The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Deebo Trade Request, Pre-Draft Thoughts

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

John discusses the Deebo Samuel trade request, if the Niners should get rid of him or offer him an extension, why the Dolphins never ending dysfunction is exhausting, what teams are doing in the final days leading up to the NFL Draft, and thoughts before teams go on the clock. Follow John and The Volume on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest content and updates and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! #herd  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it, with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

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follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The volume. The three and out podcast is presented by Fandul Sportsbook. There is no better place to bet every moment more than with Fanduel. With football ending, we have the NBA rolling, March Madness right around the corner, and my personal favorite, betting on the best. betting on the PGA tour.

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on a gloomy and very cold, dreary and wet day here in Northern California. I don't know where you are, but usually by springtime, late April, we're getting 90 degrees. And right now it is cold. It is wet, but not here to complain about the weather. Here to talk some football. And we got a lot going on here on the three and out podcast because we got a lot going on in the NFL world. Debo Samuel requested a trade, dive into some angles there. Kyler Murray, who I tried to tell you, Drama Queen, is not going to be anywhere to be found in OTAs or this off-season, even though he's under contract for the next several years because he thinks he's Patrick Mahomes.

The draft is right around the corner. I think it's safe to say for most teams, the hay is in the barn, baby. And then just Sean Payton, I saw said that the Miami Dolphins, I don't know if he was said specifically the Miami Dolphins, but just basically that if he was coached, in 2022, he would have done that with the Saints. Of course, the Middilkoff mailbag, which we are pushing off every week to the weekend, except next weekend. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram.

Fire in those DMs and get your question answered here on the show. I think next week, what I might do is we'll do a podcast after the first round of the draft and maybe even just instead of the mailbag for the weekend, probably do a podcast after the second and third round for the weekend. and then just have another one to kind of recap it all, or just if anything else changes for Sunday, I'll record on Sunday and it'll come out Monday morning. That's the tentative plan of right now.

But, you know, I'm in the internet world. We are very fluid. The best part about being on the internet streaming podcast world is you can kind of move and shake fast. There is no set time. We're on our feet. And at any moments notice, we can change. So luckily, the best part about subscribing to the podcast,

you'll know when a new one comes out. But as of right now, that is the plan, to have one for Friday after the first round, have one for the weekend, and then do kind of a podcast on it all, maybe a little shorter one on Monday, and then just get back into the groove of things. But like I said,

at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Do you listen through Collins feed? Subscribe to the three and out feed. Would greatly appreciate it. And if you could, leave a review. Leave a review in the Apple's iTunes. People go, I listen on Spotify. Well, over 90% of our listeners

listed on Apple iTunes. A little, I know. some of you, the Spotify people, and they're diehard to the Spotify people, they're still a very, very small piece of the podcast pie, which is clearly growing, but the majority of human beings listen on Apple. Nothing long. I know as a

consumer, I do. I listen on Apple, iTunes, to all my podcasts. But let's start with Debo, who you know, it's gotten a little weird this offseason, the contract, how much would they pay a guy that's had 10 weeks of elite production? Been watching football.

I'm 37 years old. Since I can remember for almost 30 years. That's just good of a stretch of football from a non-quarterback at any position you'll ever see. I've seen every snap of Debo's career and I was live at that Rams game. That was as dominant of a game as you'll ever see. Becoming a running back, throwing for a touchdown,

catching enormous passes. He is, Debo Samuel is what I call an absolute war daddy. And there's a small percentage of athletes even in the pro sports and baseball, basketball, and definitely football, who take their game up when the games matter most, and you feel more confident going into battle with them in a playoff game than you even do a regular season game, and he fits in that category.

I see it with the Warriors with Draymond, Steph, and Clay. You want to go to war with those guys. Debo's one of those guys. But the amount of money guys are getting paid, his position is kind of unique because he doesn't truly have one. He can play wide receiver. He's a dominant running back. He's a dominant football player,

which ultimately, like any time that you, any business you run, if you hire someone who's just great at doing everything, that's a good thing. Like, that's what you want. It just makes it complicated in the sport of football because wide receivers now make more than any other position not named quarterback.

