The Kevin Sheehan Show - Baylor Beatdown + Darnold Trade

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

Kevin and Thom today opened with a recap of Baylor's demolition of Gonzaga in the NCAA Championship game last night. They discussed the Sam Darnold trade to Carolina and considered whether or not the final compensation would've been worth it for Washington. The boys also talked about the Nats finally opening their season and Aaron Rodgers hosting Jeopardy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. This will do it. This will do it. Scott Drew's dream comes true.

Coach Drew and Baylor, complete college basketball's greatest rebound and rebuild with a championship. And that was the culmination of one of the most honestly, Tommy, impressive championship performances I can remember in a long time following one of the greatest games on Saturday I've ever seen. I mentioned yesterday to Cooley that we all have this recency bias and we all want to feel like we were there for whatever. And Saturday night was special. That game between Gonzaga and UCLA will go down. It's not an exaggeration.

It'll go down as one of the greatest start to finish college basketball games of all time. Last night, you know, won't go down as the greatest, you know, performance. But I'll tell you what, for a team that I really loved after they destroyed Wisconsin and I played them on the money line for the rest of the tournament to win it, and I played them last night, I just thought defensively and offensively, that was a mauling of an opponent that was on its way to a potential and almost, you know, preordained, like, you know, going through this tournament, So many people thought that no, Gonzaga could not be beat.

That was a one-sided beatdown, and it was impressive. That's the word I would use. It was one of the most impressive one-sided wins in a championship game I've ever seen. I agree with that. I know a lot of people want the drama of a close championship game, and I was not, you know, I wasn't expecting a blowout on the show yesterday. picked Baylor to win outright. I liked Baylor. I thought they were the better team. On radio yesterday, it was really interesting. I had Jimmy Patsos on. I had Chris

knocky on. Both of them said, you know what? I've watched both teams a lot. I just think Baylor is the better team. And that was really not the prevailing sentiment, you know, in the national media or in the college basketball media. Gonzaga was really the choice to win last night to take the momentum that they had from that big win. You know, a lot of the discussion from Nance and Raftery and Hill, which I got to tell you, I just do not think is a very good broadcast team at all. And I'm a big Jim Jim Nance guy, and I'll be watching them for four straight days this weekend in Augusta.

But I, you know, the constant, you know, excuse making for UCLA being, you know, tired and exhausted and don't have their legs. That was 2% of it. 98% of it is that Baylor was just flat out much better. And if they played a best to seven, and I said this this morning and I put a poll out, I think Baylor would win a best of seven, four games to one. It wouldn't shock me if they swept them. I don't think Gonzaga could win two games, fresh legs or not fresh legs,

against that team. That team, I mentioned it multiple times during the tournament. They were the best defensive team in the field. They had the best all-around player. in the field. And Davion Mitchell, he became my favorite player. But they just were, they were a short yardage defense, Tommy, on third and one that was in the backfield, you know, tackling people. They couldn't, the offense couldn't make a half a yard. It was so impressive. And then offensively, they just shot the lights out. It was, it was destruction. The final score was nowhere reflective of how

much of a beating, you know, a mauling it truly was. You know what was interesting is, I mean, all I could think of was, in some ways, how reminiscent, not the mauling, obviously, not the mauling, but Baylor winning this national championship, you know, was reminded me so much of what Maryland did in 2002. I mean, to me, the program before Baylor that had come to far. harvest from the gutter to the to the penthouse, from the outhouse to the penhouse was Maryland under Gary Williams, you know, going from the program he took over that wasn't on, you know, couldn't go to postseason play for a couple years.

I had sanctions against them to win an international championship. Now, Baylor, who you have to admit, Baylor had a far worse hand to start from than Maryland. I mean, they were coming back from... They had a player murder another player. I mean, it was a little bit different. Bob Wade... Yeah, Bob Wade just gave a player a ride to class and gave him a hat. Yeah.

So, I mean, to come back from that to a national championship, and something I didn't know until I read it this morning, both that Maryland team and Baylor team are only two of the only three national championship teams to not have a McDonald's all American on them. Who's the third? Who was the third? It's okay. Yukon, 2014,

Oh, okay, that 2014 Yukon team, interesting. Yeah, it's funny, Marilyn, and then the following year after they won the championship, signed multiple McDonald's All-Americans, and neither one of them turned out to be very good. Travis Garrison was okay, but anyway. It was just, you know, so I think there were a couple of of things about the game last night. First of all, the start. It was over before the first under 16 timeout. It was 11 to 1 and you could just tell that there was a major athletic

difference, first of all. Defensively, they just, you'd not seen Gonzaga labor that much. You know, Gonzaga was a beautiful offensive team to watch and I don't want to diminish them at all. They were a great team, Tommy. This was the matchup. I think Michigan had Isaiah Livers not been hurt that they could have been here too. I think they were that good. And Michigan would have played Gonzaga in one of the semifinals. And I think a healthy Michigan team could have been there and could have beaten Gonzaga.

