy was this time. It was Greg Roman's fault that Justin Herbert was, afraid to throw the ball down the field in the Patriots game. You could, I just think strategically the better take would have been. Mike McDaniel, maybe a little overrated.

Two of them worked in. I don't know. Like that. All in. Okay. All in. I just think it's big year from Herbert. You know what?

If Herbert struggles, which I agree with you, I think he's going to have a great year. But if he struggles, you're going to have to jump off the bandline. There's nowhere else to blame. There's no way. There's no thing. I'll figure. Colin and San Donald. I'll figure it.

I'll be vindicated. I'll be vindicated one day. Yeah. It's like he's a great OC. We got Greg Jennings and Willie Colon out here with us on the OT. Micked up content sometimes doesn't reveal all that much, I'll be honest. But it does take you inside the mind of a player. And Julian Love seemed like he figured out all the answers to the test against Drake May in the Super Bowl.

Take a listen. Classic young quarterback. He's, no, he's. As soon as that back foot hits. What is this? As soon as the backwood hits, he's going to where he wants, but he's pausing for a second to confirm that he's open. He's not a blindly doing like Stafford.

He's, there's like a little hits there. You can show you jump that. I love this stuff whenever it actually reveals something interesting, which is not terribly often. It's a lot of like, come on, guys, we can do it. Like, it's a lot of that stuff. But that insight from Julian Love on Drake May, I thought it was obviously. fair and apparent based on watching the game, but also something that Drake May,

should take personally, but should take with him into the off season of, oh, man, these guys are openly saying that I had a tell and wasn't trusting NFL Open. And even though he was the runner-up for MVP, still has a ways to go to get to the guy who they compared him to Stafford, who actually won the MVP. Yeah, Julian Love capitalized off his rhythm and mechanics. And most young players, especially young quarterbacks, have tells. When I was a young player, when I was a young player, excuse me, I had tell.

I was fortunate enough to have teammates who were able to clean me up through practice. Like, hey, man, you do this in the game, they're going to get you. You know, one of my tells was when I was pulling, I would rock back in my stance. That's how they knew I was pulling. When I wanted to kick out of my stance, I would narrow my stance. But I had veteran guys to say, hey, man, you do these things. People will expose you. Nevertheless, man, I went back against the Pats versus Texans.

The same thing Julian Love was talking about. May did in that game. I even went back week 17 against the Jets where he threw those five touchdowns. You see the same thing in the game. So these are things that's consistent to what Julian Love was exposing. And now if you're made, you have to go into offseason like you're saying and clean these things up. But I also think some of that, those mechanic woes, if you were, I think that was the fact that he was dealing with an officer line that was protecting him too. We saw those things become unhinged.

We started playing these elite defenses and they started speeding him up. And then he was throwing the football away and having these turnovers. So I know all these things he's going to have to clean up, nevertheless, but man, it was great eye by Julian Love. Absolutely. Look, in these games, playoff games, obviously the Super Bowl, you're always trying to find an edge, whether it's a regular season game or playoff game. But there's a little more emphasis. There's a little more desire to find something that can give me a distinct advantage. May not tell anybody, may not share it with anybody.

What you saw there was a DB that was. like a veteran DB too a veteran DB that understood okay I watched film I saw this on film now if I see it in the game it's confirmed because everything you see on film it's like I don't know but once you see it happened in the game it's confirmed noted I'm jumping it now this this is what happens I experienced similar things on our run playing against the latim falcas being in the Super Bowl, your guys, we knew, I knew Troy Palomalo, he's going to jump the seam. He's going to jump it. I automatically knew.

I'm on miced up as well. Telling my coaches, look, run the corner route. It doesn't matter who you put there, run the corner route. He's going to jump the scene. And you take advantage of every little inch you can get in the game like that. Listen, there's tells in basketball, there's tells in baseball. So every sport you're trying to pick up on them and exploit them with your opponent. On this one specifically, though, Drake May led the league in completion percentage.

He was runner up for MVP. You said you saw it on the film in a game in which he had five touchdowns. So, like, how big of a deal is this one? You know, I'm not saying he can't improve on it and shouldn't work on it, but he was able to be the runner up for MVP with this pause, with this tell. Well, the problem is one guy has now told the rest of the league this is what he does. So you think this is the first time someone discovered that in Drake, I think when you have two weeks to prepare for a guy, you're able to see his tells.

And that's one of the things. I also want to, you also have to recognize that when you put on the tape, most DBs, what they get confused with and what they have trouble with is when a quarterback moves them with their eyes. You see Drake May, especially with his footwork, back foot down, hesitate, he needs to see it and throw it. That's going to have to change. When you talk about elite quarterbacks, they're able to move their secondary with their eyes, and they do other things with their footwork, and then they're able to deliver the football. those little nuances he's going to have to clean them clean up.

