Halford & Brough in the Morning - Mike Sando on NFL QB Tiers List + What We Learned

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

In hour three, guest hosts Josh Elliott-Wolfe and Jamie Dodd are joined by the Athletic's Mike Sando. Mike discusses his 2025 NFL QB Tiers list, who are the top movers from last season, the top surprises on the list, and more on the NFL. Plus, the guys tell us what they learned. 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.

Welcome back to Halford and Brough, Josh Elliott-Wolf, Jamie Dodd, Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn out a consumer proposal reduces your depth. by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit sands dash trustee.com. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit Campbell-Dashpound.com today.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. And guests on Sportsnet 650. Call in on the hotline powered by PowerWest Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at powerwest. today they keep the lights on and we go to the hotline now powered by power west industries and we welcome in mike sando covers the NFL for the athletic and had a great piece up one i look forward to every

year with quarterback tiers comprised from a panel of six gms six a gm six former gms five other executives eight head coaches 19 other coaches and fifth including 15 coordinator so a big panel this. Appreciate taking the time, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you? We are doing very, very well. And when you were putting this together, taking all the votes, tallying the votes, however it goes, what was the biggest surprise for you as you were putting this together? I thought people might downgrade Jared Gough a little with Ben Johnson leaving as the Lions offensive coordinator, but instead he rose. I didn't really think Matthew Stafford would make the jump to Tier 1, although he was close before,

so it's not like there's a big sea change on him. He just sort of inched up with a few more votes. And then I wasn't sure, you know, really where maybe Aaron Rogers would fall. He ended up getting votes in four different tiers. He's down in tier three between Kyler Murray and Tuatunga below us, so that's kind of weird to see. Yeah, no kidding. It's definitely not where we've been accustomed to seeing Aaron Rogers,

but you can also understand with the age and some of the injury history and performance that he ends up there. And as you said, votes in four different tiers pretty much the most divisive and I guess hard to pin down guy in these rankings, at least according to your panel. What were some of the arguments to have him a lot higher?

What were some of the more negative arguments that you encountered for Aaron Rogers? Well, the higher ones would be that he actually got a little bit healthier coming off his Achilles injury last season was better late in the year. Now give him a whole offseason. He'll be healthier.

and a little bit closer to his top form. That's probably the argument for him. The arguments against him are really that, hey, he's 41 years old. The injury was a real thing. That's not good to have had that. He's just showed up to the Steelers in June. That's awful late, especially for somebody who seems kind of finicky and wants to be on the exact same page with wide receivers.

Well, the receivers there in Pittsburgh don't really fit the mold of the route running type guys, the precise guys that he has liked. D.K. Metcalfe himself is new there. And then there's no history between Rogers and his offensive coordinator. There are Arthur Smith. So I would think that we're going to see some ups and down, some good, some bad, and the whole key will be his health. I think if he can weather the season, he probably has a chance to get better as it goes along.

But that's a big if at his age with his injury history. The interesting thing I like to keep an eye on every season is the Mike Tomlin will we get over 500 this season and this feels like one of the ones, and I've said it in the past, so maybe it just won't ever happen, but one of the years where it has the highest possibility of it, of not happening, what do you think the situation is there and how do you kind of see this season unfolding for the Steelers? Well, I think that if Rogers is their quarterback, they have a great chance to be, you know, to keep the streak alive simply because they've been able to keep the streak alive. live with lesser quarterbacks. Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, they're way down in the

quarterback tiers below Rogers. And even before that, you know, they had some real issues on offense with Kenny Pickett and then a coordinator in Matt Canada who struggled. So I would think that, you know, they have a pretty good chance with Tomlin and Rogers, even if it's imperfect, even if we think Rogers has some issues to keep the streak alive. You did mention Matthew Stafford earlier and that was one of the big surprises for me when I was going through it was that he was kind of in that in that tier one conversation albeit just kind of not at the same level of the other guys obviously what about him was viewed as a tier one quarterback in the in the panels on well I think he's a throwback to the pocket

passers who can solve your defense they're very difficult to fool and then he's he can make incredible throws I think his ability late in games. He's probably one of the most feared quarterbacks if you're on defense trying to preserve a lead or stop him from driving the length of the field. And we saw that in the really bad conditions in the championship, or in the divisional

round, I believe it was in Philadelphia last year where it was snowy or, you know, blustery. And he had the eventual Super Bowl champion Eagles on their heels and really moving them down the field. So I think he is feared and respected on a level for his

experienced talent, sort of moxie, on a level that most guys can't match. One of the fun things about how long you've been doing this exercise, Mike, is we get to kind of track where different quarterbacks rank over time. Do they move up in the rankings? Do they jump between tiers? And, you know, I'm looking at a couple of the quarterbacks in tier two. Jaden Daniels, of course, who was phenomenal as a rookie last year.

And C.J. Stroud with the Texans as well, still a very young, promising quarterback. Are those the kind of two guys to be monitoring who have a chance to maybe take that leap to tier one this time around next year? Yeah, I think Stroud and Daniels are two good ones to watch. Now, there's a little bit of a, it's hard to get into tier one. I mean, it really is. And so I'll give you a little bit of a history of these up-and-coming quarterbacks.

