The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Baker Mayfield, Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, & Dak Prescott

Episode Date: August 31, 2018

Colin discusses why Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield will be starting soon, Jacksonville Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey's recent comments about New England Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski, Los Angeles Rams DE Aaron Donald's new contract, and why the Dallas Cowboys need QB Dak Prescott. Guests include Al Michaels, Ryan Leaf, Greg Cosell, and Bucky Brooks. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Now let's get to You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is The Herd, wherever you may be, and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. Good morning. Welcome back. Good morning. Great to be back.

I'm the world's worst actor. You'll see that in the next month. I had to shoot a commercial yesterday, and I am ready to go for football season. I can't Labor Day weekend, Joy. This is Joy and I love football. And it's all starting this weekend. Huge college weekend, getting to that. I have Al Michaels today on the show in studio.

I've got Greg CoSell today. Ryan Leaf, Bucky Brooks. Can't wait. Thank you so much for joining us. Let me start with this. The last memory of something often distorts reality. You have a favorable impression because it's the last thing you see. You know, people always go into Facebook and they're hooking up with their, you know, their ex this and their ex that.

And it's like, there's a reason you're not together, right? But, oh, she sent me a picture the other day. And you think back to maybe the last good time you had and you're like, oh, that was a great relationship. And it's like, no, you hated each other when they broke it up. I'll give you an example, Peyton Manning. When you think Peyton Manning in his last year, everybody's like, Super Bowl! Peyton Manning was amazing. Drop the mic.

Payton Manning was terrible as last year. But the last thing you saw was him holding the trophy. He had nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He was benched for Brock Osweiler. He was terrible. Remember that last year? He got benched for Brock Osweiler. But he holds the trophy and you don't remember a thing.

How about Kobe Bryant? Scored 60 in his last game, Joy. What a performance. Kobe Bryant's amazing. Yeah, I was here in Los Angeles. Did you watch that last year? Kobe acknowledges he was awful. He shot 36%.

He averaged seven a game mostly because he decided, I'm going to shoot seven threes a game. Now, he was great in the last night. It was an amazing performance, but Kobe would tell you. Kobe's only been bad once in his career. Most of the last regular season. That's about it. The rest of the career is unbelievable.

but that last 60-point game. How about Derek Jeter? Now, when you think of Derek Jeter and how it all ended, you think about this, right? This amazing baseball moment for Derek Jeter. Well, the script is there. The last page is in Derek's hands. Big deals.

Big hits to right field. Here comes Richardson. Here's the throw from Mark Hakeas. Richardson is safe. Derek Jeter ends his final game with a walk-the-worth fantasy. Did you have any doubt? He wasn't very good that year.

No, he really scrapped. He had no range. Career low in Homer's 4. Hit about 255. Peyton Manning, Kobe. Derek Jeter. You forget because the last memory of something distorts it.

So I'm watching Baker Mayfield last night, and I'm thinking, oh-oh. Baker Mayfield. Cleveland Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam. The last memory he's going to have a Baker Mayfield is chopping through those third and fourth teamers. He was facing a lot of UPS drivers last night. If you notice over the next month,

that guy delivering a package for you for UPS is holding it like a football, that's because he played for the Lions like an hour ago. And he led 25-0-0-1-half, and Baker Mayfield sat down, and that is the last memory of Baker Mayfield. Just tearing it up in week four of the preseason. Effective, productive, 25-0-0. Man, he didn't even need to play the second half.

And what is our last memory of Tyrod Taylor? Ugly 5-0-0-0-win, couldn't stay healthy, screaming and paid on the sidelines, comes back, can't move the football. and oh, by the way, the Browns open with the Steelers and the Saints and will be O'N-2. And then facing the Jets and Sam Darnold, who is starting and probably looks pretty good for a rookie. And Jimmy Haslam is going to be in week three saying, well, how come their guy's starting? I mean, last time I saw my guy was 25-0.

They're dominating. The last memory distorts things. It distorts things. Baker Mayfield just looked terrific last night against UPS drivers. Tyrod Taylor had to face, you know, Philadelphia's starting defense and looked overwhelmed a little bit, thrown around a little bit, hurt a little bit, came back and did nothing a lot of bit. Baker's starting. All you Baker fans, he's going to start sooner than everybody is predicting.

Mark it down. Speaking of last night, pre-season week four, I've said this before, there is a real division in the NFL with Cowboy quarterback, Dak Prescott. Now, there's one camp overrated, it's all about Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys' Offensive Line makes him look way better than he is. That's one camp, and that camp's got a lot of people in it. Then there's my camp. My camp is, did you see the preseason? The Cowboys were o' and four. And Dak almost didn't even play.

Now, when he did play, 13 for 18, 72% completion rate, a couple of touchdowns, no picks, 128 pass-er rating. And you say it's just the pre-season. Let me say this again. I now know what the Cowboys looked like before Dak Prescott arrived a couple years ago. They were 4 and 12. And it wasn't just 4 and 12. You remember, Joy, it was utter chaos, 4 and 12.

Then I've seen what they've done with DAC the last two years. 32 starts, 22 wins, and of the 10 losses, 5 or 1 possession, in a very tough division and in the superior NFC. And then I have this last month of preseason games where DAC basically doesn't play, and they were only effective for about 30 plays to 50 plays in the preseason. those were all the ones DAC played in. Okay, that's the

camp I'm in. Okay, when I watch Dak Prescott, I want you to remember something. And I've said this before. The ability to stabilize chaos is a massively underrated skill. Chaos before DAC,

chaos in the preseason, wins, 22 of 32 with Dak Prescott. This is the loudest franchise in the NFL. It is the most watched franchise in the NFL. It is the most scrutinized franchise in the NFL. These are the choppiest waters in the NFL. The captain of this ship doesn't have to be the world's best captain. But I want somebody when the seas are that choppy that can take a little of the chopp out of the choppiness. And first season, Dak Prescott, never-ending questions about

Tony Romo. Last season, never-ending questions about Ezekiel Elliott. And not once did he ever step in it. Not once did he ever unravel. I remember asking Jimmy Johnson, legendary football coach here at Fox, I asked him about leadership one time, and here's what Jimmy Johnson said to me. You know, Colleen, I really don't know what leadership means. I think it really depends on the end.

individual what they're looking for. I think there's inspirational players. Okay. I think they're players that set an example. I think there's motivational players. But I don't know what a leader is. Either do I, but I know it when I see it. I don't know how to describe it either.

It's a bunch of it quality stuff, but I know it when I see it, And in the loudest owner, a troubled running back, massive injuries, biggest brand, always in prime time, pre and post, awful, chaotic with him, 22 or 32 wins, and could have won five of the remaining 10. They were won possession games. There's two camps with him. You watch the preseason. I'm in the camp that says this guy is underrated, not being carried by Zeke. and that offensive line. Can't wait for the season to start for the Cowboys.

I have them as a winning record and a team vying for the playoffs. Al Michaels around the corner, one of the voices of NFL football for a long time. Ryan Leif, Greg Kosal, coming up next. You don't want to admit it, but there was a time you liked Vanilla Ice. There was a time the Baja men had a song. You memorized the words.

admit it don't be too cool admit it what that has to do with jalen ramsie that's coming up next borrow up to 40 grand to pay off your high interest debt and credit cards lending dot com slash sports go to lending dot com slash sports al michael's around the corner joy taylor is joining me on a friday so jalen ramsie has become le provocateur of the nfl he's talking a lot And I said this last week and earlier this week, he's mostly accurate on his criticisms of players. He did go out yesterday, though, and crush Gronk of the New England Patriots, who's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. He basically said, I don't think Gronk's good. Let me say, I don't think Gronk is as great as people think he is.

Well, Gronk is good, but the argument, I don't think Gronk is as great as people think he is, I would say there is some truth to two facets. Gronks missed 26 games in six years. He missed a Super Bowl, and they won. And he missed the second half of the AFC championship last year, and they didn't miss a beat, and they won. And the other thing, if you look at the Patriots over the years with him and without him, he's worth about a field goal. So that's something. There is absolute value with Gronk.

But, you know, how much value? Is he a little overrated? Would he be as good without Tom Brady? No, no, no, no, no. Wes Welker was never as good before Tom and after Tom. Dion Branch, before Tom and after Tom. So yes, Brady has made virtually every receiver who can memorize a playbook way better than largely what we think he is. Even as great as Randy Moss is, the oh my God season was with Tom Brady.

But let me just say this about Saxonville and Jalen Ramsey. I'm always very cautious when somebody in life, a person of business has a little bit of success, and they get real chatty. Spurs don't talk a lot. Steelers, I don't hear a lot of guarantees. New England's pretty quiet. Same with Alabama. Saxonville was good for about, I don't know, three months. 10 and 6.

Andrew Luckin, Deshawn Watson got hurt in your own division. The AFC is down. It still is down. And Saxonville can't stop talking. And I like Jalen Ramsey, but they can't stop talking. I just want you to remember that the NFL is a lot like music. There are a lot of one-hit wonders. Remember this song?

Remember the one you dance to? Joy Taylor was the hit of Miami dancing. Remember? I was the macarena queen. Okay, do you know who? This is played on every cruise ship. But do you remember the second hit by that band? No, there wasn't.

There wasn't. There wasn't. But for about a year and a half, it was the most played, discussed, and dance two song in America. You do realize Vanilla Ice, you actually memorize the words to Vanilla Ice songs. Yo, VIP. Let's kick it. You thought he was cool. You thought he was going to last forever.

Okay, you love Vanilla Ice. You won't admit it now to anybody, but you were walking around me like, I am Vanilla Ice. Also, remember this song? Oh, yeah, you love this song, too. Yeah. The Baja Man. Music in the NFL. You get a lot of one-hit wonders.

Steelers going to be good for a long time. Patriot is going to be good for a long time. I have a feeling Philadelphia is going to be good for a long time. The Seahawks got a little vanilla ice. Seahawks got a little vanilla ice. San Francisco with hardball, a little Baja man. Like Saxonville. Last 10 years, one playoff appearance.

I like Jalen Ramsey, great player. But Gronk is good. No question. He's better with Tom than he would be with Ryan Tannihill. But when you look at the numbers, he is worth a field goal. He is worth a field goal. Just remember this. Outside of quarterback, Vegas doesn't think most NFL players, even the great ones,

are worth more than a point. He's worth three times that. Joy Taylor with a news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, we've got a little bit of news before we get to the third line news, and that is Aaron Donald. The Rams and Aaron Donald

have finalized a record six-year $135 million, including an $87 million guaranteed. Oh, my God. Per of sources, according to Adam Schafter, it's the richest defensive deal in NFL history. Donald is now tied to L.A. for the next seven years,

and of course we'll be ready Monday night against the Raiders, and maybe probably not now, to Leo Mac. Does it appear the Rams are the only team in the league that is not working with a salary cap? They've got something going on for sure. So, and

Shepter also tweeted that his salary cap number for the 2018 season rises from 6.892 million to 8.892 million. So they still have room in their salary cap after signing them. What the Rams are clearly able to do and teams

that are lower like the Raiders can't do is in order to give 87 million guarantees, You have to show in your bank. You have $87 million. The Raiders don't. And so Stan Cronky is either the richest owner in the NFL or second richest to Paul Allen. They are giving out guaranteed money like they're the Yankees in a sport with no salary cap.

And I'm here to tell you, 90% of the teams in this league, they're not writing those guaranteed bonus checks. They're not giving you those guaranteed money. Not to everyone, that's for sure. But congrats Darren. He got his contract. So earlier this week, we talked about this. Malcolm Jenkins said he wanted this Super Bowl champion sign hanging in the Eagles locker room gone. And good thing for Jenkins.

Head coach Doug Peterson listens to, he listens to his players and decided to have the banner moves elsewhere. And Lane Johnson seemed fine with the move also. Let's take a listen. I think it's good. I kind of got annoyed looking at it every day. Hey, we won one. It's a great a trip for the city. But as far as a new year, I think it's good to be fresh with our approach.

I actually, this whole mentality is starting to make me. kind of believe in the Eagles again. I'm not going to go as far as Super Bowl, but the fact that they are aware that those kind of subconscious messages that were already on top, we won the Super Bowl, and this is kind of distracting

to have this in the locker room, is a good time. I think they're too well coached, too well quarterback, and too good on the lines, not to be very viable. Doesn't mean they're going to, again, you can have injuries.

