The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 12/28/2018

Episode Date: December 28, 2018

Doug Gottlieb sits in for Colin Cowherd and breaks down a wild night in the NBA and how the night showed you the NBA is closer than you think to catching up to the Golden State Warriors. FOX College Football Insider Joel Klatt joins the show to look at the College Football Playoff and tell you if he supports expanding from four teams. Also, Kirk Cousins gets a lot of slack and Doug is here to tell you why his paycheck shouldn't open him to more criticism. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. you just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to her. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the best of Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com

or stream us live every day on the iHeartredo app by searching herd. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio. What up? Welcome in. This is the herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening to the show. Thanks so much for making this part of your day. I'm Doug Gottlieb filling in for Colin Cowherd.

Whether you're watching on FS1, you're listening on the IHeart Radio app or our hundreds of Fox Sports Radio affiliates nationwide. Thank you so much for spending. Your time leading up to New Year's, talking sports and some other stuff with us here in the herd. Man, we got a great show for you. Greg Jennings is going to join us. I got the Blazing Five for you, Colin on fire all year, so he decided to drop the mic this week, not making any picks. Don't worry, I'll pick up the baton.

My picks have been quite good on the Doug Gottlieb show, which follows this show on most Fox Sports Radio affiliates and on the IHeart Radio app nationwide. James Harrison's going to join. join us. Dana White's going to join us. We got a metric ton to get to. I'm going to tell you I'm coming in 15 minutes why Kirk Cousins is not overpaid. He is rightfully compensated

and worth every penny even with this prove-it weekend in the National Football League Week 17. Week 17, eight games on our Fox Broadcast Network. Well, let's get to what we saw last night. Sure, the Lakers lost a game they should have

won, and Lonzo Ball played about as well he's played as a pro before asking out because of cramps, and they lose in Sacramento on a game-winning three-point shot. But I think more interesting is a couple hours away in Oakland, where the Warriors lose again at home. Now, they lose to Damien Lillard, but I think the bigger, more interesting part is not just that they lost or how they lost,

where Kevin Durant misses a couple of what could have been game ceiling or game winning shots. Steph Curry with the ball in his hands up to, turns it over, and Damien Lillard hits a huge three in his hometown to win the thing for Portland. It's not just that they lost to the Portland Trailblazers. It's not just that Clay Thompson's struggles continue or that Draymond Green continues to be unguarded.

It's that we operate under this, I think, dated narrative in the NBA. A dated narrative. Like we are so slow to react to things, but we're reacting in things because of last year or the year before that. The idea that the Warriors will be fine in the playoffs. But let's look at it in reality. In reality, last year in the playoffs, they beat the Houston Rockets in five games,

and the Rockets were missing Chris Paul. And the Rockets missed, what was it, 27 consecutive threes, something we had never seen before. Like all of these things had to go wrong for the rockets in order for it to go right for the Warriors. And you can point out that Andreigodala was injured much of that series and that's a huge piece for how the Warriors like to play, and that would be fair.

Though I'm not equating the value of Iguodala to Chris Paul, I do think that having Igodala dramatically changes the Warriors. The bigger point is, as close as, the rockets were last year. And I understand that it looked on paper and maybe in reality to start the year like the rockets have gotten worse. And maybe they have. The rest of the West seems

to have gotten better. The Lakers are pronouncedly better than they were last year. I would make the case to the thunder when fully healthy. Even without Andre Robertson are better than they were last year. Paul George, much more comfortable and he's frankly

been their best player. You look around the Western Conference and it feels like four legit competitors, and we're not even pointing out Portland, who of course overachieved last year, and that's why they got dusted out of the playoffs. If Portland is your fourth to sixth best team, you got a pretty good, you got a pretty good side of the bracket there. Right? Like the West is good, but more importantly, we're dealing with dated data. That data is not accurate. Draymond Green is not the player that he was. He's not at all. He's not an all-pro. He's not playing like a Hall of Fame player. Is it injuries? Probably some of it.

