The Herd with Colin Cowherd - LeBron Makes the Right Decision Again, Dez Is Part of a Trend and the Cowboys Are Not Getting Better

Episode Date: November 8, 2018

Colin discusses why Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James made the right decision, more on WR Dez Bryant signing with the New Orleans Saints, controversial players making an impact in the NFL, and why the Dallas Cowboys will get blown out this weekend. Guests include Chris Broussard, Geoff Schwartz, and Jason Terry. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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

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

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We are live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, on FS1, Joy Taylor, joining me on a Thursday. Great game tonight. Cam Newton, Panthers. Now go on the road for the next month. Pittsburgh tonight. starts it off. That is a great, that's probably the best Thursday night game on paper that we've ever had. It's great to have everybody in today. How are you, Joy? I'm doing great. Good morning.

It was not just a win for LeBron last night. It was symbolic, and I'll tell you why. Lakers beat the T-Wolves. For about five years, and myself included, we've been waiting for the T-Wolves to explode, right? Man, they got Andrew Wiggins, and they got Carl Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler and Tibbs, and we're like, wait, and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and it just it's getting worse before it gets better and now Jimmy Butler wants out and you think you think it's easy to put players together but it's not and LeBron James now in game 11 for the Lakers made the right choice the young players hitting threes last night Tyson Chandler introduced key down the stretch lakers have yet to whiff on a draft pick with Magic and Rob Polinka.

They've actually just got gem after gem after gem. Rondo's played well. Javail McGee has been fantastic. Tyson Chandler came yesterday. LeBron made the right choice. He chose the right brand. He chose the right GM. He chose the right star magic.

He made the right decision. Isn't it ironic that when you think about LeBron's lowest point, two words pop-up, the decision? But it's ironic. He always makes. the right decision. Think about the teams this offseason that were interested in LeBron. The Houston Rockets wanted LeBron.

But LeBron knew it wasn't right. Harden can be at times hard to play with. Plays no defense. Trevor Areza was leaving town. Chris Paul last five years has gotten hurt. And so LeBron, yes, I'm very interested in the Rockets. Passed their own fort home. are a mess. The Philadelphia Sixers. LeBron did not want to offend Ben Simmons and Joel

Embed. So he feigned interest in the Sixers. But LeBron knew that Markell Fultz was a bust. He is. He knew that Simmons and Embed do not get along. They don't. Have you watched the Sixers under 500 in the Eastern Conference? They're not right. By the way, Cleveland tried to keep LeBron, and he publicly said all the right stuff. But they're now the worst team in the NBA at 1 and 10, and it's not even close. Cleveland was an old, pessimistic, hopeless future. The Lakers are deep, a combination of veterans and young guys and LeBron. They are now playing well.

Third win in four. The schedule gets incredibly easy over the next two and a half weeks. Orlando a couple of times, Sacramento, home with Portland, Cleveland, Atlanta, Miami. Oh, they're through their rough stretch of the schedule. They're through San Antonio's. They're through all those road games. Portland twice on the road. Now they come to L.A.

Lakers are top three in scoring, top three in field goal percentage. The Staples Center is sold out. is fantastic and the calves are a mess. Even when LeBron early in his career was in Cleveland for seven years and you banged on him for the decision, he made the right decision, he left Cleveland was the worst team in the league. And then he won some titles in Miami and when he left Miami, you're like, whoa, what are you doing? He knew that D. Wade was falling apart physically.

He knew Chris Bosch was falling apart physically. And what's Miami been since? and he left Cleveland and they're once again the worst team in operation in the league. And the Lakers are one piece away. He chose Magic. He chose Polinka. He chose this young roster. And I'm watching them last night.

They're not a great team. They need one more great piece. But they'll get it, Anthony Davis perhaps. They'll get it. But we always bang on LeBron because of the decision. he's the old corporate CEO with a lot of money and he chose the right startup. The Sixers have a nice nickname, but Fultz is a bust. Simmons doesn't shoot and doesn't get along with Embedon.

You can see it on the floor. You can see it on the floor. Chris Paul and the Rockets now, don't defend. He saw it before it happened. Cleveland was awful and would erode when he left. He saw it. He saw Wade and Bosch physically falling apart. LeBron always makes the right decision, always sees what's happening before it happens.

He's just doing it a different way now. He used to be ball-centric. He's not as ball-centric now. He's had to watch players develop. He never liked young guys. He chose a team with four or five young guys. So it's going to take a little while. It's going to take a few steps.

But they brought in Tyson Chandler. High IQ veteran made huge plays last. night another clever move by Magic Polinka and LeBron and they all had us saying it. Here was LeBron after the win. When you had a veteran like that who's experienced a lot, they are able to pick up on things very fast. And, you know, for us to be able to get Tyson and to have that one-two punch with Javelle and Tyson, those guys create extra opportunities for us. You know what I mean?

The way D. Rose was shooting the ball towards the end. We needed every last one of those offensive rebounds. and it allowed us to win the game. Let's shift to the NFL. Yesterday at the beginning of our show, a story broke, the New Orleans Saints had acquired high-maintenance Des Bryant. Ooh, wow. You know, in football, NFL, we always talk about culture.

The Patriots have the right culture. You want to build the right culture. Cleveland's got a bad culture, and the lions have a bad culture. But they like the Rams are building the new fun culture. Culture's a big thing. You know what the new culture in the NFL for good teams is? The go-for-it culture.

Des Bryant's high-maintenance. Saints are this close to winning it all. Go for it. Josh Gordon's got an ugly resume. Patriots this close. Rams look really good. Let's bring in headcase Dante Fowler. Eagles, we got to get this right.

Michael Bennett outspoken. Can be high maintenance. Drew Brees talked about Des yesterday. It is officially in New Orleans and L.A. and New England, the go-for-it culture.

He likes Des. I've heard a lot of great things about him. I think he'll add a good element to already a pretty good cast of skill players. Des has been a really good player in this league for a long time, and there is certainly a skill set that he has that is going to be beneficial.

And so I look forward to getting to work with them. forward to building a rapport with him. I think he'll be a great addition. Okay, we talk about, look at the pattern in the NFL. Really good teams making a change, kind of a risky change. There are nine teams now. I think Carolina moved into our Super Bowl bubble, nine teams that can win it. Well, what do you know?

What do they all have in common? Houston Texans in the bubble brought in a new wide receiver to Mario Thomas, New England, Demarius Thomas, New England in the bubble, brought in Josh Gordon. Pittsburgh in the bubble, Lavian Bell, Saints in the bubble, Des Bryant, Carolina in the bubble, like their team last year, brought in Norv Turner. Kansas City, by the way, tried to trade for Earl Thomas, broke his leg, or they would have added a safety. Philadelphia, Michael Bennett in the offseason, and now wide receiver Golden Tate. Rams Dante Fowler in the offseason troubled Marcus Peters and Dominican Zoo. Like you're seeing it now, you start looking.

By the way, the Chargers thought they were close. Pouncy, center. Like you see the teams in the bubble. We always talk about culture and football. The new culture is the go-for-it culture. Is that if you're inches away, these windows like the Seattle Seahawks, they close in like two months. You think you're there and you're not there.

And all the, there's only nine teams left to me that can win the Super Bowl. These teams look different. Now, I don't feel as good about, let's say, Houston as I do the Chiefs, the Rams, the Saints, or New England. I don't feel quite as good about Carolina as I do the Patriots or the Eagles. But that move yesterday, I said, you're just looking to get inches better. Don't even need feet inches better. T.J. Hushmanzada loves Des to the same. If Des is anything like I think he is, I think he's going to light it up.

He's playing with Drew Brees. You give a little bit of separation to balls on the money. You get to the playoffs, they're going to stop. They're not going to let Michael Thomas do what the rounds did on Sunday. They're not going to allow that. And when Kamar comes into the game, they normally run him on toss plays outside or give him options, you know, to go in and out in the past. game. They're going to stop that. Teams are going to shut that down and force you to go to

Benjamin Watson or forced you to go to the other receiver to Ricky Smith. That's going to be Des Bryant now. He can get opening win. Golden Tate to Philly, Des Bryant, Josh Gordon, isn't it interesting that some of the high maintenance guys, major risk guys, play huge roles down the stretch of the national football league? Good stuff. Coming up next, I do not, rarely in the NFL do I predict blowouts? I just don't do it. If you look at my blazing five bets,

I think this league is mostly a four-point league. I rarely, rarely predict a blowout. I think we're going to have two this weekend. And you may think I hate the Eagles. I think, you know, they call it the Philly special? I think Philly's going to be special this week. We'll talk about that, why next. All right.

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Come in today, 40% off appliance, special values, free local delivery, valid through November 29th, while supplies last. See, store for details, U.S. only lows. Chris Broussard is going to be joining us in 15 minutes at the top. of next hour, we call it our NFL meat sandwich. Greg CoSell stops by. If you have a fantasy football team, if you bet football, Greg CoSell is the best listen on American Sports Radio and TV all week.

He'll be joining us in 45 minutes from now, Chris Broussard before that. I don't, I've had a very good year blazing five, four and one last week. It's the hottest I've ever been. I've already got my picks in for this week. It's the hottest we've been. I don't predict blowouts much. I always tell people who bet football. Just get rid of the words great and terrible.

There's very few great teams in the NFL. Patriots are really good. They're not all-time great, and there's very few terrible teams. You know, Buffalo's clearly not good, and the Jets now won't be very good without Sam Darnold. But the point being is, it's smushed together. You'll see Carolina, Pittsburgh tonight. There's just a bunch of good NFL players.

It's going to be a close football game. I'd probably take Caroline in the points. But I'm going to predict a blowout this weekend. And Vegas doesn't think it's going to be a blowout, but I think it's going to be a blowout. The Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. And Zechiel Elliott said yesterday, he was quoted saying, It is a must win. No, this is a can't win for Dallas.

Philadelphia is off a buy. Well coached teams off a buy. win. Philadelphia is at home. It's one of the better home field advantages. The Cowboys have been a lousy road team. Carson Wentz is healthy. This team's off a win and feels good about itself,

and they've added Golden Tate, and they're getting healthy. Listen, three quarterbacks in this league are young and mega-talented, and they have all followed the same trajectory this year. Andrew Luck came into the year. We weren't sure about his health, not 100. percent. Five, six weeks later, have you watched Andrew Luck lately? Guys, second in the league in touchdown passes. That's unbelievable considering what he's playing with. Deshawn Watson came into the league off an injury, little beat up, not good in September.

Have you watched Deshawn Watson in the last month? Uh-oh, he's real good. And Carson Wentz. Luck, Deshawn and Wentz. Wentz coming off an injury. Like luck. Like Deshawn Watson. Wince didn't look great in September. Have you watched them in the last four games? Pass a rating in each, over 115. This is not a must win for Dallas. This is a can't win for Dallas. Blood is in the water.

I'll make the prediction right now, the three and five Dallas Cowboys who have head coaching drama, who have quarterback drama, they go to Philadelphia loss, to Atlanta loss, Washington at home loss, Saints at home loss, Philadelphia at home loss. I think Dallas is going to go on a five-game losing street, at least four of five. And I think Philadelphia is going to win for their next five.

I don't predict blowouts. There is blood in the water here. This line opened it four, four and a half, and the wise guys in Vegas bet that puppy up immediately. The Eagles get the Cowboys at home win. Saints on the road, coin flip. Giants at home win, redskins at home win, Dallas on the road, road win. And don't underestimate that win by Philadelphia in London against Jacksonville. That was a do-or-die game for Jacksonville.

Jacksonville's second home is London. They play there every year. For Philadelphia, that was a road game, and they were fantastic. And Fletcher Cox, a great NFL player offered a warning for the rest of the NFL. What's the message to the rest of the NFL after that defensive stand here today? They've been warned. Yeah, they've been warned. Here they come.

I think Dallas is going to get smoked this weekend. And I do not predict that, Joy. You've been here. I don't predict blowouts. I think, I think. Well, you really, you really shouldn't predict blowouts. There's always some fight left in a team that's really desperate and has talents on it and knows that their season is on the line.

But I think I'm going to agree with you on this one. There's three teams. teams with three young quarterbacks, all those quarterbacks coming off injury. Have you watched the Colts, the Texans, and the Philadelphia Eagles? All those quarterbacks now are rolling. Here come the Colts. Here come the Texans. And this weekend's the start of it.

Here come the Eagles. You've been warned. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, the Steelers play tonight, and there's more drama between the Steelers and Levyon Bell. Oh, good Lord.

