Halford & Brough in the Morning - Halford Fires Up The Bedard To Vancouver Rumour

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason look ahead to the upcoming NFL season with Too Deep Zone's football insider Mike Tanier (1:39), they discuss this past weekend's disappointing BC Lions loss and where they go from here, as 3 Down Nation's JC Abbott (27:18) joins the show, plus Halford attempts to start a Bedard to Vancouver rumour (43:14). 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.

It's the Mama Daddy Day. You go into Mama, and she won't do it. And she's the boss. She won't do it. So you run into Daddy. Daddy says, do it. And then you go back in and say, Mama, Daddy said it was all right. So Mom or Daddy did, we, ball.

7-01 on a Monday. Was that Jerry Jones? You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Alford and Brum of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Mike Taney, our NFL insider, a Monday morning QB from the two deep zone substack

is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is bratsy by Jason hominock at jason. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect. Mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.com. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics working together with you and step. So the audio that laddie played coming back from break, that was Jerry Jones on Friday, talking about the Mike Parsons situation on the Stephen A. Smith show. You saved that one all the way for today

because you loved it so much. We played it on Friday. So I think it was from before that. Okay. Might have been from Thursday. So, your mom and daddy deal. You've heard of that before, right? Classic mom and daddy It's like, hi, Jerry. Follow-up question. Could you repeat all of that, please? To the phone lines we go. Our NFL insider, Mike Tan here joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Michael.

How are you? I don't know whether to laugh or cry hearing that audio. Is this much ado about nothing? Like when the Cowboys and the Eagles kick off, 11 days from now, Thursday, September 4th, is Michael Parsons going to be on the field and as a member of the Dallas Cowboys and all of this will just be a bunch of unnecessary, superfluous noise that got us through the preseason? I'll go with a 50-50 chance at this point. That's how bad this is.

This is not the point in the negotiation where Jerry Jones should be out there doing some sort of weird Southern Gothic Faulkner character, while Micah Parsons is tweeting Bible verses. That's the kind of thing you do in like Fourth of July when things are going, well, not around Labor Day. That's a very different vibe. Now, could it be that the Cowboys go out there lose by 30, and then Jerry goes out and writes a check

or Stephen grabs a checkbook and forges his dad's name? So Michael Parsons got a contract, certainly. But this is barreling towards an incomprehensibly ridiculous standoff. I see a lot of people evoking the Emmett Smith holdout of, I believe it was 1993. So they went

0 and 2 before Panic set in and they signed Emmett Smith. So I guess the over-under would be is, you know, Micah Parsons is going to be in the lineup before game three of the season here for the Cowboys. Because it's not an especially easy start to the year for the Cowboys either. No, it's not. These are tough games at the beginning. That was 33 years ago.

So I'm not sure anyone has a clear memory of that. Micah Parsons would not even board yet. Chris Jones is a more recent one where that went to the wall with the Chiefs. I believe he missed an opener with the Chiefs. And then, you know, Clark Hunt finally found some money somewhere to pay Chris Jones. because, you know, this was a Super Bowl team. That was different because the rhetoric wasn't this rancorous. It wasn't this unprofessional, let's put it that way,

particularly on the part of the Cowboys where you go out there and you're philosophizing publicly about your best player when you should be bringing them in the fold. We're in terror incognita. We're not in a situation that we're looking at with like Terry McClearn where I think everybody's going to hold hands and spend money in a couple of days. This is a very, very tense and weird situation. So if you could see something else besides a signing happen, what do you think that is?

One thing is Micah Parsons realizing that he doesn't have many other options coming back to the fold. If we're talking about trade scenarios, somebody's got to pick up the phone and talk some sense on the Cowboys side for a trade scenario to happen. It's not a matter of the lions picking up the phone and saying two first round picks or the bills or whatever. where it's Jerry answering the phone and not talking about the Mamas and the Pappas. You need two, it takes two to tango in that respect, and I don't think we would get all the sides of the table here.

We have one of the principal actors in this acting in bad or bizarre faith, and that's why we haven't got a deal done in the first place. We're speaking to Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone substack here on the Health and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Let's turn our attention to the Cleveland Browns

that crowded QB room and Shadur Sanders. Roster cutdowns, is tomorrow. I know I was watching some video yesterday of Shudur being asked if he's going to make the Browns 53-man roster. And at first he scoffed at the question, but then quickly fell into prototypical athlete mold

and answered the question appropriately. But what is, like this week, and then I guess leading up to week one for the Browns, what do you think it's going to look like for Shadur Sanders in terms of where he fits on the team in that QB room and on the depth chart? I feel like he winds up as a practice squad, dash. If I look at how the Browns are approaching this, Flacco is the starter. It looks like

Kenny Pickett is back at practice, so he gets to be the backup. And Dylan Gabriel has outperformed Shudor Sanders. I don't think we can sugarcoat that in any way. And Dylan Gabriel's also the higher draft deck. So he's a guy you can put on the third string and say, okay, well, if we really need this kid, he'll go out there and he'll bounce around and he'll check down and, you know, be a professional. We're not sure about that with Shudor, especially after this most recent preseason game where every time there was pressure. He ran backwards 25 yards and tried to fumble. I would put him on the practice squad.

