The Herd with Colin Cowherd - What's Wright - PROOF LeBron saved the Lakers, Durant burning bridges + QB tiers REACTIONS

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Nick Wright reacts to Mike Sando’s annual quarterback tiers and Patrick Mahomes losing his unanimous spot atop the mountain. Then, Nick discusses Kevin Durant’s comments about LeBron James joining the 76ers, and Klay Thompson’s response. Later, Nick weighs in on if the Seattle Seahawks are now underrated and if the Los Angeles Rams have done enough to become his Super Bowl favorite. #Volume All lines provided by Hard Rock BetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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you by the great people at Boost Mobile. Jampack show today. Again, scheduling updates. Going to have a show tomorrow. Might be a little mailbag stuff, but there's so many things I want to get to today that I think some of them are going to be pushed to tomorrow's episode, including one of my favorite exercises every single year projecting the next year's NFL Hall of Fame class as the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for. the class of 2026 is happening this weekend. The Hall of Fame game is tonight. I don't really care that much about the Hall of Fame game,

but I care immensely about the actual Hall of Fame. So we'll do some of that. Also, there is kind of a big picture sports media topic about what is and what is not in 2026 allowed to be discussed on sports television. And what's not allowed to be discussed on sports television. television related to the Rogers McAfee reunion from a few days ago that I think we'll get into in tomorrow's show. So that's tomorrow's show. Next week regular schedule, then a little sabbatical for the first time since the TV show started. So for the first time since September

of 2017, I will have two consecutive weeks off leading into this football season. And so we'll be off for the end of August and then you guys know how it goes once football comes back. The gambling show is back. We are back to three, sometimes even four episodes a week, and we are rolling. But right now there's a ton to get to so much that some good topics didn't even make the main show. Straight to voicemail. Brought to you by our friends at Boost Mobile. Madison Beer and Justin Herbert share some nice canoodling on the practice field. I'm not going to be able to do better than we did on the TV show responding to this yesterday so you know find the clip on social or on YouTube or watch first things first for that

brew was really the star of that moment but that was you know nice sweet moment maybe you know time in a place is what you're always told no problem with what they did where and when they did it maybe could have been improved the commanders signed step digs that maybe is a loss for the Chiefs, the Chiefs just having faith that Rishi Rice is going to get in shape and stay out of trouble, that Xavier Worthy is going to stay healthy, that the flashes they saw from Tyquan Thornton can be a real thing, that fifth round rookie Cyrus Allen can be the player that he looked like the first few days at camp before he got hurt. A lot of ifs going into the Chiefs receiving course. Stefan Diggs, I don't think is a great player anymore,

even though he had a great season last year, a very good season last year with the Patriots, but the commanders, after they determine, I think, that that roster spot that they maybe had earmarked for Brandon Ayuk, that Brandon Ayuk is in no position to be playing football anymore. And so they go with Stefan Diggs. And the Hall of Fame games tonight,

Kenny Pickett, Carson Beck, the only noteworthy piece of that is, The Cardinals deep down, assuredly hoping Carson Beck looks awesome. No disrespect to Jacoby Brissette, who's an excellent backup, but a bad starter. Probably hoping that they hit a diamond in the rough with Carson Beck, see something from him today. And some late breaking news. Shout out Jonathan Taylor, quietly building a, is he a Hall of Famer type of resume? Again, very hard to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

gets a two-year $44 million extension with $39 million guaranteed. Good for him. He was an all-time great badger, an all-time great college player, and he has been one of the most consistent backs in the league since he came in. A reminder for you guys, we do have for people that want to send long, thoughtful emails, our mailbag, what's right mailbag at gmail.com. Okay, we were going to start today. Before we get to Aaron Donald and the Rams, before we get to Mike Sando's invaluable annual

quarterback tiers, we were going to start with something I meant to do Tuesday, which was Katie doubling down on that the 2026-6ers and the 2017 Warriors, what's the difference? We are not going to start there because we're going to start somewhere else with basketball because, and we don't do this often, because I am going to respond to some of the reaction to a clip we put out a couple days ago about the Lakers being the biggest losers in LeBron's free agency decision and what generated the most reaction, which was me saying LeBron saved the Lakers. So I want to separate the, two topics here. First, let me address the idea that the Lakers were the biggest loser in