Wide receivers on average right now are the second highest paid position because, and a part of it is the recent group of guys that just got paid. You know what I mean? These guys are making 25, 26, $27 million, and running backs clearly don't make anything near that. And we've seen this forever with the tight ends and the wide receivers. Like, how is it fair that George Kittal, Darren Waller, and Travis Kelsey

makes so much less than these wide receivers? They are wide receivers. I understood where Jimmy Graham was coming from. I don't want to get paid as a tight end. Name me any other job. And we're talking about so much money here, even if I put it into relative terms, if you get paid $100,000 to do one thing, or you get paid 400 grand to do the other thing

and you already do both things. You're obviously going to want the 400 grand instead of the 100 grand, right? So it's no different than, yeah, $12 million a lot, but I'd rather have 21, especially when you're throwing me the ball. It's kind of bullshit. I've always thought tight ends get screwed

and I even think running backs get screwed. This is a complicated situation. I don't have any inside information on it. I'm just watching from afar like the rest of us. But here's what I know. I'm born and raised in. Northern California. And I'm someone who no longer, when I moved back here from Philadelphia, I desperately

wanted to come back to California. It meant a lot to me. Like, I wanted to go back to California. That's where I'm going to live. I don't think like that a decade later. It's probably a little less than that. But this place has gotten really weird. And part of it is financially, you know, it wasn't even necessarily, I wasn't making any

money then, so it didn't even matter. Like you pay a lot of taxes, you pay a lot to live here. I get, it's part of the deal. But when you truly start making, and I'm not making Debo Sammy, money, you start looking at your taxes, you go, this is kind of crazy, especially when you know people in Vegas or these other states, Texas, Florida, they don't pay any income tax. So once you get to the top bracket, which Debo is about to enter, and technically he would enter it this year, you start paying 13% of your income. So let's just look at the positives

and negatives. If I'm Debo Samuel, once you live here, he's from the South. Two years ago, the 49ers in Santa Clara County, they got kicked out of Santa Clara County. They got kicked out of Santa Clara County. They literally had to move their operation to Arizona. This is a guy that's from the SEC who spends his offseason in Florida and South Carolina and his team got kicked out of the state of California. But it was really the county in which his team plays and has to live. If I was in, I'd be like, what the fuck is going on? And then you go, he's represented by the same agent as A.J. Brown. Let's say they got the exact same contract. A.J. Brown and D. Debo, Samuel. And let's just pick a number, $60 million. That's the true guaranteed amount of money.

Who knows what the actual, like five years, $110 million, whatever, but they get $60 million guaranteed. A.J. Brown plays in Tennessee. His team is based in Nashville. There are no state income taxes. Debo Samuel plays and lives in the most expensive area in like America and the highest tax rates. I did the math. Now, it changes because you get tax where you play, but obviously Debo would play eight or nine of his home games. He plays the Rams every year here. His taxes, I think, again, little Lucy Goosey here, but between six and seven million dollars per year of take home cash over the life of the contract of that $60 million,

A.J. Brown would have extra in his account than Debo. Like, if you or me were about to get $50, 60 million, and we lived in California, and we were able to, well, could I get that same amount of money and live in Vegas or live in Texas or live in Florida, you would immediately move. Because you could use that extra money, I don't know, the $6, $7 million you would save and buy a fucking house in L.A., San Diego, the coast, wherever you want it.

You know, so it's just basic economics. And he has disputed Adam Schaefter that he doesn't want to live here, but he wouldn't be a human if he's not thinking like this. And the money is so great now that you have to think like this. I know countless family friends who were a little older

that just had done pretty well, they're like, what are we doing? And they all either went to the state line and moved in Nevada, past Lake Tahoe, or they just left the state because it didn't pencil. Now, you couldn't pay me, and I live in the East Bay, which is east of San Francisco. And this is, I grew up kind of in, obviously, the Sacramento area, which is on this side of the bridge. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to live down where the 49ers are. I don't like that area at all. so I understand where he's coming from.

It's a weird place down there. The taxes, it's a little different, the people, Silicon Valley, like, you know, it ain't the most normal operation. And then from a football standpoint, I understand the usage. Like, maybe he doesn't want to be a running back. Maybe he just wants to play wide receiver. Now, his value goes down as a true wide receiver because AJ Brown's a better player. This is a true wide receiver. D.K. Beckcalf, like the chances that Debo Samuel, I think Debo Samuel is 10 career passing, you know, catching touchdowns.

D.K. has 29. Now, Debo had a ton, I think he had eight this year, the last like 10 games. Debo's a dominant, dominant player. But it's a complicated case.

Now, ultimately the positives is he plays for the 49ers, one of the biggest brands in the league, an absolute cash cow, which made him, like, you play for the 49ers and you're a dominant player, Google the history of the league.

You become a superstar. You play for a dominant, dominant, offensive coach who uses you and creates your greatness. But ultimately, is a business. Like we've seen,

Tyree Kill, who had accomplished much more for Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl, been to another, countless all pros and pro bowls. He couldn't have been

any happier when he went to Miami. Why? Because it's a business. I'm not saying these guys are truly mercenaries, but there's a mercenary element to the business in which they're in. You don't get to do it forever.

