Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could Nathan Rourke Return to BC & NFL Storylines

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

In hour one, Josh Elliott-Wolfe and Jason Brough dive into the BC Lions dreadful game vs the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Nathan Rourke signs with Atlanta Falcons, will he be back in the CFL anytime soon? The guys discuss if it's time for the Lions to move on from Vernon Adams Jr. if Rourke returns. A breakdown of what to watch for in the Olympics today. NFL writer Nick Shook joins the show. Nick weighs in on top divisions, Jordan Love's contract, if Russell Wilson is washed, and Mike Macdonald in Seattle.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da to lock in right now. If I was GM, I'd be paying the man. Show me the money! I would watch it more if they were shooting like beer cans. My cans! My freshest antique cans! Oh, look what you've done to them. We had a bad, bad day at the office, I'll tell you that.

Can I tell you that for free? Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Friday, the final day of Double J on Halford and Brough. No Mike Halford. It's Josh Elliott Wolfe.

Jason Brough is here, though. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? It's been fun. It's been fun. I've enjoyed it. You're doing well.

You're doing a good job. Thank you. I'm just glad I made it here on time every day. That was the goal, and I did it. You did it. I think we've got another week together in three weeks. Yeah. the goal and I did it. You did it. I think we've got another week together in three weeks. Yeah.

Okay. Looking forward to it. Halford is on like a month long vacation. Did he go somewhere? I think he's trying to find himself. Fair enough. He's trying to find himself. Aren't we all?

Aren't we all? Elon is here for Ben. Elon, good morning. Hey, good morning guys. Thank you for having me. Laddie, you're here. Hello, hello. Good morning.

Good morning. Halford and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today, and you can text in, get your ask us anything's in your what we learns in on the 650-650 Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome.

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Today on the show, we've got three guests. Nick Shook, writer for NFL.com, going to talk about any huge takeaways from the Hall of Fame game last night. If he wants to put any bold takes out, we'll hear him. But also training camps going on around the NFL. All the storylines in the national football league at 7 30 donovan bennett covering the olympics for cbc we're going to talk basketball because canada they take on spain at 8 15 pacific but we'll also get into uh the women's

soccer team as well what's going on there good yeah and uh uh the canada is looking to go three and oh right yes okay you know if they beat spain today they should beat spain based on the point spread which is nine points in favor of canada come on beat those spaniards yeah eight o'clock i just felt like saying yeah i know i i liked the attitude it was good eight o'clock the moge play-by-play voice of the bc. Not a great game for them last night. I would say it was a bad one in Winnipeg last night. We'll get into that. That's what's happening on the show.

Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that

what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety lines making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools resources and safety training visit visit bccsa.ca so i just mentioned it the bc lions in action last night they lost 25 to nothing that is difficult to do do you like watching your favorite team punt if so last night was the game for you hope you pvr'd it if you're a big punt guy i'm the big guy uh they had i'm reading the story in the province and uh until midway through the fourth quarter the only lions drive over eight yards was for 22 yards in the second quarter a whole four plays and they had seven two and outs a two and out is worse than a three and out in the NFL because it's like what we just got the ball back how did you do this we're just gonna kick it right back um Vernon Adams had a uh

nightmare night uh not only did he finish it hurt he had just 74 yards on 8 of 17 passing until he was forced from the game in the fourth quarter. Apparently, he tweaked the same right knee that he hurt last year. We're going to play some audio from head coach Rick Campbell, who is not very thrilled with the performance of the team. And why would you be when you lose to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a team that you could have kicked when they were down. The Bombers have had a tough start to the season. They had an opportunity to go in there

and really show who was in charge of the West, and instead they got shut out 25-0. But I do want to add this before we get to Rick Campbell's comments in a possibly related story Nathan Rourke has signed with Atlanta now a lot of people might be like what Atlanta we knew he had a workout with Atlanta but we never really thought that he would catch on with them because they signed Kirk Cousins and they drafted Michael Penix Jr. It was a whole thing. It was a whole big deal. People were like, what?

You have too many quarterbacks. And then they also have Taylor Haneke. He's the clear fourth guy there in Atlanta. In terms of NFL depth threat, absolutely. Now, they do like Rourke, the Falcons. They actually tried to get him off waivers last season, but New England had priority, and New England got him, and then Rourke finished the season with the New England Patriots.

