First Things First - Maxx Crosby deal cancelled, Ravens sign Trey Hendrickson, Bam Adebayo scores 83, Danny’s Tiers

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

(0:00) Ravens sign Trey Hendrickson, Bam Adebayo scores 83 (28:18) Ravens backed out of Maxx Crosby deal due to medical concerns  (43:10) Brou’s MVP Ballot (48:04) Danny’s Tiers (01:07:51) Hendrickson better than Crosby for the Ravens? (01:21:12) Will the USA advance in the WBC? (01:23:05) Packed Stats, Mistake for Cowboys not to be interested in Maxx Crosby? (01:45:14) Who should trade for Maxx Crosby?  (01:57:26) USA loses to Italy, Okay with how Bam Adebayo scored 83 points? (02:05:08) Trey Hendrickson a good signing for the Ravens? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York. It's a show that's been on a bit of a roller coaster with this Max Crosby, Trey Hendrickson News, and there are the trumpets. Where's our guy? This was our year. This was finally. I never like how you used the injured arm to help yourself up.

Wow. This was gonna be it. I know. It's a little challenging. It's a little challenging. There we go. Okay, I feel like it's every three weeks I ask you this. Well, let me ask you.

You guys heard the news? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw the news. We got Trey Hendrickson! Yeah, baby! You know what? What? The box? Already?

Yeah, I want the box. What? Y'all thought Brew was going to be sad up in here with those beat-up glasses on, but no, I am ready, baby. Get all this stuff. Get all this mess off. This is going to be for Ravens' opponents. We got Trey Hendrickson, the Sack King of Cincinnati, coming to Baltimore to wreak havoc on his old team. My neck is fine.

I think that's fine. I don't know how to get this thing off. I don't know how to do it. I'm good. You got your draft picks? Little help, little help. I'm ready. Yeah, we got Trey Hendrickton and the draft picks.

And some money. Which they're going to use smartly. Brew is back and obviously so are the raven. This is fantastic. First hour of first things first today. Max is back on the Raiders. Trey's in Baltimore. Brew is enthusiastic.

What does this mean for really the entire NFL? Meanwhile, Team USA on the brink of elimination. Bad luck, or did we actually not pay attention to the rules of the tournament? A lot of evidence. The manager just says, yeah, sorry about that one. I thought we were through. And finally, a special edition of free agency tiers where Danny took a hold of the committee. That's right.

Alongside Crispy started feeling great. I'm Kevin Wilde. How was the meeting last night? Well, you know, I used to be a member of the committee, and then I was kicked off the committee. I think Nick revealed that at one point, maybe on a digital exclusive or something. So it was nice to get back, see my old committee acquaintances,

and stay up late and watch the NBA and, you know, grinds and tears. We also have BAM's 83-point game, obviously coming up in 10 minutes. A lot of strong opinions on that one. Bam, I'm with you, man. All the way? Congratulations. We'll discuss in eight minutes. We'll discuss.

Start in Baltimore, a sack shuffle. Crosby out. Ravens void the deal. They get their picks back. Max is back on the Raiders for now. In his place, Tray Day. The show's favorite free agent coming over from the Bengals.

Brew, it's been a roller coaster. You seem enthusiastic. How happy are you with how this one? whole saga played out because I know it's a little bit of a show, but you were two days. Was that earlier this? Was that this week?

Yeah, that was Monday's open. Yeah, you debut. There's going to be sandwich making all year. The box made a return on Monday. So now Max is gone. It's crazy. Well, look, I wanted Max Crosby. I know

Danny and Nick and all the little analytics guru out there thought, oh, you gave up two first, that's too much. But I will say, I would rather have had this, have worked out the original way. Where they gave up the two first round

picks, they got Max Crosby, because he is one of the few guys in the game that wrecks it. And he does. And that's what they need. And I also thought, well, let me say this, too, he wasn't just this great

pass rusher, or isn't just. He is also a great guy against the run. And that's unusual for a lot of the great edge rushers. He's one of the few that's great in both ways. And I also just thought, and I said, he embodied what Ravens are about, right? Like he, his personality, his tough guy image, the rebel, like all that I thought was perfect for the Ravens.

So I was distraught when it happened or didn't happen. but I thought Trey Hendrickson and keeping the draft picks was a great consolation prize. Trey actually has, now I don't think he's as good as Crosby, but he does have more sacks than Crosby. Not only in the last four years, I think he's got two more of the last four years, and that's only playing seven games last year. But he's got like 14 more over the last six years. So he is a sack machine. he's not as good as versatile with the run and all that stuff. But he's a great consolation prize.

You get to keep the draft picks. Maybe they get an offensive lineman. We know they need some interior offensive lineman. Maybe somebody else on the defensive line, whatever. But again, I would have preferred Matt Max, but I can live with this. I think they're still contenders. Fair. Okay, yeah.

Listen, I have been kept in the dark all day intentionally. I was like, is we're going to be sad? Is he going to be devastated, happy? And I feel like you've come out somewhere like a reasonable middle of you preferred Crosby, good consolation. And they are, they're fourth and fifth in pressures over the last four years. In terms of pure pass rushers, they are similar. Crosby's a better player. Yes.

We put this together just to show it. They are very similar pass rushers. But to your point, Crosby plays all three downs. He's much better against the run. He's a couple of years younger than Hendrickson. and Crosby's a better player. But I told you on Monday that I thought it was too much to give up for a 29-year-old coming off of knee surgery.

And so the fact that you can get a very comparable pass rusher, and whatever the difference is between Hendrickson and Crosby, one of the best drafting teams in the NFL, your Baltimore Ravens, should be able to make up that difference with the 14th pick in this draft. Like, the last time you had the 14th pick, I believe you took Kyle Hamilton. Oh. The best safety in football.

Like if I told you, you got a Kyle Hamilton-esque player and Trey Hendrickson, you would, everybody would take that deal. So I do think this is going to end up being a blessing in disguise for the Ravens. And I know we will talk about it more at length later. But, man, this is kind of dirty pool. How your team got. Do you think if they knew they break a rule? They technically did not break a rule. They technically did not break a rule because the league year opens.

Because reporters did a great job in getting the scoop. You traded for a guy. They didn't break a rule. The league year opens in 52 minutes, so that's when the trade would have officially been consummated, assuming he passed his physical. But you traded for a guy who was on crutches last week. And you're like, I don't love how. the medicals look.

He's not playing football tomorrow. He's not playing football for five or five months. So this idea of like, man, we just, I, I, they have reportedly four doctors look at him, including one for the Cowboys. And reportedly, the Cowboys are still out. Here's a question. So maybe they saw.

Here's a question. Let me, let's say, 24 hours ago. So post-Crosby trade is announced, you know, over the weekend. That is not happening. No, no. At this point, Crosby is a Raven.

Right. Okay. And then let's say Tuesday's lead is Trey Hendrickson's signs with the Patriots. So Trey Hendricks did, do you think they flunk him on his physical? I mean, honestly, I don't know. But I don't. Like if the consolation prize wasn't there. There's reporting out there from Adam Schaefter, who we know is, does a great,

job that they were talking to Hendrickson while they thought they were still going to go through with the Crosby deal. So that maybe, which I was like, oh my gosh, would that have been something? Maybe they were trying to team them up together. I don't know. Look, I think it's fair to have questions. I do think that's fair. Because I have a few.

Yeah, but I don't, I don't, all I know is that they didn't break a rule. They did not break a rule. And that is part of why these leagues maybe needs. to nail down stuff as far as, you know, the timing of all because we know, we know like when free agency begins, all these deals all of a sudden

get done. Teams and players and agents have been talking already. So this is just unfortunately kind of one of the negatives that could happen when the news leaks and then a team changes their mind for whatever reason. So this is from Diana.

It's been made clear by multiple people around the NFL at all. levels that Baltimore had all the information and understood where Max's knee was in terms of his recovery timeline. Many in the league believe Eric DeCasse of the GM and the Ravens ultimately just got cold feet. The other subplot here is they had never traded a first round pick. So that was the big headline. Wow, the Ravens who value first round picks like no other team in their franchise history decide to give up two and maybe that scared them. But look, let's say, I mean, I know we're going to get more indebted.

depth about this in the next plot. But even if they did, maybe they saw somebody at the combine that impressed them. We actually could get him at 14. You know what? And I wouldn't

recommend doing it this way. But again, you have up until what is it, 4 o'clock today? I kind of love it. I'm just saying I wouldn't recommend doing business that way, but you're have time.

If the league don't like it, change the rules. Yeah, it's like the scene in Billy Madison. Business ethics. I'm not sure about the ethics of it, but they, they operated in self-interest. Maybe. I mean, we don't know that for sure. They may have just seen the, not like.

That's on the board. Everything is on the op and off is on the board. Oh, he may be fine this year or later this year, but long term, that need's not going to hold him. That's some of the talk out there as well. I've got to interrupt you before we move on to Bam. Friend of the show and former Patriot, Jalen Hawkins, who we had on. Yeah.

Has signed with the Baltimore Ravens. Breaking news. It just keeps getting better. I already got the box. I love Jalen Hawkins and he was great. I wanted him back on the pageants, but I'm happy that he still. I have a little something to do with that. That's awesome for it.

Head to the NBA. BAM scored 83 against the Wizards, surpassing Kobe, and only second to wilt all time. He made 36 free throws against the Wizards. The heat were following late to get extra possession through, purposely missing free throws. Spow challenging calls up 25. Here's BAM on the accomplishment. Came into this league as a defender and a lot of threat. And, you know, I really got emotional.

It didn't hit me until, like, I hugged her. and then I hug my mom. It's a pretty emotional moment. Like I said, I wish I could relive it twice. So this is a special moment. It's a will, me, than Kobe, which sounds crazy. Yeah, it does. How will you remember this performance?

Well, maybe it's just because I'm in a good mood today. I'm not going to rain on Bam, out of Bayo's parade. Like all these other people and maybe across the table. I will remember this as, the defining moment of a very good player's career. He is not, he is kind of a perennial all-star, but you know, he's not that superstar level. But this will make us remember him for decades, all right?

And us all the haters out there, he did legitimately drop 31 points in the first quarter. 10 for 16, was on 4. fire, five fade from three. Yep. He did legitimately drop 43 at the half. That's when I took, I wasn't even watching this guy. I was watching the Spurs, Celtics, and when I saw he have 43 at the half, I said,

okay, let me put this on as well. And he did legitimately put 62 up in the first three quarters. And they were up 16. I don't think anyone has an issue with the first three quarters. Okay, keep going. Look, is it his fault? If I'm telling you, and I think this goes for all the guys that have gotten close. and then come out.

If I'm getting that close, I'm going for it. And I salute Spostra and the teammates for having him, like having that mentality of, man, let's go for it. And I think what people are upset about, it's not his fault they were filing it.

Now, I will say, a few of the calls were kind of, you know, not really that really fouls, I think. But that's not on him. That's on the referees. If you want to get mad at them, fine. And we know the referees and Eric Spolster and the Wizards were not all in cahoots to get bam out of bio, 803 points.

So maybe the officials can be taking the task for a few of those calls. The Wizards, though, at times they were doubling, triple teaming him to get the ball out of his hands. And then fouls were called, some legit, some real touchy. But I think what everybody's upset about is that it was Kobe. 81. And obviously with Spolstra, like he was, that was the target because he took him out right after he hit the free throws and passed 81. I think Spolster should have left him. Maybe if he leaves him in, it was only a minute 16 left.

Leaves him in. Does he get 87 the way things were going? Can he get to 90? Whatever. Maybe then people wouldn't be like, oh, he went right after. That's interesting. And obviously, we understand why people are upset about Kobe. wilt not just.

Yeah, I mean, Kobe it wasn't even the record, but it looked like they were targeting that. But look, I love seeing history. I'll throw this. I'll give you this, Danny.

Well, first, no, let me say this, because I don't know where you're going to go. But Wilk Chamberlain's 100-point game, that was kind of funky too. All right? The other team was filing

Wilk personally because they thought, well, we'd rather him shoot free throws, which he'll miss because he wasn't a great free throw shooter. He was making them that night though. that he made them. Right. Rather than get a two-point shot.

