The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Todd McShay and Daniel Jeremiah on the Latest NFL Draft Rumblings, Plus Reaction to the Anonymous NBA Player Poll

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Russillo shares his Tales From the Couch, covering Nuggets-Timberwolves Game 2, the Grizzlies' Game 2 win vs. the Lakers, the Bucks righting the ship vs. the Heat, and the Suns evening up their series with the Clippers (0:54), before Ryen and Ceruti react to The Athletic's anonymous NBA player poll (26:15). Next Ryen is joined by ESPN’s Todd McShay and Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network to discuss top NFL draft prospects, which QBs could slide, fake draft scenarios, and more (36:52). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:19:21). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Todd McShay and Daniel Jeremiah Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's episode of the pod we're going to get in the war room with todd mcshay and daniel jeremiah we're going to run through a bunch of scenarios talk players but i think the best stuff is at the very end when they both give us some nuggets on what could be long nights because they can't find a landing spot for two of the other quarterbacks in this first round projection. So that's good stuff. Tales from the Couch. Going to recap all the games from last night and also tell you about the one series that's already haunting

me in the first round. Why do you watch all these games if you can't get a read on one of these? Also, the anonymous player poll from The Athletic. We go over that with our favorite thing ever. One of the results of who you would build your team around if you're starting from scratch.

Life advice. Paternity leave feedback a little bit too. So we go deep on that one. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything?

Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes.

Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We start with Tales from the Couch,

playoff edition. Wasn't quite sure what I was going to do because at one point last night I was like, alright, are any of these games going to be good? But actually the LA game ended up being somewhat in doubt, which we'll get to. And I think I'll start with Denver only because this felt like, oh, am I even going to talk

about this game tomorrow? It's 64-49 at the half. It felt worse. You'll have moments where a team is far superior in the first half than just a couple buckets made there late, and you're like, all right, it's only 15. But I don't know that you had a ton of hope if you were a Minnesota fan. Here's a number for you that played out to the eyes as well.

17 fast break points for the Nuggets in game one. They had 19 fast break points at the half of game two last night. So it was just like, wow, you guys got your ass kicked, and now you have no energy coming back in game two. Like there's still enough talent on Minnesota that you'd think at least it would be kind of just with the ebb and flow of competitive basketball, that there'd be a stretch where they would look a little bit better. And that was actually the third quarter. But if we sum up the rest of the first half, the Carl Anthony Towns piece of this is pretty disappointing. You know how I feel if you've listened to this pod. He was 0-4 with two points, four turnovers in the first half. There's been multiple defenders on Towns, whether it's

defensive assignments on who's guarding him or just a crowd. I think they do a really good job of preventing him from getting any kind of space because if Towns is going to try to take you off the dribble, every now and then, I mean, look, he's still a talented offensive player. There's going to be some things that work out, but it just doesn't work out consistently enough with the package of his game. Sometimes I look at him and I'm like,

this guy's like a spot-up five. That's not what he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be a guy that saves your ass when things aren't working out. I think he's having a really hard time, and that's not what he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be a guy that saves your ass when things aren't working out. And I think he's having a really hard time, whether it's, you know, not you don't respect his drive because his drive isn't quick enough. Like as a defensive player, like sometimes I'll see guys crowd the shit out of a really good perimeter player. And you're like, actually, you know, you're screwing yourself up and you're screwing up the back line of the defense because you think you're putting all this pressure, which at times, when Drew Holiday wants to do it, okay, great, because we know what you're doing. But there's other times where you'll see a lesser defensive

player play off of a great driver because that way you can kind of cut off the angle a little bit. Now, different coaches have different philosophies, different players. What do you want to do? No, we want to disrupt it. We don't want to give him a clear passing lane. We want to do all of those things. But your guy better be able to hold up and not get beat every time off of the dribble. Where with Towns, like he'll get somebody every now and then because he can kind of put it on the deck. And he's a very crafty, like skilled offensive player. But the move itself is not sudden enough.

You know, you don't see Towns take off and go, oh, my God. It's like, hey, he's about to go. Let's all figure it out. So they're using multiple defenders. There's different defensive assignments where there'll be smaller players on them and Towns doesn't really know what to do. He had Jeff Green on him and Green knew exactly what was going to happen. He's going to back me down. I'm going to time this. I'm going to get the charge. And Towns is really frustrated. So yeah, it was somewhat disappointing. But if you're trying to find anything positive from last night, it's that third quarter. I will summarize what that third quarter may or may not mean,

but at least there was one. 40 points in the quarter for Minnesota. They shoot 81% from the floor. Anthony Edwards had 13 points. And at that point, he's carrying this Minnesota team. And, look, for all the Rudy stuff that goes on, he was all right last night. He just was. He had some moments.

He provided something. I think he was at least consistently enough. He just was. He had some moments. He provided something. I think he was at least consistently enough. I mean, he's always engaged. It's not really ever an effort thing with Rudy, but you just know sometimes it's going to look really, really bad. And he's not even necessarily getting exposed in that one-five switch that you worry about all the time. Because again, with Denver, it's a completely different animal with Jokic essentially being the seven-foot center point guard. So it's not like the John Morant, let's get everybody out of the way. Chris Paul in his prime, get everybody out of the way.

I'm going, I'm going to beat him off the dribble, and then everything's going to be screwed up behind it, where we can see that Rudy can get exposed, especially when we saw teams go small against some Dallas Clippers the previous two times when he was with Utah, where it looked pretty bad. So I don't even think this is like a bad Rudy game necessarily. But the third quarter was Ant, and then I'm thinking like, wait, how tired is Anthony Edwards going to be?

And they brought him back at like 1041 of the fourth quarter, and then he scored 14 points in the fourth quarter. So that's 27 in the second half. That's why we talk about this guy so much, because after a stretch where it looked like Ant, like game one, 6-15, 18 points, he had 19 against Oklahoma City. That game was not really even in question ever,

but he had that 9.3 for 17 game against LA. So we were waiting for a night like last night from Anthony Edwards, 14-23, 41 points, one turnover. So it's 89-87 after that third quarter entering the fourth. And this is the best version of Denver where Jamal Murray is unstoppable. It's his fifth now 40-point playoff game. Michael Porter Jr. has 13 of his 16 overall points in the fourth.

And every time Porter Jr. makes some of these shots, you're just like, that list is not a double-digit list of people who can do some of the stuff he can do. His body will be wrong. He'll hit stepbacks. They're not even stepbacks. He hits just straight standstill fadeaways from weird fucking angles, and they go in. And then the biggest problem for the Towns-Gobert combination here is, and there's two plays that I want to talk about in particular, is they would run this Aaron Gordon-Jokic game against Gobert and Towns. So Gobert is on Jokic and Towns is on Gordon. And Jokic is basically top of the key facing Gobert.

You know, he doesn't have to get out and contest Jokic all the time because even when Denver like in the moments, you'll see Denver in the playoffs where it's not going well, you know, because there'll be some kind of stretch like this because they're probably going to go on some kind of run here. You're always kind of looking like, shouldn't Jokic take that three? Like, look at his numbers. Like, doesn't he need to shoot a little bit more? But he's always a little bit more reluctant than maybe we want him to be.

But he is always kind of sizing things up. Hell, he had one play where he upfaked Gobert. He actually did it twice. He upfaked Gobert on the three. It was towards the end of the shot clock. Gobert gets out to contest. And then Jokic cuts like, you know, he's like a 6'7 small forward and is wide open to the basket. Because Gobert, it's not even his fault.

He's thinking, all right, end of the play, I'm going to get out there and contest Jokic. And there's just no way you're going to be able to recover. And it's somebody like Jokic knowing his teammates as well as he does. So on this specific play, they ran in the first half, they ran in the second half. You just see how hard this is for really anybody, but specifically for somebody like Jokic, who's this tall, he might be the best passer. I'm not talking about big man. I think he's the best passer in the NBA. The other thing he does too, and you've seen it throughout his career, he'll be in transition and he gets up and jumps and you're like, what is he doing? You know how you're always taught, don't leave your feet until you know what you're doing.

I mean, I guess he always still kind of knows what he's doing, but I think there are other times where he doesn't. So you know what? I'm actually going to stop myself. I don't think he always knows what he's doing, and yet he's still so gifted, his vision, and kind of seeing how the game's playing out around him in a way that nobody else sees.

He'll run, he'll jump, and I'm like, what's he going to do? And then he makes the pass to turn back around and hit somebody else. So it's awareness of his teammates and the continuity of Denver, something we're kind of talking about continuity in the first pod this week. But I'm always just amazed at how he does this. Anyway, talk about the fucking play. All right, the play. He's got the ball.

Gobert is facing him. He's not totally closing his space because, you know, you've got to worry about a bunch of different factors here. And Gordon came up and set a screen. So now Towns is kind of playing it like a straightforward switch. And then Gordon rolls the basket. Gordon's just way too quick for either of those guys, specifically Towns. And Towns is kind of caught being like, well, if the screen is coming over, I have to at least help Gobert if he gets stuck.

But then is Gobert supposed to retreat like that's not going to happen in time it's not because on top of everything else this isn't a point guard throwing this pass to gordon it's yokich who could see over the top of even those guys and then gordon who's as athletic as anybody playing the position so they ran it in the first half and it was more of a screen than a slip because then when they did it in the second half and it was more of a screen than a slip because then when they did it in the second half he just slipped it gordon just slips it doesn't even get there and yokich is already a step ahead of him the whole time i think in the first one towns looked at gobert like kind of like a wave like you have to you have to cover for me there and you're just like

sometimes like i know what the rule is i know what i'm supposed to do if i'm the other guy but sometimes it's just not going to happen and And there are other plays you can point to. We knew this wasn't necessarily a great matchup for Minnesota because they're just not as good as Denver. But that specific, even with that size, to see them look so helpless those two times, it's just not going to happen. So Towns to combine it all, he's 8-27. He's only made two free throws in the series. And like I said, sometimes, I mean, I think it's really frustrating because he feels kind of like,

oh, you know that big guy that we bring off the bench, the backup center five? Yeah, yeah, he stretches out the defense a little bit. Yeah, that's a nice little option to have. No, he's kind of like the face of your franchise, even though it's Anthony Edwards. He's a max player and, you know, whatever. I don't want to keep talking about it over and over again.

The Gobert part of player and you know whatever I don't want to keep talking about it over and over again um the Gobert part of this you know he was brought in to help the defensive situation and protect towns a bit again he wasn't the problem last night um but the defensive rebounding which was so bad two years it was 25th in Minnesota it was only 18th this year so I thought the technical on Gobert was kind of kind of lame like he got a foul called on him for going over the back of yokich but here's something you have to understand of the officiating like all punishment even officiating nothing is consistent so when you say hey it's not consistent hey no shit you cracked the code and i don't mind it being inconsistent because there are certain plays there was actually a towns gordon play on the left block extended where Towns actually grabbed Gordon's arm and kind of hooked him but Gordon was being physical with him and they didn't call anything and then they called something that was like lesser on Gordon Gordon was really frustrated and I get

why Gordon was frustrated at the beginning of the call because he's like look Towns hooked me but it's like yeah but you were kind of into him and then you fouled him the second time even though that second thing wasn't as physical as the first thing. That's exactly what happened in this Gobert play with Jokic. Gobert got his elbow into Jokic's back, got it off, and then there was a little bit of contact the second time through, and Jokic can't complete the rebound. So I think it's great with the officials.

The players seem to have a hard time with this concept. I think it's great the officials are like, all right, I'm letting this go, I'm letting this go. Well, now I'm not letting this go, because they can't call everything every single time. The game would be unwatchable. So Gobert gets the tech and the most amazing development of this story, and I'm glad the TV broadcast picked it up after the commercial break, is that I thought the tech was way too far. Gobert, I don't know if he said something I don't have information to. That's fine. Maybe I'm wrong.

But it's just him being demonstrative and frustrated in game two of a playoff game. There's all this emotion. Minnesota's coming back and it's just him being demonstrative and frustrated in game two of playoff game is there's all this emotion. Minnesota's coming back and it's it's something that's not called all the time. I thought that was a bad tech on Gobert, but who's there consoling him and like legit consoling him, not chin up Moses Brown shit for the cameras. It was Kyle Anderson like really going, hey, man, it's OK. It's OK. Anyway, whatever that means. I thought it was kind of a cool moment there. It's all Murray late and Michael Porter Jr. There's too much talent here for Minnesota.

At least that's the way it feels. I don't know if Minnesota has something in coming back game one. And even though that third quarter and Anthony Edwards showing up was terrific, like my question's pretty simple. Did Minnesota find something where we're going to be looking at a 2-1 series? Or did Denver kick their ass for six quarters and went into the seventh quarter at home going, whatever? I kind of think it's the second one.

