The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - “Safe Pick” Myth, Baker Overreaction, Russ/Broncos Questions

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

John breaks down the myth of the “safe” draft pick, why the NFL doesn’t need a play in tournament style to create urgency, why he doesn’t have a problem with Baker’s recent podcast appearance venting about the Browns, if the dog is OK, and why he’s not as  bullish on Russell Wilson and the Broncos as the public. 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! #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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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 I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

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From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's 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. 84 was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. The Three and Out podcast is presented by Fandual Sportsbook. There is no better place to bet every moment more than with Fandual. With football ending, we have the NBA rolling, March madness right around the corner,

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If you are new, just download the Fandual app. To get started now, sign up with promo code Colin so they know we sent you. What is going on, my people? John Middlecough, three and out podcast. Thursday, just a little after lunchtime. Thought I'd fire up the old computer. Dive in to a little thing we like to call a podcast.

That's where you're listening. Obviously three and out. Subscribe, share it with your friends, share it with your enemies. Greatly appreciate it. You know, it's kind of slowing down a little bit. We're a couple weeks away from the draft. Luckily, Baker Mayfield sat down with, formerly, his name's Mike now.

He used to be Mike Stud. actually sneaky has some jams. He's like a, I don't even know, rapper, I guess, but he's got a couple good songs. I'm not going to lie, he played baseball at Duke with Marcus Stroman. So obviously that's kind of gone viral. I have a couple takes there.

The AFC West, Derek Carr, now clearly not going anywhere. And we're just going to end up talking about this division a lot because of the hype around it. The Dan Snyder stuff will just not go away. The misappropriation of funds.

maybe Elon will buy the commandos too. I refuse the commanders. Like, I'm just not going to say that. It's like the Cleveland Guardians. Like, I'm sorry, I'm not calling your team. Like, I'm just not. I don't know what I'm going to call you. Now, granted, I don't really have to care about baseball.

But it's hard for me to say the commanders. I don't view them as the commanders. I personally like football team. If Elon buys it, my advice to him would be change it back to the football team. That was a unique. name. And then something stood out to me watching one of the play-in games. Adam Silver, who's been probably one of the worst commissioners in the history of sports

commissioners. I'll give him credit, the play-in game, pretty good idea. And something jumped out to me about that. And then I wanted to start with something. But again, subscribe to the podcast. If you listen on Collins feed, we'll have mailbag this weekend at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram.

Fire in those direction. messages and get your question answered on the weekend mailback very easy to do as well as subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel if you're into the YouTube thing I don't know it's just one of the biggest websites in the world owned by Google no big deal but I wanted to start with because I think this time of year

you hear a lot about this he's a very safe pick so-and-so player is very safe there is no such thing as safe literally nothing in life is safe I think we take for granted like you know when you get food poisoning and listen, we've all, one time I got food poisoning, sick as I've ever been.

Little restaurant called Chipotle. Now, I'm a loyal Chipotle guy. I've been back several times since. But when you go pick up food somewhere, you're like, we're very lucky. You don't even think about, yeah, this might be undercooked or yeah, this might make me sick because the percentage chances of that happening is so slim. And it rarely happens. But sometimes it does, you know.

You just cross the street. Talk about risk. We've talked about risk so much these last guys. couple years during the vid during the rona like we risk getting in the car driving around crossing the street buying food like everything in life is a risk there is nothing that is 100% safe a year ago it's like nothing could go down in the stock market well shit look now a lot of things plummeted like you just never know there are so many things that you have no clue i don't care when we use the term this this thing this buying a house the last couple of years

great buy, great buy. Well, what if the market fucking tanks next year? And we have a housing crisis. Who knows? Might not happen. Probably won't, but you never know. So when I see that these players in the draft, and it happens every single year, this guy is very, very, this guy is a high, floor. Might not have the highest ceiling, but he can't bust. That's not true. You just do not know. We're dealing with human beings here. You are dealing with a huge, like a small percentage of players in college football that is really, think how many people that play high school football don't sniff, like, I don't know the percentage, but I think it's really small. A couple percent of high school football players go on to play Division I college football. And then a very,