Because I think Michigan also was very good defensively. But you just saw it early on. It was just a defensive mismatch for Gonzaga. Gonzaga had been a free-flowing, beautiful UCLA-esque team to watch from the 70s, you know, or an Indiana team. The teams that always had five men in motion and all of them were skilled and all of them were good. And they were the highest scoring team in the nation. And I did say yesterday that I just didn't think Gonzaga was that great defensively. I mean, BYU had scored 53 and a half against him just three, four weeks ago.

and they didn't play, you know, the kind of team's night in and night out. Look, if Gonzag had been in the Big Ten or the Big 12, they would have entered this tournament with three or four losses. They would have been really good and would have been a one seed, but they would have entered this tournament with, you know, three or four losses. Baylor, without the COVID pause, probably would have entered this tournament undefeated coming out of the Big 12. They lost the way they were playing before the COVID break.

They were killing people. and beating the shit out of really good teams. And then they had the month away from hoops, and they came back, and they weren't right. They lost to Kansas. They lost Oklahoma State. And it's one of the reasons I didn't pick them because when I started watching them when people were telling me early in the year, Kevin, forget about Gonzag and Michigan and Illinois, you got to watch Baylor. And I wasn't watching them that much early in the year. I was going to watch them against Gonzaga, but they didn't play Gonzag.

They had that game canceled, you know, early in the year. That was a big one versus two matchup. But the Wisconsin game in the second round and then the Villanova final 13 minutes in the Sweet 16, I was like, I mean, Houston's really good defensively. Baylor is the best defensive team and Davion Mitchell's the best defender in this tournament. And oh, by the way, they're one of the best three-point shooting teams, if not the best three-point shooting team in the tournament. And so I immediately...

I mean, they led the contrary three-point shooting. So I took them on the money line, you know, plus $250 after that Wisconsin game because I really thought they were going to win the tournament. And this notion... So the game, let me just... A couple of quick points. Number one, Suggs getting two quick fouls really did hurt Gonzaga, but it wasn't going to make much of a difference.

Suggs was definitely stymied, suffocated. Timmy had no chance to do what he's been doing. Baylor, the thing that kept Gonzaga within an occasional striking range is that Baylor was called for just a lot of fouls in that first half. They were in foul trouble too. I thought that the defense was incredible by Baylor. I thought that their shooting was unconscious, obviously there for a while. Gonzaga went zoned Tommy to try to switch things up, and it worked for about three or four possessions. and then Baylor got playmakers into the middle of that zone, Teague in particular, and then

they just started to riddle it. In watching that game, I never, ever for a moment, and it was, I think my predisposition to thinking that Baylor was the best team colored the way I thought in the moment, even when Gonzaga cut it to nine. I just didn't think Gonzaga was anywhere near as good. And after that started, look, I went into the game thinking, you look, Gonzaga's capable of scoring and Baylor's capable of an off-shooting night. And if that happens, you know, Baylor could lose this game. But after the first five minutes, I didn't think there was any chance Gonzaga had to win that game.

And I just really enjoyed the dominance. And Gonzaga, I enjoyed all tournament long, too, to watch them. But to see them, you know, with length and athleticism and smarts and system. just be dismantled that way. It was really, really, I don't know, I mean, most people are rooting for a close game. I was rooting for Baylor because I had them, but I was also so blown away by just how good they were in this tournament. Stanford, Steve, you know, Scott's

co-host on SportsCenter, he said to me like two months ago, he goes, Baylor is winning this whole thing. And I'm like, I know, I've got to watch them more. I haven't watched them enough. and he said, you're going to watch him, and you're going to tell me that they're going to win it. And then I watched him off the COVID thing, and I'm like, you know, they're good, they're really good, but they weren't playing well. And then I think I called him after the Wisconsin game, and I said, they are your champion. You were 100% right. And when you get that much defense to go with great offense, it's just impossible.

Gonzaga ended up giving up 176 points in their last two games. I know. What do you know about Scott Drew, the coach? I mean, so I mentioned this this morning. There was this time with Scott Drew at one point during his career, and it's probably as recently as five years ago. Sketchy. Oh, yeah. Can't coach.

He was considered a cheater. Cheater. Sketchy, yeah. Really can't coach. Always is loaded with talent. Always gets bounced. You know, they had not made it. to the final four until this year.