It continues as the world turns. Yeah. So after being seen playing basketball at an L.A. fitness in Pittsburgh, Leveon posted these cryptic tweets. Now, this is not a malfunction. He did post these upside down. So I'm going to read them for you. No explanation for why they've been posted upside down. I didn't even know that was a thing.

Just about everybody has an opinion on my life. and worried about what I'm doing. Don't judge me off my decisions because maybe this isn't what you do, but most people don't take the time to just simply read between the lines, and that's clearly on them. And the second tweet says, I'm not apologizing for what I believe is right for myself, my family, and the rest of my peers, period.

Also, if you're really fine, the time to figure out what I'm saying, you've proved my points. Yeah. I don't know what he's trying to say here. I mean, I'm going to assume that he is bothered by any of the pushback that he's getting. Can I ask a dumb question? Sure. You're all going to laugh at me.

How do you write upside down on Twitter? I don't know how you do that. That's not a dumb question. I don't know how you do that. How do you do that? If I grab my phone right now, do I have to turn it upside down? I don't understand how do you do that. I don't have the answer for you.

I'm sure someone will let us know. I'm not quite sure. I've never seen that done on Twitter. Yeah, I don't know. That's the craziest thing I've ever seen. I'm not sure. Labian Bell, nobody knew this. Is the world smartest man?

because I've never seen anybody do that and I don't think anybody knows how to do that. Yeah, Leveon's secretly a hacker. I don't know. I don't really know what he's saying here. I'm guessing that he's just bothered by all the pushback that he's getting from sitting out, which look, like you're going to make a decision like this.

You're going to get discussed and critiqued. And quite frankly, no one's, at least in my opinion, really coming at him personally. No. You're not doing anything that's affecting anyone personally. This is a business decision. Anything that you're doing is affecting a, professional team. This is nothing to do with what you do personally or who you are as a person.

You made this decision. You feel like this is what's right for you and your family and your money. And honestly, I feel like most people feel like you just made a mistake and you left a lot of money on the table. He left 7.7. Which is the bigger concern. If you leave 7.7 million on the table, you're probably generally in sports history. You're not going to get it best. 7.7 million. The average American makes about, American family makes about 60 grand a year. So he just left as a young man, 7.7.7. million on the table in a position and in a league that doesn't guarantee a lot of money up front. Well, I mean, he feels like it was the right decision for him. What I don't think is the right decision is to be playing basketball.

That is not a movie you should be doing in the middle of football season when you're supposed to be coming back in a couple weeks. Speaking of basketball, Tyson Chandler came up big last night in the first game after signing with the Lakers. He created three additional possessions in the final minute of the game turning a 24 second clock into about a 50 second clock. It's great. So he provided or proved how great. of a pickup he was by Magic Johnson and Rob Polinka. They won 14-110 over the Timberwolves. They had a chance at the end.

Derek Rose and, coincidentally, Tyson contested that shot. Yes. May some people feel it was a foul. Derek Rose included. I feel like it was good defense, but, you know, we'll argue that to the end of time. I got to be honest with you. The Lakers have not made. You can say what you want.

When Magic Johnson took over the Lakers, I said, what's his experience? I saw him in a talk show he wasn't good. I saw him as a coach he wasn't good. He and Rob Polinka, every one of their draft picks is working. I mean, Lonso, we don't know how he fits. But they're doing a lot right in Lakerland. That's all I'm saying. They're doing a lot right.

Last night felt like a really impactful win for them. I mean, it was a good win, but it was also impactful. And Tyson coming in and having an impact like that right away. And just the offensive boards that he had alone, he had nine rebounds. And five of them came off the offensive class. And that's him. Being a dominant rim projector is important. LA is second only to Phoenix in opponent points per paint in the game.

So big pickup for the Lakers. So last season in the NBA All-Star game, it was switched from east-to-west format to captains. LeBron and Steph Curry drafting teams out of pool of all-stars. So to avoid awkwardness for the players, the NBA attempted to keep the draft a secret. It didn't remain a secret for very long. Eventually, ESPN reported that Al-Horford and Lamarcus Aldridge were the final picks by Curry. James. So this year, the drafts will be televised according to the New York Times. Here is LeBron on that change.

I was bad about it. It's an All-Star weekend. You've got 24 of the best players in the world. That's going to make the team. It doesn't matter if you're first or last. We're 24 of the best in the world at that point in time. So I'm thinking it could be bad. It all depends who are, who's the captains. I think obviously you have certain personalities that can add to it. but it all depends how much the captains are going to get into it as far as their draft wars.

I don't like this at all. I really don't. I think you should, if you're going to televise it, televise the starters, because you already know you're going to be a starter, just a matter of what team you're going to go to. I love it. But televising the whole team, I feel like it takes away from the honor of being an all-star.

It's kind of like when people get into the debate of, and obviously it's a completely different scale and historic levels of, being a Hall of Famer, but they debate like, oh, well, it's the first ballot Hall of Fame or a third ballot hallfamer. You're a Hall of the day. Like, you make an All-Star team. That should be something you're excited about. There should be no anxiety. There should be no level of competition

about whether what level of All-Star you are. And to me, I mean, it's easy for LeBron to say he's never going to be the last pick in the All-Star draft. Like, or, like, it's just not, I think it just puts an extra level of anxiety on it for guys. It's, it's, you're dealing with huge

egos here. Yes. But I don't like it. But, but. I love it. And the reason I love it is what baseball does poorly, they get no free commentary. NBA and the NFL do something brilliant. We talk about them all season, off season. Baseball, the season ends, we don't even mention it for six months. And this is going to get talked about.

Like if Janus gets drafted two spots below Clay Thompson or vice versa, what this is going to give the NBA is like three days of free talk on every show, on every network, on every Instagram. For sure. It's going to be... I get it. I understand it. I'm just saying that if I'm a player,

I don't like the idea of, okay, great, I made an all-star team. Like, I've worked very hard for this. This is a moment. And then now a sudden I have to go into the all-star team draft, and I'm the last pick in the draft. So I'm the lowest all-star. You used to do this in hockey, and you know what they did?

They'd give the last guy drafted a car. Hockey used to do this. They don't do it anymore because hockey changes their all-star rules every 15 minutes. But hockey used to do this. televised their draft. I'm cool with televising the draft. I just feel like just do the starters. You don't need to do the entire roster.

Good stuff. Joy, Taylor, with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News. Oh, somebody just told me this. There's a website. Yeah, there are all these websites where you can type and it just turns it upside down. Then you can just copy and paste it.

That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. There's also a lot of people on Twitter calling you Grandpa for not knowing that. Oh, Grandpa. Well, then I'm a grandma also because I didn't know that. I also, I'm just going to say it. I have, I have things to do. So, you know, looking up how to flip and turn my tweets upside down. No, I mean, I, you know, my wife and I, we stand all this tech stuff because we got kids.

And so the last thing I need is my kids are on these, like, social media sites, and I'm not prepared for it. And I got little crazy people in the house, you know, you know, creating businesses and getting into stuff I don't want them to get into. So I follow all this text. I'm on Instagram. No, the Facebook stuff. My son's on YouTube all day. Well, I'm giving you a pass on this because I have never seen this either. Who knew there were sites that flip your words upside down on Twitter?

I feel like it really drives the message home. Okay, I want to get into something before I bring in Chris Broussard, because I'm going to talk about something that I'm going to break and go to Chris Broussard because I got a lot of stuff with Chris. So Cam Newton plays tonight. And people think Colin you're very critical of Cam. But I want to ask you something. If you think of the quarterbacks,

I want you to think of the quarterbacks that I tend to favor a lot and the quarterbacks that I've been critical of. So here are the four quarterbacks. I think we would all agree that I've been very favorable with over the last a love fest. Brady, Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, and Breeze. Those are my guys. Those are my guys. Brady, Breeze, Andrew Luck, and Russell Wilson. Those are my guys.

Here's the guys I've been pretty critical of. Aaron Rogers, Cam Newton, Baker Mayfield, and James Winston. And what is it? Is it a short thing? Colin, what do you? No. I like low maintenance, boring in front of a mic, even keel, we not me, take blame, give credit guys.

Russell Wilson, Andrew Lerner, luck, Brady Breeze. What I don't like is overly dramatic, constantly Aaron Rogers, exasperated, passive aggressive shots in the offseason. They say I'm a wee guy, but a lot of times they're kind of me guys. And that brings me to Cam Newton tonight. I think Carolina can win the game. For years and years, I've been very, very tough on Cam Newton. And then he won the MVP. And everybody He said, you're wrong. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. You just watch the following season.

He'll go back to be in Cam. This year, though, is the most impressive Cam I've seen. I'm calling it his MVP season. It's the most valuable Cam I've ever seen. Even when he won the MVP, he was loud and quotable. He was flashy and not precise. Look at me. Anybody noticed this year?

He is now precise and accurate. Fewest interceptions of his career. He's not really quotable. He's more adult. He makes better decisions. People are always trying to figure out why you like this guy and why you hate that guy. Wilson, Brady Breeze, luck. Boring, adults.

Don't get the roller coaster ride emotionally. Rogers, exasperated. Cam, roller coaster, Baker Mayfield, grabbing junk. James Winston just grabbing all the wrong stuff folks it's always been about that and nothing more I like my presidents to be presidential not a huge fan of the guy in office

and I like my quarterbacks to be quarterbackial this is the best cam I've ever seen I'm ready to jump on board if this is the new cam because I'm getting all the size and all the leadership and all the toughness and all the mobility and all the arm straight, and I'm getting none of the roller coaster ride. I think it's a great game tonight. If you were a better, I'd take Carolina and the points.

MVC is better, in my opinion, than three years ago, the MVP. Chris Brouss are around the corner. I thought the Laker win last night said something, more than just a W in November in the NBA. B.A. And that's coming up. Folks, everybody knows untucket shirts. Because most people don't want to tuck in shirts. I don't tuck in shirts. I tried it about a year ago, and my son looked at me and said,

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Go to TrueCard.com, newer use. Creates Clarity. Save 3 grand off MSRP. That's not confusing. He's my friend, Chris Brousard. He's now got a radio show on Fox Sports Radio with the... Rob Parker every day called the odd couple, seven to ten Eastern radio is a blast. Is it not? I love it.

There's no restraints. You don't have the restraints of TV. Anything you can do in pajamas is good. Okay? And that's what radio is great about. So I want to start with something. Joey and I disagree. We don't disagree much, but we disagreed on this.

So the NBA All-Star game. So last year, they had two stars. LeBron and Steph chose the teams. But they didn't want to put it on the air. And I do think there was a little concern because Steph had to like, choose a bunch of his teammates and what happens if you choose Westbrook over Clay. Right, right.

So I get it. But my takeaway is, and Joy thinks it's like you shouldn't put All-Stars in a negative light. My takeaway is going to get all sorts of discussion for three days. So I think Adam Silver is like, hey, we're in a competition with the NFL to get eyeballs and ears. What do you make of it? Honestly, I think you're both right. For the fans and the viewers, it's tremendous. It's going to be drama central.

Like what if Kauai Leonard is the leading vote getter in the West or the East? And he doesn't pick LeBron James. He has the opportunity but doesn't pick LeBron. Now there's all types of speculation. See, he doesn't want to play with LeBron. He's not going to the Lakers. I mean, it will be crazy. But if you're a player, Joy's right.

If I'm an All-Star, I just wanted to be a great weekend. If I'm Kevin Love and I'm the worst All-Star, nobody says anything about it. I'm in the same class as LeBron and West. and Westbrook and Hardin and all these guys for the weekend. But now on television, I'm the last pick, you know. And LeBron said, who, you know, you want 24 best players in the world, it doesn't matter. What if LeBron or any top, definitively top five player? Let's say LeBron James is picked eighth.

I mean, I'm just saying, don't tell me he's not going to feel a certain way. But now, for us, it'll be great because we're like, okay, is LeBron going to go out and get 50 and be the MVP? Is there beef now with LeBron and whoever didn't pick him? Like, it'll be great for us. But Joy's right. It's going to add a lot of anxiety for the All-Stars. Okay, I just thought of something. Okay, you're an All-Star.

I mean, we're a couple of All-Stars. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, let's just play a game, just for fun. Let's say it's televised. You go first. You represent, because you're from Akron and I'm from Pacific. Northwest. Right. You get the first

pick. So a player? Yes. So you get, okay, so pick one. And let's just see who we'd pick. Let's just guess this out. So I can pick any player. Yeah. I'm going to pick Steph Curry. Okay. I'm going to pick LeBron. Durant. I'm going to pick

Janus. Now I'm like, you know what? Let's make it fun. I'm going to take Clay and see if the Warriors can beat the rest of the league. Okay, I'm going to take Kauai. We'll stop at starters. Okay. That's tough.

