The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - Hard Knocks Episode 1 Reactions, Aaron Donald Comeback Buzz, 49ers Injury Woes & Mailbag

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

On this episode of 3 & Out, John Middlekauff reacts to Episode 1 of HBO's Hard Knocks, breaking down the biggest moments, standout personalities, and what the premiere revealed about life inside an NFL training camp. John also explains why football players are some of the biggest "nerds" in sports, discussing the obsessive attention to detail, film study, preparation, and football IQ that separates the NFL's best from everyone else. Plus, the 49ers continue to battle injuries, and John examines why San Francisco can't seem to catch a break. Is it simply bad luck, or is there a bigger story behind the team's recurring health issues? The conversation also turns to the latest rumors surrounding Aaron Donald's potential return to the NFL. With speculation continuing to build, John weighs in on whether the future Hall of Famer is truly on the verge of making a comeback and what it would mean for the league. John also reacts to Giants head coach John Harbaugh getting frustrated with how Jaxson Dart handled himself at the end of practice. To wrap things up, it's another edition of the Middlekauff Mailbag, where John answers listener questions and dives into the biggest topics from around the NFL. From training camp storylines and quarterback development to comeback rumors and behind-the-scenes insight, 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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To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Volume. What is going on, my people. How are you doing? I'm John, this three and out podcast. Hopefully, you're enjoying life, getting ready for some football watching Carson Beck and the Arizona Cardinals take on Carolina Panthers. So we got a little Sunday night football Thursday. I'm

pretty sure the games on NBC. Don't quote me on that. I actually don't know. But we got a lot going on. Otherwise, I watched Hard Knocks, Seattle. So some takeaways. there. We got a lot of other stuff going around the NFL today. A bunch of different stories. We could hit on Aaron Donald, 49ers injuries, Vita Veja's agent, just countless stuff. So we'll dive into all that as well. Some mailbag questions. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in those DMs. Get your questions answered here on the show. And yeah, you guys know the drill. If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three and out. If you guys want to watch the show, it's on Netflix. Just hit the alert button and you will never

ever miss an episode. So just recorded in this Marriott. And yeah, you go check that out. So let's just dive right into the show. I do want to start with Hard Knocks. And I had to take within the last couple of years that I was out. You know, I mean, the day and age, sometimes I see viral videos on like Instagram of like 15, 20 years ago, watching guys get cut, watching the personnel meetings when assistant coaches would crush guy. It was just raw and real. There was an authenticity to it. We don't get that as much anymore. Honestly, really at all. I don't want to go as far and say it's propaganda, but the teams now control the message heavily. At least this year with Seattle, you know, for the most part, it's teams that are awful, you know. And I guess a couple years ago,

the Jets probably would have been pretty good the year they got Aaron Rogers, which, I guess that was kind of cool. But for the most part, it's been really, really bad. And I thought the first episode was at least the first watchable one I can remember in a while. And I think part of it is, is you know you're watching a team that, I mean, the opening scenes are them receiving their Super Bowl rings. Like, this is a really good team. Like, this is probably an 11 to 13 win team, right? Obviously, they lost a couple guys, but I've seen John Snyder's drafts.

The guys they're replacing them with are probably going to be pretty good. The schedule is a little harder this year. There was a cool scene in there when John Snyder, do you know what it shows you? And I like Schefter, and it's not like, you know, he was talking about Rapshie, but now they're on the same team. Is Rapsheet had put out a tweet about the contract negotiations with Witherspoon, and Schneider was pissed off. And he got on the horn immediately, and he called Rapshete.

He was telling Mike McDonald this if you haven't seen it. And basically said, you've got to call the agent, said that is not coming from us. and you just realize where we're sitting as a fan or what I do, the stuff we get so fired up and share the tweets with our friends. I mean, some of it could be complete bullshit. I mean, you never know what's real. You never know what's not real besides like this guy got traded or this guy got cut. Any conjecture of like, you know, this guy, the negotiations are going one way.

There's always agenda and you never truly know. But one big takeaway I had, I wrote down three things. First, are we undervaluing Sam Darnold a little bit at this point? I told Coward today, you just need to watch Hard Knocks for the montage they put together on Sam Darnold. Now, I was taught a long time ago by a man that I respect, look up to, and help change my life, Pat Hill, when we were doing recruiting tapes for high school kids. We weren't at Alabama Ohio State, Fresno State, so we're recruiting against like the Oregon States, the Washington States, and the Boise States.

that you could make a highlight tape for a lot of good players in high school and make them look like they're a five-star number one overall recruit. And then I learned in the pros, same thing. So just because most talented guys, their highlight tape, can blow you away. Now, Bill Walsh believed that if you show me enough good plays, regardless of the bad plays, I know he can do that. and if I have a scheme that accentuates those things that he does well, I can make it work.

And there's probably some truth of that. But I think Sam Darnold, once you, one thing we talked about on the, not we, Colin, on the TV show today, and he's right, is the branding for Mike McCarthy, you put his resume next to John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll, you know, a bunch of guys in the NFL, Mike Tomlin, they're not only identical. Some of those guys, he has more playoff wins than. But we talk about Mike McCarthy.

And my personal theory is, which I appreciate, I mean, I struggle with food, is Mike, every time he takes a year off, he comes back bigger. In the day and age, when everyone's sucking down or injecting GOP ones, they don't even look at ice cream or a beer. they eat the air and everyone you can see the bones all over their body now McCarthy's going the other way and I kind of appreciate that but the branding around Mike McCarthy is like hey he's okay he's not great it's like I think seven or eight of his seasons as a head coach he's at a top two or three offense he turned Dallas over the course when he got there into a team that

won the division two out of three years and won 12 games, three straight years. Yet the way we talk about him is like, you know, he's not even a top 10 coach. And I think with Sam Darnold, I understand people going, you can't overreact. I don't care who you are. Any salesman, any quarterback, any podcaster can have a good run. You could have good six months. part of being good at what you do is doing it over and over and over again, right? Consistency and knowing, producing results for a longer period of time.

A lot of guys in sports history have had one good individual season. The great players have had, you know, long, lasting, productive careers. So Sam's early career in complete dysfunction in New York where I would say basically everyone's failed there, the majority of my life at that position and a lot of other positions as well. And then he goes to Carolina where he was side by side with Baker Mayfield, who both went off and had success since. Honestly, after they cut Baker Mayfield, he showed up in L.A. two days later, he played a Thursday night game and won a game with Sean McLean. bay. So I do think the branding and the PR campaign that he's a failure and he's a bust, it's hard to shake. It's no different on the reverse where guys that are drafted in the first round, even when they prove after a couple years they can't play, get more opportunities than

later round picks because of the projection and the branding they have of, hey, he was the seventh overall pick, hey, he was the 12th overall pick, hey, he was the fourth overall pick. And yeah, every time he's been on the field, he hasn't been good. If it's the same for a guy that, hey, this guy went in the fifth round, they wash out of the league much, much quicker. Two years ago, Sam Darnold threw 35 touchdowns and won 14 games. And everyone's like, well, season ended really poorly. It's like, yeah, you had a couple of bad games.

