The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 3 - The NBA playoffs

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Ric Bucher stops by The Herd to talk about the NBA playoffs and why a certain team is surprising a lot of people More on Shedeur Sanders falling to the 5th roundSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com. or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. All right. These playoffs are feisty. They're physical. The arenas are packed and loud and intense. It has been highly engaging basketball.

Rick Buechers joining us. I think my take is there are messages sent all the time. Shadour Sanders dropping is a message. J.J. Reddick. Not going to the bench is a message to the front office. Okay, Hot Shot that looks like Rob Lowe, Rob Belinka. Congratulations on your new extension and advancement in the organization. Get me bigs.

Sure. He's basically saying without saying, I trust five guys. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's certainly what he did in the last game. I do think that it was reactionary and impulsive as opposed to really planned. and I can't put it all on Rob Polinka because this is where I believe that JJ showed his youth and inexperience as a coach because he has been mixing and matching with his bench all season long. And at some point you have to decide I'm going to set what my rotation is and what the roles are for my role players

because they need that comfort level. Steve Kerr was mixing and matching for a good part of the season, but he got to February March and he said, okay, I need to make some decisions. Jonathan Camingo, you're going to the bench. Like, this is going to be a rotation. We're going to play primarily small. Chase Jackson Davis, sorry.

Kevin Lune, sorry. This is what we're going to go with. JJ never made that move. And so he got to a point where Dalton Connect. Can you throw him out there? and I have no idea what I'm going to get. That was the case with all of those players. So does the roster need to change for Luca?

Absolutely. But we knew that going in. When they made the trade, we said, oh, they've taken a step back. And then they ended up being better than we thought. And everybody's like, oh, no, they're title contenders. No, this isn't the right roster for Luca Donchitz. And the biggest missing piece, which that you pointed out, they've tried to do, was to get another big.

He needs a rim runner. Yes. Lob protector. I looked at the numbers from last year's Minnesota Dallas series because I was wondering like, okay,

Luca's getting his numbers, but he's got, last I checked, he had like 18 assists and 14 turnovers in this series. Oh, he's not getting assists in the series. Last year,

in last year's series, he had like 40-some assists and 18 turnover. But he's not getting the lob points. Exactly. Derek Lively, Daniel Gafford last year. He had, first of all, he had a rim defender.

He had a good shot blocker behind him to protect him defensively. But offensively, those guys were a combined like plus 40. And Jackson Hayes is close to a minus 20. That is the biggest difference between those two. And you weren't going to fix that in the short term. They tried at the trade deadline. Then they realized we can't give up Dalton Connect. and a number one pick to get Mark Williams.

That's too much of a risky, so they, risky move, so they pulled it back. But ultimately, that's where you have to go. Yeah. By the way, you just, you know, I'm a little disappointed. You've been hanging out with the wrong people. Your producer tried to convince you that the timber wolves were more of a threat than you were saying.

I would have helped you out on that. I didn't know Julius Randall, which he'd never done in his career, starts hitting 43% of his three-pointers. He'd always been a massive playoff disappointment. Yep. He's played great. He has. And the thing was is when he got to Minnesota, he was not very good, and they were not very good.

And I think everybody kind of turned the page on the Timberwolves. But over the last part of the season, Randall was playing much better, and they'd learn to play through him. So you just have to be careful about who you're hanging out with and where you're getting some of your NBA expertise. Nick Wright can be a dangerous source. You can be a dangerous source. You know, we were saying this. Three years ago, John Morant would have been taken over Ant by a lot of people in the NBA.

Nobody now would take J'all over Ant. I thought Ant's defensive effort is really what's... A lot of young players come into this league, and they've never had to play defense. And I'm watching Ant, his fourth quarter stuff, he's the best player on the floor. Yep. Like, and that, to me, he's been very good for years.

I feel like this series has kind of been a definer. No question about it. No question about it. I thought that for Minnesota win, and for him to be able to outplay Luca and LeBron in crunch time, that he was going to have to elevate his game, he was going to have to go to the next level, not from a physical standpoint, but from a mental standpoint.

And one of the reasons that I had, I maintained a certain belief that he could do that is talking to Mike Conley over the last couple years. And Mike was like, he wants to learn. He wants to be better. He sits next to me and is asking me questions all the time. And I thought, okay, at some point he's going to get over the immaturity. Yeah.