Listen, you can have, you get beaten, to hail Mary. I mean, but their personnel, they're coaching and their quarterback and their general manager, Howie Roseman. They're just too good at the top. And they have a good owner. So I do see this. I'm not saying they're going to do a New England run. But the first thing I always look at, who's your owner, who's your GM, who's your coach, and who's your quarterback. And if you can give me B plus to A minus and all those, that's the Steelers. That's when you last for 10 to 15 years. Yeah, they're built to be sustainable. So Josh Rosen has made no secret of his grudge about being

drafted as the fourth quarterback in round one, and with week one approaching, he's here to tell everyone that nothing has changed. It's always in the back of my head, these teams that kind of screwed it up. I definitely won't let them live it down when all of a sudden done.

I was frustrated and still am, but I don't really need much external motivation. I'm a bit of a perfectionist on the field. I drive myself crazy enough watching my own film, and all that stuff is on the side. But I definitely won't forget. I promise you.

I mean, he's got chip. He does a chip, which I like, I like that. And he does, he has a bit of, I'm not saying that he's going to be Tom Brady, but he has that kind of Tom Brady type of sound where, you know, I'm always going to want to prove myself because I was slighted and I'm to prove it to myself and to everyone else that they should have taken me higher. But nobody knew who the first quarterback was going to go in this draft. Nobody knew anything about the quarterbacks in this draft.

Up until the day of the draft, an hour for the draft started, no one who was going number one overall. You didn't even think Baker should have gone number one. I still don't think Josh Allen is a first round quarterback or Lamar Jackson, and I think it should have gone Darnold 1, Rosen, 2, Baker 3, all in the first round. So, I mean, listen, he's carrying some weight on those shoulders. Good for him. I mean, if this one needs to be motivated, I just feel like he shouldn't feel slow-slided.

It was kind of a sliding scale based on your preference with the quarterbacks this year. Finally, Aaron Rogers signed his four-year $134 million. contract extension on Wednesday that keeps him with the Packers, at least until 2023, but Roger says that doesn't necessarily mean he will finish his career in Green Bay. I don't think this guarantees anything, other than maybe the first three years of a deal. To get to the end of the contract would be sustained, consistent play. You know, I want to go out and prove that I'm still an elite player in this league. And if I do that, then I feel good that I've got a opportunity to finish my career in Green Bay.

but I definitely am not arrogant in the mindset that it would never happen to me. I mean, if it happened to Farby, it could happen to any of us. You know, it's interesting about Aaron as great as he is, and I've always said he's more Elway to me, high IQ, Bay Area kid, little cocky, and we think he deserves or should have at least one more Super Bowl. Listen, Aaron's been hurt twice. This is how fragile this league is. What if Aaron got hurt again this year?

People would start saying, oh, that's his third injury. He's injury. So Aaron's right. In the NFL, it doesn't guarantee anything. Once you get a couple of injury, Odell Beckham, by the way, what if Odell gets hurt week five? Now, he's officially becoming Derek Rose,

where he's a star and he's great, but he can't stay healthy. So NFL's different than other sports. I think if Aaron doesn't get hurt for four years, but what if he got dinged in week 12 this year? Well, for all of our sakes, I hope that neither of those two scenarios happen. Totally agree with him.

Please don't let Odell turn into Derek Rose and don't let Aaron ought to hurt. By the way, What's your opinion on this get-up he's got going on, the denim cowboy outfit? I don't know. Aaron's a character. I think you can pull that off. Yes.

He looks like a little Hollywood in him. Look at that. That's funny. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd-Ly News. Didn't have a lot of idols growing up.

This guy was one of them. NBC's Sunday night football. One of the most memorable empirical grates in our industry. Al Michaels. is joining us in the herd today. I mean, listen, I'm just going to embarrass you with the compliments and... I want to know what empirical means. I mean, you are at the top.

You are somebody that we, there's a standard in life for certain. If you want organic food, you go to Whole Foods. I don't want organic food, trust me. You don't eat vegetables. I don't eat any vegetables. Okay, move that mic next to you. Move that baby right here. First time I've, you know, used one of these mics.

This is pretty cool. By the way, we're debuting a new set. in a week, so you'll have to come back for that very exciting. Josh Rosen, you actually did one of their games. We're talking about all these young quarterbacks. UCLA kid. He was a tennis player over in my stomping grounds, Manhattan Beach. You did one of their preseason games, so I imagine you sat down with them.

What are your impressions? I hadn't met him before. This is one sharp kid. I got to tell you. He said something the other day that I thought was fascinating. And you don't learn very much from a 23-year-old when you're my age, but I did. So we're talking about the fact that he still had eligibility at UCLA. Could have come back for a senior year.

Chip Kelly gets the job. Rosen said he was an eagle fan growing up of all things. He grew up in the South Bay here in Southern California. So he's thinking about maybe coming back. He meets with Kelly. Kelly, he said Kelly was terrific. He said, I'll support you either way. You want to come back?

That's great. You want to go to the NFL. I'll help you there as well. So then he walks out of the meeting with Kelly and he's so impressed. And now he's thinking about does he come back and play his senior year at UCLA? And he said, I could not let emotion get in the way of logic. And I thought about that. That's a brilliant statement when you think about it.

So then he said, you know, I really need to come out and go to the NFL and declare for the draft, which he eventually did. But that's how close he probably came to coming back to UCLA for another season. Baker Mayfield, what are your impressions? He is an incredibly accurate thrower, which sounds obvious. Right. But not everybody in the NFL is. Now, some guys, Big Ben can overcome some of his inefficiencies with precision.

But I think Baker will be fine. I would have picked Donald number one, but what do you make a Baker? Or maybe Rosen number one or Josh Allen number one. They could have gone any number of ways. You know, I like what I see so far. But you know as well as I do in the... the Yiddish vernacular, the preseason is bookus, right? It means nothing. I don't know what the record was. When Marlivi took the bills to four straight Super Bowls, they were something like

four and 16 in preseason. It means zero. By next week, nobody would remember anything that happened in preseason. So, you know, what I've seen are Mayfield so far, just watching him on television a couple of times. He looks pretty good. You know, he's a kid who has a lot of energy, obviously. You have a team that's 1 and 31 over the last two seasons. So

I like what they did. We'll see how it plays out. These days, it's just so hard to predict. Well, you know, who's going to be wide in the whole you got Ryan Leif coming in here in the next hour, I understand, right? So you've got to talk about him. There's a guy who knows what it's like to be picked up near the top, and we know how that worked out.

You know, Aaron Rogers signed a massive deal. I was telling my staff this morning as we were the team we were preparing for the show and I said, you know, this is a great contract. But in the NFL, you don't make much annually, but they'll give you a boatload of money up front. I mean, the Rams just gave Aaron Donald. And it's, I've always felt the franchise tag just awful for NFL players that Eli Manning said, I'm not going to go there. And John Elway said, I'm not going to go. Because if it goes wrong early in your NFL career, very rarely does it become Drew Brees. And you look at, you've covered the NBA. and you've covered the NFL.

It is interesting, isn't it, where in the NFL, the team really, even if you're Aaron Rogers, mostly controls you. You almost never see a quarterback become a free agent, a great one. LeBron's a free agent every year. The two sports, and you've covered both, are so different how they treat their athlete. I'd rather be an NBA player if I was a business guy, right?

Well, maybe, you know, on the labor end, they've made the right deals. Look, you know, the interesting thing is that I think to me, probably the best commissioner I've seen in my lifetime is David Stern. And Adam Silver is, you know, grew up with David and Adams done a fantastic job. So the NBA's done a really good job of figuring out, you know, how to meld with the players. They're in, you know, pretty good shape as a sport right now. They're in very good shape as a sport where the NFL has a lot of issues and a lot of problems. And look, to this day, we still go back to what's happening.

happening between the players and management right now. They still can't get some of these things down pat. I mean, you know, the anthem thing obviously is one of them. But Al this has been going on for 35, 40 years. I know. I understand. Well, it's better for the players right now, too. It is. It is.

There's no question about that. You know, I always think, too, you know, it's so funny because these numbers come out, and I always think to myself, hold out for a second. We live in a country. The average salary in this country is about $60,000 a year. That's the average salary. Yeah. So you forget, you know, inflation and all of the rest.

But if you're going to make, on average, if you're an average worker in this country, $2.4 million in your lifetime. Think about that. In your lifetime. So we're not going to throw any, you know, charity affairs for the players or the owners or, frankly, anybody else in sports these days. Every year I go into a season, Al Michael is joining us. And I have a pretty good sense of teams.

but there's always a team or two that all kind of called like a dark horse team I can't figure out. For me, it's the Giants. I love Pat Shermer, upgraded left tackle, Odell's back. I think they have some decent defensive personnel and Sequin Barclay. That's my team I've said. They could be six in ten or ten and six, I don't know. Do you have a mystery team? You can't quite figure out.

My mystery team probably would be Seattle at this point. because there have been so many changes up there. But I have a lot of faith in John Snyder as the GM. He's done a great job. You know, Pete Carroll has done a great job as well. They've lost a lot of guys. You know, Sherman's out the door. Chancellor's not there.

Who knows with Earl Thomas, but you still have a great quarterback. I mean, Russell Wilson is something special. So, I mean, I look at Seattle as a team that can go anywhere from, I don't know, 11 and 5 to 5 and 11. They're in a tough division. So I don't think they're going to go. 11 and 5, but I just can't figure them out at this particular point. Yeah, I'm the same way.

And Pete, by the way, is last year of his contract. And, you know, again, here we go with Garapolo and Jared Goff is rising. Of all your great moments, everybody knows Miracle and Ice, I've said this for years and years. If you didn't hear Al do baseball years ago, as I was growing up in my career, in my opinion, you were the best that's ever done it. You and Scully are the best that have ever done it. And by the way, Joe Buck's amazing. But I'm going to take you to my favorite Al Michaels moment, not called Miracle on Ice.

You and Chris Collinsworth in one of the most perplexing, hard to describe things in NFL history. You got Griff Whalen ready to take the snap. He'll snap, but actually, Colt Anderson is behind him. What in the world? illegal formation the whole right side of the line was not on the line of scrimmage offense this penalty is declined

the result of the play is first down for New England you got a guy on either side of them what are you doing here? I've never seen anything more bizarre than that what was the plan? I don't know I mean completely much I mean I watched that

I've watched that a hundred times I almost felt like that was the end of Chuck Pagano a wonderful man. It felt like, oh boy, that's not going to work. Well, when they came up to the line of scrimmage, I mean, I'm looking at this thing going, what am I seeing? You know, am I having, you know, I'm a blacking out? Because nobody had ever seen that formation. And then I was trying to figure out, as I said, on the air that night, what was the plan? What were they trying to do with this thing? So it didn't quite work out. Speaking of this, and it really showed you kind of

juxtaposition of Belichick, the genius, and Pagano, the struggling, you know, coach. Let me ask you about Belichick. In these pre-game meetings you have, you know, I've heard, oh, he can be sharp and acerbic and funny. Does he give you anything? Yeah, I mean, I've known Bill for over 30 years, you know, knew him as the defensive coordinator of the Giants. You know, when they won the Super Bowl back in 1990 against Buffalo. So we've been in a lot of meetings with Bill. You know what he loves?

He loves the history of the game. He knows as much about the history of football as anybody. So in these meetings, the coaches are not giving us the game plan, really. You know, nobody watches more film or tape than Chris Collins. We can figure it out, or Chris can figure it out in terms of what they're trying to do. But we go into these things, into these meetings with these coaches, and talk about personnel. get some of their feelings about certain things.

You know, look, with Bill, it can be anything. But if you get Bill engaged in a conversation about the history of the game, Lois to tell a story, and I love to tell it too about he worked for Ted Marcher Brodo when he started. He made $25 a week or something like that. You know, he's, Bill can be, he's very, very good. But we don't go in there expecting him to say, you know, here's what the plan is. You can kind of figure out what the plan is.

And you just want to get a sense of where he's coming from and where the team is. And that's the essence of those meetings. When you do cowboy games, it's the biggest brand in North America. Outside of maybe Manchester United, it could be one of the biggest brands in the world, right? Do they feel different as a broadcaster? Jerry, the Cowboys, the brand, the audience is going to be bigger? They do. There's no question about it.