Is it a lack of confidence because of those injuries? Probably some of it. And remember, Draymond Green is going to have to change positions when DeMarcus cousins becomes healthy or healthy enough to play. When the Warriors have won any of these three titles, their death lineup has had Draymond Green at the center position. And I don't know if they can or will still do that, considering you have to Marcus Cousins. It'll change the way they play defensively, and then offensively, that'll dramatically change their spacing and how you use Draymond Green.

Right now, he's still playing as their de facto center, and he's not playing well in spite of the fact that he's wide open offensively. Combine that with the fact that he's in a contract year, once a max contract, and at some point he tries to prove his value, and Draymond Green is a mess. A mess. Then you got Clay Thompson, who has hidden the fact that he's having an awful year with a couple of outlier performances like old Clay has had. Clay Thompson's shooting second worst from field goal range, worst three point percentage of his career.

He's even struggling for Clay Thompson, one of the great shooters in the history of the game at the Frito line. And he too is in a walk year. And then you got Kevin Durant. He's had no missteps in terms of things he set off. basketball floor, has he? It always feels like Steph Curry's a turned ankle away from missing a month, and their bench is a disaster. Sean Livingston finally looks old. Andrea Godala has looked old, has been oft-injured, and then news today that Pat McCall, who had been holding out as a restricted free agent, signed for $800,000 more with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And of course, the Warriors can

match that, but McCaw hasn't played all year. And if they match it, it costs them not. million more in luxury tax. They have a bad bench, can add Pat McCall, who's played for them at before mid-season, and yet we don't know what kind of shape he's in, and we know how that hurts them in terms of the luxury tax. You look at what they needed last year in order to win 27 consecutive missed threes. Chris Paul getting hurt, which does feel like it's going to happen. in the future and has happened recently for the Houston Rockets. But still, Chris Paul ain't hurt.

They make one or two of those threes. And we might have a different NBA champion today. And oh, yeah, by the way, everybody's acting like that 73 win team of a couple years ago was what was added to Kevin Durant. They changed. They lost Bogot. They changed the bench. They changed the rotation.

And the league has caught up to what they do. and the league has mimicked and mirrored many of the things that they do. We operate with dated data. This isn't last year. This isn't the year before. This isn't what gamblers do when they go like, hey, you know, Andrew Luck, 10 times a row, he's beating the Tennessee Titans. No, one time this year he's beaten the Tennessee Titans. The construct of the team, the construct of the league, the way in which it's officiated,

changes year to year. And this warrior's team losing two consent. executive home games. That never happened. That never happened. Losing at home is one thing. Losing back-to-back home games against playoff teams, they usually play to their level of competition. This idea that the Warriors can be team Clapper. You remember the

clapper? Clap on. Clap off the clapper. That they can get to the playoffs and go like, all right, we're going to play. The league is closer than you would think. Most people don't pay a ton of attention to regular season NBA outside of Christmas Day. And Steph Curry has played poorly before on Christmas Day. He shot poorly on Christmas Day again. But the turnover that Steph had, the over-dependence on Kevin Durant to bail them out, the lack of bench depth of any kind,

Draymond Green being an almost non-factor outside of being a passer on offense, and Clay Thompson suddenly struggling to make shots that he has always made in the NBA. Before you put in pencil or definitely before you put in Penn, that the Warriors are going to win the NBA championship, and then we'll figure out what happens with KD, with Clay, and with Draymond Green. This thing is closer. The league catches up. The league will figure you out.

There are more challenges by day. Look at any business leader. any business leader. Like the first in, first in always crushes it, right? But you've got to continue to evolve. You've got to continue to change. Look at those Bulls teams with two different runs.

Yes, Jordan remained the same. And Pippin remained the same. Outside of that, everything else changed. Everything else changed. First, it was Horace Grant and John Paxson and medical Bill Cartwright. And by the end, they had Steve Kerr, they had Will Perdue, they had Dennis Rodman, they had Luke Longley.

They cycled through a bunch of different guys who, one, were hungry, but two, because they were different stages in their career, they provided different things. This Warriors team looks a little bit tired, a little bit annoyed with each other, overly dependent on Kevin Durant to bail them out because he is and has been that good of an offensive player. And those things they were able to get away with a couple years ago. Throwing the ball into the stands, behind the back passes, turning it over against the double team.

