First Things First - Micah Parsons asks for a trade, NFL players to make the leap, A.J. Pierzynski joins show

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Watch clips on YouTube! Subscribe to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIRST THINGS FIRST YOUTUBE CHANNEL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (00:00) Micah Parsons requests trade from Cowboys (21:50) NFC candidates to make the leap (33:28) Can Trey Lance become a starter? / Terry McLaurin requests a trade (44:17) More reaction to Micah Parsons wanting out of Dallas / Can Joe Burrow win MVP this season? / Brou's preseason MVP ballot (1:05:31) A.J. Pierzynski joins show (1:14:20) AFC candidates to make the leap (1:22:37) Final thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's the show that is not giving you a Trey Hendrickson update, but we are chock full of Micah Parsons trade demands. It's the first hour, first things first. Huge show. We went from like a chill Friday to all systems go. Today, drastic measures in Dallas, Micah Parsons. What's out? We discuss all the angles here and where he could end up going,

or is this just a bluff? We've got all angles, I'm telling you. Meanwhile, we preview baseball from the Bristol Speedway. AJ Prisinski joins us to talk about one of the most unique baseball games in the history of the sport. And finally, Bruce's list of who's making the leap this year. We've got one list for the AFC, one list for the NFC, and one of the lists might actually get pumped in during the show if something happens with Michael Parsons. Who knows? We don't know.

We can't punt something else? You know, the whole... You pump my list? Half your list. As much as hard as I worked on that list. I was in the room upstairs all night. You were working hard because at. Brindon.

2.15. I was like, does Brew have his list yet? Can I put something on? Coach Manjini in for Nick. A lot of people are like, where's Nick? I don't know at this time. I don't know. I don't know.

But he's not here. But he's doing well. He's not like he's sick or missing. Yeah. Probably good. He's supposed to sit here. Kevin Wilde's Chris Brousard. We are starting right now with the huge news out of Dallas.

Michael wants out. Diana Rossini reported that he was considering a trade demand this morning. We're like, oh, wow, that would be interesting. And this afternoon, he demanded a trade. Micah posting a long explanation on Twitter about his stalled negotiation that in his mind is now over or maybe not. Maybe this is just part of it. I stayed quiet, but again, after repeated shots at myself and all the narratives, I have made a tough decision. I no longer want to play for the Dallas Cowboys.

My trade request has been submitted to Stephen Jones personally. Okay. Brew your reaction to Micah's long post. Bravo. Oh. Because the whole post was really, I mean, he went through coach the past few years of last season reaching out to Jerry trying to renegotiate. Fine.

Okay, you don't want to. I'm fine. He played through it last year. Obviously, he had the injury, but played. And then this year going to Jerry. And the reason I say Bravo is because, according to Micah, and this was the reporting from Diana Rusini

earlier in the day before Micah released his statement, they feel like Jerry tried to negotiate with Micah by himself without his agent being present. And according to the reports in Micah, Jerry feels like he and Micah made a deal. you know, without the agent, you know, being involved. And then, like I said, my agent will reach out to you. And Jerry and Stephen and Dallas has not gotten back to the agent other than Adam,

who he mentioned, you know, not Jerry or Stephen Jones. And so I just think that is incredibly underhanded. Like if this is true, if you are trying to negotiate with a player who obviously doesn't know, even as he might be up to some degree on the rules and the salaries and things like that. That's why a player has an agent because the agent knows the contracts, the rules, all the small, you know, the guarantee. Yeah, all of that. Like, there's no way a player, unless he wants to, like Lamar Jackson did.

I just think that is incredibly underhanded if that's the case. And so I'm glad that Micah has put this on Front Street. Like now, you know, you hear so many players that have gone through this with the Cowboys, particularly older retired guys, just praise Jerry. It always works out. He pays guys. He pays them more than sometimes they should have gotten and stuff like that. But I'm glad Mike will put this out there because, Coach, I feel like I, Jerry has financial security.

The players in many cases don't. Mike is trying to get it. This is his first huge contract. He's trying to get it. and he's trying to get it in a sport where any moment your season or career could end. That's the thing. Michael's earned, he's earned it. He's not getting it.

And while Jerry might think, you know, I'm going to pay him in a month or we'll get it taken care of, if that's what he thinks. That's kind of how I feel about him. The players like on pins and needles. Like, when am I going to get this done? I want to lock this up because I could step up. out there in week one and get hurt. And so I just, I'm glad Michael put this out there. Now, all that said, I still think the Cowboys will work this out.

Maybe this will quicken things. I think it can be worked out. And, but I think now Jerry is going to have to, you know, he's going to start have to acting correctly, in my opinion, to get Micah back on board and he's going to pay, you know, pay him a huge contract. I still think he'll be a. cowboy but I'm glad Micah put this out yeah we saw part of the statement you read the whole statement I assume so do you think that Micah wrote that whole statement no no I mean I think he

derated to yeah yeah the whole statement off and Mike had just put that out there and and I understand that that you want to have the owner negotiate with the agent and I respect that and at the end of the day that's what's going to end up happening but the fact that those two are talking I don't think there's anything wrong with that because the decision maker is Jerry Jones for the club and the decision maker is Micah Parsons for the player. So the agent works for the player. So if those two decision makers over the course of being together are talking about what's important to you, what's important to me, this is where we are, this is where you are, I don't think there's anything wrong with that part of it. Ultimately, the actual contract will be negotiated with the agent.

But the person who has to make the decision is the player. And I've had discussions with players in the past who are holding out, and you have that discussion. At the end of the day, you have to make this decision. You have to do what's right for you, but it's not the agent's decision. And sometimes the agent is working not just for your contract, but for all the future contracts that he hopes he's going to get. Because if he gets you this special deal, then he can go sell that to the other guy. So there's an element of that. The other thing that comes into play with agents is there could be bad blood between Jerry and this agent.

I've been part of organizations where we wouldn't draft guys because of the agent that they had. Because like in baseball, with signability, that it was just going to be too difficult every time you had to deal with the player's agent to get things done. And maybe there's some history there that we don't know about. Now, the difference is that was prior to us drafting them. They're married now. So it's like your in-laws. The in-laws are the in-laws. You have to deal with the agent at that point.

But I can't imagine that he's going to get traded. And this is just, to me, a way to try to hopefully put some public pressure on Jerry to get something done quicker. But he doesn't have many options. The only thing he can do is sit out. The club has his rights. And you know the contract tolls if you sit out, you don't become a free agent. next summer. You used to, it just goes, you have another year of being under contract.

So I agree with you. Like, I actually think it can be wise to talk some. But according to the reports in Micah, they're saying like Jerry feels like they had a deal. Like, I don't know. I wasn't in the talks. But I doubt Micah was like, all right, $39 million a year. You know what I mean?

Something like that. I'll take it. It was probably good cordial conversation. I don't interrupt you, but we've seen a lot of Micah's interviews and we've seen a lot of Micah where he may say something without necessarily looking at the long-term ramifications of what he's saying. And we've done plenty of that through the course of the year. Couldn't you see Micah during a conversation saying, oh, yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, yeah. I could. Yeah. And to the point where Jerry might be thinking, all right, this is what he wants. I've talked to the kid.

I've talked to the player. This is what he wants. It looks like we're, you know, as long as we give X, Y, and Z, we've got a deal. You see, you see Micah in public saying there's nothing done that I, I definitely could see Micah be like, oh, okay, all right, good. That sounds good. But then when the, and then he said, my agent will call you. Then when the agent calls, you should be like, look, I talk to Micah. We agreed to this.

Obviously, the agent will go back and check with Micah. And if Micah's like, no, I didn't, I mean, that's around the ballpark, but we still got work to do. It doesn't seem that difficult if they were close to an agreement. It feels like now there's just budding the personality. I think it was probably just talking. Like Mike was like, yeah, all right, we're good. And he also wanted to two if they were close to an agreement and then the New Deal's came into play,

you know, new deals got signed, which kind of reset the market. Now as the agent said, okay, the comps that we were using before are no longer the cops. Now we want this amount of money, which isn't unfair. You know, that's the danger that you, or that's, That's the risk that you take when you let other contracts hit while you're waiting to sign your player. Diana reporting that the Cowboys have no intention of trading Micah Parsons. So I guess they are viewing this as just a strong negotiating tactic. Still teams around the league are planning to reach out to check on his availability today.