Quicker recaps of the other two. The Doc Rivers rule in effect for the Lakers in Memphis. So no jaw. The hand thing really looked awful as it happened, too. Like it didn't even look real, man. Neither team shot it well last night. Memphis was up 47-32 and then 59-44 at the half. Memphis minus 10 in free throw attempts in the half.

All right. But at 92-86 with a few minutes left in the game, I thought LA was going to win this. I really did. But Xavier Tillman was the hero last night. 22 points, 13 boards, 10 of 13 from the floor, grabs an offensive rebound, kicks it out to Brooks. He hits the three, 99-88, 123 left.

That basically sealed it. I don't know what Brooks' Q rating is. If you don't like LeBron, you love all this stuff. It's a little restly for me, but my rule is pretty consistent. You always kind of need one wild card, and you just hope the wild card doesn't take away more than he provides, right? hope the wild card doesn't take away more than he provides right i don't know who who the other day i forget who it was just talking about the faucet analogy right be a faucet not a drain so with brooks i think they still kind of need him and they needed him last night and he had another huge three where lebron didn't want to get out and contest I almost find it a little too disrespectful if you're Dylan Brooks

and going at LeBron but I can understand from like a team standpoint I think this is kind of how this Memphis team is wired kind of like fuck everybody and at times it can be endearing especially when you're young and nobody's really all that threatened by you and then it can be annoying I know I got annoyed last year in the Golden State series where I was like, I like Memphis, but I hope they get stomped. And that's kind of where I was with it. And I wasn't rooting for anyone last night. I don't really even know what to do with the Lakers because as we pivot this forward to the rest of the series,

if you told me they were going to lose against Memphis with Ja, I believe you. And if you told me they were going to win the West, I don't know that I could tell you. I thought you were crazy. I wouldn't pick them, but that's the kind of variance I have here on the Lakers. Davis, despite blocking everything in the first half, five blocks for him, he finished 4-14. He just was off. He was catching it weird. He was taking

off weird. He wasn't hurt. He just had a bad game. And Tillman and the Jaron Jackson front line were really the story. I thought LeBron was pressing in the way that a great player does. So, I mean, this is a positive. Like, he kind of looked around and was like, all right, Davis is missing everything. D'Angelo Russell's a no-show tonight. Rui gave him something, another 20-point game from them. It's pretty clear Darvin Ham isn't 100% sure what he wants to do. And I'm not even talking about the rotations that we're talking about with other teams

because I think that's part of it, but also some of the defensive matchup stuff, like the Vanderbilt decisions that he's making. I think we look at Jared Vanderbilt and be like, man, this guy can do anything. And then it's like, oh, maybe he can't do everything. There's been, I think, a problem with that a little bit, and Rui scored enough that now that's not even part of the equation, but D'Angelo Russell, 2-11, four assists. We know the deal here. I'm not going to turn this into some kind of victory lap

because he had a bad game, because he's had some good games here too, and he's been better with the Lakers. But I just thought he was out of it. It's funny, when D'Angelo Russell is playing well, we compliment his pace. And when he plays at the same pace and he's not making any shots,

he's not super engaged or anything, it's like, oh, man, he seems off. It's like, no, no, he's just, he's a slower player, like, slower in a way, the way he cares about. But, you know, LeBron kind of looked around and I thought it was clear.

He's like, I'm going to have to figure this thing out on my own. So I think he did the right thing with it. But there is one thing I'm noticing, or at least I noticed a little bit last night. I mean, if there's a drive that's desperation, a jack button, kick out to the three, LeBron's going to kind of pass to anybody. But I felt like there was a couple times where if Russell swung it to LeBron

and there was a chance to swing it back, LeBron wasn't going to swing it back to him. So I don't know if that was a lack of confidence thing in just one game or if it's something that's developing or what, but it's just something I kind of noticed. So look, I thought the Lakers were going to pull that one out when I was sitting at home going, all right, enough of this, but credit to Memphis for evening up this series. The last game, and then I'll kind of summarize some of the other stuff here. Milwaukee was up 81-55 without Giannis in Miami. This is exactly what should be happening in the series. If you're Milwaukee and you have Drew and you have Middleton, who looks really good again,

and you have Brooke Lopez and you have Bobby Portis, who's a sixth man of the year finalist, and you have those four guys, you should be beating the Miami Heat in five or six games, even without Giannis, especially with Miami

not having Tyler Hero anymore. Like they had to dust off Duncan Robinson for this one. He played like 20 plus minutes last night. So that's what should happen. Maybe it was a game one freak out against the Heat with Giannis going down thinking he was maybe going to come back.

Doesn't come back. Doesn't play in that game. Doesn't play last night as we know. Maybe that's the one game freak out, but like this would actually still be an awful series loss for Milwaukee. But I know that that's kind of my baked in carry over who I thought Miami was all regular season and then go going as serious.

This is going to happen because I'll admit your boy has been shook at times already in the early part of these first rounds. Like I mentioned with the Lakers, to summarize all this or close the open, the variance of what I think they're possible of or not possible of is all over the place. Miami being up 1-0. I was like, are you fucking kidding me? But last night played much more to like what I think of the two teams. Philly, Boston have gone exactly as I'd expect. Denver, the same thing. Cleveland, New York, I don't know who's going to win.

That New York last regular season game where Brunson put 48 on them, that left a mark on me. I think Cleveland's the better basketball team, and they were terrific in game two. And I think just the intensity that they played with, which I know is kind of a cop-out on everything. Levert was better, a lot better. I needed to acknowledge the fact, too,

he's like 46% from three after the All-Star break, even though I'm just never going to love the way he sees basketball. I'm never really going to sign off way he sees basketball. I'm never really going to sign off on that. But they shut down a lot of the scores. And now you can see Tibbs kind of going like with the quickly decision and RJ Barris not playing well, like, man. But this is probably going seven. That's one of those series that feels like it's going seven. So I'd say that's four series where I feel like it's playing out right. Sacramento up 2-0

on Golden State. I know the easy thing now is say. Sacramento up 2-0 on Golden State. I know the easy thing now is say, hey, Golden State sucked on the road. Like, who are you guys kidding? Yeah, but with Wiggins back and their numbers after the All-Star break, it's good enough to think that this series would be 1-1. I would have thought Golden State would come home into Game 3 and put it on Sacramento

because the games have been close enough to be like, all right, now we're home and we're desperate. And I still feel like they're probably wired more like a team that has something in them because they've gone to that reservoir before. They have it when other teams don't.

Now with no Draymond, I don't know. Golden State also, another one of those teams still figuring out what their rotation is going to be as the playoffs are happening. There's one thing to be adaptable with different people off your bench. It's another thing to kind of know, how do we want to close? What's our closing five? That's a weird position to be in. And we've got three teams that are doing that right now in the playoffs. And no, Draymond suspended. Did he deserve the suspension in a vacuum? Maybe not.

Did he deserve the suspension in a vacuum? Maybe not. But the thing that, as much as I respect what Draymond has been as a player and what he's meant to this team, the part that I can never get with is the victim deal, where we know that's coming. I always think it's weird when the guy that fucks up all the time is like, I've got people, I've got a target on my back. It's like showing up to work late all the time.

Like, yeah, there's people doubting me left and right. Like, are you the fucking one showing up late? Yeah, I know. But, you know, people get these misconceptions. You know, it just follows me everywhere. You're like, you're the one giving them the ammunition to doubt you, man. So Draymond getting suspended is a culmination of everything that's happened before. I'm not as outraged as other people are.

I think some of these suspensions, especially in the playoffs, it's just a bit too much, man. But Draymond also, after he gets kicked out, can't let it go, has to put on the whole wrestling show. And it's just weird. I just wonder, what's the motivation behind this? You already went through this, man. How do you not want to be there for your teammates when they desperately need you because you know what draymond's been fucking awesome in

his role this year that guy plays his ass off like you need that guy out there now you're down to oh and you're going to get suspended because you wanted to start yelling at everybody you know i mean ultimately even if it's excessive it's it's kind of like what you think was going to happen yeah this would be cool commissioners here start calling fans pussies. Start swearing into the camera. Awesome. You know? I mean, if he just wants to pivot into the media thing,

let the next team that wants to pay him know. All right. To close here, when it was 59-54 LA up against Phoenix in game two, I was just at home going, are you fucking kidding me yeah no serious i'm sitting there going why do you watch this for six straight months like six straight months why do you watch all of this and now this is gonna happen do you know anything have a little more balance in your life. Yeah, these are the deep questions

I was asking myself at halftime. I just sat there. Usually I try to get up if there's a break and there's no other games on. I get up, move around, do something. Pound out some kilowatts. And to see Kawhi play like this over 80 minutes, 35 a game, six and a half boards,

six assists, two steals a game. He's 55% from the floor. He's 60% from three. He's made 15 free throws. He gets into a crowd and you think he's going to lose the ball. And he is so strong. You know, he's DeAndre Hopkins, a basketball. Like there is no 50-50 ball with Kawhi Leonard.

It's his. It's his ball. And to see him do what he does and then play the defense he's playing where you're like, what is this? Because I still felt like defensive of the regular season, he knows better than I do. Right? And coast at times, figure it

out when he first came back. And I think Kawhi reputationally has had moments defensively where it's like, yeah, he's actually not that guy anymore. And to see what he looked like in these two games, I'm okay phoenix is in real trouble however uh between booker duran only took six shots in the second half i think um and then chris paul late and that action that i kind of criticized at the end of game one even though chris paul got good looks at the end of game one uh and I'd still say in game two,

he's having more hesitant moments than I would like to see from him. He had like three huge shots and it was, it was a real difference. And I don't know if they're going to keep running this because of the defense is being played on Booker and Durant. I'd still like some second thing to happen off of the eight and Paul thing, which they've done, by the way,

which they've done. We also didn't see the bench mob to close the third quarter, which I couldn't believe Monte Williams did after game one that Bill and I talked about on Sunday. But yes, this series is messing me up a bit. Not that I thought that the Clippers were going to get swept here, but this is two games where I'm going, all right, this is a lot closer than you ever thought.

And at the half, I'm like, what is the point of anything that you do? I was having real doubts about myself, but felt better after the next 24 minutes. The NBA playoffs are here, and you can turn crossovers into cash with FanDuel. Just visit fanduel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N right now, and place a $5 bet, and you'll get an instant $150 in bonus bets. Win or lose.

Okay, I have been awful at this. Like a new level of awful. So I'm going to tell you how I'm feeling and I'm going to tell you to bet the opposite. I like the Lakers minus four and a half at home against Memphis in that one. The app is safe and secure and you get paid instantly when you win. There's no better place to bet all the playoff action than America's number one sportsbook.

Just go to fanduel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N, and sign up and get $150 in bonus bets when you bet your first five bucks. FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA, must be 21 and older and present in select states. First online real money wager only, $10 deposit required. Refund issued is non-withdrawable.

Bonus bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com forward slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash RG. Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia. 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona. 1-800-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut,

1-800-9-WITH-IT, Indiana, 1-800-522-4700, or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana. Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit mahelpline.org forward slash problem gambling in Massachusetts. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY to 467-389 in New York, 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming, or visit 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia. Before we get to our NFL draft stuff, I want to share the Athletics Anonymous NBA Player Poll. This is a lot of fun.

There's just a lot of stuff in here, agree, disagree. I guess the last time they did it was 2019. I thought there was something else that they did that was similar to this. They do a front office poll, right? Somebody does a front office poll, I believe. Well, the NBA does a poll before the season starts. So there's just, I think anytime we can get access to this stuff, it's a win for everybody.

And it doesn't mean you both learn. Honestly, the biggest lesson in this is that the anonymous players polled in this, they're just like us. They say stuff I agree with. Sometimes I this they're just like us they say stuff sometimes they're worse yeah right they say super dumb shit too uh i thought one of the headline dumb ones was that they said of all the things right they were like what's the biggest issue fake is it facing the league and 26 of it was officiating i mean any of the officiating talk i just can't i can't stand i just can't stand now my biggest thing with the officials has always

been the evolution of what they've turned the game into with rewarding certain shit like last night there was a play where Jokic was coming across the free throw line and Anthony Edwards came up to meet him and he like sort of kind of bumped into him but not really and Jokic fell down

and they called it grand that's not why it's not why Denver won, but it was an atrocious call. It's just like, I would love if they all met in secret. Like this year, we're letting everybody just fall down. I'm just going to look at them. Because some of the screening stuff that happens and rewarding, so whatever.

