The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 2 - Wentz, Harden

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

The Colts would be crazy to get rid of Carson WentzJames Harden talks about his move to the SixersGuest: Mike Silver Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Ah, here we go. Hour 2, live in Los Angeles. It's the herd, wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Partied a little last night. The season is over, but not really over. It is good to have you in. Joy Taylor is joining me. Joy, we're going to pivot transition to the new world. We get on the non-action. games NFL cruise line and we're going to have to make things interesting but I feel very confident we can do it. Listen, we did four months of a five day a week, three hour show with no sports. You know what? By the way, won awards, dominated, crushed, good point. Nothing we can't do. That's right. We are unstoppable. I haven't allowed myself to, I was talking about this the other day. I haven't allowed myself to go back to that place yet. I'm not ready. Like maybe when we like finally

to get rid of masks here in L.A. Yeah. The rest of the country. And then we like move into this new phase. Yeah, we'll see. I'm not getting my hopes up. But I am not ready to revisit that time yet. I'm like, I need a little more separation.

Yeah. I don't know how we did that. It's incredible. You and I were like watching each other on Skype to keep like the pace of the show. Because we, I mean, I was on radio to keep so there wasn't a delay. It was. Michael Jordan's documentary. Saved us.

We were reacting to it like it was live. Like we had never seen this before. coming back. We'll break down that final game. Two things happen that saved us. Three things. Brady changed teams. Yes.

That gave us a month. Yes. Three things that we don't normally get. Brady changed teams. Yeah. The Michael Jordan documentary. Yes. And Michael Jordan told Dwight Howard and Kyrie to be quiet.

We're playing the NBA season. Remember they started pushing back publicly? LeBron. Who did I say? He said Michael. Oh, my bad. My bad. LeBron pushed.

back on Kyrie and Dwight Howard and said, we're going to play the season. Yeah. Because LeBron's a great businessman and said, you guys aren't powerful enough to make the decision for the league. We're playing. Yeah. Also, it would have sent the league into a spiral. It would have messed up the CBA.

It would have been a colossal. Like, there were a lot of repercussions to not playing the season that would have gone on for the players. All bad for the players. It went on for probably decades. Yes. So, yeah, that was also the way that everything timed up with a shutting. down, we had just gotten the Super Bowl in.

So it lined up right with right now where we were heading into the NFL off season. So we had the draft and the NFL off season as well because the NFL didn't have, had already gotten their season in before we shut down. But yeah, that was. Brady changing teams reminiscing about Michael. Yeah. And LeBron saying, enough is enough. We got to get going.

Our three stars, who we talk about a lot on their show, saved us. Weren't you considering if they didn't have the NBA season just taking them on off. Oh, I was considering retirement. I was done talking about nothing. It was really... It was the first time in my life I considered doing political radio. It was crazy, but we did it. We made it through. So speaking of crazy, what I'm about to say as obvious, you need a good quarterback in this league. What you don't want to be, as Jay Glazer pointed out years ago, the worst thing in the world is to be in this league with a bad quarterback, and you're driving to practice and driving the games, and you know you're getting at your headbeat,

and it's the worst. You think you have a great job. It's a terrible job. Got to have a quarterback. So Carson Wentz didn't get Vax, got injured early. We didn't like that. And they played terrible late. But when I see these stories now by legitimate reporters, Chris Mortensen,

the athletic Stephen Holder saying, yeah, there's a likelihood they're going to move off Carson Wentz in a month. Time out. So Carson Wentz has almost a 95-passer rating, 3,500 yards. 27 TDs and seven picks. That's a 4-1 TD to interception ratio and complete 62% of his throws. You're just going to move off him. If I was Denver in Pittsburgh and didn't get Aaron Rogers,

I would take Carson Wentz in a New York minute. Let's play that. Now, you don't have to like how a season started and how it ended, but let's play the blind resume game. So 62% completion percentage, 4 to 1 touchdown interception ratio, and a 94 passer rating.

Now, who is the guy with a 63% completion percentage? Oh, it's Josh Allen. Oh, that's interesting. And by the way, Josh Allen has a way way better tight end in Knox and a way better receiving room. Yes, by far. So let's do it again. Blind resume, Carson Wentz, wins and losses, touchdown interception,

reception at passer rating and sorry to the radio audience but who's this guy over there that's not quite as good that is oh yeah well it's Derek car again the Colts have a bottom 10 receiver room it's Michael Pittman and a bunch of guys nothing against Jack Doyle but it's a very average okay he's about ready to retire tight end room in an era of tight ends and wide receivers let's do it again um boys way better than this guy. Much more big plays. Who is this guy?

