The Kevin Sheehan Show - A.I. Seeds Washington #1!

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Kevin opened with two NFL happenings yesterday that illustrated how lucky Washington was to land Jayden Daniels in the 2024 NFL Draft. A.I. predicted Washington will be the 1-seed in the NFC Playoffs next year. Also, NFL owners will consider a proposal this coming week to change the playoff format! Merril Hoge joined Kevin to talk NFL Draft and more. Eddie C jumped on to preview and pick The Preakness.  Goldbelly.com, code sheehan, for free shipping and 20% off your first order of food from around the US.  Go To WindowNation.com. Buy 4 windows, get 4 free!Betting on sports? Go to mybookie.ag. Use code KEVINDC for a bonus!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. The Pro Bowl kicker in his 12th NFL season to try to save the day for the Jets from 54. Good snap, good hold, the kick from Zerline. The Jets have taken the lead.

Christmas Eve, 2023. Greg Zerlein's 54-yarder barely inside the left-up. upright to give the Jets a 30 to 28 win over Washington. Why that highlight coming into the show today? Some of you can guess why. I will explain in a moment. The show's presenting sponsor is always Windonation, 86690 Nation or Windonation.com, if you've been thinking about new windows, mention me,

and they'll come out and give you a free in-home estimate, and they'll take really good care of you. Two guests on this show today. Sorry for not getting this show out yesterday afternoon. I tried to get it out yesterday afternoon, but I had a commitment and sort of the guest interviews got backed up a little bit. But you're going to hear on the show today, our guy, Eddie C, preview and pick the preakness, which takes place later on this afternoon at Pimlico. And Merrill Hodge will be on the show. We've had Merrill on the show a few times over the years, typically before the

draft, but there really wasn't a reason to have Merrill on the show before the draft this year, because Washington didn't have a high pick and they didn't have a need for a quarterback. He's been very good at evaluating quarterbacks prior to the draft in recent years. So Merrill next and then Eddie C to finish up the show. So why Greg Zerline coming into the show, the kick that beat Washington 30 to 28 on December 24th, 2023? Well, he was released yesterday by the New York Jets after an absolute horrible 24th, 2024 season. Literally no exaggeration. He cost the Jets three to four wins last year with missed field goals and extra points. But back on Christmas Eve, 2023, he was just good enough from 54 yards

out to beat Washington and really save the immediate future of the franchise from itself. Remember, you know, Jacoby Brissette coming in at halftime, after halftime of that game, in the worst possible circumstances. Sam Hal was terrible. They were down by 20, and Brissette nearly led a miracle comeback win. He led a miracle comeback to give Washington the lead late in that game before Zerlind's kick. But, you know, the thing about that game, the most important thing we will talk about here in a moment, but the thing about that game that often gets overlooked is that Ron Rivera really wanted that game because he needed one more win down the stretch and their final two games after that jet game, the 49ers and the Cowboys. So he knew they weren't good enough to beat the Niners

or the Cowboys. And the Jets were just bad enough to potentially give him what would have been a win that would have guaranteed a career record of above 500. He knew his head coaching days were numbered. He was down to three games. If he could just win one of them, the Jets being the best opportunity, he would have had a career-ending record as a head coach of 103, 102, and 2. Instead, that loss, and then the subsequent losses to San Francisco and Dallas meant that he finished with a career ending record of 102 wins, 103 losses, and two ties. He really wanted that victory. Of course, it would have been devastating to the franchise that he would have left behind.

Very fortunately, though, for the future of the franchise, Zerline made that kick. Washington ended up with the second worst record that year and the second pick in the draft. I think everybody remembers the significance of Zerlin. Erlein's kick. If he missed that kick, it was close, just barely inside that left upright. Washington would have had the fourth pick in that draft with New England in front of them, and more likely than not Jaden Daniels would have been a New England patriot. But there's more to the Greg Zerline highlight than just mentioning that he got cut yesterday

and remembering how significant he was to the lightning quick turnaround of the team last year behind Jaden Daniels. I don't know if you guys saw this or not, but there's a book coming out from Seth Wickersham. It's coming out, I think, late summer, early fall. It's titled American Kings, a biography of the quarterback. Seth Wickersham, a award-winning investigative reporter, sports investigative reporter. We know Wickersham, Don Van Nata, from all of the investigative days, you know, all of the congressional hearing days. of the end of the Snyder era. A lot of the book includes Caleb Williams in the lead-up to the 2024 draft.

Some of the stuff that was disclosed in sort of an excerpt of the book, excerpts of the book, to promote the upcoming release of the book. Some of this stuff, we kind of heard about leading up to the draft that year. You know, Caleb Williams and his father, they wanted equity. There were all these things going around about Caleb and, you know, whether or not he would, you know, kind of force the hand of the bears and try to get picked by a team that he wanted to get picked by. But there's so much detail, apparently, in this book. And here are some of the excerpts from the book that came out yesterday or on Thursday. So Caleb's father, Carl Williams, according to Wickersham, he writes, went to great lengths to try to circumvent the NFL draft, wanting to give his son an opportunity to choose his future employer.

The Bears had not drafted a star quarterback since the 80s, and their recent draft selections, Mitch Trubisky, Justin Fields, didn't pan out. Carl Williams was worried that the franchise's history, the stadium uncertainty in Chicago, the offensive performances under then-headhead, coach Matt Ibrose, that Caleb wouldn't have had organizational support to succeed. Quote, I don't want my son playing for the Bears, Williams told several agents in 2024. Wickersham writes that he was looking for a way around the league's collective bargaining agreement. He spoke with Archie Manning, who helped Eli, obviously back in 2004, assert a measure of control in that draft and sort of drive. him to the giants away from the chargers. He met Carl Williams did with labor lawyers and agents and even considered whether his son could sign with the United Football League and become an unrestricted

NFL free agent in 2025, and then he'd be able to pick the team. In addition to the draft process, Carl Williams vented about the rookie wage scale. He could lock, you know, that would lock his son into the team that drafted him for up to eight years, eight years being first round pick, the fifth year option, and then franchise, franchise, franchise tag. That is potential control of eight years by the team that picks a player in the first round.

And he calculated hundreds of millions of lost market value income. Carl Williams told Wickersham for this book, quote, during that run-up to the draft, the rookie cap is just unconstitutional. it's the worst piece of shit I've ever read. It's the worst in sports history, closed quote. At the Combine that year, Wickersham writes that Caleb Williams really hit it off with Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell and told his father that his dream would be to play in Minnesota.

Quote, I need to go to the Vikings, closed quote, he told his father. His father responded, let's do it. But both Caleb and Carl knew that a trade to a divisional rival was extremely unlikely. Bears' GM Ryan Poles stood firm. He told Caleb and his father, we're drafting you no matter what. Closed quote. Carl Williams said at one point about Caleb, his son, he's worried about me taking bullets. I don't care.

I just don't agree with this shit, you know. I'm more interested in making sure that he can do what he wants to do. Closed, quote. Caleb ended up becoming concerned that if they forced the trade, it would make his situation worse. And in the end, Caleb Williams told Seth Wickersham for the book, quote, I wasn't ready to nuke the city, closed quote. After a pre-draft visit to the Bears facility, Williams went back to his father and said, I can do it for this team. I'm going to go to the Bears. So look, there's so much to that dynamic. Father, son, talented quarterback, Chicago, the situation, the wanting to essentially change the course of potentially NFL history in terms of the way they use and utilize the draft.