But once again, this is a year two for Drake. He's 23 years old. 23 years old. Yeah, and to Drake May's credit, like, he didn't do this throughout the entire season. Because I watched a lot of Drake May film as well. And as a receiver, you know when a quarterback is trying to wait until you get open. A lot of his throws, a lot of what we saw, his MVP type of run or runner up, like he was throwing guys open as well. But once you, to your point, once you start facing elite defenses, it starts to feel a little different.

All right. So obviously one of the stories of the Super Bowl was that these two teams before the year, no one expected them to be there. They entered the year at 60 to one or in some places longer odds to win the Super Bowl. They obviously defied the odds. We love picking winners around here. You know, check my record. 65% last year, beat Nick, including the playoffs. This year's not a big deal.

I wasn't going to mention it, but somebody had to. you know. So here are the full odds for next year. It's not fun to pick a favorite. When we get on official predictions week next year, you can pick a favorite if you want. But let's make the line of demarcation, you know, the chiefs, like 15 to 1, the top 12 teams or so. So I need a long shot, longer than 15 to 1 to reach next year's Super Bowl. Willie, throw into you first. What do you got? 15 to 1?

Longer than 15 to 1. Any shot out of the board. The Jacksonville count? Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm going with. I'm going with the Jacksonville Jaggles. Listen, I think Liam Cohen has done a hell of a job,

really helping Trevor Lawrence elevate himself. The coach is obviously where the guys want to be and they play for them. I think right now next year is going to be tough because they play six playoff teams, right? They play the AFC East and they play the NFC West. AFC East season is going to be easy. Obviously, you got to worry about the bills and obviously the Pats now. I think moving forward is can they survive for agency because they're going to possibly lose Craig Newsom.

and Devin Lloyd, who key factors are on the defense. If they can keep both of those guys in house, that's going to be huge, and they possibly could lose ATN. If that happens, who knows? But I think right now, the way they finish the season, obviously they lost to the Buffalo Bills. It was heartbreaking, but they have momentum because I think Trevor Lawrence is different, the culture is different.

They seem like a more legit threat than the people are going to give them credit for. What they were able to do turning around Trevor Lawrence and Travis E.T.N. with Liam Cohen get there. Their offense was absolutely insane the last eight weeks. the season. So all right, 14th best odds. That's a decent long shot. That's interesting. You going longer on the board here? I'm, I'm, I think I'm hovering around the same area in the same division. Oh, don't say Texans. The Texans. Oh, absolutely. Like, and Wilde's kind of alluded to this when we were doing tears earlier.

Like, it's, it just gives the feeling of this is Seattle's. Like, their, their defense is They've always had the defense in play. Year one of D'Amico Ryan, obviously, and you get C.J. Stroud, you follow that up by acquiring other defensive guys because you felt like, man, we got the quarterback now. And he just hasn't been what they expected or anticipated him to be. So if he can find any resemblance of being that guy that we saw in year one or better, this team has a shot. They clearly already had a shot this year.

So they clearly have a shot, and I thought they were the best defense in the NFL. And I understand the argument, like, why can't C.J. Stroud get to the level of Matt Stafford? Maybe he can't. Not necessarily Matt Stafford. Or, excuse me, Sam Darnold. I meant Sam Darnold. Certainly not Matt Stafford. C.J. Stroud has not been impressive in the NFL.

He has not. His rookie year was impressive because he didn't throw a lot of interceptions, and he only had 21 touchdowns. And that is the best he's been. Since his rookie year, he has been a below average NFL player. That is not Sam Donald. Sam Donald was over 4,000 yards last year. Sam Donald won 14 games last year. Like, CJ Stroud is a ways away from even being Sam Donald much less better than Sam Donald.

All right, all right. I'm sorry, I got a little mad because people keep people want to be, C.J. Stroud, a top guy. I mean, you ask us to give us a long shot. No, that's true. I apologize. And then you guys can get mad at me here because I'm totally biased. that I'm saying it's the Bears. I mean, everybody saw that come in.

Shocker, guys. All right, I'm sorry. You went with a 20 to one team. You went to 22 to 1. At least I'm at 25 to 1. The Bears can legitimately be the best offensive team in football next year. They have the weapons. They return their entire offensive line.

And all of the key guys on their offense outside of DJ Moore and we'll see what happens with him. They're all young. They're all 23 or younger. So Colston Loveland, Caleb Williams, Kyle Monongai, Luther Burden, all of those guys' best football is very clearly in front of them. And so they're going to make significant investments in the defensive side of the ball of this offseason, in the front seven. I mean, they're going to.

