The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Top QB/Coach Combos, Will Stafford Injury Derail Rams? Biggest Draft BUST, Rookie RB’s, Any Hope For The Jets?

Episode Date: July 31, 2025

John opens up the Middlekauff Mailbag to answer your questions. He dives into a range of topics including what it would take for Zac Taylor to keep his job, whether Matthew Stafford’s injury could derail the Rams season, whether Odell Beckham’s career is over and the top 10 QB/Coach pairings in the league Timeline: 4:45 - What does Zac Taylor need to do to keep his job? 10:45 - Favorite Sublime songs? 12:45 - Stafford injury 25:00 - Success for Nix, Daniels and Williams? 28:00 - Cam Ward or Trevor Lawrence? 29:00 - Rookie RB outlook 33:00 - Cowherd’s WNBA obsession 36:00 - Will Richardson or Jones win starting job? 38:00 - Will travel schedule hurt Chargers? 48:00 - Biggest NFL draft bust? 54:40 - OBJ’s career over? 55:30 - Now or never for Jordan Love? 1:03:00 - Any hope for the Jets? 1:09:00 - Top 10 QB/Coach combos (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow - for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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 Acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was funny. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis' keep coming to. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the, Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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What is going on, everyone? How are we doing? Hopefully everyone is doing well. We have a football game tonight. A lot of backups, backups. The Chargers take on the Lions in Canne, Ohio. So, listen, I'm not going to complain about watching third stringers play football. I'm going to enjoy it.

So should you, Trey Lance and DJ Ungule will play for the Chargers? Harbaugh said Trey Lance is going to play a lot. So what I decided to do is I did this. I'm going to do a massive mailbag. A lot of you guys have asked questions. I have not answered them yet. And I'm going to do that today. So we did about an hour-long mailbag.

At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in those DMs. That's how you get your questions answered here on the show. So if you want to participate, you slide in my. DMs and I attempt to read them all. And if I haven't read yours, you know, sometimes you've got to follow up, but I try to read as many as possible. So that will be today. Massive mailbag. And tomorrow we'll have a Fugazi Friday. But you guys know the drills. If you subscribe to Collins feed, that's how you found us. Make sure you subscribe to three and out. Apple, Spotify,

find it wherever you listen to podcast. YouTube as well. We have a YouTube channel. All of our content is up there. So go check that out right now. Just type in my name. You can find it and make sure you subscribe. Okay, before we dive into the mailbag, though, you know, I'm going to tell you about my friends, my partners, official ticketing app of this podcast, best ticketing app I've ever used. You want to go to a football game this fall, college or pro, you want to go to a concert, you want to go to a comedy show, you want to go to any sporting event. It does not get any easier. Search by the venue, search by the team, search by the artists. Take the guest work out of buying tickets with GameTime. Down on the GameTime app, create an account.

and use the code John for $20 off your first purchase. Terms reply again, create an account and redeem the code. J-O-A-JN for $20 off down on the game time half today. Last minute, take its lowest prices. Guaranteed. Okay, let's start with this question. Zach Taylor, he's entering his seventh season as the coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. His record, if you include the playoffs, is 51, 54, and 1.

What's the bare minimum he needs to achieve to ensure he returns? 26. It's a good question. I watched an interview of Shamar Stewart's agents with some local podcasters that look like. It actually made the Bengals look a lot better. This guy's an idiot. I mean, I can't even imagine negotiating with this individual. Obviously, he lost because he was negotiating something that is slotted. I just can't even, you've got to look it up yourself. I think his name's like Zach Hiller or something. I actually sided with Mike Brown when watching this. And Shamar Stewart is obviously a practice now and on the team.

We got Trey Hendrickson back, hold in. Nothing's changed. Mike Brown is like not budging in these negotiations. But there's a lot going on with the Bengals, a ton of pressure on this team. Obviously the quarterback is a star. So anytime you have a star quarterback, not making the playoffs is a fireball offense.

And I think if they were to miss the playoffs again, I think he's a 100% lock to get fired. Now, can they make the playoffs as a wild card and be won and done and him keep the job? It happened to Marvin Lewis for a long, long time. He made the playoffs, would lose in the first round and kept his job forever. So I wouldn't say he'd be a lock to be fired. Would he get an extension? I don't know. There's a lot in the line this year with this team.

He just hires out Golden from Penn State. you know, the offense clearly wasn't the issue last year. So can the offense just maintain and their defense be better? And you would think they're going to win double-digy games. But I don't know. I mean, it's hard to get a feel for how this organization works. My IQ keeps growing with every time I tune in. Must have a low IQ.

Just kidding. Just kidding. Grew up in Green Bay and still a big Rogers fan. I had an epiphany the other day when thinking about the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. All of the all-time greats had Hall of Fame coaches in their prime. Brady Belichick, Mahomes Reed, Montana Walsh, Breeze, Peyton, Manning, on and on and on. McCarthy was a great offensive coach, but he's not a Hall of Famer. And LaFleur is another good offensive mind, but not even the best coach from the Shanahan tree. My question is, do you think Rogers would have been more successful in the postseason with a Belichick or Reed in his prime?

I think it's fair to assume that after they won the suit, because they won the suit, because they won the Super Bowl, right, in 2010. But then their teams were healthier, were better in years moving forward. And I do think it's fair to say that they get over the hump in how many NFC championship games they lose. They lost to Seattle,

they lost to Tampa, they lost the 49ers, they lost to, I think Dallas is a really high seed. They lost the Falcons, but that was a year they kind of made a run. They lost a lot of playoff games where you go,

if they had a better coach, could that have been the difference? I mean, some of those McCarthy years, the defense was terrible when the Niners and Kaepernick ran all over them. It wasn't Roger's fault. But I do think it's fair to look at the floor loss to Tampa was pretty bad at home. The loss to Seattle was pretty bad. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's fair to assume that if you gave Rogers in the peak of his powers, those four or five years. I mean, when he was from like 2010 to 2015-16, could they have won two or three Super Bowl?

if they had Belichick or Andy Reid or Bill Walsh, 100%. I think it's fair to ask yourself that question. Texans fan here. And you're a high IQ guy. I'm curious and listen, most Hall of Fame coaches have Hall of Fame quarterbacks and vice versa. Right? Most great coaches have a great quarterback.