I'm trying to see who fit. James Harden. Apparently, you don't want any passing on your team. See, you're thinking. I'm going off the top of my head. I'm going to go Anthony Davis. You would probably wipe me out. That's right.

Keep going. I'm looking at my squad. I need a big. So you got Steph. Joe L.M.B. God, you're. I'm all shooters. Look, I got the shooters.

LeBron Janis, Kauai. You don't have any shooting. Time out. LeBron can hit a J. So can Kaui. Anthony Davis. Who else can hit? Who else do I got?

You got no threes. I'm wiping you out, actually. That's how I was last year. I'm not putting Westbrook on that thing. I'm not picking Westbrook. Take, uh, okay, you got Steph, Katie, Clay, James Hardin, Embedd. I got LeBron, Janice, Kauai, Anthony Davis.

I'm going to hit like 83s. Oh, you know who I'm going to take? Kyrie Irving. Okay. That's fun. That, that's similar how I was, like, You can tell me. But now we're not players.

Imagine we continue on with this. I think Joy's point. I like this. Joy's point's right. I think we should televise it. Joy just unplugs the TV after the starters. Yes, because there's really, there really is no need after the starters.

Look, again, I think for you, Kyle and myself, it's going to be fun. It is going to be fun. It is going to cost drama. It's going to add speculation. I just don't like it from the players perspective. You get this great honor of being an all star that's going to be on your resume for the rest of your career,

the rest of history. And then you've got to go, okay, great. Now I get to go sit there and there's a possibility on the last one pit. Look, I did this with Rob Parker and I talked about it last night on a radio show. And I said to Rob, I said, look, let's say we had, you know, Skip and Shannon get to pick who they want to be on TV with from all of the Fox Sports One people. Yeah.

And the first pick is Colin and the second picture is Chris Brousar and joy. And Rob, your pick nice. How do you going to feel about that? Like, you would feel a certain type way? I thought I was skips. You might not say anything publicly, but inside you're upset. I think Joe. Our relationships are, they're teaching.

I think nobody would be offended because, you know, you and I started doing, and I think that players would understand this. You and I started going, oh, I need a shooter. Oh, I need a big. So you weren't picking the best player. You were now picking a team. Because we already know who the starters are going to be anyway. So there is no movement there.

So I didn't tap the starters and then from that, don't tell by the rest of it. Is the rule because the starters are the same. But your team, you just pick among the 24, right? No, we already know who the starters are going to be. By the way, okay, so just I don't know why I'm having so much fun with this. So you have Steph, Katie, Clayhard and Embed. You're going to shoot the hell out of the ball. I got LeBron, Janus, Kauai, Anthony Davis, Irving.

Just for fun. Just one more bench guy. Who's your guy? Um, oh, da, da, da, da, da. You know, I could probably use a gritty defender. Okay. I'm going to go with Jimmy Butler. Okay.

No, Draymond. Dremont. I'm sorry. Dremont. Okay. So I need another shooter. So let's say you go Dremont. Who's the best available shooter?

So it's a prime example. I'm not taking the best player. I want the best shooter. Who's the, is Tatum going to be an all-star? John Wall can't shoot. Westbrook can't shoot. Tatum won't. I don't think.

I don't think. Gordon Hayward hit a three. Yeah. Hayward won't be an all-star. We got any shooters left in this league? You better go. Devin Bucer. Damian Lillard.

Oh, boom, boom, right there. Now I won the game. I just won the game. My sixth guy won me the game. You know this is how last year, Steph's team was the small shooters, if I remember correctly. And LeBron's word, like the team you have. Boy, I'll tell you what, I like my team. But this was so the fun.

The whole point of this exercise was after like Steph LeBron stuff, it really comes down to figuring out guys that work with each other. Yes. But if I'm Steph or Duran or whoever is the number one vocator in the West, do I feel the pressure to pick my teammates? Your team is outside. If I don't pick my teammates, right? No, that's a little, that's actually funny.

The Warriors are so smart. They're the only team that's going to have four. Yeah, Warriors are the team that has that thing, but they'd be so funny and smart about it, it would work. Yes, the final score of the All-Star game last year was 192 to 182. So let's just keep this all in perspective. I think LeBron's team. Oh, the West one.

Okay, I got to do a Laker question. I thought last night's win was symbolic. We have been waiting for the T-Wolves to engineer this puppy for four years. And last night, LeBron, who's been there now 11 games, Tyson Chandler, it's all the Lakers schedule now gets easy. The Lakers have gone through their tough stretch. I watched them last night and I'm like, I'm not saying they're the Warriors,

but the West is wide open, just to tell you how hard it is to engineer this stuff. By the way, rockets are a mess. Sixers don't look right. Cleveland's terrible. LeBron's looking pretty smart today. For going to the Lakers? Deep, long, young, hopeful, athletic.

Here's the thing. This is a fine move. Obviously, off the court, it was tremendous, right? For everything he's doing off the court, I know he could have done that. He could have done that in Cleveland, but it's better to do it in L.A. So that's great. Basketball-wise, this is fine, but LeBron James could have gone to any team. And I can pick several off the top of my head he could have went to that would be better than the Lakers are right now.

Oh, who? If he had gone to Philadelphia, they'd be better than the Lakers are. Simmons and M.B. do not like each other. Folt is a bust. See, here's the thing. I will give you this. The Lakers, if I'm Magic Johnson, I'm looking at my squad, I'm saying, I can be as good as anybody in the West outside of Golden State.

I agree with that. Yes. But LeBron could have, as far as winning a championship, they're not winning a championship in his four years unless they get that second superstar. Anthony Davis. If they get him, fine. But if you go to Philly, you already got him. You got your second star.

And I think LeBron would have helped Ben's development. Ben apparently didn't work on his jump shot anymore than he. I mean, he still has a shot of three. And now teams are defending him like he can't shoot. Yeah, and Fultz is a bust. He's done. They should be starting J.J. Redick. I don't even know why Fultz is still starting.

I mean, that whole process thing, I'm watching Rob and Magic Johnson, Rob Polenka. And we were all, one guy looks like Rob Lowe and the other guy is a basketball player. Every one of these draft picks can play. I'm not sure Long's O'Fitz. I'm not saying they're not, like I said, I think they could get to the Western Conference finals. I do too. I predicted 53 wins in LeBron's MVP. He doesn't look like he's going to be MVP, but they can have a great season. But my point is, and Cleveland, the Cleveland Cavaliers are Exhibit A. LeBron could go to just about any team in the league and make them a contender. This Lakers team still doesn't fit together.

I think they're third in the NBA in scoring. I don't think the fit is that lousy. Their defense is atrocious. Their shooting has been probably better than we expect. 44% on threes last night. He's going to help bring it together. You know, Rondo is smart. Tyson Chandler now is smart.

You know, so I'm just saying LeBron could have went anywhere. The herd. Hour two, this is. The herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, iHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me in three minutes, as good to listen as we have on this show. Greg CoSell, NFL films, 30 years, breaks it all down. Everybody gets smarter.

You know, I'm sitting there watching. LeBron wins last night. And this, you know, all we ever do, it's funny. The two things we always doubt in sports. Every year we fall for it. The Patriots in September and LeBron James before the trading deadline. And the Patriots have been to seven straight AFC championships, and LeBron's been to eight straight finals.

That's why when the Patriots were kind of chopping it up, I said, we got to hold on, hold on, we keep doubting these guys, hold on, and everybody's freaking out because LeBron was on a three-game losing streak with the Lakers, and I said, let's hold on. The two most consistent winners of my life, the Patriots in the NFL and LeBron and the NBA, and we doubt them every year.

And I think it's because in 2018, everybody's got their social media devices. We want the new stuff, and we convince ourselves the new stuff is going to last forever. Nope, the Beatles last forever. The Beatles haven't performed in 40, 50, years, they still sell albums. You still listen to their music.

In 50 years from now, and they haven't performed in over 50 years. 50 years from now, you'll put that on and people are like, oh, the Beatles, Beatles. Michael Jackson hasn't performed in years. 30 years from now, 50 years from now, Michael Jackson, you put on songs from Thriller, and you're like, oh, it's going to give you memories. It's going to give you memories. This holds up. Beatles holds up.

Michael Jackson is going to be great forever. That stuff holds up. I mean, the Eagles are the greatest selling rock band of all time. I went to four of their concerts. I mean, different decades. The Eagles, it holds up. You'll be watching them on YouTube 30 years from now. Some stuff just holds up.

But yet in 2018, we want the new thing. Oh, Zion Williamson for Duke is the next LeBron. He's 1 in 0 in college. college. Come on. He has no chance to be LeBron. You think Cardi B in 50 years from Zion Williamson? He's 1 in 0. He's not LeBron James. I mean, Cardi B. You think in 50 years, people are sitting around with Cardi B going, yeah, it's one of the great songs of all time. This is one of the greatest songs of all time. It's the longest running number one record by a solo female hip-hop artists.

A lot of qualifiers there. What do you mean? Sound like Craig Beggio Hall of Fameboats. He got hit by the most pitches in the second half of April. That song was nominated for two Grammys, by the way. Cardi B or the Beatles? You cannot compare Cardi B or the Beatles. Cardi B or Michael Jackson.

Let's just pull some random artists. Here's what I was saying to you yesterday at the end of the show. this is an unfair comparison. There's a very slim, and even though I personally would put Cardi in a different category, I'm speaking for the culture in that department. But there's a very slim line between very, very good and great. And there's very few people on the other side of that line. That's why we hold them in that regard. That's why we talk about Tom Brady incessantly and he can be relevant for that long. That's why Michael Jackson and Prince will last for all of time and why the Beatles are in that category. There's not that many people in that category. There's only one Michael Jackson of all time. Here's who we owe his doubt every year. Patriots in September, LeBron before the trading deadline. When you're the greatest, you have to come for the king. All right, let's go to Greg CoSell, NFL Meat Sandwich, 30-plus years NFL films.

Greg, you know, we were talking about Tom Brady. And, you know, I just don't buy into the, you know, the system quarterback thing. Although I do think if you put Drew Breeze, where Tom is, you know, I think he'd have a lot of success. When I got into a discussion the other day about Tom. And I asked Hugh Jackson about this off the air. I said, you faced Tom Brady many times. What does he do athletically that's special? And, you know, one of the things he said is, first of all, he's bigger than you think.

When you walk up to Tom Brady, he's all a six, four and a half, six, five. And he said the second thing is he throws a really good football. When you watch him on tape, if you didn't know it was Tom Brady, what jumps out to you? I'm not talking about leadership, but what jumps out to you physically? Well, I would echo what you Jackson said as the second thing. He throws a really good ball, and it sort of became gospel early in his career that he doesn't have a big arm, and a big arm is a relative thing. You know, his arm is not Matthew Stafford's arm, let's say, but he throws a really good ball, and you know that, too, just by common sense, by where he plays, and the fact that in November and December and January, his ball cuts through the wind. It does.

You know, so he throws a really good ball with a bigger arm and a better arm than people probably think. Yeah. But I would also say that what makes him really good, apart from the mental, which is very critical, but let's leave that aside for the moment, is I think his ability to work within the pocket and navigate the pocket is outstanding. You know, we're not talking about being able to run a fast 40 or run outside the pocket and throw on the run. I'm talking about the ability to work really effectively with, believe it or not, relatively light feet in an area, let's say, the size of or a little smaller than a boxing ring. Yeah, no, that's well. He slides very well. He's got an intuitive sense of pressure, which the great ones generally do have.

You know, I was watching the Packers this last week, and just an eye test. They don't do a lot of motion. They don't look as clever as the Rams. Don't look as sharp as the bears. You know, we've talked about Aaron Rogers, ad-libbing sometimes too much, holding the ball too much. When I watch the Packers, is some of this on McCarthy that they just, the eye test is, Aaron has to provide the special and the creative. I don't see a lot of creative out of their offense.

That's what my eyes tell me. Well, let me ask you this. You know, obviously they won a Super Bowl. And I can't remember everything they did six or seven years ago, as I'm sure you can either. But my guess is that Mike McCarthy, because he has a definite philosophy of how to play offensive football, hasn't changed dramatically. So if that's the case, then what is ultimately changed? I'm not sure exactly had to answer that. I think the Packers, over the last number of years, have not been very committed to running the football.

I think they were more so back a number of years ago when you think about those two or three years consecutively that Ryan Grant had, where I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I bet he had 230, 240 carries, and he was used essentially as a featureback. You know, I don't think they've been running that style of offense in recent years. Yeah. Speaking of the Bears, you know, John Fox was there with Trubisky, and now it's Matt Nagy. Are they doing things specific? Because right now I think the Bears are better than the Packers, and I know them in the minority.

