The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd - Hour 1 - UConn should be a blue blood

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

Colin's thoughts on UConn's national championship victory and why they should be considered a blue blood The Panthers are set on which quarterback they will be selecting with the number 1 overall pick Thoughts on Andrew Wiggins returning to the Warriors   Guest: Ethan StraussSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On The Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle grahammed.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a busy Tuesday. Live in Los Angeles, it's the herd, wherever you may be, and however you may be listening or viewing. Thanks for making us part of your day.

J-Mack on vacation this week, Ryan, very capably filling in on HerLine News in one hour from now. It's my first and probably last mock draft. I'm going to do the top 10 picks. I am not making predictions on what's going to happen. but I am picking based on if I was the general manager, what I would do. And since we all know I'm capable of being a GM, it'll look a lot like everybody else's mock draft. But I've got a couple big gambles and one player who's not going to be picked in the top 10. So it's my mock draft.

I get sadly very excited for this. If I was the GM of the top 10 teams picking, this is what I would do. I've said before, you know, that if I didn't do this for a living, that's what I'd want to do. I'd want to be an NFL general manager. I like the architecture, the construct of all these teams. So you'll see where we go. And I think all the picks make complete, absolute, inarguable success. That's one hour from now.

But I want to start with a story and talk Yukon's fifth national basketball men's title. Is that years ago, when I worked at the other place, ESPN, it was LSU, was facing Ohio State in the national championship game. And at the time, Urban Meyer was the coach of Florida, and ESPN hired him to be an analyst for the game. And so I had seen him up in Bristol, Connecticut, and I had known Urban a little bit before that. And so he talked, you know, give me a thought on what you think happens in the game.

The Ohio State game, he wasn't coached in Ohio State yet, and the LSU National Championship game. And he laid it out perfectly. and he said LSU by two touchdowns. Ohio State will probably have a couple of big plays early. So I went on the air and basically said, you know, because he was from Ohio. He didn't want to, you know, put it out there for Buckeye fans, right? He didn't want to rub it in their face. But he had told me, you know, don't attribute it to me, but LSU is going to win this game

because they got just more running backs, more receivers. They have more of everything. And they're going to win this game by a couple of touchdowns. And it's something I've thought about a lot is that the coaches, they're really good coaches, they know what they can do and know what they can't do, especially in college sports where the margins are wider. There are just talent gaps. And when I watched the body language of Dan Hurley, who's a pretty intense guy, the coach at Yukon, when I listened to him pregame during timeouts, half time, and I watched his body language throughout,

Dan Hurley knew he had the significantly better team last night. And as you watched it, it was obvious. Connecticut was too deep, way too big. In fact, San Diego State shot 32%. That's a good basketball team. That's a really good basketball team shot 32%, too much depth, way too much size, and an excellent coach. And Dan Hurley knew it. He told you without telling you, is that it is harder to predict in pro sports what's going

to happen in games because the margins are tight. But when TCU plays Georgia, it doesn't take you more in about four or five series to figure out, maybe two or three series, who the better team is. You could tell six minutes into that game, the size was becoming a huge factor. And there's been this discussion, is Yukon a blue blood or not? They're the definition of a blue blood. They've got five national titles in 24 years, but with three different coaches. Now, what does that tell you?

Well, first of all, Kentucky in the last 24 years, a blue blood has one title. Kansas, the definition of a blue blood in 24 years, has two titles. titles. UConn's got five. Now, they've had some valleys where Kansas, Duke haven't, but the definition of a blue blood is that you're not tied to one great coach. Kansas State had one great football coach. Like he leaves, they're not the same program. I grew up in Seattle, University of Washington. We won a national title with Don James. We've sputtered Peaks Valleys ever since. Chris Peterson could have been the next Don James, but he didn't stay long enough. The definition of a blue blood is it doesn't take one culture or one coach or one legend or one vision.

You can bring in a variety of coaches and still dominate the sport. And this was about as physically dominating as a college basketball team I've ever seen. Now, is it an all-time great team? College basketball is different today than it was 20 years ago when you had Patrick Ewing coming back year after year. But this was a really good basketball team. I had picked Duke to win it all. And then after two games, I watched Yukon and Dot and said on the air, yeah, yeah, Yukon's the best team.