Lamar Jackson's had some bad playoff games. Peyton Manning had a bunch of bad playoff games. It happens. Justin Herbert has been an abomination in the playoffs. How many teams in the league right now, would trade their quarterback for Justin Herbert. 85, 90% of the league. And then last year,

but it's like, okay, I wouldn't say he was up and down. He wasn't as dynamic as he was in Minnesota. But in what turned out to be the Super Bowl, the NFC championship game, he went 25 at 36 and threw three touchdowns and went toe to toe with the MVP, who many believe now is just a lock Hall of Famer in Matt Stafford. and no one would be shocked if Matt Stafford won the MVP again, assuming he stays healthy.

So on that tier list, Sam Darnold is 14. If Sam Darnold didn't have the negative branding coming in the last two seasons and had done what he had did, I think he'd been like eight or nine. Like, I'm in agreement with Coward on this one. Like, he's better than the perception of him. Now, is he a perfect player? No. Does he turn the ball over? Yes. I can live with touchdown, or I can live with interceptions. If you throw touchdowns, here's the other thing. A huge part of quarterback, I haven't had a chance to read it, but there was this long ESPN article on Drew Breeze. Do you know what a big part of Drew Breeze's package was? It wasn't just the capabilities to dominate the Sean Payton system. It was the overall leadership and like the William Wallet's, characteristic, follow me to freedom. I forget the offensive lineman's name,

Zach something, who became the play-by-play guy for the Saints. I actually think he's on Sean Payton's staff now. When he retired from football, he talked about his career and everything. He started going through different people. Drew Breeze was sitting there, like with a bunch of the assembled media

and some of his former teammates. Zach Streep, when he started talking about Drew Breeze, he started crying because of what he witnessed him do leading the football team. His work ethic, his intangibles. I look at Sam Darnel like a big intangible guy. Super high character, super hardworking, super humble and easy to get along with as a teammate, which is definitely an underrated characteristic as a player. Think about our top quarterbacks. and you could even go back to previous generations.

Their teammates love them. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were complete hard asses on guys. Yet whenever you hear players defensively, you know, also, right, not just the offensive guys, they love them. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, the way their teammates talk about them, it's like a close friend, let alone, you know, someone you're working with. and depended on in your profession.

So I think at this point in time with Sam Darnold, he feels a little underrated going into this season. And, you know, with JSN, you add Price, who, in that, again, it's hard knocks. But he was a first round pick for a reason. And he sure looks pretty explosive. And I came away thinking like, God, this team's probably going to be pretty damn good again. The other thing is, you know, we're in a completely different era of life. You know, my generation, who I'm sure at one point in time by older generations,

was called soft and weak and, you know, a bunch of pussies. Clearly that is kind of the knock on the current Gen Z group is they are completely different. How could they not be? They've grown up in a world where all they know is the Internet. Everyone, their entire life, has had a cell phone in their pocket. I remember the first time my dad was a farmer, he got a cell phone in his truck. it was like the size of the center consult. There were wires going everywhere.

And if you wanted to call someone, it was such a pain in the ass. It didn't even work half the time. This is probably like mid to late 90s. I remember a time when we did not have the internet, when people did not have phones in their pocket, when the person in your community that had a big screen TV was probably the richest guy in your community

because it was the size of suburban. So things change. You know, if you watch that ESPN did that show on Bear Bryant, the Junction Boys, back in the day they didn't give you water bricks. Even when I played high school football in like the early 2000s, if you were pissing the coaches off, they might skip a water break. If you did that now, you would get sued and you might go to jail. So the days of Bill Parcells, even the Belichick crew, kind of done.

Now, some of the older guys, like Sean Payton is still, I would say, a throwback. But I would say most of the younger coaches are pretty player friendly. It doesn't mean any human worth their salt, any ambitious person, whether we like to hear it or not, can take constructive criticism, wants to be pushed, wants to be professionally, I would say a little kick in the ass every once in a while. That is a healthy thing. Whether you're Tom Brady or whether it's one of you guys listening to this right now,

if you aspire to do some big things in your career, that comes with the territory. And if you watched Hard Knocks, Mike McDonald will get on guys. But the one thing you saw is like, seems like a pretty easy guy to be around. Seems like a guy that players are really going to gravitate toward. And I remember having a buddy on the staff in Baltimore. And I was talking to him.

We actually went out at the combat. and we were around some of those other Baltimore guys that are now back on the staff with Jesse Minter. I'm like, what made this guy? What's his deal? He's like, you don't understand how good he is with people. I'm not even just talking players. When they named him the defensive coordinator,

he jumped over Zach Orr and Weaver who were both former players and guys that looked the part. Now, Mike clearly hits the weight room, but he's not a former NFL player. And he's like, immediately, all those guys fell in line and the working relationship within the defensive staff for a guy that got the job over all these former players who had played in Baltimore, who thought they were like, John Harbaugh's guy could have derailed a lot of staffs. He's like, not only did it not derail the staff?

Within a couple years, we're one of the great defenses the league has seen recently. I mean, they were a dominant defense a couple years ago. Let's face it, the reason they lost in the NFC championship, the year they were the number one overall seed, wasn't the defense. Chief scored 17 points. Pretty sure they scored 14 in the first quarter and only three the rest of the game. The offense was atrocious.

Lamar Jackson, Todd Munkin, if you ever would like to, quote, have one back, those two guys would give anything to have that game back. And I just think Mike McDonald kind of encapsulates the modern day coach. And I think a lot of the offensive guys, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, even Dan Campbell, it does not mean that you can't get on guys.

It doesn't mean that you can't ride them. But back in the day, like, you could just be a dick 24-7, 365. And a lot of old-school coaches just were. That was just the way you kind of operated. I think those days are done. I really do because I think if you get on the internet and you see the reaction to Mike McDonald's hour on hard knocks

be like, what's up with this goofy guy? I think a lot of these guys, you'd be shocked, are nerds. The thing that they're nerdy about just happens to be football. And speaking of nerds, like part of what makes a good coach is he's willing to listen and get his information from anyone. And one thing we don't value enough, just in general on a, football team. We definitely talked about this with Sam Darnold, is leadership and intangibles. An older veteran player to be around for players to look up to is extremely important.

Like Puka Nakua, who clearly kind of was going down a bad path, who by all accounts and seeing some of the reports and even some of his press conferences, feels like he's making a conscious effort to be focused straight and arrow to basically try to live up to the guy that his parents raised. And even he's admitted, like I was starting to let people down. And I got to turn this around. All he's got to do is look at Devante Adams. Like the way Devante works. The way Devante is is a human being. You talk about a family man. I think he just had his third or fourth kid. Like, just follow that guy's lead. If you want to play for a long time in this league, you know, and the money that you're going to make, DeVante's what, in year 13?