Are they doing things offensively, which you believe are absolutely elevating Tribisi? They're averaging 13 more points a game. What is he doing to a quarterback I see with a very low ceiling? Well, I think, and the good offensive coaches do, present defined reads based on their route concepts versus anticipated coverages. That's essentially what the really good coordinators and head coaches do on the offensive side of the ball, because it's all about understanding the rules of the defense and breaking down the rules of the defense, particularly his own coverage.

And I think if you do that for a young quarterback, you present define reads and therefore define throws. And by NFL standards, you make it relatively easier. Yeah. Troy Eggman came out this week and used the word overhaul and dysfunction. Dysfunction, I think I see a lot of that with the Yankees and Manchester United and any major brand, New York sports teams. Wealth creates power struggles. And so there's probably some dysfunction with the biggest NFL brand. brand, second biggest brand in the world of Real Madrid, our Manchester United.

But as far as overhaul, I would disagree with Aikman. When I watch the Cowboys on television, I see a lot of things I like. I like their linebackers. I like their edge rushers. I like their left tackle. I mean, when you look at the Cowboys, personnel-wise, is it an overhaul situation? Well, now here's what I'm very anxious to see. They just traded for Amari Cooper.

This is an offense that predominantly runs what I call individual isolation routes, meaning they're asking their receivers, particularly against man coverage, to win and get open. Amari Cooper has always been a very good route runner. Now we'll see if he can elevate that style of offense. We can debate whether that's the best way to play offense. That's a philosophy by a coach. But now we'll see if he can elevate the offense because he can win versus man coverage.

He had a number of routes in that game on Monday night where he won versus man coverage. and now we'll get a better feel for Dak Prescott and where he is. But I will say this. It's very easy to say negative things about Prescott. And I don't think he's a top 10 quarterback by any means. But if you decide he's not your quarterback, Colin, and you know this, then you need a quarterback. You've got to line up with somebody. So it's very easy to take a mid-range quarterback in the NFL and say, oh, let's get rid of them.

But you still have to line up with someone. Yeah. The Chiefs are putting up historic numbers. you know, Andy Reid's had teams that are very good early and they kind of hit a wall later. Do you think they keep this up? Do you see teams on film figuring them out a little? Where does it go from here? Putting them out is hard because of the schematics and the combination of schematics and talent.

And I just want to give you one quick example of what I'm talking about. They just played this past week against the Browns. And Greg Williams plays a ton of cover two when he feels that he can't really match up. So he played a ton of cover two in the first half. And then he came out in the third quarter and immediately jumped to cover three. So the chiefs threw a ball for maybe four yards to DeMarcus Robinson. And the very next play, when Andy Reid saw that it was cover three, he called a play that specifically attacked cover three. And it went to Watkins for 23 yards.

See, and that's the impact of coaching. because he immediately saw the change in the defense, and he reacted with a play call that was a clear cover three beater. And that to me says so much about the coaching staff. Yeah. Well, I mean, let's face it, most of the hot quarterbacks in this league, whether it's Brady with McDaniel, Sean Peyton, and Breeze. Generally, a great play caller is needed more and more so than ever to make the thing click. You know, I'm watching the Chargers this weekend. to the second team in L.A.

And people think because I live in L.A. I'm always hyping up the Chargers. But I've been telling people this all year. I think, now, where the Rams are good, they're very good. But I'm not so sure the Chargers don't have a better roster. They're receiving Corps with Phillip Rivers. That back, I got to tell you, I watched them going to Seattle. That game was not as close as the score, Greg.

No. They thumped Seattle. And Pete Carroll's defense had been humming, and they tore them apart. What do you see on film from the Chargers? Well, the charges are a team offensively that definitely has every dimension you want in terms of the ability to throw it and then the ability to run it because they can attack vertically, they can attack horizontally, and they can run the ball. and they're a team that does attack vertical. Yes. Because they run a ton of seam routes.

They run a ton of deep crossers. They have big receivers. They're a difficult team to match up to. Compliments all that. You know, Gordon is an interesting back to me because I'm not sure, even though he did our last year, to some degree, I'm not sure you want to give him the ball 300 times. I agree. But I think that he can be very effective as a guy who, you know, carries, let's say, 220, 230.

He's a very good receiver. And they have Echlor, who's a very important piece of what they do. and Philip Rivers, to me, I don't know your feeling about Rivers, and I don't know whether he'll get into the Hall of Fame, but I think he's a Hall of Fame-type player. Oh, so do I. He and Carson Palmer are a Hall of Fame-type players, whether they get in or not.

That depends on the mood of the voter that day. How surprised are you, the Steelers host Carolina tonight, I want to talk about those two teams. How surprised are you? Now, I knew with DeCastro, I knew that the line was good, and I knew their backup James Connor would be fine, but his numbers are better than Lavian. Are you surprised by that?

No, not particularly coming off last year, because one thing about Bell last year, and Bell's a great back, that's not the point, but Bell last year was not a big playback in any way, shape, or form. If I'm not mistaken, he had three rushes of over 20 yards. He was very much of sort of a grinder, and because stylistically he doesn't look like a grinder, people don't think of him that way because he's fluid and the way he runs.

But Connor, and at the halfway point of this season, Connor leads to the NFL with eight rushes of more than 20 yards. I believe Bell had three all last year. So, again, we can debate the traits. That's a different conversation. But for the Steelers, they're getting the production out of the position, and that's what they care about. Yeah, and by the way, the non-star is actually the home run hitter,

and the star is the grinder. Right. Yeah, and we usually think you know the ace on a pitching staff, but right here the number four starter actually throws harder than the ace of the staff. Now, Cam Newton tonight, you know, you and I both had questions before the season. Is he going to be coachable? He's got a pile of money. He's got all the endorsements.

He's on every commercial. I got to tell you, this is the best Cam I have seen. McCaffrey has been terrific. He was nice as a rookie. Is it Cam? Is it McCaffrey? What's making this offense click? I think it's coaching, to be honest with you.

I think Norv Turner has really expanded his thought process, understanding the strengths and limitations at times of his quarterback, and understanding the pressure and stress that the quarterback as a runner puts on a defense and has really incorporated so many dimensions in the run game and backfield actions that make it so hard for defenses. For this team, when you see reverses or things of that nature column, those are not gimmicks for them. That's part of what they do. And they'll continue to do that. It puts tremendous stress. So what happens is when you force defensive players to be hesitant in their reactions, then it defines throws much more cleanly for the quarterback.

So Cam has a lot of throws in games where the receivers are open. And that takes nothing away from Cam. But it's really well-schemed and difficult to defend, very difficult to prepare for. Yeah, I was saying the other day they're like that college football team that, you know, like Navy, that comes in and runs a different offense than everybody on your schedule. Carolina's offense just looks different than everybody else. It's very clever. And if you've played two or three teams and vertical teams and you're running to them,

it's hard. In a playoff game, if you had a buy and you had two weeks, it's different. I think it's very hard to prepare for this team, especially on a short week. It's like Georgia Tech. Yes. Running for 465 against Louisville without a passing yard. It's a little bit of that, although we know Cam can throw. the way, when I think of Des Bryant,

I don't think a separation. I think of a big receiver who wins a one-on-one battle. Right. Now, that's what I think of him. When I think of Moss, and I think of a guy that's pulling away from people and is open, I think of Des is winning a battle. Well, Breeze is very accurate.

So I think Breeze and Bryant work. Your thoughts? Well, I would respond a little differently. I do think they work, and I think they work because I think the Saints are outstanding at scheming matchups. And I think at this point, career, Des needs to be schemed. I think one reason he wouldn't work in Dallas is what I said earlier when we spoke about the Cowboys is they rely very much on the receivers winning individual routes.

And I don't think Des is at that point in his career right now. I think he needs to be helped by the scheme and the design. And they do that exceptionally well. That happens a lot with Michael Thomas. They get him matched up, let's say, from the inside slot working against linebackers. You know, and I think that's where Des is. And I think that's why he can be a factor. Think about Marcus Colston in his prime where he literally lined up almost like a detached, tight end, you know, flexed, and he was working against linebackers and safety most of the time. Yeah, good stuff. All right, let's go to your play of the week, and I'm glad it involves one of my favorite players of all time in the NFL, Drew Brieze. Start the play.

You know, one of the things that's so important about the Saints is Alvin Kamara. Camara is such a good player, and he's so good in the receiving game, in the past game. So let's start the play. This was his touchdown, receiving touchdown, against the Rams last week. And it doesn't seem like much, but there's a lot to this. And the first thing to notice is where Kamara is. They line him up here a lot where he's offset to the boundary to the short side of the field with another receiver.

It could be a wide-out. Here, it's a tight end, Dan Arnold. Now, what the Rams do is they match up with their dime safety on Arnold, but they match up with a safety, not a linebacker on Kamara, which a lot of teams are not. now doing. They're matching a safety on Kamara, not a linebacker because it's just too hard with a linebacker. But this is a well-schemed play. This is scheme. What you do is you get the natural pick. This is legal. It's a natural pick or a natural rub. And Joyner gets stuck. He has to try to work through that. And all it takes is just half a beat, and he's late. So you see it right now? He's late.

They just throw the little option route out in the flat to Kamara, and that's a touchdown. And it's a very basic, simple stuff, but they do this really well with Kamara and a second receiver to the short side of the field. You'll see this in every game they play, this particular formation. You know what I've noticed today from all your stuff? The good teams scheme really well. Well, they do. To me, it's so, look, players matter.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you players don't matter, Colin, but I've always been a big believer in coaching. Yeah, I mean, the four top teams in college football, are Sabin, Dabo, Harbon, Brian Kelly, and all four of those programs that still had NFL guys before they were there were in the dumps. Like coaching, I don't know if it always matters in baseball. I'm not sure. I don't think it matters much with analytics in baseball.

I don't know in hockey, but I know in football, coaching in this segment has proven it is so valuable. Greg Kossel, 30-plus years, NFL films. Good talking to you. All right, Colin, thank you. Coming up next, we should be ashamed of ourselves. in sports. I'll explain next. If there's one thing

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as Cam Newton, Christian McCaffrey, and the Panthers, battle Big Ben, Antonio Brown, and the Steelers. It all starts at 730 Eastern on Fox, NFL Network, and streaming on Prime Video. I cannot wait for that game. I'm sitting. I went out last night with my wife. Pate. Tonight, I'm going to have patte.

I'm going to sit home and eat and do nothing. I'm going to watch football for three and a half hours. Steelers. Yeah. Last night was Craig. I was listening to Cardi B and partying all night last night. Tonight, I'm going to listen to Hey, June, the Beatles. I cannot.

I cannot vouch for anything you're doing right now. I did not. I was not consulted on this rant. I'm going to listen to the Beatles, the Eagles, and watch. And have some patte. and have NFL football. It's a very relevant pat-day. By the way, the Cleveland Cavaliers, I mean, it's amazing.

When I think of the Cleveland Cavaliers, I mean, last four years finals, formidable, powerful, amazing. Tristan Thompson said coming into the year were four-time Eastern Conference champs until they take us down. Teams don't have much to say. They dominate the Eastern Conference. They were formidable winners, powerful. So let's check in on the Cavs this year.

Same roster, just one guy left. And, in fact, they got a new draft pick, very talented player from college basketball. Let's check in with these winners. Yeah. One in 10. Worst team in the league. Lost of the Thunder without Westbrook. That's like going to the Grand Canyon with a blindfold.

What's the point? You can't beat the Thunder without Westbrook. Point differential, worst in the NBA. Everything's worst in the NBA. One guy left. I want to remind you, if Steph Curry or Durant left the Warriors, they would still be good enough to win a title. Kauai Leonard left the Spurs, they made the playoffs. Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City.

55 wins to 47 still a playoff team. Gordon Hayward, a very good player, an All-Star out west, left Utah. They were still a five-seat. Kyrie Irving left the calves. They made the finals. Kyrie Irving got hurt with the Celtics. They went to game seven of the Eastern Conference finals. LeBron James left the Cavs.

They went from four straight finals, same roster, added a draft pick. They are a completely uncompetitive NBA team. Here's the last five winners. NBA writers, you should be ashamed of yourself. Here's the last five MVP's. Harden Westbrook Curry twice to rant. In some years, LeBron wasn't even second. Want me to just show that CAV video again?

Yeah. His team was in four straight finals and added a draft pick. Well, Kevin Love's hurt. He was hurt the last four years. Kyrie Irving left finals. Kevin Love Hurd finals. MJ left the Bulls. 57 wins to 55.