The exception is Parcells, and he had the equivalent at quarterback on defense in Lawrence Taylor. But in the last, 45 years. Every quote-unquote great coach that, you know, won multiple Super Bowls had Mike Shanahan, Elway, obviously Andy, Mahomes, Bill Brady. They all had dynamic quarterbacks. I mean, all-time great quarterbacks.

It shows you. McCarthy, you could argue, underachieved. And I think his Dallas kind of run, McCarthy's out. McCarthy is not bad. but like where is at what level would you rate him being really good you know i mean there is a cutoff where you're like yeah i wouldn't put them above 10 of these guys texans fan i'm curious how you should go about handling their upcoming cap situation with cj and will anderson due to extensions and now we know both our top five picks in the same draft class i think i've already answered

this question i did a couple weeks ago i do think sometimes and we're all guilty of this especially in football. Like, how are they going to handle the next three years? Who cares? It's 2025, right? So, like, what's going to happen in 2007 with the cap? To me, as an NFL fan, you should never be worried about that. It is on your organization to manipulate the cap and figure it out.

But, like, once you get to the start of the season, worrying about future years is kind of a waste. I mean, the Eagles, the 49ers, they've shown, like, you can pay a bunch of people. You can figure this out. If you want to, if you choose to, like if the Texans want to get really aggressive, they can pay a lot of people

and really take advantage of this, if those guys are stars. Congratulations on life. I remember you talking about how sublime was one of your favorite albums. I would love to hear your thoughts of your favorite songs from that album and your musical taste in general.

When I was probably, I mean, when did Bradley die, mid-96, 97, 95 range? I would say what I got when that hit the airways on the radio, back when radio really mattered. That was a really, really big deal. Now, I would say they have several songs that I would put up near the top, due in time, Santeria are pretty good bangers.

Yeah, I mean, I'm a big, I'm a big, musical fan. I mean, I grew up what I'd say is the greatest musical run in the history of America, the 90s, elite rock, elite country music, hip hop was really the foundation of greatness of rap. You know, R&B is something that doesn't really exist anymore, was thriving in the 90s. So I feel, I never understand people that have like, you know, I don't really like that type music. I can understand if it's like classical music, right? But like if someone's talented, I can listen to anything. So I, I would, I lean, I tend to lean like kind of rock, grunge country is my go to. But I put on 50 cent Pandora the other day and has been jamming

to that working out the last couple weeks. For the mailbag, I don't understand why Matt Stafford isn't being talked about more. The way McVeigh talks about injuries, feels like 2002 elbow issue that he downplayed. And the Jackson situation, their offensive linemen, feels like the Rams season could fall apart very quickly.

How concerned should they be with Stafford's injury? I mean, anytime an older player is just weak to weak, especially when he didn't tweak it at practice, it's one thing it's like, this didn't happen, but like, you know,

Lane Johnson rolled his ankle, we're just going to give him some time off. And a couple days turns into a week, like, he's going to be okay. Okay, fine. Like, that's not that weird. I just used him as example. Could be T.J. Watt, could be Trent Williams. Go around the league. An older veteran player. If they tweak something in practice, you're like, listen, we're not, it's August 2nd. Take a deep breath, guys. This guy wasn't playing in the preseason anyway. When you show up after the summer, it's like, yeah, I can't go. And then you say, like, hey, he's going to go soon. And then you have to come back. and be like, yeah, you know, you're just going to be week to week.

I kind of over, I overspoke. Oh, yeah, Jimmy Garoppelo, best backup quarterback, I go massive red flag. So I think it's very, very concerning. Because even if you were told me, hey, you got to bet a thousand dollars today, does Matt Stafford start week one? I would lean, yes, even though I have no more information than anyone else. But just, I'd be like, yeah, I bet he's able to try to go week one, even worse case scenario. What if this pops back up in the season?

And this is not like, anytime you get like sore elbow or back or some of these guys that get sore Achilles, like to me, soreness, I would rather have like, you know, he just broke two fingers.

Or you know what? He broke his leg. You know, so it's like a very concrete, hey, this is five weeks. This is what it is. We fix it.

We move on. Right. Hey, he broke his clavicle. Stuff like that sucks. But it's like, okay, I can see.

the light at the end of the tunnel. When it's like, yeah, his knees is really sore. It's like his Achilles are really sore. It's where I heard of McAfrey, you know, Achilles, Achilles, Achilles. And then all of a sudden it's like he played three games in the season. Like, what the hell just happened? So that type stuff makes me nervous. And I'm pro.

Trust me, I want the Niners to win the division. But like, I enjoy the Rams being good. And I want to see Stafford play. I really like watching him play. And I want the Rams to be a playoff factor as well. Like, I don't root against their situation of a big McVevalie. Bay fan, but I am very concerned. I was going to bet on the Niners and win the division anyway.

Obviously, the value actually is probably with the Cardinals in Seattle, but have a hard time pulling the trigger on that. Though my guy, John Schneider, fan of the pod, frequent guess, no, he's been a guess one time. He got an extension, so congrats to him. Mailback, when do you think players improve the most? Is it during the offseason, training camp, or during the season? I don't think you can really improve during the offs.

When you say the off season, like, I was taught, and I do believe this, this guy's got to improve his strength. It's like, guys usually don't get stronger. They might get weight stronger. Maybe instead of benching this or squatting this, they now added 50, 75 pounds. But that doesn't equate, like an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman strength when they're at Georgia, Alabama, USC.

In like five years, they're usually not really, like, they couldn't shove guys then, and now they're shoving guys. So to me, sometimes the weight room training stuff is a little overrated. Obviously, you've got to stay in shape. I think where you really improve is from year one where you're just drinking out of a firehouse. You get drafted. You try to learn the plays. If you're playing, you're just trying to survive, get in shape.