And Dan Hurley had said in January, there was a quote in the internet I saw about a week ago, he said in early January, you better get us now because we're figuring this thing out and we're going to be really good. And man, were they against a really solid San Diego State team. Congrats to the Yukon Huskies, Title V, and here's their coach. Obviously, you know, dream come true for all of us. You know, as a part of the program, you know, we sold the vision. You know, I sold the vision that I could, you know, put together a special group of people, a coaching staff, and unbelievable players like this.

You know, so it feels great to come through on promises made by me to all this, you know, the great people of Connecticut. And then with these guys, this was our vision, this was our dream. This is what we talked about when we recruited these guys that we, could get together and do something big like this. And they did. Congrats. I had the pleasure to live there for a decade and watch Jim Calhoun beat the Dukes and the

Carolinas and the Syracuse for years. It is the definition of a blue blood, regardless of the man leading it. By the way, women's basketball at Yukon, there was a time in America, and it was a fairly sustained time for over two decades that Yukon had the best women's program and arguably the best men's program. and there was one year they also made the Fiesta Bowl and football. Considering the size of the state, a remarkable achievement. Congrats to the Huskies.

So we know that Carolina moved up and moved a bunch of parts to get to the number one pick. So I thought about this after the show. I told the guys after the show, something's ruminating. I'm going to polish it and figure it out. But here it is. Carolina is going to take Bryce Young with the number one pick. And here's why. Okay, I'm going to lay it out there.

Here's why. And let me give you this example. Buying a new house is hard and it's usually expensive. You're going to pay more, right? And it's hard. The moving's hard. The kids boxing things up. You're paying for it. It's hard. So if you decide to move in life, you're generally not going to do it for something that's slightly better. It's going to be a significantly better school district, a significantly safer neighborhood, a significantly better view closer to the beach. You don't move just to move because something is just a little better. Generally, most people move because moving is hard and expensive and costly. You move because something is clearly definitively an upgrade.

Carolina was not going to give up their best wide receiver, two seconds in a first for pretty good. C.J. Stroud's a pretty good prospect. Will Levis, nobody's sure. Anthony Richardson, huge gamble. You move up to get the most polished, most refined, most ready, and best self-awareness. That's why you move up. And arguably, arguably the most accurate, though C.J. Stroud's really good in that department. Why would you give up DJ Moore for good?

Nobody considers C.J. Stroud, the best high school quarterback ever. And for most of his college career, we didn't consider him the best college quarterback. Bryce Young, both boxes checked. Self-awareness, agility, pocket awareness, seize downfield, accuracy, winning, productive, everything. Yeah, you wish he was taller and heavier. So do I. So does everybody. But he's the best prospect. Does he have the highest ceiling? I don't know. He's the best prospect. But if Carolina, if you really think about it, thought Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud were identical, then why give up DJ more and just go to the number two pick with Houston? They called Houston. I was told that. If you don't think there's any separation from any of these quarterbacks, then just go up to number three or number four. You don't go up to number one. And to go to number one, they had to give up their star receiver, which they didn't want to do. but you go to number one and give up extra things.

It's more costly for a significantly better prospect. I don't know what the ceiling is. No question Anthony Richardson's a bigger, stronger athlete. No question Will Levis has a better arm. No question that C.J. Stroud is bigger. I'm not denying that. But you could get those guys at two, three, four. Bryce Young, if you don't want to risk it,

it's going to cost you more. That's what happens when you make the big move. And I thought about that last night. To make that kind of move, you're only doing it for one guy. Because you didn't have to move to number one to get Anthony Richardson or Will Levis. And you probably didn't have to move to number one to get C.J. Stroud. So I'm going to go, my gut feeling is Bryce Young. Now, now, I will say this.