He hadn't been to a final four yet. They were getting bounced on the regular in the first weekend of the tournament. They had been to Sweet 16s, but they always were loaded with talent. And so there was always this impression that he was a really good recruiter and maybe a sketchy recruiter,

but that he wasn't a very good coach. I'm watching him in this tournament. When you can get a team to defend. fend like that. And by the way, Tommy, they're so good at not only keeping the ball and their men in front of them, but when they do help, you know, they recover and they close out. There were times last night where like Gonzaga would actually get the ball moving and it would go to Kisper, you know, in the corner for an open three. And you would see just Mitchell closing out and Kisper couldn't even get off the shot. And then the next pass would be deflected. They played so together

defensively. And they were able to, by the way, they played a one-three-one zone last night for a couple of possessions that looked like it was man-to-man, like it was so aggressive. It was just well done. Everything about them. Now, they were a team offensively, unlike Gonzaga, that really tried to identify, especially against a team like Gonzaga that was switching every screen, which you just, you know, they kept getting mismatches. And Baylor just wanted the mismatches, and then they would let their players make plays. That's a lot of basketball these days, and it's part of what you probably don't love about it.

It's what Gary Williams doesn't love about it, is you don't see what you saw with Gonzaga a lot offensively, with five guys involved, and the ball constantly moving, and guys moving without the ball. You see the ball sticking a lot. And what Baylor does is what a lot of teams do. They have sets, they run plays,

but a lot of times it just comes down to we're going to put somebody in a, you know, a ball screen, and we're going to get the switch and we're going to get the matchup we want, and we're going to space the floor, and Teague or Butler or Mitchell is going to beat the guy because he's just better. And if the defense collapses, they'll make a pass. They'll make the play. You know, a lot of teams play that way nowadays.

I mean, that's all Tommy I saw at the youth level, at the AAU level. Just space the floor, one ball screen, And, you know, the big issue with that is if that's not working for them offensively, they don't know how to do plan B. A lot of teams don't. You're right. And a lot of teams, the plan B, you know, is to, you know, if you've got a big guy, is to then, all right, we'll try to run our offense through the post.

And we'll do it that way. Like Gonzaga had so many options. You know, they had so many ways to beat you. But, but Baylor, you know, that's over. simplifying what they do. A lot of teams do that. They were able to identify against a switching defense. They were able to identify the matchups they liked and took advantage of them a lot of the night. They didn't have great possessions every offensive set, but their defense was just so good. And then, you know, they got a little bit stymied by the zone that Gonzaga threw at them.

And just the concession, if you will, of the understanding, that Mark Few had of we can't guard them. We have to play a zone because we, as the number one team in the country who hasn't lost a game, we can't guard them. By the way, Nance had a story that he told as a conversation that he had with Mark Few where he told it at some point during the game and he said, you know, coming off that emotional, one of the greatest moments, one of the greatest games, you know, it can be emotionally exhausting.

And he said, I think he referenced Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 hockey team, and said after beating the Russians in the semifinals, they still had to beat Finland. And Mark Fu's, Nance relayed the story, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something like Mark Few said,

Jim, Baylor's not Finland. As if to say, no, we are playing the best in the next game. I think he knew it. some of the cutaways early on, you could tell he was like, what do we do here? What do we do? Because this isn't something that we've seen this year.

And it wasn't. And I personally thought that Butler was phenomenal in the game, but I think Davion Mitchell was the best all-around player in the tournament. I can't wait to see him at the next level, although I'd love to watch him in college again. He's got so many different sort of, you know, he's got some Oladipo, he's got some West. Brooke, he's got Donovan Mitchell and everybody points to him because the name in number 45.

He's going to be a really, really interesting pro because he is relentless. Like there's so much about him that you're just like, that's the kind of guy that usually has a really good NBA career because he's just so hyper competitive and plays with such great energy. It was impressive, man. It was impressive. Yes, it was. Very impressive.

A couple of other quick things. Number one, this is a nod to my good friend Joe Yashiroff. I think I mentioned this on Twitter this morning. But Joe tweeted something out last night that I just, I had been screaming about all tournament long. First of all, let me just say, I'm not a big fan of Raftery and Hill as the number one team with Nance anymore. give me Jimmy Jackson, give me a couple of other people now. That ship, I know Raftery is one of the nicest people in broadcasting.

I know that Grant Hill is, you know, an all-time great, and a phenomenal communicator. There's just no constructive criticism during these broadcasts when there should be. You know, they looked at the call that Suggs had the block on Cody Riley in the game the other night, and we saw that replay 10 times, and we saw Cody Riley's hand being completely

raked in it affecting the shot, and they kept talking about what a great block it was and how clean it was. And last night, it was a constant excuse-making affair for Gonzaga having, you know, they're just not the same day. They're exhausted. Exhausted for what? Playing an extra five minutes. Let me tell you something. Houston, if anybody watched Houston the two-seed, they were one of the best and most physical defensive teams of this season. Baylor handled them, But I guarantee you Baylor didn't come out of that game fresh as daisies. And it was all about, you know, Gonzaga last night. I just thought they missed the mark.

But anyway, Yashirov tweeted out during the game. You know Joe very well. Joe, longtime television executive in town, sports television executive. I don't think that's exaggerating his career. He said, CBS, please stop showing off all your cameras during live action. Use them only for replay, thanks. CBS did this throughout the tournament, and it drove me fucking crazy. They would give you this angle from like the deep corner of the arena.

