The Kevin Sheehan Show - Smoot: 'Sam Howell Is Kurt Warner'

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Kevin with a Chase Young hypothetical to start the show along with a pick on tonight's Miami-Denver Game 4. Then it was Fred Smooth with so many great takes they're impossible to list. But his best, the comparable for Sam Howell aka "The Lone Wolf" is HOFer Kurt Warner!  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. Two guests on the show today. Back by popular demand, Fred Smoot, coming up in just a few minutes. We will talk about a lot of things with Fred.

I've already recorded the interview with Fred. And just hang in there because we will eventually get to Commanders' Mini-Germen. camp. But it was fun on our way to getting there. Fred Smoot coming up. And then our guy, Eddie C, from South Florida, with his Belmont picks. 50 years ago this weekend, it was Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes. I want to start the show with this. And I'm going to preface what I'm going to say with, I don't want them to trade him at all. And I'm excited. And I'm excited. to see whether or not he can make the most out of one of these last chance opportunities. It's not the last chance, but as we've described before, his career hanging in the balance

a little bit, and that is Chase Young and all of the trade rumors that are out there. If you didn't know that they were out there, let me just give you a little bit of context. When earlier this week, Albert Breer confirmed what we've mentioned here on the show many times, times, and that is that Washington was interested in they were fielding any kind of offer for Chase Young before the draft, interested in potentially trading him. I don't think they got anything resembling an offer that would have made them move. Albert Breer confirmed that in his MMQB story earlier this week, and because of it, you've had a lot of NFL cities, especially those teams that are looking for a pass rusher, you know, talking about in formats like this one, you

know, sports talk or sports talk radio, what would you be willing to give up for Chase Young? I mean, the Chiefs have a blogger out there talking about what they'd give up for Chase Young. The Colts have the same thing. Bleacher Report wrote a story with a bunch of different scenarios for trades for Chase Young. You know, in a story titled Top Potential NFL Trade Packages for Commanders, Chase Young, ahead of training camp. So there's this discussion off of the Albert Breer story, especially in June when there are no games to talk about, where teams and fans of teams in other cities are saying, just like we would, you know, if somebody came available or if it was rumored that somebody was available, we would ask ourselves, hey, are we interested? So they're doing that.

By the way, there are, you know, website, there are sports gambling sites, including my bookie, that put odds on things. like where will Chase Young land? There are three players right now. Dalvin Cook, DeAndre Hopkins, and Chase Young on most sports betting sites that there are odds on their next destination. By the way, if you're wondering, the lions are plus 400 for Chase Young's next destination. But Bleacher Report put out all of these different trade scenarios. Arizona trading Buda Baker and a 2024 fourth rounder for Chase Young.

The Bears sending a second round pick for Chase Young. The Lions sending a 2024 third rounder and edge rusher Julian Aquara for Chase Young. Houston sending a 2024 third rounder and Jonathan Greener to defensive end for Chase Young. The Saints giving up a 2024 second rounder, a 2024 6th rounder, and defensive end Peyton Turner for Chase Young and a 2024 third rounder. So this is out there in the ether, so to speak. I don't want them to trade Chey Shung, okay? If the Bears offered a second round pick, and let's use that as a hypothetical, because I don't think they got anything closely resembling that before the 2023 draft.

Now, maybe because it's the 2024 draft, they could get a second or a third rounder for Chay Shung. Remember, Jeff Okuda, the corner picked after Chay Shung. in the 2020 draft by the Lions was just traded. He didn't get his fifth year option picked up. He got dealt for a fourth rounder. He had some injuries too. I don't want this. I don't think it'll happen.

I think it was possible, though, before the draft. I do think it was possible. I want, and I am rooting for, Chey Chung, to take this, you know, not last opportunity, but near-last opportunity, and make the most of it. you know, become the player that we all thought, and he thought he was going to become. You know, I don't want to see talent held hostage, as our good friend Doc Walker likes to talk about. I want to see it work out for him.

Not because I want to be right, because I was so adamant that I thought this would be, you know, a Hall of Fame kind of player, certainly a Hall of Fame kind of a talent. And I, you know, begged for them to lose that game. game to the Giants at the end of 2019 so they didn't lose that opportunity to draft Chase Young. You know, if we were to go back and revisit 2020, obviously, I would pick Justin Herbert. But, you know, in the moment, I wanted Chase Young. And at the end of his rookie season, it looked like the right move. I like a lot of the conversation. I don't like a lot of the conversation. I'm interested at a lot of the conversation that suggests that his rookie year

wasn't that good. I don't know what you guys were watching. Sure, the results, the statistical results came later in the year, the big plays came later in the year, but he didn't suck in the first half of the year. He didn't. You know, the statistics weren't there for the first half of the year in 2021, but he actually wasn't that great. The pass rush pressure rate wasn't that awful, but he was undisciplined out of the scheme and caused through his lack of of adhering to what they wanted him to do, some big plays that he gave up. And they pretty much told you what the problem was. Look, one of the issues you have to consider, by the way, is even if he does have a good year,

who are you signing, sweat or young? What if they both have great years? What if they both have average years? Like, you probably can't sign both of these guys. you certainly can't franchise both of them, you know, at the end of next year. We knew the moment they extended Duran Payne, and now you've got Allen and Payne under contract. And by the way, Allen will be up in a couple of years for another contract extension, which he'll probably get that more likely than not,

they just weren't going to be able to invest in four defensive linemen. That's an argument for the likelihood is Montez Sweat is going to be worth the investment. Chey Chung won't be, so take the second rounder now. Let me give you another way to think about this. First of all, I am excited to see him. I know I'm beating this dead horse, but I actually have a gut feel that we're going to see the athleticism, the explosiveness, and we're going to see some big plays. I don't know if we're going to see 15 sacks or 10 sacks.

or 12 sacks. I don't know if it's going to be a definitive home run season where it's like, oh my God, you've got to pay him. But if he has a good season and it's a good enough season whereby, you know, you get to the trade deadline, and let's just say they're not in the hunt for a playoff berth, you actually may get a lot more than than you could get now. So if he's having a decent season and he's showing the explosiveness and the health and the knee's not an issue. And by the way, there's just an overall better feeling for him, you know, from not only this team, but maybe teams around the league. And you get to that point, but sweats having an even better year. And so it becomes clear that sweat's going to be the guy that you want to sign.

