The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - 49ers Lock In Trent Williams, Inside the GM Mindset Before the Draft & Teams NOT trading draft picks

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

On this episode of 3 & Out, John Middlekauff reacts to Trent Williams signing a contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers and what it means for one of the NFL’s premier rosters moving forward. How long can the Niners keep this core together, and what does this deal say about their window to win? With the NFL Draft around the corner, John takes a deep dive into the job of a general manager during this critical stretch—how they balance short-term needs with long-term vision, manage risk, and navigate the pressure of draft night decisions. Plus, a look at one of the league’s ongoing mysteries: why don’t NFL teams trade future draft picks more often? John breaks down the logic, the risk, and why front offices tend to be more conservative than fans might expect. From front office strategy to big contracts and draft philosophy, it’s all covered on this episode of 3 & Out. Follow John on Twitter, and Instagram for the latest.  All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And as we prepare for the draft, which your boy is rooting for chaos. for trades. I'm rooting for crazy picks. I root for stories. When you're in this business, you root for nuts. So let's get nuts. That's what I'm hoping for come Thursday. Because by the time you get to Friday, you get some players drafted from random schools that have been on four different transfer portals and different places. I don't even, I don't even remember watching this guy play. So Thursday night hopefully is insane. I think me and Colin will do something. in the middle of the first round, and then I'll record a reaction at the end of the draft for sure. So we'll have a podcast Thursday and Friday, and then probably definitely a big one kind of recap Sunday of all the madness going on.

But we've got a lot of stories from Trent Williams to A.J. Brown, some nuggets on the Dexter Lawrence trade. Chris Ballard had some comments. Fugazi Friday. I might mix in a little bit today because it's going to be so draft heavy on Friday. I don't know if we're going to have time to kind of screw around. Well, you never know. It's not like I'm breaking down every third round pick. But I just want to give myself a little wiggle room.

So I got a Fugazi today. And we'll have a podcast leading up to the draft. And like I said, reacting. But you guys know the Joe. If you listen on Collins' feed, make sure you subscribe to the three and out feed. Anywhere, Apple, Spotify, wherever you may listen, as well as Netflix. So make sure you check that out. You can hit the alert button.

so you never miss an episode. We appreciate you. And let's just dive right in. With the Trent Williams situation, he gets, you know, an extension. He gets more guaranteed money. All signs point to him finishing his career as a 49er. He'll be 38 this year.

He'll be on the team next year. He'll be 39. Now, obviously, you know, guys can play longer in all of sports. We see how good LeBron still looks. You know, Tom Brady was an outlier. played until 45, but you see a lot of guys pushing 40 now that you just simply did not, you know, definitely when I was a kid. And a huge part of that is, you know, rehab, training, all the different mechanisms that guys have now to keep their body,

regardless of position, ready to go well into their mid to late 30s, which is cool. And for these guys, if you're good, you can cash in. You know, Mike Evans is a good example. If Mike Evans stays healthy and is just good, like he's going to see a lot of money, even though his contract's not all guaranteed by the 49ers. Like, he will play for multiple years on the 49ers if he has a good rapport with Brock Purdy.

I'll promise you that, you know, because Kyle Shanahan's going to like him. And I think, listen, sometimes, sometimes in life you're just gifted something that you go, I don't know how this quite happened. I think about it all the time. However, my relationship happened with Colin, it's people ask me, it's like,

I think we met on Twitter. you start having me on his podcast. And, you know, a decade plus later, we've been in business for a long period of time. And it changed the course of my life. I know a lot of you guys listening, you know, sometimes you just organically meet someone. A lot of you guys, you know, in college, maybe a future business partner, maybe someone that helps you get a job, maybe someone down the road who introduces you to a wife. Who knows?

That's the crazy part about life. Usually, though, when you have a left tackle retire, right? I mean, we look at the 49ers. Joe Staley's like, I'm going to retire. you'd kind of be in a tough spot. You'd have to use draft capital and keep your fingers crossed that you can get a starting left tackle. Or a guy just picks up the phone.

Yeah, I've been retired. I'm a Hall of Famer and I only want to come to your team. Well, at the time, the Redskins, they might have been the football team. I can't quite keep up with that. Wanted to trade them to Minnesota because Minnesota was offering more than the 49ers. But Trent Williams said, no, I will not sign a contract with him. I only want to go to the 49ers. It was a little bit like, you know, an NBA type move.

and Staley retires and they upgrade. You know, Staley had been to countless Pro Bowls. Like he had been a high-end starting left tackle for a long period of time. It was a late first-round pick because he was, I think, a tight end who moved to tackle. He's a little undersized and with time put on the weight and was fine, was a high-end player. But the 49ers got gifted that thing in the Shanahan era. I mean, sometimes the football gods got to throw you a bone, right? The football gods threw them a bone when they screwed up the Trey Lance.

and the football gods threw them a bone that this Trent Williams situation played out the way it did. But I also said this when, and this is the first thought that came into my mind every time Trent goes, I need more money. Don't blame him. He's got all the leverage. What are your other options?

I think your offensive line, the talent on that overall unit for the 49ers is more than debatable. And he by far is your best player even in his, I don't know if he's on like the 17th hole of his career. So it's like, Listen, this is a business. We always say that.

Some of my favorite content on the internet right now, I see this a lot with the NBA, the former NBA players. Carmelo Anthony went viral for this. But NFL, all these players do it. Like, you guys don't know what a $100 million contract actually looks like. After taxes, after, it's like, guys, everyone pays taxes. Like, everyone in society, whether you make $50,000 or $50 million, knows what the IRS is and sees their paycheck when the IRS gets a hold of it.

So whether you're making $50 million or sign a $50 million contract or just some blue collar guy making $70,000, you know, installing whatever, like they understand that Uncle Sam takes his cut. I can never get over when a guy on some podcast, we usually this incredible studio because these guys are super rich. It's like, guys, we get it. Like, we understand. You don't get to keep all that money.