I think the talent is there. And then it's a matter of looking at him and saying, well, are you going to go out there and be the fake Lamar Jackson in practice for a couple of months? Are you willing to play that kind of role? And if he is, maybe that's an opportunity where he can harness his talent a little better and live up to his potential. If that's not the kind of young man that he is, that he can take that opportunity and make the most of it,

then I think we know what we're talking about in the first place. Why do you think this is such a big deal that people are talking about this so much and arguing about it? And we've got people, you know, in one tribe versus the other. Like, is there like a political angle to this as well? Like, it's a very interesting story looking, you know, not down, but like, you know, south to the United States and seeing just the people just really arguing. their lives away on this topic? Down here in the United States of America, there is a political angle about everything.

We argue politically about our chain diner restaurants down here. So you better believe that the African-American son of a Hall of Fame player who had incredible success in college and comes out and could be conceivably construed as somebody who there are conspiracies for or against, somebody who if you do question his maturity and I've kind of been questioning his maturity here can make you sound like you have some kind of racial bias one way or the other political bias one way or the other

it's fraught it's fraught and I think people lose track of it at the end of the day this being a fifth round pick in the NFL who clearly was not as exceptional a prospect as some of us including myself thought he was going to be and that's simply who he is and that if his name was not Sanders and his name was you know Jones or something like that we wouldn't be having this conversation. But yeah, that's kind of where we're at here in the USA,

where we can't just say, well, you know, Schernerz Sanders, maybe he didn't put it together, maybe he has to be on the practice squad, and maybe he doesn't make the roster. We can't just do that without two camps grabbing all of their shields and suits of armor and swords and lances and going crazy at each other. You mentioned Lamar Jackson earlier there in the answer about Shudur Sanders. So thank God the NFL decided that for the Sunday nighter on opening week, they're going to give it to us right away.

Bill's, Ravens, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, not wasting any time, they're going to let them go at it. The two, I mean, the narrative is so, like, beautifully written here because both have seemingly done everything they need to do aside from winning that elusive Super Bowl. And we've already asked the question about, like, who's under more pressure? Is it the Bills and Allen, or is it the Ravens and Lamar Jackson?

But I'm curious, based on what they've done this offseason, who's positioned themselves better to win a Super Bowl? Is it the Ravens or is it the Bills? I'm going to tell you that on Monday morning after that game. That's what I'm going to do. I'll tell you what, the Super Bowl odds for both teams are even. They're exactly even. At least they are on draft kings.

The playoff odds are pretty much the same. The reach the Super Bowl odds. The MVP odds are pretty much the same for these guys. So that's where we're at. Everyone looks at them and say, well, it's the Ravens and the bills in their neck-in-neck to overtake the chiefs. And maybe the chiefs are weak, but maybe not. I can't tell anything from this preseason. The bills goofed off for most of the preseason games.

The Ravens pretty much did, too. They're out there trying out their third and fourth string quarterbacks, so we don't get anything like that. Excuse me, I look at the injury reports, and the injury reports for both teams, it's like, oh, it looks like you lost your veteran cornerbacks, but you got, like, young backups. It's the same.

It's the same thing for both teams. All I can tell you, the bills have the easier path to home field advantage in the playoffs, because that division looks. terrible. It looks extremely weak, whereas the Ravens, as usual, are going to be fighting Joe Barrow and the Steelers with Aaron Rogers, etc. That might be the difference is that the home game will be in Buffalo, not Baltimore, except in two weeks they face each other, and that might ultimately decide where that home game would be. Who will be the most improved team this season?

You know, a lot of people, especially folks at the FTN Almanac on the analytics side, talking about the Jaguars. And I can see it because the Jaguars were bad last year, lost track of the fact that Trevor Lawrence was injured for much of the year, for much of the year, and that they really overhauled a lot of things particularly on the offense and they brought in Liam Cohn. Excuse me, and then if you look at the schedule, the Jaguars have an incredibly easy schedule, especially compared to the Texans. They're facing a lot of third and fourth place teams in bad divisions. It looks like there are easy wins there. Healthy Lawrence, Liam Cohn coming and bringing in that screen game there, Travis Hunter adding somebody on offense and defense,

defense playing well. It's a team that can suddenly turn around easily win 10 games. they would have to be a very great team to win about 10 games, be a playoff team, and be everybody's surprise list. Where are you on Trevor Lawrence right now? I like him. The problem is he's hurt a lot. He had a lot of drop passes against him. And when I watched that team last year,

no team made the easy stuff look impossible. Like Lawrence would throw a 35-yard pass to get down to the two-yard line, first and goal at the two, and they would not get in the end zone. And the settling for a field goal going for a fourth-down. And this thing, it was a team that wasn't really well practiced, that didn't really have attention to detail. And that was a problem with Doug Peterson after the Super Bowl year in Philadelphia. The team's never really had his attention to detail with Carson Wentz and then Nick Foles and it slowly unraveled.