So what is this process like, Coach? Just explaining me what the process is like the team says we don't have an intention to trade him. But if I'm the Bengal, if I'm somebody with Cavs Face, the New England Patriots, I would feel like I would call. So what's that process like? And then are there teams that should be calling in your mind? It's interesting because I was trying to think of what players have said I want to trade during training camp and have actually gotten traded. Because there's not many that jump out at you where someone's been that frustrated, said they want to trade, and then they get traded. you know, one that we found was Deanne Branch.

So Deanne Branch, it's a long time ago, and New England asked for a trade in August, and the Patriots said that you can go ahead and seek a trade. With the assumption, I believe, that he wouldn't have any interest. Well, I was at the Jets. I had an interest, so we reached out and we said, yeah, we'll trade for him. So now once we put the fact that we would make the deal,

and they agreed that they would do a deal, then they had to out of their word. They weren't going to trade with us, so they ended up trading DeAnda Seattle. But there was a little bit of someone had to show up and say, oh, you're offering it? We're in. Right, right. And then, of course, it just got them out of the division. I mean, the Bengals should, if they're willing to pay some money, I'd call them and say, hey, we got a problem.

You got a problem? You want Trey Hendrickson for Micah Parsons? I mean, I agree with, I don't think the Cowboys will trade Micah. but and to your point he has he can and I've said he should not put on the pads until he's got the new contract but at some point that will work against them like if Jerry it'll become a game of chicken I think for Jerry the challenge is if Micah doesn't play week one how like Emmett Smith tested Jerry and won way back 30 years ago but Micah could say I'm you know I'm not starting to season I'm not playing And eventually, I think Jerry would cave because your quarterback's making $60 million. You can't give up on a season when you're paying your quarterback. You're paying your receivers. You know, you got this big money in other places and you want to try to win now.

Well, remember I said that I was wondering if this, because it was a different offseason for the Cowboys, and because they made the Schottenheimer hire, which again, wasn't the flashy hire. And maybe there's a little bit of buyer's remorse on Dax Contract. Maybe there's a little bit of buyer's remorse on Zee's contract when they redid that. He seems really like what he did with CD. This could be one of those things where he's saying, I don't know if I want to commit this type of money long term. And if we're talking about a few million dollars a year,

it sounds weird, but it's really a rounding error at that point. But he could be more dug in than we think because of his approach to this season. So, hey, Dusty, we're trying to kind of pulling reactions as we go in the news breaks. Do we have that Schefter tweet about Khalil Mack as a comp? This is something that Bill Barnwell wrote about when he was looking for comps. He actually wrote this article, I think, on Wednesday he went through a few different guys who could be traded.

Here's a very small, faunted tweet that I actually can't even change from that distance. But a potential trade comp for Micah was 27-year-old Khalil Mack traded from Oakland to the Bears, two firsts, there we go, thank you, Dusty. Two first round picks, a third round pick, and a sixth round pick, and a second round pick, and a conditional fifth. So there's a lot there. And Micah's a year younger. So look, it's a bit of a king's ransom. It's not quite Herschel Walker, which kind of set up the Cowboys dynasty there. But, Brew, if I, if I'm the Bills, if I'm the Ravens, if I'm like, you know what, we keep, hitting our head on the can't beat Patrick Mahom's ceiling, I would put in a call.

I would let people know I put in a call. I would think it's a sign to my organization, tell me if I'm wrong, that like, we're going for it this year. I also think it's does Micah a solid of like, hey, the bills want me. And if I'm Josh Allen, like, wow, we're really going for it this year. I just don't think if you're the Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, you can just run it back and hope you be. Patrick Malhombs again. I think the bills, that makes all the sense in the world. I mean, again, I don't think he's going to get traded.

But certainly if I'm the bills, that's what I'm going for. Because we've seen their defense in the playoffs has been the problem. It hasn't been the offense. 33 points a game and loss in playoff loss. I think they've got under a million dollars in Seller Cap. Yeah. Put it on the card. They'd have to sum out.

There'd be a lot of work to make it happen. 30 second, I believe, in the NFL right now in Seller Cap space. And you'd love to be able to make those moves. But to make, to make. to make the Khalil Mack type trade, was Chicago happy at the end of the day with that trade with how much they gave up? And oftentimes when you give up that King's ransom,

is that one player going to offset the players that you're giving up? And it's not this, this is different than just draft picks. If it's just draft picks, that's one thing. If it's just money, that's another thing. When you trade for a player like this, it's two resources that are going to hamper your club moving forward. so if it doesn't hit as big as you want it to hit, you're stuck with that issue for a long time.

Yeah, again, if they'd have to make it work salary-wise. I love it if I'm Buffalo. Baltimore, obviously, he'd be great. He'd make them better. But again, I feel like their problem is just are they going to perform to play their best game in the playoffs? That's what it comes down. They could have Micah,

and the offense still doesn't perform up to its ability in the playoffs and you lose. So I think Buffalo I'd be more intuitive if I'm the bills than the Ravens. Patriots, I think we still have the most cap space. Hey, dear. Very, we'll give a shout. Here was CD's response. You know, he went through similar drama. He didn't quite ask for a trade.

Never fails, dog. Just pay the man. What you owe him. No need for the extracurricular. And then I believe there's a frown face. I don't know if it's a, oh, you're kind of sad, too. I thought it was perhaps the spiraling eyes. So, brew, this again, oh, and also shaking my head on Instagram.

So that is also added thing. So it feels like this is more of a negotiation tactic and frustration from CD's standpoint and not a real like, you know, goodbye to number 11. It was great playing with you. When I saw the reporting from Diana Rucina this morning about Michael potentially severing. his connection to the team. I felt like this is the Cowboys playing around, you know, creating more drama. When Jerry signs him in a month, it's going to be this huge story.

And I understand that the report, this is coming from Micah side, you know, but I think Micah side is now, I think Micah's serious. Now I do think, in his heart of hearts, he still wants to be a cowboy. But I do think he's serious. Like, I feel disrespected. this is ridiculous. This has gone on for more than a year now. And, you know, you won't, like he said in the comment,

you're criticizing me in the public and all that. But I think, like I said, at the end of the day, I do think it'll get settled. But I think Micah's side is really upset. I think Jerry's side has kind of been business as usual, creating drama. Disrespect is relative. Do you feel disrespected because you're,

you're not the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL? Is that your level of disrespect? No, it's like it because you're... It's like an odd quote that Jerry was just, remember he was like, hey, you know, he did the whole, it was awkward. With the chants, pay Micah? Yeah. He said they chanted louder for CD.

But here, and... He talked about getting hurt, you know. Yeah, missing games. Missed games last year. But this is the danger when you're the owner and the GM is, as a GM, you're saying things that aren't necessarily positive about the player in negotiation. Right. Just like when you buy a house, hey, that, you know, this house has problems with the windows or whatever,

because you're trying to get to a deal that's best for you. And the flip side is promoting all the positives about the player and the comps. But that's part of negotiations, which unfortunately, when you're the owner, it can then also create bad blood. That's why you really want another party to be negotiating so you can kind of keep out of it. Here's what Ed Wurter said. So we're like, all right, if he wants out, you know, probably not showing up. No, he'll be there. Despite his public ridicule of the Cowboys organization and his trade request to the Dallas front office,

I'm told Micah has no intention of leaving training camp and incurring $50,000 in daily fines as mandated by the NFL. It's from Edward. Does that surprise your coach? No, because you can't get that much. money back. And I, he wouldn't have been in camp and he would have left camp and all these guys would have left camp if they hadn't changed the rule to where the club could forgive the fines. These, those are, that's real money and it stacks up very quickly. And I, I wouldn't leave camp if I were him either. There's no, no sense in taking that hit. Even sitting out the season,

24 million he's supposed to get. Like, you, you're not going to get that 24 million back in negotiate, you know, in your next contract. The life of the contract. Yeah, so the rules really do benefit the owners. It's just will the owners go several games without their best player? Can he set out game one like Chris Jones? Could you see that? That was

the first time. He could sit out a few games I think. Yeah, I didn't think that was embarrassing for like the Hunt family. I thought it was a bit of a scene with your star player in the building, like flanked by his agents. I feel like it would be more embarrassing

for Jerry Jones if Micah Parsons was in the stands not suited up. Well, they also have, don't they have the opener against the Eagles? Yes. So it opened the whole.