Ultimately, they settled in. He got picked by Chicago. Let's be fair, too. and son turned out to be somewhat right about Iber Flus and Waldron. They both got fired before the end of the season. But here's the connection back to Zerline's kick in 2023. I didn't just play it because Zerline was released. I didn't just play it to highlight that thank you Greg Zerline,

who may not have an NFL career anymore, for saving us from ourselves. remember that picking second versus fourth, courtesy of the Zerline-made field goal, didn't guarantee Washington, Jaden Daniels. The Bears had the first pick in the draft. Now, they were obviously dead set on drafting Caleb Williams. But yesterday, on a Chicago sports radio station, 670 the score, Seth Wickersham was a guest.

This, you know, book is getting a judge. ton of play in Chicago and conversation among Bears fans. Seth Wickersham said this during the interview. The Bears were all in on Caleb. I mean, they did not scout Jaden Daniels. They were all in on Caden and so he was their guy. They didn't scout Jaden Daniels. The Chicago Bears in the run-up to the 2024 draft did not scout Jail.

Daniels, according to Seth Wickersham on Chicago Sports Radio yesterday. You think about the fine line, that very thin line between winning and losing in the NFL. Washington needed Greg Zerline from 54 yards out to fit one in inside the left-up right with five seconds to go on Christmas Eve, 2023, and they needed the bears to ignore Jaden Daniels to end up where they had. ended up last year and where they are right now looking ahead to a very bright future. Now, there is no guarantee that if the Bears had scouted Jaden Daniels, that they would have selected Jaden Daniels. You know, there was a higher percentage of draft, you know, experts out there

that preferred Caleb Williams over Jaden Daniels. But not to scout him, the level of incompetence by the Chicago Bears organization to not scout Jaden Daniels, especially considering that they knew Caleb Williams and his father didn't want to be drafted by Chicago. Wow. Who knows what Chicago would have decided on, you know, in March, in April of 2024. Had they really dug in deep to Jaden Daniels? had they sat down with Jaden Daniels, had they spent the amount of time Washington did, and others did with Jaden Daniels.

Who knows? But how do you not do that when the guy you are in love with from a talent standpoint doesn't want to play for you and is doing everything in his power with his father's assistance to circumvent the process and get out of being selected by Chicago? Crazy, crazy level of mishandling by the Chicago Bears. And Washington was the beneficiary of it all. Again, maybe the Bears scout everybody. Maybe they end up liking Drake May more than Jaden Daniels.

Who knows? But not to scout him, if that's true? Man, one of the most incompetent, you know, one of the biggest mishandlings of a number one selection in a draft in a long time, when you consider how badly they needed a quarterback and how many highly qualified quarterbacks there appeared to have been in that draft. It may work out for Caleb Williams. I mean, the jury is far from being decided.

It's one season. And now he gets to quarterback with Ben Johnson, a very creative and innovative offensive mind. It may be that Caleb Williams turns out to be the best quarterback from the 2024 draft. But not to scout Jaden Daniels, when the guy you have fallen in love with is telling you, along with his father and, you know, anybody else that's a part of that group, we don't want you to draft us. Insane. Crazy. NFL Game Day, which is the show on the NFL Network during the NFL season, they put out a tweet yesterday. It was AI artificial intelligence predicting the 2025-2020s

NFL teams. Yeah, I've seen a lot of that recently. I'm assuming many of you as well, just AI predicting a lot of different things. Well, NFL Game Day had AI predict 25-26 next season, and here's how it shook out. In the AFC, Buffalo was the number one seed, KC was the two seed, Sinci the 3C, Jacksonville the 4, Baltimore the 5, the Chargers the 6, and Denver the 7 seed.

Now, in the NFC, the number one seed per AI next year, Washington, followed by Green Bay at 2, Arizona, 3, Atlanta, 4, Philly 5, Chicago, and the Rams at 7. You'll note that AI used the current rules around seeding. Four division winners get one through four, and then the three wildcard teams get seeds five through seven. Well, guess what? There's a chance that is going to change this week.

Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated, reported yesterday that the NFL may consider voting on Detroit's proposal as early as this week to change the seating format for the NFL playoffs beginning in 2025. This is something that I have been in favor of for years. I don't want the divisions messed with in terms of if you win a division, you're in the postseason, no matter how bad your record is. But I think once you've got the four division winners and the three wildcard teams, seven in total, seating them based on record, is competitively. fair. You should not be able to host a game as a 7 and 9 division winner against an 11 and 5 wildcard team like Washington did in 2020. Or last year, Minnesota, 14 and 3, and they had to go on the road

against 10 and 7, L.A. Now, they ended up playing that game in Arizona because of the wildfires. But Washington last year, 12 and 5, had to go on the road and play 10 and 7 Tampa in the first round of the playoffs. So Detroit's proposal would be seating based on record. That means if it had been in play last year, Washington as a 12 and 5 team actually would have been seated fourth behind Detroit, Philadelphia, and Minnesota, and they would have hosted the Green Bay Packers in the first round of the NFL playoffs. If this gets passed, this is going to have significant ramifications on seasons moving forward because, you know, winning the division is crucial because you want to get home field for as many games because history tells us that home field advantage is important in the NFL

playoffs. And so, you know, I've talked a lot about since the season ended, Washington has to really target Philadelphia. They have to beat Philadelphia out in the division to enhance their Super Bowl possibilities because if not, they're going to have to play every game on the road, unless they end up playing a wild card team in the NFC championship game, you know, that's worse than them. But this way, Washington could potentially finish second in the division, but be the two seed, which would mean they would host a first round game, host a second round game, and perhaps have to go on the road for just one game, the NFC championship game. But if that one seed got beat, they would host the NFC-T,

game as well. So I think this is the way to go. I have no idea if they'll actually pass this. You know, on playoff sort of formatting, the league's been pretty traditional. Now, they've added teams. Obviously, we saw the addition of a seventh team per conference a few years ago. But yeah, I hope it gets passed. Now, there was one little wrinkle that I did not know when I first read about the Lions proposal a couple of months ago. If you're a division winner and you are tied with a wild card team for the four seed, the head-to-head will be division winner over wild card. It won't be, the tiebreaker, excuse me.

The tiebreaker won't be head-to-head. It'll be the number one will be the division winner gets to host. So as an example, right, if, let's just say Washington was a division winner with the fourth best record among the division winning teams. And the five-seed, the top wildcard team, had the same record. Washington would get the four-seed and host the game. Even if they lost to that team during the regular season, typically head-to-head is the first tiebreaker criteria.

It would not be in the Lions proposal. The division winner would have the tie-breaking winning formula there. So we'll see. You know, the tush push is on the line again this week as well. So we could have some significant changes coming up. League meetings in Minneapolis this week. All right, real quickly, before we get to Merrill Hodge, I didn't, you know, get to the cap season coming to an end. Look, I can't sit here and tell you, you know, specifically why the caps lost in five games to Carolina, other than to say, it was pretty obvious that Carolina was the better team for the majority of those five games. However, I thought the Caps played the best game that they had played in this series in game five.