And you're like looking at it, you're like, can I see the game like I'm normally watching the game? And what happens in these things, Tommy, and these big events, a lot of times, the directors, they get real fancy. They got all these cameras to work with. They got all these shots. And they may not even be the biggest of basketball fans. My advice always in these situations, and CBS was a culprit during this tournament, every single game, you'd get 30 seconds to a minute of an angle that was just impossible to see what was going on. There is a reason that the tickets deep in the corner in the bowels of an arena are half the price of the tickets at midcourt.

Give us the mid-court view, the way we watch games, the best seat in the house. don't need the other stuff. I thought that was spot on. One other thing real quickly, before we get to the next subject, which will be Sam Darnold. So after these championship games, you get the all way too early preseason top 25 for the next year. You know, ESPN does it. Sports does it. And, you know, it's incomplete because you don't know who's going and who's staying at this point. But you and I haven't had the conversation since Thursday, but, you know, Turgeon got extended and Maryland had a phenomenal weekend, you know, with getting two of the biggest time transfers in the country, Wahab from Georgetown and Fats Russell from Rhode Island. And I said when they made those,

when they got those acquisitions, if Aaron Wiggins comes back, this is, you know, a top 15 team minimum next year preseason. Well, Jeff Goodman has him number five preseason. ESPN's got him six preseason. CBS has them low. Gary Parrish put him at 13 preseason. It all assumes Wiggins comes back. If Wiggins doesn't come back, they'll still be in the top 25, but they'll be closer to 25 than they will five.

By the way, I'm not, I mean, I love that stuff. I want to be thought of as a good team. I want to be thought of as a team that can, you know, can win it all potentially or certainly be a final four contender. But it doesn't mean shit. Like these things will change because of, you know, commits and then players will surprise people by staying. And so this thing will switch. But if Aaron Wiggins comes back, which I think he will, he should because he's got a chance to play on a big-time team next year and be, get all-American consideration, be first-team all-Big Ten preseason and move himself from maybe undrafted into the first round.

He's got that chance. But none of this means anything. To those of you that are pissed off that Turgeon got the extension and don't care about the transfers and just, you know, are miserable, I hear you. This doesn't mean anything. Like, Maryland's been ranked preseason under Turgeon in the top 10 multiple times. They were preseason number two in 2015, you know, and thought to be, you know, a favorite to win the national championship. And they got to the Sweet 16. That was the one Sweet 16 team.

And the 2019 team was ranked in the top 10 multiple times, but typically between 10 and 15 and had a legitimate chance but didn't get to play in the tournament. I want the March results too. I'm going to judge him on March results. Trust me, it's going to be part of the evaluation. But he really turned the narrative around really quickly. I mean, he went from being, you know. But you do notice there's a weariness over excitement about new recruits. Well, this transfer portal, there shouldn't be awareness. But there is a weariness of what I can see from Maryland fans who have been through this March excitement level enough. And they're a little bit tired of it. Well, last year, we gave them a reprieve.

We gave them no excitement, no expectations, and they went to the tournament and won a game. So they had a year off from the expectations. I know what you're saying, and the expectations haven't been consistently top five, top 10 every year. That's not, that would be inaccurate. But, you know, it's really interesting to watch college basketball. You had two older teams last night with the exception of Suggs. You know, you had two teams that had transfers. You know, you got a lot of teams that rely on transfers, and this is the, you know, this year in the COVID year is the all-time transfer portal year.

And Maryland went after it. And last year they went after two, and they missed on, you know, two or three guys that would have been the difference between a top 15, you know, team last year preseason and a team that would have been much better and being what they were. They missed on Carly Jones in particular, who was the runner-up ACC player of the year at Louisville, and that was one they thought they had. And if he had played on that team, Marilyn would have been playing into the second weekend potentially. They would have been favored anyway. They would have been a top four seed in a region. whether or not they would have gotten through is something different. But my point about the recruiting is at some point,

recruiting becomes more of an indictment than a measure of success if you don't have the results to match up with it by results if you measure results by tournament success. Well, again, the irony there is I agree with you when you have big-time recruiting classes or big-time transfers, you know, by the way, their recruiting class in terms of the incoming freshmen, it's borderline top 20-ish, top 25-ish. With the transfers, obviously, that's why they are elevated. And with the hopeful return of an Aaron Wiggins who really took a big step. But remember the narrative about him

this year, we were picked 12th, they were actually picked 10th, and we didn't get the recruits. And so that was also an indictment, right? The reverse this year was the indictment, that he didn't recruit well enough, and he overachieved. So, you know, it's true. It's like, this year was an overachieving coaching job, if you will, an underwhelming recruiting job. And he's had recruiting jobs that have been really good, but he's under, you know, underachieved in March with those teams. So, yeah, I mean, but the transfer, you know, in the fifth year eligibility, All that stuff is really a big part of what's going on in college basketball now because the older teams are the teams that are winning.

