The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 1 - Steph Curry is still that dude, Mendoza or Manning?

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Jason McIntyre fills in for Colin Cowherd reacting to a vintage Steph Curry performance in the play-in round of the NBA postseason lifting the Warriors over the Clippers. J-Mac questions if Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza should be the consensus number 1 overall pick and proposes another QB is actually a better prospect.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Oh my gosh. Adam Silver is a happy man today as the NBA play in delivers once again. Do a lot of NBA today. It's me, Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowherd. I actually don't know where he is today. But they went to the bullpen and I'm here joined by Rachel Nichols, who was at the Warriors paper clips last night. Oh my goodness, Rachel.

I cannot wait to hear about that later in the show. We've got a banger, folks. Listen, this is going to be maybe an all-timer. Rachel and I've done some good shows together, but this one, I mean, listen, we got Stu Holden. We're overflowing, so we're just going to dive right in. Stu Holden coming up to talk World Cup, Warren Sharp NFL draft, a lot to get to.

But I got to start with my guy, Steph Curry. Okay? Yeah, and I can call him my guy. Yeah, I'm a Knicks fan. I'm a Lakers fan. It doesn't matter. I'm a Steph Curry fan. Fell in love with this guy when he was at Davidson. Followed his career. He was the first guest on my podcast way back before he even got his rookie extension. And Steph Curry last night, a turn back the clock game.

Folks, if you missed the action last night out here at Intuit Dome, just unbelievable stuff from Steph Curry, 35 points in 36 minutes. Okay? Warriors down nine with six and a half left. Curry hits an improbable three falling out of bounds. Okay, it was just unbelievable stuff. Warriors shocked the clippers. Here's the three that he hits falling out of bounds with less than a minute left. Kevin Harlow went nuts. The arena kind of lower bowl kind of went nuts.

It was an unbelievable game. And remember, folks, a lot of media members, this guy included were saying, hey, Steph, shut it down. We don't need another injury. It's been a rough year. Jimmy Butler's not here. Season's over. you're not going anywhere. Don't bother play.

Steph Curry played, showed out, dominated. The Warriors get the win. Here's Steve Kerr talking about the performance last night. This is why Steph came back. So everybody out there who thought Steph should have taken the rest of the year off. This is what he does. This is who he is. If he can compete, he's going to compete.

And it was just incredible to watch. Yeah, he's not kidding. I almost shut this game off twice. When it was 12-2, Clippers right out of the gate or blowing him out. I'm like, oh, boy, Steph Curry goes to the locker room early. Is he hurt? Did he re-aggravate something? There was concern.

And then the Warriors, you know, heart of a champion. And it's not the usual suspects, okay? Gone are Sean Livingston and Clay Thompson and no Andrew Wiggins. Now it's G. Santos, okay? And you got Chris Taps, Porzinkus dunking back. Miss free throw. I was like, what's happening? Obviously, I'll give Dremont his props.

I know I've been a big Dremont critic. He'll get his due in a moment. But I do want to say, listen, it's been a tough season for the NBA, right? We would agree narrative-wise on social media, okay? Tanking is ruining the league. It's unwatchable. We got some numbers later in the show that we'll pour some cold water on that.

Too many three-point shots, Jay, come on. This is terrible. This isn't 80s or 90s basketball. You know, I dislike that. narrative. Adam Silver has to be thrilled. Okay. The last two nights of playing games have been utterly dramatic. I'm just talking, you know, three of the four games went down to the final minute. Unbelievable stuff. And of course, the NBA smart scheduling saved the best for last. Steph Curry. By the way, unbelievable stat from our staff this morning. So the NBA keeps track of

clutch time wins and minutes and clutch time three pointers, final five minutes of a close game. Steph Curry only played 44 games this season, barely half the season. He leads the NBA and clutch three-pointers. How is that possible? The guy's unbelievable. And I really love this win for the Warriors. I know they've had a, I mean, it's been a decade of historic victories in the postseason. But if we're being honest, I got some Warriors fans texting me last night and this morning,

Jay Mack, that game was amazing. I can't wait to hear your take. And this is not a team that's going anywhere, okay? They're not going to win in the first round, assuming they beat the Sons on Friday. They're probably going to get swept by the thunder. That's the reality. Maybe they steal one win, but it's unlikely. But for a night, Warriors fans got to revisit that dynasty.