If you play for 13 years, Puka, you will make hundreds of millions of dollars. And you bring in Cooper Cup to Seattle. And even I thought like, I don't know, that's a lot of money to pay this guy. Is he kind of over the hill? And then you're watching this. He gets to the meeting room early just with a bunch of young guys and just starts kind of talking to them about life and football and what to do. he's in Mike McDonald's office

helping him decipher some offensive scheme that Mike can't figure out and he clearly gives him the tip and then Mike is shocked he's like oh shit you're right and then he's in the quarterback meeting room countless times and there's one moment in hard knocks where I think it's the quarterback coach

looks at Cooper and goes it is your responsibility to relay whatever the coaching point or play situation they're talking about to the rest of the guys in the room. Even JSN, who is now, I don't know, one of the highest paid guys in the league says what this guy brings to our building is invaluable. So if you can still be productive, even if you're not what you once were, your value in a locker room is extremely important.

Do you think Howie just brings back Brandon Graham because it's, He thinks he's going to give him 15 sacks? Of course not. His value in that defensive line room, in that defensive meeting room means a lot. And I don't think we do a good enough job talking about that from a leadership standpoint to a team building standpoint, having high character tough guys and people that understand football, people that have a high football IQ. some of the best players typically are the smartest players. And I don't mean they had 4.0 GPAs in high school or college. I'm sure some of them did. But when it comes to football, they would be considered like Albert Einstein a genius. And clearly Cooper Cups' understanding of the sport,

having played for a long period of time for Sean McBay, and now a year under Mike McDonald is, I mean, he's probably non-quarterback sees the game as anyone. in the NFL on offense. And if you told me like Cooper Cup had to call a game, you know, as a player coach, you know, they got into a pinch and they just gave him a headset, he probably could do it.

And it shows his value and how they understood signing him last year makes a little more sense. It really does. So I'm a hard knocks hater. Enjoyed it. I also, I was thinking last night when they, I've never been to the practice facility up there. I've been to the stadium for a Seahawks game

and I've been there for a Washington football game the year when Washington was like renovating their stadium it would have been like 2012 or 2013 and they played at the Seahawks Stadium in downtown. It's pretty cool. But I'm watching the stadium thinking like, they play on a lake or they practice right next to a lake and a bunch of redwoods

and the Niners practice next to the biggest substation you'll ever see. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting, sponsor Hard Rock Sportsbook. Some sports fans call this the slow period until football season. But Hard Rock Bet, we call it baseball season. This summer, Hard Rock Bet has the hottest betting odds in all of Florida. Introducing the 10-cent summer sale. Vig, juice, fee, whatever you call it. We're cutting our cut on winner spreads and over-under pregame baseball bets. Same bets, better odds. So, listen, if you already want to step in the batters box, sign the up now with Hard Rock bet and place a $5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $150 and bonus bets on top of your

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or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Shat Together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you,

and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four-to-five-year acceleration. and get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The 49ers had at least 20 players sidelined today with injuries at today's practice. That's more than 20% of the 90-man roster.

I mean, it is. it's almost just I don't even know what you say you know I don't even know what you say because there is no team that every day you look up it's like who's it going to be

use check didn't break his finger because of the substation but he broke a finger and now he's out you know I mean that that happens and it just there is just no stopping it I don't even I think the one thing Kyle is going to have to at least contemplate in the future is I respect and totally understand callousing your body

in these practices. But for whatever reason, the physicality, the substation, fuck, I don't know, whatever's in the water, you lose more guys than most of these teams. I'm not saying you've got to do Mike McCarthy, where everyone on the Pittsburgh Steelers is like, this is insane. We used to tackle to the ground and now we don't do anything. Jalen Warren, was like, this is the easiest practice I've ever seen in pads. I'm not expecting that. But whatever, however they adapt on a yearly basis, because they're always talking about it, how do we slow down the injuries?

How do we put, not even a pause to them, but at least instead of hitting the accelerator button, just tap the brakes a little bit. And it doesn't end. It's nuts. Albert Breer said yesterday that Aaron Donald is coming back. Like they are completely, I don't want to say they're completely sure, but it feels like inevitable at this point that Aaron Donald will be officially an L.A. Ram within the next five or six days.

And one thing, I didn't even know this. I guess they practice for a first couple weeks, maybe a dorm setting, just to kind of build a little team cohesion and chemistry. I think it loyal of Merrimount. There's a million colleges down here. Obviously, there's UCLA and USC, but there's Long Beach, Irvine, San Bernardino, there's LMU, there's Pepperdine. So you've got a bunch of options, bunch of campuses, and I don't think any of these people are back yet. So they've been at LMU, and they either leave Friday or Saturday to kind of come back to their homes and practice of the facility.

And he alluded to that Aeronald, whenever they leave LMU and come back, more than likely, that is when it becomes official. Well, he wanted to do kind of a final workout and see what it felt like with a helmet on. He wasn't going to wear shoulder pads. And I think because Schfter said, because Aaron Donald wanted to do the workout in the helmet, and it was a Rams helmet, and it was at the facility,

they had to put on the waiver wire, because when you work guys out, let's say John Middlecoph is a free agent. If Jim Harbaugh called me up and said, hey, John, we want to work you out to see if we want to sign you for training camp. I'm like, okay, Jim, get the sled ready. So I go down there and I work out.

On the waiver wire on a daily basis, like when you put a guy on IR, when you put a guy on pup, when you take a guy off pup, if you cut a player, the waiver wire during training camp goes out every day. Well, if you work out John Midlckoff and the Chargers, the Chargers would have to say, Chargers complete workout with John Milikoff. So the Rams today on the waiver wire clearly put, worked out. Aaron Donald. Which I would say is basically the bad signal of the league. This thing is happening, which is pretty crazy. I mean, it's, I don't even blame him. He's been at home. I don't think I follow him on Instagram, but I always get it in my algorithm. See these clips of him. You know, I think Jared Vershe used to always go over to his house, whatever his weight room. I don't know if it's his house or his like little gym that he

built, wherever it may be. That guy is, that. guy is not skipped a beat in the weight room. I think the question is as you get older, if you get dinged up, if you pull a hamstring or whatever, does your body respond? Like, there is no doubt in my mind if he's 100% healthy, he is going to be an impact player. Now, when I think about Aaron Donald in his prime, it just felt like he didn't really have to come out of games. He had unlimited stamina. They're not going to have to utilize them like that. I mean, they have so many guys. Their defensive line was loaded before. or they made the deal for Miles Garrett.

So to me, they can almost use him like some sweet reliever. And in certain games, maybe instead of pitching one inning, he pitches two innings. So his snaps instead of being 20, go to 30. But you're not going to have to ride him like they used to. And obviously, in the prime of his career, when you get a guy like Reggie White, J.J. Watt, Vaughn Miller, you ride them. This is one of those situations. it's kind of like Michael Strayhan at the end of his career.

Remember he'd kind of like flirt with retiring, wouldn't show up to training camps, don't blame him, didn't want to do it. And back then the double days, you're like, I don't want to do this. Well, by the end of his career, they had accumulated so many other defensive linemen, he could kind of just fit in.