When the Super Bowl, they're going to lower the Super Bowl banner in the stadium. So it's a look, that's that moment where your biggest, or your rival

in the division is lowering the Super Bowl banner and celebrating their success. And then you've got your star players sitting, you know, in the stands. And then they beat you by 35. I mean, like,

like, it's a great leverage point from Mike. Yeah. Yeah. And I just don't think Jerry can throw this season away. With Dak making 60, with CD making 34, like they,

and Schoenheimer, I agree in the public opinion, the bar has been lowered. Yes. If they just win 10 games, it'll be viewed as a success. But I think for Jerry, with all that money he's paying these players,

I think he wants to win and put his best team out there. Okay, we're going to do some other football news. We will have breaking news when Mike Vrable personally calls the Jones family himself, since the Patriots have so much cab space. Coming up after the break, we've got bruise teams most likely, no, I'm sorry. Players. Players to make the leap in the NFC.

That's next on FS1. It's a heck of the list. Fox Sports Radio on Series 6M. That's a podcast. Podcast. What are we at now? Podcast-wise, Gianni, in the entire world. Moving up, Jesus. Number one.

That's great. And our YouTube channel is, well, where are we at there? Number one. Wow, what a, what a day. We're just flying up the charts. Welcome back to first things first. Nick is out. Coach Manjini is in.

We're 34 days away from the NFL kickoff. Every year there's a group of players take their game to a new level. There's Seekwan making the leap. Dusty, very proud of this. Making the leap. Making the leap. Making the leap. Here's the only problem.

with it. Okay. Because Dusty, with all due respect, it's a great graphic. Yeah. But Sequin was already great. He wasn't accurate. No, he took a leap, but it wasn't like, like, I didn't put people in that were Sequin Barclay's quality.

At least, you know, had had his start to their careers. That's fair. Do you agree with that? I mean, Seekw. I think he's also the, it's the double-onferred. You know what? That's my fault. What happened?

Everybody else was surprised by Saker. That's exactly. I was the fact that you called. I called it. My bad. That's a good point. Okay, so here's Bruce top five candidates of guys in the NFC who are going to make the leap. Are these guarantees?

If they're on my list, they're guarantees. All right. Michael Pinnock's Jr. Love it. Number one. I think coach Atlanta is going to be a surprise. Well, it's just there's no order. These are just five guys.

Fluid. Yeah. Fluid. These were five guys going to make the league. I like coach his poise. He's smart. He's obviously got arm strength. He only started three games last year.

And the stats were phenomenal. He had three touchdowns, three picks. But I thought he played well, liked what I saw for being thrown in there. And the thing is he's got major weapons like Drake London. Kyle Pitts, Jr. At some point, maybe Kyle Pitts Jr. A contract year, so that's good. Yeah, there you go.

He would live up to his promise. And then you got Bejohn Robinson and Almond. Algiers, too, at the running back. So I expect them to challenge Tampa Bay. I think Tampa will win the division, but I think there'll be a surprise challenger to them. His problem through college is staying healthy, and that could be an issue in the pros.

But if he's healthy, I think he'll play well. All right. Also, Rome Adunze. Wow. All right. Now, obviously something else has to happen. The quarterback has to play well for this to happen. But I like him a lot.

I think he's a big target. I think there'll be some ball control stuff in their offense, obviously, with Ben Johnson. And he could play like an Amin, Ross St. Brown role for Chicago. He obviously has all the talent. Last year, didn't do as much, but he'll be more of a target now without Keenan Island there. So I like Roma Dune's day to take a jump. I'm going to stick with the receivers. There's a lot of receivers on here.

Ricky Pearsall. All right. Now, his problem, like Michael Pennick, stay healthy. I mean, just stay healthy, Ricky. And he couldn't look, Joanne Jennings is battling calf injuries. He's a bit upset because he doesn't have a new contract. Brandon Iyuk's going to be out for a while. Pearsall is really talented.

He showed it in his last three games last year. He had 18 catches, 247 yards, and two touchdowns in his last three starts last year. So if he's healthy for 17 games, I see magic between him and Brock Purdy. Love it. All right. Also up there, where is mine? Jameson Williams. I'm sticking with the receivers.

I like him a lot, Coach. He's had, you know, he had the issues with the gambling that delayed his first year, then some injury, second year. This guy, for receivers that caught more than 50 passes last year. year. He led all of them in yards per catch was over 17. I mean, he's a big play receiver and, you know, he's got the speed. He is a deep threat, but I think this year he'll emerge as a little more of a full, well-rounded receiver. So I expect big things for him. And then finally, yes, the other half of the Bears battery, if you will, Caleb Williams. I don't like him as much it's Nick, but I do like him a lot.

I think there'll be some growing pains early, but he's got all the talent in the world. And coach, what I like him to do, we know he can learn from Ben Johnson, but also pick the brain of Joe Thuney, if he already hasn't, but Thuny played with Patrick Mahomes. Like, he is an off-scheduled guy

naturally like Mahomes, so kind of picked Toonny's brain about what Mahomes did, right, wrong, you know, how you learn, as a blocker for a guy like that. What you like to see. Well, yeah.

But I'm just saying. Well, because Brady's different, though, than Caleb. I mean, Caleb is more similar. That's a good point. I get you on that. So, you know, ask him about Brady too. But mainly Mahomes. Like, how did he get that balance between on schedule, off schedule?

So those are five that will make the leap, will make the leap. This is guarantees. We'll make the guarantee. What should be a guarantee to make the leap? Whatever you want to call it. best best to make it. I think it's a great list, Brew. I agree with everybody on that list. I like Pennis coming out. I thought he was going to get the full year. I thought he was actually going to get a couple years before he had to go in. And the fact that he showed enough during

that process for him to actually get the opportunity. And look, that does happen with number one picks. But he's got a real chance to make a jump. I agree with that definitely. I'm going to go a different different direction little little surprising here I'm going with Bryce young love it wow show Dave really? Really? Yes and here's why here's why let's let's pull it up let's pull up what Bryce Young did his last three games of the season okay so he was two and one they average 31 points per game his completion percentage is almost 65 percent his TD to interception ratio was 10 to zero and he had a hundred 111.6 quarterback rating. And in the previous 25 starts, he'd only passed 100 quarterback rating twice.

He hit it in all of his last three games. Now, they've got Chubba Hubbard, who I really like his running back. They added your guy, Rico Dowdle. So now they've got two running backs that are over 1,000 yards and over 4.5 yards per carry. That's really good. They add a first round draft wide receiver in Ted McMillan. They had the number one receiver last year. Xavier Ledgett, Adam Thielen had a great season. The progress that he showed at the end of the year, plus the resources that they put into the team, as much as we love the bake show,

maybe this is something we need to pay a little bit more attention to. Everybody's written them off. There's no expectations. It's not like that division is so locked down by Tampa Bay. of great things, but let's just wait and see whether or not maybe it's maybe things have hit in a different way for him now. I do hope you're right because I think everybody kind of likes Bryce Young. He seems like a great guy.

Obviously, he had a tough rookie year. I just, I'm not convinced at this point. And I don't want to sound like Nick. He feels smaller than even some small quarterbacks. Is that fair? like he really seems small, you know. But he didn't shrink since college. No, no.

Everybody, when he earned the draft slot that he got, he was just as, everybody knew how small he was, and they saw the potential in him. Yeah, I, look, I would love for you to be right, but I got to see it before I believe it's true. I'm going to add one person. I'm surprised you didn't have this guy in your list. Should we take them behind the kernel?

I was surprised. I saw your list and I was like, wow, really missing a star in the making. You know, when this guy came out of college, a lot of people are like, you know, he reminds me of Marvin Harrison. Marvin Harrison Jr., bro. He was on my list. He was on. But you needed somebody.

The Bruce list came in so late. I had already produced. I already done all the research and coach. I was grinding. All 22. So 62 catches last year, tied for 49th. Eh, that's not great. He didn't have the year.

885 yards was tied for 30.30. He had eight touchdowns. He only had one touchdown in the last five weeks. Josh has a bunch of numbers. He was pretty low on reception rate, right? Now you can either blame that on him that he forgot to catch the ball or forgot how to catch the ball or he had very few catchable balls thrown his way.

I trend towards the ladder. That being said, he took a little responsibility himself. Guess what he did? Bryce Young's not getting any bigger. Marvin Harrison Jr. sure is. Here's, on the left was rookie year. On the right was year two. Is that real?