That's Ryan Tannehill, who Mike Frable, a really good coach said, we're not going to trade Aaron Rogers for Ryan Tannahill. We're comfortable with him winning games. We ended up the number one seed with Ryan Tannehill. You're just going to send Carson Wentz off to the market? That is not a great receiving room. It's Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman, if you put him with the Rams, is not a number one.

Michael Pittman, if you put him with the Bengals, is arguably a three. I think it's a two or a three. Michael Pittman on the Cowboys is a two or a three. Michael Pittman on a majority, if you put him on the Steelers, he's probably a two or a three. And I like Michael Pittman,

but he's not viewed as a one. He's a strong, strong two. He's not an ace, but he's a strong two, a very good player, hard worker. Love to have him on my team. But that's their guy, after that,

T.Y. Hilton, he's about ready to retire again, rightly he's been talking about that for year. Jack Doyle's about ready to go. Those guys are way, way, twilight of their career about ready to step out. And you're just going to throw that guy to the market? That's nuts to me. That's an impulsive owner. That is nuts to me. I would take him in Denver in one second.

One second. So, all right. When Uncle Colin goes blind resume, you don't want my smoke. Those are, those were strong blind resumes, but, you know, Carson just has this. tendency to fall apart in the biggest moments. Okay. Listen, I get it. But the quarterbacks are not like our transportation. Like if you had a car and it kept blown up in the freeway, you'd get rid of it.

Like it's different here. Like you could get a new car. There's no scarcity of cars. So again, nobody likes inconsistency. There is a massive shortage in America of quarterbacks. He has zero game winning drives. I'm not saying I love him. I say what's the alternative?

I'm with you on this. Like you could do a lot worse. Way worse. Like we all know those people in our lives. You're like constantly complaining about their significant other. And they're like, listen, you don't want to put yourself back on the market. Right. Maybe not what you've dreamed up, but you can do a lot worse than this situation.

I agree with you because there is a scarcity. But it ended pretty rough this year. Ask you if you live in Pittsburgh this morning. I would love Carson, I would love Carson's. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. All right.

I hope this happens. I hope this happens so they get Carson Lance. Again, they're backups of the kid from Texas and Washington. Jacob, Eason, and Sam Ellinger. They're nice players. They're not franchise guys. They're backups. But see, because of this is, obviously they know this, right?

I think of the owner's furious, and he's going, he's very upset. And I think he's furious, too, but at some point, cooler heads have to prevail. Don't you think maybe this is a little, maybe this is happening? A little what? What is it? If Aaron might slightly be interested, they want to let them, let them know that there's an availability here. Okay, that's a woman's intuition. If I'm going to put my tin foil, how.

No, that's not, I didn't think about that. That's not crazy to show the market. I mean, stuff gets out when people want it out. Of course. I mean, this whole Kyler Murray thing, one guy scrubbed his social media. The team took a shot at him. They both wanted it out. Right.

Right. So, Sean McVeigh, I don't know if I'll come back. He wants it out. Or he, you know, so he's. Great, because he wants more money. So that's a good point. Maybe Indy is just saying, hey, we want it out there. We're not right.

Like the Titans came out and said, as you just said, we're not moving on from Ryan Tannahill. He was the number one city. Even though you're building a beautiful home here, you're not going to play with this team. Maybe the Colts are just like, hey, we're not completely happy with our situation. If you're interested, you know, we could part ways. Wow. By the way, so we said this yesterday. And it sounds crazy.

but with about a month ago in the season, we did a segment on this. We said there's only three coaches are going to be fired, maybe four. Ended up being like nine. Every year it's eight or nine. Just the turnover in the league. Now one coach is suing the teams. I mean, it's just the way it is.

There's mayhem at the end of every season. Also, I'm going to say something. You know it's true, but you're going to be upset when I say it. Half of these playoff teams won't make it. And many believe the Bengals will not make it. So here's the playoff teams this year. Half of these will not make it. That is the 20-year trend in the NFL.

There are no years when they all make it. There are no years when almost all of them are back. Half won't make it. And so I said this morning, let's just do the best we can to right now because quarterbacks could move around. But here's my guess. Let's take the four teams, coach quarterback. We just think they'll be back.

I think Green Bay, the Chiefs, the Bills, the Packers Rams. Andy Reed and Mahomes, McDermott, Josh, Allen, Aaron Rogers, LaFleur, Stafford Rams, and McVeigh, those feel like the four that would come back. Those are really, I would bet on those to come back. Four teams, I think, are, I can see them not making it. The best bets not to make it. So the four teams that are the best bet, okay, Raiders, a lot of these Patriot coaches, it didn't really work.

