OverDrive - OverDrive - August 25, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 3 on OverDrive! NBC Sports Golf Analyst Brad Faxon joins to discuss Keegan Bradley's choice at the Ryder Cup, the rosters for the USA and Europe and Tommy Fleetwood getting the win at the Tour Championship. Former NFL Player and NFL Network Analyst Joe Thomas joins to discuss Shedeur Sanders' journey beginning with the Browns, Kevin Stefanski's coaching views and Micah Parsons' tumultuous ride with the Cowboys and the FanDuel Best Bets on the Blue Jays and Twins.

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Loud, crowd, and all yours. No passports required, just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca. Or the free iHeartRadio app. Final hour overdrive continues, powered by Fandu, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Joe Thomas later in the hour. Brad Faxson coming up momentarily.

We got Jay's Twins tonight down at the dome. Max Scherzer on a mound. Vladi's back and he will de-age tonight. So positive vibes. They take two out of three. It wasn't the greatest baseball ever played, but just keep winning. You know, you got a five-game lead on the socks, five and a half on the Yankees. I think you play them each one more time.

if you can avoid a sweep in those series, you're probably looking at little over 500. You're going to win the division, right? You don't have to do much, right? You just got to kind of keep your head above water and not go on a ridiculously long losing streak, and you pretty much got the ALEs wrapped up here. Right.

It's really that simple. Yeah, I mean, you've played 131 games. You've done the heavy lifting here. And I think the positive for the Js is that they play up to their competition. You know, they don't play. They didn't play well against the pirates. They didn't play fundamentally great baseball against Miami.

They still won two out of three. We know they've lost games to some bad teams this year. They've lost some series to some bad teams. But their record against playoff teams is elite. Yeah, it is. It is great. And that's a sign of what really matters because that's who you're going to play in October. You're not playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs.

You're going to play the best of the best. And so far through 131 games, when the Js are playing the best of the best, they seemingly bring their A game. I think that's a really positive trait. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's a mentality as well, right? You get excited to take on and show people what you can do

against those elite teams and those, that's what you want, you're a competitor. You want to show people that you are the best. And that's an attitude that I think you see it in that whole lineup. Like they compete, man, like some of those at bats they have where they have, you know, it's not two pitches out. We're looking at longer, you know, I think of one maybe a month ago,

go with Davis Schneider like I don't know how many he has seven or eight nine pitches the next guy comes out and got a hit or maybe hit a home run but I love that that competing they're trying to beat and that just goes through the whole group and pushes onto the other team big time yeah and their bullpen is an issue right now like there's no denying that that's what's going to have to be cleaned up between now the end of next month their their stats are bloated they're they're blowing games they're a lot their new arms haven't been great you know like the guys they were relying on post trade deadline. Hoffman is hit or miss, so that's going to be playing with fire a little bit down the stretch and into the playoffs. I don't know how confident everyone's going to be come

the playoff games and how quickly they go to the bullpen. But maybe they take a conventional approach and they allow their starters to actually go three times through the rotation. Oh, wouldn't that be a change? Wouldn't it be amazing of the Jays who famously went modern analytical overload taking burrios out and putting kikuchi in the last time we saw them in the playoffs completely reversed everything and said screw it man yeah we want jack morris type stuff like we we need you to throw 125 pitches and if it goes into extra innings you might still be out there you know what that would be great that would be outstanding i mean all all the all the old school purists would be loving it but it's not happening hey's

not, of course. And the thing, like, when Steve, you know, if Steve Phillips joined us in the last hour and talked about that stat where the bullpen has a six plus ERA over the last month, it's the highest in baseball, like the alarm bells haven't been going off because to your point, they've been getting the right side of the bounces on a lot of nights and they're playing good baseball and they're hitting well. But, you know what, like that, that cannot be sustained, right? Like, that's a massive red flag for a team that might have some trouble ahead of it if they can't straighten this out. You start thinking about playoff baseball strutty where every pitch matters and the moments get so tense in the 7th, 8th, the 9th when you're clinging to a lead. Like, do you really have faith in a lot of these guys? Do you really have faith in Hoffman to close a game right now? It's hard to have faith because you haven't seen it. It hasn't been a clockwork occurrence. Yeah, so how do you reset that? You know, if we want to say, okay, tonight they start.

They have a new ERA. Everyone's starting with a zero ERA. We're going to start up. So how do you reset that mentality for a group that's been underachieving? I think that's the hardest thing. If we had the answers, the three of us might be on the bench tonight beside Pete Walker trying to straighten out. And I think you've got to focus on each individual.

