The Kevin Sheehan Show - Terps-Iowa Recap + Skins Free Agency Talk

Episode Date: February 20, 2019

Kevin opens the show with a Terps-Iowa recap. Former NFL agent Joel Corry joins the show to talk NFL free agency and how likely it is the Redskins can create enough cap space to participate in a meaningful way. Also, the AAF nearly went out of business and former ref Tim Donaghy did indeed conspire to fix NBA games. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. I am here. Aaron is out. Corvin is producing today. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them that we told you to call. Good snowy day here in our nation's capital on this Wednesday. Pretty much everyone with one of those days off in the winter that we We get, I don't know, one, two, three times a winter where you get a storm big enough, nasty enough. The timing of it is such that basically everything shuts down, everything closes. And of course, you get all the people that grew up elsewhere in the Midwest or the people that like to talk about what it was like when they were younger who laugh at all the school closings and the way it used to be, you know, walking five miles through blizzards to get to school way back in the day. No, you didn't. You didn't walk five miles in a blizzard to get to school. Not if you lived around here.

It's always been the same around here. Bad winter weather delays and closes in this city now and in the past. I can remember many a day where school was either delayed or canceled with nothing but wet roads, with the sun peeking through the clouds. All of you who grew up in decent, or in the immediate metro area counties, Montgomery County, Fairfax County, PG County, Howard County, you remember it the same way. Many days where your parents were like, really? School was shut down for this? Today though, actually they got it right. Snow that hit just at the start of rush hour

and was going to continue for much of the morning into the afternoon, mixing with sleet and freezing rain and all that. It made sense today. Today's one of those days. that even if you grew up in the, actually not true, if you grew up in the Midwest or the Northern Plains, you're laughing at us on a day like today. But guess what I did this morning? I knew that there was some bad weather in the Midwest this morning. Big City, Minneapolis, you know, they never close.

Nothing ever closes in Minneapolis. They're a hearty folk, yeah, hearty folk in Minneapolis. They don't close schools. They don't delay schools. Well, guess what? Go to any local Minneapolis website, media TV, radio website where they list all the closings and cancellations. Their forecast today was pretty much the same as ours. Winter storm morning, 4 to 8 inches of snow mixing with sleep this afternoon, maybe a little bit more snow.

Guess what in Minneapolis today? Minneapolis public schools closed almost every single jurisdiction in Minneapolis in the Twin Cities, area, every public and every private school closed today. That's right, closed. The Lunderguards out there in Eden Prairie, in Minnetonka, in Adina, I'm familiar with Minneapolis. My wife actually grew up in Minneapolis, lived there until she was 10 or 11 years old. But the Lunderguards would tell you, we don't ever close schools in Minneapolis. Never. Guess what? Their kids are home today with a storm that isn't that much different than the one we're getting right now. We here in the greatest city in the world, we're not as soft as we've been told compared to

other places. Actually, we're pretty soft in other areas, but when it comes to weather, not that much different actually than most places. Anyway, Joel Corey is going to join us on the show in a bit. Joel was an NFL agent for a long, long time. Always been a great great guest and helping, you know, dissect salary cap stuff. And I want them to talk about the Redskins current situation and the best way to get to a point where they can actually do something in free agency. I talked about it at the end of the show yesterday. I don't expect the Redskins to be super active in free agency. Why? Because they haven't been. It's not Bruce Allen's M.O. Bruce Allen is a tread very cautiously. Team president, general manager, head of all things

Redskins. So even if they were able to clear additional space and have room to make a big move or two, I don't expect that they'll do that. I think we'll end up seeing a lot of what we've seen in the past. The Terrence Knightons, the Greg Toller's, the Paul Richardson's, the Orlando Scandrix, that kind of free agency period, which starts basically, you know, we're coming up, we're within a month of free agency starting. I think it's the 13th of March that it begins. But we'll get into that and a lot more with Joel when he joins us on the show a little bit later. Actually, not that long from now. Today's going to be a shorter show than normal.

All right, Maryland, Iowa last night. I want to start with that. I guess I'm not starting with that because I just spent five or ten minutes on the snowstorm. But other than that, I did want to get to Maryland. Maryland last night, the streak of 19 straight losses on the road against ranked teams during the Mark Turgeon era is over, as predicted here yesterday on the podcast. I saw that point spread of Maryland getting two in Iowa City. It seemed short. Last night seemed like the right night. In fact, I will tell you that I had not only Maryland last night plus the points, but I had Indiana plus the points in Penn State laying the points. Had a big night last night. those of you that ask for my picks, my college basketball picks on a daily basis, you're very lucky that I haven't given them out to you every day because I'm definitely on the wrong side of the ledger so far this college basketball stretch. Last night, good night, but a few nights

last week were horrible. But anyway, back to Maryland. They beat Iowa last night, 66 to 65. And to be fair on this streak, you know, Maryland did have three wins on. the road this year against teams that weren't ranked the night that they played them and beat them on the road, but those three teams were ranked at various times this year. So better timing may have ended this streak a while back. But last night, officially, the streak that apparently Mark Turgeon said during his press conference after the game, he knew nothing about, the streak that for him goes all the way back to 2006 when he was at Wichita State, he was over. He was over at Texas A&M against ranked teams on the road and was O for 19 as the Maryland head coach.

He had not beaten a ranked team as a head coach in college basketball on the road since his Wichita State team of 2006 went on the road and beat Syracuse. So for him, it's a much longer streak personally. Now that year, was that the year? I think that was the year that they made it all the way to the Sweet 16. Wichita State, I believe in 2006, lost to George Mason at Verizon Center, or whatever it was called at that point in 2006 in a Sweet 16 game. And the reason I say that almost assuredly is because I was there.

I remember that Sweet 16 night, and then Mason ended up beating Yukon in the Elite 8 on their way to that incredible Final 4 run. But anyway, last night, the Maryland streak of 0 for 19 for him ended. Maryland and got a lot of publicity last night, to be honest with you, I didn't like the publicity it got because it made Maryland look small time to a certain degree. But on SportsCenter, you know, they were showing highlights of the last win over a ranked team on the road for the program. And that came in 2008 when Gary was still the head coach and they beat North Carolina, who was ranked number one in Chapel Hill. I mean, Gary made a living, made a living

beating ranked teams home and away. But over those final few years, years, 2009, 10, and 11, he didn't beat a ranked team on the road, even though in 2010 they won the ACC championship, regular season championship. And Turgeon streak, which has gotten a lot of publicity, and for a lot of fans, they have really hung their, you know, sort of argument of he's not good enough we can do better on this not beating a ranked team on the road number. Look, you know, it's not like Maryland has sucked since 2008. All right? They were in the tournament in 2009,

2010, 2014, 15, 16, you know, with a sweet 16 run, and really in 2010, we all know this as Maryland fans. They were a Corey Blanking Lucius game-winning buzzer-beater shot away from probably a Final Four run. But compared to Gary's, you know, big run from 94 through 2004, 2005. Yeah, you know, compared to that, it hasn't been as great, but Maryland's not been this downtrodden program, you know, wallowing at the bottom of the leagues that they've been in. In fact,

Maryland has now, is now in the running to finish in the top four, get a double by in the Big Ten tournament. And if that happens, of their five years, can you believe it? It's been five years. This is the fifth year now for Maryland in the Big Ten. Got it flies. But if they finish in the top four, in their five years in the Big Ten, they will have finished in the top four four times. They finished second their first year, third their second year, third their third year. Last year they finished eighth. They had some injuries.

They, you know, it was not a great year last year. They missed the tournament last year. And this year right now, they are on the verge potentially of another top three or four finish. That is not a downtrodden program. That's not a program that I think. the perception was created with this streak ending. If you weren't really paying attention to college basketball, you're like, oh, Maryland's really sucked since 2008. I didn't realize that they suck so bad. They just finally beat a ranked team on the road. Well, they've actually been

pretty decent. Not great. Not what we want. Not what we Maryland fans have wanted or expect. But anyway, look, last night was a high-quality win. From the standpoint, of beating a ranked team on their home floor, yes, all right? But it was also a team that had been playing very well. Iowa had won four in a row, which included a 15-point win over Michigan about a week and a half ago in Iowa City. Iowa is going to be a tournament team.