And that was a devastating goal that they gave up with a minute 59 to go. It was one of those just throw the puck towards the net and see what happens. And it's a strange game hockey is. And that thing went in. I guess, you know, there was a little bit of vision issues on that shot for Logan Thompson. I actually thought the caps went down fighting, man. I thought the urgency from the start, especially in the third period, it was the one game in which they actually out attempted, Carolina, 51 to 49.

I didn't think that this was like the typical, you know, caps are out earlier than expected, and they went out meekly. I didn't feel that way. I thought they really fought in game five, for whatever it's worth. In terms of the season as a whole, look, I don't follow it as closely as many of you do, but they certainly outperformed the expectation at the beginning of the year. There was, of course, Ovechkin's record-breaking season, which was very exciting to watch. But, man, 15 out of the 16 Ovechkin playoff seasons, they have bowed out before the conference finals, either first or second round exits. It's amazing, man. And then you think about the pre-Ovechkin years with the caps, you know, losing before they were supposed to lose. It's been an

organization, you know, with Abe and with Ted, that has certainly won a lot of games and been to a lot of post-season and you can't win a cup without being in the tournament. But God, man, a history of just disappointing playoff springs. But I didn't think that this was a tap out, you know, tap out, go out softly kind of team. I didn't feel that way at all.

I just, you know, we were here to talk about each game after it, and I thought Carolina was just the better team throughout the series. But man, throughout game five, I really thought the caps were going to win the game. I thought they were the better team. It was the only time I really felt that way, including in the game they won,

although that was a pretty good game for them as well. All right, what else? Phil Mendelson says he's expecting, you know, the City Council to eventually vote the stadium deal through. We'll see what sort of changes are coming. The NBA playoffs I'll pass on, but, you know, the Knicks destroyed the Celtics last night. We get a great game seven tomorrow in Oklahoma City.

Can't wait to watch that. All right. Let's get to Merrill Hodge. We will do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. I introduced many of you to Goldbelly a few months back, and I want to keep talking about it today because Goldbelly has the most iconic famous foods from restaurants all across the United States, aggregated on one amazing site, and they ship it free to your door anywhere in the country. They'll ship you iconic Chicago deep dish pizza from Lumal Nottis. Had that. They'll ship you New York's best most famous cheesecake from juniors. Had that delivered.

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heat arrives, you'll save big on your air conditioning bills with better insulated windows from Window Nation. 86690 Nation, Window Nation.com. Joining me right now is Merrill Hodge. Merrill, of course, in the NFL for many years back in the 80s and 90s as a running back primarily with the Steelers. Merrill on ESPN's litany of NFL shows for years. And it's, and it In recent years, Merrill Hodge has been a bit of a guru when it comes to evaluating draft prospects, quarterbacks in particular. And actually, that's where I want to start with you. I didn't reach out to you before the draft this year because we didn't need a quarterback for the first time in a while.

You were super high on Jaden Daniels last year. You loved everything about him heading into the draft. What did you make of his rookie season? Well, I thought it was extraordinary. you know, the team played well, too. You know, you can't take anything away from, you know, all aspects of the team. Teams win championships, you know, there's no quarterback that's ever won, one. There's no running backs, every one, one, no defense ever won, one.

You know, teams win them. And that's the bottom line, period. Now your quarterback makes a big difference. I'm not minimizing the role. And I think you guys saw when you have a consistent player there and a guy who's somewhat magical in a lot of ways, you know, he can do a lot to help you and elevate your team. And, you know, if you put that on display, you know, he's just more evidence of, you know, the things that you have, but translate from college to the NFL and things that you have to really

focus in on, and they at least have to show signs of it. Some show it greater than others, but if it isn't on display at some point, then that's where a lot of mistakes are made because you think, well, we'll make him do that, you know, or we'll teach him that one. You can teach somebody to do anything.

That's not the question you should ask. It should be going to be learned and applied. And Jane had a lot of study. You know, I followed him since he was at Arizona State, and his overall development was, I thought, extraordinary.

Then he kept getting better and better. I heard somebody say, well, he had his best, year. He had his very best year on his last year. I'm like,

well, no kid. That's what you want. Yeah. You ask that makes the sense. I'm thinking. Anyway,

but he's obviously the things that he did well and the skills he developed while he was at LSU really, you know,

helped him transition well to the national football. You're happy for Washington because, you know, they've been

the amount of skids for a while, as I know, you know. And I don't think they're going to go anywhere for a while, but they got to keep build, they got to build on and get better at. You know, you just can't say we're good enough. There's still a lot of areas they've got to get better at. You know, something you just said is so true. I mean, you know, this time of year or certainly heading into the draft, you get the people that will say, you know, he had a good senior year, but you got to go back to that freshman year when he

was 18 and the year after. That's a reason for concern. No, it's a dumbest thing ever. It's an vault player. That's really, I mean, well, there's a lot of stuff that's somewhat, I mean, to be kind, very questionable, but it happens all the time. I mean, the combine is one of the biggest jokes and embarrassments for a football, evaluation for a football player. And I'm not saying there's not value in there, you know. I'm seeing the best value.

really getting help to meet them, talk to them, interview them, you know, get to know them more, get a sense of their overall knowledge of the game, their awareness, you know. And there's a great value there. To know, to decide that a guy is it going to be a good football player or a bad football player based on a 40-yard dash is the most moronic thing ever done in the history of our game. and I can't tell you how many people do it. I mean, it's just, she was on display this year. I don't know who their analyst is, but there was a receiver that was supposed to be fast.

He said he was a, he liked him, say he's going to be fast, going to run fast, and he ran a 4-5-5. Now, I'm not in paraphrasing what he says. He goes, he's not a 4-55-guy. Okay, now, wait a minute. He just ran a 4-5-5 on 10. television. We just saw a 4-5-5. So how can you say he's not a 4-5 guy? Okay, now, this is what I'm talking about, what he's doing. He's like, well, he's better

on tape. He plays, he's faster on that. Okay, but that's the only thing that matters, because that's what he's going to do on Sunday. He's not running in his underwear all by himself with nobody around him. So what you're actually now looking at is something that's irrelevant. So he comes back up. He's like he won't run a 4-5 again. He's faster than a 4-5. Runs a 4-5 again. And he says he's not a 4-5 guy.

Now he's ran it twice. So I'm like, now how can somebody that's supposed to be an analyst and an expert just deny that we visually saw him run it twice and say he's not that. But now he's not the same player that he was, that he saw on tape.

I'm like, okay, I'm just from the student's example. Here's what teams do. People do it all the time. It happens every year. They go on downgrading. They go downgrading. Or let's say he ran a 4-3 and he weren't expecting, but they go upgrading.

Now he's better. Well, he's not very good on tape, but now he's better. I'm like, oh, my gosh. This is just, it's insane, you know. But anyway, you didn't miss the underwear Olympics. With your guts. Yeah. The increase in the increase in the,

Yeah, the increase in the obsession over the indie combine over the last, I don't know, decade or so is amazing. And it's also incredibly odd to me for a lot of the reasons that you mentioned. You know, I'm curious as to what you think about, like, players that test amazingly well. And then you rely on just looking at the numbers when it comes to production. Like a guy like Shamar Stewart is an example who had all the measurables, you know, everything you wanted athletically at the combine and even the athleticism popped on tape. But somehow he ended up with a sack and a half last year, a sack and a half the year before and a sack and a half the year before that. So, you know, how do you kind of, you know, square those things? statistics tell you really nothing.