So, you know, you have to maximize your amount of money. And I think that us on the outside, and anyone listening that's a big fan of the Steelers, the Cowboys, the Eagles, the Niners, whoever, you're much more invested most of the time into the team than most of the players are. I'm not talking about on a given week in a game. I'm just talking about what the team means to you.

Right? To me, the team means a lot to GMs and coaches because they're all in. They want to keep that job forever. But most players know that at any moment's notice they can go. They're not on scholarship. They can be cut. They get injured. They get thrown to the side.

really quick. Throwing in the trash, right? That happens. So I understand both sides of this situation. Now, ultimately, the NFL is not Adam Silver's League. In the NBA, when you want to trade, you demand a trade. You always get traded. It just happens, especially now. David Stern's NBA, that didn't happen. In Adam Silver's League, the players run it. And as we've seen, we can debate, it's not the healthiest thing to do. Because ultimately, your league's strength is dependent on fans. and the happier the fans are, the more they watch, and the more money you make. That's why the NFL has never had happier fans. They gamble on the games.

They play fantasy, all their teams every year. Whether it works out that way, always has a chance when the season starts. And if I want to keep a player, historically, I've always been able to keep that player. Now, you make decisions, right? Like, ultimately the Packers wanted to keep Devante, but Devante didn't want to play there anymore. So they made a decision, you're gone, first and second round pick. The Chiefs like Tyreekill, but they got an offer they couldn't refuse. And they ultimately didn't want to pay the money.

But in this situation, the 49ers can just say, no, Debo, you're not going anywhere. And in the history of the NFL, that happens way more often than the guy forces his way out. Now, is he prepared to sit out the season? Who knows? Only truly Debo knows that. And honestly, it would be impossible for him to even know that now. He's a second round pick. He's scheduled to make $4 million.

That's a lot of money for a guy that hasn't made that much money. So I would say he would not sit out the season. he would play. And I would be shocked to be set out training camp because he would get fine. So more than likely

if the Niners want to play hardball, they won't only could play it, they'll win. It's a management coach league. Obviously, you need great players,

but the management and coaches typically have the leverage. And in this situation, the Niners have the leverage. Now, when it comes to a decision, ultimately it's a business on their end too.

You'd be crazy. And I talked to a couple people in the league yesterday. I just started texting around. I said, What's he worth? And they're like, actually, I just watched him. Basically, like, every team in the league over the last 24 hours, 48 hours, if you're listening to's on Friday,

has put in several eyeballs on Debo Samuel, done deep dives. He's that great of a player. And when great players request a trade, everyone sniffs around. But what's he worth? And to me, when you have the leverage, aka the Niners, I don't have to trade him. I can just keep him. To me, he's worth to, you know, 175 cents on the dollar. So I am throwing out, I need multiple ones and multiple twos.

Because we don't want to trade them. Trade him. And we don't need to. So to me, to trade him, you have to get an astronomical return. But luckily, he made this trade request before the draft. If he's going to get traded, and I would imagine the 49ers are not only receiving calls, but having meetings, what's he worth? If I'm John Lynch and I'm Kyle Shanahan, well, hey, Kyle, because we didn't have a first round pick,

we probably haven't watched Garrett Wilson, Chris Olavé, all the star players in this draft. Let's take a look at them all. Because what if the Jets are willing to give us 10, 38, and next year's one? Who knows? That sounds crazy. I wouldn't do that if I was the Jets, but other teams are desperate. I wouldn't have done that trade if I was the Dolphins, but they're desperate. So they traded a lot for Tyree Kill.

Right? I thought the, I didn't think the Packers got enough for Devante. But if I'm the Niners, yeah. I mean, we're taking calls. We're seeing what we get. kind of like ultimately the Seattle deal with Russ and you get enough calls, you get enough offers, maybe, it's always easy to say,

you know, I don't want to sell my house, I don't want to move. I live, my house is worth a million dollars. I wouldn't sell it for anything under three. And then someone knocks on your door and goes, I'll give you $3.5 million. Well, then you have to decide, like, are you actually going to,

do you want to move all your shit? Is all that money worth it? Like, ultimately the 49ers, Debo Samuel is Kyle Shanahan's, his favorite toy he's had since Julio Jones. It made Kyle look like a fucking genius. So no way he wants to get rid of this guy. Now there's a factor how much you have to pay him and everything,

but someone knocks on that door and makes an offer like the Jets who are extremely desperate that you can't turn that. What if the Texans go, hey, we'll give you pick 13 and two more second round picks. And you just go, well, I wouldn't do the trade before the draft night, but if on draft night, an offer like that's on the table and Chris Alave, Garrett Wilson, who knows? Whatever player that you think's going to be a star is there, maybe it's worth it. It's at least worth having a discussion.

