The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: ALL IN

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

What does Tua's new contract tell us about the perceived value at the QB position. Jerry Jones said the thing - he's 'ALL IN' this season. Plus, Mike brings up something the MLS has done to alleviate the salary cap with a non-cap designated player that could work in the NFL. Also, no one on the show wants to push Pat Riley out of the Miami Heat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's the powerful backing of AmeriMexpress. Visit amex.ca.yamx. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. This is the Don LeBattor Show with the Stugats Podcast. StuGuts Podcast! Congratulations, StuGuts. You've arrived at 52 years old. I had to go to Africa and to Safari to get rejuvenated. You with the birthday gift of Mad Dog giving you the perspective of you hobbled through a hotel. What city was it in that you find?

Rochester? I had to drive back up to Rochester after doing the four days in New York saw you limping through and called you Papa like like you were a grandfather in Fairnest her she was asking are you Papa I'm still feeling that one Mike and Mike show that we did at ESPN that it's not a sane way to make a living to do more to get ravaged by the things in morning radio. I wanted to circle back around here, Stugant, on the news of the day or of the weekend locally because the place that Tua was slotted among the salaries average per year, I really do want to talk about this part with you guys. Okay. Because you can tell

me it's about the salary cap but you don't actually know what the difference is between Jalen Hurts making 51 million a year, Lamar Jackson making 52 Herbert making 52 5 Goff making 53 and now Tua is at 53.1. You got Jordan Love at 55 Trevor Lawrence inexplicably at 55 and Joe Burrow at 55 a year between all of those that's a 16 and 17 playoff record That's three Super Bowl appearances no super bowl victories why do we know and care about these dollar amounts if you guys are actually cap all of this to get slot something here and there and tell me what it gets them in terms of paying bradley chubb two years from now but this dollar

amount combined with three kills dollar amount jaylen wattles dollar amount a lot of guarantee money wrapped up at three guys. Miami has in three guys the only three guys in the league on offense who are making more than 70 million guarantees. I think you're, I don't think people give a shit about the exact dollar amount. They care about where are they ranked. What quarterbacks make less, what quarterbacks make more. And that just happens to be where the numbers at. Yeah, that's an even easier way to understand. I want to know who's making more than two and if that fits the hierarchy of quarterbacks make more and that just happens to be where the numbers at? Yeah, that's an even easier way to understand I want to know who's making more than two and if that fits the hierarchy of quarterback You would say what would you say?

Would you say Daniel Jones is a bad quarterback or an average quarterback like you can parse that but remember all the The hullabaloo surrounding his contract because of everyone being slotted up Daniel Jones is now paid as an average quarterback everyone being slotted up, Daniel Jones is now paid as an average quarterback. Trevor Lawrence didn't change the market. Tua had to settle for something less and as soon as he did, Jordan Love got in with more. Yeah well I mean that that's good agenting because he like they made it easy for him right there. It's not it's also the guaranteed money and that's a hell of a lot sexy to talk about. The guaranteed money is really what matters most. Mike, you say it's good agenting.

The Dolphins, by doing what they did the way they did it, got to a little bit cheaper than Trevor Lawrence. I continue to ask you guys though, why do you care about these things? Because it affects your ability to pay the weapons around it. And you've seen, like the Chiefs weren't above it. The Chiefs had to move on from Tyreek Hill and at a certain point the Dolphins will probably have to do the exact same

thing to make room for an escalating contract. It does seem like some of these teams then whether it's the Chiefs even the Bills with Stefan Diggs in the offseason they're choosing hey we're going to spend the money on the quarterback the wide receivers are kind of interchangeable. No that's not no that's not true. But they found one last year in Rice. The most expensive, the value that is now being spent the most on is wide receiver. There's been a seed change in the sport. I don't understand the disconnect here because it stands to reason. You pay your quarterback more, there's less money to go around, which just ratchets up the pressure for this season because you have all those guys on your roster now so you're like

this is probably maybe the last year or the second to last year where I have those three together I have to win a Super Bowl now in this window or to I has to be a guy at that position that can transcend the loss of Tyreek Hill the way that Patrick Mahomes did. The other thing that factors into why Dolphins fans are discussing this and people in the NFL circles are just discussing this Dan is they didn't technically have to pay Tua. I mean do you think Tua was really going to sit out this season?

