STEEL CITY BLUES

[00:00:10] Yes, you are now listening to the sounds of Sports Reports As Ordered. And of course, it is I, your unorthodox statistician, going left so much I thought I was South Park with better defense than Deontay Wilder. They call me 2-5. And I got with me the one and only, world-renowned, the Even Kill, born in Texas, raised in VA, representing everything New Jersey. And I just got to give New Jersey a hand.

[00:00:40] Because all this time that I grew up listening to 92Q, Kiss FM down in Washington, D.C., I did not know that New Jersey came up with FM radio. Alpine, New Jersey, stand up. You know what I'm saying? But tonight, we're going to talk about some NFL coaching news. We're going to talk about this national title game happening next Monday at the Compressor. And then we're going to take you for a quick trip around the association. So join us.

[00:01:10] Do not bring feelings to a fat fight. Don't do it. Like, review, subscribe, rate, share, do all the free things. Do all the good things. So, Mr. Logical. Yeah. I had a thought last week. You know what I'm saying? And I know that, like, a lot of people didn't like it. You know what I'm saying? And some people sent me some hate messages and stuff. You know what I'm saying? And then I know. You know what I'm saying? I know you tried to get at me, too.

[00:01:41] But I was trying to make a point. Like, look, I'm not. I don't think that Mike Tomlin deserves to be fired. You know what I'm saying? You cannot fire a head coach who has never had a losing season. That's asinine. But the problem is the Pittsburgh Steelers are nothing more than the Joe Johnson Atlanta Hawks. Interesting.

[00:02:09] So, the thing about the Hawks, right? They would go 47 and 35. You know, they might go 44 and 38. Get an 8 seed. Maybe get a 6 seed in a good year. But you weren't bad enough to be in, like, a LeBron James sweepstake. You know what I'm saying? To get a Dwight Howard. You know, these franchise cornerstones that would have led you years into the future. So, that's where the Steelers are.

[00:02:39] You know, 9 and 8, 10 and 7. Good enough to get into the playoffs. Good enough to maybe even have a competitive playoff game. But you can't get Shadour. You can't get Cam Ward. You can't get Travis Hunter. You can't get Tett McMillan. Because you're going to be picking in the 20s. So, from a certain standpoint, I feel as though it's time to just say, we got to go separate ways. Because, like I said last week, Mike Tomlin needs to hold the Steelers more accountable.

[00:03:08] Did you see what the Steelers did today? They signed Skylar Thompson. For what? Exactly. Russ is a free agent. Fields is a free agent. Najee Harris is a free agent. Jalen Warren is a restricted free agent. Dante Jackson's a free agent. They got three offensive linemen that are free agents. So, it's like, what are y'all doing to show me that we're on the same page? I want to get back to a Super Bowl.

[00:03:36] I want to win another Super Bowl. You aren't doing anything. At this point, you can give Skylar Thompson money to be a backup. There you go. But, you know, but that's the thing though, right? Like, it's like, I'm doing my part. I'm winning with rosters that not many other people could win with. What are you doing to meet me halfway? I mean, that kind of move. And a lot of their moves.

[00:04:06] Like I said, I think they get these wide receivers that have temperament problems off the rip. Like, you knew George Pickens was going to be a problem in the NFL by the way he was behaving at Georgia when they were good. And he was a big dog on campus. They're like, you know what? Mike can get him straightened out. And every week for like the last six weeks has been something else. You know, saying something in the, you know, either on Twitter or in his interviews.

[00:04:34] Even when it was like going forward, you see optimistic. He was like, nah. I mean, so it's like, I get it. You know, it's frustrating you out there doing cardio and this dude can't throw you the ball. But, yeah, the Pittsburgh still is, I don't know. But it just, it might be time for a new voice in the building. I just don't know at what level that voice has to be.

[00:04:56] Because Tomlin on the sideline, if you look at his 18 years of coaching, 183-107 with two ties. It's a 63% win percentage. That's average. You can book him for 10 wins. You know, 18 seasons, 183 wins. You can book him for 10 wins. So I don't know if it's his voice that's the problem. It has to be somebody else that's communicating above him.

[00:05:23] Because it's been like years where they needed a dynamic playmaker and they go get Chase Claypool. And he's a hothead. Stuff that you can see if you're really evaluating a player. It's like, we see how Tyreek Hill behaved in college. And it translated into NFL. Des Bryant was a talent. But a lot of that diva stuff translated to the NFL. And like they say, if you get a guy with money, it's going to be more.

[00:05:48] Ryan Leaf, when they interviewed him and asked him what he was going to do after he got drafted, he said, I'm going to Vegas. He got drafted and went to Vegas and showed up to San Diego hungover. So it's like, some of these guys are the same thing you are. And with the Steelers, I think Tomlin probably beat the table for defensive players and kind of let the people who said they speak offense do that. And the player personnel and the scout people who say, hey, I know offense. Let me do that.

[00:06:18] And Mike was like, cool. I know defense. Let me do that. And when you have Ben Roethlisberger for all those years, I think you can afford that. But now in these latter years, without Ben, he's probably seeing like, yo, you guys aren't giving me the weapons that I need or the playmakers not utilizing the weapons that we do get here when we get them. And see, and the problem is, is that going back to where you started, you know, saying we got too long of a list.

[00:06:47] You know, you got you go all the way back to like what? San Antonio Holmes, Nate Washington, Antonio Brown. You brought up Claypool. We got Pickens now. You know, so the boy Martellus Bryant. Martellus Bryant. So at some point, and I'm not saying that this is all Mike Tomlin's fault. I'm just saying that you're the common denominator. Like, you know, if this happens once or twice, okay, these dudes are crazy. No, that's I think that's on that's on the organization thinking that Mike can Mike can fix them.

[00:07:17] But that's where that's where Mike needs to say, no, like this ain't this ain't a video game, right? Like when I play NBA 2K, because I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I've ever been like that because you've had your Vontaze Burfitts in the league. You've had your Greg Hardy's in the league. You've had your Romanowski's, your Chuck Cecil's. You've had nutcases on the defensive side of the ball. None of them have been in Pittsburgh. He's got nothing but evil high receivers. But see, I don't think that matters.