And last night's win is a huge resume builder for the Terps who are also going to be in the NCAA tournament. They did not need to win last night to solidify their tournament status. What they are working on right now is their seating for the NCAA tournament because they are a lock to be in the NCAA tournament. At this point, Naron and I had this conversation yesterday, they actually could lose the rest of their games and still make the NCAA tournament. That's not going to happen, though.

They're too good to go 0 and 5, you know, four regular season games in the opener of a Big 10 tournament. In fact, they're going to be favored in three of their final four games here. But it's a win that is going to help them with seating in the NCAA tournament. And as mentioned, it's a win that keeps them very much in the hunt for a top four finish in the Big Ten, which would mean a double buy in the Big Ten tournament. That would be huge. A double buy in this league this year would be big because anybody from the bottom of this league is capable of winning a game or two in the Big Ten tournament. Totally capable of it.

Penn State last night blew out Nebraska, a team that is a board. borderline tournament team. Penn State upset Michigan last week. Penn State's in dead last in the Big Ten. By the way, yesterday, this is an argument that I've made here over the last month at the Big 10 top to bottom. The overall of the conference is the best in the country. Not that they have the elite teams at the top that the ACC does or even the SEC does with Kentucky and Tennessee, but top to bottom, there's not a better league. Well, ESPN did a ranking of the conferences. yesterday and they had like four criteria. It was top to bottom. It was number of championship teams, number of stars, and I forget what the fourth one was, but the Big Ten was ranked as the second

overall best conference to the ACC. But in the category of best league top to bottom, Big Ten was number one. All right, to the game last night, there were some good moments, there were some frustrating moments and then there were the moments where the game was won, winning moments. I'll start with the good, then get to the frustrating, and then get to the winning moments. The good was that they continued to play pretty good defense. Maryland's turned into a pretty good defensive college basketball team. Not the whole game last night, but for much of it, they were pretty effective defensively taking Iowa out of what they wanted. They held Iowa to 33% from floor. Iowa helped out early. They missed a bunch of open shots in the first half where they could

have really done some damage when Maryland was really struggling offensively. Very similar to the Michigan game on Saturday, where Michigan actually built a big lead in the first half, and it could have been much bigger had they knocked down open shots. But Maryland, for the most part, was once again pretty damn good defensively. In fact, for many years, I've said this about Turgeon, and if you go back can you look at his Texas A&M teams in particular? They were always good defensive teams. This is an area of his coaching resume, of his coaching ability that is a strength. He's always been able to coach defense. He knows really how to coach man-to-man defense. Maryland's never been much of a zone team, although he has used it in spots. I don't think he's used it enough over the

years, but that's beside the point. They used it this year in a game at Minnesota in early January. that they had to because they couldn't keep the ball in front of them, and it changed the whole game. But he's been a pretty good defensive coach, and last night was a pretty good defensive effort from Maryland, as was the Michigan game on Saturday. That was a good part of the game. A good moment also was a stretch in the second half where Maryland really up the tempo and got easy buckets. This is what I have been asking for. I'd like to see much more of it. I don't, again, And it's outside looking in, just as a fan that watches every single game very closely, that has coached a lot, you know, high school, you know, here and there over the last 25, 30 years.

And I just look at their talent and think that they should play a higher possession game, that they should push tempo more often than not. Now, last night is a game in which would have been difficult because they weren't rebounding very well. And if you don't rebound, you can't run. But there was a stretch there in the game. second half where they got out on the break. Cowan found Jalen Smith, who did not have a great game last night, but watch Jalen Smith when they have in the very few moments this year where they've attempted to run. He is a big that can really run the floor. He can really run the floor. And Cowan found him

for an easy dunk on the other end in transition. Daryl Morsell had a really nice rebound, push. They had a 2-1-1 fast break that ended with Morsell's scoring. Morsell actually had another decent game last night. He is an absolute monster defensively. One of the best defenders in the league. And he's going to continue. I've made this comparison before to DJ Strawberry, a player who came in and was just very good defensively

and was very awkward, if not rough offensively, not polished at all. But by the time he was a senior, junior, senior, he actually could score and could really play, it was a good offensive threat for them. I think more sells the same. Anyway, I liked how they got out into transition there for a stretch in the second half. They didn't do it enough, but it was tough to do it a lot last night because they weren't rebounding. You got a rebound to run. And Maryland's been a great rebounding team. And now for two consecutive games, really, they've been beaten up a little bit on

the glass. Iowa had 18 offensive rebounds last night. By the way, Maryland hasn't scored more than 70 points in a game in over a month, an eight-game stretch of 70 points or less. The Big Ten tends to play these games. You know, last night Purdue beat Indiana 48 to 46. It tends to be, in fact, that was the fourth category in the ESPN thing on ranking the conferences, which was how watchable is the conference, and the Big Ten was fourth. and a lot of it deals with what you saw last night between Purdue and Indiana, 4846. Carson Edwards, who is going to be the player of the year in the Big Ten, more likely than not.

I think he'll get it over Ethan Hap from Wisconsin, but Carson Edwards from Purdue last night was four for 24 from the field in a 4846 win at Indiana. And Maryland hasn't scored over 70 over the last eight games. They scored 75 at Ohio State in January. That was the last time. It was over a month ago now. The last time they scored over 70. It's an easy nitpick, you know, and for somebody to just say, they can't even score. They haven't scored over 70 and over a month.

But it's beyond that for me. It's watching them play. The reason that they don't score over 70 and haven't is more times than not, they really prefer a grinded out, lower possession, walk at the level. up, crawl it up kind of a game. And Iowa is a fast-paced team. Iowa is the leading scoring team in the conference. They're averaging over 81 points per game. Maryland slowed them down. They didn't shoot it well either, which helped Maryland out last night. But there would have been more opportunities, I think, to score if they had approached it differently. But anyway, they got the win. So the good

moments, all right, pretty decent defense, good stretch in the second half of some up-tempo game. The frustrating moments are as follows. The other thing, too, last night, clearly the good, was that they shot it well from behind the ark, 12 of 28, in fact, 6 of 17 from behind the ark in the first half, when they were just 2 of 9 on 2s in the first half. Maryland has shooters. Their three-point shooting was the difference last night in many ways.

They knocked down a lot of three. Some of them contested. But some of them came during that stretch of game, where it was a little bit more of the players deciding it. And then they also ran some very good half-court set plays. That middle sort of free-throw line screen where they pop Wiggins or Cowans from the baseline off of that, got them open for some threes too. Anyway, here was the frustrating part of the game last night.

No offense, once again, early in the game. Maryland had just nine points, nine with seven minutes and third. 38 seconds left in the half. They had just two made field goals in the first 12 and a half minutes of the game. Five free throws, two made field goals. That was it for the first 12 and a half minutes of the game. Maryland couldn't get anything out of their half court offense and they refused to try to get anything in transition to make things easier. Again, last night they didn't rebound well. If you don't rebound well and Iowa's got 18 offensive rebounds, that will keep you from running. I understand that. Frustrating too was at times the way Maryland handled Iowa's half-court pressure.

I mentioned yesterday it's something Iowa likes to do, and over the years, Maryland has struggled with it. There are two things Maryland struggled with more than anything else, in my opinion, and I'm sure Turgeon and Bino and Matt Brady and the whole staff would have a longer list, but two things that come to mind for me. Iowa's half-court zone pressure, three-quarter court zone pressure, which they run a lot. Maryland has struggled with over the years, and Nebraska's 131 zone has baffled Turgeon and his staff over the years. This is a frustration point that for you out there, that no basketball, for the basketball people, you know what I'm talking about when I say, typically, conventionally, you see an odd defensive front, you go even against it, all right? You see a one-two half-court trap, you go two-one-two against it, or a one-three-one zone, you go two-one-two against it. When you see an even front, you know, a two-three zone, you go odd against it. You go one-three-one as a setup.