So this is a complicated situation. I understand where Debo's coming from. Under no circumstances, if I was him, would I want to pay the taxes that you have to pay here, given the amount of money he's going to get? Now you can say, John, will other players do it? Yeah, well, if I'm not other players. You know, Steph pays, as someone told me, that knows, an astronomical amount in taxes.

So does LeBronso do all these guys. And I would struggle with that if I had the opportunity to play elsewhere. Because again, this is a business. Now, I get Steph makes so much, goo-go-bucks, it doesn't even matter. But for a guy like Debo, whose shelf life could be short, this could be the last big contract he ever signed. If he hates living here, if he wants more money, if he wants to, whatever, whatever the reason is, no one really knows except him and maybe the 49ers. And I understand the 49ers side.

Don't want to pay him huge money, even though he's a great player because you don't really like playing running backs. I've stood next to Debo. He's not built like D.K. Medcalf or A.J. Brown or Justin Jefferson. He looks like a running back physically. And that's what makes him a great player. And he is an elite player with a ball in the sands. Those type of people you can't just find in the draft. And that's the risk of making a trade for draft picks.

And the Chiefs did it. The Packers did it. There is no guarantee that they can land good players. The draft is just that. A complete crapshoot. I saw it with the Niners. They traded to Forrest Buckner. and they ended up taking Javon Kinlaw with that pick.

And he's been basically MIA for two years. Now he's training like every player coming back off injuries and posts on Instagram, but, you know, it's not easy. It's not guaranteed. So it's just going to be a fascinating situation to watch play out over the next week. Hey Hoops fans, don't want to just watch all the NBA playoff action, but be part of it.

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Listen, my money is kind of on the Pelicans to have a sneaky upset. They might not win the series, but they're going to win one of these next two games in New Orleans. Devin Booker is injured. He's going to be out basically the rest of the series. Brandon Ingram's hot. I like them to win one of these games and have Brandon Ingram's scoring go over in both of the home games.

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Same game parlay available for multiple sports in all states on mobile and web. Gambling problem, call 100, next step. Or text next step to 533-4-2 Arizona, 1-800 gambler, or visit fanduel.com slash RG, Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, Virginia, 1-800-270-7-1-17 for confidential help. Michigan, Tennessee, Redline,

1-800-8-9-9-7-89, Tennessee. visit www.1-800 gambler.net, West Virginia. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, untow. filtered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Cliverts Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So,

if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tontans and wampas on the ice planet hot.

or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so... Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I guess let's start really quick with Sean Payton. I say this all the time. The Miami Dolphins just exhausts me. They're a little bit. Remind me the Lakers. Like the Lakers, the dolphins are just in this very, you know,

This place that draws a lot of people there, right? Beautiful area, cool area. Just if you have a lot of money, places like Miami and L.A. are sweet. They are awesome. Orange County, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, Malibu. I've only been to Miami once for the Super Bowl a couple years ago. It was badass. I don't know all the boroughs of it, but it's sweet.

I understand if money's not an issue, those are the type places you go, right? It's a fun, kind of like a, you know, the version of Disneyland for adults when you have cash. But their teams are not very well run. I don't know if you're watching Winning Time, which is a fantastic show. The show is elite because the characters are awesome. But I do feel bad for Jerry West. I've met Jerry West a couple times when I was doing warrior stuff and going to a lot of Warriors games. I can't even describe Jerry West.

One, obviously he's very famous when you meet him. But he's just this good-looking dude with a major presence, major swag. He's the logo of the NBA. He's just a badass. Like, you meet him. I don't know what it is, but when you meet someone with it, you usually know it right away, and the dude has it. They made him kind of look like a clown in the show.

And obviously, they mess with a lot of guys in the show. But the Lakers under Dr. Bus were a complete powerhouse, just like the 49ers were with Eddie DeBartolo, right? Certain owners are just rock stars. they have more money, they're willing to push the envelope, whatever it takes, you know, especially back in the day before salary caps and stuff, certain owners separated themselves. And Jeannie Bus sucks.

She's awful. The only reason the Lakers are even remotely relevant is because LeBron James, a very rich guy, decided he wanted to live in Los Angeles. It had nothing to do with the clown franchise, just he wanted to live in L.A. The Dolphins are a way shittier version of the Lakers because they have way less history over the last like 30, 40 years. But it's all this hype. It's all this glamour about where the city is and where the team plays.

