The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts - Lakers Are Limited, Bears Draft Strategy, Kyler’s 2nd Act? Celtics Impress

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

First, he’s joined by Jason Timpf,  host of “Hoops Tonight”. They begin by evaluating Luka Doncic’s first year as a Laker and debate whether his volatility and lack of effort on defense makes him a poor emotional leader for the team (2:00). Jason argues Luka really ISN’T the leader of the team, but his high ceiling, lower floor style of play makes for more unpredictable results on a night-to-night basis. Colin dives into the massive stylistic differences between regular season & playoff basketball and they agree that the Lakers are really only built for the regular season (11:30).  They pivot to the Celtic’s “shoot 3’s and play your ass off defensively” strategy and debate how viable they’ll be in the playoffs and what to expect from the return of Jayson Tatum (17:30). Then, he’s  joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out”. They start with the NFL Draft Combine & discuss the behind the scenes wheeling & dealing nature of the coaches and executives at the combine, and John’s experience speaking with legendary Seahawks GM John Schneider and what the defending champs will do with Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker (26:00).  They debate whether there’s a market for Kyler Murray to have a second act and what teams may be interested (31:15), and what positions the Bears will look to solidify in the draft (34:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 SportsSlice 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 Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless.

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

Listen, Leonard Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. The volume. All right, Jason, Timp and I, all things basketball for about the next 30, 35 minutes. And I was thinking about this today.

So basketball has a very unique place in our sports consumption. We wear a lot of people wear their favorite basketball player because of shoes and a pair. We don't wear our favorite hockey player unless you buy a stick or something. We don't wear our favorite baseball player, our favorite football player. We're not around wearing cleats to work or at least shouldn't be. But in basketball, it's different. There's a loyalty to your third.

favorite basketball player because it's part of your being. And because of that, I think people are, it's just hard to let go if you're a Nick fan with all his flaws. It's hard to let go of Carmelo. He's your guy. It's not about like a baseball card. It's like, I got his shoes. You know, I've got his apparel. And so I've always thought, like, basketball fans are more loyal to their stars. I'm not talking teams. Fans are all loyal to their teams. They're more loyal to their stars. And I do wonder, because as much as you love the NBA, when somebody's on your team, you see all the warts and the flaws that you don't see on the highlights or YouTube, or when they play your team. And now we're a year into Luca. And he's got more technicals

than he does defensive stops. I think he's at 13. I think he's at 13. And I was saying this today on the show in FS1 is that of the 22 Laker losses, 19 are blowouts. And the team doesn't have a ton of resilience. When the going gets tough, sometimes they just fold. And I said, I'm not blaming Luca for everything because he's a gifted offensive player. But you do kind of follow the lead of your guy. And even if LeBron had a bad night, he played his ass off. I mean, now is different.

For 15 years, Kobe, MJ, they had bad shooting nights. They didn't have bad effort nights or bad commitment nights or bad focused nights. And when you watch Luke on a nightly basis, do you think sometimes when he kind of mails it ends the wrong word, he becomes a little dispassionate. They're down 11. He gets a bad call. He's barking at the ref. The Celtics racing down to the other end of the floor.

do you think part of that makes it hard for him to be a true emotional leader, not talent, an emotional bedrock player like a Duncan or an MJ for a franchise or a D. Wade? Well, to put it very simply, I think if you talk to anybody who covers the Lakers, who roots for them or watches them very closely, Luca's not the emotional leader of the team. It's never been really something that he's particularly gifted at. he's very much eye lead by snatching the other team's heart and hopefully everyone just gets in line behind me kind of thing. And, you know, it's funny you mentioned the dynamic when you're rooting

for somebody because I've experienced this directly. I mean, I cover the league at large. I watched tons and tons of Luca over the course of previous years. I'd almost deified him in my head after those playoff performances in 2024 and in 2022. And then when he came to the Lakers, it's not just watching him every day, but also seeing as he's headed into this phase of his career where he's declined a little bit physically, which is kind of accentuated some of these wards, doesn't have as much burst going to the basket as he used to. It's crazy. You look back with Luca towards his early career. He used to get a dunk every couple weeks. Now it's like he might get one of season. You know what I mean? Like there's a difference in the level of explosiveness.