There's also a possibility, I suppose, that if Nathan Rourke does well enough in the preseason, assuming he gets an opportunity in the preseason, that they could save some money for themselves, the Falcons, by cutting Heineke, right? And then Rourke would be the third quarterback on that team. A discussion I want to have with the listeners today, and we can have it with Moj as well, because Moj has written an article about Nathan Rourke for the Black Press. If Rourke becomes available,

let's say the Falcons decide not to cut Taylor Heineke, and Rourke is cut loose from the Atlanta Falcons. What do you do if you're the BC Lions? Just think about that right now because we're going to play Rick Campbell's audio here, post-game audio from yesterday. And let me know with one of his answers if you think rick campbell is trying to get ahead of a certain discussion in town definitely have to get it further looked at the initial the initial assessment from what they told me it's probably something on the order of weeks not months or longer so that's the good news part of it. But it would be irresponsible for you to say that's 100%. He needs to get some tests done and all that.

But it does not look like season ending or anything like that. Rick, four first downs, 102 yards of net offense. I mean, how do you explain just what happened out there? I think we got our butts beat is what I think happened from start to finish. And we could not get anything going. And you don't see that too often in the CFL. So I'll credit them. They had a really good game plan and they played well.

And we had a bad, bad day at the office. I'll tell you that. How much did the Bombers defensive game plan resemble what Calgary threw at you prior to the bye? Yeah, I mean, we, I think the biggest thing, just our initial thing is we weren't productive on first down and then we were getting in second and long and they were dropping a bunch of people into coverage and, you know, we just didn't have anybody open. So the biggest thing is we got to be more productive on first down and, you know, give ourselves a chance. Before the injury, V.A. was not having a good night. I don't think he could put it down to the Bombers offense.

He was missing throws that he usually makes. What was going through his head? What did you talk about at halftime? I don't know. He just, just one of those things we wanted to, I talked to him on the side. If they had scored one more, we were going to take him out of out of the game not benching him i was explaining to him it wasn't about benching him it was about the big picture and keeping him healthy and ironically or not whatever the word is is uh he ends up getting hurt so he's uh he's our guy um really good player he's our mop and uh look forward to having him back he's our guy really good player and we're

looking forward to having him back um by the way the first part of that is when he was just talking about uh Vernon Adams injury that he suffered and he said that um it looks like it's going to be a matter of weeks not months and not season ending not season ending so i you know he can say what he wants about vernon adams being the guy but i i don't think that many bc lines were like 100 sold on vernon adams and i've made the comparison to geno smith in seattle. And it's kind of like, yeah, we see the good parts when they're good. But we also see that this is a guy that you're not 100% sure he can take you to where you want to be. And where do the Lions want to be this season? Well, they want to be in the Grey Cup because they're hosting the Grey Cup. And I think that adds a wrinkle to it.

Because if I'm Amar Dolman, I'm sitting there going, you know, Vernon Adams has had some good games for us. He's had some pretty dreadful ones too, right? It wasn't very good against Calgary. Had a couple interceptions against Calgary. And then there's this bye week where the Lions are supposed to bounce back or get re-energized after losing to Calgary. And they weren't very impressive in that game, too. They have that bye week, and they come out completely flat,

looking completely out of answers on offense. And a lot of it was just Vernon Adams not making the throws like it was I mean I think you watched the first half before you were just like this is not for me and I think a lot of people were what did you see from Vernon Adams uh it was frustrating and like the what I saw was just he didn't feel confident you know and when i have watched vernon adams he has seemed at least confident in the past and in that and the other wrinkle is the the lions did get keon hatcher back so they had um three receivers that should be very good um and it just wasn't working for the lions when in terms of like when we're talking about this nathan rourke story too it's

just like the tantalizing part of all of this is you've seen nathan rourke in bc and you know how good he can be so if he is available i feel like the like rick campbell can say hey vernon adams is our guy we think he's our mlp like he's super important but also nathan rourke, he's super important. But also, Nathan Rourke, if he's available, is just the clear option. Yeah. Well, do you think it is? Because let's say he does become available. What do you do if you're Neil McAvoy, the general manager of the Lions, or, I mean, this decision probably goes all the way up to ownership.

What do you do? Do you say, we're going to try and trade Vernon Adams and get Nathan Rourke back in the door? I think so. Or at the very least, you're like, well, Vernon Adams is injured right now, and Nathan Rourke might be available if he is available at any point in the next few weeks. And you at least, worst case, you have both of them. So we're now cheering against Nathan Rourke to do well with the Atlanta Falcons? A little bit.