Like most people in society can follow. You don't need this crazy explanation. And I'll promise you this, it's probably not going to land with the average fan like you think it will, or maybe you don't even comprehend because you can't even relate to that guy. But Trent Williams is a guy who's made a lot of money since he's been a 49er, and I think this puts into play.

And listen, this is what's difficult about running a scouting department when your coach has a lot of juice. Because you go, well, we got our starting left tackle. We have our right tackle. We just acquired this offseason a swing tackle from the Patriots. Like, we got enough, right? We can land a guy maybe in the middle to late rounds as a developmental guy. And I'd push back, and I think most people in the scouting department would push back of like,

I would invest in a guy at the tackle position, even if it is like a big picture project, to get around to, Williams because one of your values as a veteran player, as a Hall of Fame player, is when you get a young up-and-coming project that gets to watch that guy every day, even if he doesn't have his capabilities or will never be as good as that guy, he benefits from that. It's why a lot of teams take flyers on character guys with big, stable, you know, position rooms. It's why the Eagles felt comfortable making the Jalen Carter move. They went, well, we got Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, in the room. So it's kind of like you kind of got to follow our lead. We know what we're doing.

And it typically benefits guys. You know, Jordan Milata, pretty sure Jason Peters was on the roster as well as Lane Johnson when they took the dude from Australia. Now, that's clearly the best case and that's an outlier situation. But oftentimes the coaches push back. Because what are the coaches consumed with? How are we going to win week one? How are we going to win double digit games? How are we going to win the division, how are we going to be in the playoffs? Not that GMs are not as well, but how he mentioned this last week. When you draft a guy, especially in the first or second round, you're thinking how they're going to look year two and year three. It's like you can't get overwhelmed or down on a guy. He struggles in OTAs if he has an up and down training camp.

Hopefully he does. It should be difficult. Most guys don't just show up and hit the ground running. Most guys don't have like historic rookie seasons. That's not. the case for most players. Listen, I followed Devante Adams' career closely when he was at Fresno State. And all you Packer fans know, those first couple years were really rocky. I remember hearing Devante on Crosby's podcast, probably, I don't know, within the last couple years, saying like, by year two, it was not going good. I was not playing well. And then everything changed. Confidence is a powerful thing, right? Especially as a young person. This is a Paul Asinger saying for golf, but I think it really resonates with young people. Confidence, when you have it, you feel like you're never going to lose it.

And when you've lost it, you feel like you're never going to get it back. And there's a pressure now with social media, the amount of money, the way this league is covered. It's really, really intense. But I think John Lynch has to make a hard stance. Again, you can't just force the position to force the position. This was always Chris Ballard's thing with the quarterback. Because for like six straight years, they were just band-dating the position when luck tapped out. But he's like, I can't just take a quarterback, take a quarterback, because we need a young quarterback if we don't like any of these guys when we are drafting. And there's truth to that.

And they're a good example. We'll get in the anti-Richson situation a little bit. They clearly forced that pick and it blew up in their face. I mean, it was an atomic bomb in their building. It was disaster, right? And they got lucky that Daniel Jones, I guess saved him. We'll see, actually. I had a good start to the season, but then got injured and then took him for like $80 million,

but that's what Daniel Jones' representation does. I just think sometimes when these coaches have a lot of juice, you know, the scouting department, I heard this forever with Belichick is like the board would be set. They'd feel pretty confident. And then over the course of the week leading up to the draft, it would dramatically change. Why? Because Bill would get on the horn to Herm Edwards. And listen, I'm guilty of this because I like Nikiel Hayle.

Like I watched a lot of Nikiel Harry when he was planted Arizona State in the PAC 12. I thought he was going to be a good pro. Clearly he was not, and that was a disastrous pick. But the reason the scouting department did not have him drafted where they graded or where they took them. They had him graded much lower. But Bill Belichick's known Herman Edwards for decades, gets on the horn with them and gets sold on it. And that was always his thing calling these head coaches. And what do I always say?

Like these head coaches, you got to be careful for my experience and talking to these guys. you've got to be extremely careful about the information you're getting from them because they are incentivized, right? You show me, tell me the outcome, I'll show you the incentive, or is it show me the incentive, I'll show you the outcome, right? They are definitely incentivized to hype up their guys because the higher they're drafted, the better it looks for their program, the easier it is for them to put out social clips of like six guys drafted in the top 25

the last four years. Look at what Coach X is doing. And I don't blame him. I would do the same thing. But I just, the best general managers are always forward thinking, are always thinking big picture, are always going, this guy is going to help us. I thought the Bears did a great job last year. Because you'd be like, well, they already got tight ends and wide receivers. Well, their first two picks were Loveland and Luther Burton. And what happens a year later? You went, well, DJ Moore's no longer on the team. and I would imagine Cole Commets not getting a second contract. So it's like you've got to be thinking two, three, four years down the road, which can be difficult when you're in this,

we got to take advantage of this win now mode. It's my thing with the ramps. Everyone, when I'm down with Colin, I know he's buddies with less, everyone's mocking them and talking about them taking a wide receiver. And I just, it's hard for me when you've had a handful, less than a handful, right? I think it's three or four first round picks in 12 or 13 years. Like you never have first round picks.

And most of the time, you're drafting from 25 to 32. So you're never drafting high. You got gifted because of a great trade. Pick 13. And if you have the opportunity to get an impact player at a premium position like offensive tackle, and it's going to be difficult because, hey, the guy might not play this year or he might not be ready,

Maybe it's the Georgia tackle. And it's like, hey, we kind of redshirted him. You will not regret that in a couple years. But does Mackay Lemon or Jordan Tyson or if Carnell Tate's there or a guy like that give them the best chance to win because it adds their depth this year? For sure. But I just think you've got to be very, very careful. Like, I've seen your organization, the two best wide receivers you've drafted,

who are, I mean, one's a Super Bowl MVP and the other guy through three years, a Hall of Famer. Now, I'm not saying Puka's going to go to the Hall of Fame, but if he maintains the way he's played for four or more years and his seven seasons doing what he's doing, that's just a Hall of Fame career. Like Antonio Brown's six-year stretch in Pittsburgh

is a Hall of Fame career, right? And it's like you found that guy in the third and the fifth round. So I trust your ability. And Kyle Shanahan's big thing, and this is where I disagree philosophically a little with them, clearly the results speak for themselves because they've had a lot of success.