And he's 27. He's 27, isn't he? I know. This should theoretically be the time when he's peaking athletically. This should be when it's all kind of coming together for him. And he has made some improvements over last season when he was downright completely out of shape for most of the season. But, you know, the big thing that stood out to me after covering him very, very closely over the last couple of seasons is how different his floor is compared to the other stars around the league. I would actually argue Luca's ceiling is the highest in the NBA, specifically because he's got that step back three at his size, which is basically unguardable. And so, you know, Nicole Yokitch, there's a certain, like, you know, he's not a guy that's going to break you down off the

dribble a ton. You know, he's a guy that runs a lot of two-man game and works out of the post for the most part. Sheikos Alexander doesn't take a ton of threes. And so those two guys are much more reliable night tonight. But Luca has this like, oh, but what if he goes eight for 12 on step back threes kind of thing going on? Where he just becomes borderline impossible to guard because it's got the efficiency of Steph Curry with the unguardable stepback three that Luca has plus he's the short-range shopmaker that that Shea and Nicole Yokich are and he's this unbelievable playmaker. But when the stepback three is not going in for him, it just becomes a lot more dicey. And like, to put it very frank, the difference between him and Shea and him and Yokic

at this point is Luca is way more prone to bad games. And when he has a bad game, like last night, last night he was actually four for seven from three, but on twos that were away from the rim, but inside the three point line. So the mid-range stuff, he was one for 11, which he's typically very good at, but wasn't going in last night. He doesn't have like an alternative method to impact the game, and that makes it really tough. Like, Shea has this rim pressure element. He's so good at beating people off the dribble that raises his floor on a night-to-night basis.

Nicola Yokic, she operates within seven or eight feet from the basket. So he just doesn't deal with the jump shooting variance that a guy like, Nicola Yokic does, or that Luca Donchich does. And then among all of the stars at the top of the league, you can throw Ant in there, you can throw Wembe in there, Janice, Luca, Shea, Yokic, he's by far the worst defensive player in that group. And so he's so dependent on his ceiling and his ceiling has such a high variance element to it that it just makes him prone to bad nights. And, you know, I've been asked us a bunch. Like, why is Luca, there was the big straw poll that came out with ESPN where they go around and they ask all the people who have votes. And he can,

came back fifth in MVP voting. And so to put it very simply, this is going to be like the fourth consecutive year where we went into training camp where we're like, Luke is going to get MVP. This is the year. And it's like actually no shot. Like literally no shot. And until he fixes his floor, until he becomes a player that does enough things consistently well night tonight that he doesn't have those kinds of bad games, he's never going to be able to compete with the guys at the very top of the league. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, I like him. And I think he's a, a remarkable player. But I do think the first thing you said is he is now a more academic player than athletic player. And he is 27. LeBron slowed down at 39 and a half. I mean,

honestly, Brady could have still played last year. Like at 27, he's starting to break down. And that goes to my mellow comp, which is Carmelo's last all-NBA season was 28. That's like, that's it? It's like, yeah, that's it. And that's why I always said, like, Dwayne Wade doesn't have nearly the offensive elegance or ceiling of Luca. But man, did he squeeze every ounce out of that? He looked like a running back.

Like he just, there is, like they always say, like alcohol ages you. And in the NBA, getting in the weight. room and really grinding. Extender. Jordan was great every morning. I mean, LeBron James, to this day is a waitroom warrior. I covered Rashid Wallace. He would pay the fine before the season.

Like, I'm not going to go to the wait room. Rashid was great, good, over. And so, you know, I was watching Oklahoma City yesterday. They were missing four starters, four really high-end players. and they still beat Cleveland, a top seat in the east. And I say this about the Lakers, and I don't want to go all Lakers here, but regular season football and postseason football is largely the same. The weather gets worse, but you have to be able to run the football,

you have to be efficient in the red zone, win the turnover battle, coaching matters. Postseason baseball, regular season baseball. Need good starting pitching, one good closer, situational, hitting can't be bad defensively. Don't have to be great, can't be bad. NBA is different. The NBA, the regular season, is not the postseason.

First of all, the postseason becomes much more situational and getting baskets and buckets matters more than the high volume of threes. Right? Like in the regular season, the math is shoot threes, defend, you're going to win a lot of games. And so I think the Lakers are a little bit of fools gold.