So about four years ago, Justin Herbert set the record since I've been doing quarterback tiers in 2014. He was the highest average vote for anyone making their debut in quarterback tiers as a second-year player. We don't have rookies in there. And then Stroud came along and beat that last year. And now Daniels came along and beat Stroud. Now, Herbert sort of plateaued and, you know, has lost Tier 1 votes since everybody

thought for sure he was going to go to Tier 1. Stroud, you know, went, I think last year after his rookie season, I think he had 12 Tier 1 votes. He only had one this year. Daniels had 17 Tier 1 votes. So it's not a guarantee, but definitely guys to watch. You saw, you know, Houston with Stroud got rid of their offensive coordinator who was a hot candidate for head coaching jobs because they feel like they need to be better than what they've been. Justin Herbert has lost his left tackle.

They want to run the ball with Jim Haribati. So you question whether he's going to get up there. You know, but I think those are all super talented guys who have the ability to get there. And on the flip side of that, of the potential risers, who do you look at and think, you know what? They're kind of precariously holding on to their spot in the rankings this year. and they might be due for a fall if things don't go their way. Well, certainly Matthew Stafford, his age is one. I think Dak Prescott coming off an injury last year is probably a little bit

stiffer as an athlete than he's been in the past. I think that's somebody who could slip. Obviously, Rogers is already slipping. I think it remains to be seen with two at Tunga Lola, just with his health long term, looking through the rest of these guys. Russell's really on his way out. fall in every year. This may be his last year as a starter. It may not even start the whole

year. So I think those are some in the hole to watch as fallers. Sam Darnold was the biggest riser from last season. Rose up. Eight spots moved up a tier as well into tier three. Do you see more

upside, more rise in his game, or could it potentially go the other way with the switch to Seattle? Yeah, I think that it definitely could go, it could be volatile and go your way. Now, I will say this about Seattle. They're a good team on defense. They moved into the top 10 on defense last year.

I think they were bottom five the year before. And they switched their scheme. They're going to run the ball. They're going to go to that Cal Shanahan style of offense. Darnold's familiar with it. So I think it's set up for him to be okay. The issue with him is, this is where I think Seattle's not as good after moving line from Gino Smith.

I think there's still questions about him as a two-minute quarterback. when he really has to throw, when the ships are down, that sort of a thing. Where I think, you know, Smith was a little bit better at handling that. So I think if, if things go, you know, pretty well for them offensively, they're able to run the ball, I think Donald's going to be fine. I just don't know that he can make up for it if it doesn't work well with what's around him. You know, we're talking QBTers here, Mike, and we haven't mentioned Patrick Mahomes, who, of course, consensus number one still.

And the sub headline for the write-up about him is the, quote, the best quarterback to ever live, but also in there, there's some talk about maybe the gap between him and the next guys on the list getting a little smaller. Is it fair to say that since he's become kind of the consensus, anointed number one quarterback in the league, that this is the smallest the gap has been between him and whoever you want to have next, two, three, four? I think so from this standpoint. Look, the Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are young guys who could still be getting better. And Joe for that matter is on the underside, too.

So I think that's what it is, is that Mahomes clearly has the best pedigree. He's probably the most feared guy at the end of the game. You have to give him his due. But would you say that he's harder to defend than Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson? You might not say that. Yeah. Right? So I think that's where that comes in.

Mahomes is still the most respected guy. But I do believe that gap is a little smaller with Allen and Jackson being such dynamic players. Yeah, you mentioned Josh Allen, and that was another surprise for me, I guess, that he didn't get, you know, just the clear cut all of the tier one votes. A few of the voters had him as a tier two quarterback. What was the reasoning from them for that? Well, there's still a real value or added value or emphasis placed on your ability as a passer. And while Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, for that matter, are good passers.

They're not seen as being as quite as elite passing the ballast. ball is Mahomes and Burrough. So I think that's why a few guys, there was one voter, I believe, who only had Burrow and Mahomes in Tier 1. So if you have a super small Tier 1 focused on, hey, passing is king in the league and all that quarterback run is great, but when you get the playoffs, sometimes that dries up. You've got to be able to throw the ball from the pocket to win. That's where you get maybe a couple kind of quarterback snobs, right, who have a smaller list. And so to them, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson rely on their legs, they're not quite as good as passers possibly. So, you know, that's where it comes from for them.

But that's a small group of people. It's like, you know, four people maybe. You mentioned some of the, you know, as we're talking about the elite guys at the top of these rankings and the potential for Lamar and Josh Allen to still improve. And certainly they've improved their standing in the eyes of the panel that you're talking to in the NFL community. Could we be sitting here in a year? Like, is there a path to Patrick Mahomes is no longer the clear-cut consensus number one guy by the time you're compiling this next year? There's always that chance.

I mean, I think if, you know, some of this could have to do with postseason success as well. So, you know, if Josh Allen were to, you know, win the Super Bowl with an incredible MVP-type season, there's going to be some talk. And Mahomes, let's just say Mahomes, you know, had some injuries or his. just another year where his offensive stats were just okay, and they bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. You'd probably have more of a conversation. But last I checked, Patrick Mohn was in the Super Bowl last year.