And his teammates were filing the opponents, the Knicks, that night, to get the ball back to get Will the 100. So, but I'll say it's probably the most, the least impressive of the ultra-high scoring games because Kobe only took 20 free throws. He took an NBA record 43 last night. But he hit 36, career 73% foul shooter, hits 84% last night. So I'm going to congratulate, bang. and good on him. I agree with a lot of what you said. There are a few key points of disagreement that I'll get to.

But I, too, he's got an incredible backstory. He's an all-star. He's a gold medalist. He's a great defensive player. He's only averaged over 20 a game once in his career. And so he idolized Kobe Bryant. So, like, it is a cool, personal accomplishment. Yes.

But how will I remember it? Like, sometimes you remember the record and sometimes you remember how the player gets the record. And I think, Brew, you and a lot of other sports writers, I just Googled Bam out of bio this morning. I just Googled it. And this was a sampling. These were three of the five top headlines that came up.

Celebrate it, don't debate it. Stop complaining about it. Of course he was chasing stats, but it's just fine. Everybody knows who watched it that there was something kind of off about that game. Because it made its way into the group chat for me at halftime when he had the 43. So I'm like, Bam's got 43 at half. It's like, what? Bamma is 43 at half?

And so my wife is out with dinner with friends. I too was watching Wemby against the Celtics, put this game on the second TV. So I watched it. I watched the second half of the game with the vast majority of the second half, including the close. That fourth quarter, he was going for it. But I have no problem with him going for it. And I have no problem with running up the score. But intentionally fouling the other team to get the ball back,

like you're up 146 to 119 with a minute 40, and you're intentionally following. You're intentionally missing free throws at the very end of the game. It's like, A great display of team. It's not that. You remember when David Robinson got when David Robbinson? When David Robinson, when David Robinson is 71 because he wanted the scoring title against Shaq and it was the last game of the season.

And he happened David Thompson and George Gervon years earlier. Right. And Gervin's at the game and he's doing it in front of him. And they're playing the Clippers and it's game 82 and the Clippers pull all their starters in the first quarter. Everyone was just kind of in on David Robinson's going for it. Okay. he got the scoring title, but we don't talk about 71 as an all-time great scoring performance. When Michael Strayhan set the sack record, it's like great season, great player, but how he got the record, little odd.

We remember it. So like, great game, great player, great career. But everybody who watched that game knows that the end of that game wasn't really basketball. And it was a weird way for him to go. It was a five-point game in the fourth quarter when Kobe got 81. Oh, yeah. They were down double digits at half when Kobe got 81. This isn't that. I will give you that. I will give you that.

But here's what I'll say, too. With what we saw, he shot 46%. He was 70 for 22 from 3. He was on fire in the first quarter and then not the rest of the game. somebody might hit 100. I agree. Like if he had been on fire, and if I'm a player,

obviously you never step on the court, even trying to get 100 points, right, or think of that. But if some of these great scores that are hot from three one night, and you have a first quarter like he had. Just go for it. Go for it.

I mean, you know, in the context of the game, the win in the game is the most important. Yeah. But go for it because. Tell that's one third of the league. Again, if he was hot, then he could have come close to 100. But you need the free throws. You need to score with the, you need to put points up on the board.

Only 20 free throw attempts, 18 of 20. That's why Kobe didn't hit a ton of threes either. Seven for 13 from three. Yeah, Kobe took three more shots than Bam, but Bam took the most free throws in the history of the NBA. Real quick. Dossie, can we just play the EME sound for Brew just to get his quick reaction before we move on to baseball? Because I think a lot of the criticism it felt like it was from. social media but here was Emey when he was informed about the second second record I'll call

silver medal yeah they go back score right yeah first thing you think is how you know because of not because of him but because of the way he plays you know and I saw only made six threes but 40 free throws or something like that tells the story right there and the Washington Wizards yes so is that but does the Wizards part of He was hearing the NBA? I mean, sir, Alex Sar was what? Was he the number one? He was a top pick.

He was a top pick, not number one. Who actually was starting to impress some people with his size and defense and things like that. So, no, I mean, the Wizards are horrible. Yeah. But they are in the NBA. Oddly. And you score 83 points against the NBA team. And what he said about the free throws, I don't think that was insulting because that was, he was getting foul.

So if you want to say to represent. Take task with the referees. Because I think everybody got into it. How about that? Oh, yeah. Wait, you think the referees were thinking, let's get him. No, I think subconsciously you can get wrapped up in the moment and have foul calls up 20 points with two minutes left. Team USA loses to lay 8 6.

Now in danger of being eliminated, which surprised manager Mark Rosa, who thought the team had already advanced. Said guys were dragging before the game brew because, they had celebrated and as an added bonus, switch the lineup around, perhaps because he was under the impression that they were already on to the next round. Take a listen to the USA manager pre and post game. A ton of respect for Italy. It's weird. We want to win this game even though our tickets punched to the quarterfinals because Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow. So this, the way the schedule lines up, this is an important game for us.

Yeah, I misspoke. I was on hot stove for couple buddies today and completely misread misread the calculations. We knew that Mexico is going to play Italy and then running all the numbers if we lost tonight with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs. So I just misspoke.

I don't know if you misspoke or not. So here's the scenario. Italy beats Mexico. Italy wins the pool. USA is the runner up. Okay? So that's plain Jane. Italy wins. If Mexico beats Italy, Mexico advances. And we go to a a tiebreaker, so USA advances if Italy gives up five or more runs and loses.

Still a little confusing. I did have one of those charts that I can refer to during the game. But what was your take on last night's game and our prospects for the future? Well, listen, last night's game is its own entity, because like I said yesterday, anyone who's ever covered baseball knows you can hungover or not, lineup or not, you can lose a baseball game. Right. So that is its own thing. But this is, I mean, it's not a misspeak. I think he misspoke when he said that he misspoke.

Because he was like, I just doesn't want to say I screwed up. Exactly. He didn't. I didn't know it. He blew it. He didn't understand the rules and the tiebreaker scenarios and what it took to get out of pool play. And evidently, no one else on his coaching staff knew it. And no one else on the.

on the roster knew it and no one else involved in USA baseball knew it like that is wild I don't want to listen they'll probably still advance because of the run numbers that they'll probably still advance but

that if you're saying it matters and you're going to try your best and you're going to do everything that you can that can't happen you can't be you can't happen I'm not I agree that DeRosa didn't know the rules And you agree with the manager.

I don't know if the, right, that's his job. I'm not trying to give him an out. I don't know if the other people didn't know. Do they know he was on that podcast before the game? Yes, someone should have flagged it. Do they, they may not know. They may have known the rules. Like, because here's the deal.

Whether he, he didn't know clearly, whether all those other people didn't know or not, that did not affect. I don't want to hear this. Oh, he sat play. You know, this is a team full of all stars. Right, Billy. You're playing Goldschmidt against a Ritey when he doesn't hit Riteys as well. Like you're, he's hits, he can hit them well enough.

We play Bobby Witt Jr., Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwerber, Will Smith, you know, Pete Crowe arms. Like, we should, that's good enough to win. And you're absolutely right. Anything can happen in a baseball game. But still, I don't look at this as, oh, he thought. we were already in the quarterfinals, so we sent out the second team. No, that's fair.

We're freaking a team for the All-Stars. All I've been hearing is- But what about the partying thing? I mean, look. That's not great. What about the admitted partying late into the night, clubhouse, sloppy the next day, thought they had already advanced,

throwing the ball all over the field. Listen, I am not like a prude. I'm not against partying. I have no illusions of what professional athletes are going to do here. A news party in the major league ban. But come on. You have to know the rules. There's no, it's the bare minimum.

Not knowing the rules. Hey, look, if you're Italy, do you put your best foot forward tonight? Or do you say, look, the best chance for us to get to the final? I didn't even think about that. Is to get USA out of here. I didn't even think about that. Because they can get smashed as long as Mexico scores more, five or more runs. Right?

Yeah, USA advances if Italy gives up five. Yes. So if Italy gets beat eight to two. No, if they give up the five. Stand by. Stand by. Stand by. No, they have to.

Team USA only advances if Mexico wins. If Mexico scores four or fewer runs. Correct. If Mexico, four to three, USA is out. But if Mexico, if five to five to four, Mexico wins, Italy's eliminated. No, you're right. It's fantastic. I found this on the internet.

I think it's baseball stats. So they have to hold Mexico below five runs. Yes. Five runs. You need it. I saw someone in the stands. I mean, I get why Mark DeRosa was a little confused. No, Bruce, I get why you're confused.

No, he has to know. Mark Dorosa can't be confused. He can't be confused. But we can't, we cannot get eliminated. We cannot get eliminated. After a USA, we cannot win in hockey and losing baseball. You just can't. If we don't win the World Cup, hey, you know what, so be it.

But if we start losing basketball and baseball, no, there's going to be some furniture. Well, that's actually what's starting. No, it cannot happen. It cannot happen. Thank you for the hockey win. We loved it. It's great. It's a great moment.

It's unbelievable. We have to win baseball. Which team should trade for Max Crosby, if anybody? That's next on first things first. Podcasts back to number one in the world. Our YouTube channel is slowly climbing up. We have now overtaken the guys. that make stuff scientists and they test stuff in their kitchen. We are we are now

there in the rear view mirror. It's the Parkins boost. Max Crosby had surgery on his knee Ravens you would think they knew that there's a chance they didn't like what they saw there's a chance they just bailed on the deal you don't know you know I'm not a knee expert. Here's what Cameron Wolf wrote though bro. Consensus opinion I've got from NFL decision makers the Ravens got cold feet and like looking forward, it could impact how other teams work with Baltimore going forward, which I like. Really? Well, you guys are like the new Patriots, just living on the edge.

Greg Jennings is here. Without the playoff wins. That's why Max was perfect. You have any issue. You've really taken a villain turn in the air. Like, no issue with bail fouling, no issue with like flunking a guy on a. This is, this is, look, this is like you like to use. use little metaphors

and allegations, whatever, if I'm right. Similes are great. Let's say three days before a wedding or the day before a wedding. I love this. The bride pulls out. It's messy. It's ugly.

Whether she pulled out because she found out he cheated or because she just was like, I'm not sure if he's the one for me. No matter what, the reasoning, it's ugly. It's messy and you feel for the groom, right? And everything is just this bad

situation. What do I do with the presence? That's what this is. I get my presence back. Destination wedding. That's what this is. I love this thing. It's messy.

I get it. I feel for Crosby. I feel for the Raiders because either they're going to bring him back and he's a bit unhappy maybe or if you trade him, you're not getting too first. He's diminished goods.

at least for the time being. And so I get it, and I get why people are a bit upset. But I don't know. Look, the reporting is all over the place on this, all right? You have four doctors look at it. You had concerns about, okay, he might be good for two years, three years, but long term, maybe not. We're giving up two first round picks.

I think what happened is that they looked at the knee. Maybe they saw a little something that surprised them. gave them a little pause. And I think they probably went back to the Raiders like, let's change this. Instead of two firsts, it's a first and a second or whatever. But I think they probably said, let's offer something a little less.

The Raiders are like, no, we want the two first. That's just my speculation from what I see happening. But at the end of the day, they didn't break a rule. And as far as other teams, and I'm done, as far as other teams, if the Ravens have a player they covet if the Ravens have picks they covet they're going to do business with them maybe the Raiders won't

but other teams will do business with them and somebody maybe even should be happy that the Ravens did this because they may get Max Crosby at a diminished price so I don't think other than the Raiders I don't think other teams are going to be tripping on them yeah I'm coming from the player

side first. Yeah, I got a problem with the way they did it. Yes, within the rules. I totally, I totally get all of that. It is messy. It is ugly. However, when you go after a guy and you say, you know what we want him and we're willing to put this up for him, knowing what he's gone through, knowing he just got done having a surgery, knowing all the information without obviously being able to evaluate the scans and all of that. But you knew he wasn't going to be able to pass a physical. You knew he wasn't going to be able to perform right away. You knew all of this going in and to just backtrack.

I just feel like from a player perspective, it would be completely, I'm talking about a slandering of the player. if a player was ever able to do something like this and be like, no, no, no, no, I don't, I actually don't want to go there. I'm going to fail this physical. And we're starting to speculate, oh, Max Crosby actually failed the physical intentionally because he just didn't want to go there. He wants to go somewhere else.