LeBron's free agent decision. That is certainly a matter of opinion. Smart people can disagree on that, whether or not the Lakers appreciated LeBron James while he was there, did him right or did him in some ways right and in some ways wrong. All of that, is a totally fair subject of debate discussion and if folks want to say Nick you have that stone wrong you're a LeBron guy and you're glossing over the fact that they drafted Brani you're glossing over the fact that you know he the damage that him wanting Russell Westbrook did that the those different things and regardless of all that it was

never, LeBron cast such a big shadow. It was never going to fully be Lucas team with LeBron there. And so they had to move on even for the minimum it wouldn't have been. We can disagree on that, but that is a matter of opinion. And that, so if you say, Nick, you're wrong, that's totally legitimate. I can think you're wrong, but that's a matter of debate. What people got had the most vociferous reaction to and what people got angriest about and responded to the most was the other piece of that.

Which is not a matter of debate at all. It is settled fact and I am not going to sit here and allow folks in real time to recreate history. To create an alternative. universe that none of us actually lived in. And that was the LeBron saved the Lakers piece. That is undeniably, unequivocally true. And anyone debating otherwise is either making shit up or doesn't know what they're talking about. When LeBron James decided to sign a, with the Lakers. It's not only that the proudest, most decorated, most consistently successful franchise in the history of the sport was in its

lowest time. A team that five years before LeBron signed there had only missed the playoffs five times dating back to when they were in Minneapolis in their entire history. And then in the five years before LeBron got there, missed the playoffs every single year. It's not that they were bad for the Lakers. They were, of the 30 teams in the NBA, the single worst team in the league for the five years leading up to LeBron getting there. That is not a matter of opinion. They play games. They play games. they have wins and losses in the five years before brawn got there they had the fewest

wins oh but nick the future was bright no the fuck it wasn't they had a head coach and luke walton who had with respect no idea what he was doing was not we saw when he left the lakers got one more brief shot at being a head coach did not go well and it's now lifetime assistant the oh the the the young core that LeBron inherited look let's go through it let's look at who they were Lanzo ball like Lanzo don't think Lanzo got you know I really respect that he has dealt with a catastrophic injury and tried to make his way in the league. But Lonzo Ball was not then and has not since then been the

centerpiece of anything significant in the NBA. They had Brandon Ingram, a nice player. The type of volume score that will consistently be one of the 50 best players in the league, but never sniff being one of the 25 best players in the league. They had Kyle Kuzma. who the best basketball he's ever played, the only winning basketball he's ever played, was alongside LeBron. They had Julius Randall, who, after multiple other stops, finally turned into a real pro,

a legit fringe all-MBA guy, but a guy who even a decade later, we still see, given the holes in this game, how they get exacerbated come the postseason. And Josh Hart, who is a, this isn't a real thing, but Hall of Fame role player, who also had multiple stops before getting to the Knicks and achieving his ultimate basketball destiny, which is from his own words. If I'm your best player, your second best player, your worst team in the league, but if I'm your fourth or fifth guy, you can win a championship as proven. That's the young core. That team, if LeBron doesn't sign there, that team is a lottery team forever, forever. And that does not even to mention the most dysfunctional, most dysfunctional and bottom five

overall ownership situation in the sport that included a, The week LeBron was, or in the same summer, LeBron signed, one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise, maybe the greatest, holding an impromptu press conference, calling the GM a snake and a backstabber and saying, I'm out. So yeah, LeBron saved that team. Oh, but Nick, we had the assets to get Anthony Davis.

Anthony Davis was not coming to the Lakers if LeBron James didn't go to the Lakers. So we can debate the end of LeBron. You can have an opinion whether he underachieved as a Laker. You can, there are a lot of takes that while I might disagree with are at least what we would call acceptable opinions. The idea, or going against the idea that LeBron saved the framers, franchise is not an acceptable opinion. In the three years prior to LeBron getting there, the best single moment the Lakers had was when the G League, the 40 year old G leaguer, Andre

Ingram played at the end of the season that one game and scored like 20. That's it. So don't, don't try to in real time revisionist history what happened there. And it's stunning to me how many people it's one thing to try to do revisionist history on stuff that's actually like deep history you're like that people might not know they might not remember they might not have done the research we also we all we all were there we were there for the sad end of post achilles of the kobe era where the story was maybe unfairly that cobi's contract was an albatross we were there for the 27 wins, the 21 wins, the 17 wins, the 26 wins leading into the year before they got LeBron when they scratched their way to 35 wins.