Okay, see, there's no description of how does he play the game. That's what's important. From feet, hips to hands, how does he play the game? I'll give a great example. Or there was a great, it wasn't even a debate, actually. It was when Kalil Mack and Jedediabion and Clownie came out. When you looked at them on tape from a football skill set, from feet, hips to hands, who could play inside line,

or outside linebacker, defense event, you name it. There was one guy. And his skill set, probably the best I've ever seen actually in 25 years of doing this, was Khalil Mack, like it wasn't even close. Now, what did you, Davey on County? Now, feet, hip, hands with Jayvian County? Not very good. His motor, awful.

His overall IQ, awful. A third of the time, he's going to do something for your team. Okay, well, third of the time ain't going to work, okay? Colal Mac is going to do something 100% of the time for your team. And I go back to that. Those two guys coming out, if the Texans had drafted Colal Mac, you know, you have J.J. Wadden, he's prying. You might have had the two most movable,

wreckable pieces in maybe football history together. You could have dominated defensively in schemes and things. But there's another great example. Well, Giadion County has some physical measurements that were somewhat freakish. That doesn't tell me, you just told me stuff about, you didn't tell me anything about playing football, is what I'm getting at. I only take it tell you can they play football. Did you spend as much time this year on the quarterbacks as you did last year?

Yeah, primordial. Because there are just so many of them, and there was really no. I mean, there's really no first-round talent. There was, like, if you use the standard of a first-round talent, which, listen, if I'm building the team, the last thing I'll ever do is I'm going to, I'm going to lower the standard and draft, especially that position, draft a quarterback just because there's not a guy who's the first, well, this is all we got this year.

Well, they don't draft ones. Unless you're so loaded on your team, that's all you need. Which most teams in your quarterback should not what, it's not the last thing they need. There's very few teams that are just like, well, we're just messing the quarterback. Joe Burrell, Jaden Daniels, and C.J. Stroud, okay, there's your criteria. Okay? Joe Burroughs takes them to football in a couple years.

C.J. Stroudman, now the Texans are the real deal. Two for more yards than a rookie in the history of our game. And then Jay and Daniels want to step away from the Super Bowl. From what, what were you guys, went three games a year before? Yeah, for whatever it was? Four, yeah. Okay, well, four. I mean, I know what the team turned around, but his play was significant.

Okay, can't deny that. That position, how he played it, was extraordinary. There was not a quarterback. Actually, there's one guy. I actually felt had a true NFL skill set that would be first round talent. His injuries and his age, you know, people were little. scare that was a kid from Louisville. Tyler shook.

Yeah, Tyler is, was a, that guy, he was actually one of the last guy, actually, I had watched him on television when they played Miami actually, because I wanted to watch this Cam, the Cam kid, and I just watched it on television, it was early in the college season. And I'm like,

man, you know what, I'm just, just from my just an overall sense of how the game is going to be played at the next level. I was like, man, I, watch that Louisville kid just seemed be a lot better than the Miami kid. You know, because that person I'd ever seen him. I was like, I would not,

maybe he bothered me from a lot of aspects. Guy, he doesn't play in structure, his feet are sloppy. He's never in a true position to fill of the football, so he's reckless. Are you talking about Cam Ward now? Yeah, I'm sorry, Cam Ward. And I'm like, boy, that's just, that's a big project there.

You know, I'm just watching it. I'm like, I can't make a full evaluation to watch my tape, but it just, it was structure-wise, it didn't look good. Okay, it was not, there was not a lot of the type of structure that you're looking for that make it an easy transition to NFL.

There's a lot of things that you've got to fix, change, and work on before you've got a chance there. Anyway, and the Louisville kid, I was like, gosh, dang. I'm like, that guy was in Browns, I was like, holy cow, that I go, I'm just going to walk the game, the kid in Louisville's better than the shit in Miami.

I don't know anything to think about the kid in Louisville either. I don't know. The first I don't see the kid in Miami. And that's from a game TV perspective, which don't ever take that as your evidence, because it can lie to you. I say TV lies and highlights really lie. And so I was like, but just from an overall structure and how they played in rhythm and stuff, I was like, wow, really looks it was better.

But now I want to walk your tape. He's about 25th on my depth chart, and I come across him. And my first game, I was like, holy cow. Like this kid had the best real skills He looked the best He threw the ball the best He played in the third He played in an environment

That's going to When you think about what he's going to happen In the NFL Okay, you don't have the four and five seconds That these guys have The Miami Kim, the ward has four or five seconds You know He had a great office two lines

That's gone That those days are over You have 2.5 at the best You're going to have people in your face You're going to have people in your face And it's going to be a cloudy, dirty pocket can you function in that arena. This kid in Louisville was extraordinary,

and his accuracy was not completion accuracy. He was different levels of accuracy. When a guy completes the ball, that's not accurate. You completed it. You really have to break down, like, every path, like, is there a run after the catch? Is the ball where only the receiver could get it and was that the field that needed to be made?

There's a whole host of things you have to walk through and evaluate. Is he really accurate? Okay, that guy's really accurate. And he's got a big on. that adds to that. And I'm notified and said that, number one, because it's really not, it's not the biggest deal.

I mean, that's just an added value to your accuracy. He's 6'5, very mobile, plays well and processes things quickly. And this is just a bunch of stuff. I'm like, wow, I just, and he was my number of quarterback. That was, if I was in a position where I'd do it, I would have taken that kid.

As no one, so saying to me, they got they locked out based on what happened to them you know obviously i don't know if they saw all this coming you know derrick cart retiring or having to retire and being in that position you know caseham hill is coming off a bad name you know where will he be i think they got the steel of the drafts they got him in a second round i was earning a second round but he was he was clearly warranted uh first round from how i viewed him and if i stack him up against those three i just mentioned there's a lot of similarities that I could draw that are very similar to those guys that we just talked about. Yeah, the three on your recent, the best in terms of how you've analyzed them, Joe Burrough, C.J. Stroud and J.

and Daniels. So the story of the draft over three days was Shadur Sanders. What did you think of him? Well, this is always, this gets misunderstood when I say it. He's a good quarterback. And, I mean, he's a good quarterback. There's a lot of things he does. Well, there wasn't anything extraordinary that you would be like, boy, that's going to be scary, you know, that's dangerous. When you kill him apart, though, you know, first of all, if he was really elite, okay,

you wouldn't be making excuses for the system that we run and blaming your offensive line, with everything was their offensive line, okay? And then they say, well, he held the ball, because he does hold the ball a long time. If your office line is so bad, you won't have time to hold the ball. So maybe the office line wasn't as bad. No, if I watched all his tape.

Okay, so their line and the people that they matched up against his offensive line was not a bad offensive line. They're acting like, he had no protection, he had nothing, and that is absolutely 100% incorrect. The bubble screen, that they ran, and, you know, they, they attribute that to the office of line. I'm like, okay, Matt, Matt. Man, I've watched and played and studied and taught and coached.