It's like in hockey, if your whole team is in scoring, you can't just yell at everyone to score more. What is each person doing that isn't allow them to score? And maybe that's the case with pitchers. The same thing would go through, this is what you're all individually struggling on, that as a group, whatever that message is that they may deliver, to compete or dig in, whatever cliche want to use, but I don't think

it's easy, Hayes, I guess is what I'm saying. No, it doesn't. It's just turn overnight. You don't just get to return over the new calendar. No, that's the reality. It's not hypothetical. You're not resetting your ERA tonight. And what they've tried to do here is build an aggressive bullpen, you know, in a bullpen

where guys throw heat and challenge you. And I would suggest that's something they might want to get back to, like simplify things. You know, tell these guys, if you're Pete Walker, If you're John Snyder, if you're coming in, you know, Varland and Dominguez and whoever it is, just throw fastball after fastball after fastball

and challenge these guys and make them hit you. You know, don't get cute. Don't try to hit the paint. Don't try to throw something you're working on or whatever. Challenge these guys because that's the bullpen they've built. You know, that's – and that was what Ross Ackin said to us a month ago. He said, you know, we can live with Hoffman giving up the home runs he does because that's what comes with.

being a, you know, a challenging arm, a guy who throws 96, 97 and says if you can hit it, hit it. If you can hit it, name it. We're going to bank on them not hitting it, you know, when the time is needed. So, you know, maybe they're just in this rhythm right now where everyone seems to be hitting it. But, you know, obviously that's something that's got to change. You just, you cannot have a bloated bullpen. You can't have a bullpen that's leaking oil down the stretch, let alone into the playoffs. It's just not, it's not. It's not. going to work it's not conducive the winning not going to work so they got just over a month to figure that out jays twins tonight joe thomas later in the hour something to chew on brought to you by

boston pizza coming up asking you know who was the big winner of the weekend and one of the options of course brook henderson who she hadn't won in a couple of years who was really really a relieving moment for her you could tell a lot of pressure or home tournament clearly and Tommy flea would have never won on the pGA tour and yet he wins in a 30-man field and you know it's a Is there an asterisk on this? Is it a, you know, there's no cut? I don't think so because of who we're talking about and the great, great players and the great course

and the setup and the pressure and the purse that's on the line. But I'm sure our next guest has got a viewpoint on it. He was down there at East Lake with NBC and the Golf Channel. Here's a longtime pro himself. We love having him on. One of our favorites here's Brad Faxson. How are you doing, Fax? Pretty good, gentlemen.

How are we doing? I just want you to get, don't get too nervous that these Boston Red Sox are creeping up on you guys. I know, we're not worried. You're getting healthier. We're not worried. I know you're not worried. We're not worried.

Still a five-game buffer. I got a message for Brian. I hear he's not practices in putting. All he does is care how far he hits it. He's like Bryson. That's precisely who I am. And I need to work with you folks. I need to meet you.

I don't know. Where do we meet? Down in New York, you get me on bed page? We can work on the practice green down there or what? Seriously. We'll get a big crowd out there. Yeah, no kidding, man. What a scene over the weekend.

You know, Tommy Fleetwood, I got a chance to meet him and playing the pro-em with him up here at the Canadian Open a few years ago. Awesome guy. What a player. And I was nervous for him because, you know, Cantley kind of opened the door for him the first couple of holes going bogey double to allow Fleetwood to breathe a little bit. How substantial do you think that was the way Cantley started his own round?

The way Schaeffler started his own round going OB off the T off his first shot. shot of the day. Do you think that fact it ended in to Fleetwood breathing a little easier? Well, it's crazy, isn't it, to see what happened in just that short amount of time. Like you said, the double bogey

and a bogey and a double bogey, like a four putt for Cantley. You never see that. Technically, it was a three-putt, but he was on the fringe putting. In Sheffler, I don't know if he's hit out of bounds this year. He looked a little bit out of sorts of the whole round. He hits a shot in the water on that pressure is 15th.

And Tommy Fleetwood, I mean, what a year he's had, but what a playoff run. You know, he had a good British Open, finished tied for 23rd, but has a chance in Memphis to win and messes up on the 16th hole, the easy par five doesn't really get the job done there. And then he goes on this role, and then everybody's pulling for him. He's talking about, hey, listen, I'm gay. experience. This is where you'd want to be. I haven't won over here 164 times. I mean, a guy with the most amount of money that hasn't won, the most amount of top 10s, top 5s that hasn't won. And like you said,

like universally loved. Americans love them. The crowd in America, in Atlanta, cheering Tommy, Tommy Ladd. It was dynamic television. And, you know, Justin Rose took down J.J. Spahn and Memphis in that playoff, then Sheffler did what Sheffler does to take down McIntyre. You know, these are all potential Ryder Cup matches. And then Fleet would, like you said, playing with Cantley, gets that incredibly good break that the slow start.

But, you know, it wasn't until the back nine where Fleet would really start to hitting some good shots and made a bunch of birdies. It was great television. So it took him this long to win his, to win one. Does it, is it true that just now it's just a mental hurdle he's cleared? and he could maybe play different or play looser, I guess, when times get tight in the tourneys?