I think that's the case there. If Cullen has them out there really dogging it in practice, really trying their hardest to make sure that they're doing things like screen passing game, short passing game, quick game, short-yard game, focusing on that, both Lawrence and the Jaguars will turn things around quickly. Mike, you're always honest with us and you don't try and pander to us here in the Pacific Northwest. So be honest here. How much have you thought or written about the Seattle Seahawks? Very little. But I have been watching their offensive line development. I watched some of their preseason action.

I gutted through it to watch it. The offensive line looks good. The new system with a lot of running and short passing looks like it's well designed for the personnel you have. And with Sam Donald and the defense should be. pretty good. The best development for the Seahawks is I've been watching the San Francisco 49ers injury situation. And it's been one

torn thing after another for the 49ers. And there's a Matthew Stafford thing out there in the weed somewhere, too. But the Seahawks, you know, they look like they're going to be fine, but they can be better than fine. If they're not in the situation where every time they're facing the 49ers, they're facing a full strength two years ago

level of the 49ers. And if they get a gimpy or, you know, the shoulder, balky version of Matthew Stafford, that's the way. that's a bonus as well. Yeah, because if you look at the division odds, the Seahawks have the longest. They're a plus 500 to win the division.

So it's San Fran, L.A., Arizona, and then Seattle. But you mentioned Stafford there, and I kind of wanted to get to that. Because I think the general consensus on the Rams is that if Stafford is all right and healthy, they've got a good team. If he's not, and he's 37, and he's got weird back issues, they could be in trouble.

It feels like the division might hinge on that, weirdly enough. Like, if he's all right, and who can tell from this precept? season because he hasn't been on the field really at all. But is that a fair assessment like that entire division good hang on the Rams and then even in a, you know, tighter window on Matt Stafford's health? Right. And no one lies about an injury better than Matthew Stafford and the Rams.

They will spread that lie like it's propaganda out there. They'll send all the insiders out there to say, oh, he's 100% a million percent fine. They had the videos of that weird van that he was going to, which, you know, if Aaron Rogers did that, we'd assume it was a space. ship or a time machine or something. So we've got nothing to go on with the Rams. Excuse me in that respect. But we have seen the gimpy, balky version of Stafford go out there a couple of years ago

and they wound up having to shelve him late in the year. And they're not good when he's like that. He'll go out there and play through the pain. He'll be better than Garoppolo or whoever's their backup at this point. But they won't be good. And again, that's something that can benefit the Seahawks. And again, if you just look at the 49ers, the main guys are healthy right now. But if you look at their bench, pretty much everybody they brought

into their bench has been banged up, out for three weeks, out for four weeks, Ayyook is out until October, Jennings is out for a while. It's another situation where the best ability is availability. The Seahawks, you know, a lot of them are skeptical of what they did in the offseason. Looks like just about everybody they brought in is ready to play, and that's a plus for them. I know that the shortening of the preseason and what we've seen, you know, this year especially, is probably best for, well, I mean, to some degree of the fans, but for the health of the players as well, but how much more difficult does it make the job of analyzing

what's to come because there are a couple situations here where you have absolutely no idea what the team's going to look like going into the regular season because none of the starters participated in any of the preseason games and there's health concerns or in some cases contractual concerns as well. You know, part of the problem

now is that everyone gets to be so coy about injuries. Like the preseason is one thing, but a lot of times you'd watch a team be great in the preseason you'd overrate them or you'd watch the backups and you'd underrate the team and you'd get all these false readings from it. Nowadays you try to like an injury report and he has a lower body injury and he's out indefinitely.

What does that mean? Or he's day to day. We've been doing that for decades in hockey. That's what we do in hockey. Right, right. That's awful. It's absolutely awful. And then like no one will follow up on the injury and the coach will refuse to talk about it

and that's the end. So that's a problem. The flip side of that is because you now have joint practices if you're somebody who can both do a lot of research on the internet and sometimes reach out to some of your friends in the media and be like, you know, what really happened in this scrimmage that the two teams had like on August afternoon somewhere.

A lot of times that was starters on starters and you can get a little more of a sense of, yeah, they're really happy with this person. They're not happy with that person. And you can get more information from that than you would have gotten from a preseason game where they're showing you what they want to show you. Because Detroit, for example, I know there's a lot of worry and consternation in that

fan base about losing Ben Johnson and what it's going to mean long term. But in the short term, there's no real evidence that there should be concerned. It's just more like this is what we think might happen, but you never got a chance to see what any of the effects are going to be during the preseason. Is there like a legitimate reason

for Lions fans to be concerned about a potential step back? That's an interesting team to bring up because first of all they had some bad injury news. Enos Rakes-Straaw, Levi Unzend, I was going to butcher his name, a defensive end. He got hurt for the year. But the rest of it is

they were putting their third and fourth stringers out there and their backup quarterback. So, really bad. Okay, so any team's backup quarterback is bad. The Lions' backups were really bad. They were trying to get Vernon Hooker on track. He's not really going to make the roster probably. They weren't playing anybody.