A lot's going on. Think how much easier, and this is relatable, in any one of our jobs, whatever you do for a living, once you've been doing it for a while, you become much more comfortable. You don't have to think as much, whether it's just like, where do I go to lunch? Where, you know, I don't need to be there today. I really need to take care of this. And when you're new to a job, when you're new to a situation, especially a pressure-packed one, it's a lot going on. Well, by year two, you don't have to worry about all. these things because they just become second nature where you live the route to the

fracks facility what it's like to get ready for a game week how a game plan works in the NFL different from how you did in college so you can just play football instead of thinking and playing football so the game in theory should slow down a lot for you as a second year guy and you can just quote unquote play fast and you especially if a coach is you know a position coach a defensive your offensive coordinator is returning, you have all the information. Like you already kind of know the answers to the test that they're going to give you. So think how much easier a training camp is when it's like, we're installing our plays. Well, if I'm Jalen Carter, it's like, well, I know the plays with Vic Fangio.

So I can just play. So it's really just on me to be in shape, stay healthy, and boom, I should be able to kick ass. Because I know exactly what they're going to ask me to do. And then just figure out how do I adjust from my opponents. So I think most people in the league would tell you the biggest, jump would be from year one to year two because it's just way easier in terms of all the external stuff that were a huge factor in year one are just more second nature. And then I think you should always be improving, right? Whether that's, I think the percentage becomes smaller. And it's

more of like an incremental gain, year three to year four, your five, to your six. But I think if you got with like Devante Adams right now, or you got with, you know, some of these older players, Tyrone Matthew before he retired. He's like, I can always improve on little things. But I think your greatest jump is probably early in your career. So I have most guys, like Jason Kelsey is a huge outlier, a guy that didn't start making Pro Bowls and all pros until he was like five or six years into the league. Most guys really established themselves in the first couple years of their career, year two or year three. And sometimes it's your three as well.

You know, depending on the team, are you playing? Are you on the roster, you're on the practice squad? Because if you're on the practice squad or you're a backup, you're not getting a lot of reps once the season starts. So if you're not playing that much, if you're just like a special teams guy, you actually are probably doing scout team reps. So you probably not as improving as much. Like when I was at Fresno State,

Coach Hill on Sunday nights would take all the guys' redshirting and everyone on the big roster that doesn't really play or is a backup, and they would have full-on scrimmages. So, like, in college football, you play on Saturday. I don't even know if it's allowed anymore. And on Sunday night, after, you know, basically, you don't really have a practice in college football on Sunday. Sometimes you just run gasserous to get the, like, galactic acid and the soreness,

and they'd have a lift. But they would pat up basically the 20, 30 guys redshirting, and then maybe, 15 more or 20 more that are on the big roster, but they don't really play. And then they would just play a scrimmage. I forget how many plays it would be, but it would like you would get to work on it because that guy, once the season's going, doesn't really get to work on his craft, which that definitely does not happen in the NFL, so it's hard to improve. That's why in college, you know, spring practice is in pads.

So you can take huge jumps. You can only take so many jumps in the pros in, OTAs, which I think most of these coaches, I think if you got Andy Reid or Pete Carroll or some of these guys, they would say what OTAs have become is just like a mental walkthrough. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we, how do we, how do we, we,

we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. We were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title. for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking.

criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levan this went to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life.

Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. Expectations for each team change each season. Success can vary a lot depending from the perspective that we look at it. Making the playoffs as the four seed in winning a wildcard game before being bounced in the divisional round would be great for the charges of the Broncos.

The Chiefs would see that as a letdown. Similarly, each quarterback has held a different standards. My question is, how would you define success for each of the year, each of the year two quarterbacks who started week one for their team. Williams, Daniels, and Knicks. I would say for Caleb, it would be to establish himself

as a really good player. Right? And if he establishes them as a really good player, they should be a team above 500. Now, I think if Ben Johnson's first year, Caleb is just good. Let's say he throws 30 touchdowns, 10 picks, and they win nine games,

games, like that would be a successful year. And it's like, okay, Caleb's a franchise quarterback. This guy's a really good player. Has some down moments as any Patrick Mahomes has bad games. But as some games were like, oh, shit, this guy can play. A couple big upsets throughout the year. I think for Knicks and Daniels, I mean, I think it's fair to say the expectations, fair or not, is like, can Jane Daniels compete to win the MVP?

You know, Patrick Mahomes won an MVP in his first year starting, which was year two. Lamar Jackson won the MVP in his second year. It's like, if he's going to be that great of a player, can he win the MVP? We were talking about that with C.J. Stroud last year. It's like, is this guy going to win the MVP year or two? And obviously did not. He didn't play very well last year. For me, Bo Nicks, as a lot of Bronco fans will tell you,

look at his stats. They're better or just as good as Jaden Daniels. They're going to play real teams this year. So it's like, can you beat some people that matter? You know, last year, as a lot of people have pointed out, I don't think they've beat that many good teams. So it's like, can he outplay Justin Herbert? Obviously, Joe Burrow, I'm looking at their schedule,

Jalen Hertz, Dak Prescott, C.J. Stroud, Jaden Daniels, Jordan Love, their schedule is harder. Now, I think the Broncos are going to be pretty good. And if he's good and you have an elite defense, they're going to win 11, 12 games. A question for the bag. If you were a GM right now and had to pick one quarterback to start your franchise with, would you rather have Cam Ward or Trevor Lawrence?

I know you've never seen Cam play in NFL game, but we've also seen the highs and lows of Lawrence. It wouldn't even be a question for me. I'd take Cam Ward. I just don't think Trevor Lawrence that good. Now, like you said, I don't know about Cam Ward, but I would 100% take the, especially, I mean, one thing you have to do, I'm getting a guy on a rookie quarterback, on a rookie contract.