It's funny the pressure that coming over to play the U.S. PGA Tour has on some of the greatest European players of all time. Colin Montgomery never won on the PGA Tour. He won eight money titles in a row in Europe. And Tommy Fleetwood, who has won seven times on the DP World Tour. I mean, big events. He beat Rory on the last hole in Dubai. a huge put in the last hole.

Played in, I think, three Ryder Cups about to be his fourth. The great swing, but something down the stretch has held them back, whether it's a tentativeness of some of these putts coming up short or just hitting a bad shot. Maybe when he lost to Keegan Bradley on that final hole, it took he and his caddy Ian Finnis, another great guy too long to hit this shot. And now you're wondering, what's going to happen here?

as he gets up on this 15th hole and it was it was tense you know he's on that 220 yard par three talking with his cat he bones macaille our lead guy on the ground is saying i haven't seen the guy take this long he's in between clubs he hit it in the water the day before and he hits what was a pretty good shot over the green and makes a four which i think he would have taken from the from the tea but you didn't know it's going to happen can't he was fine in his game our golf ratings had been up you guys both CBS and NBC and for Fleetwood to come down the stretch and make the birdies he did he birded 11 he birded 13

pipe to drive there on 16 17 and it was kind of all over well you talk about Cantley finding his game Brad and he sure takes his time looking for it and you know if Tommy's win was the biggest story I think the second biggest story of the day was all to talk about Cantley's very,

very slow play. I think the NBC guys were timing it at one point. I think he took 38 seconds at one point. They hit a T shot after addressing the ball. I mean, this is an eternal debate in golf, but it did seem excessive in Cantley's case,

and where are you on what the tour needs to do about it? Well, a couple things here. Remember, I don't know if you remember in 2003 when the first U.S. Open came to Beth and Sergio Garcia was in the hunt with Tiger, and he had the re-gripping over-the-ball issue, where the fans started counting how many times he re-gripped, re-gripped,

and it was awful to watch, and he was driving it beautifully. And then on the first hole, now you'll appreciate this doing what you guys do. In television, when we have the call of a player on the first tee and our guy hits, I'm not, I'm the analyst. I'm not supposed to talk after he hit. that drive because we don't want to hear it, lose the sound

of the guy on the first tee that's announcing the player. Well, I wouldn't believe how long he took to hit this shot. And I said something after his shot. My producer got in my ear, do that, you've been doing this too long, you've got, you know,

so I got yelled at, and I'm going, Jesus. And it was pretty funny, but they got warned about being out of position as they were making the turn, and they were out of position before that. And one of our rules officials, Mark Ducebock, who works for the PGA to everybody else who does a

very, very good job on NBC helping us with any of the rules situations. He made a comment that I thought was interesting. He said, listen, given the enormity of this event, and the enormity of the event was, this is not only the Tour Champion, it's the FedEx Championship.

We didn't have the staggered start that we had in the past. So the winner of the top 30 players that got there that's through the season long point system if you won the tournament, even if you were 30th, if you were Akshay Batia and you somehow managed to win

that tournament, you're going to beat Scotty Sheffler as the FedEx Cup player of the year. But I'll tell you what, there was a lot more drama to it with all the players starting tied for the lead on Thursday morning. And, you know, Mark DeSbabik went on to say, you know,

given the enormity of this tournament, we're telling them to warn up, we're not putting them the clock right away. So they were a full two holes behind at one point. If that's a normal tournament, they're on the clock immediately, and he would have been definitely at least fined or given a stroke. Right. And I like the fact that it felt like a real tournament, right?

Like it felt that way East Lake's such a great place. It was great TV. NBC Golf Channel. You guys crushed it like you always do. But now that we've, you know, there's no more playing. And we're going to hear about the Ryder Cup. next 48 hours. Let's get right to it here, facts. Keegan Bradley, should he be playing for the American team? So this has been something that we've talked about on and off for a while.

We're so obsessed with it that the PGA tour actually called NBC on Saturday and said, listen, you're talking way too much about the Ryder Cup. We've got to talk about the Tour championship and the FedEx. And we're like, oh my gosh, this is one of the reasons why people are watching. So Scotty Sheffler, J.J. Spawn, Zandershoffley, Russell Henley, Harris, English, and Bryson DeChambo. They qualified after the BMW. Those guys are six automatic picks. Now, Keegan Bradley has said all along, I'm not going to pick myself if I don't automatically qualify. Well, after he won the Travelers over time, he was like, boy, you better play. You better play. He's got five vice captains. Jim Furrick, who captained the President's Cup of Montreal last year, one of them, Webb Simpson, one of Gary Woodland, one of them. uh kevin kisner he's got plenty of guys to help them out now seventh and eighth are almost locks justin thomas and colomaric i mean two big names that have plenty of rider cup experience i don't i don't see how they don't get picked and then it gets a little bit funny how do you pick um the next few guys because we have a young player named ben griffin who's played outstanding this year he's he's won twice

he's ninth on the points list he played well again in the playoffs maverick mcneely who kind of has come out of nowhere and is a very long hitter and an excellent putter, something that will need at Best Page, and he's a guy that can play both formats. And I think if you're going to pick a rookie, both of these guys would be Ryder Cup rookies. It's better to do it at home. We know that. Keegan Bradley sits there at 11th on the points list. If Keegan Bradley plays, he limits himself in a little bit in what he can do on the golf course, because he has to have some captaincy role, and he's going to be preoccupied thinking about all the other matches. But think about this.

