The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Michael Thomas Gets Paid, Dak Prescott Should too, Jon Gruden Slips and Nick Saban Heeds Colin's Advice

Episode Date: July 31, 2019

Colin explains why NFL teams are the safest to own because of their inability to become trapped in these huge player contracts. He thinks Dak Prescott at 26 years old is by far the best Cowboys quarterback they've had and deserves to get payed. He also believes that, even after the Saints resigned Michael Thomas, they'll still fall through the floor next year. And, Nick Saban answers Colin's request to play against stronger competition while Jon Gruden might have just let slip who the new starting QB will be for the Raiders. Guests: Greg Cosell, Rob Parker, Nick Wright & Jane Slater,  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is what I don't get about. fans. Why do you want players to make a lot of money? What you should want is flexibility. You should actually be on the side of the owner because players come and go. What you want as a fan is your team to be financially nimble. They don't get trapped in a bad contract. Washington Wizards John Wall. What you want from your team, because you grew up in the city, right? You grew up in Milwaukee. You grew up in Dallas. You grew up in Chicago. You grew up in Atlanta. You grew up in Tampa. The player, it'd be nice if he gets paid, but you don't want your team to get trapped. That's when you become a bad team. New England never gets trapped. You know what I mean? They don't get

San Antonio Spurs rarely get trapped. So I never understood fans were like, yeah, my guy got paid. What do you care? He's not going to hang out with you. He's not going to party with you. He's not going to spend it on you so he can afford another yacht. But it's a prime example. Michael Thomas just made $100 million extension five years. He's worth every penny. But this is why the NFL's got it right and the NBA doesn't. So first of all, Michael Thomas is very productive. Secondly, they've paid him almost nothing for three years.

Third, now you only have to guarantee 60 of the 100 million, meaning if he goes sideways, you can bail on it. And D, he's almost guaranteed to continue to be productive because of Drew Brees and Sean Payton and that offensive concept. It's great for him. He gets generational wealth, but it's great for the team and the fan. Because, listen, the Saints want to win now, and they're paying him now money for the next three years.

It's guaranteed. So his family's well off, but the team's in a good spot. The last two years, if he gets hurt, team can move on. He's still generationally wealthy. The team got every bit of production out of him. Yes, it's a lot of money to pay a wide receiver. But I've always said, I'll pay a quarterback, I'll pay a left tackle, I'll pay a defensive lineman, and in some cases I'll pay big for a wide receiver.

He's a guy I'd pay for. Drew Brees is getting old, where I'd pay for him. But the reason this contract works is because there's so much talent in American football, he was a second round 47th pick, that if you paid nothing for a house and the value just kept going up first three years or mortgage, you don't mind overpaying on the mortgage four, five, and six in the year seven because you paid nothing for it the first three years. Take Dak Prescott, for example. So, Dak Prescott has cost you nothing.

He's been absurdly productive. I mean, Dak Prescott, in four years, has made $2.7 million. His guaranteed money has been under $400,000. I don't mind if you pay him $150 million over the next five years because it comes out to $15 million. So it changes Dak Prescott and his family's life. He's worth every penny. It helps the player's life. That's a great story.

It makes me feel good. But I don't know, Dak. I'm not going to party with that. It doesn't live in my neighborhood, right? It's not going to be throwing street parties. I'm not going to benefit from it. But it also allows the cowboys to feel like they win it too. They got a ton of production and didn't have to pay him anything.

I never understand NBA fans were like, yeah, my guy, John Wall. You're done. Your franchise is dead in Washington. It's over. You're trapped. The NFL doesn't get trapped. Yes, Michael Thomas now has generational wealth. I'm happy for him.

But the Saints can move out of it in three or four years if he gets hurt or goes sideways. They don't want to work as hard. Gets hurt. He still gets $60 million guaranteed minimum. And the Saints can move on and say, now we've got to pay this new quarterback that replaced Drew Brees. This is the NFL's secret sauce, a hard cap. Everybody wins. The player wins.

The fans win. The owner wins. The coach wins. The star players family wins. I've never understood this. In the NBA, you only get about five new players a year that can really play at a top level. So stars have ultimate leverage. Middling players get paid a fortune.

And, you know, fans are always like cheering for the big contract. Why? Why? Not spending it on you. You want your team to be nimble enough that they can pay star players when they're great, but when they erode, they get hurt. They don't work as hard. Just like a company. Just like a company.

If I ran a company, I would pay my best people a lot of money. But if they did go four or five years into it sideways, I wouldn't be like baseball. I wouldn't want to be locked into Joey Votto in your 7, 8, 9, 10. can't afford any pitching. This is where baseball in the NBA are a mess. You're paying a lot of times for hope, crossing your fingers. You don't have leverage. There's not enough

players coming into your sport. The NFL has got it figured out. Everybody wins. The Saints win. Michael Thomas and his family win. Mickey Loomis wins. Gail Benson wins. The fans in New Orleans win because they want to win now and he's a great player, so let's pay him now. Front load it. 60 million guarant. changes his family's history, but it doesn't negatively change the fan's potential history.

It's why I think the NFL's number one. You don't get trapped. It's a good contract, and I would have paid every penny of it. All right. So speaking of paying, there's this, you know, consternation about, oh, we got paid DAC, we've got paid DAC, we've got paid DAC. So the Dallas Morning News, the Great American newspaper, went back, and they looked at all the great cowboy quarterbacks at 26 years old.

Don Meredith, Roger Stobach, Danny White, Troy Aikman, Tony Romo, and Dac Scott. Well, what do you know? Dak is way better than all of them. Not even close. Roger Stobach and Tony Romo had not attempted an NFL pass at 26, either at Roger Stobach because of his military service. Don Meredith and Troy Aikman weren't very good in the passes they had thrown. And here is DAC. Hmm.

And this is the funny thing about Dak. Dax had the deal with nothing but crap. In 2016, he comes in. Tony Romo gets hurt and then calls an impromptu press conference, which catches the whole state off guard. And Jack's like, oh, I love Tony. I guess I'm starting. The following year, he has to deal with Zeeq's six-game suspension.

The suspension hovered over training camp. Tyron Smith, the best left tackle and football, gets heard. And then last year, he loses Des, he loses. he loses Jason Whitten, he loses the best center in football Travis Frederick, and there's an anthem controversy he has to put his arms around. And the entire time win the division. He also has to deal with a public owner. He has to deal with a coach who's on a perpetual hot seat.

Pay the man. For seven years, all you fans have done in Charlotte is make excuses for Cam Newton. He's had above average offensive lines, above average road. running games, an above-average head coach, above-average defenses, excuses, excuses, Dak Prescott has had the deal with controversies, suspensions, an absurdly public. There's not even a second owner in the league that's close to Jerry in terms of setting fires as an owner. Controversies, suspensions, the anthem thing, Jerry talking, coach on the hot seat, Jason Witten retires, wins every single year.

second winning his record to Tom Brady since he came in the league. Little perspective, Dallas Morning News says, let's look at all these great cowboy quarterbacks at 26. How were they? DAC is significantly better than all of them. He doesn't have the best arm. He's not the most mobile, but leadership, good enough mobility.

And, oh, by the way, oh, by the way, at the end of last year, I just want to make sure all you cowboy fans out there and all you NFL hate Dak guys, remember, anybody know what Dak did in his final eight games last year? Like a lot of young players, he got better. Seven and one, 68% completion percentage, passer rating over 100, he's also getting better. Here's Dak Prescott, last eight weeks. of the NFL season. Young people in all sports tend to get better.

If you look at his last eight weeks, seven and one. Completion percentage, passer rating, yards per game, up, up, up, up, against four playoff teams. All right, coming up, Saints fans are trying to get in my face this morning. It's not going to work. That is not going to work.

I am feeling good about the show and good about myself, Saints fans. I think you're going to, and by the way, I've been right on this three straight years. I think you're going into the tank this year. And I'll double down on that for those Saints fans who are of the delusion that Michael Thomas is signing changes everything. It changes absolutely nothing. Summer is here. It's barbecue season.

My wife just left a town this morning. So that means tonight I'm on my own. And if you're on your own and a guy, I'm not doing some souffle here. It's not fondue time. I've got to get to the grill. The grill's easy. That's where Butcher box comes in. Butcher box chicken, organic, free range chicken, grass-fed beef, wild-caught sock-eye salmon from Bristol Bay, Alaska.

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out their true price. A more car confident buying experience. Nick Wright in 10 minutes joining us, Greg CoSell next hour, Jane Slater, Rob Parker too. So yesterday I said and I've been pretty good on this. Joy saw me last year say this. pick a team, and this is the way it works in the NFL. This is not a debate. There's at least

one team every year in the NFL that was really good, and they fall through the floor. It happens every year. I just happened to predict the last two, Minnesota and Jacksonville. I'm predicting New Orleans this year. And so Michael Thomas signed a contract yesterday, and everybody's like, oh, what do you say now, Colin? You're still falling through the floor. We all thought you were signing Michael Thomas. I didn't like the holdout situation. I thought it was a distraction, but is Drew Breeze getting younger? Is Mark Ingram coming back? Is your schedule getting easier?

New Orleans, it's over. You're falling through the floor. Okay, the Saints offense last year, and this is how I know Tom Brady and Drew Breeze don't do steroids. Drew Breeze at the end of the last year looked tired. Your offense was a pop-gun offense. Just like Tom Brady didn't play well in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady didn't play well in the AFC championship.

Tom Brady didn't have a great December. Why? Because Drew and Tom are old, and they don't age particularly well when the weather gets cold and they get hit and their 500 throws in. So did Drew Breeze get younger yesterday with the Michael Thomas signing? No. We all knew Michael Thomas was coming back. The reason I have the Saints falling through the floor is, Carolina and Atlanta have excellent rosters and excellent head coaches, and I think they bounce back. I think the Saints schedule in the first month is the toughest in the NFL. And the organization knows OBJ was a luxury for Cleveland.

Cleveland already has a quarterback in their athletic peak Baker. They have Jarvis Landry, David and Joku. They have a stable of good running backs. They didn't need OBJ. But it's nice to have him. Michael Thomas is a necessity for the Saints. He is a necessity. Mark Ingram's gone.

Max Unger retired. Tom Brady's division hands him about five wins a year guaranteed. This division doesn't hand you any wins guaranteed except maybe hosting Tampa. You can go 0 and 2 against Carolina. You can go 0 and 2 against Atlanta. And Tampa can certainly beat you in Tampa. So Michael Thomas doesn't change anything. We knew he'd be a saint because he has to be a saint.

Drew Breeze last year had the fewest attempts in 14 years. Drew Breeze threw under 4,000 yards for the first time in his Saints career. The organization knows he needs more help now. They know he was not the same quarterback at the end of the year. And I love Drew Breeze. He's in my great eight, the eight best quarterbacks I've ever seen play. I am a huge fan. And I love Brady.

But Brady in December on is not as good as he is in October and November. And the same for Drew Breeze. Listen, the Saints, three of the four top cap hits for the Saints, offensive lineman. The organization now is loading up their offense and paying for their offense. New England pays for defensive players. The Saints are paying for offensive players. Why? Drew needs more help now.

So Michael Thomas wasn't a luxury. Michael Thomas doesn't change anything. Michael Thomas was a necessity for this football team. A highly productive, athletic peak perimeter player for an aging quarterback who lost Max Unger and Mark Ingram and who now, December on, looks like a guy who's 3940 who's not taking PEDs. He looks like a normal human being how they age late in the football season. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no, turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. All right, so we're all on Zieg watch right now. Zeek is considered the best or one of the best running backs in the NFL over the last three seasons of his career. buried under the car accident lawsuit news last night was a report from Josina Anderson who said just received another positive update on the Zique extension status still needs time. But if things continue on the same track, I expect Elliott to be the highest paid running back in the NFL across certain metrics. Jives with the same tone I heard last Friday. Obviously nothing is done until signed. So.