So I know if your quarterback's really good, man, he actually offsets the issues with your office line. Right. Okay. You don't have to create excuses for them because your quarterback hides them when he's a good processor. He's accurate. He gets rid of the football.

So going to the, you know, you start peeling it apart. There's a reason that holds the ball. And his processing is not really precise and sharp. Okay, well, in college, if that's a struggle, you're going at times that by 10 coming to the national football league. And you're going to be limited in what you can do, in how you're going to be able to install things, things you're going to be actually, be able to execute and run. And that's going to be a limitation, you know.

And his athleticism, you know, you come from Dionne Sanders, you think, oh, he's some dynamic athlete. And he's really not. He's not. Yeah, right. He doesn't have a lot of fast twitch to him. He's slow twitch. But he has mobility, you know.

But it's just good. Like, here's, in the NFL, I'll go, okay, our defense events can run him down, our tackles, we're okay if our defense's line. So I'm just trying how they're looking at, they'll look him in the NFL. They're not going to go, oh, my gosh. I mean, like, he can't sleep all week because, like, who's going to, who are we going to spine with?

Right. You know, this is not Lamar Jackson. They're like, God, who we got? Or we got to play so disciplined. We can't let him out the gate. We have to push him and pushing him. I mean, this extraordinary discipline. You know, he tried to play with all the time.

But now, we have to play with the pristine discipline because he'll kill us. You know, there's none of that. You know, you won't go. oh my gosh, you know, he's just really good. He's just good. So I see why he's not drafted in the first time. And quite honestly, that's the best for the kid. Okay, we just talked about three guys,

all they have done over the last six years. Right. Unless he went in the first round. What are they going to expect? And he's beyond Sanders' son. So that's going to have another layer of expectation. I don't care where he goes. Here's what's going to be expected.

We're going to be in the playoffs. He's going to throw for more yards and see Jay Stroud. he's going to be just like those guys. And he doesn't have the skill set to do that. So then what happens? Oh, he's a boss. Oh, I'm here. So he's in a much better scenario to really flourish and play in this league

than if he'd went in the first round. What round do you think he should have gone in? What round do you think he should have gone in? Oh, I had him in a second and third round category. But I understand why he's. he fell even further. You've got to consider what he's bringing to the table. How are you going to manage that?

Who has coached him, his entire life, okay? How he's going to handle different coaching? I did this with my son. My son was one of the best quarterbacks and stayed in Kentucky, and I went to play quarterback at BYU. I mean, he was a phenomenal athlete quarterback. He was a phenomenal quarterback. And I coach him from age seven, I mean, all through, all the way up to when he got to high school.

And I was like, okay, this is that time for me to just cut the cord. You know, he needs new coaching. You know, so if I had carried him into high school and into college, you know, I think that I would even be like, oh, you know, this might be a little different for both, you know, going into it. You know, so he's never experienced that. And I know people were very concerned about that. That's not a major, major concern. But you're crazy. you don't talk about it.

You know, then, you know, I was at the combine. I saw a lot of things where he was just very disrespectful to time. You know, teams have 10 minutes, and he's taking calls from his dad, burning five minutes of the 10 minutes the team has. And it's just like, if you're going to do that, and you're already going to disrespect people. And, you know, it wasn't, you know, you wouldn't sit him down and go, wow, you would not be blown away with his football IQ.

you would not be blown away. You'd be like, whoa. So all of those things start out. So then you look at, okay, what is you for us? Is it going to be a basketball team? I mean, we need something. Second or third or fourth round pick. Okay.

Do I want to pick somebody that's not going to even play? Yeah, well, that's a third or fourth round? You nailed it. I got to get somebody that can help my team. And people will get it. I'll go back to what I said in the beginning. Teams win championship. That's what you better be building on.

you got a luxury item to get a guy like, you know, him as a backup. So used it in the later rounds. So now how Cleveland went about it, that is still just when I was about to give them a, give them credit for like I think they finally straight straight straight out their quarterback woes and making mistakes. Boy, they just come right back and took the lead. I'm like, what the heck are you doing? You just drafted the kid. from Oregon.

Yeah. Well, actually, the kid from Morgan is really good. Yeah. But that kid was like 6-2, 6.3? Oh, my gosh. Exactly. He very well could have been. He processes quickly, doesn't he?

I'll tell you what, he's everything. Because I interviewed him at the Combine, and, you know, he actually, you know, he spun it on me and asked me a question. I mean, you know, he was like, well, if I was 6th, but I'd be, he goes 1 to 5-6-3, I'd go to your first rounder. Yeah. I go, that's just the fact. I go to 5-10 in our league is a massive handicap.

Okay, there's only one guy. I think Drew Bree's, um, Drew Brewery's a 6-foot, though. I mean, Russell Wilson's 5-10. So Russell Wilson's won a Super Bowl. I go there's one.

Maybe what was, well, he didn't win one either, Frank, and Frank, he didn't win it. I know of no other quarterback. I don't know the entire history.

Anybody that's 5-10 that's won a Super Bowl, I mean, below six foot, other than Russell Wilson. And he had best running game in football and the best defensive football. Okay, and he was a great compliment. And as long as he was in that role, I mean, the Steelers saw that. Everybody saw that. That's why Seattle moved on from him. He's a great compliment as long as you have those things in place.

He's not going to carry. He's not going to have set deficiencies if you don't. These other three guys I talked about, Borough, C.G. Strachian, they can offset some deficiencies. Okay, like a guy like DeShire Sanders cannot offset. deficiencies. So he's where actually would, ideally, I think sets him up the very best to have a really good NFL career.

If he gets a chance to play, you know, and he gets a chance, chance in a role and they can build a team around him and they have time. But he's just not, he's not special. There's nothing that you would say, wow, I just, this is really elite. he just didn't have any of that. So I completely understand that. But the reason he started to fall like he did because then those other things started to play a role in Kings.

Yeah, of course. You know, it's the, is the juice worth the squeeze if you're going to end up with, you know, a backup quarterback and everything that comes with it? That's why some of the, you know, perceived headaches that were super talented got picked because they knew they would get, they knew they were going to play. Look at what we're reading.

in the last two days about Caleb Williams and his father and what they were trying to do. But where did he go? He went number one overall because of the talent. I'm curious, did you have any opinion about Washington's draft? No. I'm telling you, I don't even know who they drafted. I mean, as you said that, I don't even know who you guys drafted in the first round. We drafted, Washington drafted a tackle Josh Connerly from Oregon in the first round.

Yeah. I was so tunnel vision on quarterback here and running backs that I, it's probably the first time in 25 years that I have only done that. Okay, let's talk about running backs. Was Gentie worth the number six pick in the draft? Yes. Really? Yes.

He has extraordinary, you know, now listen, I know a little more about him, maybe the most. Dirk Cutter, who was, right. I remember he was head coached Tampa Bay. before Bruce Ariens came in. He was office coordinator in Atlanta for decades, I shoot, forever. And it's one of the greatest minds. And I have ever met football,

and I play for some of the greatest Chuck Noel, Bill Cowher. I've worked with Bill Parcells, Bill Pullians, Tony Dungeys, Marty Scha. He was my high school coach. Dirk Cutter was my high school coach. I have known Dirt Cutter since I was in high school. And Dirk Cutter is the office coordinator up at Boyce's. state, you know, for the last couple years.