[00:07:48] I don't think that matters after eight because after 18 years, like if he was in year four, year five. Okay. We're talking about 18 years now. You're the head coach. That's what I'm saying. I know what you're saying. But regardless of. I think he's down at the table for the defensive guys. And then the other people pick offensive players. But that's your job as the head coach. You're not the head coach of the defense. You're the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, yes, there are some coaches. And they're like, oh, Mike can fix these problems. And that's why I compare him.

[00:08:15] Mike has 10 wins and he's going to fix our problems. And I compare, usually when I compare Mike Tomlin to someone, I compare him to Dabo Sweeney from the standpoint of they're both hands off. They're motivational. You know, they speak and get their team to run through walls. You know, that old cliche. You know, and that's his value as a head coach.

[00:08:36] But after 18 years, if you're still not taking an interest in offense after our offense has looked the way that it has looked the last couple of years, you just fired an offensive coordinator last year. You know what I mean? You got a bum offensive coordinator this year. And that makes me question, are you the one making the hires in the first place? Because I think that Mike Tomlin is a great coach.

[00:09:00] I think Mike Tomlin is smart enough to not fucking hire Arthur Smith to run his offense after seeing what he did in Atlanta and Tennessee. Yeah, I'm not like I said, I'm not sure who makes the hires. I'm not sure who makes the suggestions. But I know Mike Tomlin doesn't sign the check. So I imagine the check signers probably have a little bit more to do with the coach hires. And if that's the case, and if that's true, and that very well could be true. Yeah.

[00:09:28] Then it's time for Tomlin to leave because I've been here 18 years. I won a Super Bowl. I've never had a losing season. I'm like, even when Bill Belichick was around, people said that I was the next coach in line after him as far as the best coaches. So if I don't have the clout or the ability to talk to you to get things done, there's other teams out here that will let me get things done. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:54] Alex, I'm not, I don't think, like I'm always good with a change of scenery. Like I said, I watched a video last week and the guy was like, throughout human history, moving has been the way most humans have solved their problem. Like if they run out of food in one region, they just pack it up and follow the food. Like, because why sit here? If the woolly mammoth is leaving and that's what we eat, we follow the woolly mammoth so we can have something to eat and we're going to go to the area.

[00:10:24] Right. I think it's time for the woolly mammoth to possibly, if I'm Tomlin, I'm comfortable in Pittsburgh. Your life is in Pittsburgh. I can see that level of comfort and not wanting to change. But in the same sense, you're going to be drafting without looking at the draft order. I got you somewhere on 22 because there's 14 teams make the playoffs. They had 10 wins. So they probably had the most wins. So there's somewhere between. They are 21. 21.

[00:10:57] 22. Unless you plan on making some kind of move to get one of these dynamic wide receivers and put them on the other side of Pickens or keeping fields and paying him. I'm wondering if they're going to let Pickens go. You know, so like, yeah, so I'm saying it's like, are you going to make who's making the big personnel move? Because Pittsburgh is a very, I know we talk about teams kind of in buying the moniker in the moxie of the city.

[00:11:25] Pittsburgh, blue collar, nose to the grindstone kind of city. They don't do flashy stuff. Like Miami will do the give you four draft picks to get this speedy wide receiver. Or L.A. will say F them picks and do all the over-the-top stuff. You know, the Giants will give their quarterback $40 million and everybody else is like, no, why are you doing it? Like these other teams seem to do all like this flashy stuff.

[00:11:52] But you have some of these blue collar local teams making like these simple moves. I don't know if Pittsburgh has to make a big move. I don't know if they bring Russ back. Like I said, I just think something – there's always been like a personality thing with Russ. And a lot of black players have always said like, yo, he's just corny. And I know that shouldn't knock him. But it's like sometimes people have to be able to follow your quarterback. And if people think it's like, yo, I can't rock with this dude because it's like I don't like his personality. It's going to be tough.

[00:12:21] Especially when you're not dynamic and you need to grind. You've got to grind every week. And you've got to listen to these speeches. And, you know, like when he walked up to Cam Hayward, like, yo, let's go win these next four after they lost because he wouldn't throw the goddamn ball out of bounds and save 35 seconds. He's like, yo, you fucked up. We got you the ball back. Let's go win these next four. We could have won this one. Right. You know, and avoid it, Baltimore. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

[00:12:47] And that's the thing, right, is that like I just had a thought when you said that, you know, when you talked about the city mirroring the team or vice versa, you know. So that's why I was thinking. So last week I said, hey, if you're the Jets, why not send some picks, try to get Tomlin. But now that you just said that, the team that popped into my head is actually Chicago. You know, monsters of the midway. They have a pretty good defense.

[00:13:13] They got a new young rookie quarterback that, you know, is allegedly, you know, in that Patrick Mahomes form, which is better than any quarterback that you've had since been retired. You know, so when you look at it from that standpoint, maybe that would be the type of fit. But I think Chicago is probably going to look more offense to get Caleb that development. So that probably won't work. You know what I mean? But when I look at this, I look at the jobs that are out there.

[00:13:41] You know, New Orleans is out there. And me and you talked about this earlier this year about how they're getting a little long in the tooth. You know, they let Lattimore go. You know, so now you have the ability to take over a team like New Orleans and you can have your imprint. But if you go to New York, which I brought up initially, you know, you got Ahmed Gardner out there. You know, like you got Reed out there on the other side. You know, you have defensive pieces out there that you can galvanize to make.

[00:14:11] Because the Jets defense is on paper way better than they looked on the field this year. You put somebody in there that builds a culture and you got a team that can contend in the AFC East. Because Tua's going to miss five games anyway. Do you want – you worked at bases with multiple flying squadrons, right? So you're at 22nd fighter squadron, 23rd at Hill.

[00:14:40] And, you know –

[00:15:11] And they're like, all right, Sergeant Wilson, we'll see you over the 34th. You're like – I've been there a few times. I've been over here so long. Everything's running smooth. They're like, yeah, but, you know, you're the guy that can fix it. If they give you an option, like, listen, sleep on it. Let us know in the morning if you want to go down there. If I'm Tomlin, I'm like, yeah, I could go down there and be the guy that fixes the 34th. I could be the guy that fixed the Jets.

[00:15:40] But if you think about how many people were supposed to be the guy to fix this team, and could they all have been that bad? But the one thing that you know about the Jets – And that building and that region, that football environment that is not conducive because I'm not going to be the guy that's able to make the impact.