He was going to make 23 million dollars. They could have waited until next off season. I say what Tua has to do. Tua has to be a little more graceful though with your blessings. You can't get in front of a broke ass crowd talking about show me the damn money. Let's play that sound because I was really surprised by this. I tell you what, show me your face! It's weird.

The whole thing's weird, man. You had a warm reception to that, so it wasn't. He's likable, but he also said, I'm the highest paid employee in the office. It's weird. Yeah, it is weird. I would say that one of the things that I've noticed with Tewitt, you remember him coming out of college, Dan, you spoke to him kind of fresh out of college. He is grown into a personality He's gotten real confidence from this coaching staff and I would say that he's gotten

An amount of success that makes it man. He was worried about retiring because of his brain To get to this to get to this to. It's not to get to a Super Bowl. It's not. It's not to get to a Super Bowl. When we spoke to Mike McDaniel at camp, he told us that he saw at a charity event and he saw a completely different guy than he'd seen in the public eye before and he realized the failings even though he didn't want to actually say Brian Flores but we knew that Brian Flores did not by pulling to in crucial moments did not have faith in that man and it really neutered that personality he didn't feel like he can be himself so Mike McDaniel told us specifically I saw a relaxed to a I saw a guy that was a leader I saw a person that people gravitated to,

and we hadn't really seen that, how do I get that? And the interpersonal bridge crossing that Mike McDaniel did certainly unlocked something with Tua because this is the best Tua we've seen. He led the NFL in yardage last year, so I mean, listen, people could complain all they want. When you lead the NFL in passing yardage, this is the kind of contract you're ultimately

and eventually going to get. Mike McDaniel really impressed me. Just from the standpoint of leadership, he seems like a really fundamentally good person and a great leader and a great football coach. To go to bat for a guy, Dan, that he told us before anyone believed in him, I believe in that guy. He's the quarterback for my system.

And he just showed you, because he went to bat to get him the quarterback for my system. And he just showed you, because he went to bat together, but he didn't have to. He just showed you, Hey, that's my guy. I'm sticking with him. Absolutely. It's beautiful. It's syrupy and also $100,000 more per year than Jared Goff immediately. If you go outside at all, you know that the heat of summer is here in South Florida. It is crazy hot. And your favorite summer summer treat like a nice lemonade back in the day those little ice pops you would cut the top of the scissor and drink them oh I love those that summer treat would give you your extraordinary hydration but right now liquid IV is there with refreshing summer flavors like popsicle firecracker

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and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Of all the quarterbacks that I mentioned there, Stugats, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Jared Goff, Tua, Burrow, Lawrence, Love, those are all $50 dollar a year quarterbacks. Burrow is the one traditional quarterback that all of us would say at 55 million dollars put him anywhere even though his skill guys are really good too. Yeah. Put him anywhere and we think he'll be

a great quarterback. Jordan Love last year with limited offensive weapons but a very good offensive line looked to be in that category of quarterback over the last games when he went to Dallas and ransacked a Dak Prescott that gets accused of some of the same system stuff that Tua gets accused of, that Goff gets accused of, that diminishes hurts as well. I think we all agree that Herbert, because he had great skill guys too, that Herbert looks the part of whatever it is that Burrow is offering you and that Lamar Jackson is a weird amalgamation of system and changes at the position. The two-ist stat that I find most interesting on do you put him in this 50 million dollar category

is that he's third in passing when he gets rid of everything before 2.5 seconds and he's 16th after that. So it's not just that you have to be perfect to ride receiver and your skill players need to be paid more than anybody else to keep it just so. And it's not just that your offensive line has to hold up, that that you've game the system a little bit because your system allows him to get rid of it so quickly that he doesn't get injured and they're proficient quickly but it better be perfect for him everything's got to be perfect for him including the weather I mean throw that there as well it's crazy the first round

playoff matchup he's a weird quarterback I'm not saying he's not deserving of the money he's deserving of the money he He got the money. But if you put two out in the free market where any team could assign them this year, do you think a single team would offer them $55 million? I think a single team would have, but not that many. I don't want to do it. A single team offered Kirk Cousins that and there was actually like a buyer's market for him. You need quarterbacks. They got in trouble with the league for tampering because they needed to get an advantage at signing Kirk Cousins. My point is however Detroit feels about Jared Goff is about how Miami should feel about