But they never actually, they're always involved in these rumors and it's like, what are we even talking about? That is not going to happen. And I said it a couple weeks ago, I get exhausted with the dolphins like, Tom Brady is going to demand a trade there and he's going to be a part owner. And listen, there might be some validity to some of that, but it felt like a pretty big stretch. And then it was like, oh, they're going to trade for Sean Payton. And then Sean Payton even said like, yeah,

if I was going to coach next year, I was going to do with the Saints. Why would I go to Miami? Like, I'm already super rich. Back in the day, you could steal coaches. It happens in baseball, right, when the A's, who are just an embarrassment. Actually, they're not an embarrassment on the field because Billy Bean is honestly one of the best general managers in the history of any sport. But their owner's just a complete cheap skate. He makes Dean Spanos look like Jerry Jones.

And every good team comes and piggybacks their guys, right? the Braves, the Yankees, the Cardinals, whoever, the Dodgers, you just come and the Mets, you take one of their good players, right? They're like the minor league version of a major league team. And I do think when you look at Sean Payton, you go, why would you want to go there? Like, it's not like Sean Payton was making $4 million and you were going to pay him 20. He was making like $15 million coaching the Saints. And his team was good.

And if you watched his final press conference, he said, the craziest part about being a head coach of this franchise is we had tried for so long to develop a team and get a well-rounded team. For a large part of the 2010s, we were just good on offense and our defense sucked. And we finally got a top-flight defense. And he was just worn out. And part of it, the quarterback situation was up in the air. But I just, they're just always part of these rumors.

It's always like the Lakers are the same deal. Like, oh, they're going to do this and that. They're going to get Sam Presti. They're going to get Nick. No, you're not. You're not going to do any of that. You've done one thing in a decade. because LeBron James wanted to live in L.A.

You ain't going to do shit, you know? The only reason you got Anthony Davis is because you literally traded the farm for him. You traded the farm form. And he quit on the Pelicans. So it's like, yeah, you didn't get them because, like, you did this crazy deal. No, you traded 7 million draft picks

and seven players for Anthony Davis who quit on the Pelicans. Right? Because LeBron James wanted to live in L.A. and Clutch runs your franchise. Like the Dolphins. You're all... Like, you got Tyree Kiel. simply because you made him $72 million

and you traded the chiefs like eight picks. It's not, you know, it's like, you're not a well-run franchise. And it starts with the owner, who clearly is a really successful guy, and it just runs a clown operation. And they're just always involved in like, yeah, that's not going to happen,

but it's always their name. The only thing I've ever agreed with the owner is like paying Brian Flores's tank. It would have changed their franchise. Brian Flores, fuck them. There is no debating that. They ended up with Tua Tunga by Loa instead of Justin Herbert, but mainly Joe Burrow. That was the whole goal.

The tank all season, they won three of the last five games, and now they're in this conundrum of always winning seven, eight games and just being irrelevant. But always talked about kind of relevant in trying to do things like acquire Tyree Kill that looks good on paper, but it's going to be Dan Snyder mid-2000s type move. Oh, you got Tyree Kill and then he catches 70 balls. To me, that's got that written all over. Irricks gets hurt and he plays 10 games. But I'm just, the dolphins, like the Lakers, they just exactly.

DASME. The draft. Typically, for the last several years, this time of year, has been an explosive, a lot of stories, right? Who's going to go where? Where are the star quarterback's going to go? Your draft is as strong as the top. And when you say the top, it starts with the quarterbacks.

When you have an Andrew Locke, when you have an RG3, when you have just Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, that crop, even last year, Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson. It doesn't mean they're going to be good. good players, but it does mean their name recognition and fans, if there are two or three quarterbacks that you view as guys are going to get drafted in the top 10,

fans go, if we get one of these guys, he can resurrect our franchise. Whether that's true or not, and whether that turns out to come to fruition, no one knows. I say it all the time. Next week, on Thursday and Friday, when guys make first round picks and second round picks, the cool part of the draft

is obviously the kids who are just having so much excitement. I can't even imagine the jubilation of your parents, your grandparents, your coaches, your brothers, your sisters, your friends, your girlfriends, whatever. It's an all-time moment. It's an all-time moment getting drafted into the NFL. It doesn't get any cooler. From just a pure, there's a purity to it of just joy, hard work, you know, kind of, I wouldn't say accomplishing your dreams, but having a dream come true because you still want to, you still want to be a good player then, but you have a dream come true, you're drafted in the NFL.