Brady. Deflate Gate. They were three and one without him. Unbelievable. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, so the Jags' 2018 season can officially be summed up in a 16-second bite from Doug Maroon's press conference yesterday.

Let's watch this bizarre moment. And as soon as to me, I guess I also talk to him about that. But then I just wanted to make sure you're on, right? So he did say he's out? Yeah. He did say that. Okay. We'll take care of that.

that's not been told by me by the trainer. So that's the truth. That is him having no idea that AJ Boyer will not be playing in next week's game because of an injury, which is a big deal because he is tied for the team lead with five past breakups and one interception. He's good, yeah. He said he's not going to, he's not going to be there for the next game. And Doug Marone just didn't even know anything about it. He also led the Jackson with 18 pass breakups and six interceptions last.

season pro bowler. They did get some good news yesterday, though. Leonard Furnett practiced fully for the first time since he aggravated his right hamstring in week four. He didn't say, Marone didn't say whether Fournette will be playing against Indy, but I mean, look, I never bought into the Jags, not for one second. So this isn't a shock to me. It's not saying that they're dysfunctional or falling apart or anything, but just like,

the Jags. Like, this is not surprised me in any way. No, no. This was the easy one. Yes. I missed on predictions. This was an easy one. Exactly.

All right. So the Saints officially signed Des Bryant this morning, giving them a much-needed offensive weapon, even though they are rolling. They were pretty light at receiver. But that's not their weakest position right now, since the entire starting offensive line was listed on the injury report. Yes. And it didn't appear in the portion of practice open to the media.

So right guard, Larry Warford, was the only one to miss the entire practice, but his absence was not injury-related. The other four were listed, including left tackle, Teran Armstead, with a knee injury. Senator Max Unger has knee injury, right tackle. Ryan Ramcheck with a knee, and left guard, Andrews Pete, has a hip injury. By the way, this is called a cluster injury in the NFL.

It generally equals a bad Sunday. When you lose multiple players at one position, this is a problem in the NFL. This isn't even a position. This is a unit. It's the whole line. You did predict, though, that this is a sneaky week for the same. I'm not going to say it's in my Blazing Five, but it is.

It is. I like the Bengals this week. All right. So finally, the Cowboys have a very important game in Philly this week. There's already been some trash chalk laid down by Jason Kelsey calling the Cowboys fans. I cannot wait for this beatdown. You say you don't predict beatdowns usually. I am.

I think Philadelphia is going to smoke them. Well, for the Cowboys' sakes, they hope that that doesn't happen. They are a game behind the Eagles and two games behind Washington in the NFC East. and they've lost two in a row. So Ezekiel Elliott understands there needs to be a little bit of a sense of urgency. 100%. Yeah, it's a must-win. I mean, we got, well, one, being a division game, you know,

that makes it that much more important. We definitely talked about, you know, kind of just having that mentality, you know, us versus the world. You know, we got to go out there and win as many ball games we can, you know, to give ourselves an opportunity to get in the playoffs. We got to get this run game going, point-blank, period. I mean, we got to get it. going, and so,

we got to figure out how we're going to do that. So they're three and five right now, right? Lose in Philly, they're three and six, they're done. This is it. This is the season, and they're going to lose. This is it. This is it for Dallas. And by the way, seven days ago,

Jerry's telling you Dak long-term extension, like, this is the season. It's really not Cowboys Against the World. It's Cowboys against themselves. Zek had 61 yards and 17 carries in the loss of Texas. And Philadelphia's defensive front is all dudes. Fletcher Cox is healthy. Bennett's over there.

They're getting healthy as a team offensively. Watch out, baby. I just don't know what happens with the Cowboys. I mean, other than obviously, their season being done. Like, what do you do? And they're, you know, and they're boring. It's like, you know, I know we have to put them on TV because they're the Cowboys and they get huge ratings, but they're not a great watch this year.

Thank you for saying that, Colin, because that's how I feel. And I feel, and I feel it's not really sad enough this year, they are boring. They're a boring team. They're Tennessee in Texas. And sometimes when the Cowboys are losing, they're still the most interesting team. Yes. But this year, nobody knows what to do. It was a fascinating meltdown.

Tony Romo was fascinating to watch. And this really should be a fascinating meltdown. And it's just not. It's not. I mean, Tony Romo was the best watch in the league with Aaron Rogers for about a six-year period. This team is just, they remind me the Titans. When they win, it's ugly, and when they lose, it's uglier. Right.

Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping. The herd lie news. Former NFL linemen for the Lions, Panthers, Chiefs, Jeff Schwartz is a great guest full of information, super smart dude.

Carolina, he knows all about Carolina lives there. I think they give the Steelers all sorts of fits tonight. That's coming up. 66% of men lose their hair by the age of 35 years old. You know what? Easier to stop it when you see it before it happens. That's where

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paid for the car you want truecar.com, new or used. Let's bring him in. He's got a book out called Eat My Schwartz, eight NFL seasons. Jeff Schwartz, former NFL linemen, Vikings, Chiefs, Giants, Panthers. By the way, this whole Aaron Rogers thing, I'm always proud, like I was on the Westbrook thing like three years ago. I'm like, this guy's impossible to play with. And everybody's like, that guy's impossible to play with.

I was on the Aaron Rogers thing three years ago. I said, I don't like his body language. He's overly exasperated. but I don't like the McCarthy offense either. Didn't you play? Yes. When you were in New York, same offense.

It's the same offense. So should we blame Aaron or McCarthy? What's the problem here? McCarthy. So the problem with this offense is they tell their wide receivers you get open. They're very stack in formations. They don't motion very much. They don't stack formations.

Never. Very little motion. So they say wide receivers, you get open. And that's why Rogers takes so long at times to throw the ball because they're not open. And so we see these offenses now, right? Reed, McVeigh, Shanahan, where they use formations, they use personnel groupings

to get guys open that are wide open. I think he's just frustrated that that's not his offense. And so I think that they are at a point now where they need to just kind of like break up. Let's be done with it. And this year might facilitate that they don't win enough games. I think he's just upset that no one's ever open. How about this? You talk to

players more than I would. I talk to some players. You talked to a lot of players. I said this three years ago. I had a good source on this. McCarthy and Rogers are not tight. Like it's a frosty relationship. It seems that way, yeah. Just the way they, their body language. It's bad. It is. It's very bad.

And we hear players that come out and talk negatively about Rogers as well and kind of his leadership style. But I think that there needs and look, they keep trading away the players that he likes. They get where the quarterback coach he likes. I mean, those feel like direct shots at Aaron Rogers because otherwise, you know,

you think Belichick is not at least talking to Tom Brady a little bit like, hey, do we need to bring this guy into doing you do this. They're just getting rid of the guys that Roger's Lutz. They signed Gromk to a huge contract. He's never healthy. Correct. You know, Belichick didn't want to sign him to that deal. Correct. And so that's Josh Gordon. Like, they do all these things. And instead,

the Packers seem to be getting rid of everyone, they got rid of, you know, they didn't re-sign T.J. Lange. They traded Josh Sin. Like, they've gone rid of the offensive linemen that were good there that he liked. And so I think that this shows you that McCarthy's doing his own thing without even consulting his franchise quarterback. Des Bryant to the Saints. I didn't think Josh Gordon to the Patriots would work.

And it looks good. Yeah. I think the Saints sat there after beating the Rams, watched that on TV and went, why not? I can see some of that too, but I think this is the perfect timing for this. We heard Sean Lee kind of bashed as Brian. Yeah. If you watched that all or nothing, too,

wasn't very impressive with Des in the meeting room and kind of just being a headcase. But right now you bring him into a situation with a veteran head coach, veteran quarterback, a great offense. You won't ask him to do very much. and he wants to win because if he wins this year, it will rehabilitate his image. Money. And someone will sign him next year, one-year contract. So I think it's a great situation.

In 2018, you can never have enough offensive weapons, can you? And you just ask him, hey, Des, we want you to catch three balls a game. And third and eight, we want a big wide receiver, just get open. We'll throw you the ball. I think it's a great spot for him. Jeff Schwartz joining us eight years in the NFL. I've leaned on you before on Twitter. Personnel-wise.

Troy Aikman said the Cowboys are dysfunctional. I agree. overhaul. I don't agree. I watch the Cowboys and see a lot of talent. I think Amari Cooper is really talented. When you look at the Cowboys talent, what do you see? They need a new offensive mind in there. I actually wrote about it this week

because I think that they're wasting DAC's talents, Zeeks' talents. You can't, you can't even evaluate DAC in my mind in this offense. It's so bland, it's so boring. You only give Zeech six touches in the second half. He's your most explosive offensive player. But I looked at play action passing numbers. We know play action pass for young quarterbacks

is great. Yeah, you fake the run. The linebackers have to hold. You have a gap. Linebackers to secondary. Huge windows to throw into. And they're easy reads. They're often just one wide receiver, two wide receivers. You read half of the field. You're never going back. It's easy to read, right? You read a safety. You read a linebacker. So 2016, he hit 105, 107, play action passups, fifth and fifth in NFL.

Last year, he was 11th in the NFL. This year is 25th in the NFL. And there actually is no correlation between running the football well and being successful in play action pass. It helps. but they're just not running plays that are good for Dak Prescott. You come out of a buy. You have Amari Cooper. We didn't see new formations. We didn't see new concepts.

We didn't see guys wide open. You would think that they would come up with new things in the biweek. So it shows me that they're not being creative enough. And so you bring a new offensive mind. They have a decent enough offense line, obviously. Hopefully Frederick's back. That's a big loss from the center. Huge loss.

Hopefully he's back and you have Zeke and you have Amari. You have talent there. Like give Dak a chance to be successful. You know, it's interesting with the Steelers. Greg Kosell was on earlier. It's fascinating. He said, Lavian Bell may be a star, but the numbers tell you he's a grinder. He only had three runs over 20.

James Conner's the grinder, but leads the NFL and runs over 20. As an offensive lineman, Lavian Bell's very unique. He's very patient. What's going on where James Connor appears to be the better back than Lavian Bell? as an offensive lineman. Yeah. Explain this to me. It is kind of surprising because the scheme the Steelers run,

they use their big bodies and kind of push guys forward. And that's what good for Leveon Bell. He hides behind those big guys, and boom, he can run forward. James Conner's a one-cut guy and go. I think he's just, teams are used to playing the Steelers one way, and now you have James Connor, who's much more explosive kind of off-the-first step.

He's the off-speed guy. Yes. And he's just been, I would not play Levyon-Bel very much if he came back. I'd dress him. You can't waste that talent, but you can't start him. You have to put him in the slot. You have to put him in some sort of two backs, some funky formations, have some fun with him on the field.

But James Conner is running the ball too well right now. I think it's very important to go back to week one. The offense and linemen knew James Connor was good. They said he was going to be good. And now they're used to block you for him. And we talked about his running style to one cut. So guys got to give to lineback a little bit sooner. To explain to the audience what one cut means.

Yeah. So when you're a running back, you can be patient like Bellis, where you kind of hide behind the line of scrimbers and then go. One cut is you get the ball. is you get the ball, you make a decision, and you're gone. And that's how a lot of zone runners are. They're one cut and gone. Adrian Peterson, for example, is more like Levi-on-Bel.

He kind of waits a little bit. He kind of jumps and all go to the little place. James Conner gets the ball, and he is gone. And so they got used to blocking like that. I think it would be different, and it would hamper their office to bring Bell in now and have to change the blocking team a little bit. I said earlier, this is the best I've ever seen Cam. Yes.

And he won't win MVP. Correct. I call him NBC. It's the most valuable Cam I've ever seen. You live in Carolina. You've been critical of him. I haven't watched every snap this year. What do you make of his growth?

Yeah, I wrote a couple weeks ago that I kind of was wrong about him this year. He's completing 7% more than he normally does. He's complete about 67%. Your career 59%. You're right about he's not the MVP. Look at his numbers. In his division, he wouldn't be. They're great for Cam.

But he's like 15th in passing rating, 15th in yards. He's got a lot of touchdowns. He's really limited turnover. It's only four, I believe, in receptions. And they have some slow spurts. but when he's playing like this, they're almost unstoppable, because he can still run the football really well. You have McCaffrey in there,

and their offense is fun to watch. Last week, they ran an end-around, a reverse, a fake reverse screen, and a double reverse for a touchdown. Like, they're just doing things to screw with defenses because they have all these personnel. And they're asking Cam, I think he threw the ball 21 times, 23 times. Yeah. 17 of 22. Just like throw the ball.