Now, what was that thing you said about the wreck? Oh, there's a, he has a lawsuit. remember the accident that he was in I believe it was last year and it kind of like to there's something sorry 2017 and it kind of just got it brushed under you know the rug

there was no injuries in it but apparently he was being sued by the person that he hit and now they're trying to sue the Cowboys and it's a whole whole Lord it's probably not going to happen because you know legal stuff but it is something else with Zeke

right now but Jacina is saying that it's trending towards he's going to get an extension and a very big extension at that. Now, Todd Gurley is the highest paid running back right now in multiple metrics. He, his total value is 57.5 million, which ranks first in his yearly average is 14.4 million with 45 million in guarantees and was not a huge factor in the Super Bowl this year. Now, I'm all for everyone getting paid. I would love for everyone to make as much money as possible, but obviously the NFL is not structured that way. I just think it's a mistake to take care of Zeke

before you take care of that. And Amari. And listen, it's, you know, we'll see how it plays out. This is just not a position. I just have so many examples of teams who don't do this. Zeke's best argument is I'm the best at my position. If you're the best in your position in the world, you generally get paid in all sports, in music, and entertainment.

If you're the best actor, best actress, you know, Serena's going to get paid. She should. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it. I'm just saying, can it wait till next year? Yeah, yeah. Well, he forced it, and so this is where you're at. Dallas is 28 and 12 with him.

They average 361.5 yards per game and 4.7 yards per rush. They're 4 and 4 and 4 without him. They're not the same team. No. I mean, and a lot of people argue that the reason that Dak is as successful as he is is because of Zeke, but you can argue that in a lot of directions. But yeah, Amari Cooper, similarly, if you look at Dak with and without Amari, he's a different quarterback.

So I can make an argument. He has a mass. He was seven and two with Amari Cooper. Other than Tom Brady, can you give me multiple examples of quarterbacks who are elite level with no talent or minimal talent around them or pieces here and there? Philadelphia has got average. To me, Philadelphia has got average backs and average receivers. I think they have a great system. And I think Carson Wentz is a very unique talent who I don't love Philadelphia.

I love Philadelphia's line play. I'm really me on everything else. I love their structure and their line play. So I wouldn't sign this contract with Zieg, but listen, the Dallas knows what they're doing. They appear to be well run last five years. They're going to pay them early, and here we go. Well, another team that's in a little bit of a pickle right now, the dolphins.

I would describe it more of as a mess than a pickle, but they have a quarterback battle. You know, as I always say, if you have more than one quarterback, you have no quarterback. That's weird. Well, Brian Flores announced that Ryan Fitzpatrick has a leg up on Josh Rosen right now. All right. You know, it's pretty clear to me that Ryan Fitzpatrick is leading the way. I think he's done that in a lot of areas from, you know, leadership to production on the field. He's been more productive.

At the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. He runs the offense very efficiently. He has great rapport with the entire team. He has a lot of leadership ability. We need that to continue. We need him to grow in that role. You know, this is an ongoing competition. But, you know, right now, I think he's a lot of the team.

I'd say he's leading the way. I never feel like the dolphins. I just don't, I don't understand the dolphins. I don't, like, they're kind of rudderless. As an organization, I just never know where they're going. I was very excited about this move with Brian Flores. I was very excited about the trade for Josh Rosen. And I thought that Ryan Fitzpatrick was a good piece to the development puzzle.

But it makes no sense at all in any way to start Ryan Fitzpatrick, unless you're just scared of losing your job, which you're not going to lose because they just hired you. The dolphins aren't that dysfunctional. So you're basically complaining you don't know the direction of the dolphins. Who does? I mean, this is not, I don't want to hear this. You just traded for Josh Rosen. Ryan Fitzpatrick is 50, 75 and 1 as an NFL starter.

He is a backup quarterback. He's a savvy veteran for sure, but let him teach Josh Rosen how to be a professional. I feel bad for Josh Rosen. Really, where you get drafted matters. the system that you go into matters. The front office matters and the coaching matters. And Josh Rosen has had two really bad breaks so far. And this is not helping his confidence either.

So what you're telling me is you're really interested in being average, not getting a high draft pick next year and not making any progress with Josh Rosen. Because that's what you're doing if you start running. Yeah, dolphins are a hard. I feel this with bad football teams in the NFL, there's one constant thread. I can't from the outside have a sense of what they're doing. Like, by the way, you can be, like, Cleveland is rebuilding and has been bad. But I know what they're doing.

They're saying, we got Baker on a rookie contract. We're going to get a lot of talent for, like, two years until we have to pay Baker. So I see where Cleveland's going. They didn't need OBJ, but they're like, we got the money. We're not paying Baker anything. I saw what the Rams were doing. We're not paying golf anything. Let's take a chance on Akib to leave.

Let's go with Indomac and Sue. They weren't perfect guys in the locker room. I almost always, even bad teams or teams that are building. building, I get where they're going. I never understand where Miami's going. There's no identity. There's no direction. I like their helmets. Yeah. I mean, it's beautiful down there. It's hot right now, though. All right. Finally, player mobility obviously has become more frequent than ever in the NBA. But Zion, however, doesn't seem interested in following that trend. If he has his way, he'll spend his whole career with the Pelicans. In an interview with Complex, he said, I've always told myself,

I want to stay with one team. Growing up, I loved what Kobe did and Dirk did. Some people stay with one team. but they get traded. My intentions are to stay with the Pelicans my whole career, but if something happens, I wouldn't leave because I hate the place. It's just the business. So he left a little crack in the window there at the end of the answer, but I could see this from Zion. He feels like that kind of player.

I think it's a great thing to say. I do believe Magic would have left had he not been picked by the Lakers. I think Magic was too magnetic to play in Charlotte. I think Shaq was too. big to play in Orlando. The question isn't whether he likes New Orleans or David Griffin, because I do think the roster's fun,

is he so, because he becomes so magnetic that the league, the gravitational pull of the league, I mean, look at this, Joy. KD ends up in Silicon Valley, then New York. LeBron ends up eventually in Miami and Los Angeles. The history of this league is, with very few exceptions, when you're super

magnetic, the shoe company, the agent, the Yeah, there's some other factors that start laying in it. It's not even your fault. It's just you get pulled into Shaq. Shack had a beautiful house on the Butler Chain of Lakes in Orlando. I saw it. But the league is just pulling a Nike in shoes. Yeah, well, that's what I said.

He left a little crack in the window there at the end. If something happens, it's not because I hate the place. He also talked in the interview about playing with R.J. Barrett. And he said that they had talked about it when they were in college about, you know, wanting to play together eventually. So he said, you know, if it works out, if not, we understand. Michael Jordan gets drafted by Sacramento.

He doesn't end up there. Michael goes to Chicago. Well, who was in Chicago when Michael was emerging? Oprah and Siskel and Ebert. So you had like media superstars in Chicago. Right. And Michael didn't spend his whole career there either. Right.

So I think he's going to be so magnetic. The challenge is can you just keep the Zion business in a small city? Right. The business of Zion. And winning helps you do that. Yeah. I think they're going to win some games there. Joy with the News.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. All right, let's go to New York. First Things First co-host with Chris Carter, Jenna Wolf as well. My buddy, Nick Wright, via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Listen, the Michael Thomas deal feels like to me, I said, I think OBJ was a luxury for Cleveland.

They got plenty of pieces. But he's a nice luxury item. He's a great player. Michael Thomas, to me, is a necessity for New Orleans. I mean, you've got to get Drew Bree's help because I watched him at the end of the year, Nick. He looked old, and I love Drew. So I think this kid deserves every penny he made. What did you make of the highest paid receiver contract ever?

What do you make of it? I mean, he's the highest paid temporarily, right? So Julio's going to come in over the top of him. Tyreek Hill might. Amari Cooper has a slight chance of it. But he deserves to get paid, but you're 100% correct. They have to have him. Alvin Camara is a dynamic player.

Michael Thomas is one of the most reliable and productive receivers in football. And that's where they're dead. weapons kind of end. Jared Cook could be very good for them this year. You should be the best tight-in they've had since Jimmy Graham, but I do think you're a little too low on the Saints. This was a team that last year, after losing the shootout in week one fits magic in Tampa, they did go 13 and 1

in their next 14 games until they rested everyone in week 17. They then, of course, were a bad call away from going to the Super Bowl. Now, were they a different team the final five weeks of the year when Mahomes overtook Breeze for league MVP? When Breeze came back to the back a bit, yes. But when you play in New Orleans, when you can make it to where your quarterback won't have to play cold weather playoff games on a 40-year-old body if you have a good enough regular season, I'm not as worried about the age. My worry for New Orleans is they overcame the emotional devastation of the Minneapolis miracle. They now maybe have even greater emotional devastation to overcome when they don't think they lost that NFC championship game. They think it was stolen from them.

Can they overcome that again in what I do believe is their last best chance to win a Super Bowl in this Drew Briezerah? I want to shift to Dak because we've both said DAC's got a lower ceiling. I'll give you three quarterbacks that I think have a little bit lower of a throw-the-ball ceiling. Trubisky, Lamar, and Dak. The difference is, I think Dak, I think Dak is showing us something that we don't want to admit. In his last eight games last year, he was very good. Now, he had a stinker.

He had one stinker. Brady gets those two. Everybody has those, okay? I think Dak emerged at the end of last year. Once you gave him a Mari, Tyron Smith came back. His last eight games, he completed 72%, 12 TNese three pitch. 103-passer rating against four playoff teams. We know young broadcasters improve, young attorneys approve, right?

Young political figures improve. Are you being a tad hard on DAC? Did we see something at the end of the year that I don't think we'll see from Tribisky? I don't know if Lamar has a breakthrough ability. I kind of think Dak's getting better. We just don't want to acknowledge it. Do you see any of that? what I saw at the end of last year was if you give Dak Prescott, every single thing a quarterback can ask for.

The best running back in the league, one of the best offensive linemen in the league, and a number one wide receiver, and a softer defensive schedule, then you know what? Maybe he can look like one of the eight best quarterbacks in football. That's not a guy that I want to pay $32 million a year for. I, Dak has every game Dax ever played, except for Zeeq's suspension. He's at a top two running back behind him. Every game Dax ever played, he's at a top five offensive line in front of him,

and most of the time a top two or three offensive line. As soon as he didn't have great weapons on the outside, the beginning of last season, he fell apart entirely. The Cowboys are doing this backwards. They, Jerry Jones, desperately needs to be right in moving on from Tony Roman. for Dak Prescott. When it started to look like he was not going to be right, they then trade away a first round pick for Amari Cooper,

which not only cost them a cheap, good player on a rookie contract, but as a new player, jump their best player, Ezekiel Elliott, in the pay line, which I think potentially led to this holdout we're dealing with now with Zeke. Listen, the NFL 100, which is obviously a flawed list, they had 15 quarterbacks in that top 100. And we might disagree on the order of those 15. But there's, I don't think a single one that you can make the argument,

DAC is better than. He is at best the 16th best quarterback in the league, probably 18th or not. Like, I mean, maybe you can say he's better than Kurt Cousins. I know you want to say he's better than KM, but he's not. Like there's just, so his best case scenario is 16th out of 32. Like this is, that's not the guy you pay $32 million a year to, but it's going to be the guy they pay $32 million a year to. And they're going to pay for it for the next four or five seasons, I fear. Okay.

Speaking of that list, I'm going to put you in a tough position. You love Baker, but you're from Houston. I do. And you're from Houston. Well, kind of. Yeah, Casey Houston. So you've got a lot of peeps down in Houston. So I said this week, we're going crazy now.