Clay Thompson will bail us out with five threes when the game is tight and we'll just boat race people. Hey, guess what? Now everybody's shooting threes. Everybody's playing small. Everybody knows what you do, how you do it, and how to take it away. Close than you think. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m.

on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Let's bring him in. He's the lead college football analyst for the NFL on Fox. He's got better hair than any human being should ever be allowed to have at his age with that many kids. He's the one and only Joel Clack. What's up, man? How are you? I'm great.

I hope you had a great Christmas. I did. I really did. Let's start. You are a proponent or not a proponent of expanding the college football playoff? Not a proponent. I've said many times that I still believe that we need to have one less playoff teams than we have number of power conferences because I'm a firm believer that as soon as you have an automatic bid, you ruin the regular season. At that at that point, I think that the regular season in particular, the non-conference means very little.

And teams with three and four losses have a legitimate opportunity to play themselves into the playoff. And I don't want to avoid that. You know, I think that there's little tweaks that you can do to it, but I would like to avoid that. I would actually disagree with you in just, do I think we need to expand the playoff? Probably not. Maybe we could go to six if we did it. But I actually disagree with you in terms of the regular season doesn't matter. I think the conference season would matter more if you said, hey, look, we don't care what you do.

You win your league, you get to go to the playoff, right? You win your league because that's what you have in every other sport, right? Is you win your league, and that would make those longstanding, 100-year rivalries matter even more because all you got to do is win your league and you can get that. You would also have a Northwestern team this year, for example, that did not win a non-league game. Didn't win one. Lost to Ackland. Yes. Lost to Notre Dame.

Lost to Duke. And they would have had 60 minutes to play themselves into the playoff. Yeah. So, I mean, listen, there's no perfect. The problem is there's no perfect way. I agree with that. I can actually help you out, though, with your argument. The line, they're both two touchdown lines.

Like this idea that we need more teams. Like, this is a year in which it's not every year where the Notre Dame argument would be the only thing. that would take us away from, like we all known that Alabama and Clemson seem to be the two best teams. And you look at how thoroughly dominant they are. But there was ever an argument that we should have the old BCS system. It's this year. This feels

like USC Texas of 05, right? When it's like, I don't care who number three was. I just want to see that game. I think this year and to your point, I think what you're trying to say is like, listen, the argument between Georgia, Ohio State, and Oklahoma was somewhat riveting. I think they all had flaws. You could have

made an argument for any one of them. The argument between UCF, Florida, and I mean, who else? LSU? That doesn't interest me at all because I don't think those teams are particularly good in terms of a national championship conversation. I think they've had phenomenal seasons, but I don't think that we should be trying to include them into any sort of conversation for the national championship. I think that there's a difference between teams that have had great seasons and teams that should be allowed to compete for the national championship. But some have called me an elitist, like a big conference snob, but I guess I got to wear this. that. Well, you are elite, and if that makes you an elitist, so help you. Okay, let's go to the Notre Dame Clemson matchup.

Yeah, I think it's fascinating. I do too. In any other year, okay, if you take strip Notre Dame's name off it, but maybe if you don't, right? Okay. Notre Dame beats Michigan, USC, Florida State, Virginia Tech on the road, Stanford, right? Any other year, you'd be like, no way they survived that schedule. If they do, put them in, they're having to defend themselves. Meanwhile, Clemson, who has a ridiculous amount of talent and wiped the field with the ACC, right after the Syracuse game. Which the ACC was so bad. Awful.

But they lost their best interior defensive linemen to PED suspension. And, oh, yeah, by the way, they do have a freshman quarterback. If there's a game which could be close, I think this is the game, which could be super interesting. I agree. I think actually both of them could be close. I think you can make a case for both underdogs, albeit a slim case. Now, I think that Notre Dame's case happens when you talk about the past defense of Clemson.