very slim percentage of those players go on to play in the National Football League. And then a small percentage of those players actually stick for longer than three or four years. And a small percentage of those players actually become starters. This is a very, very, very, very difficult process. There is no, you know, this isn't an exact science because one, schemes change so much, coaching impact so much, and ultimately it's just very, very difficult. So when you hear players like this guy, he is not, like Mac Jones last year, he was known as a guy with a really, really high floor. And we're going to see, like obviously he's probably not going to suck, but he went to the perfect situation. What if next year, Belichick retires? Who the

hell are they going to hire? Who would be his coach? There's no guarantee that he could just overcome that. There are no guarantees in life. The only thing guarantees in life are taxes and death. Other than that, nothing. And definitely not on a 21, 22 year old, just guarantee going to be a starting quarterback or starting running back or starting safety or whatever. We see it every year. Right. Third round picks are immediately beat out in training camp by a seventh round pick by an undrafted free agent. It's what makes the draft so cool. And to me, my favorite part of the drafts, And it's why that I don't make such a big deal, you know, about like later round picks. I'd say like fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round picks.

Because those guys, the percentage of those guys that hit, like, I don't throw a party for third day picks. Because it's consistently undrafted free agents beat them out in training camp. So what makes the NFL so different than I'd say than like basketball? For the most part, there aren't undrafted free agents playing in the NBA. It's a huge part of the NFL. No, because part of the sport of football, intangibles, stuff you can't quantify, you can separate yourself, how smart you are, how quick you understand stuff, toughness. That translates a lot to life. Like intangibles separate people in every industry.

But like in basketball, like you can't overcome being 5-11, right? You just can't. When football, you can overcome not being the biggest guy. Like Jason Kelsey, not the biggest guy. But what does he have? He's fucking smart. He's tough as shit. He's athletic.

He'll never be the first guy getting off the bus that's going to scare you. So it's just, it's a time of year where I think a lot of people try to get as close to they can as the answers to the test, but you never truly know it. And you're taking highly educated guesses in the draft. And there is no avoiding risk. Everything has risk. You just try to mitigate your risk with high character guys, with smart players, with good guys. with good guys, but you also have the talent.

It's why it's so complicated. Ultimately, if I'm running a company and I just need some salespeople, I just need to get people that can sell. Whether they're a good guy, whether they're a bad guy, all that's, it's kind of irrelevant. If you can just sell my product or sell whatever I need you to do, that's all I need you to do. Like, it's not that easy in football, right?

There's so many different variables, being a good teammate. Like, in a lot of industries, who cares if the guy's a good guy or a bad guy gets along with people at the office. That's a bonus. It's hard to overcome that in football because you spend so much time in the locker room. You spend so much time in practice. You spend the majority of your time in the facility,

not even playing the game. The baseball season started. What do you do? You look up every day. You follow the Cubs, the Nationals, whoever, the Mets, the Giants, the Dodgers. Literally just play every day. You just never stop playing.

Hell, even in basketball, you're playing three, four times a week. In the NFL, you play once a week. The majority of your week is spent on the practice field or in the meeting room, doing stuff related to the game that is not the game. That's why Ray Lewis said,

you basically pay me for the week. The games are for free. That's fun. The other stuff is not. And just, to me, it's what makes the draft very fascinating. The other thing I think football really has, and we've talked about this a lot,

and this is not like, I'm not trying to, you know, be state media here for the sport. But obviously basketball has really been impacted by their regular season doesn't matter. I'm a millennial who enjoys baseball, but let's face it, like you play a game today, tomorrow, in the middle of May. They just really don't matter.

You know, obviously you need to win games so you can get to the playoffs. But for the most part, you're watching an individual game, whether you win that game, whether you lose that game, regardless what the outcome in that individual game, it doesn't matter. We're in football, and definitely college football, but in the NFL, every game matters. Because you only have so many. You don't have 82 or 162.