Also, Denver's going to get a quarterback. It could be went. It could be Jimmy G. It could be Aaron. they're going to get a quarterback. The roster's good. And the chargers, we think, are just getting better. The Steelers, they don't have a quarterback. Okay.

Tampa Bay, they don't have a quarterback. And Jalen Hertz moves better than he throws. And history tells you kind of by year two, he'll be in year three. You get enough tape. You kind of figure that act out a little doubt the division could be as bad as last year. Those are the four won't be back. And then there's four teams, I would say, are on the fence that, made it this year. Let's talk Bengals.

Lamar Jackson's coming back. Baker's coming back. The AFC's a gauntlet and that old lines a mess and they've got to fix it. The Patriots, well, they're not going to win that division with Josh Allen. They can't stop him and he's way better than their guy. And now they go to a slight downgrade, many would argue, an offensive coordinator from Josh McDaniels to Bill O'Brien. I also think in a weapons league, they got

very average weapons. Arizona Cardinals like them, but there's a lot of noise in the offseason. The Noisiest team in the off season. You can say it was Green Bay last year, didn't win a playoff game. A lot of noise. San Francisco. What if Trey Lance is good, but not special? The divisions like Hall of Fame level quarterbacks.

It's hard to win a division, hard to get in the playoffs with a fourth best quarterback. I have no idea on Trey Lans. And then two teams that I don't necessarily think are great, the Titans and the Cowboys, they'll probably get in based on easy divisions. So that's where we are today. So six in, four out, four question marks. I do think the teams to watch getting in that didn't make it this year. Baltimore cannot be that injured and Lamar comes back.

I still think Cleveland has an excellent roster. They do need to draft not only one wide receiver. They probably need to draft two. I think the chargers just keep getting better and better. I would be shocked if they didn't make the playoffs. I think a lot of people, the wise guys in Vegas were shot that didn't make the playoffs. Also, somebody has to win the NFC South. It's a garbage division, but somebody has to win that division.

So my guess today would be the Saints because they're, you know, the best run division, you know, got some good players. So that's where we are. All right, Michael Silver, breaking news. Andrew Whitworth, we may retire, may break news today. Brian Billick, too. It's the Hurd. One more Herd?

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Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from both.

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Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've just That's correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sunday, it's the most iconic day in all of motorsports of Daytona 500. The Great American Race kicks off the 2020. NASCAR season at 2.30 Eastern, 1130 Pacific, only on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Is Mike ready, by the way?

Mike Silver has been covering the NFL. I think he's covered about 30 of the 56 Super Bowls, 28 of the 56 Super Bowls in his career, NFL reporters. By the way, what do you, my theory is always been, stuff gets out when people want it out. All the McVeigh, I'm retiring, going to TV rumors, just off the top of your head. What did you make of that stuff? It feels like a negotiation to me. You know, it could be, Colin. He also coaches very, very hard and knows he'd probably be good on TV.

And then if you're someone like him who leaves, then every year it's like it was for John Grun. Like, is he going to come back? You know, who would pay this much? But, you know, it would be a good time for him to keep coaching. They've got a great thing going. Colin, as you know, three years ago, his contract extension talks were not super smooth. That's right. They got it done in time for the season.

reason, but, you know, he had taken that team to the Super Bowl so early. Now he's won it. So if ESPN, for example, is coming hard for Monday night football and Sean thinks he's in line for another extension, then yeah, that could be part of the equation. Listen, the Rams do things differently. Now, L.A. is a different market. It's more attractive to a lot of athletes because there's so much money to be made, you know, off your brand in this city than compared to a Cincinnati or Cleveland or whatever. But what do you make of they're all an approach. Are you a little surprised? I mean, it's really not what the rest of the league is doing, Mike. Right. But Tampa did it last year and Green Bay famously didn't. So I've been on this a lot.