You know, Young may be worth a lot more at the trade deadline in 2023 than you could get now. I wonder if that's what they're thinking. By the way, some of these other pass rushers like Frank Clark just went for one year $7.5 million, $5.5 million guaranteed. He had a really good postseason after an average regular season. Leonard Floyd went earlier this week. These are the kinds of decisions that apparently Ron Rivera can't make right now. I don't think that's the decision that they're talking about. Anyway, I think it's more camcourl and a contract extension.

But anyway, before we get to Smoot, let me tell you that the show today is brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And you can secure a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000. MyBooky.com, MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. they've got all those NFL props that I was talking about. They've got all of the Belmont Stakes horse track, horse race book odds.

And right now, the Miami Heat are three and a half point underdogs at my bookie in game for tonight. By the way, I like Miami tonight. Try to get it at plus four. I like the heat tonight plus the three and a half plus four. I think you're going to see the best swing that they can give in this. postseason tonight, and I'm rooting for them to even up this series. I think this will be a very, very close game, worst case, if not a Miami Heat comfortable win. Now, it doesn't mean that I'm picking them to win the series, but I like Miami tonight plus the four. Looking forward to that game.

Fred Smoot right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right. Jumping on with us right now is a favorite for many of you. Fred Smoot is on with us. And I mean, every single time you're on with me, I think I get as much reaction as I do when anybody else is on and everybody wants to have you back. But we just have to sprinkle smooth out a little bit. We can't overwhelm their palate with too much smooth. Well, see, you know, when they get the manned professor and they get the Joker all in one, you know, they could be fun. You know, they get a lot of intel. They get a toll to them in a way they can really consume it. You know, it's a fun cover social, and then. We have a lot of, you know,

always make great of it. Speaking of Joker, not that Joker, but speaking of Joker, have you been watching the NBA finals? Yes, I have, and I have never in my life seen a basketball player that can't jump over a nickel dominate the way

that this guy does, the touch around the basket, the way he rebounds the ball, the way he shoots the ball, he doesn't have a weakness in his game. Like, if I ask you right now, what is his weakness, is not rebounding, is not defense, it's not anything. Like, he's a very dominant player.

And we haven't seen none of dumb. I haven't seen personally, Shaquille O'Neill. Like, I think it's very similar, except one is very rugged and dominates with physicality and the Joker dominates with, I mean, with touch and skill. You know, I talked about this, I think, on yesterday's show maybe, but I don't think I've ever seen a big man with better touch.

Like, every single bucket, Not every single bucket, but one out of every two just softly hits the rim and then another part of the rim and then the backboard and another part of the rim and goes in. Like he's got such great soft hands and that thing comes off his fingertips. I'm telling you, once he gets the titles to back up the skill and the production, we're going to think of him as one of the greatest big men to ever play the game. And I don't even know why we call him a big man because he plays. like a guard sometimes. He's a point center. He reminds me of a combination of Tim Duncan,

the way he technically does things under there. But then do you remember the Dutchman, Rick Smith? He got it like, Rick Smith had that touch around that bucket. And if you could buy those two and they have a love child, Rick Duncan, that's who this guy would be right now. Rick Duncan or Tim Smiths. Tim Smith's better. Tim Smith.

I like Tim Smith. Yeah. That's a better name. Yeah, I mean, it's true. Well, you don't remember this guy, but Jack Sigma. Do you know that name? You know what? I haven't seen a lot of film on him.

But my uncle used to talk about him all the time. Yeah, Jack Sigma played center for the Seattle Supersonics in the 70s and the 80s, right? And back then, the Bullets is in the Washington Bullets. They were a championship contender every year. They beat the Sonics in the title in the championship series in 78 and then lost to them in 79. And Sigma had this set shot very much. He was very similar to Smiths. In fact, Smith's always got compared to Sigma.

But I would say that Yokic is like a combination of kind of like Magic Johnson as a passer. because he's truly one of the great passers we've ever seen play the game. He's got a lot of sub bonus in him, for sure. He's got a lot of Bill Walton in him from Walton back when he was a great, healthy center as a passer. But man, who are you rooting for in these finals? Well, you know what? It's one of those things where we as fans, especially when we got a dog in a race, I'm a like to say.

I ain't got a dog in the race. We win regardless because it will be Denver's first ring of all time. And also it'll be the first team, first time an eight seed in Miami goes on to win the championship. And it'll be one step closer to Pat Riley actually catching Jerry West. Jerry Red's responsible for 30 championships as a player, a coach, and a GM. And right now Pat Riley is at 25. that's a battle that nobody ever talks about considering everything started with the Lakers. Look at you.

It's a great point. I mean, the two greatest executives, I mean, Red Auerbach's obviously in the conversation. You know how the Lakers feel about Red Arabah. I know. I mean, like, certain cigars because of him. But you know where Red Auerbach grew up and lived right for most of his life, right, right here in D.C.? Did not know that. Oh, yeah.