And this win, gritty, improbable, the comeback, Curry, it's honestly going to go down as one of the more memorable wins in this last decade for the Warriors. No, it wasn't game six in Houston or game seven in Houston. in that game seven, come on, where they took over in the third quarter, KD and Curry from three. Like, it's not that level, but it's certainly in the next year. And at this point, I got to give some props to Draymond Green. I criticized him a lot because he is a walking, flagrant foul. He likes to pick on certain players in the league. He mouths off and pops off. I've soured on Draymond. Last night, his defense on Kauai Leonard was extraordinary. When you vote Drayman Green into the Hall of Fame. You will watch that fourth quarter defense. Remember, Kauai Leonard

just had, I don't know, the best season of his career. He's probably going to be first team all NBA. And Dremont held him to two shot attempts in the fourth. He couldn't get the ball. Dramon picked him in the final minute when Kauai came up the court, just picked him clean. You're like, that doesn't happen. And they couldn't inbound the ball to Kauai because Drayman was all over him. A defensive clinic. Here's Kauai talking about it last night. They had a great game playing, just being physical all game, making sure I don't get no catching shoot shots, bliss in every, you know, pick and roll, getting in a post, seeing two bodies. Yeah, and then, you know, Dremont, Hall of Fame defender.

So, yeah, it was hard to even get shots up. To hear one of the great say that about me, like, man, that's special. You know, that's, that's why you do it, you know, because you want, you want respect from your peers, you know, and Kauai just, he's no, he's not just no ordinary peer. Yeah, well said, Draymond. And listen, Warriors, the season may end Friday in Phoenix. They face the suns, regardless. Whoever wins that is getting destroyed by the thunder, but it doesn't matter. For a night, we get to turn back the clock to Stefan Dremon dominating the NBA.

All right. At this point, I want to move to what I think is the best first round series with apologies to LeBron and that's going to be Yokic versus Anthony Edwards. And a couple big narratives at play here. Obviously, these two met in the playoffs two years ago. The Nuggets were the defending champs. And you'll remember, Minnesota beat him in seven. One game seven in Denver, a shocking win.

And if you remember, that was kind of the jumping off point for Anthony Edwards' career. Now, he had had a lot of dunks, and Anthony Edwards was emerging. But taking down Yokic, a lot of people, maybe this show was one of them, had Anthony Edwards as the potential face of the NBA. Okay? Anthony Edwards is an awesome player. And he has had a really good season. He didn't meet the 65 minimum game requirements, so he won't be first team all NBA.

He was a fringe MVP candidate. He'll probably finish top six. But he's going up against Yokic, the best player in the league. and let me do a quick aside. Listen, I know SGA is going to win another MVP, which is laughable given that Yokic has been freaking incredible. And everybody agrees, Yokic is the best player in the league, led the NBA and rebounds and assists.

That's never been done. I mean, listen, Yokic is unparalleled superstar at this point? I said earlier, is he maybe the greatest set? Does he have a case to be the greatest center of all time? It doesn't have the team success yet, but oh my gosh, Yokch is amazing. And he's going up against Anthony Edwards. And frankly, Edwards is in a tall order here.

Remember, the wolves have been to the conference finals two years in a row. They supposedly had next. Folks, it's not looking good. Here's their head coach, Chris Finch, on whether or not they can flip the switch in the playoffs. We know the team that we can be and who we have been. It's about, you know, whether we can maintain that. And you don't ever really want to be a flip-the-switch team, but we do have a switch to flip. and we've got to flip it now.

And when we do that, you know, everybody kind of becomes the best version of themselves and that brings out that continuity and that connection that we need. Yeah, that doesn't sound great. Flip the switch, that's for like the Golden State Warriors. You know, you're kind of bored in the regular season, but you've got these titles

and you flip the switch in the playoffs and oh, we're going to go back to the finals. Folks, this is a crossroad series for the Minnesota Timberwolves. This is a big one for Anthony Edwards. And I say that because this core may have hit it ceiling. Gobert, Randall, Ant, you can't go conference finals two years in a row. One of them was with Carl Anthony Towns. You can't go conference finals two years in a row and then lose in the first

round. And oh, by the way, two months ago, they tried to trade everybody on the roster not named Ant for Janus. And listen, I love Chris Finch. A lot of coaches come through here in the studio. Chris Finch is one of the best, nicest off-camera. I pepper him with questions he'll answer anything, which is phenomenal. And I like this team, but I'm very curious what happens if the Timberwolves lose his first round series to Denver. Because they just tried to trade everybody for Janus. And, you know, to go back to that Warriors topic, we're supposed to live in the now, enjoy the moment, but I can't help but think. Janus and the Timberwolves?