When we need you two, don't win us the game. You can win it, obviously, in the course of our offense. but they're not asking to do very much because everything else is working well. By the way, is McCaffrey, the best player in the league nobody discusses? It's good question. I can throw some offense alignment in there too, but I think the normal people. He's a great receiving weapon. One thing that I never understood about when he was drafted, the talk of he camping every down back.

You live out here. You saw him at Stanford. He ran between the tackles all the time. That's what they did. I never understood this. I was in Charlotte. I'm saying, guys, he can be in every, give him the ball 20 to 25 times. You know what's funny?

I'm doing it. Leonard Fernette, the big strong guy. Hurt. Always. Yeah. McCaffrey, the tiny guy who we were worried. Yes. Is an every down banger. Yes. It's incredible.

Fournette was the freight train. He's always hurt. Yes. And I think what you saw last year with McCaffrey, he fumbled early in the year. And I think that got him to be a little bit less aggressive in the hole. He would run through the hole and kind of make sure you're not fumble. And now he's coming through that hole. He is really good.

And give credit that off. They're down two tackles and their left guard went to Jacksonville. They inserted undrafted free agent in the left guard. And their offensive lines played really well. By the way, you know, you played with the Giants and the Chiefs and the Vikings and the Panthers. You know, we talk about, you know, the Cowboys didn't come in with new creative plays. Of all the coaches you had, was there a coach that would come in on Tuesdays and go, guys, we've got three new plays? So I was never in those meetings.

Yeah. Because offensive alignment are not part of like those personal meetings. You're not invited to those. But I will say, I mean, Andy Reid, out of all the coaches I played with, I mean, I mean, the stuff they do in Kansas City, my brother plays tackle for the Chiefs. I mean, like, the great part about what they do there is I think people think it's, and not to diminish the offense, that it's overly complicated and so much is happening. Where that is, it's formationally and personnel-wise.

Yeah, Andy's formations are different. They just look different on TV. Like, when you, there are plays when you pause the ball when Mahomes is throwing, they look exactly the same as other plays, but they're run with Kelsey over. over here. Now Kelsey's over here. Now Hulls over here. Now Anthony Sherman, the fullback is at wing. And now, you know, now Hunts over. It's, it's so personal diverse that it looks just so much fun to play. Plus, Mahomes is amazing. I mean, I didn't think he would be mentally as sharp as he was. I think week 17 last year. My brother told me, like, I didn't think he would play mentally that

well, week 17. No, no. Pre-snap, he's been like a veteran. It's unbelievable. And he'll look to the left and then all of a sudden, throw the ball. He'll look left and then just turn right and throw the ball. He knows before the snap, I'm going over here. Jeff Schwartz. Eat my Schwartz. Good book. Our three, here we go. Live.

This is the herd. Good stuff today. Greg Co-Sell. Jeff Schwartz. Chris Broussard. We drafted NBA All-Star teams. That was fun. I like getting involved.

I've always loved the NFL draft. I love drafts. Huge game tonight. I would not include it in my blazing five. I just think it's too. really good teams. Pittsburgh. I picked them to win the AFC North, and I picked them to get to the Super Bowl, and they are playing really well right now. Their pass rush is money.

Levian Bell is unnecessary. So the Steelers were my pick for the Super Bowl, and they're playing great. They buttoned up that defense on the back end. They still not great attention to detail, but I like Pittsburgh. Carolina's a very good football team. I've always liked their front seven. Cam's playing, along with McAfrey. very efficient football, no turnovers, and they're always sneaky good at home. Now they're on the road, cold weather in Pittsburgh.

I'd probably lean Steelers tonight. Also, coming up in 15 minutes, one of my favorite NBA guys, Jason the Jet Terry. It's a great, great guy. He'll be joining us. But it is time to admit this. I know it's hard for a lot of you. It's time to admit that LeBron made the... the right decision coming to L.A.

The young players hitting threes last night, Tyson Chandler introduced key down the stretch. Lakers have yet to whiff on a draft pick with Magic and Rob Polinka. They've actually just got gem after gem after gem. Rondo's played well. Javelle McGee has been fantastic. Tyson Chandler came yesterday. LeBron made the right choice. He chose the right brand.

He chose the right GM. He chose the right star, Magic. He made the right decision. Isn't it ironic that when you think about LeBron's lowest point, two words pop up, the decision, but it's ironic he always makes the right decision. Think about the teams this offseason that were interested in LeBron. The Houston Rockets wanted LeBron. But LeBron knew it wasn't right.

Hardin can be at times hard to play with. He plays no defense. Trevor Areza was leaving town. Chris Paul, last five years, has gotten hurt. And so LeBron, yes, I'm very interested in the Rockets, passed their Owen Fort home. Rockets are a mess. The Philadelphia Sixers. LeBron did not want to offend Ben Simmons and Joel Ambide, so he feigned interest in the Sixers.

But LeBron knew that Markell Fultz was a bust. He is. He knew that Simmons and Embed do not. get along. They don't. By the way, Cleveland tried to keep LeBron, and he publicly said all the right stuff. But they're now the worst team in the

NBA at 1 in 10, and it's not even close. Cleveland was an old, pessimistic, hopeless future. The Lakers are deep, a combination of veterans and young guys and LeBron. They are now

playing well. Third win in four. The schedule gets incredibly easy over the next two and a half weeks. Orlando a couple of times, Sacramento, home with Portland, Cleveland, Atlanta, Miami. Oh, they're through their rough stretch of the schedule. They're through San Antonio. They're through all those road games. Portland twice on the road.

Now they come to L.A. Lakers are top three in scoring. top three in field goal percentage. The Staples Center is sold out. The atmosphere is fantastic, and the calves are a mess. Even when LeBron early in his career was in Cleveland for seven years, and you banged on him for the decision, he made the right decision. He left Cleveland was the worst team in the league.

And then he won some titles in Miami, and when he left Miami, you're like, whoa, what are you doing? He knew that D. Wade was falling apart physically. He knew Chris Bosch was falling apart physically. he knew Chris Bosch was falling apart physically, and what's Miami been since? And he left Cleveland, and they're once again the worst team in operation in the league. And the Lakers are one piece away. He chose Magic. He chose Polinka.

He chose this young roster. And I'm watching them last night. They're not a great team. They need one more great piece, but they'll get it, Anthony Davis, perhaps. They'll get it. but we always bang on LeBron because of the decision. He's the old corporate CEO with a lot of money and he chose the right startup. He's just doing it a different way now.

He used to be ball-centric. He's not as ball-centric now. He's had to watch players develop. He never liked young guys. He chose a team with four or five young guys. So it's going to take a little while. It's going to take a few steps. But they brought in Tyson Chandler.

high IQ veteran made huge plays last night, another clever move by Magic Polinka and LeBron, and they all had us saying it. Here was LeBron after the win. When you add a veteran like that who's experienced a lot, they are able to pick up on things very fast. And, you know, for us to be able to get Tyson and to have that one-two punch with Javelle and Tyson,

those guys create extra opportunities for us. The way D. Rose was shooting the ball towards the end, we needed every last one of those offensive rebounds. It allowed us to win the game. Let's shift to the NFL. Yesterday at the beginning of our show, a story broke. The New Orleans Saints had acquired high-maintenance Des Bryant. Ooh, wow.

You know, in football, NFL, we always talk about culture. The Patriots have the right culture. You want to build the right culture. Cleveland's got a bad culture. and the lions have a bad culture, but they like the Rams are building the new fun culture. Culture is a big thing. You know what the new culture in the NFL for good teams is?

The go-for-it culture. Des Bryant High Maintenance. Saints are this close to winning it all. Go for it. Josh Gordon's got an ugly resume. Patriots this close. Rams look really good. Let's bring in headcase Dante Fowler.

Eagles, we got to get this right. Michael Bennett, outspoken, can be high maintenance. Drew Brees talked about Dese yesterday. It is officially in New Orleans and L.A. and New England, the go-for-it culture. He likes Des. I've heard a lot of great things about him. I think he'll add a good element to already a pretty good cast of skill players. Des has been a really good player in this league for a long time,

and there is certainly a skill set that he has that is going to be beneficial. And so I look forward to getting to work with him. I look forward to building a rapport with him. I think he'll be a great addition. Okay, we talk about, look at the pattern in the NFL, really good teams making a change, kind of a risky change. There are nine teams now. I think Carolina moved into our Super Bowl bubble, nine teams that,

can win it. Well, what do you know? What do they all have in common? Houston Texans in the bubble brought in a new wide receiver. New England in the bubble brought in Josh Gordon. Pittsburgh in the bubble. Lavian Bell. Saints in the bubble. Des Bryant. Carolina in the bubble, like their team last year, brought in Norv Turner. Kansas City, by the way, tried to trade for Earl Thomas broke his leg, or they would have added a safety. Philadelphia. Michael Bennett in the offseason and now wide receiver Golden Tate. Rams Dante Fowler in the offseason troubled Marcus Peters and Dominican Zoo. Like you're seeing it now, you start looking.

By the way, the chargers thought they were close. Pouncy, center. Like you see the teams in the bubble. We always talk about culture and football. The new culture is the go-for-it culture. Is that if you're inches away, these windows like the Seattle Seahawks, they close. in like two months. You think you're there and you're not there.

And there's only nine teams left to me that can win the Super Bowl. Golden Tate to Philly, Des Bryant, Josh Gordon, isn't it interesting that some of the high-maintenance guys, major risk guys, play huge roles down the stretch of the national football league? Coming up next, we fear them. They're the richest. They're the most powerful. and yet in American sports today, nobody is worse, nobody is as close to being this bad,

and I'll explain that coming up. Plus, Jason the Jet Terry. Great listen. Great guy coming up next. Want more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHard Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

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Use his directed of Vick-Synex nasal spray. I saw this story. The Jets quarterback Sam Darnold is going to miss the Buffalo game. That game will be unwatchable this weekend. It's not just that Donald's a rookie. he's, you know, struggling. They have no talent. They have no offensive talent, which is unthinkable in 2018.

It'd be like being 2018 in the NBA and having no shooters. You know, I mean, it's like, it's their roster's all defensive players. The Jets have a terrible O line. They're off-let tackle. They have a young tight end. I like bad backs, non-trustible receivers, Darnold's out. It's a mess. But I said this a couple years ago, New York, for all the money,

and the glamour and the power. They have the worst owners and the worst GMs in sports. They're a complete grease fire. Even though one college basketball team, St. John's a mess. Everything's a mess. They're like Cleveland. They have a pretty good baseball team. They're Cleveland with better tourism and more money.

They're a mess. Just think about this. Most of the big glamorous cities in America, think about all the great things going on in sports. Look at Boston right now. The faces, if I said to you, what are the faces of Boston sports? You'd have Brady and Belichick and Kyrie Irving and Brad Stevens. There's Mookie Betts of the Red Sox.

You'd be like, wow, that's unbelievable. If I said, what are the faces of the Bay Area, San Francisco Sports? I got Kyle Shanahan, Jimmy G, I got KD, I got Steph, there's Buster Posey. I got nothing but players. If I said, what are the faces of Houston sports right now? I got J.J. Watt, Deshawn, Watson, Jose Al Tuve, a James Hardin, Chris Paul. Man, I want to go to a game tonight. If you're talking about Los Angeles sports right now,

the faces of Los Angeles sports, I got Sean McVeigh and Todd Gurley and LeBron and Clayton and Phillip. Man, who cares how much tickets cost? Oh, it's a great player. You want to know the face of New York sports right now? Here's the face of New York sports. That's it. Eli Manning just got sacked.

What a disaster. New York Sports is right now. that, one of my favorite guys. Almost two decades in the NBA, 19 NBA seasons. Anytime he wants to be a broadcaster, he can be. He's from my hometown, Pacific Northwest. Jason, the Jet,

Terry, on the show today. Hello, George. How are you doing? Look at that. A title, Arizona, national title. Not a lot of guys have done that, by the way. Not a lot of guys have done that. Not a lot.

Put that mic right up there. How are you doing? I'm doing Will. It's great to have you here. Thanks for having me. You know, Northwest guys got to stick together. No doubt. We got to stick together.

So he did a game. So Joy and I disagree. We don't disagree in a lot. But we disagreed on something today. So the NBA last year didn't televise selecting the All-Star game. Because they didn't want to embarrass players. Steph had to choose like four warriors.

And I'm like, televised the thing. It'd be great. We're going to be so much fun. We want to see the process. I want to see the process. I'm not a guy that always wants to see the process, but they're all great. Yeah, no doubt.