It's a very interesting dynamic, isn't it? There was an interesting quote from a few weeks ago when Rourke was at a Lions game in BC Place. He was working out in Vancouver with his throwing coach. And he said, I would love to come back and play in this league that I love so much. You know, that wasn't like, I want to do it now. He said, I love playing in front of these fans. I love playing in front of family. And I'd love to return

to an organization that I love that feels like family to me in BC with the Lions. So if it's Nathan Rourke's decision, if he has to come back to the CFL, you put it that way, because he is chasing his NFL dream right now. But if it doesn't work out for him and he finds himself without a team in a few weeks, then it sounds like he would want to be back

with the BC Lions, which might just coincide with, what, the return of Vernon Adams to the lineup. It is quite a conundrum, and I think I don't know if the Lions are even entertaining this,

but they must at least be like, okay, let's discuss this privately. The criticism for V.A. is understandable from last night's terrible offensive game, but he still leads the CFL in passing errors and passing touchdowns. Do you trust him as a quarterback? I don't think we should overreact based on the past couple weeks.

Should we welcome Rourke back with open arms? Absolutely, if he chooses to do that. But I do think V.A. is still one of the top three quarterbacks in the CFL. Yeah. But do you trust him to get you to a great cup? It's not the same as work where I'm like, he's on the team. We're going to the great cup. Yeah.

V.A., there's a good chance. Obviously, last night was terrible. We are missing to one toy. He has those games like that, though. He does. And I also feel bad for him because the offensive line wasn't holding up we have absolutely no run game and obviously those are just excuses but i will say we shouldn't overreact with just a couple games here the other like interesting part of it too though is you're like man we could bring in

york or rourke and also trade Vernon Adams and get something back. And then you think about how good the team could be theoretically in that world. But I don't know. It also has to, Rourke has to be available. So we'll talk to Moj about that at 8 o'clock. And he's written on Nathan Rourke. And he, of course, called the game last night. So he'll have some thoughts on Vernon Adams

and how the team looked in Winnipeg. Summer McIntosh won another gold yesterday. Good for her. She won the women's 200-meter butterfly in an Olympic record time of two minutes, 3.03 seconds. I thought it was a slow pull. It's a slow pull, and she still did that.

She's setting Olympic records. It wasn't a walk in the park for her or a swim in the park. If you're swimming in the park, I don't know where you swim in the park. You shouldn't. Regan Smith did push her. But this event. And see, here's the quote. The 200 fly.

That's her quote. The 200 fly. Yeah. That's her quote, right? They call it the fly. We were talking to Ben Steiner yesterday. He said the fly. And I was like, whoa. Yeah, the fly, right? Yeah, swimming people.

You're leading the charge. Yeah. You don't call them the butterfly. Like, of course it's the butterfly. It's the fly. Yeah. She said, I would say, is one of my favorite races. And it has been since I was a little kid.

The last 50, I was just trying to feed off the crowd as much as possible. I knew it was going to be a fight to the wall, and it was. So congratulations to Summer McIntosh. I'm already looking forward to the next Olympics when we can cheer her on. I don't know when the prime age of swimming is. It seems to be quite early. It always feels the arm um and i think summer mcintosh is not only going to be challenged to remain elite um she's

going to be challenged with all the attention that she's beginning uh and she's going to get when she returns from france she's going to have to go and you know she's going to be invited to a lot of stuff she's going to have a lot of media obligations i'm sure sponsors are going to have to go and, you know, she's going to be invited to a lot of stuff. She's going to have a lot of media obligations. I'm sure sponsors are going to be all over her. So this is going to be the next chapter of her life. But so far from what we've seen, at least from the very out from the very outside of things, she seems so cool and so calm and so composed and so humble. And it sounds like she's got a great family

support around her so i think as a canadian i'm just looking forward to seeing well i'm enjoying what she's doing right now but i'm looking forward to seeing how much better she can be there's not often a time when you hear someone who's not a hockey player in canada described as a generational talent yeah which is wildly impressive to me and uh also yesterday they she competed in the women's 4x200 relay canada came fourth she did her best her teammates let her down yeah yeah she tried to get him back in it it was too late such a life yeah she's like come on please why aren't you all me uh what's going on today in the olympics that we should be keeping an eye on things that have happened recently so canada did just get another medal they got bronze in the

women's gymnastics trampoline event sophia and mathot got that one for Canada. So they are up to three gold, two silver, four bronze so far. And Felix OJ Aliasim, he was playing in the semifinals against Carlos Alcaraz. Felix OJ Aliasim lost 6-1, 6-1. He'll play in the bronze medal match. So he's going to play for two bronzes because he's going to play for bronze in singles and also the mixed doubles. Yes. Mixed doubles is today, by the way. I think it should be happening shortly, but the tennis schedule has kind of been weird and unpredictable.

But it should be happening. It's definitely happening today. And I believe it's happening during the show. So we'll see what happens with that um other metal chances today josh liendo in the 50 meter freestyle final that's at 11 30 kylie moss in the 200 meter backstroke final right after that one and uh finley knox in the men's 200 meter individual medley final as well which i believe is around noon ish okay so a lot of swimming and track events got started track events uh damian warner uh track and field decathlon starts or it's already

started um ethan katzberg uh in the hammer throw um so it's a big day for Canada. And of course we've got Canada, Spain in men's basketball. Uh, we can talk to Donovan Bennett about that. Um, when was the last time you were on, here's an ask us anything for you. When was the last time you were on a trampoline? I was trying to, I was thinking about this. I, it might be like a decade. It's been a while. It's been a decade.