So I just have a chance to talk to him, you know, to get some true insights about him as a kid, and he's supposedly just as pure a human being as you could possibly get. Like, you're not going to go to bed at night worried about him. Now, I know I'm not talking about his football skills yet, you know, but that is important when you're going to invest in a runner at that point. Now look at his skill set, and that makes him. extraordinary. He has an extraordinary power and balance and agility to him that is truly unique. I mean, in his style the way he runs and he's, you know, he's not a big target either.

And to try to tackle him, I can't tell you, I've seen every scenario, he does such a good job of using the things they issue for protection and that are shoulder pads. So they give you those because they want you to use them. You know, those are your weapons. It's not your helmet. And he does such a good job of making it tough on you to fight to his legs because you've got to fight through his shoulders. And he has such great balance.

And then when you hit him, he is able to rebalance himself and move laterally and vertically whatever is required after the hit. And he has home run speed. Like you get blink. came in, or he gets the edge he's done. And that's just a rare converse. So I'll give you this. Everybody's like, well, the Penn State game really

showed who he was. You're right, he did. That's exactly his best game. His best game. I agree. Guess what? That is exactly what you wanted to see. Toughest 104 yards of the season. That is exactly what you're going to

see on Sunday. Yeah. I mean, they devoted everything to stop that kid. Okay, he got 104 yards. Okay, I'm telling you this, if you devote that type to some other type of runners, you might get 50. Okay, but that was, but how he ran. Okay, so I already talked about quarterbacks and just those two things that are so important.

You build from there, if they don't have those two things, processing and accuracy, and there's different degrees there. We got a problem. If you're lacking one of them, we got a problem. And the chances are significantly high you will not succeed in this league. in this league from a runner perspective. People don't even, I don't think a lot of people know this, that the college field is different than the NFL field.

The hash marks are different in the NFL. So, and the reason for that, the hash marks in college are wider. In the NFL, they're narrow. That means you have to play in the middle. So the most important aspect for a runner, if I played that position, I learned it well, I understand it well, I know it intimately, is your ability to start. stop and redirect and run with power and get yards when there's a crack is how you have to learn how to run in the NFL.

If you'll learn, if they have provided me a crack or a yard, I got to get that two yards. I got to get to three yards. I got to add a yard or two to whatever they've got to get me. And I've got to learn to run like that because that is the dirt you're going to face. That's the trash you're going to. that's the variety of the way you're going to run in our league versus college where you can run to the perimeter. You know, my guy runs a 4-4. You run a 4-6.

I run you. You know, that's why they play on the perimeter so much in college because you can because those hash marks make a difference for that. You know, and it makes a difference in the running game, too. And most guys, my guys are better than your guys. That's college football, a big portion. In the NFL, my guy is as good as your guy. Hash marks are in the middle. We play in the middle.

and who can play in the middle and this kid can play in the middle. Tell me the other backs you really liked. I'm interested in the backs that you think can make a big impact at the next level. Yeah, well, I'm going to have to pull my list here because I don't know. All right, let me give you some names.

You're probably best at the name. Let me give you some names. The other guy that went in the first round was Amari and Hampton from North Carolina. Yes, and he's a special guy too. Here's where, and I'm telling you, and he's just, he's not that far off of the kid from Boise State. Just, he doesn't have the top end, the overall top end speed. Right.

As he does. And that was his only difference. But I'm not telling you, he is a impressive runner. I loved him. There was not a thing about him that I didn't. You know, Astrid Genti, I think, you know, the, you know, the, um, the Hampton kid is not that far off. I mean, he's just, they are almost like splitting hairs in a way.

But that, that gentzy style, like that, that balance that he has in and through the hole is just extraordinary. And his quickness and his speed. Atop and speed kind of separated him. And his blocking is really good. So here's where Dirk played at an advantage with the gentee hit. You know, everybody's like, when I didn't catch the ball, because they didn't want overloading. If you watch him cast the ball, he doesn't

fight the ball, he catches it naturally. He's a very fluid receiver. He can be effective there. He's a willing blocker. That's a big deal. And the other kid is, I mean, he's got big time balance and quickness and power and strength, and he's got speed too. He can play inside. That's all about him too. And he's a good blocker.

Hampton. He catches the ball well. Yeah, Hampton doesn't fight it. You know, when I read both of their stuff, when I go back or forth with them, you know, they almost are identical. I just give Gent to the edge with that overall balance that he has the ability to break tackles and that top-end speed. All right, let's take a quick break because Merrill Hodge is going to tell us about a running back selected by a division rival that he loved. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Rate and review the show

If you get a chance on Apple and Spotify in particular Also follow us Hit the plus button or the follow button Doing both of those things Really help the show out a lot We continue with Merrill Hodge I know that there is another

Running Back that you wanted to talk about Go ahead This guy you're going to have to deal with You're going to have to deal with Scataboo Because he's okay now this is a guy Because in your the Giants draft. Yes, they did.

And that, and I think I can't remember if I had a number second or third on my list. But this guy, okay, see, our league is already bad at tackling. Okay, we're at the all-hit league. Okay, everybody thinks you got to hit everybody. You go to play this guy, I will promise you one thing that if they watch the tape, there's one thing, every coach will be saying, you better tackle. Yes.

You better wrap up and you better tackle this catch. And then if they ever get a little, lead and there's three minutes left on the clock, you're not going to see the ball. This kid, this catamoo dude is a absolute beast. Now, people were like, well,

you know, he runs so hard and he does, I'm like, well, my timeout, what do you, okay, I played in Chicago, okay, my favorite player was Walter Payton. When I was in Chicago, I got to know Walter Payton, a lot better. I knew him when I played. He retired in the year I was

drafted, and I met him at my rookie year. But when I got to Chicago, I got to know him more. He came up for board meetings, even though he's retired. And we'd have a lot of great conversations. I picked his brain. I mean, I was a lot of times still this day. I mean, I embody a lot of things that he has helped me learn, and I've learned from. And I share with people, actually, his mindset, his habits. Anyway, we were talking one day, you know, he was like, you know, I was asking, what do you think is the key to your health? You know, you missed one game. And he's like, two things. I was in elite shape, and that's everybody's responsibility.

You'd be in elite shape, and you get yourself ready. And then, man, I played this game 100 miles an hour. And I'm like, I just dropped the mic right there. I'm like, okay, so this guy plays 100 miles an hour, and you think that's a problem. And I'm not saying he's Walter Payton, but I'm going to tell you this, and playing the position when I coach kids. What is the first thing when I hand them the ball they start doing? Oh, well, they're going to tackle them.

No, no, no, no, no. Okay, that's the wrong mindset. You hit them. Now they're going to tackle you, but you hit them. They don't get them, don't let them hit you. You know, get me with young kids to learn how to play the game. They say, well, the running back are supposed to tackle me. Very true, but don't let them hit you.

You hit them. And I would say this from playing the position for 22 years, when you inflicted it, when you attack it, you are a much better runner. And then people are worried about all he's going to get hurt. Well, listen. I would much rather have a guy who plays in a style like that who could come into my team and set a tempo and help me finish games, and that can get tempo setter and a finisher right there. So that guy is going to be a fun guy to watch. Well, he was just such a competitor, too.