And we're going to see that come to fruition. And that's exactly what you're seeing in this series. Okay, so I picked Houston and, seven without Cominga being an asset, then Butler gets hurt. I'm like, all right, grab the shovels. It's over. Were you shocked, not by Steph's performance, but, I mean, offensively, Houston again, doesn't quite know what the heck they are.

I was shocked by Alpern Sengun. I'll say that. He was so mentally wrecked in that last game. Why? That I don't know, because it wasn't like Draymond was doing anything. extraordinary. He was getting all, he was getting to all his spots, but for whatever reason, he missed some shots early. And I don't know if it was the magnitude of the game. This is what happens when you have young teams. Go on the road. On the road, unproven star. And this is

the value when you have a young team and you get to the playoffs, because guys can be regular season studs. But the playoffs are just a different animal when they're able to dial in to what you like to do and they make it difficult. I mean, if you turn the sound down and watch the crowds, people are up. Yes. I mean, it's an intimidating, Houston looked almost intimidated at times. Yeah, and the funny thing is, is during the regular season, they had a pivotal game at the end of the regular season, went into the Chase Center, and they won that game.

Totally different performance. But there's something about, you know what, this game could be the decider in the series, this possession could be the decider of this game that just creates a whole different atmosphere for young players. And until you see them in those moments and you see them perform, you don't really know are they a cut above? Can you build your team around them in terms of being a postseason threat? Well, I mean, we've said this.

The disadvantage to being young in the NBA playoffs is the referees swallow the whistle and sometimes these older players are just bigger and stronger, and they've been in NBA weight rooms for a decade, NBA nutrition, and it's just like, I mean, it's like Nas Reid, Julius Randall. Some of these guys are men. And you can see the difference physically on a Houston and like a Minnesota or a Los Angeles Laker team. Okay, so I still contend the clippers of the better team.

Yokic is the best player. The hardest part about this series is finding it on TV consistently. That's true. I'm going to go, I still think the clippers have more depth. Yeah. I mean, you go to the box score of this, and it's like, basically, you look, how Jamal do and how Yokic do. Yep.

I just feel I get more, a little bit like Minnesota. I've got more potential scores here for the clippers. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm with you. They have the depth and the versatility and the size and the go-to scores. The clippers have the better team. It's just a matter of their execution at the end of games.

And again, it kind of comes down to the leadership. If you watch Yokic throughout this, he's talking, he's barking, he's trying to get guys in place, he's making demands of both David Adelman, the interim coach, and the players. Who's doing that for the Clippers? When things go a little bit sideways, Yes, yes. Everybody's trying to get their own thing.

And Kauai, one-on-one, offensively and defensively, is everything you could want. But sometimes you need that guy to say, hey, this is what I need from you and you and you. And that's just not how Kauai operates. And so that's the missing piece. When things get a little shaky, you need somebody to pull everybody together and say, this is the game plan. And Pailu is a great coach, but I've always gotten the sense that at the end of games, he kind of hands over the keys to the car to his best player. He hands him over to Kauai or to James and says, okay, this is your time.

You get it done. And if you have the right guys with the right leadership, that happens. But that's the one missing element for the clippers. Is just that vocal leadership when things go a little sideways. You look at them on paper, they are the better team than the Nugget. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name?

Huge news. 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. 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.

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Finally, I think the Knicks are better than the Pistons. I said earlier, I like physical play. I like players deciding it, not the refs. The only downside to allowing such physical play, you occasionally get fights. There's still that malice in the palace thing the league's paralyzed by, shouldn't be, but is. The second problem is when you let a game be officiated physically, that is fine. It doesn't change outcomes. But with a minute left, if you don't call that stuff,

it changes outcomes and it's too close to the end of the game that fans remember it. And so I'm watching them let these guys arm wrestle for two and a half hours. And then those officials were like, well, we wouldn't have called that earlier. And it's like, guys, that's a game changer. Yeah. What do you do with that? Yeah. You have to recognize the situation.

If guys are in the pot, and you have a lot of referees who are inexperienced at calling this game like this and being able to differentiate, it's not the level of physicality. It's where the physicality is happening. Like, you know, people were to, when Aunt is pushing LeBron James in the chest and they're kind of wrestling and doing all that, you're not calling that

because it's not impacting the ball actually going in the basket. That's just almost a mental wrestle, right? Who's trying to get into whose head? And we enjoy that. We enjoy that back and forth. By the way, shout out to Almond. Adam Silver that we're allowing this physicality because it's made the games more competitive

and it's actually made teams play basketball. You have to play team basketball in order to get a shot. No question. You can't just put it in one guy's hands and he goes to the cup and he's either scoring or he's going to the free throw line. We see far less of that. But here's the distinction in that particular instance with the Pistons and the Knicks. And that's that in the post, I'm going to allow physicality.