And I like it because, you know, every time somebody goes all in for anyone, there's the hand-wringing. They're not going to be able to fit them under the cap and their draft position is going to be messed up. And the Rams just do not care flat out for better or worse. And, You know, for that approach to work, some things have to happen. They have to be really good at the bottom end of the roster and hit on a lot of lower round draft picks and acquire some through other means, trading down, compensatory. And they have to have a coaching staff that can get the most out of their people. And they have to get lucky with injuries. They started to get unlucky when Robert Woods went down, obviously Beckham in the Super Bowl.

but for the most part, their stars stayed healthy, and they were able to ride those stars largely to a Super Bowl. So I don't want to hear it when fans of teams say, but the cap, it'll come back. Guess what? The cap's going up. You can always manipulate it. I saw that covering the Niners and the Cowboys in the 90s on up,

and teams that have the will can find a way. It doesn't mean that All In always works, but it is a viable approach. seen it now two years in a row succeed. I would have voted Aaron Donald MVP, nothing against Cooper Cup, but my takeaway was the Bengals game plan literally forced the Bengals who were a down the field throw big risk team to shorten all their routes. They literally spent two weeks saying, yeah, we can't do what we do.

We're a home run hitter. We're going to hit doubles. We can't go over the top. I thought he changed the whole game plan. Can he do anything more? I mean, he's a Hall of Famer, obviously, now. What do you even compare him to? I mean, it's interesting.

You know, he's now in the conversation for greatest defensive player of all time. Yeah. Because you look at the position. It's just not a position that is designed to get glory. You're supposed to do the dirty work and be a set-up guy for other people. And occasionally you have someone transcendent like Warren Sapp who can get numbers from the inside, usually with great people around him. But, you know, this guy is now, if you ask his peers, for the last eight years, they would say he's probably the best player in the league easily.

And, you know, how much more does a defensive tackle have to prove? He may choose to try to prove more. He obviously took over the Super Bowl at the biggest moments. Let's give some credit to defensive coordinator Rahim Morris, too. They had a lot of discussion at halftime about what kind of. of defensive approach to have in the second half. And it's kind of counterintuitive. They went with a 50 defense a lot, which is really designed to stop the run with five defensive linemen. But they reasoned that it would also give Aaron Donald better matchups more one-on-one matchups that he could just exploit

and change the game with and that they wouldn't be hurt unduly in the passing game. And so great, great philosophical approach by Rahim Morris. So we'll hopefully, get a second chance at being an NFL head coach pretty soon. You were the first to me that I can recall. I don't want to slight anybody, but you were the first prominent media member in the country very early pre- Thanksgiving that said, you know, I'm hearing stuff on Kyler Murray. He's not great in the room.

This is not, I mean, he's a great player, but you were the very first person to say, this is, there's some bumps going on here. We're not seeing. So what do you make of these strange last two weeks? of what I'm seeing. I mean, clearly something happened in terms of how Kyler Murray feels, because in this age, when people do, you know, obvious things on social media, it's usually not random. They can say they got hacked or something, but that's usually not the case.

So he, you know, defriended the Cardinals, basically, for want of a better term. And, you know, I'd actually been hearing it, Colin, since the end. of the 2020 season, which remember ended with them in another tailspin. At one point, Tyler Murray was injured and went out. And there are still people in that building who aren't sure what the actual injury was. So start with that. But he's been a guy who, you know, when he's on, looks amazing. And yet there's some who questioned the way he approaches that franchise quarterback role from the way he interrelates with teammates to his offseason commitment to whether he takes accountability when times get tough. And, you know, that playoff defeat was obviously,

you know, an emphatically bad moment where he didn't have any juice. He wasn't running around trying to make things happen. They got killed by a division rival. And at a time when they've got to make decisions about his fifth-year option, which I would assume they'll pick up. But are you giving him big, big money? And so I'm not saying he's in Baker Mayfield zone, but he's edging back into that zone and away from the Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen's zone in terms of do you give this guy the huge extension? This story I'm about to ask you finally is not the headline, but it is interesting. we just played blind resume. And I said, if you went blind resume, Carson Wentz actually matches up very well with Tannihill and Derek Carr.

And if you take out the rushing totals, which you can't, but Josh Allen, you know, he's a 95 passer rating. He's got four to one touchdowns. And that's not a great receiving core, nor is it a dynamic tight end group. The idea they just bail on Carson Wentz feels like an impulsive owner. I don't even, I mean, what's what in the world is the option? It can be Jacob Eason. What do you make of this story? I mean, I hear what you're saying, but just watching it, it doesn't look like he's even staying level.

It looks like he's descending, right? So if you have, maybe it's just the owner, but maybe Frank Wright, who knows him better than anyone, doesn't think it's good enough. It wasn't down the stretch. And then you say, well, the Eagles who knew him well gave up on him. The Colts with Frank Reich, who knows him very well, may give up on him after a year. You know, he's a guy who everyone thinks about his great athleticism early on, but, you know, some people question whether he's a guy who thinks he's more athletic than he actually is at this banged-up stage. and, you know, you like that moxie.