So anyway, the players are saying it's officiating, but when you look at their comments, it's way more direct where it's just basically, I don't know if these guys should get fined or like i don't know if their money should be taken even the accountability thing that's what everybody always says it's like all right but everybody hates a two-minute poll or a two-minute report last two minutes right like everybody hates all that stuff so um anyway they did an mvp one like who's this year's MVP. And, uh, 50% of the players said it would be Joel. Not,

um, yeah, not surprising at all. Best defender. This was off the charts. It was drew holiday, 29%. Um,

Lou Dort was second at 11%. So that means like, that's what people think of drew. And that's what my eyes tell me about drew. And that's why when I saw this, I was like, maybe you should have just voted him player of the year. But I think it's kind of

an on-off thing because there's no way you could play defense like that and offense the way Drew can at his peak an entire game. Yeah, Drew Jackson was only 4%. So, and he's defensive player

of the year. Yeah. Yeah, right, right. No, it's three calls. But Mobley, Mobley only 3%. So, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. Yeah, I don't know.

Maybe they pulled a ton of perimeter players. Drew was also the number one most underrated player. So, this is my favorite one, though. This is the one where you're like, what the fuck are you guys doing? So, they had a poll question. If you could build your team around one player from scratch so just everybody's available we're starting scratch doing the whole thing

104 players voted on this 52.4 percent chose yannis that's the right move uh when they did this in 2019 it was 36 percent of players which actually seems kind of high because that's before the title and you know you usually know how that works uh it was yannis players, which actually seems kind of high because that's before the title and you usually know how that works. It was Giannis first, Jokic second, Luka third, Steph was fourth still, Embiid fifth, Tatum sixth. LeBron James got 4% of the vote at 38 years old.

A lot of homers. We think there's a lot of LeBron homers in the media. There's still a lot of LeBron homers in the media. There's still a lot of LeBron homers in the league. How many votes did Tristan Thompson have? They were like, we got to get Tristan Thompson on a roster here so that we can, we can make sure LeBron gets a couple of votes. That's not even the best part of that though.

No, it isn't. Obviously, you know, 4% for LeBron, you know, it's 38, you know, okay. That's probably not where I would of that, though. No, it isn't. Obviously, 4% for LeBron. You know what I mean? 38. Okay.

That's probably not where I would go, but sure, do you. The craziest thing was one vote for each. Chet got one vote. Chet Holmgren got one vote. He hasn't played a single NBA game. I was a big Chet guy before the draft. Everybody knows this. I may be wrong.

I still think he'll be good. But the idea that you can give Chet a vote as the guy that he would start your franchise with, essentially, like, I'm actually surprised Wemby didn't get a vote. Like, I would vote Wemby before I voted Chet, right? No one should be like Chet that much. Yeah. No one.

That's crazy. Yeah, so there were other votes. Chet, Jalen Brown, Evan Mobley, Donovan Mitchell. And honestly honestly what could contest chet for the worst vote was alpe chengun i want to know who this is i want these to be leaked i know that one needs to not be anonymous like i don't even have a get like who would vote who would be like somebody just probably was like this is stupid i'm just gonna make this a joke and vote for stupid people yes and that's that's kind of what happened. Yeah.

I mean, you remember doing those high school polls? Those like state testing things where they were to ask you it wasn't even a test. It was just all anonymous. Have you ever done this or whatever? You know, and guys would fuck with it all the time. So you're

always going to correct for like the percentage and that might be it. Or what if this is like the all time wrong thing where like in five years, Shingun's coming off his second MVP. He's the new year. Then that guy who's not, he's just tweets. He goes, I was the one.

I was the guy that did it. I'll give you credit. Well, this reminds me of like, doesn't like Mickey Mouse receive like, you know, 2% of the presidential vote every single time. That credit. Well, this reminds me of like, doesn't like Mickey Mouse receive like, you know, 2% of the presidential vote every single time? That's kind of what this reminds me of. Yeah. Khan couldn't even pull 1%.

Although, that might not even be the most ridiculous thing in the entire thing, though. What do you think it is? Tracy McGrady getting a vote for best player of all time? Yeah! That's worse. That's actually worse. And I am the biggest T-mac homer there is i think he is hey if you don't have to no no you don't have to do any qualifiers when you're suggesting that it's

an absurd vote fair like you know i i'm not gonna go hey i really like shingun's post moves okay i'm not taking him to start a franchise right no you although you never know what some of the rockets fans out there. I could see a guy tweeting at the show being like, I think the thing you're kind of missing. You're like, shut the fuck up. You wouldn't pick him to start your team. I don't know if the Shingun vote is worse than the Chet vote.

I think it might be only because Shingun's played. And you're like, okay, there's something to work with there. And he's really good. I really like him, but like... I'd tag on that, though. I want a post player who never... Like, we don't throw it in the post anymore who's not a good defensive player.

I would tag on that just because I think I know who Sue Shangoon is and I like him, but if you're saying, hey, I could have one of these guys on my team, I'm picking Chet every single time, even though I haven't seen him once. No be wrong no we're in agreement we're in

agreement I'm telling you that vote's worse than oh okay okay my bad my bad Chet could is still like in that mysterious yeah right right uh and then the last one most overrated player Trey Young leading the way at 15 like I, sometimes the players are just like us. So I was thinking about this, though, because Bill asked J. Kyle Mann on his most recent pod whether he would rather have Trey Young or Derek White.

And J. Kyle Mann was getting some shit because he said Derek White. Has the pendulum swung so much where Trey is actually... We can't even find teams for him to be traded for. It's like the way that we talk about him is like he'll be out of the league in two years. No, that's not going to happen.

That's ridiculous. I know that's not obviously true, but that's kind of the way that we're talking about it. I'm not a Trey guy, and it is good to see that at least the players think that's the same, but have we gone a little too far on Trey? Does he just need a change of scenery? Again, I'm as non-Trey guy as there Like, does he just need a change of scenery? Like, is it? And again, this is as a as I'm as non Trey guys there is.

But it just feels like he is the number one target from the media. And now the players, I guess, for the guy that's the most overrated part of the league. Well, the Derek White call is the right call, by the way. And you're not talking about just talent for talent. You're talking about how does somebody come in and fit in? And the only way it's ever going to work for Trey is he needs to seriously adjust the way he plays the game really talented guy all right the passing off the drives

I think he's better than anybody honestly he's fucking incredible with it but you know I mean how many years how many years we're going to keep talking about the same shit and go like oh yeah no it's just being a different zip code everything will be better yeah Derek White's not I mean again I feel like I'm taking the and go like, oh, yeah, no, it's just being a different zip code. Everything will be better.

Yeah, but Derek White's not getting – I mean, again, I feel like I'm taking the – Derek White doesn't come in and completely disrupt everything you're doing and have the ball more than everybody else. And then, you know, like, yes, Trey Young is more talented than Derek White, but the problem for the Trey Young trade market, if we get to that point this summer, is what other team goes, yeah, we want to sign up for that. And by by the way this has all been happening the whole time it's it's all been happening this isn't new it's just that a lot of people got tricked into thinking like the

eastern playoff series yeah the eastern conference final thing and even you know look even i the thing i loved about him in the next series, and they were far better than the Knicks. I picked him to win that series was that he was the least afraid, you know, you're watching Ben Simmons be scared to death, be out there. And Trey Young's not afraid of anybody.

And that part of it, like, I think we were really complimentary of it. And you're kind of going like, dude, this guy's going to the Easter conference finals, like whatever. But I mean,

this isn't about Trey's talent. This is about, it's kind of like the Westbrook stuff in the past where you go, okay, which team goes, all right, here are the keys and you take over and do your own thing. So that's the challenge with it. It's not that Derek White's a better basketball player than Trey Young.

It's that with Derek White, you don't think he comes in and disrupts everything you're trying to do from a basketball standpoint. So the only way it ever works for Trey, I think, is kind of that epiphany, that NBA epiphany later in your career where you're like, I'm going to have to change the way I play this game a little bit. The thing we've been saying, can Westbrook do for years? We're basically asking the same thing. Can Westbrook ever change? Can Trey change? Probably not. No, it's like the Jay Cutler thing.

You know, year 12. It's like, well, if we just do it, and you're like, God. And sometimes there's players we just won't give up on. So that's kind of nice. Todd McShay joins us right before the draft. Very excited to get his time. And Daniel Jeremiah will be joining us shortly. And I have some scenarios. These two guys are going to go out. I'm just going to get out of the way. Be so uncomfortable. What's up, man? Good to see you again. As we get closer to all of this, what do you think is the biggest struggle?

Whether it's you evaluating somebody, hearing all the rumors, the biggest struggle with you trying to figure out a landing spot for somebody. We do have surprises at times, and it's funny how we can say it. It's always interesting. You can see somebody fall. It's like, what's wrong with this guy? It's like, well, if he's number two on a bunch of teams' boards boards from pick 7 to 15 then it can be a really eventful day for that player i'm wondering if there's anybody that you're kind of feeling that way about now well the first thing that's hard is like this is the time of year where everyone's kind of coming out of meetings and you talk to friends in the league and it's like all right here are 10 guys that have character issues

here are 10 guys if they fall that have durability issues that maybe haven't been reported or were picked up in medicals. And it's like, all right, well, I can't talk to all 32 teams at this point, nor do I have everyone, you know, a person that I trust in all 32 teams. For some teams, that player may be off the board. For some teams, it's like,

yeah, we're going to ding them a little bit, but we're still on our board. So trying to figure out, knowing that these guys, I've got a list of like 20-something guys that recently, I'm just getting character and durability issues. I'm prepared if they start to fall during the draft as to why, but I don't want to start just knocking these guys

because one team may have a different opinion and all it takes is one team. But more specifically, the draft starts at number two this year. Houston, we know Carolina's taking Bryce Young, and they should take Bryce Young. All that debate, I think, has long since passed. At number two, this Houston thing is wild. You've got Nick Casario, who now there are rumors

that he may not even be with the team long-term as a general manager. You've got a new head coach in D'Amico Ryans. You've got an organization that does not have a quarterback. You've got C.J. Stroud sitting there at number two, presumably, and all the buzz and all the information coming out is that they're leaning heavily towards not taking Stroud at two. First of all, my question is, what's your plan at quarterback? Secondly, are you going to try to trade out from two

and take advantage of the fact that there is a big market? But the interesting part of all of it is, all right, who are the teams that could possibly trade up to two if Houston wants to move back and get a boatload of picks, right? This year and maybe even next year and try to load up to go get Caleb Williams from USC next year, Drake May from UNC. Two of the three teams that legitimately could be trying to move up

are in your division. So not only are you going to pass on Stroud, you're now going to have to face him twice a year. What if he hits? What if he goes to – what if you trade with the Colts and allow them to come up and get him? And Shane Steichen, who's worked with Jalen Hurts and has worked with Justin Herbert, moves up to two, takes CJ and turns him into a top-tier quarterback in the league,

and now you've got to face him twice and be reminded of the mistake you made. Same with Tennessee sitting in 11th. And then you look at Las Vegas. They tried to get up to the number one spot, and I was told early in the process, if it's not Bryce Young or CJ Stroud, they're not interested in this quarterback class. But I don't know how much interest that was just in Bryce Young or if it was truly in C.J. Stroud. So maybe Vegas isn't interested.

So do you just stay home and take Will Anderson, the defensive end from Alabama? Probably, I hate to say safest. It makes it sound like he's not a great player, but he's going to be solid. He's a great player. The last two years sacks pressures every you know hits everything that you look at he has been number one and there's you know we can get into his report over and over again but but if you take him there you know you're getting a really good to great player that you can rely on because he's the hardest working guy is according to Nick

Saban and multiple coaches like maybe in the history of their program think about that or I've heard that they also like Tyree Wilson the Texas Tech defense event so it's going to be interesting that number two pick comes with a lot of drama and then the trickle-down effect too like Arizona's sitting there and everyone's saying well who's going to move up to number three to get Anthony Richardson or Will Levis well maybe if they go Will Anderson Houston does it too maybe all of a sudden Arizona is in the best position of any team in the first round because they've got these three teams from four to 11 that I just mentioned, all trying to put in better bids to get up to that number three spot. And Lord knows Arizona

needs as many picks as they can get in the next couple of years. There's still more on the shuffling of that division because I think you're making a lot of good points here. And there's also been this thought that are the Colts saying that they don't want a quarterback because they don't want Houston to take one or something. And it's like, I get it. And maybe Houston's evaluations on what if after Bryce, they feel like there's a drop,

like there's a tear and they're going, we're just going to be vague about all this, you know, vague. We'll drive the price up in theory, which, you know, I don't know if that really happens or not, but it's better than saying definitively what you're going to do. And then going like, what if our evaluation is we don't even think the second guy is that good. And so we're happy to have him go to another division or team and we're like, cool, go ahead. And, you know, that's all factored in the way it works. It always kind of reminds me like Belichick moving Bledsoe to the Bills.

