The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Mike Silver on Rodgers List Push Back, Brady/Niners Theory, Lamar/Ravens Standoff, McVay Power Play

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

First, (3:00) Colin gives his take on the intense media coverage over Aaron Rodgers next move, and Rodgers pushing back on media reports of him giving the Jets a list of player demands. Then, longtime NFL writer - and host of the Open Mike podcast - Mike Silver joins Colin to discuss the NFL world waiting on edge for Aaron Rodgers announcing if he’s headed to the Jets, his push back over ‘the list,’ if Sam Darnold could end up starting over Trey Lance for the Niners,if Tom Brady is still in play for the Niners in 2023, the best and worst case scenarios of Jimmy Garoppolo to the Raiders, if Sean McVay is heading toward total organizational control with the Rams.  Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates, and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! #Herd #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hi, everybody. Welcome in to the Wednesday morning podcast, Mike Silver, like Aaron Rogers, he went to Cal, highly connected NFL reporter, all things Niners, Aaron Rogers, some Raiders talk, Darren Waller to the Giants, a nice pickup for New York. Let me start with this. Since the Super Bowl, I have talked to three, two in person, one on the phone, FaceTime, three different Green Bay Packers. So I'll respect Aaron Rogers. But, you know, when you play with Aaron and you're a teammate of Aaron, Aaron's going to do things that Aaron wants to do and he's rarely going to let you in on it.

So I was talking to another Green Bay Packer yesterday. And he has no animosity toward Aaron. Played with him for a while, not one of his guys. The takeaway is on the list with the New York. it's not necessarily Aaron Rogers feeding a reporter. Aaron is saying the list is suspect. It's that this has been a real trend of Aaron Rogers. Nobody's connected to him.

Nobody knows anything. So Trey Wingo said it's done. It wasn't. He ripped Schaefter and Ian Rappaport. Diana Rusini, he's telling people that she doesn't know what she's talking about. The list is suspect. nobody just makes stuff up. Now, I will say different people can speak on Aaron's behalf.

Nathaniel Hackett could tell a report or something, and they take that as gospel, you know, from Aaron Rogers' worldview. So something I have sourced from people who have seen or been with Aaron over the last month and a half since the Super Bowl, he's pretty chill on it. He's doing his thing. he's got multiple events. He's scheduled personally throughout the summer, probably not going to be available for OTA.

What happens, happens. He is capable of walking away. Pat McAfee mentioned he wouldn't be shocked if he did walk away. I don't think he will, but I think he's capable of it. He's not obsessed with football. Clearly you can see by a semi-committed off-season. But Aaron's not that close to that many teammates. You wasn't that close with Devante Adams.

Devante Adams left. You know, he didn't have a great relationship or any relationship with the young wide receivers. Alan Lizard has signed with the Jets. That's a comfort signing. I'm sure Aaron over the course of the weekend in Malibu talking to the Jets said, you know, there's a couple of guys I really like Mercedes-Lewis, Alan Lazzard, Randall Cobb. You know, I think that's a reasonable assumption.

And they went out and got Alan Lazzard. Do I think the Jets would acquire Alan Lazzard? if they weren't seeking Aaron Rogers? No. He's a big body. They got Corey Davis. No, I don't. Do I think they'd bring in Nathaniel Hackett after bombing in Denver as their first choice if they weren't interested in Aaron Rogers? No, I don't think they would. And I've said this with Aaron. I don't think they're going to ever win a Super Bowl. I don't think they're going to win their division with Aaron Rogers. If you go back to his history, his first year of doing anything, starting he was six and ten. First year with Lefleur and Hackett, he had a mid to high 90s passer rating at the time,

third lowest of his career. I do think he makes the Jets better. But Aaron is manipulative. Not just in this instance, it's with the media. It's kind of downgrading anybody's information unless it's directly from him. But Aaron also gives off the vibe that he doesn't really care and he's really chill, but shit pisses him off privately. How do I know that? Because I was told that twice yesterday. So if I was Aaron, I'd stay with Green Bay. My guess is has always been 51% Packers over the Jets, but by signing Alan Lazzard, I think the Jets are doing everything possible to get Aaron, but I don't think they have an answer yet. I don't.