Clemson, when they have faced any type of attack from the passing side of the opposition, Jake Bentley from South Carolina, Kellamon from Texas A&M, A&M had 400 yards passing. South Carolina had 500 yards passing. So there are some holes in the secondary for the Clemson Tigers. And if you take away any sort of prowess on that defensive line, which now they're going to be without one of their best, I would maybe argue he is their best, in particular on the interior. Now all of a sudden you don't get to the quarterback all that often, just per se, right?

You have more opportunities to double team the other great players on the defensive line. What's to hold Notre Dame from throwing the ball for 350 yards? I think that that's totally legitimate the way that Ian Book has played this season, the way that Notre Dame has been efficient once he got into the lineup, the way that they've scored with the football, once he got into the lineup, He's been one of the most efficient plight, right around 70% completion percentage. I think Notre Dame's going to be able to score some points on Clemson because of those reasons. And I think they're pretty good defensively up front.

Some of us were dealing with this dated data of Notre Dame when they had Mante Taiao and the Leung Kakuwa thing. And they go out there and like, man, Notre Dame doesn't look like they belong, right? They got in there on reputation. This is a Notre Dame team. Granted, it was a long time ago. They thrashed that Michigan offensive line. They're pretty good defensively up front. They're good offensively up front.

And they got some dudes at skill positions. Like it's not crazy to think athletically. This is not a total mismatch. Yeah. And you have to wonder how a true freshman is going to react, in particular against a very good front seven. What's to say, like let's say Notre Dame and their front seven, they hold ETH in check.

And it's all on Trevor Lawrence. And he's all of a sudden getting a little bit of rush. What's to keep him from throwing the football to Notre Dame once or twice? Now all of a sudden you're in a game, maybe you're down. any number of things can happen. I think Notre Dame's got a shot. I don't think that they blow me out of the water, but they're a very good football team.

They're a very sound football team. Defensively, they're very tough up front. You and Gus called the Red River rivalry. Of course, if people forgot, Texas was up, three touchdowns. Yeah, 21 in the fourth quarter. And it was a wrap, and some people clicked off the TV, and then you turn around like,

whoa, wait a second, Kyler Murray decided it's not over yet. My issue with that is, I just, Oklahoma's defense is so bad. I don't think you can give up that many points. And this is a better offense than anyone will rightfully give it credit. Sure. I just, I don't see it. I think Oklahoma is, Alabama is much better than anything they've seen in the

Big 12. And I'm a Big 12 homer. So I've heard this argument that like, OU's defense is better than people give it credit for. And I've tried to make that case in the past. I don't see that this year. Not this year. After they made the change.

defensive coordinator, they got worse, much worse. You look at the, they've given up 40 points five times this year, 40 or more points. I think that there's a really good chance that they give up 40 or more points again in this game. They're the last ranked past defense in the country. And then you go over to the other side and you say, okay, what if two is not totally healthy? I think two at 85, 90 percent can still put up a huge day. And here's why. If you look at where two has struggled and you can't even really call it struggling,

It was against the three best defenses that he faced. You got Mississippi State in there, LSU in there. He was four touchdowns, four interceptions in those three games. The bottom 10 defenses he faced, guess what he did? 33 rips, zero interceptions. 33 touchdowns, zero interceptions. Oklahoma is the last ranked past defense in the country. This is one of the deepest and best wide receiver cores that we've got in college football.

Speaking of Alabama, they've got two running backs that can run it. Oklahoma struggles immensely tackling in space. I don't know if Oklahoma can hold them under 50 points. I really don't, Doug. I don't either. Okay, so then there's Kyler Murray. Now look, you're a, you're a guy who was a baseball player that came back and played football.

Yes, that's right. But you've experienced life in the minor leagues. It's awful. And so I've experienced life in the minor leagues in basketball. I think it's worse. I actually think it's worse. But I could be wrong. there is this assumption that, hey, baseball is a pot of gold, man.

You get there, you're going to play for 20 years. You're going to make $200, $300,000, $300 million. But people forget, like, you don't make real money in baseball until your fifth year as a pro. And that's if you make it during that time. And oh, yeah, by the way, by the way, guys are now platoon. Everybody's a platoon guy. They're cutting everybody's salary. And so I'm sitting there going like, look, the number one quarterback prospect in the draft.

decided to go back to Oregon. So that bumps everybody else who will declare up. If I'm Kyler Murray, while right now the air raid offense is all the rage and people are overlooking the fact that I'm 5'9, I go. I take it if I'm a first round traffic, I go play football. Okay. Listen, I think that there's two ways you can make the argument that he should go play football. And let me just talk about the financial one that you were originally making.