The betting boards think I'm wrong and they think it's C.J. Stroud. I think if you wanted C.J. Stroud or you saw very little difference with C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young, you wouldn't have given up DJ more. You would have given up a couple of seconds and a first and just gone to Houston. Because they called Arizona. They called Houston. They called Chicago. They wanted to control it because they wanted their guy. There you go. Finally, it's, you know, the Lamar Jackson drama is the drama. that will never end. OBJ, by the way, has gotten an offer. NBA making an interesting move, one we predicted. We'll talk about all that stuff coming up.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'll say it. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, personal health, personal health. purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast.

It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with a little camp? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we picky here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you're all right.

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

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Generally, media people are not business people. And so some of this is obvious and self-evident. But momentum is a real thing in business. Timing is a real thing in business. The media struggles with this concept.

So I've been saying on Lamar Jackson is I would sign him for a lot of reasons. He wins a lot of games. The other reason I'd sign him is because now Joe Burroughs, the second best quarterback in the league in your division. Deshawn Watson should be better than he was last year. I don't think he's great, but he's certainly good. And Kenny Pickett at the end of the year won seven of his last. nine starts.

I think you'd be fine for a year or two because you're the Ravens, the culture, the coaching, the defense. You would be a viable team, but you're not winning a division with the fourth best quarterback in the division. And with Lamar, you probably have the second best quarterback in that division. Mahalmsboro, to me, have separated from the league. Accuracy, big game situations, winning games. So, but timing matters in business.

Lamar Jackson's timing isn't great. a lot of these big contract quarterbacks have not have not panned out. And so Albert Breyer, writing for Sports Illustrated, an anonymous league executive was quoted saying, who actually got what they paid for with these big quarterbacks? And this goes to the momentum, Bitcoin, real estate, the stock market, star quarterbacks, NFTs, things have bubbles, right? And we were in a little bit of a quarterback bubble where we were just handing out gigantic money because Stafford goes to the Rams and Stafford wins a Super Bowl.

and hell with those picks and pay them what you got to pay them and then all of a sudden Stafford won very good and Kyler's contract and Aaron now and here's the big money contracts and the executive asked a simple question who's getting what they paid for Aaron Rogers 50 million missed the playoffs in a wonky division. Russell Wilson

disaster. Kyler Murray disaster. Deshawn he's a disaster and it was a disaster. Patrick Mahomes, the outlier, the best quarterback on the planet. Josh Allen, mostly been worth the money. Derek Carr missed the playoffs. Stafford, disaster up front, missed the playoffs. And Dak Prescott, Dallas now has to move off Zeke. They had to move off Amari Cooper. So you got Dak and he's stable. He's a B quarterback, but you've had to move off people. And so what happened is good to very good quarterbacks, got great contracts, and the results were discouraging and disappointing. So the market sort of corrects.

Lamar's going to get paid, but when you've missed 10 of your last 22 starts for the Ravens and you have an unorthodox style of representation and you've gotten increasingly noisy, I think that leads to momentum, not working in his favor and he's feeling a bit of a bit of a pinch. Just ask yourself, outside of Patrick Mahomes, take the greatest of anything out. You can't use the greatest movie star to say that's the way Hollywood works or the, or the richest person in the world and say, that's the way the world economy works. Let's take out Mahomes, who has the best offensive coach in football, and Mahomes is the most talented quarterback.

Take that off the board. Let's talk everybody else. If you have a quarterback with a top five cap hit, you're not winning a Super Bowl. So Baltimore is like, our standard isn't Cleveland's laughable standard. Our standard's winning Super Bowls. Won it with Flacco, won it with Dilfer. We win Super Bowls. You can't, if you have a quarterback with a top five cap hit.

outside of my homes. So I don't think this thing is that difficult to decipher. I think what that executive is saying is a lot of people have paid quarterbacks a lot of money. Minnesota was the first to do it, guaranteed to Kirk Cousins. What do they have to show for it? Dak got a lot of money. Now they're peeling off players and personnel. So this stuff, it's business, momentum and timing.

Sometimes companies get sold. They would not get sold a year later. So, you know, I mean, you know this. your stock market. When people retire in America, you try not to retire when the market is crashed. You tend to retire the market's up. You've got your money and your bonds. It's stable.