You got 17. In college football, you got 12. So the impact of every game, it's why for the most part, not that there's not blowouts, not that there's not bad games, but I would say at high-level division 1, and definitely in the NFL,

80 to 85% of the games might even be higher than you watch that. You see guys, you know, there's a small percentage of blowouts, but I think the majority, I think like 85% of games in the NFL, are a one score game going into the fourth quarter. I heard Tom Coughlin say that a lot,

so you might have to stat check me on that. Could be wrong. But when I use my brain and do the formula in my brain, I'm like, yeah, it kind of feels like it makes sense. Now, a lot of games end up. It's why point spreads aren't, you know, in the NFL 15 points, right? I mean, every once in a while, maybe every once a month or twice a month,

you see a game with these huge points spreads. But for the most part, they hover between three and six points, right? Because the majority of NFL games relatively close. And when you're in a relatively close game, you're playing hard. Well, I'm watching the Timberwolves Clippers game the other night. The effort in that game was just remarkable. And I'm thinking, if the NBA could just get a large 75% of their games to give this much effort, it would be okay. Because that's why the NCAA tournament crushes, right? It's a one-and-done situation. Every single player from every single university is fucking laying it on the line.

You're like, this guy could not be trying any harder. And for the most part, in the NFL, you know, you watch Jags Colts. You're like, God, the Jags are brandy today. You know, let alone if you watch like Cowboys Eagles on Sunday Night Football, you get high level or Niners Rams, but you can watch like Lions Ravens. You're like, God, the Lions are giving them all you can handle. And that is just

consistent with the sport and it's just a point of difference. And I always think it's funny that obviously the gambling companies who are in bed with us here at the volume and basically everybody, as they should be. I say all the time, like so many media members pretend to gamble, they don't actually gamble. They wouldn't give a penny

if they had to gamble on a game, but they're doing it for financial reasons, which I get, but I think you're a little fraudulent if you hype up gambling and you refuse to make a bet. That's just me, but I think you're a fraud.

There is no sport. Now, I love gambling on golf, but you have to follow golf pretty closely to feel pretty good about it. It's why we do a podcast. We try to draw some, shine a little light on it. It's pretty easy to bet on football.

It's not easy to like, most people are betting on baseball. Even in the NBA, Like it's not, I used to bet on the NBA a little bit when they used to care about the regular season. I actually did it a couple times this year because I was bored once football ended. For the most part, I just don't think the consumer's

ever going to bet on the NBA. We bet on football. On Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Thursday night football. That's when we gamble. Because you feel pretty good about gambling on the game. Like you have a legitimate chance. Now, you're obviously going to lose for the most part more times you win unless you're a pretty good gambler.

But there's nothing like the feeling of winning a bet on a football game. It's great. But ultimately, you do it because you feel like the game is, like, part of the reason why it's hard to bet a lot of times on the NBA. It's like, well, I don't know who's going to play. This guy's going to rest. This guy's taking a mental health day. This guy, fuck, nowhere to be found.

Ben Simmons, this guy just quit. In the NFL, like, if a guy, if Tom Brady's not playing, you know he's injured. Right? If Nick Bosa is out, he's hurt. Other than that, like, all their guys are going to play. And I think it's just been a point of difference for the NFL for a while now is their effort. Just given the setup of the sport is just one of its major point of differences. The NBA playing tournament, and there are no sure things, except one, bet at least $20 in same game parlays on Fandual Sportsbook, and you'll get an instant bonus.

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Michigan, Tennessee Redline, 1-8009-9-9-7-89, 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, unfiltered 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 Clifford 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. 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 on 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. Thank you finishing that sentence. 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. 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 tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot,

or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Baker thing. Here's what I'll say on my issue with Russell Wilson is not that I don't think he's one of the greatest players I've ever watched because I truly do. I think he's like the modern day version kind of like Steve Young. He's just a special unique player.