I mean, we heard Janus and the Warriors. I think somebody reported the Warriors offered four first for Janus. What about Janus and Anthony Edwards? I had somebody on staff recommended team for Janus. I will try to do it later. It's outside the box. I love it. But like at this point, it feels like this is a crossroad series.

If the Warriors, sorry, not the Warriors, if the Timberwolves lose this series, I think it's safe to say Gobert, Randal, everybody's going to get shipped. I don't know who they're bringing in. And I wanted to make the parallel of Anthony Edwards, who, by the way, is a young guy, still in his mid-20s. And I know you're like, Jason, you don't blow it up. Guys, that's not how the league works. when you hit the conference finals twice and you regress to the first round, changes happen. And I'll go back to Kevin

Garnett in his prime in Minnesota, won an MVP in his around 27. They get to the conference finals. That was their ceiling. They couldn't make the playoffs after that, guys. It was bad. They tried to cycle through players. It's tough.

And Minnesota's in this second apron team. You start looking at the tax ramifications. We can't get out of the first round. How do we get Anthony, and then, you know, we know what happened with Kevin Garnett. I hope the same doesn't happen down the road with Anthony Edwards. But he's got a tough one, Ant against Yokic in the best first round series. All right, we've got a phenomenal show. Rachel reporting live last night from the Intuit Dome, where there are more tears in the Clippers locker room or joy with the Warriors?

I just have to say, I don't think the camera caught it in the Steve Kerr bite that we ran just a few minutes ago. He started with that noise you heard in the middle of that sound bite wasn't like a microphone, you know, kerfuffle. It was him pounding on the table. I've covered Steve since he was a player. I have rarely ever seen him like that in a press conference. The emotion was so high. I just think those guys have been through so much and they felt like for one day we could be back. Amazing game. Amazing night. A great week in the NBA. Hey, we're not talking about tanking or threes. Talk about great action, except for the Orlando Magic, which we will get to shortly. All right, coming up next on The Herd, folks, listen, Fernando Mendoza is going one to the Raiders.

That's obvious. But what if Arch Manning were in this draft? Would he go one? I got a spicy take on that, and I'm going to back it up with some facts you're not going to like. That's next here on The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio.

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Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. No Bull Zone sponsored by credible. Great rates with none of the bowl. All right, one of the reasons I love the staff on this show is because, you know, we'll bat around ideas during the meeting. And the NFL draft is a week from today. And we know Mendoza's going one. It's kind of anticlimactic.

There's not a lot of juice. I tried to maybe sell the staff. Hey, hey, Ty Simpson, not the second quarterback taken. Anybody? No, not really a thing. I'd keep an eye on Drew Aller. But, you know, Ian Rappaport's coming up final hour. We'll ask him what he knows.

The Ty Simpson stuff isn't really that interesting. And someone said, well, should the Jets trade up for Mendoza? I'm like, it's going to cost too much. I'm not giving up next year's draft capital because I want R. Manning. And Arch, you know, if Arch were in this draft, he'd go ahead of Mendoza. And I literally had 13 people in the meeting look up, like, give me the side eye. And I was like, wait, really? And I'm like, that's a thing, guys. It would be Arch over Mendoza. And obviously, you know, we got some Raiders fans and they start to push back.

And I don't think this is like that hot of a take. But if Arch Manny were in this draft, he would go ahead of Fernando Mendoza. And I don't think it's a hot of a take because, yes, Mendoza has him in every statistical category. I did look them up. You want it. Big time throws last season. Mendoza had him. Completion percentage.

Quarterback rating. Literally, every stat you have, Mendoza has him. Everything. But it ain't about the stats. Nobody is drafting for what you just did. They're drafting for what you can be, what you will be.

And I understand that's a projection. But as you guys know in the finance world, that's where the guys make the big bucks because they have an edge with their projections and they know that's going to be a winner. That's why I'm betting on that winner. Forget about this guy who has won. I want this winner. And I know it's a tough sell, but Arch Manning over Mendoza this year, to me, feels obvious

because you're betting on besides the genetics and the Manning lineage. And I know it's not like his dad's Peyton. I get all that guys. I totally get it. And Mendoza is a great quarterback. And I love Mendoza. I've been saying for months now, I listen, I mean, this guy graduated from two business schools. Come on.