And I love trampolines. Well, why don't you get one? I don't you get one i don't know well i live in a one-bedroom apartment so that's my main issue for a trampoline yeah why don't you go to one of those trampoline parks i've thought about it but every time i think have you honestly thought about it i've thought about it well like you go at night and you go with some friends it could be fun right okay but i'm not going alone laddie last time you're on a trampoline uh not that long ago

probably last week last well because i got a two-year-old right and she loves jumping on trampoline so uh how does your body feel when you get on a trampoline not great right where do you feel it uh the legs yeah do you remember when you're a kid and you got on a trampoline there was like there wasn't anything like, oh, this feels right. It just felt right. I'd be launching myself off the trampoline. Nothing felt better than being on a trampoline as a child. Elon, last time you were on a trampoline?

Over five years. Over five years. Okay. All right. So I've been, I like you, you know, kids.

And I was on a trampoline recently when we were on a trip to Europe in Denmark. There's trampolines everywhere in Denmark. Litter the streets. Big trampoline country. There aren't, but there was one. And I got on it, and I kind of forgot how to bounce. I was like, how are you, like, what do you.

There's a rhythm to it. What do you do, right? And I'm like, I don't think I'm using my calves here. I'm just like, I was just like trying to like i was barely bouncing and it was really really sad because there was an old guy on a trampoline he didn't know what to do you don't got your springiness to you anymore yeah like there were broken absolutely no, and I was on a trampoline. Get your Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park.

More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Nick Shook is going to join us for a little nfl talk coming up um and this top 100 players list at nfl.com i don't think they've released the actual top 10 yet no i think it's supposed to come out at five o'clock our time tonight okay so we can we could talk to him about the the other 90 so is this a list, forgive me because I forgot, is this a list that NFL writers have put together or is this a list that the players have put together? The players put it together.

So during the season, last season, there are people from NFL.com, I assume, that go into the dressing rooms and they say, hey, put down your top 20 players in the league and then at the end of the season they have a bunch of samples and they put them all together and points are you a dak prescott guy no were you surprised that he was a top 20 guy yes there were a lot of quarterbacks especially especially. The quarterbacks, to me, felt very wrong. Like Joe Burrow, again, is the one I come back to,

and he was ranked 39th, I believe, behind guys like Tua and Jordan Love. Well behind Dak. Well behind Dak. And to me, that's like, man, I would take Burrow over all of those guys. Like Burrow, to me, is a top 10 player. And he just wasn't so i the quarterbacks

to me have been weird and josh allen i think is 12 and i would maybe have him top three in the league yeah in terms of overall talent it's not just a list they they have a tv show on the nfl network yeah so they interview the players what do you like about this guy and they kind of count down from there have you been watching it are you Are you a big NFL guy? Huge NFL guy. This premiered in 2011. So I probably watched it like five years ago. But now it's kind of, it's a little bogus. Right. What's bogus about it?

I mean, like Josh was saying, some of the players are kind of out of order. But it is interesting to see how other players talk about them. I do think some players are just like, hey, this guy's my guy. So I'm going to put him higher. And I wonder how much that impacts it. But they say they take enough of a sample size from around the league that it kind of like comes out in the wash a little bit like they're not taking like 40 guys from dallas and one from minnesota yeah exactly but it's also like not maybe not the best way to go about it but it's how they go about it i love um talking about dak prescott on the show because there's always

like at least one crazed cowboys fan that will text in and be like he's elite he's really good come on like and then you watch him in the playoffs or whatever you're like well there it is there he is there he's just a slightly better kirk to me that's what he is uh it is halford and brough coming to you live from the kintec studio. On the other side, Nick Shook is going to join us. We'll get into this list and everything else going on in NFL training camps around the league. It is Halford and Brough on Sportsnet 650. 631 Halford and Brough on a Fiesta Friday Fiesta Fridays are my favorite

I actually Yes I love Fiesta Fridays but We also learned something over the break Laddie, sorry I'm going to throw you under the bus here But we were talking about I have no idea what the decathlon You had no idea what the decathlon was Because we were talking about Damian Warner no idea what the decathlon... You had no idea what the decathlon was, because we were talking

about Damian Warner, who's apparently off to a pretty good start in the decathlon. And Laddie was like, yeah, I think he's good at the running and jumping events, but I don't know about the cycling and the swimming. And I'm like, I don't know about those either.