You do a lot of things off of that. But it's not a hard and fast rule, but it's usually a good way to go about beating or handling zone defenses or zone traps. All right? The thing you don't do is you don't cross half court with the dribble into what is known as the trap area, just over half court on either side so that if you get trapped by two, players, it's really four players because you can't go backwards because the half-court line becomes a defender and you can't go sideways because the sideline becomes a defender. That is called the trap area. Any half-court trap, what you avoid doing offensively is dribbling

the ball into those areas, which Maryland did last night three times. That's frustrating. For any youth coach out there that knows what he's doing to watch that, because you know if you line up 2-1-2, you reverse the ball once or twice in the back court, and you beat it with passing rather than dribbling, it's just more conventional. Not always easy when the other team is big and long. I understand that, but having your ball handler dribble the ball into the trap areas is death. They turned it over once. They got a time out on another, which actually was a foul, too.

They actually bumped Iyala, and somehow they escaped on the third one. And then, you know, the half court trap gave him a real problem at the end of the game where they got a 10 second violation. But I'm sure he has his reasons for attacking it the way he does. He tries to screen the top of it and get Cowan to beat it with the dribble, which I think is risky. But Cowan's one of those players. You can beat that stuff if you keep the ball in the middle of the floor. You can beat it sometimes with the dribble. It's just you're missing out on scoring opportunities.

those of you who are basketball people, coaches, players who understand what I'm saying, know that when you see that one three, one half-court trap or one-two half-court trap, you're thinking, wow, we can score off this. We can reverse it once or twice in the back court, hit the middle, and all of a sudden we've got a three-on-two fast break. Or throw it over the top to the hash, and then the ball goes to the middle, we've got a three-on-two fast break. We've got a scoring opportunity, and Maryland doesn't think of it that way.

I'm sure he has his reasons, and Iowa is big, and they are long. So again, and I had this conversation the other day, these things are easier said than done. I understand that. But the turnover on the 10-second violation against that half-court trap at the end of the game,

the three-quarter court trap, was such a massive turnover. It really was almost the difference in the game. I will tell you, I screamed so loudly in my house. That was the most frustrating moment. Because, again, if you're going to line up with your point,

guard right on the lead of that half-court trap, you're really going to limit your opportunities to handle it well. In my view, I could be wrong. Anyway, that was frustrating to watch. Two more frustrating things to watch were they fouled too much last night. Iowa lived at the free throw line down the stretch. He got a guard without fouling. They didn't do that. In fact, Iowa had, I think, five consecutive free throws at 70 to 63 to get it to a two-point game. 60 to 53, excuse me. Eric I. Allen, not boxing out on the follow-up, on the very final play of the game after Jordan Bowen had tried to take the shot to win the game. That nearly cost them the game.

There were some good moments. There were some frustrating moments, as I just mentioned, and then there were some winning moments. And I want to talk about those, because last night Anthony Cowen was the winner. He helped them win this game in many, many, many ways. He was huge last night. He hit threes in the first half when they couldn't score.

He had eight assists in the game just one turnover against that half-court trap. And again, I don't really think they attack it conventionally. But his ball handling and his speed and quickness, when you have somebody like Cowen, sometimes you can throw the right way out the window and just rely on your player to make a play. And he did a lot of the time. And then with the game on the line, he drove it to the rim. I love the set that Turg ran there. first of all he ran a set to get the ball in bounds, which they had had trouble doing earlier

when they didn't run a play to get the ball in bounds, and they turned it over on a sideline inbounce pass. But he ran a nice play to get Cowan easily open for, that's the first thing you think about. 14 seconds to go, we're down one. First thing we got to do is we got to get the ball in bounds. What are we going to do to get the ball in bounds? He had a nice set to get the ball in bounds. And then he spaced the floor.

He had Bruno show as if they were going to screen the ball. the ball, and then Bruno basically dipped into the paint. It was a, he came out for what was really a fake screen, and then slipped into the middle of the floor, and Cowan turned the corner, beat his defender, got to the rim, missed the layup, but that's the kind of shot you want in that spot. I'll take that 10 out of 10 times. Cowan step on his defender, floor spaced perfectly,

two players in opposite corners, another player, opposite on the other wing, plenty of space to operate, and Bruno went right to the rim and tipped it in, against five players, by the way. Five rebounders in that particular situation. But more times than not, Cowan will finish in that spot. That was a huge spot. Cowan was incredible all night, and then his defense on Jordan Bowhannon on what was the attempt to win the game in the final few seconds, he totally impacted that shot with his defense. The shot wasn't and even close. Cowan is the only upper classman, and he's a junior, not a senior, who plays. I know that Maryland fans get occasionally frustrated with him when he forces shots or commits

bad turnovers. I've got news for you. They've got no chance of being where they are right now, 20 and 7, 11 and 5 in the conference without Anthony Cowan. He is so important to this team's success. It has been important and will be important. This was a really good win, one they really needed. Back-to-back losses would have had them losing ground everywhere in the Big Ten standings, seating in the NCAA tournament. I still say that if whoever it was, Kevin Anderson, whomever it was that basically gave up the home game to Illinois and played it in Madison Square Garden, that was beyond stupid.

I know the coaching staff wasn't pleased with it. I'll tell you that. They weren't happy with it. You don't give up. home games in January to play in New York. You give up a game in November against a non-conference opponent, like Hofstra, and you play that one in New York, even though Hofstra would have fans there at the game. The Terps, if they didn't give up that game, I think they would have beaten Illinois,

even though Illinois's played really well here recently, I think they would have beaten them at Xfinity Center, and they'd be legitimately right now in the hunt for a Big Ten regular season title. seven of the last nine games Maryland has played in part because of that game that they played Madison Square Garden have been away from College Park and they went five and four in those games. So this nine game stretch of playing seven away from home, they went five and four. I think most Maryland people would take that. I'll take it. I mean, yeah, I would have preferred to have beaten Illinois. I thought they had a shot at Wisconsin, but they've won their home games and now they've got, five road wins in the Big Ten on the road. Five of them, right? Ohio State, Nebraska, they beat Minnesota, they beat Iowa last night, and they beat Rutgers.

They've got five Big Ten wins on the road. They've got one road game remaining. It's at Penn State a week from tonight, and Penn State is playing well right now. They're the last place team in the Big Ten, and also the last team anybody wants to face in their building. Not that they've got an intimidating building because they don't, but they have played well.

Blew out Nebraska last night, beat Michigan a week ago. That one won't be easy. But before that, they get Ohio State in College Park on Saturday. The Buckeyes have been struggling recently and are falling back towards the bubble, really, and this one's going to be huge for them. But it'll be a big one for Maryland too. and students will be there and hopefully weather's not an issue and it's a weekend game at 2 o'clock.

That'll be a packed building for that one. It'll be a little bit different than these 630 starts on weeknights that we've had too many of. And Maryland gets home and they deserve a big crowd on Saturday against Ohio State. So this year, 20 and 7 now, 11 and 5 in the Big 10, legit shot to finish in the top 4 in the Big 10, get a double by in Chicago when that tournament starts. they're having a hell of a season right now. That game last night wasn't perfect. It wasn't pretty all the time. But Anthony Cowan, Bruno Fernando,

they had players that stepped up and made some big plays. Hell, Eric Iiella had a huge shot when they fell behind for the first time on a little jumper 10, 11 feet being guarded, moving to his left almost away from the bucket. By the way, college basketball tonight, Duke and Carolina from Cameron Indoor. The tickets for the game tonight, if you want to go down, if that's on your bucket list, it's on my bucket list, Cameron Indoor for Duke Carolina. That is totally on my bucket list.

I've never, I've never been to Cameron Indoor for games, never been for a Carolina Duke game. The tickets tonight, cheapest available, cheapest ticket available, $2,500 to get in the building. The tickets for Duke Carolina tonight are more expensive. than the Super Bowl tickets in the aftermarket. There are tickets for five figures and up, $10,000 and up to get into that building tonight. I'm not paying that, and I'm not going down there tonight, but I would like to see Duke Carolina at Cameron Indoor. My bucket list, I don't have it really off the top of my head.

