The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 3 - More the contract dispute between Micah Parsons and Jerry Jones, Robert Mays

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

NFL insider Robert Mays joins the show to tell Danny if the Cowboys and Parsons will settle their contract dispute before the regular season beginsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We'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.

Listen to Hey, Jonas, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was funny. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come into it. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the, IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening to The Heard Podcasts. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Coming to Fox Sports Radio. Back in on The Hurt. I'm Danny Parkins. In for Colin Cowherd, Chris Felica, the Bear, joins us in about 20 minutes. But I'm excited about this. Joining us now on The Herd, the host of the terrific, the athletic football show, is my buddy, Robert Mays. And, you know, Robert, I was thinking about texting you.

I was thinking about calling you. And then I was like, now, let's just do it on national TV. I listened to your podcast of the 2024 draft class. And you know, you root for the Bears. You're in Chicago. You like me, watched every pass of Caleb Williams last year. But when you did that podcast, you were talking about how you had the thought the most question marks were about Caleb. And I was surprised.

There was definitely plenty of bad. He was not as good as many of us thought he was going to be. But there were so many things that contributed to it. I'm wondering if you are feeling better after the preseason game against Buffalo. It'd be hard not to feel better when you look at how on time and mechanically sound the offense felt. Just watching him operate with a level of urgency and confidence and just the pre-snap operation and clearly how in command of that he feels. I've always had faith that with Ben Johnson, this could be corrected. I watched what Ben Johnson did with Jared Gough and I remember what Jared Gough looked like near the end in Los Angeles.

So I think there's a big gap that Caleb has to close based on how he played last year. But when you'd go from the worst possible circumstances in terms of how the offense is being articulated to a quarterback, the intent of certain plays, to what is going to be one of the best situations in the NFL when it comes to all that stuff, you can see a drastically different results. So I think that I was a little bit worried about some of that stuff last year. I absolutely still have faith that it can get cleaned up with the right coaching. and I think Ben Johnson is the right coach. So what do you believe Caleb Lee? It's not necessarily this year, but where do you have him in terms of a ceiling?

What can he still become? It's a great question. I don't know exactly where I land on that because I don't know how many quarterbacks are like him in the NFL that are actually analogous to him when it comes to playstyle and what he's bringing to the table. But if you told me, I think as it currently stands in the NFL,

the NFL quarterback hierarchy, when you get outside of the top four, guys, I think it's pretty muddled. I think that group between like five and 15 right now is very fluid where there's going to be a lot of risers and followers over the next couple years. If you told me at the end of the 2026 season that Caleb Williams was the eighth best quarterback in the league, I would believe that. A lot of stuff would have to go right for it to happen.

But I think that tier especially right now is kind of there for the taking, depending on how the next couple seasons go. So he's a part of this 2024 draft class, and I said earlier in the show, I think it's trending that it'll be arguably the most successful draft class in NFL history, not in terms of Super Bowls or anything like that, but in terms of teams just getting it right, the 2020 class had five guys who signed second contracts with the team that drafted them, which is an NFL record. I know it's early, but I feel like they're going to go six for six in the first round. Do you look at last year's QB classes potentially an all-time one? I do. Obviously, JJ McCarthy is probably the biggest question mark just because we haven't seen him play. But all the other guys, even with only a glimpse at Michael Pennix, I'm really excited about

what Michael Pennix showed last year. So the guy, if you look at the numbers that was the least efficient, any advanced metric you want to take a look at last year among that entire group was Caleb Williams. And we just talked about the collective optimism that I think is justified with Caleb Williams. what you saw from Jane Daniels was undeniable. Bow Nix was so much better than anybody could have expected. Drake May, if you look at the scenario in New England and the personnel in New England, that should have been DOA.

They should have had absolutely no shot to even be a competent offense. And if you look at those numbers, Drake May was able to actually have a functional NFL offense with that group, which is a borderline miracle. So we'll see what happens this year. I think there are still reasonable questions about all of these guys. But the arrow is pointed way, way up in a way. way that we just don't typically see with a group as a whole. So I want to talk to you about Trevor Lawrence because he is the same age as Bo

Nix and Michael Pennix, who are in that quarterback class, but he's on his third head coach. He's had four first round picks on the offensive side of the ball that he's been there. He gets Liam Cohn, who helped Baker Mayfield. To me, this feels like the last stand for Trevor Lawrence to prove that he can be that guy. How do you look at it now with the situation that he's in in Jacksonville? I think that's a great way to frame it. I mean, if he's not going to succeed in these circumstances, and they're not perfect.