I'm shoulder to shoulder. I have to allow that bump. If it's a guy and it's a jump shooter, if you're just touching my elbow, if you're just hitting my shoulder a little bit, you're impacting my ability to make that shot. I have to blow the whistle on that call. And it's recognizing the difference between those two.

And since we've been blowing the whistle for everything, now we can't see the distinction. and referees can't see the distinction between, oh, inside, I got a little lip-nore go. On the outside, I'm all eyes that if there's contact, I've got to blow the whistle. And the other part is, from where the referee was standing, the contact was on the other side.

And so you don't know how much of that was contact affected the shot and how much was Tim Hardaway Jr. trying to sell it. So I got to give him some grace there, But the bigger reason for what we're seeing, maybe the uncertainty is because we haven't called, the NBA has not called the game this way for the longest time. So there's an adjustment period for the referees as well. I tell you, it's hard to turn off. The physicality makes when Ant and LeBron.

They should bring back the I Love This Game campaign as well, because you know what? I can say, genuinely, I love this game. Same. I mean, it's just, it's so good. When LeBron and Aunt. are, I mean, knock, and you're like, oh, this is, this is, all of it. Old Finesse, J-Mack likes rainbows and butterflies out there. I'm out here.

I like my Julius Randall. I like my Rudy Gobert, little forearm shimmer on the back of the end. All of it. All of it. And here's the thing. The league has this great, you talked about, like, the fights and all that stuff. Look, we don't have guys like that in the league anymore. Guys are making, guys were making hundreds of things. thousands of dollars, yeah, you were going to, you were going to fight because the pie was smaller.

The pie was smaller. Now, there's way too much at stake. I'm going to square off. This thing's a moneymaker. Yeah, guys are not throwing haymakers now. Like, it's never getting to that. So meanwhile, we get to see guys go nose to nose and talk trash. And more than anything, we get to see that they care on the level that fans do. That is really the game. key to this. You watch the NBA. LeBron's diving into Ant. You're like LeBron's in year 22.

He's worth $800 million or more and he's diving on the floor for a loose ball. That's what the fans want. Exactly. And by the way, I can't, I love it. They care as much as we do. That's what we want to see. We want to know that they care as much as we do.

And I believe they always have. Yes. But when the whistle is so quick, if you touch a guy, what are you supposed to do? Like, I want to stay in the game. I can't touch him. Well, then how am I supposed to play hard if I can't touch him? I hope J-Mack you paid attention to this segment. J-Mack is used

to his pickup game where he's, you know the kind of player J-Mack is. J-Mack, pump-fake, it gets his shot blocked and he's like, oh, got foul, got me on the wrist. Because LeBron was asking if ball is wrist. Wrist is not part of the ball. No, it's not interesting. Hand is part of the ball.

That was interesting. Yeah. What was that called the Hawk camera? in the sky. Referees don't even have access to that. They're like, oh, look, this camera found a foul. Lakers get jobbed. Oh, Rick. That was a tough one. That was devastating to the Lakers. It was tough, but it was right. Yes, it was. It was.

Jane Mc with the news. Hand's tough. No, no, no, no, no. This is the herd line news. I always want to keep Rick around for this one. Bummer news, it just broke Colin. Damien Lillard, it's official. He is torn Achilles, according to Chris Haynes,

who's tight with Lillard. You know, I've seen this a million times. You just, you don't have the burst and he just goes down instantly, non-contact injury. It's just devastating, man. It stinks. He's getting up there in age. He's in his mid-30s. The Bucks do not have much of a path to success.

They have no future number ones for like five or six years, Colin. You know where this conversation's headed, but we'll start with this. Tyrese Halliburton, who's had some beef with Lillard back and forth, had some really nice things to say about Lillard after the game. Before you all ask any questions, I want to some of my thoughts and prayers to Dane, what you see between us is competing and you know you hate to see that happen especially to a guy who's went through a lot and you know he's giving it his all to come out here and play after the scary health issue um so um it's well documented you know the the the love i had for that guy and uh so

