OverDrive - Schlereth on Patrick Mahomes being cleared to practice, expectations for Aaron Rodgers, and if the Rams are the best team in the NFL

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

NFL on FOX Analyst Mark Schlereth joins the show to discuss Patrick Mahomes’ health and if he starts the season, what to expect from Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh, the comparison between Tom Brady and LeBron James in terms of longevity, and if the Rams are the best team in the league.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Seeing some news today that down in Kansas City, Andy Reid announcing that Patrick Mahomes has been cleared to practice coming off those major knee surgeries and major knee injury from late in the season last year. So that would make you believe week one he's probably going to be ready to play. The chat about that. We're joined now by a long time NFLer, Super Bowl champ, analyst with the NFL on Fox back on Overdraft. There's Mark Schlarith. How you doing, Mark? I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're doing well. With that news on Mahomes, you know, being available to practice, does that lead you to believe he'll be ready to play week one? And if so, you know, how does that affect your projection for the Chiefs this year? Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I just assumed he was going to be ready to play anyhow.

So it's still, I still look at the Chiefs, man. I mean, huge defensive changes. They lost both their starting cornerbacks. You know, a couple of guys are getting a little bit longer in the tooth there. I still don't look at them from a receiving standpoint as having, you know, a guy that could be a do-it-all, like a great kind of number one type of option. Rishie Rice, I'm not sure about his status and he's been in so much trouble here in the recent years. Xavier Worthy is kind of a one-trick pony down the football field.

And Travis Kelsey, you know, is not, you know, he's older. He's just not the same guy. So I still look at, I look at Kansas City is the third best team in their own division right now. Of course, Patrick Mahomes, if he is 100% healthy, if he, if he doesn't have any setbacks, he makes a huge difference, no question about it. But I still think the Kansas City Chiefs, you know, I mean, just age and the success they've had over all the years that they've had it, it leads me to believe that they're probably

still the second best team or the third best team in their own division. Mark, we're just talking about the news about LeBron James at age 41 joining the Philadelphia 76ers. And I was sort of harking back to the year Tom Brady decided to leave New England and joined Tampa at age 42, I think soon to turn 43, and then ended up winning a Super Bowl. When you look at these two majestic athletes, think about what you know about Brady and LeBron doing what he's doing. I mean, do you see a parallel there? And what pops to mind for you, a guy who played in the league for so long?

Yeah, I mean, LeBron is still, he's still an unbelievable athlete, right? He still is dynamic and all those things. And so some of that is, you know, the parallels are definitely there. I think Brady is just interesting. Having done, I think I did almost five or six Tampa games that year when Brady was playing. And just the effect he had on the other guys, the effect he had on a guy like Mike Evans and some of the other guys, just from the standpoint of him showing up, him working, what they did between, you know, when the offense all of a sudden was done with their, you know, their session in practice,

with their 8, 10 plays. And so what they did, why the defense was working, you know, the extra work they put in, the film study, all those different things, that just kind of leadership and that voice where guys like Mike Evans told me, man, I had to pick up my game. Like, you know, guys were like, I thought we were working hard. I thought we were, you know, preparing. I thought we were doing all this stuff. But Brady elevated the way we prepared to play the game.

And so, you know, can LeBron have that effect on an Embed, you know, can he, can he stay healthy and actually show up and play instead of taking so many games off and all those things? There's no question they're incredibly talented. And those guys are both driven. And they're both going to make the right plays. One of the things that always fascinating me about Tom Brady when I talked to Bruce Ariens about him, when I talked to the office coordinator at the time was Byron Lefich and said, what sets him apart? And it's the boring.

It's the simple. And Byron Lefich told me, hey, listen, man. If the first read and the progression is the flat and you're throwing it for four yards and the guys turn it up and get an extra yard or two and it's open, Brady takes it 100 out of 100 times. He never bypasses a profit. He never turns something down to look for something saucier, you know. It's always let's stay ahead of the chains. Let's put drives together. Let my guys do the work.

Let them catch the ball on a four-yard flat route and let them turn up and see if they can break it. tackle. And, you know, just that attention to detail and that falling in love with the simple, with the boring. And I think those are the things that work as far as longevity is concerned. And I think that Brady and LeBron probably have a lot of that in common. Chatting with Mark Schlerith. You know, I guess Aaron Rogers now holds that crown of being the old guy who's still playing in the NFL. And the belief is this will be the last dance for him in Pitt. And he's doing it with Mike McCarthy, who is now joining him in Pittsburgh. and McCarthy and him obviously won a Super Bowl 15 years ago in Green Bay.

How much of an impact do you think McCarthy will have on Rogers? And how do you think that duo could work taken over for Tomlin? And, you know, they were a playoff team last year at Pitt. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think a couple of different things. You know, obviously they have D.K. Medcalf. They went out and got Michael Pittman from Indianapolis in a free agency, who is just a tough, hard-nose, do the dirty work-wide receiver, which I think is going to be very helpful for Aaron Rogers in this offense.

A guy that you can trust, a guy that you know is going to go over the middle of the football field and make catches even, you know, under duress even when he's getting hit. So I think that's a really good thing. I think the thing about McCarthy, having talked to Aaron Rogers, you know, when he played for McCarthy, having talked to Aaron Rogers, when he played for when he played for LaFleur in Green Bay, one of the things about McCarthy is he always let Aaron kind of control the game in critical situations from the line of scrimmage.