The teams that are older are the teams that typically are doing better. By the way, the other piece of Maryland news, I saw it, and I had an expectation, which is why I said there's going to be some more news coming. Some of it could be somewhat disappointing. Darryl Morsell is going to try the NBA route. he's not going to be an NBA player, but he's also going to put himself into the transfer portal. He hasn't ruled out coming back to Maryland, but I'm going to tell you right now, you know, he's got that ability because of the COVID year, even though this was a senior year,

to play a fifth year in college because of COVID this year did not count for anybody. All sophomores will remain sophomores, all juniors remain juniors, and all seniors, if they want, can come back for a second senior year. he feels very much like he doesn't want to take the spots away from some of the emerging younger players that would not get the same playing time. And so there is this sense that he has that maybe it's time, and he said all the right things about his time at Maryland, I want Daryl to come back.

I'm not saying that I don't want him to come back, and I'm not saying that Turg doesn't want him to come back. but I think there's an understanding among the people in the know that Daryl, this is a selfless thing from Daryl. And Daryl also may be looking for just a new experience, you know, given this, you know, gift of like a fifth free year. So we'll see. But anyway, want to get to the Sam Darnold trade when we come back? Absolutely. All right. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors.

So yesterday, Tommy, I was in the car and I was listening to. something and the Darnold trade came across, the Sam Darnold trade, from the Jets to the Panthers. And I'm always interested in the trade value conversation. I think it's the one that we as fans always are off on. We don't get right a lot. We don't really understand who got the better. I mean, we have opinions. I'm not saying that we don't have opinions about it. We have lots of opinions about it. But I think that my first reaction was, hmm, they got a second and a fourth next year, but they only had to give up a sixth this year. And my immediate reaction was, I don't know who that's a good deal for. But if I, if Washington hadn't signed Ryan Fitzpatrick and they were still

in the search for a quarterback, I would have given that up to the Jets if I were Washington. But I think Sam Darnold has more to him than many of those of you who are listening. Many of you don't think he's a very good quarterback. Many of you don't think he's going to be a top half of the league starter. And by the way, I'm not certain about how I feel on this subject. I just think he was in a terrible situation. I loved him coming out of USC. And I know that there were times when I watched him against really good teams.

that he played very well. And I think he's extremely young. And by the way, in many ways, Joe Brady in particular is the offensive coordinator in Carolina. You know he signed off on this deal. Matt Rule did too. That's, you know, very much a credible guy.

I mean, the guy that, you know, was with Drew Breeze, the guy that was with Joe Burrow at LSU, the guy that I really think is going to be a head coach here sooner than later, he signed off on this deal for Darnold. But there are two things. Number one is who got the better of the deal, and number two is if you, as a Washington fan, would you, with no Ryan Fitzpatrick and no other

answer, and only Kyle Allen and Taylor Heineke on the roster, would you have given up a second, a fourth, and a sixth for Sam Darnold? I think I would have. I'm pleased with Ryan Fitzpatrick. You know I am. I'm really excited about Ryan Fitzpatrick. But at the same time, that to me, now remember with Darnold, you got to make the decision in a month to pick up the fifth year option for $18 million for 2022, which Carolina is no doubt going to do. They're going to do that. Those of you that said Teddy Bridgewater still's got a chance, no he doesn't. He had his chance. Sam Darnold was traded for, they've got to find out immediately if Sam

Donald's their guy or not. Yeah, he had his chance, Teddy Bridgewater. He did not help himself last year on the market going into this year. That's for sure. I didn't think he played poorly, poorly. But, you know, but they didn't trade three picks

and pass, by the way, they haven't passed yet. But more likely than not passing on drafting a quarterback. Now at eight, they can add a big time weapon, another weapon for Darnold, but this isn't going to be Sam Darnold or Teddy Bridgewater coin flip training camp battle. Now, Darnold has been injured a bunch and he's missed a lot of games, so they might keep Bridgewater for this upcoming season.

But they need, if they're picking up his fifth year option, which they're going to do in a month, they're playing him. He's going to play the next year or two years to find out whether or not they want to sign him to a long-term deal and whether or not he's the guy. But to make this move says to me two things. One, that a really credible offensive guru mind like Joe Brady thinks there's something to Sam Darnold and he passed on the opportunity potentially at eight to draft one of the five quarterbacks or maybe, you know, I know that they've tried to move up. And then two, Teddy Bridgewater is, you know, either done or he's a backup for this next year in Carolina.

By the way, they add another big-time offensive weapon at 8 with that offensive coordinator. It's a very interesting team next year. Yes, it is. With McCaffrey back. You've got an aggressive owner there. Yes, you do and David Tepper. You do.

Yeah. Who wants to make his mark quickly. Did Washington have strong interest in Darnel? I don't think so. I think JP, I'm going to give JP credit because I'm pretty sure it was JP. If it was John or Ben or Nikki or somebody else, I apologize. But I think JP did tweet out that he learned that there was never any serious interest in Darnold. Now, I think that they talked about Darnold a bunch, but J.P. is reporting that there was never any serious interest in Darnold.