And it was like, well, I already know who he isn't. So go ahead. You guys can have him. You can have him. Right. We'll be fine. I want to talk a little bit about Tyree Wilson because it feels like the defensive end out of tech.

When you compare him to the other names, like we were used to all the other names, you guys clearly understand this far better than we do. Is there a part of like watching Big 12 defensive players where you're like, holy shit, this guy's awesome because you're so used to recent years of not feeling like the depth of talent is there on that side of the football in that conference?

Yeah, it's tough because truly like the Big 12 has gotten more physical and it's become a tougher conference than it was it used to just be basketball on turf right but they have but again like watching will anderson go up against offensive tackles in the sec like darnell right one week roderick jones another week guys were who are going to be top 10, top 15 picks. Versus what you're seeing Wilson go up against in the Big 12, there's a difference. There truly is.

But then again, like last year, Aiden Hutchinson is the number one pick, right? That's a lot. He played at Michigan. He was the leader. The sack numbers, the length, everything you look for. But it takes one team and Jacksonville that wanted the traits in Trayvon Walker. Now, we still have a lot of football left to be played and deciding in the end. But right now, it looks like Hutchinson had a better rookie year than Trayvon, right?

But certain teams have certain designs and what they're looking for and prototypes. And I don't know. We'll see if Houston looks at Wilson. I've heard other teams are higher on Wilson than Will Anderson. And that has to come down to trade strength because one guy's a sawed-off Tasmanian devil, a maniac with a great work ethic and strong hands and all that stuff. But he's not like Miles Garrett. He's not like the Boses.

He doesn't have that bend. He doesn't have that bend he doesn't have that length and then you got wilson who's six five and a half 271 pounds and didn't run 40 didn't work on the in the pre-draft process didn't play in an all-star game would have loved to see that but he had a foot injury and and so now you kind of don't know that aspect of it but you've got 36 inch arm length and a power player who's got athleticism who's great versus the run 27 and a half tackles for loss 14 sacks the last two years i mean i i get how some teams could be more intrigued by that but i'm going with will anderson every day of the week i think there was a motor that will had but i'll admit i watched

more will anderson than i did tyree wilson i It's not even fucking close over the last couple of years, so I'm not looking at it the way you do. But when I see Wilson moving up and seeing him in this range, I can't help but think if he played at Florida that he could imagine the tape would be as good because he's just that good that that it wouldn't be a surprise to anybody. You know, it wouldn't be a surprise in that maybe the conversation with him will Anderson is more of a debate just because, again, I think it's a little bit of the Big 12 bias. But you're absolutely right. Like I felt like at certain times that conference was deeper than anybody else as far as like how many teams down felt like were tough outs on a Saturday. far as like how many teams down felt like were tough outs on a Saturday. I thought the conference was great, but there always seems to be this slight hangup about like, who are these, who are their defensive guys?

I mean, they had, I, they had a stretch there with defensive backs where it was like, where are the defensive backs from this conference? Where are they? Which is crazy. Cause there's some schools there that have great history of that position. The other guy that I know I wanted to spend a little time on here in the top 10 before DJ joins us.

Let's just go with the next defensive player, Devin Witherspoon, out of Illinois. He's one of my favorite players. If you just throw on an Illinois game and their defense was terrific all season long, like some really, really incredible numbers there. He's so big and he's so disruptive. It feels like he's kind of that modern day defensive back where it's like, can we just kind of put them everywhere? But it feels like there's been some misses with that dude. I don't want to go all the way back to like Taylor Mays here, but I always fall in love with those players. But then I wonder, are these hybrid do-everything players even close to being the same impactful kind of guys

once they get to the NFL? Yeah, with Witherspoon, his tape is so rock solid. He's bulked up, but he's still not... He's a cornerback. He's in a cornerback body. He plays a linebacker. I love his backstory, too. he just played, he's a cornerback. He's in the cornerback body. He plays like a linebacker. And I just, I love his backstory too.

You got to remember he was 140 pound junior star point guard in high school. His mom said, why don't you play football for a year? Might help, you know, toughen you up again. Some bulk gets stronger, plays safety, has four picks one year. So I kind of like this and goes and plays a second year at cornerback and has seven interceptions. A zero star recruit zero stars he winds up being academically ineligible initially he thought went to hutchinson community college and one day after showing up at hutchinson community college he gets his sat scores in and realizes that he is eligible he had one power

five offer at that point from illinois and takes it two weeks later shows up a little late to camp in illinois and now goes on to be you know you know all all big big 10 all american i think and it's going to be a top 10 draft and bulked up from 140 to 184 186 somewhere in that range so i's so determined. He's so physical. He's one of the best tackling run supporting corners in the class. He has good speed. I think there's a little bit of tightness

when you compare him to Christian Gonzalez, the cornerback from Oregon, but you're getting a much more complete player in Witherspoon. And a guy that just... He is a tone setter at cornerback. It's rare to be able to say that. Okay, staggered guess. Never done this before.

Different scheme, different front listeners to look at here. Daniel Jeremiah, NFL Network, joining us with Todd as well. Okay, so I wanted to hold off on some of the more QB in-depth stuff. I know it's the headline stuff you've talked about a million times, but let's do it this way. Bryce Young off the board at number one, so what we all feel is going to happen here. If Andrew Luck was 100%

on a QB evaluation and say Christian Hackenberg was 12%, give me, if that's low, correct me, give me your CJ Stroud percentage right now of you looking,

you're an assistant GM, you're looking at the GM, you're looking at the team president, you're in the war room, the owner comes over and goes, Daniel, give me percentage on this guy being a dude. Give me a percentage for C.J. I would put him probably on that scale. I'd probably put him at a 70, which is good in this class. Like that makes him the second guy in this class. And I think that's still a high probability that he's going to be a successful starter. I don't know how high his ceiling is. That would be my argument with Stroud.

I think he's got a high floor. I don't think there's a bust factor with him, but I don't think he's going to end up being one of the top five quarterbacks, five to eight quarterbacks in the NFL at any point in time. Todd? Yeah, I might go slightly higher. Maybe 75%. Because

I do think he's going to be a good quarterback. I feel strongly about that. What DJ is saying, I don't see a lot of... He can process quickly. He is a sniper from the pocket. His accuracy and touch and trajectory as a passer is elite when you're

looking at quarterbacks coming out of the college level. But, you know, how mobile is he willing to be? You know, how much is he willing to utilize his mobility? We saw in the Georgia game what that can be. I don't think he's an elite athlete or great athlete, but I think he can utilize that more. And, you know, I think he's still maturing and still learning how to be a leader. And there's some things there, but I think he's going to be good. I tend to agree with what DJ say.

I think he's going to be really good, like a good to really good quarterback, but he's never going to be Josh Allen or, you know, or Patrick Mahomes or one of those guys. The ceiling's just not that high, that high. Okay. Todd, we'll start with you then. Anthony Richardson, give me the percentage. Ooh. Yes. 40%, but like

that 40% that if it hits, my goodness, he could be special. It all matters how he's developed. I mean, we saw with josh allen having brian brian dayball we saw with daniel jones one year turning around you know brian dayball turning around his career now he gets the long-term contract so much of it matters where he goes they've got to have two things one patience they've got to be it's got to be at least a year but 13 starts this guy doesn't know what he's getting into in the NFL.

He's intelligent. He's going to pick things up quickly, and everyone I've talked to. But he just doesn't have the game experience. He's not setting the fronts and understanding where pressures are coming from. Even talking to his head coach, the first thing I said, where does he have to improve? The first thing he said, he's got to get a better picture, pre-snap, of what the defensive structure is.

And that's concerning. But also, i go back to patrick mahomes i did the kansas city chiefs pre-games for a few years and he said going into his second year he's like he's like todd i like i honestly didn't know how to identify the mic when i got here he's like and i was like 60 a few weeks in after alex helped me out about you know the middle linebacker, which is like, you know, elementary stuff. But he had a year behind Alex Smith. He had a starter who was willing to work with him. He had a head coach in Andy Reid who knows how to develop quarterbacks. So, so much of it is kind of out of Anthony's hands. And then so much of it is in his hands and how much he works and how willing he is to be Jalen Hurts and like absolutely defy it and that I am going to be great and absorb everything.

So if he does hit, he's going to be special. But I think that he has the biggest bus factor of, you know, potential of all these quarterbacks. Yeah. If we're going prices, right rules, I'll go 41%. And just sneak right over top of Todd. No, but look, I echo a lot of what was just said. I mean, I agree with Todd on this thing.

Like the hit factor, like if you hit on him, I've used the analogy like these guys are all lottery tickets. His has the biggest payout. Like if you hit on him, you hit enormous. But I was talking to somebody in Philadelphia the other day and their personnel department after Jalen got that deal done. And he was like, you know, everybody likes to use Jalen kind of as as this uh guide for how to develop you know some athletic quarterbacks coming into the league that aren't quite as

you know as far along in their journey as passers and he said the thing that they leave out is the fact that Jalen since he's got here has been the first one in last one out literally carries a briefcase into the building like this is he, he's obsessed, obsessed with being good. And that's why it's hard for, for where we are like Todd and myself and Todd gets a, it's a great advantage to be able to travel and to be able to see these guys and talk to their coaches on the road. But like, I don't know, I I've heard his character's good. I've heard he's a good worker. I've heard he's smart, but like, I don't know, you know, I don't know him well enough to stamp it and say, okay, you know, this is, he's not going to fail. Like he's, you know, he's going to work at it until he gets it. So without that information,

I think it's wholly dependent on where he goes. You know, Mahomes is, he's not, he's obviously not Mahomes. I never want to compare anybody to Mahomes, but there was a plan for Mahomes. Like Kafka was his personal coach that whole year. Um, and you have to have a similar thing in place for, for Richardson. And I honestly, I don't know that there's, and this sounds terrible, but I don't know that there's eight teams in the NFL that properly know how to develop a player like this. So he's got to go to one of those perfect spots. Okay. That's good.

All right. Well, we'll transition into this with Will Levis then because Daniel Jeremiah has Levis going 19th in his latest mock up on NFL.com. And Todd, I know your most recent mock is a hybrid with Mel. So it's not entirely like just 100% the way you see it, but you have Levis going 11th. So no matter what, you both had him going higher. But I'll start with Jeremiah on this one. no matter what, you both had him going higher. But I'll start with Jeremiah on this one. Yeah, it's interesting with him. I think that there's less of a bust risk with him than Richardson, who we just talked about, but not quite

the ceiling there. I mean, he's got, I think his upside is more than Stroud, but there's a lot more risk involved than Stroud. So I think that, to me, is where he kind of slots in. I would put him at being a functional starting quarterback percentage. So I think that to me is where he, he kind of slots in. I would put him at, at being a functional starting quarterback percentage. I will put that at, I'll put that really truthfully. It's a coin flip. I'll put it at 50%. I think he's a 50, 50, 50, 50 guy.

I feel like you see a lot of guys like this come into the league that have intriguing skill sets that maybe don't have it all put together yet. Um, so that, that's where I would put Levis. I think his good is, is really good. Um, but there's some stuff just from a pocket awareness standpoint that really bugs me. Um, there's a little bit of Carson Wentz to him, whereas like Carson, Carson, like he hits like a car crash every time he gets hit. Like he drifts into bodies. He doesn't naturally drift away from bodies and so i think the injury thing the durability thing is going to follow him a little bit during his career yeah i agree i i can sit here and i can go on and on about arm strength sturdy build

mobility grinder you know obsessive compulsive both positive and negative in terms of his work ethic and what he just he will his you talk to anyone at kentucky like this guy is going to work he's going to put in the time you know that's guaranteed um then i can go on the flip side and say all right well how important is the mobility if you don't have great pocket presence and as you were alluding to dj you're you're drifting into big hits or your eyes are dropping and you're not seeing the whole field and so that mobility is kind of negated at times because of that 23 interceptions in the last two years third worst in the in the um in the power five but and Sam Hartman and Aiden O'Connell were the other two that were worse they had at least 300 more

pass attempts the two fumbles i was at the old miss game the two fumbles under three minutes and five seconds left in field goal position down three you gotta protect the football fumbles twice the defense gets back up for the first time they're inside like the 13 yard line all right worst case we got a tie fumbles again like and and the body building and i i just i was so worried that we're going to have another Brady Quinn or Tim Tebow on our hands. We're so obsessed with getting big and strong. So I see all the greatness. I see all the potential flaws.