So if it does fail in a couple years, three years, I can pivot out of it. Trevor Lawrence, you gave $200 million to. I wouldn't even hesitate the unknown of Cam Ward is dramatically better than the known from what we've seen of Trevor Lawrence. I can't imagine there would be many GMs in the league that would, you got to factor in the contract, would choose any different. Having missed a show in two plus years, God, I like this guy. Jared. Question. A couple of rookie running backs I'm excited about. Henderson, Hampton, Harvey. Do you have a favorite out of that group to make the biggest impact this year? How do you see contributing in the run in the past game? Topic suggestion. It is always difficult to know how

college players translate to the NFL. Big names don't pan out and less recognize names or studs. Who is one rookie second year player from each team or division that you or your buddies around the league, thing could make a big impact this year. I think this is the hard thing on your topic suggestion. One thing I've learned over the last 15 years of being around the NFL, going to these practices, just talking about this league for a living, is I don't get that excited besides first round picks, but I have seen so much hype on a third rounder,

and by the end of camp, an undrafted free agent is way better in that guy. And I think the underrated part is most people don't put that much stock, in 6th, 7th, and undrafted free agents and every single year on the majority of teams, those guys not only make teams, they end up starting, they end up becoming good players. So it's honestly impossible to even guess.

Honestly, I don't really talk about most guys got drafted in the top like 50 until the season starts, because I got no clue. It's a complete guess. I know it's kind of a fun exercise, but I don't follow the draft close enough to even take educated guesses on 5th, 7th rounders. I would say this.

I don't know how good the Patriots offense is going to be. Henderson's a home run hitter. I read something, Josh McDaniels, like, I don't know if this was AI or fake, but I kind of believed it that after he got fired from the Raiders, he, like, found a deep spiritual, he found God or something. Again, it could be fake, but, like, kind of tried to change his personality because for the second time in his career being a head coach, everyone hated him.

And, like, watch out. He thinks his offense can be pretty dynamic. Amic this year. I don't know how great their offensive line's going to be. I think the other two guys, Najee Harris, did he blow out his eyeball? I mean, I know they tried, and his agent, who I know Doug tried to underplay, like, hey, it's not that serious. It's clearly pretty serious he can practice, and I think he's a great unknown. Now, I've always thought Najee as a player, and I've followed him since high school, and I was really excited when he went to Alabama. I, you know, I think it's easy to be like, oh, the Steelers.

I think he's a little overrated in terms of a guy that was drafting the first round. You know, I think if you could redo a draft, he's like a third round pick. So Hampton was going to start over him regardless. Now that he's not even going to be a factor, who's even splitting carries with, assuming that, who knows? Maybe Najee can't really, maybe start the season on pop. So I think Harbaugh would ride Hampton like a secretary and their offensive line has two sweet tackles, a sweet guard. I would think Hampton's going to be really good. I was watching Sean Payton's press conference.

For some reason, it comes up on my YouTube feed, Sean Payton, all the time. He had a comment. It would have been like Tuesday. He's like, RJ Hampton busted out, or not RJ Hampton, but RJ Harvey Harvey, had a run in practice, or he's like, we kind of looked at each other. And he's either talking about the quarterback coach or, you know, his offensive coordinator or whatever. I know Sean's technically the offensive coordinator. But one of his other coaches, like, hopefully.

Holy shit. So two things. Harbaugh and Sean Payton, like the team's there, baby. Like they're in complete control. And Harbaugh drafted this guy in the first round to play running back. And Sean Payton drafted this guy, where was RJ taking the second round?

Clearly loves the player. I think both those two guys, if you're into fantasy football, if you're gambling this year on like prop bets, those guys have hard on us for those two guys. so Harbaugh loves to run the football he just drafted a guy in the first round and Sean Payton talks about this guy like he fucking loves him

he talked about him when he was when they drafted him huge fan I've been a big fan of Colin the past 20 years and I found you through his podcast I'm curious if you could give any insight into his obsession with the WNBA I'm a huge sports fan and I've never met

one person who has ever watched a WNBA game he never talks about hockey or golf and rarely baseball because he says that people don't listen for those sports, but he talks WNBA almost daily. The Tiger Woods and Caitlin Clark comparisons are ludicrous. Where I agree with that, it's like, now that she's injured, she is, where they are fair is she is a transcendent name that took a sport that didn't have as many eyeballs and created, I mean, they had 100,000 people watching a couple years ago in her draft, I think like

three or four million people watched. So Colin does a television show And I'm just curious if he's trying to buy a WNBA team or another reason He has the metrics of who's listening and who's not listening So when you turn on these television shows And people are talking about the Cowboys and people are talking about LeBron They're not doing it randomly They have all the metrics

The reason they've never talked about the WNBA Is because absolutely no one gave a shit And do you know what Caitlin Clark has done I've probably watched in her WNBA career, I mean, start to finish one of her games, but I feel like I follow her career relatively closely. Like I know what's going on with her. She's created like people just casually follow her. The reason you can talk about the NFL every single day, 365, if you want to want to,

because people casually follow football. Like LeBron James or Steph Curry. I don't have to watch LeBron James play a game in basketball. Like I don't watch that many Laker games. right throughout the course of the season. But like, if something happens to him, people casually follow LeBron James. They kind of know why?

Because he's like this really famous guy. And that's what she became. She became really famous. So like when he's talking about her on the television show, are most people that are interested in Caitlin Clark watching all of her games? No fucking chance. Right?

So it's like she has become, she's just a pretty transcendent individual like Tiger. Like you said, Tiger went pro in 96. In 1997, he won the, he won the Masters. Within a couple years, he had like five or six majors and was beating the shit out of everybody. Is Caitlin Clark Tiger Woods in terms of on the court or on the course? No, she's not as good as him. But in terms of moving the needle, I do think she has proven she can move the needle. Because people, no one's ever watched WNBA games in the history of the league. it was a dog shit product that the NBA subsidized and still does.

Now, they have a lot of people watching, and she's the main reason, because she got injured, their ratings went in the tank. So, like, for whatever reason, you can hear a million people argue a million things. To me, she's just kind of interesting. And she's fun to watch play. But no one talks anything on television without knowing that this is working in 2025, and really for a long time. They have the information. I have the metrics of what kind of works and what doesn't work for us. You mentioned earlier that you thought DJ would win the starting job because they

gave him $14 million. From what I've seen so far in training camp, AR looks like he's out playing Jones. He's taking the layups and making some tight window throws and is more explosive overall in both arm strength and running. Daniel has played okay, but given that they've invested a fourth overall pick in Anthony Richardson, I believe Jones would need to clearly outplay AR to win the job. Has your opinion changed at all on Richardson versus Jones going into the season? I'll be honest, I haven't followed the camp of the Indianapolis Colts that carefully, so I can't speak to like who's splitting reps, who's made plays. I saw McAfee posted some clips of AR that look kind of sweet.