I don't know what it is. You know, I've been asked a bunch of times, you know, Sunday night football. How come the Cowboys are on the maximum? number of times, no matter what their record was the year before. They get your attention. You know, you go back to and people mock it now when they were known as America's team years and years ago. I don't know if they're America's team right now, but they always get your attention. With the Cowboys, I liken them to the Yankees in a way you either love them or you hate them.

And there's rarely anything in between. People want to see them win. People want to see them lose. Jerry's one of the most fascinating. people I've ever met. You've known him. Oh, tremendous, yeah. You've known him forever. I've known Jerry since he bought the team back in 1989 at an owner's meeting. You know, I walked up to him and I said, hey, I just want to, you know, tell you one thing, good luck. I said, you just fired Tom Landry. You're getting killed in the Dallas papers.

But let me tell you something. Over the last three years doing Dallas games, the papers were killing the team for not firing Tom Landry. So you just did what they want you to do, and now you're taking it in the neck. So that was our first conversation. And then through the 90s, he would show us the model of a stadium that he wanted to build. He wanted to build it in downtown Dallas. Couldn't get that done. But then he got it done in Arlington. And I mean, to me, we go to all of the stadiums around the country.

And Colin, I mean, this place is going, it's 10th season. And you know what I love about that stadium, too? How it's maintained. Because we go to stadiums that are 8, 9, 10 years old, and all of a sudden you begin to see the, you know, the leakage in a way. You walk through, you walk into the lower reaches of a stadium and you smell the dumpster. Yeah. I mean, believe me, we've been to a number of places like that. You walk into, we were in there the other night, the place is pristine.

Not only is it beautiful, not only is it the best stadium I've ever seen, but it's maintained perfectly. Oh, Michael. It's so great having you on. So from here, you're just going to go hit golf balls. Well, why do you think, well, on radio you can't see it, but obviously I've got my golf channel shirt on. a freebie. So you're going to go. I never wear a light colored pants except on warm days on the course.

So you're going to go out and hit golf balls today. I'll go out and play golf today. What a life you live. Well, yeah, but then next week is, you know, back to school. You got my crayons. I've got my composition. You know what my wife? I've told you about what my wife always says.

She goes, if you look like owl, she goes, that guy looks great. She goes, that's a guy that takes care of himself. No vegetables. I've told you this many times. So my wife's a vegan. Al doesn't believe in vegetables. You guys would never click. But she does think you, she's like, look at that guy.

All the, he is so buttoned up. I walk past a restaurant called the, or drive past something called the veggie grill once in a while. I get nauseous. I really do. Steaks and chops, baby. Steaks, steak and potatoes. Occasionally some fish. It's great seeing you.

Back in a second in LA, it's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. days in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Stop into Lowe's for Labor Day savings. Add a pop-up color with three-quart mums. Three for 12 bucks. All projects have a starting point valid through September 12th, excludes Alaska and Hawaii. All right, time for our segment regarding the rookie NFL quarterbacks in the first round, five of them. And the segment is called They Are Who We Thought They Were.

thought they were. So let's start with Baker Mayfield. He is what I thought he would be. I've watched every big moment for Baker Mayfield in the preseason. I'll say it again. As a number one pick at quarterback, I wish he was bigger. I wish he had a little stronger arm. I wish he wasn't a two-time walk on athletically.

But Baker Mayfield looks downfield. When he lets go with a football, it always ends up mostly where he wants it to. and I think Baker Mayfield is ready to play in the NFL. You could put him in as a starter right now, and he'd go 5 and 11 in the NFL, 6 and 10. I don't think he'd win as many games as Tyrod Taylor. I think Tyrod Taylor, if he got breaks, can win 7, 8 games for the Browns. I think Baker Mayfield's ready to win you about 5 or 6, but he is an NFL quarterback. I've never thought he's a bust.

He's looked exactly like I thought. Little small, I would have taken Sam Donald with the number one pick. I think Donald's better than. even his critics thought. But Baker is exactly what I thought he would be. They are who we thought they were. Let's go to Lamar Jackson. He is exactly what I thought he would be so far in the preseason.

He has the lowest completion percentage of any of the rookie first round picks. He has the lowest passer rating of any of the first round quarterback picks. That is because I have always seen him as a project, not a prospect. I don't think he's close to starting his. the NFL. And he's done it mostly against third team guys because, you know, Flacco's the starter. RG3's number two. My guess is they trade RG3 here and get something for him. And they go with Flacco, who's not a guy that gets hurt much. He's like Eli Manning. He gets rid of the ball, big strong guy, avoids trouble. You don't have any real concern that Flacco is going to get hurt.

Remember, Lamar has struggled completion percentage wise, and that's with Baltimore. And Baltimore's second and third teamers are better than Cleveland's and the Jets and Arizona. So he's got better people around him than the other rookie quarterbacks. He's faced less elite defenses, first and second teamers against him in the preseason. He is exactly who I thought he would be. Next up. They are who we thought they were. Why don't we talk about Josh Allen, or excuse me, Sam Darnold.

Darnold looks like the real deal. Big, thick, can move. Actually, he looks more under control with the Jets than he did with. USC is last year. And I don't know what that says for USC coaching. But Sam Darnold to me is exactly what I thought he would be. He looks like the most ready to come in and start and win some games. I don't think he's going to lead him to a playoff. I don't think he's going to be polished and refined. But he is to me the kind of quarterback who takes over a sad franchise, a woebegone franchise, an understaffed team, and can carry them to some wins. Other rookies would not.

Darnold is exactly what I thought. They are who we thought they were. Josh Allen and Buffalo, after a couple of nice outings against second and third teamers, I think he looks overwhelmed when he faced the Cincinnati Bingle's first team defense. I think he's a little tall, a little gangly, and inaccurate when the pressure's on him. I think he's going to really struggle. I don't think he should start his rookie year.

I thought he should be a backup. I thought he was kind of a second round talent, but it's the NFL and quarterbacks matter. I think he's going to look overwhelmed at times. Now he has a cannon, and he's a big strong kid, and he unravels when you put the heat on him like in college. He unraveled against Oregon. He unraveled against Iowa.

He unraveled against the Bengals. He really, he's exactly what we thought he would be. He's got the tools, but he can't put it together against an elite defense when the game speeds up. I think maybe he'll be good over time, but I think largely he is what we thought he would be. And finally, they are who we thought they were. Josh Rosen has been exactly what I thought. He's already missed a game because he's hurt.

He throws the best football of all of them. Listen, Josh Rosen, my questions aren't that he's a little cocky. My questions aren't, oh, he grew up with a family with money. I don't give a rip. So did Peyton Manning. What I care about is durability. I've said, I don't see Josh Rosen lasting 12 to 15 years physically. He's a little Matt Ryan, a little Jared Gough,

where I'd love to see him with a little bit more weight. Now, Goff has a perfect system and a perfect coach and a great O line. And Matt Ryan's just got a great roster and a great team, period, and a great O line. Rosen, when he has time to throw, has thrown the best-looking football of all five of these guys. But he's already been dinged, and that's always been my number one concern. So really, so far, they are who. we thought they were. They are who we thought they were. They've looked pretty much on point and as their draft prospectus predicted. All right, coming up next, Ryan Leif, Greg Cosell, Bucky Brooks,

am I going to amend my NFL predictions? I get one more amendment. I get a second amendment next. Oh, this is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles. I Heart Radio. Fox Sports Radio. FS1, Joy Taylor. It's Friday. College football, massive college football weekend. I'll get to that in about 30 minutes.

We'll talk Notre Dame and Michigan, Washington against Auburn. Those are unbelievable opening week games. Miami LSU. Miami LSU. There are some incredible college football games this weekend. Texas, Maryland. Keep your eye on the longhorns. I think they're better than everybody thinks.

So what I do, Joy, is I make my NFL predictions in July. And then when people think of the First Amendment and the Second Amendment, they often think of free speech, right to bear arms. I think of First Amendment, Second Amendment, is I get two amendments to my NFL picks. I watch the preseason. And I've already had one. I still have one left and I have a week to do it. So let me give you my NFL predictions.

With my first amendment changes already, in the AFC, the team that I made the greatest amendment to, this is actually the AFC West, so we can start there. I reduced the Chiefs one win and I gave the Raiders one more win. So the way I see the AFC West, the Chargers win it. Nobody else is a playoff team, but Kansas City's in the playoff conversation until the end of the year. Next up, I'll follow you. AFC East. I don't think the Patriots end up as a number one seed. I never have left tackle.

They don't have an answer yet. I don't think in the box defensively, they're elite outside of Dante High Tower. I reduce the Jets one win because I think they're going to start Sam Darnold. I think Teddy would have got you to 500. I think Sam probably gets you to a choppy or seven and nine. And that's how I see the AFC East. My biggest amendment so far, I have the Steelers as the number one seed in the AFC this year.

I'll have a buy and host all the way through the playoffs. The Ravens. Seven and nine was my projection. I watched them this preseason. Flacco looked really focused. I think they're going to be a playoff team. Baltimore at 9 and 7. Harbaugh, a little on the hot seat, he'll be focused.

I think Cleveland Bengals, both 6 and 10. The difference is I think the Browns at 6 and 10 will have a very optimistic feeling in the room. Baker will start somewhere in October. He'll win a couple games. You'll feel like, okay, we got our guy. And then finally, AFC South. Oh, yeah, this is the other change I made in the NFC. I had the Lions, the Dormats. Matt Patricia, Matt Stafford, I think they're going to struggle this year because I think the Packers are better and have a chance to win the Super Bowl. I think the Vikings will pull back a little, but are still a viable playoff team at the end of the year. And I'm not sure what I'm getting with the Bears. I don't love

Trubisky and the Lions at 6 and 10. Other than that, you know how I think I've made no amendments to the NFC East. Eagles winning, Cowboys vying for the playoffs. The Giants are my dark horse team. I don't know what to make of them. Upgrades at left tackle. Upgrade at running back. Odell's back. Head coach up. great. I like their defensive personnel in spots and the Redskins. I think Jay Gruden is on the hot seat. Most of the stuff I have projected so far, I have not changed. I have one more amendment available to me. I've already used my first amendment. I can go to a second amendment if I want. I'm going to think about it over the weekend. Think about what to do with the New York Giants.

But there's where we are at this point. All right. With that, I bring in my friend, a former, a former number two pick overall. Ryan Leif, who's doing some college football, a former college player of the year. So as I go into these preseason NFL predictions, I've made a couple of amendments. Baltimore is the only team that I saw in the preseason and went, you know what, O line, D line, pressure on the quarterback,

I think they're a little better. Like, that's the only team I've seen. Everybody else, I'm not sure what to make of the chiefs or giants, should I take anything out of preseason? I don't. We've talked about this before, especially when it came to me. I'm probably in the preseason Hall of Fame.

Were you good in the preseason? Yeah, I mean, you don't get schemed against. And I think that's the biggest thing that doesn't get said. I think you see what you can out of the young men, but the defensive coordinators aren't scheming, right? They are just installing their defense. How is it how it goes? First week's cover four, cover two,

next week's one high safety looks. So a lot of times you're not. even get in the same kind of blitzes, things like that. Week one hits you in the face. It's a different animal because they are scheming against you and what you bring to the table. And especially as a young quarterback, you're probably going to get a lot more zone.

Not as much man where it's easy to read, but a lot more zone to make you sit back in the pocket, deal with the pressure, and go through your reads and make the right choice. Let's go through the quarterbacks. You've watched them all. You've been in this spot. You know what they're facing.

Let's start with Baker Mayfield. What say you? You know, I'll be honest. He's been the most impressive in terms of restraint. And maybe Hard Knocks is protecting him a little bit, and we're not actually seeing a lot of maybe some antics, but he really seems like he is just, he's there to learn, get better, and be the representative of that team down the line.

For him, he's not going to have to start. You know, Terrod Taylor's going to be the guy early. And the question is then is how many games do they have to win for Hugh Jackson to retain his job and then allow Baker to get the opportunity to play down the line? Let's go to Lamar Jackson, who is incredibly dynamic, still feels like to me he likes to leave that pocket. That's his comfort level right now. It was in college. I mean, there were times on 3rd and 8.

He's been so successful at leaving it and getting the first down. What are your impressions? That's the big difference, right? Even my big body in college could get out and run away from a defensive tackle. You could? But in the pros, when you have a guy that's 310 pounds who could run you down from behind a la Warren Sapp, You know, it's a different monster. So you have to be able to sit in that pocket and go through your reads.