The offensive line, they're shooting for the middle of the road, even if that turns out well. But when you think about the construction of the offense and how hard it felt in Jacksonville over the last couple years and how easy it felt for Baker, Mayfield, and Tampa last year, it's just a drastically different situation in what you're requiring of the quarterback. It's funny, we're doing that AFC.

South preview on our show today. And for each team, we're talking about what is success. And for me and the Jags, part of their successful 2025 would be that we never see Trevor Lawrence's name on a bottom third cry on ever again. And so the fact that we're doing this right now, I think speaks to what we don't want to be doing by the end of this season. That's an interesting way to frame it. I do think the most interesting guy maybe in the NFL this year is his teammate, Travis Hunter. I've argued that he's going to set the snap record as a Roe's which is a weird record. I know that not everybody knows that Malcolm Jenkins has the most snaps of any player in NFL history, but he had more snaps last year in 13 or 14 college games than

Malcolm Jenkins than in 16 games. He has a chance to shatter the record. What do you expect from Travis Hunter in year one? Something we've never seen before. I don't think we've ever seen somebody play on both sides of the ball at the clip that he is going to do it. Even watching the mechanics of what their practices were like when I was down in training camp in Jacksonville, Watching him off to the side with defensive coaches while they were going through special teams, having him switch jerseys in the middle of a practice. We've never seen anything like this. And it was probably 98 degrees and just disgustingly humid when I was there.

And he looked like he was having the best time anyone's ever had in a football field, as all of the rest of us were miserable. The amount of gas he has in the tank, we should study him. I've never seen anybody like it, and they know that. Even beyond the amount of snaps on both sides of the ball, how much they're going to put him in motion, how many just pure feet he is going to run over the course of an NFL game.

I want some numbers on that because I don't think we've ever seen anything like it before. 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. He's by Carmen, I'm Dan Byrd. We have a fantasy football podcast called I Want Your Flexed. That's right, Dan.

Every week we're going to scour the waiver wire to find the pickups to turbo boost your fantasy lineup. Sit, starts. Fantasy football players' rankings to get you ready to dominate the competition. Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Harmon and me, Dan Byer, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. First people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend.

But this one's extra special. So how did 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 was... 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. We 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, NL'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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what

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

them listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast and for more follow timbo slice of life 12 and the tick tock podcast network on tick tock the french open is one of the toughest tests in tennis and i know firsthand because i competed there myself i'm rene stubbs and on the rene 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 jen chen ch'in i mean she went to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lena Rubakina 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. Robert Mays from the Athletic Football Show is our guest.

We'll get into the specifics of the Micah thing in a minute, but I've argued that holdouts in terms of missed games, they're not extinct, but they're like an endangered species because the best players get paid in a post-Levy on Bell world. It doesn't really happen. Chris Jones is an outlier. We have three of them right now, Terry McLaurin, Trey Hendrickson, and Micah Parsons.

Do you expect them all to play week one? I do just because of precedent. And I know you were talking about Micah before I came on. And I think the Occam's razor approach to this is typically how I do it. Like the simplest answer and the answer that we've seen before is the answer that we'll see again. All of them have subtle differences between them. But these guys are incentivized to play. I don't think they want to be missing game checks.

And every single one of these teams has aspirations for this season. And all of these players are necessary components to that. So I'll believe it when I see it if none of these games. guys around the field week one. I just tend to think the way the league currently works, like you just said, most of this stuff gets sorted out before the actual games get started, and that's where I sit with them. The McLaren and Hendrickson ones, though, right?

McClure and I can see the argument. Well, we know we need to pay him, but he probably isn't as good as AJ Brown, so I could see there being some disagreement there. Hendrickson, it's like, okay, we know we need to pay him, even though he's really productive, but he's older, he's on the wrong side of 30. I could see there being some disagreement there. Micah Parsons is just like universally regarded as a top three, top five defensive player in football for the team that drafted him coming off of his rookie contract.