The bond rate's good. Okay, now's a good time for a soft landing into retirement. Timing is everything in business. And the NFL is America's biggest sports business. Ryan with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

All right, Colin, let's start things off here in the NFL. The Eagles fell short in the Super Bowl losing to the Chiefs 3835. They did lose a handful of noteworthy players who had significant contributions to the team's success last year. But their head coach, Nick Siriani, is confident that Philly won't suffer from a Super Bowl hangover next season. You get close and it just fuels your hunger of just what do I, you know the steps that you had to take to get there. then you know that every detail matters and you're going to go and try to recapture everything you can as far as

the work to put in and so I think that's just what it does. It just makes you more hungry. We don't give a crap about what the numbers say of who you know he was able to get back to the Super Bowl but it's going to take day in day outwork and I know that's cliche and I know that but when you can set your sights narrow

as far as here's what we're focusing on today it helps you stay focused on that day and continuing to be. build and build and build and build. Yeah, bottom line is they got right tackle lane Johnson and Jason, Kelsey, the center, all-time great center to both come back. That stabilizes the biggest concern, which was the offensive line for emerging superstar quarterback Jalen Hertz. You knew it was predictable you'd have free agent losses on the defensive side.

Go draft them. I still contend it's much easier to draft and immediately get a production out of a defensive player than an offensive player. So as long as the offense is good, the quarterback is receivers. Eagles are always great at Tide End, the O-line stable. They're going to be a top two team.

Top three at minimum in the NFC. They just got to replace some defensive people who, by the way, we're getting old and expensive anyway. It's time to draft the defense. I would suspect that the defensive draft for the Eagles will be pretty profound. They're going to lean heavy on the defense and build it back up.

I do think the one interesting thing to keep an eye on is they lost both coordinates. to head coaching jobs. Yes. And specifically from an offensive perspective, obviously we saw the huge breakout year from Jalen Hertz Now they need to find another offensive coordinator now I know Nick Siriani is from the offensive side of the ball so that should help But when this Eagles team really turned the corner about a season and a half ago Yeah, he gave up play calling so that's what's going to be interesting I mean you spent a lot of time talking about this You know Josh Allen and sort of the bill's offense and how the effect of losing Brian dayball played a role so I think That is going to be the big factor for them this off-season.

Shane Steichen, Justin Herbert, had a remarkable rookie year with Shane Steichen. He left. Herbert's better, but what happened to his numbers? His numbers have kind of gone down. Jalen Hertz took a massive leap when Shane Steichen arrived. So he is kind of a less well-known Brian Daibel. He took these raw, talented young guys, and they explode within six months of working with him. So I do think they probably won't equal their offensive output.

But again, in the AFC, I would say probably don't get back to the Super Bowl. Too many defensive losses, massive coordinator loss. But I think in the NFC, San Francisco has no idea who their quarterback is, and that's their primary rival in terms of overall roster. Yeah, if there's one thing Howie Roseman has shown over the years, it's that he can draft and develop players on both sides of the ball. Speaking of the draft, Colin, defensive tackle, Jalen Carter, sorry, Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter, that is, will not be meeting with any team that has a draft pick outside of the top 10. That's according to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who said he is confident Carter will be a top 10 pick this year.

Carter has already met with the Bears and Eagles who hold the 9th and 10th picks respectively. Now, we know Drew Rosenhaus, he's been around the block. He's played little games like this before. I know you've spoken with him and he tells the story about, I believe it was Willis McGahey and calling other teams to sort of set up these faux trades to convince teams to take his players who may be falling in the draft. Obviously, Jalen Carter's had some serious questions about his off-the-field activities and incidents. So Drew Rosenhouse doing his best here to keep the draft interests alive.

And you have your mock draft coming up in about 35 minutes. Remember, we have many teams drafting in the top 10. Seattle has a defensive head coach who has a history of rolling the dice on guys that may have gone, you know, a little sideways or dramatic in their career. Pete's history. It's worked for him. I think you have Arizona right now has a new defensive coach. They have an edge rusher. They do, though, need an interior defensive lineman. J.J. Watt has left Arizona. Chicago later. I don't think Jalen Carter is falling that far, but what does Matt Eberflu's want? He wants, you know, they went and paid money for some linebackers. They love an eight to ten-year guy in the middle of that defense.