They were 11 and 0 in one-score games. He's still able to vanquish Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson in the playoffs. Hey, Mike, we really appreciate taking the time and enjoy the lead-up to NFL season here. Thank you. You too. There is Mike Sando from The Athletic. And, yeah, if you want to read his latest piece, see the full list. can go to the athletic and read the reasoning behind it.

See all the tiers. It's really good visuals too. It's just always a satisfying thing. Just bang up work at the athletic. I love tears. I love tears. And he mentions Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. And again, to me, especially with Alan, there was a bit of a surprise that he didn't just get all across the board tier one votes.

But that being said, I do think there's a, there's an element of for both. him and Lamar, eventually you got to beat Mahomes. Well, I also think, and the Matthew Stafford ranking really crystallizes this as well, and Sando was talking about it. The evaluators still put such a premium on old school pocket passing, right? And Stafford is, that's how he gets in here, because he is so elite at picking a part of the defense, you can make any throw. And Lamar and Josh Allen have both grown leaps and bounds in that way, right? And that was always the knock against them. Do they have that in their game? I think they've shown they have. So I don't necessarily think it's fair to kind of knock them down

because if you're still thinking, oh, Lamar Jackson's just a runner, he can't beat you with his arm. That's wrong. He can absolutely beat you with his arm. So can Josh Allen. But I think there's still that kind of lingering doubt because that wasn't who they were when they came into the league. And that's what kind of gets them knocked down in the eyes.

I don't like the argument, you know, Josh, you said, Alan needs to beat Mahomes. Alan's done everything that he possibly can on offense. to win. His defense gives up 30 plus points in every single playoff loss that Josh Allen's been in. He can only do so much. You know what I mean? I get where you're coming from, but I do think when we're talking about like the voter aspect to this, they're always going to look at it and be like, well, the bills haven't made the Super Bowl or the Ravens haven't made the Super Bowl. And while I can, I can look at Josh Allen and I'd be like, you know what, to me he is a clear cut tier one quarterback,

no questions about it. Same with Lamar Jackson. I do understand at least where they're coming from. when it's you know what like you have to get through to the Super Bowl and I do believe that even just from a Ravens and Bill's team perspective I do think it's really important for like I kind of think this is the year one of them

have to make the Super Bowl it's been it's been a while it feels like the path is has never as we talk about the gap between them and Mahomes getting smaller the chiefs have never looked more vulnerable especially given what we saw in the Super Bowl against a loaded Eagles team you're right like if not now when

right it really feels like this has to be the year for one of them yeah uh 650 650 dumbar lumber text line keep the text coming in there i get your what we learns in i figured we uh we have some extra time here so why don't we we'll get into our own and then we'll try to hit the uh humanoid ones on the other side of the break so get those in 650 650 on the dumb bar lumber text line do we all have one today i should letty doesn't have one laddie laddie you know what we're not carry this we're not doing this anymore I saw one and I was like maybe I'll make that mine And then I was like no I'll leave that for Laddie

He'll have that cover now I forget what it was It must have been some baseball thing I was like don't worry Laddie will take care of that Baseball goalie Mixed together They're putting goalies in baseball And you're letting me down

Okay so we have three of them Do we want to start? Why don't we start with a We'll start with Elon today Are you ready? Yeah this is a report coming out The Shohei Otani and his agent Accused of sabotaging a $240 million

dollar real estate project, it says that Otani and his agent who are brought into the venture solely for Otani's promotional and branding value exploited their celebrity leverage to destabilize and ultimately dismantle plaintiff's role in the project for no reason other than their own financial self-interest. What is going on? What's going to all with show hair? You've got to find another translator to take the fault. Essentially what happened was they built this giant or they were going to build this giant resort town. with like a bunch of houses for sale and Otani was going to buy one

and then eventually his agent just kept asking for more and more concessions like okay we'll do it if you put this there we'll do it if you do this and it got to the point where what didn't even make sense for them to do this project anymore because they were conceding so much to the Otani side but the project doesn't go forward without Otani's involvement and they knew that

that's what they're alleging here in this so they're basically playing hardball extract as much from these guys as they could and then it blew up but that's not illegal like that's not a I don't think it doesn't look good it might not be cool behavior but it's like I don't know

the deal blew up tough luck Is the guy hurting for money Like Shohay? Yeah does he really need a lot of it I'm guessing he wasn't like sitting down Answering the phone calls and being like Give me more I'm pretty sure it was running through his agent That would be sick though

Who employs the agent Ultimately he's responsible I do show he's just really bad at hiring people It's just like you're like oh I'll take whoever He needs to hire a guy to hire a guy to hire his people wait wait a minute this has been my thought though because like every time

every time I see show him we obviously he's a very public figure though private life it's like he seems like a nice guy he looks very friendly seems like such a genuine seems very manicure maybe he's too trusting does it not seem very manicured his image his when he uh

how did he describe his wife a normal Japanese woman that's sketchy why would you say that yeah why would you say that like that. I think maybe he's just, he's not a good judge of character maybe. I kind of think that. I think, I don't

think it's him that's like, no. Some people on Twitter are like, oh man, what if show is like just a... Diabolical. Behind the scenes. He's just a villain. But I kind of think he's just like bad at hiring people. Probably trust people too much. Yeah, very trusting. Yeah. Yeah. You know what?