It's one of those where you go into your GM and you say, listen, these are all the reasons why he could be great if we develop him properly, if we focus on these things. But these are, I can already tell you what the reasons are. I talked to one, one GM and then another GM within a five day span. I think it was an October DJ. You're like, I'm sure you get a lot of the same stuff. I see a lot of Josh Allen in him. Like he could be a better pro than in college. He's got that, you know, the work ethic, the arm, all that. Five days later,

I talked to a GM and he said exactly the same name you threw out there he goes i'm worried he's going to be carson wins because because he plays quarterback like linebacker he doesn't know how to protect himself the injuries are going to pile up and they did throughout this year and you saw and i know the offensive line wasn't great the receivers were young the running back four game suspension chris rodriguez but the James' suspension, Chris Rodriguez. But the injuries really mounted up. He was not the same guy in 2021 or 2022 as he was in 2021, and a lot of it had to do with him just not being healthy. Well, I want to ask you real quick, Todd, because I want to get your thought on this, because I feel like as we kind of go through this process

and we think about, you know, where does this quarterback group stack up with other ones and why these guys are intriguing? Like, I can't remember a year where we're having to make more excuses for guys than we are in this year. And that scares the crap out of me, man. It's like at some point in time, like, geez, let's go off of what we've seen and what these guys are versus but if this, if that, if this, if that. It's like I get that. There's an if with everybody.

But, man, I feel like a bunch of these guys guys we're getting into 10 ifs and whys and that's like dude you know what are we doing here that's yeah i i agree i think there's a clear top top tier of young and strap and then there's a tier two of the risk versus the reward but But it won't – listen, I've heard maybe the Colts like Will Levis could be a sneaky team that winds up going four. But then if he doesn't go four, I don't think the Raiders are going to take him. I'm not sure that Tennessee wants to take him. So now Washington sounds like they're happy with their quarterback situation for whatever reason.

So now we're going to get down to 19 with Tampa Bay, right? So I think we could be in for a really interesting first night because the quarterbacks you talked about so much and because there is such an importance on drafting a quarterback in the first round, get that fifth-year option, all of that, that I think maybe we've driven it up. You've talked to as many or more people in the league than I have. Unfortunately, the guys that I'm talking to that will really open up

about their evaluation about quarterbacks are the teams that don't need a quarterback. I know. It's easier for them to say, yeah, I just wouldn't. Good luck with him or whatever it is. But the sense I get from talking to friends and people in the league is that they're not quite as high on all of these guys as maybe the quote-unquote media perception is right i think the other problem that you'll have with the team facing maybe the fourth decision on the quarterback is there feels like and you guys tell me if i'm wrong here a massive gap now on these four dudes

we've talked about now for months and then that class of like, oh, well, I can find somebody in the second, third round. I've got somebody I like now, but two, three years down the road, I don't know if there's going to be a rush on quarterbacks that you're like, wait, that guy's going in the second round now because there feels like a gap at the position. Is that fair? Yeah, there is. I think Hendon Hooker is the only other guy that could sneak into the first. We're getting? Yeah, there is. I think Hendon Hooker is the only other guy that could sneak into the first. We're getting closer and the lies start to pile up as we get closer to the draft. But I've talked to some people who think that Hendon Hooker could go ahead of Will

Levis or Anthony Richardson. So we'll see how that all plays out. But I did find it interesting. The second round has the least amount of quarterbacks drafted in the last five years in any other round and it goes to show like how important that fifth year is with the quarterback there's only been three taken in this second round the last five years whereas seven have been taken in the third round seven have been taken in the fourth round so it essentially is saying like if you like him enough to take him in the second round take him in the late in the first get that fifth year option if not then you're viewing it as like a developmental guy back up a number three maybe we hit on a brock purdy like that's one in a million one in a thousand or whatever the number is but but ultimately you're viewing that guy is is a maybe

a hope a want but like you're not bringing him in with any expectation. I also think there's a debate in the room where you go over the fact that this guy is a starting quarterback versus this guy has the potential to be a starting quarterback. So it eliminates the middle class. There's no second-round quarterbacks. Either you're good enough to be a starter, and we have conviction on that, you're a first-round pick, or we're going to take a shot. And if we're going to take a shot, I'm not going to do it in the second round quarterbacks. Either you're good enough to be a starter, and we have conviction on that, you're a first round pick,

or we're going to take a shot. And if we're going to take a shot, I'm not going to do it in the second round. It's too valuable of a pick that I can get somebody else that I know can come in and play for us. So it's like you either go in the first round, or now you're in the third, fourth, fifth round, and those are just kind of like, we're just literally kind of throwing a dart here

and see what we get. Think about all the star running backs that have been taken in the second round, the star wide receivers that we've had in the second round. You know, like that second round is so valuable to me. Like when you study it over and over again, there are so many great players that come out of the second round. So to give up that pick, it's not, it's not that different from giving up a first round pick.

And so you, you've got it and it's cheap. You get it for nothing. Exactly. DJ. That's, that different from giving up a first-round pick. It's cheap. It's cheap. You get it for nothing. Exactly, DJ. That's really good. I love the second-round thing, too. You're totally right. If you have a second-round evaluation on the quarterback now, it just feels like, all right, well, then just take him in the first.

The problem with Hennon Hooker, too, is he turned 25 in January. That's going to impact some teams going, okay, even if we think he's developmental, what are we going to be doing? Starting him at 27 and then making a decision on him as a free agent when he's 29, 30. So that adds. 25 is just old is all I'm telling you for a rookie on this one.

Okay, let's do this. Let's try to go back in the room. Daniel Jeremiah McShay, young, know-it-all, 20-something video coordinators with teams. Let's put them. Let's see here. All right. Nolan Smith.

There was a bit of a... Daniel Jeremiah hasn't gone 13th. McShay hasn't gone 20th. I don't know if that'll be your final thing, Todd, because that was the one with Matt. Yeah, you're looking me in with Kuiper here, too. You've got to realize that. Yeah, but you had... This is a madman taking over the other 15. I ain't going to let Smith go to realize. Yeah, but you had a deal with a madman taking every other pick.

I ain't going to let Smith go in the top 15, but go ahead. Okay, but it's not, you can't, like, when there's other times you could have taken him, it's like the Ravens

after they took Lamar Jackson saying we fucking loved him. Like, you had four chances to take him before you actually took him. So, you know. Get on with your game. Right, so Nolan Smith

was the number one recruit out of high school on 24-7. He 6'2", 238, runs the 439. Everybody knew he was a huge part of the first national championship in Georgia. Tears the peck this year. Not the kind of injury people are all that freaked out about. So let's put our young video guys. Let's see which team here makes the most sense because I'm doing this a bit on the fly. makes the most sense because I'm doing this a bit on the fly. Let's say Green Bay at 15. So Green Bay is at 15. Daniel, the GM starts with you. Make your case for either taking him or passing him,

and then we'll have Todd do the other one. I would say it's hard to find guys like this, and so you can ding him for being 230-something pounds, but all you have to do if you're looking for ways that we can use him is look at the Eagles and what they're doing with Hassan Redick. And you can stay in that division. You can stay in that division also. And this one was one Todd I had heard the other day when I was talking to GM

and I was like, you get kind of pissed at yourself. You're like, gosh, I didn't really, I didn't even think about that. But he was like, dude,

if we draft Nolan Smith, we'll use him like the Cowboys use Micah Parsons. Yeah. Let him be kind of that spinner. Let him, let him be that kind of walk-around blitzer. We're going to match him up on guards and just let him use his athleticism, his explosiveness, and he's a matchup nightmare.

So I think if he had played the whole year, he'd be a lock as a top 10 pick. I still think I'd say it's a greater than 50% chance he goes in the top 10, and we won't even have to make this decision in Green Bay. But if he falls to us, let's not use the allotted time. Just turn in the card and and we won't even have to make this decision in green Bay. But if he falls, if he falls to us, let's not, let's not use the allotted time. Just turn in the card and let's go. Yeah. I love him.

I just, the thing about it, you think 238 pounds, he's not tough. He's not strong. He's just a finesse guy. Like, no,

he is, he's going to, he's going to give it all. Like he's there sometimes. And yeah, he's going to be overwhelmed, but he is going to fight. He plays with leverage.

He's got some snap to him and you can't coach four three nine it's and he's going to be 245 250 pounds when it's all said and done and he's still going to have elite speed and the change of direction like the outside in moves the ability to do that and i agree like utilizing everywhere in today's league i I think he's going to play probably more off the ball early in his career than he will on edge and then obvious passing down you turn them loose whether it's through the b gap the c gap and you know wide nine whatever it is but you have a unique weapon so I look like where are the spots he's going to land you know I think cornerback if it's not quarterback with Vegas at seven,

the Falcons are probably corner. Chicago could be a spot. You know, they could go offensive tackle, like Skowronski there. But, you know, the Eagles, you know, what's their situation? But Tennessee could be quarterback. Houston could be a possibility. I mean, there's all these teams. So maybe he slips in that range of 14, 15,

but I don't see him getting certainly to 20. I feel like we really ruined Ryan's game here, by the way. He wanted us to get in character. He's a screenwriter now. He wanted us to be in the draft room, and he wanted to play the role of coworkers here. I think he's fast. Let's drop him. We both just slip into analyst role.

Like, no, no, we're both locked in right now. We couldn't get into character. We can't get into character eight days before the draft. I have all these lines, like Costner is going to walk in going, I don't care about value. I care about your heart. You know, and then something like that. Okay, all right, let's try it again here. I actually don't want to force the argument here.

That's what I like about both of you guys. You're both video coordinators, but one guy's related. His uncle's actually the CFO of the team, so that might play into it a little bit. But he has his own off-the-field issues. Pittsburgh at 17. You're both

working in the Steelers' front office, and you're sitting around going, all right. Pittsburgh at 17. You're both working in the Steelers front office, and you're sitting around going, Jalen Carter's still there. Devin Witherspoon's still there. And Zay Flowers, who's more in that range, but I swear to God, if he didn't play at BC, more people would be talking about him. Todd, you can start.

The GM turns to you and goes, all right, Todd, what do you think we should do? I really like Zay Flowers. I was out of practice with him in August and talking to Jeff Hapley, the coach, and he's the energizer bunny and all the character stuff you want. He's a dog.

He runs great routes. Everyone in the gym knew the ball was going to him. It didn't matter his size. He just found a way to get open with a quarterback that was struggling with an offensive line that sucked with the rest of the receiver group that had very little, and Zay's just still produced. I think he's going to be a really good pro.

At 17, I don't want to say it's too rich for my blood, but I think they need an offensive tackle. We got to protect this young quarterback we brought in, Kenny Pickett. So I don't know if I'm talking to my uncle or my dad. I kind of got lost in what I'm supposed to do here with the role playing. But I had a late night last night. I'm exhausted.

I've got some off-the-field issues, according to Rosillo. But I still think I'm going to focus on one of these offensive tackles. I think Sharonsky and Roderick Jones from Georgia will be gone. I'll be interested to see. I think when the tackles go, it's going to be pretty quickly. I mean, you've got the Jets sitting there at um 13 New England at 14 uh Washington potentially at 16

Pittsburgh at 17 so there's a lot of teams in that 10 to 20 range that need tackles and um you know Darnell Wright and and uh Paris Johnson Jr. the other two from Tennessee and Ohio State respectively are in that mix. But I don't know about you, DJ, but after those four, to me, there's a significant drop off. Yeah. Yeah, it drops off a cliff. And that's why, to me, the Steelers specifically, you're in that room and you have to look at, you cannot look at that in a vacuum. So if I'm looking at that pick, I'm not saying, okay, this is just who I have slightly over the other one.

It's what are the alternatives at these other positions that we need? And I'm taking the tackle. I'm taking one. I think one of those guys is going to be there. I think Darnell Wright's get a good chance of being there. So I'm going to take, let's, let's take Darnell Wright here in Pittsburgh. Let's give Kenny Pickett a chance with what we've done in the off season. Now we've completely remade this entire offensive line.

And then, you know, as much as I love Z love zay flowers you know if you want to go shopping in the little receiver shop in this draft you're gonna have to wait in line to get in the door i mean it's already it's full um so you can find one second third fourth round you can find a little guy that can run yeah wow both guys going like so i'm the gm just looking at both of my lieutenants here going you're not even right yeah i like it i i'm impressed with both of you lieutenants here going, you're not even taking one of them. Right. Yeah, I like it. I'm impressed with both of you. I'm going to talk to HR about you guys getting a 3% bump for next year.

Okay. All right, Dallas. Let's do the Dallas war room. You both work for the Cowboys. The owner likes you. The son doesn't. Oh, okay. All right. Back to doesn't. Oh, okay. All right.