Think about how well he played during these playoffs in order to move up the list and stay in this top 12th. If you went and polled those top eight players I asked you about every single one of them are going to say, Kagan, you should play. There's probably some ego in here, too. If I'm the playing captain and I win, nobody's done that since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Ironically, in 1963, it was at Eastlake

where we just were for the Tour Championship. So, and then you have other players. Brian Harmon, British Open champion from a couple years ago at Royal Liverpool, shot 63 to final round. Does his game fit? That's page, a long course with a lot of shots. You've got to have, you know, a high trajectory.

Harmon's a low-ball hitter. You have a young player named Andrew Novak, who's played well, but not well at the end. He will not get picked. And then, all of a sudden, you get these trio guys. Cameron Young, Patrick Cantley, and Sam Burns. All of them peaking. It's what you want as a captain.

Players that are playing well at the end. Players that played well at the end when it mattered the most. Cameron Young won his first time. Excellent putter, New York guy. He'd be the perfect guy for the situation. Patrick Cantley, who hasn't had a great year until recently starting to find his game, you have to pick Patrick Cantley, particularly what he did last year in Italy against Rory McRoy and have it his caddied New Yorker Joe La Cava.

And then Sam Burns, a guy that's played with Sheffler in a lot of different formats. I think there's some really interesting choices here for Keegan. But if I were one of the vice captains, I would convince Keegan that you need to play. And I'm talking a lot here. I would have, if I was Keegan, probably ask the PGA of America and say, look, this is too big of a responsibility now. It's not like it was in 1963 with Arnold Palmer. I want to be a player.

If you would ask me a year ago when you called me to be the captain, I would have rather played than captain under the condition that you let me captain again in the future. It's going to be hard for him to play again. You know, the next Ryder Cup will be 40 years old. I think you get on the course and then you're done. Play, let somebody else take the responsibility. It might be too late for that.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's become such a cool, unique story. I want to see him play. I want to see Keegan Bradley play now. I think I can speak for everyone around the world. That's a golf fan that's looking forward to this. But it's become somewhat of a circus because of the responsibility. And you've got all these different people chiming in.

I saw that, you know, I think Donald Trump was tweeting about it last night saying he's got to play, got to play, got to play. So you got the president now chiming in on what's going to happen at the Ryder Cup, which brings a completely different element to it. But what's amazing to me, fact, is I look at it, like at Whistling Straits four years ago, they absolutely mopped the floor with the Europeans. And at that point, you thought the Americans are never going to be stopped. Schaffler was just getting on the scene. DJ was still a stud.

You had Kepka was still a stud. You know, Deschambo was coming alive. Thomas and Speeth were still in their element. And now I look at it on paper. I think the European team's better personally. Like McElroy, McIntyre, Fleetwood, Rose has been great. You got Hatt and Lowry. I put Oberg on there.

I put Hovlin on there. I don't know. I think it's going to be close. Like, how do you see Europe matching up with the Americans? Well, I think they're going to be incredible. You know, John Rom will make that team. He's not, you know, because he's playing live, he's nowhere near on the points. But you know they're going to pick John Rom.

And like you said, McElroy, you know, obviously the second best player in the world, McIntyre, who's played incredibly good lately. Fleetwood, Rose, who just. one. This guy, Rasmus Boygard, his brother, Nikolai, played in Italy. But Raspus has played well in the U.S. He's played well in Europe. He had a great week last week, and he hits it miles, as far as Rory Miles, puts really well. Tirol Hatton, who he's not going to be afraid of anybody. Shane Lowry, Scepstrako, Oberg, Oblin, like you mentioned, Matt Fitzpatrick. And then you add ROM. I mean, this is a veteran team with tons of experience.

Luke Donald knows how to captain this team and if there's anybody that wants Keegan Bradley to play, it's this European team because they'll know how difficult that is. Right. Wow, what a scene it's going to be man. What a scene. We've got to wait a month. I wish we could be quicker than this. Don't you, Dave?

Oh, yeah. One more thing. One more thing about that, waiting a month. After this week, after the playoffs, we have the 12 players that we'll know by Wednesday morning when Keegan selects them. The U.S. players

are only going to play one tournament, they're going to try and get all the team to go play the event in Napa so they can bond a little bit or talk more about what's going to happen. I think the Europeans, they're going to play the Irish Open next week, and then they're going to play BMW at Wentworth, and that's a big event. That's a huge event. So these guys aren't going to be rusty. They're going to have a week off between the BMW and Bethpage.