Let me put that in my catalog. Yeah, Red Arbeck went to GW. He lived, he grew up in D.C., lived in D.C. I'm looking it up right now to see if he was actually born in D.C. No, he was born in Brooklyn, but he went to St. Albans, all right, right there, you know, on Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenue. Also went to Roosevelt, high school downtown, played for the Washington Capitals, which was an NBA. team in the 40s. And the stories about Red Hourback, you know, and D.C., he would come down and go to the

best playgrounds in D.C. from downtown all the way to Chevy Chase playground, which was legendary way back in the day, because the draft was territorial. So you would draft based, he would draft for the Celtics based on a region. You know, you didn't draft from the entire country. so he'd be down finding players down here all the time. If that ain't the days of flow model TVs right there and payphones, right there. And by the way, the payphone was a dime, not even a quarter. Not even a quarter.

Yeah. So I'm with you. Like if Denver wins, I'm going to be really excited for Yokic. And at the same time, I've just loved watching Miami play and Butler play throughout the playoffs in particular. But I do think Denver's better. I think they're going to win this series. I hope Miami wins a couple more and it gets to a seventh game, but it's been fun to watch.

This is the test for the NBA right here. This is stars over culture. Like, NBA has always been star-driven, but Miami is culture-driven, and now the one team with the most stars is being pushed to the brink by the culture. Like, Jimmy, as they start, you know, he has these superstar moments. but he can't keep it up because he's wearing out. But at the end of the day, this what's going to be answered in this one? What's more important?

And right now, the joke is changing everything when it comes to, like, what's the line being drawn? And Murray, I'm sorry. Like, at one point, somebody going to have to give this guy his props, and they brought up something about changing the all-star game from the USA versus all the rest of the world. And I think that's international. I think that'll be wonderful. And I'm actually afraid now that I think about their first three players with MB,

Yonnis, and the Joker, like, oh, my God, and you put in Murray, it might be hard. And then you put in Luca Donnich. We might lose their games. We might lose it. Yeah, no, no, there's no doubt. I mean, I mean, you've got Luca, you've got Janus, you've got Yokic, you've got M.P. Right there. I mean, it is, I mean, we're, and we're forgetting.

somebody too or forgetting somebody really good. You could put you could put Go Barrett Center. You could put, I mean, you know, yeah, it's a long list. I mean, you know what's interesting about that? And you clearly know

a lot about the NBA too. Is there, you know, there was a time you know, many years ago where the international players, you know, started to come into the NBA. They would trickle in. Like Elijah Juan was kind of, now he did play at University of Houston.

Houston, yeah. But he was from Nigeria, and he had, you know, he was barely, he played soccer. He had only been playing basketball for a few years. And, you know, you started to get, you know, guys like that. And then obviously, you know, you had, you had Dirk and you had Genoblee and Koo Coach. Yeah, yeah. For sure. And, but you never thought as, I never thought as an NBA fan that one day basically, you know,

25% of the league would be foreign players. And basically, you know, half the all-NBA players are foreign players. And it's not about just being foreign players. We've taken, they've taken over the league fundamentally because they were the first to have the center and the power forward, getting in the line with the park guards and learn how to dribble and learn how to pass. And right now, if you're a big man coming out in the draft and you can't dribbling and you can't pay, you cannot get drafted highly.

So they did more than just dominated fighters and numbers. They've dominated over the culture of the game. It's really a good point. As much as, you know, the three-point shot has been super important to changing the game. The international style of play for Biggs in particular has totally changed the game, you know, domestically because big men used to play on the post, and now they've got to be able to stretch the floor, and they've got to be able to put the ball on the floor. It's a great point.

Your other point, too, about culture over stars. Now, we'll see because even as we speak, you still have to go back to 2004, the 2004 Pistons to find a team that didn't have a top five superstar on their team. So if Miami won, you know, Jimmy Butler is not a top five superstar. Playoff Jimmy's top five, but he's, you know, more in the 15, you know, 10 to 20, 20 range probably in terms of great players. But I still think the way to go is the elite superstar and you're in contention for years and you're going to win titles because I think Yokic will pull this one off to continue the trend of elite top five over anything else.

But culture with Miami has worked, certainly. The culture works, it does, but when does it run out and when isn't it enough? And right now, what Yokic is doing, especially with him being a point-four, I mean a point center in the way he facilitates, he's breaking them down. And he knows how to go with the weak player. He knows how to find the cutter. He knows how to get everything done. But you ask yourself next year, you can add a guy that's not in the top five today. He rostered.

And they could be right back here with a Damien Lillard on their team. They could be right back here. And I would bet my money then watching what the heat are doing now and how they're pushing them, considering their top. a hero, that second lead score is not even playing. So if you add a Damien Liller to that team, and he's not top five, I'm sorry. I think they will beat the Celtics. And I think if they had to play this Nuggets team again, they would beat them. How do you think Beal would look on their team healthy?

I think with Bill on, Bill will be very good because he fits in their culture parties. He could play both sides of the court. He will play defense. He will play offense. And I think that would actually help Bill out because what's Chris and Bill out of the reason he's stay hurt is he's to toad the load. At that point, he won't have to tote the load. They would have a three-way sharing of the load.

So I think that would actually be perfect. But I don't know. I feel like Damien Liller would fit in just a little bit more because he would bring the ball up. And Jimmy is doing that too much. Jimmy is getting more out during the game, bringing the ball up, initiating offense. With Damon Lillard, he won't have to initiate the office. Here's a conversation for you. Lillard fits this, the answer to this question. There are certain players, and it was brought up by

Ryan Rusillo, who does a great podcast for The Ringer and used to work with my friend Scott Van Pelt on radio. He brought this up on his podcast last week. He said, Jimmy Butler is like, how many players in the NBA and in the history of the NBA have we said, we love him? He's a star, and yet we don't care that he hasn't won a title. And it doesn't matter that he hasn't won a title. Everybody else in the sport is measured on titles. Barkley, Ewing, all of the great, the great, you know, Stockton Malone, Nash, the guys that didn't get it done, it's always held against him. And his point was, it's never held against Jimmy. And my, I think it's because Jimmy's always on a team that's overachieving. They're not supposed to be where they are. But I make Lillard.