But this gets back to like, you kind of got gifted Trent Williams. Because their thing is, we believe if all things are equal, take a playmaker over an offensive lineman. And it's like, I disagree with that. When I look at the best playmakers that you have, or over the course of the 49ers, Kyle Shanahan era, Debo Samuel, pretty high second round pick, George Kittle, third day pick. Christian McCaffrey, you traded for a second and third and a fourth round pick,

so you didn't have to use a first rounder on him. Brock Purdy, your quarterback, you got for a seventh. Before that, Jimmy Garoppolo, your quarterback, I'm not counting Trey Lance, which blew up in their face, which shows you, you've got to be careful. It would have been better off just taking alignment. Jimmy Garoplo, you got for a second round pick. So that first round, once upon a time,

you tried to replace Buckner with Kidlaw, which was a risk. We talked about this yesterday with the big trade. There are inherent risk in everything you do. So things are not always going to go well. I don't care if you're running a football team. I don't care if you're doing a podcast. I don't care if you're out there doing,

I don't think door-to-door sales exists anymore, but just sales in general. You're going to have some things blow up in your face that's part of business. And they took Javon Kinlaw, who was just, I mean, it was even risky for a draft sakes. The next pick was Tristan Wharves. Now, it's always easy to play the Monday morning quarterback

back and look back. You should have taken this guy. I'm as guilty as anyone because it's a fun conversation to have. Well, they could have taken this guy. That Raiders graphic for like two decades was like, well, they could have Calvin Johnson, they could have Aaron Rogers, they could have Aaron Donald, they could have this guy and that Julio Jones. It's like, well, you could probably play that game with a lot of teams. It just hurts a little harder when you always suck. And the point of the game is to win, right? The point of the game is to win. It's not to draft. It's not free agency. like ultimately Quessie in Minnesota got fired, not just because he was a horrendous drafter,

which I think historically poor four-year stretch. The amount of guys playing, the amount of snaps, it's like unprecedented how many guys he drafted that couldn't play. But if they had won 14 games two years ago and last year had won 12 games and been back to the playoffs, even if there were some weird internal dynamics, I don't think Questi's fired. Because again, his job, like Kevin O'Connell's job,

is wins and losses. That's how you're judged. Because at this point in time, every team is guaranteed to make money, but when you win, you make way more money. So you win, you make your owner more money. Even if things are weird, it's like, figure it out, guys, be grown-ups.

That's why I pay you both millions of dollars. So I just think that part of the draft is balancing. I remember Lewis Riddick told me this a long time ago, and this was kind of something we used to talk about with the Eagles, is a position of strength can become a position, position of weakness with like a broken leg and a messed up elbow really quick. It's like we got the best offensive line in the league. We said that about the bears.

Their guard, tackle, or excuse me, their guard, center guard was as good as anyone in the league. Then all of a sudden the center retires. You went, whoa, you know, it throws you off immediately. So one thing, one guy goes down like A.J. Brown and Devonte Smith, best one two combo, not going to be anymore, but one of them over the. course of the last three or four years. Obviously got weird last year. But if one of them has a major injury, your one-two combo goes out the window. So you got to, there's a balance of always having reinforcements, of always thinking big picture. And that is the general manager's job. And then part

of his job is managing up. Because even if he is above the coach, which I don't know, we'd have to go team by team to quite figure out the hierarchy, it probably changes depending where you are, right? obviously the Giants, he's at top. Kyle Shanahan, he's at top. Eagles, the Seattle, like, their general managers are picking the players. But when training camp starts,

the coaches are the one putting the guys in 11 on 11, giving them the reps and the drills, giving them the reps in the preseason. You can talk to them all. That guy has all the juice that way. So managing to him through your owner is very, very complicated. And this is something that you don't learn in scout school. You just either have that kind of

of emotional intelligence, that ability to communicate, or you don't. And that's been a downfall of some guys, right? Trent Balky is a good example. His ability to manage and manage up in terms of ownership, owners love him. Jed York loved him, like refused to fire him forever. Out of nowhere, the cons hired him, and it felt like they were going to be pretty loyal to him until they got to a point of no return. But for whatever reason, he struggles to deal with the coach.

So it's like, your job isn't just to deal with the owner. you have to be able to interact and deal with the coach. So I think this is a time where there's a balancing act of almost trying to sell some guys. I clicked on this video the other day of Jeff Halfley. Lebitard was interviewing him. And he says part of this time, and it's so true, is you're going to argue with your general manager.

You're going to say, I don't like this guy. You got this guy, you think we should take this guy in the top of the second? To me, I wouldn't take him to the third day of the draft. and it goes both ways. It could be the coach loving a guy and the general manager's like, I don't see it. And part of their job is to hash it out and come to some sort of agreement.

Like, okay, we got to agree to disagree. Do we just come to the conclusion of like, listen, would we take this guy in this round? Would you be comfortable? I'm not going to force my opinion on you if you don't agree with me. Because let's face it, the front office views players simply through a different prism than the coach.

They do because the coach factors in immediate impact and they view things through the scheme, right? And let's face it, a lot of coaches kind of come and go. It's why you've got to be very careful about drafting guys for the scheme. When your coach, Robert Sala had a lot of juice last year in the 49ers draft. He just did. I mean, it's kind of been reported on people kind of beat around the bush when talking about it. He had a lot of power. he was there like 11 months.