And I think Hackett was step one. Alan Lazzard is step two. You know, maybe we'll hear something on David Bacdiari. But, you know, this idea that nobody's connected to Aaron and nobody knows anything, Aaron's got plenty of players. People I know that he shows his disdain on a regular basis. He hears the media. He was not happy, I'm told, with the list, said it was BS.

I just don't believe Diana Rusini completely made it up. Why would she do that? She's got a nice career. Why would you just throw out a haymaker that's totally, absolutely inaccurate, unless you had some feelers on it and some legitimate sources? So I do know that Nathaniel Hackett is a huge fan and friend of Mercedes-Lewis, that I know. So I know Hackett and not Aaron Rogers necessarily, he would go to Robert Saul and say, get me Mercedes-Louis.

Mercedes-Lewis is affordable, smart, good locker room guy, tremendous blocker. So I think Hackett could have easily been the one that initiated the Mercedes-Louis conversation with the Jets. That's what I believe to be true. Let's talk to Mike Silver. With the NFL season over, all eyes in the sporting world turned everything from the NBA to college hoops to the NHL. Plenty of games to watch are even better, plenty of games to get out of the house and actually go to. That's why the best way to get your hands on tickets, when you want to go to one of these games, check out Game Time. Fastest growing ticket app in the U.S. game time.

Offer amazing last minute deals on tickets to your best favorite NBA. hockey NCAA teams. Top of that, they sell last minute concert and comedy show tickets too. Download the game time app. Download it. Redeem code is Colin, $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download the app. Enter the code Colin. C-O-L-I-N, 20 bucks off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we bring in host of Open Mike, Mike Silver. he is a story-breaking maven is what he is and it is not lost on us that the Niners are always working and Aaron Rogers is always manipulating so I talked to since the Super Bowl I've talked to three different Packers and two in person and one FaceTime and you know they've they were you can respect

a coworker. It doesn't mean your boys. And there is a sense with Aaron. Bill Simmons and I got into this discussion once that when you're, you know, you and I are married, you and I have kids. Our life is a series of sacrifices, right? When you're single, rich, no kids, no pets, it's not. So Aaron's kind of the sun in his galaxy, right? And this is not saying he's inconsiderate or, thoughtless. That's not what I'm saying. But he can be at times a bit manipulative and very

Aaron-centric. And I think in this situation, there are teammates in Green Bay that I've been told that feel like, bro, I don't want my names on lists. I don't want my names in reports. I just want an answer. I do think there are people that are close with Aaron at times can get discouraged with him. Is that fair? Well, I just, I look at it as such a longer thing, and remember the infamous summer of Favb in 2008. I was at Yahoo at the time and spent a bunch of days, planned on going to Green Bay for a couple days, stayed for about five as the saga played out. And he became the guy.

And ultimately became what will now be a sure first ballot hall of famer and a four-time MVP. And throughout much of that time, I've been a person who believes very vocally that that organization hadn't aggressively gone after it the way they should with a quarterback that special. And, you know, they have a philosophy that dates back, you know, before this regime, Ted Thompson and Ron Wolf and all that. But I used to say, look, it's easy to say, we're just going to sit back, be. passive and build through the draft when we have a transcendic quarterback, by the way, for the second time in a row, who will cover up a lot of our ills. And I think they've underachieved organizationally by not doing that. They kind of started to try to do that toward the end. They had their run.

It didn't work out. In 2019, they lost badly on the road in the NFC championship game. In 2020, they hosted with no fans. and lost to Tom Brady and the Bucks, a team that had loaded up. And in 2021, they lost at home to the Niners in a game that neither team could really score, but a block punt decided it. And I think they know the window's over. So it makes sense for them to want it to end now.