You know, the evaluation from the trade was really interesting because in recent conversations about Darnold, there was the discussion that Darnold could be had for a third. I had Cole Kublich, who I really like. He's one of the best college football analysts and draft guys out there, works for the SEC Network and ESPN. He's a favorite of Scott's show as well, which is sort of how I got him coming on the show. starting two years ago. And he said, I said, well, there are two things. I said, number one, what do you think of Kyle Pitts? Is he the best player in the draft, which Cooley thinks he is? He said, yeah, you could say that he's the best player in the draft. But in a conversation about

Darnold, he's like, look, there's some conversation that he could be had for like a mid-round pick at this point, because the Jets don't have a lot of leverage. They've made it very clear. They're going to take Zach Wilson at number two. This guy's got the fifth year option that you have to pick up in a month from now. And then you got to pay 18 million bucks in 2022 with that fifth year option. And so they don't have a lot of leverage. Well, basically most of the NFL experts think that the Jets did very well in this trade, very well, and that the Panthers overpaid. You know, if you add up all the Jimmy Johnson draft chart points, you know, basically the second, fourth, even though it's next year, and that devalues it a little bit, and I do understand that. And then the sixth this year,

if you are conservative about where Carolina will finish, it adds up to like, you know, basically a high second round, potentially a late first round equivalent, but basically a second round, you know, a high second round pick, you know, late first round, depending on where Carolina. So that's why a lot of these guys think the Jets did very well. Well, we'll find out. I mean, you don't think that Sam Darnold would have been a step up from Ryan Fitzpatrick? I like Sam Darnold, and I would have liked to have had him for what Carolina paid for him. I would have done that. I would have done the equivalent of like a second rounder.

And I know, by the way, when this first became a conversation, I said it's going to take a first rounder or a second plus to get him. And a lot of you have hung on the first rounder, that's fine. And I'll admit, you know, I probably overvalued him at the jump. But ultimately, it was a second plus a lot of things that could end up, depending on where Carolina drafts, as first round value for Darnold. But that aside, I mean, Darnold has a lot of. chance if he is what a lot of people thought he was coming out of USC and it was the organization

more than it was him in New York, he's got a chance to be a top half of the league starter or better on a good football team. So yeah. Well, then you would take Darnold over for Patrick because he would be your quarterback for the next four or five years foreseeably. Well, four or five, 10. Okay. Yeah. I mean, Darnold's, you know, has that potential. But I'm not sure about Darnold, but before they got Fitzpatrick, if you told me that I could get Darnold for next year's second and fourth and this year's sixth, I absolutely, as a Washington fan, would have endorsed that.

But still, even after they got Fitzpatrick, if they had told you you could still get Darno. And you thought Darnold was a better option for the future. Why would Fitzpatrick's presence make any difference at all? Well, because Fitzpatrick may not, and I've said this to you, may not just be a one-year answer. He may be a two-year answer, and you may have more up. That's a big stretch. I don't think so.

It is. It's a stretch. He'll be 40. He's not Brady. Brady is Brady. I think there's a chance that he plays more than one year here. Okay. That may be.

But compared to getting your quarterback for the next 10 years, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Well, getting him is not the way I would describe it. Rolling the dice that you're getting that guy, it would have been worth it. I'm not convinced he's the guy, but there's enough there for me watching Darnold to think that a lot of the stuff that he, a lot of those terrible games and a lot of the terrible results had a lot to do with people like Adam Gase and the organization and the players around him. I think you're not alone. I think most of the NFL feels that way. Yeah, but not everybody's buying.

No, but I think a lot of it blame Adam Gase for a lot of stuff that went out in there. Yeah, I think so. I think a lot of people do. Look, Carolina clearly thinks it's more the Jets than Donald. Because again, it's not just what they gave up. It's the fact that they're going to have to pick up the fifth year option in May and commit to paying him $18 million in 2022,

which means they came to the conclusion, that there's enough there that they believe in in terms of him being able to do it and becoming their franchise quarterback, that they're willing to extend themselves in a contractual situation that they would not have had with a drafted player at number eight. So, you know, it's going to be interesting the draft in what may have fallen to them at eight. Maybe they just didn't think, you know, Lance or Fields,

if either one of them had, you know, fallen to eight or Mac Jones, although Adam Schaefter reported this morning, I guess that San Francisco is locked in on Mac Jones, which is not a big surprise. Yeah, that's what they keep saying. Yeah. So, um, an interesting off season. Like, you know, the draft and the number of quarterbacks,

in the positioning for those quarterbacks by teams without them. And, you know, I'm okay with what our team did. I'm okay with what they did. I would have, most, most people are. I would have preferred Matt Stafford. Most NFL observers, well, I think most people would have, too. Yeah. But most NFL observers give the Washington football team a good grade for their free agency so far.