They're going to come and do a team. trip to Beth Page just to get on the soil over there before the crowd show up. I don't think this is going to be a runaway by any means. I think this is going to be one of the most exciting rider cups of all time. Cannot wait for it. Always great

catching up with your facts. We'll hopefully do it before we get to New York, if not shortly afterwards. Enjoy it and thank you for doing this as always. Look forward to it. Love talking to you guys. You got it. There's Brad Faxon of NBC and the Golf Channel. Yeah, man. I

He's right about ROM. I was looking at the rankings, and ROM isn't on there, but he's clearly going to play. Oh, yeah. So you got McElroy, Rom. You got McIntyre's been unreal recently. Fleetwood's been great.

He just won. Rose has been great, and he's a veteran that loves the Ryder Cup. Yes. And then Hatton, Hovlin, you know, Lowry, Sepp Strach has been really good this year. You know, like they are loaded the European team.

It's scary, man. And they're playing it right. You know, Rory's been dropping all these little troll jobs talking about, oh, I would never be a playing captain. That's crazy to try and think about doing those two jobs. And that's set, Keegan.

Kagan's like got the biggest decision of his life in front of him. And it's like he can't win, right? Like if he doesn't captain the team and he plays, he's got to play great, right? And if he captains the team and plays and he doesn't play great, people will say, well,

you shouldn't have done that. Rory told you you, it couldn't do it. You know, so it's going to be a lot It's great theater, man. It really is. But, you know, JJ spawns. Their Harris English is already there. You know, they're, they might put Ben Griffin on, Cam Young. These are young guys who have been playing well.

Yeah. But those aren't veterans of the wider cup, man. They don't scare you. That's the thing. Like, it looks like Schaeffler and DeCambo. It's kind of like Tiger and Phil back in the day. And then who else is going to contribute? You know, who else is going to be a big dog coming home?

It could be Keegan that has to do that. something to chew on brought to you by Boston Pizza. Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy a $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree, a side, and a drink, and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch of your local Boston pizza. Been asking who was the biggest winner of the weekend.

Brooke Anderson, Tommy Fleetwood, Cal Raleigh, Shane Bieber. Surprisingly online, Tommy Fleetwood is running away with this, both on Twitter and on Instagram. I thought Brooke Henderson would run away just simply based on patriotism alone. Well, she'd done it before, though, and Tommy was – this was a first for Tommy, right? Yeah, that's true. I was lean in Shane Bieber because, like, he's returned from Tommy John, and he had such a remarkable start, you know, for a winning team.

And, like, the Jays are at the forefront of everything in this city right now. You know, it's all blue jays all the time. And, you know, I would lean towards that. But, like, the fleet would stuff – we didn't get into it with facts. But 30 players, no cut. You know, it's a win. It's a win. But it's not the same as like winning, you know, the Canadian Open or winning, you know, any tournament where there's a cut.

And, you know, it's a larger field. Well, it's a quality field, though, right? You have the 30 best players of the year, essentially. I mean, the thing makes no sense. Like, Scott, you can't tell me Scotty Schiff was not the FedEx Cup champion. I mean, I know he didn't win the Tour Championship. But it's so stupid. But I'd rather this than the doctored start.

That just killed the week. It was just, it was a five-man tournament, you know, when they used to do that, 10 under, 9, under, 8, under, the guy who started an even part, it's like, I have no chance of winning. I can't make up a 10-stroke, you know, discrepancy on Scotty Sheffler. You're not doing that. So I thought it just made it more appealing. And I think what made it pop was that Fleetwood won, right?

Like if it was some middle of the pack, you know, kind of name that you're familiar with, but not really that won, it wouldn't pop the way it did with, because it was Fleetwood story, I thought that added to it. And the fact that Sheffler was in the hunt. You know, he started the day four shots back, exactly where he was the week before. It made it very compelling yesterday. But, yeah, we'll see. Now you turn the page and we've got to wait until the Ryder Cup and Jays will be in the hunt at that point. Leaves Camp will be open, you know, the NFL season will be off and running.

It's going to be pretty wild in a month. All right, Joe Thomas coming up. Again, the NFL season next Thursday, Dallas at Philly. Cowboys Eagles opening night. Will Micah Parsons be on the field playing? We'll get Joe's answer on that and more. We'll get to that next. Something to chew on is brought to you by Boston Pizza, Canada's favorite sports bar.

Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree of sight and a drink and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. All right, Best Betts still to come a little bit later in the hour. Jay's Twins tonight. We are real close to the NFL season. The preseason is officially behind us.