I can tell you that Duke Carolina, Cameron would probably top the list. Allen Fieldhouse, I'd love to see a game in Lawrence. there are probably four or five college football venues. I'd still like to go see a game, a big game. I've been to a lot of them, but a lot I haven't been to. I've never been to South Bend for a Notre Dame game. That's always been on my bucket list. The Derby, the Olympics, that stuff really isn't on my list.

The master's I got last year, thanks to my good friend, Danny Frank, who made that day an incredible and a memorable day down in Augusta. But anyway, Duke Carolina tonight. Oh, here's my number one on my bucket list. Skins Cowboys' NFC Championship game at a new stadium downtown. That's my number one. College troops tonight, too, Georgetown and Villanova downtown.

Nova got beat over the weekend by St. John's. Georgetown is a, they're an interesting team to watch because they can score and they've got some offensive talent. They've got to be a little bit better defensively. I think their chances to make a run in the Big East to fall in apart here over the last week, week and a half. And when I say a run, not a run to win the Big East, but to finish third and to legitimately push themselves close to a bubble spot for the NCAA tournament,

that's pretty much shot. They're going to have to win the Big East tournament to do it. But anyway, they play Villanova tonight in Chinatown. And Nova's fun to watch. And man, that team has been, been in the title game two of the last three years, won the title, two of the last three years. Jay Wright's done a phenomenal job at Villanova. And, you know, I think when you look at a Georgetown or a Maryland here, both of those programs are capable of the same thing Villanova's created

here over the last five, six, seven years under Jay Wright. Anyway, I'm going to get to a lot more, including the Tim Doneggey story, which I really want to talk about, at least briefly. And also, That AAF that everybody's into, nearly folded yesterday. I'll do that in a little bit as well. Let me tell you about scent bird. Centbird is a luxury fragrance subscription service. It's a way to discover new colognes or perfumes without having to buy an entire bottle.

And that's a big thing because good colognes and perfumes are very expensive. And a lot of you aren't even sure exactly what you want or what you like. And if you've been wearing something, you've probably been wearing it a while now and it was probably given to you as a gift several years ago. And if you're looking for something new, give Centbird a shot. You'll smell amazing, all right? People will be asking you, what's that cologne you're wearing? They have so many designer brands to choose from each month.

Gucci, Tom Ford, Kenneth Cole, Burberry, Prada, and more. You choose the cologne you want to try, and they'll send you a 30-day supply. I tried it. my wife tried it, it makes sense, it's easy. Not sure what type of scent you're looking for? Well, this is where Centbird can really help. First of all, you can check out the reviews and the ratings on any fragrance that they sell. And Centbird even has a quiz that you can take, which will help you discover a more personalized fragrance for you, and essentially it will be a recommendation. Here's the offer right now for my listeners only. You'll get 50% off your first month today. That's

only $7.50 for your first fragrance. Go to scentbird.com slash K as in Kevin, S is in Steve, D is in Doug, C, and you will get 50% off your first month. That's scentbird.com slash K-S-D-C, S-C-E-N-T-Bird.com, K-S-D-C for you to try your first cologne or perfume for just $7.50. cents. Sign on, smell amazing. All right, let's welcome in Joel Corey, who is a former sports agent, NFL agent, he's a salary cap expert. He's one of my favorite guests when it comes to this time of year and talking about what teams can do and what they can't do and what they should do. Joel joins us here on the podcast. And before we get to the Redskins, Joel, because

there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot swirling around this organization per usual, most of it not necessarily positive per usual as well. But I wanted to start with the Antonio Brown's situation. How did it get to this point? Do you think, and don't you think on some level it's just incredibly unfair that the Steelers are going to have to absorb this accelerated salary cap associated with trading him? Part of the problem is Mike Tomlin's enabling of Antonio Brown. that he reported much different treatment that he's gotten from other players. And I know there's the old Jimmy Johnson philosophies. Don't treat everyone equally.

You treat them fairly. But some of the stuff which has come out seems to be a bit ridiculous to me. That if you had Tom Brady or Peyton Manning as your quarterback, they wouldn't have stood for some of the liberties that Antonio Brown was allowed to take. Now, addressing all the potential dead money with the contract, part of that is Pittsburgh's problem. That if you continually play the kick-the-can down-the-road restructure game, if you do have to move on from someone and they basically turn $13 million into signing bonus last year and restructure, you're going to have massive dead money when you try to get rid of someone because all the signing bonus peroration hits the cap upon a trade or release. So that part's on Pittsburgh. Yeah, I understand that. And it's the, you know, if you're going to do, if you're going to sign a player and you're going to give them a ton of money,

or in this case, as you just said, you're going to continue to restructure and push some of that money down the road, which was always the trick that the Redskins used to pull off because they always anticipated, rightly so, that the overall cap would continue to climb. But it just, I look at it and I'm like, you know, when they, when that report came out that he was going to meet with, you know, ownership, I thought that that was an effort for ownership to say, we got to figure this thing out because this is a painful hit, and we'd rather have you as a happy player rather than a traded player. Where do you think the most likely destination for him is? And what do you think that particular team will have to give up? Well, when Art Rooney came out in early January and said it's hard to

envision Brown on the roster, I took that divorce was inevitable. Right. There's been a a lot of speculation that the Steelers won't be able to get much more than a third-round pick if that for Antonio Brown because of his baggage and particularly his social media antics over the past week. But I have a hard time reconciling that the Steelers might potentially get less for Antonio Brown than what they got from the Raiders during the draft last year from Artavis Bryant, who had already been suspended a year under the drug policy. Crazy. Lost his job to Juju Smith-Schuster and is now suspended again.

From a pure talent standpoint, it's at least a first-round pick. If not the Percy Harvin compensation, our first, third, and a fourth. I know he's going to be 31, but his production is over the past few years is unmatched. The team I'd keep an eye on is the one that took Bryant of the Raiders. the fourth, 24th, and 27th picks of the drafts. They have the most draft capital. Wouldn't it be something if the Raiders took that 27th pick they got from Dallas for Amari Cooper and turned that into Antonio Brown?

Because from a pure receiver standpoint, that'd be an upgrade. Yeah, that's an interesting way to look at it because, you know, in the moment I thought Amari Cooper went too expensively in the moment. And the production that he had once he got there, he was a significant. part of Dallas ending up, you know, winning the NFC East. And it turned out okay for them. But the way you just described it, if they got the pick back from Dallas to get Antonio Brown, that's a hell of a trade. Although I actually think Cooper's better than most people think in terms of potential and maybe one of those guys in the right spot that will develop

into a true number one. Do you feel the same way or not? He's shown some glimpses of that in Dallas because the offense, he added a different dimension to the offense, but I don't know if that's grading on a curve because Dallas was going without the security blanket, Jason Whitney, and really did nothing to address the receiver position in a significant way before him. It was more subtraction as opposed to addition. But, yeah, he was the fourth overall pick for a reason. He had a thousand-yard season his first two years. His third year was a down year in Grud.

didn't seem to really know how to use him, but he looks like he's going to be a significant player in Dallas, but the problem is you're going to have to pay him more than Sammy Watkins to stay in Dallas because Dallas was one of the teams in the mix for Sammy Watkins before he signed that bloated $16 million per year contract to go to Kansas City. Now, I know Brown says he won't play unless there's more guaranteed money in presumption. with that also mean a raise, so you're not going to be getting Brown for the remaining 39 million over the three years left on his contract alone, and that's a factor which complicates things with the trade. Because there's one thing to give up capital. It's another

thing to have to adjust the contract when you thought you were getting the guy for what would be a reasonable rate considering his production. Yeah, makes sense. I want to talk about the quarterbacks here for a moment before we get to the Redskins. To me, Joe Flacko to Denver's a perfect spot for him. I think most people would say, John Elway, this one's got to work, I mean, because of all of the misses at the position for him. What are they going to do with Case Keenham and what's your sense of how it will work out for Flacco in Denver? They'll trade him for a ham sandwich if they can just because he's got $7 million of his salary already guaranteed. And if they can get anything,

a conditional pick for some team to take that off their hands and lessen the dead money, they'll do that. There's no way you're going to keep your starting quarterback at 18-a-half-million, your back up at 18. I suspect they ultimately cut him and hoped that Keenham signs for a deal which is equal to or more to that $7 million so they can get the money back because the guarantee has an offset. It's weird that L.O.A. is great as a quarterback,

outside of basically landing Peyton Manning seems to be clueless in finding one. That's kind of ironic to me. I wouldn't touch the contract on Flacco restructure it, just because if he doesn't work out, you can walk away at any point after this season with no dead money or residual cap charges. So just take the whole $18.5 million as a hit. Is Jacksonville the leader for Foles? And how will that go down with Philadelphia?