The one thing that I thought of, and Scataboo had that incredible game against Texas in the playoff, which kind of made him a star, even though, you know, people hadn't been paying attention to Arizona State all year. I thought that he didn't run with the best of kind of feel and vision. It was all power and compete in trying to run people over. Well, actually, that's actually correct because I watched it. You know, and I, in my meetings, you know, people were like, why don't think he has the feet? So I went in and put clips together of like, I watched his entire season. Okay, first of all, he has excellent feet. And he's really the move loudly and birth.

His instincts and feel as a runner are actually outstanding. And I'll say this, where you add to that instinct and feel, you can't just put somebody out on the perimeter and throw them the football without instincts and fill. You know, that's just not an easy thing to do because I'm just telling like you, since I did it, when you go from, even in a three-point stance, it's a different world when you run the football versus when you're standing in a two-point stance and you're seven yards deep. It's a completely different running game.

It's a completely different vision. And I know fans might have like, oh, maybe I'm thinking, I never thought of that. You're just like an inside linebacker and outside linebacker. Right. How many times can you take?

Lawrence Taylor, put him inside. What do you have? You don't have Lawrence Taylor. You don't know, I mean, some people, linebackers, outside guys are different than inside guys. I don't know. Maybe L.T. could have played anywhere.

Yeah, that's probably the wrong guy to pick. You know, I've only race of all the time. It'd have been only, but it wouldn't have been the beast he was on the outside. Well, what I'm saying is inside linebacker is different than outside. Sure. And when you tell him, well, got you a different world over there. I didn't, you know, come off the edge. You've got to see things different.

So just because you're a linebacker doesn't mean they're all the same. Just because you're a running back, it's not all the same. You're in a two-point stance, seven-yard-leaf, completely different way to run the ball than in a three-point stance, five yards from a thing, or a two-point stance. yards, playing weak side versus strong side, going outside to catch the football and run routes. Well, that's a whole different environment. And that kid has, I think his skill set is overlooked and under measured.

And because he runs with a wicked way, people look at him like he doesn't have instincts or doesn't see or doesn't have a feel. And actually, when you really study him and you watch him from the end zone, they could end zone give you so much. I've always thought television should do runs from the end zone when they replay them because that would be better for the viewer to see what a runner sees. That's when you get a real sense of his vision and instincts that he has. Thanks, as always for doing this. Always have fun.

Hope you will. Take care. Absolutely, bud. Anytime. Call in time. Merrill Hodge, everybody. An interesting dude. And he has gotten a lot right, especially on the quarterbacks in recent years.

We'll finish up the show with our guy, Eddie C, previewing and picking the preakness after these words from a few of our sponsors. If you want to bet the preteness today or you want to bet NBA game seven tomorrow between Oklahoma City and Denver, the place to do it is MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. And MyBooky will give you a cash bonus on your initial sign-up. My bookie's numbers are fair. Their pricing is fair. And you get paid if you win.

Don't expect to take the cash bonus and then just check out. You actually have to gamble if you're going to accept the cash bonus. But My Booky is old school. They're the best. They've got everything you need for any sporting event that you want to bet on. And they've got a tremendous online casino as well. MyBooky.ag or mybooky.com promo code Kevin, D.C. The Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown later on today at Pimlico in Baltimore,

our resident Triple Crown expert, our guy, Eddie C, a legend in central and southeastern Montgomery County, also up in New York at various racetracks. Of course, South Florida as well. Eddie C makes his presence known in just about every corner of the handicapping world, and he's our guy. So you had journalism in the Kentucky Derby. Journalism didn't win the Derby, but I think you got a lot right after that, correct or not? Yeah, we did have journalism. Journalism ended up having a little bit of traffic trouble and coming in second,

and I'm sorry, let me just go back and also say thanks for having me on. Kevin, it's always a pleasure to review and the DMV folks. But, yeah, journalism ran a good race. I mean, it was a big sloppy track because of all the rain there. And Sovereignty ended up winning the race, ran a really good race, had a little bit of a cleaner trip. And then we had Bayesah, who was a nice price, finished third, and closing fast, maybe with a little bit of more racing luck,

Biazza could be even won the race. So I don't feel too bad about running second, third, and I think my other pick came in fourth. So, you know, not the best of results, but not terrible, and looking to see what we can do here for the pregnancy, and it looks like we're going to get maybe a little bit lucky with the weather. It looks like it's breaking for us. All right.

I want to ask you, though, about the Kentucky Derby winner's sovereignty, and the fact that this horse will not be running at the Preakness, decision made by the trainer and the horse's owners. We've seen this a lot over the years. First of all, specific to the reasons that they've decided not to run the Kentucky Derby at the Preakness, those reasons are? I mean, I can't tell you specifically because I haven't spoken to Bill Maude, the trainer, even though I did reach out to him.

but I just think we're getting to the point, you know, look, in baseball, they've updated, changed rules for the betterment of the game. In football, they've done it as well, even in basketball with the three-point line and things like that. Horse racing has been very stagnant about things, and running back, taking a young three-year-horse, running at a mile in a quarter, and then coming back two weeks later and running, at a mile on 316th, and then three weeks later, trying to run it in the Belmont at a mile and a half. It's asking a lot. I'm all about tradition. I love sports, you know, especially baseball tradition, but in horse racing as well.

It's asking a lot of a young horse, and these horses just aren't bred the same way that they have been in the past. So they decided to skip the pretenance, and I think the loss, the big loss, is to Maryland to the history of racing and to the fans that wanted to see the derby winner run. Is there a solution to this? Is there, you know, clearly the health of the horse is a concern. And, you know, it's kind of like we don't see pitchers go nine innings anymore. You know, we see load management and basketball.

They've gotten smarter. And I do want to ask you, and I will in a moment, as to whether or not every trainer would have sat this horse in the preakness. But is there a solution, meaning maybe the preteness should be three or four weeks after the derby? Maybe the Belmont, maybe this thing should be stretched out from, you know, the second Saturday in May to, or the first Saturday in May to, you know, August, just so we can get, you know, the possibility of what everybody wants every year, and that is a triple crown winner. Yeah, you know, there is actually, I think, because of this year, but it's been a lot of whispers, a lot of talk about changing it a little bit.

But this year specifically, there's a lot more talk to say, hey, look, why don't we do the first Saturday in May is the Derby, the first Saturday in June will be the Preakness, and the first Saturday in July will be the Belmont Stakes. The only negative to any of that would be, aside from tradition, would be that the first Saturday and July could be July 4th, you know, every seven years, whatever it would fall upon. So, but other than that, that's a simple solution, because if you give these horses four or five weeks in between races, you know, they should be fine. And I think that's a solution that's been tabled, and there's a lot of discussions. discussion about it, and I would be for that. Yeah. Seems

pretty simple. Are there trainers whose derby horse, if it had won, would have been there tomorrow with their derby winner? Oh, absolutely. And that's not saying anything negative to

Belmont, because I think Bill Mott is one of the best trainers. Definitely always looks for the horse first. I don't know if it was bill's full decision, if it was an owner decision. You know, and it could be in today's day, unfortunately, breeding is such a big part of horse racing financially.