He is the overachiever. See, that's why you're missing it up, Sheen. This guy right here came from nothing when it comes to where he got, how he got it to the NBA. He is the overachiever, and he's usually playing with other overachievers. So that's why we look at him and say, you know what, that is enough. And I call it the Rocky effect. Even though this guy ain't even a true, a real athlete,

but Rocky, the story of Rocky, the ultimate underdog. When the underdog overachees, he makes the, the everyday person sitting on their couch, they can do it. And that's the Steph Curry field, too, also. But when you make the masses live through you and feel like they can do it, they don't, they won't hold you to the fire, all right, per se. They won't hold you to the fire. Yeah.

No, that's a good way to look at it, too. And I think, by the way, getting back to what started that portion of the conversation, I think Lillard is one of those players. I can't say, like, I'm going to tell you why he's like. Because we love people that stay true to who they are and stay true to a fan base. But KG showed me that that could be detriment to your career. Like at one point, you have to be selfish. That's what got you here.

Like, you have to have something selfish to say, I have to get a ring. Because right now, one of my favorite players was Reggie Miller and Dominique Wilkins. And right now, if I talk to my kids about Reggie Miller, they know him from Wendy's commercial. if I talk to them about Dominique Will because they don't know them at all. Because of not getting the ring to be immortalized in the NBA, if they don't have a memory of you holding their trophy up, kissing their trophy, in 20 years, that's when people will forget about you. And that's what I don't want to happen to Dame Lillard.

That's why selfishly I want them to be a Laker. Yeah, two of my favorite all-time players as well. Neck to me was one of those guys. I always say this about Dominique Wilkins and Carl Malone. There are two guys from their era that if you plop them down in 2023, they'd look just the same. Carl Malone was 6-9 and 260 before anybody was. And Dominique had a 48-inch vertical and could hang in the air forever.

and by the way, was an unbelievable score. I'm going to say, could shoot the ball. And unfortunately, like with Malone, Stockton, Barclay, Ewing, Reggie during the Jordan era, Neek was during the Celtics and then the Pistons run in the East. So there wasn't much he could do about it. He was on good teams. He just wasn't on great teams, but he is an all-time great. He's an all-time great without a title for sure.

Yes, he is. And we've got to ask ourselves, how many more Dame Litter is out there that we're not talking about? Like a guy like Carmelo and a lot of more guys out there that didn't get their championship in basketball, it could hunt you. What do you know about Len Bias? I know a lot about Lynn Bias. I know Len Bias was even more hype than Michael Jordan at the time. It was supposed to be the savior for the Celtics. I understand what he did here in Maryland.

I understand pretty much everything. is one of the biggest what-if sports stories of all time. It rivals what happened as Bo Jackson never get hurt. It rivals what happens. It's so many things that trigger great careers, and people never talk about the ones that did not happen. And how would it have shaped Jordan Dynasty? How would it have shaped and affect Larry Bird?

Like, the domino effect, it goes through, the ripple effect goes through everything, layers of years of sports. The reason I bring it up is because we were talking about Dominique Wilkins. And, you know, I watched Glenn Byes play every single game. He's everything that you just said. But what he wasn't was comparable to Michael Jordan. He didn't play like Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was a true two guard, you know, and Michael Jordan was a better ball handler than Bias was.

Bias was the athlete. He was a Dominique Wilkins athlete, but he played like Dominique. That's who he played like. He would have been a highlight reel from the moment he entered the league that would have been a given in the equation. But he would have been the shooter, if not a better shooter, than Dominique. And he would have been a great shot blocker and a really good rebounder. But he couldn't put the ball on the floor that well. But guess what?

He didn't have to do that. In the Celtics team, there had so many other components. That's the best thing what happened was he was going to a team, not the Atlanta House. He was going to a team that always build and build on your weaknesses and also have players that can't do what you can't do. So I thought it would have been perfect. By the way, you said greatest what if, and he's one of the greatest what ifs, obviously, in Celtics history and NBA history. Other than Sean Taylor, all right, who is the greatest what if in the history of our franchise. Wow.

Right, because. Of our franchise? I don't think it's a player. I got one player, and I got one coach. I've got a player, but Sean would be at the top of the list. What if he had lived? He would have been one of the all-time greatest safeties in the history of the game. But after Sean, I've got a player in mind to me that is the greatest what-if in franchise history. So you give me yours first. My greatest player in what-if history, and he did have a good career.

so let's not act like he didn't have one. But if we would have played a 3-4 from the time he was drafted, LeVar Arrington would have been a Hall of Fame. If we only, that's the only variable needed in here. If we played a 3-4, LeVarretton becomes a Hall of Famer and a Gold Jacket because,

listen, I have played with Samantha Leith and Leith in LeVar and Sean and Champa at the top of that athletic pyramid with Darryne. But just the size of LeVar, the things he could do, he was never meant to be a standback, react, read, and react linebacker. He was supposed to be an attack, attack, attack. And I'm talking about if they lose them in a three-four

with me and champ at the corners, he could have really, really changed games. So that's my biggest what if when it comes to the player. But when it comes to the coach, is Marty Shai Namer. What if we let Marty continue to build? If we were to game Marty time, from the way we started off to the way we ended and Tony Banks was my quarterback. Listen to me, we would have had a chance to dance in the years to come.