Yeah, that looks, that looks, influences. But it looks like a painting. Looks like cowboy brulming. He bulked up. Moral of the story, he bulked up. The videos they've seen weird and wonderful,

he's making great catches in Arizona. I just can't tell coach if in order for him to make the leap, do I need Kyler to also make the leap? And I don't know if... Look, him getting a little, getting bigger and getting in the weight room and adding that bulk is a positive thing. But I coached, I don't know how many games against his father. And his father was not a big man, but he was so fluid. He was so difficult to deal with both in the short and intermediate, and then, you know, you try to sit on those routes,

and they beat you deep, and it was just a nightmare to deal with. Now he was at Peyton Manning, and his son has a different package, and over time that chemistry between the quarterback and receiver, you hope it's going to improve to the point where the drops last year, or the balls that maybe weren't put in the right place, those are going to be severely reduced because of their familiarity with each other. I'm with you.

I think you'll make the junk. And I think even though he's young, I do think if he truly is as improved as we think, he can help Kyler, Kyler Murray. Like, obviously, this throws have to be somewhere. Malik neighbors got over 1,000 yards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he didn't have, you know, Phil Sims back there.

Brian Thomas Jr. did it with Mac Jones. Well, Matt Jones were throwing him a pillowy balls. Trey Lance prove he's court. That's too far. Is his coach's guy? He went from Nick's guy to coach's too much. QB1. That is a big bar.

Hall of Fame game charges over the Lions. Thanks in part to an impressive performance from 2021, number three overall pick, Trey Lance. Trey goes 13 for 20, two touchdowns. no picks. Here's Harbaugh and Trey post game. Big night for Trey. Just played calm, played cool, collected.

Ran the operation. Thought he threw the ball really well. And yeah, good night for him. He's been playing good. And college, not as much as most guys have coming out of college in terms of starts and games.

And then he gets into pro ball and wins a starting job and then gets hurt. And so he hasn't had a lot of game experience. And that's what we're trying to give him. And he acquitted himself well. And get better every time I touch the field, whether it's practice, walk through, game,

and I feel like I'm in a great spot to continue to grow. My goal was to take a big step in my career. And I want to be a starter one day. That's my goal. I believe it'll happen. I'm just waiting for that opportunity. Okay, coach you called it. Are you buying Lance's the next Cube? next QB to reclaim his career.

Well, this is the best opportunity for him to do it. This is the best situation for him to do it. And what Jim said about his game experience in college, people forget he only started 19 games. He started 19 games. Now, he was 19 and no in the 19 games we started, but then in pro football, he's only started five games. So it's compared to a lot of quarterbacks

to get the opportunity that he got, he's, he's, He's dramatically, like, under experience, comparatively. And now to be in this system, and remember what I talked about with Greg Roman having Colin Kaepernick, who had some similar skill sets in the way that Colin developed, it feels like a really good fit from a scheme perspective, from a coaching perspective. And then you also, whether it's Jim Harbaugh or John Harbaugh, who loves their quarterbacks up more than those guys? So here's a guy that gets drafted through it overall, doesn't go very well, has got to have some confidence issues. And now you've got one of the best hype men you could possibly ask for in Jim Harbaugh telling him, yeah, this is possible. And I imagine it may not happen this year, but he's in the right spot to make it happen.

Yeah, I said yesterday I've kind of given up on him. And I just mean, like right now, he's not on my radar at all. Obviously, the hope in L.A. is he doesn't play a snap this year because Justin Herbert is healthy. But I have not written him off in the future as maybe a guy that one day could be a starter, maybe a franchise quarterback. But you're right. He's only 25. He started 19 games in college.

And remember, that was at the FCS level. It used to be Division I, AA at North Dakota State. So the leap to the pro, not only did he make the leap to the NFL, and we've seen other quarterbacks, to be fair, do that from FCS, but he goes into a situation,

kind of like Ben Simmons said, where they were expected to win. Like he was supposed to be great. He was playing with a team that was ready to win now. So there was a lot of pressure on him and without having the experience. So I do think this is a way he can learn.

He obviously has the athleticism. I thought last, Last night he looked calmer and more poised. I get it he's playing against guys most of whom won't be in the league a month from now. But I thought he did look better last night than he maybe ever did when he was playing those five games with the Niners. And you added that Niners equation, not only did he get drafted third overall, but they traded away a bunch for him. Yeah. So it's the expectation of win.

They trade away a bunch of picks. And then that's hard for anybody to come into and be successful right away. The other thing I like about that the Chargers did is they gave him $2 million. So I'm not saying that's the high end of backups, but that's more than I thought he was going to get to get this opportunity. So he tells you a little bit about their conviction in terms of being able to develop them. All right, let's head to Washington, D.C. Where Scary Terry is putting a scare into the commander's offense by asking for a trade.

The team has stated that they don't want to trade Terry, But Terry's got one year left on a three-year, $68 million deal, and, well, he wants a new one. Jaden Daniels had a breakout year, especially when he was targeting Terry McCornbrough. This is one of your favorite graphics that we debuted a few weeks ago. Oh, yeah. He then lambasted me for it. When he was targeting Terry, completed 66% of his passes, had almost 1,200 yards, 15 touchdowns, only two interceptions with a pass rating of 1-28. Well, Josh took it as a personal affront and decided to make the graphics that you were waiting for.

Here is by target for Jaden. Okay, that puts it in context. 9.2 yards for Terry. Everybody else under seven. 15 and two to Terry. 15 and 8 for everybody else. Pass rating 128 when targeting everybody else a little bit below 92. That sounds like something his agent would show in the end of the goal.

You know what? I actually think it's fair. Like if you want to view me as just Terry McCorre in the vacuum, or am I part of the team success and your star quarterback's success? So your reaction to the trade request? They're not trading him. They can't train him. You don't think so?

No way. No. First of all, as you saw from the graphic, he's clearly your best receiver. We all knew that. Coach, he's also the deep ball. He won the best deep ball receivers in the league. And I think that's where Jaden, he was a great deep ball throw at LSU. last year was fine.

He obviously had some huge moments to Hail Mary and stuff, but he can get better at that, but not without Terry McLaren. So I think that there's no way they're trading him. First of all, how are you going to find a team that's willing to give up whatever you have to give up to get him

and then pay him $34 million what he wants on top of that? Just buy $9.95 if you want to and then get off at Providence. All right, all right. But I just, I think they have no desire. to trade nor should they he's too important to their team and so I I think this is just negotiation Washington's in a little bit different spot than Dallas is in so they go to the NFC championship game they've got the young quarterback they go out this offseason they get

tonsil they get Debo they draft a tackle number one overall they're obviously trying to solidify the offense and the offensive weapons are around jaden so so there's that component of it and I'm sure organizationally where they're frustrated or concerned is Terry's going to be 30 in September. So he's got an older receiver, and typically the older receivers don't get the same amount of money as the younger guys. And again, when you're looking at comps, you can make an argument that Terry deserves the top end, and they can make an argument that older receivers don't necessarily get the top end. To me, this is going to have to be resolved maybe as a patch. as opposed to a long-term deal or this being his final deal,

it's one of those, hey, Will, up $5 million or six, you know, some number where he's happy to play for that number this season knowing that he can go get another bite of the apple next year and be completely free. And that, to me, seems like the best way to solve this short term. And then Washington can move on next year and go find their answer if they want to. Here are the odds for Terry McCloran's next team. So you guys are both right.

The commanders are still number one. Ooh. Number two of the New England Patriots. It would be a smart move if you could get it. We've got money. I mean, I think it comes down to if we just dig through these teams. If you're on the podcast, listening, it goes commanders, Patriots, Raiders, Titans. Interesting.

Charges, Jets, Brown, Steelers, Arizona, and then Seattle. To me, coach, it comes down to our. the Patriots actually trying to make some noise, or are we still kind of in a rebuilding process? If you're sitting on Cappspace and a number one wide receivers open and you've kind of hitched your wagon to Stefan Diggs, who, again, I mean, you're gonna have two over 30 number one wide receivers? Like, yeah, maybe.

You could and it allows you to make more noise than you would if you don't go get it. But again, what do you want to be? a couple years out. And you start signing a bunch of older guys. Older guys get injured a lot more frequently. Their play falls off typically a lot quicker than you'd like them to, and they don't see the end of that deal anyways.