We've got signings, right? Trey Hendrickson just got a new deal down in Cincinnati. Terry McLaurin got his money down in Washington. Only Micah Parsons is waiting. He's still doing the dance with Jerry Jones. And who starts the NFL season? The Dallas Cowboys in Philly next Thursday night. Will Parsons be playing?

to get into that among other storylines as we get closer to opening night in the NFL here is former NFLer and NFL network analyst here is Joe Thomas. How are you doing Joe? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. Thank you for doing this. What is your prediction

here? Do you think we see Micah Parsons play in Philly opening night? I do not think we're going to see Michael Parsons. I think a little more blood needs to be let because it seems like it's getting a little bit ugly and I don't see that either side has really felt that pain yet where they really feel like they're going to come back to the table,

they're going to make a compromise and find a deal. I know that, you know, Jerry is notorious for making last-second deals, and I just don't know that it's going to happen in this case. I think there's going to be some games that need to be missed before they kind of come to their senses and come up with a deal. Well, if that's the case, you know, how do you marry the two conversations? together like the importance of Parsons and how good the Cowboys are in other words if they don't

have them on the field for the first couple of weeks do they do they have a chance to win this year do you think they're a playoff team even with paying him and let's say he does play Thursday night what is that how much does he change in terms of your prediction of what the Cowboys can and will be this year well obviously he's an enormously impactful player and when you got a pass rusher it's probably the second most important position on the field but really quarterback is just by far the most important position, and really that's the guy that is going to be the linchpin. So for them, if back has a good year, it's going to be pretty likely to make the playoffs.

If not, it's going to be pretty tough. And I don't think whether Parsons is there or not really moves the dial enough for Jerry Jones to say, yep, this is a Super Bowl team this year. We're going to win it all, and so we need Michael in there. I think that based on what he did with the coach this offseason, I think he's kind of thinking that, hey, I hope we have a good year. but I don't think this is my Super Bowl winning team and so I think for Micah Parsons

he kind of picked a tough year to hold out because I'm not sure that there's a lot of people even within Dallas that believe this is a team that have to have Michael Parsons in week one to give him a chance to go win the Super Bowl and so I think they're willing to be patient here. There's no doubt that Mike is a strong player, a really good player in the league,

one of the better ones on the defensive side, but is this a risky game he's playing that he's played with Dax and CD Lamb before about maybe hurting the feelings Is it Micah Parsons and what it could mean for the relationship down the road even if they do sign the contract? Well, one thing my agent told me when I was playing and I was going through my own contract negotiations, it never got ugly.

I re-signed before the last year of my deal, but my agent said, you know what, the team, they're going to say all sorts of great stuff about you. But in the end, how you show somebody love in the NFL is you pay them money, because that's the one thing that you have a limited quantity of because of the salary cap. So you pay your players based on how. much you love them and how much they give to your team and the value that they bring. And so if they are able to come to a deal and Michael Parsons is going to sign a new contract, he's going to walk in with a huge smile and give Jerry Jones a big hug because he's about

to be even more richer with the amount of money that he's going to make as a pass rusher, as one of the great pass rushers in this game. I don't think there's going to be any feelings hurt if they do come to a deal. Now, if this drags on for a really, really long time and he ends up going somewhere else, well, then there's probably going to be hard feelings. But in that case, I don't think he's going to love Jerry Jones anyway because it's going to be playing for somebody else. And somebody else is going to be signing the checks.

Hey, Joe, we were talking before you came on about the circuses in the NFL. And, of course, you know, Jerry's the ringmaster of the biggest one. But another one that gets brought up a lot is the one that happens in Cleveland when it comes to quarterbacks. And no exception this year with all the drama around Shadoura Sanders is a fifth round pick. I mean, what have you made of, the fuss about Sanders, the idea that the Browns were setting him up to fail.

He got roughed up the other night in the preseason, got sacked five times, and did not look good. How have you processed all that noise, and what do you think it means for the Browns? Well, it has been a circus. I think I get an opportunity to talk to a lot of Brown fans throughout the country and specifically in and around Cleveland during training camp because I call it preseason games, and I'm helping coach a little bit this season.

And by and large, the noise you're hearing the conspiracies about Brown setting him up to fail by people who are not Brown fans, right? They're Shadur Sanders stands. They're people that love him that have been his stand for a long time. Some of them have good relationships with Dion. So they love Dion. And really, whether they know it or not, they're trying to build this double-sided argument for Shadur, whether he succeeds or he doesn't succeed in the NFL as a quarterback.

they want to be able to point the blame to somebody else so that if he doesn't make it for whatever reason, it's because of conspiracy and the Browns. They want him to fail for some reason, which I don't quite understand. There was the only team in the NFL has stuck their neck out and drafted him. So they like a belly other teams at this point. And so I don't know why I can't even come up with any type of a realistic argument to say that, yeah, the Browns, they want this guy that they drafted, that they're paying, that they're taking this heat for developing.

him are going to now want him to fail. That makes no sense whatsoever. And anybody that's saying it is just being disingenuous. So it has been a circus. There have been people that are trying to say it's a conspiracy. Kevin Savancy doesn't want him to do well. The Browns are trying to set him up to fail, but it just makes no sense on any level whatsoever.