His processing, he's a, he's a 128 megahertz, whatever processor. And Arch Manning's only 64 because guess what? Arch had one year starting. And Arch was not great last year for the first half of the season. Now, Arch Manning recently, you know, had a foot surgery, minor procedure. And he spoke this week about why he struggled last year. It's just fascinating. Take a listen. I think I could have had more fun.

The first half of the season, I was pissed. I wasn't playing well, and it wasn't fun for me. I kind of sort of said, screw it. I had a little more fun and started winning some games. We kind of really got together. It was like, we just got to have fun, man. This isn't been fun. Let's just, we all got closer as an offense as a team, you know,

Jack injuries, all those guys. And I think we started to play better, and I think y'all can maybe see it on the field. that's pretty good. That's pretty self-aware. Arch realizes, hey, and anybody watch that Ohio State game, right? And he was in over his skis. Now, again, it was his first real start, all the spotlight on him.

And it's interesting because Mendoza was a three-year starter. Nobody's talking about his first year starting at Cal. He was good. And last year, two years ago, Mendoza was good at Cal, really good. And then he goes to Indiana and was excellent. But here's the crux of the arch argument. So if we had this discussion one year ago, every single person would have said Arch Manning,

even though he hadn't had really any starts, nobody a year ago would have said Mendoza. So all of a sudden, because Mendoza had 16 awesome games, a 16 game sample size, he's all of a sudden the guy over Arch, even though Arch didn't look good, as he said, the first half of the season, the learning curve from year one to year three

is massive. And I've listened to some business podcasts. I had a buddy who went to Harvard Business School, and we've talked about this. Like, anybody can talk about what it's like to run a business, and you can analyze businesses, and you can read about businesses. It's great. You don't know until you're actually running a business what it's like. You control the P&L. You're controlling every single thing involved in the business. It's totally different than the book learning and watching people. And that's just like. like arch. He came out of high school as a five-star recruit. And obviously we know he played in kind of a weak high school league and maybe shouldn't have been a five-star. There are some parallels to

Zion coming out of high school when he was cooking, you know, tiny, not great five-star kids in high school and then looked amazing because he's doing 360 dunks against him. And yeah, Arch was a five-star. It's that for two years. You can learn a lot sitting for two years. But you're not going to learn until you play. It took Arch that half season to get up to speed and cook. Now, I did look at next year's schedule for Texas, because we got a couple Texas honks on the staff. So they

don't open against Ohio State. You're not getting thrown right in. They open against Texas State. Then they get the Buckeyes who, oh, by the way, I know they reload every year, but they're going to have three defenders go in the first round of the draft. And then it's UTSA. And then the

schedule gets tougher, but one of our Texas his fans noted, hey, the Longhorns leave the state once to travel to Tennessee in their first seven games. I think it's arch season loading. And that's why it's a Jets fan. I'm fired up for 2027 in the draft. Arch probably number one to my Jets. And, you know, I'm sure Mendoza will be fine with the Raiders. But, yeah, I like my arch tape.

Let's go to Rachel Nichols with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Jason, not that you need backup, but I want to let you know you have it. Dan Rolowski said the same thing you did. He said it's not even close, and he said that Arch would be the runaway number one if they were both in the draft this year.

All right, good to hear. You know, I'm just saying. You're leading a movement, a movement. All right, let's get a little NBA from last night. Tyrese Maxie, woo, led Philadelphia to a 12-point win over Orlando, and it was balanced scoring. Five guys were in double figures. On the other side, the magic.

Meh. Having a lot of trouble scoring. Desmond Bain did what he was brought in to do, right? He scored 34 points. But Palo Manquero Man needed 22 shots for 18 points. I don't know. Philly, though, that locks them into the seventh seed. They play Boston now in a first round series.

So spicy. What do you think? Can they give him a run? Yeah, I would say Boston in four or five. It doesn't sound like Embedleby back. right? Maybe. Yeah, I didn't think so. I do want to ask you about Bencaro. I don't want to, I have some hot takes on Ben Carroll, but I'm sure you were watching.