I think they're built for the regular season. I think if they walk into town, you're not rested, Austin, LeBron, Luca can really be a handful, especially if like Austin's hitting, it's like, oh, shit. Okay, now we have our hands full. But if I can play you five times, we're equally rested, and I can hunt Luca or Hardin or Austin, it's a different team. Last year, Minnesota did this.

Remember, we went into that series thinking, it could be a six-game series, and you're watching it, and you're like, well, this is a mismatch. do you see this where this Laker team, it can be elegant and beautiful. The spacing's good. I think Reddick's a really good offensive coach. In close games, the clutch numbers, I think, are still remain very good. But they are not built for the playoffs. They have no bench.

I mean, not that bench is everything. They don't have a great bench. They don't protect the rim. They don't have, this is well documented. Athletic wings. is that people in Los Angeles, they're going to be a four seed in the West, but they're not really a true four seed.

They're like the Miami Dolphins when they made the playoffs with Tua. Nobody thought, they're going to go up north in the cold and win a playoff game. It's like they have no chance to do that. The Lakers really have no chance for the depth of OKC, the defense of Oklahoma City, facing Yokic. They really have no chance against those teams in a long series. Or am I totally off? No, I mean, you're in line.

with the consensus there. I think like the metrics that come out from this Lakers team make them stick out like a sore thumb among the other good teams in the league. And it really comes down to that dynamic you're talking about. The Lakers are great at one thing. Half court offense. They're the third best in the league behind Denver and Oklahoma City. And it's because they have these unbelievable shot creators that can go nuclear in any given night. But that is a large sample size trend. It is an issue like the offense did not look good last night against Boston. And really

the problem when you look at this Lakers team is they have chewed up and spit out every bad team in the league. And that has carried their record. So here's some crazy stats for you, Colin. The Lakers this season, when they play teams in the bottom 10 in point differential, they're 18 and 2, which is

tied with Oklahoma City for the best in the entire NBA. That means they're 16 and 20 against the rest of the league. So they are below 500. against anybody that's not in the bottom third of the NBA, even as you zoom individually in on it, just against the top 10 teams in point differential, they are getting outscored by 13 points per game,

which ranks 28th in the NBA. Only the Wizards and that Brooklyn Nets team have been worse when they're playing the good teams. It's funny, if you look at all the teams just in their games against the top 10 teams in the league. So just erase all the filler games in the schedule and just look at the benchmark. test, just the measuring sticks. The top nine teams are all the teams you'd expect to see among contenders.

Detroit's number one, Minnesota's number two. They're always, they've been my sneaky championship contender this season. I love them. Oklahoma City, Houston, San Antonio, Boston, Cleveland, New York, and Denver. That's the top nine. That's what you would expect to see. And then it's all the way down to number 28 is the Lakers. Like, that's literally what you're talking about with this team. They have been consistently outclassed in these. matchups. And the reason why is there is a clear game plan for how to beat the Lakers. And all of the good teams understand this game plan and they execute it well. Number one, ball pressure. If you pick the Lakers up full court, you'll wear them down. Boston did this all night last night.

Even on every possession they didn't pick up, Luca, you see Missoula yelling and screaming and pointing, like pick them up, pick them up. They just, they want to pick up full court the entire game. Why the Lakers allow 19 points off of turnovers per game, that's the seventh most in the entire NBA. If you pick them up full court, you'll turn them over, you'll get out in transition. Two, deep drop coverage. Boston did this last night. Just have Voochovich and Nimi Kada sit way back at the basket, chase Luca and Austin off the three-point line and funnel them into the rim. It allows you to stay home off the ball and force them to take all of those tough contested twos. That's where Luca's always trying to draw fouls and stuff. Their offense can fall apart in that sense.

That's a big part of why the Lakers can't get quality three-point shots up, that specific defensive look. And then lastly, run on them. like crazy. Cleaning the glass has this catch-all metric they use for transition defense. They call it transition points added per 100 possessions. The Lakers literally rank dead last in that stat against teams in the top 10 in point differential. So pick them up full court, run on them all day, run that deep drop coverage. You're not just going to beat the Lakers, you're going to make them quit and blow them out by 20. It is a consistent game plan that we have seen all season long from the good teams against the Lakers and they just

fall apart in that play style. And so honestly, like, when you see something over and over and over and over again, and like last night was another chance. They could have beat Boston and change the narrative a little bit. Nope, the exact same damn thing happened again. And that just keeps happening all season. And when you're that bad against the good teams, when all of the other good teams are good against the good teams, that's a giant red flag for your hopes in this case. You know, it's interesting. I'm watching the Celtics. And when you watch the South, I mean, they got three guys that 90% of the league, you know, they got some Sam Housers now playing big minutes. They got three guys that like don't have NBA resumes that anybody outside of Boston knows.