And then, was it the last year? Did he retire after they won the Super Bowl? I think he might have. The other story I saw, there are a couple other things. Vita Vaya's agent, I don't see things ending, in anything but a trade.

The bucks aren't going to offer him a long-term contract. But if they don't, they're not just going to trade them to trade them. You can't force my hand, you've got to trade me. Well, someone has to offer me something. We talked about this yesterday. Because of the way the comp picks work, and if V-to-Ve is healthy, the amount of money he would get on the open market,

they would get a third-round comp pick. So I would be stunned if they, like I don't even think they would trade him straight up for a third round pick. Maybe if it was a third round pick that if you had whatever baseline production, it kicks up to a second round pick, it would be worth it for them. But I think you're going to have to trade like a second and a fourth to make it worth their wild to trade them because they go, okay, you can hold in the entire camp.

But once week one starts, that's a million dollars a game. And half our games are in Florida where you pay no state income tax. So that by itself, if you just do the math, is probably an extra million dollars in your own pocket. You're just not going to play? I'm calling bullshit. So I wonder if they kind of do a standoff, but you're also kind of nervous that older player doesn't practice

type thing where you kind of get, you know, you pull something, you get hurt because you haven't trained. The other story I saw, which seems a little crazy to me. I read, Albert Breer wrote this and, or no, Dan Graziano wrote. this. I read this ESPN article of like five or six different training camps as some of their reporters went to, is he reported that the Rams, like when they go international, they don't go out there on like Tuesday or Wednesday and kind of get acclimated and then play the game Sunday. They show up like 24 hours before. Now, London is ahead of us, however many hours. If you're

on the West Coast, it's obviously more than the East Coast. I think it's eight or nine or ten. hours. Australia, their summers are winners. This game is not, is being broadcast in America on Thursday night. It is Friday morning in Australia when you're actually playing it. The Rams plan on essentially going the day before, which I think is kind of nuts. So the 49ers plan on going out there, I think like seven or eight days early and get acclimated, get accustomed to the time zone, which is dramatically different. I'll just look right now. I'm recording this at 250 in the afternoon on Wednesday.

It is currently in Australia. 7.20 in the morning. The Rams are going to be favored in that game. In theory, on paper, they should win. That to me feels a little risky. The day before the game, is it like a 15 or 16 hour flight? And one of the things Graziano wrote about was

they feel like they're good just riding adrenaline on some of these road trips. That feels kind of risky. Now, if it works, they'll be called genius. And if the 49ers can upset the Rams, they'll be called geniuses for going out there a week early. I just think it's much more, even if you said, hey, they're going three days early or even two days to get acclimated a little bit the day before to Australia.

Seems bold. John Harbaugh was not happy with Jackson Dart, who I guess they scored a touchdown, and it must have been like a situation where you're down six, you've got to score to win the game. And then when they scored or something happened, maybe it was a field goal wins the game. He threw the football at a defender's face, and Harbaugh made them, gave him a 15-yard penalty instead of a 35-yard extra point.

it turned into like a 50 yard extra point. Part of the Jackson Dart package is like little reckless, runs a little reckless, pretty cocky. It's a pretty good challenge for John Harbaugh. Because if you think about the two quarterbacks, he's used to. Joe Flacco married his high school sweetheart, pretty understated guy, until the quarterback show. I don't even know how many, in the last couple years when he would do like random. interviews, I don't really know how many times I felt like I knew that much about Joe Flacco. He just felt kind of like a quiet, understated, low-key guy.

Honestly, probably pretty easy to coach. Now, he was nowhere near as talented as Lamar Jackson. I would say Lamar Jackson kind of falls under that category as well. Pretty understated. Like, not given a lot of crazy, cocky zingers. At least throughout, especially in his young career. early on they just changed the offense for him. They've changed the offense again.

He just kind of adapts. One thing I give Lamar a lot of credit, pretty amendable to changes. Maybe I'm being, maybe Baltimore fans would be like, yeah, I pump the brakes a little there, John. I feel like they've changed the offense a bunch. They've had multiple offensive coordinators, and Lamar just kind of adapts their through. I think Jackson Dart's going to be a little bit more.

We don't even know if he's good. Like, we definitely know he's talented. Good athlete, good arm, made some plays last year. I'm bullish on him. He's the type guy, like, has the physical traits I look for in a quarterback. But there are a lot of questions to just think, this is why I'm kind of hesitant on the Giants. There are a lot of things assumed about them, and all the reports, the defense has kicked their ass, which I do think we overreact, and part of this is social media,

that the sky is falling sometimes in some of these training camps. Guys, it's August 5th. They've worn pads for like three days. Some of these, you know, 10 of the teams have brand new coaching staffs. Pump the brakes. Just take a deep breath. But this one, this one's going to be something to keep an eye on. Carson Beck, when you're drafted not really high,

there is no guarantee that you'll ever get to play at quarterback. There are a lot of guys drafted in the third and fourth round. for every Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson that go on to become full-time starters and have long careers, there are a lot of guys that never play. And their only time is in the preseason. And that is when you really make a name for yourself. I remember a couple years into Jimmy Garoppolo's career in New England. I remember on the Stairmaster at the gym in Walnut Creek, watching NFL Network because they

used to kick off, you know, it must have been like an afternoon workout. the game kicked off at like 4 o'clock and going, God, Jimmy looks really good. It was, I think, a second year, maybe his third year. I was like, this is a guy that looks like a real quarterback. But before that, like, he wasn't playing. I think that year, because Tom had got suspended, we all knew he was going to play. Or maybe that was the next year, I kind of forget the timeline. But my point is, I remember being at a Raiders game.

Derek Carr's rookie year, and he just made plays in the preseason. I was like, I think you got to play this guy. and Brock Purdy did the same thing. He was so good in the preseason and so good in the practices that as a seventh round pick, he made the team, and they cut a guy who they had just given $2 million. Kyle Allen, at this point in time, I even forget who the quarterback was,

but he became the third string quarterback. Now, usually when you're a third round pick, you're kind of on scholarship. Even though I saw a video the other day of like the net drill, you know, and you kind of scrambled to your right, or like a seven-step drop and you throw into that net that has like a couple of squares and, you know, Rogers and Mason Rudolph and then Will Howard, Drew Alder missed not the hole in the net, the entire net.

And the headline was like, I don't think I've ever seen an NFL quarterback missed the net. And this wasn't like a 40-yard bomb. This was probably like a 10, 15-yard type route, you know, where the net was. preseason for quarterbacks because all these other players you can make the team at these other positions you can play special teams you can get a specific role as like even if you're the last defensive end that dresses on game day you might get 10 pass rushes

throughout the game you either play or you don't play a quarterback and I think these guys like these are massive opportunities and not even just this first Hall of Fame game But over the course of the next month, a guy like Carson Beck and a bunch of these quarterbacks, Nuss Myers, Drew Allers, they're going to get a lot of snaps. And it's going to be, it's not a great environment, right? You have offensive linemen, some won't be in the NFL ever. You have a bunch of guys on defense, especially the front, who are trying to make a name for themselves.