Now, I know he's different than Steve, but you know what I'm saying. He's just, to me, he's a Hall of Fame, just an all-time great player. But I just, the person kind of drives me nuts. I've said this over, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse. But I do appreciate when people are just authentic. Like, you just be who you are. And I understand being a public figure. Like, I don't expect you to break down every political belief you.

have. But when you just are just cheeseball over and over and over again when a microphone's in front of you, I don't believe that's actually who you are. And I think most people don't either. But that's the game to play with Instagram and social media and put on this fake face. So I appreciate when guys, say what you want about Aaron Rogers. I do feel like when Aaron Rogers talks, you just get Aaron Rogers. I think Tom has really kind of come into his own as he got older and you just feel like you got Tom Brady. It's why Kobe Bryant, who I sports

hated and I really hated him. Partly because when I've grown up was a Kings fan, the last like 10 years of Kobe's career and definitely after he retired up until he died, I thought Kobe was one of the most authentic athletes we'd ever seen. It was just like no agenda, no bullshit. You don't have to agree.

I don't understand why we're so obsessed, like everyone's thinking the same. To me, that's very weird. I think you're a wacko if you're obsessed with people thinking like you. I got no problem if you don't think like me. Whatever. Who cares? But I do appreciate if you're just true to whoever you are. Have a belief, stick with it and just be open to it.

Be honest about it. And I know Baker's kind of getting crushed for this interview that he did with Mike. I think he just goes by Mike. I call him Mike Studd because that was his rapper name when he became early on when he left Duke after baseball career. But like I appreciate Baker just being open and honest. calling this a controversy would be strong, but Cam Newton, because ultimately like 10% of societies on Twitter, and the only place I saw this was on Twitter, Cam Newton made some comments

about what he looks for in a wife or a girlfriend about how he wants her to cook and Twitter freaked out. I mean, of course, rinse, wash, repeat, same shit. And I thought, like the whole thing with Cam Newton, like, one thing I hang my hat on, I don't care what you do inside your home. You, your wife, your significant, do what you do. I never understood people obsessed with other people's relationships. One thing we all know, everyone's different. Some people are swingers. Some people, the woman makes the money. Some people, the woman likes making all decisions. Sometimes the man makes all the decision. Every fucking relationship is different. Some people that you think would be weird, they think you're weird. Everyone's different. I never understand when someone says what they look for

in a significant other. If it's not like they don't want to beat them or like commit crimes, but just like personally what they like and then people freak out. I don't, I can't understand that. It doesn't any sense to me because every single person I know think like the 10 people closest in your life wouldn't you say most of their relationships are just a little different they all have their little idiosyncrasies they all just maybe don't match up to your relationships it doesn't mean it's good it doesn't mean as bad it's just what works for them and listen i thought can was just being honest whether you agree or disagree that's what he looks for in a significant other and if you're a woman and you don't like it don't fucking date them i mean it's not that complicated well baker mayfield you know

was saying all this stuff about disrespect. At least he was just telling what he believes. Whether he's right or wrong, like, I have no issue with Baker being honest from his perspective. And that's all he was. Now, whether I don't like Baker because I don't like a six foot average athlete kind of, you know, lacks a little common sense. Like, I'm not into that.

But I actually think we've gone too far the other way of now acting like he's, you know, Nathan Peterman. Like he's not some screesome. Like he's not some scre. rub when he starts and he's healthy, like you can't compete if you have a good team. We saw it two years ago. And this notion, like, no one's going to like him after watching that. We already knew what he was.

Like, they've been talking about maturity or whatever for a long time with him. Someone tweeted at me like, God, he looks kind of fat sitting on the couch. Well, yeah, as someone that's, you know, five, ten-ish, when you're not six, four, angles are very big in pictures. So when you're going to sit on the couch and you have a bad angle, go, it's going to make you look chubby. So you got to kind of sit up, you know, posture is big when you're a little shorter and a little more compact. But it's not like the NFL thinks he's six foot four.