When you heard news of their scrimmages against other teams and their joint practices, they were destroying opponents like the dolphins in these practices. Then they'd go out there and just the sleepwalk through the season. So that's an example of the team. Maybe there should be a little wary because of injuries, but there shouldn't be this, like, terrified wary that, oh, no, now that Ben Johnson's gone, we're done. It shouldn't be like that.

We wouldn't have that kind of worry honestly about the bills who look kind of goofy in the preseason. We wouldn't have that kind of worry about the Chief. I think in the Lions case, they don't have a track record, so we worry a little bit more that that team that we see out there going through the motions is actually the real team. So the Seahawks start their season at home against San Francisco. Their second game is at Pittsburgh against Aaron Rogers and the Steelers.

And the Steelers start their season. at the New York Jets, which will be interesting. Yes. Is Rogers in a better position to succeed with the Steelers compared to the Jets? Absolutely not. Unless the argument is that when the Jets were bending over backwards

and customizing everything to Aaron Rogers' specifications, they were hurting him because he needs a kick in the pants, which would make sense if he was 25. I don't know if at 41 you need a kick in the pants. necessarily to get your act together. This is a team where you have Arthur Smith as an offensive coordinator. I don't think he's some great mind by any stretch of the imagination. Aaron Rogers is likely to tune him out.

You get rid of George Pickens. You're replacing with D.K. Metcalfe. Yes, Rogers and Metcalf are a connect with some bombs. What else do you have? It's not a very good situation. And frankly, I think folks have memory wiped how the Aaron Rogers jet season went last year, not just all the firings and all the drama, but just how bad Aaron Rogers looked.

He posted some attractive-looking statistics because they were down by like three touchdowns every single week, and he was throwing screen passes and short passes to get them within one score. He was not playing well. His mobility was terrible. And I think he's in a situation where if he tries to run a conventional offense, he's going to start throwing passes away.

He's going to take hits he doesn't want to hit, hits he doesn't want to take, especially at his age, and just look out below. if he starts having issues with Arthur Smith or certainly if he starts having issues with Mike Tomlin. The Steelers former quarterback, Russell Wilson, now the starter for the New York Giants. How long, though, before Jackson Dart gets his shot at that number of job? Because he has looked very good this preseason. He has looked very good this preseason.

And you always have to take that with a grain of salt. But give it two, three, four weeks. There's a lot of variables here. If Russell Wilson is game manufacturing, game managing wins because the, you know, the Giant, defense is getting a lot of sacks, and they're winning 20 to 14 or whatever. He'll keep that job. As soon as there's a little two-game losing streak, that is it. Gable's going to want to pull the plug.

He's going to want to make the change. He's going to want to get the spark out there because the coach and the general manager are in job preservation mode and they can't goof off. And frankly, I think DART has looked as ready as anyone is going to be to be the quarterback in New York. Not only, you know, does he look prepared on the field, but you get a little bit of that ultra-confident mentality he has. you need that kind of ultra-confident mentality to go out there in New York

and possibly take some lumps when you're the one who loses a game or two. Yeah, on the rookie quarterbacks thing, I didn't get a ton of opportunities to see Cam Ward play this preseason. I saw, I think, one drive. There probably wasn't many more than that. What did you see or maybe what are you waiting to see from Cam Ward now? He's loosey-goosey in terms of, like, his mechanics when he throws, and he'll make some very good decisions with bad.

What I saw on the field was enough. I was like, okay, he'll be fine. That team's going to win like four or five games. He'll be fine. Everything I hear about his mentality is super, super positive. He reminds me of stories I would hear about Jim Harbaugh when he was the quarterback of the Bears. I would go way back and how he would fight with defensive players.

Like he would be fighting with like Richard Dent and Dan Hapton, Mike Singletary. And he'd be out there yelling and screaming and getting in Mike Dick his face and that kind of stuff. And word is this ultra competitor. Like he is a grinder. He's like every cliche that you would have about a young quarterback who wants to go out there and chew nails and do that sort of thing. Mixed with a lot of talent, mixed with a really good arm and good mobility and everything like that.

He sounds like the kind of guy who's going to go out there win four or five games, but he's never going to lose his confidence. He's never going to lose the guys in the locker room. And I think that's the best that you can ask for a guy going into a really, really, really bad rebuilding team as a rookie. Mike, you're the best, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy the rest of the week and all the key dates, including roster cut down day. We'll do this again next Monday. Absolutely. Take care and enjoy your week. Yeah, you two. Thanks. That's Mike Tanier, our NFL insider and Monday morning quarterback from the two deep zone substack here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. What are you most excited about for the NFL season? Week one, Baltimore Buffalo. That's why I brought it up with Mike. I'm also excited that we get Thursday night football, Friday night football from Brazil. That's going to be Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs against the Chargers.

Chargers of the home team there, by the way. Case you're wondering. And then I'm very excited for that Sunday. nighter. Like, good job NFL for giving us Sunday night football, prime time. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen right away. Like, we get right into it. But mostly, I just want to get this thing going. It's been a long summer. And I'm very excited for the return of football. Which storyline, though. Like, I was like, what are you looking forward to? The games. It's a good. It's a good answer. It's a good answer. I love football games. Like, does, I mean, are we interested in the Aaron Rogers story anymore?