[00:16:05] Like, for instance, say the 34th had just a terrible commander, and they weren't going to replace him or the maintenance op guy, the maintenance suit. And it's just you coming over there like, yeah, all these guys outranked me substantially by position, by title, by rank. So I can work my ass off and fix this office. But that doesn't matriculate out because the people who are fucking it up are still in place. But this is the difference, though. But this is the difference.

[00:16:34] Right or wrong, the Jets have shown that they're willing to make a move. It might be the wrong move, like Aaron Rodgers, for example. But they're willing to make a move that Pittsburgh isn't willing to even attempt to make. They went and got Russell Wilson, who – But then they fire you after they make the move. Right, but hold on. But that's the difference. Hold on. But wait, but that's the difference, right? Ryan went to two AFC Championship games with Mark Sanchez. How long did he keep his job after that? This is true. But this is the difference, though.

[00:17:02] This is where you use, like I said, that 18 years, no losing season. That's when you negotiate certain things on the front side. That's where you say, I get final decision on this. Or, like, remember when Byron Lefowitz tried to go to Jacksonville, and he was like, no, this GM got to go. Mike Tomlin can say that. And somebody will listen. They didn't hire him because they're in the same kind of position as the Jets.

[00:17:29] They are a hands-on organization with the owner of a lot of the shots. Well, there doesn't have to be the Jets per se. I'm just using it as an example. It could be Chicago. Chicago – Will he leave the home run because they're – Chicago feels as if they need a splash, and Tomlin could be able to do that. But they also fire Lovie Smith at the 10-6. And then hired a bunch of mediocre guys after that as well.

[00:17:55] So it's like I think if they don't get rid of their front office guys, any coach that comes in next year is going to be – But I think that's coming. I think O's is on thin ice. And I think that Kevin Warren, you know, who they hired, he was the Big Ten commissioner. He's the team president now. Probably on thin ice. You know what I mean? Because you did go get Caleb Williams. You did go get Roma Dunze. So on and so forth. And look at you now. Still the same.

[00:18:24] And, you know, you finally got rid of Iberflus. So for them to keep their jobs, they have to – this has to be the right hire. And – For Tomlin, I think the only – Dallas. Dallas makes moves. I knew you was going to say that. Dallas has the quarterback in place. Granny's coming off an injury, but he's a 60-meter quarterback. But what about that owner?

[00:18:50] I think the – I think Tomlin would be good with the owner being the owner. Because that owner – like you said, the Jets will make a move. Jerry's going to make a move. He could have had Derrick Henry this year and he didn't pull the trigger. I just – I think that was just flying too close to the sun. I think he thought after the 3-12 win seasons that the team was good enough

[00:19:18] and Dak was going to be able to – and it's like everybody around him was telling him when it was going to work. I think now he might recognize, hey, it's not going to work. But I think Andy Reid leaving – or getting fired by Philly going to Kansas City. Like you have to go to a place that's – had some winning, some success recently, and just for whatever reason team and coach didn't work out. Like getting the Tennessee job last year would have been good for like a seasoned coach.

[00:19:49] Maybe not with the quarterback, but like, you know what, they weren't a terrible team. You can make a move. I think a team like Jacksonville is a good place for a seasoned coach. I think Tomlin and Jacksonville makes more sense. It's Pittsburgh, Jacksonville. I like Jacksonville because they've already established. They've made their free agent moves. They locked in the quarterback. I think they have a lot of young pieces on defense. They have the dynamic wide receiver, young, not getting a lot of money.

[00:20:18] Not – no attitude. Just goes out there and balls. Almost 1,200 yards receiving as a rookie with, you know, what people perceive as a mediocre quarterback play. I think Trevor Lawrence can get that Justin Herbert kind of regular season under Tomlin. Like, hey, listen, we don't need to check it down the field all day long. Maintain drives. Hand the ball. So, I think – At this point, I feel like Jacksonville is Ben Johnson or bust. You know what I'm saying?

[00:20:45] Because, like, you need to see that investment through that you made to Trevor Lawrence. Mike Tomlin doesn't help you with that. I think Mike Tomlin helps you as a – I think if I'm Mike Tomlin, that's probably the only – If Pittsburgh – I mean, if you're paying Trevor Lawrence all that to win games 16 to 13, sure. Yeah, I don't think – listen, I don't think the head coach has to be an all-offensive coach. Like, it's just – there's this narrative that you have to have an all-offensive coach

[00:21:12] because every year offensive coaches get hired and they get fired too. I know, but who's the coach of the Rams right now? The Pan Ams was supposed to be an offensive coach, right? Who's the coach of the Rams right now? McVay. McVay's the – Who's the coach of the Bengals right now? Yeah, look how bad the defense was. No, but I'm talking about – but I'm talking about, like, but they're getting the bang for their buck out of the guy that they paid is what I'm trying to say. You know what I mean? Yes, the defense is bad, but they paid Burrow,

[00:21:41] and they're getting that return on investment from you. Matt Nagy was an offensive coach. Trestman was an offensive coach. Peterson was a defensive coach. Peterson was an offensive coach. Urban Meyer's an offensive coach. Urban Meyer's a defensive coach, but he just has that running game. But that's what I'm saying, though. Mike Lee is an offensive coach. But that's where you've got to hire the right – You use two in how you look. But that's why you have to hire the right people,

[00:22:06] which centers us back to where if Mike Tomlin isn't going to hire the right coordinators in the first place, it really doesn't matter where he goes. I just think at the end of the day, it's leadership and talent, and I just don't feel like the offensive talent in Pittsburgh, I don't know who makes offensive picks, hasn't been up to par to compete with the AFC North, but yet he still books you for 10 wins. We looked at that roster this year.

[00:22:36] I think we gave him six. I think we gave him six and 11. Maybe – I think we went seven and 10 out of respect for Tomlin's ability to get wins. We went like seven and 10 because they had that tough – all their division games being in the back nine weeks. So he still pulled out 10 and got into the playoffs. Well, Russell Wilson playing terrible for four. So real quick before we segue here. Yeah.

[00:23:03] How do you think – what record do they end up with or does it play out the same if he would have stuck with Justin Fields? If he sticks with Justin Fields, I just – I don't know. I haven't seen Justin Fields play like winning football in November. You know what I mean? Like November, December because Chicago, it just felt like it was so up and down.