So there's some defensive coaches here that I know. If you get down to Pete Carroll at five at Seattle, and Jalen Carter is sitting there, and I think Pete believes he's the best player in the draft, I have a hard time believing. Pete Carroll. Because Seattle really is not, they need, they don't need a bunch.

They need another big time town on the defensive front. They probably need to upgrade it center, another wide receiver. Seattle, and we know the quarterback situation, but Gino led the league in what passer rating, so they're not desperate at quarterback. Gino's still pretty young, reasonably

young. So Jalen Carter's not going outside. I don't care about the character stuff. He's not a quarterback. Where the character stuff becomes, really, really crucial, I think he's going very early. Yeah, and as you said, you know, maybe depending on the head coach there, whether it's more of a seasoned veteran head coach like Pete Carroll, who's all about competition and maintaining that culture,

may fit a little better than somewhere like in Chicago where Iber Fluse is still kind of trying to find his way and establish that culture. Arizona, where people have said maybe the culture is not so great. So Seattle does look like a great landing spot. We'll finish up with this, Colin. The Dallas Mavericks are outside of the world. of the playoff picture right now with just three games to go sitting at 11th in the west right now one game behind the thunder for the final playing spot according to shams charania dallas is

seriously considering shutting down both luca dantschich and kairi irving for the remainder of the regular season this would be a pretty bad look for dallas at this point i get that they it looks pretty bleak for them to get in but they still aren't technically eliminated So I don't know. I guess are you going to shut them down for like the last two games of the year? Yeah, if you don't have to do it, it's a long off season. Why would you do it? You're just creating a headline, an embarrassing headline you don't have to create.

This thing's already been a mess. Yeah. Like why create another headline? I mean, you're giving Dallas talk show hosts like a month in the off season. You know, you're hoping you get to the playoffs and they talk about you. If you're not good, you want them to talk about the NFL draft on those Dallas radio stations. You don't want them talking for three weeks up to the draft instead of the Cowboys. What a dysfunctional mess your franchise is.

Why create a headline? Just let them play the rest of the season. Try to win the last couple games. Yeah, go out on a high note, you know? I mean, like we even saw the Phoenix Suns, obviously this isn't a direct comparison. But when the Suns went to the bubble years ago and then they went undefeated but still ended up missing out on actually getting into the playoffs, all of a sudden it sort of made people look at the sun's a little different. Like, oh, look what they have going on in Phoenix.

How impressive. If you have any hope of trying to maintain this relationship between Kyrie Irving and Luca Donchich, I mean, who knows what at least back-to-back wins to finish the year could do? Because this whole thing has been a complete mess up to this point. So why not? Essentially, you're just giving up if you sit them, which is never how you want the season to end.

Uh, Ryan with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. So this OBJ story came out. According to Adam Schaefter, the Baltimore Ravens have made an offer to Odell Beckham. The Jets are sort of in the mix. If I was the Jets, I'd stay away.

I do think Baltimore is not very good at wide receiver. And I've said before, first of all, if the offer was big, like $20 million, OBJ would have signed it. It's not. My guess is it's half that, around $10 million. So I've said before, if you have a wide, receiving core that needs a pop, needs some juice. I'd love to have him as a two or a three. You can't build your franchise around him anymore. A little bit too much drama, too brittle,

not productive and consistent enough. But I'll give you an example of kind of where he fits. So Devante Adams, let's take a star receiver. Devante Adams is bigger, is never miss. He only missed one game in the last two years. More productive, significantly, less drama. He makes $28 million a year. Okay, so we know he's not that. Stefan Diggs makes $24 million a year. He rarely misses games, highly productive. He does have a little bit of drama, but that's $24 million. Then you say Amari Cooper, he's also very productive, no drama, rarely misses games,

highly productive, and he makes $20 million. So I think there's people out there that think, well, OBJ is at least as good as Stefan Diggs. But this is a great example of what teams are looking for at a position-wide receiver where college football gives the NFL 20 a year, minimum. Could be 30. It's the one position that college football furnishes pro football with. And it is a conveyor belt.