It sure seems like It all signs are pointing to it since You've got coaches down there Who are familiar with them And they have a glaring need for a Quarterback and they are a team Notwithstanding the implosion this year That probably thinks they're a quarterback away

From getting back to where they were in 2017 In AFC Championship appearance I think Philadelphia may be Doing a little overkill if they're going to franchise them because there are too many things that can go wrong. If I'm Flack, if I represent Flacco, I tell Philadelphia, you stick that franchise tag on me. I'm going to sign it immediately,

and I am going to tell teams I'm not signing a long-term deal so you can potentially get stuck with me for $25 million. First, if they put the tag on them, they've got to clear all that room to be able to accommodate it because they have to be under the cap when the league year starts, even if it was just for a day and they traded him. But I would do everything in my power to discourage. them putting the tag on him if I represented him.

And if I had to play for a guarantee, $25 million, then hit the open market next year, so be it. Just imagine if they couldn't move him, and they have him on the roster at $25 million, and Carson once making $4, that's a huge headache. I just think I wouldn't risk it. I'd just take the presumably compensatory third-round pick in 2020 and go from there and call it at it.

It is a risk. And, you know, some of the way you were describing that, there are similarities to the cousins thing here with one exception, and that was there wasn't another starting quarterback here until they traded for Alex Smith. And then you got into that conversation. Would they actually risk franchising him again? And it would have been a crazy risk.

What do you make of what's going on in Minnesota? Kirk's very active on social media to the point where I think it really feels, and I was a Kirk Cousins fan. I thought the Redskins should have gotten a deal done at the end of the 2015 season in 2016, and I think there was a deal there to be had, and at the worst case, should have traded him after the 2016 season to San Francisco or to Los Angeles when they could have gotten significant compensation back. But what do you make of what happened there this year? And his situation there moving forward? he was set up for failure in a couple of ways.

One, if they didn't get back to the championship game, the season was going to be a failure no matter what. I know no one would expect them not to make the playoffs, which makes it a colossal failure. But there was huge pressure on him to begin with because Case Keenham got into an NFC championship game appearance. And two, I don't think the loss of Tony Sparano, who passed away unexpectedly before the season,

and start the line coach is really his his loss was so great that I don't think people would recognize the magnitude of not having him around particularly with such a shaky offensive line yeah I think Cousins is just generally frustrated and is venting right now is just chopping at the bent to prove that he is worth that contract next year so we'll see if the Vikings bounced back and are a playoff team in 2019 Let's get to the Redskins here for a moment. The first question I'm going to ask you is sort of dovetailing off the Antonio Brown thing, but in a different way. Has there ever been any consideration between the league and the union about some sort of an exception made for a player in Alex Smith's situation where he was signed to a big deal and then has a catastrophic, potentially career-ending injury with respect to salary cap relief?

No, I don't think that's ever come up. I know the NBA has a disabled player exception for a long-term injury, but that's a soft cap with numerous exceptions. NFL has a hard cap. The Oxniff situation rarely comes into play, and I tell you, there's one fan base that wouldn't be too sympathetic to the Redskins for begging for relief, and that's Seattle, because they had the same thing happen with Cam Chancellor

who suffered what appears to be occurring in the redskins. neck injury in 2017, a few months after signing an extension. So they had to carry him last year because the guarantee for this year would have accelerated into last year's cap. They let the money become guaranteed. The 5.2 of his salary for 2019 become guaranteed. And they're going to deal with the cap ramifications this year, which is the second season removed from the injury.

So I don't think I think any type of appeal would fall on deaf ears. All right, with respect to the Redskins, Bruce Allen thinks he's close. Dan Snyder, they think they're close, close to what I have no idea. This is a team that was six and three, but on the verge of being six and four in their game against Houston with a difficult schedule the rest of the way. I don't know personally if Alex Smith had stayed healthy, if the roster had been healthy, if they would have won nine or ten games and ended up in the playoffs. I think that would have still been a difficult feat for them. now they're in this position where I and others have advocated blow it up. You know, take all of the Alex Smith hit in 2019, you know, dump all of the salaries like Norman and Zach Brown and Vernon Davis and trade players that you can get picks back for, a Ryan Carrigan, maybe even a Trent Williams, and let's build this thing from scratch. Now, Joel, to be honest with you, I don't think any fan trusts the current organization and the front office to build, you know,

in any way, let alone from the ground up. But assuming that that option is not an option, the blow-up option, the nuclear option as it's been described, because I don't think it is they think they're close to something. What's the best way for them to handle their roster and put themselves into a position where they can do something in free agency? Well, if you're going to go that route, you should probably go find Sam Hinky, bring him in.

He can trust the process like. he started with Sixers, which is now bearing fruit. But putting that aside, I think realistically you're probably going to make a couple of cuts. Zach Brown, to me, seems like the most obvious. He wasn't even starting the last quarter of the year. So you'll pick up $5.75 million of cap room from him. Vernon Davis, I would probably see if he'd take significant pay cut, if not let him go. you would pick up basically 5 million of cap room from him that way.

Stacey McGee, the injury kind of took him out of the mix. I'd cut him as well. You'd get about 2.3 million in cap room from him. Just leave Alex's contract alone, deal with it next year. I'd probably restructure either Trent Williams or Ryan Carrigan, depending upon which one of those two you picked, I wouldn't do both. And if you didn't want to add voidable years to create more cap room, you're going to get close to $5 million, whichever one you choose from that standpoint.

And then you've got to figure out, do you want to extend your Pro Bowl caliber offensive guard, which isn't going to be expensive? Brandon Sher. Yeah, Brandon Sheriff. If you've got a big cap number on him because of the fifth year option, which is about $12.5 million, but depending upon how you restructured it, you could create around $7 million, $7.5 million in cap room,

but you're probably going to have to pay him in the Andrew Norwell, notwithstanding his injury. So you're talking like $13 million a year on the extension, but there's a way for you guys to get to about $40 million of working cap capital for the start of free agency. Yeah, I mean, I think you just did it, basically. Brandon, you did. I think we just went from somewhere in the neighborhood of 20, and you just picked up another 15 to 18, you know, somewhere in that neighborhood. But the sheriff thing is interesting because they're delusional with respect to what people think about this place. I often think that.

You've got to get sheriff done now, because if you get into a season that ends up being a double-digit loss season, sheriff may decide, why don't I just go be an unrestricted free agent? and go to a better place. These are things that I would think they've got to think about with a branded sheriff who is a good, solid, young piece for them. You stick enough money in front of someone, you get them to sign an extension. So even if they have thoughts of, yeah, I'll go play for what's a better regarded organization.

I'm convinced from my age and days that if you had a team in Siberia, that you could attract players, you could pay enough money. The problem is that they, under Bruce Allen, they haven't overpaid like they did before he got there. You know, they've been, I've described it recently, Joel, is they've done a masterful job at getting great deals on average players, you know, over the last, you know, several years with Bruce Allen in free agency. With respect to quarterback, what do you think they'll do? What I would do, and I don't know, and you probably wouldn't be successful, my first two calls would be to Indian see what Chris Ballard would want for Gagobie Brissette. I would imagine it would be more than I'd want to give.

I wouldn't give any more than the second round pit, Jimmy Garofalo went to because he was Garofalo's backup. And then I'd call the 49ers, and I know you don't want to deal with Kyle Shanahan for Nick Mullins because he's pretty much expendable now. And for a guy who started the young practice squad and basically had no experience, he wasn't half bad. And he's cheap.