[00:23:30] He was getting the wins, but I just felt like he – I don't know if he is a late-season QB. Or I got it. I don't know if he's a force multiplier. Oh, yeah. That one. Because I don't know if he's going to just take off and run every time it's not there. Is he going to try to push it down the field? Is he going to be afraid to make mistakes? Is he shell-shocked from his time in Chicago?

[00:23:57] You know, he didn't – he wasn't a distraction all year, but like I – 10 wins was probably – like I said, 10 wins is probably two more than Vegas probably had. Like maybe three, I think Vegas probably had him like seven and a half or something like that. You think the Steelers should bring him back? I don't know the money. Like he's owed money. Like his rookie deal I think is running out. Right.

[00:24:21] So you got to pay him because you can't franchise – you can't franchise tag him because that's fucking $22 million I think right now. Yeah, because you got to pay him within the top five. The top five. Yeah. Average of the top five. Yeah. What's that? That's 60, 55, 52, 52, and 50. Yeah, so that's $50 million. That's out. Yeah. All right. So you ready for Mike Brayble at his old stomping grounds?

[00:24:49] I mean, I don't have any insight on this, but I imagine that they probably wanted to hire him last year, and he told them, hey, I need a year off. Tennessee's going to pay me anyway. I need a year. Holla at me next January.

[00:25:11] So, like, that just seems like it makes the most sense to me because Gerard Mayo, albeit a lot of Patriot guys are in the media, and we see, you know, we see Randy Moss, we see Bruschi, we see Amendola, we see, you know, Julian Edelman, obviously Tom Brady being in the booth. It's a lot of, like, former Patriots that end up doing TV.

[00:25:35] Maybe Gerard Mayo didn't strike me as the guy that you would have picked of your former Patriots to be the head coach. Just because, like, he was on Super Bowl teams, and he was, like, you know, or, like, their success. I just feel like Rayroll, you know, line up as a tight end every once in a while catching, you know, touchdowns. Every pass he ever caught was a touchdown. Yeah, so it's, like, stuff like that just feels like he was more of a patriot staple than Mayo.

[00:26:05] And I just figure, like, when he was available last year, like, that was a no-brainer. And see, and from Nick Shook from NFL.com, it was reported that Gerard Mayo had a coaching waiting clause in his contract. So he was – and that's the thing about coaching waiting, right? I have to give you the job. That doesn't mean I have to keep you.

[00:26:28] So they gave him the job, which gives Vrabel that brace because you always talk about how you don't want to be the guy that follows the guy. So that gives him that. So where, like, now you can start from a positive note because even though Belichick didn't necessarily finish on a high note, we know what he did for that franchise. Now you got Mayo in the way in between. Now you can go, well, hey, he brought us better days than that, even though it was only one year.

[00:26:58] So if the Patriots win, say, eight games this year, you already feel like you made the right decision, you know? So – and you're going to probably win a couple of more games because you got a top five draft pick. You know, you got the second most money in free agency. So now you're going to put the infrastructure around Vrabel that you could have put around Mayo to see if Mayo could do the job or not. But – You let Mayo audition all your draft picks. I mean, what's the guy?

[00:27:27] Jalen Polk had like 30 – was it 12 catches for 83 yards? I know, that makes me sad. That was my guy too. For a whole season. Yeah. That's a quarter for CeeDee Lynn. Yeah. That's a half for a good wide receiver. Was it 12 catches, 33 yards, two touchdowns, something ridiculous like that? Something along those lines. But now, you know, maybe you go get a Travis Hunter or somebody like that.

[00:27:53] You know, like maybe you can get a Tett McMillan, 12 catches for 87 yards. Maybe you can get you a Tett McMillan. Maybe you can get you a Luther Burden, you know, something along those lines. A playmaker, if you will. You know, and now your offense is instantly better than it was this season just off of potential. You know, and now some of those receivers like Polk, if he stays, you know, Javon Baker, Pop Douglas, those guys can go back into the slots that they should be in. Correct.

[00:28:22] You know, once you get that leader receiver – that lead receiver in there. So, from that standpoint, I still think that the Patriots gave him a raw deal. And if you're going to have something like – I don't want to belabor it, but if you're going to have something like a Rooney rule, there has to be something in place of we knew y'all was going to hire Mike Vrabel.

[00:28:44] As soon as this job came open, yeah, you interviewed people because we told you to, but we knew who to hire was. You know, or just get rid of the Rooney rule and just let it be. It didn't take that much investigation to figure out who was going to get hired by New England. Right. And nor should it. They should be able to hire whoever they want. Right. I get it. And we had to put the rule in place because we do live in a world where Black people,

[00:29:12] and even in the same professional capacity, don't always get the opportunity. So, sometimes it's forced. It's literally – the forcing, you know, being coerced to hire or interview a Black coach, it might not ring well with a lot of these people who are calling the shots around the league. Like, you see – But you got to have it in place, but we also understand that, listen, it's in place. We know the reason it's in place. It's not really an opportunity to get hired.

[00:29:41] It's basically just an opportunity to practice your interview skills. Right. For someone who might actually want to hire you. And that's the thing. I'm not hiring you here, though. Like, when people say these things, like, oh, the Rooney rule and da-da-da-da-da-da, it's like, yo, actually on the surface, we agree with you. It shouldn't be a thing. But people didn't want to play fair.

[00:30:04] So, instead of knocking the result, you got to look at the root cause of how you got to that result. And that's what people don't do. But Mike McCarthy's out in Dallas now. You know, we knew it was going to happen more than likely. You know, Jerry Jones. I thought Jerry was going to bring him back. I thought Jerry was going to bring him back because I think Jerry felt like this guy – I can tolerate this guy and I can – I don't want to say manipulate because I don't want to make it seem like one grown man. But he won't push back. Or power another man mentally.

[00:30:34] I think he just figured, you know what? Why do I want to learn another person? This guy gets what we want. He's been here four years. Three years success. One year's injury riddled team. And they still ended up with a better record than San Francisco. You know, even with all – Either they lost to San Francisco. Yeah, even though they lost to me. So, it's like, yeah, you got a backup quarterback. Your starting quarterback tore his hamstring off the bone after you paid him $60 million. It all looks bad, but –

[00:31:03] Well, I just look at it like I look at the – I look at it like I look at the Marshall situation. If your head coach is in his last year and you make it to the last month of the season and there's not even talk of extension in the media, he's probably not coming back. Oh, yeah. I thought – I thought he would come back simply because I just thought Jerry was going to bring him back. If Jerry didn't sign Dak, then I would have thought, you know what?