Unless it comes out that this is all show his fault. Show hey, look, hire me to manage your affairs. I'm a great dude, very above board. Cool. Five million a year. I'll do it. No problem. I don't know what's going on. So I will, I won't do anything bad. Be very conservative of your money. Yes. Okay. Mucal that. Mine along the lines of previous show hay related stuff involves betting. Sure. And prop bets. And so a recent story put up on ESPN.com features a few athletes who supposedly

are getting Venmo requests from people who have lost on prop bets because obviously people you know, you put however much money down a grand, two grand on a golfer to get a certain score or do whatever. Wow, you're just throwing around two grand bets on golf tournaments here, Josh?

No, no, no, no, that's one. Oh, I see. That's not me. That's one of the request for, I think it was Max Homo. It was for like $1,900. Sure. And the caption on the request, because on Venmo, you can send a request, you can see their account, like Max Homa's account.

So someone requested $1,900 from Max Homa, and the caption was because you can't putt under pressure. And so that's one of them. I think Brady Kachuk was also in the article. Yeah. And he said, I eventually had to change my name on Venmo because people got a hold of it, and they were requesting money from Brady Kach. So apparently people are so.

upset about losing prop bets or losing bets that they go on Venmo and maybe some people are like joking about it. They know it's never going to happen. But, uh, this has been on the rise to even DMs. Like players are getting DMs. And can we just all agree this is like extreme loser behavior? This is yeah. Like if you're doing this, even if it's a joke, you're a loser. You're a loser. Grow up. Get over yourself if you're doing that. And the SPNPs that you're referencing is really good. And this is kind of the later side of it. Like, oh, that's so wacky they're sending Venmo's and Brady Kachuk kind of laughs it off and basically says

in typical Kachuk fashion like I just think it's funny but there's a darker side too right and I mean as with a lot of things gambling related there's a darker side to it and people get in pretty deep and there's death threats made against athletes in this case right so it's easy to kind of laugh it off

it's like oh they're so rich it's just a joke it like don't do it just absolutely this falls into the same category of me you know when when Canada loses at the world juniors and people go find like the kids Instagram pages and they get mad at them for it's like that you are a loser if you were doing that you don't need to do that don't interact with them leave them alone let them do their thing do not send them Venmo requests yeah it's it's it's over

the top and it's definitely yeah it's it's crazy how much this is evolved to a point where it's like people are and it like the social media aspect of it doesn't help because you have access to all these players or athletes or celebrities whatever it is and you can DM them and who like most of the time the assumption is I think by a lot of people that like oh they're never going to read this and I'm mad and I'm going to I'm going to message and then eventually they do read it and you get exposed online and they'll post your your weird information or whatever it is and it's just like yeah you you put yourself in a bad spot and you paid for it but yeah it can be a slippery slope and it's definitely uh I don't know it's not uh not a great look not cool

My other takeaway from that is, why does America use this, like, open public bank transfer system? Like, it's so weird as a Canadian. The idea that you can just, like, look up Brady Kachuk on Venmo? It's so weird to me. It's my real name and my, like, old profile picture. I'm like, dude, change. I understand it has to do with, like, the banking systems and stuff. But, like, why is that acceptable down there?

It makes no sense to me. Yeah, e-transfer is a better system. As far as I'm aware. This college, this just came out, this college football player, his Venmos got leaked. and apparently he was venmoing a bookie and it said USC versus Clemson which is illegal for him to bet on literally in the description

memo doing crimes memo this is bad illegal betting activity and then let me post it to this bank transfer app that's kind of like a social media site for some reason that's the other weird part about Venmo is they treat it like social media yeah you can look at like people's transactions and like what they spent the money on it's that's insane

Imagine, like, someone having access to your bank account. I don't even, like, I don't even, like, share my, like, Spotify playlists with other people, let alone my banking information. Are you insane? I don't even, like, looking at my own banking information. Let alone other people. I do what I can to avoid it, frankly. It's the most anxiety-filled app opening of whatever I have to do it.

Absolutely. I hate it. Why don't we save? We'll save yours for the other side because we're running low on time here. Before we go, the BC Lions, Saturday, August 16th, your lion. face the alouettes for the show and shine game featuring over 200 classic and exotic cars get tickets at BCNLions.com.