And I think if they had a time machine, they'd go back a year. It makes sense for Aaron, given the way that context has changed. to want to leave. And I understand why people on the outside get frustrated when it seems to make that much sense, why it isn't just happening. And it is a little complicated. And maybe Aaron is exerting leverage right now

or just sincerely trying to figure out what he wants. But it seems to me that the math adds up to Jets desperately want him. He knows Green Bay that that that's, time is kind of passed. Packers just want to move forward, knowing that they miss their window, not like, ha, we're going to win the Super Bowl now with Joy and Love. I think they know on some level. And they need to get the contract off the book. So when you put all that together, I see why people on the outside say, let's just do this now. What did you make of the list? Aaron has told some friends it's BS. I tend to defend all reporters, Mike Silver, Diana Ruse.

I've never worked with anybody who makes stuff up. Now, I do know Hackett is close with Mercedes-Louis. The name Mercedes-Lewis could have shown up on that list from Hackett. I know that because I know Hackett. I know Mercedes-well and Hackett and he have a good relationship. And a lot of people like Nathaniel, whether he's a great coach or not, he's very close to a lot of players. Yeah.

He's a very engaging, lovely person. Yeah. So the Mercedes name on the list may not have been Aaron Rogers. But Aaron's saying, you know, the list is nonsense. He'll announce on McAfee tomorrow. You know, he'll probably push back on some of it. What did you make of the list? Well, I don't mind if there's a list, first of all.

I could understand why Aaron and especially the Jets would want us to not think there's a list. But I'm kind of okay with that, especially someone at this stage of his career who's going for broke. And people can say, oh, he's big a diva. He's trying to be the G. Yeah, and Tom Brady did at the end, and Peyton Manning did at the end, and they won Super Bowls. And if you're that good, you not only are able to do that, but you should. And I'm not saying he's right about Randall Cobb and Mercedes-Louis at this stage of their career. If that's a comfort thing for him, I think it's a conversation with the team that's trying to get him.

Luzard, I don't think that's a crazy thing for a team to do. If you bring them in as your one, you're crazy. If you bring them in as your two, three, sure, that's fine. I love the Beckham thing. I think it's cool. Like Tom Brady had Antonio Brown living in his house. Antonio Brown, who's the biggest nightmare for an organization to deal with at all, ever, including for Tom, it turned out.

So yeah, go get Odell Beckham if he could play. Like he played when we last saw him. Yeah, I like that. So I don't hate the list if it's real. And again, I know Diana really well. I'm sure she has great sourcing on it. I don't mind the list. I understand why if you're the Jets and you're Aaron,

you don't want people to think there's a list. Frustrated for Packer fans because they're like, he didn't seem to be all in last year. He paid him all the money. and then he kind of disappeared, didn't work with the young receivers, seemed like he thought he could snap his fingers and turn it on at the very end. Even worse, it worked for four weeks and then lost in the lions that it ended. But the Jets wouldn't be getting that guy.

They'd be getting an aggrieved, highly motivated, chip on his shoulder. I'll show you, Aaron Rogers. And so the Packers aren't trading that guy necessarily, but the Jets are getting that guy, and it is what it is. Listen, you know, a lot of these leaks that come out, you can often see which direction the leak comes from, right? Like, I don't think Aaron would want that list out. Right. I surmise today.

I said the Jets are getting frustrated. They released a list. So if he doesn't sign, the New York media will go, well, God, look at the stupid list. Randall Cobb. But that's risky. Because then if he's your guy, he's already, he already doesn't trust you. So I don't know. I haven't talked to Sala today, but I'll bet if Robert Sala had any hair,

he would have pulled it out during the, when he first saw on his screen that that list had come out. That's my, my suspicion is the Jets don't want to go into this relationship with any weirdness. And by the way, I've said this before, Colin. I am pro-leak for the record. I just, every time we talk about leaks, I do want to say that. Pro-Leak, keep it coming. So let's pivot to a couple nineer things. So Sam Darnold has a lot of Trey Lance qualities.

Coachable, big athlete, mobile but not spectacularly fast, not a pretty thrower, not highly accurate, prone to some mistakes. But good in the room, coachable, big physical athlete for a big physical team. and culture. That's what it felt like to me. It feels like Trey Lance and Darnold are battling for the backup, though. Am I too idealistic on this Brock Purdy thing? I think Kyle Shanahan loves Purdy.