Finishing last or second to last in the conference four of the five years and then having a resurgent 2018 where they finish 11th. Give me a break. We're not doing it. So subject of a debate how it ended in L.A. Not a subject of a debate how it

started. And what LeBron going to the Lakers did for the Lakers. Oh Nick, but the Lakers get free, they, if LeBron hadn't signed there, Kauai would have done it. Okay, yeah. That's a great

alternative history. LeBron doesn't sign there. Kauai signs there the next summer and they use all their young assets they got to get Anthony Davis to go get Paul George. How did that decade work out for the Clippers? Today shows brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, Sportsbooks. Some sports fans call this the slow period until football season. Not on Hard Rock bet. On Hard Rock bet call it baseball season this summer hard rock bet is the hottest betting odds in florida introducing the 10 cent summer sale this is really great guys vig juice fee whatever you call it they're cutting their cut on winners spreads over under pregame baseball bets same bets better odds if you're ready to step into the batters box sign up with hard rock bet today place a five dollar bet if it wins you get a hundred and

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Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports,

a new podcast from Together and I-heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo roer to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what do we eat? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire timeline.

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Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Okay. So we're not going to spend as much time on this as we would have if we did it Tuesday because I do want to get to the NFL because it's August. There's a fake game today.

And, you know, we are turning the page. But the KD stuff is, I think, actually more fascinating for a bunch of different levels than it's being given credit for. So this all started when Katie, I think, was trying to pay Braun and the Sixers a compliment when he said, and we can put it up, last time they put three 20 points scores on a team, they said it was unfair, which was the team I was on. The Sixers have got four 25 points scores on this team, so hell yeah, I think they're going to be a contender. Now, the only team that people said was unfair that Durant was on was the Warriors. More on them in a moment. But that's

not the last team to have three 20 point scorers come together. In fact, it's not even the last or the second the last team to have three 20 point per game scores on it that Durant was on. Because when he joined the Sons and then they added Bradley Biel, that team had 320 point per game scorers. And when he joined the Nets and then they added James Harden, that team had 3. 20 point for game scorers along with him and Kyrie Irving. But he's obviously talking about the Warriors. And I think Draymond, before KD.

doubled down, had the right take on this when he basically said, Katie just looks at, he compared it to Uncle Drew in the old Nike commercials. Was that Nike or Sprite? I think it was Nike. Doesn't matter. That he just looks at the game is getting buckets. And, oh, it was Pepsi. Oh, wow. The good job. I mean, bad job by me, maybe also a bad job by Pepsi. That's an iconic commercial that not only did I not know it was them, but I thought it might be a soda company and I went with a different competing soda company.

Regardless, that it's just getting buckets. That the way Katie looks at the game is just getting buckets. And that's kind of Katie's own words. If you remember the interview he did, I think it was around the Olympic time

when, oh, it was in that, I think it was in starting five, the Netflix stock, when he's like, I can get five guys off street to play defense. He's like, devens about sliding hands up effort. The game's about getting buckets. And by the way, he's not totally wrong about the most important skill in the league for an individual player is about going and getting

buckets. So while comparing it to the Warriors and 2017 was of course laughable. You could give him the benefit of the doubt. You then were not able to give him the benefit of the doubt when he put this on Instagram. I believe in response to someone saying those two teams aren't close. He then says, ain't close laughing my ass off.

Joel MVP recently. Jalen Brown, recent finals MVP. Tyrese Maxi, all-star the last three years. We all know what Braun does. Clay Thompson, never a MVP candidate in nothing, 22 points per game. Draymond, 14, 7 and 6, Steph, an MVP just like Joelle was. I don't get how the Warriors team is better on paper. So Clay responded saying, hey man, you good, because that is a real shot at Clay. Never an MVP and nothing. I mean, I don't know. I assume he was the MVP of like Washington State when he was there.

I haven't looked. I assume he was the MVP, you know, of his district in high school. And Draymond said Slim thought he was on his burner. And those are like real shots. It's also ludicrous. And so even though, so here's, so let me first address it on its merits and then talk about why I find it fascinating. Then we'll get to football. Let's just go with the first thing he put.