It would be, we would view it completely differently. Now, I understand it's within the rules. But I truly believe that once they figured out, you know what, we lost. Linderbom, we lost Isaiah likely, like, we kind of need these picks. We can go, we can actually, we can actually go and get this other guy for less and keep the picks and he's going to be motivated. Yeah, let me see those scans again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, this, this, this, this, this doesn't look right, does it? Call back Dr. Danny. Yeah, it's like, Dr. D, exactly, bring Dr. Danny into I just, yes, did they operate within the rules?

I totally get that. It's just unfair. The player's mentality. He's put out a podcast thing, thanking the greater nation, feeling guilty for not providing them with everything, completely shifting his whole posture, his own mindset, like his old family is getting ready to, they're buying purple everything.

Like, this is just not cool. I feel for him. I like I would feel for the groom, but at the end of the day, that bride was like, I'm not sure. I just. I love it. Obviously, none of us know exactly what happened.

Only a very few number of people at this point do, and we'll see if we ever get to a place where there is consensus reporting on this. I would just be so much more willing to buy Baltimore's version of this if they didn't sign Trey Hendrickson. If they didn't, if Trey Hendrickson was a patriot or was a bill or was a cowboy, and they had traded for Crosby, and then they were about to announce the trade and they get them in the facility

and they do the scan and the evaluation and they're like, oh my God, the meniscus is in worse shape than we thought. We have to bail from this deal. And they had no pivot. And they were just like, I guess we're going to just turn to the 14th pick in the draft

to address our pass rush. Then I would buy what Baltimore sell it. But the fact that they were able to immediately, oh, our consolation prize is the best pass rushing free agent who has the same more sacks and the same number of pressures over the last four years and we keep our picks and you didn't mention the matibouque their defensive linemen who they don't the reports are we don't know about his health and his future like were they really going to bring in another defensive lineman with questionable medicals to line up with their defensive tackle

with questionable medicals like cold feet is the occum's razor simplest explanation is the correct one here. But how does Trey, I mean, I hear you, but how does Trey, them signing Trey, change their motive? Like, if I'm... Because they have a pass rush option. That's a

fallback plan. They knew Trey was out there when they agreed to the deal in the first place. They knew they could have gone after Trey. And maybe, I mean, Schaefter says they were already talking to him and all that. But I'm just saying, like, if, let's say, it was above board. And they really did

see something that they were surprised. And I understand why you're saying you doubt it, but let's say they saw something like, oh my gosh, we didn't know it was like that bad. Wouldn't you pivot and say, let's go after the next best thing? I mean, you would do that. So I just don't see how them signing Trey impacts whether it was above board or not. I just, you called it a great, you called it a great consolation prize to lead the show. If the consolation prize wasn't available, my gut.

But call it a hunch. You were speculating around. Call it. Call it. My gut tells me Max Crosby's a raven. If Trey Hendrickson wasn't available. To your analogy, Brew, if the wedding breaks up. And then all of a sudden, the guy looks on his Instagram, like, Colin, do you just get married to somebody else?

Yeah. They're a bunch of being a guy. What in the world? What's been going on this whole time? You guys just Matt? You didn't think that part. What the heck? A guy from Cincinnati named Trey?

But it does. Yeah, okay. What a good. We got to be. I got to think. I got it. I got to come up with something else. All right.

Several teams have contacted the Raiders about Crosby. A lot of questions here. Is the compensation still two first? Are we 100% positive about the knee, whether it's okay or not okay? His agent, you're not going to believe this, Greg, is very confident. He said the, he's quoting the surgeon

of saying that Crosby remains on track to return during the offseason program, and then these are his words. And we'll undoubtedly return as the dominant game wrecker. He has been these past seven seasons. Daniel, we'll start with you because we like to have some Bears talk in the show. We should go after Crosby now. Oh, I'm sorry. Is a team that reportedly was interested in Crosby worth bringing up?

Is a team that had Max Crosby, have Caleb Williams on his podcast, worth bringing up as a play? He was praising Caleb Williams during the season. And if all of that conjecture isn't enough, take it from the youngest guy on the show to be a little bit of a social media detective. Lewis Riddick today posting, yesterday's price is not today's price.

It's Lewis Riddick. Retweeted by Caleb Williams. Today. I don't want Caleb. Caleb Williams, a little smiley face emoji on the NFL's post about Trey Hendrickson going to Baltimore. Caleb Williams, very locked in on this.

So the bears were interested for two firsts, and now all of a sudden, thanks to the Ravens chicanery, today's price is not yesterday's price. Yeah, bargain shopping for Max Crosby, bring him to Chicago. You wouldn't give him up for, you wouldn't give up two first for him now. No, I don't have to now. No, I know. I agree. Well, there's also reporting, right, that the Raiders aren't budging off of that. And we'll see.

But listen, I can be a little. They shouldn't. I can be technical on this. You don't think they should? No, I don't think you can because then you add credence to the fact that there's something wrong. They're not getting two first. I don't think they'll get two firsts either. I don't totally believe that he flunked the –

Listen, I think he might have flunk the physical if the condition was, could he play football tomorrow? He just had knee surgery. He was on crutches last week. They traded for a guy who had knee surgery. He probably knew the knee wasn't looking great right now. But listen, I told you on Monday I thought that two first was too much, but there is a difference between the 14th pick and the 25th pick.

Like, if the Bears wanted to trade. up from 25 to 14, they'd have to give up considerable draft capital to move up that high to get it. So, and this is not just for the show, but I do legitimately believe that my team and your team, if someone is going to trade a first round pick before April's draft, Bears and Patriots are the two most likely teams to do it. Greg, this is why I would be shocked, and I think it is a sign of how good your GM is. If Max Crosby, knock on wood, it doesn't happen. But if he ends up getting hurt, and the different knee.

It's like, well, the one knee, we knew that there's smoke in the air around this knee. And I think that might be unfair. Again, maybe it's totally fair. As a Patriots fan, I'm like, eh, a little too. And I'm not afraid to take injured players. That's interesting. But it's, I don't know. If I was a GM, I wouldn't do it.

I'd be scared off. You'd have to be very confident in your job stature and your medical evaluations. And you'd have to be very confident that there's really nothing wrong. with its medicals and that Baltimore just got scared. Greg? So guys, every single year, there's going to be someone that gets hurt. Let's just say one guy in our league is just going to get hurt. At least one?

At least one. At least one. At least one. And let's just say it might be a knee. Might be a knee. And they have to have surgery. All of what we're hearing, all the ifs and it may not, it possibly couldn't. That applies to everyone.

True. That applies to everyone. Wilde is saying it's more, I think, perception. You're absolutely right. He could get hurt on the other knee and it has nothing to do with this. But if you're offering, like if you're saying it was two, the deal went through, went through with two firsts. And if I'm a GM like, you know what? The price is now one first.

I obviously am saying that something is wrong. So I don't, I don't necessarily think that it would be them saying that something's wrong. wrong, especially how they started to go about their free agency. Like, they started spending money. Yeah. Because it's like, okay, we got this. We're going to have this one off our books. We can start spending money and allocating for these guys.

Quay Walker, Nicole Dean, obviously, Naylor, like, Linderbom. Like, we started spending this money. And so if the Patriots come and they say, oh, you're just in a bad, okay. We're really not going to give you that. We'll give you something different. But we'll take it off your books. You guys are in a bad spot. You're going to start to entertain it.

That's why the Raiders got a bad spot. You're going to, if you're the Raiders, you're going to start to entertain it because you were moving forward, not really accounting for this being back on your books. The Raiders really did get screwed here. They did. They did. You think might be a little awkward with the groom. But I am with Danny.

I think the Bears are going to be a team that's going to be. Hey guys. Oh, they're calling. They should. They're calling. Next up, the best of the world baseball classic, but first take it to listen to the final out. USA versus Italy.

Now the one-two pitch, Judge. Come now. The Kpa! The Kpa of Greg Beissert, the Italy does the story. The Italia batte the States Uniti at World Baseball Classic.

Okay. Wemby had 39 points, 11 rebounds, and a win over the Celtics. We played half the game without Jalen Brown. It was the most fired up I've ever seen him, bro. More on that later. Spurs win, but did Wembe climb Bruce Ballot? And did Jalen fall? Let's find out in today's episode of Bruce Ballot.

Dun, dun dun ta-dan. All right, here we go. Let's get to it. Number five. No, he did not fall. Jalen Brown. Still number five. Now, Lucas,

chasing, Luca. Luca is, I mean, they beat Minnesota last night. They are now the Lakers a half game behind Houston for the third seed. All the hand-wringing, the criticism, some from me of this Lakers

team, they could end up getting in that third spot in the west. But right now, Boston's at number two in the East, has a better record than the Lakers. I'm not going, the last night, look, I thought the referees and Caelin should have kept their cool.

I was so upset when he got ejected. Me too. Because I was like, I mean, I still watched it for the excitement of Wimby and other players. At that point. But it was like, I can't read, you know, what this game means, yeah, as far as who wins or whatever. So, but anyway, I still got him at number five. Number four, Kay Cunningham still holding on. It's been a tough couple of weeks.

They lost four straight. They just won their last game, but they lost four. out of five and Cade has come down to earth. But he's got to do so much for that team. As great as Jalen has been and he has been great, Cade has more on his shoulders carrying this team where there are no other really great offensive players. And he does it defensively as well.

And remember, they were a six seed last year. He's got him with the best record in the East. So Cade's still at number four. Here's where the changes come in. Number three, Nicola Yolkin. Wow, down to three. They are seven and ten since he came back from the knee injury on January 30th. Seven and ten and his numbers have dropped.

In February, he only shot, now look, it's by his standards. But in February, he only shot 46% from the field, which is incredibly low for him, 31% from three, even was only 72% from the free throw line. So not sure what was going on with him, but he wasn't playing as well. and the team obviously was losing. They are only a game ahead of Phoenix, which is the 7th seed. So if they fall into the plan,

now I will say this, if Yokic had never won or never averaged a triple double, which he did a year ago, or if Russell Westbrook even had not averaged a triple double and it was still just Oscar, even as the sixth seed, he might be the MVP. Because we would just be like,

yeah, we would be like, Nobody's done the triple double since Oscar. But he has already done, so I got him at three. And number two, Wimby. Oh, wow. He's moved up. I mean, look, they've won 16 of their last 17. They are 8 and 1 against Detroit, Boston, and OKC,

the top four teams in the league right now as far as seeing him. And, of course, he's just getting it done. Last night, the eight threes, he took three. He took 15. That was a wild watch. Think about that. You're a mathematics guy. Eight out of 15.

Better than 50% for him. You'll take it. Absolutely. The Celtics were okay with it. Like almost like that was usual as well. He is a legitimately good three point shooter. Yes. And I want him down low more.

There was one play he posted up Luca Garza and just turned and like, and you're like, you could do that every possession. Hadam was guarding him sometimes like me. Yeah. So I get it. I want to see him closer to the basket a lot. But he is like, he is a very good. I even think he's better than his 36% three point percentage shows.

And then, of course, at number one, SGA just had the fantastic game against Denver. Remember his second best player, as Danny's noted, Jalen Williams has missed 40 games this year. They still got the best record in the league. But I think Danny, at least the way I'm kind of thinking right now, it may come down to who's that number one seed. the West. If the Spurs pass OKC, it's going to be hard not to give it to Wembe. Listen, which is it, it's your ballot. It's a totally reasonable way to do it. The youth of Wemby, the guys that are out on the Thunder, it's a very, very close case. But obviously, Wemby's defense. It's a good ballot.

NFL tiers and more on the Ravens, Max Crosby and Trey Hendrickson. Show Fave next on first and first. Chargers are top by tears. Not probably won't have a little SGA fatigue. Live from New York, it's a show that's changing the rules of basketball. Yeah, no. That's why decline follows is my, I've been on that for a while. All this because of an 83-4-day, we may never, probably never see again.

That is a coincidence. It is really for largely bedtimes. Oh, the last 20 minutes of a, or last two minutes of the game takes 20 minutes, files this, that. We talked about it brew off air with the game we said game of the year, the Thunder Nuggets game, even the game of the year. Well, that was because of video reviews. Video reviews. Yeah, but all of it.