It is a waterfall that never ends. Kids these days, the last 10 years, the money's at quarterback and wide receiver. And I've said this before. In the state of California, we've got 30, what do we got, 38 million people or something like that? 37, 38 million people. It's a very fertile high school recruiting ground. There's 15 Division I quarterbacks a year. There are 45, 50 receivers a year. There may be two elite running backs. California kids, smart ahead of the curve. It's the position you can't get a second great contract. So the bottom line is wide receiver. I mean, you go to these

California passing camps. You look at the video, it's unbelievable. There are wide receivers everywhere in this state, and I'm not counting Georgia, Florida, Texas, Ohio. Pennsylvania. There's wide receiver talent everywhere. So better be careful. I think the term diva wide receiver no longer exists for a reason. You don't need it. There's just too much wide receiver talent out there. Even guys that drop in the draft, D.K. Metcalf becomes huge stars. So here's the thing. You look at that and you think, well, okay, he's not, he's not Devonte Adams in turn of productivity. And maybe he's not Stefan Diggs.

Well, he's at least Amari Cooper. Here's what's interesting. Last three seasons, OBJ has 67 catches. Amari's got 78 last year and 238 in three years. OBJ is about a $7 to $8 million receiver. He is not worth half of Amari Cooper because you're going to get some drama. He's going to miss some games. You get neither of that with Amari Cooper. And he's also not very productive.

Well, Colony was hurt. It's not my fault. It's not my problem. It's his reality. So if you even take 20 million Amari Cooper, he's not half as productive as Amari Cooper the last three seasons. Amari's got 240 catches last year. Amari had 78, and I believe I don't have it in front of me.

Did he have six or nine touchdowns? Because OBJ has seen as more explosive than Marari Cooper. But Amari Cooper gets into the end zone a lot. So my takeaway is I would love to have him as a two or a three receiver, ideally a three, because he's brittle. He gets hurt a lot. And he's not very productive because he's not available a lot. he's worth about $8 million to me on the market.

The Ravens officially, according to Adam Schaefter, have made an offer. Coming up next, one of the single smartest guys out there, one of the single smartest writers out there has got a substack. I just absolutely love him. He's going to give us his thoughts on a variety of things. The NBA has made a big change going forward. Baseball just made sweeping changes. It's been a big payoff.

And is women's basketball now going to get the ratings of men's basketball going forward. We'll talk about that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's me, Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast inside the Parker for 22 minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the biggest names and newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, we've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday. So do yourself a favor and listen to to Inside the Parker with Rob Parker on the IHartRadio app

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

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered. conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the

Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to be. to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack,

so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah, for me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So I will have my mock draft Top of next hour. It is what I would do if I was a general manager, so I'll put myself on the hot seat. I'm not going to say, well, this

is the order I think it will go based on projections on what teams need. Mine is, I'm a GM, I know what my needs are. I do have one trade in the first round. It makes a ton of sense. I have one player not making the top 10, which everybody has assured me will be a top 10 picks. Some have had him in the top three. I don't think he gets drafted in the top 10. And I'm going to go based on, I'm the GM,

and I kind of know how my coach feels and what my coach needs. I think a lot of you will be interested in what Seattle does and what the Colts do and what the Raiders do. Because I think all drafts are different. This draft has a lot of quarterbacks at the top. Therefore, it'll be a very highly rated draft. That's the reality of the position. We got quarterbacks, all shapes, all sizes, all unique. We've got a refined guy. We've got a guy that's good but lacks juice. We got a muscle-bound guy who's taking selfies in a bathroom. We have this kind of Cam Newton-ish, though not as good as Cam in college, not close actually, but this wildly athletic quarterback who moves really well. I don't know if I'm very, very raw.