And right now he's still, it's muscle memory to just simply go to maybe your first read and then move on and go. And luckily he's got Joe Flackle there. He's going to be able to sit back and learn. And that's a unique experience for a rookie quarterback. Most of the time, you get kind of, you get forced into the situation and have to play. Yeah, that's Josh Allen. Sam Darnold, your impressions. For me, he's the best quarterback in this class to,

be able to deal with failure when things happen this season because they're going to lose football games and what that looks like. I think he just, he has the mentality. He's kind of got that Southern California swag to him where he's just, he's kind of laid back. He deals with day-to-day things, what he's got to improve on, but he's looked, he's looked the most composed when it comes to dealing with things on the football field. And I assume we'll be when it, when it comes to dealing with them off the field as well. What do you make of his arm? You know, the arm situation is always, I think, overrated. I think I had a very strong arm. I think Josh Allen has the strongest arm that we can look at when it's in terms of what the quarterback position looks like.

And I think you don't necessarily see those guys making those throws down the field like that in games. Now, being able to fit into a tight hole, yes. And sometimes it may get you into more trouble, especially when you're that young, when you don't necessarily know where the defenders are coming from. And I think that that might be an issue for Josh Allen and Buffalo early on. Let's go to Josh Rosen, UCLA kid with Arizona. Haven't seen a ton of him. What do you see, though?

Haven't seen a ton of him either. He's kind of been held back a little. bit. I think I still believe that he's the most fundamentally sound quarterback heading into this draft, throwing the football. He thought when he's on and has, when he has, when he can step into a throw, it's the best looking football. In fact, it's better than most of the guys. It's better than Jimmy Garoppolo's football. It's better than Mitch Trubiskey's football. Like when he can step into it, Ryan, right here. The touchdown, the touchdown throw right here. This was, that was impressive. When I watched it for the first time, I said, you know, sometimes I watched some of these young

quarterbacks and the things they see. They've played the position for so much longer than I did. You know, I went from football to basketball to baseball. You know, they were football, football, elite 11, all these camps that allow you to get ready for college and then they're in it. And some of the times their vision really, really impresses me. And he is one of them. But he also has a guy like Sam Bratford. Now, the problem with Sam has been, he just hasn't been able to stay healthy. Now, if he's able to stay healthy, you probably won't see Josh Rosen the entirety of the season unless they start really falling off the map. They also have to rebuild their O-line.

Okay, and finally, Josh Allen, who was almost like an untamed horse at Wyoming, he had this huge arm. He'd throw the ball, you know, way down the field, and then sometimes he was wildly inaccurate. I could make the argument that he's got some Ryan Leaf where you look at some of these throws, big, tall, can move. I don't know what to make of him. I think he's going to be overwhelmed a little? Probably.

If I asked you, you know, how did you think Wyoming's season went last year? people would tell you like three and nine or something. Yeah. Well, they went eight and five. They went to a bowl game. Yeah. They didn't perform well against Oregon, Iowa, the big Power Five conference games that he played in. He only threw for 1,800 yards, which you do not see in college anymore.

So you think, like, this is not going to be a success, but I think he may be one of the best to deal with adversity, too. You know, he dealt with a lot last year of being what people thought didn't meet expectations, but still was being touted as possibly the first pick in the NFL draft. Yeah. So I think he's ready there. What I'm worried about is that they went and got rid of a quarterback into Rod Taylor who got them to the playoffs. And in doing so, brought in what they thought of the grass is greener type of mentality, and then they don't do it.

They don't back it up. And I was talking to one of your producers. And I really think that when you talk about teams making a regression this year, I think Buffalo may be one of those teams. I think they are the team. They'll go playoffs to five wins. They should have kept Tyrod and kept him for a year or two and just let Josh Allen develop. He was clearly a kid that's not ready right now this second to play. And that's okay.

That's fine. There's a future. These are future. You're betting on people's futures, allow them to develop that future. I will say this. When that was going on for me, you know, I wanted that competition and I wanted to start. You were not, you had to, you know, put me in restraints to not want to be out on that football field. And there's got to be an understanding and an open-mindedness to what's best for you because you want this to be a lengthy career.

The career is, well, they last, what, 2.8 years? years. You know, it doesn't last. That means you're 25 years old and you're looking to figure out a new profession. I want to segue, Aaron Rogers just signed a huge contract. You and I both watched them in the PAC 12. Came from a junior college. A little undersized. I thought in college he was a little robotic. Remember, he kept the ball up here. You know, it's easy to just say, well, I mean, Aaron's just got a great arm. It wasn't that great in college. When you look at Aaron, the totality of Aaron, Cal backing up, the guy. What is it? What is what makes him? I don't know. I'd love to bottle it, though, and sell it because it is. I mean, if you, when you meet him,

I had the great opportunity last year to spend a lot of, last summer to spend a lot of time with him. And, uh, and, uh, and work out with him and play some golf and just kind of, just kind of see the, the mentality behind what is, I believe, the best NFL quarterback in the league right now. And he's coming off an injury. But what he's able to do, his ability to be not only great teammate, but leader with a little swagger. And kind of just like, you know, everybody just relax here, all right. I'm going to be fine. We're going to be fine.

I'm not buying into your narrative of this is over. And this huge contract means I'm not going to have the same work ethic and things like that. I think this is just a stabilizing thing for him and his family. family, and he's just going to be the same type of football player you've seen for the last, you know, 12 years. There are two camps on DAC, overrated, underrated. I think it's the loudest franchise in the league. I think it's sometimes the most discussed position in American sports, Cowboy quarterback.

They were chaotic before he arrived, 4 and 12. They were chaotic in the season when he didn't play. They weren't just struggling. They were awful. I like Dak, but a lot of people are like, come on, that offensive lines. Zeke, where do you fall? I like him too. I think from the moment I saw him playing that preseason game against L.A.

down here when he was making those big throws, it was different. Usually I don't necessarily take away what you do in the preseason, but I did with him. I think he's a great leader for the organization. My only worry for them is that I think, you know, they lost their two best receivers. They lost Des Bryant and they lost Jason Witten, his security blankets. What's he go to now? That's my biggest question. I think they're going to struggle.

I think that division got a lot stronger. You have the defending world champions. You have a team that people think are now world beaters because they added a running back and paid O'Dell Beckham. So if anything, maybe third, Alex Smith in Washington, which makes them find a way to wait, maybe win eight games. Dallas is fighting for the caboose there, I think, in that division. Wow.

You like Dak. I like Dak, though. But you like him, but. The thing about quarterbacks, and you talked about it with Aaron Rogers, there aren't many that actually, like Tom Brady makes the team. Makes the team. Makes the team. You don't find those. Aaron makes the team. Andrew Luck makes the team. Yes. This is the epitome of a team sport. It is. And if you don't have the respective of other components to your team, when you are what you would consider a solid NFL quarterback like DAC is. but if you don't have the tools, the players around you, you guys are going to struggle,

and it's not going to be all on you, but because you decided to play quarterback and you are the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, head coaches, quarterbacks get all the praise, but they get all the blame too when it doesn't go right. And that's just, that's what we signed up for. It's not necessarily true, but it's what we signed up for. By the way, he does PAC 12 this morning on Sirius XM. College football starts this weekend. We'll have Ryan Leif back.

Absolute pleasure. Your life story is amazing. an amazing guy. You've got a new little one in your life, which is so cool. And you're going around doing motivation. He's about as big as you now already. Is he? Yeah, he's a giant. He's a giant kid? He is he really? He's already running. He's 10 months old, and he's running around the house. Well, I hope you have him doing, like, the cone drill. You can't start too early on this stuff. I've been speaking at these colleges, and I always tell the joke before I go on to speak to the team that when we were at Cal and when we were at Texas A&M, I told the team that Justin Wilcox and

Jimbo Fisher already offered my son outside, so you guys better. Ten months in. Ryan, leave, good seeing you, bud. Yeah, thank you. Coming up next, spoiler alert. I'll give you my thoughts on the two biggest college football games of the weekend. Greg CoSell. What has he seen by these quarterbacks and these preseason teams?

All around the corner. We're halfway home. We've got a ton to talk about. Car shopping's confusing. A lot of terms. Dealer price, invoice, list price. Here's what's not saving three grand off MSRP on. average truecar.com.

All right, in five minutes. Spoiler alert in five minutes. So you may have to turn in five minutes. I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen. There is some massive college football games this weekend that I cannot wait to watch. But first, Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So Aaron Donald just got paid and Kalee-O-Mack is trying to do the same thing on Thursday night. Khalil Mack replied to a tweet that showed him rushing the quarterback. Mack said, quote, I miss it. And the comment did not go unnoticed by his Raiders teammates, including Derek Carr, who responded, I miss you. So he'll exchange from the Raiders there. You know, it's tapping into their sensitive side. Sure, sure. Which I'm sure Khalil is feeling right now since Aaron Donald just got six years, $135, $87 million guaranteed.

Wow. Wow. That is a huge number for a defensive lineman. It really is. And, I mean, you just keep saying it. The Rams just keep finding more money. I don't remember, they have the best punter in the league, and arguably the best kicker in the league,

and the smartest offensive guy in the league. I honestly think this. Are we undervaluing the Rams? Like, everybody, I notice this all the time, because I'm in Los Angeles. So anytime I like a Los Angeles team, my audience is like, oh, you live in Los Angeles. No, I actually think LeBron's really good.

That's why, remember, I told you a year ago, LeBron Lakers is probably going to happen. Oh, you just live in Los Angeles. Where do you end up? I told you a couple years ago. Sam Donald's going to be great. Well, you're a USC fan. He looks really great.

Folks, the Rams, not the Eagles, have the most complete team. They've got the smartest young offensive guy. Their offensive line is good. The receiving core is outstanding. They have Indomaconsu and Aaron Donald on the defensive line. And oh, by the way, their secondary now is Akib to leave, Marcus Peters, Sam Shields. They have a great young safety. They have the best punner, the best kicker.

I think we're undervaluing the Rams. People just don't want to just say it because they're new out here and because everybody will say, well, you're out in L.A. Good Lord, this team is talented. You know what I think it is? They don't have an identity. I think their identity. Who are the Rams?

They don't say anything. Well, no, they don't. You never hear from any of them. You never see any of them. You have all these big names, all those big personalities you mentioned. You don't hear anything from the Rams ever. I kind of like that about it. I like it, too, but I'm saying that's probably why they're going to

to sneak up on people this year because they have all these great players and big names, but you don't, there's no I mean, the Eagles, you know, they're loud, they were the underdog, they're trying to repeat the Patriots of the evil empire, the Packers of our Aaron Rogers. Each team has an identity. You don't know what the Rams are. It's really just Sean McVey. So, after years of being rivals, Lance Stevenson and

LeBron are teammates now, as we know. And in a new interview with the indie star, Lance said that LeBron was very interested in teaming up with him. You'll probably go sick people and have me sick me on people. So it's going to be fun, man. It's going to be very interesting year.

Just playing with him and just winning games with him is going to be incredible. So I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. Very interesting, interested in playing with Lance Stevenson. This is exactly why I don't get crazy about NBA beefs. It's like the whole idea that Westbrook and Durant,

they hate each other and blah, they're not speaking terms. and after a while it's like, okay, fine. It's not going to be what it used to be. It's not this old school we hate each other for all eternity thing. It just doesn't. Lance Stevenson blew in LeBron's ear and now he's his teammate and he's talking about LeBron is going to want to sick him on other teams and he was very interested in playing with him.

I just can't buy into them anymore, which is fine. But it takes a little bit of that like genuine edge away. Yeah, I think the whole Lakers thing, I think this is, again, this is weird. nobody is willing to say they're going to win 50 games because if you do it's really funny right now Los Angeles

sports is rolling the LeBron Lakers thing the Dodgers are pretty good team the Rams are unbelievable the Chargers are pretty good I think we look at this everybody's kind of afraid to just say this outside of Golden State

this may be the best team in the league I know it sounds crazy but take Golden State out of it I think it's Boston Houston I'm not sure they're not a top four team. I'm really, Rondo is an upgrade. All these rookies are going to get better. I just added LeBron James.