All of them. I'm going to write some stuff up. Email it. Second hour, first thing first. Today, Max Crosby no longer a Raven. Trey Hendrickson is. Where could we see Max end up for week one? Let's go! Scoreboard watching.

The scenario where Mexico wins, Italy loses, but it's low scoring, and U.S. baseball is done. Unbelievable. Not feeling. This would be a knock rate. Look, I don't think we should have been the heavy favorites.

It's pitching, but know the rules. Japan, the DR. You're not even gonna get us just as stacked as we are. We're not even gonna get a chance to play. Back to the drawing board. Let's get you caught up to speed. Last night while rooting for Pete Crow Armstrong, who then hit two home runs, great call by you.

An elite committee of Chicago based experts, analysts and Justin Herbert Truthers fought in twillard burn the midnight oil to deliver the best segment in all of sports. It's an honor and a privilege. Was Nick and the committee in absentia? Did he? Time zone issues were a little complicated. He had a lot of socky, so his contributions were complicated to say the least.

Time for NFL tears. It is time for NFL tears. I take this responsibility very seriously. We can get right to it. It was debating, eliminating teams right off the bat. But it didn't feel right. So we just began at the bottom with no hope. Wow.

The Jets, the Browns, and the Cardinals. There's a piece here or there on all of these teams that you like, but there is no reasonable way that you could see the Browns and the AFC North, the Jets and the AFC East or the Cardinals in the AFC West, making any real moves at this point. I know you love Gino. I'm just shocked at the shot. You just took a G-no.

Yesterday you defended you. Just I don't think he's better than he was with the Raiders. I still don't think they're going to do anything this year with the Jets. We move up the tier rankings with the soft tank. You don't see the soft tank very often. You love this soft tank. I love the soft tank. I would have gone for the full-blown tank and taken the full $99 million dead cap hit this year

and just lock yourself in to Arch Manning. But all the talent leaving, you've got to coach with job security, hasn't coached the game. You got a GM with job security, hasn't coached the game. You sign Malik Willis, but you're going to have no talent around him. You're going to be plenty bad. And you're bad by design, but at least I can squint and see what they're doing. They're in Miami. Unlike this next grouping of teams, what are we doing?

The Titans, the Colts, and the Steelers. The Steelers are apparently just committed to nine wins, maybe 10. And a first round playoff exit while talking about the seventh trophy. Doesn't make any sense. The Titans, okay, you're hoping on Cam Ward, but in free agency, you brought in five players who had played for either Robert Sala or Brian Dable. Seemed a little excessive. And the Colts, you chose a path. There was a fork in the road moment, and you went down it with Daniel Jones, and then you traded for Soss Garner, and then he got hurt, and now you've paid Alec Pierce, nearly 30.

$30 million a year. Not quite sure what you're doing. I'm not sure if this has ever happened in the history of the tears, but the committee felt the only way to group this next team together was by their division. The NFC South. If you want to say that the Panthers because they made the playoffs and they signed Jalen Phillips as the class of the NFC South, fine. If you want to say that the Bucks with Baker Mayfield should seven, fine. If you want to say that Kevin's the Fansky in Atlanta with Tua, okay.

Maybe you're a Tyler Shook-truther. Three teams in this division went eight and nine. And then there was the saints who were only two wins behind him. They're all the same. They're the NFC style. The next grouping of teams, one NFC, one AFC, sneaky upside for Washington and Vegas. For Washington, it's, can Jane and Daniels just come back and was it all injuries?

Was it just, was it a one-off and he's going to be fine? And the skinny frame and the NFL figuring him out. Is that all nonsense for negative people like me? Or is he going to just pick up where he was as a rookie, which was the best rookie season I'd ever seen? And in Vegas, I can't really believe it. Max Crosby News complicates it a bit. We'll see what they end up doing.

But you like three offensive linemen you have. You like two or three of the weapons that you have. You like your quarterback. You like your coach. Put it all together. Maybe a little bit of sneaky upside in Vegas. This next grouping of teams, committee wasn't sure how the fan bases would feel about these characterizations.

But you've got half a team. The Bengals have an offense, but no defense. The Cowboys also have an offense, but no defense. If we could put an all Texas team together, and we could have the Cowboys offense with the Texans defense, they'd go 20 and O and be the champs. But these teams are very talented at their area of expertise, but ultimately a lower ceiling because of the huge weakness.

that they have on the other side of the ball. This next pair of teams, it's a fun exercise that we do every off season. Who can go worse to first? So you look at the eight teams that finished in last place, and I think there really are only two candidates this year. Because some of the teams that were in last place in their division are just so bad or their division is so good, it's pretty much impossible to see them coming out.

But could the Lions win a very tough NFC North with the talent that they have? on both sides of the ball, their competent coaching and their pedigree? Of course. Could the Giants, if the Eagles have some problems, Jackson Dart hits, neighbors healthy, the additions they made, the upgraded coach. Could the Giants be worse to first? If you're picking a worst to first team, my guess is no NFL analyst anywhere will pick anyone else other than those two teams. The next team stands alone as the best six-win team ever in terms of how we will talk about them. We will talk about this team on pedigree, on AFC championships, on Super Bowls,

and on coaching quarterback reputation. And even if I say, what about the secondary? What about the pass rush? What about wide receiver one? What are you going to do to replace your tackle position? It's still a pretty fair point to be like, do we have Patrick Mahomes in our prime? Is he healthy? Yeah. So they're a hard team to slot based on the roster questions and based on what we saw this year, but all offseason, we're going to talk about them as being way better than a six-win team. This next group was very fun to put together because they could win it or they could miss it. I could legitimately right now see the Niners, Packers, Eagles, and yes, Minnesota Vikings winning it all. Wow. Winning it all. Minnesota? Hey, if you have,

they could have the best defense in football. And if they get Kyler, which I think they're going to get and they get back to being a top 10 offense. They were 9, two years ago with Sam Darnold. They won 14 games. So we're a year removed from them being a 14 win team and their coaching staff is still intact. We know what the Eagles lost, but we know the talent that they still have.

I cannot deny what the Packers looked like when Micah Parsons was healthy and Jordan Love was not turning the ball over. Obviously, an incredibly high ceiling group there. And the Niners, this is a huge if, But if they stay healthy, they are as talented as basically anyone. And the only reason they're out, you can bet them right now 19 to 1 to win the Super Bowl, that's only because they're picked to finish third in their own division.

They'd be the favorite in a couple other divisions in the NFL. And this one shocked me, but there was really only one way to describe this next team as our team. We're a Charger show, boys. We just like Mike McDaniel. You said it. You like Mike McDaniel? What team does he call plays for? We like him.

We like him. But what team does he call plays for? We don't, we need to see Justin Herbert, but do a little solid. Chargers. We're Chargers show. I don't know if it's the greatest strategy with the size of the fan base, but I'm with you, Chargers fans. And in fact, we all are.

Brew likes them, wilds like him, I like him. We'll talk about Nick when he gets back from Japan. They're our team. This next grouping of teams, it pains me, but, you know, a lot of people, a lot of voices in the committee, we've got to be fair. These are regression candidates. My Bears, your Patriots, the Broncos, and the, The Jaguars.

Jaguars seem to be doing it on purpose. Yeah, Jaguars with some of the actual losses. The Broncos with the one score wins. The Bears with the comebacks and the health on the offensive line. And the Patriots because of the schedule difficulty. We are going to talk about all of these teams as contenders, but there will be totally fair cases to make for all of them that these teams are going to regress. As we sit here post-free agency, this team deserve to stand alone.

as the champs. I mean, they expected to lose Kenneth Walker. They expected to lose Kobe Bryant to safety. They expected to lose Rashid Sheet. Everything that's happened to this offseat. They knew they were losing Clint Kubiak when the Super Bowl was happening. Everything that's happened in the champs so far was expected. They're going to bring back the vast majority of their talent.

They're right there. And then at the top, Brew, I hope you don't mind. Ask Bob. It's a three-pack. Oh. of the Rams, bills, and Ravens. The Bills with the DJ Moore Trade, the Ravens with the bad business ethics.

Can't even say it. Can't even say it. I'm so embarrassed for their actions. With Crosby and then pivoting to Trey Hendrickson and the Rams rebuilding their Super Bowl on the fly to try to maximize a 38-year-old MVP quarterback. They are S-Bob. On behalf of the committee, those are the perfect tears.

A rough go. A rough go. Yeah. Uh-oh, what I do? I kind of feel that way, too, a little bit. Always, the titles are great. Very fitting, but I don't see the titles. I see teams.

I see teams, and I see left to right. Oh, you see left to right? I see left to right. And I'm actually going to jump down to half a team. The half a team bar. And I'm going to go right there in the middle with that star, the Dallas Cowboys. And I'm going to move them up. Nice.

Wow. I know we talk about what they haven't done and what they need to do, but they are doing something. It may not be as attractive as Max Crosby and Trey Hendrickson and all the flashy names, but they are doing something and they have done things even prior to ending the season last year to improve that defense that we are calling half a team because we know their offense is awesome. Their offense is great. Great.

But that defense improved. And the numbers support that. Like when Quinn and Williams was added to this defense, they were giving up 140 plus yards on the ground for every opponent that they played. I mean, it was bottom three. Couldn't get off the field on third down. Then you get this big middle run stopper and someone who can get after the passer. And it starts, it drops drastically.

that number of 105 yards for an opponent rushing yards per game, if they were to sustain that for the entire year last year, that would have been top 10, right behind the Chiefs. That would have been top 10. And 40% on third down, they improved. Now, mind you, they add Rashon Gary. They're doing this by committee. I'm starting to see the vision.

Doesn't mean I'm subscribing to the idea of what the vision is, but I kind of see the vision. You get a safety And Jalen Thompson Like from the Cardinals You start to plug in these pieces And you start to figure out Man we got a young DC

And Christian Parker that we really like We're gonna lean into who he is And allow him to orchestrate this defense And see what he can turn this defense into And if they improve Like they improved for those last Eight games This is a team

that we will be talking about not just because of what they're not doing, but because of what they are doing and what they look like as a total team, not a half a team. Talk to me after the draft. They do. I agree with Greg on the titles are top notch. Thank you. And some of them, it looks like the titles are great, but they should be lower.

So I'm just looking at it as where the teams are ranked in terms of the latter or whatever. So while I agree with Greg, point of contention and why I'm really disappointed, Danny, is because I see an ulterior motive. You do? Yeah. You don't, you're trying not to put pressure on the Chargers and really on Justin Herb. You're trying to keep the expectations low because he's your boy and you don't want him falling short of expectations because you talk all this mess about the charge. You're How great Justin Herbert, despite what we see in the playoffs, it's still a top five quarterback. And yet, how many teams are above them?

It looks like eight. Looks like eight teams. Eight? Yeah. And one of them's in their division? So I'm saying the Chargers should move up ahead of the Broncos and the Jaguars. You said the Jaguars are trying to lose, you thought. And you got the Chargers who you love below them.

Here's the deal. I'm trying to steal the charges for me. Is that what's happening? I'm just keeping it real. Wherever it goes, wherever the charges decide to come, it is what it is. If they decide to come over the bruise corner, so be. All right.

But they are getting back Rashon Slater and Joe Alt. Oh my gosh. You talked about Joe Alt like he was the best lineman we've seen in 50 years last season. All right? Those two will be back. Mike McDaniel, the offensive genius. with this cannon arm Justin Herbert, who's better than all the numbers

and his production suggests, according to you. All right? And the defense ain't going to fall. As much as I like Jesse Minter, John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh does not have bad defenses. Not in San Francisco, not with the Chargers. Always a top 10 defense, no matter who his D.C. is. So the Chargers, I think, are the best team in that division.

But apparently, Mr. Charger over there, doesn't see it that way. Unbelievable. What a play. No wonder you support how the Ravens do business. That was dirty, brue. I'm a Herbert guy. You can be a Chargers guy.

Are you? I'm a Herbert guy. You can be a Chargers guy. I'm the Herbert guy. That hurt a little bit. Let that be a lesson. Let that be a lesson. You hear about it a lot.

You hear about in business. You hear it about in your personal life, too. Keep the main thing, the main thing. What's your main thing? Your health? the main thing. Your marriage, keep it the main thing. Don't go looking all over the place. You're upstairs. Oh, let me, let me dig in on what the Panthers are doing for tears last night. Oh, let me dig in on what the bucks are up to. What's Brew doing? Chargers, right at you.