Russell Wilson I'm interested to see how long Russ can hold that starting job for I actually and I had this argument conversation with Jimmy Dodd

while you were on vacation prior to us both going on vacation and I said I actually think that that team might be better might win more games than a lot of people think

because they've got a good defense and they got good sort of pieces around Russ and if it goes bad for us they've got what we're going to play our rookie Jackson Dart

we're going to throw in and he'll give us a spark so I'm kind of interested to watch that The Rogers thing I don't have any sort of emotional investment in it because I'm so tired of Aaron Rogers I just none of it interests me anymore

It interests me because they're the Seahawks week two opponent So I want to know how they look like To look forward to the game at that Like it's sure sure yeah yeah yeah The Seahawks thing I've spent an inordinate amount of time reading about What Clint Kubiak is implemented offensively And how all the players like there's a really great clip

I think it's too arcane to play on the air But you know Jake Bobo Bobo He's got this great clip where he talks very nuanced about what the play calling is like now as opposed to previous regimes and how innovative and how like it's really engaging and intriguing for all the guys on offense. So I am curious to watch it, but I'm also cognizant in the fact that the Seahawks have for the first time in a long, long time, no buzz. None nationally. Like they are complete afterthought. No buzz, though.

If they've got an offensive line, that's what I care about. Yeah, I think that they'll probably end up being close to a 500 team. And then if everything goes well, especially on the defensive side of the ball, like I think that their offense is going to just score enough points to keep them in games and they're going to win games by being a really good defensive team. But the aspirations and the expectations for a lot of us are sort of mid. It's just like they're going to be there. Yeah.

They're in a division that's not super strong, so they're going to hang around it. But no one's got crazy high expectations because these all these other teams that you're really intrigued by. Like I find the Baltimore and Buffalo things well established, right? Both those guys need Super Bowls. We didn't talk at all with Mike about Philly, and that's the defending champ. I looked at their record over the last, I think it was three years, four years, it's like 45 and 14. Like they've been in an absolute wheelhouse.

And then you talk about Patrick Mahomes. And yet they've got this fan base that before then had just like just hated the coach. Yeah. It still kind of does. Yeah. Even though he wins. They still don't kind of love him. Anyway, I got to do one more thing before we go to break.

I need to tell everybody about Jan, From warehouses to washrooms and everywhere in between, JanPro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected for a free quote. Visit them online at janpro.ca. Okay, are we talking to J.C. Abbott next. We've got to talk about the BC lines who, they're very inconsistent. Some weeks they leave you like, well, this guys could be something. They might go on a run.

And then comes a performance like the performance against... Some weeks they lose to John Arbuckle. Sometimes they lose to... owner of Garfield. And we'll talk to J.C. Abbott coming up next on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. 733 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford and Brough, Sportsnet, 650.

Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We're in our two of the program. We're at the midway point of the show. J.C. Abbott from Three Down Nation. DC Lions writer is going to join us in a moment here to talk about a very, very embarrassing performance to the Lions on the weekend in Toronto. 52 to 34 on the wrong end of that scoreline.

As mentioned, we are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is bratsed by Jason Hominoch at Jason.morgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dom Mortgage. To the phone lines we go from three-down nation, BC Lions reporter. J.C. Abbott joins us here now

on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, J.C., how are you? I'm doing well, guys. How bad was that performance by the BC Lions? Let's just start with the defensive side of the football on Saturday in Toronto. Well, when you're talking about bad, I think that's the only side that you have to look at

because on offense, they did enough to win, right? wasn't perfect. There's that pick six. I'm sure you'd want back, but they did enough to win 99% of football games, except the defense didn't show up. And it's as simple as that. We've talked about them throughout this season, some of their struggles, some of their inconsistencies. A lot of times they've had poor endings to games, suspect performances, where you can point in one direction and say, well, here's a redeeming quality. Here's something they did well. I don't think there is any of that on this occasion. They looked straight up lost against Toronto, and they couldn't generate a pass rush. They couldn't disrupt Nick

Arbuckle, who was protected by what some would argue is the worst offensive line in the CFL right now. And in the secondary, they were dazed and confused, right? Massive busts down the field, huge miscommunications. When they weren't blowing assignments, they were getting beat one-on-one. So that can't happen against a last-place team that was missing their best receiver. There's absolutely no excuse for it.

I know the Argos haven't been a terrible offense. Nick Arbuckle has put up some numbers this season, but this was an opportunity for the Lions to make a statement to get a win that on paper they should have gotten, and one side of the football just blew it. So, J.C., what's going on here? Is this a coaching issue? Is this a personnel issue?

You know, I think there's a little bit of both at this stage, right? Mike Rodriguez has proven that sometimes he can get it done, right? He's a veteran coach. I have a ton of respect for him. but these are consistent schematic problems and clearly something isn't fully clicking with what he's asking these guys to do because when you're in week 12

you just can't have those types of errors consistently at the same time he doesn't have every piece he needs right you look at that defensive line and they found some nice interior pass rushers or interior defensive linemen but they're not getting what they need off the edge Matthew Betts still gets pressure. He's still a top half defensive lineman or defensive end in the league. But other than that, they're not getting what they need consistently from those defensive end positions.