Like they know. Like the NFL, part of, to me, if Baker Mayfield, the Deshawn Watson thing had happened, let's say after the combine, like it had become official, they're going to trade him to Houston, the contract, and hadn't kind of dragged out. Now, it kind of had to because, remember the grand jury situation when he, turned out he wasn't getting indicted or whatever the legal verbiage is. I probably screwed that up. But so it kind of got pushed back. But to me ultimately, and then the Deshaun thing didn't happen right, you know, in that kind of moratorium or even that first day of free agency, you know,

it happened whatever, a week after or whatever. I think Baker would have been immediately moved. But this is kind of a puzzle piece. And once the pieces of the puzzle around the league, cap space dries up, teams don't have like, he makes eight, basically 19 million dollars a year. It's the problem with Jimmy Garoppel. Once it came out of the combine, he had a hurt shoulder. Its teams are kind of backing off because you have to factor in the money. It's easy to trade for $5 million players, $7 million players. You'll see in training camp after guys get drafted and maybe like a draft pick that's not fit in a scheme or even a guy like a second year player with new coaches that doesn't fit. It's easy to trade a third round pick

that's on the books for $1 million. It's not as easy to trade players. It's not as easy to trade whose contracts are short, meaning they're not under team control for a while, and the number is bigger than like $15, $20 million. It's not easy. This is not Major League Baseball where a good player, if he's available, the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Giants, Nats, Phillies, or whatever, they can do it if they want. It becomes a little more complicated than that.

But I don't understand why the dog looked dead. This RIP, one of my best friends growing up, Travis, who passed away a little while ago. When we were in high school, either ninth grade, where I grew up, ninth grade was technically still junior high. So our junior high was seventh,

eighth, eighth, and ninth. But when you were in ninth grade, like you play JV football or JV basketball or whatever, so you went to the high school for sports. But you're, but in ninth grade, you were still at the junior high. And, you know,

edibles now are such a big, you know, just so readily available. Like that, when I was a kid, if you wanted to get some weed, you had to meet someone behind like a McDonald's parking lot. You know, if I want some edibles, the dude pulls up to my house and I hand him a credit card. And it gives me a bag full edibles.

And they're in the other room right now. But we had these weed candy bars. And they were like snickers and recess, but they were in like, you know, funny weed names. And his dog, Skeeter, who was a weiner dog, maybe he hit him under his bed or something. and the dog ate one of the candy bars. And it's obviously it's, you know, they're pretty potent. I couldn't, I wouldn't even be able to handle them now. Like they were, you'd only eat like half.

You would split it with someone or eat like just a little piece. Dog eat the whole thing. Then we looked for the dog or I remember him calling me and the dog was just out. Like, look like in that Baker Mayfield interview, that dog, that's what Skeeter looked like. And for like 24 hours, Skeeter did. not move. Now, Skeeter lived, made it through it, but it was a scary time. When I saw that dog sitting next to Baker Mayfield, as George Kittle tweeted, is the dog okay? Like, it's hard to move your eyes away from the animal who looked like it just ate a weed brownie because it could

not, it didn't budge. It did not move. But Skeeter, uh, yeah, took down that, that weed candy bar really fast. But I just, at the end of the day, Baker Mayfield was overdrafted. He shouldn't have gone number one overall. If we had a redo, he would have gone not that high, but he's not that bad of a player. And is he, does he have some like arrogant, cocky vibes for a guy that's probably not good enough to have those vibes? Yeah, a little. I mean, would you rather have like Philip Rivers personality or Drew Brees? Of course you would. One reason, if you just pulled like the average coach, Baker Mayfield, when healthy, is a better thrower of the football than Jimmy Garoppel. I don't even think it's debatable.

But if you just went around offensive coordinators, head coaches, like, who would you rather have than your building? Jimmy Garoppel or Baker Mayfield, just the person, not the player. It would be 100% Jimmy Garoppel. Because as I said about the high ceiling, low floor, like that type deal with the draft, you are dealing with people. And these people spend so much time around your team, around your coaches, around the secretaries around the people in the cafeteria.

Like, you just, one thing, despite these franchises being worth billions of dollars, which we saw the Broncos are going to go for 4-4, if Snyder's kicked out of the commandos, that thing could go for like six. I mean, these franchises are outrageously, properly, probably, worth a lot of money because they're guaranteed cash cows, right? From the media deal, next year you'll get 350 million. You're just printing cash. But, now granted, I haven't.

been in an NFL building as an employee, you know, for whatever, eight, nine years now. But they're not that big, you know. You got some people on the business side, I don't know, 30, 40, maybe they've grown a little bit. And then your football staff, which is your football coaches, your scouting staff. And that's, you trainers, the players, like it's, I wouldn't call it a mom and pop shop, but it's much closer to mom and pop shop than like Apple or Google or Walmart or something. I mean, it's, it's not as big as you think once you're around it. Like, if you're there a couple years, you know everybody's name.