Back to that in. Okay. Dijon somehow is still there out of Texas. Let's put Miles Murphy from Clemson. He's still there. And then let's throw somebody else in here to really. Dalton Kincaid is still available too. And you're sitting there with

the cowboys pick at 26 and uh stephen jones asks you what you think daniel well steven i understand you know positional value and you're you're big on positional value but uh well you know hold on steven just like you scoot over a little bit uh uh jerry jerry jerry uh i know you love zeke i know he was like a son to you but uh we're gonna get another one for you uh we've got bijan robinson who i think is every bit as good as zeke and remember when we where we took zeke jerry remember you had to pay him picking all the way up there in the top 10 this guy just fell in our lap we're gonna get we're gonna pair him up with pollard and uh and. I mean, Coach McCarthy, hold on. Coach, come on back in.

Coach, I know you want it to be the 1990s again. You want to be the Green Bay Packers, and you want to turn back the clock. So now we've got B. John Robinson just fell in our lap. We can run the heck out of it, take some pressure off Dak, and off we go. But I will say, Stephen, those are some sick boots that you're wearing, and I dig them, and we're all good here. Wow. Jeremiah took it to another level.

All right, Todd, your character, again, same ownership son as you, but you have a tech startup that's going to make a lot of money, but football is your passion. It means I'm kind of a visionary, right? So what I'm going to do, we're at pick 17, and for whatever reason, the four offensive tackles we talked about are off the board. And so Pittsburgh's sitting there saying, we can get it 26, but we're going to get it 17 in one of these positions.

Let's make a trade. Oh, okay. I'm not waiting to 26. He's not getting there. I mean, it's a nice little story you're telling. I think you've got to get up maybe ahead of Detroit, maybe ahead of the Chargers. Daniel would know better than I do with the Eckler situation.

But I just, I think it gets scary when you start to get to the late teens, you know, 19, 20, like some team is going to move up and say, this guy, I've done was the second best player in the draft.

I don't know about you, DJ. Like I haven't talked to him. Yeah. I don't, I haven't talked to a team that doesn't have them in the top six.'s as low as i've talked to a team yeah he's in our top five top six like that i don't see how you can find six better players in this draft than bijan and he can do it all like you can utilize he's got a lot of same traits as saquon but you can utilize him

almost in a christian mcafree role too you know him in the slot. He can do more than he showed at Texas. So to me, if he gets in that 15-17 range, and I'm Dallas, how good of a piece would that be with Dak, Pollard? To me, that would kind of complete their offense and make them what they want. And I think philosophically, it just makes all the sense too. That's what McCarthy wants to be. He wants a power runner. So they, they need a guy like Bijan. And I would absolutely give up what it takes to go into the 15 to 17 range

to get them. I just feel like he took a little leeway with the script there. I mean, I don't know, you know, usually it's kind of disrespectful to the director when he puts you in a certain scene and you just blew the whole scene up. You just blew the whole scene up right now he likes improv you know i do i've always you know you're gonna trust the actors you're gonna you know you guys have been doing this long enough too that i'm not gonna tell you how to read your lines so all right last last thought here before

we say goodbye to you this is kind of my favorite question i'm going to ask both we'll start with daniel on this what's the best what's the juiciest rumor like reputationally you're like this is pretty good this is something i'm hearing and maybe there's there's i'm sure there's elements of ones you're not going to share with us but kind of in this world leading up week out what's the thing that you keep hearing that you think is like a really valuable piece of information that again, you're comfortable enough to share with us? Yeah, I would say two recent ones. And I'm sure Todd's heard the exact same thing with what's going on at the top, which is if Houston doesn't take a quarterback, which if you, you know, last week when this came up, I kind of poo-pooed it and was like, this is crazy. Like they don't have a quarterback. But I'll be honest when the Trey Lance,rey Lance, when that's starting to pop up a little

bit, and obviously his connection with D'Amico Ryan's like, if somehow they end up trading Houston trades for Trey Lance, and it's like, okay, now they're out of the quarterback business, they're going to give him a shot. Then that starts making more sense to me. But that wasn't the rumor. The rumor was, if the Colts are picking at four, and all three of those guys are there between Stroud, Levis, and Richardson, that they were going to take Levis. And then that puts Stroud on a little bit of a slide. And we try and figure out where he lands and where he goes. And that's a major domino on draft night.

So that one was – I've heard that a couple different places. And the other one was don't sleep – we're talking about Bijan. Don't sleep on the Falcons uh at eight with bijon robinson just because arthur smith coming from tennessee the most run-centric offense in the nfl and all the success that he had uh he he would he would know exactly what to do i mean obviously he gives you more in the passing game than derrick henry does uh but to feature a running back in an offense something arthur smith's very comfortable doing so don't sleep on them. Todd? Yeah, playing off the quarterback thing, I think the Raiders get aggressive if Stroud doesn't go at two. That could be a trade at two.

They've been awfully quiet right now, but again, I go back to the information I got that Stroud and Young were the two guys that they were kind of debating between and talking about moving up for that number one pick. And when they couldn't get a deal done, everyone assumed Houston was just going to take the other guy. So I think I think Vegas has been quiet now, but I'd be interested to see if that plays out. If Stroud falls a spot or two, then are they going to are they going to try to move up to make sure that Tennessee doesn't leapfrog them? or two, then are they going to try to move up to make sure that Tennessee doesn't leapfrog them? So keep an eye on Vegas. And the Levis thing, I've heard the same thing with Indianapolis,

right? But I was also told if he doesn't go to Indy, it could be a long first night for Levis. You had him at 19 in your mock. I'm not saying he's going to fall that far, but he could get out of the top 10. It's a possibility if he doesn't go far. From a financial standpoint and just sitting in the green room and all that, that's a long night and a lot of money you're losing out on. By the way, Richardson, dude, I cannot find.

I've been talking to people every day as you have i can't find the i don't know who the richardson team is i don't have one i don't have one i talked to chris mortensen yesterday and i wouldn't bring it up if it wasn't you know if it was private he brought it up on our we did a mock draft show last night and he said i don't have a team i said i keep looking and i thought again i've talked to other teams, say, you know what? If we had the patience, we had the time, if we were in the situation that this team was in, I would take a shot on him.

I would take a shot on him over Will Levis. There are a lot of people who like him more than Will Levis, but they're not the teams that are drafting quarterbacks. That's the hard part of having. Yeah. I think he could. I said the other day, it will not surprise me at all if we get to pick 12 and he's still on the board and i don't know where to put him if you're houston if he's still sitting there at that point you've already taken your will anderson uh or tyree wilson if you

believe some of the other rumors i've heard but i think will anderson makes the most sense of number two then at 12 are you saying, you know what? Are we going to take – let's bring in this guy and see if we can develop him? I don't know, but I haven't heard anything. I haven't heard a single team or a single person say, hey, I've kind of heard they like Anthony Richardson. It's going to be a wild night. When pick two comes up, buckle up. Not just – I mean, the quarterbacks are going to kind of define it,

but you get past pick 16, 17, there's like 30 guys that I think will go in that range after that, too. I can't wait. Guys, thanks again for the time. Daniel Jeremiah, NFL Network analyst. We're also on NFL Network, live coverage of the

2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, April 27th to 29th. McShay will be on the ESPN coverage. If you want to hear more from both, move the sticks with Bucky Brooks. It's out with Daniel for his podcast. And then first draft with Mel, Todd, and Field Yates once a week. So you can get more from these dudes through those outlets.

So thanks again. See you in Kansas City, DJ. See you, buddy. Good to see you, boys. So thanks again. See you in Kansas City, DJ. See you, buddy. Good to see you, boys. You want details?

Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com The paternity recap. I don't even know if there's a point of reading all of them or any of them, but it was pretty much split down by age. That's it. You know, everybody thinks that their experience is the right one right the people that didn't take a ton of time off think the people that take a ton of time off are idiots and the same is reversed like there wasn't any there wasn't any insight

that i saw that it was like you know again, it was kind of rooting for whatever you did. Like, well, I did it this way, so I'm doing it the right way. I don't know. Are you taking a ton of shit for this, Rudy, still? No, no, no. I'm not taking a ton of shit. I had a couple people send me, I think there was like a link to a Reddit thread, you know, like the BS Reddit thing where they were having a discussion about this, which is just a toxic waste dump of dumbed conversations for the most part. 90% of it is.

It just is. It's really it's really incredibly negative the entire thing um not all of it but most of it is pretty negative uh but then you know i did see some people in my dms that were basically dads in my situations so to your point ryan that had basically gone through the situation that were younger that were like thanks for saying that it was okay to take the paternity because it was awesome and then i i don't know, the more I thought about it, like after the past couple days, you know, you work for like 40, 50 years of your life. If I take three months off because I had a kid, like fuck off. Like, you know, like who is going to be mad about that? So, you know, I'm comfortable and I think most people are comfortable in the work that they do. And if you get paternity time and that's what the company gives you, you're not an asshole

for taking it. So that's kind of where I land on this situation. But I think you're right. It might be a generational thing. And it also might be kind of like a jealousy thing. If some guys don't get that much time, I would probably be jealous too and be like, that's fuck. That sucks.

That's lame. Why would you take that much time off? I just think it's kind of like how much time you get and wherever you are at in your life at that particular time. Yeah. There was a couple of ones though that I thought maybe I'll just kind of summarize and share. One guy wrote in and was like, look, if you're an accountant and you're having a kid, it's landing right around tax time and you think you're going to take that time off and bury everybody else at the work, then don't be an accountant. Or granted, not everything can be

planned out to the weekend of when you want to have your child. But like there's certain times and like that, that's just common sense to me. Like, I think a lot of it depends on your job. But I would also say, you know, as I've thought about it, as somebody that has no balance, I don't have a family. But it reminds my time in South France, on the Amalfi Coast. I mean, it reminds my time in South of France, on the Amalfi Coast. You go to other places, and I don't know if it's a United States thing, but you youngest generation now that's asking these questions being like, why are you supposed to just, why is your life only supposed to be about work for the most part? Right? Like grind culture has become like a hot topic now. Cause it used to be like, put your nose down, work your ass off and like, you know,

don't complain. And now it's like, no complaint all the time. Cause this stuff's kind of bullshit and I'm somewhere in the middle on a lot of this but it is definitely changing Kyle I just I gotta do the math on how to have a baby on like March 15th because I think that's that's really my best that's the best time to take

off work I think that puts me at June 15th right is that math correct yeah that sounds like the worst time for you to take time off between the tournament NBA playoffs. All right. Are you not getting what I'm saying here? I'm saying it's, it's, I kind of have to do it because I mean, so Rudy set the precedent. It's like, sort of like the, you know, the Deshaun Watson set the precedent for what, what all these, you know, superstar employees really need. And I think if, if three months

is the thing that I think just happened, you know, like you said, you can't really control when the baby comes out. But I mean, if, if it comes out right at the beginning of that tournament and I, you know, I roll in, I roll back in the office, like June 15th, Bill, you usually take your, you know, July vacation, you guys work hard. So I really think that would be the best situation for me. And I really think I've just the gears are turning. So I don't really have any advice I just have thoughts I support you yeah I wasn't expecting to Sean wants a comp out of this but uh yeah look there's there's some bigger philosophical questions about hey have we been doing it wrong this whole time like I always thought we should have a four-day work week and just work 40 hours in those

four days definitely and then you get the three-day work week and just work 40 hours in those four days. Definitely. And then you get the three day work week. But then the problem is then there'd be the people being like, oh, you do the four day thing. Like I show up the fifth day. You know, my experience has been

is the really cool stuff and the stuff that's really hard to do. You can't go, I don't really want to do any of these things. You know, like the first time I ever, ever started going to fill in at ESPN,

some guy in Boston was like, how did you get that filling thing? He was like jealous and excited and all these different things i was like well i drive back and forth all the time he's like you how many hours is that i was like i don't know it's like four and a half five hours depending on the traffic he's gonna do that every day i was like well i wish it was every day but you know i get if i get called i get called and sometimes i'll go two weeks but i weeks, but I don't take any other jobs because I want to make sure I can say yes to every time. And the guy was like, well, I would never do that. He's like, that's in the car.

You're staying in hotels. You go weeks without work because you want to keep your schedule open. I was like, yeah, okay, then don't do it. Also, I know. I'm living it. I'm aware. Yeah, and don't do it but don't complain later on you know like oh i never really got my my shot at it so yeah i think the paternity thing

is it is an entry point into like a bigger thing of have we been doing it wrong this whole time and i'm sure there's people that think we are i think sometimes we are too like it'd be really nice if we prioritize some other stuff. And you're right, Siri. You work decades and you can't have a few months with your kid, but depending on what your job is... Sometimes the answer is yes.

The answer to that is yes. Sometimes, hey, breaking news, sometimes shit isn't going to go your way. Yeah, but if I was you, Ryan, I had this top podcast, sports podcast or whatever, but I mean, if I was you, Ryan, and I had this top podcast, sports podcast, or whatever, and I was the host of the show, I probably wouldn't take three months off. I wouldn't.