It is Halford and Brough, Josh Elliott Wolf, Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet, 650. Now for my favorite part of the show. What is they say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

It's what we learn time on the show. Welcome back to Halford and Brough. No Halford, no Brough. It's Josh Elliott Wolf and Jamie Dodd here with you. Howford and Brough is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit Sands-Trust. dot com and this

hour of Halpert and Brough is brought to by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound visit Campbell-Pound dot com today That was pretty good That was the best one I think I've done

Oh Ever Do you do this when you're? No, I don't pay attention I have like, you know how Brough Brough is obsessed with the Yips I have the Yips as it relates to

the what we learned reads and the order they all happen in and when I say what and when they're going to play the drop because you don't do the fire drop anymore and that throw I never had to do with fire drop so I think that there's a lot there was a lot going on and I always screwed it up so I was never even close to worrying about like timing out to the intro fair enough what we learned is oh my god we're having a fire yeah well I'm gonna get love it just for all time's sake what we learned is brought to you by AJ's pizza on East Broadway homemade

dough premium local ingredients and authentic cooking methods AJ's is for diehard pizza people dine in or order online at AJ's dot pizza. Okay, so we did a couple what we learned before the break. Jamie did not do yours.

Let's get to Jamie's what we learned. I've got a NCAA football what we learned for our massive American college football fan base here. Listening to sports at 650, what I learned Texas preseason number one, the ranking just came out yesterday, the preseason rankings. Texas are the preseason number one for the first

time in their program's history, which surprised me because Texas, you might have heard, they like their football down there, national champions. They've done a lot of good stuff. Surprising that they've never been preseason number one before, but they're also making another bit of history. They're the first number one team to be an underdog in week one. They're going on the road in week one in a couple weeks here to face number three Ohio State. So first time ever for Texas being preseason number one. Also, the first time that a number one ranked team is going to be an underdog in week one. Of course, Texas, always a lot of focus paid on them, but especially this year because

their quarterback, none other than Arch Manning, of course, the son of Cooper, nephew of Peyton and Eli, grandson of Archie Manning. He's their starting quarterback. He's the Heisman favorite. An interesting storyline with Arch is going to be not just, does he lead Texas to a national championship? Does he win the Heisman, which is what's expected of him? but he's in the kind of rare situation where he is eligible to go to the NFL draft this year,

this coming NFL draft, and you would think, hey, you win the Heisman or you're a Heisman finalist, you take your team to the playoffs. Boom, next stop NFL draft. But I guess coming from a very rich family gives you the opportunity to say, yeah, maybe I just want to hang out of college a little bit more because that's been kind of the rumblings around arches. He's in no rush to go to the NFL. So this might be not his last year.

He might have a chance to go in a couple of runs with. Texas. Even his grandpa Archie, I think, came out and said, no, he's not going to, he's not going to do that when it came to, like, declaring for the NFL draft after the season. And now maybe it's like, we'll see what teams are available. Well, that could certainly be it. Because, of course, Eli famously forced his way to, uh, to the Giants when he was drafted. I do, the reasoning that I saw was pretty interesting, which was basically that once you get to the NFL, the clock is ticking really quick, right? Like the clock starts ticking in a hurry and you could be washed out or looked at a very different way in a couple of years.

And if you don't go to the right situation, your development as a quarterback, and he's still very young, your development as a quarterback could really struggle. So I do get it from that way. Like, I don't think it's strictly a financial thing or strictly a, oh, I only want to be in certain markets. You can legitimately look at it and say, I would rather take the extra time to develop in college

rather than rush to the payday of the NFL right away. I think it will be an interesting draft too and kind of lead up to the draft because I do wonder if like, hey, let's say it's the Saints or whatever team that, like, he doesn't want to go to. Oh, the Saints were his grandpa's team. So there might be an emotional connection there, but sure, a team he doesn't want to go to. Yeah, for example, just whatever team.

The Cleveland Browns, for example. Yes, whatever team. And let's say he's like, there's a couple spots he does want to go. Does he wait to declare until he knows if a team is like going to be able to trade up and get whatever pick they need to get? like, for example, I think of like the, and I, it's because I'm a Vikings fan, but I bring it back to the Vikings. I'm like, JJ McCarthy sucks. Yeah. They've got a pretty good situation. They've got a pretty good head coach that has worked well with quarterbacks.

Like, does he look at a situation like that? And there are multiple around the league where he can go in and immediately be put in a good situation. I do wonder also this is, we'll see how this ultimately plays out with Archmanning. If he does decide to stay another year, I mean, it depends on how the season goes as well, right? It's great to be preseason Heisman favorite, but if he doesn't have a great season and he's looked at as more of like a day two quarterback, that obviously changes things a lot. But in the era of NIL now, there's going to be more athletes who have the option to, you know, say, you know what, actually? Like, yeah, I'll take a little bit of a financial hit if I skipped the draft, but not nearly as much as I would have

in years past. And maybe it's worth waiting for a different situation. I could see that happening in the NFL draft and the NBA draft, certainly. It's going to be something to monitor. Especially when you're a manning that helps that helps an awful lot. You're getting a lot of sponsors that want to give you some money. I do, the situation I wonder about that seems like it might be an ideal fit would be

the L.A. Rams. Like, not that they'll be bad this year, but Matthew Stafford close to retiring, Sean McVeigh, we know that he's a quarterback friendly coach too. They've got some pieces. They're a decent team. What about the Giants? Moving on

from the Russell Wilson? Yeah, but They have four quarterbacks, right? Yeah, I know, but they don't like any of them? They just spend a first rounder. Giants fans like Jackson Garry. Yeah, you don't move on that quickly. Any team wants Arch Manning. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah. Of course. Seattle? Come on, come on up to the Pacific Northwest. Be a Seahawk. Just like Thomas Muller. Take a page from his buddy. He's a big Thomas Mueller guy, Arch Manning is.