Next thing you know, you've been messing around. Yeah, gone. I'm staggered. Gone. Chargers fans, though, they're going to be sending me forward. I'm just saying, but it was an aggressive. It was an aggressive. Yeah, I agree. I am moving the Texans. I don't even know, way up. Way up. The tiers have a certain logicalness to them. Thank you. Right?

The Seahawks beat the Patriots, they're above the Patriots. The Rams beat the Bears. The Rams are above the Bears. But it gets a little bit of progression. The Texans not only beat the bills, they crushed the bills. Oh, it was close at the end. When you actually look at the analytics grass, it was not close. It was not, it was one of Josh Allen's worst games of all time.

Okay. Courtesy of the Texans. As far as half a team goes, and I'll just, I'll entertain it. If you're going to have half a team, you want half a defensive team, largely because I just saw that team basically win the Super Bowl. JSN is great. Sam Donald's pretty good, but that was a defensive team. That's why I coined defense wins championships and also got rich off of it and covered up my Patriots' losses. Here's their ranks. Second and point. I mean, we know this was a great team.

They went into the Patriots game on a 10-game winning streak, just crushing teams. And then the Drake May threw three touchdowns against defense. All of a sudden, they were no good. All of a sudden, it's like, I don't know, are they better than the Bucks defense? Yes, they were. They didn't make a ton of moves so far. Daniel Hunter, they signed him to a huge deal, which he deserved to re-blankenship coming over from the Eagles is nice. The move I think they need to make, Greg, is that wide receiver because, as you know, I'm a C.J. Stroud guy. For a while, that was a crowded corner.

And all of a sudden, people are like, hey, I'm going to take off. I'm like, I'm still here. Nico's going to be back. I think Tang Del is going to be back. Hopefully I'm rooting for him. But it feels like we need to add someone else to that receiver room. Brandon Ayuk now is a free agent. I don't know if he's interested in playing football anymore.

Stefan going back to Houston, do you draft a guy? But I do think that CJ needs some more weapons there. I know you're a CJ Stroud. Let's say non-believer because he reminded Caleb how to play better football. And all of a sudden, Caleb started playing better football, but it's CJ Stroud's fault. I mean, that and over half of his games have been bad. Those two factors. Get into the playoffs every year.

And no, he's been in the playoffs. He won a playoff game. Yeah. No, beating Joe Flacco at home was impressive. That was an impressive playoff. I'm saying. That was an impressive win. It was.

Beating Joe Flacco and Justin Herbert turned the ball over? Flacco had been cooking. He beat the Brown. He had a late run to get him in the bus. Yes. Okay. Listen, you think that was Brown. That was Joe Flack.

You can have your multiple homes on Tua Island and C.J. Stroud's corner. That's fine. We left your bears alone. Honestly, I did that for Joe Chemist's work. Yeah. Go hard. We left your bears alone. I go hard at the bear.

How was that game? Tomorrow, right here on Fox and FS1. It's the Big East Tournament. I love the Big East Tournament, man. You're going to be there. I'll be there for the semis and the finals. Been going to the Big East tournament since college, and then afterwards it's probably been eight or nine times.

I love it. It really is. That's tomorrow right here on Fox and FS1. You can go. Raven say goodbye to Max Crosby. Hello to Trey Hendrickson. And welcome. Back to their two first round picks, last four seasons, Crosby and Hendrickson, Bruy,

largely comparable. I'd say Max Crosby's obviously a little bit better. Are the Ravens in a better spot now? I would have preferred the original trade went through. You know, we're all assuming, I believe, for the sake of conversation, that Max Crosby is what we've seen, right? Like, he's going to come back as that Max Crosby. I would have him, all right, and give up the two picks. I felt like the Ravens are one of the few teams in the league who could afford to give up two first round picks

because they're obviously, it's win now, no matter what we got to win the Super Bowl this year. So I thought it was worth getting Crosby. And while Trey can give you the sack numbers that Crosby can, Crosby is like a very good run defender too. So he's, you know, he's not just a specialist and a pass rusher. And I just, you know, you got to make the picks hit. And they are a good drafting team. So maybe they'll, hopefully they'll make that 14th pick will be a guy that can help him.

But I would have Crosby. I also felt Greg like he just seems to fit the Ravens personality and what he's about and all of that. But like I said earlier, great consolation prize. I really was despondent when the trade looked like it wasn't going through. And then when they get Trey Hendrickson at a good price for it, it's less than Jalen Phillips got, you know, and obviously less than DeNeil Hunter got much less. And they keep the picks mainly I'm talking about this year's pick, but, you know, next year's too. So hopefully with that 14th pick, they can get an interior offensive lineman or maybe it's a defensive lineman,

but somebody to help them in an area of need. So I'm happy with where they are, but I would, Greg, I think they would have been better off if they had been able to get Crosby. So, again, you guys know how I feel about how it went down. And I, but I can separate the two. This is better for the Ravens. Like this is just, it makes sense. You don't have to pay your pass rusher as much as you were going to have to pay Max Crosby. You retain your picks.

You can now go on that other side of the ball. You lost the center. you lost a backup tight in, you can start to put pieces in front of Lamar Jackson that he needs and outside of Lamar Jackson that he needs if you desire and possibly even add to your defensive line interior because of Madibuque, you mentioned that earlier. So it makes sense for the Ravens how it panned out. I don't like how it happened, but this just, this makes more business sense, which is why I believe they pulled out of that deal.

and said, guys, let's do this. And I think by even waiting a little longer, you probably got a Trey Hendrickson who thought he was going to get more from someone that was sitting there waiting and then that number just continued to dwindle down. And so then now he's like, well, I'll sign for that, whatever that is.

So I think this is better for the Ravens. Yeah, I think they got lucky. I think, and maybe, I know they did it intentionally in terms of the physical and all that, and they had the plan for Hendrickson, you called it a consolation prize, and for that purposes of this, that characterization works. I thought it was an overpay for Crosby. I said that on the front end of the trade, that we had not seen two first-round picks go for a 29-year-old player. We've seen it for quarterbacks, but in terms of non-quarterbacks,

offensive linemen like the Laramie Tonsal deal, the Soss Gardner deal, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons. It had always been 25, 26-year-old guys. This is a 29-year-olds coming off of a knee injury. And the first round pick that you were given up wasn't the 30th pick in the draft. It was 14. For the Ravens, that's a premium pick.

Last time they picked 14th, they took Kyle Hamilton, best safety in football. You have to believe that because of the other holes you have on the team, and if you do believe that Lamar has a long prime left in front of him. Oh, no. What? I don't want to hear a long prime. That's what's that's what.

You're talking non-Sbob language. Yes. What I'm saying, what I'm saying is. It's prudent, but it's hard to make a hype video of like Ravens 2026, the most prudent team in the NFL. We've got a long window and this positions us better to always be in the mix. Okay. Going. Like the Max Crosby deal did feel somewhat reckless.

Yes. But like I'm going. Yeah, I was with it. We're going for it. So this is like Ravens have opened up $70 million in Capspace ahead of the new league year. If they spend that like aggressively right now, love it. But if it's more like, you know, great news. We got a third round pick in 2028.

I just, I would not feel great as a Ravens friend of a Ravens supporter. I'm just friend, too. The Rams, what they did for McDuffie made sense. Yes. They have a 38-year-old quarterback. If you're telling me that Lamar's going to be that guy for the next six years, then trading two first-round picks for another 29-year-old with a knee injury is a record, as opposed to pay Hendrickson for a couple of years, and then hopefully you've done.

hit on these picks and you're ready to pay those guys too. Like this is a blessing in disguise for Baltimore. It's really just two different philosophies. And the Rams, they still moved picks to get guys a few years ago when you felt they felt like Stafford had several years left and they got the Super Bowl. When they got traded for Jalen Ramsey and all that stuff. But the Ravens builds their team through the draft. And I look, I think draft picks are obviously valuable.

I am not trying to understate the importance of draft pitch. However, I do think in all the sports, particularly football and basketball, draft picks also are like they give a front office time because they sell hope. All right, you can, your team might be terrible. But if we got a bunch of picks, we can sell hope. Oh, but we're going to be good because we got all. these picks. And for some teams, it'll work out. But even

for the best teams, we can run down a list of top picks that have not panned out. So that 14th pick it's nice. Again, Constellation Prize, I'm glad they have it with Trey Hendrickson. But I'm under no delusion that they're going to get some

future star with that. They might. And I hope they do. But they also might get a bust. Quick game of hypotheticals. If Lamar Jackson went on his Instagram and said, you know what, I've made a lot of money. I'm going to go to Florida and set up a charity,

and that's going to be like my main thing. This is my last year of football. And you're the GM of the Ravens, and you saw the, you're like, oh, this is, this is, now we're in a Stafford situation. Yeah. Well, we don't know this is it. Do you make this move,

or all of a sudden is Max Crosby's knee look a lot better on those scans? I think, yeah, absolutely. I think you'd go, win for Crosby. You would take, you would take the risk. That's what I don't like. They don't like that they're always, they're always kind of, I don't know, I like teams that go all in, go all in for Lamar. Like the clock is ticking. I like the urgency of the Max Crosby deal. And then it was like cooler heads prevailed. Yeah, a lot of, never traded a first round pick.

Crosby is 29 years old coming off of a knee injury. That's a lot to give up for a player with that risk. It is. You, like that hypothetical, would change things so you mean on the ground. There is the something they may have seen that they gave them pause. He might not be the player that he was. They traded for a guy coming off knee surgery. As for Max Crosby, Diana Rossini says he's back at the Raiders facility. Continuing his rehab.

That's good. He also said he wanted to be out, Greg. Do you think he's on the Raiders week one? I think there's a strong possibility that he is on the Raiders. Because if they're unwilling to move off of what they are trying to acquire for Max Crosby, then there's a very strong possibility that he's going to be retained as a raider. I just, I don't, I love the way Max Crosby is going about it. Like business as usual, I got to rehab my knee, I'm going to the facility,

I got to work with the staff, the trainers, they know my situation. I'm going to be the best like he's not like settling and soaking and exactly moping around like he is going about his offseason the way he should and he needs to I just don't think there's a team

that's going to say you know what we got these two first round picks for you. It doesn't have to be that. It may not have to be that but if they are not going to budge if they hold on to their firm and they stand still and say,

we're not budging off these two first-round picks. Max Crosby will be in a black and silver uniform. He will not be. I will be floored if he plays another game for the Raiders. Even if they don't budge. But they're saying they're not going to budge. You're saying they're going to budge. Yeah, of course.

They're saying we're going to budge on March 11th. They're not going to budge. Because they're trying to save face. They're trying to salvage a horribly awkward situation. Max Crosby was furious at the Raiders at the end of last year because they shut him down for an knee surgery that he was playing through and thought he should have continued to play through, and they shut him down to try to preserve his trade value. Then they traded him away for historic trade value for a 29-year-old player, and then the Ravens backed out of it. You can't unring that bell. He will be there for a while, as my guess,

and then they will release some video of him doing the three cone drill or running around, doing a workout, and a team now post-draft will say, oh my God, we can now get Max Crosby for a future first-round pick instead of a pick in this year's draft. A future first-round pick is interesting. And so to me, this trade now is more likely to happen in like June, July, or August.

then it's likely to happen in the next 48 hours. I'm more with Greg. I think we always sit here and say, oh, he's in the facility now. If the blood was, if the blood was that bad between them, he doesn't have to go there to work out. And look,

they have done some things that look like the future could be bright. And so maybe that will get him a little motivated, it like, look, if the quarterback ends up being good, they made some moves that we could be a better team. I mean, I could see him. Now, I'm saying if they don't budge, I agree. If they decide to drop the price, then I think he'll be traded.

But if they won't budge, look, Lamar demanded a trade from Baltimore. Now he's about to become the highest-paying quarterback. They have to, they've got egg on their face, that they've got taken for a ride and through the most optimistic lens, outfoxed by the Ravens. But Max Crosby's timeline is not Fernando Mendoza's time. Correct.

So I would just, if the Bears are offering a late first round, or later first round pick, future first round pick, is it a one in a three? Like, what do you see it being? Listen, without knowing the medicals, it's impossible to guess. But yeah, if you traded Max Crosby for, if the price yesterday was two ones, and tomorrow it's a one and a three, you make that deal.