He signed a minimum salary contract. I might kick the tires on Keenham once he's released. I try to pursue Teddy Bridgewater, but there will probably be multiple teams involved in that one. If push came to shove and I had to settle for Ron Fitzpatrick for a stopgap for a year or two, maybe I'd do that. But I'm probably going to use my first round pick on a quarterback as well because you've got to get someone young in there because you have to assume Alex is never playing again.

You know, the Mullins thing is really interesting. He did play well, and he was coached well, too, you know, by Kyle Shanahan. And there are a lot of similarities in what Jay Gruden runs, you know, West Coast-wise. And Mullins, to me, in watching him this year, looks like the kind of quarterback that Jay Gruden would coach well. But I think he feels that Colt McCoy is that quarterback, too, Joel. I think he's chomping at the bit to get a season with Colt McCoy, which as we know, historically, Colt McCoy doesn't play a full season even when given an opportunity. That's part of the problem there. Yeah, well, there was the thought that Gruden didn't see that bigger difference between Cuffins and McCoy, so maybe you're going to find out. And you just bring Josh Johnson back and go for a low-cost other quarterback

to bring in for depth as well and let me and see if he can prove his uh colt mccoy theory to be right um based on what you're hearing um among your contacts do you think the redskins actually were legitimately interested in joe flacco per the reports i was a little surprised at that just because of the cap problems uh we're not necessarily the cap problems but trying to take on an $18 million salary for Flacco, given you don't have a ton of cap room right now, that would eat up practically most of it before the suggested maneuvers I made. I find that to be maybe wishful thinking. Yeah, me too.

Last one, and I'll let you run, and I appreciate the time. When free agency starts, just take a guess on what the big storylines will be, things that will happen quickly and in a big way? I think you're going to see someone like Trey Flowers who isn't going to get franchised from everything I'm hearing in New England. Be a guy that's in high demand because all the pass rushers are going to, young ones will get franchiseed, which is going to push him up to scale. And you've got three teams of New England ties that need a pass rusher.

John Robinson cut his teeth in New England. the Titans GM and the head coach in Detroit, Matt Patricia, and now Miami, Brian Flores, both need a pass rush or if his agent can get at least two of those teams and leverage them off against each other. That's how you get one of those deals where people's jaws drop. Thank you, Joel. As always, I really enjoyed catching up with you. Appreciate the time. Oh, likewise. Thanks for having me. Love catching up with Joel Corey. Smart guy always has been a good radio television guest really knows the league. I've always enjoyed conversations with people like Joel that really understand the thought

process, you know, from both an economical and sort of an emotional standpoint with players that he's represented and franchises that he's worked with. It's very interesting the Nick Mullins thing, because I have not mentioned that, other than to say at one point during the season that I thought Nick Mullins was very impressive at times in San Francisco and with Garoppolo coming back, there's really not necessarily a place for him. And he's going to be a free agent. I think it's at the end of next season, an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season. But they could easily get Nick Mullins right now for next to nothing. But he is, you know, he's one of those guys that looks like Colt McCoy. You know,

he plays sort of like Colt McCoy. He's got some mobility to him. He's a quick thrower. You know, he's a, he's a West Coast guy playing, you know, in a zone run scheme for Kyle Shanahan. It's not necessarily the run scheme here, but a lot of the stuff that Jay runs is similar to the stuff that the Shanahan's ran. And, you know, but again, like, I don't, here's the thing, is Bruce Allen making the decision or is Jay Gruden ultimately going to be the final say on this? From my standpoint, I don't want anybody but Jay Gruden to be the final say. on who they go with the quarterback next year. Now, I don't trust that Colt McCoy can win 10 games or nine games with a great team around him, let alone the team they're going to have around him next year,

offensively in particular. I just don't think he's that kind of quarterback. Forget the health thing, which is a coin flip, right? It's 50-50 that he'll survive a season, maybe even lower or less than 50-50, that he'll survive and play 16 games in a season. probably not going to happen, all right, with Colt McCoy. I just don't think if he were fully healthy. We've seen him on a team without a lot of offensive weapons,

and that was towards the end of that 2014 season when he was facing the Rams and couldn't pick up a first down, got shut out 24 to nothing. We've seen Colt McCoy healthy look pretty bad at times. He's a great guy. He's competitive. he's a playmaker. He's got some, you know, some moxie to him in the way he plays,

which had really, I thought there was a chance when Alex Smith got hurt that they actually would perform better offensively with Colt McCoy. I thought that Jay Gruden, if injected with Truth Serum in the moment, after the Houston game and before the Thanksgiving Day game against the Cowboys would tell you, now the offense is going to start running. I really think that Jay felt that way. And you know what? In Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, at times the offense looked pretty good compared to the way it had looked in recent weeks. The problem, of course, is that Colt McCoy

also turned it over a bunch of times in that Dallas game on Thanksgiving Day. With or without the turnovers, I don't know that they were going to win that game anyway, but he threw three picks in the game. You know, in a game in which he also threw for 275 yards and had some big plays and some key drives that actually gave them the lead, if you recall, early in the third quarter. On that touchdown pass, I think it was to Trey Quinn that gave him the lead. So I just, my gut tells me that there's a bit of a, here's the problem. Jay Gruden's a get along to go along to get along guy. This is what we've talked about for a while here.

So if Bruce Allen says to him, hey, Teddy Bridgewater or Nick Mullins or, you know, we're thinking about Daniel Jones at 15, we think he'll go there and we think he's a starter. I don't know that that's what Jay wants. I think Jay wants a shot at Colt McCoy in 2019. If this is going to be his last year as a head coach in the National Football League, he will tell you, I think, privately, I don't need Teddy Bridgewater. I don't need Nick Mullins. I don't need Ryan Fitzpatrick. I don't need to trade for Joe Flacco. I got our guy.

We're going to be fine. Get me some speed on the outside. Get me some better blocking at the tight end position. Get Bill Callahan out of my way in terms of running the offense, running the running game. I'm going to have Kevin O'Connell much more involved. And we're going to be okay. I think that's what Jay wants. I really do.

Now, whether or not he will get his preference, that's the question here in the offseason as it relates to the offense and the quarterback position. That's really it. Bruce, if the Redskins inquired about Joe Flacco, that was not a Jay Gruden pushed initiative. All right? That was what Alex Smith was a year ago.

That was an upper management. We got a sign a, big-name quarterback. We're on the wrong end of this PR battle with the quarterback that just signed in Minnesota. We feel we're right about that, but we need to make a big signing here. We got a team that's ready to win, Jay. We got 20 players coming off injured reserve. We can win with a real quarterback. And Jay just said, okay, sure, Alex Smith, I can make that work. That's Jay. Go along to get along. Jay's not going to confront. He's not going to push back. It's why Dan and Bruce love him.

It's why they love him. There's no pushback there. So if Bruce says, hey, we got a chance to get Teddy Bridgewater on a really good deal, we're going to go ahead and do that. Jay's going to say, all right, like Teddy, we'll make it work. My offense, work with him. But what Jay really wants is Jay wants a full season with Colt McCoy as a starting quarterback. And he might be on the verge of getting that for the first time.

and it took a catastrophic injury to Alex Smith to make that happen, and it's going to happen in 2019. That is my prediction. I do think ultimately that, first of all, the free agent quarterbacks are probably not going to want to come here. The free agent quarterbacks that might want to come here, the older guys, Ryan Fitzpatrick, et cetera, are not any better even to Bruce and to Dan's eyes than Colt McCoy,

or they're going to go rookie quarterback, and Jay will be able to sell them on the fact that the rookie quarterback isn't ready to play in 2019 at the beginning of the season. That's why we've got to go with Colton. That's what I think's going to happen. If we end up with a different starting quarterback than Colt McCoy in 2019, and Colt McCoy's healthy, understand this, that was not Jay's number one preference.