I can get away. I can extend plays. I can do it. I can, you know, flip the ball recklessly like Brett Farr. But there have just been too many times where it doesn't seem to translate into something good. So to me, I don't know if that's just the owner. I think what the owner is saying is, hey, Frank Wright, we had a chance to go to the playoffs and got killed in Jacksonville. that's not good enough.

You need to do something better this year. And so if I'm Frank Reich, I better be very, very sure that I want Carson Wentz deciding my fate. And I don't know that he is. Yeah. What did you make of the Super Bowl overall? It got,

I mean, without Mahomes and Brady last year, it's still got a bigger number. And I think some of that is streaming is more available. And let's face it, sports gambling ain't hurting things. No, it was a really good game.

I mean, you know, I don't think anybody walked away from that saying the Rams are a dominant team or the Bengals didn't belong on the big stage. I think people are saying, wow, they called holding, defensive holding after having their flags in their pockets. Did that actually change the game? You know, then again, you know, did T. Higgins grab Ramsey's face mask? They're little, little plays that I think people can debate that would have changed the outcome. really, really good game, close game. And after that first playoff weekend, which was kind of incredible playoffs,

if you break it down. Yeah, the last bad football game we saw was a month ago. So it's like, I mean, seriously, it was, in college football playoff gives us some lobsided yoners. It was as good as it gets. Mike Silver, great seeing you again.

We'll talk soon, bud. Thanks a lot, Colin. I appreciate it. You bet. Yeah, he was on the Kyler-Marie. stuff very, very early, said, I'm, you know, this is somebody that has great sources within the building saying it's turbulent in the building. Yeah, I mean, who was I talking to yesterday? You know, people always say, oh, nothing gets better than playoff baseball. Yeah, it does.

It's called the NFL playoffs. It's way better. We haven't had a, we haven't had the activity level, the gambling. And it's funny, is it just coincidence? Like, when's the last, I mean, the divisional round was insane. The championship round was unbelievable. The Super Bowl was wildly dramatic. We haven't had a bad football game in a month. Well, I think it has a lot to do with the quarterback play. You're never out of a game. You're not out of a game if you have that guy. All the games were close and competitive, even if you didn't particularly like the team that was in the game. Like you had to watch to the very end. We had some all-time

exciting endings. Both number one seed couldn't win a game. And we talked about this all year. This was a year of parity. There was no great team. No, Rams are not a great team. They're really great in the fourth quarter. They're a tremendous fourth quarter team. But they give you a lot of opportunities. They had two picks. They weren't great all season long.

Even Kansas City wasn't great all season long. Everybody had these patches of struggle. You know what it is, Joy? College football, my entire life, has been to trying to legislate parity. It used to be you got 125 scholarships. Now it's 85. And college football is trying everything. they can. Now it's transfer portal.

Players can leave the great programs. In the end, it's never been more lobsided. The NFL for whatever reasons, would like to have some parity too, and it's worked. Like it's the only sport, like baseball has no salary cap, so there's no way that Oakland

can compete with the Dodgers or Yankees. And in the NBA, there are just cities players like to play in more. Well, also, just the structure of the college business model, the players pick where they go. You don't pick where you in the NFL. And they want to go to about five programs. Right, as they should.

Right, right. The good ones. But that's how it's structured. So there's no like, oh, this is the, you know, five-star recruit. He has to go to Idaho. Like, no, he can go wherever he chooses to go. And now can transfer wherever he wants. And now can transfer. But even before the transfer portal was used as heavily as it is, they were still all going to the best programs and they're still going to continue to go

to the best programs. Like, you're going to have a few outliers here and there. But for the most part, great players are going to go to the great coaches. that continue to win and show the ability to send them to the NFL if they're that caliber of a player. You don't have parity in tennis. You don't have it mostly in historically in golf. You don't have it in women's basketball. College basketball is always the same six teams.

The Cincinnati Bengals just beat a team that moved from St. Louis to L.A. The Rams just beat them. This was a really unique Super Bowl. I mean, last year it was Tampa that never rarely gets here against a favorite. it. And then this year it's an complete underdog, a beaten down franchise, a welcome Matt for most of the league for years, Cincinnati, and a team that just moved not long ago made huge moves at quarterback. Right. Both teams built completely different ways.

People say you can't legislate parity. NFL's doing a pretty good job of it. I think it's the structure of the sport, the draft, the way that the contracts are designed, you keep a quarterback for a longer amount of time. There's not as much mobility with your stars when they become stars early. you know, I think this is the structure of the sport. I think about this all the time, too. So I try never to be too absolute.