But that's part of what the money's for, right? Yeah, that's what the money's for. It is what it is. I don't know. There's just levels to this. I'd like to get to a point in my life where I can take the six weeks off, and I would even just have episodes, do some author stuff, do life advice, or whatever, and just go, like to get to a point in my life where I can take the six weeks off and I would even just, I would have episodes, you know, do some author stuff. You do life advice or whatever, and just go like, I want a six week reset. Cause that actually like at one point with ESPN, that's kind of where I was getting to. Cause they were like, if you're cool working from September 1st, all the way through the NBA draft, then you can take. And I think at one point, like towards the end, I had eight weeks. I never used it all, but I'd be like, well, can I take, and I don't know, I think I took like four or five of the six weeks off. And your summer book on radio, like old school terrestrial radio,

for whatever reason, you think people would be in their cars, driving around listening. The ratings were so bad for everybody. They'd be shocked. But then it was weird. Once the NBA free agency stuff kept happening and it would be extended out later and later, then some of your July numbers started going up. So they're like, hey, maybe don't bounce for this entire time. But yeah, I don't know, man. I mean, look, we're kind of talking about a bunch of different things here at the same time. I think it really depends on your situation. Most of the younger feedback was, do you, bro? And most of the older feedback was like, yeah, do you, but don't be fucking pissed when, you know, the place you work at is doing some tightening of the old belt. And they look at you and go, this guy bailed for three fucking months and he didn't really need to. By the way, early September conception will get you right in that sweet spot of March 15th.

I just found it. Work out early september sounds after the wedding it would be after this it would be after the wedding so no no eyebrows raised um i'll think about it all right kyle report back let us let us know all right speaking of kyle we have a quick follow-up here uh again life advice rrgmail.com 64 195 coach high school ball for nine years can dunk can shoot prefer not to attempt to rebound to play defense okay there's very little in life i enjoy more than sitting in a dimly lit bar that has very limited beer selection and more tvs than tables with that said i sent kyle a linkedin invite on the off chance you would all end up doing a live show in Chicago. Not an impossibility. We like going to Chicago.

Or just finding yourselves, Kyle, here for any reason. The invite's been left unattended to for months, but it's felt like an eternity. No, this is not an attempt at being more than friends with Kyle. I'm happily married with two young children, but he seems like a top three hang in the United States. Wow, that's high ranking. Top three hang. Jesus, don't do that to me. So I'm very hurt that he has not accepted my cyber invite to connect on a platform that he may not even pay attention to this email serves no purpose other than to ask kyle what the fuck

buddy um uh i don't i don't check my linkedin i mean my fucking linkedin picture is fucking boba fett uh you know i didn't stick Fett. I was just like, you know what? Let me just, I'm not using this thing. I don't really need to go anywhere. If it's time to ramp up the LinkedIn, I'll definitely be changing the pictures and checking my connections. But now it's just not the time where I'm really worried about that. So sorry, but I'll look through your Chicago invite. I'm sorry. All right, let's go to Hartford. 27 years old, 5'6", 140, no hoop game whatsoever, but played ultimate frisbee in college in my prime. It could run under a six-minute mile.

I don't know if under six is a brag. I mean, it's pretty good. I think it's good. Yeah. Would you introduce yourself that way? Not if I was a runner. But if you were a runner you actually might but i was an ultimate frisbee player maybe that's a fun fact when you start a job be like yeah i run under a

six minute mile you know it's not terrible i don't know it sounds like he's like i max 185 like all right you might be strong but like there's a guy yesterday doing fucking 425 for reps can he move his arms laterally like no he's he's just one of those dudes he's he's got it yeah fair he no i mean he doesn't look weird or anything but i can't imagine like somebody like if they ever get a pushing match with him at a bar or something granted he looks a little bit like he's beyond that stage of his life, but it'd be like, imagine, imagine that just the raw power. All right. Anyway, a newer fan here, maybe, maybe not after the six minute mile debate.

I started listening during COVID. Can't get enough of the NBA life advice. Simmons, Priscilla Sundays. I work in a typical office cubicle setting in or around the greater Hartford, Connecticut area with 10 other people. Shout out Yukon National Champs. I love my job and the people I work with are nice. Bosses are lenient and we like to have a great time outside of work, happy hours, golf leagues, et cetera. However, as an avid overthinker worrier, I'm starting to get really frustrated

with my colleagues. We all share one five-gallon water cooler and wouldn't you know it, over the last couple of years, I've become the primary refiller of said water cooler. And wouldn't you know it, over the last couple of years, I've become the primary refiller, as said, water cooler. So much so that I refill it twice to three times a week when the rest of the office combined won't refill it that many times in a six-month span. These ratios are way off, I would agree. I wouldn't normally mind doing this, generally love doing favors for others, but nobody else pitches in to help, even though we all use it about the same amount. When I started working here five years ago, I was told the policy was whoever kicks the cooler has to refill it. It seems that this is the way of old as people are now reluctant to go fill their water bottles

when they have a slight chance of having to refill the cooler. What really bothers me is when I refill the cooler, like clockwork, three or more people will go get more water right after I replace it as they were dying of thirst also numerous times i've gone up to refill my own water bottle to only find no water left in the cooler you'd think one quick solution would be to simply not replace it but numerous times people have asked me to replace it for them because they were unable to do it themselves well maybe that's the issue of course i don't want to say no and come off as rude so i help these people out i also hate conflict so much i also hate conflict so much that i get nervous even thinking about asking others to refill or step up and help me it's not like i'm the low

man on the totem pole at the office either there's a couple of newer employees who've worked here a couple months oh wait a minute who've worked here a couple years newer employees that have worked here for a couple years without filling it once my guy has an entire fucking spreadsheet he's got a list zero refills oh yeah he knows sarah refill 919 this guy's on it this reminds me like one of the producers used to keep track of somebody who took time off it was my favorite thing he would update and be like nine personal days and i was like god this is fucking hilarious anyway all right uh i realize this is about as trivial a problem as one can have and i'm extremely lucky to be in the position i am i also realize i'm probably thinking this way

i think about this way more than anyone else in my office you definitely are but what would you do if you were me in this situation is there any way to suddenly get someone else to help me should i be as annoyed as i am or i indeed overthinking this and should i just bite the bullet thanks go celtics go bruins anybody kyle you want to start i don't think you're overthinking this because you're the guy who you know you're the only guy who has to do it um i don't know are you like are there no other dudes? Is it a bunch of women in their 40s or 50s who are just like, this guy probably wouldn't want me to do the water cooler. He wouldn't want me to have to do it. It's a thing that he does. Is that the type of people you're working with? Or is it a bunch of dudes who you could see and be like, hey,

go get the water cooler thing. And also, you know, nobody else is thinking about it as much as you, because you're the one that has to do it. But it's one of those shitty situations where you're right. You can't, you can't be like, Hey, do you think like we should have like a dish chart where like you do the water cooler? You know, it's like, it's like, like you said, when you try to like implement a new thing in your college house, people are like, yeah, I don't want to do that. It doesn't really sound good when you say it out loud. One bowl, one plate, one fork. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know you really, you really were onto something there, but the world just wasn't ready for it. And I think like, it's like with, like with the garbage, when you have roommates

or something, it's like, you keep putting shit in the garbage because the person that overflows the garbage has to bring it out. So it's just like, it's just a small win that nobody's going to, nobody's going to be like, I, you you know i really should do this especially if they know that another person's coming along that's gonna have to deal with either the full garbage or you know whatever so i don't know your solution because i think i was gonna say maybe you could go to your boss and be like hey maybe i'll just be like an office manager sort of how like pam did that thing but he probably doesn't want to do that like it's probably why you know like pam did well okay here we go i know you got a thing and maybe that's maybe i shouldn't be doing this so late in an episode because i don't think we want to get

into that but i mean like you don't you don't want the added like you don't want an extra couple bucks a month for like an office manager position or something that wouldn't that would be trivial at best so there's really no good way to do this uh i think you should just start trying shit but i don't i don't have a good trying shit yeah like um the next time somebody who like who's asking you to fill this water cooler is my is a better question like it sounds like people if they're saying i can't or is it no but it's it's it's heavy it's not easy and so my feeling is like you know this guy who's who's medium fast at long distances you know they look at him he's in shape and they're like he's hey you know can you can you help us out here like if some old person is coming up to you now if it's another guy your age right going hey do you mind you've got a real

problem it means they're talking about you right it was like oh fucking this guy i'll do it over six minute milers on it see if you can run out for lunch fucking this guy'll do it over six minute milers on it see if you can run out for lunch too this guy but this guy i think he sounds like he has like a good enough head on his shoulders where it's not he does old people so i would assume like there are able-bodied people there that can very easily fill up the water cooler my thing would be i would just go super petty i'd get the biggest you know water bottle there is and just do it for myself yeah like whatever the gallon jug and just that would be my water every day be i would just go super petty i'd get the biggest you know water bottle there is and just get it for myself yeah like whatever the gallon jug and just that would be my water every day and i would let them figure it out on their own because they're gonna figure it out

without you uh it's almost like you know sometimes you gotta hold out an nfl contract if you want your money sometimes you gotta withhold your water filling abilities and just do your own thing for a little while and see how everybody but what happens when he's asked what happens when he like that's the other thing he's like like, if I have, I've tried the whole thing and then somebody comes up and asks me, I'm good. I got my water. He says he doesn't like, he says he doesn't like confrontation though, but it'd be pretty badass.

Like movie ending. Be like, no, I'm good. That used to be my favorite thing. I would just say that to people all the time. Tap your water bottle. Like I'm good. But they're asking you. Right.

No, but that's the great power of i'm good it's when you're being asked and then you're like i'm good like as if they were offering you something right right you respond in an opposite way that's like oh okay you know when there's like a solicitor outside at the strip mall he's like hey do i, do I have a, no, I'm good. I'd be like, wait, I wasn't offering you anything, really. I was asking for something. Yeah, yeah, no, I know. Something that might not have been covered.

I'd keep doing it. And I'd look forward to it. You live in Hartford. You should be psyched you have something like this on the schedule. Oh, man. Hey, what are you doing this weekend? Oh, nobody's around.

Like, what are you up to? Oh, the water bottle's like, we're below an eighth. Probably going to be fixing that on Thursday. Oh, shit. Really? Is that this Thursday? Yeah, I'm projecting Thursday, maybe Friday. Who knows?

Maybe a slow day. A couple people are out of the office. I'll be ready, though. Either way, we'll be ready. Yeah, there's nothing going on this weekend. Can I come? Come on. So fucked up.

I remember Gottlieb. I was not that bad, dude. Come on. I remember Gottlieb once was like, you should make fun of Hartford less. I was like, no one's more allowed to make fun of Hartford as much as I am. So, sorry. Yeah, I think for a lack of solutions, I think that I'm good is what I would vote. I don't think there's a lot of good solutions, and I'd vote for I'm good.

Just see what happens. You know what would be really funny is if you just start to own it, though. Be like, hey, everybody, about to change the water bottle. Or like if somebody asked you, get up, high five the shit out of them. Be like, I can't wait to do this. I love doing it. And like just, then, I don't know. You're still going to be changing all the time.

I think you're right to be a little annoyed it seems to be getting pretty disrespectful here all right uh all right this one's one of my favorite ones because i can't wait to talk about something that is my favorite stat uh the question is real simple should i get an earring 36 it's gonna be short and sweet i don't know i go all day on this one 36 511 170 fast and steady service game can rally pretty well uh but find the net too often uva alum shout out green light pod i live in the coastal southeast i'm working on my doctorate my project involves civil war poetry now i don't think this is a mythical creature no dude civil war poetry what the fuck i don't care i'm gonna keep reading it yep yeah we're in it's real because the app

look i'm working on my doctorate my My project involves Civil War poetry. If that's true, yes. Why don't you have one? Start working on that sleeve. Still think it might be fake. I bartended. Did the F&B race throughout my 20s and early 30s. Read books all the time and decided professional life of books was for me. For the first time in years, after consecutive long-term relationships,

I'm back in the mix and dating quite a bit. What's F&B, by the way? What's that, like Franks and Beans? What's that? F&B race? Can we get research on that? All right. All right.

Food and beverage? Ah. Yeah. Okay. Nice work, Sury. Not franks and beans all right you didn't really think it was franks and beans i know but i was the first it was the first f and b that popped in but i don't know all right i don't know what it was i didn't know what it was all right so he's back in the mix he's's in the mix. Looking to settle down, but no rush. Dark features. I've done well with a big, clean mustache since 2019. Won't shave it.

Also, after a ghastly accidental trip from a sneak attack at too much THC, hit a potent pen, not a weed guy, at my cousin's wedding recently. So I've been really

taking care of myself. I've cut weight, replaced potato chips with fruits and vegetables, made sure to get some sun. I feel my best in years. Is it time to put a gold hoop in my ear? Both ears.