He's always been a highlight guy. I'm with you. If he is like hitting the layup throws and hitting wheel routes and stays healthy, he should win the job. But it's July 30th. So, yeah, I mean,

you have more information than me in terms of how things have gone the last week. I honestly, I don't even, I haven't even seen that many headlines on the Colts, I feel like. So I will stick with what I said. I think Daniel Jones is going to be the starting quarterback. Can Anthony Richardson say healthy for a month in training camp?

how does he look in some of these preseason games? Do they even going to play him in the preseason games? I don't know. I might as well stick with my opinion until I'm proven wrong, mainly because I just haven't seen or heard anything. But you're more dialed in than me. If Anthony Richardson's making sweet plays, where I do agree with you,

if it's close and he's like better, like, Ty's going to go to Anthony Richardson, I just felt like there was no way that he would be that good given everything that happened. maybe, I don't know, maybe you finally figured it out, which would change their trajectory, which usually doesn't happen that way, but all I've been hearing is how this year is the Chargers of Broncos are going to take the AFC West. And honestly, I love it. Keep fueling the fire. My question is almost for the Chargers. I saw they have the furthest distance traveled

schedule in the league this year. Curie said that actually has an effect on the rest and recovery of players. Meanwhile, the Bengals have the shortest distance traveled. Is this the most irrelevant, or is this something taken into consideration? I do think if you looked at the history of travel, most teams that are on the coast, right, if you're the Dallas Cowboys are never going to lead the league in travel, the Houston Texans or the Greenway Packers, right? Because their travel is always kind of cut in half, where if you draw, do I have the Denver Broncos? Let's pull up the chargers. So the Chargers, we know, we even factoring in the, I mean, they're playing an extra preseason game in Cannes, Ohio. But they have games at New York, at Miami, at Tennessee, at Jacksonville.

Yeah, I mean, it's just when you play certain divisions, you just have to travel a little bit farther. So they drew the east, and two of their games are the Giants and the Cowboys, which isn't terrible. Listen, I think it can be a little overrated on the aggregate. Right. You get a private plane. It's not even a private. You charter a massive jet. The amount of food, recovery stuff.

I mean, you have everything for you. You get to the hotel. You can take care of your body. where it does impact you is on the shorter weeks. So if you have, I think, past like the first couple weeks, if you're a Thursday night game, if you're the Chargers or the Broncos and you've got to play the Dolphins or the Giants,

I'm just making these up. That to me is a huge disadvantage. If you have a road short week game that is a far travel, if you're the Chargers and your short week is playing the Niners, not that crazy. Now, it's never ideal to have to get on a plane. The other thing where it does impact you is like if you play Monday night football

or Sunday night football on the road far away, that to me is more, if you have a 10 a.m. kickoff and you're the chargers against, like, let's see how their schedule starts. Chiefs at home or Chiefs in Brazil, I forgot about the Brazil game.

That sucks. But that sucks for the Chiefs too. Broncos, like at the Giants 928, but that's a morning game. Even the Chiefs game, the Brazil game sucks, but they don't play again until Monday night football 10 days later. They get Thursday night football at home against Minnesota.

They get the Steelers, Sunday night football, but that's at home. They get the Eagles, Monday night football, but that's at home. They have a lot of 11 o'clock kickoffs. I guess mountain time, 10 o'clock. Like, they have a lot of morning kickoffs. In Arizona, we go from 10 to 11. It's kind of weird. Okay, congrats on the kid.

Well, I don't have the kid yet, but the kids growing by the day. Maria showed me a picture of what the kid, my son, looks like today. So he's a growing boy. Not the actual picture from the ultrasound, but like a computer version of like how big he is. I have a six-month-old son, and it's a great honor making him a Cleveland Brown fan and having a full life of pain. My question, with your... Your son, are you going to let him pick his own teams or will you influence him to a certain team? I will have no influence.

He can root for and watch whoever he wants. Who knows? Maybe listen, what if he doesn't like sports? What if sports aren't part of his world? He can do whatever he wants. Now, if he ends up watching a lot of games with me, which I'm sure he will do, I'm sure he'll gravitate to someone. but, you know, one thing about, like, the way I grew up loving the Niners and the Giants is I lived in Northern California.

So I would go to Giants games. I went to Candlestick to watch Barry Bonds and Matt Williams play baseball in 1993, in 1995, in 1996, right, before they ever built Oracle. I never went to a 49er game as a kid, but there wasn't a human being that I was around that wasn't watching Steve Young and Jerry Rice when I was kind of coming into my own at 9, 10, 11 years old. So my son is going to grow up in Arizona.

So who knows? I mean, the impact of the teams isn't going to like the Cardinals? I hope not. But, where he likes Cowboys? Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

First people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down?

Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast. could call in and say, hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&Lenberg. Michael's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen, kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman,

catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice. On the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-12 in the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

Who is the biggest draft bus of all time? My vote is Trey Lance. He's playing in the Hall of Fame game for the Chargers. Not the Niners or the Cowboys, but the Chargers. They spent three first round picks to get them. My dad is a big Niner fan, couldn't accept that answer and said it had to be Jamarcus Russell. What is your opinion?

This is a good question. And I think here's the key. I'm not putting Tray Lance and Jim Marcus Russell in the same lane. Jim Marcus Russell played at LSU, had big time talent, didn't try. Was on the purple drank, didn't study, didn't give a you know what. And was terrible and was out of the league in a couple years. But no one disputed, especially back then the way the league was, his physical attributes and his ability to play. He just did not care.

He did not try. But a guy had played at LSU. He had won big games in college. Like, that was a real prospect. Trey Lance, to me, a little bit of a Fugazi prospect. Played at a small school. Did not have Division I offers to play quarterback. And I'm not talking to a small school.