And whether you're drafting the first round or drafting the sixth round, it is an incredible human accomplishment. A tiny, tiny percentage of people get drafted in the NFL, in the history of the sport. Right? Just like having a podcast is not a great accomplishment, right? I have a podcast. I have a couple podcasts. A lot of people have podcasts.

Now, are they successful or not? That's a whole different discussion, but like anyone can have a podcast. like anyone can get a job, right? Getting drafted in the NFL is unreal. It's like becoming a head coach in the NFL is very, very difficult to do. But I'd argue it's easier to become a head coach in the NFL than it is to get drafted in the NFL. So you're going to see these guys get drafted and the excitement in the draft rooms is cool because you get, you draft a player and for the most part, at least people fake it, everyone's excited in the room.

People are high fiving, people are hugging, the owner's giving. fist pounds. Everyone's kind of fist pumping tiger wood style. It's sweet. You do all this work. I mean, if your scout, you've been working since last summer, doing information, doing due diligence. Then you spend all fall going to the schools,

getting to know the player, digging in with the coaches, digging in with the film. Then you have the off-season when you're just interviewing guys, really developing your board. You spend a lot of time. This is the lifeblood of the team. It's a great moment. But, like, you don't really know how it's going to turn out.

You hope for the best. And those every single, all 32 teams, well, this year's weird because I think seven or eight teams don't even have a first round pick. So, you know, there are several teams with like countless first round picks. I mean, I think there were eight or nine teams. I think I said this. I wrote down a couple weeks ago, whatever the exact, see, I think it's eight. Eight teams have multiple first round picks. That's pretty nuts.

And as we talked about earlier this week, two teams have multiple picks in the top ten, right? The Jets and the Giants have two picks in the top ten. That's insane. so they're going to be very, very fired up after they make their selections. But from a front office standpoint, in Texas with just different guys in the league, for the most part, the hay is in the barn.

And I would say by the latest, like Friday or Saturday, the draft boards are set for teams. Like, every guy is in their slotted area. And you, as a general manager, and as a front office, whether it's your assistant GM, your coach, have to kind of get to a spot where you go, only the first and second teams that are drafting, right? The Jags, the Lions have a pretty good idea who they're going to take.

If they take this guy, if you're the Lions, if they take him, we're going to take him. If they don't take him, we're going to take him. But if you're drafting like 10th, if you're the Jets, you have to have a cluster. 13th of the Texans, team and the teens. You have a cluster of three or four players and you start going through these mock drafts and you go, if this group of players is here, what is our order? So once you get to the draft, you don't freak out on draft night,

who do we take? You start doing these things now, at least in the first round. Once you get past pick 32, it's hard to know. There are way too many variables. And I remember when I was with the Eagles, Howie would always reset the board

after the first round and then again after the third round. So you knew the group of players left, who you liked, and then you could kind of recluster. But as of Thursday night, going into the draft, you have to have an idea

if you're picking 14th, if you're picking 8th, if you're picking 24th, a group of two or three players that you are pretty confident are going to be there. And obviously they're curveballs. They're going to be guys

that you didn't expect to go higher or might push down other players. It's hard to know. But you have to do some educated guessing of who would you take given this group of players is there and then kind of rank them. So when you get to draft night,

it's not, you know, a shit show. You have a good idea. And that's basically what everyone is doing now. They have spent the set last basically month locking in their grades on guys, locking in who they like, where they like them, really any question marks doing their due diligence, calling coaches, calling agents, talking to the player, talking to other players on your own team, interviewing players when you bring them in about that specific player that you're interested,

might be a teammate, might be a guy they played against. And really just, this is, I mean, for the last six months, the information that you gather, the hardest part is you could get an unlimited amount of information, from coaches, from academic people, from family members, from teammates, and you have to decipher what is real, what you value, and what doesn't really matter. And that to me, this will always be in an exact science, that this will never be some robotic thing

because you're dealing with human beings. And the other thing that you can never answer, and I always thought this was fascinating because you had to ask this when you were a scout, you'd have to ask, like, how do you think he'll handle money? Think how stupid that question is? Like, you can give me a guess, how you think the guy will handle money.

But you don't really know, like, yeah, we're going to draft this guy fourth overall and we're going to give him $28 million, or whatever the number is for the slot, right? We're about to give this guy in the top five, $33 million. Like I saw K. Bon Tibado. He has said this a couple times now.

I want to be a billionaire. And you see sometimes, like, if you follow motivational people or, you know, just high-level people on Instagram, be very careful who you tell you. Be very careful who you tell your dreams to because the majority of people don't dream that big and they'll try to shoot it down.