And he hasn't been getting home for the sacks that you're expecting when you're paying him $260,000 this season. And then in the back end, you know, guys like Deonti Williams, yes, he hits like a Mack truck. but I don't know that he is well-suged to covering in space like they are asking him to do right now. And the linebacking core, with all due respect to Mike Awey, who I think is perhaps the smartest player in the CFL and has done a good job against the run this season and racked up at ton of tackles and statistically at the top of the league,

being in coverage isn't his strong suit. And they had to do that a ton against the Argos. They did not necessarily have the personnel packages in, I thought, to really handle what Ryan Dinwiddie was throwing at them. So there's a bigger coaching there. I know that Beggis will want to reshuffle the pieces again after the bye week. But there's also places where this team has needed to find talent or bring in extra pieces. and just hasn't.

Can they do that now? You can. You probably can't do it as much as you would like to, right? And I look at that defensive end position, and there's not a lot of guys out there on the market who are free that you can go and acquire, right? Trades are extremely rare in the CFL because nobody's really out of it.

There's not necessarily a guy with CFO experience who's going to be cut from the NFL in the next couple days that you can pay a whack load of money to like he did with Matthew Betts last year. And I think the sense is that Hayden Harris, who is their top draft pick this past year, who is with the Buffalo Bills and was since released on an injury settlement, is still a. assessing his NFL opportunities and is unlikely to come up here this year. So on the whole fronts, it's pretty slim pickings at the positions where you need. Now, you can still add a complete unknown. We've seen guys come in late in CFL seasons and have an impact, even as an NFL camp cut. It's less frequent than it used to be because of some of the alternative leagues with the UFL and expand. practice rosters in the NFL, those guys tend to linger longer south of the border.

I know that Ryan Regman will be pounding the pavement with the rest of his scouting staff to try and find that diamond in the rough. But I think as it stands right now, this team's flaws are, this team's flaws, and they can tweak them, but they're going to have to learn how to deal with them. What is the most likely outcome right now for the Lions? They're through 11 games of the season. still plenty of time to go, but, you know, I'm looking at that crossover spot in the East Division because the inconsistency of the Lions, you know, the Rothriders are 8 and 2, the stamps are 7 and 3,

the Blue Bombers are 6 and 4. You know, I mean, the Elks are hot on their trail, right? You know, the possibility of missing the playoffs is out there. Yeah, I still think this is a playoff team, but that crossover spot seems like the most likely. And that's not because I think the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are necessarily dramatically better than the BC lines or even more consistent. They've had their struggles. And you look two weeks ago, they very narrowly escaped against Ottawa on a game they probably should have lost. And that will have had the lines with the same amount of wins as them if that game had gone the other way.

But BC has already lost the season series against Winnipeg. and that's the critical thing. I think if these teams are nodded at the end of the season, right, that nods going to Winnipeg to stay in the West, and the crossover seems likely. It can't be taken for granted. You mentioned Edmonton is nipping on your heels. That loss against Toronto will also loom large

because now you've let that team off the mat. I still think the Lions with what they've been able to accomplish thus far and some of the games, I'm sure we'll see down the stretch from Nathan Rourke are going to be able to make that push. But I think they're ultimately going to have to head out east in November. We're speaking to J.C. Abbott, B.C. Lyons, writer from Three Down Nation here on the Halpert & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, J.C., I wanted to ask you something more like big picture league-wide stuff.

And it's funny, I read a couple things while we were on vacation and saw a lot of it online about the way that Luke Wilson has covered the league this year and how he's sort of become one of the, if not the, biggest stories of the CFL in terms of how he's covered it and not pulling any punches and taking the lead to task on occasion, but also kind of having a passion for the league and for Canadian football in general to try and grow. As someone that's covered the league as closely as you have

and knows all the nuances and wrinkles of it, what have you thought about how this year has played out with a media member having such a prominent role in the narrative of the season. It's certainly been a fascinating story and to be entirely transparent. Luke is not a fan of mine. We've gone back and forth a few times.

So I'm perhaps a little bit biased here. I think there's lots of advantages to what Luke has brought to the table. I think he's extremely sharp as an analyst. I think he's been a breath of fresh air on those TSN broadcasts, which frankly have been, you know, badly needing some sort of new element.

and he's brought that to the table. And I don't think he's wrong with a lot of his criticism. Sometimes the league needs to be taken to account. And we do that as media members at Three Gunn Nation. I know other people do that as well. But sometimes it's nice to have a fresh set of eyes. What I will say about Luke is sometimes I think he goes about it in a way that makes himself the story rather than the actual problem.

he's trying to address. Sometimes he can rub people the wrong way or steer into hyperbole. He gets into it with fans who are ultimately, you know, the lifeblood of this league and their passion is what keeps it, you know, going year in and year out amidst all the other problems.