Can I tell you something real quickly? So yesterday, somebody sent me from the Washington football team's social media department, this five-minute video called Making the Brand. Have you seen that? No, I have not seen it. I'm not on the mailing list of the Washington Social Media, football team social media department. So I want to be clear on this.

I know what their job is and they've got to continue to create interest and they've got to create, you know, interest in the name and there's a business side to the operation and there is a football side of the operation. I'm not, you know, I'm not being critical of anybody that's doing their job their social media department. But, but, but, I, I couldn't give a shit about any of this. And so I retweeted the video and I just wrote, I hope Micah Parsons falls to number 19. So what was that response about?

What, translate that for me. Okay. So, oh, just, just, that's why, that's why, that's why, that's why I brought it up because I wanted to see if you got it quickly or if I just completely failed, which I did, because most people basically came back at me and said, oh, Kev, he's not falling to 19. And if he does fall into 19, it wasn't really about Michael Parsons at 19. It was about, can we just focus on winning football games?

And a lot of people, you know, got it. You know, ha, ha, that's funny. That was great. Made me laugh out loud. But whatever. It fell flat because it probably wasn't, you know, presented in the right way. I was just wondering if you would get it. My point overall is just that I just, I've had enough, and you have as well, enough close contact with this organization over a long period of time.

And they just have always seemed to miss the point. It's always been over the years about everything but winning. And like I said when Jason Wright got hired, hey, really impressive. guy, McKinsey guy, the whole thing. If the football team doesn't win, his primary responsibility, which is P&L, profit and loss responsibility, the revenues won't be there if they don't win. He has zero control over whether or not he's successful at his job. Now, hiring practices and implementing better best practices, you know, best business practices. I mean, this has been a clown show, of an organization for so long, you and I and so many people in town that have been in the sports

media have witnessed it. Those of us that worked at the radio station that was the flagship and owned by the owner for all intents and purposes really got an up close of what a clown show it was. And I know there are some young people working super hard in this social media department and that good things are happening in the organization. I'm not, I just, at this point, my God, get a name already. And most importantly, just win. Just give us a product that doesn't go seven and nine and makes the... I want 12 and 5 next year.

I want 13 and 4. I want a real winning. I want a real season. We haven't had one since 1991. It's been 30 years since they've won more than 10 games in a year. And I just think Every time I see some of this stuff And I know that people will lump me into

Well you that now Tommy's influence is really just too much Over you which is fine But Tommy's right It's like we've sat there and we've sat in meetings before And just said no no no no just when Just win None of this other stuff matters And I just

It's it's It's consistently with me in watching them so often about everything else. And I know it's changed, and I believe that it's changed a little bit, but I don't believe it's changed for good. I'm not that naive. That's a wise attitude. You know what they say? Fool me 20 times.

Shame on me. Once you get above three, it's really shame on me. And it's been, look, it's been shame on me. I've been suckered in in the past. I was suckered in mostly by the... I would say that I was suckered in mostly by the Shanahan regime. Well, so was I on that. No, I thought the Shanahan era was a new era.

I did. I just didn't think a two-time Super Bowl winning coach would get steamrolled by this organization. I just didn't think it was possible. Yeah. I was suckered by that one, that's for sure. All right. Baseball season starts for the Nationals tonight.

More on that right after this word from one of our sponsors. Well, the embarrassment of the COVID situation and missing all of those games. I mean, I've just never seen an organization more embarrassed publicly than the Nats have over the last four days. I'm hoping that you've come around to my way of thinking. I haven't. And losing four games. and throwing up all over yourself. Well, they're going to play.

When 29 other teams managed to get it right? They're going to play them, aren't they? Is it an embarrassment? Are they going to replay them at some point? Yeah, they're going to replay them at some point. Right. Can you remember right? You have come around them my way of thinking, right?

No, I haven't. Oh, my God. Can you remember right now the teams that missed a bunch of games early on in the shortened season last year? That doesn't matter. It's opening day. There's several important days in a baseball. year for marketing

interest and promotion who were the teams you know who are the teams who are the teams that missed opening day in 2020 what do you remember who the teams were that missed opening day in 2020 they all did well not I'm talking about when they finally decided

on but that that's no one was even paying attention by that okay all right that was a that was a a warp situation to begin with no this was a the brand new baseball is back baby up not in Washington who are they going to put on the field this afternoon

I'm serious a catcher who they just signed off the street because both their catchers it looks like are either in quarantine or tested positive we don't know who's who why so

but that's that's the deal why is so sensitive over the identifying information and players could say it if they wanted to why do you think that is Well, I think it's, you know, I think it's, you know, the laws protecting medical information. Yeah, but. I think it's as simple as that.