But I will tell you that I thought they'd be fine without Jason Tatum. I did not think they'd be this good defensively without him. And they're not quite as good offensively without him, which makes sense. But when I said, I don't think he's face of the league, it was mostly an aura thing. It wasn't a game thing. I think his game's good. And he's a really, really high-end player. Are you surprised, though?

They're 8 and 2 in their last 10. Their defensive metrics are excellent. I mean, basically, Chris Broussard said it today in my show. They have two rules. Shoot threes and play her ass off defensively. Like, that's it. It's very simple. Like, play hard on the defensive end and shoot threes.

Are you surprised? They are still a, I think Detroit probably wins the East, but they're still viable. They're playing well. They haven't dropped off a ton offensively. I mean, Porzingis has gone in a tray. holidays gone, Tatum's out, and you're like, no, they're okay. They're fine. It's the same kind of team. They're not quite as athletic. Are you surprised? I think everyone's surprised that they're as good as they have been. I think that I think most of us expected them to be just

kind of a middle team in the east, like in that five to eight range, like win more games than you'd think. But like, I think both Indiana and Boston have been shocking in opposite directions. Like, we all thought Boston and Indiana would be kind of in the middle. Indiana went completely into the tank and Boston is still competing for a championship. And honestly, if it wasn't for J.B. Bickerstaff having a really clear coach of the year case just because of how good the Pistons would have been, Joe Missoula is an awesome coach of the year candidate because I think this season has been a testament to the basketball culture that he's built. Again, you're in the mid-second quarter. You're beating up on the Lakers, like you're dominating

the game. You've been doing your job all night long. And one time someone didn't pick up Luca as he's dribbling in front of the Celtic bench. And you can, you can, could see Joe demonstratively like yelling at his guys to get over there and pick him up. There is an accountability that he has established with this group where this is the expectation. If you're going to play for me, this is what you've got to do. And it goes even deeper than the ball pressure. Like they crash out of the corner so well. This is a team that you would have thought would have tanked as a rebounding team because

you lose Tatum and you lose your entire center rotation. No, they win the rebound battle. They win the second chance points battle every night because their guards are so scrappy coming out of the corners getting offensive rebounds. And then the last thing that I think is super impressive with Boston, Colin, they lost Drew Holiday, Jason Tatum, Al Horford, and Christopps Porzingis. Yeah. And they have a 120 offensive rating their second best offense in the NBA. And I think that's where like, honestly, for all the talk about Joe Missoula's offense and then like hunting threes, Joe Missoula never said take bad threes. He wanted to run

quality offense for good looks from three. And what's happening is over the years, they've gotten better and better at running his system. And even though those guys are all out of the lineup, Hauser's been there a long time, Pritchard's been there a long time, Derek White's been there a long time, Jalen Brown's been there a long time, even Kate has been there for a few years now. And so there's some continuity in this system. They know how they want to play. And so honestly, like, if you look at the strongest basketball cultures in the NBA, Boston has clearly demonstrated this year that they are one of those teams. And as far as their chances this year goes, I view Detroit New York, Boston and Cleveland, all kind of in the same tier. I lean very slightly Cleveland because

I just think they're a very complete team after the trades they made, not just Hardin, but the other deals they made at the deadline. But Boston absolutely has a shot to come out of the East. And I mean, it really just comes down how good Tatum is when he comes back. If he comes back and he's all NBA Tatum, they have a big experience advantage. They have a big continuity advantage. Those guys have been in so many big games. Do we know exactly when he's coming back? Do we know for sure? The rumor is like early March. So I would assume like, I mean, I'm, I mean, he was, he was photographed practicing with the team literally just a couple days ago. He's already been doing five on five for, I think, a couple weeks now.