Of course. Again, if they drop it, then. Yeah, it's tough. It's just embarrassing. But what is his value next year? Less than that. Like you got. Well, he comes out and has a great year.

But he's a year older. Tomorrow, Brew is out. So Danny Parkins, hostile takeover of all the segments on the show. I'm available. It's the Dudlis. Danny's under duress list. Last time the tagline was, I don't. Now motivational.

Tonight, Mexico versus Italy. Italy defeating the United States yesterday. U.S., some members of the U.S., including the manager, thought that the team was on to the quarterfinals. Not true. Here's the scenario the team USA is facing. USA advances if Italy wins, nice and easy. Or if Mexico scores five or more runs and wins. So a low-scoring Mexico.

win is disaster scenario. We're out for Team USA. So out of our hands. If we're out, what would that mean? I mean, it would just be a, it'd be an embarrassment because of the rule situation yesterday, because of being the favorites, because of only having one at once. Like it would, it would be a real egg on the face moment for Team USA. They'd have to really think about things. And look, Italy is allowing three runs a game in this, tournament. So I'm just, I mean, the games, a lot of them have been high scoring. You would think they're going to get more than five, but Italy's been playing good defense. I don't know how my rooting interests play in this game. I will be rooting for Italy to win. You're rooting for

runs. I'm just rooting for runs. Just reading for high. High scoring game. High scoring. Yeah, I just need a lot. I just need offense. High scoring. Yeah. You read. Mexico wins scoring five or more. High scoring game. Or Italy just to win. Or Italy won. Just I just want to see a bunch of runs. Run scored is good. I don't even know. Uniform's getting cross play. I'm like, that's good for us. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Live from New York, a power-packed edition of First Thames First overtime. Today, what's next for Max Crosby? Is it going to be on the Raiders? Is there a chance we might see him with a star on his helmet? I always like when Jerry Jones says that in the draft. Hey, want to put a star

on the helmet? Heck yeah, but I'm a 48-year-old sports host, you know? Yeah, they're not offering. Meanwhile, does BAM deserve more credit for him? his 83 points. Greg wanted him to score 90. How about a little credit? He's getting plenty of credit. Is he? Greg? Is he? LeBron, Janus, K.D. Yeah, because they know, they know how it is. Yes. Score and how hard it is to accomplish. The analytics guys. But you know, us sitting at this desk, we are like, oh, it was like, whatever. The email was, I thought he may insulted the wizards. He thought he was like, yeah, he did. He did wizards and rest. That's true. No, he wasn't mad at.

I don't think he was killing. How you get the record matters. And finally. He doesn't have. Thank you, Drew. It's the modern scoring record. It's not the record. It's the modern scoring record.

No, you will not find it in any record book. It's the modern scoring record. And finally, are the Ravens actually in a better spot now that they have show favorite Trey Hendrickson, who stamped his ticket to many future segments on this show. I can't. Wait. Oh, let me get you at Trey Henderson. Bruce out here celebrating consolation prizes.

Oh, my goodness. I mean, it's a good. Good with this. We're trying Kevin Wilde. Greg Jennings, who is very pro-Bams, 83. Very pro-Bank. Yeah. And Danny Parkins, who was disgusting.

Tried to meet in the middle there. I tried. You're like, we're all saying it's impressive. No, he did not try. Yeah, he was. It was very far left. Definitely impressive. And the end of it tarnishes it.

Little funky. Greg, will you give little funky? He scored 83. Come on. Cowboys. Traded Micah passed on Max. Crosby. They signed Roshan Gary. He said, all right, we're good there. But hold on.

Max, Max, seems to be available again. He's on the Raiders. Diana Rossini reporting that the Cowboys are not expected to re-engage, bro, should they? Well, look, all three of you guys, and you might be right.

I don't like speaking on something, matter of factly, when I'm not sure. You might be right that this was dirty pool by the Ravens. Or, maybe it was legitimate maybe they really looked at those scans and said i don't like the way that looks let's offer them a lesser package and they offered that to the raiders and the raiders said

no no way and the ravers were like we can't give you two first and the reason i say that is because dr daniel cooper who happens to be the cowboys team doctor who happens to be the knee surgeon who operated on Patrick Mahomes and Malik neighbors also saw the scans. The Cowboys were very interested in Max Crosby. But then Dr. Cooper saw the scans, and now the reports are that the Cowboys have no interest. Max Crosby's available. Cowboys don't want him.

Jerry was saying we're going to spend all this money, but now they don't want him. I'm just putting it out there that it's a possibility that the Ravens just said, no, it looks worse than we thought. And the fact that the Cowboys right now aren't showing interest kind of backs that up. And so if you think that, look, if they can get Max Crosby for a lesser deal than the Ravens offered, then I think they should go ahead and do it. But I didn't see the scans. If you did, if you did see it.

It has to be very blatant. Broken kneecap for me to Even that. I might not. Heal that. Heal that looks a little thin to Dr. Brew over there. Is it a mistake?

Yes, we do not know what the scans look like and we do not know what the Raiders are asking. So we are by definition here we are operating with limited information. I tend to believe, because we're talking hypotheticals here, I tend to believe that when you trade for someone who is coming off of knee surgery, it is very convenient to then be able to be like, I don't really like how he looks today. There's not a football game to be played today. It's not like they looked at his gate and said,

I don't like the way he's moving on those crudges. They looked at the scans. The surgeon said he is correctly progressing where he would expect it to be. The surgeon who actually did the procedure. That's what all surgeons say. You just quoted the doctor. I've seen all these, well, he wasn't a surgeon on that surgery. Every time a player has surgery, what happens?

It's a successful. Not even successful. Sometimes you're even more successful. No one's ever like, guys, you're not going to believe this, but nobody's perfect. I bombed this one. Didn't go well. He's in trouble. It's a rough way.

Off my game. We do that. That'd be unbelievable. We don't know right now because we don't know what the price is and we don't truly know. But I am going to operate under my assumption that, which is supported by a lot of at least reporting, we can say.

A lot of the reporting is the league believes, people in the league believe Ravens got cold feet. They got cold feet. And they saw that they could get Hendrickson. And they said difference between Hendrickson and Crosby can be made up for with the 14th pick and next year's first.

So we're going to walk it back. So if I'm operating under that premise that they are using the medicals as cover and Crosby is and will be fine, then of course Dallas should be interested and New England should be interested and Chicago should be interested. But not at two firsts. But I didn't, I am consistent on this. I thought a 29-year-old who is not a quarterback was not worth two firsts based on league precedent. I said that before any of this came out. I said this to you on Monday when you were celebrating Crosby being a Raven.

So this will drive down the price, which should drive up the interest because you can acquire a player of Max Crosby's talent for less than the Ravens, who in my opinion overpaid for him originally. I'm going to say it's a mistake for Dallas. Really? Yes. The only way I would say it's not a mistake, and this may not be too far-fetched, if Jerry this is a part of his whole plan. Oh, stop. He has a plan now? I mean, you know what?

Hey, Doc, go over there and see if you can salt with this. With this. Oh, oh, what? And then just put it out there. So now he's acting like, can I, my hands weren't good? I mean, I'm just saying. But for me, like, this is a mistake for the Dallas Cowboys to say that they're not going to reengage. Oh, okay.

Like, it, you clearly are trying to improve your pass rush because you're trying to improve your defense. Yeah, Rashon Gary, not enough. That's not enough. You know this. Why do we know this? Because you were one of the teams that were, hey, how much you, we can get you a first round and a potential second round. And there was interest. Now all of a sudden you have no interest.

I don't believe that there is absolutely no interest there. And I don't believe that they're going to just completely disengage. And so it is a mistake for the Dallas Cowboys who are in need of a pass thruster knowing that the price tag is going to come down. down and if he continues to wait, maybe it comes down to the point to where they can engage. Now, I do believe that one of the reasons why they're saying, you know what, we'll probably disengage for now is because they don't have a lot of wiggle room this year. Like they have two first round draft picks. Yes.

They don't pick again until the fourth round. And then that's when all their remaining eight of their draft picks, they have six after the fourth round and then two in the first round. They need those two picks. So if they can push it to a future, as we mentioned earlier, like if they can push it to a future 2027 first round and move it out, move it out, then they better engage because this is a prime position that they are in need of. You got rid of Michael Parsons. Oh, yeah, there was that.

Can you imagine Crosby, Brashon, Gary, Kenny Clark, and Quentin Williams? That's a nice front. Like, that's a nice front. So they should definitely do it. I think they should be engaged at a lower, at a lower price. Yeah, get it down. At a lower price, yeah, but you've got, you've got, you got, you've got two for, yeah, it's a lower price for everybody.

Yeah. There's no question he's available for a lower, right. So they have 12 and 20. Could you get him for just the 20th pick? Like the 20th pick for, the Ravens were about. Maybe a future, I don't know. And then the Raiders have, are picking at 1. one in 20 instead of one in 14.

Yes. That's yes. And then maybe a later pick, you know, add some. A future mid-round pick or something. Listen, I, again, we are dealing with a lack of complete information here. But if I am assuming that Max Crosby is going to recover from this surgery, most do. And if he does, he should still have a couple of years of productivity left. And so if those two ifs we all agree on, there's going to be a market for Macs. Crosby before this season starts.

Well, here's a final thing. This is, we always talk about this when you're stuck in a quagmire of decision making. Yeah, okay. Maybe it's an art of war thing, Sung-Zu. What does your opponent not want you to do? So if it came across Howie Roseman's phone, the Dallas Cowboys have just traded a first-round pick and a future fourth for Max Crosby, I'm Howie Roseman thinking, oh, Oh, no. Right.

I'm Jalen Hertz. Oh, my goodness. So I would do it. Jerry keeps talking about breaking the bank and making moves. This is an opportunity to do it. All right, we're going to move on to your Ravens. The deal for Trey Brew is four years, $112 million. They get their picks back to.

You know what? I'm going to ask Greg this. Okay. How should Ravens fans feel about how this deal went down? Bruce says, you know what? It's dirty pool, but it's the, no rules were broken. I didn't, but it's putting words in your mouth. Can it be dirty pool if no rules are broken?

That's a good question. Once it broke that the deal didn't go through, Ravens fans, I can only imagine, were like, what? Yes. And then the only way you can kind of appease that, satisfy the palate, if you will, is to find out a little later, but we got Trey Hendrickson.

And we got our draft picks back. So naturally there's a level of disappointment because Max Crosby, you alluded to this earlier, he's a three down guy. Like the upside is probably greater with Max Crosby, barring he comes back healthy and he is that guy that we've always known him to be. Trey Hendrickson, he's not a slouch by any measure.

It hurts your divisional opponent. So you take away from a Joe Burrow team that has caused you issues. But he was going to go. He was going to go. He was going to go. But maybe he's got. But now you have him. Now he's highly motivated.

We can settle for that. As a fan, as a Ravens fan, you're like, okay, I can do that. We got our picks back and we got that and we didn't have to pay as much money. Yeah, we're good now. Were you asking how should they feel about the way it happened? You don't like sports karma. That's why I was trying to kick it around to somebody else. When I mentioned sports karma to you.

Bad vibe. It's just Danny said dirty pool. Occam's Razor, simplest explanation, most likely the correct one. They got cold feet, and they knew that they could get Trey Hendrickson. Here's what I'll do. Again, I asked these guys this earlier in the show. I'll ask you, just best guess, we understand that you don't know. know the answer to it. Best guess if Trey Hendrickson had signed with Dallas or New England

or one of the teams that Tampa, one of the teams that was reportedly interested in Trey Hendrickson. They keep Max. Of course they keep Max. They don't have any other word. They don't have another option. Of course. Well, then it's dirty pool. The reason they were comfortable flunking him on the medical. And yes, this hurts them in their leverage negotiation with Hendrickson. They maybe have to pay him a little bit of extra money to be sure that they lock him up. Because they knew they could get Hendrickson, it makes it easier to flunk Crosby on the medicals and say, we will make up the difference between Hendrickson and Crosby with the draft capital. That's fine.