He doesn't practice those often. Those aren't part of the decathlon. So if anyone wants a refresher on decathlon, it is like a lad. He needs one. I need a detailed run. He's like, is he going to be good at the lawn darts part of decathlon? I know there's 10. I know Deca

means 10. Okay. Atta boy. I'm on that track. Atta boy. You got that far ready. So it's the 100 meter long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter, 110 meters hurdles, discus throwcus throw pole vault javelin throw and the 1500 meter no swimming and no biking no lawn darts no and they call themselves the best yeah how dare they come on how dare they uh halford and braff brought to you by the delari family of honda dealers experience the delari difference today visit your nearest Dilawri

Honda dealer today and also get your ask us anything's in you can win a hundred dollar AJ's gift card and ask us anything is brought to you by AJ's pizza on East Broadway try AJ's traditional New York pizza or sink into their famous Detroit

pizza only at AJ's pizza order online at aj's dot pizza to the phone lines we go nick shook writer for nfl.com joins us appreciate you take the time did you have any um major takeaways from the hall of fame game last night well i can tell you it sure does know how to rain really hard in the summer here in Ohio. Did they even finish the game? No, no. The game was suspended, and then according to the PA announcer, due to inclement weather, this game has been terminated,

which is why I tweeted, the game has been terminated instead of canceled. They netted about two and a half, almost three quarters, and then realized, hey, this isn't worth it. Who played for the Bears? No disrespect to Houston, but who played for the Bears? No starters. Ibrafus was pretty strict about that.

He even had close weight and back punting. They didn't have anybody at the top of the depth chart on the field on both sides of the football. They rode Tyson Bajent for a whole series before he also was done for the night. I try to get myself hyped up every year for NFL preseason.

And then we see like last night's game or, or any of the preseason games. And I immediately regret my decision. What can people take away from these preseason games and like training camp? Because it feels like we all kind of get hyped up on these guys. And in the end, it doesn't really matter until the regular season gets going. I think the first thing you should process and understand

is that these periods of time are preparation. They're not necessarily for our entertainment. But when you do go to a camp, you could watch a position group practice or you're just up close and personal kind of with your favorite team and favorite players, and maybe you don't get another opportunity to go see them in the regular season, whatever it is, you know, you can kind of get an idea of, hey, I think that that guy looks like he could have a good year. You know, you don't really know, but it's about the entertainment.

And then you do the actual preseason games. I mean, it's football. It's not it's not football that ends up factoring into your team's record at the end of the year or anything else like that. But it is still football. And this is a pretty football-starved area of the world right now. They have to wait, you know, what is it, six, five months. It's been about five and a half months since they had NFL football to watch.

So it's back, you know. Even if the game itself, you sit there and you go, oh, yeah, it is the preseason. You're like, hey, football's back. What do you think is the preseason. You're like, hey, football's back. What do you think is the most interesting division this season? I'm torn between I'm going to go AFC North and I was

going to say NFC North right behind it because look, last year you had three of the four teams make the playoffs in the AFC North and the only team that didn't make it was the Bengals because they had lost Joe Burrow and just couldn't quite muster enough. But now you look at every team going into this season and you think, I mean, I can see them winning that division.

I can see them winning that division. No, I'm not going to play this team in that division. I have no idea how it's going to shake out. Hard Knocks is going to get that in-season look at them as well. So I think that's the most fascinating one. On the flip side, the NFC North, because the Lions are the reigning division champions, but the Packers are this young and hungry and potentially very dangerous team right behind them.

There's optimism for the Chicago Bears. And we'll see what happens with the Vikings, who are in a bit of a transition, but I think will probably play better than most teams that are in a fluid rebuild usually do. You mentioned Joe Burrow and the Bengals, and maybe i put too much stock into these things but the nfl top 100 has been coming out over the last little bit and joe burrow was uh 39th i believe behind guys like tua and jordan love do you do you agree with that do you think that's fair it kind of feels like he's he's getting heavily underrated right now i think what happens is they end up at their ranking with an average of,

you know, everybody's votes and recency bias factors into this in a huge way. Uh, and because Joe played, you know, only just about half the season last year before he went down, uh, with the season ending injury,

I think he just simply fell out of the general consciousness of, of the NFL players by the time that they were taking these votes. And I think that's how he ends up falling that far, because when he's healthy, I mean, he's a great player. Then again, though, when you're ranking top 100, you're also ranking the top 100 no matter the position. Like, you look at Burrow and you think probably, you know,

top five to eight quarterback, but then you've got to factor in, you know, all these great defensive players and all these wide receivers and that's how they kind of fall a little bit as well uh and the the other guy i mentioned jordan love i i feel like it's kind of the opposite with him like i don't know if i'm fully sold on him as as being a great quarterback yet but it does feel like at least the players view him as someone who has that potential because I think he was ranked 34th, if I remember correctly. Are you sold on Jordan Love? Pretty close.