Like, why is everybody struggling with? LeBron took that mess in Cleveland and beat the Celtics. I think it's one because he's in the West now. And two, because the Lakers for the past four years have been so bad. It's hard to imagine that LeBron is just going to go there and then all of a sudden they're going to be able to compete in the West. Like in the East, it was, it's just, even though there are good teams in the East with great players, there's just this mentality that it's like the East is just a complete cakewalk.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. I just don't want to put that kind of pressure on. I want to just enjoy the Lakers and just enjoy LeBron's first year. Today, Milwaukee and Yonis face the Lakers. Who are you taking in a seven-game series? I'm going to take the Lakers. I'm going to take LeBron James. Come on.

look at his efficiency numbers. I mean, everybody's just afraid to say it. Take Golden State. I'm going to do that just because I saw what LeBron did with what was on his team last year. He beat Boston. He beat, they swept Toronto. I don't disagree with you. Finally, speaking of Yonis, thank you for that segue.

Kobe Bryant has been keeping busy since he retired. He won an Oscar. He's developing Granitey Studios. He's coaching his daughter's basketball team. It's just a new Kobe. It's like sweet Kobe now. He also found time to mentor Jason's, Tatum and Kyle Kuzma.

And now it looks like the Greek Freak is getting a little mentorship from Kobe Bryant. He posted this on Instagram after their workout and said, find a way and have no regrets. Kobe Bean Bryant. Thank you for allowing me to work out with you. Kobe, I learned a lot. I like Kobe's new mentor thing. I really do. I really like it a lot.

It's a great new brand for Kobe. I like it a lot. He was so competitive. And now he's like this really cool uncle, this successful uncle that's like, you know what? I'm going to put you on the payroll. I really like your future. And instead of being the assassin, he's now like the great, friendly...

Yeah, he's just like available. What a guy. I like the new Kobe a lot. It's a completely different brand for him. He's winning Oscars. Yeah. He's a likable guy. Yeah. Joy Taylor with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News. By the way, borrow up to 40 grand to pay off your high interest debt or credit cards with Lending Club. Go to Lending Club. dot com slash sports lending club.com slash sports. Where most experts try to predict the outcomes of games.

But what happens when you know exactly what's going to happen? So I feel I'm going to do this every Friday. I feel like I almost have to warn you about this next segment. warning Colin is about to reveal the outcomes of the biggest college football games this week if you don't want to know exactly what's going to happen turn away now yeah I don't need to predict I know exactly what's going to happen first game

Michigan at Notre Dame I'm going to tell you what's going to happen first of all Michigan to me as the better coach Michigan's got the better quarterback, Shea Patterson. Michigan has the best defense for Sean Gary up front. Generally, I got the better coach. I got the better quarterback.

I got the better defense. That's a better team. There is immense pressure on Jim Harbaugh. He finally got the quarterback right. Now they finished 8 and 5 last year, but they had all sorts of injury issues with quarterback down the stretch. They get a transfer of quarterback. I got to tell you something.

Nothing against Notre Dame, but they're rebuilding. Not only did they lose offensive linemen to the NFL, but their two best for top 10 NFL picks. They lost two great offensive linemen. They lost a top running back. I think Michigan's defensive front is going to overwhelm Notre Dame's offensive line over the course of three and a half hours.

Now, Notre Dame finished 10 and 3. Their quarterback is Brandon Wimbush, and he's kind of a run guy, more than a throw guy, is about a 50% completion guy. I think this comes down to I get the better coach, and I think the rebuilding of Notre Dame's O line, which not only lost starters, but lost, Quentin Nelson was the best offensive line prospect in years,

and the right tackle goes to San Francisco 49ers. Spoiler alert, turn away. Michigan. On the road. beats Notre Dame 26 to 23. All right. Next game, turn away if you don't want to know the precise outcome of the next game. Washington goes to Atlanta to take on Auburn.

Now, these teams are both capable of getting into the playoff. They're really, really good. Auburn has a quarterback, Jared Stidham, who's going to play in the NFL. Well, Jared Stedham's probably, in my opinion, the one NFL prospect at quarterback that nobody's talking about. I really like him. Now, here's the issue. They're rebuilding their offensive line. They lost a couple of wide receivers in spring practice due to injuries.

But in this game, I get an NFL quarterback, and Auburn's defensive front seven is a bunch of NFL dudes. It is the best unit in a bunch of NFL dudes. It is the best unit of both teams. And they're playing in Atlanta. This is an hour and a half from their campus. This is almost like a home game for Auburn. So I get them playing mostly at home. I get the better quarterback,

and I get an unbelievable defensive front. Now, Auburn's secondary is weak, and they're rebuilding the O line. Let's talk about Washington. Now, I get the better coach in this game in Chris Peterson. Jake Browning is a great college quarterback. I do not believe he's an NFL quarterback. He's a great college quarterback. I get Miles Gaskin, who is a tremendous NFL prospect at running back.

Washington doesn't have any unit as good as Auburn's defensive front seven. But Washington, outside of maybe being soft at linebacker, is pretty good everywhere. They got a real running back, good offensive line, nice college quarterback, couple of nice receivers, terrific corners. NFL safety. Don't love them at linebacker, but outside of that, Washington is going to be really solid. They're the most complete team of these two. But I get Auburn at home, I get an NFL quarterback, and I get an unbelievable front seven,

which can go toe to toe with Alabama. We've seen that and toe to toe with Georgia. And those are the big boy football. So once again, spoiler alert. Auburn 27, Washington 24, in an incredible football. ball game. Listen, I gave you a heads up. I am not making predictions.

This is exactly what's going to happen. Let me throw this out there. Miami Hurricanes beat LSU. Hey, go, Colin. I don't have the complete layout, but the Miami Hurricanes will beat LSU. That's the other game. I don't have all the, you know, stuff. I don't have the bells and whistles.

I don't have all the bells and whistles, but I do like Miami to beat LSU. LSU's returning nobody. They're one of the younger teams in college football. Coming up next, Greg CoSell, makes all of us smarter. Can't wait for that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Think it's okay to get Stone and Drive? It's not your reaction times.

Go down fast. If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high, get a DUI. Brought to you by the NHTSA. Well, I like to bring people on that teach me stuff. And when it comes to NFL quarterbacks and certain things about the, the NFL, there's nobody I enjoy talking to more than a Greg CoSell NFL films for three decades

via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Let's bring in Greg CoSell. Let's start with Sam Darnold. They trade Teddy Bridgewater. That tells you Sam's the guy. Josh McCown's the mentor in the backup. What have you seen Greg on tape? What do you make of him?

I think Colin, he's been impressive. I think that he's been very poised and more so than we saw at U.S. see, quite honestly, although he has not faced the kind of pressure and critical situations that he'll face once the regular season has started. But I think he's been very decisive with the ball. That's what the tape shows. He's shown a good sense of progression reading, understanding where he can throw the ball, staying within the timing and rhythm and the offense. I think the tape up to this point has been very positive. Does the tape tell you anything about the Jets O line? My eyes tell me it's not great. What does the tape say?

Well, again, now you get into a situation where in the preseason, what they did a lot with Darnold was quicker drops, get the ball out, where the offensive line, if you view it as a weakness, can be camouflaged and compensated for. Once you get into the regular season and you play through a whole game and you go through all the situations, particularly third down, the money down, the possession down, where maybe deeper drops are required, then you have to decide as an offense, how you want to handle that, Colin. Do you go five-man protection? And then you really put the burden on your own line. Are you going six-man protection, seven-man protection? Those become game plan issues. We don't see all that in the

preseason. Deshaun Watson, listen, he's captivating. There were moments last year where he was dynamic. He also threw some ugly picks. He's coming off an injury. Are we getting a little too, you know, are we hyperbolic on Deshawn Watson? What are you, what's the film say? Colin, I'm going into my 39th year at NFL films. I've seen a lot of football. I like Deshawn Watson. I just have a tough time when a player started six games at putting him at a super high level. I watched every one of his throws three weeks ago from last year, every one of his dropbacks. And this is a highly, highly schemed offense. There's a strong emphasis on play action, misdirection, deception. They did a lot of max protection, seven-man protection concepts. They really

set him up beautifully and defined his throws. And certainly he has a second reaction ability. But there's also, as you just suggested, a little bit of a reckless, undisciplined nature to his game. You have to decide how much you want to channel that. Or if you feel that you're just going to live with that because he can make some big plays as well. That's a coaching philosophy. Yeah, he's a little loose. There's no question about that. And over time, yeah, over time you've got to correct that. But I think he is dynamic and he's special, but as you pointed out, he can be a little loose. Now, Dak Prescott is almost the opposite of that, where he doesn't blow you away. He doesn't have the huge arm, but he's not as loose. What are they doing in their offense that you like or don't like with that Prescott?

Couple of things. Number one, I think they told you how they feel about what they really want to do when they drafted Cona Williams. They want to go back to a run game. Now, it's not playing out because of injuries. But if you look at Dak as the individual and isolate him as a quarterback, Jack is the kind of guy that will stand in the pocket. He does not leave the pocket. He doesn't run as a crutch. He will stand there. The issue with him is he's not a pure anticipation thrower. So there are some throws that he does not make that to reach that next level, he's going to have to turn loose. But the nature of his game pairs very, very well with a run game, bootlegs, play action. He's very good at those things. And that's ultimately the way they want

their offense to be. You know, when Andy Reid moved up to get Patrick Mahomes, you know, a lot of people said he's Brett Favre, I think it's pretty apt. I mean, he's, he can do things with his arm that you just, most guys can do. But I got to tell you, I, you know, mechanics, I see a roller coaster, I see a roller coaster quarterback. Good kid will make unbelievable throws, but I think it could be rocky at times. What is the tape say on him? Exactly that. He can make every throw. I've been very impressed actually with his ball placement. It's been very good. But there's also times, and he had this problem in college. When he drops back, he doesn't set his feet. So there are throws that he's not ready to make because his feet are not set. In fact, he missed a touchdown in the third preseason game that was open and that was within the structure of the design play because he wasn't ready to throw the ball. So he'll make some incredible plays. He'll make some great throws. He's got some mobility, but he's also going to leave some things on the field.

And I mentioned to you a month or so ago, there's no statistic for throws that should be made that aren't, and he'll have a bunch of those. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, the guy I've been critical of who I think will make it in this league, but I think he was a little overdrafted, is Baker Mayfield. You know, it's tough in preseason. He's playing against twos. You know, yesterday he's playing against UPS drivers. I mean, I don't know what to make of it.

I just watched the stuff yesterday and kind of rolled my eyes. Brock Osweiler looked great yesterday. So what have you seen in the preseason with Baker? I think Baker's been very good. I think he's looked exactly like he looked in college. And I think to me that's a good sign. And what I really like about Baker Mayfield, and there was actually one play from last night that I just happened to take a peek at,

it's irrelevant who he was playing against, where there was pressure. The ball almost got hit away from him, but he was firm in the pocket. he never broke down and then he made a great throw. It was actually drop, but he made a great throw. That's what I really like about Baker. That's what he did at Oklahoma.

He did not run out of the pocket. He's actually a pocket quarterback. And I think he's going to be a good player. Yeah, no, I do too. I think he's going to win games. The question is, can he overcome some of the dysfunction in Cleveland? Because I'm not sure he's going to have the same coaching staff, you know, nine months from now. Lamar Jackson, to me, just doesn't look ready.

Project more than Prospect. I mean, I just don't think he's ready. I don't think Josh Allen's really ready for what he's going to see. What did you make in Lamar? Do you see growth in the preseason? A little bit, but I think that he's got a ways to go. I think that he still needs a lot of work with his lower body mechanics. He ends up because of that being a flicker of the football and not a thrower of the football.

So he doesn't look particularly natural throwing it. And that causes some accuracy issues, which in the NFL, if you have accuracy issues, you can be as athletic as you want to be. You're not going to make it. if you can't throw the ball where it needs to go and where you want to throw it. So he's not really ready to play four quarters of NFL football. Do you take anything when you watch film? Do you take anything from the preseason?

Now, collectively, do you take anything? Have you ever seen in preseason, wow, this team's rebuilding their offensive line. These kids aren't ready to play. Did you have any overall overarching feel umbrella over the preseason that something jumped out to you? I mean, I notice what I tend to watch in the preseason, Colin, is I tend to watch individuals more than schemes. Yeah. Although you're seeing a lot more schemes on defense than you used to.

Everybody says it's vanilla. It's not as vanilla as people think because more and more teams blitz in the league, so they want to practice their blitzes. So it's not as vanilla as people think. But I tend to look at individual players. And I do tend to notice. No, we lost him. via the coward global satellite network.