I'm just saying a Ravens fan is going to be like, even if you wanted Max, we're good. You know, they're not worried about the way it went down. They are operating in self-interest, which a lot of people would understand and would do. That's what you need to do. You want to run the AFC like the New England Patriots? You got to live on the edge. Yeah, y'all lived on the edge. You've got to step over it a few times.

I have great news for you. I know you've been thinking about statistics and courses and math. And you're like, one thing I don't want to hear about is analytics, boring and not cool. Well, we recognize the flaw in a segment about analytics. And instead of showing you uncool. stuff, we decided to show you cool stuff. So it's time now for pack stats, aka. Stats are actually cool.

They're the coolest. And sometimes analytics gets a bad rap. I don't even need to do. Often. Often. I don't even need to do the fanciest of analytics. I just let the numbers do the talking. Because you know what else is cool, bro?

Nothing had started off cool. I always think that you what's cool. Thanks for asking. You'll leave me hanging here. What? Tell me what. You know how it's cool? Settling.

Settling. Settling down. It's the coolest. You can't blame the Colts for settling. They had no choice in the mat. Settling. Yeah. You think they're pumped to give this much money to Daniel Jones?

They love Daniel Jones, man. Like through 13 weeks, they were cooking with Daniel Jones. But is 13 weeks the largest sample in the world? It isn't. Do I think the plan was, let's trade two first for Sauce Gardner and then have him rupture his Achilles and then, oh my God, we have to transition tag Daniel Jones

and then negotiated contract off that and give Alapirce nearly $30 million a year? They did it because they had to. This is the reason, though, that they could justify it. They're banking on 13 games being the real deal with Daniel Jones. Your guy. Yeah, and he, and he, he's my guy for a reason.

Like, they saw, they unlocked what couldn't be unlocked in New York. And they were the beneficiary of great quarterback play. So you don't settle for something that you believe in. Like, they, he's coming off an injury. They didn't have to give him this deal. Well, I mean, they had to tag him. Well, they had to tag him, yes. You wanted to, but you don't have to give him the deal.

Like, you give him this deal because we believe. that when you do get back, we're going to get that version and we're going to finish the business that we started out to finish. Didn't he start coming back to Earth? Here we go with those. At the vet. No, it was what came back to Earth was more of your, everyone's take. They can't keep doing this. They can't keep playing this way. They can't keep being this great as an offense. They're operating like the New England Patriots when it was. They were historic. They were historic pace. Yes.

They came back to Earth, but they were still in the upper atmosphere. Yeah, but the reason that number was so high was because of what they had done earlier in the season. I just think they are stuck. Daniel Jones was very impressive. But do you believe that's the Daniel Jones we're going to see for the rest of his cold tenure? I do believe that Daniel Jones is going to be that. Now, do I believe that their offense will look as great? I don't know because I'm not as sold Alec.

as a true number one, I believe he has potential. We don't know what that looks like. They paid him to be that. I know what Daniel Jones is, despite what you guys may believe. I'm on your squad. I know what he is. He's a true believer. Tell us anything else cool. I got something else that's cool.

Excellent. Although I don't think, I'm not even sure I totally buy this one, I'll be honest with you. Wow, tough one. You know what else is cool? Free throws. How did you know? I was just guessing. Free throws.

Let's tell the story of Bamatabio. Oh, this is going to start a fight. of the charity strike. It really is. Percentage of points via the free throw. Highest in a 60-point game since at least 1983, but I can confidently say much longer than that. Our data machine, computer, doesn't go, database, whatever, doesn't go back that far. But now let's put it into context.

He's like, will. Bam, Kobe. 22% of Kobe's 81 came at the line. 28% of Wilts 100 came into the line. 43% of BAM's 83 came at the line. Again, impressive. Happy for BAM. Way to knock down your free throws, BAM.

It's not 84%. The most free throws attempted in the history of the sport, the most free throws made in the history of the sport. Come on now. Getting, look, I don't think it's as impressive as Kobe's 81. And Wilk got 100, so you can't say it's as impressive as that. But getting foul, and I admit, some of them were real touch files. But getting foul is a skill, and hitting free throws is most definitely a skill.

And last night you had a 73% career foul shooter hit 36 of 43. So I give him some credit for that. He made his free throws. The issue becomes like, I made the David Robinson comp earlier. Yeah. Is that an all-time great scoring performance? or did the circumstances of clippers pulling the starters, he's gunning for the scoring record at the beginning of the game,

did it change how you felt about it? That's all I'm saying. The circumstances at which Bam got that number were off. They were such an anomaly, such an outlier to how normal basketball is played. And I think the free throw stat tells the tail of that. I also believe that it's how we view that player. Like David Robinson, we've never looked at David Robinson as a, he's a score.

Like, David Robinson, he's going to get your bucket title. No, no, I understand that. But we do not think of David Robinson as a flat out score. No. Kobe? Yes.

So for Kobe, bam, we don't look at Bam as, he's a flat out score. Can he play? Can he get buckets? Of course. Like, I, can we stop knocking this, please? All the criticisms do to how people feel about Kobe, which is cool.

And we get it. That is cool. That is cool. Can I tell you guys one more thing that's cool? Yes, please. The long ball. Fear not about Team USA. Don't panic.

We need a high scoring game tonight. Only way Team USA is eliminated is if Mexico wins and scores four or fewer runs in nine innings. Well, it's Mexico, Italy. These teams mash. They mash. Okay, good. Are we not in the top four? Is it?

And that's surprising? Wow. That is surprising. So, yeah. So far in pool play, two of the four teams that have the highest OPS on base plus slugging for the uninitiated. Just need to put up as long as this game is five plus runs is fine. It's fine.

So I would prefer that the manager of Team USA and his bench coaches and someone on the roster, I would prefer if one of you knew the rules. But given that that is apparently not an option, just have Mexico and Italy be a high scoring game tonight, and then you can go get them after you get out of pool play. If it's not, I'm going to announce right now, I am throwing all of my support, and with respect to Jared Duran,

great Red Sock, behind the Dominican Republic. Well, that was my pick. You know that. Oh, I forgot about the World War. I didn't need Team USA to be eliminated to pick the DR. But if you want thing to lose to the DR. That's darn it, bro. You're right. I forgot. I'm on back on teams. I'll let you.

I'm back on Team Mexico. You can come over to my son. You can, you can, you can come over to my lane. But what if Mexico wins in a low scoring game? Don't panic. If we're out, I got to go somewhere. But then you'd be rooting for the team that eliminated them. The only way.

We eliminated ourselves, dude. We eliminated ourselves. How big of us? If we don't advance, how big of a loss? You did it to yourself. How big is this? I mean, I think it's pretty big. We've been on a roll between hockey.

We've only won one. of the five. And we're trying this is we sent our squad here. Back in on the O.T. Willie Colon, Greg Jennings, myself hanging out. So you know the news. Max Crosby is back with the Raiders, the Ravens. Hell of a consolation prize. Pivoting to Trey Hendrickson. And we actually have a small update on the story. Because Eric Acosta, the man who executed the original trade and the signing, GM of the Ravens, spoke. We said, I understand how people from afar might feel like we got cold feet, but nobody is more upset about this than me. Gutted by it, actually.

Regret, big regret for me. But we will move on. It's challenging. It's devastating for me to have this conversation and probably hardest for Max more than anybody else. But I've got a responsibility to the Ravens, this community, to our fans, and to Steve Beshotti to do what's best for the club, end quote. I mean, listen, guys, he was so gutted by it. it that he turned around and signed Trey Hendrickson immediately.

Willie, obviously your reaction but also chances the Ravens regret how this all went down. I think they will regret it. I just, I don't understand it. I mean, you saw, you paid a premium for a 31-year-old pass rusher who was limited to seven games who

just got out the surgery table with core, with core surgery. Yeah, now you're talking about the injured pass rusher in Trey Hendrickson. Right, yeah, yeah. So for me, I'm saying, I'm trying to understand what was the play. And I think part of it is because when he looked at this Ross,

he goes, I lose likely, I lost Lyndonbaum, who they thought they was going to get a hometown discount for. You lose other pieces on this roster. And you look at, oh, I don't have two, I lost two first rounders in the process. This team can't win right now when I'm in prime Lamar Jackson mode. So this was all about him having cold feet. Like sometimes you just got to call a spade of spade.

I think he choked last minute and he realized like, man, I got to salvage it somehow by getting Trey Hendricks. And it just looks messy. It looks ugly and it's confusing. I'm with Willie on this one. Look, Code, him being, him saying that he's gutted by it. Look, you got to say, you got to say whatever you need to say. But to say that you're gutted by it, how can you be gutted by something that you end up getting, filling the void? and retaining what you really didn't want to give up in the first place.

No one ever wants to depart with draft picks and draft capital. And so for me, like, I just, I think it's terrible that Max has to deal with this, but the Ravens got the better end of the deal. At the end of the day, they are going to come out feeling really good because they didn't have to pay premium for Max Crosby. They didn't have to give up draft capital. And you talk about what they needed and the home discounts that they thought that they would get. Every team believes that the guys who left, Linderbaum, likely.

They believe that every guy that they draft, they might consider giving us a discount. So we will have a shot to negotiate. We will have a shot to sit down and go back and forth. Didn't happen. And so now you have to back paddle because you know I got to provide Lamar with something. We lost our center. We lose a key player on our offense. We didn't get great production from our receiving court last year.

Pass catchers in general. You can't give up so much. And then, again, Matabigwe is a big question mark that if he comes back, but he's not the same player or he can't truly perform because he's coming off of injury as well, like you just want to have those draft picks. You talk about the core muscle injury. That's minor.

Like I had that same injury. Trey Hendrickson is going to be fine. Yeah, but so is, so to your point. And Max, I believe Max is going to be fine too. Right, but I also think you hired, you just picked up somebody that was 31. Max Crosby is 29 years old, right? And we're talking about two injuries that we both believe they can overcome. Max Crosby played over 6,000 snaps in his career.

He's a dog. He can fight through pain, right? So my point is, if you're Eric Dacosta, what did you? really get out of this swap? If both in my eyes, you chose the older rather than the younger. I mean, the argument is, and this is coming from somebody who, when the trade happened before any of this nonsense came out, I thought that it was an overpay because of Crosby's age, but the argument is Crosby better than Hendrickson, but you can make up the difference

with the 14th pick in the draft, not even mentioning next year's first. And I get that, and that makes sense. The last time the Ravens had the 14th pick that drafted comments. That goes to my point. This wasn't an injury issue. This was, right. This was you realizing that you don't have a, you don't have a number one receiver. You can't feel like you can win in the league in this conference with Zay Flowers alone.

You lost Isaiah likely. Like, your interior line is depleted. Like you just brought on John Simpson at left guard. You don't have a center. So there's, there's holes on this team that you realize like, man, those two picks are more valuable than what we thought. So if that's the case, say that, right? You can't say it. No, you can not say.

You can't. You can't. I mean, once you agree to the trade, you can't say that even if it's true. So who out here, seriously, who believes it was because of the medical? Listen, I don't. So what do we say it? Well, we don't believe it. So we're not opposed to say what we really believe?

Well, no, we can say it. We can say it. The three of us can say it. And because like, listen, I said it earlier. I said it all day. Occam's Razor. Simplest explanation is probably the correct one. They realized they could get, they could win the Trey Hendricks's sweepstakes.

They used the medical. and the deadline of the trade coming out to pivot out and say we can draft plus Hendrickson and fill the holes there. I'm going to now just play total devil's advocate. If Max Crosby has knee issues and his doesn't have any more productivity going forward, then the Ravens, like this can be a tough 24-hour news cycle for them where they can age well. I mean, the Bears, I remember, they signed Larry Ogon Joby to a contract. And then they said he flunked his physical and it was he's going to be his only like,

huge multi-year payday with the guarantee, flunked him on his physical, and he's only really signed like one-year deal, small deal since, and hasn't been like a super productive player. So they ended. It does happen where you get a guy in there. The issue with this to me is purely the optics.

You know he's not healthy right now. He was on crutches last week. And you knew he had surgery January 7th. And, and I said it to Greg earlier, like, if Hendrickson was a patriot, I believe Crosby would be a Raven. Like, you can back out the Crosby trade because

you have Hendrickson there. That's the reason. If Henderson wasn't there and it was like man, you eat it. You back your investment. All hands on deck. Let's ensure that he's going to be physically ready and better like he was.