So he's going to come up here. Okay, boo cow that. And we print out the humanoid submissions. That's the order it goes in, Jamie. And then we dive into the 650, 650, 650 Dunbar Lumber text line. We've got quite a few, so we'll try to hit as many as we can.

This one, Sheldon from Surrey, what we learned after 177 episodes of the New Heights podcast. I don't know if that part's true. But Taylor Swift will finally be making her debut on the podcast. So, of course, that's the- Kelsey Brothers podcast. Travis and Jason Kelsey. This is, it's taken over my Twitter.

For some reason, Twitter thinks I'm just a huge Taylor Swift fan. Well, you're that age. Yeah. I guess. My wife is. I was going to say, I thought your wife is. Yeah. So, yeah, the last like 12 hours or whatever it is.

It does feel like we've been a bit of a lull of like Taylor Swift content. It picked up real hard. It was like every day. Well, she's not an album announced. Yeah. And I think it's already released just from what I can tell. the album is not the album no no but the podcast has been released has it or at least snippets of it have snippets of it have well whatever Josh dude I got to be up on this

apparently you're the Taylor Swift expert what's the title life of a showgirls something like that yeah I think so um but yeah it's it's uh it's taken over my household it's taken over my Twitter in the last half a day so it's been they're caring up to dominate football season again oh hey football's around the corner we gotta get back on the spotlight Travis Kelsey, I think, was just on, like, this morning on the cover of GQ, too. So there is a lot, there's a lot happening in the, in the Taylor Swift world. So if you or someone you know, which is very likely is a Taylor Swift fan, you are going to hear a lot about it in the coming months. Woodrow the eligible Bachelor, what we learned, Neal's Hoaglander spent $8,600 to open his hometown rank a month earlier than usual.

In exchange, Hoaglander gets his own private practice facility in the morning. morning while public skates follow the rest of the day. I saw there's a cool story. And I appreciate the way that Woodrow phrased it because I saw a lot of people kind of reporting it as $8,600 to open a rink. And it's like, it seems like a rink would cost more than that. But as Woodrow phrases it more to kind of expedite the rank reopening that Neals Hoaglander kicked in the money. And part of the agreement is, hey, you get to use the rink in the morning. Get out there. Do your skates. Get ready for the season. And then the public ice time is after that. Which is great. Cool idea from Hoaglander.

Great to see him giving back to his community and getting something out of the deal as well. I couldn't help but read this and think that this is like a subtle message being sent from Neal's Hoaglander to Canucks Management. Or he's like, guys, here's how you do it. You take some of your money. You give it to the ice rink that already exists.

They get to spend it on the rink. And in return, you get priority access to the rink. Wow. You get the facility to practice it. Yeah. You get it. Because you paid them. And so they let you use the facility to practice.

They don't have to pay you. Yeah. He just wanted to experience what it was like to have his own practice facility. That's right. He's on the in the group chat with the rest of the players. Like, guys, this is incredible. There's no one else here. I can do whatever I want out here.

So Neil's Oglander setting the blueprint for how Canucks. And to be fair, like I'm being glib, obviously, in tongue and cheek. They're trying to do this, right? We've seen, heard them touring facilities out in Burnaby. Britannia in East Van. There's at least some appetite for an arrangement along these lines where they kick in money to a public facility. Obviously, the devil's always in the details.

But Nealz-Hoglander managed to figure it out in his hometown in Sweden. Yeah, good for Neals. And it's, uh, I, man, how much practice facility talk are we going to have? So much. I just say, we better find a solution to that this year. Yeah, we can't run it back next year. It's going to be wild if we're in like July next year and it's like, uh, Jim Rutherford's Dean touring the Olympic Oval and it's like, oh, are we still doing this?

Can we just get some closure on it? It's wild. It is really wild. The only team in the league with that one. I know we've gone over this before, but like how hard is it to just end this? End this conversation. Apparently, very hard. Put us all out of our misery.

Yes, please. We don't want to talk about it anymore. And the crazy thing is there's still that empty land like right across the street from Rogers Arena. Yeah, I don't know what the plan is. I think there is a plan. Apparently there was a plan, but it fell through. And I don't know. I know like PJ's done good reporting on it.

I think Drance has in the past as well. Like there was a plan it fell through. Is it dead forever? Was it a plan to build a practice ring? That there was at least talks. Okay. Were they working with Otani's agent? You know what, Elon?

You might be on to something there. There's more, more, more. Wasn't a, I think it was a rink with like a tower on top. You know, something along those lines. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, some sort of development that would include a rink. I also look at like the, um, the massive new development happening at the Jericho lands, right?

And it's like, okay, can you get involved? There are these big development projects happening. The Aquilini's are real estate developers. Can you get involved in one of these and build a beautiful community facility that you would have priority access to? That seems like the solution. You know where the future lives? Surrey. Future lives here.