Joel, MVP recently. So that would be the Steph. The Steph and Joel are the comps, right? Steph wasn't the MVP recently when Durant signed. Durant signed two months after Steph was handed his second straight trophy and this one was the first ever unanimous. Steph was in that moment a top three player. Durant in that moment was a top three player. Joelle Embed right now even when healthy, even a healthy Joelle Embedde, which obviously the big concern is he's not going to be healthy, but say you could wave a magic wand and he is. Because of what the injuries have

done to his mobility, his defensive and rebounding impact, when healthy, Embedd is closer to 15 than he is to 3. Somewhere in that 10 to 15 range. LeBron, who's the addition, is also, I think most I probably consider him a little better than most people, but I think he's probably over the course of a season right now, right around 10 in the league. I think most people have him closer to 15. But so the, Steph and KD were the second and third best players in the league. LeBron going into year 24 at age 41, call him, call him in Embed instead of 2 and 3, 12 and 13. And then it gets to the shots at Draymond and Clay, which I think are super fascinating. Great job producers. In high school at Santa Margarita Catholic High School,

Senior Clay was named Division III State Player of the Year in League MVP. Clay should have called out the receipts there. Great job. So here, here. Here is where I think that Katie loses the plot a bit. If you, like, I don't know where people wanted to have Clay Thompson and Draymond Green ranked as far as individual players across the league in 2016. But wherever you had them ranked is irrelevant to how for a team that's, that was going to have Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, they were the absolute perfect third and fourth guys.

Clay as being one of the three greatest pure shooters in the history of the league, all of a sudden being a guy who was going to get more open shots than any other team's third option, plus, again, pre-injury, being a spectacular perimeter defender, he might be the number one draft pick in the whole league to play that exact role. And he was there. And Draymond Green as a guy who was clearly the best defensive player in the league at that point, plus an offensive hub without having a

to shoot would have been the number one draft pick for that role. Comparing that team to this Sixers team is of course absurd on its face and that's before we get to the fact that the Warriors had just set the all-time wins record and beaten Durant and had won a title of the year before and the previous two years and won 171 games. The Sixers had won, I think, 68 games total the previous two years and won one playoff series. So that part is, of course, just ridiculous. The closer comp would have been, and there was a decent comp, it just wasn't ever realistic that was going to happen, would have been if Braun joined the Thunder

this offseason. Because the Thunder won the championship two years prior. they could have won the championship this year. They lost in a hard fought seven game series, granted a round before. Shea is the back-to-back MVP. They're, you know, those that you would be replacing Lou Dort in the starting lineup the way Durant replaced Harrison Barnes. That would have been far more similar, except for the fact that LeBron's not 28,

two years removed from winning league MVP's 41, and LeBron, is already a minted four-time champion with 10 finals appearances under his belt. But at least that would have been closer. This is, of course, absurd. But the bigger, more interesting conversation here is twofold. First one is this. Has KD like tort? And I don't know.

I don't know the parties involved well enough. But has he torched his relationship with everybody there? The burner account stuff with Houston, he took, and that wasn't burner account, I don't even know what to call it. The leaked DMs. He took pretty pointed shots at Steph and really personal shots at Kerr.

So that's the coach and the best player. He now is minimizing who Clay Thompson was at every point of his basketball career. And summing up Dremont's value as 14, 7, and 6. Like, I don't know. Maybe, again, I don't know Durant personally. So maybe the folks who do are like, ah, that's slim, it's fine, whatever. But that seemed like harsher than it needed to be. And the other, and this last point is a point I think folks have made,

but most interesting part is Durant still wants to fight this war. He still wants to have this argument. He, sorry if you guys hearing the honking outside the window. The old alternate side of the street parking in Manhattan can all, always be a little hectic around this time. He, I don't think that, no, I don't think when LeBron signed with the Sixers, anybody else was like, you know what this reminds me of, Katie going to Golden State. I don't think anybody was trying to relitigate that. I don't think anybody was like, oh, now,

there's a comp for Katie to bring it up unprompted and to then continue the argument online is a really interesting window into how much the criticism of that and the reaction to that still sits with it and I find that fascinating if not a little I I don't want to say sad because that sounds like patronizing and I'm not trying to be patronizing. Again, I know I don't necessarily have this reputation, but I really do try to be fair. But it is certainly fascinating

that this is a war he still wants to fight. And seems adamant. I don't think he's trolling. I think it's something he actually believes. And that is, at least to me, very fascinating. All right, let's get to the NFL, but first World Cup may be over. There's still plenty of events for you to go see in person Which is why I want to give the sponsor of today's video seat geek a huge shout out with over 35 million downloads Seat Geek is the number one rated ticketing app there are more than 70,000 events listed on seat geek