About as close as you can be to sold, just because I haven't seen it over a full season. I've seen it over basically half a season. Last year, you could tell he was trying to get to where he is now, but he was just kind of rushing himself. When I say that, I mean, you know, there were multiple instances early in the season where the Packers were right there in some of these games that they were playing in.

And Love would try to, you know, they'd be on a drive with a minute and a half left and they'd be down three or they'd be down six, whatever it might be. And it'd be second and four and they'd be on the opposing 35. And Jordan Love would roll out with 50 seconds left or something like that, and instead of just throwing it away or taking a short completion, whatever it might be, he would chuck it at the end zone as if, like, I'm going to make the hero play.

And way too many times, those balls were intercepted, and it was just a self-destruction on the part of the quarterback. But then he turned a corner in the middle of the year last year, and he's been, you know, he's looked spectacular ever since to the point where now everybody sits back and they think, oh wow, really, we let the Packers get another generational quarterback, you know, here we

go again. So I think if I see it over the course of a full season, then I'll 100% be on board, but I'm pretty close right now because what he did last year was pretty convincing. Dak Prescott goes from 40th to 16th based on his very good regular season. But once again, the Cowboys fail in the playoffs. What do you see from the Cowboys this season?

Is this a bit of a, I mean, we keep thinking like, you know, when are they going to do something really dramatic and move on from certain players or whatever? Like, what is the storyline around the Dallas Cowboys this season? Well, I mean, I think everybody's on edge there because everybody's kind of playing for their jobs. First off, you know, Dak finishes with that ranking in the top 100, by the way, because he could have won MVP last year. He didn't have a really bad game in Buffalo late in the top 100, by the way, because he could have won MVP last year.

He didn't have a really bad game in Buffalo late in the season and just tanked his entire MVP candidacy. I think he very easily could have won MVP last year. So he had a heck of a year and had a really good time, too. He is very much in his prime. But this is the last year of his contract. The Cowboys said in the offseason, we're not doing anything to adjust it. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it afterward. Mike McCarthy last year of his contract. Press Cowboys said in the offseason, we're not doing anything to adjust it. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it afterward.

Mike McCarthy last year of his contract. Pressure's on for everybody. Either they produce or the pressure becomes all-consuming and they will within it. I think that if you look at them as a franchise, there's no reason that they

shouldn't be in the playoffs and they shouldn't be making a run with the opportunity, or at least the belief to win a divisional round game, but that's something that they haven't cleared in decades, so it's just... I don't feel great about it because they had a quiet offseason

and I just wonder, how much higher can you go with the roster that you've retained? But we'll see. Who's a team that's not getting enough respect? That's a good question. I mean, this was like, they became the darling of the preseason last year was Steelers. And I don't know if that's necessarily my firm choice on this,

but they did have a really good offseason and they're built pretty well and if they if quarterback ends up working out for them then and then i'm gonna feel like yeah we we all should have seen this coming uh otherwise i don't know i mean i think about some teams around the league elsewhere and i'm like yeah well pretty much everybody's expecting something from them, and they're expecting something from them. And then we can go down to the NFC South, where we have no idea what's going to happen.

The Buccaneers won the division last year at 9-8, and I'm still waiting for the Saints to be who they were supposed to be. Maybe it's one of those teams. Maybe it's the Falcons, you know, with Kirk Cousins and a new staff and everything else. Maybe it's them. I think if you had to really accurately answer that, it's coming out of one of the South divisions, AFC or NFC, and I'm going to lean NFC. Russell Wilson, has he been limited at practices?

He's hurt, isn't he? Yeah, he's gone through a little bit, a little lower body thing. And the talk in Latrobe, or as the locals call it, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where the Steelers do their training camp, is that he essentially was trying to force himself back on the field too soon. It was earlier in the week where the beat writers are monitoring his reps and who he was doing it with. The third string, how many reps Fields got. I think Russ is still, it's very early in camp. Mike Tomlin was saying,

I'm going to control it as he comes back from what he was dealing with. I'm in control of it. Don't think that Russ is going to convince me or somebody else that he should get more reps than he does. I think he'll be back fully before long, but it's interesting right now. Do you think that a team like the Steelers that has a culture of team first, a culture of stability, I mean, I think they've only had three coaches ever.