And now you're stuck in a situation where a year or two from now where maybe New England's in a great position to compete, and you don't have the resources that you would have had if you had waited. I know they don't have the money, but again, Buffalo would be a place you'd love to see him. Him and Josh Allen. Yeah. Yeah, he'd love to see him in Kansas City, anywhere that.

Yeah, I just feel, and look, I think Keionn Coleman and Shakir are good, Khalil Shakir, but McClure would be great. I think the Chiefs receiving Corps is good if they're healthy. I think they're set if they're healthy. But I don't know if they're McLaren good. No, yeah. I mean, we'll see what worthy is. You know what project we need to do, maybe during the dark week, is the over-threat.

30 wide receiver, you know, decline more a thing of the past. Well, look at D.Hop. He's not close to what he used to do. I know, but I don't know. DeBonte Adams still putting up numbers, Tyreeka. I don't know. When you look at that pool, it's a mixed bag. And if you want to make the argument and you want to go get the guy, you can go to the owner and say,

hey, look at all these older guys that have really hit and been productive. And then if you don't love the deal and you want to kill. it you can go to the owner and say hey look at all these older guys that weren't very productive it just depends on where you where you sit okay coming up next we're doing uh bruce nfc most to gain oh no uh break a fc breakout stars and mike tomlins take on aaron rogers that we found very interesting live from new york it's the show that saw brew today before the show brew made his weekly appearance on the third floor because we ordered lunch today. So it's great seeing you. But usually you're

a sconsed in your office not moving as you grind. I'm about business. Yeah, I know. A quick. I'm not here. No. Dilly dally or chat with the staff. I didn't get the lunch. Oh, you didn't get them on lunch. Oh, it was a good. Oh, was hot tea. Oh, was wonderful. That's Todd. Second hour, first things first and we're jammed packed today. Uh, bruising reveals his preseason and B.P ballot. Can Joe Burrow make a real appearance? Meanwhile, A.J. Prasinski will break down the Major League Baseball Speedway Classic Reds Braves, 85,000 tickets sold. And here's the crazy part. Tickets still available. Well, the place is huge. It's monstrous. It's going to be a blast. But right now,

we're talking about the breaking news out of Dallas. Micah Parsons said, straight up, I don't want to be here anymore. He has requested a trade. He's posted a long explanation on Twitter, which ended with saying that he has submitted his trade quest to Stephen Jones personally. Here's what else he said. I no longer want to be here. I no longer want to be held to close-door negotiations without my agent present.

I no longer want shots taken at me for getting injured while laying it on the line for the organization. Our fans and my teammates. I no longer want narratives created and spread to the media about me. Brew, your reaction to this part of Micah's. Micah is an emotional guy. I think we all can see that. And he speaks his mind. And so I think that's where this comes from.

But I'm glad he put it out there. Because I do think, and I've said it, I think the Cowboys are going to eventually pay him. I still don't think he gets traded despite his trade request. And I think they know they're going to pay him. them at some point. So they're playing games, but he's serious. He's thinking I can go out here any day, whether there's a practice or a game, get

injured. My season is in jeopardy or maybe my career. Like it could change your entire career, so he wants to lock up his money now. And the reason I'm glad he did it, Coach, is because according to Micah, Jerry Jones had kind of tried to negotiate this with Micah without his agent. I'm fine with them talking, you know, talking, you know, generally about the contract. Of course, I'm sure Michael was like, I want to be here, Jerry, have no doubts about I want to be here. We're going to work it out.

But Jerry thinking that that is it. That means there's a deal. That bothers me. You know, Micah told Jerry, according to him, that my agent is going to call you. Obviously, your agent knows the ends and outs, the small print, all the particulars about a contract that a player generally won't know. So I don't like that Jerry is acting like we had a deal. This is Mike and I talked a while ago and we agreed to something when the agent has been calling and haven't been calling him out. So to me, this makes Jerry look bad to me because this is a player that clearly wanted to be a cowboy.

It clearly is your best player. And you've been playing games with him. And he's really upset. Now, giving him that $200 plus million contract, will make him, he'll be fine. But I'm just saying right now, Micah is in his feelings. So I'm glad he put this out there. Where it says, I no longer want closed door negotiations.

Okay, don't go behind closed doors. You're an adult. Just say, I'm not going to negotiate. I'm not going to have these discussions. It's not like Jerry locked him in a room and said, you can't leave and we're going to negotiate. If you don't want closed door negotiations, then don't negotiate. That's the first part of this.

Do you think he could think he could be like we're just, oh, I see Jerry. Oh, we're talking. You know what I mean? And, Micah, let's talk. You know, and you're just having good, friendly conversation. Maybe it delves into a little contract. We're going to get this done, right? Yeah, we're going to get it done.

Well, I'm just saying, when you list that as one of the things, that implies that there is some force that forced him to be inside that room, you have the ability to say, I'm not going to do this, and they'll respect it. It's not like he can hold you in the room against your will. So that's one component of it. And in terms of negotiating,

we've seen Micah on a lot of his podcast and things. You could see that maybe he would engage in negotiation or maybe say some things that Jerry could interpret as, okay, we have made progress here. I could absolutely see that being the case. This statement was obviously put out by his agent as opposed to Micah. I'm sure Micah had to sign off on it. And this is the problem with some agent organization relationships.

Just like in baseball, you have signability. There's an element of that with football with who the player has representing him and what kind of history has happened between Jerry and this agent. It doesn't seem like there's a very good relationship between those two guys. It's hard to see where the progress is going to be made here short term. On field impact, coach. Let's say we're going to examine where Micah could possibly go in a second. On field impact, you've got a million things going on in training camp.

Does this actually affect training camp and the Cowboys getting ready for their season? Well, what it does affect is Micah, this is a new defense. Matt Iber Fluse has come in. He's the new defensive coordinator. so that that defense is different than what it's been. And there's a learning curve that will definitely improve if you're taking part in practices. Now, the positive is him being in the building,

and I assume he's going to meetings and doing those things, so he's not getting fine for that. At least he's hearing it, and he's being able to see what's taking place and watch the film with the guys. Those things are really positive. From a defensive coordinator perspective, if you're Matt and the defensive staff,

you'd love to see the player in action, not because you haven't seen him play before, but really get a sense of where he best fits in your system and how you can best use him, things like that. Brew, if this trade was more than just a negotiation tactic, who do you want calling the Cowboys right now? Buffalo. And I get it.

They don't have the cap. They have to make a trade, you know, and make it work financially. But look, the bills are obviously S. Bob. I can say the Ravens too. but to me the Ravens, if they have Micah, which obviously makes them much better, their biggest questions still exist, which is will we as a team perform at our best in the biggest moments?

Not just Lamar, but the entire team has not done that. Mark Andrews dropping the pass on and so forth. For Buffalo coach, their biggest question has been, yeah, our defense is really good during the regular season, but in the playoffs, the chiefs have been able to put up 30 plus. points. Last year they scored 32 on Buffalo. It was the only time all year the Chiefs went over 30. And so they, if they added Micah Parsons, I think that really makes them a team you can look at and say, okay, they've solved their biggest problem. Now they could beat the Chiefs.

Coach, you have a favorite team. The challenge here is when you bring a guy like Michael Parsons, you have to pay them. It also depends on how the locker room is set up and what your defensive, not from a a skill perspective, but how is he going to infect the locker room? So he's got the skill set, but he's going to want to be the marquee guy, and you're going to want to move him around, and you may have players in place. And now every day that goes on, he becomes less valuable to the next team because the learning curve becomes greater.

So the fact that we're here in training camp, and we've already played our first preseason game, and this negotiation is still going on, and now we're asking for a trade, it doesn't help anybody. The final question I have with you, coach, I printed out teams just like the worst defenses, right? So Carolina gave up the most points.

I think the Eagles gave up the least. If I was a GM, and I'm Carolina, like, oh, we're the worst, so let's get Micah Parsons to get better. Or is it something like, we're the Eagles, we're the best, so let's get even better. Let's even like sharpen the sword. How should GMs be thinking about this? Yeah, you'd love to if you're the Eagle, Washington, that would be a really interesting place.