I'll let you go first. Paula Bencaro, something's wrong with him. I mean, it's been obvious to a lot of outsiders that these two guys on the same team doesn't really work. They're sort of big lights, and that's why they brought in Desmond Bain. But there was a feeling among a lot of scouts that maybe they should. have gotten rid of Vancaro in that moving around. So the problem is, for instance, like this, they devalue him on the open market. Now, he could come back on Friday and be spectacular, but it is an indication that this idea that maybe he doesn't quite fit on this magic team

will get to the inside of the front office. Yeah, it's interesting. The coach and him have been beefing. There's been like a Cold War with some weird media exchanges. But again, year ago, didn't Ben Carroll hang like 40 on the Celtics in one of the games? Or maybe it was against the cat. I don't remember. I do know. He's like a big time player. This guy was a star at Duke.

I think he's a future Olympian on the 28 team. Yeah, no, 100%, 100%. But you have to do it as a steady pace. You can't just do it sporadically. And you mentioned the feud with the coach. I mean, Jamal Mosley is completely on the hot seat. I don't know if even a win on Friday is going to save his job. And they might, you know, make a change in the offseason.

But it's going to be interesting with these two. It'll look like they're picking the player. But are they really? We'll see if they, you know, make a move with Palo this summer. One other thing on the Sixers. Tyrese Max, he's pretty freaking good. He's so fun. I just don't know if it's a good matchup for him against Derek White,

Brown, Tatum. They're going to throw a lot of bodies at him. I think Boston in four or five. What about you? Yeah. I mean, look, this is why M.B. not playing is just such a, you know, for the Sixers, it's like they're the, Murphy's law of teams. If something can go wrong, they will go wrong. It's just incredible. And if

M.B. was on the floor, that gives Maxie a lot more room. And also, one of those guys you mentioned has to be, you know, kind of rotating in a different way. Now, it was a balance scoring last night. You had five guys and double figures. It's not going to be that way against Boston. And I think that's, you know, it's just such shame. You've had so many things. 25 games for Paul George, because, you know, know, suddenly mysteriously has a drug test. By the way, Paul George was, like, celebrating moves last night. What is, what's going on with that guy? I mean, he's, like, maybe 18 points and a couple of nice buckets,

but he's doing, like, flashy stuff and celebrating in, like, the third quarter? Why don't you want people to be happy, Jason? I don't, it just felt a little much. Let people be happy. And then he missed, like, his next six shots. He was just jacking threes for the crowd. I'm like, Paul, what are we doing? Let people be happy.

It's a playoffs. Come on. Get into it. All right. La Mello Ball, fined $35,000 yesterday for, you know, obviously the unnecessary and reckless contact with Bam Out of Bio on the play you just saw there. Also, was assessed a flagrant two. Also, separately, he was assessed a $25,000 fine for cursing in a post-game interview. So that's going to bring his total up to about $60,000, flagrant two, which would have gotten him thrown out of the game, Jason, if they had called it in the moment.

So you've got a lot of heat fans being like, wait a minute, you know, this would have knocked him out of the game. He was obviously huge for them going down the fourth quarter and overtime. I don't know. Do you think that they should have suspended Mello for this next game? Sort of as, well, he would have been knocked out at the last game? I don't think you could have suspended him. I don't know. I mean, yes, it was clearly on purpose.

I just can't see a suspension of a player. Now, listen, if he was a backup, I could understand that. And I know people, how can you say that? Well, I'm sorry. This is a Star League. You can't toss a star like that. Like, it's not like he has 15 flagrant fouls, and it would have been like, okay, that's 16, this guy's a dirty player, right?

This isn't a Draymond Green situation. I mean, I agree that even if it was, I don't think the NBA ever takes results of the previous game and applies it to the next game. You know, we have two-minute reports, last two-minute reports, where they will acknowledge they made the wrong call, right? They shouldn't have had free throws, and that is what one. won the game, they don't take away free throws from the team in the next game. Yeah.

So it's just, you know, this is not how it works in the NBA. So I think this question about, he should have been suspended, I don't buy it. I mean, it would be nice in the moment if they had found it. I know we're not going to preview Charlotte Orlando. I actually think this is an interesting game. I mean, all the playing games to me are fascinating. I give a slight edge to Charlotte. I just thought Orlando looked so discombobulated.

I know Orlando's playing at home, but who you got in this one? Oh, Charlotte. I'm not sure it's a slight edge. I just, Orlando has looked so disorganized. They don't look like they're playing as a team. We talked about the locker room sort of nonsense that's been going on. Charlotte's Rolling Man, since the All-Star game, they had the fourth best record in the league at one point late in the season. So I just think that what you saw the other night against a really tough heat team was what we will see. It's the Lamello Ball experience. He's not going to be. going to be consistent, but that toughness is there and the cohesion. So I pick Charlotte.