You know, it could be stormy out as he's in Philadelphia. Our satellite network for the first time, we just lost him. He's out there. He's fine. He's healthy. He's not out in the orbit. You know, he's not like Tom Hanks and Apollo that he's not coming back into the atmosphere. He is okay.

But we just lost him and we loved him. So he watches individuals over kind of units in the preseason. Yeah, I mean, by the way, we could roll. Here's why I don't take anything from the preseason. we could scroll the guys who were great last night in week four, the quarterbacks. Like, there are moments about Baker that I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like last night, Sam Darnold didn't even play. If you looked at last night, week four of the NFL preseason,

in all of sports, there's not much that is less relevant than week four of the NFL preseason. These are quarterbacks that tore it up last night. Brock Osweiler, Philip Walker, Baker, Danny Etling, Joe Callahan, Kyle Allen, Tanner Lee, Kevin Hogan, Tyler Bray, Kyle Slaughter, Tassam Hill, and Joe Webb, oh, yeah, and Chase Litton, I forgot Paxton Lynch, and Nick Mullins and EJ Manuel. They tore it up last night. What am I? I mean, Atlanta, and I have Atlanta in the NFC championship. They were down 21-0 to Brock Osweiler. They were reeling. What am I supposed to take? What am I supposed to do with that?

Yeah. John says, if you want to see those guys, just go to Walmart. That is mean-spirited. That will not stand on our show. But there is something to be said. I just, there's nothing. What I think about Baker Mayfield, I've already seen, and he's what I thought he was. I wish he was bigger, but he's accurate.

I hope he can overcome the dysfunction. I think he's going to have new coaches next year. I think there's hot seat, then there's what Hugh Jackson's on the Inferno seat. But I watched him last night, and he can play. I never said he couldn't play. I never said he wasn't accurate. He can play. When people compare him to Johnny Mansell, yeah, the personality bothers me.

Johnny Mansell can't play in the NFL. Johnny Mansell doesn't throw an accurate enough football. And everybody thinks Johnny's that athletic. Johnny Mansell's not that much more athletic than Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield sits in the pocket and throws. He'll be successful. I just don't, I wouldn't have made him my number one pick. I'd make it Sam Darnold.

And I also, they had a fourth pick, and I wouldn't have picked Denzell Ward the corner. I would have picked Bradley Chub. I'd rather have Donald and Bradley Chub than Baker and Denzel Ward. But everybody's going to play. All four of those guys can play, but I think you have to get the most value for the pick. And I think Donald and Bradley Chubb are better in both spots than Baker and Denzel Ward. All right. Final hour coming up, Bucky Brooks.

Best for last. We are, we got an hour left, baby. We are rolling on a Friday. Joy and I return in LA, it's the herd. Ah, this is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS2, final hour on a Friday. Joy Taylor is joining me.

Show is flying today. Al Michaels, Ryan Leap, Greg Coasell. You're going to watch some college football this weekend? I am. Miami LSU. Which is so kindly predicted Miami would like Miami. I like Miami. I think Miami's season ended so poorly.

everybody kind of bailed on Mark Richt, but I think they're going to win that football. LSU has got a bunch of young kids playing. I think Miami just ended the season poorly, and that's the impression everybody has. By the way, as we enter here hour number three, Bucky Brooks in 15 minutes, he's going to have some comments on a couple of things.

Aaron Donald's new massive contract. He'll talk about that. Also, in 10 minutes, I'm going to talk about Khalil Mack and the Raiders. There's some thoughts out there from somebody who knows what he's talking about that a trade may be coming for Khalil Mack, so I'm going to give you that in 10 minutes. But, you know, let me start with this. I saw Baker Mayfield last night wrap up the preseason

and look good, but I'm not really sure what to make of it. The last memory of something often distorts reality. You have a favorable impression because it's the last thing you see. I'll give you an example, Peyton Manning. When you think Peyton Manning in his last year, everybody's like, Super Bowl. Peyton Manning was amazing. Drop the mic. Payton Manning was terrible his last year. But the last thing you saw was him holding the trophy.

He had nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He was benched for Brock Osweiler. He was terrible. Remember that last year? He got benched for Brock Osweiler. But he holds the trophy and you don't remember a thing. How about Kobe Bryant? Scored 60 in his last game, Joy.

What? a performance. Kobe Bryant's amazing. Yeah, I was here in Los Angeles. Did you watch that last year? Kobe acknowledges he was awful. He shot 36%. He averaged seven a game mostly because he decided,

I'm going to shoot seven threes a game. Now, he was great in the last night. It was an amazing performance, but Kobe would tell you. Kobe's only been bad once in his career. most of the last regular season. That's about it. The rest of the career is unbelievable. But that last 60-point game.

How about Derek Jeter? Now, when you think of Derek Jeter and how it all ended, you think about this, right? This amazing baseball moment for Derek Jeter. Well, the script is there. The last page is in Derek's hands. Big deals. Big sense to right field.

Here comes Richardson. Here's the throw from Marcakis. Richardson is safe. Derek Jeter ends his final game with a walk-off single. Derek Jeter, where fantasy becomes reality. Did you have any doubt? He wasn't very good that year. No, he really scrapped.

He had no range, career low in Homer's 4, hit about 255. Peyton Manning, Kobe, Derek Jeter, you forget because the last memory of something distorts it. So I'm watching Baker Mayfield last night, and I'm thinking, oh, Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Brown's owner, Jimmy Haslam. The last memory he's going to have a Baker Mayfield is chopping through those third and fourth teamers. He was facing a lot of UPS drivers last night.

If you notice over the next month, that guy delivering a package for you for UPS is holding it like a football, that's because he played for the, lions like an hour ago. And he led 25 nothing at half and Baker Mayfield sat down and that is the last memory of Baker Mayfield. Just tearing it up in week four the preseason. Effective, productive, 25 nothing. Man, he didn't even need to play the second half.

And what is our last memory of Tyrod Taylor? Ugly 5-0-0-1. couldn't stay healthy, screaming in pain on the sidelines, comes back, can't move the football. And oh, by the way, the Browns open with the Steelers and the Saints and will be 0 and 2. And then facing the Jets and Sam Darnold, who is starting and probably looks pretty good for a rookie.

And Jimmy Haslam is going to be in week three saying, well, how come their guy's starting? I mean, last time I saw my guy, it was 25-0. They're dominating. The last memory distorts things. All you Baker fans, he's going to start sooner than everybody is predicting. Mark it down. Speaking of last night, preseason week four, I've said this before, there is a real division

in the NFL with cowboy quarterback, Dak Prescott. Now, there's one camp. overrated. It's all about Ezekiel Elliott. The Cowboys' offensive line makes him look way better than he is. That's one camp, and that camp's got a lot of people in it. Then there's my camp. My camp is, did you see the preseason? The Cowboys were o' and four, and Dak almost didn't even play. Now, when he did play, 13 for 18, 72% completion rate, a couple of touchdowns, no picks,

128 passer rating. And you say it's just the preseason. Let me say this again. I now know what the Cowboys looked like before Dak Prescott arrived a couple years ago. They were 4 and 12, and it wasn't just 4 and 12. You remember, Joy, it was utter chaos, 4 and 12.

Then I've seen what they've done with DAC, the last two years. 32 starts, 22 wins, and of the 10 losses, 5 or 1 possession. in a very tough division and in the superior NFC. And then I have this last month of preseason games where DAC basically doesn't play, and they were only effective for about 30 plays to 50 plays in the preseason. Those were all the ones DAC played in.

Okay, that's the camp I'm in. Okay, when I watch Dak Prescott, I want you to remember something. And I've said this before. the ability to stabilize chaos is a massively underrated skill chaos before dach chaos in the preseason wins 22 of 32 with that press got this is the loudest franchise in the NFL it is the most watched franchise in the NFL it is the most scrutinized franchise in the NFL these are the choppiest waters in the NFL the captain of this ship doesn't have to be the world's best captain.

But I want somebody when the sees are that choppy that can take a little of the chop out of the choppiness. And first season, Dak Prescott, never-ending questions about Tony Romo. Last season, never-ending questions about Ezekiel Elliott. And not once did he ever step in it. Not once did he ever unravel. I remember asking Jimmy Johnson, legendary football coach here at Fox,

I asked him about leadership one time, and here's what Jimmy Johnson said to me. You know, Colleen, I really don't know what leadership means. I think it really depends on the individual what they're looking for. I think there's inspirational players. Okay. I think they're players that set an example. I think there's motivational players. But I don't know what a leader is.

Either do I, but I know it when I see it. And in the loudest owner, a troubled running back, massive injuries, biggest brand, always in prime time, pre and post, awful, chaotic. With him, 22 or 32 wins, and could have won five of the remaining 10. They were won possession games. With that, here's an update on Khalil Mack from a veteran journalist that lives in the Bay Area, Mike Silver. So Khalil Max's his great pass rusher, hasn't signed a contract, a lot of trade rumors. Mike Silver says the latest, here are the most likely Mac Raiders scenarios in order. Number one, he comes in next week in plays.

Number two, Raiders get blown away by an offer trade him. Three, comes in later in September and plays. Four, sits out the year. five, he gets an Aaron Donald-like deal from the Raiders. So let's go to one and two. He comes in next week in plays. I think it's possible. Number two is Raiders get blown away by an offer and trade him.

Here's the thing. Outside of about four or five teams, everybody needs a pass rusher. I mean, outside of quarterback and left tackle, pass rushers is what everybody's looking for. Denver's got two. Okay? You know, I would say the Chargers got a great one. Philadelphia's got one.

Jags have one. Almost everybody in the league is looking for it. But in order to get Kaleo Mack, you've got to give something back. And there's not many teams in the NFL that can give away two good players to get a star. Jacksonville maybe could do it, but they've already got a pass rusher. The Rams would be fascinating. If the Rams got Kaleo Mack, in my opinion, it would be the most talented roster in the NFL I've seen in years. Aaron Donald, the Dominican Sue, Akeeb, Keeb Taleb, Marcus Peters, Kaleo Mack, Robert Woods, Jared Gough, Andre Whitworth, Brandon Cooks,

John Sullivan, I mean, just be player and the best punter and the best kicker, and the best kicker, smartest offensive coach. If the Rams wanted to do it, they got some stuff they could give away. They made Sam Shields extra DB. They've got maybe an extra running back, or no, excuse me, an extra wide receiver. Could they move it in Domen, Indomac and Sue? You know, they got Aaron Donald and Domenu. You don't need both over time.

Marcus Peters, Akib to leave shields. Do you need all three over time? My guess is they figure out a way to pay them and they get him in here. But boy, there's a handful of people. To me, Khalil Mack is worth a really good starter and a draft pick. Jets got, what did the Jets get? The Jets got a third pick for Teddy Bridgewater.

I actually, they didn't, he's, you know, it should be noted that the Jets didn't pay anything for him, but a half million bucks. So they ended up getting a number three pick for 500,000 bucks. The Jets did very well. But the Saints are saying like, listen, if Drew Brees leaves in a year, we got a starting quarterback and all we gave you was a third round pick. So I'm not sure who wins that deal. But Mike Silver is saying either he comes in next week in plays or they may trade him.

Very exciting times, very interesting times for a star difference-making edge rusher in the NFL. Bucky Brooks is right around the corner. And we'll have opinions on all this stuff. College football is back tomorrow on Fox. catch a full day's action as Lane Kiff in Florida Atlantic faces the seventh ranked Oklahoma Sooners. It all starts at 1130 Eastern on Fox or stream it on the Fox Sports app. Kyler Murray is the next Oklahoma quarterback. He's going to have very big numbers because Lincoln Riley is an amazing offensive guy. This guy is actually, Kyle and Murray going to look a little bit like Baker Mayfield. He's about 5'10, but he can really sling it.

He's a great athlete. In fact, he got drafted by the Oakland days, and he's probably going to do baseball instead of the NFL. He'll go to Major League Baseball. route after his days at Oklahoma. He's my friend. He's smart. He knows his stuff. He played in the league. He's scouted in the league. And now he works at the NFL Network. Let's bring on Bucky Brooks to the show on a Friday. Oh, my Lord. By the way, as a former scout, I imagine you watch a lot of college football. Oh, for sure. The kid that you're talking about, Cala Murray. I work with Elite 11, Trent Dill, for all those guys. So Caller was one of the guys that came through there. I don't think he ever lost a high school game. And so for everyone who was excited about Baker Mayfield, Call and Murray will do some things at Oklahoma.