I'm going to take a pass on that. Not to practice. No. Not for a train. Not for a professional. They love that. They love to take the sky train to Surrey to practice. That's what NHL players.

are all about. That local flavor. Well, they all live there, right? It's easier for them. Exactly. Well, they all live in Langley, right? So it's easy for them to come in Surrey. Right. Yeah. BC Lions do it. B.C. Lions do it. They also play once a week. That's correct. Yeah. They also play once a week.

Yep. Okay. So, uh, 650, 650. Dumbar Lumber Text Line. What we learned, Jay and O'K Falls. Are you watching the LeBron takes up golf content? It's kind of engaging because everyone can relate to starting a new sport. I hope he gets good enough to extend the LeBron versus Jordan rivalry.

I don't know if he'll get that good. Is Michael Jordan? Is Michael Jordan like really good at golf still? I think he's like legitimately very good at golf. Interesting. Because I know Steph Curry is. Steph Curry is like a phenomenal golfer. And there's other pro athletes certainly.

Like I mean, Joe Pavelski won that the celebrity tournament. Yeah. J.T. Miller is really good. J.T. Miller, of course, has tried out for the U.S. Open and come close to making it. Tony Romo, I think was a was an incredible. golfer probably still is i'm guessing so uh michael jordan reportedly has a uh a handicap around two okay so yeah it's pretty good yeah i mean that's good yeah i mean that's pretty good but like what's bruff's handicap is not i don't think it's around two i don't think it's much higher than that

you don't think so i i think it's single digits okay i'm pretty sure oh maybe i remember you guys had that freaking golf chart up on the whiteboard for like months i think but i think he said he had like a really good year last year. I think it might be single digit. If anyone knows what Brough's handicap is, text in. Text 10. Because I'm just saying, you'd think like, well, he's Michael Jordan. He's one of the greatest athletes of all time. He'd be way better than Brough. Yeah, but he was

a basketball player. Yeah, but still. Baseball player, too, is still like a really good handicap. It is. He also owns a bunch of golf courses. Yeah. You think he would be crazy. Yeah. I'm just saying, if you're asking me, what's more impressive, Michael Jordan having a two handicap or Jason Brough having like a six handicap, it's Brough.

way more impressive I guess he's not a generational basketball talent as well he has less time to spend on this yeah he doesn't have the resources in the time yeah there you go broth a more impressive athlete than Michael Jordan he did it

supposedly this puts him by a second among NBA players active or retired behind Steph Curry for uh for there you go NBA golf handicaps so Curry's like a scratch golfer I would assume around scratch so I mean you got it I always have thought that

some professional athlete, and maybe it'll be Steph Curry, maybe it'll be LeBron, should retire from their normal gig and then go for the champions tour. Yeah. Can you just like, I've got to think LeBron, I'm sure you can, there's some way on, I'm sure. LeBron just started golfing.

I bet he could do it. He's terrible. LeBron probably isn't that good. No, he's terrible. I kind of think guys that are that tall, like Michael Jordan's tall, but he's not LeBron tall. Where I feel like it's a detriment. It's a detriment, probably. Because like, Shaq isn't going to be a good golfer. You know?

Jordan's always golfing in those giant jeans, too. It must get in the way, I think. Henry and Comox says that Jason is a 5.8 handicap according to Gulf Canada, which I didn't know like Venmo that your handicap is public. So multiple times, speaking of Ben, basketball band that works here, every time I bring up a golfer, he's like, let me look them up on Golf Canada. Like even amateur golfers? Yeah, yeah.

Because if you've entered your score in like some website or whatever, your handicap is registered. I don't know how it all works, but supposedly he has access to a lot of golfers, handicaps that he can look at. So Jason Brough around 6 is very good. That's great. Yeah.

I think that's very impressive. I'm around a 20. Okay. Well, good for you. Yeah, thanks. That's not bad. That's not good. I mean, you're no, I think,

you're Michael Jordan. Not yet, but I got years. I got many years ago. Were you a take up golf in the pandemic guy? Was that your like, or your golfer origin story? No, well, so I used to golf a lot. Like my dad taught me how to golf when I was young.

And then I went a decent amount when I was like a kid and early teenager. And then I didn't, I wasn't into it until COVID. And then I was like, I want to go outside. You rediscovered your love of golf. And since then, since then I've been really hard into it. What we learned is from Rob and Surrey. What I've learned with my time off this summer as a teacher is that despite

improving a lot in golf, there's still rounds like yesterday when you've got the yips and you make the decision to not play again. until the following season. That's a big decision. Isn't there how that usually goes, though? You're like walking off the course. You're like, I'm not playing until next year. And then three days later, you're like, I'll get a tea time.

I'll go get some balls for sure. I just got to work through it. I'll be okay. That's usually how I feel. I've never, I think I go into every golf round expecting to be bad. And then... Good expectation, yeah. Yeah.

I'm never disappointed. I got to a pretty good, like when I started golf, and I don't golf anymore, but I've golfed a lot in high school. And when I was starting to learn, I was like very frustrated and like, you know, throwing my clubs and just getting really angry. And then eventually just I got pretty zen about it. Where it's like, you know what I know exactly what round I'm going to have every time. I'm pretty good at some things. I'm pretty bad at other things.