I have conservative friends and I have liberal friends. And I'm socially liberal, but fiscally I can be moderate to conservative. But I never could be like a Bernie Sanders left or whoever's like Mitt Romney-Roy. I can never be that. And here's a great example, the transfer portal. So I have what I would call a very liberal friend. And he loves the transfer portal and he loves the name image likeness. It empowers kids.

And I'm like, awesome. But it's also going to make it worse for the little guy. And you're a liberal and you're against the power. I said because you do get who's going to win the transfer portal. Ohio State, Alabama, USC. Are you seeing now? They're saying it costs $10 million annually. Washington State can't afford that.

Oregon State can afford that. Yeah, but USC and Ohio State and LSU and Alabama and Texas, we're already getting those kids. So like nothing's changed. No, but the difference is the feeling is, even Drew Bledso and I talked about last week, now it's a, it was always like a glamour grab. Now it's a money and a glamour brag. But they're still going to the same places.

Like Alabama. Like Taylor Williamson leave Oklahoma to go to Panera Brad. He went to USC. No. But my thing is. And he was at Oklahoma to begin with. I'm never an absolutist because the reality, there's so much conflict. No, I'm not either.

I'm very, I'm an independent. You'll back yourself into a corner. I don't think that you should. use absolutes for anything in life unless it has to do with someone that's, you know, very personal to you or, you know, a long-term situation that you're committing to. Other than that, life changes. Things change every day, every second, every hour. But the hyperbolic reaction on neither side to college football, I think is silly.

Because at the end, these kids are still going mostly, these young men and young women are mostly going to the same programs that were going to before. Like Caleb Williams went from Oklahoma, who was going to get him anyway before, and I, to USC. Who was also recruiting him before NIO. So I got it last week, it was published what they're paying Caleb Williams through like beats, headsets, everything.

There's not another program out west outside of Oregon. Phil Knight could write a check that could afford it. Like it is the, this thing is growing so fast, so fast. Do you know what influencers make on TikTok? I know. A lot.

More than us. Well, fish. Well, some of us, but a lot. That's just the way it goes. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

Well, the NBA trade deadline was pretty active this year. It felt like it was really quiet. And then we had obviously massive move with the Nets and Sixers. And there was some talk that the Lakers could possibly be involved and tried to make a deal for Russell Westbrook. Nothing ended up happening. And after the deadline passed, Anthony Davis said the team felt a lot of relief. You know, anytime your name is mentioned in trades, you know, as a player, it can weigh on you.

When that time has passed, at past, this is who we have, the 15 guys in that locker room. It kind of just kind of just take weight off of everyone's shoulders, okay. All right, this is what we got. Let's go. And guys have a little more swag today, a little more confidence, more energy, play more of a purpose. and if we can say to play like this for the rest of the season, then I think we put ourselves in good position to be successful.

No, it's still old. That's the problem. It's a very old roster. Well, their last three games was a bad loss to the Bucks, then a close one to the Blazers, and then another close game, a loss to the Warriors. Yeah, not good. They're going into, they play the Jazz tomorrow,

then obviously it's the All-Star break. Again, I understand that we're going to cover certain teams differently. Like, we do this with the Cowboys, We definitely do this with the Lakers. There's, like, no perspective on what's actually happening with this team. I agree with him. I do think that there is a bit of an emotional lift when you know that this is, okay, these are the guys that we're going into war with.

Like, this is what we have. We're not making any trades. This is what we have to make work. And that's it. So let's all just, like, lean into it, squash whatever problems we have and move forward. But at the end of the day, when you look at what the Lakers are and have been through this half of the season, LeBron's missed 17 games.

They're 6 and 11 without him. AD has missed 21 games. They're 10 and 11 without AD. They're 26 and 31 and 9th in the West. Through this many games, the 57 games last season, they were 35 and 22. Anthony Davis and LeBron have been hurt. Russell Westbrook was never supposed to be the one that carried this team.

So I think when you evaluate the Lakers, pay attention to, I don't know, the fact that they haven't had LeBron and AD healthy for the first half of the season. Do I think that they're a championship level team? If LeBron and AD are healthy and they can. make some things work, but you've got to have some perspective on it. Like, it's not, there's been a lot that's happened with this team. So repeating against Super Bowl champs is extremely difficult.