hate to see that happen to anybody and wish him the best yeah it was rough one of the most popular players in the league you know he works out of my gym in the off season sometimes so i've seen Dame, nicest guy, anybody who comes up to talk to him. Oh, he's a great guy. He's just a good human. He's been through a lot off the court personally and now dealing with this. And it's just a huge bummer. By the way, once we're done saying stuff about Dane, we need to talk about the Milwaukee Bucks and Yonnas. Oh, you got a three straight year. First round exit. If they lose, they're down three one. First round. Yeah. And we're going to hear about their luxury tax payments pretty soon. And that ownership group is not going to be thrilled paying a massive

luxury tax bill losing in the first round. I've said this before. You. You, You can get an absolute, you can get three first round picks, three to four players, one being, you know, maybe like a, like a, like a McAil Bridges, good starter, third best starter level player, or an OG, and a bunch of picks. I mean, I would want an all-star back and three picks. Okay, so let me just look. Like the Mavericks with Luca, had they gotten three first rounders and AD and Austin Reeves, I'll make the deal.

So I had a fun talk with some of the guys here. Okay, so I'm going to throw some names at you. Would you include them in a trade for Janus? Okay, Janus is 30, turning 31 in December. Yeah, he's still great. He's having a great series. Still at the top of his game, but what is he at? Three, four more years of prime?

All right, go ahead. Maybe five. Would you trade the number one pick in the draft along with players, the number one pick would be Cooper Flagg for Janus? I'd want more. Well, you're going to get more, but would you give up Cooper Flag for 12 years for like four years of Prime Yanis? How many first round picks?

I mean, it's going to take a few, Colin. I personally would not do it, and I love Yonis. You gave me Cooper Flagg, three firsts, and a very good NBA player. Like, again, a McAil bridges and Austin Reeves. Pelicans win the lottery. We'll give you Zion, whatever else, and the number one pick. No, because Zion's never available. Okay, Jalen Brown of the Celtics.

Would you give him up with, you know, Derek White, Drew Hall, whatever the salary is matched up and a couple picks? Don't just say in a bite. Well, give me the specifics. Well, okay, fine. Let's toss in Drew Holiday and Jaylen Brown. Would you do that for Yannis? No. No, no.

You got to give me. If you gave me Jaylen Brown and three picks. Well, yeah, you're getting picks. And I want a rotational player. I want Peyton Pritchard. So I get a great six man, a really good number two, three first round picks. Jalen Brown, Peyton, Peyton, Pritchard,

three first round pick. Picking would be your, Pritcher would start at work. I think if you're Milwaukee, that's about as, I mean, because Jalen Brown and Pritchard, you're back court,

you got. That's really good. That's a very, those are two starters you're getting. Last one. Houston obviously needs a piece. Amen Thompson, Jalen Green,

and four firsts for Yannis. I'll take Shengoon. you're Sengueh. Amman Thompson. I'm not giving up both of those. I'm not giving up both of those. I like Amman Thompson a lot. He could be in four years an all NBA player.

He's really freaking good. Yeah, but I don't. Okay. Shen Goon, Amand Thompson, two firsts. I would do it. I would do it. I'd stop at. Listen, the Yannis market, the KD market,

it's going to be a fun summer. But the Yonis market is, I mean, he is. He's just pride. He's getting 34 points a game against a very, very good and long Indiana. He just has no help. All right, sticking with the NBA. You know, we didn't talk about this, but game four of Clippers Nuggets,

unbelievable game. Nuggets were dominating, and then the Clippers Stormback, it's tied in 99 with eight seconds left. Here's the call from 92.5 FM, altitude sports radio. Here we go. Murray looks in. throws it in over to Yolka. Chans it, fake the handoff over to Murray.

Yokic hit the logo, one-on-one with Zubots. Two seconds left. Fade away. Dog! by Gordon at the Horde. You count that basket. It's good at the Horde. And Denver wins game number four.

Well, they had to look at it. They needed that over-cate, oh, the hawk camera. That was the only one that showed. It's funny. The sound of it sounds like it shouldn't be good. I agree. But you can't go off that. Yeah.

What a crazy ending. By the way, do you see who missed the box out there? James Hardin. Oh. Skying right over. Well, the Gordon's five inches taller. Yeah. and way more athletic. Clippers are the better team in this series.

Gordon's such a dude. Gordon would be a tied in in the NFL. He is a great athlete. Yeah. Look at that. Look at how close that is. That is North Carolina State and Albuquerque. Jim Valvano running around the court.

Remember it was Lorenzo Charles short? Ooh, good memory. No, no. Lorenzo Charles dunked it in. It was, was it Schippenberg? Derek Wittenberg. Who was short on the jumper? Before my time, but I think it was, yes.