But if you're the Cowboys, you don't want to trade within the division. Oh, the Giants do. So now you're going to have to, you're going to have to look at this. And if you put together a trade, where would you want to place him so then you don't have to deal with them frequently too? But yeah, typically if you're close, if you're close, that's where a lot of guys will take a chance thinking this one piece can get us over the hump. similar to what's happening in baseball now, right? The teams that are in the hunt, they're going to get good players.

Detroit. Seattle. Detroit. Yeah. I mean, you got to get over the hump if you're Detroit. If I'm a close team, I'm like, you know what? This doesn't make any sense for us long term. Minnesota, I think, would be interesting defensively.

Minnesota. You could move them around. They struggled defensively last year. It's a creative defense. But are you, but do you consider Minnesota close with J.J. McCarthy? They considered Minnesota close with J.J. McCarthy. And one of the issues they did have was defensively it didn't match up to where they were offensively.

And Mike is still young. No, I know. But if you're going to, if I was going to, if I was like, you know what, this is going to hurt. If the deal was it's a ton of draft picks, it's going to really hamstring us in three years. And it's a gamble. You know. But who's on a shorter time? Well, Minnesota feels like they have just about every position covered.

Defensively is where they've struggled. If J.J. McCarthy is the real deal. You got the receivers. See, if running is okay. What about Miami? And here's, well, here's what happens too is it's not just the GMs that are making this decision. It's owners. Because an owner is going to have to sign off on this.

And if you're an owner like Stephen Ross and you've been close and you're frustrated and you're older and you have a lot of money, you can walk down to the gym's office and say, hey, let's go get that guy. I'm tired of being third in this division. I'm tired of, you know, missing the playoffs or getting knocked out of the playoffs early. It would end our breakdancing segment.

With Micah. The Dolphins wouldn't be breakdancers with Micah. All right. Joe Burrow has traditionally started the season pretty slow, but good news. After throwing for over 4,900 yards last year. He says he feels great, Roe. He does.

Feel great. Body feels good. I think this is the best I'm throwing it in several years. So I'm excited about that. Excited about where our team's at, too. A lot of young guys stepping up, making plays. So very optimistic. Okay.

Sounds good. What are the chances you think, Coach, of Burrow grabbing his first MVP? I think he's got a great chance to grab it. that, I think he has to be close to grabbing it if they're going to achieve anywhere near what they want to achieve. And the fact that they are where they are defensively and they have the holdout that you don't like to talk about happening there defensively, yeah, you've got, you're loaded a wide receiver. Didn't they just sign no offense? So you've added

another weapon to that mix. He's going to have to put up numbers like he put up last year for them to be in the mix. And to me, if they'd won a few more games, I think that's, you're discussion would have been a lot more serious than it was this past year. The numbers are impressive across the board. He should be able to hit that again. And can they get out of their own way at the beginning of the season so that they can be where they want to be at the end of the season? Well, you hit it on ahead, Coach.

I think he's going to have a fantastic season. No question about it. I just don't think they're going to win enough games for him to BDMVP. Like, this is his record in Cincinnati as a start. So this is not taking, you know, the injuries into account and all that. 38, 30, and 1. That's not great. That's the worst than I thought.

Right. Like his three full seasons he's played, they were 10 and 6. That's the year they went to Super Bowl, 12 and 4 and 9 and 8. And the problem generally is the defense. And that obviously looks like it's going to be a problem again this year. So I think he'll have a fantastic year, but I just don't think they'll win enough games. They may not even make the playoffs again. for him to be the MVP.

Well, do you have a list of people you do think would be MVP? It just so happens that I do. I was just doodling around earlier. Fantastic. Oh. While you guys around here. I like this. Eating and shooting the breeze.

I was upstairs working. My door is closed. You had a busy, busy day today. Yes, coach. So here it was Bruce Ballet preseason edition. Yeah, these are in pencil. Yeah, these are in pencil. Jaylo!

Jaylo! Jaylo! What? What? All right. First of all, they've got a great chance to win the division, win a lot of games, 11, 12, 13 games, 12 games. He's got, we know he had a nice receiving core.

Now you have Matthew Golden, who we think could be his number one, finally. You still got Josh Jacobs, who's going to open up the passing game because it's such a good running back. And I think coach J-Lo was banged up last year. All right, he was injured a bit. He played through it, shows him toughness. He's got to have a chip on his shoulder after being a bit disappointing last year. We know he came on late, didn't have the interception.

So definitely Jordan Love, whether Wilds likes it or not. Oh, it's a little high. Five? Yeah. But it's a great. This is why it's not going to win enough. They're going to win enough. At number four, Josh out.

And here's why I got him at four, which might seem a little lower. Yeah. Last year's MVP, he won the MVP, but he didn't put up typical MVP numbers. All right. He got it because they won so many games. We know he didn't have the greatest receiving core, and obviously he was dominant. But coach, and look, he is going to be, I think, a Hall of Famer. And so it was kind of like he needs an MVP at some point.

He's good enough. He's one of the best in the game. And he had a great season individually as far as winning. And he, you know, had some moments. So we gave an MVP. I don't think two years in a row, though, pedestrian numbers or, you know, for an MVP candidate, he had a 93 passer rating. I believe it was 93.

He had 28 touchdowns, six picks. I'm sorry, 101 passer rating. But that's not generally the MVP. And so I just think in Joe Brady's offense coach, he doesn't put up a huge number. Joe Brady's the one that took over and took Stifine Diggs essentially out of the offense. They didn't throw it as much. They started running more, but they win. So unless they go like 16 and 1, 15, and 2, I don't think his numbers are going to be great enough for him to win the MVP.

Fair. So there it is. All right. At number three, Patrick Mahomes. Now, I really hope to see the light show, all right? But I have to be honest, as much as I believe in Mahomes, coach, I'm not 100% sure we're going to see the light show. You coined that phrase, didn't you?

Yes, and Patrick took it and ran with it. Did you do the research? Did you do the research? Yes, you did. Yeah, you did. You were probably disappointed. I'm a little bit, but the only one was good for you. You said a trademarked proof.

I should have. But last year, he was my preseason pick to win in. I was certain we're going to see the light show. Now, I'm about 75% sure because we haven't seen it in two years. Yeah. You know, so everything is there for him, the motivation from losing the Super Bowl being viewed now by some as not the best quarterback in the league. He's got the receivers in place if they're healthy.

So I, in the offensive line, as Nick's been raving about, is improved. I'm very interested in this. I got him a number of, you really? Number two. Jaden Daniels. I think this is coach this might be coached. That was my. That's your, okay. That was your number one.

Look, obviously you got to get Terry McLarence sign, which I feel confident that they will. And he'll be playing. I think as great as Jaden was last year, he has room to improve. He only threw for 210 yards a game. All right. In the playoffs, though, he began throwing the ball more. He threw 28 times a game in the regular season, 38 times a game in the playoffs. and threw for like 274 yards a game in the playoffs.

He only had like a game or two over 300 yards passing. I said earlier, he can throw the deep ball better in the NFL than he did last season. So I expect, and they're saying the reports coach are that he's in there when it's dark. He's the first guy there and I love it. So he's shown everything that makes me think he's not going to have a sophomore slump. So he's number two. feels CJ narrative. C.J.

Esk. Jayton? Yeah, because last year. Did you have CJ as the MVP? I did. I'm a little gunshot this year. Spectacular rookie year. Playoff success.

Certainly everything is going to break the same way and maybe even better. And we were kind of snake a bit in there. But they, unlike Houston, they improved their offensive line. They went out and got Houston's got Laramie Thompson. So I think they're all in. and I think he's going to get it done. At number one, you want to, you think you know? Well, yeah, it's got to be.

Is it? Of course. Okay. It is. One of the best passes of all time. I think he's getting better, Coach. And I know you don't always have two phenomenal seasons in a row, even if you are a historically great player. But look, he's got all the motivation in the world

because they haven't gotten it done. And you're still going to have Derek Henry there. So the defense has to make some choices. You know, who do we stop first? Henry or Lamar? Is Lamar passing? Is he running? I just think everything is setting up for him to have another big year.

Efficiently, I think he could throw for another four. Like his numbers last year clearly were good enough to be the MVP. And he didn't get it because he had won it twice before. But I think now this year, Josh is kind of, he got his MVP. So I think Lamar is a great candidate to take it home again. His third MVP. I like a lot about your list. I do not like the J-Lo pick at all.