You're absolutely right about the financial windfall that is a misconception about baseball. Yes, he signed a $4.6 million contract. And I don't want to scoff at that. That's real money. That is real money. He's been paid one and a half of that and he's due 3.16 in March. If he goes and plays football, he's got to pay back the $1.5 million. Here's the difference though. After that 4.6, he's really done making money until I'd say at the earliest five years from now. Because he's got to get to the big leagues, start his arbitration clock. And in his pre-arb years, he's going to making less than $700,000. And everyone's thinking like, wait, wait, less than $700,000?

Yes, here are the numbers, actually. In 2017, there were 399 of 9663 big leaguers, 40% of the league making $700,000 or less. Aaron Judge made $600,000. Exactly, because he's a pre-arbitration player. So you don't even get to arbitration. By the way, once you're in arbitration, it's not like you're going to make a ton of money. You're going to make between $2 to $4.5 million. you're not making 16. That comes when you're 28, 29 years old.

Unless you're Mike Trout, unless you're mooky bats, unless you're, and again, those are the exception. Right. Okay, here's the, here's the big question. Here's the big question. But somebody, let me just say you get into the first round. Lamar Jackson's got a nine and a half million dollar contract. And he's playing in the pros. And he's playing in the pros now, as opposed to he won't play in the pros immediately or maybe even the near future for the A's. And then the second part of the argument is just a sentimental part. I believe that if he loved baseball more than football, football would already be done and he'd be a minor leaguer right now because he could have done that last summer. I think he's got some sentimental

tie and love affair with the game of football. And I don't think that that can be overstated. I love football more than baseball. And that's why I came back to it. Okay. Last thing. And this is really important. He's going to be drafted late first, second, maybe even early first round. Realistically, is he an NFL starting quarterback? It's so, I think that question is so much harder to answer now than it ever has been. Three areas which we would knock him five years ago that now all of a sudden, maybe you can't knock him. One, the offensive system. Now we've seen Jared Goff, Pat Mahomes, Baker Mayfield, come out of that system and have huge success in the National Football League,

partly because of the evolution of the game towards this system at the next level. Then you've got young quarterbacks. You could say, well, young guys don't generally have success in this league. It's all about Brady Manning, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's not necessarily the case. look at all the young quarterbacks having success now. And then the short factor is the height going to be an issue? Well, you got Drew Breeze, you got Russell Wilson,

and you got guys like Case Keenum having success. I know that Kyler is shorter than all of those guys, but if you put his combination of running ability and the ability to throw the ball, I think he can have success. I don't want to put it past him. I really don't. I think today's NFL is almost tailor-made for a guy like him

to come into the league and really change the league. He's on his way to call the Red Box Bowl, right? I'm Holiday Bowl. You're a holiday bowl. So that's just a little scoot down. Down the I-5. Utah, taking on Northwestern, who you love. You thought should have been in the college football playoff.

He's the one and only Joel Kla. Thanks so much, Joel. Good, bud. Have it going. One 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.

Big game this weekend, a bunch of big games this weekend, the National Football League. Greg Jennings is going to join us momentarily. The former Packer, And former Viking-wide receiver will be our guest. Also, former Dolphin. I know what he thinks is going to happen in Miami. It's always fascinating to me on how you get these false narratives, right?

One of the false narratives are what NFL contracts are not guaranteed. That's not true. They may not be fully guaranteed based upon what agents put out there as the, value, but whatever is guaranteed is in fact guaranteed. Like Matt Ryan's deal is, what, $94 million in guaranteed money. He's going to get every penny of that. Aaron Rogers, 79.2, and some of the reported non-guaranteed money is really guaranteed. All he has to do is have a roster bonus, right?