It was Albuquerque and NC State won it. Really good stuff. Final story to the UFL. We had a sick play call from the Battlehawks in there, went over the Panthers. Six minutes left. St. Louis pulled off the wide receiver reverse pass for the go-ahead 57-yard touchdown, a former Steelers receiver, Hakeem Butler. Yeah.

I love Butler coming out of Iowa State. Didn't really catch on. He tried to move to tight end. Now he's thriving in the U.FL, creating the separation there for the tutty and the game winner. You have NFL players here. Yeah. I said last year, tight ends, wide receiver.

corners, there's NFL players here. Certainly. No question. I still can't believe in the draft. Damien Martinez for Miami went middle of the seventh round of the Seahawks. I watched him. He averaged like four, six a carry.

I watched three or four hurricane games. He was excellent in all of them. It's crazy. It was Wittenberg missed the three. Lorenzo Charles made the dunk. Look at that memory for you. But if you go to the seventh round of this draft, there were guys that I watched play.

and were good in big games against good teams. That went middle seventh round. Hamilton, the Ohio State defensive lineman, is it Ty Hamilton, the defensive tackle for Ohio State? How did he go? Middle rounds. So strange stuff went down at this drive. The cornerback for Ohio State, Burke, is it?

Denzel Burke, I think he fell to like the fifth or sixth round. There's a lot of guys like All-American talent dropping the draft. Yeah, Ty Hamilton went fifth round of the Rams, and I'm like, I watched him in big games. He will absolutely play as a rookie for the Rams. He may not start over Kobe Turner. He will play. How'd you like the Rams draft, by the way?

Well, they didn't have that many players. I know. They wanted weapons. They got a running back, which maybe tells you Blake Corum's not the guy. They got a tied end, Terrence Ferguson. Then they went and got a receiver late. And they got a really, really Stewart, the Michigan hyper-athletic guy. No quarterback, huh?

No, no. They told you early. Yeah? When they traded out, they told you. And next year's our class. On the air, I said, I do not buy the Rams Jackson Dart rumors. I don't buy those. Imagine them not thinking, hey, Shador could have value for us in the fourth round behind Stafford.

Imagine they can know. They're playing for the Super Bowl. I know. They don't need a backup quarterback. They have Jimmy Garoppel. That's fine. And if Stafford goes down, just, hey, forget the season. If Garfell's played in Super Bowls, if Stafford goes down late, at least we got a guy who's been in big playoff games.

J-Mac with the news. Well, that's the news. Stop in by. The Herd Lye News. Oh, yeah. What a show. A lot of stuff going. A lot of movement today.

We're wrapping up next, The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's Steve Kavino. And I'm Rich Davis. And together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You can catch us weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and, of course, the IHeart Radio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich?

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Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. 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. 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. 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, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad,

Hey Jonas, 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, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a 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.

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. Jenchen went. I mean, she went down to 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 I Heart Women's Sports. 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 IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our graphic department went out, sorry radio audience, and made a graphic for the Brown's starting offense. They don't quite know what to do at quarterback, so there's five orange dots for quarterback. I contend Joe Flacco should be the leader in the clubhouse, Shadur closely behind him. Kenny Pickett right now is favored to start, but Shadur is a better quarterback than Kenny Pickett. I think it's been in the league longer, so obviously he's got a head start there. But, yeah, he got underdrafted.

Here's Matt Hasselbeck earlier on Shedur's free fall. Once he fell, it was clear he was going to fall for a, you know, he could fall pretty far. And there were some great quarterbacks. And for me, as a sixth round pick, pick 187, I was kind of in my mind a little bit like Crimea River. You know, there's some good players out there, Kyle McCord, Riley Leonard, Will Howard. but I do think Shador Sanders is a really good quarterback. I think he's talented. Clearly his film was a lot better than I think maybe some of the interactions

and some of the lead up to the draft. And that probably gave some people some pause, some teams that might have taken him, chose to go elsewhere. Yeah, I thought, you know, remember, his dad famously sandbagged interviews and bragged about it. His dad was an A-plus-plus-plus prospect. There are reports now from various sources from Jacina Anderson, to the ringers Todd McShay saying, you know, he came off as brash or disengaged.

And, you know, so I don't think, you know, Dion sort of pivoted in mid-March to late March into, okay, anybody can draft him. But that wasn't at the Super Bowl what we were hearing. And I think that those are crucial months in February and March as teams are making up their draft board and making decisions. And, you know, you got a dad out there. You know, I've been saying this for the last two weeks. Quarterback dad has become pageant mom. Your intentions are good, but you're misguided.