Well, you and I have talked about that before. I consider it football-wise to be the biggest mistake of the Snyder era was getting rid of Marty after one year. Tony Banks and Kent Graham and one audible and you guys went from 0 and 5 to 5 and you were in the playoff hunt and there would have been division titles and playoff games and big games. And by the way, with respect to LeVar Arrington, I think if Marty Schottenheimer had remained the coach here, LeVar would have been a great player. Now, injuries were always an issue with LeVar. 3-4, no-34. If Marty had remained coach with Kurt and the rest of that staff, LeVar would have thrived. Yes, he would have thrived. And we also never would have traded

Champ Bailey for a running back. Never in a thousand years. Not with Marty Schaenheim. He's a cornerback got. Really, we wouldn't enough value. Right. So my greatest what if, and that's a good one, Jordan Reed. If Jordan Reed had a healthy 10 to 12 year career without those concussions, without all those injuries, Jordan Reed was an uncheckable at the Kelsey level, tight end. agree or disagree?

I totally agree with you, Sheen. And also, my player comp for him, this is how good you know he is, where he was. My player comes for him is Devonte Adams. The way they get out the ball is the same. It's very basketballish. You can always tell that Jordan Reed played basketball at high school and college, showed him Devontay Adams. The way they cross it over, the way they release is very basketball.

That's a wonderful pick right there. Because listen to me, he would have most definitely be, not that I can think about the tight ends that have been in his organization, he probably would have been no doubtly the best tight end to ever play in his organization, if not the NFC. No doubt. It's really a shame when you think about it, because there were games that he had that he dominated.

Dominated, was completely uncheckable. Look, it didn't hurt that Deshaun was out there with him, that Pierre was out there with him. But, you know, my quarterback was dealing to Jordan Reed over and over again. That would have been a hell of a combination. Kirk to Jordan Reed if they had kept that whole thing together, and Jordan Reed it stayed healthy. There you go.

I knew we could get through this conversation without you getting on that Kirkade. I knew it. I knew it. All right. So let's talk about what you saw this week. What did you see? Give me your observations from Minicamp. This is what I do know.

This is what I do know. Practice is ran totally different. It's ran at a different tempo. It's ran at a pace that's different. I was so blown away. Meantan, just sitting there talking, talk about the way they do one-on-ones.

They don't even do regular one-on-ones, because they know that's cheating. Any wire receiver can be the DB with 100 yards of field. They do it two-by-toos. They do it by running route patterns and running everything together, making sure it's connected. Even when they do 7-on-7,

they forced the center to be a part of the 7-on-7 because they want the quarterback to get realistic snaps while they're going back to pay. They do everything. Listen, even the running back drills, the wire receiver drills, everything has a purpose and everything has a next level to it. Like what I do know is they learn in first level. Everybody on that offense, including Terry,

everybody's learning this offense for the first time. And just seeing it, it excites me to the point that I know they would be good doing the routine. And that's what we haven't been good at around here, doing the routine. Them are the most deadly offenses in the NFL that we can't stop them from doing the regular. So when they do the next level, it catches us off guard.

So at the end of the day, I feel like the offense. And everybody, you know, everybody knows the offense going to be behind the defense at this point in time. So that part I don't even want to talk about. But I like the way the ball coming off Sam have our hands, and I keep telling people, I took a lot of balls to the face. I hate how they sound it, but from Tony Romo.

And he has the same release in the way that the ball comes out of his hand. And it ain't a ball that drops. It's a ball that can stay on the line for 15, 20, 25 yards. This shows the arms crunch and the touch that he has. So very excited what I see from the offense. And very excited what I see from Airbnb because he's the one that's sitting there stand up from what I know. Coach Rivera, and him set the schedule for the offense.

when it comes from that side of the ball. All right, so that's a lot there. So let's just stick with the offense here for one minute. Because, you know, the truth is we don't know anything about the quarterback. I mean, you know more. You know more. You know more than us. All right.

I'm not suggesting that you as a former player don't know more than we do. But he's played in one game, which was a borderline preseason game. for the team. And, you know, we're not going to know really until they start playing regular season games. You know what? I always got to say, I got to see you in real action and know if you're a real soldier. But also, what feels good is his command or huddle. What feels good that he can make every throw that he does make every throw. What makes me feel good, he can move and manipulate the pocket. He's very coachable. And that's what I tell people. Don't be afraid of the unknown. The reason people afraid of

Sam Howard is the unknown. Well, guess what? People got so excited about Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick, Fitzmagic. You knew you were winning with him. You knew you weren't winning with half of the quarterbacks we've had. The excitement you said with this guy, he can only get better. All right? That's

the best thing about it. The product you see, week one, won't be the product you see week 16. The thing about it, this kid could only get better. I was having a talk, me in London, going deep and trying to peel the onion on stuff. Do you remember the greatest show on Turs? I remember the season before they blew it up. Before they just start killing everybody, we was not worry about them. All right? We had no worry

about them. And then, for some reason, they found this guy by the name of Kurt Warner who nobody knew, no expectations there. All right, nobody thought, gave him a chance. They threw their ball around New York because we didn't know what to expect from Mike Morris in his office. They had at least nothing really to do with Kirk Warner the first five weeks of the season, six weeks. We had had no playbook on Mike Morse. So everything he did was new to us and scary. Well, guess what? Airbnb has their same shield.

Y'all know what, y'all know what Coach's offense look like? You don't know what Airbnb's the offense looked like for the first two months. He's going to have people on their heel because they don't know. And then I really start to push stuff down with Lundner. And I was like, well, Arthur King is the equivalent to Curtis Samuel. Tori Holt is the equivalent to John Dodson. Well, if I go on the other side, Terry McLeon, is Isaac Bruce of this office. I can get Marshall Falk out of three guys, out of two guys,

because Gibson can show enough, catch the ball, and make people miss, and Roberts can get down here with the best of them and can catch you better than most people that you think he is. And I hate to say it, but I think our tight-in room going to shock people, and I think they better than the tight-in room that they had at the greatest show on turn. So I'm telling you right now, I see patterns of the same thing brewing with this team. That's fine. And all of those names you listed, Bruce, Hakeem, Holt, Falk. I mean, you're talking about Marshall Falk there.