So for Aaron, it was something that he really appreciated, really liked in second down and long situations, third down in long situations. It was, you know, do I have leverage with a certain receiver? Do I have a one-on-one matchup that I love? Let me dissect the defense. Let me see what they're in from a coverage standpoint and let me call my own plays.

And so I think that connection and that belief and having had success in the past doing it that way. I think it's one of the things that Aaron Rogers really loves about football, and I think Mike McCarthy gives him that freedom. So I think from that standpoint, I think it's an excellent connection between those two and they'll fall right back into a rhythm. Hey, Mark, I was curious about your take on the whole controversy around all these football stadiums in the States that hosted the World Cup of soccer,

and to do that, they had to bring in the real grass and these beautiful natural turf fields were all over the place. And now a lot of them are getting ripped out in favor of the artificial turf that a lot of NFL teams prefer, I think, for reasons of economy and other multi-use purposes.

Where are you on that? I know some of the data says that playing on natural grass is a lot better for player health. I'm not sure it's conclusive, but I know you went through a lot of nicks and cuts in your day. Do you have a feeling

that if the NFL went to 100% natural grass, it would be better for player health? Oh yeah, I don't think there's any question. Just having, you know, played on both. It's just more giving, you know, more forgiving. And it is,

it's just a better surface to play on. That being said, you know, the players are going to stomp their feet and they're going to say, hey, you know, you did it for World Cup, you should do it for us, and they're going to wave their fists, and then the owners will lock them out in the next collective bargaining agreement and they will offer them, you know, free Gatorade to take home and the players will take it.

That's, you know, that's how we are as players. That's our union. You got to understand how the NFL works. It's not like baseball. It's not like basketball. 80% of the guys, you know, 80% of the guys make 20% of the money. So when they get locked out of these facilities and, you know, and finances start to get tight and they need to go to camp to get paid, they all. all they're all going to ratify whatever whatever's on the table. So, you know, we just keep, we just keep accepting deals like no lifetime insurance, you know, none of the things that are really important. We just take less practice time. And players don't even realize that taking less practice time actually shortens your career. They think it's going to lengthen your career

because you're not going to take as many hits in practice. But the bottom line is you're not going to be as skilled or good a football player. So ultimately, you kind of squeeze out some of the middlemen, some of the guys that, you know, that are important to this league and they get longevity, you're not increasing your ability as a football player. So what ends up happening is ownership, you know, has the halves that make the majority of all the money. And then they fill the rest of the roster with a bunch of guys that, you know, you just pray don't have to get in the game because most of those kids, you know, they last two or three years in the league and they're not worth a score to piss. And so, I mean, that's just the way the league operates. So, like, they're going to,

They're going to make a lot of noise and they're going to complain. And the next collective bargaining agreement, they're going to be shouting about grass fields. And then they won't get it. And they'll get locked out. And they'll accept whatever it is they accept. But it won't change anything. That's all I'm telling you. It's not going to change.

With Mark Schlerith. If Aaron Donald returns to the Rams, does it change your viewpoint of who is the best team in the NFL? No. No, I think the Rams are the best team in the NFL anyhow. Okay. And if Aaron Donald comes back to the Rams, they're just that much better. And, you know, I hear people say, well, he's taking two years. That guy can take two years off and still be the best player in football.

He is a absolute reach show, athletically, strength, quickness, speed, intelligence, the whole nine yards. So he can come off a two-year layover. and still be the best defensive tackle in football. And there's no question in my mind about that. Him and Miles Garrett, man. How would you block him? Like, put us, go back on that offensive line. How do you block Garrett and Aaron Donald?

My God. How would you do that? You would, I mean, I would pray that both of them were hurt. You know, I mean, just like, not anything permanent. I'm not an animal, but I would pray for sickness. Listen, man, there's not a whole. lot. There's not a whole lot you can do. You know, you tell your coaches, let's run the heck out of the football. Let's have a bunch of three-step drops where the ball's going to get out.

Let's eliminate all the deep drops with multiple hitches and, you know, and pray that we have some success. Like, that is, that's, I thought about this bunch that that, that side, if you put that side, you know, with Donald and, and, and, and, and Miles Garrett side by side. It may be the best side. I mean, I think of, I think Ed Too Tall Jones and Randy White. I think of, you know, of Joe Green and Elsie Greenwood.

You know, I think of some tandoms in this league, but I don't know that there's ever been a more dynamic or athletic tandem than that tandem. And I don't think if Donald come back. I think it's when Donald comes back, because I think he's coming back.

I love it. He is Mark Schler at the NFL on Fox analyst, host of the Stinking Truth podcast. Camps are opening up. Football's in the air. It's a great time of year. Thanks for doing this, Mark. We appreciate it. Hey, Zab. You got to. You got it. Mark Schler, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Hello, Canada. This is Brian Adams Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. We'll play a few of mine, a ton of my favorites, and some must-hear behind-the-scenes stories

from the world of rock and roll. Oh, too many get to! When I'm thinking about doing rock and roll so long as you end up. Meeting a lot of the people that you admire. Sometimes you even get to work with him. Adam's Radio. Now available on the free IHare Radio app. Hey, everybody.

How are you tonight, Sam?