What besides a hoop? Any experience or attitudes to share? Can I be an earring guy? What else do you think it requires? I probably wouldn't teach wearing an earring unless I was going to the tennis court right after. But I wonder how daily life might look and feel after this kind of strong move. Like I always wanted...

Like I was always... Sorry, I'm losing it. Like always, I will get to spend lots of time at the beach and on the water this summer. Also can't wait to read the wager. Thanks for everything. Dude dude there's so many questions okay uh kyle did you ever have earrings you didn't do a couple oh yeah oh yeah double oh yeah cubic zirconias from the kiosk yep from the kiosk um oh yeah from the kiosk uh i had the i had

like the but the two on the two on the top, uh, like almost nothing on the sides, ice picks. Um, no, no facial hair, but, um, yeah, a lot of, a lot of polo button ups and, and, uh, and three buttons there. So, I mean, it's a, it's in the photo ops. It's a fun time to look back on. I can't imagine doing that now though. So you went double QZs. Yeah, yeah totally i used to borrow my buddies you know sterilize the first two but yeah i would be like oh he's got a bigger one let me borrow his smart yeah what year are we talking 2010 2011 yeah that checks out how old were you 2009 uh 16 17 what was the initial reaction on the home front uh i think i did a pretty good job

of hiding it for like two weeks i had like i put like a sweatshirt over my uh like uh shoulders and stuff i was just i held it for a while then my dad was like i definitely told you not to do that i was like ah yeah so what do you think i mean it's like i don't know i'm disappointed what else what else is there so um that uh it was fine i i i let me just get this out of the way i actually do think you should do it i recently became a gold chain guy and i i was thinking about how my life would be different and it is different it's quite different um so how i think what's different i gotta go chain on all the time i gotta go chain on all the time. I got a gold chain on all the time. Um, you know, treat you differently.

Yeah, I think so. Uh, I think I, you know, I, I get a little shine when I walk past a mirror or a window. I'm like,

yeah, I am a gold chain guy today. Um, you know, if you can even go with the gold chain is a little more versatile. You could tuck it in and then you could just see the back and it's like, Oh, that guy's got something on it,

but he doesn't really want us to know. Or you pop it out when it's like when I first show up at the bar or something it's out for sure um and uh i don't know it's just uh i i like what it's done for me and if and if and if that's your gold chain is a a hoop earring that's good i'd say if you're if you're if you're kind of in shape it's good i've seen like i've seen like going towards 40 out of shape earrings and i'm like that just looks wrong look looks it seems like we're hanging on to something. I don't know. But I think gold chain is for all shapes and sizes. I'm not sure like earrings

are for out of shape dudes but he says he's 36 and he dropped a bunch of weight. So I think you can probably do it. 5'11 says he's back in shape now. So Rudy you never had one right? I never had an earring. Never really wanted an earring but I've done like dumb stuff. I had a chain when I was younger. I was cleaning an earring. Never really wanted an earring. But I've done like dumb stuff.

You know, I had a chain when I was younger. I was cleaning up my parents. What the heck? Dumb? Yeah. Well, you know what? You want to make sure I know what you're trying to say. You mean when you were awesome?

Yeah. I was probably way cooler back then. When you were free? Well, you know, you know that like, you know that chain that everybody had in high school? It was like the three little links and the big link. It was like silver, but not really silver. Oh, yeah. Everybody had it.

I found it in like my parents all stuff as I was cleaning up my house. I'm like, damn, this was a, this was not a great look in hindsight um great but i did some googling i mean like there is like a apparently a civil war poetry like you could you could i think this might be real like you can go to school for that it's a thing so like i i don't know that it's fake uh i also feel like you in order to pull that I feel like the full look of a guy who is going to get his doctorate in Civil War poetry in the southeastern United States, you probably need a ponytail as well as the earring thing. That's just to complete the entire look.

I would go one first. I don't know what your hair situation is like. Usually those guys go all in. They don't just get their toe in the water. They're just full on that sort of look. I think do you. Whatever makes you happy. If your peers are in that zone, too, go for it.

Like I said, it seems like it's on brand. I like the hoop better than the dangly cross earring. That's what I thought he was going to do. I see a lot of NFL players that have the dangly cross and it's like I don't know. It's got like two inches of hang time. I don't know. A lot of white guys are pulling that off, to be honest with you.

The dangle one. I'm just telling you, like, go for it. Okay, go for it. But understand it now puts you in a different category. You're the same person, but then you're not the same person, right? You are a new person the day that you do this. And you said you're in the dating game. So just know for like some women, they're not going to be into it. They're going to be like, what's going on? When I went through my earring phase, it was young. It was, I think going into my senior year of high school, I got it like, I think, I don't know. I was really starting to feel myself was coming to my own 17 years old and i threw it in and my dad was super pissed off but he was just like whatever like he wasn't even mad

like yell at me mad he just was like you're a fucking loser like gave me kind of like one of those dismissive like oh would you do that and i was like i don't know i did it this week oh okay yeah i think it looks good and i was like yeah i went little gold hoop which is crazy because i didn't play lacrosse and then i took it out while i was getting hazed uh my freshman year in the basement lined up freezing basement fucking getting yelled at for hours and dealing with it to prove how much i liked other people that i was going to end up not liking half of them anyway but um as i was getting hazed i think another guy had an earring and you know of course like you're just trying to find anything you can is when you're the brother hazing

the pledge you'd be like somebody i heard somebody here has a fucking earring you know and it's like not me like like five guys had them that were in the house anyway and it was just and i did like a sneaky you know i'm in the dark one-hander wall and i'm like i did a little one-hander and undid it and then i think i lost it pretty much which you know probably was about 20 of my net worth at the time lost it and then for whatever reason was starting to feel himself again and threw it back in threw it back in later on and obviously screwed up the ear didn't sterilize it and then i think i was like oh i, I'm going to take it out now because I was going to get an internship at an ad agency, which I ended up not getting.

And then I never put it back in. I'm just telling you, you're not going to feel any different about yourself, really. I mean, you're going to look at it first. You're going to think it's going to be kind of cool. Some guys can totally pull it off. Sometimes it's going to be great. But I'm just telling you at 36, I like that you want to shake it up here a bit i'm all for it all right but know that at least on the dating front there will be somebody that describes you

in the first sentences he has an earring and it will not always be positive yeah she's gonna to her friends you will be earring guy. Yes, you're going to be earring guy. Yeah, you're okay with that. It's got to match the clothes too. If you've got an ambitious style, something like that, the earring blends in,

but if it's, I don't know, if it's just a black button down and some slacks and the earring, that definitely stands out. If you've got a lot of stuff going on, maybe you've got a different footwear that you cycle through and you're not a lot of stuff going on, maybe you got a different, different footwear that you, that you cycle through and you got,

you know, you're not a one pair of jeans forever guy. Like, I think if you, if you've got a bunch of stuff going on, I think, I think it blends in better, but if it's really just going to be like, you know,

if you're like rolling into your graduate class with like a, just a regular button up and, and, and regular pants like that, that ear is going to be loud. Yes. I'll say this too. There's a lot of, i think a lot of guys and i'm guilty of doing this who like they'll google something right like oh men's earring and they'll look at all the pictures on there like those guys look cool like yeah i could pull this off it's the same way you know how many like soccer players

i've looked at and go yeah that tattoo thing looks awesome but i don't actually go out and get those tattoos or do that like i've thought about this for years like i want to bleach my hair and like kind of have it grow in but like you kind of have to be a professional soccer player or somewhat famous to pull that off if i just showed up at work one day and i had that look you guys what the fuck is going on right now so you kind of back up back up back up wait say what do you want to do i i've always wanted to bleach my hair and then you kind of have it grow in a little bit like a lot of the famous soccer players do this. So it's like kind of half and half. They're still doing it?

Oh yeah, definitely. Almost every Neymar does it. But again, I'm not Neymar. So like... But it's the same thing. If you look at Harry Styles, because Harry Styles can pull off an earring doesn't mean you can pull off an earring, dude. I bought a tweed vest one time because I was like, this is going to be really cool.

I've seen a lot of famous people wearing tweed vests. And you know who didn't look good in a tweed vest? Your because I was like, this is going to be really cool. I've seen a lot of famous people wearing tweed vests. And you know who didn't look good in a tweed vest? Your boy. So you can get tricked into Googling things and looking at pictures of other people and say, I could pull that off. That'd be good. Look at him. He looks awesome. And then when push comes to shove and you actually buy it and wear it, you look like an idiot.

So I'm just saying that is a big risk here. I say get it and take it out if you don't like it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know i go right in a double i mean he's asking both ears gold hoop the gold hoop that was acceptable at the time when i did it was the one that was so small that it didn't hang it was like just a hoop that sort of went around and covered the ear like it it covered the ear sounds wrong basically there was

no dangle there was no dangle it was a lobe deal right yeah right to the circumference it it covered the ear sounds wrong basically there was no dangle there was no dangle it was a lobe deal right yeah right to the circumference of it all uh by the way just an aside i want you to do that saruti so fucking bad now and you've pulled off a lot of looks you've pulled off a lot of looks all inspired by international soccer mostly you've pulled it off you've pulled it off better than anybody game of of Thrones, hybrid, Everton. So what I think is important here is you need to bleach your hair. It's a 30-something-year-old. And then let us see how it goes, and we'll give you the feedback. The other reason I love this email and love this question is that this is maybe my favorite stat, not in sports, just ever.

Mike Greenberg had an earring. Wow. Mike Greenberg had an earring. Wow. Mike Greenberg had an earring. Pierced ear. And I remember being on the set with him one day and I saw the piercing. Doesn't have it anymore, obviously. That would seem weird.

Although, Greeny with an earring now with his status just would be fucking amazing and he should bring it back. But I was like, wait, you had your ear pierced and he was like yeah yeah and then i always it was always kind of weird because like i feel like greeny well obviously he liked me enough to have me on repeatedly so let's let's start there but they're every now and there'd be a little tension because i'd be one of the few people like what the fuck are you talking about and you know i'd give him the what for every

now and then. And then I remember we were coming back from commercial and I was like, tell me about your earring. He's like, ah, and I was like, no, I was like,

you had an earring. Like what? Give me, give me a timeline here. Give me when, give me when I want to know when it went in. I want to know when it came out. I want to know about the decisions,

bookending the entire thing. But yeah, I think greenie having an earring. I mean, other about the decisions, bookending, the entire thing. But yeah, I think Greeny having an earring. I mean, other than that, like, give me somebody else. I guess Woj, if Woj was like, yeah, my 20s, I had double studs. That would be surprising. Bill, I'd be surprised at Bill. I mean, gotta be honest.

Yeah, but Bill wouldn't be as surprising as Greeny. No, no, you're right. I don't know, because Greenyy he does try some things out stylistically um i don't know i guess that i think i would be more surprised if bill had it than greeny had it did did greeny have like the little it's like a little black one like the you know i'm talking about like that just it's like a very small sam mitchell yeah see sam mitchell having double black onyx ones but he switched them up because i always check on nba tv those come with wallet chains don't they?

You have to watch out for those dudes. I love Sam Mitchell so much, so I was like, oh, shit, he took the black ones out. So, wait, you think most surprising earring rankings, you have Bill as more surprising than Green? Yeah, actually. I disagree with that.

Like, if we're going old school Mike and Mike, I certainly would be more surprised if Golik had an earring than Greeny. I don't know. For some reason, it just kind of makes sense to me for Greeny. Who's the most surprising that we could think of? Is Woj the

winner? Woj is up there. Yeah. Although you never know. Woj, like young Woj at St. Bonaventure. Who knows? Maybe he was experimenting. We should text him and ask him

if he ever had an earring. We should just ask every guest that comes on the pod, like, have you ever had an earring before? That's how we start every interview. I think it's a great new start

to the age. Do you ever have an earring? All right. So Jalen Hurts signed for $250 million. So Rudy, when are you going to bleach your hair? Summertime? I'll send you guys a picture after because I don't know that you fully know. Yeah, definitely. It's not that weird, but I

just feel like as a 34 year old dad, it would be like that ship is kind of stale on me. No, no, dude. You're the windows to the window. I appreciate you guys. I don't think so. Yeah, you look awesome.

All right. Thank you to everybody. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve. And that's the podcast. We'll talk to you. I'll be with Bill on Sunday, every Sunday throughout. I don't know.

Go draft and into a free agency. And then we'll be back on Tuesday Sunday, every Sunday throughout. I don't know. Go draft and into free agency. And then we'll be back on Tuesday. Orlando Bloom. Scheduled. Outro Music