Tua. Both of them very highly regarded. You saw both of them do some failing or what felt like failing and you also saw one of them get to two Super Bowls and he's got the 53.1 million and the stat I just gave you on all that a combined 16 and 17 record between all those 50 million dollar deals that's not that's not actually winning anything because it's losing to the top guy right my homes is doing all the winning that's at least part of it because they've got their top guy pretty cheap because they got him early and because the smartest of these guys know to allow for some savings in some corners so that you can do the winning because that game really hurts when you're

losing. Like it hurts a little extra when there are losses involved with everything. I wanted to get to what Jerry Jones said, Stu gots, because, uh, tell me why this means anything. I've been making fun for a while about the fact that Jerry Jones is winning the business of sports because the Cowboys stink, but they're always relevant. They never win anything. They haven't won in 30 years, but they're the most valuable franchise and he's the biggest businessman in the sport because he knows how to keep them relevant because he knows it's the circus and he knows

to say things like this that don't mean anything. Quote, I'm all in. I'm all in. What more do you want from the man? What else can you ask? They asked him about Jordan Love's contract and is do they think Dak is better than Jordan Love and he took you all the way around the mountain when she comes and he did not give an answer. It's easy to say yes my quarterback is better than everybody else. He won't do it though. He's all in. It doesn't mean anything. Those words mean nothing in a salary and cap sport right? They're all all in. That would mean something if you were actually competing over the dollars, if there weren't limits and he had to

actually fight these people. God, that'd be so great. Do you know how much, do you know how much more interesting, we obsess over the 50 million these quarterbacks get. Do you know how much more interesting all of this would be if Daniel, if Jerry Jones had to to be fighting had to be fighting the next richest owner for the quarterback they both want I don't know I love soccer I love club soccer but before the year you outside of like some crazy historical outliers like with lesser and whatnot you got like seven teams two of which are actually competing for the title is that it's not all that entertaining from a who's going to win a championship standpoint. You think Jerry Jones would be winning everything if he was just getting all the players that

he wanted? Well, not necessarily in football, in American football. That's also tricky because you have injuries there. But I would like to see a day. I don't think the salary cap's a bad thing in American sports. I like the parody. I like that you enter seasons. And across all major sports, you have fans saying this could be our year if a couple

things break our way. But I would like to see something collectively bargained where you agree, maybe the quarterback position, maybe some, like you've got five, like MLS does this. You have designated players. You can pay them anything. You have to be judicious. And then you can have a real talk. Well, do we burn up a designated player spot on Tua because that means now we only have two of them left Does it kind of get the cap is what you're saying Yeah Where you have positions that don't count at all against a cap and it's a free open market for the very best in their sport I'd like to see that in American sports outside of MLS

Did you guys cover on Friday what I believe to be a story that should be getting more play both nationally and internationally that involves Cal Quantrill? Do you know the story that I'm talking about? Yeah, I think I saw this on social media. Okay, but did you guys talk about- Is that Paul Quantrill's son? It has to be.

It must be. How many Quantrill's can there possibly be in this country that play baseball? I saw there was a Homer Bush Jr. running around. Oh boy, really? Already? Already? There was a Homer, yes, I saw a Homer Bush Jr. running around.

Cal Quantrill, but do you know the story I'm talking about? What the Rockies pitcher said to Reese McGuire of the Red Sox. It is what I believe to be the single greatest insult in trash talking I have ever heard that also happens to be true in sports. Yelled at him in the middle of an argument, you jacked off in a bleeping parking lot, you dumb bleep. When you- I think you told him to go do that. No, no, no.

No, he did it. No, no, no. Just as a matter of fact. No, you've done that. I Wiki-searched you before this. Yes. Before this. Not go do that.

That would also be a good thing to insult him with. But go do that because I know you have done it. Yeah, like go do it again. Go do it because we all know this about you. Ha much better does it get than that at the height of rage in terms of being able to hit somebody over the head with an incident from their past? It's like a bit of a checkmate, because what's your rebuttal? A bit?

A bit? What's your rebuttal? Like get some new material. Oh, everybody tells me that. Oh, no. You gotta be like, touche. You got me. You did.

I did do that. It's a horrible shame for me, and everyone knows it. I think Juju's right, by the way. I'm seeing a picture over here. I see Go come out of his mouth first. Like, Go jerk off in a parking lot. Yeah. Either way, we understand the sentiment.

Yeah, we get it. We don't really need to parse it. Yeah. Like the sentiment, it's the same. Mm-hmm. Wow, Paul Quantrill's son. Amazing, Homer Bush. We're so old, dude.