And so I understand why Eric DeCosta would not like us connecting those dots. But sorry, buddy. It's inevitable. It feels like a panic. I just don't understand. You chose an older pass rusher. against for a guy who's more of a blue-chip culture changer. Like, I think of Trey Hendrickson as a merchant, a paid assassin.

When you think about Max Crosby and how he's perceived is a culture guy, a guy who rallies other men, a guy who's a closer in the fourth quarter, a guy who, when you need a play to be had, he's a guy you tug on his shoulder past and say, hey, man, we need one. He's that guy. And he's younger. So I just, and you paid premium for me. So I'm just like, do.

make it make sense. Yeah, he backed out. Let's talk about the other angle here, and there's plenty of them. But according to reports, several teams have called the Raiders after this all fell apart. And it was like, all right, what's the price now? What are you guys going to do with Crosby? So it might go down. It might not.

Obviously, the next team will have to do a physical on Crosby. I have my theories on how this is going to go, so I will go last. I don't want to tamper with the jury here. Willie, where do you want to see Crosby week one? I want to see him be a Philadelphia Eagles. Wow. Okay. Philadelphia Eagles need a closer at the position. They need somebody who can

flat out go get the quarterback. If you're Harry Roseman, you got nine draft picks, you got A.J. Brown. The Raiders need a receiver. You need you have a young quarterback coming in the building. I mean, it just feels like if I'm Max Crosby and I want to go to a contender,

which I think the Eagles are, especially in their division, especially with the they have been able to acquire and continue to make. If I'm Max Crosby, I'm saying, hey, man, if I had to choose, if I get axed, send me to Philly, man. I know there's a defense between Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis. You talk about Braun. You talk about Cooper's Eugene and Quentin Mitchell. Like, there's pieces there we can go to battle with with a very good DC and Vic Fangio.

So I would love for him to land with the Eagles. So, wait, wait, are you, I just want to make this clear? Are you saying AJ would be a part of that deal? Yeah, 100%. So no more AJ, we get Max and we kind of swap. We go swap however you work, whatever you want to do. You're bringing Crosby to the Eagles. Where do you think he plays week one?

Week one, I do believe he's going to still be a raider. I believe the Cowboys need to go and get him. Didn't Jerry said he's not doing it? Yeah, they said that, yeah, he says a lot. The reporting today is Dallas is not interested. But again, we don't know. The reporting also is that the Raiders aren't budging off their price, which is multiple firsts.

Correct. All I'll say is, how many months is it between March 11th and September 10th? We got a lot of time. We got a lot of time. They're going to move. They're going to move. And so that is why I can't see him ever playing for the Raiders again. And I know you're saying if he was so mad at them, he wouldn't be in the facility,

unless his agent said, hey, you got to go make it look like, you know, that all is well in order to get there. We'll see. If he is in the facility every day this offseason and training them and he shows up at the OTAs and the mini camps and training camp, oh, wow, I guess this may be as possible. My gut tells me is that this is damage control right now, and the draft will come and go,

and he will be cleared for football activities, and there will be a post on social media from Max Crosby of him doing the three cone drill and maybe a leg press and you don't know what whatever you guys do you athlete i don't know and all of a sudden people would go oh now the price is a future first round pick instead of the 14th pick in the draft or the 25th pick for the bears or the 31st pick for the patriots like the raiders want to get assets that they can align with mendoza's timeline so i but that's why i think they are going to drop the price significantly on

Crosby between now and opening day. I just don't see how you unring this bell if you're the Raiders. Yeah, I believe that they will drop the price. And this is why it's the the reports of Dallas saying we're we're not going to engage any longer. That's today. Okay. That's today. But moving forward, you are going to you're you were interested. You don't all of a sudden become uninterested. I understand that you acquired Roshan Gary. You still don't feel like you're as a pass rushing unit on your defensive line. Why? Because you gave up Micah Parsons.

And you gave up one of the, if not the best, one of the best he's coming up in everybody's conversation as one of the best, either one of the best, either one two or three. So you're trying to find, you're trying to fill that void. And remember, Caleb Williams today retweeted, yesterday's price is not today's price. Bears. Now the one two pitch, judge. Come on that so. The Kappa, the Kpa of Greg Beissert,

the Italy does the story. The Italia bade the States Uniti at World Barysball Classic. The foreign language calls not as enjoyable when they're against your team. Hanging out on the OT, a little Team USA talk, so Judge goes down to swing, an 8-6 win, and now USA will he eliminated

if Mexico wins and scores four or fewer runs in a nine-inning game. You surprised they got upset last night? Surprised they're in this spot? Not really. I mean, Mark DeRosa, the manager of USA came out and said, my boys are dragging. That's because they were partying after the win over Mexico.

And on top of that, he thought, and he spoke, you know, he mistakenly spoke early on TV and said, we're in, right? Until he had the bat track and say, oh, we're not in, but if we win this one, we'll be in. Nevertheless, this thing was all over the place. I mean, Italy jumped out early on them, put the bats to them, and it got ugly fast. So it is what it is.

We had Judge had a chance. He couldn't get it done. Well, I don't ask a lot. I get it. But this is why. I'd like you to know the rules. But this is why America isn't interested. Right.

Like, when you have those flubs, whatever you want to call them, this is why they laugh at this whole situation. It's a terrible look. It's bad. I think they're going to advance. I think they're going to be fine. I think the Mexico Italy game will be. They just need Italy to win.

You thought they were going to beat Italy, too. I know. But now it's out of their hands. Exactly. But it's just... There's too much firepower on Team USA to be in this prediction. Could someone have known the rules? Yes.

Is that too much to ask? Okay. I could have done three hours on this topic today. All right, Bam put up, you know, casual 83 last night. He hit his over. Casual. On the player prop. Second most ever to Will.

And, you know, I guess I've been lumped in as being a hater. I don't really think that's fair, personally. Why are people calling you a hater? All right, I'll tell you why. Jump out there. Let's just have... Let's get to it. Go?

No. Am I good? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. 43 points in the first half. Wildly impressive. 31 and a quarter. Impressive.

Over 60 points through three. Impressive. It was a great night for a great player who was a gold medalist and one of the best defensive players of his generation, who has a very impressive backstory of the things that he's overcome to get to this level. I idolized Kobe Bryant. We root for him. The whole thing. Handled it well with class. respect Bam out of bio in his game and all of that.

All I am saying is, is that when this hit the group chat, that Bam had over 40 at halftime, and I put it on the second screen, and I'm monitoring it as I'm watching Wembe against the Celtics on the first screen, and then it's like, oh, my God, he's got over 60 through 3. And so now I'm focusing more on that game than the Wembe game. And then I put that on the main screen. And so now I am locked in to the fourth quarter of that basketball game.

It was not a basketball game late in the game. I have no problem with running up the score. I have no problem with his teammates trying to get him the record. But when you stop playing basketball and you are intentionally fouling, up 25 in the fourth. As opposed to you're keeping them in game. Which, again, run up the score. This, though, sometimes, like when Michael Strayhan had the season that he had,

it was an incredible season. But when he got the sack record, that's a little weird with how he got it against Farb. And we were took the dive. And we were, right. And we remember with, remember how he got the record instead of the record. And that's all I'm saying about this. Like how he actually got past Kobe's mark is not basketball. Did you?

But hold up. I remember when Russell Westbrook was chasing Oscar Robinson's and Oscar Robinson's season triple double record. Right. Yep. I remember like his team literally every time the ball was up, they were boxing out, running away from the rim and Russell will go up for the ball just to pat his stats. Like, this happens, right? David Robinson for the scoring title.

I referenced that one earlier. You can say Chan Ho Park, he grooved one, the Cal Ripkin Jr. In an All-Star game. Like, I know it happens. Yeah. But it takes some ushering to get this, though. Across the board. Did you, can I ask you this question?

Did you stop watching or did you stay engaged? Oh, no, and I was laughing. I was laughing during that. You stayed engaged. Of course I did. Why did you stay engaged? Because you were... It was compelling.

Why was it compelling? Because the player scored 83 points. Exactly. That's all. And you know what? We all became... We became Heat fans. No, we didn't.

Hell. Yeah, we did. For that moment, for that moment, we were rooting for heat. We were rooting for Bam. We were rooting for the 83. We were vested in it. We didn't care about how it looked any longer. We just knew, man, Ben, about to score 83.

We'd turn in our TVs to it. We wanted to turn it. tune in because we don't get to see things like this happen. And so instead of just picking and prodding at it, I chose to appreciate it. I understand. Bam doesn't get to the free throw line. He got to the free throw line 14 times in the first half. That's well over his average.

But, yes. So he was already trending. It's the most free throw attempts ever. It's the most free throw makes ever. I would just, when I Googled Bam out of bio's name this morning. These were the news stories that came up. This is not selective editing. These were three of the top five.

We can show you the headlines. Just enjoy the moment. Stop complaining. Don't debate it to Merits. Chasing stats, of course he was, and that's just fine. Doth protest too much a little bit. We all know that that was weird. That's all I'm saying.

It was weird. It was weird, but that's all I'm saying. We've seen it. So I'm okay with it. This isn't an outlier. Like we've seen. It's by death of. definition and outlier. He basically doubled up his career high and he set a record for free throw

you're knocking how all I'm saying we all became a heat. Yes I am we've seen team. Thanks Gianna like it is what it is. Thanks Gia. It's a great jacket. Can I ask another question? I'm saying I don't remember how much time we have left. 60 seconds. Okay great. Yes. That's very professional television. A hundred's on the board. All I'm saying is LeBron, KD, Yannis, everyone came out and immediately celebrated this, and it was not basketball at the end. So there's, like, a third of the league is tanking, including Washington. Yeah. So why not just decide tonight, Luca's going for Will and just every play.

Why not? So you're saying this opens the window? Of course it does. That wasn't bad. Kobe took 20 free throws. So it was a five-point game in the fourth quarter. It is different. All I'm saying is that-

But the Raptors were a bad team when they played. play. Sure. And there's plenty of bad teams in the NBA. All I'm saying is if what happened last night is going to be universally celebrated, not a little bit like, well, that was just a little weird. You're going to see some weird things. But you don't go into the game saying, you know what, we're going to go for a hundred today. No, you, you get on a heater and then it's like you get close and then everybody becomes vest. It's like a pitcher about to throw a no hitter. You start intentionally fouling in a 25 point game? I mean, whatever. Whatever it takes, we want them to get it now. We're all vested. That's all I'm saying. I'm a Knicks fan. Just like you tuning in. All right.

Thanks for hanging out with us on the OT. We literally could have just kept the cameras rolling during that. I think there may be some cursing. Who knows? So there's the trade. Now there's the Hendrickson signing. And it's a heck of a consolation prize. So Trey Hendrickson is with the Ravens.

Crosby's back with the Raiders. everyone's wondering what's going to happen next. But Eric Dicosta, GM of the Ravens, kept talking. We could put up the tweet here from Mike Garifolo. So DeCosta says they started the talks with Trey Hendrickson after they lost out on Tyler Linderbaum, convenient. So the plan at one point was to have both Hendrickson and Crosby, ultimately the negotiations with Hendrickson ramped up to being finalized today.

Greg, I'm guessing if we get a one shot here. What? Get it off the chest. Get both of them. You weren't getting both of them. You were not going, Max. and trait. I don't believe that for anything. Like, stop it. You got to say something. I mean, obviously, the world is scratching your head with everything that's transpired. I will sit up here

and say I have a problem with them going, paying, you know, top dollar for 31 year old pass rush who's who's already showing signs of wearing tear. This doesn't make sense to me. But they did it. It is what it is. How many physicals did you fail? Two. It's easy to fail a player on a physical, right? Yeah, because there's one metrics they don't pay attention to, and that's hard. Okay, sure. I love that. But also, like, it's just a pretty convenient way to get out of a trade. But people fail to fight schools across the board and league.

All the time. All the time. There's a guy that walks in your knee, shoulder, he's fine. And they can be dangling in all his body. But they know the caliber of the ballplay. They know the heart. They know he's going to rehab. He's going to show up.

He's going to do. Everything he needs to do to be ready for Sunday. That's what teams sign up for. So if they wanted to pass him, they would have passed. Oh my. They used it to get out of them because they got to get Trey Andrickson. Physical right now.

I'm not taking. That's cool.