Now, you bring in a guy who's also with Kyle, and obviously Kyle's the boss, but you're going to let a defensive coordinator have a bunch of juice in the draft room. The guy could be gone in a couple of years, whether he gets fired, whether he goes on and becomes a head coach, and works for offensive coordinators as well, is what makes this time so challenging.

There are so many, you know, what's the old saying, too many cooks in the kitchen, there's just a lot of cooks in the kitchen in a lot of draft rooms. You have the general manager, kind of his confidants, whether that's his assistant GM, his scouting director, maybe some of his favorite scouts. Then you have the coach and probably some of his confidants, the coordinators, the position coaches he leans on the most.

And then you have the most important guy, the owner. If he wants to get involved, he's sitting in on some of these meetings, and he's going to have some opinions, right? And I don't even mean, like, we should draft this guy, we shouldn't draft this guy. it's just when I hear you two talking, here's what I think we should do based on the way you two were talking.

And so you just got a lot of guys involved. And then let's face it, they try to poo-poo this, and I think some organizations do a good job of this, and this goes back to the polling end quote of, if you listen to the fans, you'll be sitting with them, is the outside noise has impact, especially with bad organizations.

It impacts the owner, it impacts the GM, it impacts the coach. it's impossible to drown out all the outside opinions and the outside noise. Because you know if you draft, if I'm the giants and I just draft a court, let's just say take the corner at five. Because I think this guy is the next Derek Stingley. I take the Tennessee guy. I take the LSU kid.

I just take whoever my top corner is. I think we think we get a pro bowl corner. People like, what did you just do? you just passed on Caleb Downs, on Sunny Stiles, on the offensive line, that's who you took? What? What if they're right in a couple years? Because once upon a time, it's not apples to apples, but Casario, didn't he take Stingley over sauce? And people like, what did he just do?

I think he feels pretty good about that, given the sauce on another team. And Derek Stingley is, he's still a good player when he's on the field. But relative to how much money he makes, like I, I, I, I think every team in the league would take Stingley. Again, this is picking between two players, but I think you've got to be, that gets factored in. And that's where the A.J. Brown situation is, like,

was Rucini right? Like, all these, however you acquire the information, if the information is corrected, I've been saying this forever. I don't need, like, a breakdown of whether you took the guy golfing, whether you've known the guy, guy because you vacation together, whether you're Jay Glazer and you throw, you know,

drinking parties at the owner's meetings, or whether you're doing things inside a lover's resort in Sedona. If you funnel me the information as a consumer of football, as a fan of football, and as a podcaster of football, just feed me the info. And Diana, I've been saying this for a while. And then Schaefter puts out today that AJ Brown is going to be on the Patriots because of the cap and the dead money and the contract. I think it is complicated matters sometime this summer.

Now, I think it's fair. We've been asked this before. Do they just have a handshake agreement? And I don't have any inside information on this, but you'd have to assume there is an inside or a unofficial, somewhat understanding of what the parameters are to the AJ Brown acquisition. Maybe it's next year's first round pick. because a first round pick in the future is not valued the same as a first round pick now.

So typically it's discounted at a certain percentage depending on the teams and how they have kind of that board that breaks down the numerical value to a draft pick so they can make trades. But if I offer you the first round pick in a year, it is discounted in terms of what I view it. So it's not the same as how it's. getting the pick 32 now. Now, I also think, I don't think he would do the deal today because of the cap implications it would have. Again, this is a little over my pay grade in terms of how the,

the mechanics of the cap and its acceleration of the money they've already paid him. It's clearly a complicated situation because if it wasn't, he would already be traded. I think we can all agree with that. But a little feather in Diana's cap. She was on it. We talk a lot of football on the show. But the NBA playoffs are here. And here's the thing. If you want to bet on LeBron's point total. If you want to bet on Yokic, getting his typical triple double. If you want to bet on some of Wembe's overs, every single game,

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We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. 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 And 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 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 s nl 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 guess s nl's mikey day and head writer streeter sidel 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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself.

I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen can win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now.

And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. A couple nuggets with which I think

AJ Brown I think this goes back to when they traded him to the Eagles when Vrable was on the head coach of the Titans and that inside the draft room that video of Vrable

just kind of I don't want to say desponded but he did not look like a happy camper and I think there were financial factors from the ownership and it just got away from

him and it derailed the franchise guys, right? They got rid of AJ Brown. They take Burks from Arkansas, who was a disaster. And a couple years later, it might have been that first year. Didn't AJ go off against them in Tennessee? The team kind of started going the other way. And the general manager got fired. The head coach got fired. It just fucking was a disaster. I mean, that's when you look at disastrous moves in franchise history, the draft night trade of AJ Brown, all-time quick backfire for everyone involved. And a trade like that to me doesn't get, doesn't come to fruition without not only the blessing of ownership,

but like, are we sure we shouldn't just pay this guy, the contract that the Eagles are about to offer them? And I don't know, just keep the good player. Clearly they would like a redo on that one. A couple of nuggets with the trade with Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals. one thing that came out in an article today was that Joe Siegel, who's one of the big NFL agents, who represents Dexter Lawrence, would not allow John Harbaugh to talk to Lawrence. And a lot of people on social media were kind of assuming that part of the reason was, you know,

Harbaugh could turn into salesmen, convince them. It was almost like they were convinced because I think this is abundantly clear. if you followed Harbaugh and the Ravens team building, Dexter Lawrence is his type player. If Dexter Lawrence had the last seven years been on the Ravens, he would have fit right in. I mean, he's the type guy that if you said Dexter Lawrence had paid 20 years ago, he would have been on the Steelers of the Ravens,

right? And it would have made sense, and it would have looked right. And I do believe when John Harbaugh took the job, maybe I'm naive to this, he planned on coaching Dexter Lawrence and having him as one of the keycogs in a much-improved team and obviously the best player on his defense. But things change. And for whatever reason, you know, I saw Zay Flowers was on the actual podcast on the volume

that Leonard Four Nett and Jarvis Landry saying that part of the problem with Harbaugh is his practices are just insane, which is a Jim Harbaugh thing, which I would say most of the Ravens run since Zsaia's been there up until last year has been pretty productive because of the physical nature of the team. Like that's like I kind of support. Now there's a balance, especially these guys aren't used to physical practices anymore. There's not a buildup because of training camp. But I don't think it's necessarily a negative.