I think he does. Yeah, he does. And it was settled. It was over. Purdy was the guy. They were good. Couldn't even touch his contract for the next two years. Couldn't even renegotiate until two years from now.

cheap deal load up around them maybe lance develops and you flip them maybe he's your backup whatever it was all good and then if brock pretty had broken his leg in that game nothing would have changed ah tough break man we lost brock's the guy he ripped out a important ligament in his throwing elbow so yes it changed So what they hope, and obviously based on their behavior so far, what they hope is that's six-month timeline is reasonable. And if not, maybe it's seven, maybe it's even eight. But eventually the guy we get back is going to be the guy we had. He'll be able to throw it like you threw it before and we're good to go. And if that happens, then what you said is absolutely right.

right. But they do have to live in a reality now where it might not be that way. And sometimes there's setback. Sometimes there's scar tissue. Sometimes it just never comes back to what it was. I don't think that's likely. I think the likeliest thing is Brock Purdy will be back at some point, you know, not too late in the 2023 season looking like you did before. But you have to hedge. So after last year's entire offseason of Trace the guy, Trace the guy, Trace the guy, Trace the guy. And you and I infamously noted during that offseason that wasn't going super smoothly. Accurately. Accurately reported it.

Yeah. We accurately reported that he wasn't super accurate, that his arm was experiencing fatigue and that he wasn't consistent. we've since been now borne out to be true by including Trey Lance who was disgusted. But so they have to have a plan C. I wondered if it would be Matt Ryan if he'd want to do it,

give it his history with Kyle. I wondered if it would be a Dalton Brissette type of guy. They went a little younger. Interesting comparison, Donald and Lance. The one thing I'll give to Lance is that Darle is not known for his intelligence.

I'm not saying Sam Darnell's not intelligent for the record. I'm just saying he's not known as a quarterback who just blows you away with his... At the whiteboard. Yeah, whiteboard. Where Tray they saw something intelligence-wise before the draft

that got them super, super fired up. So that gives me hope that maybe there's a jump to be made. So I think Plan A is Lance is the guy, Darnold's the insurance. Maybe Lance starts a game or two, but Purdy's the guy. Plan B is, man, Purdy's not coming along great. But you know what, Lance stepped up.

He's the guy, Darnold's the insurance. Plan C is, Trey's not able to do it. He's going to have to be the backup. We'll go with Sam Darnold and figure it out. Plan A minus, as you know, and I will. well, I don't think it's likely, but you know John Lynch is going to call Tom Brady in May or June and go, hey, I know you said for good, but it's your hometown team because he's the perfect guy as a hedge against Purdy. If you don't think party is going to be right next year, but you think he's the guy in the future,

you can just do one year of Brady and still keep that same plan. It's interesting to me that both the Niners in Miami have constructed their 2023 rosters to basically say, we can win now if our quarterback thing works out. In the Niners case, Purdy's elbow comes back or Lance makes a jump. In the Dolphins case, Tua doesn't keep getting concussed. But, hey, Tom, wink, wink, we're built to win now. And if you came just for one year, whoa. No, you and I are leaning in the same direction.

I mean, that's why the backups Donald and Mike White are not really super viable long-term pieces. They are your classic emergency starter, meaning if Purdy goes out, Brady steps in. Nobody questions whether Brady's the guy, right? Right. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And again, so you and I can sit here and say Brady makes a lot of sense. I know they're going to at least try, but are we saying, do we know what Tom Brady's going to want to do? No, he said for good. So I'm assuming it's for good. I just know that if you were going to go back on that, you've got two really attractive situations, one where your kids live and you have a play. and one where you grew up and your parents live. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

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A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

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you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. So Jimmy G to the Raiders, you know Jimmy G well. There's a lot of stories that can now be told because you don't have to cover him. So I'll throw out what I've been told by the years, by people in the building or around the building. He's a guy's guy. There are limitations on his arm. Despite being a pretty big, solid guy, he doesn't have much of a whip, not terribly fluid, kind of mechanical, but he's a great locker room guy, kind of an alpha, could at times not be flaky, but disappear in the offseason. They felt like he relied a lot on God's genetic gift to him, size, chest, confidence, wasn't a workaholic. He's as good as he should be, considering his

commitment. Okay. So first of all, I love Jimmy. Like, I do. And one reason I love him is because I did write some of that. Last August or September, I came out with a thing talking about how they have the press conference in 2018 after his five wins. They give him the money. He's the guy. And then they have the big, you know, celebration. And then he leaves.