It should be easy, but for some reason, Jerry Jones doesn't want to talk to an agent, even though David Molagetta has players that are on the Cowboys. It's all ridiculous. What do you make of that one specifically and why this one has been so difficult in Dallas? Jerry is P.T. Barnum. I mean, that's what he has been for way too. long. And the fact that that's his priority right now is making a spectacle out of this team. If I were a Cowboys fan and we are all collectively agreeing that some of this is to

drum up interest for a Netflix documentary or just to drum up interest about the franchise in general that doesn't need any more publicity, it's just so hard for me to square the fact that this is somebody who has openly talked about how important it is for him to win another Super Bowl and how much winning matters. And so many of his actions are directly contradictory to that. If I was a fan of this team, it would drive me absolutely bonkers, just the pure hypocrisy that consistently goes on with the messaging and the reality of the people that are in charge of that franchise.

Let's stay in the NFC East. Jackson Dart has looked good in the preseason, but he's got two veterans in front of him. He's got a coach and a GM on the hot seat, and their schedules a mess. when do you expect to see Jackson Dart? I expect to see him pretty quickly. I really do. I just think the way that he's played in the preseason, how warm and fuzzy Brian Daebel seems to feel about this.

I've interacted with Brian Daible several times in my life. Brian Daible is not a warm and fuzzy person. You watch Brian Daibble on the sideline. He's not happy about much, and he seems to be pretty happy about what he's getting from Jackson Dart. And you can honestly see it in the construction of the offense when Jackson Dart is in there.

Brian Dable is somebody that came from the college game before he was the offensive coordinator of the bills. He spent a year, that gap year at Alabama that so many guys seem to spend. He's interested in the college game. He consistently studies the college game. And you've already seen some of that old missed stuff get folded into what the Giants are.

I think that on so many different levels, the Jackson Dart experience has already been energizing for this team and this coaching staff. The idea that they would wait a while before tapping into that when Russell Wilson at this point in his career, to me, is the opposite of energizing, I think I want to see Jackson Dart pretty quickly, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Giants want to see Jackson Dart pretty quickly. All right, so let's go open-ended here.

You've been to a bunch of training camps. You cover the NFL as in depth and as closely as anyone. What's been the biggest learn for you? The biggest thing, oh, man, positive, negative, good, whatever, surprise that you learned on this training camp tour? I would say two things. I think it's the collective optimism I had about the general direction

of both the Titans and the Panthers. Those are two organizations and two teams that really haven't had any reason for people to think that there are good things waiting around the corner. And when I left those two buildings, I think that the process, the way that they've tried to build the rosters,

some of the things they're trying to do with their young quarterbacks, I don't know if it's going to work. I don't know if the Bryce Young thing is going to continue based on the second half of last season. I don't know if Cam Ward is going to be good. These are all things with young quarterbacks that there's a little bit of murkiness. But what they've tried to do and how they've tried to go about things in both of those buildings, I'm looking forward to watching both of those offenses in week one.

And if you had asked me that on August 22nd of last year, there's absolutely no way. So just the general direction and how much quiet optimism I have about both of those places, I did not expect that before I walked into both of those buildings earlier this summer. What do you make of a team that's supposed to compete for a Super Bowl, gave the Eagles all that they could handle, but has an injured quarterback and a bad offensive line? I feel like there's a lot of boom or bust potential right now with the Rams. There's always boom or bust potential with this team.

And they're so hard to talk about because we discuss this a lot. The Rams get the benefit of the doubt where we're consistently talking our into, oh, well, in the best version of this team, look at what they can do. We don't do that with anyone else. We don't wish for the best version of every other team consistently, but we've seen the Rams do it before. They did it when they won the Super Bowl. They did it for that stretch in 2023.