So I think we're like a week or two out from him coming back. And like he addresses a very specific need because the one thing they don't really have is a big forward. Because Jalen Brown is very much a three. And then they have these like role player forwards, you know, guys like Jordan Walsh that can play a little bit. But it's like they don't have like a big strong. forward that's really switchy and can defensive rebound and stuff. Like if you remember when Boston won the title, the way they won the title is Tatum guarded the other team's center every single game. They don't really have that right now. Tatum can come back and provide

all of those elements and really just the big thing I'd worry about is him janking up the offense just because it's a weird rhythm thing to add a new player like that. But as yeah, if he can fit in. Today's show brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet, Florida's Best Sportsbook. I know it's tough with no football. But like the song says, I will survive. Hard Rock Bet, always something to bet every single night. Hoops, hockey, so much more, all the great same game parlayes, live betting, player props. Hard Rock Bet is the official sports betting partner of the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic, so they know their basketball as well. If you haven't signed up yet for Hard Rock Bet, never been a better time. Signups, double your winnings on your first 10 bets, maximum

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What's the news, new news? We created our own. podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers... Mm-hmm. This is how you guys remember it going down?

Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L'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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself.

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

right now and I actually can win on any surface because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people. people who live them. Listen to SportsSlic.

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Live-12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. All right, I thought I'd bring in former NFL scout, John Middlkoff, three and out, who spent a couple of days at the Combine. And it's real deal-making. For the three days, people are in, the executives are in Indianapolis. It is a lot of late nights. John, can you confirm that it's late nights and early mornings? Yeah, it was a lot, Colin.

These guys are letting it rip. You know, in fairness, it's not a normal life they lead, especially the coaches, the six months. You get to the Combine, which, by all accounts, is tamed down dramatically from where it was, I think, three cell phones. It's nothing too crazy, but, I mean, it's an event unlike, I mean, you have every NFL head coach out to dinner,

out to cocktails, out with each other, every GM, every assistant GM. Think about all the coordinators now that used to be head coaches that are pretty famous walking around. Indianapolis isn't exactly London. I mean, there's not that many places to go. So safe to say the JW Marriott is ripping every night. So I had to get out of there, Colin, because I couldn't last more than 48 hours. Let's talk first, John Snyder.

I saw you sat down with him. Seattle GM. I think he's being now fairly regarded as maybe the best drafting GM in the league. There's a lot of different skills. There's free agency. There's trading. Howie Rosen is probably the most aggressive. I don't think you can deny that John Snyder's the best drafting GM. If you look at his track record, really since Pete left and he completely absolutely took over the entire draft. But he's got some tough decisions to make. Kenneth Walker is, you know, there's going to be a market for Kenneth Walker. Teams like Kansas. city in the AFC, you need a running back, and it's a bad running back draft.

But give me your kind of sense of how John's feeling and the kind of the crest he's kind of riding now. Yeah, I think his personality feels the same whether he won the Super Bowl or whether you would see him when they would get bounced in the first round. Obviously, he's pretty elated coming to this to this combine. One thing he mentioned is he's because they just went. I mean, they were playing two weeks ago. He's behind on the draft.

He spent all of his energy getting ready for free agency. They have a ton of money. I personally would probably let Kenneth Walker walk. Yeah. Unless it's a relatively, I mean, two years, $15 million or something. But when you start bidding for a running back, they draft him in the second round. But up until the second half of this year, he's kind of had an underwhelming career. And you bring in Flurry from the Niners, who the Kubiak-Shannahan system, you can kind of find running backs.

So my guess would be they're definitely not franchise tagging him. Like whenever I see the Jets are going to franchise tag, Brees Hall. It's like the Jets are going to franchise tag a running back. Not even the Jets would do that. Come on, guys. Right. Let's use some common sense here. So Seattle's riding high.

I got to meet Mike McDonald, talk to him. He's really, really impressive. I mean, they got something pretty special going in Seattle because they have a ton of cap space. They have a ton of young players under contract. I would say their confidence in Sam, the person. I mean, you've talked about this. Clearly, the player, like most players not named John Elway or Peyton Manning, aren't going to be great 99% of games.

But I think they are all in on the human being. And I think what they learned down that stretch, that Thursday night game against the Rams when he flipped it and then up until the Super Bowl, I think they're feeling pretty confident in their quarterback. What's also interesting now is because there are so many good offensive coaches that you are seeing quarterbacks like Baker and Darnold have a second life if you can land your Liam Cohen. I mean, Trevor Lawrence made a big leap this year. And I think, you know, these guys off the Sean McVeigh tree, the Kyle Shanahan tree, you know, they go places and they change the arc of quarterback's careers.