I mean, it seems like that sometimes. Do you think that could be good for Russell Wilson? Because the way I see it, my narrative, and mine might be skewed because I'm a Seahawks fan, is that Russ's ego grew essentially out of control. He went to Denver. Massive things were expected from him. He was humbled in a big way there. And I'm thinking that you go to a place like Pittsburgh,

and maybe he is humbled in the right way and he's put in uh on a team that has you know that I mean great defense they can run the ball this could work out for him don't you think I mean I think the presence of Mike Tomlin could be more helpful than anything um with this stage in his career yeah I mean I I think the presence of Mike Tomlin could be more helpful than anything with this stage in his career. Yeah, I mean, I like the way you laid it out. And I don't disagree, but the problem is, is did he get to Pittsburgh with enough left in the tank when it comes to his talent and ability? And that's what we're going to find out, because there were moments where he looked kind of like himself over the last couple of seasons, more last year than the year before in Denver. But there are also a lot of moments where I sit back and go, he's washed.

Like he's just, he doesn't have quite what he had before. He's not young anymore. He's been around for quite a while. And, you know, I just, I wonder if the talent is just not good enough, you know, over the court to make it happen over the course of the season. If it was just ego driven, if it was just the mental part, I would agree and say, yeah, he's with the right,

he's with the perfect franchise to address that part, but I think the physical skills might not be there quite as much anymore either. It'll be interesting, though, because I do think it's still a better situation for him than one in which he comes in and makes a lot of money and reportedly has his own office on a different

floor of the facility and he has his buddies working there and everything else. The story that came out of Denver a couple years ago was like uh you know if that's not on the table anymore then you know I would like it it has a better situation than what he had you know talent wise how much of a challenge do you think it's going to be for Mike McDonald taking over the Seahawks after the Pete Carroll era, which was, you know, there were ups and downs, but overall it's considered the most successful head coach in franchise history.

I think it'll only get difficult if they don't, this is overly reductive, but if they don't win games, I think that's when it gets difficult because there's talent on that team, and he's a heck of a defensive mind. I mean, he did a fantastic job with the Ravens. Not every coordinator is cut out to be a head coach, but I think he'll be fine with this. It's just that when you become a head coach,

you do have a lot of first welcome to the NFL moments because you've never been the head coach. You've been a defensive coordinator, but it's just the higher role, the more management and everything else. Sometimes it doesn't fit certain individuals, but I think he'll be fine with it. He will at some point probably feel like he's, you know, being chased by the ghost of the previous regime.

But at the same time, I don't know. I feel like by the time Pete Carroll left, fans kind of understood and they were like, hey, you've been here a long time. Thank you for what, I feel like by the time Pete Carroll left, fans kind of understood, and they were like, hey, you've been here a long time, thank you for what you did, but it's time for a change. Not quite as sour as the Belichick thing in New England and how they parted ways, but kind of in that same ballpark. So I don't think there's as much pressure there.

The only pressure that really exists is, hey, we have a talented defense. We've got a lot of young guys that we've invested on that side of the ball, and we also are still relying on Geno smith on the other side of the ball so um he'll handle the defense if you do that to be competitive and i think people will be okay with it what do the best defensive coordinators have in common is it their scheme is it um how they're able to get the best out of individuals um i know one big thing that even the Seahawks admitted last season is like we didn't adjust well. We didn't adjust when other teams adjusted to us

and that looked like them running the ball down the Seahawks' throats. We weren't able to make those adjustments. What do great defensive coordinators do? I know Mike McDonald's the head coach, but he's essentially also the defensive coordinator in Seattle. adjustments um what does the what do what do great defensive coordinators do i know mike mcdonald's the head coach but he's essentially also the defensive coordinator in seattle i mean i think it starts with the x's and o's i mean if you don't have the the strategic part you know that foundation laid then you can motivate all you want but you still have to be able to put guys in positions to make plays and succeed so that's got to be first but then

you know it's it's about levels of aggression. You know, I think about the Lincoln Martindale defense, or I think about the Steve Spagnuolo defense and, and even, you know, the Jim Schwartz defense and you can continue to go down the list of coaches that were notably aggressive in certain situations and like to deploy their guys as defensive weapons. And then there are, you know, other instances where people create a defense that's just impossible, throw the football on and maybe they're not as bombastic about it.

That's where you start to get some separation in personality, but I think it still starts with strategy more than anything. And knowing how to capitalize on your guys, you know, knowing their strengths and not trying to fit them into the box that you run, but, you know, kind of scheming according to talent. I always think that that's a huge trait that will help a coach on either side of the football is being able to scheme toward talent instead of forcing your talent into your scheme.