Okay, so I'm going to play a game. I play this with Broussard. All right. So because, and Joy's theory is actually really good. Joy says, listen, if you're going to televise it, televised the starting fives. Just don't show the reserves. Because in the starting fives, they're all zillionaires. They won't get their feelings to her, right?

You're right. You get down to the-ego comes in. You start getting down to like the 22nd pick. Right. Well, I just think it's an honor to be an all-state. star. And you know, you find out you're going to be an all star. That's a cool thing. It goes on your resume. You know, when you retire, people are going to introduce you as an NBA All-Star. You know, if you've never won a championship. Like, it's something that matters in

your career to make it to the All-Star game. And then you get the anxiety of, are you going to be the last pick in the All-Star draft? Yeah, I mean, it's the same feeling if you were at like 24-hour fitness. And they're like, okay, yeah, I got you. Yeah, I got you. And then the last little dude with the goggles, the high socks and knee-pads. And the whole world is watching. and then they get to feel that. Yeah. Okay, let's play a game.

Let's do it. Whole NBA, Jet, you and me. You go first. You pick a play. Now, this is televised. I'm first. I'll let you go for it. You're the guest in the house.

You go first. You get Easter Western Conference. Can we have some music for this? That is a lot of pressure. Put a Cardi B song on since Joy loves her so much. I do love Cardi B. Okay, here we go. Number one.

Number one. Who you got? James Hardin, because I know he's watching. somebody said oh i'm going to go lebron you're going lebron yeah i go janis antacumpa so you give me kd but i'll take step okay all right hold on hold on hold on slow down a little bit um i'm going to go anthony davis oh i knew you were going to do that okay i'm going westbrook you're going to have westbrook and step in the same back court he's never going to pick westbrook ever

I could just stop picking players. I've ever, I won the thing. All right, hold on. You got Hardin Yonis, Steph Westbrook. I got LeBron KD., Anthony Davis. Now, I'm going to make a... I actually love Clay, but I don't want you to take Kauai who could guard my guy. So I'm going to take Kauai Leonard.

I see what you did there. I was definitely going Kauai next. But I'm going to go young. I'm going Juel N.B. Okay. You got a lot of ego on. your team. A lot. I love it. Okay, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go again.

I need a shooter. I'm going to go Kyrie Irving. Now we get one bench player. Okay, so let's look at our starting five right now. Let's look at it. So you got Harden your back court. Has only one ball. He's the MVP. You got Harden, Yonis, Steph, Westbrook, and Embed I got LeBron, Durant, Anthony Davis, Kauai, and

Kyrie, one bench player. Now, what do you need right now? You need a passer. What do you need? All my guys average 10 assists a game. Yeah. All three of them. Okay, who you got? Off the bench. One bench guy.

Off the bench. One guy. Oh, tough. Tough. Tomar de Rosen. Oh, I just whiffed. I whiffed right there. I liked De Rosen. I would have went Lillard.

I knew you were going to go with Lillard. You know what? Rose City represented. So I took Lillard on both my teams. First got the bench. There you go. So your team's got a lot of stuff. Oh, we got a lot.

lot. You get a lot of guards. I love it. I think I'd beat you on that one. Well, we'll see. I don't know. I like how we match up. I mean, you don't have anybody for Embed, obviously.

It's tough on you. I got LeBron and Durant. But then your guard play, I mean, I got three of the most dynamic guards in the game. It is a guards game. Here's what's funny about it, Jett. So the game is built for guys like you now. Yep. Go back to your first year in the league.

Oh. Now tell people that don't remember this. There's people watching our game right now. Oh, my God. James Hardin maybe doesn't remember this. Go back to 1999, your first year in the league. Tell people what the league was like. Hand checking, one.

So if you're a guard and you're built like me 180 pounds, you could not physically get the ball across half court and below the free throw line. So actually, I should have been out casting threes back then because physically I was not able. I mean, they could really restrict you your movement and really hold you down physically. So you couldn't move. Isolation game. You had to keep everybody on one side of the floor, and you can just get isolated on one side.

And if you did, they would call it illegal defense. So that, to me, it was very tough. I mean, you had guys like Allen Iverson. You had guys like Kobe who could just back you down and just take his time. And if you came to double, you had to really double, if not root technical. So that was definitely a nuance that was very, difficult. Then on every single team, you had to have at least two

seven footers. Why? Because of guys like Shaq, Alonzo Morning, these big mammoths of men that no one could guard. You needed all the fouls you possibly can have. You need 12 foul. Yeah, you need 12. 18 at some teams. Now the game is spacing. Yeah.

Cardio. What? Shooting. Shoot it. You can't hand check. In fact, I've argued this. I think I would bring back you know, like one of the things I love about sports is rule changes. And I think, like, in baseball, I'd get rid of the defensive shift. I think it hurts Bryce Harper.

I want Bryce Harper on the base as much as I can. Good looking guy. See his face. I want to see the stars on the bases, not lining the right field in the second baseman's there. I would bring back the hand check. Here's why. It's counterintuitive.

People think the hand check is physical. What the hand check would do is keep guards, little guys, out of the lane, fewer injuries. Westbrook's hurt. John Wall's hurt. Why? Because when you're an elite shooter. Elite athlete guards who are not great shooters, Wall and Westbrook have to drive to the trees to score.

Knock down hurt. Yes. I think the hand check would keep guards healthier or longer. Like quarterbacks in the NFL? Like to be honest, Jason, you can't stand in front of these guys anymore. No, you can't even stay in front of the big guys. I mean, I named my guy on my team was in beat. He's crossing guys up like he's Steph Curry.

out there at time. So, no, definitely bring the hand check back. I think it will, you know, the scores will come down a little bit. And by the way, just a little bit. And it would also, I think, give the bigs a little more relevant. Yes. Let's make centers matter a little. Just a little bit because even in today's defense schematically, there's a lot of switching going on. So you're going to put my big man on your Steph Curry and not allow him to touch him at all, like let alone move his feet, but he can't touch him. And so there's no, advantage to be gained whatsoever with that strategy. And I think for your point is bringing back hand-checking, that's a good one.

Now, the other part that I was going to tell you about in our game back then, the physicality. You know, you go to the hole and you thought you were going to duck on somebody, the next thing you know, you're laying on the ground. Now, in this game, you're out of here. You might get suspended two or three games for that. And so I just think you bring that rule back a little bit. A little more physicality. A little more physicality.

And that may deter some of those drives to the baskets as well. But now it's just free for all. Everybody's driving in. If they don't drive in for a dunk, it's spread outside. And who knows? The coach may even shoot a three. You can't stop anybody. By the way, we talked about LeBron.

Everybody always talks about the decision. I would argue he's always made the right decision. Wade and Bosch were getting old. He left, and they were too old. And then he left Cleveland. Now they're horrible. When he left Cleveland the first time, they were bad. LeBron's decisions have been pretty good.

Now he goes to the Lakers. There's a bunch of young guys. Of all their young players, Kuzma, Ingram, Lanzo Hart, is there one young guy you think will emerge as the guy? No. And this is why I say so. It's because as long as LeBron is there, he's the guy. He's not going to allow any one of those guys to emerge.

Now, that is part of his greatness. He makes everyone on his team better. But when you talk about emerging to become a star, you got a guy like Lonzo Ball. We know the expectations of him. Kyle Kuzma, yeah, he's played well last year, but look at him this year with LeBron, not the same player. Then Brandon Ingram, they have gone above and beyond to feature Ingram late in ball games. And it hasn't worked. To feature him early.

And it just hasn't worked out. And so I just think the LeBron factor is there. One, he's ball dominant, which we know. Yeah, he's ball dominant. Yeah. And so it doesn't allow those other guys to pull. play. The other thing I look at from a Lakers perspective is, are you in win now? Are we going to do what we've got to do to develop our talent? Because if we're developing

our talent, Lonzo Ball cannot go a game where he doesn't finish. Through his failures is where he's going to gain a lot of experience and his confidence. And so I just think if their mission is to develop their young players, they have to let them play. I love Rondo. If we're trying to win now, he's my starting point guard and I allow him to finish games. But if this is about developing the young players. Those young players have to be on the floor when those games matter. I said before the season, Joy, heard me say this. I thought Ingram would emerge as the second best player. I've been really disappointed. He's a little bit of a tease. You know, there's aspects of his game for two and three sets. I'll be like, he looks like Durant. I keep thinking I'm going to

get Durant and I don't get it. What are what are players in the NBA saying with Ingram, why isn't he popping? Does he have no dog? No, I'll be, well, you've seen the dog. He he just threw a punch. Right. Jumped off the top rope through a punch. But no, I think, again, the similarity, the body type of a Durant, right, is what we all were amazed by. And now that you see him now, it's like he just doesn't have that same handle as KD.

Not as good ball handler. Not as good ball handler. I just think physically he needs to get stronger. I mean, they said he worked on it in the offseason, but you really don't see it, right? I mean, he can rebound a little better. I think from outside the range. I would like to see him be a much more consistent three-point threat. He likes to operate in the same areas as LeBron.

You know that logo, ISO, a little below the free-thro line. He has good range in there. He has great touch, great feel for the game below the free-thor-line. But he needs to expand his range. You know, you've been in the NBA a long time and you look at all these teams. The Kauai-Lennard situation is interesting. So Kauai is a little enigmatic strong. He's a different personality.

And he's in San Antonio. It doesn't work with Pop. And Pops work with everybody. And it doesn't work. And then he goes to Toronto. And I was in Canada this summer in Vancouver, it's a great city. And I'm sitting there thinking, man, I'd love to live here. But Toronto gets his reputation as, you know, it's Canadian taxes and it's really cold in the winter.

But if Kauai ends up as the number one seed and they beat the Celtics and get to the finals, can you see Kauai staying up north? I definitely can because winning is a cure all. And it just does something for you. The other part of that is culture. Great culture in San Antonio, a little restrictive. It is a little restrictive. A little restrictive.

A little congestive, especially for a guy like Kauai. Okay, it worked for him earlier in his years because it gave him discipline. But then he started to grow. But then he started to grow. He wanted to be his own dude. He wants to be his own guy. And Toronto allows him to do so. Right.

But then it's not overbearing because you still have Cal Lowry. You still have Ibaka. You still have a good young team where all the responsibility is not thrust upon. him. And so he's allowed to be himself. And I think that's the thing that you see with him up there. He's gotten comfortable with the guys around him. You heard him. You heard the laugh. Never heard

that laugh before. I'm not sure I want to hear it again. But, no, he's just being himself, man. And he looks comfortable. And I do hope they make it to the finals. Oh, there it is there. Okay, let me ask you about Jimmy Butler. This is a weird situation. I like Jimmy. I've had him on the couch. Little ego,

I don't think he's the easiest guy in the world always to play with. But he's in Minnesota. Carl Anthony Towns, who's kind of regressed a little. Andrew Wiggins is good, but no alpha. I just don't feel the alpha, but he's talented. Right. And Jimmy's there. And I'm thinking to myself, that's great for him.

He can be the man. And those guys are 1A and 2, and it's not working. No. And now Houston comes in and says, we'll give you 4-1s. And Minnesota's like, no. So now I think T-Wolds are being kind of petty. Now, was that we'll give you 4-1s? Was that like two weeks ago?

Or was that before last night when they seen Zion Williamson play? because if any one of those four picks turns out to be that kid, Jimmy will holler at you, see you in Houston. You think Zion Williamson's that good? I'm just saying. I watched all the social media hype before the other night. And then when I seen this kid, go left, no look,

bounce pass on one bounce straight to his guy. He lays it up. I said, no, that kid's special. He can rebound, he can run, he's fast, he's strong, he's athletic. And if you leave him open, he might just start knocking down that jump shot. Jet, you know what's interesting about this? Everybody keeps telling me he's the second best player on Duke. And here's my thing.

No, you said this yesterday. You said it too. No, RJ Barrett. R.J. Barrett, everybody. Stud. No, I'm not saying. Okay, I'm not saying he's not a stud. Right.

But when I watch Zion, God doesn't make a lot of those. No. It factor. Six. He's 285. If I'm a general manager, there is no way I'm passing on that kid. Right. There's no way.

Now, the other kid is a really special player, but he's not a 285-pound 17-year-old. No doubt. I can't pass on him. College basketball is so excited that there is a one-and-done rule. Because when this kid leaves, he will break every record and hopefully not every backboard that is left in college basketball. I mean, if you watch them play last night,

there's nothing or no team on Division I level that is going to be able to stop this kid. He's like Larry Johnson, but I think. A little better ball handler maybe? Definitely a better ball handler from end to end. Yeah. Definitely just as tough. Yeah, that's a great comparison. Great comparison.