And they don't hear from him again for months. And ghosting them over the offseason was habitual except for the year they drafted Tray Lance. He was really attentive that off-season. So I wondered how that was going to go for me after I wrote that. Next time I saw Jimmy, it was all good. And, you know, that's yet another. I do love Jimmy. I think he's awesome.

I love his temperament. Yeah. I think he had the best temperament for Kyle Shanahan, who gets really tightly wound and grumpy on game day sometimes, not on game day. I think it rolled off Jimmy well. He was super popular. I think his arm, I wouldn't say anything bad about his arm. His release is so good.

And I don't think there are five other quarterbacks on Earth who really throw it like he does in terms of release and short-range accurate, short-to-medium-range accuracy. Like it's, you know, there were a lot of plays that were pointed out to be where, people said it looked like Jimmy did went through his reads and led this guy perfectly. What might have happened here is Jimmy saw it late, but he gets it out so quick and so perfectly that it just looked like that. So I do think his arm is really good. People have talked about his deep balls. I don't know.

So anyway, is Jimmy Garoppolo, you know, there's a lot of quarterbacks who are not grinders. One of them, we suspect in Arizona because they put a clause in his contract about video games. One of them is trying to get a fully guaranteed deal now. We should talk about that by all metrics, he deserves relative to Deshawn Watson, and he deserves to get paid way more than Daniel Jones, etc. But I think one of the things hurting Lamar is this perception that he's not grinding in terms of off the field.

And Jimmy is another guy who has acquired that reputation. And, you know, will that change with Josh and Vegas? Probably if you look at how he acted when they drafted Lance, yes. And also, look, I love Jimmy in 2022. I don't give it F Jimmy, which was liberating. And I told him, you know, in late December when he was hurt, I said, dude, you realize that the most niner thing ever is going to be for you to somehow come back and play the Super Bowl. Like, it just is. And there was a moment sitting in that stadium at the lake early where I'm like, Purdy's out, Josh Johnson's in, Christian McCaffrey just ran through five dudes.

They're tied. And I'm like, it's going to happen. Josh Johnson's going to win this game somehow. and Jimmy Garoppolo is going to come back in two weeks and start the Super Bowl against Patrick Mahob. So it didn't get quite that far, but I don't want to discount what he did. He really bailed them out last year.

He played at a Pro Bowl level. He got hurt. There was some tension after he got hurt. The way it was explained to me is that, you know, Trey Lance, who was hurt, was coming to every meeting and really was engaged with Brock. Jimmy's style was to not show up a lot. Kyle had never specifically said, this is mandatory, get your butt in here.

And so he wasn't disobeying anything. It was just a different approach. And it's possible that that's what Jimmy was taught in New England, by the way, that Bill's approach is when you're injured, just, you know, stay out of it. But if there was any tension at the end, you know, it was a three-year breakup. So, of course there was tension. But if there was tension at the end, Kyle, I think, was frustrated that Jimmy wasn't hanging around the way Trey was. So I do want to move segue into Lamar Jackson. Years ago, Kirk Cousins got a guaranteed contract.

It was highly criticized, dubious to expensive. Minnesota was pretty desperate in a division with Aaron Rogers. And so they offered it. And Kirk, you know, with a chip on his shoulder, said, I'm going to sign it. However, moving forward, nobody else offered a guaranteed contract, including the significantly more talented Aaron Rogers. My takeaway has always been, I've seen this since I've ran the volume. I'll make people an offer. I'm not going to offer you something just because I feel an inferior podcast company makes you an egregious offer, right?