He played in D1A at North Dakota State. And he was a backup to other guys that played in the NFL. Started for one year in 2019. They did not lose a game because their ability, they dominate that level. Well, 2020 happened. He did not have a season because in D1A with the Wuhan Lab and the Rona Rippin, they canceled football. This is not the SEC or the Big Ten. This was D1A.

They canceled it. So he did not play. He actually played one game and it was a joke. So I do think if he had played more D1A, would he really have gone on the top five? Because he's just not very good. And like you said, he's playing in the Hall of Fame game starting. Harbaugh is actually throwing him a bone. He can't win the backup job anywhere.

He can't be a backup in the NFL. But that's not his fault. He just wasn't that good. And I think in a normal circumstance, in 2025, a guy that played multiple years in D1A, I don't know if he would have been drafted that high. Like a huge part of the reason the Niners drafted him, weird year, they were desperate.

They loved his character. But physically, I was going to practices early on his career. Not very accurate. His athleticism doesn't really translate. Like, I put his failure on the 49ers. and just this 2020 like I

Jamarcus Russell failed not because the Raiders because of Jamarcus Russell like some guys just you know Johnny Mansell like he just didn't try if you watch his documentary in Netflix he's like yeah just didn't give a shit

just getting wasted went to Vegas he's like quit you know Tray Lance is trying Traylance is really tried Trillant's like a high character guy people like him he just isn't good enough Like, that to me is more on the team.

So when I think the word draft bust, I think of a guy that, like, did not live up to his potential. Like, some guys, like, that guy should not have been drafted there. Like Solomon Thomas. The 49ers drafted him third overall. Solomon Thomas should have been, like, a third round pick. And he would have, like, he's going to have a 12, 13-year career. But he just never should have been drafted that eye.

Mr. Busky. Like, is it, is he a bust? He was the number two overall. he's not that good. Kind of like Trey Lance. I put that more on the bears. He has no touch. He's not very instinctive.

So it's like he never was going to be that good. Where it's like, Jamarcus Russell could have been good. There are players that could have been good. That if you do not try, and that's the reason you live up to it, like are you a bust if you get injured? That one's hard for me.

But I do think when you literally just don't try, like that to me is a bust. on the player. Good question. I'd put Jamarcus Russell near this. Ryan Leaf. Like Ryan Leaf was a real prospect. Right? He was a real talent. Trey Lance was not at the level in which he was traded for and drafted.

I mean, he's an NFL, you know, fringe, third string practice squad guy. Question for the pot. With the possibility of Netflix being a part of the NFL TV rights deal, is it safe to assume Netflix? stock would skyrocket? Why? That's a good question. Let's check in on a Netflix stock right now.

One of my great regrets is never going all in on this like five years ago. Netflix. So it's 52 week low is $587. It's 52 week high is $1,300. It's currently sitting at a shade under $1,200 a share. So it has gone up in a five-year period, 150% in a 10-year period, almost well over 9x. So is buying the NFL going to dramatically change the amount of people that subscribe to Netflix? It would definitely help.

I do wonder, let's just say, let's say opening night. Chiefs, not Chiefs, Chiefs, Chief Chargers play week two. I actually think that's a good example. It's on YouTube. What is the difference in terms of the amount of people that watch opening night, which I would imagine Cowboys Eagles is on NBC, Thursday night, and the YouTube game two in Brazil on Friday? Because it's different.

You've got to subscribe to Netflix. But I do think there is, anyone will tell you in the business, being on Fox, being on CBS, being on ABC, NBC is a game changer. There are still people that don't, I guess, have the internet or cable or whatever. I just don't know any human being in my life, any human being. That includes my mother, who's in her mid-late 70s, who does not have Netflix slash watch it. So I don't know what that, it won't hurt. but I don't know if it's like a 30% increase.

Do you believe O'Dell Beckham's junior's career is over? If not, what organization and roster can you believe he can contribute to? How would you assess his career? I think he underachieve given the talent that he had. And part of that was the Giants, they fell apart when they traded him to Cleveland, and that thing did not work out. But if you go with YouTube, the first couple years of O'Dell Beckham, he was an elite talent.

Punt returner, deep threat, could break tackles, his play speed. He was pretty special. It wasn't just some flash in the pan. It was like, this fucking guy can play. Then he gets injured and he's never quite the same. But I do think Cleveland, you know, over the internet era has been a place

where people's careers can go to die. And I do think that really, really derailed his career. Is this now or never for Jordan Love? Will Packers fans see the controversial draft pick and ousting of Rogers pay off? It's a great question. I don't think it's now or never for the guy, but there is tangible pressure on this franchise.

New president, he did not hire the coach and the GM's futures are tied to this quarterback who they paid a lot of money, who's coming off a weird season that was banged up. Are they going to be good enough on offense to take the next step? You know, is this a team that went one in five in the division? So I don't think it's now or never, but I do think it's kind of now. Okay, it's time. Like, it's time for LaFleur.

It's time for Jordan Love. It's time for this team. Like, this is a good year for them to win 12, 13 games and be a major factor in the playoffs. So desperate for football, I'm watching the Brady and Mahomes' AFC championship. How long until NFL teams adopt the golf-like simulator on the sideline for kickers? right now the guys kick into a net with no feedback. Is trackman like technology on the sideline against the rules? That's a great fucking question.

I don't see how it would be given that they have iPads on the sidelines now. If you told me 10 years ago, you know, whatever the year was, that they started allowing like technology on the sideline, I don't see why you could have an iPad and look at the plays on offense or defense, but I can't have a trackman for a guy to kick to know where it would go. I'm totally with you. Why can the kicker not have the ability to go, God, I'm missing that a little left?

And honestly, I don't know is there a trackman technology that could do it with a football? Because if there is, I think we should institute that immediately. And there would be some owners like, I don't want to pay for this, because they ain't cheap. But I'd be interested if there are kickers in the league that utilize any sort of technological advances like that, either in the offseason or with their team.