Yeah. There you go. All right. This is the juicy one, Jason. Both Luca Donchich and Cade Cunningham were going to fall victim to the 65 game rule, but they both filed extraordinary circumstances challenges. Wow. And they both won them. So the NBA announced just a few minutes ago that Cade and Luca are now going to be eligible for postseason awards. And I'm going to tell you, I expected the Luca one to go this way. He played 64 games. He missed two games for the birth of his child. It would have been a terrible messaging for the NBA to be like, I can't believe you went to go see your child be born. You know, I mean, they're not going to do that, right? So Luca playing and getting into these all NBA awards and things like that, totally get it. Kate Cunningham is a

a real surprise to me, Jason, because, yes, he missed games with a collapsed lung, and a collapse lung sounds and is serious. But is it a more serious injury than Anthony Edwards, who missed 11 in the last 13 with a knee injury, and he didn't get the, you know, extraordinary circumstances? I think this is a slippery slope. Yeah. Well, wait, I got to ask, how many did Cade play? I know Luca missed by one. How many did Cade miss by? I think he ended up being 62 or 63. There was a, there was like he played less than 20 minutes in one game and did that count and all of that stuff. The other thing is I thought, and again, I was on spring break with the fam. I missed it, but didn't Cade come back sooner than expected to try to get to the limit? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, sooner than we expected based on previous collapse lungs on NBA players in the past. And he came really close. But I just think the way the rule is written, it is not written for what Cade did and what happened with him. It's written. It's written. that if you get a season-ending injury and you don't play again, that could be extraordinary circumstances. It is not written that if you have an injury that sounds pretty crazy and you

come back, that you get an extraordinary circumstances. I hate this rule to begin with. I think it's ridiculous. However, if you were going to give Cade, hey, you get to be in the awards, I don't understand why Anthony Edwards knee injury isn't, you know. Well, did he file an exemption? I don't know. Rachel, I love this. Oh my gosh. This is amazing. And this messes up everyone's ballot. Yes. I said earlier, Kauai would be first team all NBA. He's not. Luca's going to be above him. Well, Luca, I think a lot of, I mean, look, I'm a voter. Some people did a full ballot, you know, when they were prepping of with Luca without Luca. I just did mine with Luca because I just felt pretty sure. I did not do any notes that included Kay Cunningham. So now I'm going to have to go back, rethink a lot of different things.

And because the balloting is so late because they had to get through these exemptions, there are a lot of people who are concerned that the playing games are going to influence the voter. Rookie of the year, of course. Rookie of the year. Huge. He missed Conconinple was benched in the fourth quarter. Can you still put him rookie of the year? Draymond Green was draped all over Kauai.

Fantastic performance last night. Does that put him on people's all NBA teams? I mean, sorry, all defense teams if they weren't. Like, I just, this is crazy. And we only have, like, I don't know, I think it's like 12 or 13 hours to vote once we get to call it. Oh, wait. So you can't wait to wait to Friday's games to vote because what if con bounces back with 32? No, I mean, I assume I keep checking my email.

I haven't gotten the ballot in my email as this moment. I might get it during the show. But they've made it clear to all of us that this is going to be an extremely quick turnaround. So if it's, if not by tonight, then certainly by tomorrow morning. So we're going to have to vote. Listen, I know this is a black and white. issue. There are shades of gray and everything, Rachel. Yeah, of course. I'm

kind of pro exemption here. Now, I'm curious who's giving me. Is it Adam Silver, rubber stamping? It's an arbitration between the NBA and the PA and an arbiter and whatever. I don't have a big problem with this. I do agree with you said it's a slippery slope. And Anthony Edwards is probably like, hey, what about me?

I just want to know. I mean, look, I don't agree with any of this. I think the 65 game rule was a rotten way to try to solve the problem they had, which was guys just sitting out games because they didn't play and they, you know, didn't want to play in a back-to-back and all of that stuff. That's not the way you've solved that problem. And we're seeing right now the effects of trying to solve the right problem with the wrong solution. However,

since these are the rules right now, I just, I'd love an explanation why Cade's injury is valuable, you know, is impactful enough, whatever you want to call it. But Anthony Edwards not. Yeah. All right. I think this is extends, by the way, our streak, Rachel, the last like eight shows we've done together. Breaking news during the show. You got to love it. I mean, we're hot. All right, Rachel, with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurdline News. All right, coming up, great guest. Warren Sharp, NFL guy knows the league. Well, he's got some amazing numbers. There's an interesting quarterback stat regarding the draft. It's also why I mentioned Drew Aller earlier. It doesn't shine great. on Mendoza. That's next year on The Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys?