Unless there's a young quarterback in the draft that Jay, falls in love with, but I don't even know if they've got Jay evaluating quarterbacks. They didn't have them look at any of the quarterbacks last year. They fired that trade on January 31st, and Jay said on the air, on 980, never even looked at the quarterbacks in the draft. Wasn't asked to look at the quarterbacks in the draft. I do believe that that is really close to fact. If Colt McCoy isn't the starter on opening day 2019 and he's, he's not.

he's healthy, then Jay didn't get what he wanted as the head coach of the football team and as the offensive lead on the football team. The other thing, too, as it relates to the things that Joel talked about, we've gone through a similar exercise in the past of, you know, if you cut Zach Brown and you cut Vernon Davis and you cut Stacey McGee and you restructure a couple of things here and there, you can get this situation to, you know, somewhere in the next. neighborhood of 35 to 40 million in cap space entering free agency. Now what they do with that is another question. But they're going to have some dry powder here if they do the right things and

things that makes sense. Right. Zach Brown's not a fit for this team. I love his talent. To me, he's the only guy that runs fast on defense in that front seven where it's noticeable. You know, there are a couple of other guys. That guy Casanova showed a quick twitch, you know, speed. McPhee at times looked to be fast. But apparently, Zach Brown is not a good fit for this particular locker room. Vernon Davis gave us all he gave us, but really at this point, being able to save roughly $5 million in cap space, it's probably in the best interest of the team to move on from Vernon Davis. Josh Norman's the big one. You could save about $8 to $9 million, somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.6 million if you cut Josh Norman. But you look at this roster, and if you're

you put yourself in their shoes, the shoes that believe, that have legs and a body attached to the shoes that think that they're close to something, well, who's going to play cornerback if you don't have Josh Norman? But I love the way Cooley always has said, and he's always said it. Josh isn't a man corner. We play too much man for Josh Norman to be worth that money. If we were a pure zone team, then maybe he's worth the money, but probably even not now at this point in his career.

And we know that Josh has said some of the right things here recently. Josh wants to get paid $11 million next year by the Redskins and stay here. Because no one else is going to offer him that kind of a deal. Nobody. But you could save $8.5 million somewhere in that neighborhood if you release Josh Norman. But there's a way to get to $40 million and then it comes down to, all right, how will Bruce really spend it? Is he really going to go after some big names or are we going to be treading at the bottom of the free agent list?

You know, not in March, but in late March and early April, signing average players to great deals, you know, that kind of thing. Charles Clay just got released. Didn't he just get released by Buffalo? He may have signed to somebody, actually, the tight end that some people like. But, you know, Adonte Moncrief, now that he has failed since Indy, you know, and looks, you know, decent for the price. Maybe we can get him for a bargain. You know, personally, and I mentioned this, this is my number one guy for this team to look at because of the way they view it. You know, if you have big money and you can get a real game changer on defense or offense, I would do it. Now, on offense, there isn't a game changer really in free agency at the wide receiver position.

There just isn't. So the biggest need you have, you're not going to more likely than not, be able to address in free agency. What I'd love at a free agency, especially if you're, you're going to go quarterback potentially or corner at 15, I want an edge rusher with speed. And I mentioned this on the podcast yesterday, and for those that didn't hear it, but are listening right now, Shane Ray would be a target for me. He has had some injuries here in recent years. It's the perfect kind of Bruce player, with one exception. He's actually a true speed edge rusher. All right. He was highly productive in those first two years in Denver out of Missouri. I love

him in that draft coming out of Missouri. He's a game changer if he's healthy. You know, it's a big if. He's had some wrist surgeries, but he is a true edge three, four outside rusher. And you can probably get him in this market with all of the edge rushers that are out there that are going to be expensive. You can get a guy like Shane Ray for a Bruce kind of a deal. That's what you're probably going to end up with, even with all the cap space, even with all of it. Uh, um, I want to tell you about Window Nation. Wind Donation. I talked to Eric yesterday at Window Nation.

Loves this podcast. Big sports fan, D.C. sports fan, big skins fan, Maryland fan, et cetera. Harley and Aaron are two of the best entrepreneurs I have ever met. They took nothing and built it into one of the biggest companies in their space, Windows. Windonation has installed windows in my home twice over the last 10 years. I ask that you give them an opportunity to do it for you as well. Now right now is the time of the year. I mean, we're coming out of winter, hopefully soon here,

where smart shoppers know that the best deals exist. And right now, through the end of the weekend, you're going to get a buy two, get two free from Window Nation. And also an opportunity to have Windonation pay your heating bill until your new windows are installed. That's the deal right now. Buy two windows, get two windows free. No limit on that.

Buy four, get four free, buy six, get six free, etc. with no limit. Plus, you'll get 0% financing for five full years. You won't pay interest until 2024 if you buy windows from Window Nation right now. There's no risk in having them come out to your home and give you a free estimate. They'll send their best. If you tell them that I told you to call at 86690 Nation, they're going to send their best salespeople out there. They will tell you what you need and they'll tell you what you don't need. They'll go room by room and they'll say this particular room you need a couple of windows this room you're actually good they're not going to oversell and they're not they're not overbearing at all the window nation people are great when they

come into your home and when they install windows in your home they do it in the least disruptive manner possible they go room by room until your new windows are installed all the while paying your heating bill call 86690 nation or go to windonation.com that's 86690 nation or wind donation dot com By the end of this weekend, get two free windows for every two you buy. No limit, zero percent financing for five full years. And if you buy a house full of windows, they'll pay your heating bill until all of your windows are installed. That's 86690 Nation or windownation.com. Tell them that I sent you. A couple of other things to get to finish up the show here today. Did you see what happened to the AAF, the new football league? They essentially were out of money yesterday until a big investor stepped up and invested $250 million. Apparently last week, first week after week one of the new season, they could not make payroll. They could not pay the players. Apparently they told players and agents, oh, we've got a technical glitch here.

Don't worry about it. We're going to be okay. It's just a technical glitch. But what they were waiting for was a big investment, a $250 million investment to come in. to save the league after one week. These football leagues that try to compete with the NFL in the offseason, it's tough, man. It is an expensive sport. Think about football compared to almost any other sport, the number of players that you have to have,

the equipment that you have to have, the travel, and what's involved when you do travel, everything that you've got to take with you when you travel, the facilities that you need to have to prepare adequately for all of the employees, your players that you have, the organization that you need to put around that roster to support them in every way possible. And yes, they've got some television deals. But some of the crowds have been paltry so far. But it's tough, man. I go back to remembering the World Football League in the 70s.

They had a payroll issue multiple times where they weren't paying players. And they signed big name players, as the USFL did. In the 70s, the World Football League said, signed Paul Warfield and Larry Zonka, some big names out of the NFL. They signed to play in that World Football League and it lasted a year, I think. And then the USFL signed some big name players too, especially coming out of college football, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, gave him legitimacy right from the beginning. Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie were major sports stars. They were college football players, but they were massive brands already, in part because you had to play more than a year

or two of college football. Herschel Walker, to me, along with Bo Jackson, are the two greatest college football players I've ever watched. Nobody came on the scene like Herschel did with the expectations that he had when he got to Georgia as a freshman. I love that SEC story thing that they run on the SEC network, and they run them on ESPN, the story of Herschel Walker from the get going just what a folk hero he basically started as. Those are the two guys, by the way, in terms of the greatest athletes in the history of that sport to me, Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson. Doug Flutie was a star. Boston College is a contender. The famous game in the Orange Bowl against Miami, the Doug Flutie Hail Mary Pass to Gerard Phelan. He was a star, Heisman

trophy winner running around wearing jersey number 22 at quarterback. Always looks strange, but he was a great player. But this league is going to have its challenges. But apparently on the verge of folding up or very close to folding up, not making payroll. Look, those of you that have been in early stage businesses before, you understand the challenges of cash flow and paying people and sometimes having to write those checks out of your own checkbook. Well, this is a big football league. You just don't write a check to three or four employees to make payroll until your investors come in or until revenues generated. This is a much bigger deal, and I am sure that the challenges they have are similar to any early stage startup. And they were probably in a much more dire situation than anybody even knew or had any idea of,

but they were counting on this one investor to come through and write a big check, and he did. $250 million worth. And look, this league was well funded to begin with. They had big time investors in this league. They, I would love to know, this is an area of interest for me, are especially, you know, early stage, you know, entrepreneurial ventures. I'd love to know what their burn rate is, what their monthly spend rate is, what they are burning in cash on a monthly basis.