As we know, it hasn't happened since the Patriots went back to back in the 2003, 2004 seasons. But Cooper Cup is confident that the Rams have a good chance to pull it off. If you're going into a football season and didn't think that you could win it all, it'd be a pretty depressing place to play from. So, you know, certainly you go into every year believing that, understanding though that there's so much work that has to be done so much time so much effort so much sacrifice has to go into that so you certainly go in knowing that that's the goal but like I said we take a you know a one day at a time mindset so Sony Michelle O'Dell Brian Allen

Austin Corbett Joseph Nobombeam von Miller Darius Williams and Matt Gay are all free agents okay so let's look at that list so Darius Williams is good but had a bad year I'd really like to bring Vaughn Miller back. Yes. Joseph Notebuma, I have to bring back because Whitworth's going to retire potentially. If he retires, Whitworth has a $17.7 million cap hit next season if he doesn't retire. So that's actually not that it's good, but it would be a little bit of a cap break. Yes.

Brian Allen is a little undersized, but people like him. He rates very highly. So you want your center. You don't want to lose your tackle in your center. So they're going to pay Brian Allen. Odell's in a tough spot. He doesn't have much of a market. He wouldn't be available next year until November, December anyway.

and they're not that they're Debut receiver, but they've got, they're going to draft another receiver. And they're going to get Robert Woods back. Yeah. So I think, to me, Sony Michelle was always a rental. He was always a rental. Who do I have to have back? I would say, you have to keep your offensive line intact. I would say Brian Allen, Joseph, Noteboom, I have to bring back.

Darius Williams, I'd like to. But here's what the Rams can sell. It's a great place to live. We have an amazing culture. We have an amazing coach. If you want to get paid top of the market, we're probably. find out the place. I mean, yeah, they just won a Super Bowl. Like Darius Williams is a great example. I got Jalen Ramsey on the other side. I can't,

I can't have too expensive corners. He didn't have a great year. I may have to move off him. And he's good. He'd be a starter. He'd be a number one corner on a lot of teams. Well, they're currently projected $14.1 million over the cap next season. So they are going to move some things around. But as we know, the Rams use a different banking system in the the rest of the NFL. Austrian bank. They have some offshore banking going on. They're always able make it work and figure it out. They're a great free agent destination. They just want a Super Bowl.

They're well-coached. It's a well-run culture. So, you know, they can figure some things out. And when you are a well-run team, I think it's easier to plug and play players who might not necessarily be successful with another organization but can come in and thrive there. Especially if you have your core pieces intact because there isn't the same amount of pressure.

To me, that's what happened with O'Dell this season. He came in. We were like, oh, great situation. Then Robert Woods gets injured. but they have Cooper Cup, so he doesn't have to be the number one. There's a balance to his team. O'Dell Beckham was a wonderful story, but in the end, they drafted a young receiver from Ole Miss, a speed guy, he'll be back, the Notre Dame kid's back, Van Jefferson's back, Cooper Cup's the best receiver, arguably, in the league, probably, and Robert Woods is back.

And they'll probably draft another because of Woods, now that injury. So with O'Dell Beckham, my guess is they'd probably move off the books there. Well, the injury, we're still waiting on, but the injury is unfortunate. Wentworth, you save a little bit. bit of money on Whitworth. But I'll tell you what, what I would do if I ran the Rams, I'd go to Sean McVeigh's agent, I'd pay him, I'd go to Les Sneeds agent, I'd pay him, I'd restructure Aaron Donald's, I'd rip it up and give him a new one for four more years, and I'd sign Matt Stafford to a

year early. He's got a year left. And then I'd keep the two offensive linemen, and then I'd just trust my scouts. And I would probably say I would love to keep Vaughn Miller, but you can't be paid top of market. Like at this point, it's a great place to live. You can make more money on shoes and stuff, but I couldn't pay Vaughn't. At some point, the advantage to having a great culture is you can sell the culture.

This is a great place to play. Well, in a salary cap league, this is why people are always questioning how aggressive they are with the draft picks, because eventually you have to pay everybody if you're not leading into, you know, really developing draft picks. So ever since Kyler Murray removed all the Cardinals mentions off of his social media, there's been a lot of speculation about his future with the team, although I don't know why because they can control him for the next like three or four years. But here we are. So the latest report said that Arizona believes Kyler's immature and he's

mature and he's to work on his leadership skills. And yesterday he responded with an Instagram post that said, I play this game for the love of it, my teammates. Everyone has helped me get this position that believed in me and to win championships. All of this nonsense is not what I'm about. Never has been. Never has been. Never will be. Anyone who's ever stepped between those lines with me knows how hard I go, love me or hate me,

but I'm going to continue to grow and get better. Well, he has. He has gotten better. He has grown and they win more. so I'd pay him. He's not ideal. I don't know what the debate is with Kyler Murray. Like Carson Wentz, I can see why the team is frustrated with him.