I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

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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.

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

Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Back here on the herd, NFL draft one week away. And we got a great guest to preview some of the draft. is Warren Sharp. Surely you know his work. Let's welcome in Warren Sharp to the herd. He's got the Sharp Football Analysis podcast. Obviously he's got one of the best previews out there. Warren, thanks for taking the time. Come on the show. One week to the draft, which we'll get to it a sec. I do want to start with this Dexter Lawrence news. It's big in New York. All of a sudden, he says,

I want out, which is bizarre, because they don't seem to have a backup for Dexter Lawrence. And you seem to love him and think he's got like a big market. I do. He's been extraordinarily valuable J. Mack on the defensive side, not as much against the run. Everybody assumes a defensive tackle. He's great against the run. Hasn't been as good against the run. But his measure of passing improvement, what he does for this defense, is off the charts. I mean, this over the last three years, this is a bottom three past defense in yards per attempt, pressure rate, past success allowed, like all those key metrics. When he's on the field for them the last three years. This is a top 10 pass defense in success rate,

sack rate, pressure rate, all of those metrics. Even last year when he wasn't as good and the team overall wasn't as good, this was a bottom 10 pass defense when he was off the field and a top 10 past defense when he was on the field. A crazy metric here, pressures went aligned at nose tackle since 22. He has 108 pressures at nose tackle. The next closest player is Vita Vaya. He only has 32. I mean, yes, Dexter Lawrence lines up at the nose tackle more than most other players, but his ability to get after the quarterback is phenomenal. And then the added piece of context that you really have to include here when you're talking about Dexter Lawrence is his double team rate. In 2024, no player was double teamed more than Dexter Lawrence, not just that,

not just in 2024. Since 2018, his double team rate that he saw in 2024 was more than any player since 2018. The last two years, he's been double-teamed at a high rate, and he still has these statistics. So he's definitely impactful against quarterbacks. He's a key asset, and he's now trying to get paid like it. He's not an edge rusher. He is a defensive tackle, but he wants to be paid above that market. So Warren, what's weird is they have a quarterback on the rookie deal, right? They've got, they're flush with money. They got a new head coach. What am I missing? Why would the Giants just part with him? Are they shifting out of the 3-4 or 4-3? What are they doing? I think it's a little bit schematic, but it's also the situation where you've got a new coach

coming in. Does he value a defensive tackle quite as much as potentially the old regime might have? You obviously have that power struggle at the general manager position now with Joe Shane, not having quite as much power as he once had there. So there's a lot of play here. I definitely think the Giants would be smarter to keep him, but they're trying to weigh the cost-benefit with the salary. Yeah, interesting. They floated before the draft. Maybe could they get a second and a fourth? Is that too rich? I don't know what his market would be. I'm not sure there either, because it all depends on, you know, you can see what the Giants want, but is another team willing to give up that? And you mentioned earlier, he's still young. So he still got a bright, you know, several years in front of him

for at least one more solid deal. All right, so let's pivot to the draft. And we know Fernando Mendoza's going one. There's not a lot of drama near the top, maybe where Jeremiah Love goes. But I floated earlier, like, listen, if Arch Manning were in this draft, I know he hasn't accomplished as much as Mendoza,

but I would take Arch I over Mendoza. What's your take? I would as well. And, you know, I talked to somebody far smarter than I am, Dame Brugler, who writes the Beast for the Athletic, and he did an analysis. for me on my podcast earlier today. I said, take every quarterback drafted inside the top five since 2020. There's 12 such quarterbacks. We're kind of like Joe Burrow, too, a Trevor Lawrence,

all the way through to like Bryce Young and Trey Lance and Zach Wilson. Rank Fernando Mendoza amongst those 12, if all were coming into the NFL this draft. And he said Mendoza would be the eighth quarterback taken based upon his ranking. So not even the top five, outside the top five. struggle that you have with Mendoza to a degree is I am such a firm believer in quarterback and the situation and the system that he finds himself in, the surrounding talent, the play calling, not just the play calling, but the game planning and how you set everything up. And it's harder to find a better team that did it better than Indiana with that coach and that coaching staff. And so Mendoza has been in an elite situation,

an optimal situation. And so he obviously thrived in that situation. played very well, led the team to the national championship, and won, you know, will he be in that same situation with the Raiders in Las Vegas? Is he, you know, comparable to some of these other quarterbacks who had to come out in a similar situation? I thought he got the benefit of the doubt with the situation and system that he was in at Indiana. All right, so sticking with the draft, you had an amazing piece on your site, and I saw it on social media as well, about processing speed. It feels like it's the toughest thing to quantify. Brock Purdy, obviously great processor. Seventh round pick, we're seeing it translate in the