But I see how a little wide receiver doesn't want to be wearing pads in late December. but that's what the Giants are going to do. And I don't think there's a Giants fan alive that goes back to, especially that's older than me, that goes, what do you think Tom Coughlin and Bill Parcells would have done? They would have had you strapped up and playing. Edelman talked about this forever. He'd be like in the bi-week,

when we would always have the one or two seed for the, for the decade plus of the 2010s, we would like have full-on scrimmage during that week. Like that was not a dick around, put your feet up, just hang out and I guess you can't really play golf in New England, in January, but just screw around. That was a focused physical week to maintain that level of play.

And whether Dexter Lawrence was like, I'm not, let's just pivot, go somewhere else. Whether it was just a financial thing, wanted a new start, that they would not deal with Joe Shane, they would not deal with John Harbaugh. That's where I think that this got to the point where, listen, this is too much of a headache. And if this isn't going to work, and maybe Joe Siegel helped facilitate this Bengals number 10 over, that it got to the point of like, ideally we would like this guy on our team, but if we're going to get offered so much, something that we never could have dreamed of when at least we started entertaining that he might not be in our team, let's do it.

And that's where I think the Bengals, Adam Schefter said this morning that there is a lot of urgency inside that building. And Joe Burrow has a big, big hand in the urgency that is now placed behind ownership, behind the front office, behind the coaching staff. Like, it's now or never. and they haven't traded a first round pick since 1989. This is, it's well documented their conservative nature as a franchise. I do think they have been a little different these last couple years.

It's why I kind of commended the move. And they're thinking, like I just said, teams have to be very hesitant to think like of, we need to win these next couple years. And Dexter Lawrence gives us a better chance to win, assuming he's healthy and assuming he's right, than any player will at number 10. And that's true. Because we know for a fact,

Dexter Lawrence, when he's on, is an all-pro level player. And we're not giving him a seven-year contract extension. We're just giving them one year, this is a three-year, $70 million deal. And the pressure is on the next two years, but specifically this year. Like, our goal, if I'm a Bengal fan,

if I'm Zach Taylor, if I'm Joe Burrell, is to win the division and have a home playoff game and potentially compete for the number one seat if our defense is solid. I do think the upside on this team because their offense could be elite and defensively could be solid now to be a team that wins 12 plus games and definitely wins the division because they're in a division now with three new head coaches. Obviously two of them, Munkin's never been a head coach in the NFL,

and obviously Jesse Minter has not either. Now, McCarthy has several times, but there are a lot of Rogers rumors out there. When's he going to commit? When's he not going to commit? They said that the rumor that he might retire during the draft is false. They've been in contact with him. Omar Khan said Rogers knows what we, I don't know. It's just that they report today and Will Howard up until further notice will get the full, the first team reps.

But this is a division that is ripe to be had for the Bengals. And when you're in that position with the quarterback that I don't even want to say he has one foot out the door. But there's been enough discussion that if things could get, get weird. Now, I believe, based on the history of this ownership, is, do I think that Mike Brown, if he just said this year, they went 10 and 7 or 9 and 8 and missed the playoffs? He's like, and had it through 40 touchdowns and was excellent. And the reason was because the coach sucks and the team wasn't good enough that he'd go, I want to get traded? Of course. This is pro sports. Happens all the time. Do I believe that Mike Brown would just capitulate to his demands?

But sure, Joe, where do you want to go? Based on his history, I would not say that would be the case, right? So there's a lot of moving parts in terms of the conversation surrounding this, in terms of the pressure now on Zach Taylor, the pressure on Dexter Lawrence to play like an elite guy. And there's going to be pressure on the Giants, whoever they take at 10, which is, to me, one of the most fascinating conversations of what they do with these two first picks in the first round of any team that's drafted in high. like the Chiefs, is, is Dexter Lawrence going to be a badass?

Like, is he going to be a no doubt about it all pro player? Because if he is, like, they're going to be in pretty good shape. If he just is okay, it's going to be disappointing. And I'm not even talking the money. I'm just talking about what they're viewing this guy as, how their general manager just discussed this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, which I understand what he's saying. Because I don't think they would have made this decision if they looked at the board

and went, we think we can get a high, level defensive tackle at 10. That's not the case in this draft. I think a lot of teams view this draft as the first defensive tackle, probably after picked 25. John Lynch said last year, they had 20 first rounders and 200 draftable players. And he was asked today in his press conference, how do the numbers in this draft stack up to those numbers?

And his response was, well, in terms of the total number of draftable players, it's basically the same. And he's like, I'm not going to divulge how many first round grades we have. But I'll tell you that it's lower than last year. I think there are going to be some teams that if this was just an economic exercise and it didn't matter, you could just be transparent with your views. I think it's hard to say we only have 11 first round graded players and you drafted 28th and you draft a guy, right?

So I think teams are hesitant to say that right now. But I think there's a chance, the average amount of, of, a normal draft, how many guys would you feel comfortable drafting in the first round, the number's going to be somewhere between 11 to 13, which, again, they're obviously 32 picks, but based on their grade, there are going to be a lot of guys going from 15 to 32. The teams are in a perfect world, we like to draft this guy in the 30s. But that's not, you know, this crop of players. It just is what it is.