You know, sacks go a long way, big plays go a long way, just making plays in general go a long way. So we'll talk about maybe the preseason next week, some of the doos and doats what to look for. But I do know as a quarterback that it's not even about the numbers or the touchdowns. If the coaching staff thinks you can run the offense at a high level, and it's honestly pretty basic. When the play call comes in, understand the play call, communicate it to your guys. If they have a check, anything you see at the line of scrimmage

and you see something that you're supposed to go the other way or flip the play call. If you could handle some of the basic shit, that goes a long way with those guys. Stuff that we can't even tell on television. Remember last year, Anthony Richardson? Everyone knew it was over. And all these former players are like,

this is like install day one or day two stuff. An unblocked blitzer that was coming from, not the side, like his side that he can see, and he never even looked and he got destroyed. And then I think dislocated his finger. Bad news yesterday, Jalen Walker, who was just a complete badass of Georgia, who was the Falcons 15th overall pick, who had a relatively productive rookie year. James Pierce is back, like those two guys.

James got some off-the-field stuff that I guess somehow disappeared, but we all saw it, some question marks there. But that's pretty talented, little one-two combination going into their second year, Tories ACL. just absolutely terrible. Stefan Diggs, I don't know if it's official yet, but rap sheet put out that the Washington commanders are going to sign them. So I don't think you're signing Stefan Diggs and Brandon Ayyuk.

Has anyone done more to hurt their stock on social media posts in pro sports than Brandon Iyuk? It's like, bro, if you just had never Instagrammed, you'd probably be fine. And they would have held a spot for you whenever. the 49ers cut you, which at this point in time, what's their incentive to do it? Yeah, well, let's do some mailback questions and get out of here, a little midweek pod. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh.

Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish, right inside the free IHard Radio app. Gets the blood going up. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. Building the ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen.

Cheers. Open the free IHare radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. My loyalties lie with no party, only with what I think is good and right and fair. So when Democrats are messing up, I say it. When Republicans are messing up, I say it. I'm S.E. Cup, a journalist and political commentator.

And on my podcast, Off the Cup, I help you make sense of the often nonsensical news. I do this on cable news too, but on my podcast, I can really let loose and be my honest, unfiltered self. Sometimes I still can't believe we keep electing men to run the country. Yeah, here we are. Each week, you'll get my hot takes on the news and insider knowledge and insights from my smart friends and colleagues.

I think our politics has shifted away from left versus right. The new paradigm that drives our politics is front versus back. People who feel like they're stuck at the back of the line versus everyone they see in front of them keeping them at the back of the line. Come, find some sanity in the weekly news. Listen to Off the Cup on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Mungeshit Together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this is. longevity obsession is all about, and what it really means to live forever, for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect

Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive,

How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Doing a lot of pods. A Panthers fan here. This is from Josh. You may have seen the news the Panthers are not yet ready to talk to Bryce about an extension. And I think that's a good call.

It sounds like an adult has finally entered the room. But here's my question. Even assuming Bryce has a good year, wouldn't it still be a huge mistake to sign him to a massive long-term deal? Speaking as somebody who has watched every Bryce snap, I think he's terrible. Short, weak, zero swag, incredibly low ceiling. Jesus. Wouldn't a huge franchise quarterback deal for Bryce basically just cripple our franchise for years to come?

I've never understood this. Like, think about employees in any line of work that get taken care of. They're usually the cream of the crop. Someone's like, we can't let this guy go. Let's negotiate with them. Let's keep them. Let's give him a raise. Let's take care of them.

Most people kind of are on pins and needles. Now, in football, if you're obviously the top quarterbacks, but even the next tier, Jared Goff, Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy, Jordan Love, Jalen Hertz. Like, it's kind of clear you're getting an extension

and they take care of you early. I don't understand why Bryce Young, who was taken number one overall. So this isn't a fourth round pick who's making a million dollars a year. He signed like a $35, $40 million contract. And they picked up his fifth year option, which, what's that number next year?

$30 million? Is it more than that? Because the position he plays. So over the next, the course of the next two years, I'd have to Google the exact amount, but he's making a lot of money. Can we just play this out? And what's the worst case scenario? Well, he won the MVP, so we had to give him a big contract.

Okay. That'd be great. But we just can't go eight and nine and be like, well, you had some good games. Let's give him $175 million guaranteed. So he seems like a great kid. I've been a huge fan of them since I remember reading about him in high school. Loved him at Alabama.

Listen, I thought, I don't know what I was thinking, but I was like, this guy's going to be a good NFL quarterback. And then you immediately saw him, I think during that preseason in the uniform, you're like,

NFL quarterbacks, this guy's too small. I remember having a buddy at the weigh-ins at the Combine text me that he watched him weigh in. I think when he weighed in, he was like 200 pounds. he said he looked like he waddled up there.

Essentially, like, he had eaten and drinking so many smoothies and putting so much in his body to manipulate that scale that his normal weights like 185. And obviously he's 510-ish and his arm's average and he's not a good athlete. One thing I can't really do is have an average to below-average arm and not have a really good athlete. Like Purdy, doesn't have a great arm,

but he can move. That was my problem with Tua. It's like Tua's not an athlete. There's no athletic ability there. I hope you're enjoying L.A. and the herd. I am. I get smoothie delivered to me in the morning. I get a sandwich delivered to me at lunchtime.

It's kind of nice to get treated well. I get treated well at home with my wife, but it's, it's fun. Long days. It's kind of a grind. I was telling Maria, it's like, there's a podcaster. We get up early now with Jack.

But when that alarm goes off every single day at 4.30, it's one thing if you just get up early to go to the gym or, you know, go into your office and do some stuff. It's another thing. I mean, this meeting at the studio starts at 6 a.m. And Colin's a high energy guy. So when he walks in and we have him on the, it's a screen. So we can see him and a couple of the guys on the screen. and then we have like a basically a, you know, like a long conference table with probably three, five, six guys in there. And just takes and energy starts flowing. So you can't just walk in there. I couldn't just get up at 540, take a two-minute shower.

The studios right around the corner show up and be kind of blurry. Like I need to have coffee. I need to get going. So it's by the time it's 3 o'clock, I feel like I've been up a long time. Could the 49ers move their practice field, or would that be perceived as a mission of guilt? Watching hard knocks and seeing their beautiful facility on the water and next to all these trees and the fresh air, I was thinking, and I'm sure the Rams have some beautiful practice facility down here, I know the chargers do, just the open air.