So Cleveland's a desperate franchise, much more desperate than Minnesota was with Kirk Cousins. I don't believe Baltimore, a highly functional organization. should look at Cleveland and go, well, they set the market. If you're not available on Sunday, I can't give you a fully guaranteed contract, right? You have to, I have to be guaranteed. You know, by and large, Brady showed up every Sunday. Farrv showed up. Eli Manning showed up.

Daniel Jones shows up. There are guys that get dinged up for a variety of reasons. I love Lamar, but I worry that it's now personal because he doesn't have an agent. And when you don't have an agent, it does get personal because you are discussing people who are, if not lamenting, they are discussing your weaknesses and liabilities face to face. That's why I have an agent, Mike, so I don't have to deal with these kind of conversations. 100%, which is why when you and I renegotiate our deal, we'll use agents and they can do all that crap. Take the arrows for us. Exactly.

Yeah. So, first of all, I believe the Ravens are not shiny organizationally. And I have been as big a fan of that organization publicly as anyone for a long, long time. I think they've botched this too. I have written that they effed around and found out. They were willing to go into the season going fine. We'll just play it out with Lamar. And am I saying Lamar intentionally sat out?

all those games to spite them, no, but he didn't have that feeling that he was taken care of. And his coach came out publicly and was like, hey, I think he'll be back in a week or two. And which, you know, I don't love if I'm a player with a bad knee. And they lost a winnable playoff game potentially against the Bengals. They didn't have him. So they've botched it too. And if it's personal, maybe it's personal in their ed, too, but they've botched it. So let's assess, A, would it be easier if he had an agent?

Yes, it would be easier. Does it mean he has to? Does it, you know, Roquan Smith doesn't have an agent and they got their thing done. It'd be easier, especially right now, gauging the market, all that. It would be better, I think, for everyone. But, you know, that's not my decision. is I'm told Colin that Lamar's Lamar can't get past

and we've all been there right in our careers Lamar can't get past I'm better than Deshaun Watson and I'm not screw it up off the field like and I'm not saying he's wrong I think he is he is better than totally absolutely he's always been a better thrower than anybody wants to admit Yeah. So the, you know, Gene Hackman's fallen sheriff in Unforgiven says to Clint Eastwood, you know, I don't deserve this. And, you know, Clint says, deserves got nothing to do with it. You know, deserves got nothing to do with it. He deserves to get a guaranteed deal more than Deshaun Watson or Kirk Cousins. Yes. He deserves to get paid more than Daniel Jones for heaven's sake. For heaven's sake. Daniel Jones. I mean, come on.

That deal's not going to age well. I'm sorry. But as you know, it's all about circumstance and leverage. And he could have signed after year three, gotten a bunch of money up front, and now be trying to renegotiate from strength. He didn't do that. He didn't do what Kirk Cousins did

and play out two franchise tags and put in his organization in a box to the point where they blinked and took Alex Smith and he was free. And they didn't do it to Sean Watt. He hasn't done what Deshaun Watson did. And maybe you will. But DeShall Watson showed up at training camp uncomfortably with an organization that didn't want him,

reporters hounding him about something he didn't want to talk about. And fans checking out a circus. And he knew he wasn't going to play. It turned out he wasn't going to play for almost a year and a half from that point. But by doing that and having the will to do that, he created leverage. and the Browns were desperate, and he got that deal. So, you know, you put all those things together, and if you're Lamar Jackson, well, you don't have that kind of leverage

and you haven't exerted that kind of will. Now, could you? Yeah, you could say, I'm not playing for $32 million. Go ahead and have fun with Tyler Huntley, and I'm just going to sit weight. I'm not saying he should, but he could. Do you think the Ravens, frustrated by it, would just say, we're going to move on. We're going to draft another quarterback because we like our roster, our culture, our coach, and our defense.

You know, maybe, but I also think we're living in a weird world where, yeah, no one has stepped up and offered Lamar because, partly because a lot of teams think we're just doing the Ravens work for him. We're going to give him this deal he likes and they're going to match it. and we're going to alienate the people we have, the quarterbacks we have now, who knew we were trying to replace them. So why would we do that? If Lamar were free, first of all, different story. Second of all, let's be honest, desperation isn't confined to the Cleveland Browns, and there aren't that many really good quarterbacks,

which is why you and I are talking about 93-year-old Tom Brady. Sorry, Tom, I know you're only 45. Yeah. It's why we're talking about Tom Brady. That's why we're talking about lists and Aaron Rogers. There are only so many transcendent ones. And I think Lamar's transcendent. I'll stick up for Lamar as a player.