[00:31:32] This is an audition year for everyone because everyone said like that all in, all in. All in means you're putting all your money in the middle of the table. So, how much of a commodity? It doesn't mean you're going back to the ATM. It's like, oh, I got this. So, that means no more new contracts, no more extended contracts, people on franchise tags, or you're playing out like everybody. Everything's all in, and then if I win, I'll bring it all back.

[00:31:58] So, how much of a commodity do you think Mike McCarthy is? I mean, he's been foraging the fire being under the gun in Dallas. I don't think I've ever – Got a Super Bowl ring. Got a Super Bowl ring. Mike Tomlin to get it many months ago. Yeah.

[00:32:18] But if you think about a guy like how Doug Peterson was like real snippy with the media this entire season, even a little bit in the last season, Mike McCarthy just pretty much kept it super civil. Like, you know what? I know what I got myself into when I came here to coach for Jerry. I know, like, this is going to be an opportunity for me going forward.

[00:32:39] If at a minimum he's going to some booth, some TV show, you can almost guarantee it he's going to be on the NFL Network or something like that. Or he'll be on another staff. We know, like, six coaches get fired every year. So, he's not under contract. So, he might not – you know, like, a lot of coaches have the liberty of getting fired with a couple years left in their deal. If I'm the Raiders, I give them a call. Well, Jacksonville, right?

[00:33:09] Because you know him as – if nothing else, you're like, he coached Aaron Rodgers and Dak. Yeah. I mean, he got good years. Like I said, he got 36. This year with the injuries, I'm going to give him a pass. Yeah. If I'm the injuries, I'll give you a pass. So, yeah, Jacksonville – He's going to be arguing what Cups about if it's a winning culture or not. Well, them not –

[00:33:33] I think the culture established by Jerry is kind of – that's up in the air because he could have done better to – you know, just give him better contracts. Give – make better decisions instead of trying to win negotiation. Just give better contracts. The CeeDee Lamb contract could have been way smaller if he did it earlier in 2024 or did it in 2023.

[00:34:03] Both times. Both times with Dak. With Dak, he could – the contract could have been substantially cheaper per year. Like probably up to $5 to $7 million per position per year for every deal he stretched out and stretched out and stretched out. Because I had no idea Justin Jefferson was going to get like $35 million. Right. I don't know if that was even – but Amor Asene Brown had just got 30. You probably could have got CeeDee at 30 and a half after that deal. Then you still had Ayuk out there.

[00:34:31] And Ayuk ended up getting like 28. 32, I want to say. I thought he got – And then I think Tyreek Hill restructured his deal still around 30. So no one was at 35. So he could have got CeeDee in that 30 and a half maybe just to beat out Amor. He just got his deal. Yeah, you got 30. Yeah. So he could have – but he – Justin Jefferson ended up getting the 35.

[00:34:57] And I think CeeDee ended up getting like the 34 range or something like that. Yeah, now Jamar is like, my turn. Yeah. Coming off of the Triple Crown too. Yeah, he's going – he's going – he's going to own part of the bank. Yeah, CeeDee got four in 136. So it's about 31 and a half a year, 31. It's about 34.

[00:35:26] It's about 34. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, you know, but word on the street is Jerry might be interested in one of his former players as the head coach. Dion not leaving Colorado. Not to go to Dallas. He said he wants to coach his sons. So he needs a team. If a team is willing to draft Shador and Shiloh and pay him. So I – Sounds like Cleveland to me.

[00:35:56] Sounds like Cleveland to me. He has to fire Stefanski. Tennessee, maybe. The Giants keeping Dable, so that's not happening. Dion just – Dion just throwing it out there the same way he said with Travis Hunter and the Heisman. Like, what is Michael saying to the Heisman voters? I mean, let's say you see what they own eyes already. That's saying something to the Heisman voters.

[00:36:21] So Dion is just – Dion is just out here keeping Colorado, keeping Colorado on their toes, keeping recruits looking out for him, keeping his face in the media, making sure his son gets highlighted. It's a lot of conversations, a lot of pleasant conversations. Just Dion just using the offseason right now. Like, he's probably not recruiting that hard. Like, yo, let me just stay on TV. Not doing much. Let me just stay on TV. Let me, you know, do my dad's stuff.

[00:36:50] Like, you know, trying to get my sons drafted. Let me just stay out here and just keep being Dion. Keep being jovial and, you know, just personality on the thousand. And we'll see how that works out for his sons. Right. Like, yeah, Dallas – Okay. Yeah, because Dallas, you're not getting rid of Dak. Like, we saw the thing somebody in our group posted back getting traded to Tennessee for a number one pick in Tennessee. Then, like, then – Shador.

[00:37:17] Yeah, Shador goes to Dallas and they get – Like, why would Tennessee give up the number one pick? They have all the leverage. Yeah. You got a chance to get a quarterback for 12 to 15 years versus a dude coming back. You can pay him $6 million a year for the next three years. Yeah. Or you can pay him $60 million for the next three. It might make dollars, but it don't make sense. It don't make sense.

[00:37:41] So, of course, you know, this weekend, the weekend that was, wild card weekend, there's a team that went on a road and got a playoff win. And it just so happened to be the same place that they got their last playoff win 19 years ago. That's nuts. Listen, sometimes it's comfortable being out of town. So, what was your takeaways from the wild card weekend? Wild card weekend, a couple of things.

[00:38:08] I know I said this kind of as a joke, kind of tongue-in-cheek in one of our groups, you know, making a bit of a snipe at people to talk about the college football playoff. But I do somewhat believe that it's too many teams that make the playoffs in the NFL. Yeah. Either you go back to 12 and you have two buys per conference, or you drop it to 10 and you do the one buy. Because 9-8, wild card.

[00:38:38] Like, if you win your division, that's set in stone. You win your division, you win it at 9-8. But as a wild card, it's like, come on, man. Like, you didn't compete in your division. At least the people who won their division, which is the primary thing to make in the playoffs, win their division, whatever the case may be. I think 14 is too many. Not just the scores. I just felt like, I feel like it's just kind of watered down.