And the Niders are next to just Wi-Fi waves, you know, the substation. and listen, it's more funny now than we have like concrete evidence. But it is a joke that's not going away. I don't think they could just next, like next week, they've moved it across town. Problem is there a facility, the locker room, everything's set up there. But I just don't think this conversation is going away,

especially at the rate in kind of which we're going right now when it comes to these injuries. But it clearly isn't happening this year. offseason mailback question what would you say is the biggest challenge in your career I have hosted a lot of podcasts on my own and I have my own business

and it feels like every day there's a different challenge and you need to tackle it's super overwhelming at times wonder what your biggest challenges are I got fired from the Eagles and then from a radio show before I was 28, 29 with the Eagles and then four years later

I've been 32, 32, 30. And the way I grew up, you know, my dad was a farmer. My mom worked at the state capital. If you just said someone got fired, it would carry the connotation of like, they're lazy. They suck at their job. They're just kind of a loser. That's the way I always thought about it as a kid. Then you get into different lines of work and you're like, that's not necessarily the case.

I didn't get fired because of I didn't. didn't think, you know, work ethic, even production. But it just, it's, it can really make you look in the mirror, right? So I would say those two moments were life changing, I mean, immediately the feeling when you're, I don't care who you are. Even if you don't like her and she dumps you before you dump her, it's kind of a kick in the nuts, you know, it can, it can hurt to self-esteem a little bit. We're human beings.

So even if the radio stations like this, by the end, I was like, this place, I couldn't stand it. But I still didn't want to be told like, yeah, we're canceling your show. Now, after a little time, after you kind of like really inspires you, you look back, you're like, I'm glad that happened. But the day of, the week of, you're not necessarily having those feelings immediately. And then I just think as you get older, you know, being trying to be. a better communicator. You know, I work with a bunch of people. We're not necessarily in an office together or over text message, being more direct questions

I have, being just, I consciously think of those things. I'm not always great at it. It also carries over to my home life. But I would say by far the most challenging thing that's ever happened in my life, which now impacts my career is jack. I mean, it's just the focus, the ability to think of trying to be more efficient with my time. And during football season, which hasn't even happened yet, it's going to be interesting how that goes. But, I mean, people have been having babies since the caveman times.

So I'll figure it out. But that's the most challenging thing that's ever happened in my life by far. You know, I've had people pass away, parent, close friends. been fired, had to start multiple new careers. This is, it's a good challenge, but it's by far the hardest six, seven months of my life. And I'm not even doing the heavy lifting. How productive do you think Colston Loveland will be this season? He had a very strong end of the year and a good playoff performance in his second year.

I think he could jump into a three to five tight end range behind guys like Brock Bowers and McBride. I think they're going to build the offense, the passing offense, around Loveland and Luther Bird. So we know Caleb has a rapport with him, and we know Ben Johnson thinks Luther Birden is the second coming of Jerry Rice. So I would expect this year the target's going those two guys way to be extremely high. And, yeah, I don't see why Loveland couldn't be, listen, this guy's going to the Hall of Fame. but I'm just saying their game. Like he's a Kelsey type player in my opinion. Just big time athlete, big time route runner, big time playmaker,

ball in his hands, he can fly, big arm quarterback who can get him the ball in multiple places. By everything I've always heard, like super high level guy, clearly already made huge impact plays as a rookie. I think the offense will just get built around those two guys in the passing game. And obviously with Ben, they're going to be a lot. heavy run team because it adds the physical element and it just it slows down the game easier on your defense too i mean they had moments last year in that niner game was it 42 to 38 when the niner's beat them on monday night both those teams when your defense is going to have issues

you like you need to slow down the game like you don't want to score in two plays if your defense sucks and one thing i mean we'll see their defensive line so at Edwards came back today on Wednesday. But like the Kobe Bryant injury, you know, they're going to be pretty dependent on their DBs being good because they don't exactly have, you know, Max Crosby and Miles Garrett up front. So Kobe Bryant, they draft the Oregon safety and Jalen Johnson, hopefully a year returning just from the growing injury. It's like they'd be pretty dependent on being like, we got one of the better DB rooms in the league, right?

So now we'll see I mean who knows They said eight to 12 weeks Worst case scenario You're talking three months That's not ideal But if Brian can come back in 6, 7, 8 weeks

You know early late September early October That they'd be in pretty good shape I mean he's a really good player And they gave him a lot of money because of it What are your expectations for the Packers On offense specifically Had a couple of receivers leave

Wicks, traded and Dobbs signed with the paths, how are the rest of the guys looking? Well, I haven't been a training camp, so I don't necessarily know. I do think they're going to be, they gave Christian Watson a lot of money. I mean, that contract relative to his production

and some of the question marks were just, his hamstrings was a little shocking. But this gets back to certain coaches and certain front offices just go all in on a guy. and they have loved that guy it feels like from the moment they got him

the playmaking and deep threatability that he brings to the table. No different than the Ben Johnson-Lutherburden deal. When you have people that completely believe in you, because that contract, let's face it, didn't feel like it made that much sense on the outside, but inside they clearly feel pretty confident about it. We talked about this earlier in the off-season.

I forget, Matthew Golden's stats last year. I don't think they were great. You know, last year they're passing offense in general. Like, he had 29 catches last year. To me, I think they would like that number to be like 60. Seems like he's doing pretty well at camp. Seems like I mean, he's a very talented player.

I remember when I went to the Red River game, I remember looking at him warming up, thinking like, God, this guy fucking looks apart. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Oh, my gosh. Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish, right inside the free IHR Radio app. Gets the blood going up.

Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing. Right on your screen. Cheers. Open the free IHRR radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch.

My loyalties lie with no party, only with what I think is good and right and fair. So when Democrats are messing up, I say it. When Republicans are messing up, I say it. I'm S.E. Cup, a journalist and political commentator. And on my podcast, Off the Cup, I help you make sense of the often nonsensical news. I do this on cable news, too, but on my podcast, I can really let loose and be my honest, unfiltered self. Sometimes I still can't believe we keep electing men to run the country.

Yeah, here we are. Each week, you'll get my hot takes on the news and insider knowledge and insights from my smart friends and colleagues. I think our politics has shifted away from left versus right. The new paradigm that drives our politics is front versus back. People who feel like they're stuck at the back of the line versus everyone they see in front of them, keeping them at the back of the line. Come, find some sanity in the weekly news. Listen to Off the Cup on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

I'm Mungeshit Together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for you. your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world

of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. for the dad diaries. Me and my wife just had our second baby. We got a 22-month-old and a one-year-old. Living that two-under-two life, godspeed. We had a couple we used to go out with all the time. We always got along great. They don't have kids and sometimes it sounds like they don't know if they want them. Recently it seemed to get weird. Like we have nothing in common and nothing to talk about, which we kind of don't. But, you know,

you wouldn't think kids would change things that much. I know you and Maria are newer parents, but if you had a chance to go out with a couple, have you experienced this at all? Well, we tried to go out for dinner, just the two of us the other night, and the guy, the kid went nuts. I mean, he was just going berserk.