They are, if Max Crosby gets traded, the bears are going to be. So we're talking investments being made into teams, then I would pick a team on there in the same division, the Minnesota Vikings. because I believe that they're going to make an investment at the quarterback position and they're already geared to go. Well, that, by the way, you're going to pick somebody over with JJ? Yes. Well, so that's, but that is the, well, then, not that you gamble, but that's what I'm talking about.

Because when the Bears trade for Max Crosby, they're not going to be 27 to 1. Exactly. Well, so if you think the Vikings, I don't know, so who do you think they're going to get at quarterback? For instance. Malik Willis. Okay, well, if you think they get Malik Willis,

bet in them at 60 to 1 right now. Like, if you think Malik Willis makes them as better than the Bears and they become a 25-year-one team. That's a really good bet. So, yeah, I am incorporating into this what I think is going to happen this offseason. Who will be back? Who will be added? But it's nice that the Seahawks and the Patriots, they gave us all some hope.

You know what I mean? Steelers. They get the Vikings. Wow. I hope of my Steelers. You're still losing the wild guy around. It gives the whole rest of the league hope. For sure.

Unless you're like, I don't know, Cardinals fan or something. They got no hope. for next year. Speaking to one of those teams, Shador Sanders and the Browns. Coming up on the O.T. Back here on the O.T. So Miles Garrett sat down with Micah Parsons

on his podcast, and they spoke about the quarterback situation in Cleveland, and there's a lot of names and a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. Here's Miles Garrett on the situation. That's what we're looking at as a guy. We're going to give him a shot to prove that he's a guy. So we're not going to give anyone,

you know, that title until they go out there earn it. And he was the last person to be on the field. And, and, uh, he showed some, he sold from flashes. So we're going to give my opportunity to show we can really do. So, Willie, they've got the sixth pick in the draft. They got Dylan Gabriel. They have Deshawn Watson. But the last player to play quarterback was Shadour, who Miles Garrett says, you know, so he basically gets first look. Should the Brown's players want it to be Shador's QB1? I would. If I'm tied Monk in, Chador Sanders is not my number one. As far as Deshaun It looks like his legal troubles are behind him.

He seems like he's healthy, ready to go. I would make him earn it because I want to see where if he still got that dog in his stomach to start and be a productive quarterback in this league. Dylan Gabriel, I would tell him like, hey, man, you want it, go beat him. And, you know, we used to have an old saying in Pittsburgh. You know, you got one bone three dogs who wants to eat. And I will make this a healthy competition.

Nevertheless, man, you know, Todd Monk's scheme favors somebody who's a quick processor who can grow within this system. I think they have that in Shadour. He did have that one bright game against Tennessee Titans. I know you hate that game. because it was the Tennessee tight. But he threw a 364 yards and had three touchdowns,

and he's progressed through his start. So nevertheless, I like Shador being QB1. Okay. So should the bronze players want him at QB1? Of course. Based on what they have right now on their roster, absolutely. Should he just be outright the guy? No, he should have to earn that.

I think he's the favorite to win it because of everything that Miles Garrett said. but even though he showed flashes, he still has a long way to go. Now, if you don't add a quarterback to that room and you keep those three guys that you just mentioned and that's who you're going into the season with, absolutely. He's, I think he's the favorite by default because he is better than Dylan Gabriel. I'm glad you openly said. No, he is. I don't think you started.

I don't think you felt that way earlier. I didn't. I didn't. They drafted one guy in the fifth. fifth round and one guy in the third round. I assumed the guy drafted in the third round was better, which was a mistake on my part. I do think Shador showed more explosiveness than Dylan Gabriel. Deshawn Watson, my gut tells me he never plays football again, but he's got $46 million. He's under contract. The owner of the team went to his wedding. They made the

worst trade in NFL history and the worst contract in NFL history for Deshawn Watson. If Deshawn Watson is healthy after multiple ruptured Achilles, I could see them giving him a chance. not saying anyone should be rooting for it, but like, they've got a lot invested in that. But I think the overwhelming likelihood is that the next quarterback to get a contract from the Browns to win double-digit games for the Browns is not on the roster. None of these guys are likely to be the answer. If I was Cleveland, they got the sixth pick, they got the 24th pick, don't draft a quarterback.

And then trade Miles Garrett and be bad and in the next year's crop. You are all about just tanking and... You love bottoming out. I'm sorry. I watch the league. You either need to have a complete, totally dominant, deep roster like Seattle,

or you need to have awesome quarterback play. Does Cleveland have either of those things? Well, you talk about two quarterbacks who are going to their second year. They don't even know who they are. So either you're going to believe in one and develop around them. That's why you got Monk in there. You can build a system around them. You already have a good enough, tough defense that plays in the AMC North.