We're going crazy. Baker finished ahead of Deshawn Watson in the quarterback among players. And I'm like, timeout. The numbers aren't close, whereas Baker did, I would say, inherit very nice offensive pieces. Deshawn Watson could not fly in a plane at one point last year because he had a punctured lung. I'm going to ask you, you're a GM today. Do you choose Baker or Deshawn Watson to lead your team for the next seven years? I in a vacuum GM today it's very close but I choose Baker given the situations they're in it's not close at all like the situations do matter and Colin you are a far better talk show host than me but if you had to do it through string and a tin can I like my chances to Sean Watson's playing for a team whose GM right now I think is the former team chaplain of the New England Patriots look it up that is a

true story. He doesn't have a left tackle once again. He does have DeAndre Hopkins, but that's about it. Baker has all the pieces. Baker's more likely to be healthy. Baker over the last half of last year was playing such exceptional football. And we shouldn't act like the Cleveland Brown, too, I think, I might be wrong, but I got to do the math, carry the one. Oh yeah, in the two years before Baker got there, they won one game that he just came to a team. And it's like, man, he did inherit the 95 Cowboys roster. He didn't. He's awesome.

And everyone that's around him loves playing with him. And I really like Deshawn. I like Deshawn a ton. I just think Deshawn didn't have the pieces. And I think Baker's ultimate upside is just a little bit higher. Wow. I am surprised by lack. I really am surprised by that.

I think I really, I think Deshawn Watson is doing what almost nobody in the league could do, which is play behind the worst offensive line in the league. First two years in the league. That's true. I mean, just awful and put up, I mean, didn't they win 11 games last year?

That's almost unheard of in the NFL with a bad old line. It's almost unheard of. What Deshawn's doing behind that offensive line, he should get credit for. I'm all for building up Deshawn Watson. I'm with you on that side of the argument. I think Deshawn's outstanding. I think Baker has league MVP this year caliber ability. I really, listen, man, guys in year two come in and blow up the league.

Mahomes did it. Wins almost won an MVP in year two. Jared Goff just went to the Super Bowl in year three. We saw Russell Wilson win a Super Bowl in year two. Guys in year two can be really great. Except for, of course, your guy and Joyce Guy Dack, who in year two didn't have the best running back in football for six games and it all fell apart. All right, Nick Wright.

All right, we were about a month out of football season. Nick, it's absolutely great to see you. And have a great day. And thank you for coming on the show. You too and I apologize to your guy, Andrew Luck, today, because I was so wrong about him for so long because I didn't know he was injured. So I'll send you that clip. You'll be very happy.

I acknowledge Andrew Luck is the guy you said he was. I came on your show and compared him to Ryan Tannahill, like a total dupus. I was wrong. Colin was right. I owned it. We're moving on. Nick Wright, good talking to you. Yeah.

Well, I mean, everybody's not. You know, I once said on the air that Juan Dixon, University of Maryland, would take over the NBA. And Kevin Durant couldn't bench 185. I had doubts about him. So it happens. You know, we're not in the perfect business. Bill Belichick whiffs on draft picks. It happens, okay?

Yeah, my batting average is like John just said in my ear. It's like 980. It's not a thousand. Okay, I've whipped a couple of times. Coming up next, John Gruden said something that, It was wildly entertaining, but didn't need to be said, and I can't really figure out why he said it, and that's coming up next.

In L.A., it's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped.

up in the chase, that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about on healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app.

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode.

The World Cup is coming. Ramers sending on to Ernie Stewart the Chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Bo. On our podcast, Inside American. soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic. I'm not worried about Balagan.

I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge

surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience at all? with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Great to have you in. Mike Tomlin and John Gruden, our first ballot Hall of Fame sound bike quarter head coaches. They're great. So let me ask you a question. If you're, let's say you came home, your wife spent three hours making lasagna.

I mean, she really put time into it. She would just felt like making you a great dinner. And you sat down and said, looked at it and said, yeah, I think I want Cheetos for dinner. That would be rude. Right? That'd be rude. So last year, John Gruden had Derek Carr. He completed 69% of his throws. He threw for over 4,000 yards. And his passer rating was 94. That's with a bad offensive line, massive change, and letting Amari Cooper walk. That's a pretty good year. In a tough division, Chargers, chiefs. and here's what Derek Carr said about, here's what John Gruden said about his lasagna. Here's what he said about his quarterback situation.

This Nate Peterman is growing on me. He's athletic. I know he's had some nightmare performances in the NFL, but when you watch a film, you can see why. It's not all his fault. But he's got some talent, he's got some athleticism. He has some experience. Here's an opening day starter for the Buffalo Bills last year.

I take that very serious. And he's smart. He's done a good job. He's been consistent. And I think he's starting to get his confidence back. And we all need that. He's your third string quarterback. Could you say something nice about Derek Carr?

Take out Derek Carr's rookie year. And I've said this. Take out Baker, Sam Darnold, Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Troy Akeman. A lot of these guys have had horrible rookie years. Take out a quarterback's first year in the league. start with year two. With coaching up evil, bad rosters, tough division. Derek Carr's numbers.

Last four years, take out his rookie year. Complete 64% of his throws, 92 passer rating, 101 touchdowns, 42 picks. Over 4,000 yards, 250 yards per game. That's pretty good. That's a solid B quarterback to me. Why don't you talk about Derek Carr? and then Derek Carr's a guy that needs a little love. I mean, the Raiders don't even, they're playing in a lame duck stadium.

They got two broadcasters, coach and GM. They got rid of his best defensive player and his best offensive player. They're rebuilding big chunks of their football team. Why don't talk about Nate Peterman? I don't even, it's, Gruden sounded like a broadcaster talking about a backup who's challenging a starter for a job. This is, Peterman's got something going on, man. He's got a charm.

So I'm not, I don't want to do, I just, this morning I said. And I, and I, the order on this is close. I didn't give this a ton of time. But I said, here's about, this is what I would say this morning are my top 15 quarterbacks in the league. Brady, Mahomes, Luck, Wilson, Rogers, Ben, Rivers, Breeze, Matt Ryan, Wentz, Goff, Garapolo, Deshaun, Derek Carr, Matt Stafford. Cam's probably 16. Baker's Price 17. So Derek Carr is very much in the Deshawn Watson, Matt Stafford, been a good solid B,

hasn't won enough big games, but a good solid B. But yet Derek Carr is the only one of those 15 where don't you kind of feel like the coach doesn't like him? Isn't Derek Carr the one of the 15 quarterbacks there, virtually everybody? is singing the praises, has their back financially. Hell, Carson Wentz can't stay healthy. They just paid him $140 million. Can't stay healthy. Derek Carr is the only guy at the top 15 quarterbacks,

and maybe I have him higher than you do, but I've got him somewhere in the Garoppolo, Deshawn, Matt Stafford, Jared Goff. I think Goff's a better armed talent, but, you know, I don't get it. And you think I'm picking on the Raiders. You know, by the way, Gruden talked about how much he loved Kyler Murray before the draft. Could we give a little, could you sprinkle a little of that, those love sprinkles on the cupcake,

on the Derek Carr Cupcake? Could you just sprinkle a little love around there? Derek Carr's dealt with upheaval. He's moving the franchise. He, you know, Raiders have been a mess. Offensive line has been rebuilt. They got rid of Amari. They got rid of Khalil Mack.

Little love. support, not asking for the world here. It is remarkable. You know, the other thing I saw that, you know, I was talking about with Nick Wright about quarterback is not a static position. Guys get better and guys age.

Breeze and Tom Brady, I picked up on this about two years ago and Bucky Brooks called and said I'd never heard that. I said, if you really did a deep dive on Tom Brady's December numbers, he looks tired. Tom doesn't have the arm strength. It's okay. Tom's not taking

PEDs. This is how you age, even if you drink kale milkshakes. Drew Breeze at the end of last year. Drew Breeze did not look very good, couldn't get the ball down the field later in the year. What is interesting, though, is if you look at Dak Prescott, a young quarterback, he was sensational in his last eight games last year against four playoff teams, seven and one, 72% completion. I don't know the answer to this. We did a last eight weeks of the season. We'll do a blind resume, and I don't know the answer.

I don't know who this is. So for our radio audience, the graphic shows DAC on the left in his last eight games. And I do think the last eight games of a season matter because Bill Belichick has always said football starts at Thanksgiving. That's when the NFL matters. New England does not play well in January. Andy Reid's always been great in January. The frustration for Andy is, is he great in December and January? He's always played great in September.

So just to give you a sense that quarterback, the business, position is not static. Veteran quarterbacks can show age, late in season, and young quarterbacks can improve later in seasons as they get more comfortable with a playbook and a coaching staff. So my staff put this up here. For the radio listeners, I apologize. Dak Prescott's last eight games, then there's two silhouettes. And the silhouettes next to Dak Prescott, one quarterback went four and three, the other

three and five, both completed a significantly lower completion percentage. both, by the way, had lower passer ratings and similar TD to interception ratios. So can you unveil who this is for the TV audio? Oh, Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers. How about that? So it's a thing. Like this quarterback thing, veteran guys at the end of years can erode. Young guys at the end of a year can elevate.

They're healthy. still have a little kick in their spring in their foot and then their arm and they get better with coaching and more experience and see more films. Just the reality of being a young employee, you get better. So for all the DACDouters out there, interesting numbers. Last eight games, he was better than Brady and Aaron Rogers. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day seven days a week within the IHeart radio app.

Search Hurd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing,

we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth?

Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliver 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 walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clipper.

on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on the only score at the chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Boe. On our podcast, inside American soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic.

I'm not worried about Balagan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. You're going to look at stats and numbers. He has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals

or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. Ah, here we go, hour two. This live in Los Angeles is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening.

We are live in Los Angeles on Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me and Greg Kosell in about three minutes stops by, so don't go anywhere. Joy, how are you? I'm doing great. You know how in our business, Joy, people always say they don't listen. Right. But they always hear it. Okay.

They push back on social media. Everybody says, I never hear the noise. Listen, if there was a guy on radio and TV blasting you all day, would you not hear you? day. Would you not hear about it, if not directly from friends? So Nick Saban, I don't listen to the critics. Really? So a week ago, I blasted Alabama. I said, the reason you're struggling to sell out your games, even though you're winning all your football games, is this garbage home schedule you give to your fans. It's garbage. Three or four times a year, they play Panera bread and roast beef tech. And Alabama students are like, I'm not paying top dollar for this,

I'm not waiting for the Auburn game. I'm not waiting for the Georgia game. It's garbage. So a day later, Alabama does something they haven't done in six years. They schedule a home and home with Wisconsin. Oh, interesting. They don't hear, though. Nick never hears anything. Alabama is shrinking their stadium this year, shrinking capacity. Why?

Because kids don't want to go even though they win. Because fans want to be entertained. It's not entertaining beating Citadel 58 to 8. And I like Nick Saban, but he controls four games a year on that schedule. and he won't play legitimate teams. Well, it's really difficult for us to get a home and home. Funny, two days after I ripped you, you found Wisconsin. It's not hard at all, but you have to be willing to go to Wisconsin.

Call Chris Peterson it at Washington. They'll do a home and home with you, but you're going to have to go to Seattle, and you don't like leaving the South. You don't like going on the road. Because in year four, Nick Saban lost three games at Alabama, and he said, I'm not going on the road anymore. and he started messing around with his schedule. Pete Carroll at USC didn't duck anybody.

Pete Carroll would go to Virginia Tech and not get a home game back. Pete Carroll would go to Ohio State. Pete Carroll would go anywhere anytime. He went to Auburn. He went to Arkansas. He went to Virginia Tech. Pete Carroll went anywhere. He wasn't afraid of anybody with USC's talent.

He went to Virginia Tech one year with a great team. And I don't think they ever came back out to L.A. Because Pete Carroll knew in Los Angeles, people aren't going to tolerate Utah State. They want to be entertained. And Alabama fans are like, we're tired of eating crap. They want to go to Wisconsin and see Wisconsin come. And don't tell me the SEC is just too tough.

I'll give me a break. If it's too tough, why do you win it every year on a cakewalk? George is good. Everybody else in that conference underachieves the last decade. Lord. I mean, next year, in next year, Alabama is three out of conference games. are Georgia State, Kent State, and UT Martin. And then they play USC, but they won't play USC on the road.