When they can thread the needle, they look special. And so I just think that there's more volatility with that team than almost any other in the league. I will say they have built in contingencies with this version of it. they have not had in years past. If you remember that 2022 season and even the game Stafford missed, I believe in 2023, when Brett Rippin

had to play in Green Bay, that's why Jimmy Garoppolo is there now. They have a backup left tackle in DJ Humphreys. So I think the floor is slightly higher for the Rams than it has been in years past when they've had some of these injuries, but the ceiling also seems a little bit harder to reach if your 37

year old quarterback is going to have a back injury coming into this season. So this is not a story. that you guys would really do a ton of on the athletic football show, but I'm just curious, what has your perception been of the media handling of the Shador Sanders story as it relates to the validity of it as a football story? We know how this stuff works. You know, you have to talk about certain things because there's interest in certain things that the tail waggs the dog a lot when it comes to sports media. I'm not surprised by this. I just think overall, the breathless coverage

of every moment of training camp, training camp, stats, who looks good, who looks bad. It's so misguided most of the time. We just don't have a good handle on what is happening during these practices. You're watching it from the sideline. You don't have a vantage point of the entire offense.

You can't watch the entire offense and you can't go back and watch practice tape to understand any of the context of what's happening. So inevitably, there are going to be so many silly things written and said over the course of any given training camp and I think there's a very good chance most of those reside in Cleveland based on how the past month is gone. All right. Last one. Who's winning the Super Bowl? It pains me to say it, but I'm probably going to pick the Ravens. I just think that their best gear is so good right now.

I love some of the little tweaks they made on defense with the way they played on the back half of the season on defense last year. And I think Lamar has reached a really special level. And they have most of those component parts coming back on offense. They felt like the best team in the league for stretches of last year and just couldn't get over the hump, they're probably top to bottom the team I believe in the most right now. Robert Mays from the athletic football show. I love Liston, man. This was fun. Thank you. Anytime, bud. Appreciate you, man. That's Robert Mays from the athletic football show. It's a great listen. You should check it out. All right, so Robert Mays on the record with the Ravens. And I tend to agree, most talented roster in the NFL, trust that they,

tough to trust for me, that they'll get it done consistently three weeks in a race. in January. Chris Felica, the bear. He's going to help us make some money. Bear bets coming up, The Herd. 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, 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 podcast.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did 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 was... 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 Smigel 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 I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis.

And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen Chinchin 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, Lernerabakina 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.

Bro, as the elder states from the... would you like to make the announcement sure we've announced it already I know now we have we didn't announce a date we didn't announce a date we didn't announce a time the first thing is moving to three hours we will now be 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern time there we go that's the big news and you're right we didn't announce a time because a lot of people are thinking wow three hours is you gonna go two hours then maybe 11 to midnight turns out three consecutive hours a lot of people don't I get

Non-concecutive hours. He hadn't announced a date. And the date. And the date. Yes, the date. It's August 25th. August 25th. It's the start of predictions week, guys.

This is, I'm disappointed in you. I have an announcement today. It's pretty buttoned up in this segment. Yeah. Or this, this press... We know the... Listen, camera here. First thing's first.

Single shot. First things first. Starting predictions week, August 25th. It's gonna be 3 to 6 p.m. 3 to 5 p. 3 to 5 p.m., totally unchanged. 5 to 6 p.m., we'll be a part of it. Danny. Suddened dad.

Coach will be a part of it. Greg will be a part of it. Maybe new friends of the first thing's first family. That's what's happening, starting predictions week Monday, August 23. If you have a good take, the show's over. Sudden death. That's not how it works. We start with a man halfway through the take.

Just got to drive him home. Again. That would be extra. Everyone gets a chance. Sudden death. If you're sudden death. You get a chance to make it take. Brew gets a chance to make it take.

If Brew doesn't score in his take, you win the show. Starting August 25th. No one has ever needed a vacation more than this guy. This guy starts the mornings, grumpy, and then right where the show starts, around this time of day, he's loopy, then I see him in the hallways, sniff and smelling salts, whole thing. With no idea of this three-hour show is going to go. Exactly right. You might have like runners high, you know?

The endorphins start to pump. Yeah. See it August 25th. Can't wait. Don't be great. It's going to be so ridiculous. Hey guys, do a quick promo about the show coming up. Or just get into a two-minute argument about how they've already announced it.

That's the beauty of first things first. It's ridiculous. The chemistry is unmatched. And really, Parkin, did you get a change? No, three to five won't change. different between five and six. I'll be a part of it every day from five to six, and it's a true thrill and honor.