I'm like, this is why we don't go out. I just think in general, whether it's children, I mean, I have a lot of friends with kids, and it didn't necessarily impact my relationship. But I think as you get older, I don't know how old you are. You should be kind of always changing and evolving. And certain people in your life that at one point in time you were close with, whether it's children or not children,

like, you might not have as much in common with them anymore for whatever reason. Because hopefully you're not the same person you were four or five years ago. Like, if you introduced me and I was just hanging out, I guess we could go play golf together. But like just as a human being, what we're doing, I wouldn't have that much in common with myself 10 years ago. I think about that sometimes. And I think about some of the people that I surrounded myself with

that I might not now. That doesn't mean I saw close people I've had in my life for 20, 30, 40 years. Those people are always going to be in your life. But like certain people for whatever reason, you just, you might not align with, whether that's because of your children, whether that's because of your own personal life changes and growth. Like you should be always growing.

I remember I wrote this down in my little notepad on my phone that I tried to keep like little nuggets of quotes I saw. And Warren Buffett had a quote like, your second half of your life should be your best by far. Because you should be always improving. And then you have a wealth of knowledge of things that you know work and don't work. Like, your growth as a person

should get better with time. Now, it doesn't mean, like, you're not going to have tough times or tough years or whatever. Like, life shit happens. But I've always been a believer of, like, life should continue to get better. My life has continued over time to improve.

And if, you know, I don't surround myself with that many negative people. Like, if you're just constantly, absolutely negative. I just, I don't have the energy. So I, I think it's understandable. But I think the kid thing, like some of my good buddies had kids that are now like eight or nine years old. And I don't feel like our relationships change at all. But I'm not that needy of a friend. One, one change would be is like, if you got a couple young kids, if you used to go out with no

kids with these people, you know, ordering that extra round of cocktails and that extra bottle of wine, you wouldn't even hesitate. And now you're thinking, like, I've already had to. I can't even, it can't even, like, cross my mind to think about waking up with a pounding headache and kids screaming and crying and needing attention at 5.30 in the morning. I don't really think I've been hung over in the last six months since he's been alive. Now part of that is You know, we're working on

Being able to socially drink It's always been a downfall of mine Much more of a binge drinker You know, some people, some of you guys listening We'll just, can just have a cocktail on like a Wednesday night Or just have a cocktail or a beer like every night I've never been that way Like I can go like, I haven't had a drink in a month, right?

But then all of a sudden I go out back to back nights It's like, how many cocktails you have? So I, we're, we're, we're, working on that. Like, can I just go out and socially have a couple tequila sodas? And maybe it's like, oh, just have a Diet Coke too. Or a water. I've really tried to change that way. And a huge part of it is like, as I got older, my hangovers are just brutal. I mean, and one thing I despise is that feeling of not being able to do anything. It's one thing if it's like Sunday. but the way my life is, like,

could just be like a Friday, and all of a sudden it's like, I just, I can't function in life today. When you're young, it doesn't matter. As you get older, you're 40s, you start thinking, like, how many days do I have left on this planet? Am I going to waste them being hungover?

Some of you guys get lucky. You don't even get hangovers. A common take you and Colin have hammered is that drafts will continue to get worse moving forward, especially in the later rounds. Your reasoning is more players will allow, to go back to college for NIL money rather than declare for the draft. I don't get that logic.

Sure, that could be an issue for the first few years of the NIL era, but eventually those players will have to declare. And the number of draft prospects will bunch you up and say year four or five. From that point, it will be conveyor belt of players feeding the NFL on a five or six-year interval rather than three or four. But the aggregate number of prospects won't change. because for every traditional draft prospect that goes back to college, you'll get a fifth, six-year senior prospect that's out of eligibility that has to declare.

The idea that the number of draftable players will decline moving forward because of NIL just simply isn't true. I see what you're saying on the aggregate. Eventually, you get kicked out of college, right? You can't play forever. So if you're our draft eligible guy, if I'm a guy that's a red shirt junior, and I, in the old days, I could have been a third round pick. Maybe I would have gone.

I've already graduated. Maybe I played it like Michigan or I played it, you know, Oregon. I just would have gone to the NFL. Well, now Texas or Oregon or Ohio State or Michigan, they're like, you could just stay here for a guaranteed $1.5 million. as the starting linebacker, as the star wide receiver, instead of just going to the NFL right now and being picked 78, I go back. So every single year you're going to have guys, early entry guys.

If you're Jeremiah Smith, right, or Sunny Stiles, or guys is going to go in the top 10, okay. But a lot of early entrant guys would go somewhere from 20, I don't know, through the first couple rounds. well now if I'm told I'm not a lock first rounder and I can make millions in college I just stay in college and that happens every single year now that guy inevitably comes to the draft

but if that guy continues to play in college maybe a stock drops maybe he doesn't go as high as he once was so maybe once that guy does declare he's not viewed as the same level prospect because I'm not talking about how all these guys will turn out once they're in the NFL

I'm just talking about the crop pre-draft. So it's like a rotation, you're right. Eventually, every guy that is draft that is going to be forced to go to the draft at one point in time in their career because their eligibility ends. But it can keep rotating year in and year out. I mean, we just saw it last year with Dante Moore,

who I don't have no clue how good of a pro he would have been if he would have came out. You probably would have said jets or the Browns or whatever. It could get weird. But, If it's like, bro, you're going to go in the top five. That has always come out. There is a small percentage of guys that haven't come out in his situation.

But everyone kind of understood it. It's like, well, he could have gone to the Browns or let's just play it back another year and make $5, $6, $7 million playing for Oregon that might win the national championship. It's not as crazy. But he wasn't alone. There were other guys that did that as well. And I just think it's going to keep, it's going to keep, I would say just

it's going to just have a smaller pool on a yearly basis of guys that would have come out consistently but over the course of 10 years those guys will inevitably or I guess eventually they can't avoid it. They can't just go back to Ohio State for 10 straight years. I hear what you're saying

but like next year the same thing will happen a bunch of guys that could have been drafted in the second, third, fourth round will just return to school. And I don't blame them at all. College is pretty fun when you're a star player making millions of dollars. As a former scout,

do you think that Malachi Tony will be good in the NFL? There aren't many good 5-10 wide receivers in the league. Well, I think I saw it. Did Jalen Waddle get hurt today? That he's 5.9 and a half.

and he was what six overall pick got a big contract so we'll have to see how Tony's bought this is the Miami Star wide receiver but I think Jalen Waddle I'm not saying it's a perfect comp as a player

but I think he's 5.9 and a half he measured the combine so you're talking about 5 9 and a half 510 I don't know exactly how tall Tony is but let's just say he's 510 even I would say that would be somewhat of a comp. A virtual chess piece, good route runner, explosive player

can basically hit you short, intermediate deep, get the ball in his hands, make shit happen. I mean, fuck, look, Waddle's playmaker. Imagine if Waddle the last, like, five years have been with the Bills or the Chiefs. I think we talk about him a little bit. I mean, he's already good, but sometimes you fly under the radar when you're on a bad team. I'm an incoming college sophomore and I'm studying sports management.