Well, let's go to Dallas and play them, which, you know, you have like 80% of the crowd because people in L.A. are too busy Botoxing. Okay, I'm done ranting. I'm done now. But don't tell me you don't listen. A day after I ran it, and that's nothing against Nick, I like Nick. But the reason people aren't going to your games is because you play garbage. You can't keep hiking the prices up.

Sometimes you just got to hear the truth, Colin. Yeah, dang it. All right, Greg Kosell, almost three or four decades of four. You're right in between three and a half decades at NFL films. We bring him in to Los Angeles a couple times a year. Greg, get up here. Sorry, I just went unhinged there for a couple minutes. I was a little unhinged for a couple minutes.

But this is why, listen, the reality is, in anything, if you double the ticket prices for movies and the movies stunk half the time, you wouldn't go to the movies, right? You're right. If a restaurant doubled their prices, about every other time you went to a restaurant, you're like, this food's not very good. You wouldn't go to the restaurant. So do you think the SEC isn't as good as people say?

No, no, I think the SEC's fine. But I'm tired of hearing it's so hard to win games here. It's hard to go 11 and O in the Mountain West Conference. It's hard to win games. It's a bunch of 18-year-old kids. Yeah. They have finals and girlfriends, and they're transferring now and they leave early for the event. Well, you didn't mention Utah State.

We'll get to that in a second. We're going to get to that. There's an interesting player at Utah State. Yes, there is. Okay, Greg, you look at. film objectively. And so we talked about, you know, you were one of the first people who said, I like Aaron Rogers, but he had Libs at a too many well-conceived plays. So knowing what Matt LaFleur did for a year in Tennessee and knowing Aaron Rogers, how does that thing reconcile? How does it work

do you think? It's going to be fascinating because the LeFloor's background, as you know, Colin, is Kyle Shanahan. It's Sean McVeigh. Last year, toward the end of the year in Tennessee, He basically put Mario to under center, ran the ball with Derek Henry. His offense starts with the quarterback under center with the play action pass game, and it's all built on structure. Look what Kyle Shanahan did with Nick Mullins. Nick Mullins became a somewhat efficient quarterback because that kind of offense defines the reeds and the throws for the quarterback. The quarterback has to play within the structure of the offense. That's why coaches work 18 hours a day.

That's why they do that. So it's going to be very interesting with Aaron Rogers, who, of course, already said, hey, you're going to take away my ability to do a lot of things. But we'll see how that works out. I'm curious to see. I'm not real optimistic about that. You're not. No, I'm not. I think Aaron Rogers has spent much of his recent career playing too much outside of structure.

When you watch tape, okay, this is not, by the way, an interpretation. This is a mathematical equation here. This is like saying two and two is four. When you watch tape of Aaron Rogers, there's a ton of times where the design of the route concept presented the throw within the timing and structure, and he did not throw the ball. Now, we know he's great in other areas. We know he can make things happen outside of structure. We know he's got a great arm. But at the end of the day, you have to play in the NFL within the structure of the offense to be really, really good all the time.

And I'm anxious to see how that works. Um, coaching obviously matters. The knock, uh, Mike McCarthy was not creative enough, not enough motion, blah, blah, blah. Right. But sometimes I could argue we may give the coach too much credit. I like Sean McVeigh a lot. But when I watch Jared Gough, I see a tall, coachable, solid throwing, accurate, precise thrower of the football who throws a feathery ball down the field.

I love McVeigh. But I think we're, we are overlooking what I, what I, what I, I see as a more talented Matt Ryan and Jared Goff. I think Jared Goff's a very smooth thrower. You know, you walk a very fine line because ultimately coaches are supposed to do a good job in defining the reads and the throws collar. And that's their job. Sean McVeigh did an excellent job with that, basically until the Super Bowl when Bill Belichick gave

him some looks and, you know, he's a young coach, and he even admitted he wasn't ready to respond to that. But Goff is a somewhat programmed quarterback. Now, that in and of itself is not a negative statement. Some would say that about Brady. Correct. I mean, if you talk to coaches or you just talk to people and say, you know, system quarterback, a lot of people think that's a negative term.

For a coach, that's a positive term because they have a system and they want it executed. Jared Goff executed Sean McVeigh's system at a very high level. He's done that now for two years in a row. And, you know, Goff is, he's very programmed. They're under center more than any team in the league. Oh, they are. More than any team in the league by far. They're under center, not much shotgun at all.

Everything is built off the outside zone run action game, which limits pass rush by the front four, and it also impacts second-level players. So the reeds become very defined and clear for a quarterback. Gough is not real good when it's not clear and defined, but Sean McVeigh does a great job with that. That's why I use the word program. That's what Gough is.

He's programmed, but very, very efficient. By the way, Drew Brees is more programmed. Brady is more... Nothing wrong with that. Jared Gough, Joe Montana. Here's talented guys that weren't. Marino, no Super Bowls, Favre, and Rogers combined two. We buy into this. I love my talent. Peyton Manning, to some degree, had a system that he had created and played within the structure of Peyton's own system.

I think we freak out if we're so caught up in arm strength and we're, listen, the reality is... And outside of structure now, that's become the new thing, these guys who can run around and make plays. And yes, are there times that that does become important because defenses have become so detailed and so nuanced, particularly on third down, where the blitz packages have increased tenfold in the league? So yes, are there times the quarterback does have to be able to make a play? No question. Okay, so this is where you and I have differed a little. Russell Wilson, who I think is as in, his intuition is remarkable. I would agree. But he needs, because of his hyper-athleticism, he needs to be allowed and his size, his stature.

So with Russell, I see some Steve Young, which is you'd be defusing some of his talent if you didn't allow him to just kind of make it up. On film, is Russell confounding to you sometimes? I think what most interested me about Seattle last year, and I'd love to hear your take on this, is they brought in Brian Schaenheimer, and obviously Pete Carroll allowed this to happen. That's why he brought him in. But they ran an offense that started and was founded on the run game, a lot of under center, a lot of six offensive linemen.

So they basically ran an offense in which they were limiting the number of throws of the quarterback and basically asking him to be a complementary piece, which is very interesting given that we see Russell Wilson as a great, great player. But the way they ran their offense pretty much said, hey, we've got a quarterback. We don't want to ask him to do too much. But because Wilson is a very good thrower and a terrific deep ball thrower, by the way. So there were a lot of big shot plays where Max protected with six and seven,

particularly when they lined up with six offensive linemen, and he's a great deep ball thrower. But the overall philosophy of their offense was more about Russell is a piece, not the guy. But is that Pete Carroll's identity where Pete, like Saban, don't lose it for me offensively, all win it defensively. I mean, he is a defensive coach. And certainly in Russell's first, what was it, three years? I can't remember when Marchand left. But certainly in the first three years or so with Russell there, the offense ran through Marchand.

And last year it essentially ran through Chris Carson. I mean, I think they ran the ball, and I know there's some of Russell's runs in this, but I think they ran the ball either first or second most attempts in the league last year. They were a running football team in terms of volume and in terms of structure with the quarterback under center. Yeah, I'm not opposed to that. I don't want my quarterback throwing 42 times a game. I don't think anybody does. I want 28, and I want you to go 21 to 28?

That's what I would want. You know, it's hard to protect. I mean, you look at the way defensive players now have become so athletic. And look, offensive linemen, yes, have they become more athletic? But the reality is you could still make the argument, Colin, that the biggest mismatch in the NFL is pass rushers versus offensive linemen. Athletically? There's no question.

So you do not want your offensive line to have to pass protect 45 times a game. Now, it's one thing on first and 10. Now, a lot of teams do a lot of things on first down or a normal down-in-distance situations with quick game stuff where the ball gets out. But you certainly don't want to ask your quarterback to have five-and-seven-step drops too often because it's just too much of a burden on your pass protection. All right, Greg Kossel, coming back. We'll talk Baker, we'll talk Donald, we'll talk Lamar, we'll talk Drew Brees,

who I thought really looked old at the end of last. year, which tells me Drew's not taking PEDs and he's aging naturally. That's why I can tell that he's on the up and up. That's coming up with Greg CoSell. Listen, it's the middle of the night. You're tossing turning. You want a cool, comfortable night, especially in August and early September in most of the country. It's warm outside. That's where Casper comes in. Not only great, great four layers of pressure relieving foam, but breathable foams designed to keep you cool all night. And when I love about Casper, they've got the duvets, the bedding, the bed frames. We have one of their dog beds and six beds.

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and get a Casper 100 nights. Risk free. Caspber.com, code 8GRD. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending. opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the question. questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines,

as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert 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 walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. podcast point game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you. you get your podcasts. All right, Greg Kosell, welcome back. Just love this stuff. All right, let's get into stuff. My job as a sports opinion is to have opinions beyond the film. You primarily overwhelmingly work. You do the film stuff.

So Baker Mayfield's whizzing the ball, planting flags, grabbing his junk, police video. So I've been very critical of Johnny Mansell, James Winston, Baker Mayfield, coming into the NFL with their off-field garbage. Now, one of those guys is a bust. One of those guys is close to Dun. And Baker's yet to me to prove he's a great player. A lot of people disagree. He's only played one year, but he had a very good season.

Okay, he's one in five against playoff teams. He was a rookie quarterback. I mean, I hear out great. I mean, all I'm doing is looking at his particular skill set, and I think his skill set is very, very good. And I think you've got to see him throw it alive. He's got a really good arm. He snaps it. He's compact.

He's twitchy. He's accurate. He can make plays outside of the pocket. Short. Yeah, but I think because he's so quick in everything he does that that's not a big factor. I mean, I think he's a quicker, more compact thrower than Russell Wilson, who tends to drop the ball down to his waist when he throws the ball. But I think Baker Mayfield has very good traits to be a really good quarterback. I'm not a guy who, you know, annoyance guys after one year in the league.

I think that's ridiculous. The guy's played one year. He's played very well. I like the player on tape. What about Sam Darnold? What do you think of him? I think he's terrific. I think Darnold is in a good situation with Adam Gase.

I think Donald's a fascinating guy. Donald is actually very good movement-wise outside of the pocket, but there's an interesting dichotomy there, Colin, because he almost has heavy feet in the pocket, and I know they're working with him on that. It's why he throws a lot of balls seemingly off-balance because his footwork in the pocket, he has a tough time moving his feet with his eyes,

but he does have a knack of making off-balance throws that are accurate, and he does throw a very good deep ball. I like Sam Darnel. I like where he's going. I thought he was very inconsistent last year, but I think there's talent there, and I really like what Adam Gase does offensively. Okay, so let's explain that because I think Gase and, and by the way, Lavian Bell as a pass catching and running back, I also think, and Jameson Crowder,

a slot receiver. I do think Sam inherited mostly inferior support. O-line, back receiver talent, I thought was kind of weak. I think their O-line might be a little better than you think. I think obviously they've got a back-in-bell. Bell in his last year in the league, he caught a lot of balls, but he wasn't really used much as an intermediate type receiver. It was a lot of checkdowns and a lot of screens. Adam Gase, I guarantee, will use Bell in a more diverse way as a receiver, and I think they're really excited about that.

They feel Bell can add that. They're going to miss Chris Hernd in the tight end, who they absolutely love. He's a guy you can split out wide. He'll miss the first four games. They've got Robbie Anderson, who's clearly a vertical dimension. But they don't have great receivers. But I think they'll be an interesting team as the year progresses when they get herned and back. And I think Adam Gase does a really nice job with his route concepts.

He's really good at attacking defenses, understanding what defenses are playing, and designing routes that beat coverage. I say Mitch Trubisky and Lamar Jackson are similar to me. I think they have ceilings that are fairly low as throwers. They're both athletic. And they need on their rookie deals a lot of support to win. when you eventually have to pay him, I don't think they're as good, say, as DAC

who gets a lot of criticism. I think Dax better than both. I think Trubisky and Lamar are limited. So, Joy and I were talking about this yesterday. Baltimore's gone all in on Lamar's running, and they're like, we've got to run him 20 times, we've got to. Part of me, Joy and I are like, that doesn't work in this league long term.