So all these people are interacting with all these people. I don't know exactly. New England has always felt a little cloak and dagger, not really sure what's going on there. In my experience, everyone kind of knows everyone. Everyone's friendly. Players are cool with this guy. This guy knows this guy. It's just, so when you get some bad apples, and listen, we're all moody.

I wake up. You wake up. We all have our bad days. Like, who's the best guy in sports? Like, I don't know, like Drew Brees or something. I'm like, not every day is perfect. There's nothing wrong with, you know, waking up on the wrong side of the bed

and being a little angry. That's called being a human. But there is, you know, some people are just negative. Some people are just kind of don't get a guy. And I think that's what everyone's asking themselves right now about Baker, but I didn't, his interview, not that I, I just watched some of the clips. I was going to watch an hour and a half of Baker talking to Mike.

Not bothered by it. If anything, like, I appreciate real. I appreciate you just being authentic. just be who you are. There's nothing, you know, because ultimately, if you're a team, that's who he is. Right, that's what you're going to get. Like, Cam, like, we've known for a while. Cam was a guy that I wasn't that big a fan of.

Honestly, he earned a lot of credit and a lot of, like, I turned the corner a little bit, not obviously his play was atrocious, but like he fitted in New England. They liked him in New England. Like, you can get along with Belichick and they think you work hard and grind. Like, I respect that. It's not, I don't think I would have lasted in New England. I've got to do. know a couple people that worked there for a long time.

Like, it's hard. I mean, I question myself, like, it was hard. I mean, working for the Eagles was hard as a mother. Just in terms of, it was intense. Working in the NFL is difficult. Long hours, grinding, especially when you're young, you're not making any money. But, like, it's not, this is, this is just, it's a tough business. The AFC West is just going to be the most talked about division, at least early on, just because the hype behind it is going to be outrageous. I mean, it's going to be really, really big.

And rightfully so. I think it'll be probably the most hyped division we've ever seen in terms of just the talent and it is stupid. There's no debating it. Right. Adding Russell Wilson, adding Khalil Mack, adding Devante Adams. It's just, it was a really big deal. Like, even if you hate some of these teams,

we all admit it, right? We all acknowledge, like, yeah, this division is pretty dope. I'm pretty badass. These are some pretty sweet teams. Derek Carr, who clearly did not want to leave the Raiders, signed a very, very team-friendly deal with the Raiders because he basically said, I'll take whatever he'll give me. Because no top quarterbacks who care about maximizing their value would assign that contract. I want to say top quarterbacks, I mean like top 15 guys.

Dak Prescott got $160 million. Kirk Cousins keeps getting $35 million a year. Guaranteed, guaranteed, guaranteed. Derek basically got like $25 million guaranteed. Now, when you're a quarterback, you basically see. every penny. Like Jimmy Garoppelow got, I think it was $72 million guaranteed from the Niners years ago. Through his contract, he's made $112 million. So when you're a quarterback, unlike a lot of these other positions where they're constantly moving on from you, cutting, restructuring, for the most part,

quarterbacks see the majority of their money in their contract. That's why Matt Ryan's, you know, guys like that are so Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, when you look at their contract history, Ben Rothesberger, they saw every penny of their deals. Drew Brees, Mahomes, the Josh Allen's, the Staffords. These guys are making so much money. Most of these other positions that guaranteed cash is really all

you truly know you're getting. Because at any moment, things can change. But I'm just keep saying this. Someone is not going to live up to the hype. There is going to be a team, the likelihood that all four of these teams, which I guess is possible, but let's face it,

it's very, very unlikely because one, they all play each other. And two, it will just be hard for all of them to get to 10 wins. So someone in this division, and I just do not think it's going to be the Chiefs, now I know they might come back to Earth. And when we say that a little bit, instead of being a 13 win team or a 12 win team, they're a 10 win team. But to me, they're going to be good.