I'm working part-time and I'm also coaching football and basketball at my high school. I currently plan on entering the sports industry by teaching P at the high school and coaching on the side too. My goal is to work up to be an athletic director or something more administrative eventually. However, I have concerns that if I were to branch off into the sports industry and land a job, truly engulfed in the business, in the business, that I'll lose my love for sports as a fan. When you work in the NFL, do you ever feel yourself get burnout on sports at all? Also, do you have any advice for networking in college or general tips for my situation? I think most of the things that we do for a living, we get burnout on.

I think it's a natural human reaction. So if you're lucky enough to do something that you love to do, The advantage is not that you love it 24-7-365. The advantage is that on days when you're just not really feeling it, it's still like, hey, this still beats doing all these other things that I was able to avoid because I chose doing this as a profession. But yeah, I mean, there are days when you just don't feel like, I mean, I'd be lying to you. I have an incredible what I get to do for a job.

I feel extremely fortunate, even if I fucking create. this, all this luck, 25 years ago by doing a bunch of stuff to put myself in position. So it's not, it's not like it just randomly fell on my lap. That being said, like, there are days, I get to talk about football for a living. I can pay a mortgage. I can support a family. My dad was a tomato farmer. You know, I mean, I, I, I, sometimes Thursday night football, it's like, I'm not really in the mood to watch and then talk about this game.

But it's like I still get to watch and talk about the game. You know, so I, yeah, I mean, there are going to be days. Definitely when you worked in football, it's like I do not want to talk or think about football. I just think that comes with a territory no matter what you do. I truly believe that. And I think the advantage, like I said, is just it just helps you push a little bit farther because even deep down when you're having those miserable days, you still kind of like it in some weird form or fashion.

So I would always recommend following stuff that you enjoy doing for a profession. It'll make life a little bit easier. I'll end on this because I got a bunch of DMs on stuff I talked yesterday about Jalen Hertz. I just want to state for the record, I did not rank him 17. I'd probably have them like 14, 15 range. But once you're out of the top half of the league, that was the NFL coaches and NFL GMs that had that ranking. I just reacted to the ranking.

And I do think it's fair. If you're paying a guy $50 million and the league views him as the 17th best quarterback, that's a problem. So I just heard your take on Jalen Hertz being ranked 17 on Sandus Tier, comparing him to Russell Wilson, arguing that none of his OCs got head coaching gigs. But you didn't mention the ones that got, or guys that got fired,

didn't mention the one that got head coaching gigs. True. That was unfair. Shane Sykin and Kellynne Moore became head coaches. Hertz played well in both Super Bowls, and a lot of commenters forget that in 24, while Barclay had a monster season and playoff run, he was mostly held in check in the Super Bowl. All this to say, what more does Jalen Hertz

need to do to prove to the world that when he has a capable offensive coordinator, he can be a top 10 or 12 quarterback. There is no disputing that he has had stretches where he's been a top 10 quarterback, had really high-level games in big spots, including the Super Bowl and including playoff games. But what we witnessed last year, like, he's clearly extremely dependent on the offense and the offensive play caller. And last year, one of the stories that came out in the

the offseason was like, he's got a lot of ideas and thoughts as well that don't necessarily work. And here's my one issue with him. His running is one of his superpowers. Like Josh Allen still scrambles around and makes shit happen with his feet. Like, Jalen won't run anymore. I do think the parallels with Russell, like you said, he got guys have been fired on his watch.

They've also become head coaching, not just candidates, but they landed jobs and both of them are still head coached in the league. more than fair, more than fair. But if he's not going to run anymore, I just don't think he'll ever sniff being a top 10 quarterback anymore. If I get the dual threat, then he has a chance to be really good. Like when he has played some of his best football, it's him running around. I think of some of the big playoff games he's had,

he made huge plays with his feet. Last year against the 49ers, they had dudes off the couch playing like, linebacker. Their defensive line was not only last in the league in sacks, a bunch of guys that most people couldn't point out of the lineup.

He should have, with his eyes closed, he could have rushed for 100 yards. But they, like, wouldn't really call run plays for him. I would have ran like the option every play with him in Saquo and Barclay. It would have looked like Nebraska in the early 90s. So if he

refuses to run moving forward, and listen, I'm not asking him to run like off-tackle quarterback power, but just quarterback keeper, some quarterback sweeps, worst-case scenario, he gets out of bounds. Like, one of his skills, he's a great deep-ball thrower kind of playmaker.

In the rhythm of the offense, it can look very chaotic and just kind of like a cluster fuck, right? As all those three announced last year. Now, he had some big spots where they had a bunch of drops, but like he can always bail them out with his legs. I think sometimes we look at that like, oh, he's just, he's trying to, like, erase that part of his game.

I don't know why you would do that. It's not like he's 40 years old. He's in great shape always. So to me, there's a lot of question marks coming. They're going to run a new offense. No one can dispute his resume. More than likely, the group of guys that he's kind of typically clustered with, right? Goff, Dack,

Pertie, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, kind of that crew of guys, right, from 8 to 14 range. Jordan Love. None of those guys probably ever,

I mean, there's a decent chance none of them ever win a Super Bowl. So he'll always have that. It's, but are we talking about the past or are we talking about the future? Like,

if you put Mahomes at one, we have to be, I love Patrick Mahomes. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching a guy in a day and age when a lot of guys don't get it done or don't come to play in the biggest moments,

just get it done in the biggest moments over the course of his crew. It has been a joy to watch Patrick Mahomes play football. That being said, 2025, he just didn't play that well. So if he's number one on all these lists, it's based on his resume, which is better than everyone in the NFL, which we all agree.

But Josh Allen was objectively better than him last year. Honestly, I don't even think it was close. So I think sometimes these lists, it's more, let's just fuck the list and let's just talk about the player. That when you're paying a guy $51 million, if you're not going to throw me 35, 40 touchdowns, well, if you could do some other stuff, let's do some of the other stuff. Hell, the tush push, which is not necessarily his fault, but once their offensive line is not as good anymore, kind of stop working, which is crazy. It felt like an inevitable play.

It no longer is. a couple times last year, like they didn't even go to it because, like, ah, not even worth it. So listen, he's one of the most polarizing guys in the league, and he will continue to be polarizing because, one, the media market Philly, two, the amount of money he's making, and three, like, coming off a bad year.

He just is. We all acknowledged that, and it ended really, really poorly. And they just revamped the entire offense, the entire staff. And not like running his, J.L. Hurts, Philly offense, like, they scrapped it. They're running a brand new offense. I'm fascinated to watch if it works. We'll end on that one. Adios. Godspeed. Talk to you guys tomorrow, Fugazi Friday. The volume.

150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us, and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone? Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human.

Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green. We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast.

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. When teenager Joy Morgan discovered the religious group Israel United in Christ, she believed she'd found the truth. Many believe she found a cult. Then she disappeared. The new podcast, The Missing Sister, explores her story, the family she left, and the religious group she found. You know when you get that feed, I'm like, I don't want to be here. I want to get out.

I can I want to go ahead now. All episodes available now to Benj. Listen to The Missing Sister on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Chitigler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, cremudgeons, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing.

That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.