We're so old, dude. It does warm the cockles a little bit when you see Trinity Rodman out there, but then you're reminded that they don't have a good relationship. Right. And quote, don't have a good relationship and quote, don't see eye to eye on the world. Not surprising.

One of my famous favorite Dennis Rodman facts is that his own father had, I believe it was 21 children and his name was actually Philander. That's not usually something that you get. Back full circle, we just left this. Jerry Jones, it's a perfect example of keeping the real goals wrong. If you would have paid Dak Prescott two years ago, he's supposed to pay Dak Prescott, he would have been in the category of Daniel Jones. Now you're gonna have to pay that man more money.

Salute to you, bro. If he wants to stay. Well, let me ask you guys this question as it relates to Pat Riley here locally, because for some reason, in the changes throughout sports where we know all the money everybody makes and all of us feel like fantasy GMs and we all feel like we could be better architects than the people doing the architecting, I understand anybody who looks at what's happened to the Miami Heat over the last two years

and criticizes Pat Riley for falling behind because it's a results business. But I saw that Tyus Jones signed for the minimum and a lot of people were saying, as they do again, because they've got the heat of Thomas Bryan, a four string center, and the heat aren't getting better. That Pat Riley is washed and he should go away. And my question to you locally is how do you imagine that happening if I keep telling you guys that five people run this organization and Riley reports to Nick Erison that if you get rid of Riley you're doing what?

Bringing someone in over Spolstra? When Spolstra's been given the job and the power he's been given, and not to go to Portland where he could have had an ownership stake because they're promising him that he can be a part of all the decision making in the future. When you're running Pat Riley out, are you replacing him with someone else or are you just making Spolstra the one who's over Riley even though I keep telling you guys at every turn There are five people who make all the decisions in that organization and Riley gets all the credit for it because Riley's still the figurehead That works for everybody in the organization as mythological leader of the thing

I've never met like someone that isn't like Juicing it up and being performative that wants to show Pat Riley the door as an actual Heat fan. I think everyone understands what he's bought for himself with this franchise made them relevant made them matter brought them their greatest success is still recently pretty successful. I think everyone just wants him to like come on figure it out be more aggressive get one more get come on right like you out. Be more aggressive. Get one more. Come on. Like, you're getting old? We're all growing impatient?

Do something. I want it to be you that does it. I don't want to work myself up. I will never get to that point, by the way. It just is what it is. There are very few people that get to that point in sports where you understand they get to do whatever they want for however long that they want.

And it's not like they're terrible They're just not winning a championship Mike That's not a deal anyone has Belichick just got run out on a rail like that's not a deal that works in sports No one is done more winning than Belichick. You can say that we're better people down here. I guess no I understand fans running him out Mike. I do they are into Mike's point That's like that's like good no egg-avvy logic no these are not real people there are fans that are upset with the heat and Riley and his inability to land some of the big free agents you're looking at him I

know I don't want to push him out but they have that perspective they can say it all they can say both things they can say get a superstar and also you're Pat Riley and you can kind of do what you I think they're being respectful I don't believe the fans who are saying hey I have perspective he could stay as long as he want you're being respectful to Pat You want to win you want to win now? It's okay push Pat out. Yeah, if you feel like the game is passed I'm not pushing them. I ain't you push them. I ain't pushing Tony you push them I mean, yeah, I will not pushing them. I ain't pushing them. I ain't pushing them. Tony, you push them. I mean, I will not do that. Tony, push them out. And I would say like,

if you're arguing that it's five people that make the decision, it's not one solo person, then that's a totally different scenario than what was happening in New England where you had Kraft and you had Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick wanted all the power. He wanted so much power that when he hit an open market, nobody wanted him. I wonder if that would be the case with Pat Riley, but it's a totally different situation. I just don't think that the people listening to this understand that Pat Riley reports

to Nick Erison. Like I don't think that that's something that anybody listening to this understands or considers for a moment. This is the Erisons franchise. They hide purposefully and powerfully in the shadows running the franchise. And I've seen them say no to Pat Riley on things. He reports to-

Usually when it's a luxury tax. He reports- But I can't push out the owners. Right. Well, but that's- I gotta push out that's my boy. I got my issues. Right.