And it turns people off. And we saw it with Nico Iamaliava in college. You know, the dad said or took his son out of practice. And college football said, no, we're not going to do it here. That's not the way it's going to work. And similarly, I think the NFL sent a message like, no. And, and that's the, The other thing that's not being discussed in a lot of other shows, nobody wants a celebrity backup quarterback.

Like to bring in Tim Tebow to the Jets was a huge mess for Mark Sanchez. Bill Belichick famously let Cam Newton go. Not that Cam Newton wouldn't have been one of the better backups in the league, but Cam is high profile. You don't want a celebrity backup. That's the downside to being a Johnny Mansell. You start or are not interested. because your backup quarterback's often an older quarterback, a mentor, or like Jalen Milrow, maybe in a year and a half to two years, you're the guy.

But Shadour, in my opinion, is ready to play pretty soon. So if you didn't see him as a starter and not many teams needed a starter, Pittsburgh and Tennessee needed an immediate starter. I would argue Cleveland, but they gave you the signal very, very, early in the draft by trading down. We don't like this class. We're going to next year. Cleveland sent a message with a second pick.

We'll give up Travis Hunter, who we know is great. We want a second first round pick. We're going to get a quarterback next year. So, Stefanski and Andrew Barry are sharp guys. They sent the message. That's why when they draft Shadur later, it feels like, eh, probably the owner, which he's done before. Here's Hasselbeck on how to make five quarterbacks

in a quarterback room work in the NFL. It doesn't feel like a head coach GM draft pick for that reason. It feels like an ownership draft pick. It feels like they had a plan and then all of a sudden someone who ranks higher than them said, hey, why don't we do this? I wouldn't be surprised to see somebody get traded at some point. That's just the nature of how it goes. But I remember being my first year, I was the fourth string quarterback for the Green Bay

Packers and like I said, there's nothing to do. Essentially, they used me as a practice squad tight-ended practice. So somebody's got to go. Yeah. Can I ask real quick? So Deshaun Watson historically struggled in Stefansky's offense. Yes. He's not a classic pocket quarterback. The doer is. Well, when Joe Flacco took over the reins, remember they got hot and made the playoffs. Yeah, he is a quarterback, a pocket quarterback. He's in that quarterback room, okay? I wonder if they targeted Kenny Pickett specifically because he's tailored to their offense. Yeah, but I don't think Pickett. I think Siddur is better than Pickett.

I don't disagree with you, but we would say Deshaun Watson's better than Joe Flacco. Oh, like 40-year-old Joe Flacco. So Saffansky likes pocket guys. He also likes guys who don't really make mistakes. Now, Flacco made a lot of them in the playoff loss, but he got them there with an amazing run to end the season. I think this is a big uphill climb for Sodor Center, a big one. Because remember, if he met with the Browns and was all,

arrogant and cocky, and they were like, no thanks. That's another hurdle you got when you get into the quarterback room with five other guys. Colin, this is not going to be easy for Shador. I think you need to lower expectations just a little bit. I think he is at worst, at worst, a mid-second round quarterback. I would agree. Yeah, I mean, if you didn't like him, that's okay, but you can't tell me he's a fifth round. But you're talking about the football player, Shador.

What about all the other stuff? That clearly matters as we saw. It matters pre-draft, but once you get in the league, and can spin it, it matters a lot less. What if Shador says, hey, I'm moving to Cleveland, I don't know nobody there, I want my boys to come with me. I need my crew. So what?

Really? They're not in the huddle. No, but you're going to, he's good. So I'll tell you something. I always told my kids this. I said, strangely to my kids, your grades in high school matter more than your grades in college. I always told my kids, work your ass off in high school.

In college, go to a few parties. Yeah, have fun. Okay. In the NFL, your attitude and how you present yourself is actually more important up to the draft. If you can spin it and play in the NFL, bottom line is if you're winning games in the NFL, Aaron Rogers is getting another look. Jay Cutler got multiple looks.

Let me quickly remind you, Johnny Manzo was a party animal at Texas A&M, gets to the NFL, and as a rookie, threw a keg party one Friday night during the season. And then they were trying to reach him. Have the teams in the league didn't have him on their draft board. I wonder if there's some of that should do her. Oh, I think there was. Similarities with Mansell, not partying, but... Yeah.

See you tomorrow. 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 get to ask other 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 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 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear.

Listen to SportsSlice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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. Genschen win.

She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennarabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. 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. This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human.