But as he's growing as a quarterback, could I not argue for a year, that's what Seattle did with Russell. Make plays until you figure out the... Yeah, but Russell was a better thrower. Look, Lamar did not throw the ball well last year. He actually threw it better his last year at Louisville than he did last year in the NFL. Wow.

Now, they have Greg Roman as their offensive coordinator. And as you may recall, Greg Roman was the offensive coordinator for Colin Kaepernick. In the first couple of years, Kaepernick played well. And they're going to run a lot of that stuff. It'll be a lot of multiple tight ends. It'll be run game. The quarterback will be a part of that. The thing is, I think the league defense is that better now than they did when Kaepernick started

doing it because it was kind of new to the NFL. At some point, Lamar is going to. have to throw the ball from the pocket. You have to do that in the league. What they want to do, obviously, is try to create situations in which they can get predictable fronts, predictable coverages, and then have Lamar throw versus those where everything is defined for him. Now, obviously, he can run and he can create problems for defenses with his running. The question is, how much can you do that on a week-to-week basis? Yeah, and I think when you get to the playoffs and you face better defenses and better coaches and better coordinators, that's where I think

Trubisky and Lamar. Trubisky was frustrating for Matt Nagy last year in the playoffs. There were plays he couldn't make. And Nagy does a really nice job as well, scheming throws. But Trubisky, and again, it doesn't mean Trubisky can't be successful. And I made this point a couple of weeks ago to someone, and I took a lot of grief for it. Tribisky's not a natural thrower of the football. He's not. He's got kind of a funky delivery.

He's a little bit of a pusher. He lifts his back leg off the ground before he delivers the ball, which means he locks his front leg, which makes it difficult from him to really drive the football. So he's got some limitations as a passer. But again, now you're getting into scheme. Nagy's scheme can really help him. It doesn't mean he can't throw 26 touchdowns and be at least a quality NFL quarterback.

I'm not suggesting he's going to throw four touchdowns and 30 picks, but I think there are some limitations to his throwing ability. So the only question you never answer on my show, and it makes me laugh, is, and I agree with you, when people suggest. Okay. When people suggest that Nick Foles is better than Carson Wins. Well, that's ridiculous.

You just won't answer the question. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's not even worth the conversation. Exactly. You and I can have a cocktail, be looking for conversation, and would not. And by the way, I love Nick Foles. You know, and he's a terrific guy.

I've met him, been around him. You know, I think he's a really professional NFL quarterback. You can line up and win with Nick Fawls. I mean, look, he won a Super Bowl. But I'm talking about over the course of 16 games as you're starting quarterback. You win some games. You can line up and win with Nick Folesack. But if you're just talking about level of talent, Carson Wence, talent-wise, is probably top five, top six in the league.

You would never talk about Nick Foles like that. By the way, so you were at Eagles Camp. I was at Eagles Camp on Saturday. People say Wence is thinned out. He looks great. Yeah, and also they've got some weapons this year. I mean, Deshaun Jackson gives him the vertical weapon. There's a nice rapport developing there.

They've got two really good tight ends. I think their two tight-end sets are going to be really difficult for teams because Dallas Goddard is very athletic. He's more athletic than Ertz. Ertz is a better route runner, obviously, at this point. But Goddard's a really intriguing player. I think Philadelphia, there's three teams, four teams in the NFL, five teams in the NFL, that I really feel are favorites to win it all. Philly, Rams, Patriots, Chiefs, Colts.

Colts are interesting. I mean, their offense was very good a year ago. Andrew Luck is very good. Frank Wright did a great job. Yeah, let's explain their offense because Luck actually had his best. Well, Luck had his best year for a couple of reasons. Number one, what Reich did is design and offense in which there were many more three-step and five-step drops, so the design of the play forced Luck to get the ball out.

So Luck ran less, was less of a reckless player, did not put his body in harm's way. Plus, I think he understands that he can't do that. But there were much more designed throws in which the ball came out quicker. Plus, they did a lot of multiple tight-end stuff. Multiple tight-end stuff can be very tough on defenses, especially if those tight-ends can line up outside the formation and be detached like in Eric Ebron. Because what happens is his teams normally play their base personnel to that, and you can often get mismatches with athletic tight-in.

Yeah, 6-7 tight-in who runs. Eric Ebron has almost big wide receiver movement ability, so it becomes very difficult. And then, of course, you know, even without great wide-outs, they did not have great wide-outs a year ago, although I think T.Y. Hilton's a lot better than people think. But it's just he's not 6-2-220. But they did a great job schematically to set up. throws four luck so the ball came out. And I'm anxious to see Marlon Mack this year in the context of that offense.

By the way, before we let you go, Greg, and Greg's on tomorrow for another 20 minutes. We give almost nobody 20 minutes. I'm not sure if Howard Stern walked in, I'd give him 20 minutes. I appreciate that. Okay. So you're going to give our fans, there's a college quarterback that nobody watching this show has seen play in a state I dearly love. Tell me the quarterback in college to keep everybody keep your eyes on this kid if they're on TV this year. Jordan Love, Utah State. Would not surprise me if he stays healthy,

if he's viewed as a top 10, top five quarterback in next year's draft. Okay, by the way. You can hold me to that. I've been wrong, but I don't think I will be. Okay. Carson Wentz came out of nowhere. Josh Allen, Wyoming came out of nowhere. We've had. And by the way, we talked about Josh Allen two years ago, and I told you about him. You did. So this kid is Jordan Love, Utah State. Okay. We're writing that down. Goulet, why don't you do something for a change? Write that down for me. Okay. What'd you say, would you say, Goula? 6-4-225. He's got Carson Wentz, Bill. And he throws it really nicely. He's an over-the-top thrower and you don't see that very often anymore. Good. Great seeing you. We'll see you tomorrow. I'm working forward to it. Joy with the news.

No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, bad news for the Bengals. A.J. Green's timetable to return to the field might be longer than initially predicted. He had ankle surgery yesterday and he's expected to miss regular season games and Zach Taylor confirmed that yesterday. Oh boy. There's a good chance he's going to miss a couple games. We're hopeful he's back at the beginning of the season. So a little more extensive than we initially thought, but we're thankful that it wasn't a lot worse and he'll get a chance to still show all the things that he was setting out to do this season and he's a fighter. Boy, they feel lost as a franchise right now. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is bad news for them. He's expected to miss six to eight weeks. He had torn legaments and

his left ankle. I mean, in the last three years, they've gone six and ten, seven and nine. Six and nine. I didn't like their draft. I thought their draft was weird. I thought they reached on people. There were one of the few teams. I didn't like their draft at all. And he missed seven games in

2018, too, with the right toe injury. Which is the long as absence. Such a great player. It would be amazing to see him in a different situation, right? He feels like one of those players that just is a standout player for an organization that can't get the right piece around him. There's no question.

There's been my entire life in the NFL. You see these players and you're like, God, I wish they would have been given a break and have played with the... Like they shine in the situation where no one does. And it's crazy to imagine what he would be with someone like Deshawn Watson. I mean, could you imagine? Look at DeAndre Hopkins situation. AJ's really good.

He's really a pro. Hard worker, quiet, no nonsense. Just a kid. Now, that's a receiver I would pay for. Right. I get no nonsense. The only downside to him is he's been banged up. Some of that's just they've relied on him for seven years.

Exactly. I mean, he's the guy they go to. So, speaking of being banged up, Todd Gurley recently told reporters to stop putting bad energy on his knee. And that has not stopped the questions. There's more energy going towards that knee. And Sean McVeigh seems to be over all the questions of Gurley's knee also. He's feeling good and he's right on track with where we want him to be. I do. And you know what?

A player of his caliber that's as a specialist he is. That's to be expected, but he's in a good place, and we feel good about Todd right now. Negative vibe. Listen, it's the Rams addressed this, though. I'll give the Rams credit. They went out and drafted a very good running back from Memphis in the third round. So they're not, they don't have their head in the sand here. No, they're not ignoring it.

Nope. And they're, their, Gurley's going to be a 16-carry guy, not a 24, so they got to pay him, so let's make this puppy work. But the thing about the paying him is football, right? This is a risk you take any time. You pay any football player no matter what the position is. Todd Gurley was the best or top three running back in the league when he got paid. He's the highest paid running back in the league for a reason.

He backed back to 1800 yards seasons. But we're looking at it now and what happened in the Super Bowl, 10 carries 35 yards, and you're wondering what happens? How does that drop off happen? And of course that's why all this bad energy is going towards the knee. It's not because people want him to continue to fail. They want to know what happened, and is he going to get back to where he was? Now, the good news is Jared Goffs a year older.

Like Dak, I think quarterbacks tend to get better. He's not going to have to rely on him as much. Cooper Cup is back. So they have a great wide receiving court. They have good tight ends, solid but aging offensive line. They have a very good head coach. They drafted a running back. So the good news is they really needed Todd Gurley two years ago to carry this offense.

Now they just need Todd Gurley at time. to be the work course. And that's fine. I don't think that any team should ever get caught up in, you know, we talked about this a lot with Des Brian and Zach. He shouldn't get caught up and you pay this guy this much or this guy is a superstar, so let's force everything to him to make this contract worth it. The contract is the contract. It is what it is. Don't get caught up in the money of it and do what's best for the team, which drafting and running back would prove that. So he doesn't need to be the every down guy. He needs to be able to do what he's best at in spurts, like

he said. Hopefully his knee holds up. Finally, Khalil Mac, feels a sense of urgency to push towards a Super Bowl title while he's still performing at an elite level. He talked to reporters yesterday and recalled conversations with his former teammates, Charles Woodson and Justin Tuck, about players' limited time frames. You're running out of time, man. It's not that much time. All these older dudes, because they kind of let us know, man, at the early point of my career. It's like, man, we ain't got no time to waste, man. We're trying to win. Absolutely. You got to win. We've got to win now. I'll tell you, their defensive personnel, they have a good roster. The Bears were dysfunctional. They were the Lions.

I mean, if you take out that brief time with Jim McMahon, they've been a lot like the Lions for the last 20 years. You always feel like owner, GM. The only difference with the Bears is Chicago is such a sports city. Yes. That it never really felt like it was that bad. And, you know, they had Erlacker. Like, they had some stars in and out there. But I don't know what to make of the Bears.

Like I think they have a really talented team. And obviously they made the playoffs last year. They were 12 and 4. Mitch Trubisky showed some promise. But I don't think Mitch Trubisky is ready to win a Super Bowl. I don't know if he's, I don't know if Mitch Trubisky can win a road playoff game. I think it's Soldier Field. He could win one bad weather.

They run the hell out of it. They play defense. If you send him down to a warmer weather in January and said, go carry us in a firework show. But boy, I'll tell you what, I love their coach. I love their young GM. They have big time players everywhere on this roster. And they don't have bad odds to win the Super Bowl. What about 15 to 1?

They are. Well, the Patriots are favored, obviously, at plus 700. Bears down there at plus 900. That's a little high, but they're in the Cleveland Brown category. Yeah, which. And I think they have a better. Well, and I think the bears have a better coach. Well, I mean, yeah, we have no idea what Freddie Kitchens is.

So you have to feel better about their personnel in that. guard. But I just, I think they're going to be what they were last year. I just don't I don't know that Chibisky, like said. Good, but a lower ceiling. Yeah. I don't think he's there yet. Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The herd lie news. You know, Rob Parker, it just comes and just lights a big fire on the set. He's got all sorts of opinions and it just they just drive people crazy. And Rob Parker's right around the corner. I'm so much fun. Greg CoSell. I, I

I know that whole meat sandwich thing. It's just, I feel like I'm just eating a huge burger, and it just got so much. And now Rob Parker's going to come and spoil it, and he's just going to throw matches and gasoline on the set. And he's coming up. Just got aluminum to carry on from away luggage. It's incredible luggage. Every feature of away bags perfectly engineered to make you the consumer feel like you got the perfect luggage. I want you to go to awaytravel.com slash Colin.

away travel.com slash Colin, 20 bucks off when you enter the promo code, Colin at checkout away luggage. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games,

from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action, with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing,

We get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro.