I think he's one of the very, very best. He won 75% of his starts in the AFC. Yeah, the only, you know, I think there is a little PTSD from the Russell Wilson trade, honestly, because for 10 years we saw a guy be transcendent, in my opinion. and then, oh, whoa, he looks nothing like that guy. And by the way, Gino Smith is now a pro bowler in his place. So that was that threw people. But at some point, if Lamar Jackson was like, I'm not playing for you, I'm sitting out.

At some point, some owner or some GM or some coach or all three are going to be like, man, our quarterback stinks. We're all going to get fired. Or if you're the owner, we're going to lose. but we can go get that guy, just go get them. Looking to get more out of the NBA season? Well, now's the perfect time to download Fandul, America's number one sports book.

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CCPG.org slash chat, Connecticut, 1-8009 with it, Indiana. 1-800-522-4,700 to visit KSgambling, help.com, Kansas, 1877770, stop, Louisiana. Call 1-800-3-27-50-50 or visit www.m.m.m. underscore helpline.org slash problem gambling. Visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org, Maryland. 18778-8-Hope, New York, or text, Hope, New York, 467-369, New York. 1-800-2-4700, Wyoming, or visit www.1-800-gambler.net, West Virginia. I want to talk about Sean McVan the Rams.

So I contend that if you ask Kyle Shanahan, if he could have a Super Bowl ring and McVeigh could dominate him, he would take the ring. But it does irk McVeigh greatly that he looks at Zach Taylor's weapons, Shanahan's weapons, his peers, you know, his age peers. And they're stacked. And he's sitting there thinking, I got an injured Cooper Cup. I don't like my back cam Acres. My O-line shit. Stafford's got an elbow issue and won't renegotiate. And he's pissed.

So in my world, he has used retirement twice, last year to get a big contract this year to get more leverage with personnel. And I was told a month ago by somebody inside the organization that knows Sean well. He basically said, fellas, I'll come back. We're moving off defense. I watch what all my contemporaries have, all these young coaches, and I see their weapons. We're spending money on offense. So I predicted they were going to move Jalen Ramsey, get draft capital, free up cash for offense. They move off Floyd.

Good player, not great, but, you know, eight sacks a year. Now they have a huge hole at that spot. They move off Bobby Wagner. Past his prime, but certainly high IQ, excellent communicator, really a nice veteran piece on a on a on a on a on a on a playoff team excellent piece so do you believe if i'm wrong on any of this shout it out but i believe sean has just said guys uh we're going to load the offense up now i won you a super bowl and the defense was 15th in the league do you think there's a struggle with him in less need um i don't know okay so first of all fix the offensive line that's the

most important that's more important than any of it um that would be, no matter what, do that. I think Sean's had a lot of power there. It just, I believe he sincerely thought about walking away the Super Bowl year. And those TV jobs were good jobs. And he's a, he, you know, he's a supernova who burns himself hard, like a lot of these guys. And he's been told for a long time, you'd be great at television. I could understand him seriously considering a reset.

I think he regretted coming back pretty quickly when he had no offensive line and no alternative weapon other than the Cooper Cup and Higby and Stafford's arm wasn't right and, you know, et cetera. So I don't know. I think Sean has as much power as he needs in that building without having to do that personally, but maybe he used it as a talking or as a jumping off point to say, by the way, I want this established that we're going to do this. I'll try to do some reporting on that, but I have a story for you.

Okay. It goes back to the first thing you said. So in 2017, the Rams come out of nowhere and win that division in Sean's first year. And there's this changing of the guard game at the end of the season in Seattle, and they kill the Seahawks. Just wipe them off the floor. And the Seahawks have decided they're going to get rid of a bunch of their legendary players after the season and rebuild around Russell and Bobby Wagner. And the Rams have taken over. They clinch the division.