I would probably put Baker Mayfield ahead of J-Lo on that list. I would 100% put Joe Burrow ahead of J-Lo on that list. And I agree with you. Burrough is going to be hampered by what they do. defensively, but that could also be the strongest argument for him becoming the MVP when they win 10 or 11 games

because, you know, they're winning at 35, 31, and he's the reason why. So, so... His number is going to be here. A lot of stuff I like about the list, Josh Allen, he really benefited not from his

production in terms of touchdowns, but the fact that he was able to pull the turnovers in so dramatically. To me, that's what helped him so much. And with Lamar, it's going to be hard to consistently be, you know, as good as well. One of two, but. Lamar fatigue.

It could be a little bit. I thought you a bit last year a little bit. No, but Yolkitch asked, like, we need to see you win it before we give you an MVP. Who's your number? Narratively, I think that, I think Jalen Hertz is coming around again. Oh. AJ Prisinski next. Okay.

I think the. Tomorrow, May, Major League Baseball taking over the iconic Bristol Motor Speedway. Must watch one of a kind event. Matt Olson and the Braves, Ellie De La Cruz, most electrifying man in all sports and the Reds. MLB Speedway Classic. Coverage begins tomorrow at 6 Eastern on Fox.

To discuss it all, joining us now is A.J. Prisinski, but AJ, in the break, you said you didn't want to start off talking about baseball. You want to start off talking about football really quick before we get to it. So what do you got? Well, I listened to your MVP. candidates, where's Caleb Williams? You all forgot somebody.

MVP. Let's go. You got somebody. Have you been reading the reports, AJ? I know. I can't read, but why. There's something happened that I'm going to. It's going to be an adjustment period for him.

It could be good. Because if Johnson's got all the play. Yeah, yeah. I think it'll be good. I don't think MVP level. That's almost as bad as our co-host, Nick, right? He predicted to win the Super Bowl or get to the Super Bowl last year. By the way, by the way, I wish Nick was on, because I swear.

I saw him in Vegas a couple weeks ago in a poker table. But he's got a very distinct look, but I wasn't going to interrupt him. That was him. That was him. If you think you saw Nick Wright at a poker table, at any point outside of 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern, you are probably right. Just go off. Hey, Nick. He had a ship stack.

I didn't want to mess with him. But I'm like, should I say something to? Yes, you definitely should have. Major League Baseball Speedway Classic, 85. people will be in attendance. What's the most interesting thing to you about this game, AJ, from a player's perspective? The sights. The sites. For me, 85,000 people, that's a football game. That's an NFL game, a college game, whatever. This is a football game that they're going to play in front of. And 85,000 is insane. If they can get to 100, that would make it even crazier.

But just the fact they're playing on a racetrack. They're playing on a racetrack right now. They had to build the field. They had to build clubhouses. They had to build everything. There was the infield. And now they have a major league field there. It's pretty remarkable. But 85,000 people, are you kidding me?

That place is going to be going crazy. Yeah, it's obviously a neutral site. It's 3.30 down each foul line, 400 and center. Do you think this will favor being in this neutral, the pitchers or the hitters? I don't know. Briscoll is kind of in the mountains, isn't it? So maybe it's a little bit higher. A little Colorado.

The hitters, I guess. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Well, Chase Burns. I know Chase Burns is pitching for the Reds. I got to look and see real quick who's pitching for the Braves because that makes a difference. But Chase Burns is pitching, so he's pretty good.

Let's see. Tomorrow, da-da-da-da-da-da. I'm looking real quick. Strider. Oh, you got a nice match-up. So I don't want to face either one of those guys if I'm a hitter. But Crystal's a little bit high. It's kind of in the mountain.

So I want to say it favors them, but who the heck knows? strider can punch you out the world and so can chase burns. AJ, I'm an Ellie De La Cruz guy, so I've always got my eye on him. What do you like about him? Is there anybody else else I should, you know, oh, nice. Anybody else that should keep my eye on, especially if it's kind of a bummer, Acuna's out. We're hoping that was going to be the marquee matchup.

Well, look at the Reds what they did yesterday at the trade deadline. Brian Hayes made a couple nice moves. Miguel Undue Hard to strengthen their offense and their defense. I like what the Reds. The Reds are trying, right? Tito Francona is getting up there in age. He didn't go to the Reds to just pass time. He wants to try to win. So I like what the Reds did.

Yes, you can't keep your eyes off, Ellie De La Cruz. Matt Olson for the Braves. And Michael Harris is starting to turn it on a little bit for the Braves also. So I love this matchup, but the pitchers are where it's at, man. I mean, you're talking strider, Burns, but do not take your eyes off, Ellie De La Cruz. If you have not seen this kid play, he gets on, he thinks he's invisible. He steals second, he steals third. Nobody can throw him out.

he just doesn't stop. Well, quick, I want to stay on Cruz. Like, what does he, you know, what do you think he needs to do to really fulfill his potential? We all see the potential. We all see some magnificent highlights, but doing it consistently is where he's got to get to.

Cut down on the strikeouts? Really, that's his big thing. Can he get on base enough? And the other thing for me with Ellie is, slow down a little bit. Just take a breath. He's so electric. He's so athletic.

so fast switch. Just take a deep breath and slow down. Enjoy it. Not that he doesn't enjoy it, but look around a little bit and say, okay, I don't have to do everything on every play because he can do everything. It just can't happen on one play. Cut the strikeouts down, take a deep breath, and try to slow the game down a little bit. Yep, yep.

All right. So two years ago was the Field of Dreams game. Last year, Rick Woodfield in Alabama. Now you're going to Bristol. How great is this for the growth of the game, in your opinion? Oh, I love these events. I got to play at Fort Bragg in front of the service, men and women with the Braves in 2016.

I got to go to the first field of dreams game, which was unbelievable. The Tim Anderson walkoff Homer against the Yankees. The Yankees had to come back. Tim Anderson hit the home run member and was giving this running around through the cornfield. One of the coolest games I got to go. I got to go with my son there.

So these events mean a lot. Japan, when they send the games over to Korea, Japan. Those games mean something because it gives all eyes on Major League Baseball. And that's what you want. You want eyes on the sport that you play and that you love. And I think these are awesome. I wish we could do two or three of these a year.

Now, I bet Fox doesn't wish because it's a lot of production and a lot of work. But Rickwood is unbelievable last year, right? The Little League game that they do every year is really awesome for the kids and the fans. So I love these events and nobody does a big event better than Major League Baseball. Back to the standard games in the second half of the season.

What did you think of the trade deadline. My Red Sox didn't make any moves. We were kind of like bummed out. Meanwhile, the twins traded 10 different players, basically remade their whole roster. Who do you think were the winners and losers of the trade deadline? Well, Padres. Padres, I mean, they got a whole new team, basically. They traded away 22 players for seven proven big leaguers. That's a big deal. I think the Yankees did a nice job with what they went out in God. They strengthened their bullpen immensely. Ryan McMahon, people forgot that they got him their third baseman. It was a little bit ago. So I think the Yankees were big winners. Losers, Cubs and Red Sox. I think

your Red Sox and the Cubs, man, they just didn't do enough. I think the Cubs have a lineup that can win the World Series. I don't know if their pitching's good enough. The Red Sox, nobody knows what they're doing. They say they're full throttle. They say they're all in. Not really. They say they're here. They're there and they just never do it. And if you watch our show today, we had Bob Nightingale on. As much as I hate to say this, I love Craig Breslo. I played with him. But he said other GMs don't want to deal with them. Why? He's too hard to work with. He said he's too hard to work with.

Not my quote. Just what Bob Nightingale said is one of the most respected guys in baseball. I don't know. That's surprising. Is it hard to get on the phone or is he like driving a hard bargain? I guess that. I don't know. But he learned from the Cubs because he was with the Cubs and Jed Hoyer.

So then he comes over to the Red Sox. He's doing the same thing. In the last two trade deadlines, neither one of them has done much. Yeah, we're playing all the kids. So now it's an exciting team. But it's like we also can go for it if you want to. You're the Red Sox. I know.

You have all the money in the world. We're small market now. We operate as a small market team. You have LeBron. I know. It's an owner. It's not great. Give us our world.

AJ, we'd like to have you back as the season progresses and we near the World Series. We'll end it here. Who is your World Series prediction? Do you have one yet? It's in pencil. You can change it as we as we have you on later in the show. This is how bad I am. I went into the year saying the Braves versus the Red Sox.