NFL. From this batch of quarterbacks in the draft, what did you find in your numbers on processing speed and who does it favor? Yeah, processing speed, it's hard to measure unless you're right there working with the guy. And so Sean Payton came up with this metric, which is basically a failure index. It looks at how often a quarterback is throwing an interception, fumbling the football, or taking a sack. All three of those things factor in massively to wins and losses. Those three things hurt teams really to a high degree. I mean, quarterbacks the last three years in the NFL, JMAQ, who take zero sacks on a drive, 41% of those drive score points, 26% of those drive score touchdowns. If you take just one sack on a drive, only 25% of your drives were school

points. Only 8% of your drives will score touchdowns. And we know turnovers are the big differentiator. in the NFL. If you're turning the football over, you're winning only about 23% of your games the last three years. You're covering only about 25% of your games the last three years. And so Sean Payton wanted a quarterback who was not going to make those type of mistakes. Hence why he drafted Bo Nix. And look at the season that the Denver Broncos just had. They relied on a great defense. They relied on Bo Nix not to make mistakes. And they rode that to the AFC one seed, a first round by and, you know, a few snaps away from the Super Bowl if Bo Nix doesn't injure himself in the divisional round game. So it worked for Sean Payton last year. Here's where some of these

quarterbacks rank in the upcoming draft. If you look at Fernando Mendoza, he ranks number nine out of 18 qualified quarterbacks right in the middle of the pack at 9% failure rate, which means 9% of his snaps were interceptions, sacks, or fumbles. Ty Simpson is right there, right next to him at 8.9%. And then you've got other guys, like some of the guys that were a little bit higher up, don't have the pedigree or don't have the Kanish as some of those guys that we just mentioned. Drew Aller is up there. Sawyer Robertson is up there. Carson Beck is up there.

K. Club Nick is up there. They've made fewer mistakes. They fail less frequently, but they also don't have as high of an upside. A lot of the draft evaluators are looking at. you think is the second quarterback off the board in this draft? I think it's probably Ty Simpson, but I don't think he goes in the first round. From what I'm hearing, it looks like there's a very good chance he does fall out of the first round.

The question is, is, is somebody come back in at the tail end and trade up to try to get him? And the answer is, it doesn't necessarily matter because you can bet him over 24 and a half for his draft position if you want to. So even if somebody comes in and lasts like five or six picks, you're still going to win that. I saw that. All this speculation of Jets at 16. That's nonsense.

They're not doing that. I think that would be tough for them to go take him that high unless they were just absolutely sold and totally in love. And I don't necessarily think that that should be the case. I would ask who's coaching Arch Manning with the Jets next year. But I don't want to put you on the spot. Jets fans listening all get upset. Anyways, Warren Sharp, great stuff.

Follow him on social media. Check out his podcast. Warren, thanks so much for coming on, man. great stuff. Thanks, Jay Mack. All right. Well, Warren Sharp, you got to follow his stuff. That's Sean Payton formula is extraordinary.

And I have it in front of me. So Drew Aller came in third in that stat. Okay? Cade Clubnick was for Carson Beck 5. These are guys who were super highly touted coming into the season, didn't statistically measure up to Mendoza or even Ty Simpson. You know, Aller got hurt. Clubnick, I think he got benched.

I know Nussmeyer got bench. Clubnik did not deliver. And then Carson Beck had a good season but not great. He had a couple games where he was really bad. And again, sometimes these narratives just sweep. They take hold. Oh, the expectations are Archmanning's going to be great. He stinks.

Boy, he's the worst quarterback in the history of high prospects or whatever that website wrote about him. So let's not go overboard. If you listen closely, that Ty Simpson number 24 and a half. Guys, he's going in the second round. All right. Coming up next, Ryan Hollins, Rocket Sky. Are the Lakers going to shock Houston? Is that possible?

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

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Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades.

Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story

behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app,

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