If this is his only season, I expect him to do special things, Dave still. All right, let's talk about Aaron Donald, got a massive deal. Explain this to the audience because it does appear the Rams are the only team in the NFL without a salary cap. I mean, they literally are just giving people $80 million. Brandon Cooks, Aaron Donald, explain how they can do this because the Raiders aren't making any moves. It's like their cash strap for Khalil Mack. The Rams are signing everybody. Because they haven't paid the quarterback yet.

When you haven't paid the quarterback, you can pay all the auxiliary pieces. Right now you have Jared Gough playing on a rookie deal. It doesn't cost much. He's playing peanuts on the dollar. Penny's on the dollar. And so you can pay the supporting cast around him. And when you really look at who they've paid, they have paid guys that are going to be around when Jared Gough eventually gets his deal.

They did a five-year extension with Brandon Cooks, another five-year extension with Todd Gurley, and then Aaron Donald on his deal. So all of those guys with Jared Gough will all grow up together. And Dom Kinseu is on a one and done deal. He may not be around. Marcus Peter is a key to leap. They still have decisions to make on whether those guys are going to be parts of the future for the extended term.

Right now, because Jared Gough is really playing on a favorable, team-friendly rookie deal, you can push all the chips in, load it up, see what you can do while you don't have to pay him. And then when you pay him, you pick which guys do you want to continue to have around him as part of the nucleus. Okay. Mike Silver just tweeted, there's a possibility that the Raiders get blown away by a deal.

Listen, outside of quarterback left tackle, I'd take edge rusher. Now, some people say the league's becoming a bubble screen league, they're not as effective. Denver's got two. All I know, if I was a head coach, I wouldn't want to face Denver's pass rushers. He's got some value, obviously. If you're a GM, let's say you're running the Raiders right now. What do you do with him? What if I need help on the defensive side and I get two guys for one?

Well, I mean, there are a couple different things. Normally when you're an executive, what you're doing is you're looking down the pipeline to see what is coming. The 2019 class, it could be epic for defensive linemen. I was just yesterday looking at the NFL draft for next year. It's all de linemen. It's all de linemen. So you have a bunch of guys. I mean, I guess on Disney where I wouldn't get in trouble.

But you think about the Nick Bosa's, the younger underclass. Clemson guys. Clemson has four. Ohio State always has a couple. Michigan has Rashon Gary. There are a ton of guys that are coming. So now what you have to make a decision. is it better for us to take Khalil Mack and have to pay them $20, 20 plus million

dollars or should we stand pat and wait and maybe get one or two pass rushes? Because one thing that we have found about pass rushers, they can come from anywhere in the draft. They don't necessarily have to be first round talents that come into the league and get after the passers. So because the league is changing and becoming a pass-oriented league, it's already been a pass-oriented league, but it's really about point scores, passers, pass-catchers, playmakers. put the ball in the paint, you get paid. Pass rushers are coming down the list. The reason Aaron Donald

is a little different, quarterbacks can neutralize edge rushes because the ball comes out so quickly. However, if you ask defensive coordinators, what gives quarterbacks the most problems, a pass rush that can affect you right up the gut. Defensive tackles, the last couple of days, who has gotten paid?

Geno Ackins, defensive tackle inside pass rush. Aaron Donald, inside pass rusher. Right now, I think you're having debates in rooms. Would you rather have an edge rusher or an interior pass rusher, which is more valuable to your defense, which is why maybe, just maybe there's been a little delay in getting Khalil Mack the money that he wants and the money that he deserves. So the mystery team in the NFL to me is the New York Giants. Sean McVeigh goes to the Rams. They're awful to really good.

Kyle Shanahan goes to the Niners, a mess to not a mess. Pat Shermer is one of those guys. where he's special. I mean, he made Case Keenham. He got MVP votes. And I don't think either of us think Case Keenham, Case closed, is not an MVP vote guy. Man, I look, so the Giants upgrade at running back, left tackle,

offensive coordinator, O'Dell resigns. I don't know. What do you make of the Giants? I said it. I'm going to be a little boss for. I told Giants fans that they can print the shirts. I think they're going to win the NFC. East. I think this is going to be the best team in the NFC East.

Offensively, they are absolutely loaded. And I know people will talk about the questions about the offensive line. Are you confident that Nate Sold and Will Hernandez and the other additions can come together? I don't know. But I do know the play caller is special and the play caller has given the quarterback enough weapons to be successful. Oda Beckham Jr. coming back really changes the game when it comes to their offense. It's about a six point per game difference when he plays and when he's not on the field. You think about how you want to defend this team.

You have to start with number 13. Are we going to double team him? How are we going to contain him? Because he can go the distance at any point. I think he has the highest per game average when it comes to receiving yards. So you have to deal with him. But then with Saquan Barkley, a lot of people are going to focus on the rushing yards, but that is the wrong way to look at him.

He is a guy that you have to view like Todd Gurley, Levy & Bill, David Johnson. Look at the scrimmage yards, combination of rushing yards and receiving yards. I believe he's going to be over 100. That's going to be productive enough. Sterling Shepard, Evan Ingram, they're fantastic. But the reason why I'm really bullish on the Giants, their defense. James Betcher comes over from the Arizona Cardinals. People don't realize, but under his direction in Arizona,

that defense finished in the top six every year. They're going to blitz a lot. The pressure is going to be immense. They're going to really put a lot of pressure on the quarterback to make decisions. He and Harris a pretty good defensive lineup when it comes to the person. Senile, I think the Giants are going to be a team that you have to reckon with. Yeah. After a while, when you can have an elite player at virtually every unit,

and I get Collins and Janoris and snacks and Soulder, and after a while it's like there's just too many good dudes. Every unit's got a leader. Yeah, absolutely. And then they quietly got Alec Ogletree from the Rams. The Rams traded Ogletree away to the Giants because they wanted to make sure they had enough money to pay the guys that they got. Well, Ogletree gives them something that they haven't had.

They haven't had a dominant linebacker in a long time. So then you get a playmaker at linebacker. You mentioned the guys in the secondary. Snacks Harrison up front, Olivier Vernon coming off the edge. They have enough dues to create problems. And if that offense can score. And I want you to think about how the Giants will play. The Giants will play to jump on you quickly.

So look for Pat Sherman to be very aggressive in his opening 15 plays to see if they can get a 10-0-14-0 lead. So now on defense, they can pressure the passer. It makes you abandon a balanced approach. and makes you play on their turns, which is we want you to pass so we can unleash the rushers and really play coverage. Sam Darnold, what are you made of him? What do you see?

You know, I said this to somebody yesterday. I said he looks more comfortable in the pocket in the NFL than he did his last year at USC. I don't know, is that a criticism of USC coaching? But I'm watching him here, and I'm like, oh, God, he looks much more comfortable now in the pros. Oh, we won't criticize USC, but we'll say this. They had a lot of voices in his ear at SC.

You had a head coach who was a quarterback guy. You had an offense coordinator in T-Mart, and then you had a quarterback coach who also. So all that input could have clouded his focus when it came to being on the field. What do I want to do? How do we want to play this plan out? In New York, I think one, they brought them into a great quarterback room. Teddy Bridgewater and Joshua County,

two of the nicest people that you can like, two natural leaders, two guys that are constant pros. I believe that they were open books when it came to sharing. Secondly, Jeremy Bates did a really good job in the preseason of putting Sam Donald in a situation where he could thrive. If you notice watching the tape, a lot of empty sets. Empty sets prevent the defense from really clouding it up of mucking up the game with disguises. When you go empty, you have to declare, are we in man, are we in zone, are we blitzing, are we covering?

It's easy for Sam to operate. So early in the preseason, you saw him get the ball out quickly. He was decisive. He played with confidence. And even though people that have criticized his yards per attempt, that is fine right now. the ball's coming out, didn't have turnovers. And this year, it may not be pretty. I think I've heard you allude to the fact that this year may look like Carson Wentz's first year.

But the second year, watch out because they're going to look at what Sam Donald does this year. And then in the next year, they'll go get the weapons that he needs to allow him to play the way that they want him to play. Jalen Ramsey said, you know, Brady makes gronk. Now, I like gronk. They are about three points better with him. That's something in the NFL. Well, how do you explain? Because against Jacksonville, he was shut down.

How do you explain Grong? How do you see him as a former player in Scout? Well, here's the thing. I'll say, like, Jalen Ramsey, I think whenever you hear Jaylen talk, you have to understand context. And even deeper in the article, he talked about, before we played him in the championship game, I had the analytics team, give me numbers on Grinchowski. What I discovered, when he played against linebackers and safeties, he ate those guys up. But when you matched up a corner against him, he didn't have as much success.

With Gronk, it is all about matchups and what the New England Patriots do to create problems for the defense. A lot of times you'll see them go three by one. Three receivers on one side, Grinkelski on the other side. It's a difficult formation to match up with because as a defense coordinator, what am I playing? Am I defending the passing strength, which is the three receiver side, or am I trying to make sure that I take care of Gronk and the running strength, which is Gronk on the tight end side by himself? It makes it tough for you to figure out what you want to do.

and then he's too big. He can box out most defensive backs. You can throw it up to him. Tom Brady's so accurate that it makes it very, very tough. The one thing about Grant that you can't take away from him, he puts the ball in the paint. He scores touchdowns. He has had four or five seasons where he's had double-digit touchdowns.

He's a monster in the red zone. I think you have to value him as a prolific point score. That is how the Patriots use him. When they need to put points on the board, they go to 87. You know, earlier today, Al Michaels was on, I said, the Giants are my mystery team, but I've called him a dark horse Super Bowl team. There is something there. I said, who's yours? And he said, you know, Seattle.

Pete's in his last year. You know, in the Pack 12, Pete dominates. And then these two young offensive guys, Chip Kelly and Harba arrive, Pete's not the same coach. All of a sudden, he's in the NFC West. He's just rolling. And here comes Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan. What do you make of Seattle? You know, it's funny.

I wrote last week that Russell Wilson could seriously be the MVP of the league this year if he's able to get Seattle into the playoffs and make them a legitimate contender. A lot of turnover, a lot of change. But the one thing that I like, they're trying to go back to the recipe that made them a dominant team in the NFC. Even though they have Russell Wilson in place, they want to be a little more 50-50 when it comes to run past. And the reason they probably will be able to do it this year for their returning offensive. some linemen come back. They have four starters from last year.

They haven't had that kind of consistency and continuity up front. And it matters because in the run game, when you're dealing with the league and the rules, you don't have as many padded practices. You don't have as many OTAs to get the rhythm of the running game going. When you bring back a unit that's played together, they understand how each other works. They're going to be better. Brian Schottenheimer, Mike Solari, they're going to be committed to running the ball. If Seattle is able to run the ball, they'll be able to run the ball.

control the game. And even though their defense isn't what it was, they can limit their opportunities on the field and that will allow the defense to look better. I think Seattle is going to be a problem because they still have enough guys to understand how to play at a championship level. So you'll be watching Michigan, Notre Dame, Washington, Auburn, LSU, Miami. Just a college question. That Auburn quarterback. That's an NFL quarterback, right? He is an NFL quarterback. Absolutely. He's an NFL quarterback. He's built the right way. He throws it. And even though he plays in a system that is a little quirky, he is one of the guys that can transition from that offense to be an NFL guy. And when you think about the quarterbacks that are coming out, you've heard some mixed reports. But I will say this, there are some dudes in the quarterback class that are interesting. Justin Herbert up at Oregon. Yeah, I think he's really interesting. He is the new school prototypical quarterback. He's big, athletic, strong arm. He can run around and make plays. I bet he's, I'll make this prediction.

Number one pick. There's going to be a ton of defensive lineman. I think the kid at Oregon, the quarterback will be the number one pick in the draft. He's absolutely in the mix. I think the quarterback at Missouri, Drew Locke, is going to be in contention. Ignored a completion percentage. I know people, we did the same thing with Josh Allen. Ignored a completion percentage.

He had a lot of drops last year. He can play Will Greer from West Virginia as someone that you have to consider. He's not really an NFL guy, is he? Oh, he can throw it. He's super talented. He has a big arm. And in a league where baseball, he's a big arm. Baker Mayfield can go number one.