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose

on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, Wreck,

my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano,

and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways. to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys

like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, Like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing.

That man, hell get to fly. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tonight, some of soccer's biggest names, including Wayne Rooney's Latson Ibrahimovich and Yosephinez, Join forces to battle at Letico, Madrid, in the MLS All-Star game. Catch the action at 730 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app.

By the way, Wayne Rooney's had a good year. The MLS does a good job of taking aging European stars, bring them over, let him star for a team. Wayne Rooney has like 10 or 11 goals, top five in the MLS. Slotin has 16 goals, third in the MLS. A very, very smart business move. We're going to bring over aging stars for a growing sport, fledgling sport in America, growing league, and we're going to let it, we're going to insert a David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. it works. They're not, they're very good players. You know who did that before?

Who? Remember the New York Cosmos with Pele and Georgio O'Connalia. And Franz Beckenbauer, all great stars who came and played. I went to a game at Giant Stadium. Well, the Cosmos were great. They were great. Beck and Bowler for the Equalizer. Very nice. So I, you were doing baseball. I was falling in love with soccer years ago. I remember that very vividly. Okay, so you are, you do not like Dak Prescott. What? I'm just going by the number. numbers. It's not a personal thing. Seven and one last eight games. He's a real

leader. He's a real grown-up. There's no nonsense. There's no grabbing your stuff. He's a real grown-up. I get all that, but don't kid yourself. Ezekiel Elliott is the reason why the Cowboys are on the level where people think they have a chance to win a Super Bowl.

We've seen it without winning. Ezekiel's not there. Dak is not that same quarterback. We just had the athletic poll with 55 NFL front office and coach. right? And where did he rank? Third tier quarterback. That's a fair rating. He can't win you a game by itself. Okay, Cam Newton was also in the third tier. Why do we support Cam and always bang on Dak? Because I think Dak isn't even in his prime yet. I think Cam's coming out of his prime.

Yeah, but the difference is you saw Cam put on that unbelievable MVP season. He got his team to the Super Bowl. They were 15 and 1. So you've got to give him some credit for that. We've seen him. No, he had one. He did have a good. great year. I've watched NBA basketball. There are guys that have great years. Baseball, Brady Anderson out of the blue hits 50 jacks. I remember that. Yeah, there are guys who have great ears, but

Cam over time, I think is underachieved expectations. I think Dak's overachieved, and I still think he's getting better. But I think, Dak, everything has to be perfect. And that's the thing. You've got to have the defense, got to have the offensive line, got to have the running back. And then you can cover up some things. When you

ask him to be that guy, you can't tell me right now, game on the line 45 seconds ago when you're giving the ball to Dak Prescott to win the game. I can name you 10 other guys I'd rather have the football.

But if he's 11, who else is out there? Well, but I'm just saying I'm not paying a third-tier quarterback $30 million. Those other 10 guys I can't sign. And here's the other thing. If Jerry Jones does not sign Ezekiel Elliott, given with all the stuff on the table, he's trying to win,

it'll be his second worst decision since him and Jimmy Johnson parted back in 1995. Back, you know, that was the last time. Jerry Jones and the Cowboys have won three or four playoff games since then. Barry Switzer came in and won, but that was Jimmy Johnson's team. And momento. And all that, you know it. And they haven't won since. Jerry, I can't believe that he's going to fumble this away by being cheap

and playing around with a guy who matters this much. Jerry Jones, stop playing a game. You're not going to win with Dak Prescott only. Do not do it. You remember he did it last time with Emmett. They didn't pay him. He set out the first two games. The Cowboys were 0 and 2.

I'm telling you the Cowboys can't give up any games. And Colin, it's not just two games, say if he held out and he didn't pay him after the first two games. Then it might take him game three, four to get back into shape. Well, Zeeke is a guy that can put on weight pretty quickly. So I'm just saying that might wind up costing you four games until he's back to football shape. I will say this. Philadelphia is the most talented team.

Maybe in the league, it's not a division to screw around. And the NFC, whereas the AFC is the conference of Brady, the NFC is the conference of parity. There's a bunch of good teams. And imagine if you mess around and don't have your running back and you lose to the Giants, a team you should beat. That would be one of those games. You look back and go, we gave that up. Why don't we give that up and go and play to Giants when we weren't at full strength? By the way, I do believe Michael Thomas is a good contract because I think Drew Breeze at the end

of last year was not the same quarterback. And this proves Drew Breeze is on the up and up. He's aging like you should age as a 40-year-old quarterback. His arm at the end of last year, they weren't throwing the ball vertically. Can you say wet noodle? I mean, really? So I think every year in the NFL, a good team pulls down. I think it's the Saints.

Max Unger. gone, Ingram, gone, breeze, aging. Frankly, I think Atlanta and Carolina bounce back. I think New Orleans comes back to a 500 team. And, Colin, not only that, this obsession with the play that cost them a chance at the Super Bowl, let it go, New Orleans. I just, what are you doing? They got a court case and somebody else.

They want the NFL to come down there and talk about it. There have been bad calls in the history of sports. Let it go. If they don't let it go to people of New Orleans, I might have to make up a voodoo doll and cost them and say that they never win another Super Bowl. You know, it's funny about it. After that bad, no call,

they kicked the field goal, took a lead. At home, still couldn't win. That's what, thank you. It's called a mirror. Nobody ever remembers that. Right. It was almost like the Cubs with the... Bartman.

Bartman, do you know that they still could have won that series? Everybody thinks that that was the end of the series. It wasn't. Right. So, you know, it's interesting. as a guy from Detroit, you should not like Aaron Rogers, but you tend to defend him. You're very tough on Detroit's quarterback Matt Stafford, who you call... Stat Patford.

He's pad stats. But Aaron Rogers, who owns Detroit, you love him. Even despite there's some arrogance, he's increasingly been hurt. He can be, I think it's fair to say, more challenging to coach than some quarterback. Certainly not all. Jay Cutler was a handful. But you still defend Aaron. Aaron Rogers to the hilt.

No doubt about it because the numbers bear it out. And Bucky Brooks, you know how buddy Bucky Brooks from... I love Bucky, a man of common sense. You know what? Bucky Brooks swung and missed big time when he said Aaron Rogers was overrated. There's no way you can call it. You might say he's been down the last couple years. He's got to show me something this year.

He's got to prove. I'll buy all that, okay? But to say a guy who owns six NFL quarterback records, who set a record last year with 402 consecutive completions, who has the all-time quarterback rating in the history of the league, not the last 10 years, the history of anybody who's ever played quarterback, who has the greatest touchdown to interception ratio of anybody.

He's 4.2 to 1. Tom Brady, who's a pretty darn good quarterback, is 2.5 to 1. That's how big the gap is. To call him overrated is ridiculous. I nominate Bucky Brooks for a job with the NFL and with the XFL as a general manager. That's where you belong with the XFL because your football analysis when you're talking about Aaron Brooks is not employed. Aaron Rogers.

Aaron Rogers, I mean. Bucky, what are you doing? Listen, I think Bucky is a man of common sense and integrity. And I think Aaron, Aaron Rogers hates me because I was the first and I stay on this. quarterback is about a lot of stuff. Michael Vic had a great, could we have that Michael Vic bite? Michael Vic talked about this yesterday.

Quarterback's different. And Michael Vic walked into the league, and he was probably the best athlete in the Atlanta Falcons. And Michael Vic never really understood first two years in the league. It doesn't matter. You're not one of the guys. Vic said this yesterday on the show. I remember my second year, Dan Reeves, you know,

before the game started, I was, you know, jumping around with the guys and super hyper. He pulled me to the side and said, oh, hold on, hold up. You're the quarterback. You got to be different. Because quarterback is about leadership. Is it fair to say about Aaron? I've got family members, players, teammates, coaches.

I've had enough leak saying he's difficult that in the leadership thing, sometimes he's a little stubborn and a little condescending and doesn't have a Montana or Brady or Russell Wilson ability to kind of galvanize play. simultaneous. He's not great always in that. Is that fair? Okay, that's fair, but I think that you would not be having this conversation if the tight end when they had Seattle beat didn't block the ball from Jordy Nelson on an on-side kick where they would have won and gone to the Super Bowl. He's had to play, and I'm not making excuses for him. It's just fact. His defense in big playoff games have given up

40 plus points at least three times. I might be missing one. It's almost impossible to win an NFL playoff game where your defense gives up 40 points. That's fair. Aaron Rogers has put them in position. The only reason year after year they've been in position to even be included in the talk is because of his ability. That's how good he is. Yeah, the criticism of the Packers' front office giving him a defense is absolutely just and fair. But I do think the last two years they've drafted and they've gone after defensive help.

So I think they finally took him six years to figure it out. They've kind of finally figured out. We've got to have a... By the way, Andrew Luck's first GM couldn't figure out he needed an offensive line in a running game. Sometimes the organizations don't give star quarterback support. Aaron, I do think we'll have defensive support. All right, before we let Rob Parker go, Fox softball league.

We got some videotape. Rob, explain what happens at the Fox Softball League. You're a baseball Hall of Fame voter. Yes, you know I love it. We got the video. I don't care about that. I want to see it. All right, here we go.

This is me at the bat in the last inning. And there it is. A walk-off RBI single. Oh, I thought it was a home run. No, it was a single. I'll take that. But we won the game. There's a walk-off for you?

It was a walk-off. Look, I was excited. My teammates were excited. You have an orange shirt. Well, we don't have any uniforms. Well, Fox hasn't purchased uniforms. We don't have uniforms. You see, I'm just excited.

Everybody's excited. Look at that swing. It's kind of bad swing. Hold on. You don't generate a ton of power. You kind of lunge. You ain't Mike Trout. I always say sports has a short menu.

Wins and losses. We got the W. Remember that. Congrats, Rob. Thank you. Congrats, Rob Parker, the instigator at FS1. Jane Slater around the corner latest on the Cowboys. It's the Herd. Thanks, buddy.

Thank you. Be sure to catch live editions of the Hurd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Jane Slater was on last week. liked her so much. We said, let's do it again. Now, you cover not only the Cowboys. We'll get to the Zeke stuff.

There's some information you just got on a text. I love when reporters are getting text as they're on the set. You also cover the Saints. They were newsworthy today in terms of making Michael Thomas one of the highest paid offensive guys ever that's not a quarterback, not a shock, right? Like this was Drew's getting older. They pay their offensive line a ton.

This was always going to happen, right? Shout out to my girlfriend, Diana Rusini, at ESPN. She was the one that broke the summer that they wanted to make him the highest paid receiver. And the number I was told that Michael was stuck on was this $20 million price tag. And that's what he got. What they realize is that Drew Breeze is better when you've got Michael Thomas. And Michael Thomas getting double teams last year and so much attention, they went out and got tied in Jared Cook. So they're excited about what they've got on the outside now.

Max Unger is gone from this team. Now, I do think their division will be better. I think Carolina, Atlanta bounced back. This is a tough division where you got Cam Newton, you're playing him twice, Matt Ryan, you're playing him twice. James Winston now has the offensive withered Bruce Ariens. I don't think they're quite the team. What do you make of the Max Unger? And again, fans don't care about centers.

That feels like a loss to me. It is, and it's one we're not talking about enough. I mean, Unger was so reliable as a starter for you there. but they went out and they got Eric McCoy. He's the kid from A&M. Cameron Tom is a guy that's been getting some reps there with the first time I was told. Don't read into that too much, though.

And then they've got the kid that they brought over from the Vikings Easton. So we'll see how that fleshes out. But I do think it's a storyline we're not talking enough about. But why do you think that the Saints are going to have a little bit of a fall off? Well, I think there's the emotional stigma of the loss of the Rams.

They're still talking about it. Unger, Mark Ingram gone. I think Drew Breyer. at the end of last year. Listen, this is why I know he's not taking steroids. He and Brady didn't have great December's. They're aging like men do it 40 athletically. He didn't throw the ball down the field.