I covered Larry at UNLB. Great comparison. But again, Larry did have a nice handle too. He had a nice handle. So I'd have to go back and watch some more film, but definitely a great comparison. You wouldn't give, would you take this kid number one? I'm definitely taking him number one.

I'm the same one. For sure. I know everybody keep telling me. You'd have to do that after one game, but if he keeps this up consistently for the rest of the season and on into the ACC where we know it gets a little bit tougher. Yeah. He's number one pick.

Man, it's great seeing you. You too. You know, there's always available for good broadcasters. Fox treats its people right. I sure will love it. A lot of places don't treat their people right. John, how do they treat you over here? Fantastic.

Yeah. I used to work other places. It was very nice here. Jason Terry, Joey Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd. Line news.

I mean, it's 1-1-A with Diane and R.J. Barrett. I'm just saying physically, Joy, you look at him. No, he's, he's, he's, he's a force for sure. To me, RJ Barrett is a more complete player right now. So it depends on who gets the number one overall pick to me. And he can shoot and he could score. So it's, it's one-one. Like, it's, if you watch Argy Barrett.

I saw him. Yes. End to end. Yes. I'm not discriminating. with you. Remember when Jadavian Clownie came out in the NFL and you're like, okay, I got to take that guy.

I'd never see anybody like that. He was like six, seven, he could run like a running back. I was like, I got to take that guy. Well, one thing's for sure. I don't know if there's a team that can compete with them this year. So we've already given them the national championship. They're basically all down. All right.

So the drama between the Steelers and Levyon Bell continues. He was seen playing basketball, which I don't understand. Not great. At an L.A. Fitness in Pittsburgh. And then he posted these very, very, cryptic tweets. If you are watching, you can see that they were posted upside down. We talked about this

earlier in the show. Colin and I were both very confused as to how you could do this. Apparently there's just like a little app that you put it in and then it flips your... It flips your Twitter upside down. Why you would do it, I don't know. He was trying to make a point. I get what he was trying to do. What's the point? And his whole point was if you're

he's saying, I'm doing this for blah, blah, blah. And if you're reading this and if you want the trouble to read this, you prove my point. You do care about what I'm doing. Yeah. Okay, so the tweet said just about everybody has an opinion on my life and it's worried about what I'm doing. Don't judge me off my decisions because maybe this isn't what you do, but most people

don't take the time but just simply read between the lines and that's clearly on them. And the second one says, I'm not apologizing for what I believe is right for myself, my family, and the rest of my peers, period. Also, if you're really fine the time to figure out what I'm saying, you prove my point. By the way, I'd like to thank our Fox producers for putting it the right side up because I literally turn my phone It's too much work.

It is a lot. I mean, look, like, Leveon was going to get criticized for sitting out for money because that's what happens when players sit out for money. People get upset for whatever reason. But it's nothing personal. This is fans being fan of a team. They want to see you out there. And, I mean, a lot of people feel like he made the wrong decisions because of James Conner is having better numbers and Steelers haven't skipped a beat. Well, we'll see what happens if and when he comes back.

So the Cowboys have a very important game. in Philly this week, you may say it is the most important game. Yeah. They have so far this season. There are a game behind the Eagles and two games behind Washington in the NFC East, and they've lost two in a row. So Ezekiel Elliott understands there needs to be a sense of urgency. 100%. Yeah,

it's a must-win. I mean, we got, well, one, being a division game, you know, that makes it that much more important. We definitely talk about it. You know, kind of just having that mentality, you know, us versus the world. You know, we got to go out there and when he's been a

ball games we can to give ourselves an opportunity to get in the playoffs. We got to get this round game going point blank period. I mean, we got to get it going. And so, I mean, we got to figure out how we're going to do that. Zika had 61 yards on the ground on 17 carries and the loss to Tennessee. I don't really know. I don't see them winning this week in Philly. Nope.

I don't know what could happen other than they just get the spark because they realize it's a must win game for their season. That's to me is the only because Sean Lee's out. They showed no fight after a buy against Tennessee, and you feel like it's going to be a blowout. Two touchdown blowout for the Eagles. I don't know what happens with the Cowboys season other than them being out of it.

Like what makes them interesting after this game, if it is a blowout. Finally, Tyson Chandler came up big in his first game last night after starting with the Lakers. He created three additional possessions in the final minute of the game, turning a 24-second clock into about 50 seconds. Played really well. Yes, he proved what a great pickup he was by Magic Johnson and Rob Polinka. In addition to allowing the Lakers to sleep,

like 48 minutes with a big man on the floor. He also was a rebounding machine. He had nine rebounds in 23 minutes against September Wolves, and five of them were offensive rebounds. He's always been a very heady NBA player. Very smart. Gets the game, situationally... He's a big guy that plays

like a point card. Yep. He's a... He really is... Earl Watson. Yeah, he's a smart, smart dude. He's kind of a quarterback, like you say. He's just, you know situationally late in games. Tyson knows where to go, who to get it to. He had that very clever offensive rebound. We knocked it out to LeBron. Yeah, yeah, he did that several times. And that's,

that's what you get when you get a veteran like Tyson Chandler on the floor. And that's what LeBron likes. Like one of the frustrations I think LeBron is having with his team, which was to be expected. It's a lot of young guys who are not only still learning how to play as a pro, they're learning how to win. And that's, that's a culture change that LeBron has to bring there. I mean, you see what's happening with Cleveland in the unfortunate situation there. The Lakers, everyone forgets because, I mean, I hope they remember. They were not in a good position before LeBron got there. It's not like they were winning, and he's stepping into a winning situation.

There's a lot of changes that actually made. Tyson was a great pickup for them. All right. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Why, the Panther Steelers tonight is very, very big for me personally.

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Blaine Haskins and number 10 Ohio State look to keep their playoff hopes alive in a showdown with Michigan State, Saturday at 1130 Eastern. Then number 19, Texas goes toe to toe with Texas Tech at 730 Eastern. College football kicks off Saturday on Fox or watch it anywhere on the Fox Sports app.

I'll take Michigan State to beat Ohio State. Chris Carter I heard him this morning on first things first said program has issues inside the program, which is what I suspected. Chris Carter would know more than me. car shopping confusing a lot of terms dealer price list price invoice here's what it's not go to true car dot com check out their true price for some clarity on what you'll pay before you get there so our best for last today we thought we'd take tonight steelers panthers uh we thought we'd take kind

of a temperature check on my NFL predictions before the season let's go let's get out and get it's time to check in on Collins NFL predictions to see which ones he got totally right and which ones he's probably hoping we don't bring up. All right, let's start with the AFC North with the Steelers hosting Carolina tonight. These are the projected wins. These are the directions. The teams are going. Steelers, Bengals, Ravens, Browns.

So what was my prediction? Well, I had the first team right and the last team right. Bengals are better than I thought. Ravens were hot, cold. So judges, how did I do? Decent job. All right. That was a decent job.

I got the first team right and the last team right. I need the Ravens to pick up the slack. Let's go to the AFC East. Projected right now, New England wins it, and Miami finishes second. Jets and Bills bring up the rear. Let's go to my prediction. You know what?

I had New England winning. I don't know. Judges, how'd I do? Okay, close enough. Not terrible. I had Buffalo finishing last, Patriots first. Kind of had the order right. I had the order right.

Yeah, I don't think that was terrible. All right, let's go to the AFC South. Projected wins right now. Texans win it, and then Titans are kind of battling for a playoff spot. Let's go to my predictions. I had the Texans winning it now. I had the Colts finishing second, and I do believe they still will. I think if you look at their schedule, it's garbage.

So judges, how did I do? Pretty good. Yeah. Now, I need the Colts to remain hot, but if you look at their schedule, they face a lot of Blake Bordles. So I think I'm on a pretty good spot there. Let's go to the AFC West, round out the AFC.

All right, projected wins. Chiefs 14, Chargers 12. Let's go to my prediction. I had the Chargers winning the division in Kansas City. Only eight wins. Judges, how'd I do? We'll give you half credit. Yeah.

I knew the Chargers would be. good. And I did predict the Raiders would be in last place. So I got the Broncos and the Raiders right. I got to flip the, Kansas City better. He gave the Raiders a little more credit than... Yeah. All right, let's go over to the NFC. Let's go to the NFC South. By the way, Panthers played a night in that. And projected Saints win at Panthers playoff Falcons at 8 and 8.

My predictions were... I had the Falcons winning at Saints right behind him. So I need the Panthers to lose tonight. Now, I will say the Panthers are a very good home team, not a great road team, and their schedule over the next month and a half is a bunch of road games. So I need Carolina to lose tonight. Judges, how'd I do? In the ballpark.

All right, thank you. NFC North projected bear. I don't think this is going to hold. Bears win the division and the Vikings right behind them. My predictions before the season were, I need Green Bay to get hot. I was right on Minnesota and the Lions. I need Green Bay to win some football games. Judges, what do you think?

Not too shabby. Not shabby. I need Green Bay to go in a little bit of a winning streak. Now, Green Bay hosts Miami this weekend. Brock Vember, not Brock Tober. So if Green Bay wins this weekend and the Bears cool off. Now, I do think, keep your eye on the Bears. Cleo Mac, a little banged up.

Keep your eye. I think Green Bay is going to start playing a little better. All right, let's go to the NFC. Is it West now? my, let's go, NFC West, projected wins right now. I think I got this one right. Rams are projected to win 14 and a half. Seahawks don't make the playoffs but close.

And my predictions, oh boy, pretty good there. Pretty good there. I had the Rams winning 11, not, not, I don't, I still think the Rams are going to lose a game or two. And I had the Seahawks out of the playoffs seven, eight. Actually, judges, how did I do? Good. Except for that Niners pick. Yeah, that wasn't great.

So I got to say, very, feel very good. Excellent. Don't have any problem with it? Feel great. What are you talking about? I feel great about it. There's a division missing.

No, I mean, we're short on time here. I don't know. We've got plenty of time. We're really up against the clock. I haven't heard anything about the clock. I think we have time. All right. Let's go to the NFC East.

Projected wins, Redskins, 10, Eagles, 8, Cowboys, 6, two and my predictions were judges, how did I do on this? Not even close. That's embarrassing. I don't want to get into it. Clearly, you don't want to get into it. I think you whiffed on that division. You're allowed to whiff on one division, even if it's very badly. Well, I had the Eagles winning the division, and I do think they're going to go on a little

bit of a role here. I do think the Eagles are going to go on a roll. I think they're going to crush Dallas. My biggest whiff this year easily was the New York Giants. I whiffed totally on that. It was bad. They were your dark horse for the Super Bowl. They were one of my dark horse.

I have 13 dark horse Super Bowl picks. They were, I also had the Ravens as a dark horse, so that didn't go well. All right. Tomorrow we celebrate the troops. Veterans Day, we're celebrating Veterans Day tomorrow. We have Blazing Five tomorrow. Steelers Panthers tonight. That is an exceptional Thursday night football game.

I think it's really close. I think you're looking at two of the best eight teams, two Super Bowl contenders tonight on Fox. In L.A., it's the herd. So Cam Newton, who's playing the best football of his life, I think he's playing better football now than he did in his MVP year. Much more under control, much more precise, goes on the road for the start of a pretty rough road for the Carolina Panthers.

Sneaky good at home, now we go on the road to face the Steelers. Greg Kosell was on an hour and a half ago, and he said, you know, we asked him, Is it just Norv Turner? Is it Christian McCaffrey who's having a remarkable year? What's the difference with Cam this year? Has really expanded his thought process, understanding the strengths and limitations at times of his quarterback,

and understanding the pressure and stress that the quarterback as a runner puts on a defense and has really incorporated so many dimensions in the run game and backfield actions that make it so hard for defenses. So what happens is when you force defense, defensive players to be hesitant in their reactions, then it defines throws much more cleanly for the quarterback. So Cam has a lot of throws in games where the receivers are open. And that takes nothing away from Cam.

But it's really well-schemed and difficult to defend, very difficult to prepare for. And Jeff Schwartz, who is on Speak for yourself, will talk more about that. When you watch Carolina play, my question with them is, I think they're a really tough out. But if you got two weeks to prep form in the playoffs, without a lot of it. offense. I do think there's some limitations offensively over the top, whereas Kansas City doesn't have them, and the Rams don't have them, and the Packers

don't have them, and the Vikings certainly don't have them, and the Saints don't have them, Atlanta doesn't have them. But if they just come into your town on a short week, they're hard to prepare for. They don't play and look offensively like anybody else, and there's the component of Cam, who's always been difficult to face. 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,

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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 podcast. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clipper Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

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