All bets are off when it comes to size. No, no, all bets are off. Will Greer is talented. And then look, you talk about Stedham, Ryan Finley. There are enough quarterbacks to make it a very, very interesting quarterback class. I think I've heard you talk about when a funny time when it comes to quarterback, maybe 15 or 16 teams have young quarterbacks. The league is going to prosper because there are a lot of quarterbacks that are going to come in

and going to be ready to play pretty soon. Yeah, by the way, the kid at Iowa's got an interesting. Yeah, they got some guys. There's plenty of guys. A lot of guys coming into the league, a lot of fascination. I can't wait to see all the college games kickoff this week. Notre Dame Michigan, who you got? I'm going with Michigan.

I think Harbaugh gets it done. Shea Patterson is a difference maker. Shea Patterson, transferring from Ole Miss going to Michigan, gives them something that they haven't had a quarterback. He's a playmaker. He runs around a little bit, but I believe he has A-plus arm talent, and they have a ton of young receivers that can make plays,

and that defense is loaded. I think they put their hands on Notre Dame pretty good. Good stuff. Bucky Brooks drafted by the Bills. He was a second round guy, former NFL DB, Scout, now working for the NFL network. Catch Bucky and Mike Hill this Sunday noon to three on Fox Sports

Radio. Is that full-time deal now? We're hoping that we can make that happen. We need to make that happen. You and Mike, that's all. Listen, Sunday, noon to three, that's my errand time. See you guys talking NFL and Mike, Mike loves his football as well. That's great. Good seeing you, man. Joy Taylor with the news.

No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So Aaron Donald has ended his holdout with a deal that makes him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. It's a week for big deals, huh? Aaron Rogers, Odell, Aaron Donald. Donald cashed out with a six-year, $135 million deal, which averages about $22.5 million per season. God, look at he is unblockable. Holy look at him.

And that's why. He is just relentless. And he got the bag. You know who recruited him? Dave Wonstat. Oh, really? Uncle Dave, he knows the story on Aaron Donald. When you watch him, he is making 310-pound guys look like throw pillows, like sofa pillows.

Dave Wonsett was the first celebrity I ever met. Oh, because you were a kid in Pittsburgh. I was a kid in Pittsburgh. No, no, I didn't meet him in Pittsburgh. I met him when he was coaching the Chicago Bears. I told him this story a few years ago. It's really funny. I was like, I don't remember how it was very little.

I may call it six years old or something. And I won an art contest. my aunt lived in Chicago. So I went to Chicago and she took me to this telethon. And Dave Wanstatt was there. And I was like, oh, my God, that's Dave Wanstatt. And she was like, who? I've never heard anybody react to Dave Wanstatt.

Well, you're a little girl. I'm a sports fan. Well, you're a football fan. I'm like, I'm like, I have to. He's the coach of the Bears. I have to meet him. And she was like, oh, well, if you say so, like, who is it? I don't know who it is.

So I met Dave Wanstead. When you meet him in person, the first thing I'm always taken back by, that's the best hair and show business. Like, he's honestly, Dave Wonstat, his hairline looks like my dog buddy. It's like right above his eyes. Like he's never lost a single hair in his life. He has got perfect hair. Him and Jimmy have great hair.

No wonder they like each other. Yes. And Wonstat's a big guy, big dude. You know what you got a Tom Selleck thing going on? Yeah, with the mustache too. A big old mustache and that head of whatevs. I was very excited as a young girl meet Dave Wonstat. So Jets head coach Todd Bowles still hasn't made an official announcement about the team's starting quarterback

But if Donald does get that starting job he claims that he has the comfort level needed to step up to the task If I am going to be the starter week one, you know, I feel really comfortable I feel really comfortable with the offense really comfortable with the guys Inside this locker room so just really excited for you know whatever opportunity comes comes my way But if not you know I'm gonna be the best back up I can be I know he's being gracious, but he's going to be the starter. You know what I don't want?

I don't want that Bill O'Brien, Tom Savage, just on watching situation. That was so annoying to me. And I kind of feel like that's what Todd Bowles is doing here. I don't get it. Like, just say he's the week. We all know, it's the worst kept secret. Just say he's the starter.

Teddy's gone. Right. Just say he's the starter. Just given the vote of confidence. It's exactly what happened with Houston. You know, we went all through camp and we feel, you know, we feel like he's almost there. but we're going to start Tom Savage for a half

and then put Deshawn Watson in, Deshawn Watson's great. I mean, we don't know what Sam Donald's going to be, but we do know he's going to be the starter, and he is the future of the team. Just to say he's the starters, giving the vote of confidence. So, DeMarre Rosen is getting in some work with his new team.

He was working out with his new teammates and a special guest, Tim Duncan. I like this. I think that everyone's really sleeping on the Spurs right now. I know that it feels like panic because... That's because they're boring. Well, Yes, they are very boring.

You sleep on sofas and the spurs. I will say this. Their back court's pretty interesting now, though. They got that kid, they're a real young kid. DeJante Murray. Dejante Murray they really like. And now they have Demar de Rosen, and I will say this, in NBA basketball 2018, you need a back court.

Like, you have to be able to. So they got the coach and they got the back court. Plus Lamarcos Alridge gives you 18, 20 a night. So they're not going to be bad. It feels like they've completely fallen. apart. They're seventh in the West last year. Like, it's not like it's not like it's an end of the world. They still have pop.

I know, but here's the thing. The Lakers are going to be a playoff team. The Rockets are on the Warriors. Minnesota has good talent. And I think Utah is probably the most under, basically Utah is a slightly less talented version of the Celtics. It's not that I don't like the Spurs. I just think

the Lakers and Utah are going to make big moves up this year. I just feel like the is so wide open and the spur i realize the the big three is gone tony parker's gone genobley's gone duncan's gone but they still have pop and they still have the spurs culture so i i don't know i just feel like everyone just needs to not write off the spurs just yet i know bagas has them out of the playoffs but i'm not i'm not ready to go to that leap just yet good stuff joy taylor with the news well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd line what's the opposite of bill bellich i'll give you the answer next in best for last.

Want more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Borrow up to 40 grand to pay off credit card debt. Go to Lendingclub.com slash sports. All loans made by a web bank member FDIC, equal housing lender, lending club.com slash sports. Let's do our best for last. After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last.

NFL season kicks off in less than a week. There are several coaches that are on the hot seat. I would not be shocked if we had a handful of coaches. A couple of them replaced Joy during the season. So let's go in our coaching hot seat list, our top five, as we start the NFL season. I would start with Pete Carroll at number five. They missed the playoffs last year for the first Siamton, 2011. Major losses defensively, Richard Sherman, Cam, Chancellor, Michael Bennett, Sheldon, Richardson, Earl Thomas

still holding out. Pete is getting closer to 70. He's in the last year of a contract. They have Russell Wilson. They have Bobby Wagner. They have Doug Baldwin, who's not at 100%. But this doesn't mean Pete's a bottom five coach. Pete's got a Super Bowl.

He's going to go into the Hall of Fame. My guess is. But this is, again, coaches on the hot seat. You got a bunch of young guys coming into that division. Steve Wilkes, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh. If they finish in fourth place, you may get an impatient owner and a general manager under the gun. Number four. Jay Gruden, last year finished 7 and 9 leading Washington, but they were one in five against the NFC East.

They've only made the playoffs once in Jay Gruden's four seasons. and when they lost Sean McVeigh, they've been about a field goal less and 80 yards less a game. They don't feel the same. They've got Alex Smith, but, you know, that's a new coach, you know, a new system, new quarterback.

The other thing, he's 28 and 35 and won as Washington's head coach. And the division's better than it's ever been. Giants are a lot better this year. Looks like the Cowboys got their edge rushers and their linebackers in Philadelphia just won a Super Bowl. So I'd say number four is Jay Gruden. Number three.

Vance Joseph, 5 and 11, first year is the Denver Bronco head coach. They finished in last place in the AFC West for the first time in eight years. And they were not good defensively. 23rd in scoring defense. Denver has a history of being a tough physical kind of defensive team. And at the end of last season, Adam Schefter reported that the odds of Vance Joseph coming back were low. but John Elway kept him because I think John didn't know exactly what he had at quarterback,

didn't know what he had at coach, so they decided to keep him. But he's going to need a big ear from Case Keenham for Vance Joseph in Denver to succeed. Number two. Dirk Cutter, a couple years. He was 5 and 11 last year. He's sub-502 years.

And since John Gruden, no Tampa Bay coaches lasted more than three seasons. This will be his third season. James Winston's not starting for the first three games. That division's outstanding. I have Atlanta in the NFC championship. I think New Orleans is really, really good. Carolina's got Cam, a veteran coach,

and they've also got the best front seven, in my opinion, Carolina does in the entire NFL. I think it could be a really ugly season. I don't even know if inside the building, truthfully, they think Jamis is the future. And number one, number one coach in the hot seat, Hugh Jackson. He has one win in two years.

and the owner's going to want Baker Mayfield to play sooner than later. No LeBron in town. When NBA camp opens up in October, Indians are out of the playoffs, that owner's going to say, Baltimore's coming to town. I want Baker to start. And they got a couple of rough games early. Pittsburgh Saints at Oakland, they could be one and three. And I think Baker's going to end up playing really early.

In fact, we have a live shot of Hugh Jackson in the hot seat. It's actually, I would say it's a bum. of hot. It's an inferno. So there's hot seats, and then there's what Hugh Jackson's doing right now. It's tough. He's in a really, really tough spot. By the way, Walt Frazier was a great basketball

player in the 70s with a New York Knicks, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe was on that team, and it was a great basketball team. They won a title. It was the last time the Knicks were like title team, right? And

now he's a very colorful voice of the Knicks. He wears these wild outfits. He's got a restaurant in New York. He's a New York legend, a New York icon Walt Frazier. He was asked the other day about Kevin Durant and the all-time great players, and here's what Clyde said. Durant, I mean, as great a player he is, I would still hold back because, man, he joined a team that really didn't need him. You know what I mean? I mean, he's right there with LeBron, probably will surpassed The Bronner is the best player in the game soon. But for him doing that, I still don't give him the full credit that he probably would have

deserved if he stayed with OKC and won a title with that team. He's going to be down the list for me because of that, you know, because there will be an Astridge by his name. By the way, he wasn't going to win an OKC because Golden State had a better coach, a better roster, and they're a better free agent market. people keep forgetting this, that the Warriors, not only had the better coach, the better teammates, the better free age destination, it's a better place to live for Kevin Durant, who's into tech.

But here's the other thing. You do realize in 2012, Kevin Durant, Westbrook, and James Hardin as babies got to the finals. And then Oklahoma City butcher the James Hardin trade and they got nothing back. It's a very real possibility that if they don't butcher that James Hardin trade, because they don't want to be over the cap and get the luxury tax, he'd still be there. We're always blaming Kevin Duran on this. What about Sam Presti?

The cap was moving up because of the new TV deal, and they freaked out, overreacted, traded hardened, and got nothing for him. And let's not forget Golden State lost the year before Kevin Durant got there. And then they won when Kevin Durant came. Right. And after they lost, one thing was very clear is that Golden State could not stop LeBron.

They just couldn't stop him. LeBron was going to score whatever he wanted to do against Golden State. He beats him in the finals. So this idea that, you know, he just left. No, the organization butchered the James Hardin trade. They just got to the finals and they're like, yeah, we're going to get rid of this really super talented guy. Kevin Durant looks up and goes, oh, he's like an MVP in Houston. And he didn't trust his organization.

He looked at Golden State and said, I got a better coach, a better teammate, better front office, better free agent destination. I'd rather live there. Well, people just act like it was some odd. thing that he was going to go there and win a championship. He was the better player in both finals with Golden State. And they lost the year before he went there. It's not like he went to some championship team. Like, let me just plug in and play here.

We would never ever bang on a receiver who said, I'm going to go play with Aaron Rogers or Brady because it's going to be a little easier and I'll make more catches. Tuesday, Lidani and Tomlinson's live in studio to break down what makes Saquan Barkley so darn good. I can't wait for college football this weekend. Car shopping's confusing. A lot of terms.

Dealer price, list, price, invoice, here's what not. Go to truecar.com. Truecar.com, new or used. More confident car buying experience. I'll see you Tuesday. Joy, I'll see you Tuesday. Have a great weekend to college football. That's the herd.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves.

Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most. most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward.

At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world, like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi 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, Alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multimillion 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Thank you.