So even when you're trying to call things out, you don't necessarily want to hit the good things in the crossfire. And I think he does that from, time to time. Some of his social media antics need to be toned down. I think when he's getting called out internally from TSM and told to delete some things, or the CFL is pushing to, as he would put it, muzzle him as if he were a cockroach, I believe, is the statements he was putting on Twitter. That's not a great look. And it's what's made a story, right? Is there

seems to be this advantage to him and this pushback from the league. It's going to be one throughout the season. I hope that he finds the happy medium because I think the league is better off when we have those types of voices but there is a little bit of

sandpaper that needs to be taken to his approach just to shave off the rough edges. Why am I still being asked to download PDFs when I'm looking for CFL stats? Like have they not fixed this yet?

All I wanted to do is I wanted to find out where the Lions' defense ranks among the league. I cannot find it. Am I doing this wrong, or is this something the league still needs to address? Well, I think there's a backdoor you can go about if you Google team stats, but you shouldn't need a backdoor to do it.

It's the real reality there, right? like genius sports since they've partnered with the league and taken over the stats and done all that has has really flubbed it on a number of occasions and you know it it seemed like things returning the corner last year and again we've had stats issues this year we've had issues with their updated historical stats that they were supposed to be going back into the archives and completing you know it's pretty bad when I'm researching for an article and I'm dragging up stats from the CFL website and I've got to fact check them and that's something that consistently us in the media have to do right now

because we cannot rely on what the CFL has on offer. It has not been a good partnership thus far and I think that's a thing that Commissioner Stuart Johnston needs to address at at some point is whether this is still viable going forward with Genius Sports. What have you truly offered us? We just saw this week U-Sports football, you know, Canadian University football, had their statute issues, but they went away from Genius Sports this week and went with another partner. They're dealing with issues because that's what U-Sports does.

but when you've got an amateur collegiate outfit moving away from that product, maybe it's not good enough for you as a professional league. And I think it really damages your image as the CFL when you have these sort of base level problems for fans and media members. Didn't Randy Ambrosi give Genius Sports 10% equity of the league's commercial alarm, too? Like, they get... Yes, indeed.

Right? Maybe Genius Sports should give that back. Well, I mean, what are you paying for at this stage, right? Like, you've had other stats partners in the past that have been far more reliable. I know that Genius Sports has allegedly so many other things that they can do for you, but I'd be interested to see the list, right? If there's things we're missing, things we're not noticing, this is a question that probably has to be posed to Stuart Johnson,

but what exactly are you getting from genius sports every single year? Because the things that are publicly attributed to them, like the stat system, so frequently do not function, unless there is something that we are just completely unaware of that they are massively helping out with, I just don't see the justification for it. Unless they're the Argo's offensive coordinator or something like.

J.C., always fun to chat with you. We'll chat again soon. Awesome. Thanks for having me on, guys. Thanks for coming on. That's J.C. Abbott from Three Down Nation here on the Halperton Brough show on SportsNet 650. Do you remember all the hype that genius sports was getting? How was it going to change the way you watch the games? Apparently if you want the daily stats, you can actually mail the CFL, And then they mail the game stats back to you six to eight weeks later.

It helps if you do it on a bi-week because your stats don't change. Yeah, yeah. They're like written out in cursive. Yeah, they have one person doing it. It's crazy, man. She's 97. Like all I wanted to do was, all right, there's nine teams in the league. I want to find out where the lions rank defensively.

You know, yards against, average yards against, points against. Where do they rank? There's only nine teams. I can't find that information. That's the wild thing. There's so few teams that you think that would make it easier. Because they don't have to do, it's not like you have 32 teams to keep track.

And the other thing is that it's 2025. Yeah. We have the technology. We have computers. They're doing real good. Hell, fax it to me. You don't even have to mail it, just fax it. Is there any other website out there that has an option to click on a PDF file?

No. I deal with a lot of junior hockey leagues. I can't think of any. They all have their stats just posted on their websites Yeah Pretty low budget Okay I want to Before we got a password to open the PDF

We got a five minutes before we go to break I want to I want to fire back up The Connor Bedard to Vancouver Narrative that I've been pushing for What feels like a long time I'm gonna keep doing it I'm gonna keep doing Have you got something to run on here

Sure do Got some audio from Frank Sarah Valley here A couple clips over the weekend So this is After the Frank Nizard deal went down in Chicago. A lot of people kind of looked at the roster construction. They're like, hey, Connor Bedard was eligible

to sign an extension. That hasn't happened yet. What's going on there? Let's get some further intel from NHL inside a current free agent, Frank Saravale on what's going on. We've got two clips here. Let's play the first. This is from Bleacher Report over the weekend. Frank Sarvalley on Connor Bedard as it relates to

the Frank Nazar contract. He was eligible to sign an extension as of July 1st. That hasn't happened yet. I think both sides seem pretty content in sitting back and waiting to see how this all-important third year plays out after a bit of a disappointing sophomore season. Does this 6.6 number for Frank Nazar, given that he kind of outplayed Connor Bedard, does that suppress Badard's next contract?