[00:39:03] Because you end up with, you know, the cream rises to the top for the most part. And the division winner, the Bucs, that had, like, the weakest division, lost their home playoff game. So it was like, again, I don't want all wholesale changes. I just figure you go back to 12, give me the two buys per conference, and roll it that way. I don't think the 14 teams, I don't think they're necessary. I'm so disappointed in Zach Taylor.

[00:39:33] Because I feel as though if I was Zach Taylor, I would beat the table and say, the AFC North should have automatic spots. And we get 29% of the revenue. Yeah, we need at least three automatic spots. Because the Bengals are better than the Chargers. Then we would come on here and be like, but the Chargers beat the Bengals. But the Bengals are playing better now. You know what I'm saying? So as I was looking at that.

[00:40:00] So it shows how crazy the argument is for the college football playoff, but the same thing in the NFL. I think 14 teams is just, it's very similar to how I feel about the NBA. Like, 66% of your league can't make your fucking tournament. It's supposed to be. Like, the championship tournament. Like, it's too much. But I do need. And in the NFL, it's like 52%, something like that. But I do need to take a second because America, I owe Mr. Logical an apology.

[00:40:27] Mr. Logical, I sincerely apologize for ever trying to speak the thought that Justin Herbert could be an elite quarterback. Just the wrong time to have a bad game. Like, listen. That was beyond a bad game. I'll never get up here and be like, oh, this guy sucks. Like, I try to keep it level. I try to keep it logical.

[00:40:53] I just feel like my arguments get, like, rangy and, like, just very vivacious because I try to apply logic to my decision. You know, so it's like when I say something like, I just haven't seen this person do X, Y, Z in this environment. I think in order to be considered among these guys who did X, Y, and Z, this person needs to do that. And then sometimes it's like a back and forth. We've had it a few times, like, in different podcasts and different conversations.

[00:41:22] But it's like sometimes you just – I think you have to play the way Lamar, Josh, Mahomes, Burrow. I think you have to play that way all year. You have to – you can't just be so, you know, dink and dunk. Like, you have to forge yourself in the fire. I know I've said that a couple times today.

[00:41:50] But, like, Bo Nix, granted they lost. He was throwing the ball over the field against Buffalo. But he's been playing like that all year. They got, like, what, eight losses? It happens. You're going to lose games. But you have to know – like, I talked about this last week. Like, you need physical confidence. You don't need to be a bully. But you need to know, like, when it comes down to it, I can slap somebody in the face and it will be effective.

[00:42:17] You need to know that intrinsically so you can go into conversations. You won't let people talk to you a certain way. You won't let people manhandle you a certain way. You won't let people, like, talk – like, bully you and, you know, treat you with disrespect. Because, like, I'm physically confident. I know that. Like, listen, if it comes down to it and I got to sit you down and we got to have, like, a heart-to-heart that might get a little aggressive, I know internally I can handle this situation. Win or lose, but I can handle the approach to this situation.

[00:42:45] I think Justin Herbert plays under this – like, in this cloud all year long. So, he's hardly ever criticized until the playoffs. And then he's criticized all offseason. And then when the season comes around, he's a top-five projected quarterback again. And then you go to the next thing every year and it's like – Sometimes you need to be really chewed out to, like, really get it.

[00:43:14] Like, you need to be able to, like – you need to be able to bounce back in these situations. I just feel like he doesn't bounce back as often than I think he should. So, when they beat the Bengals – when they beat the Bengals on Sunday night football earlier this year, he was Nick Anderson stealing the ball from Michael Jordan. And then when they got to the playoffs, he was Nick Anderson missing the free throws in the finals against the Rockets. That's what happened to Justin Herbert. But, you know, speaking of Denver, you brought up Bo Nix.

[00:43:41] He came out, long touchdown pass to his college teammate. It's like, oh, snap, we got a game in Orchard Park. They held the ball for 18 minutes and 17 seconds total. And, you know, it was just the wildest thing. But here's something interesting that is only interesting to 2-5. Okay.

[00:44:06] No opposing kicker has ever made a 50-yard field goal in a playoff game in Orchard Park. Does the lake affect wind? It must be. Like that swirling effect? It must be because, remember, they missed the 50-yarder right before the half. And that was something that Romo put out there. You know, but no opposing kicker has ever made a kick.

[00:44:33] So, Baltimore is going there this weekend with their kicker who has fallen off a little bit this year. Just saying. Just saying. But, you know, speaking of Baltimore, you know, Baltimore had the best kind of playoff game that you could have. Because even though they were playing a heated rival, it didn't take much effort. You know, like if it was third and four, Lamar, just do something. Like we ain't even got to call nothing special. Just do something. You know?

[00:45:02] So, I'm looking forward to this game this weekend. I'm looking real forward to this game this weekend. Obviously, we saw the matchup earlier in the season in Baltimore. And Baltimore walked the mud hole and walked it dry. You know? That's when Henry had like the 87-yard run, right? Yeah. When he outran. Yeah, I think it was like 38-10 or something like that. And so, they're up in Orchard Park this weekend. And I still think that Buffalo is just not a good matchup for Baltimore.

[00:45:33] You know? But I'm interested to see how that plays out. So, I was watching Green Bay in Philadelphia. And the first thing that I saw was the opening kickoff. And the Pro Bowl kickoff returner, Keyshawn Nixon, fumbles the ball. I thought he got his back. Yeah, recovers it. And Philly got the ball. The game was over as soon as that happened. It was a strange game. It was weird.

[00:46:03] Jalen Hurts, I saw a stat. I can't remember where I was watching. I remember watching it. And he was like 5-for-5 for like 30-something yards with that touchdown. And he had like the one touchdown. With John Dotson, yeah. And then I looked up again. And he was 6-for-12 for 39 yards. And that one touchdown. So, I was like, what the fuck happened? Because I left wherever the game was. I left that room. And I was doing something else.

[00:46:33] And I came back. And the stats popped up on the screen. And I was like, he hadn't done anything since then? So, it was a very weird game. And Jordan Love just giving the ball away. Like, it's just – it doesn't make a lot of sense. And then he lost all his receivers. You know, lost two linemen. Josh Jacobs was nicked up. Like, it was just a bad day for the Packers all the way around. So, I don't think that that's a – Oh, and shout-out to Philadelphia Eagles for banning that fan from future games. Yes.