And it ends up, you know, you end up using guys in different roles and all of a sudden they have career years in that different role. And they'll look back and say, because that defensive coordinator, he found the right role for that guy because he's a genius or whatever it is yeah i just keep on thinking jamal adams and like the guy had has talent but he just never seemed to fit in with the seahawks and i don't know if that was a him issue or if that was the seahawks not putting him in positions to succeed, but he did not succeed. No. What I always was concerned about and confused about was why did you send all these assets for a safety who you prefer to use as a box safety and a blitzer along the line of scrimmage more than coverage?

You're spending that much money for a blitzing specialist. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Now that's finally over but you know i agree i agree the talent was always there i don't know if he was always really that good in coverage but he wasn't you look back you think man could have been better yeah uh nick thanks for joining us this morning uh looking forward to chatting with you lots uh during the preseason and into the regular season definitely looking forward to it as well we are right around the corner from that thanks guys awesome thanks nick nick shook from nfl.com that guy is so good i can ask him any question about any situation any player and he's got a well thought out answer for it i was doing my prep

for the show yesterday and i was looking at nick shook's recent articles and it feels like he's written about every team at least once in the last two weeks. And he just has an answer for everything. He should be a bigger star. Yeah. He should. He had a piece on the top teams with their all under 25 teams around the NFL. And it was good. The Detroit Lions are very well represented, which is worrying for me as a vikings fan in that division

who were do you have it in front of you um yeah i can bring it up i it was more of like a like assemble a team of all under 25 players oh i see okay so and i think it was there was like six detroit lions okay are there any seahawks i will will find it. One second. Okay. Rick from Burnaby with Anaskis. Anything. Do you think the Lions can sign Nathan Rourke if he can't stay with an NFL team? It seems like the timing is right for his return. Rick, download the podcast from hour one and also stay tuned listening to the Halford and Brough show. Because first of all, we already talked about that and i think the consensus was if he's available and he wants to come to bc and you can trade vernon adams with all due respect to vernon adams you got to make that

move especially with the gray cup being in vancouver this year and everything that's being invested into that um but we'll talk about that maybe mojo has a different take on things maybe he'll provide a different talking point something for us to think about but you are right rick the timing you know vernon adams has a disastrous game last night in winnipeg not only did he play poorly and the lines offense played poorly as a whole um He also got hurt. Now, head coach Rick Campbell has said he thinks that the injury is going to be a matter of weeks, not months, but it's going to present an interesting dynamic during this NFL preseason because in previous NFL preseasons with Nathan Rourke down there,

we were like, go get him, Nathan. Come on. We believe in you we believe in you and now like some of us might be like don't play too well maybe we're all cheering for Taylor Heineke like Heineke looks good I'm a big Heineke guy I don't know I'd you know if I if I was a Falcons I'd cut Rourke you know and then like it's just you know I think I think a lot of I think there's a lot of BC Lions fans out there. And sure, some of it's reactionary based on the last few weeks. But I think there's just a lot of Lions fans out there that want Nathan Rourke back in a BC Lions uniform.

And they want him back this year. There are two things that I think of with this as well. When it comes to him in the NFL, I think when people look at it too, it's like, Hey, if you had a legitimate road to even being a backup, I think people would be like, Hey, you know what? Chase that dream. You do you, you can do it. But now we've gotten to this point where it's like, well, he's a fourth string guy in Atlanta. Maybe he'll be the third string guy and there isn't really a road to him

unless there's two injuries or three injuries in front of him, but there's money, but yeah, the money for him is great. But if you're a bc lions fan you look at it and it's like well do you want to be the fourth string guy or can we have you back and you can be the first string guy you'd be amazing here but if you come back are you essentially saying you're not going back that's it for my nfl dream i think so i think you are too and that's a hard pill to swallow especially when you're so he was so dominant i think if you're nathan rourke you have to exhaust every opportunity you've got down there and just if you really want

to chase this nfl dream keep your foot in the door because as soon as you say all right i'm done i don't know if that is going to help you. It might. I don't know. Maybe if he comes back to the CFL and lights it up again, then people are like, wait a minute, maybe we should give this guy an honest opportunity. But my instinct would say, like, just stick around there, make good relationships down there with people,

and maybe you'll get a chance. What was the answer to, are there any Seahawks on the list? There were not. There were not any Seahawks on the list yeah unfortunately okay i think it's like half lines it's a little upsetting that is no jsn on there uh no jsn no the the receivers were um puka nakua amin rasain brown jamar chase who are all better than jsn Yeah, yeah. That's fair. Okay. We're going to talk to AJ for just a bit coming up on the other side.

And then we've got a whole half hour to get into Ask Us Anythings. I've actually got one for the group. But text in your Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Use that pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the competition for best Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Use that pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the competition for Best Ask Us Anything. The prize is a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza. Really good pizza. If you have not been to AJ's Pizza yet, well, first of all, shame on you.

And second of all, this would be a great way to go there. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.