All he has to do is show up at workouts. There are makeable bonuses in there. So NFL players may not like the amount of money that they're guaranteed. but the idea that they're not guaranteed is laughable because it's a lie. And if you don't like the terms of the, well, the last two years the deal aren't guaranteed, don't ask for a five-year deal and be willing to take slightly less money. The other, one of the other false narratives is that Kirk Cousins is overpaid. He signed a three-year $84 million deal, fully guaranteed.

Now remember, Kirk Cousins was a fourth round pick when RG3 was the first round pick. So his first couple years in the league, he made. Bubkiss. He made, he was like Dak Prescott, where the first three years you can't renegotiate your deal. Then when he became a franchise taggie, he made somewhere in the neighborhood of $44 million

over two years of being a guaranteed franchise tag guy. Those are one year guaranteed deals. He made back to back. So you do the math 44 plus 84. 44 plus 84 is what? $130 million? All guaranteed. Now, he had to not get hurt for either of those two years,

but he's going to make $130 million or so in five years. That's not bad. But to the person who says, The Vikings, what a joke contract, it reminds me of, and I don't know how many of you still get a newspaper, let alone a Sunday paper. But if you didn't get the Sunday paper, the Sunday paper was like three times as thick as a regular newspaper.

I had all kinds of different pullouts. And one of the pullouts was a magazine inside. They still have. It's called Parade Magazine. And the Parade Magazine had some usefulness most of the year, but the most useful edition, once a year was how much people make. It was awesome. Still is awesome.

You pull it out and you just, you can't take your eyes off it. It's like a viral video. You sit there and wait, postal worker in Des Moines, Iowa makes $73,000. I'm in the wrong profession, right? Medical sales in Minneapolis, $175,000. I'm in the wrong profession. School teacher in Enid, Oklahoma, makes $35,000. I'm in the right profession.

I do not want to do. I cannot imagine. working with kids for $35,000. And you look at it, and the person who makes $35,000 is the school teacher who just started in Eden, Oklahoma, you have sympathy for. The postal worker who makes $74,000 in Des Moines, Iowa, you're like, man, are you kidding me? We used to call it going postal. Why would anyone have anything, any gripe if you're making $74,000? What it lacked was context.

What it lacked was context. how many years had you worked? Or if you're in medical sales, it's not just what product you sell, what region you have, or how many reasons you have, how many years have you've been with the company, and, oh, hey, here's another part to it.

Were you killing it, and then somebody tried to come steal you, they offered you a boatload more money, and your current company decided to match, or they didn't decide to match, and you got a bunch of money to switch companies, right? It's called leverage. And once you have it, you use it.

And guess who had it? Kirk, don't call me Kurt Cousins. He had leverage. And he used it. He rolled the dice as a franchise taggy for two years. And then because it's way too expensive to tag him for a third year and that thing was done, he became a free agent. This never happens in the NFL.

Never. It doesn't. You're only a free agent when your team is done with you. and nobody, Blake Bortles could be a free agent. They might have to pay Blake Bortals $18 million to not be quarterback. James Winston, who of course was suspended earlier this year for yet another dumb thing he did off the football field. Granted, it was two years ago. And even he says he doesn't know what happened, but it was enough for the NFL to go, dude, really?

Something else with women? Enough. But last year, it's about the market. And people in real estate maybe know this the best. right over the last five or six years especially in southern california real estate market's been on fire on fire is it the economy sure but the big thing was a scarcity of goods a scarcity of uh of uh of um of of of houses that's really it comes down to it just it wasn't anything in the market and so the market kept going up because people said you know that house really isn't worth a million

$10. It's really worth, but you're worth what somebody's willing to pay, and a house is worth what somebody's willing to pay for it. And if you have to have a house in Southern California in order to live, in order to breathe, you move in, you're like, man, I got to get a house. And I don't know, this is the going right. What were your options if you were in Minnesota? And again, here's the context of it. They had Teddy Bridgewater, who they had manage a game and got them to the playoffs before they missed a field goal you could kick with your left foot against the Seattle Seahawks. In their last practice of training camp, he blows out his knee. And because they thought they had a playoff team, maybe a Super Bowl team, they gave a first round pick to go and get

Sam Bradford. And everybody in their offensive line got hurt. And so Sam Bradford had the highest completion percentage for one season in the history of the National Football League, but most of it was because one, he doesn't have a lot of fortitude to stand in there. He's been injured a bunch. And two, he had to get rid of it quick because he was facing live bullets every moment. This is a franchise that had a plan. Their plan was Teddy Bridgewater, young quarterback, making young quarterback money. Let's build the whole thing around him.