[00:47:02] They haven't really outed his name or anything else. But it's like, yo, dog. I get that Philly has this reputation for being, like, these crazy, passionate fans. Like I said, fan is short for fanatic. But, yo, calling a woman a dumb, ugly cunt in front of – because you're with your boys. And you know, like, her man can't hit you because you're an old man. And you have three or four of your friends with you and a bunch of Eagles fans. It's just cowardly work. Look, I hope you stay banned.

[00:47:32] I hope you never get allowed to go to another game again. Just because it's just – it's unnecessarily childish to pick on a woman. It's a privilege, not a right. At a football game. Yeah. The team's not going to pay – the team's not – if you get in a fight and you get murked, the team's not paying your hospital bills or they're not paying your bail money. I bought this jersey. This is all they got for me. They make stuff for me to buy to support them. They do nothing in reverse.

[00:47:59] I did enjoy the Pittsburgh fan Royal Rumble after the Ravens game. That was awesome. Come on. Like I said, man, I'm a father of four and a grandfather. The last thing I'm getting is knocked out because I'm knocked out by a fan over the Falcons. Like, it's just – it's not happening. Yeah. I'm not like – So then you got – you know, as I mentioned, you know, the Washington Commanders, the one and only, you know, saying walked into Raymond James Stadium. And – Championship drive. They pissed Mr. Logical off.

[00:48:28] They pissed Mr. Logical off before that drive because they had those two fourth downs. Take the points. You got to take the points. Like I said, I think Mike's kind of paused right now, but I'll keep it going. Down four inside the 10-yard line. You kick the field goal. You're down one. Worst case scenario, Tampa Bay marches back down the field. They get a touchdown.

[00:48:57] They're probably not going to go for two to go up nine because I don't think that would be a wise move. More than likely, maybe they get a touchdown. They go up eight. You're still down one possession. But being down four, if they march the ball back down the field, now you're down 11. You're down two possessions when you could have cut it. Todd Bowles. I'm like, I'm always like, take the 12 and a half minutes left in the game. You know? Todd Bowles in that clock management. Todd Bowles in that clock management. You know what he did?

[00:49:25] I didn't like the play call that Baker fumbled on. Yeah. And remember, we talked about this last year when they lost the playoff game to Detroit. Like, what are you doing? Remember, in that game, it was something like he didn't go for two. Either he didn't go for – he didn't call. They were down – yeah. They ended the game with a timeout when they potentially could have stopped the clock and maybe you get a bad snap or something by Detroit, but he was like – Like Baker did. You know, he talked like this pretty much the game.

[00:49:54] I'm telling you now, Mr. Logical, but I'm telling you right now, if the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl this year, it's going to be because of Washington. Taking out Tampa Bay? No. It's going to be because Washington is going to scare the bejesus out of them and they're going to learn that they can't be complacent. So that's going to be their wake-up call.

[00:50:17] But speaking of the NFC North, what the hell happened in Phoenix last night? Oh, man. Boy, turn back. Cinderella, midnight, the pumpkin. It's – But see the difference between me and you? I apologized for the stupid thing that I said. You just going to try to slide by as if I didn't tell you the Rams was going to get up in that ass.

[00:50:45] You ain't got to pause there. That was legit. I just – I don't know. I just felt like – I felt the – And I did say this. The see you in two weeks allegedly was in the Rams locker room. It was like a warrior cry for them. I heard on the Rich Eisen show, like they had it printed out in their building, what Dan Campbell said to Kevin O'Connell about see you in two weeks. Yeah.

[00:51:15] So I was like, oh, man. So maybe he put the pressure on. Maybe that's some evil genius Dan Campbell stuff. That eye trick. Yeah. Like, oh, let me get this other team more around. But non-sacks? Some of those are on Sam Darnold. I know. 10, 11 yards. I don't – It just – Maybe you – Maybe the film on them was – Maybe Sam Darnold was doing so great this year because they just – They went back to the same well week after week after week. And then now in the playoffs is the last couple weeks.

[00:51:45] Okay. We figured out third and seven. These are the eight to 12 plays you run. These are the areas you target. And they were just all over. Because it was – It's hard to cover wide receivers, especially Justin Jordan-Assen, for three and four seconds. And then you still got Hawkinson out there too. Yeah. So they were covering. And it was like – A lot of them, like they said, coverage sacks. Sometimes it's the quarterback holding on to the ball too long. But maybe then as the coach, you go, let me get –

[00:52:14] Let me get him on the edge. Let me maybe get him a little, you know, some Daniel Jones kind of yards. Like, you know, roll him out to the right. Is that going to bring Darnold back? Because I think it's hard to go from – Depends on what kind of charity you get from ownership. I think it's hard to go from 14 wins and be like, y'all ready for the six-win season next year? Because I don't know – And I put this in the group earlier.

[00:52:42] I don't know if you can move the first-round quarterback because they have guaranteed money because J.J. McCarthy got 12, right? He – So he got drafted 12. So I imagine he has some kind of guaranteed money. I figure a trade puts you in some kind of cap deficit. It's probably not crazy. It's probably not some Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins cap deficit. But there has to be some kind of monetary impact to try to move a first-round pick

[00:53:12] this early in his contract. Yeah, so he went 10. And his contract is four years – I just lost it. Oh, yeah, four years. And he got like 21.8. 21 total? Yeah, 21.8 total. It's all guaranteed. And then he also got a $12 million signing bonus.

[00:53:41] So he only has $9 million left? Let's see. He got – his base pay this year was $795,000. $795,000? Yeah. Okay. $960,000 next year. $1,075,000 in 2026. And then $1.19,000 in 2027. And then the team option.

[00:54:10] And then he's unrestricted in 2029. Okay. So there's probably nothing to the cap because if they gave him 12 out of the 21 already, that means you only have to figure out how to wiggle this other nine in. Pause. So they probably can trade that. Yeah. I'd move on. I think I would too.

[00:54:31] I'd move on because I don't need to see if it gets better with you when I kind of have your history of it being up and down. You had a good run with us because you don't want to be in a Nick Foles situation where he goes 27 touchdowns, two picks, and you think he's a franchise guy. Right. Now you're just moving him again. So it's like you drafted your guy.