They're actually taking the bullets because they want him to succeed and they're willing to take those bullets because they understand that the development of Shadour Sanders and most rookie quarterbacks, especially guys that are ready to start doing. day one, it is the best thing for them to be patient, to sit and watch, to do like Aaron Rogers did, to do like Patrick Mahomes did, and develop and not be thrust into action before you fully understand the playbook that you're dealing with, before you have plenty of reps in practice, plenty of reps against NFL players. You're running the scout team for your offense during the season. And when you've had those opportunities to grow and mature,

and you can go out there and you can show your stuff. You can show that you're a great playmaker, you're a great decision maker like Shador Sanders is, and you're super accurate. But if you throw a guy out there before he's ready and he doesn't do well, that does a lot of damage to their confidence. I had a lot of rookie and young quarterbacks

that were forced to play before they're ready. And by and large, it was bad for them. And a lot of them were never able to recover. And so I think the Browns are actually taking the heat because they do want him to succeed so bad. If they really didn't care about them, they'd throw him to the wolves right away. He'd play worse than we saw this past weekend against the Rams.

And then they'd say, ha, there you go. See, he's a fifth-round pick. He's not as good as you guys thought. But they actually care for the kid. They want him to succeed. They want him to potentially be the franchise quarterback, and they realize that's best done with patience, with allowing him to learn and grow

and not putting him out there before he's ready. With Joe Thomas, and the offensive line was taking heat again from those Sanders super fans or conspiracy theorists. and I'm curious, as a Hall of Fame left tackle, you know, how difficult was it to play with a young quarterback who was taking so long to process the field? You know, like, how much can you really do to protect the quarterback

if, you know, he's running from the pocket or he's taking too long to unleash the ball? I was calling him to come up in the booth. And his biggest thing was he just kept dropping deeper and deeper in the pocket. And as a tackle, that's like an impossible situation. because you're blocking for a spot that's about nine yards behind the center that's what should be

and then he should step up and climb in the pocket as he goes through his progression the shooter is getting too deep in his drop and then from there when he felt that the edges were closing around him which that's what happens when you're in the pocket

right we're blocking for a spot we can't keep them from going everywhere on the field they're already better athletes than we are like we can only block them from going to one spot and so as he starts backing up now it just makes it worse and worse and the problem was that the bad habit that he had in college, part of the reason why he took a bunch of sacks, now he didn't

have a very good offensive line, but part of the reason he took a bunch of sacks is because he tried to escape from the pocket off the back end. He tried to continue to drift to get away. And sometimes in college you can, you know, pull a rabbit out of your hat and you can escape. But in the NFL, it's much harder once you start scrambling. And so I think what happened is those bad habits showed their ugly head and they kept getting worse. And then it was like this bad domino effect as he was losing confidence. and his protection and what he was doing, he just kept scooting deeper and deeper

and then ended up taking five sacks in the game. So I think you saw that there are some bad habits he needs to break, and the only way you can break those is with time and patience and practice and film study. And so that's what they're trying to give him. But as an offensive lineman, it's really, really difficult because if I try to block for a spot 11 yards, now that I'm assuming he's going to do the wrong thing,

which is already a bad thing, I need to worry about what I have to do. I have a coach to do. everybody's supposed to act, but if let's just say I was realizing that Shudor is getting too deep, now I'm going to block for that spot. Well, now if he steps up, I've overset and I've set deeper than I should, and then now I've given my pass rush or the inside move, and now he's going to smoke him at seven and a half yards where he's supposed to be. And then now you've got the biggest problem in the world because he's lost all confidence

and everything that's going on because he's saying in his head, okay, I want to step up. I'm supposed to step up. The coach comes and tells him on the side of him, hey, you need to step up. don't keep drifting. Now he steps up, and I'm blocking for a different spot. Now he gets whacked. And now it's like, well, sorry, it's my fault, but I was trying to adjust for you,

but now I'm in trouble because I'm not blocking for the spot and he's blocking the play the way it was supposed to. And now he doesn't trust me. I don't trust him, and it becomes the even bigger disaster. We're on a team, Joe, like we saw, Detroit Lions losing two coordinators like they did and how that can affect kind of the continuity for a group that has, I'm sure, high expectations for themselves this year.

Yeah, it's going to be difficult to replace those guys. Obviously, Ben Johnson was one of the great young offensive minds in the game. He was really fun and creative because he was doing a lot of the outside zone play action stuff that Kyle Shanahan has really popularized within today's NFL, but he took it an extra step because he would put in multiple tight ends and he was using a lot of pin and pull concepts where the guards are pulling, the centers are pulling, and then running play action off of that, which is something you don't see a lot of people doing.

And so he was super creative and he was really pushing the evolution of the play action passing game in the NFL. And so even though you try to replace him with somebody that's maybe really similar that sees the game the same way, there's always a little bit lost when you're trying to promote somebody or hire somebody to do what the guy before you did because that was his specialty. And so I think it'll take a little while for both the offense and the defense to sort of get their footing and for these new coordinators to be able to just figure out what am I great at? What is my identity? What do I feel comfortable calling and coaching?