They have the best coach in the division and the best quarterback in the division. When you have those two things, you win. If I had to guess right now and put my money where my mouth was, I'd say the Chiefs win 11 games. That would be my guess. but one of these other teams is going to go 8 and 9. Now, like for the Raiders, Josh McDaniels, who is put on a little LBs,

which happens, you know, you're not the tallest guy, you got to be careful what you're eating, you know, maybe cut the carbs or whatever, is clearly a really, really good offensive coordinator. Really good. I mean, he was, he's an impressive offensive coordinator. Even if you hate the Patriots, you'd acknowledge that. But being a head coach, we saw it one time.

Now, granted, it was a long, time ago, it was a disaster. He didn't even make it two years. Like, he got run out of town. Now, he's quote unquote changed. Seems like he's much more confident in just being himself and not trying to be Bill. But who knows? Can he be the head coach? They have a really good team. They made the playoffs last year. They brought back a ton of guys. They still have their quarterback. They trade for Devante Adams. But their offensive line sucks. They don't have any picks. How do you just get right tackles? How do you find a center? Like, how do you improve those positions. It's hard. I guess you can coach them up the guys you have, but what if

they're just not good enough? The Broncos. Like, what if Russell Wilson, another guy who looks, again, I'm pretty, I understand guys that are six feet and under, I can judge their chubbiness. Looks a little chubby too, you know? And it's, what if he's just not as good as he once was? And as I said earlier, like, I'm a Russell Wilson fan. I think he's the first ballot all favor. But what if his trajectory is pointing the other way? You never know. Like, it happens. Not everyone is just guaranteed to have 18 great years. And then what if their head coach is just over his head? I don't know.

I'm rooting for him. Davis guy, bald, but a ton of pressure. Once this thing sells for $4 billion, can he coach? Can he figure it out? I don't know. We're about to find out. The general manager, who we've seen is pretty good. He doesn't impact really the week of once the season starts.

When you're a general manager, you actually don't have that much impact during the season. Unless you're like Casario and in the booth. but you're not scheming. You know, I guess you can, you know, if you have the juice to tell the guy who to play or who not to play, but you're still, you're not calling the plays

or telling that guy where to line up. You're not coaching them unless you're bulky and then you love coaching guys up on the field. But, and let's face it. The Chargers won, the history of their franchise, like they underachief. No one can dispute

over the last couple decades. They have had so many teams with a ton of talent that have just gone seven and nine, gone six and ten, on eight and eight, underachieved. When I think the Chargers,

I think an underachieving franchise. And really it starts at the top. They have an owner who is just incredibly cheap and just hasn't been a good owner. Period point blank, end of story. And they have a coach who, you know, so I think sometimes thinks

the smartest guy in the room and does this, you know, kind of reckless fourth down bullshit that didn't work. And you can be like, well, John, you're nitpicking. It got one of some games. Well, yeah.

in some of the biggest games of your season against the Chiefs at halftime, you know, he goes for it, gets stuff, costs himself four points or three points. At the end of the season, with the, literally the playoffs on the line, he went forward on his own 22,

or 18 yard line. He had 88 or whatever, I can't, I'm not a mathematician. 88 plus 12, would that be 100? Yeah. Who does that? Brandon Staley does. So this notion that I just feel good about him,

I just don't, because I do feel good rated by the quarterback. Justin, if you told me that people would take Herbert, if you drafted the entire NFL, there would be a couple general managers in the league. And this has never happened in the history of

sports, but it's a great talking point. Like, what if we just had a draft from scratch, put every player in there? Depending, there would be someone who would take Herbert number one overall. I'm not saying that's the right move. Obviously, Holmes has accomplished more, Josh Allen, hell, even Lamar.

But I don't think it's the craziest thing. And I don't think I would do it. I'd probably just take Mahomes. And then I'd probably take Josh Allen second. But I'd probably take Herbert third. You know? And the gap between those guys and him is not as far as I think the average person thinks.