And a lot of it is guys returning, the NIL stuff. I mean, there are a lot of different variables. You know, the COVID year kind of fucking. everything up and gave guys a year that didn't count. So the transfer portal allow guys to move around and shop their services. But this draft, and I'm not even trying to be negative, this is just information I'm getting from my friends that have been doing this for decades. It's the worst draft they've ever seen.

Because part of that, there are two factors. If you have a draft where you have 25 graded first rounders, like, that's a loaded draft. Because I would imagine when you have a draft like that, then the second and third rounds look even better. Well, you start saying this is a draft with 12 guys independent of year would be viewed as a first round pick. Your second and third rounds don't look as good because guys with second and third round grades

go in the first round. So it just pushes everything back. And this gets to the third day of the draft where you don't feel as confident, which it's always somewhat of a crapshoot. But that's type of stuff that fascinates me. I was also thinking, you know, in baseball, good teams don't hesitate to like, we'll give you three sweet prospects for sweet play racks. Four-time All-Star, badass pitcher, shortstop, center fielder.

Like, here are my prospects, right? The A's have been getting guys traded for the entire Billy Bean. era. A lot of teams that don't have the capital to just pay a guy, trade guys, right? And those teams typically trade a ton of the equivalent to draft picks, the prospects for the player. In the NBA, teams have never hesitated to trade future draft picks for sweet player X. In football, it just teams really, really value their draft pick. Most years pick 10, is viewed very, very well. I mean, last year, that was Colston Loveland.

I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, but Colston Loveland has Hall of Fame potential, right? He has a lot of similarities to, like, Travis Kelsey. His wide receiver ability in terms of running routes against safeties and linebackers has a chance to be a dominant, dominant player in the NFL for a long time, make pro bowls, make all pro teams, and just be a mismatch nightmare during his 20s, right?

I mean, he's got a chance to be just an all-time talent. I mean, he's an all-time talent, but I'm just saying, like, you saw that immediately. He's got a chance to have a fantastic career. That was pick 10. And I think teams always sell themselves on the best case scenario. This is why during the draft, do you notice you never see a draft room in the first round, or typically, where when the pick is in,

people aren't going bananas. People are going nuts. The videos of coaches and GMs and the scouting department, when they turn in their pick on Thursday, which I just found out that the rounds now are no longer 10 minutes or 8 minutes, so it's going to be a little faster. Maybe it was like that last year?

I don't know. Regardless, which I like, I'm all four. The one that really stands out to me was when the Lions took Jermere Gibbs, you would have thought Dan Campbell just won the Super Bowl. But it happens constantly, right? Because you're so excited to draft that player. Well, most of those players are not going to turn out to be Jemir Gibbs.

I mean, we know half the first round. I think last year after the fifth year options were all given out by middle of the summer, whatever the date was. Wasn't it like 14 or 15 of the players in that first round, whatever the three years previously, had their fifth year option picked up? So if you don't have your fifth-year option picked up, that was a bad pick. Whoever you pick in the first round, especially in the top 15-ish picks, you should feel very confident when you make the pick.

This guy's a lock fifth-year option pickup. But you can't do that. You don't know. You're dealing with a human being. Things change. People get hurt. Maybe people underwhelmed. Maybe the coaching staff changes.

Scheme changes. Just so many variables in football. That's what makes the draft so fascinating. I mean, I think I called them Averill. that's Avril Levine. His name is Arvel Reese. I don't know why I fucked that name up.

But he's a fascinating player, right? Physically, his gifts are elite. He's 20 years old. Within a couple years, he could be one of the bright, shining stars of the NFL. He's also somewhat of a unique player as he was just playing for a NFL defensive coordinator

who, say what you want about Patricia, kind of knows what he's doing. Has been around the block a few times? Has coached some big-time players who worked under Belichick for like 20-plus years? Like, there's some defensive coordinators in college that aren't exactly that.

Now, Ohio State's kind of an outlier. I mean, they've got two coordinators right now, Patricia and Arthur Smith, who are making a combined like $6 million and are two NFL coordinators. But he's a guy that if you told me in a couple years is an all pro, I'd believe you. If you tell him in a couple years, just not working out,

look at Abdul Carter. You know the best thing that ever happened to Abdul Carter? He got John Harbaugh to come in. Because last year was like, what is going on here? This guy at Penn State, complete ass kicker,

and now he's a bunch of just weirds. Because when organizations are dysfunctional, when you're a young person, most people are followers. Right? I'm as guilty as anybody. When I was in my 20s, I would just follow whoever the leader of the group was in the organization, wherever I was, right?

Whether it was at Fresno State, whether it was with the Eagles, even in radio. Like, it wasn't my place. It's very, very difficult unless you are the superstar of the building, which most guys in the NFL or not, to just be like, I'm going to set the tone in the organization. So when dysfunction happens, the whole organization can unravel. and if you're just a very young, immature, naturally a follower, because most people are in their youth, it can just fall apart on you. I remember Adam Peters told me, and I think I've told this story before,

one time we were just talking at 49er practice, I think it was the year, it might have been his rookie year, and we were talking about whofunga. And this is, Hufunga did not play at USC when P. Carroll was there. You know, even with Lincoln Riley, he played in a disastrous time. I mean, Clay Hilton went from, USC to being the head coach of a tiny little program. So it's not like they lost their head coach and he went on to coach at Auburn, right?

Clay Hilton has no business being a power for head coach. And the organization just fell apart. The team was losing. He's like most guys in teams like that, just there's a lot of negativity in the building. Right? Coaches are all looking for life vests or all kind of jumping ship or all just trying to, hey, it's not my fault, it's someone else's fault. So typically when you go into teams during your,

the fall and they're losing and they know they're all going to get fired, you got to take everything you hear with the grain of salt because a lot of stuff's going to be negative. But he said with Talanohu Funga, even in the darkest times in that building, you couldn't get one person to say one negative thing about the guy. Now he had some question marks with his talent, right? Like, what position would he play? Is he fast enough to play safety? Is he big enough to play linebacker? So there was a player evaluation that was up for debate. Obviously, he's quieted all the doubters if you watched him play for the Niners and last year for the Denver Broncos, there can't be a harder hitter in the NFL.