So that clearly is not probably going to happen. Well, half of it maybe. None of it. None of it. Yeah, I mean, somebody's wishing a lot here. Someone's pulling their full fandom card out. Honestly, until someone beats the Dodgers, I'm not going to put the Dodgers out. But the National League is so much better. So whoever comes out of the National League will win the World Series.

The American League, geez, wide open. There's like 10 teams that could make it. Houston, New York. I mean, geez, Toronto looks really good. Tigers, I mean, geez, the American League is wide open. The National League, though. comes to the National League is going to win. Okay.

The National League. That's type of pick I like. The National League. Like the Reds or the Braves are going to win the Speedway Classic, one or the other. Perfect, perfect. MLB Speedway Classic Saturday at 6 on Fox. AJ, always a pleasure. Thank you very much.

Thanks, guys. Bear down. Bear down. Go, Kay. Welcome back to First things first. Oh! Making the Leap, AFC.F. edition.

Dusty has named this graphic or names of the segment after a graphic. What? It's Josh Allen leaping. Josh Allen is not on the list. It's not about the- It's literally introducing my list of who's making the leap. But Dusty did it because- Why don't you put Michael Jordan up there, Duncan or some or the LeBron or something?

That's the same thing. They leap. I'm just saying. He got into my. Doc and started writing out what I was supposed to say. He's never done that in the history of the show because he loved the graphic so much. Sorry, Dusty. Making the Leap AFC edition.

What a graphic. That is awesome. Okay, you got to go. Oh, you're ready? Running off the board. All right, here we go. First up, and nobody's going to disagree with this. Xavier Worthy.

Everybody loves it, right? I don't know. He got better almost every game last year. He consistently improved. No, he turned it on. One Syriani was so. Three games, 19 catches, almost 300 yards, three touchdowns. Xavier Worth and this year when Rishie Rice gets back.

I thought about putting Rishie Rice on, but he's going to miss some games. But with Rice, with Hollywood Brown, there's going to be so much to pay attention to. And with his speed, he's going to be getting wide open. I'm not saying Tarek Hill. I'm not going there. Tyreek, I think, is one of the best we've seen. But some of that impact with his speed, with Mahomes motivated to get the light show board. And having a better sense of how to use them.

Yes, yes. I'm telling y'all. He doesn't like to throw the ball deep anymore. Oh, he will. He just doesn't. The light show is. Right. He knows the light show is required this year.

All right. Next up, I'm staying with a lot of receivers. I told you all in the NFC and the AFC. Keon Coleman. I like this a lot. All right. I think, you know, obviously wasn't quite as good as we. wanted him to be last year.

But the reports are that he's really worked this, this offseason at getting stronger. He's a huge target, 6-4. I think it'll be great in the red zone. And I think coach, as Josh Allen gets older, I get the whole ball control and offenses. But you're not going to, you don't want him running as much the older he gets.

You want it to dial down the running more. So I think you've got to find that number one. I think he could be your number one receiver. I like Khalil Shakir, but I don't feel like he's a number one receiver. So I think Coleman will emerge as that. All right, let's go defense. In Baltimore, they got something brewing. Nate Wiggins, cornerback, he's a burner.

He can guard guys one-on-one. I thought he showed great improvement over the second half of the season when that defense really got it together. And I think he is going to have a huge year for them. And that's going to be big for the Ravens. So Nate Wiggins, one defensive back. I'm staying with defense coach. You like this.

I'm very impressed. In Buffalo, safety's a big position. They've been looking for the Micah Parsons replaced. I know Taylor Rap was all right, but Cole Bishop, that's who I like now. Out of Utah, second year, he's got the speed. He's athletic. He can jump. I think he could be their next Micah High.

He could replace that position. Did I say Michael Parsons? Yeah, we've got Michael Parsons on the brain. He could be the Micahide, and I think he'll take a big jump. Not a lot of people expecting that from him, but I am. All right, and then, Wilde, I saved the best for last. Drake May. I mean, just love it.

I do like him. I do like him a lot. And I'm starting to buy a little bit of your Stefan Diggs stock. Thank you. I'm not expecting the old Stefan Diggs, but I'm not expecting an old Stefan Diggs. I'm expecting a good Stefan Diggs. And if that's the case, Drake's got somebody to throw it too. I love Josh McDaniels being there with him.

And so, yeah, Drake, man. Making the league. Perfect. Perfect list. I thought it got better as the, like a lot of the guys got better as it went on. Throwing in a couple defensive players. I knew coach we liked that. I'm going to stay with the quarterbacks.

And I'm going with Justin Fields. Wow. This, here's my thought process with Justin Field. If we can bring up what he's done over the course of his career, to me, this is what's encouraging is each year it gets a little bit better. So you look at his completion percentage. Each year it's improved. His pass rating each year is improved.

And most importantly, his interception percentage has improved. And we talked yesterday about Anthony Richardson and you look at year one to year two. Not only was there not improvement, he declined in a lot of areas and that's discouraging. But with Justin Fields, he's made those slight gains and he goes to Pittsburgh, he gets the opportunity, then he gets sat down, he doesn't make any ways, he's a great teammate. To me, that too shows maturity and it shows that he's willing to sacrifice his goals for the greater good. Now he gets this great opportunity in New York.

I believe Aaron Glenn is going to have a physical style of play, which and the running game, it won't be him running because he doesn't necessarily know where to go with the ball. I think the runs that are part of that package are going to be designed runs that maximize his ability to threaten the defense, which will then help him in the passing game as well. How do you like him? I mean, obviously they played both at Ohio State, Garrett Wilson.

Do you think that connection is going to be like big time for him? Yeah, I think it's going to help anytime you come into a situation where you have a relationship with one of the best players, that's very positive. And, you know, the fact that Garrett can also vouch for him in the locker room and say, hey, this is who this player is, that helps too having an advocate in the locker room as you arrive. Wilds won't like it, but if coach is right, Wiles, look, if Justin can play, because I, I still think they have talent. The defense, I think, certainly with Aaron Glenn, is gonna be good. And then offensively, Garrett Wilson,

some of the running back. Like, if he could play, they could be good. They made a commitment to him from a salary perspective. It's 20 million over two years, but it's not the high end where they couldn't move on from. What I like is, is he, it's the anti-Jet's formula, right? Their number ones go other places and play well. Now they're trying to take someone else's number one

and see whether or not they can play well for them. This is a question we're gonna do, maybe 30 times before the start of the NFL season. Who do you think is under more pressure when Aaron Rogers and the Steelers come to play Justin Fields and the Jets? Aaron Rogers by a mile. Yeah, because Aaron Rogers was brought into New York. He was brought in New York and then given every possible resource to be successful.

And even as he asked for things later on, as the season unfold, the owner said yes. And it turned out the way it turned out for every. where with Justin Fields, you know, he had to earn this opportunity after leaving Chicago, then going to Pittsburgh and then showing he could potentially lead a team. A bit of a revenge game for Justin Fields. I'd like him to do well. I think if he does well, week one can go. But if he doesn't, I'm nervous.

It's a confidence killer. That's a tough confidence killer. If Pittsburgh is good, that's a tough defense to face. Yeah, this is not going to be perfect. I'm just hoping that he follows the same path he's following and gets. That's better. That was a great graphic. Great graphic.

You won graphic of the day. Thank you. It's a new segment, graphic of the day. Rue was talking about how hard he was working. Good point. Coach is like, I was grinding too. Podcasts, been on fire, the YouTube channel, slowly reaching 10 million views.

So subscribe if you get a chance. We'll be at 10 million. 11 million. Probably not. We are dissecting Micah's trade demand. We are. We already have a list of teams that are best suited our favorites to land, Micah, if this trade actually happens.

Number one, the Cowboys, solid bet. Number two, the Eagles, which we discussed and I loved. The Patriots at three, which I love. Chargers Cardinals, San Francisco, Rams, what was that? Panthers, Jets, Raiders. Brew, what do you like there? He's going to be. I don't think he's going anywhere.

But? Oh, if he does, I mean, I told you, look, it would be a lot hard to do, but I'd love to see him in Buffalo. I don't think he's going anywhere else, but I kind of like the San Francisco take. It'd be great. San Francisco's not afraid to make a splash.

They're not afraid to make trades. They need help defensively. We've talked about that. That could be. This graphic will be our entire Monday show. Have a great weekend.