So there's a lot of quarterback movement. I do think there is one, I have one strong opinion about one team in the NFL draft that will move up. A very, very strong feeling about that. So that's going to be top of next hour. My mock draft. By the way, there's this story out with Andrew Wiggins of the Warriors. There's been a lot of speculation. We've stayed out of the speculation why he was gone.

apparently his dad is dealing with serious health issues. Nobody knows when Wiggins is going to play again. I was told about three weeks ago he was not going to play in the regular season. Nobody knew about the playoffs. Steve Kerr said recently Wiggins has been working out every day while away from the team. That is substantial because if you just start to work out for an NBA playoff run, you're not going to be a factor. If he comes in in shape, at least in good enough shape so that he can play,

he has a chance to make an impact. Ethan Strauss, an NBA writer, author of the Victory Machine, the making and unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty, joins us. I think people, when Wiggins came over, there were some that viewed him not as a bust, but a real underachiever. It's ironic that he has come to this Warriors dynasty, and now we're understanding, Ethan, just how valuable he is. You've covered this team before.

What are the elements that I think have shocked even NBA insiders of Andrew Wiggins' value to this now awful road basketball team? Well, actually, I think the people who were shocked are analytics guys like myself, people who saw the inefficiency. When he came to the Warriors, remember Tom Fibito, his old coach with the Timberwolves, he showed up and he said to me, he's going to be great. He's not a good kid. He's a great kid. Now, Colin, the irony on ironies, he has been good, he has been an Ironman in the NBA, but weirdly enough, it's this bizarre, I don't even know what to call it, do we call it a sabbatical? I know the agency said it was his father, but it doesn't make a lot of sense because then you just sort of said that weeks ago. So that's been the mystery of this season is that the ultimate Iron Man, the perfect guy, the guy who holds it all together,

kind of the glue guy in combination with Raymond Green is just absent. But if he comes back and the Warriors make a run, hey, all as well, that ends well. They have been historically a bizarrely bad road team. Like in the Rockets' you know, tanking pistons level. Many have speculated the Draymond Green Jordan Poole incident created a fissure between older players and younger players. That's the only thing I can theorize.

What say you on that? Because it's not that they've struggled on the road. They're awful. What is it? Yeah, and I'm not around the team these days, so you don't get that nitty-gritty, but from a far and from an eye here, it's this. It's the theory that you espoused right there, which makes a lot of sense, and sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct explanation that's Occam's razor.

But in addition, it's just being spent, man. I mean, do they have the juice to really go on the road to charge themselves up and they don't have the crowd behind them? Steve Kerr talked about all the time. how the bowls, they said, oh, my God, you guys could have won all these finals if you didn't take a break in between the three-peats. But it would have been impossible because it's so taxing mentally, physically, the whole thing. I just think it's a lack of juice. It's some randomness, it's some variance, and it's some lack of juice there. When you look at the entire West,

the East, I think, is better. It's more formidable. Perhaps it's top-heavy. But I know what teams can do and what they can't. In the West, it's really been about this year who's not available. Wiggins, Kauai, Paul George, LeBron, A.D., there is this growing belief, Ethan, that Austin Reeves, aggressive player gets to the line, A.D. LeBron, suddenly I'm hearing Lakers are going to win the West. Do you buy any of that? It's such, I mean, the regular season is on trial, Colin. That's what we're seeing right now because we get this buzz all the time.

A lower seed, they can make a run. They can win a championship. But it never really happens, not since decades ago. So, I mean, yeah, they could do it. Yeah, the Warriors could do it. But I am a little bit, you know, when it happens, it happens. This might be when it happens. And the regular season has been so devalued that a lower seed of team can waltz on

in come together, have their blue guy and Wiggins show up, have the Lakers really come together because they no longer have the Westbrook Albatross. I think it's possible, but I would bet against it just based on historical precedent. You know, there is a, and if you look at the 10-year decline of NBA ratings, I still love the sport, but I have mentioned in the last couple of years is if I go to a Broadway play, which I don't very often, but if I did and the stars were out, would feel disappointed, even though the understudies could be great. If I go to an NFL game between the Bills and Chiefs and Josh Allen and Mahomes are out, it's a different game.