Just so you know, we are talking about Marshall Falk. And I made three people, I made three people feel the gap here. Well, fine. That's three people. But who are the three people that are going to fill Kurt Warner's shoes? See, that's where the whole thing falls apart. His name is Sam. How quickly we read.

I quickly we forget. I don't forget, don't forget, this guy lost seven. guy, no, nine guys off his office that he had going into his senior, I mean going to his last year and school, he was up for the when he was supposed to be talking. This guy's not a bum. This guy's not, just because he's untested, he's not a bum.

Eight billion people on this planet. We ain't found 32 good quarterbacks in the year. I'm telling you, we got more than above average quarterback, and I think with this defense and these weapons, that's all we really need to get where we're going. Don't forget, our three Super Bowls did not come with top ten quarterbacks.

All right? You're talking about Thaisman? Doug William and Mark Rippet. At the end of the day, if you've got a guy that can get you there, he can get you there if you've got other pieces, and we do. I love that you know the history of this team so much. But just, by the way, for your information, Joe Thaisman was a top 10 quarterback. And after he won the Super Bowl, he was the league MVP the following year. But back to the conversation at hand.

We're talking about Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner. He's a Hall of Famer. Yeah, but he didn't start off a hundred. No, he didn't. You watched him develop. You watched him develop. You watched the story play out.

So I'm asking you to watch the story of the Long Wolf, Sam How. I'm asking you to sit back, shit, and watch this in HD on your TV. Give this guy a chance. No, none of us can predict anything. We watch players progress and regress every year. We watch Russell Wilson go there a star, and now right now, he's probably the 20-ranked quarterback. The epic flow of everything happens. All I'm saying is, it's set up for,

him how to succeed. Weapons ride. It set up offensive coordinator-wise. It set up for Jack Dan Rio and had the best year he's ever had coaching a defense in the NFL. I'm telling you right now. It was top ten last year. They will be top five this year.

And they will not only be the reason helping us win games, I think they're going to dominate games. He has the free reign to call everything he's ever want to call in his dreams. I'm telling you right now, that defense will be the reason even more than Sam How. and that's going to make it easier on somehow to be, to win some games and get some wins on his belt. And I'm just telling them, more minimum is everything. We know the same team they won this division in years. We ought to want a few teams to beat the Eagles. I guess they were the standard in the team where these guys don't scare to the Eagles.

They ain't scared to go to Philadelphia. The damn sure ain't scared of the Cowboys. And I think the New York Giants take a step back. So at the end of the day, it's open enough for us to win. I wouldn't be shocked if these guys want a lot more games. now that they can really just focus on football for a long time. It's been all this black cow out over the place. Now all these guys answer is football questions

and they can get back to what really matters in this winning. The lone wolf. That's the lone wolf. He's the son that actually got killed in the way it went. What's his name? What do you mean? What's his name? Come on.

No, I'm not. It's skipping my head right now. That would be Rob Stark. Rob Stark. Come on, man. You're a Thrones expert. I shouldn't be having to give you Rob Stark, Lone Wolf, one of the all-time great scenes in the history of the show. But that's what happens when you get my wheels attorney. You got me all over the place right now. We've been talking about three generations of quarterbacks with a wife. We've been all over the place. Yeah. All right. What else? Did Forbes look good to you? I mean, I know you're super high on them and you're super excited. about him. So tell me what you saw in his, you know, in the days that you saw him.

I'm, you know how I feel about him, but the thing is, the team is getting the chance to get a load of him. He makes the routine look easy. He makes what other DBs do look hard when they do but not when he does it, the length that he has, the speed that he has his understanding of the game and what you're asking him to do. This was making it easy for him. Like sometimes you can always tell does a guy fit in? Right now, the only thing you want to see from your rookies, do they fit in with the rest of the pros? Can they play at the speed with them?

Can they check them down? All right, well, he had no problem with Terry McLuhan. He's had no problem with John Dossie. He's ready to play the game. I think Coral Martin is going to bring a lot to the table. I think he's a better athlete than people even know that he is. But with Forbes, I think you get something next level, and I told people this.

And me and Darryin, you know, Dale Green, don't give him any db is his blessing. Derek, I love him. I like him because he was just like me. When they drafted me, nobody wanted me. Everybody thought they had messed up and drafted the wrong player, and I was 175 pounds. Well, I was like, I was 1705, and I just do the 175 pound. I think we did okay for ourselves with 175 pounds.

So at the end of the day, I think he gets it, and I think when I had a conversation with him, he understands who his D-line is. And he said, that dictate everything. And that tells me he knows next level because coners only know my, success is tied to the beat coordinator and the defensive line. He understands what he has to do. Give me the player that you think, I've asked

everybody this this week, give me the player that you think is going to be a big contributor this coming season that right now would surprise most fans. Oh, I think Fabian. I think Curtis Samuel is going to have the biggest uptick

and stats. Okay. I think he's going to I just wouldn't be shocked if he led the team in touchdown next year. And I wouldn't be shocked if Cole Turner actually lived up to the height that we thought he was going to be. Those two players, I think I got to pick him from the offense because I'm not going to be shocked what we do defensively. I'm going to be more shocked offensively. So I have to go Curtis Samuel turning into a legit super weapon. And Cole Turner really getting out there and being a mixed match problem because I know EB.

is predicated on mismatches. He's not predicated on running what he wants to run. He let you dictate that. Those are good ones. I mean, I think Curtis Samuel sometimes gets forgotten in the conversation of playmakers. And he had some good games last year. And with a better quarterback situation, if indeed they end up having one. And by the way, a system that's just going to try to get the ball out of the hands into playmaker's hands,

Curtis Samuel is going to be one of those playmakers. Do you believe in Antonio Gibson as much as I do? Yes, I do. I said that's how the Marshall Falk conversation started with me in London. I said sometimes you're a prisoner, you're coaching. I've seen many players' careers being ruined by coaches that want to do things their way and don't want to do things. Like, if you get a wire receiver and draft him from college,

there's a wire receiver that you move in the running back, why not also utilize what got him to the league? now you have linebackers checking him instead of cornerbacks and you don't utilize their mixmatch. I think EB will actually turn him into a household name. I think EB, I would not be shocked if he starts as close. I mean, especially as we get into the wintertime, if he starts to out carry Brian Robinson,

not saying Robinson going to handle down here. I just feel like in this offense, it's predicated on changing the play at the line sometime, changing it to a pass play when you see mismatches. I think Antonio gets him. We'll blossom. And I think we're going to be so hurt when he leave and go to another contender. You were preaching today, my man.