But that's never thought about that. Great question. What are your expectations for Omerian Hampton in year one in Harbaugh's version of the Chargers? With Najee, I can't even speak. We talked about this a little earlier. I don't think it's outrageous to go offensive rookie of the year. Could Hampton be a 1,300-yard rusher and have 10 plus touchdowns?

Because he's pretty freaking good. So I would say offensive rookie of the year would be on the table for sure. In a recent interview at the Manning Passing Academy, Arch Manning said Burrow and Josh Allen are his favorite quarterbacks to watch. Even with a small sample size we've seen so far of Arch, do you notice any similarities in their style of playing showing up in his game? I've noticed that his footwork is crisp and he throws a nice accurate deep ball

and he's got nice speed. But other than that, I'm curious to hear your take. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I thought his arm, you know, Josh Allen has an elite arm. Burrow does not, but Burrough's such a natural player and his motion is kind of over the top. To me, Arch, again, I have to study it a little stronger.

Feels a little lower than Burroughs. similar like burrow doesn't have a hose but has a good enough arm one thing that arch has that's probably closer to josh different from joe is he can really move he's a really really good athlete which makes sense his dad cooper i forget the exact disease or sickness he got but he was going to old miss to play wide receiver so i think arch is like a uh trying to think who a player. I mean, Josh Allen's a superb athlete. I think Arch is a really good athlete.

You know, maybe a young Aaron Rogers who could really, really move and throw. But he doesn't have the arm of Aaron. I'm trying to think of like physical comps. He's taller than that. I don't know. I don't have a comp right now that makes sense in my head. And yesterday, Jimmy Haslam said, and he knows the mannings really well, he said he expects arts to play multiple seasons of Texas.

imagine Arch who, what year is he now? It's going to be a redshirt sophomore. I think he's going to graduate from college, would be my guess. So part of staying two years would be like, I want to be a two-year starter and I want to graduate from college. John Dorsey, mailback question. John Dorsey, I've been following this guy because of his personality and second because of how little credit this guy gets from drafting some of the best players in the NFL. Baker, Kelsey, Tyreek, Nick Chub, Mahomes, even was the head scout for Aaron Rogers. His ability to draft players early and late rounds is undeniable, but the fact he can't keep a job as a GM doesn't make sense.

Every time he's can, he's hired the next day as a head advisor or scout to another team. Now I understand he failed badly with coaches, but most of the time, that's not a GM's decision. He drafted the first Chief Super Bowl team, but nobody talks about that. What are your thoughts on him and did you ever know John? Never met the guy. Maybe I have met him at the Combine, like really briefly when I was young. But there is no disputing John Dorsey's ability to evaluate football players.

There was a reason when Andy went to Kansas City and he's like, I'm not going to be the GM anymore. Hire John Dorsey and said, you run the personnel department. And the only guy they took from Kansas City was, or from Philly was Vich. He's like, I'm not stealing any of the guys. Give me one. Veach's my guy and took him. But I think Veach and Dorsey are similar in the sense of like, they're very, very good at evaluating players. Now, part of being a GM, it's like, is John Dorsey good enough with the finances?

Is John Dorsey good enough at dealing with the owners? Is John Dorsey good enough at dealing with the agents? You know, being a GM, the reason John Schneider is going to have a 20-year career in Seattle, the reason Harry Roseman is unreal. The reason Jason Light, Nick Casario, these guys have to do a lot of things. You know, one problem with Trent Balke, did you know what Trent Balke you wanted to do?

Close the door, turn off the lights, and watch film, 24-7, 365. And then he realized, I kind of got to play the politician. But he wasn't good at working with coaches. He was terrible at working with staffs. You've got to be good at everything. And I do think, and again, I'm projecting a little bit, you know, the reason he was fine,

fired in Kansas City was financially, he wasn't good at managing the cap. And the owner who is a money guy, finance major, was like, you're fired. I can't speak to what happened in Cleveland, but like just picking players, John Dorsey's good at that. But football is about a lot more than just picking players. I've been a Jets fan since 2009. I'm 26. We haven't made the NFL playoffs since I was in middle school. I'm in the minority, and I'm not buying Aaron Glenn at all.

A brilliant owner just hired a good DC out of SF, the last hire, in his first NFL head coaching gig, and how did that go? I'm not forgetting. They needed something different. Aaron Glenn is talking hot to the media, and that's what these guys all do. They say they can handle it, but everyone's a hot shot till they get their ass kicked.

I'm an OSU grad, so I'm excited to see Fields and Wilson this season. but other than that, my question is, why would I have any hope this year? We are the worst franchise at sports. I would say this about Aaron Glenn that's different than Robert Sala. You know, Aaron Glenn was a high-level player, scouted, became a position coach,

and then became one of the best defensive coordinators. Robert Sala did not play in the NFL for 15, 20 years. I mean, Aaron Glenn's career, I think, was like 15, 16 years. playing playing. I do think last year was kind of a masterpiece. Him winning that game with the random guys to win the division was remarkable to watch. So his ability to deal with players is pretty impressive.

You know, Robert Sala had like two good years. Honestly, one, 2019 for the 40-9ers. The team was not good in 2020. It's hard to even judge 2020. Now, Robert Sala was a good defensive coordinator, but was completely over his head with a lot of stuff. And hadn't really been in a high-level position for long in the NFL. I mean, he wasn't that far removed from being like a quality control assistant.

Aaron Glenn, like Google his resume, it's pretty impressive. Been with Sean Payton, been with Dan Campbell. You know, Robert Saul is not that far removed from like working for Gus Bradley. Kyle hired him because he couldn't get Vic Fangio. So I think Aaron Glenn is much more prepared for this job. that being said, I don't think you can win games with Justin Fields. Like, I do not expect the Jets to be good on offense.

I just don't think, I think he's kind of proven. Like, he just struggles in just a normal passing attack. Like Garrett Wilson, it's, how's that going to go? I don't know. Now, he's got so much money,

he might not care as much anymore, but most wide receivers want the rock. I'm interested in your thoughts on the trajectory of Jalen and Tua's career. you would be a fool to put Tua above Jalen in any quarterback ranking. But not too long ago, they were on the exact same team, and it was Jalen being benched and had a transfer in favor of Tua. Tua looked like clearly the better quarterback, at least in my eyes.