Sam Darnold Bust to star to Super Bowl champion. I mean, Baker Mayfield, you know, resurrected his dip. Kyler Murray and Tua are different. Tua can't stay healthy and is really limited physically. Kyler, as a story out this week, he hasn't talked to the GMs since the end of the season. So he's not terribly verbal. They're commitment issues. Their health issues.

And even though we're in a league now, where you do get second teams and second. runs. You know Arizona well. Does Kyler have a market? I mean, there's such bad PR. Someone told me this week that Kyler Murray and his camp, they want to go to Minnesota. Well, Aaron Rogers wanted to go to Minnesota too. Most quarterbacks do. I can't imagine Kevin O'Connell wanting Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray is at the point. If he truly wants to resurrect his career, he's made a ton of money at this point, right? Number one overall pick, got this huge deal that is now an albatross,

makes him untradable. If he gets cut, which he's going to, why not surely, you know, the Ravens, the chiefs, one of those type teams would be like, hey, we'll take you for the veteran minimum. If Andy Reed calls or something, you would be crazy not to make a decision to go there and potentially maybe rehab your image

because he does have a branding problem right now. I would say throughout the league, he's not viewed very highly as a player on or off the field. Not like bad, like some of these guys that get in trouble. But just, yeah, we don't want to deal with that. I would say the number one thing you hear talking to these guys, yeah, we got to deal with this with our defensive linemen. You've talked about this forever. They do not want to deal with the quarterback room. I mean, the quarterback room better be like your coaches, better be like your executives,

just high level professionals. I never even think about you. I have to deal with immaturity in some other positions, not to, quarterback position. Imagine if you just go to Andy Reed for a year. You know, Kevin, Sam Darnold did this. Daniel Jones kind of did this when he got cut by the Giants and just rehab his image. And then by the end of the year, maybe you play, maybe you don't, but you have an Andy Reid type guy. And I'm just using him as example. You could do Sean Payne. You could use whoever would be interested that's established and go, we love that guy. That was a great experience

being around him. Then that changes the arc of the way the league thinks about you. Because being there, the league is one, it's like a high school. Everyone knows everybody and everybody talks to everybody. And you could probably play one degree of separation. You just put Mike Silver in the middle. He knows everything. They all know each other and all the information on what a guy is and isn't as a person. You know, one of my big takeaways is we can get into draft, why this pick makes it,

why this free agency or, you know, guy didn't work. This is a people business. and the teams that are good have just really high-level people. Right. On the coaching staff, I mean, I hear some stories, Colin, about position coaches making millions of dollars that get title stripped in the middle of the season and throw a hissy fit and won't go to meetings. It's not just the players. These assistant coaches, egos are enormous now.

You've got a lot of personalities. And the best teams are just, you know, I hear stories about Kellynne Moore or Kubiak. and you're like, I see why these guys are having success. Just easy to deal with high level guys, get along, high EQs. You know, and clearly, you know, the league has kind of been defined of, you need a few crazies on your team, but you better have a high character operation from a football character standpoint or you got no shot. Ben Johnson and Mike Vrable turned it around in one year.

I saw that you ran into Ben Johnson. I mean, he's got to be, they have a really interesting situation. where they know exactly what they need. They need some help in the linebacker core. They're not fast enough, and they need a rush end. But, I mean, they've really, John, they could literally use every draft pick on defense. They don't have a whole offensively, maybe another tackle in the building. But receiver, tight end, back, quarterback, interior line, really good.

I mean, was Ben walking on cloud nine in a pretty good mood? Well, I use you because sometimes, you know, it's easy if you know the guy to start a conversation. And when you don't, you got to come with a little material. So I had you in my back pocket. I dropped your name early, and he said that he'd seen you, he thought, at a restaurant. And I said, Ben, I can't believe you didn't go talk to him. You guys would have been breaking down offensive football. He started laughing.

And people are like, I'd never see Ben Johnson smile. I'm like, well, I got that magic touch because I use you. And we'll have to link you up. The Bears, I talked to Ryan Poles. You know, they feel like they got a pretty good. those two guys, you know, Ryan had some bumps early. He did. Some personnel moves.