Including concerts sports festivals and more major league baseball's in full swing the NFL season right around the corner and you guys know how much I love using Seatgeek. In fact, I used it literally two days ago, Tuesday morning. I'll see if I can pull it up for something I didn't even go to. My wife, there, yeah, there it is right there. I'll pull it up right here. Hold on, let me close that out of my phone. See that? Jay Cole, Tuesday morning, got my wife at MSG really good. So this is a great example of why Seatgeek's great. She tells me Tuesday she wants to go. I can't go. I had a card game.

I did well in the card game, by the way. And so I'm like, all right, getting one single ticket can be tough. I go to the Seat Geek app, J. Cole, MSG, one ticket, giant, as big of a green dot as you can get, front row. And I look and I'm like, oh, my God, this front row seat is cheaper. then same section a ticket available in row three and six, seven.

I think she got one of the best seats in the house for half the price of just really good seats. She got a great seat, but I only knew that that was available in such a good deal because you see the giant green dot,

you can go right too, because there were a bunch of tickets available. It didn't have to like scroll through all of them. Saw that, got it. So I, you know, she just went to see Jay Cole two days ago thanks to Seat Geek. um seat geeks got your back each ticket as i said rated on scale of one to ten so you know you're getting a good

look for the green dots green means good red means bad the kind of darker and green and bigger means even better plus every every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee and i've got a code for you guys you can use code right 10 W R-I-G-H-T-10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at seat-geek that's 10% off any tickets with promo code right 10 make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later um also unrelated to all this for we get to see ox and rams uh i decided for the first time in years to reactivate my uh can i thought of this because of the card game uh to reactivate my cameo account uh so i'm on there if anybody wants to me to do evidently what's very big on cameo is uh announcing fantasy football draft orders the folks at cameo

told me they're like if you're ever going to do it do it in august people the fantasy football thing's huge there i i was like okay i you know i i done it years ago i didn't turn on the notification so i ended up missing people's alerts and i felt badly about it and i was like i'm just i'm out so i reactivated turns out cameo folks know their business pretty well because as soon as I reactivated first request I got announcing a fancy football draft order. So I'm gonna so I'm there if anybody wants that. I don't know if you do whatever it is. I'm there All right. So we did NFL tiers again yesterday and I on the show and I flip-flop the Seahawks and Rams and

and that was a I had this you know the Rams ahead a few weeks ago the committee we flip-flop the Seahawks or Rams the Seahawks are a top I want to talk to Seahawks here for a moment that I want to talk about the Rams and Aaron Donald

Aaron Donald who had an official tryout yesterday pardon me I can't remember a Super Bowl champion that had more of a dominant start to finish season that brought not everyone but about as many guys as you can bring back brought them back and had less buzz going into the following season than this Seattle team.

The Seahawks last year, just to kind of quickly remind people how it went, they lost week one to San Francisco when Darnold had driven them down the field, get them, got them right either on the fringe or in the red zone, through a pick game over. They then lost twice the rest of the year, one of the crazy Baker comebacks, 38,000. 35 to Tampa. The kind of, not crazy, but very unique game against Stafford and the Rams, 2119, which was, I'm going to check real quick, another game it felt like, yeah, they missed a field goal at the gun, I think it was a super long field goal, but missed a field goal at the gun to win that game. That's all of their losses. They played in the toughest division in the NFL.

or I mean a division where three teams won 12 plus games or 11, yeah, 12 plus games. They then in the playoffs, annihilated San Francisco, annihilated New England, and played the Rams who were just, you know, the second best team in the league last year in a great game and beat them by four. They had an insane margin of victory. They finished 17 and 3. The quarterback's the same. the coach is the same.