But a player can say, I'm one of the players that tested positive. Yeah. And do you think that they would be somehow ostracized or canceled? No, I don't think they'd be ostracized. I think a lot of people figured it out. But I just think players would only want to give you. what you need to know, not what you think you should know. The point is, so I think most players would say, you know, none of your business.

We're going to find out tonight. We're going to find out tonight. Well, if they, we don't know, we can't tell the difference between the quarantine and the positive players yet. Fair enough. So, but, uh, I mean, look, this is, this is a disaster for this team. In this division, to, to start off the season, having to make up games. with 20% of your roster depleted and, you know, you wanted to get off to a fast start, I know they've decided to make this some kind of rowing cry, like suck it up or something like that.

But you can't paint this as anything more than a disaster. They could overcome it. Of course they could. In the middle of June, when they're playing, you know, the Phillies and a three-game set, and they're 22 and 24 or 22 and 17 or whatever it would be. Nobody's going to remember this. Okay. What if they're 17 and 22?

I don't know. I just don't, I mean, it's bad luck, unfortunately, for them. I don't think that there was anything sinister involved. There's nothing sinister involved. They lost control of taking care of this, of protection. And you know that there was negligence here? Well, all I know is that 29 other teams managed to go from spring training back to home and not have four or five positive COVID tests.

Somebody screwed up, Kevin. Don't tell me nobody screwed up. Tell you what, they were celebrating the Marlins as they made it to the postseason last year. And how many games did they miss early in that season? Christ, it seemed like, you know, they missed like two weeks of that season. What season? The season last year. There was a season.

What season? There was a season. And by the way, there was no season last year. It was a pretty good World Series, too. There was no season last year. Okay. What time?

But I'll be there tonight. What times we're living in, huh? I'll be there, 405 start. Well, you're all fully vaccinated, so you've got a new lease on life. All right, what else from today? This will be my first appearance in public. I mean, besides home and recreation since February of 2020. You're going to clean that beard up, Grizzly Adams?

Not me, baby. I'm going to be the hairiest guy in the press box. Okay. I did want to just mention one thing real quickly. I watched Jeopardy last night with Aaron Rogers hosting. I thought he was really good at it. We just have a lot of time on your hands. We watch Jeopardy every night in my house.

Pretty much every night. If we're in the house and in the kitchen, dinner's prepared or being eaten, Jeopardy is on every night. I thought he was really good. I thought he was excellent. And apparently he wants to do this. This is what he wants his post career to be. That would be pretty funny, wouldn't it? You know, he really, he's not super personality animated, but he was very,

I thought very efficient. Like he really moved it along. He knew what he was doing. He had anecdotes. And then you did hear about one of the final jeopardy questions posed by one of the contestants that had no idea what the answer was. The field goal, right? Yeah.

Whose idea was it to kick the field goal? Now, you know, I mean, my impression is game show hosting is pretty lucrative. It pays pretty well. It really does, doesn't it? I mean, it pays a lot more than sitting in a booth, NFL booth on Sundays, I think. Oh, does it? Well, not a- I think so.

You think if you're the number one guy, you think if you're Tony Romo that Alex Trebek made more than Tony Bromo? I think Drew Carey makes a ton of money for hosting the prices, right? And I think there's a lot of money in it. Say what, there's more money than doing a podcast. Oh, my God. Trebeck's annual salary? the final year of Jeopardy was $18 million a year. Wow.

I didn't realize it was that. Yeah, it's good money. I know it's good money based on what I know about Drew Carey. He makes a ton of money. I mean, Drew Carrey, he does Vegas shows a couple times a year, and he hosts the prices right. How do they do? I think, I don't know that I know this for sure, but I think, like, Jeopardy, what they do is they take basically one day a week and do five shows.

I don't know if it's one day a week or what, but I know they shoot several shows a day to get this to get it out of the way. But like Pat Sejack and Alex Trebek aren't working every day of the week, and they're making ridiculous money. Yes. Yeah, I'm looking at this. Trebeck's annual salary from Jeopardy was $18 million. The show taped 46 days a year.

Only 46. There you go. And they shot five. And they shot five episodes per day. In other words, he earned $391,000 every tape day, $78,000 per actual episode. Pat Sejack was basically comparable. And Vanna White, I don't watch Wheel of Fortune. But he was the biggest.

I recommend to you if you get a chance on demand, PBS, watch the Hemingway documentary. It started last night. I heard it was great. Yeah, I heard it's great. Really good stuff. By the way, that was one of the categories last night with Aaron Rogers hosting Jeopardy, was Hemingway. And they talked about the PBS series starting. And Aaron Rogers acted like he knew a lot about it.

Maybe he did. Okay. That's it for the day. I don't think there's anything else to talk about. It's opening day, baby. Let's get excited. All right. Go enjoy the game.

Tommy's going to be at it. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Yeah, I hope Max Scherzer doesn't get hurt after basically having one throwing session and missing all those days because of the terrible embarrassment of the COVID positive tests. All right, Tommy, see you see you. Bye. Everybody have a great day.