So maybe these guys want to run this horse at four years old instead of retiring them after the Triple Crown Trail, like, has been happening so often lately. So, but I do believe that, yeah, if Baffert or Todd Pletcher or Chad Brown had won the Kentucky Derby, that horse is definitely wheeling back in the preemes. All right. Yeah, it's just, you know, there's been this like, if you follow it from afar like I do, it's like two things are given with the preteness. It's going to be a much smaller field, and there's a decent chance that.

that the derby winner isn't going to be running in it. And I think that's part of the interest in the sport after the Kentucky Derby is to see how the Derby winner will do. I think they've got to figure out a solution to that. So let's talk about the Preakness. Tell me about the field, the interesting storylines, and then we'll get to your picks. All right. Well, first of all, I do want to shadow back to years before that.

you and I both have been the many prequises, and we were able to leave somewhat unscathed from the infield parties and things like that. Speak for yourself. Speak for yourself. I actually ended up with about six stitches over one of my eyes. But you should have seen the other guy. You should have seen the other guy. But, yes, not every year was unscathed.

Yeah, I'm not saying that I haven't left with stitches either. But just being fortunate to be alive today to talk about those stories. Sure. That's a different topic. Yeah. But no, I mean, we got nine horses in the prequeness this year. You know, a cool little storyline is a local horse called Pay Billy that won the Federico State, and that was what they call a win and you're in to the pretenance race.

So, you know, it's the jockey, his name is Mena. He's never raced in a Triple Crown race before as a jockey. So it's a pretty cool story. I don't think it can win, but I think it could potentially hit the board. He's won four times out of eight races. But the better story about all this is that journalism, they said before the Derby that he wasn't going to run in the Preakness regardless of outcome, and he's running back in here, and I think he's the morning line, eight to five favorite at the moment. So he's running in it, and, you know, Baffert's

got another horse in here, and, you know, I think Bafford's got the record. He's got seven Precness wins. DeWain Lucas has a horse in here. He's got six prequist wins, but Baffirch got the one horse goal oriented. Really good horse. This horse could potentially wire the field, just break on top. He's in the one post position, and he could break on top and go gate the wire potentially. But, and then you got Sandman, which, you know, this horse, when he goes out on the track, they play enter the Sandman, which is pretty cool.

And he's got a big following. he's also got that that social media guy, Griffin, something that they gave him a 2.5% share of the horse. So social media-wise, Sam, and has become a very popular horse. So there's a couple of fun storylines behind it. One of the things that's a negative to me is that, you know, horse racing kind of brought it upon themselves. And you have this government group called Haiza. that is overlooking the sport and putting, enforcing rules and fines. And they find Junior Alvarado, the winning jockey on sovereignty, $62,000,

because he used the whip eight times and the limit is six. And when you're running in a race like that, how can you make a jockey count how many times he's actually? with the horse. You know, that you're taking away from actually, in my opinion, the safety of the horse and the safety of the jockey. So that's a big, big thing going on regarding a storyline. I'm sure the TV stations are going to talk about. I didn't know. I had no idea there was a limit to how much you could go to the whip. And I, when you say it puts the horse in the jockey, perhaps at risk, because sometimes you've got to pull the whip to get it out of traffic

to get out of harm's way, right? Well, yeah, that's the thing. I mean, the whip is used to get the horses' attention to maybe help it get moving faster, but at the same time, it's also used as a correction for safety purposes. You know, so to, you know, to give it an arbitrary number is ridiculous. And it's getting appealed. It's probably going to get cut in half, but he's still going to get fined. But it's kind of a silly thing.

And especially they've changed the whip, which many people in horse race and call the crop. It's now a new foam-covered stick. so it doesn't hurt the horse, it just gets their attention. Where before maybe when it was a leather crop, it kind of maybe would hurt the horse a little bit. All right, let's get to your picks. Well, I mean, I can't get off journalism. Numbers-wise, he's by far the best horse in the race.

How have, I thought I read something in sort of preparation for talking to you today about derby favorites that didn't win the derby, they typically run very well at the preakness. Is that true? Yes, and also derby winners have typically run pretty good at the preakness. I mean, you can go back to a few years ago. What's the name of the horse? That was like a 50 to one shot that won the derby.

And he came back and ran. second in the Preakness. So yeah, I mean, typically a derby horse that's run in the, say, top three that comes back in the Preakness has run very well. So yeah, that's definitely historically been true. Okay. So you like journalism right now at 8 to 5? Yeah, and I'm hoping that I can get six to five on them. If he gets down less than that, then I'm not going to bet him to win because it just doesn't make sense. Financially speaking. But, no, I like journalism,

and I also like the one horse-oriented. This is back for Tours. He's got top jockey on him called Flavian Pratt. This horse is three for two-for-two lifetime. He's only coming in, you know, very underused horse coming in fresh. He was heavily bet in both of his races. The connections are,

are fantastic. And he might, could be the speed and speed, or I don't think he needs the speed. I think there's a couple other horses in here that are going to definitely go to the speed and pay Billy, which is going to be the, I think, the five horse. And he's the local horse. He could go to the front. And you've got another horse called Clever Again, which is, is Steve Asmussen, who's the winningest trainer all time.

This horse is really good, but I like journalism to win. I like goal-oriented second. And then there's Todd Pletcher's got this horse called River. I'm going to butcher this, whatever the name of the river is in England. The Thames, yeah, the River Thames. Thames. Yes. So that's the name of the horse.

and really good horse has a really good chance. And again, I always got to try to take out one of the favorites for value purposes. So I'm not going to use Sandman. I think the Pimico track does not favor deep closers, and that's what Sandman is. And he did not run well in the Derby. So I'm going journalism on top. I'm going to use goal, the one horse goal oriented with River Thames. And I'm probably not going to play a trifecta in this because I just don't see value in that.

All right. The speed horse in this race is which one? Well, well, there's a couple. Paybilly could be a speed horse goal oriented, could be. But I think clever again is the main speed, which is the eight horse. horse and Gosper could even go to the speed, go to the front. So journalism doesn't win wire-to-wire? No.

Journalism, in my opinion, it's a perfect trip right behind the speed. And it's kind of like the derby, if you remember, he sat behind them, but he had some traffic trouble getting there. So he just got beaten by a horse that had a clean trip, but he sat behind all the speed throughout the derby, and I think he's going to do the same thing tomorrow. All right, then just recap it one more time for everybody. What should they play tomorrow? I like journalism on top.

I'm not going to box them. I'm going to play them on top in the Xactives over goal-oriented and River Toms. And if you want to do a trifecta, I would do journalism over goal-oriented River Tom. over the field, over everybody, because maybe you get a bomb to come in third, like the local horse, pay billy. Good job.

Enjoy it tomorrow. It's much easier and safer to be watching on television, but those days as a teenager or in my early 20s in the infield, they were memorable. I will talk to you later. Thanks. We'll talk before the Belmont. You never did the Port of Johnny run, did you? It was a long trip. No, you wouldn't. You just went where you went. It was not waiting for the Port of John. All right, man. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Gavin. All right, thanks to Eddie C. And thanks to Merrill Hodge, back on Monday.