If he was thinking in the $9 to $10 million range, if he's going long term, does this push that number down? hard to say because again there's a real likelihood that badard is going to play this out and see how year three goes before signing that deal and there's no rush to do it from either end it's going to be a really interesting conversation because nazar has now put a number on the table so let's just be clear here uh nazar got his deal after 56 games in the n hl grand total of 56 with the chicago black hawks connor bard is currently at 150 games played and you're yet both parties are more than happy to wait for a third year to play out before they enter contract negotiations on whatever the deal will be. I'm not really so sure that the number that Nazar signed at is going to suppress a future deal.

I'm more intrigued by the fact that after 56 games, both parties were ready to make that commitment there, yet after 150 for Bardard, they're not. Let's continue on. Here's more audio from Frank on the Connor Bardard situation. Putting those two guys side by side. last season, again, not a hot take. I think Frank Nazar was the better player down the stretch. Connor Bard had a lot that was weighing on him.

Attitude, frustration, a lot of things that were packed into last season and carrying a significant weight on his shoulders. But moving forward, I think what it does is sets the table for a really interesting season number three for Bardard. Look, if we're going to live in a world where every day now, we wait about the future of Quinn Hughes in Vancouver, right? we may as well start doing the exact same thing about Connor Bardard in Chicago.

That's a ridiculous tick. The Hawks still have years of club control over Connor Bedard. The Canucks do not with Quinn Hughes. And Quinn Hughes is also a much, much better player than Connor Bedard is.

I would not disagree with that. What I would say is that I will be monitoring It's fun to start rumors. One, it's very fun to start rumors. I think that there is something in Chicago where, and I don't know, I don't know exactly what it is, but between the body language and how last year went

and why they decided to commit to Nazar that quickly. And why both sides, what's... Well, the Nazar bet was probably a really good bet from the Blackhawks. Sure. He's a good young player and they got him on a good cap hit. Okay. But the question would be... Badard expectations are going to be way higher than Frank Nazars.

Yeah, because you not make the argument that after what is considered possibly a down year or a year where, as Frank put it, that, you know, he might have been outplayed by Nazar of the second half of the season. Now would be the time to pounce on the opportunity to sign that extension. Sarah Valley also said he has a toad. You see, an attitude. Yeah, well, yeah, but if you're Bard, Baddard's not going to want any part of that. Why would Bedard come to the negotiating table now after that down season when he doesn't have to? Right. Why would he go at all?

Why wouldn't he just say wait until that this third year is done? He explodes and then the ass gets even bigger. I would say Bedard, to be perfectly honest with you, is probably the guy that I am most curious about this season. It's a huge year for him. Because the first year, you know, the expectations were high and he won the rookie of the year. But I think some people were like, I thought it'd be better. And then the second year, honestly, man. I went to the game, I said, had good seats for that game.

And when was it? I think it was, I want to say November in Vancouver. Maybe it was, I could be wrong. It's okay. Don't get cut up in the details. There was a game in Vancouver. Oh, it was, it was the one where he gave it away to Miller? No, no, no.

That was the first one. It was in March. And the Blackhawks lost 6 to 2, and Bedard was minus 2. and then remember he got like a game misconduct in the other 10-minute misconduct. He was awful in that game. What are we doing here? What do you mean? What are we doing here?

He's a teenager with almost a point per game. I think he's not. He's not a series of the NHL. Oh, that's really. And they're a terrible team. Here's what I'm doing. Here's what I'm doing here. I think it's a kid.

That's why I'm curious. I think it's a kid with infinite talent. I think he's a kid that is a diehard Canucks fan who went, you know, he's in the spring, he's a Calder Cup final games. right he's in attendance for a Calder Cup final game in Abbotsford born and raised in North Vancouver loves the Canucks and we are entering an era where we've got prime local BC bread talent who grew up

because we're old we didn't grow up on the 2011 team I mean and I know some people find out like Badar was very young but his favorite player is Tyler Mott right like we joke we joke about that but the point being is like the Canucks to the younger generation or a far different thing than they were to our generation, right? I think that's fair. You growing up, remember them as being lovable losers for a large part. That's not what a group of 20-somethings and early 30-somethings have.

Like, the connects were actually quite good. And a lot of people whose formative years were based around 2011 and beyond, saw some pretty good hockey. Anyway, whatever the point may be there. The situation in Chicago, I also want to point out, Chicago's been rotten since he's got there. Now, yeah, the reason you get the number on overall pick is because you're a bad team. But, I mean, I don't know how much better

they're going to be this year. I don't either. Yeah. I don't have a ton of faith in anything that they've done around Bedard. I don't. And here's the thing. When you're in that rarefied air of talent

and you see other guys in your peer group having the good times and excelling, like I think this year with the Olympic selection thing, I think it's a massive, massive young benchmark moment in his career where he's going to find out where he stacks up among the elites. Right? Because if he's surpassed and some people already think that he has been by

Celebrini, like those things matter to elite athletes. That's who they gauge himself with, is their peers. We got to go. We do have to go. We're way up against it for time. Coming up on the other side of break, they're very cool. One of the most recognizable and famous sports agents of all time, Lee Steinberg, one of the inspirations behind the J.R. McGuire movie. He's going to join us next. We're going to talk a lot of NFL with Lee.

That's all coming up on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.