It's a different value of ticket. And I've noticed in the last couple of years, I've turned to a Saturday night game or a big game, and Yokic is out, and Beds out, Janice is out, Tatum's out, although Tatum doesn't miss many games. And so the new collective bargaining agreement is forcing players to play a certain percentage of games or they don't get awards. It's something we've talked about for a year. Do you think that will work? Will it make an impact?

Because I do believe all leagues have a hole or an issue, and I think it's a real issue in the NBA right now. Yeah, I think the NBA's main problem. I want to say that's a good idea, but their main problem is not exercising soft power. I mean, people are scared of David Stewart. People did what he wanted in part because they didn't know how we could make their life difficult.

You don't see that from Afghanistan. Adam Silver. He's not even telling the players to try in the All-Star game. Just maybe say it, maybe add some pressure. When Ben Simmons didn't show up for work for the 76ers, it was the 76ers who had to find Ben Simmons. It wasn't the NBA. It wasn't the league saying, no, you have to show up to work. So I'm saying that these are good rules, but they need some enforcement behind them. And I would add this additionally. What we're seen from women's basketball, it's not just, they're having a popularity search, obviously. The NBA's issue isn't just that guys might not show up due to load management, it's that these players are skipping

around, jumping around. A huge advantage for women's basketball right now in some of these stars is that they're there for four years oftentimes. Whatever the NBA can do to incentivize guys not only showing up, but to be in their original situations for a long period of time, that's probably what's going to make them more popular. Yeah, no, I think that's a really good point. Caitlin Clark for Iowa is coming back. So if she was a college basketball player, She would now go to the NBA. So about the time most of the country is introduced to this young Steph Curry-like player, she'd be gone. Now she comes back to Iowa ensuring the Big Ten ratings and they'll obviously be an elite team.

That's a really good point. I've never been bothered by mobility, but the lack of it does help. Finally, Luca Kyrie, optics and aesthetics and style matter in basketball, I'm okay with it. I loved as a kid world bead free. He wasn't a great basketball player. he could score. I loved him. Are you surprised, though, in hindsight, that Dallas went all in with Kyrie when you look at the results again being disappointing?

I think it's another example of Mark Cuban being a little bit too forward-thinking, a little bit too reckless, and a little bit too inpatient. Obviously, he's a lot of things for the league, for that team that were forward-thinking. Sometimes he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, and yeah, hey, it didn't work for you. The Kyrie thing didn't work for you, but for me, it's all going to work out somehow. And it really isn't. And it's interesting because it will be an indictment on Kyrie if it really blows up. But I think people are asking some questions of Luca, especially with Jalen Brunson, really

taking off in this sense that the guy he was with before was too ball dominant to really see some of his skills. Obviously, Luca's a great player, a superstar. But I think that there's now going to be some skepticism in the Dallas. situation towards Mark Cuban, who's mostly gotten praise, and towards Luca, who's mostly gotten the past. Ethan Strauss, got a substack. It's as interesting as anything out there.

He's also got a podcast, which is outstanding on the NBA. Please give it a listen. The House of Strauss is always thoughtful. I appreciate seeing you again, buddy. Thanks. Any time for you, Colin? Yeah, you know, one of the few downsides of being really smart, which Mark Cuban is, really smart people.

Mark Zuckerberg's a really smart guy, right? You take big swings, the metaverse. I'm not smart enough to come up with the idea of the metaverse, and I'm also too interested in real life to be sitting on, you know, with a staring at a computer screen all day instead of my real life. Like sometimes really smart people have such confidence in their vision that it, not that it's delusional, but it's, you know, Elon Musk and Twitter. Mark Cuban has great confidence.

Let's take a big swing. It's made Mark Rich, but sometimes you step in it. a little misguided. I got the swing on Kyrie Irving, but I didn't think it was going to make them a championship team. I thought it was going to make them fun to watch, which they still can be. All right, my mock draft, here we go.

Our number two plus Nick right next. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriters street or Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 is big to me.

I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman. Human documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.