And now they have one more game left against the Niners, who remember had been 0 and 9. Jimmy shows up. They go on a run late. They beat the Jags on Christmas Eve Day. So now they're playing a game at L.A. And Sean McVeigh smartly rests Jared Gough and a lot of his front-line players in that game. Well, you know, the 49ers were on a role. They were loving the Jimmy thing.

They were trying to win the league team rushing title. So Mike McDaniel and some of their coaches were very like, hey, I wonder if we could finish first in rushing. And they had their reasons. You know, it was a lost season, but they really wanted to finish strong. So they brought it in that game and they murdered the Rams. Just blew them off the field. So now it's about exactly five years ago. I'm with Sean and a couple other people at Bungalow in Santa Monica at night, outdoors, lovely establishment. And, you know, we're having some drinks and just talking. And Sean looks at me and says, I'll tell you something right now.

I don't care if I'm 15 and 0. I don't care if I've clinched every single thing I can clinch. I am never resting anyone against Kyle again. It will never happen. No more, not going through that again. So that should give you an idea of how they think about it. So yeah, would Kyle give up all those games to have that Super Bowl on paper, yeah, but the experience of losing eight out of nine to Sean would probably,

you know, just tear him up beyond belief. And I think as much as Sean can rationally tell himself, I won the one that mattered. It was the NFC championship game and won the Super Bowl. It is, it's really hard for him to lose those other eight. No, it's, I've been told, it eats away at him. It really, and listen, Now the Niners bring in Hargrave, you know, who's, you know, just another fantastic player because Kinlaw doesn't feel like it's working. So, I mean, they lost, you know, they lost a corner and then they lost Jimmy Ward. And it's like, yeah, they're fine. They're really, really good.

Yeah, I mean, they like the Seahawks early in Russell's tenure. They're paying more guys than you believe a team can pay. And the Rams kind of have done that too. But it's like, whoa, they pay the fullback premium, Ushik. They pay McCaffrey premium running back money. They pay the left tackle Trent Williams premium money. They pay the tight end, George Kittle. And they obviously are going to pay Bosa.

They pay Eric Armstead premium money and now Hargrave. They pay Greenlaw. They got him on what's going to be a good deal for them, but they paid him. They pay Fred Warner premium money. They paid Charverius Ward a year ago premium money. Hufanga, they still got on the rookie deal. And, you know, their attitude is we're just going to fill out around that and lose the McGlinchies and the Jimmy Wards and the Al Shaiers as it happens and try to, you know,

replace those people. But it's all geared toward that rookie quarterback deal. And if you hit a point where that doesn't work anymore, which again depends on Purdy's arm healing and or Lance possibly making a jump, then you have to make some tougher choices. But for now, yeah, they can get Hargrave, they can pay Bosa. And I know people don't believe this, but if they had to, they could pay Brady for one. Yep. A yeoman effort by Mike Silver at the volume, who's battling either influenza or just, oh, look at that UCSB. UCSB dad. I just want to be, I'm a double UCSB dad, one graduate, one current.

to 10D. So the gauchos have a big one Friday against Baylor in the NCAA tournament. So I am I am repent. I'm taking Duke at pretty good odds. Duke lost one game when they were healthy. They won their last nine straight. Do you have a favorite in the tournament? You know, I've been really detached from college basketball this year, partly because my alma mater went three and 27 and that's not a joke literally like it cataclysmic so um but you know i don't really know it well enough to tell you who i think's gonna win but i will say you know the gauchos to me are the type of team that could make you know stun somebody in round one uh two years ago they had a real chance to be Creighton uh it came down to a five foot shot by their star big man that went in and out i mean you

you don't get any better down one with at the buzzer basically uh this time they have a sophomore guard from belgium named a j mitchell who is really really special and to me it's gonna be hard but he's the kind of guy who in that setting could maybe elevate uh and shock the world once mike it's great seeing you again buddy thank you appreciate you the volume make sure to check out the brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports, unique perspective, understands behind the rope, also chops up with guests like Gary Payton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download the Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcast,

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