We've got some really fun stuff playing, and we're going to grow and develop and figure it out as we go along. We hope that you'll be there because it starts on Monday. 5 p.m. Eastern, I'll be there with Brunick and Wilde. Greg Jennings is in next week, but those guys will be there every day. The show is from 3 until 6 starting on Monday. Truly exciting. Join me now. Also exciting, though, as I sit in for Colin Coward,

gaming expert, you know him from Fox Big Noon kickoff, Bear Betts with our guy Jeff Schwartz, Chris the Bear Felica. We will do mostly football, and Bear thank you as always, for making time for us. But the Brewers are on this unbelievable run. It is completely crazy. They have been dominant. They have passed the Cubs. They have lapped the Cubs. they are the best team in baseball,

but they do not have anywhere near the best odds to win the World Series. What do you make of the split between the regular season accomplishment and the odds makers for the Brewers? It feels to me a little like the Orioles a couple of years ago when they finally broke through and made the playoffs and had that great regular season run, and then were a quick knockout in the playoffs. Brewers have had their troubles in the playoffs in recent years when they've made it.

I just worry if this type of run that they are on, is sustainable. You look at a lot of the advanced numbers, like they're last in the major leagues, like barrel rate, which is like hard hit percentage. Someone was telling me that they also have scored like 40 more unearned runs than the next closest team in baseball. They lead the league and infield hits. So it's like a lot of little things that over the course of a year you can kind of build on, but in a short series as we've seen so much in baseball, anything can happen despite having some really good starting pitching and they might get nobody beats the Miz back here pretty soon too.

All right, so then let's get to football. We got week zero upon us here. People have not been, you know, they dive in, they play catch-up once the season actually begins, but that's not something that you've been doing. What are some early bets that you like for the beginning of college football? The game in Dublin tomorrow was a game that I've had by eye on Iowa State against Kansas state two teams that are certainly in the mix to take home that big 12 title and get to the college football playoff. I laid the three here with Kansas State once it got once it hit

three. Last year, Iowa State had one of their best teams and best seasons in school history. They beat Kansas State 29, 21 in Ames. In order to do that, they needed to be plus two in turnovers, get a 21-yard field goal blocked, have Kansas State go four to 17 on third and fourth down, including a fourth and two drop late in the game. There were a lot of things that went Kansas State, or what against Kansas State, rather, last year. You look at the way Iowa State, the way they defend the run with their formation defensively, this 3-33 kind of unique stack that they run. I'm not sure that's going to be the best way to slow down.

Dylan Edwards, the running back, and Avery Johnson, the quarterback, and Irvin, the running back transfer from Nebraska as well. If they're in third and two-all game, I think it could be a pretty long day for Iowa State. So I'm looking forward to getting to Ames in a couple of weeks with Big New King of Golf, but I do like Kansas State tomorrow. Any futures in college football that we haven't discussed yet? Yeah, I think there are two that we haven't necessarily discussed. I bet Miami you can get them anywhere from like plus 175 to plus 200 to make the college football playoff.

I think their schedule is very susceptible to that. You hear great things about what Carson Beck has done in scrimmages and in practice, developing a real rapport with a lot of those young wide receivers. great offensive line. Defense should be much improved. Big game next week against Notre Dame, where the winner, I think you're really going to see their stock improve on that. And then I've been LSU plus 700 to win the SEC. I don't think the gap between Georgia, Alabama, Texas and LSU is really that great. And I wonder if LSU is the best team. People just amongst the, while Texas has Archmanning hype,

oh, Alabama is Alabama. Alabama will be back for sure. Ryan Grubbs there now. But yeah, Alabama, the large part of Alabama, was Nick Saban, who's no longer there. And then you have Georgia where can Gunner Stockton, is he really going to be the guy? Oh, we've got to trust Kirby. And trust in that.

So I think there are a lot of narratives going around the SEC. And LSU might wind up being the best team of the bunch. Let's go to the pro game, Bear. I always say betting favorites, weighing odds. It's not boring if it wins. But people like long shots. They like dark horses. Do you have in the awards market a dark horse MVP candidate this NFL season?