He looked tired. Tom did not play well in the Super Bowl. Did not play well in the AFC championship. Tom and December's numbers last several years haven't been as good. It's the reality of, that's why I know these guys are clean, right? They're not hitting 58 homers at 38 years old. And I also think there's a reality to it is that Carolina, this is a huge year for Ron Rivera and Cam.

It'll be a very moated Carolina team. They got jobs on the line. I think Dan Quinn, he's got to win this year. Arthur Blank is fairly impatient. So I think this is a tougher than you think division. I think James plays better with Bruce. It's not that New Orleans is not great.

I just think, you know, outside, you know, the Patriots have this big advantage. They generally face three dysfunctional teams. This division, the NFC South, is kind of a coin flip. That's why it's always so fun to cover this one. But with that being said, everyone had the exact same line of thinking after the miracle in Minnesota. And then look what New Orleans was able to do last year. Now,

to your point, they don't have Mark Ingram. I do believe that that was far more of an emotional loss for them than even that Rams game. I mean, it hurt the players. Cameron Jordan, I know has been on your show. He's talked to me about it. I know that Alvin Camara hated seeing the boom and Zoom duo broken up, but they are confident what they're seeing from Latavius-Marie. And I think we're still going to see Taysam Hill utilized in ways that we haven't seen yet. The fact that he is able to play so many positions, I also know that that loss got in Sean Peyton's crawl space. And if there's any guy, you don't want to count out, especially when it comes to

bulletin board material, it's Sean Peyton. I'm not betting against that guy, especially when I saw how they were able to overcome a devastating loss on the road. to Minnesota, a year that they really should have been able to make a push for it. And even last year, I thought, had all of the pieces in place to really make a run at the Super Bowl. And how much better were the Super Bowl have been had we seen the Patriots and the Saints. Yeah. Let's go to Zeke Watch.

All right. Joy, you said earlier, Josina Anderson said they were getting close. Justina said they were getting close. Okay. So you cover the Cowboys. You've made calls. Jane, what do you hear? I'm hearing differently on that.

I reached out this morning and the text back I got on was close. Nope. And I said, what is the sticking point then? Are we talking guarantees? Are we talking extensions, Joy? The pushback I got was everything. Now, my follow-up question was, okay, well, do we anticipate we're going to see him show up in Oxnard on August 6, this arbitrary deadline we've been hearing about how it affects him being a restricted free agent after this year? The response was, we don't know. And when I was on your show last week, I was confident that Ezekiel Elliott was going to be at camp. Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones. were confident he was going to be at camp. Stephen Jones said it on the podium last Saturday. It was unexpected. And then you throw in the optics of this training in Cabo thing. Now look, he came back from suspension looking better than ever.

And he might very well be training on the golf courses he did last time, staying at Diamante, which is what his agent, Rocky Arsino owns a place there. But the optics of it is this ongoing issue with Ezekiel Elliott in Dallas. It's always optics. These incidents in the offseason are, do they? They rise to the criminal level? No, but it's the optics that they find themselves constantly waiting in. Rocky should have done is take Ezekiel Elliott and go to Wyoming and train, post videos of him being a beast in the gym.

But I think this is frustrating, and I know that the Cowboys aren't pleased about it. Well, I mean, if Zeke wasn't a football player, if there was a young man and you're like, we really like him, but the optics always look bad. You'd say, oh, he makes poor decisions. I think that's what Zeke does. He makes poor decisions. He's not a poor person. He's not a bad guy.

but there are immaturity issues. And I think Des had him early and they moved on him. Zeeks are a more impactful player than Des. You know, Jerry's funny. We view Jerry as pro player. Is that overstated? He is pro player. But I think what shouldn't get lost in this either.

Did you guys watch the All or Nothing special that was on Amazon? I watched two episodes, yeah. Okay. One of my favorite scenes from that, I think that spoke volumes, was Jerry Jones, coming from across his desk. You know, when you've got a boss, I'm sure you guys have all had him. They're not talking to you from across the desk.

He's sitting right next to you. And he pats Zika on the leg and he says, I went to bat for you. I was there for you. So I think that that shouldn't get lost in all of this in the sense that I think his management team needs to be careful here. What I respect about the Cowboys in that locker room

and the way they operate is this is not like a Pittsburgh situation. They're not throwing Zika under the bus. They get that this is a business decision. they want him to get paid. The Cowboys want him to be paid. I've told they feel good about the offer they put on the table right ahead of training camp. And the good news is, too, I think the encouraging news for fans is I'm told the lines of communication of stayed open. They're in constant contact with Ezekiel Elliott and his team. So it's not like they've walked away from this and said, we're disgusted by the offer. This is appalling. This is lowball. I haven't heard anything along

those lines. So the conversations continue. I think the other question we have to ask, and I don't know the answer to is how broke is Ezekiel Elliott? Can he afford to miss game checks? I've got to think that he missed six game checks during the suspension. He probably doesn't want to miss game checks this year. Yeah, because players are paid only during the season. So that means they have long off seasons of no income. That's interesting, by the way. I think that's something we have to think about. And I think that that is why I believe this deal gets done. Doesn't mean that he's at camp next week. Does that mean that we see him in the preseason? No, but people are not worried about Ezekiel I mean, he's missed practice and pre-seasones before and still gone on to be a rushing champion.

So they're not concerned about that. And I don't anticipate that this thing is going to get ugly. When I look back at the DeMarcus Lawrence conversations, there was a lot of wisdom that maybe he may not be back. They went out and got Robert Quinn on the defensive line just in case. And then they ended up having what David Cantor, DeMarcus Lawrence's agent described as a come-to-Jesus meeting. And they got the deal done. You know, it's interesting. Zeke, to some degree, is cutting in line.

you know, at the bank. He's kind of cutting in line. Would there be any chance they signed Zeke? And then in three months they signed DAC during the season. Or is Dak and Amari end of the year negotiation? I was told they were optimistic they get DAC done during training camp. But when we pressed Stephen Jones on this over the weekend, he brought it up in the sense that they've made offers they feel good about to all three guys. Oh, they have now.

They have. All three guys have had, they've got offers on the table. but he also said it takes two people to get a deal done. So I think Amori Cooper's agents, who I've said have been, the one thing I can say about Amari Cooper, his team as well as Amari Cooper, they haven't been talking to the press a lot on this. You haven't heard a lot about Amori Cooper's deal. He always plays chess in the locker room.

I think he's been playing chess with the Cowboys on this, waiting to see what that Michael Thomas deal bared. And I think that's where they start some discussions. That's exciting. So when you go to the Cowboys camp, did this year feel different? A couple years ago, it felt like there was a lot of tension with the Zieg stuff. How's camp feel this year?

I think a better comparison is this year's camp compared to last year. Last year's camp was so flat. Without Des Bryant, without Jason Whitten, this idea that they were going to go to a running back by committee, a tight-in by committee. The fans felt like they fell off a little bit. This year, Jason Witten was back. There's an excitement. The fans are genuinely excited about Dak Prescott, Amori Cooper. And there's this optimism around this offense and what we're seeing from Dak.

look so consistent at practice. And a Mori Cooper, we had Michael Ervin out there yesterday, and he could just kept talking about how Chris the route running is. You know, they didn't have a Mori Cooper until midway through the season. That's right. So there feels like there is this optimism around the team, not to mention

that you finally have got complimentary football. I mean, it looks like they figured it out on defense, finally, as well. Yeah. So, yeah, I felt like there was more optimism around this camp than there was last year. The year before that with the Zieg suspension, that was just so that ended up being a surprise.

It was my understanding. Jerry was under the impression. There'd be no suspension. So when six games came down, that caught him and his group real off guard. Yeah. Listen, I mean, there's three or four camps this year where there's a lot of optimism. San Francisco with Garoppolo. There's a lot of optimism.

The Jets with Adam Gase, Levyon. And the Cowboys, if I felt like that's what it was going to be. And I think it, to me, though, the Zeke thing, I don't think it's a distraction. until about two weeks from now. Because here's what I worry about Zieg. I think now it's fine. I think now it's fine. I think when you go to week three of the pregame, of the preseason,

that's when starters play. Zeke, and I could be reaching on this, he can get heavy. If he didn't sign it until week four, the preseason, that probably means he doesn't play for two weeks. Is there any concern in Cowboy Camp? Zeke is not one of these guys. He's a big kid.

He can put on weight. Is there a concern that he's working out, not working out? I always try to temper the emotions of the fans by going to the people that are the decision makers, that are the coaches, that are the players. And people talk to me freely, having covered that team. I try to be fair when I put a narrative out there. I've talked to Jason Garrett about this point blank.

He's not concerned. Okay. There literally is not a sense of panic or concern that this deal ends up becoming a holdout or they're not going to have Ezekiel. Now, I was on your show. I said, Zieg's going to be on the plane, not worried about it. I could be wrong here.

But my sense having been at camp, talking to staff members, talking to players, there's not panic right now. So I'm trying to manage that narrative just based on my sources and the people that I talk with, and this being my seventh year covering the Cowboys, it does not feel like they're overly concerned about this right now. Good stuff. Jane Slater. And so how long is camp go? But we still got, I mean, we're going to be in camp for a while now. When do they leave California?

So they break after Hawaii when they play the Rams in Hawaii. And then they come back and then they'll do camp in Dallas. All right, good stuff. Good seeing you. Thanks for I'm back. You bet. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Oh, the Miami Dolphins. Well, they have a quarterback situation. Not one they thought they would have, but apparently they do. Yesterday, Brian Florence, Flores announced that Ryan Fitzpatrick has a leg up. on Josh Rosen. You know, it's pretty clear to me that Ryan Fitzpatrick is leading the way. I think he's done that in a lot of areas from, you know, leadership to production on the field.

He's been more productive. At the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. He runs the offense very efficiently. He has great rapport with the entire team. He has a lot of leadership ability. We need that to continue. We need him to grow in that role. You know, this is an ongoing competition.

but right now I think I'd say he's leading the way. By the way, they've had one winning year in a decade. Playoffs twice and 18 years. Can I say I always feel like they're kind of rudderless? They fired an offensive line coach yesterday. They did fire an offensive line coach. Now, the replacement offensive line coach actually has a bit of experience. He was with the Dolphins before.

He was with the Patriots in 2015 when they won the Super Bowl. And he's with the Colts last year, which made a drastic improvement to their offensive line. So that may not be as dramatic as it sounds. Obviously, firing coach and training camp is not ideal. I can't get my arms. I can't get my arms around Miami ever. Why is that? Because, one, because they have not had a franchise quarterback truly since Dan Marino.

So that's one part of it. I mean, there's been guys that have been there that have had a little bit of success. But there's never been a point since then that you've been able to sit back and say, yeah, the dolphins, that's their quarterback. It's always a rotating thing. There's a couple years where you have someone. Nobody really ever felt like Tannahill was the guy except for the Dolphins organization. I mean, he had some moments, but did you ever really feel like they were in good hands with Tannahill? No, no knock on Ryan, but I just never thought that he was the guy.

Right. I thought he was the current guy, not the guy. Exactly. And now you're in a situation with a new head coach that everyone's excited about. You trade for Josh Rosen, and you're giving a wild endorsement to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Of course, Ryan's awesome in camp. He's in his 15th season. If he's terrible in camp, then he shouldn't be there.

By the way, he's always, he'll be great one Sunday. I mean, we kind of know his game, which is he's wildly hot and cold, but he does have good Sundays. That's why they call him Fitzmagic. He'll give you two or three great games and you think, oh, my God, where's this guy been hiding? And then the next week he'll be, oh, that's where he's been hiding because he's a backup quarterback. And there's nothing wrong with that, but that's who he is. Of course he's going to be awesome in camp. Of course he's going to be a great teammate.

It's in his 15th season. Of course everyone's going to love him. I hope that Dolphins fans don't fall for this razzle-dazzle because it's nonsense. Josh Rosen should be starting, just like Baker Mayfield should have been starting. It's great to have a good solid veteran quarterback there. Of course, it's comfortable. It's like a warm bowl of soup, but you really need to start eating your salads and protein. Yes.