That was fun. As always, we could do this for a lot longer. But I've taken up too much of your time. I appreciate it as always. Hey, always, brother. Anytime I wait so long next time, brother. I won't. I promise I won't.

All right. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks. All right, brother. The last of the Triple Crown Races for 2023 comes tomorrow at Belmont. at the Belmont in Elmont, New York. The Belmont Stakes is the longest of the three Triple Crown events, and back to preview the race and tell us what we should know about the race

is our good friend Eddie C. Eddie's a local, but he lives in Florida, and he goes by several different names. This one is at Notebook Picks on Twitter. All right, what do we need to know about the Belmont tomorrow? Before you get to the picks, give me, you know, the big storylines for this race. Well, you know, the big storyline is going back to the Preakness is that Bob Baffert was back in the race, and Bob Baffert won the Preakness, you know, with National Treasure.

And he is now back to running the Belmont Stakes after, you know, not being able to run for the past couple years in these big races because of some, stupid foolishness, in my opinion, as far as the regulatory body suspending him for nothing he's been found guilty of, to be honest. But anyhow, so you have the Precness winner running. Unfortunately, we don't have the Kentucky Derby winner, Mage running, who did run, won the Derby, ran a good third, dismissed second in the Preakness, but, you know, National Treasure got off to a very soft fractions.

and nobody could catch it. So that's one of the big stories. The other, I mean, the main story, in my opinion is, and I'm sure everybody in the D.C. area probably felt a little bit of effects of it, but the fires in Canada were the wind brought it down, and they had to cancel training and the horses even running for like four or five days for the Belmont. And, you know, and, you know, horses can't be humans and be indoors and not smell the air. They're outdoor animals.

They're out there. So it'll be interesting to see. And hopefully it doesn't affect them from any sort of respiratory issues and things like that. I do know that the veterinarians have been checking them very closely. And this morning, they finally opened up the training and they're out there. So they're going to get checked out after today. And hopefully there's no scratches and they get, and they're healthy. get to run. You know, that's really the second big story. And the other one is the Todd

Pletcher trained Forte, the two-year-old champion who got a late scratch because he had a little bit of a stumble in training right before the derby, and they scratched him Saturday morning, the day of the derby. And because of that, he got put on what they called the vet list. And he wasn't eight, and that's a 14-day minimum, and because of that, he wasn't able to run into creakness. So now he's back, and he is, if not that he's, he's either going to go off as the favorite or right there at the second choice. Those are the big three storylines, you know, other than I can tell you that two of the best trainers and, you know, aside from Bafford, are Todd Butcher. He's got two horses running in here.

He's got, you know, he's got Tapit Trice, and he also has, what's the other one he has? I believe it's an angel of empire. And then Brad Cox has three horses, and Brad Cox is this up-and-coming young trainer that's just winning at huge percentages. And so that's kind of the way to set up this race. You know, the other storyline in this race, not that it's a storyline for the specific race, but it's a storyline for the event, is 50 years ago was Big Red, Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes, 1973. Is that, is there any story in the history of the sport comparable to that one? I mean, there's people that have talked to you about some of the old-time great horses. I mean, you know, like you can go back to the movie that so many people have seen and loved is C-Biscuit versus, you know, and you also have some other great horses.

But to win, you know, the amazing thing about Secretariat is to this day, he still has the record time-wise for the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont, and the Preakness. And the Belmont, he won by 31 length. I mean, he literally won by almost a quarter of a mile. and and he did it in a fashion where, you know, the speed he went out at, he went out at, for six furlongs in 109, you know, a minute and nine seconds. And the normal time for that in today's racing is like 113, 114. I mean, nobody could do what that horse did. And no, but yeah, it's, he's the, he's the Michael Jordan of Porsche. racing, the Babe Ruth of horse racing. The greatest, the horse was on the cover of Time magazine

and Sports Illustrated for that shit. A horse. It's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, I think I'd have to look this up, but you know when ESPN did the 100 greatest athletes of the 21st, of the 20th century, I think Secretary, it was like in the top five. I'm looking that up right now, because I may be thinking of something else. He was definitely a top 10. Yeah. I want to say he was I'm not sure. Yeah, that that that series was a really good series. Yeah, well, you know, the amazing thing about

about that horses, they, uh, when he when he passed away, they did what's called a, I believe it's pronounced necropsy. Like, it's like the autopsy for, uh, for horses. And his heart was found to be twice, the size of a normal horse's heart, which obviously allows him to breathe much more. And that's why he has these records. And also this horse didn't just went on dirt.

He also won on turf. His last race was one of the greatest turf races. I think it was up in Canada. And he won on turf as well. 35th, 35th on the all-time 20th century list that E. SPN did right in the late 90s. Jordan was one, Babe Ruth was two, Ali was three, Jim Brown four, Wayne Gretzky, five. But Secretary, it was listed at as 35th. And I think I'm looking through the list to see if any other horse was even on the list. Manawar was on the list.