Because as a coordinator, it's not just drawing up the exes and O's, then it's the ability to communicate and dictate to the position coaches about exactly how you want it all blocked so that they see the game the same way you do so that they can then coach to the players underneath them. So it's a process that takes multiple years. And I think there's going to be some growing pains there for the, Well, we're through the preseason, and we've got a lot of guys signing. I guess we've got one guy still waiting for some money, but fantasy drafts are going off. It's go time, man.

It's a beautiful time of year. College football right around the corner. Enjoy it all, Joe. We'll do it again down the road. Really appreciate you doing this. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on, guys. There's Joe Thomas.

Hall of Famer, Cleveland Brown, NFL Network analyst. and yeah the Shadur Sanders story I don't know I don't I'll believe it when I see it that they keep all four guys I don't think he's going to get claimed though right like I think it would be a scenario where they probably put him on the practice squad who's going to want that circus on their hands yeah you know like who's if they cut him and he's available or they try to squeeze him on the practice squad who's picking him up bringing him into camp and when your season started I just don't see it Every team had a chance to draft him, and only one team did, right? And there's a reason for that for sure.

Yep, exactly. And the circus you point out is the biggest reason. It's just like he may be a guy that can develop, but is it worth that journey, right? All the baggage that goes are trying to develop this guy, given how high profile he is. I just think there's so many teams that would just say, nah, it's not worth it. Right. And he's clearly not ready to play. and he's probably a couple years away from being ready to play.

So it's a scenario where you've got to, you know, kind of park them within your organization for a year or two before you might get anything out of them. And yet the noise is not going to go anywhere because he's still going to be there. And he's Shradurr Sanders. Javes Twins tonight. We'll come back with our best bets. T that game up. Overdrive continues.

TSN 1050 and on the TSN up. All right. Today's best bets are powered by Fandole. Make your picks and assemble the same game. Parlay and seconds on the Fando's Sportsbook app. Jay's a pretty big favorite tonight. Try to get this, find a parlay to get this into the plus. Jay's money line, Vladie, record a hit tonight.

Playing about plus $1.10. A little bit of plus money on that. But Vladie backed the agent tonight. I think he's ready to go chomping at the bit. I think he gets on base a couple of times tonight. I think he records at least a hit. I think Scher's her pitch as well. His strikeout total is six and a half.

half. Wow. That is high, man. But he's been so good. I'm not surprised. You've got to adjust the numbers. The goalposts are moving for him. He's been so good.

But Jay's money line with sure he's on a mount tonight. Vladdy to record a hit paying plus money. Today's best bets powered by Fanduel. The first inning means as much as the ninth when you bet baseball and the Fandwell Sportsbook gap. Please play responsibly 19 plus physically located in Ontario. All right. Jay's an oasis tonight.

There you go. J's an oasis. that's what we're expecting to see. It's wild, man. Hey, I was saying a buddy of mine said was talking about Brooke Henderson winning, and she did a great favor to all gear heads because, you know, she pulled, she pulled the, I'm changing out the putter before this term,

and I've had it with my old putter, and she replaces putters like divots. And, of course, she goes out with the new putter that Taylor made Spider-X and wins. Love it. Love that. Yeah, I was looking at, you know, what's in the bag for both of them. Tommy Fleetwood's been playing that burner, the Taylor-made, like, you know, mini-driver all year.

And he was whipping that thing around. He's, like, over the past week. And he plays the Picks golf balls. One of the only guys on tour. I never see that. You never see that. You never see a tour player play those. And he has been consistently playing for a long time.

What are they? They're the ones with the, they're called the TP-5 Picks ball. So they've got all the markings on them. I got it. I don't really know how to describe. But, yeah, it's... I know what you mean. Yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of mark.

And it's on purpose so that you can actually align your golf ball. And he said it helps him with putting and obviously it's working for him. But, yeah, Brooke Henderson out there doing her thing. Congrats to her. That was incredible. Tommy Fleetwood. Jay's a red hot. It's a good scene, man.

And, yeah, I missed a song. I was out there on Saturday. Beautiful place. Like really, really nice track. Never been there before, but really, really nice. Oh, down by the river down. down there. It's just gorgeous.

Beautiful. Old chorus, too. Like 1903 or something, 1909. They could open up. It's been around for a long time. But, yeah, they did a great job. So credit to the Women's Open, Golf Canada, everyone that helped out there.

Credit to Brooke Henderson. And we'll see what the Jay's have in store tonight. All right, boys. Good stuff. Thank you for doing this, as always. Great seeing you guys. There's Jason Strudwick, Dave Festrug of the Toronto Star. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes for helping out.

We appreciate it. Everyone for tuning in today. TV, radio podcast, web, and of course up on YouTube live on TSN's YouTube channel. We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at 4 p.m. We'll chat then.

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