Like put Josh Rosen in. Let him make mistakes. You're not getting fired this year. Find out if he's the guy. And if not, then you guys will be terrible and draft a quarterback next year. I just want to see Rosen play, frankly. Yes, me too. And by the way, Arizona.

his O-line. Now he gets Miami's atrocious O-line. I do feel bad. Like Deshawn Watson, some of these kids come into really nice situations. Like Josh Rosen. Josh Rosen has gotten a bad deal a little bit in college. Certainly his first year in the NFL. And now

it's looking like what was going to be a promising, positive situation is already trending towards. We're going to give it to Ryan Fitzpatrick and be 8-8. Awesome. So Julio Jones appears to be taking your advice, Colin. He said that people listen, right?

He told reporters that he won't play during the preseason. Totally agree with it. Here's why. No, I'm not playing preseason. For me, it's more so I'm a veteran. I've been doing this. You know, I don't need preseason to get ready. It's a mentality thing.

As long as I get my reps and practice, I practice the way I play. So once I get my reps in and things like that, I'll be ready to go. Totally agree. I don't get the preseason. It's my, listen, I love the NFL. But I can also say there's some. things I don't like about it. I don't like guys playing stars.

By the way, Julio's had Matt for several years. They don't need preseason games. There's no use for O'Ione. We don't have a new offensive system. We don't have a new division. I don't want to see these two. I don't want to see Matt and Julio in the preseason. I don't want to see a snap of it.

That and they have five preseason games because they are playing in a whole thing game against the Broncos tomorrow. God, get all. NFL figure this out. Well, normally most teams don't have that many. They're playing in the Hall of Fame games. Yes. I mean, nobody's going to play in that game. It's going to be all... It's like half a college season.

Yeah, it's a lot. Julio had a bunion removed from his foot in January, so he spent most of the training camp rehabbing on a side field anyway, but he was number one in the NFL and receiving yards last year. You know, bunion? Yeah. Isn't that what old ladies get? I mean, you've got to take care of your feet.

Honestly, it's kind of like how we joke with pitchers and, like, they'll lose a fingernail and they can't throw. Right. I mean, a receiver, you can't have anything wrong with. your feet, a toe, an ingrown toenail, bunyan, I mean, it all, Julio Jones's speed. Rams wouldn't play any of their starters, their top starters in the preseason. They made the Super Bowl. Kind of. I mean, it's like you said, this is not a new system for him.

He's not with a new team. He's not a new quarterback, not a new offensive coordinator. Like, just, he knows what he's doing. He doesn't need preseason games. Training camp is enough to get him in shape. Finally, Zion believes his new teammate Lonzo Ball is going to become the best point guard in the NBA. Zion told Macklin Stern of Complex. that it's in his future and he added

why he said I'm expecting Lonzo to come into his own now he's in a scenario where he can truly be himself we're about to play a super fast-paced game I think we all trust him with the ball and trust him to make the right read you've seen it I've seen it he's a playmaker he makes the right plays best point garden NBA that's a little head well he said he's going

to eventually become that that's a lot if he can see you know Joy my thing is can he stay healthy can he stay healthy yes I do think this is a much better situation for Lonzo I agree than the Lakers I I don't think the Lakers were, I think there was too much pressure on him with the Lakers, which sounds silly because it's, you know, it's the NBA, there's pressure on everyone. But it always felt like he wasn't really getting the opportunity to develop. His numbers were being held up to ridiculous standards, not only for his style of play,

but for a rookie and second year guy. And he did have injuries. I mean, he averaged 10.6 boards and 6.4 assists. And obviously the shooting was something that people were questioning a lot. But I think the style of play, like Zion said, in New Orleans is going to be completely different and better. They're with a young team. They're all going to get to develop together. And he's an incredible passer and runs the floor perfectly.

So he's going to have a great opportunity. Six five point. And his body has changed a lot. So hopefully, like you said, he'll stay healthy. All right, good stuff. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The herd line news. All right, coming up next, we call it the presser cooker. I pretend I'm the GM. I'm hosting the press conference because we have every week two or three press conferences, and I don't like what's coming out of the mouth of the GM, the coach, the player, will address that coming up. Been telling you about M Drive for about a year now. M Drive is a company that was created by Gary, the scientist in Arizona, who was getting

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You can use these energy drinks, but those aren't any good for your teeth, so you don't want to do that. This stuff's good. Testosterone levels, increase, all good, M-Drive. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Okay, it is great to have you in today. So, you know how we have, we have like little different mechanisms we use during the week? Like Collins right, Collins wrong.

we do that right. And we have some little things we do. Blazing five, we bet our NFL games. So we have found ourselves, Joy, in the last, I would say last year. We play a game occasionally where a team will hold a press conference or say something. And I just don't like how it lands. And because you and I are in the media, there are times that the media is pretty good at knowing how to hold a press conference and what to say and how it lands. These are general managers.

These are owners. Sometimes they say stuff like John Gruden today about Nathan Peterman that he probably shouldn't say and probably doesn't land great in the room. So we're going to play presser cooker. So this is a new game where it's a intense press conference. Do we have an open or do we just we don't have an open? We have a low budget right now. So Joy, let's go. We're going to play, you tell me who I am.

We'll have a press conference. start with a team. Pressure Cooker. Okay. There we go. Well, you are the Cowboys, GM. So let's start with the Cowboys. Okay, for our radio audience, I'm putting on a Cowboys hat. All right. Okay, I'm a Cowboys general manager right now, Stephen Jones. All right. With Ezekiel Elliott down in Cabo, what do you think of the way he is handling his holdouts? Well, I think Oxnard is a beautiful place. Of course, we'd love to have

Zeke here. He's a good player, but running backs are not needed. We all know this. Emmett Smith was the first superstar running back that really led a team do a championship and even then we had Troy Aikman. We love Zeke, but this is a Super Bowl-bound team. We'd like to wrap this thing up. He's a good young man. He's been a very productive player,

but we're not going to start the trend to paying guys massive money and letting them dictate terms. This is not the NBA. We love Zeke, but we have great players. We've got a lot of mouths to feed here. And I'm going to make sure we can keep all these great players. We're going to keep Amari.

We're going to keep Dak. We're going to keep Byron Jones. And to do that, we have a hard salary cap in this league. So I love Zeke. I love my kids. I don't know what's giving what they want. You really got into character there. All right.

Let's go down to Miami. Put on your Dolphins hat. You're the Dolphins GM. Can I spray myself with water? You're definitely going to be some sunscreen. Yes. Before you go outside so you don't sweat it off. All right.

Your head coach Brian Flores just said, Journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is winning the quarterback battle versus Josh Rosen. Who do you want to see get the job? Well, as the Dolphins general manager, okay, we're trying to find a quarterback not win a beard growing contest. If I was trying to win the beard growing contest, I'd have named John Goulae or Ryan Fitzpatrick must start in quarterback.

You know, the reality is with Ryan Fitzpatrick, he is a veteran and a tremendous asset to any organization. He has been in this league 15 years. We really like Ryan Fitzpatrick, but he is a substitute teacher and Josh is the teacher. and like a young teacher, we're going to accept some mistakes as a school district. We know Josh is not a refined finish product yet, but we are not a refined finish product as an organization. So we're going to start Josh, have the very capable, smart, capable veteran backup, Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But I think we owe our fans, our offensive line, our coach, and our organization. Start now. What are we waiting for? Josh has been in this league. Remember, he went to college three years. already played a year. These are no more baby steps. If Josh can't elevate players now, why am I to believe he can do it in five years? Pressure's on Josh. Pressure, by the way, is on me as a GM of the Dolphins. We're all having to win games. So if I'm going to ask Josh,

I'm going to ask him the same thing I ask of myself. We have to win now and we have to deliver now. I'm going to ask Josh the same thing I ask of my coach and myself. Get to work early, work hard, and win games. Well said. All right. Com. and put on your Raiders hat because you are now the Raiders head coach John Gruden. So now you're the head coach. Coach yesterday you said ex-bills quarterback Nathan Peterman is starting to grow on you, even though he's had some rough games in his career. Was this a shot at your current quarterback, Derek Carr?

Listen, I was a broadcaster for 10 years, a very good one. That former company Colin Coward used to work out paid me a lot of money to be a television star. And I was. I think a little too much TV star yesterday. Nathan Peterson is a good kid. I like Nathan Peterson. He's never going to start for us. That's not a shot at him. He's a backup in this league, maybe a third teamer, maybe goes the XFL. He's a fine young man I like Nate Peterman. Derek Carr is exceptional. Okay, Derek Carr's a beat quarterback right now. My job is to make him an A quarterback. That's my responsibility. We have not done a good job in Oakland for Derek Carr. We've had upheaval on the roster. We've had bad offensive lines. We had to, we thought financially, move on from Amari Cooper and Cleo Mac. That is not on Derek Carr. I am responsible for taking Derek Carr to the next level. So far, he's been a very solid B-plus quarterback. I'm going to make him an A quarterback.

I'm going to support my quarterback. I like Derek Carr. I like him a lot. I like Derek Carr a lot. I don't want this to be misinterpreted. I like him a lot. Nate Peterman's a good kid. Okay, Derek Carr's a good quarterback.

My job's B to A. That's my responsibility. He's going to be the car that drives us to the Super Bowl, even if we don't know where we're playing right now. Strong words from the quarterback whisperer. I like that line too. Always good for a line. All right.

We are heading down to Cabo San Lucas. I love Cabo. And you are now Ezekiel Elliott's agents. Got to keep the sun off the face there. Are you getting comfortable? All right. It's kind of a controversial move that you guys went down to Cabo. How do you respond to the criticism that your client is making a bad move by training down to Mexico?

This place beats Oxnard. Pay that right now. Listen, we have everything we need to get Zeke ready for the NFL. Jim's trainers and guava smoothies. My client is less of a distraction here than he would be at training camp. Okay, I don't want him getting in all the news and being interviewed up in Oxnard. I got a house down here. It is beautiful.

It's right behind me. We got trainers and guava smoothies. And he's down here. By the way, we're closer to the equator than Oxnard. It's 97 degrees today. It's a tremendous work environment. And the only route Zeke needs to know, his bank routing number. Okay, we're going to get this done.

I love the Cowboys. I think I'm doing the Cowboys a favor right now. Hold on. Rum is delicious in August. I think I'm doing the Cowboys a favor right now. I'm keeping him in Mexico, away from TMZ, away from Los Angeles, away from the Cowboys, away from the Dallas morning news, away from Fox Sports,

away from distractions. We train, we run on the beach, we have max two guava smoothies a day, we are doing them a favor, and we're going to get this done. That's how I would handle these press conferences. Just smoothies, huh?

You know what? I can be honest with you. That looked pretty cool when I'm in Mexico. I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty good. some sunglasses. Yeah, so that's our presser cooker. And what we're insinuating is sometimes, I think if, just like politics, I think the more honest you are with people, the easier it is. I think the more honest you are. I think everybody is lined everybody. Politicians, you don't trust them, and your boss is in America. Nobody trusts their boss and their mayor and their

politician and their coworkers. And you can't trust the media. And the Congress has like a 15% approval rate. And when you can go out and just cut to the chase, be authentic, I mean, we got a guy in the White House is to a lot of people, the reason he's there is a big chunk of America thinks he's more authentic. I may not be one of them. But the point being is if you give off the sense that you are cutting through the nonsense, cutting through the red tape, cutting through opinions held for PC reasons, it's very powerful. And I think a lot of times with these press conferences, I also, I think John Gruden, I will say this. John traded Khalil, traded Amari, and hasn't shown Derek Carney love.

John's getting to the point now. It's almost like he's anti-star. You got to have about six of those guys to win championships. Put your arms, John. Put your arms around me. He might feel like he's the only star there. Yeah, I'm kind of feeling that too. It's the herd.

One more herd. The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast, And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me. with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 guy, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Look. Quarterback on office, Blue 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave.

better. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.