No, I've said that Chase Cople thing didn't work, but receivers are a hard acquisition. It's just a tough position. Then he redeemed himself with a DJ more deal. And as a GM, you look way better with a good coach. I mean, you just do. So now you get a guy who, I mean, I think one thing you beat at this combine, the the status of Ben Johnson and Mike. McDonald in a 12-month span.

Like, if you would have been there last year to where they are this year, it just couldn't be any higher. The way they're thought of in terms of coaching on the field is extremely high. And I would expect DJ Moore is going to be a name that we're going to see over the next week because they're going to have to move an offensive piece. They don't have many draft picks, you know, to kind of retool this thing. And they let in one of their linebackers I saw seek a trade. The other thing is that division, you know,

I make fun of the Vikings because of their quarterback situation, as most people do. We talk about the Lions taking a big step back. Both those teams went nine and eight. I mean, both those teams, the Vikings and the Lions, are pretty well-established culture with really good players. Their floor is extremely high. And if the Packers just can keep some guys healthy, clearly they're one of the best teams in the league.

So that division from the bear standpoint is really, really difficult. And the Bears who have been atrocious, now we're going to get a first-place schedule. it is going to be more challenging. And they're going to sneak up on nobody, which when you see Ben, he's wired for that. Like, I don't think he's, he's not resting on his laurels. He is, you can just tell a lot by the way guys carry themselves.

You know, the Harbaugh brothers or Vrable, like they're so comfortable in their own skin. But some of these new guys, the newfound fame, like when my, when, when, when Ben Johnson walks in somewhere, he's really famous now. And to me, he just carries himself, like he looks the exact same. as he carried himself a year ago. And I would say the same thing with Mike McDonald, their personality, like this, the no ego. I was talking to him last night and just going,

this guy went a Super Bowl like three weeks ago, and you would never know. If you brought some guy off the street that didn't know football and you just met this guy, you would have no clue that this guy is the Super Bowl champion and the toast of the town right now in the NFL. So I would feel pretty confident if I'm the Bears, but they do, like there are a lot of,

because the cap is so big right now, there are so many options with trades. And I talked to Howie about this. When I first started working for Howie in 2010, he was on the forefront of the NFL Forever. Wasn't that trade heavy? Oh, God, no. Before the Jimmy Johnson trade, the Hershal Walker,

teams didn't trade. Yeah, the historic trades stand out so much in like the 80s and 90s because they didn't happen that much. Howie was ready to trade like an NBA major league baseball GM. but the rest of the league wasn't. And then now, you fast forward 15 plus years in the mid-2020s, all these GMs or the majority of them are kind of like him. They're ready to trade.

So people are willing to, hey, you want this guy, you want to trade draft picks, you want to do this. So there is just a lot of action, which I think stalls some deals because they get so expensive. It's like a house. If you only have one guy bidding on the house, you probably can dictate the terms a little bit. You've got seven people waiting out on the,

on the front of the street to buy the house, that that price is going to skyrocket. And I think that happens with some of these deals. I've been saying this about Max Crosby, like, uh, Breer told me, he's like, I don't think they're going to get two ones. I'm like, well, he's under contract. And there would be minimum five high level playoff teams who would be bidding on them. So yeah, in theory, you'd be like a one and a two. Well, if five teams are bidding against each other, like the reason McCaffrey went for a

two, three, and a four is because the Rams also wanted them. so the Niners had to put it in a little bit more. That's the way it works. So that's where I think that historically 20 years ago, yeah, Max Crosby probably just goes for a one. Yeah. But now you have all these GMs and good teams that are lined up to wheel and deal. And that's cool.

Like you're there. This is a wheeler and a dealer league. This is a league where, you know, the John Schneider types, you've got to be great at identifying personnel. You've got to be dynamic wheeling and deal. You've got to be willing to make moves. It is much more, I would say, complicated now. You got all the money. You've got to lean on your salary cap guy.

It's a pretty intense environment when you're there. You just realize the pressure cooker of this thing. I mean, I'm watching Aaron Glenn do a press conference. I'm like, God, I wouldn't want to be that guy right now. He's got to be thinking like, get me out of here. I mean, this is, even Vech, you know, you can just say, there's just a weight to all this stuff. I mean, this is, this is a long, intense week because it lays the foundation for next week where that, you know, that tampering period, It's just full go. And these Drew Rosenhouse, these guys are ready to just do a deal and get moving. The volume.

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