Because ultimately, like, saying I want to become a billionaire, if he loves business, like, that's not a bad thing. But my pushback on that, like, to me, that comment makes me go, and I'm pro money. I'm pro business. I'm pro billionaires. Like, I'm not anti, I'm pro Elon Musk. You know, I'm pro Jeff Bezos.

But I think when you say that at 22, do you really know what you're saying? Or are you just saying that because that's what kind of looks cool on social media? A lot of people like saying they're entrepreneurs. like are you actually cool having no W2 the rest of your life until you create the company and then pay yourself a W2

on money that you have to you know make like it's easy to say it like everyone's a CEO on Instagram right but are you really or do you just like the thought of being a CEO you know and I do wonder it's a hard balance

because I would say that most billionaires and I could be wrong at this didn't necessarily set out to be a billionaire they set out to be successful and do create a good business and then obviously right timing, right product, whatever, it takes off. But I would say that like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning didn't set off to be like worth as much as they were worth.

They were just obsessed with being great at football. It's always my issue. And I get why kids say it because the media never shuts up about it. And the irony is the media hates business, but they don't hate it like when a player gets involved. It's a weird deal. But they're like, did he get the bag? What about his brand?

Like I hate the brand thing. because Michael Jordan's brand happened when Michael Jordan became a dominant player. Tiger Woods developed this clothing line for Nike when he started banging off majors. If Tiger Woods had won one career major, Nike golf never really exist. The Jordan brand isn't the Jordan brand

if Michael won one NBA championship. Like part of creating a brand as an athlete is the greatness behind it. You have to, it's always like Carmelo and all these guys, guys that were obsessed with their brands like you're not, you just keep talking about it, but you're not that good. Like Steph Curry tries to create these brands and whether they work or not, who knows.

But at least there's a lot of substance behind Steph Curry. Like Steph Curry was able to create brands because he started winning chips, started winning MVPs, started kicking the shit out of everyone he played. So when you start talking about your brand and stuff and you haven't really accomplished anything, that's always a turn off to me. I have no problem once you become, like, once Cam Newton starts going to Pro Bowls and winning, you can talk about brand, whatever. He's accomplished a lot.

I understand why it's going to put some, turn some people off. But I don't, some of these college athletes that are obsessed with it. Now, obviously, I sound like old get off my lawn guy. And clearly things are changing with NIL. That doesn't even bother me. But when you say this stuff, it's like, well, are you just, like, part of being a billionaire is working for 30, 40, 50 years. Like, there's one Zuckerberg that's able to do it at like 20.

Most guys are not that. Right? It takes a long time. Like, are you just, okay, work? working in the dark and just grinding. And I think that's the question on a specific player like that. Now, I don't think he's going to be alone. Like, I think that's a type comment that a lot more guys are going to say.

And I think you're going to have to balance as a GM, as a front office person, like, is he just saying that because he thinks that's the cool thing to say? Or is he obsessed with being great? Because if he's obsessed with being great, like, yeah, it'll lead to a lot of money. Because if you're obsessed with being great as an athlete and you're really good athlete, like in Major League football or, I mean, major league baseball, in the NFL, in the NBA, and golf or whatever, and you have the talent

and you're willing to do whatever it takes, you're going to be good. And if you're good, you're going to make money. Like the money follows success. But I think a lot of guys think, like, I just want the money.

You got to be successful. Now, bad teams pay, you know, I would say less successful people, more in the other sports than probably in football. But I just think you've got to be very, very careful as a young guy when you're coming out,

when people have questions on you, what you say? And I would argue that just in general, you know, be very, very careful what you say about your dreams and your aspirations to other people. Because most people, if you're a big dream or, you know, aspirational person, aren't going to align with you. And it's very easy to be negative. That's what thrives on Twitter. If I just tweeted out five things that I hope to accomplish in the next five years,

the majority of the comments would be making fun of me. We're saying you'll never do this. You can't accomplish this, right? but if I wrote those down in my own journal or my own phone, I'm more likely, and it works. I did it before. I'm looking, I wrote down 2020 goals that if I would have said this out loud in 2020, a lot of people would have been like, what are you talking about? Maybe a couple of them pretty normal.

But I don't know, and listen, I don't, I'm not a Tony Robbins here or anything, but I do think that shit works. Now, I think it's different when you start saying I'm going to be a billionaire, right? But like if Kvon was just like, I want to do whatever possible to be a pro bowl NFL player. Well, once you become a pro-ball NFL player, you're going to become very rich. I think you just got to be very, very careful with that. And I think you ought to, and as coaches and scouts right now, you're trying to balance like, because ultimately you're acquiring the person as much as the player.