And then plans change when Teddy blew out his knee. And then Teddy comes back last year, but he's not really ready to play. They get Case Keenham and they got Sam Bradford. And things are going swimmingly. until San Bradford has one great game. And then because of the years of abuse to that knee and all of the different injuries, it just hurts. So he played like a game and a half.

And then he was done. And then they get all the way to the NFC championship game. People are, wow, you know, they got the NFC championship game with Case Keenham. So, you know, cousins making this much more money has to be better. Again, no context. The Packers lost Aaron Rogers last year.

That's why the Packers were bad. The Bears were in the last year the John Fox regime. This year, they went out and added a great play caller as head coach, some other vital pieces. And oh, yeah, by the way, they trade away two first round draft picks for Khalil Mack. That's why they're better. Forget about the fact that around the league, injuries were the story of last year, from Carson Wentz going down, or suspensions to Ezekielion. The NFC, more than any other, more than the AFC, was decimilar. by injuries or suspensions.

Zieg doesn't play six games. Cowboys not in the playoffs. Cam Newton gets hurt. You look around the league and the New York Giants last year lost all of their wide receivers in one game. Does that mean they would have been good? No, but they would have been a lot more competitive if they had Sterling Shepard, if they had Odell Beckham Jr.

If they had their tight end as well, Evan Ingram. And oh yeah, by the way, if you remember, the Vikings were dead to rights beaten by the Saints at home, if not for a miracle finish. And so, look, once they hit the end of the season and Case Keenham got exposed against the Philadelphia Eagles with a backup quarterback, they're like, look, we got to go get the best guy available. Their choices were Lamar Jackson.

When you have Adam Thielen, when you have Stefan Diggs, when you have Kyle Rudolph, you don't want a guy who's going to run the ball 15 times a game and complete 15 passes. You need a stable, viable starting quarterback. And the market was this, A.J. McCarran, Terad Taylor, Case Keenham, Teddy Bridgewater, or Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins making $84 million over the next three years. He's second in completion percentage. He's seventh in pass yards.

He's eighth in passing TDs. He's eighth in passer rating. He's above middle of the road in every statistical category. He doesn't get hurt. He shows up to work. There's no off-the-field drama. Even when they fired his offensive coordinator, you never heard a negative word from Kirk Cousins.

Not one. That has value. anything. It was the only nice house on the market. And they weren't even the highest bidder the Jets were. And if you want to say, look, they should have just held on to Cousins and saved the money.

I'm assuming to Keenham and save the money. Cousins has 12 more touchdowns, four few interceptions, 43 more yards per game, second in the NFL and completion percentage. Meanwhile, Denver has a solid running game. Third in the National Football League in Russian TDs. Averages 26 more yards a game

as opposed to the Vikings are 30, in running. And the Broncos are going to fire their head coach and are in the market for a quarterback with the guy that you had that some people are like, you should have saved money. You saved money, there's a reason you would have saved money on them. The Vikings knew.

Keenham wasn't good enough. Cousins is. The Vikings defense isn't as good this year as it was last year. The competition with a first place schedule and with healthier teams that you're going against is tougher than it was last year. And has he performed like a superstar in the biggest of games?

No. But he's not making that money because he's a superstar. He's making that money because he's stable and because he was the only one on the market. And so while you look at the parade magazine, you go, Kirk Cousins, $84 million, I'm in the wrong profession. I should be a marginal starting quarterback. There's not 30 of them. There was only one available.

And the Vikings got him. So while some of you might think he's overpaid, they actually paid. low market value compared to what the Jets offered. He's rightfully, if not undercompensated in terms of what he was actually worth. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days

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That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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