Listen, they lost a couple defensive pieces. They lost Kenneth Walker, but they still have JSN. The defense should still be awesome. And there's just no buzz. Darnold had a legit, phenomenal season. 4,000 yards, 25 touchdowns, a 99 rating. Then in the postseason, Darnold had five touchdowns, no turnovers,

a 102 rating and answered all the you know the questions people had because the previous year in Minnesota Darnold was even better in the regular season and then was awful at the end of the very end of the year and then in the playoff game people like

ah pumpkin mode and by people I mean I was one of them and there's just no buzz around and I think they absolutely am I going to pick them to win the Super Bowl? Probably not. But do I think that they are as well positioned for a repeat as any team in recent memory, including my beloved chiefs teams? Yeah, I mean, they're, I understand they lost their offensive coordinator. I do think

Kenneth Walker. I think Kenneth Walker is a big. bigger edition for Kansas City than he has lost for Seattle, but they're, they're insanely well positioned. And by the way, Vegas, Hard Rock Bet, the bookmakers agree with me. I just think the commentariat of which I'm a part of doesn't seem to find them that sexy of a team. and so they've moved past them to what was the team that I thought last year was the best team in the league by the end of the year heading into the playoffs and a team in their own division

and that's the Rams and the Rams obviously this offseason looked at the only weakness on their team was pass rush and I'm sorry that's incorrect the only weakness on their team was past

defense secondary most notably and so they rated the chief secondary and got McDuffie and Watson they then make the shock trade for Miles Garrett and so I totally understand why

the Rams are the like the favorite why the Rams are considered this spectacular team, and I very well may pick the Rams to go to the Super Bowl. If I were to pick Knits, I am going to start on the Aaron Donald thing, which I am not as bullish on as everyone else. And it is not because, I'm like, actually, when you look at it, Aaron Donald, wasn't it?

Aaron Donald has an argument. It's not, he has an argument that he's the greatest defensive player of all time. I'm not saying he is, but there's certainly an argument for it. The guy played 10 years. He was first team all pro, 8 of the 10. He was the defensive player of the year three times and had four more top five defensive player of the year finishes.

And his final year with the Rams, he was still dominant. Didn't have the sack numbers he had early in his career, but he still, as a D-tackle, had eight sacks, had another 16 TFLs, was all pro again, was dominant. With that said, his ninth year in the league was the one year he dealt with real injury. His 10th year in the league, he was a great player, but not Pete Garon Donald. And now he has been out of football for two years. And while I understand, you watch him work out, and he obviously has stayed in absurd physical shape. And there's no denying or debating that.

I don't think it's quite as simple as, all right, come to a couple weeks of camp and you're ready to go. Now, some folks have argued, all right, well, what if he's just a mid-season edition? Now he's even further removed from the NFL. So I am not, I am not, first of all, I don't think he's going to do it. I don't think he's going to sign, come back to the NFL. And second of all, if he does, I don't think, and maybe I'll look like a total fool here,

he would have the instant impact or the overall impact at 35 years old, two years removed from the league, that everyone else sees. seems to be penciling him in for. So that's the first, yeah, but with the Rams. And the only other yeah, but with the Rams is, not a bad, but maybe a little shaky situation at tackles, which, when you have the second oldest quarterback in the league,

who has dealt with some backers, issues over the last few years, that would be the ominous element of their season. Just the, what if Stafford gets, something happens to him. Now, you can say for every team in the league, if the quarterback gets hurt, you're in trouble. And Stafford is an absolute warrior when it comes playing through injuries. I just think because of age, his recent injury. concerns and their tackle situation, he is maybe higher up the injury concern list. And I don't think Ty Simpson, you know, is a guy that's like, all right, don't worry.

You spend our first round pick quarterback to the future. That's not how I view him. So I guess the overall gist of what I'm saying here is, I do think the Calks are being a little undervalued, underdiscust, and the Rams are bordering on being a little too trendy. With all that said, Puka on the field is awesome. Devante Adams is the future Hall of Famer. Stafford's an all-time great. And they added Miles Garrett, Jalen Watson, and Trent McDuffey. They should probably be awesome.

I just the Aaron Donald thing I this is bad broadcasting by me because I've had a month to figure out why I feel this way I still haven't been able to put it to words I'm it just feels off and I don't I don't think A they need him and B I don't think he'd make the impact people think he'd make and see it feels like they're adding a little too much I don't know what it is. Again, this is bad broadcasting. I just have a funny feeling about it. There's my analysis. Funny feeling about the Aaron Donald thing. All right, quarterback rankings in a moment,

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everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became

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One of my favorite pieces of journalism of the year, Mike Sando has a list of 50 executives, coaches, people in the NFL, not exactly rank, but it turns into a ranking of quarterbacks. So what he does is has all 35 quarterbacks who are eligible, which are all the starters slash potential starters but not the rookies, he has them bucket them

as tier 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Then, from the bucketing, basically the lowest number is the best. The person who's average is closest to 1.00 will be the number 1 quarterback. It turns into a ranking.