I would say in everyone's eyes, including Nick Sabins. Do their completely different paths at this point surprise you? It's just a matter of where they landed, Tua's injuries, or is there something about Jalen's game that make a lot of them? him a better fit in the NFL. Well, Tua 1 is just a small bad athlete. So that doesn't always translate to the NFL, right? Tuah can be accurate, but he's not super dynamic player.

Like, what is Tua's best skill? Getting rid of the ball really quickly, accurately. I mean, throw's a decent deep ball. But, like, Jalen is an elite. Elite would be strong. That's like Michael Vick. but he is an excellent, excellent NFL athlete and runner of the football. He is a dynamic player with the ball in his hands.

And he is an exceptional deep ball thrower. Then he plays on a team, like obviously a quarterback, who are your teammates. He has better teammates. But he has way more physical skills than Tua. Right. And Tua, like, okay, are you going to pick you apart? Like the left-handed Drew Brees, we've seen him. He can't really do that.

So I actually think Jalen has more physical attributes to have a higher ceiling than Tua. Right. Even though at the same time, like, I struggle with this because I don't respect many people that like love talking about the past. Because I think it's easy to be like, well, in 2015, you know, I was doing really well. My dad was a farmer in like the 70s and 80s and 90s. And like economic recessions back in the day would create. triple people. So I knew a lot of people through my dad that had had great times, were crushing it, and then would go bankrupt. Some people would be unfazed,

and they would just battle back and keep kicking ass and keep making money. And there were some people that, like, if I say like a family dinner, these names, they just resonate, still hold on to like what you did in 1988. It's like, it's 2025. And they're still talking about this. And I think I'm not saying Tua's that way, but my point is this, we all get to a point in life where you might be with someone that that person is better than you. There's no guarantee that they're still going to be better than you in five or ten or twenty years, right? All of our professions are a little bit different. But like Jalen didn't let that moment when Tua was better than him define him. Now, part of that team specifically, Alabama,

had the best roster in the league, right, in the country. They had dominant offensive lines and elite wide receivers. So Tua was a way better passer those couple years. It was a no-brainer for Nick Saban to transition to Tua. But some guys get better. Listen, I didn't think Jalen, I thought Howie was insane for taking him in the second round. I would have taken him on like the fourth or fifth round and moved him to running back. I would have been wrong.

Guys improve. And why a lot of people miss on. players in the pros because they go, this guy's not good enough. Well, yeah, he's not good enough right now, but what can he be in three or four years? And if you get to the right place, you get with the right coach, you just naturally improve. All of a sudden, you're a nine-year starter. It's like, God, I didn't realize this guy was going to be that good. Part of the business.

If there was an NFL draft of current coach quarterback combo packages, taking into account only for two years, 25 and 26, to try to go on a run, given that all the teams have equal rosters, which tandem would be the first 10 off the draft board? The purpose of this exercise that my buddies and I had to take into account both value of quarterback and head coach together and not separated. Well, I think you would just find guys with track records, because if everything's equal, it's advantage the coach, right? Like one disadvantage a quarterback would have is if my team is not as good, right?

But a coach can overcome guys because I can scheme you open. So if everything's the same, huge advantage for Andy Reed, huge advantage for Kyle and Sean McVeigh, right? Huge advantage for Jim Harbaugh. Right?

It's not as big of advantage for average coaches, right? And that's where, you know, it's clear who would go one. But I think, like, Sean McVeigh, or excuse me, Sean McDermott's proven like he's been a pretty good coach with random guys with Josh. So how would they not be two? Same thing with John Harbaugh.

Like, I think those, it'd be one, two, three. Those three combos. It'd be Josh, Lamar Mahomes. Obviously, Mahomes would be one. But, like, do you trust Zach Taylor? If you don't have Jamar Chase? I don't. I like Burrow, but I don't trust Zach Taylor.

but I don't trust Zach Taylor. I'll tell you who'd go higher than you think. Would be like, well, everything's equal. I like my chance with Sean Payton, and he loves his quarterback. I'd say the same thing with Kyle and Purdy. He'd be like, well, there are big guys better than Purdy. Okay, but everything's equal.

Like, I've seen Dak when he doesn't have a stack team. Like, I'm out on that. I've seen Jared Goff where he doesn't have the best offensive line in the league. Out on that. You know, Jalen's a good example. J.J. fucking Brown and Devante Smith. What would he look like? if he had a couple random guys and Siriani.

Don't like that as much. I see, I think Dan Campbell and Goff wouldn't go as high in this exercise. McVeigh and Stafford, assuming Stafford's back was good, would go high. Dan Quinn, Jaden Daniels probably go high too. It's a good question. We're going to end on that. That is a good question. I'll tell you who would go near the bottom would be like Dayball, Russell Wilson,

Kellyn Moore, whoever. Oh, Dime. D'emico and C.J. would go high. Harbaugh Herbert would go high. Tua McDaniel would go low. Colts would go low. Tidens would go low. I think the biggest swing would be the Lions. Just because I like Dan Campbell, motivating whoever.

But like, Jared Gough, if everything's equal, don't love. Can't move. Jared Gough on a stack team, excellence. I'd say the same thing for Jalen, which, again, I'm not bitching and moaning like, well, his team's his team. We won the Super Bowl. Jared Goff's team's team's team. They win a bunch of games these last couple years.

But if you put one of these guys on, you know, you put Jared Goff on the Jags, don't like him as much. The Volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what?

We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff. on this. If we didn't talk ever again, I was funny. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Real talent is defined by what people can do, not where they learn to do it. So by stopping at the education section of a resume, you might throw away the perfect hire. Skills First hiring helps you see talent others miss, like more than 70 million stars, skilled through alternative roots. Let their story unfold and gain a competitive advantage because hiring managers who start with skills are 60% more likely to find a successful hire. Higher skills first. Learn why at tear the paper sealing.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed

Human.