But the pressure on that franchise is just going to be immense. They play in the building with the Super Bowl champs. I know they actually never play at the same time. But even though I think the AFC and NFC West play each other next year. So that means that that game is going to be at SOFI. It's irrelevant. who's home or away. Like, that game's in LA.

That's actually a really good game. Rams Chargers. But I just, I don't know. I don't have a great feel for like what team I'm betting against. As crazy as it sounds. You know, the Broncos to me, I just, I don't know. I think it's going to be a lot of pressure on a guy that's never been a head coach. You had Russell Wilson.

Like ultimately, Josh McDaniels has pressure. Of course he does. I mean, that's just the NFL, right? But, you know, it's the Raiders. It's not like he's getting fired anytime soon. I mean, the last coach they had got a 10-year contract. The only reason he got fired is because of the, the commandos leak in his emails, right?

Or the NFL or whoever. I mean, that's why Gruden's suing. Like, Mark Davis was never going to fire John Gruden. You know, Brandon Staley, I can say that, like, listen, I thought week 17 or 18, we went to week 18 last year against the Raiders, it was a fireable offense. I mean, he had dramatically the better team.

It wasn't even close. And he lost to go, he ended up not in the playoffs. That cannot happen. I can't take you seriously. that happens. But Dean Spanos ain't paying you to go away. So he's not going anywhere. Like the pressure on Nate Hackett, going to be a brand new owner who paid a ton of money. I'm sure Russell over the next couple months is going to get an enormous contract. The hype on that franchise is going to be massive. They're doing all these parallels to like when they traded for

Peyton Manning and he resurrected the franchise. Can Russell do that now? Let's buckle up, man. I think that thing could get weird the fastest. Just because let's face it. Here's the other thing. Like ultimately Derek Hard, Devante Adams, pretty easy to work with. Right? Justin Herbert, pretty low-key guy, pretty easy to work with. Khalil Mack, pretty easy guy to work with. Russell Wilson, Google the history of offensive coaches that have worked with Russell Wilson. Oh, yeah, all of his offensive coordinators, they become head coaches. Oh, wait, that's Peyton Manning, that's Tom Brady, that's Patrick Mahomes.

Russell's all get fired. Russell's careers end. Do you know the craziest part about Russell Wilson? Is that if you're an offensive coordinator for him historically, most great quarterbacks, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Mahomes, Josh Allen. They get there. You want to be the offensive coordinator for great players because you become a head coach.

You quadruple five, six, eight X your salary when you coach Hall of Fame quarterbacks. It's basically guaranteed. Mike Shanahan, Steve Young, boom. Josh McDaniels, Tom Brady, boom, right? Every coach, Peyton Manning, boom. Hell, Andrew Luck, Bruce Ariens, boom. Yet, for whatever reason, Russell Wilson,

you can go through all of his offensive coordinators. They all get fired. Bevel, Schadenheimer, whoever the last guy just was, can't even think about it. Not Schadenheimer, Bevel. Those might have been the last two. There was another one mixed in there.

Shane Waldron, I mean, I thought actually might get fired if Russell came back. So you just, the Russell thing, Let's not act like you just guaranteed to win when you coach him. And obviously Nate Hackett is calling the plays. It's not easy. Because this notion, I think the social media push, which, who knows, maybe Russell's people are pushing it, like, let him cook, let him cook.

That ain't going to die. I mean, that's like, when I think Russell Wilson's like, everyone's never shuts up about letting him cook. And listen, sometimes when he's cooking, he makes an incredible meal. But last year for the first time, you're like, you know, I don't know if I'd eat this meal. let's back up there a little in the kitchen let's head to the microwave so that'll probably wrap this bad boy up

keep it short, sweet enjoy the weekend will have the mailbag come out I guess Saturday and Sunday at John Middle Coff is the Instagram at John Middle Coff is the Instagram firing those DMs have a good weekend

enjoy the fam enjoy your people enjoy life smile have a cocktail maybe two talk to everyone soon peace The volume. Are you looking for the hottest gambling advice out there?

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