That's not going to change. And I'm just going to go out there and enjoy. Sometimes everything will come together. It will be a beautiful moment. And I'll have a pretty good round. I might break 90. Yeah. But other than that, I'm not going to, I have no higher expectations for where my golf game is at.

650, 650 Dumbar Lumber Text Line What We Learned Justin, the East Van Parking Attendant The quality of today's shows with Jamie and Josh is above the Carmen line

Don't know about that one there, Justin, but thank you. I appreciate it And then also ask Any chance you'll encourage more text signed by name and occupation. I think this is...

Sure. Yeah, why not? I think Bruff and I last year, the year before talked about this. I was like, the morning show had a weird amount of people that they, well, I think they told them to. I don't think it was an organic thing.

Like, I think it was instructions from Halford and Brough. I could be wrong about that. Or at least, maybe not instructions, but maybe suggestions. I might be misremembering, but I think when I... Maybe it was before your time, Laddy. When I was talking to Brough about it, he, uh, he was like, all the people who text in with like their occupation. Oh, yeah.

That's, that predates me. That goes back to the old state. Yeah. Okay. I think that's like a Halford and Brough signature. All right. Yeah. Wow.

So they just got things, right? They love their funny little bits. They're little sticks. They're so much fun to guest host on the show. And you know exactly what's going on. But yeah. So we also learned a lot. If people want to text in with their occupations and funny, I enjoy it.

It helps. It's always good. Funny stuff. Gives you a character almost. It makes you stick in our minds, certainly. Because some people get mad about like Mike the urologist from Brock. Especially Mike. yes we would like we'll read his text and you know it because the word urologist is in it

but otherwise all the all the some of the other names you kind of forget yeah so if you put your your job title in there it can be a made up one too that's fine we have no way to fact check this we will uh like i think there's multiple tylers in langley yes but if we know if you put the job in there yeah and we'll know what you do and then you'll be different uh 650 650 Dumbar Lumber Text line Get your text with the occupation In there Oh also we learned a lot about the Carmen line

In the break So much about the Carmen line If you want to know Why the Carmen line is even being brought up We were talking about space earlier I don't remember how we got there But the question if you'd go to space With Bezos was in the inbox

Yes that's what it was Would you rather go to space with Jack Bezos Or to the Titanic With James Cameron and we talked about out like how what what qualifies as space and so supposedly there is a Carmen line which is a widely recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space but it is not universally accepted specifically NASA and the U.S. Air Force do not recognize it they put the edge of space lower so NASA and the U.S. Air Force put it at 50.

50 miles or 80 kilometers. And the Carmen line is at 100 kilometers. Did they pick the carbon line just because it's a nice like round 100 number? See, that's what I assume. I bet they were like 100 kilometers up. You're probably in space. Thomas the ecologist, Texan, as someone who's constantly trying to improve at golf, what's the best way to really see an improvement in your game?

I don't know that I'm the best person to answer this question since I'm not a regular golfer anymore. I think if you're talking about just raw, like I want to cut strokes from my game, the classic advice is short game. Work on the short game. Work on your game around the greens, chipping and putting. That's probably the most reliable way to shave strokes off.

If you're talking about like, how can I drive the fairway more consistently? I have no idea. Honestly, I wish I could tell you. So the thing that made the biggest difference for me, there were two things. And look, I'm still not great, but it helped me at least get more consistent.

You go to the range. You know your distances for every club. That's the biggest thing. Because if you go in, you're like, oh, it's a 150 yard shot. I think it's this clobber. I think it's that. it's better to know and then you're at least going to be around the green or within the vicinity

you're not going to fly it or be way too short and then the other thing i've done that help me hit the ball straight was i stand behind the ball i look at the pain or where i'm aiming and then you kind of draw an imaginary line from that to around a few yards in front of your ball okay and then you look at that before you shoot and it's kind of like when you're putting it's it's easier to aim that way you're not like set up looking right or set up looking left it's an easy i think tiger woods used to do it and then you get a little running start right and then yeah yeah and then and then you hit the ball and then you slice the ball into the trees and you slam your club into the into the grass and get ready to do it all again yeah so that's uh those are your golf tips i don't know if they'll help the golf school

with josh elliot wolf i enjoyed that that was a real tip yeah thank you those are the look at you the two things i know that's how you get to a 20 handicap right there yeah i'll shave two strokes off your game. Jampro from the boardroom to the break room and everywhere in between. Jampro keeps workplaces tidy clean and disinfected. For a free quote, visit jampro. com.com. Thank you to everyone texting

in and listening. Thank you to the producers. Elon, Laddie. Thank you to my co-host, Jamie Dodd. I have been Josh L.A. Wolf. This has been Halpertambrough on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Lena. Want even more sports content? Check out Sportsnet.

650 on social. I'll show you the lighter side of sports and take you behind the scenes at Rogers Arena. Follow at Sportsnet 650 on X, Instagram, and TikTok.