I bet it is a number that no one could fathom, because you just think about it, and you think about the, and they're only paying these guys, $250,000, I think, per player over three years. So, you know, you're not talking, and you're talking about a little bit more than $80,000 a year. So there aren't big salaries, but still, you've got 50-something players on each of these teams. Interesting to always consider that stuff. One other thing I wanted to mention, if you have any interest in the Tim Donagie story, the referee that was accused of fixing games and then essentially, you know, had his career end as an NBA referee and was cleared in many ways of actually fixing games by the league and by follow-up investigations, but was betting on games he called, so therefore his career ended.

There's a story, and it's a lengthy story written by Scott Eden on ESP. p.n.com. And it's one of those stories where when you start to read it, you cannot stop. And no matter how long it is, and it's a long story, you never get to that point where you're checking to see how much story is left, like how much more of this until the end? Because it's so riveting. Especially if you're like me, you know, if you've been a gambler, you're interested by these stories. The bottom line is, is Tim Donagie did indeed fix games. He did conspire to fix NBA games, which was not a stretch for anybody that followed the original story. If he's betting on games that he's involved in, he's involved. You cannot separate a large wager from a chance to control

the outcome of that large wager by just somehow compartmentalizing. This is my big wager on tonight's game over here, but here's my job as a referee. It's not going to influence the way I call this game. It's bullshit. Of course, it always influenced the way he called the games. If you believed that there wasn't some sort of conspiracy to fix these games, but this story clearly lays out a conspiracy with so many people involved. Most of these people being from that Philadelphia, South Jersey area, you know, the Wilmington, Philadelphia, South Jersey area, a lot of these referees came from that area. It's like the referee cradle, NBA referee cradle. All of these guys, so many of these guys are from that area. They grew up and it's, it's the Donagies, his father was a long time college

basketball referee. A lot of big time referees came from that area of the country. But the names involved, you know, James Baba Sheep Batista, Tommy Martino, Jack Cancannon, Pete Rhino Ruggieri, all the names, Phil Scala. And you, and, you, I, and, you, I, and, you, I, and, you, and, you, It's a fascinating story that tells you when it started and how much he was getting paid and which games were influenced and how he influenced them. The bottom line is I always felt that the thing a referee could control more than anything else was a total in a game and over under number. More fouls you call, the more free throws get shot, the slower the game goes, the more possessions you end up, more chances for more points. that always made the most sense to me in basketball that a referee would bet if you were fixing a game you would fix the total, the over or the under. That's not what was happening here. They were definitely betting sides based on games that Donagie was working and Donagie influencing him by calling more fouls most of the time on the team that was playing the team that they had money on.

Now, I just urge you to read it. There's so much to it if you're interested in this stuff. but here was my single biggest takeaway from this story. Tim Donagy was a dummy of the highest order. This is the biggest takeaway for me. The group that was conspiring with Donagy to fix these NBA games in the late 2000s were making and betting $500,000 to a million dollars per game. Tim Donagy was making between two and five thousand,

and $5,000 per game that these guys were betting on. Are you kidding me? This guy was taking the biggest risk out of all of them. He was getting paid peanuts. What an idiot. If you read this story or if you've read the story, and that's not one of the big takeaways, especially if you really understand this stuff to a certain degree,

these guys are betting a half million, they're spreading a half million dollars to a million, million dollars across multiple casinos, offshore, Vegas, etc. To get down on a side on a game that Tim Donagy is working and is going to call more fouls on the opponent. He's going to try to fix the outcome of the game. And Donagy was getting between 2,000 and 5,000 per correct pick. The pick had to win. And he was getting a tiny fraction of what these guys were making.

Are you kidding me? what an idiot. I mean, how did it not occur to him at any point in time to ask, what are you guys spreading around? How much are you wagering on these games that I'm helping you fix, that I'm fixing for you? To find out what it was that they were winning on the games that he was winning on, which was a significant percentage of the games that they targeted, that he targeted, that he told them. They had a system of he'd call up and there were, two brothers of one of the guys that was involved in the conspiracy.

So let me start over on this piece. So one of the guys involved in the conspiracy working with Donagy, Donagy's basically giving them information on the game that he thinks he can influence so that this group can wager on the game. And the call would come early in the day. And to protect themselves during the call, Donagy would basically mention one of two names, because one of the guys had two brothers,

one Johnny who lived in Jersey, and the other Chuck, who lived in the area they grew up in, in Delaware. And so if Donagy in the course of the conversation mentioned Johnny, then you had to bet on the road team. If he mentioned the brother Chuck, then you bet on the home team. They had this system set up. It was not necessarily, like, impossible to figure out, but they weren't going to get Donagie on the phone saying,

hey, tonight it's the Celtics plus the number, or it's the Sixers minus the number. It was Chuck or Johnny. Anyway, you've got to read the story. It basically, there's so much to it, but Tim Donagy was clearly involved in fixing games where his calls had impacts on the point spread in these games, the winners and losers of these games in many cases,

and for the group that was making millions, on this stuff. He was getting paid between two and $5,000 per game. That was it. That was it. More than anything else, and there are a lot of takeaways from this story, that was the one that shocked me. You really come away with the sense that Donagie was a moron, a moron that got taken advantage of in a major way, but it was really because he was too stupid to figure out how much money they were making. He should have demanded no less than 30 to 40% of whatever the winnings were for each of those games. I mean, he should have been getting paid a couple hundred thousand dollars on each of these games that he fixed, each one that he did, not two to five thousand dollars. Read the story. Well written, well researched, investigated. Um,

For those of us that followed this story way back in the day, there was never any doubt that Tim Donagy, if he was betting on games that he was refereeing, that he was influenced by the bets that he made. I mean, that's obvious to anybody. But this investigation and report lays out in detail how they conspired to fix NBA games. And I've got one other thought on this, too,

because I think a lot of people with the legalization of sports betting will say that the least, legalization of sports betting will eliminate all of this as possibilities because you'll have more people betting, more people keen to, you know, strange calls or strange events and games and trust me on this. Betting's been, you know, a massive thing in our country on betting on sports for a long time now. And the people that I have been betting for years are much more, much more savvy and experienced

in this stuff than all of the new. people that are going to come in and bet now that it's legal and available and accessible to anybody. It's not going to decrease the probability that something like this happens. The truth of the matter is these things don't really happen that much, in part because people have bet the sport illegally and have always made this kind of thing, they've made aware these kinds of discrepancies to... places like Las Vegas who have then worked closely with the leagues as well and the sports.

That's not going to change. You're going to continue to work with these leagues. The best preventer of these things are the people that take these bets. They don't want to be run out of business by somebody who's got inside information. And that's the last thought on this. You know, I've had this conversation before about Ted Leonis and him basically pushing dope. He's basically become a dope dealer when it comes to sports betting. He's completely either disingenue.

ingenuous or naive beyond description when he talks about this big opportunity that all of the geeks are going to have to take down the house now that sports betting is legal. It's a joke. But one of the things that comes out of this story is something that I've always contended, which is the people that have made money over the years don't do it with analytics and numbers and statistics. That's not how they do it. They do it with information. All right. Like, hey, Tim Donagy, the referee in the game tonight, He's involved in a conspiracy, and the Celtics are the side that they've bet on tonight. That's information. And over the years, there's been a lot of these cases and probably many others that we've never heard of in small college conferences like Conference USA and the Sunbelt.

I can remember many years, many years where those Sunbelt games, you know, somebody like North Texas started as a three-point favorite, By the time kickoff came around, they were a 14-point favorite. And there was just sharp money coming in from everywhere on North Texas. And at the end of the first half, it was 42 to 7, North Texas. And you're like, somebody knew something there. But anyway, enjoy the day off, if you had the day off. This was easy for us to do today. Thanks to Joel Corey for coming in.

Back tomorrow, Tommy will join us as well. Have a great day.