As was citation, as was citation. Citation as well. Yeah, they were both on the list as well. All right. Yeah, let's get to your picks. So give us, you know, how you think the race plays out, who you pick to win, and then give us a couple of your other ideas for those wanting to put a couple of bucks on the race. Okay, well, you know, Backford's Horse, the Preakness winner, National Treasure,

you know, he's coming back to run again. He won on an easy lead in the Precness. but I don't think he gets that easy lead tomorrow. I think the one horse, Tappet's Shoes, or the five horse, Il Miracolo, I believe, or Miracolo, is going to run with him. And those horses, you know, Brad Cox has three horses,

so he's definitely going to send a rabbit in the race to run with National Treasure. So I think he's going to have some company up top, so he's not going to get an easy lead. And then you got Forte, the six horse, who was the two-year-old champion. As we said earlier, scratch from the derby and didn't run in the preakness, he's back. He could run a big race. I mean, he's just been getting healthy training. He had one five in a row, and he's won six out of seven lifetime.

So he's going to be right behind those guys. And, you know, Tapit Trice, who was my pick in the derby, who didn't get the best trip in the derby. He, you know, he ended up getting, you know, he had to check, and he ended up being last in the race, and he came running late and finished seventh, I believe, or six. He just got a bad trip in the derby. This race, you've only got, you've got nine horses in it. You've got a much bigger, wider track than Churchill downed. I think the race really sets up for him. So I'm sticking with my guns as I picked in the derby. I'm picking Tapit Trice, who's the second choice of three to one in the morning line.

I'm picking him to circle, turning for home, and catch the speed. And then I'm going to, as I always say, Kevin, I'm going with some value here. I'm going to try to beat Forte for second. I'm going to use, in exact the boxes, I'm going to use Tapet Trice, who, what do you, the Six Horse? I forget the number of that. Tapit Trice is the two. two horse. My apologies. So I'm going to use the two horse, and I'm going to box them in exactives with the seven hit show, the eight angel of empire, and the nine red route one.

I'm just doing that for value. I will say that the eight angel of empire has a huge chance. This horse is so talented. Fortunate that I got to see him train a little bit. He's one of the Brad Cox horses. He's got a ton of talent. His breeding's impeccable, and he's totally bred to run this distance. And again, they're running a mile and a half. It's the only time any of these horses are going to run a mile and a half. You know, that's the test of champions, as they call it.

But, you know, I'm going to try to beat Forte. I will tell you that the three horse, Archangelo is kind of the wise guy horse. He's a young horse. He's only run four times in his career. He's won his last two. And that's actually a little bit of a story because it's a female trainer. A female trainer has never won this race or a triple crown race. A female jockey has won the race.

Female owners have won the race, but a trainer has never won the race. A female trainer has never won the race. And Gina Nucci is she's a really good trainer. And she's got Javier Casillano, one of the greatest jockeys, a Hall of Fame jockey, riding them who won the Kentucky Derby, by the way. So that's a horse that you could sprinkle in, but again, I'm sticking with that exact box that I said. And I'm also going to do, as far as a triple,

I'm going to keep tap it twice first, which means on top. Over the 7-8-9 for second and then all, every horse for third in case a big bomb comes in. If that hits, you know, that's going to pay over $100, for a dollar and people looking for value that that bet right there is only going to cost them like 21 bucks for a dollar so 21 bucks to get a couple hundred bucks back is good value in my book it seems to me by the way as I'm looking at the layout of this nine horse race a nine horse race correct me if I'm wrong we get five of the nine horses are four to one or better shots

to win that that is that's a a wide open field, right? More than half the horses at 4 to 1 are better is, yeah, go ahead. You know, it's incredibly interesting. Think of it this way. The Prechmiss winner,

National Treasure, is the fourth choice at 5 to 1. I mean, that's crazy. Well, I see it at 4 to 1 right now. That was one of the... But if it's 5 to 1, it's still 5 to 1, it's still 5 horses at 5 to 1. or better, yeah. Well, I'm just looking at the morning line. You might be looking at the current line.

So you may have the actual current odds. But, yeah, I mean, the favorite is forte. The morning line favorite is forte at 5 to 2, who hasn't run the last, the pregnus or the Derby. And Tapett Trice. Your horse. Is the second choice morning line. Yeah, my horse at 3 to 1.

And then you have Angel of Empire, the 8 horse, at 7 to 2, was the third choice, and the National Treasure. was morning line 5 to 1, I assume those are the four horses that are 4 to 1 or less. No, yeah, Tapit, Trice, National Treasure, Forte, Angel of Empire. That's right, I'm sorry, four of the 9. And then the Archangelo, I see it 7 to 1. So, you know, but no, you're right, it's 4 of the 9, my fault. But still.

No, and Archangelo was 8 to 1 morning line. So they're betting this young horse. I mean, and as I said, I believe it's the wise guy horse. All right. I'm putting a dime on Tapitrice. I'm going to go with you this time. I'm just riding Eddie C tomorrow. Make the race interesting.

You're the best. Thanks for doing this. Eddie C. Follow him on Twitter at Notebook Picks. And he's got a bunch of good stuff on there on the race. I appreciate it. I'll talk to you soon. All right.

Thank you, Kevin. Appreciate it. All right, that is it for the show today. Hope you enjoyed at E.C. And of course, Smoot, back on Monday. They're on the turn. It's Secretary. It is blazing along. The first three-quarters of a mile in 109 and four-fifth. Secretary is widening now.

He is moving like a tremendous machine. It looks like they'll catch him today. As Mike Gallant and Vice of Prince are both coming up to him now. But Secretary is all alone. He's out there almost the 16th of a mile of Secretary. who is today run the most sensational Belmont stake in the history of this race. Secretariat has accomplished the unbelievable task of breaking the mile and a half record by two and three-fifths seconds. That is a record that may stand forever.