Yeah, I think Brock Purdy is someone who, excuse me, he was going to win the award a couple years ago until he just had that terrible game on Monday night head to head against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. You can get Purdy around 28 to 1 or so to win MVP. We know it's going to go to a quarterback. It always goes to a quarterback, and that's not going to change this year. But Purdy's about as low on the board as I would go. the Niners schedule is one of the easiest in the league.

And if he were to do it this year, maybe they win 12, 13 games with that schedule, with the group of receivers that he has, like I think a lot more people will be willing to recognize, okay, he got the deal, he earned it. He led this Niners team to a division title in Navy, a one or a two seat in the NFC. He's someone that I think possesses a good bit of value there because, like I said, a couple of years ago, he was a short shot to win it. And then he had that one terrible game. But the 90s or a team, I think you're going to see massive improvement on this year in terms of their wins.

And, of course, that's going to help not only Brock Purdy, it's going to help Bosa in the defensive player of the year, McKell Williams in defensive rookie of the year and CEMAC in the offensive player of the year category. Okay, you just mentioned McElwil Williams. The awards market's a fun one to bet, and, you know, Travis Hunter is not sneaking up on anybody. And you can bet him to win both offensive rookie of the year and defensive rookie of the year. I'm just so excited to watch him play. I don't have any investment. Do you see any investment opportunity in this market around Travis Hunter?

I do. Not necessarily betting Hunter himself, because I'm really curious to see how he performs in the National Football League at this level, potentially playing both ways. He was someone who I actually had a Eisenberg bet on last year. So thank you, Travis, for that nice gift around the holidays. But I think it does create value elsewhere in the offensive rookie of the air market. I bet a mecca Abuka. Buccaneers wide receiver. You know he's going to be in an offense that throws the ball a lot.

They have some wide receiver injuries. Of course, Mike Evans is always there. He's going to see a lot of targets, a lot of catches. He was dependable at Ohio State. He's anywhere in between like 25, 28, 30 to 1. So I think Abuka is a wide receiver worth looking at. And then I mentioned McKell Williams in the defensive player rookie of the year market as well. Being opposite Nick Bosa on that defensive line with Robert Sala, Backett, Coordinator. I mentioned the schedule. he should get a lot of opportunity to be a very disruptive pass rusher for the diners this year. He's right around, I think 10, 11, 12 to 1 or right now as well. So those are two guys that I have my eyes and investment on.

Bear, people bet, you know, they bet on Sunday right before kickoff. They bet their futures right before the season kicks off, even though the numbers have been posted for forever. And then we're so starved for football information and football content that we can take little morsels of training. in-camp reports or pre-season games and extrapolate it out. Where do you see pre-season results impacting NFL gambling markets? Well, I think you can certainly see it in like the rookie of the year markets, because we really don't know what type of roles these guys are going to have. Jackson Dart, I think it's a perfect example of that.

He's someone who, I think a lot of people were high on Jackson Dart, and a lot of people might have thought he could have been QB1 or QB2, certainly in this draft, and we've seen him play great in the preseason. Now we know Russell Wilson is going to be the starter there, but maybe if the Giants get off through a slow start and Dart winds up playing, he's taking money in the offensive rookie of the earmarked. I think he's down to like 23 to 1 or so. So Dart is someone to pay attention to watch these rookies.

And the other thing in a greater macro treat top point of view, watching a team like the Lions and their backups, like they're the backup. Sure, you don't want to jump to a conclusion. and say the Lions aren't going to have a good year. But if they're forced to play a lot of these guys that have been playing in these preseason games, Judge Schwartz pointed this out the other day on Bear Betts.

Like, they could potentially be in trouble with special with a very difficult road schedule. Bear, thank you so much for the time. We will be watching Big Noon kickoff and, of course, be listening to Bear Betts, man. May all your bets cover. Thank you, sir. Absolutely. Thanks, Danny. We'll see you soon. Absolutely. Can't wait to see you.

That is Chris the Bear, Felica. You can see me coming up. In for First Things First, not just in as a guest, on the show. The show expands from 3 to 5 Eastern to 3 to 6 Eastern, starting on Monday. Cannot wait to be a part of the 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern every single day. Fun show today thanks to Tehran Armstead and Tom Verducci and Robert Mays and the Bear. Everyone here at The Herd for making me feel so welcome as always. Colin is off next week, but J-Mack is really.

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