There weren't t-shirts at the last playoff. I wanted white hot t-shirts. I got a rally towel. I know where we're cutting corners. I saw what happened during the pandemic in the cruise line industry. Isn't that why they lost Tyus Jones because of the second apron stuff that you guys, the part that I don't get is you obsess over the 53 million on Tua and then when it comes to the second apron stuff, you don't actually understand what's happening there. I do. Who are you talking about? Like, yes, I care about it. I don't give a flying F about the apron. I want the

billionaire owner to spend the money to be competitive and do what other owners are doing. Over here they have done so well that fans in a twisted way because it's spoon-fed from media that they like, hey we got under the the tax apron. Like that's a banner that we should be raising. But like you have Heat fans that celebrate it. Wow, we're so good we got under that apron. My point is, my point isn't, my point isn't that you should care about whether they get under the tax apron. My point is that earlier in the show you were telling me that you care about Tua's contract

because it has to do with whether or not the team can stay under the salary cap. Right. But there it's a different sport. There's money to go around. You can go in the NBA into luxury tax town to improve your team. The Miami heat say that they're willing to go there, but often their moves suggest what was the real motivation here? Is it getting better? Is it getting better sometimes while also getting under the apron? Which is something that to their credit,

they've been able to do, or is it just cost cutting? And I'm not a huge fan of that. And look, I'm not pushing Pat Riley. A sports fan never is a huge fan of where does the business save money. But you are when it comes to the salary cap in football on where it is that you can save money. But you are when it comes to the salary cap in football on where it is that you can save money.

Because it affects your enjoyment of it, you're counting the dollars in the bank of Tua because you're doing all sorts of math that I've always hated having around sports. I think no one cares about the specifics of it. I just wanna know my team is doing this game on par with the good teams It's like okay. This team is spending this much on their quarterback Let's not be the team that takes their quarterback that's in the middle kind of and overly you just want to I don't care

I think you're overstating that fans are like, oh, it's 54. It should have been 52 No, it's just I want to know what quarterbacks get more what get less and just make sure that my guys slotted in the right area I think you guys are burying in the lead the Miami Heat are your summer league NBA champion Damn right. So I think we should just do more celebrating of that 24 hours of grace Allow them to it has been a summer of banners down here in South, Florida Look everybody was making fun of them last year for falling short and not well you lost in two finals you didn't win anything well the Panthers won the Cup and the Heat won a championship over the summer oh they shut a lot of people

up we did not talk at all about the summer league champ why would we and we are not going to talk about it in Africa was the parade rough summer for parades by the way. They're all getting rained on. Panthers, Olympics, Thanksgiving, better look out. Celtics one did not get rained on. There were a million people there. They outsourced it to Miami half the time.

What else did you guys like about the opening weekend of the Olympics? Because I was talking about us and some of the things that we're going to be doing over the next two weeks to cover the Olympics and I don't believe we've ever covered the Olympics before not not in any kind of organized way not caring about we're always waiting what's the storyline of the day that's going to make an appearance that we can talk about and chew on from pop culture but But I don't remember an entire 20 year history of a show, us ever planning or thinking about

what we were going to talk about regarding the Olympics. Yeah, and I think we've done a decent job in chewing as to why that is. And we did have like one in London not too long ago, but I guess we were in different places and the Miami Heat certainly were in a different place and the offseason was a bigger bigger deal there and that would carry us a little bit more but I think a lot of it has to do with it's all super accessible it's in a time zone that we can all follow if I want to watch handball I can watch handball and I can do it and it's always great when we have sports on here we're more invested because we are it's just

action in the morning we can watch it. Oh, a spill here in the men's gold medal final skateboarding. You're not gonna be able to recover from that one, son. Cause we care about that. Also, I'm like a dog with a bone on women's water polo. It is going down. Salute to Flavor Flav, Don Staley. Salute to my girls too, Jovanna Sukulich,

Tara Prentice, Maddie Musselman and Maggie Stephens. Man, come on, we just caught an L against Spain. Now, the Spaniards, they got that look in their eyes. And they got a great goalie. It's also like a very married experience. Right. Sitting down on the couch, as Sugaad mentioned it, like my wife gets into the Olympics in ways that are pretty profound and that I'm really enjoying.

She's more into it than I am. So much so that we're watching all the shoulder programming uninterrupted as a docu-series on US women's gymnastics as a ramped up for this Olympics is quite good. And lets me get invested. That's what it's always been, Mike. The Olympics, this is what I was telling you about last week. Since Karch Karai.

Since before that, Stu Gantz. Karach Karai is not the original Olympic athlete on broadcast television. It is. It's a family event. It's always been. I'm surprised that you just realized it after four days again. Took me having the family.