Again, I don't know how you're going to do better. I think it's probably a play for Aaron Rogers more than anything else. But Kyler Murray is young. He is... Also, Carson Wentz's division is a lot of nonsense. Right. Kyler's division, if you don't have a quarterback, you are a five-win team, period. Yeah.

I mean, and Kyler Murray is good. It's not even like... We're not questioned... We don't know if Kyle is capable of winning a Super Bowl yet. But Kyler Murray is a great player. He is dynamic. He gives

you an opportunity to win. You're better certainly with him than without him. Oh, I think he's capable. Oh, I absolutely. And I think he is capable of winning a Super Bowl. Oh, absolutely. Like he's still young. We put these really accelerated timelines on everybody because there are certain outliers like a Joe Burrow, you know,

or a Patrick Mahomes. That's not going to apply to everybody. Sometimes there are some outlier greatness. but Kyler Murray is the future of this organization. I don't really know what the debate is here. And I just don't want to get into this. Like, we went through this with Dak. Please, look, Cardinals, please.

Please don't put us through this. Wrap it up. Please. I beg of you. Don't make me talk about Kyler Murray's contract for the next three years. I will never forgive you. Just get it done. Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. Thoughts on James Hardin. Oh, he is talking now next. Sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller, along with my trusty sidekick, David Gascone,

would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name is the fifth hour? I'll tell you, it's a spinoff of the Ben Mather show, a cult hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture, if you will, a world where we chat with captains of industry in media. Sports and more every week. Explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to the fifth hour with Ben Mather on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10.

10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me.

Cliver 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, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream,

This is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of Ton Tons and wampas on the ice planet hot or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your

podcasts do you remember when diana ross double-tapped little kim's boobs at the vamaze or when Kanye said that george bush didn't like black people i know what you're thinking what the hell does george bush got to do a little kemp well you can find out on the look back at it podcast i'm sam jett and i'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84's big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table

right now, so... Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, James Hardin now is a Philadelphia 76er. The team is smartly not going to have him playing the All-Star game. They're basically, they're just hiding him. You don't want to want to go to the All-Star game with Kevin Durant and everybody banging on him. And I think they're smartly kind of keeping him out of the crosshairs of that. That's what I would do if I was Philadelphia.

I think he's going to work and win a lot of games fast. But it's interesting. Today he was talking about the move to the Sixers. And listen to this. Interesting. Why did you want out of Brooklyn and why did you want Philadelphia to be your destination? Originally, when I was going through everything I was going through in Houston, Philly was my first choice.

It just didn't happen. So, you know, we're just detailed. I don't really want to get into, you know, the Brooklyn situation. I just knew, you know, for a very long time, this is a perfect fit. And obviously, you got a big man, the best big man in the league and Joel. And then obviously the coaching just from top to bottom. It made sense. And I'm just happy and blessed that I'm here.

So he never really wanted to go to Brooklyn because I think he, you know, he knows the game. He needs the ball. And Kyrie Irving needs the ball. So it wasn't an ideal fit. And then, you know, Kyrie's a really unique personality. Several stories released about incense, sage in the locker room and Hardin, like, get me out of here. There's also a story today that he would eye roll Kevin Durant because Kevin Durant liked, you know, ball movement and more plays. Whereas Hardin's offenses, give me the ball, I'll make stuff happen.

So his eye rolling at Kevin Durant reportedly, the stuff with Kaiiard. in the locker room. This was always the best fit. I think they're going to win and win fast. I mean, they won the other night with 40% of their roster traded to Brooklyn. So I think Philadelphia's got the coach. They got the best big in the game. I think Hardin went engaged.

There's a great player. Give you 24, 26 a night. I think they're going to win really fast. And I think they're one of the five teams that could win a championship. Milwaukee, Miami, Philly, Golden State Phoenix. That, to me, is the cutoff. I think Memphis is too young. Cleveland's interesting, but too young.

But here we go. There's other bites. Joy will have more on this next hour because he's doing some talking. There is definitely some James Harden talking. I can't wait to watch them play after the All-Star break. Perform at your best all year long. Go to mDriveforMen.com. Free shipping pack with clinically tested ingredients, stamina, energy.

MDrive for Men.com. Hour three next. 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 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway

with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor?

It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or whoever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking

Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.