And I think the biggest differentiating factor of success and non-success, there's several variables, right? Some stuff's out of your control, like who your coach is, if you go play for the Browns or the Lions or if you go play for Belichick, right, or Sean McVeigh. So where you land definitely matters. but who you are as a person definitely matters how hard you're willing to work how much it means to you

it's not easy. The thing with football I'm watching baseball baseball is on every day you just play every day so if I go O for 4 yesterday or I go I don't have a hit all week I get to play on Monday

I get to play on Tuesday I get to just keep swinging right if in basketball you get seven game series I have a shitty game one you get game two you're guaranteed four games

even in the playoffs let alone the regular season in football like you have a bad game you gotta wait a week and then you got to go through the film, you got to get yelled at, you got to go to treatment, you got to train,

then you got to go to practice, and then you got to watch the film at practice, and then you got to figure out what didn't work in practice, then you got, it's hard. It's hard. It is such a unique sport that way, because so much of your time

is spent preparing. It's spent preparing, right? And that's why you really got to differentiate right now, and I mean, you've already done this if you're a GM or coach or NFL team, but like, who's supposed to, smart enough, who can handle it? And even if they're not, quote, unquote, some elite intellect, are they willing to overcome it? As a coach, I had a, Jim Washburn told me this, that a talented

guy can overcome not being that smart. And obviously in football, you've got to take in a lot of information if he works hard. But you cannot overcome dumb and lazy. You can't. And even if you're smart. If you are lazy, you can get by early on in your career with just pure talent, but eventually work ethic catches up to you. So the lazy aspect, and listen, some guys, think about your own jobs. How many people you know can just get by without working hard. I remember when I went to Cal Poly, one of my roommates and my neighbor, the guy actually I grew up with in Davis, Jesse Dundon. He's one of the smartest guys I've ever met.

Guy's brilliant. Went on to start his own company. He just sold it, made a bunch of money. He's crushing it. He's crushing it. The guy is brilliant. He should not even have to study and get straight A's in college. And he was in like one of the hardest majors at Cal Poly,

which is a great like engineering, architecture engineering. I forget exactly what his major is, but he was in easily one of the hardest. I was in an easy major. And I had to study my ass off just to pass classes because school bored me. It didn't do anything for. me. So I, like, I didn't listen in class because it didn't hold my attention. And when I tried to study, it was hard for me to study. It did nothing for me. With football stuff, now with business stuff, it's easy to hold my attention. Academia did not. But it came so easy

just because it was brilliant. And I remember I lived with him my second year and I'd be like, God, he's just wine Wednesday, he's drinking beers on Tuesday. And he's just school, no problem. I almost got kicked out of school. I was on academic probation because I just was like, I'll just do the same thing. And it was like, oh shit, I don't know anything when the test is. game. So you had to figure out, and most people are like me, where you do have to work kind of hard to accomplish something. But at the highest level of any industry, some guys are going to be able to circumvent that a little bit. But even in athletics, it catches up to you maybe two years in, five years in. So you can overcome not quite being the Peyton Manning of the playbook,

right, if you work your ass off. But you cannot, you cannot overcome big picture a shitty work ethic and don't care. And sometimes being lazy is just simply like, I wasn't lazy. I just didn't like school. Some people don't like football, right? And it's why they always ask that question. It's why you have to find out, do these guys like football? Because if they like football, they're more willing to work and more willing to put more time in. It's why I say, like, listen, it's cliche, but when you find something you love to do, it's so much easier to work. Like sometimes I'll forget I did something, and I have to do it and I'll just come back to my office at 9.30 at night. Or in the middle of the night at like 4 a.m.

I'm like, oh, it didn't do this and I'll get up. If I was working for someone that I hated and didn't want to do it, like I would just say, I'll just do it when I get into the office. But when you like what you do, you're more willing to go the extra mile. It's why these guys are obsessed with football. It's not that hard for them to study Mondays and Tuesdays of the season instead of going out. Right. It's like, I need to do some more film study.

If you don't like football, it's hard to do film study. It is. ultimately like Jamarcus Russell Remember the famous story of like him not watching enough film Was it just he didn't want to watch film Or he just didn't like football that much It didn't mean anything to him right Peyton Manning like it meant a lot Tom Brady all these guys

Training means something to you So it's just it's the hard part about the draft It's figuring out the person Difficult spot Appreciate everyone listening Fire in those DMs at John Middlecoff Is the Instagram And

we'll have a middle cough mail bag out this weekend. We'll have a bunch of draft content and football content next week. And let's keep on rolling, baby. Peace. The volume. Are you looking for the hottest gambling advice out there?

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