Hufung is one of my favorite players because he reminds me of my youth. We just don't have as many guys like that anymore. But part of his success is he's just not going to hear word about the guy. You know, it's my thing with Ty Simpson. I see the thing go viral of him doing the interview and then the Indiana coaches clap back, which is just classic college football. But like watching him there, You know, his comps Brock Purdy, right?

And the thing that Brock Purdy brought to the table in college and clearly in the NFL, maturity is like an A-plus. Honestly, Brock's kind of a boring interview. Because he talks like he's 38, not really giving you much. Pretty serious cat. You watch Ty Simpson's like, I was texting with a buddy in the NFL about this because he sent me the clip. I didn't even see all the drama between. a couple days ago what was going on until he sent me this.

I was like, I don't exactly see Mr. Maturity, you know. So your comp's Brock Purdy. The thing Brock Purdy brought to the table is like, that never happened. Brock Purdy didn't go on fucking interviews saying like, hey, we should have beat Iowa. It wasn't, they were doing nothing. It just kind of came off as like, bro. What? That's the thing with Fernando Mendoza.

You listen to him talk. Could this guy be a CEO? If he wasn't an NFL player by the time he was 30, a Fortune 500 company? To me, that's the way Fernando Mendoza comes off. Kind of what I want in my quarterback. And I watched that Ty Simpson clip. What?

Bro, I watched that game. Actually, sitting right here. You guys got clowned. You guys got belt to ass, as Lane would say. This is what you're saying? Come on, bro. You're about to get into the NFL. NFL. I'm not saying I'm out because I'm not trying to overreact to one clip, but, and again,

he's on with guys he knows, pressure Alabama guys. Didn't love that. Chris Ballard, who was just moving around his little lip pouch today, don't blame him. It's hard for me. I can't do a podcast with a zone in because it just, I just can't. I can do an interview when I'm just talking to someone, but if I have to do a show for an hour plus of just me just talking into a camera, I can't have one in my mouth. My wife's on me all the time about it. I'm like, I don't know, I'm going to tell you. I just like them.

Never been a chewer. Not a cigarette smoker. Not even a cigar guy. Not even a big drinker. I just like my nicotine. It really makes me feel good. I'm not going to deny it. Got to be 18.

But Chris Ballard said today that Katie Moore, and we knew Anthony Richardson, have asked for a trade. and he said Kenny Moore, listen, he just wants a fresh start, he thinks it's time. He gave him a lot of credit and said he's been a key cult. And yeah, he's been a really good player for him. Seems like a very high-level dude. I'm not going to discuss that because I would have guessed if Chris Ballard's open and trading him, I could see him getting traded over the weekend.

I understand Anthony Richardson taking this week off of being like, I'm not coming in. But if you are not traded on Thursday, you're not going to get traded on Thursday, I would imagine. but Friday or Saturday, if someone doesn't acquire you over the course of the draft over this weekend and come Monday, you are still on the Indianapolis Colts, I actually don't think it's a good idea to just not show up. Do you understand your market value is like non-existent? Now, like part of the knock on you, I think why your market value is non-existent is you got a lot of always behind you over the course of the last couple years.

You've had some bad luck. That visual of the band breaking his orbit bone, I can't even imagine the pain of that thing snapping his face. That sucks. But there's a lot of maturity questions, and you're just demanding a trade to go where, because you're not starting anywhere, so you just want to get traded to be a backup somewhere else,

which I do understand you're ready for a fresh start, but no one's trading for you. So I do wonder if, If he asked me for advice, if you're not traded this weekend, I'd probably just show up and just try to show like, hey, I'm a good guy, I'll do whatever, I'm a team guy, because that's a pretty bad sign. And this gets back to the Justin Fields thing. Like, Justin Fields has not been that good when he's played.

I was a huge fan. I wanted the 49ers to draft him when he was coming out of college. I'll give Kyle Shanahan the thumbs up on that one because he did not like him at all. Now, they took Trey Lance, so it's not like it was any, Justin Fields is a better player in Trey Lance, but ultimately he just wasn't, he didn't think Justin Fields could play in his offense. Justin Fields struggles,

but he's an elite character guy, well liked in the locker room, well liked by everyone from coaches to the front office. That matters. And when Andy Reed, they started sniffing around, looking around, like, why wouldn't Andy read like Anthony Richardson? He's right up his alley. raw tools.

Like there's a lot there to work with. We don't want that, Edick. Let's go to Justin Fields and see if we can figure out those tools because we know for a fact, all the off-to-field stuff, A-plus, A-plus, A-plus. That shit matters. Especially in a job like football where everything's very public and everyone talks. 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. We're the 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. Oh, 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 for 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 helped make you funny. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me.

And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your courtside seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. We've talked about this, but I think Fernando Mendoza put it on record.

He's like, listen, I'm not not going to the draft because I think I'm better than the draft. I've told ESPN, ABC, whoever, like, you can bring all the cameras you want to my house. this is simply for my mother who struggles to travel. She has MS. And it's just not as feasible and it's much easier for us as a family

and then I can invite friends and stuff over, but for her specifically to do this from home. So I know whenever a guy declines to go to the draft, I think people say, this is a little about him?

This situation kind of speaks for itself, right? And I think you see those words coming out of his mouth and especially when he's like, listen, my doors are open for the league. He even said, I want to be a good partner. I want to be a good partner with the league. This guy just gets it. But it's like, come on. This is a non-conversation.

A couple other things, Josh Allen, who had surgery right after the season, full go. Fred Warner, who shattered his ankle, said today, full go. So two of the better players in the league, you could make the argument the best quarterback and the best linebacker, had some surgeries, had some injuries, are good to go going into the offseason. And we'll end on this because I don't know if Fugazi Friday is going to make it on Friday with the draft. I keep saying I want the story to go away and then like nuggets come out about the Rusini Vrabble thing. Robert Kraft tried to squash it, which is just kind of funny in itself, which I do get. You realize it's going to drag New England Patriots head coach.