Bottom them out takes time. You don't, you don't, that's a five-year plan. That's a six-year plan to get to where you're talking about. You still have a competent defense. You need a competent young quarterback that can lead in offense. This thing can turn around with competent quarterback. See, I think this works out if this scenario and how, what you're presenting for Pittsburgh, because their fan base is probably more open to it.

receiving that and digesting that because they've always continuously kind of been there in the mix of whatever Cleveland they've been doing this every single year I get it but don't lie to yourself like what are the chances that Shador Sanders ends up being nobody knows nobody knows because honestly he can be a guy well it's their job it's it's their job no no I said he could better than Dylan Gabriel I think I think it is very unlikely that Shador Sanders is ever a top half of the league quarterback. To Willie's point, if nobody knows, if either of us were in a situation where we had an occupation where we weren't fully supported and we were being restricted to some measures or some degree.

Yeah. And you felt that you went out there and you tried to do your, you would, you couldn't truly show the fullness of who you were until you found somebody that was completely in your corner or at least willing to say, hey, show me everything that you can do. We're going to give you all of this assistance. We're going to pour everything into you. Just give us all that you got. You have to be worthy of that investment, though.

You have to individually be talented enough for that to be there. And when you spend a draft pick on the guy and he starts to play for your team, he's worthy of the investment. And this is why you have quarterback competitions because now you want to see who's the hungry is dog. And you tell Shador, you know, your biggest coup was like, well, you didn't believe in me. You had me sit behind. All those excuses are out of the guys.

gate right now. Now it's about you showing up for work and proving that you're worthy of the position. Everybody has a fair chance right now. And if you're Deshawn Watson, you should be the more seasoned and ready quarterback because you've had the most time and been most invested. These two quarterbacks now look at him and say, hey, man, get out the way our time is now. I'm down for healthy competition. Shador, there's no more complaining. Go get it. Your IQB won. Oh, he definitely should not be gifted the quarterback job. He certainly has not been, no one has not earned that. No, sure. He's not on that level. But yeah. Trade Miles Garrett, tear it down.

And then build around a quarterback of the future. I'm sorry, if the quarterback's not on the roster, it's the thing to do. Well, you just brought back your defensive coordinator. I highly doubt it to trade. Miles Garrett. Time now for first things last. So I have a confession to make. Last Saturday, the day before the Super Bowl, I wasn't watching Jazz Magic.

I know. Do I even love ball? But thanks to the magical powers of the Internet, I was alerted to something truly humiliating for the NBA. Josh Robbins, a beat reporter for the Wizards, tweeted, add this to the tanking files. The Jazz led the magic 9487 going into the fourth quarter tonight. Lowry Markinen and Jaron Jackson Jr. had already combined for 49 points, but they were held out the entire fourth.

Utah lost the game, 120 to 117. It's true. It's not a one-off. It's gross. And unfortunately, at least for the Jazz, because they lose their picked Oklahoma City if it falls outside the top eight, it's smart. There are anti-tanking rules on the books,

but they are meaningless. The league finds the Mavericks a whopping 750K for egregious tanking in 2023, but they didn't take away their draft pick. So ultimately, for a team valued at north of $5 billion, who cares? The Jazz haven't played Jaron Jackson Jr. a single minute in the fourth quarter since he arrived in Utah at the deadline. The jazz strategy seems to be play Jackson and Markin and early to allow them to gain chemistry, then play backups in the fourth quarter in the hopes of losing games.

Here's their head coach Will Hardy being asked if he considered putting his best players back into the game the next time out. How close were you? That wasn't. All right then. Now, I like Will Hardy. We talked to him for our basketball book, Pipeline of the Pros, available now. But this spits in the face of competition. And given that the lottery odds have been flattened, it's not even a huge mathematical advantage anymore.

And it's not just the jazz. Remember, it was a Wizards reporter who pointed this out. The same Wizards who traded for Trey Young and Anthem. Anthony Davis, and they say they'll play this year at some point, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The NBA is reportedly considering further rules changes to prevent this abomination, like prohibiting teams from picking in the top four multiple years in a row and changing rules on picks protections and trades, which are both good ideas, and they should go further. But here's the truth. Shame should be a deterrent. When I was still wearing sweatpants to school in the fourth grade,

a little bullying got me to change my ways. The league should be mocked for allowing This is anti-sport. It is anti-competition. Adam Silver will face the media this weekend, ahead of the NBA All-Star game, and he needs to be aggressively confronted with this embarrassment because he alone has the power to do something about it. There are a lot of issues facing the league, but none more paramount than teams feeling like there are no real

consequences to flaunting the anti-tanking rules that already exist. I mean, it's no big deal. It's only the integrity of the league that's at stake. That's all I've got. Thank you so much for being with us. for being with us on the OT. Be sure you tune in tomorrow to coverage live from Daytona.