If your average is greater than one and a half, you become a tier two quarterback. If it's greater than two and a half, you become a tier three quarterback. You guys can follow how that works. And it is a very good snapshot of how the people who run football teams view the league as a whole. And Mahomes, for the fourth consecutive, year is the number one quarterback. Might be the fifth consecutive for Patrick, but I know for the fourth consecutive. He's the number one quarterback. Last year he was tied for number one

because he was, again, the best you can do is 50 tier one votes. Last year, Joe Burrow also got 50 tier one votes. So they were both tied for basically a perfect score. This year, Patrick got 49 tier one votes. and one tier two vote that was still enough to keep him at number one because Alan and Stafford both got 48 tier one votes and two tier two votes and so it it went the only tier one quarterbacks were those three guys plus Burrow and then and this is where the list gets pretty fascinating Borough 46 tier one votes four tier two votes Lamar number five 22 tier 1 votes, 28 tier 2 votes.

And so that's where I want to start here for a moment, because I understand some of the tepid skepticism. It's not hot, a lot, huge skepticism. He's basically voted the fifth best quarterback in the league on this one, which is better than Lamar's done in the player polls and some of these other, the ESPN poll um so i understand some of the skepticism about Lamar i don't understand or i'm not as okay with none of that applying to burrow so you can the the reasons to be worried about lamar and we've covered them a lot on this pod so i'm not going to do it in long form here but

he doesn't run as much as that element of his game atrophies, how will that impact his passing efficiency? The fact that he's been banged up and missed significant time in three of the last five seasons has to be noteworthy. The fact that they've missed the playoffs last year, that has to be at least acknowledged. And is he, was last year a blip after two straight amazing regular seasons? Or was it the beginning of something? And that's before we get to his, well-documented struggles in the postseason. All of those are fair reasons to have a level of skepticism about Lamar. I don't know why Burrough seems immune to that. It's different types of skepticism,

but you can't consider Lamar an injury risk and not have that exact same knock for Burrow. Now, I do think they are similar injury risks. And folks might think that's crazy. but over the last five years, Lamar Jackson has played 74 games, Joe Burroughs played 74 games. But I and I try to be a little more nuanced than purely

quarterback wins guy. But I do, there, going three straight years in the middle of your prime and missing the postseason is not nothing. And that's what Burroughs, is in the midst of. I understand two of those years, he missed real time. But three years ago

when they missed it, in the 10 games he played, they were 5 and 5. Last year, when he missed it, the eight games they played, they were 5 and 3. The year before, when he had the statistical, the greatest statistical season of his career, they were 9 and 8. Now, a lot of that is the defense has just been awful. I don't think the offensive line is great, and he has to deal with that. And I don't love Zach Taylor. I obviously think Joe Burroughs a great quarterback. But one of the reasons his numbers are great is one of the reasons the defense isn't,

which is they paid Chase, they paid Higgins, they paid him. They emphasized and prioritize that side of the ball. And one of the reasons. I think he can you know gets banged up and the offensive line issues can be exacerbated is because of all the excellent quarterbacks in the league he has less athleticism than all of them except for Stafford like if you were to look at the 15 best quarterbacks in football there's only three three guys that offer you nothing if the play breaks down and they got to go do it with their

feet and he's one of them it's him stafford and golf so that is a fair yeah but with burrow but it doesn't seem like the the league has any yeah buts with him so that jumped out to me herbert being number six does not surprise me at all i did think even if i disagree with it I did think this line from the Herbert write-up is a nice little window. Six of the eight GMs polled. So 75% of the GMs polled had Herbert as Tier 1. Only 13 of the other 42 voters had Herbert that high. So think about that.

GMs love him the coaches like him that checks out because the toolsiness the size the athleticism

the arm strength all of that are traits GMs love while not that coaches don't love those coaches more focused a bit on production

I don't have to spend more time on the Herbert piece than I've spent the past. Like, you simply can't. People can blame the coaches. They can do all, they can make all these excuses.