You've been a known to finagle a little bit and run around on the side. well and getting some trouble. So you understand about stories, salacious stories coming out. But in one of the articles that Vrable and Rusini had worked together, that Rusini had hired a crisis communications team, like a crisis PR firm. And I started thinking, is there a bigger Fugazi than that? Now, if there's a crisis center for, fires, for an earthquake, for things that actually matter in society, totally get it. But in terms of crisis PR, for pictures that anyone with common sense were all thinking the same thing, I think it's very hard to fool the average person in 2006.

If you just have a fucking brain, like, yeah, not buying that, right? I don't see that. And with situations like this, a crisis PR firm that, let's face it, the letter that she used to resign honestly makes it look worse. It really does. So if they were the ones giving you advice on what to write about giving oxygen, blame it on the media, that's a misstep. I was telling Maria this the other day.

I think, I don't know, I haven't taught my son any life lessons besides just try not to poop in my hand when I carry you to the bathtub when you're fully naked, you don't have a diaper. on. But most parents teach their kids, especially, listen, I got in some trouble when I was young. And I've been known you get in trouble, you get caught, what's your first reaction? Try to lie about it. And you learn very young to just tell the truth. Now, that's easier said than done. It's like, well, dad, I just wrapped your truck around a telephone pole. I didn't actually do that. But if I had, I probably would have tried to make an excuse. And they just tell the truth. And I do believe than human beings.

And this is where you've got to be careful. If you're just responding, it was like the Nike. What was the Nike ad in Boston? Like, we love the runners and we tolerate the walkers. It's like, yeah, it's the Boston Marathon. Like some people are going to walk.

No one actually cares. But if you're going to look at the comments section, which people act on comments unlike they would act to your face. Now, obviously there are some whack jobs. Like you go to the PETA comments and be like, yeah, some of these people, People would probably be fucking whack jobs walking down society.

You know, I probably wouldn't want to have an interaction with some of the people supporting this post. But most of these posts are a lot of people, because if I just had a normal job and had a Twitter account or an Instagram account that was like, you know, Arizona 27, I would probably be constantly messing with people online, just bored out of my mind at my job. I would do it. None of it's actually real. So the Nike ad, they changed it because of the comments. And I think any time that these companies dictate anything they do based on the comments section,

I think they are not only misguided. I think they have a big picture problem within their organization. And they don't have a great understanding of like, this isn't real life, guys. And if someone, like, I can relate to this because I've just been in kind of the social media world for a job for so long, you realize, and listen, there are some benefits to it. You meet people. I use the DMs. I'm not anti all that goes along.

But I also don't put that much stock into negative things that are said. Right? Because anyone can say negative things. And I don't think 90% of the people saying negative things don't actually even care. This was the receiving thing. Most people commenting was like, she put out of a trial balloon tweet a couple weeks ago. Every comment was people at the end of the day, them sitting typing it from their couch are just kind of laughing. they don't actually care that much.

I think the media cared because I think the media thought that they were, I don't know, made to look bad even though I'd say your approval rating's pretty low to begin with but I also don't think people spend that much time thinking about it. It's like if you get on Twitter, you think politics are the end-all be-all. If you just go in society, like you don't see that many people just talking about it randomly during the middle of the day just out and about. and this is where you've got to be very careful about letting it cloud your judgment.

And I think these PR crisis communication groups, I would guess, especially if they have some younger people involved, are very online. And you can't convince me that their takes aren't just going to be extremely just jaded from that experience. Because if you live in that world, you're just going to be in a different planet than a lot of us that just try to base our perspectives on the real world, on our reaction. with other actual humans in the flesh, you know? And I just think that this thing has got to be an all-time scam. Who knows how much she paid her?

This notion that Vrable, it'll be interesting if he brought it up to his team. I don't necessarily think he needs to. But I guess if you're going to have, you know, be accountable in every meeting room and, you know, make good decisions off the field, like, I guess. but he's going to have to do a press conference at some time this week. You can't just hide forever. Eventually he's going to have to speak, so you might as well just hit it head on.

You could make the argument of like, Mike, you should just do a press conference like tomorrow. Get it out of the way. So once the draft starts, no one's talking about it anymore. You're not getting fired. No one actually cares, especially in New England. Like no one gives a shit. Everyone's supporting you.

Maybe beside your wife, but who knows? I mean, she might just be a ride or die. It's like Sharon Moore's wife. It's like, you got, he's in a way different relationship than me. Even the judge who, you know, gave Sharon, basically let him off. You know, and I saw the girl that he threatened with the butter knife was like, this is pretty crazy. It's like, Sharon, you got pretty lucky.

But to me, the luckiest part of the whole operation, either she's cool with it and you're just in an open relationship. And her job is just to be your wife and raise your children and just stand by your side, Tammy OneNet. But I wouldn't. If I was in that courtroom for the same situation, I promise you this, you could look around. You would not see my wife.

No chance. And I bet for a lot of you, if I looked around that courtroom and it was you, your wife wouldn't be sitting there either. So he's living in a different world than me. But this story is just, I think most people are laughing at it. I truly believe that.

Now, for her, clearly I would imagine she's not laughing. what the status is of her relationship. And Mike, my guess is he doesn't give a shit. That would be, if you said, what do you think Brable thinks? I don't think he thinks about it anymore. I think he's just rocking and rolling, getting ready for phase one of OTAs and the draft. And you think Elliot Wolfe's bringing this up to him in a meeting?

I would doubt that one. So, yeah, crisis management. If you got to call that for pictures about holding hands with someone, you probably are wasting some money. 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 us. 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 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. Winning on Clay is an art.

The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French name. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist, and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets,

a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.