He got John, Jim Harbaugh. And in the two years under Jim Harbaugh, he's played close to 40 games. And the absolute worst game he's played and the second worst game he's played have been the two playoff games. you can all the all the folks who claim to be smarter than me can explain why that small sample size

i'm being unfair it's professional sports you it's it's one thing to drop a bit in the postseason it's one thing to be up and down it's another thing that when you are in the prime of your career with a legitimate coaching staff with again not great weapons but your league average you know kind of situation for you to play far and away the two worst games that you have played to be your two playoff games you just can't for me i just can't have you above a bunch of the guys he's above of but whatever drake may came in tied for eighth with jared gaw simmons uh i haven't listened to the pod to be clear yet to be fair so i i don't know the full context of it but i saw the clip of him with mina where he had drake fourth and mina was seemed gobsmacked by it i think simmons went

uh alan stafford mahomes drake i don't think that's crazy at all it's not where i would have drake right now but if you were to ask me what do i think the top four quarterbacks, you know, the list would look like if people voted on it on upcoming Thanksgiving. Could Drake May be ahead of Lamar and Burrow? And absolutely. I have a lot of questions about the Pats this year. I have very few questions about Drake May. So him being eighth year is fine. I thought, I thought Simmons having him forth was not like an outrageous take at all. The other things that jumped out to me. on Sandoz poll was

Caleb at 11 strikes me as a touch low I am I'm not surprised that he got 36 tier 2 votes I think Caleb is definitionally right now tier 2 and if he had gotten you know I guess if he was just a unit had gotten nothing but tier 2 votes that would have put him at 2.0 so that would have put him 8th just a touch ahead of

Drake May which is closer to where I have him I just don't think he's I don't think you can have that type of special qualities and be a tier three quarterback um Trevor you listen we don't have to spend too much time on it Trevor being number 16 is too low in my opinion and Jalen Hertz is fascinating. Jalen Hertz, he got exactly as many tier one tier two as tier three votes. It I thought by the way that at two points so his average was 2.5 which Sando made tier two I thought historically point five or higher put you in the following tiers which would make him tier three but he's right on the cusp And what is really fascinating, and I would have him as tier two, by the way,

I actually think 17 is too low for Jalen. One of the fascinating things about Chalyn Hertz is when he is discussed, and I might be guilty of this to a degree as well, it's not, he is discussed as if the only thing he has going for him is that, the team wins, as opposed to the fact that a few years ago, he finished second in the MVP race. When they went 14 and 1, I'm trying to pull up what he's exactly. He still that year only had 22 touchdowns, but rushing touchdown, or passing touchdowns, pardon me. But he has had one truly spectacular, statistical regular season.

that gets maybe because it was way back in 2022 gets thrown out he's obviously been good in the super bowls or very good in the super bowls and the league as a whole just doesn't full on believe in him nothing else past jalen you know shocked me the you know bo necks is i think a polarizing player he got one tier one vote wow good for him 28 tier three votes 21 tier two votes so he's the highest ranked tier three guy and then it's a bunch of guys you have huge questions about rogers stroud daniel jones bryce young it one other big picture thought on this we've got if trevor lawrence is 16 and jalen hertz is 17 more than half of the league feels really really good about their quarterback situation

After that, you know, about a third of the league is feels terrible about it. But there isn't really right now a big quarterback middle class. It feels to me like there are superstars and then a long list of guys whose fans believe can be a superstar or will be a superstar or is a a superstar and then a bunch of guys who even their own fans are like, I don't know, I'm nervous or they're super young. Not a lot of guys that you're like, no, it's solid. Feel okay. And it's just a big drop off from the darn old Trevor Jalen 15, 16, 17, to the next group of guys of Knicks, Roger Stroud, DJ, Bryce Young, Kyler. Again, Jackson Dart is a little bit an asterisk

because so young, same with Cam Ward. But I love this from Sando. I think Sandoz is a great job with it, and I think it is, as much as I think, you know, Mahomes Mountain should be the definitive quarterback ranking tool. I think this gives you the fairest snapshot of how the league views these guys.

Also, Zay Flowers got about 15 million more per year than I would have been comfortable paying him. I don't understand that contract at all. Baltimore is a smarter organization. 35 million year with 100 million guaranteed for Zay Flowers, who I don't think is one of the 15 best receivers in football, is stunning to me. Good show playing for you guys tomorrow.

See you guys then. What's right? Thank you. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast. form. We're launching Podlandia, A.O. Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back

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