[00:55:00] You had a good run with him. He would have been probably playing if he didn't get hurt. Yeah. He probably would have been the backup. I mean, yeah. McCarthy probably would have been the starter. So you look around and you figure Tennessee has a number one pick. Do they want to take Cam or Shador? Or do are they willing to take Sam Darnold and make some other moves with the number one pick? My first call would be to Daniel Jones' former team.

[00:55:31] I'm calling maybe the Las Vegas Raiders because, once again, they put themselves in a draft position where they're not going to get a top quarterback. Or the team that we brought up initially to start this show, the Jets of Politicians. I don't think he goes back to the Jets. I think he really sees ghosts. Pittsburgh, maybe? No, no. I was talking about McCarthy. I'm talking about moving Darnold. Oh, you're talking about Darnold. Okay. I was talking about McCarthy. I'm keeping McCarthy.

[00:56:00] I'm going to move Darnold. Yeah. I'd rather move Darnold and go forward with the quarterback I'm paying $750,000, $900,000, $1.1 million. Maybe I extend him after that. And you've got Daniel Jones as a backup, potentially, if things go awry. Daniel Jones is a guy you can kind of tell you, hey, man, don't do that because that's what I would have done. That's valuable, too.

[00:56:26] Yeah, I would say if I'm Sam Darnold's agent, you're in a good position because there are teams who aren't in great positions with their current quarterback. But they have good draft positions. Like, I think Cleveland. I think Cleveland is Stefanski running that West Coast offense. I think that would be good for Darnold. We heard about Deshaun Watson's setback with the Achilles. Maybe he probably doesn't want to go to another one-year deal situation and have to approve himself over again.

[00:56:55] But the Browns also have the number two pick. And they got the number two pick. So maybe you make a move and you go down to five. But you make what's going on Mike, one-mic podcast. Mondays and Thursdays, y'all get that black-on-black news. So maybe you just get an opportunity to where – and I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to do the whole audition again. But I like the Raiders. I think the Raiders are in a bigger deal. Sam might be Alex Smith at this point. You know what I'm saying?

[00:57:26] You're just like a quarterback mercenary. Yeah, you just go wherever you need it, wherever you need to fill in at this time. The craziest thing about Minnesota season, though, they started 5-0, lost to Detroit and the Rams back-to-back, went 9-0 or went – yeah, 9-0 in their next nine, lost to Detroit and the Rams back-to-back to end the season. So the only two teams they lost to this year are Detroit and the Rams.

[00:57:55] Yeah, it just – both of those seem like big-moment kind of games. Any other year you would be like, they definitely won the Super Bowl. He got face masks aggressively in the end zone that other Rams game where they ran and lost by 10. But that was an egregious face mask. Egregious, yes. Maybe he would have moved the ball down the field and this whole season is different. But, like I said, if I'm the Vikings, I think you divorce yourself from just thinking about the 14 wins.

[00:58:23] You think about, okay, what's best for the Vikings going forward? I have the weapons on the outside. I have the running back. I can't put that on the screen. More likely you'll have – you're probably going to keep your defensive coordinator because I don't think he's going to get a head coaching job. Yeah. I can't imagine that because most of the teams that fired their coaches are probably looking for offensive guys. Sure, they're in New Orleans. New Orleans is probably the only team that's looking for a good coach.

[00:58:51] I don't think they're looking – I don't think they have like the offensive pieces to be like, we need an offensive guy to mold Spencer Rattler. I don't think that's what they're looking for. I think they're like, who's the best coaching candidate that we can get to come down here to Louisiana, down to the boot and hook us up. Mike McCarthy. But, you know what I'm saying? But anyway – Yeah, like I say, so you're probably going to be able to keep most of your staff.

[00:59:18] So, like, I'm running – if McCarthy is healthy, I know people always talk about, oh, yeah, like an infection. He had to get another surgery. But you got until, what, May before they start really reporting? They got mini camps and stuff like that in March. He's in the building, rehabbing, training, you know. And you got Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, you know, TJ Hopkinson. Like – You have weapons for him. You have – Aaron Jones.

[00:59:47] He stood on the sideline for a year and did what most rookies should have done anyway, which is hold the clipboard or watch film. So I don't think you're at a deficit because that's what you – Yeah, because he only threw like – I think that's what they wanted. He only threw like 20 passes in two years at Michigan anyway, so, you know. Yeah. So, I think – like I said, I think if you're Minnesota, if you just – if you sit down –

[01:00:14] so your game was last night, I think you sit tight for today, tomorrow, tomorrow's Wednesday, you have – and you start having meetings on Thursday. Give yourself a couple of days. You know, you want to get 48 hours separated from the game, think it through, and then like, you know what? Well, Sam Darner was here to be the guy that held the – passed the baton to JJ anyway.

[01:00:43] The 14 wins were cool, but are we going to be paying this guy – if you give him the Baker deal, that's three years, 135. Do we want two guys, two quarterbacks? Do we want to be the Falcons? I mean, so it's like – That Brett Favre path, huh? Come on, Mike, cut it out. You ready for what I'm ready for, Mr. Logical? Where are we at?

[01:01:12] Let's hear it. What are you hoax right now? You know what I'm saying? Mr. Spraybeard. Mr. Spraybeard. Yeah, that's the strangest beef. So real quick, you know what I'm saying, before I even say what I'm a lethal bag, before I say what I'm about to say, I got to preface all this with, it's time for us – you know, remember that Charles Barkley meme? It's time to have a dialogue.

[01:01:42] When is Sark going to start getting the criticism that James Franklin gets? Uh, never. Why? He's at the University of Texas, you know what I'm saying, which is the university with all the money that is the most overrated university in college football. Show me the national titles. Where they at? You know what I'm saying? You got a school out here like Alabama with 18 of them things. Notre Dame ain't even winning since 1988, and they got more than double of what you got.

[01:02:12] I ain't trying to hear that shit. Sark is James Franklin Jr. But anyway, I digress. Point being, Mr. Spraybeard, you know what I'm saying, has gotten himself to the national title game, which a lot of people did not see happening after that game in Columbus to end the season against Michigan. You got Notre Dame coming in with a head coach that's allegedly going to get interviewed by the Chicago Bears. Brian Kelly is somewhere punching the air. I'm not even like that.

[01:02:42] No respect. I mean, no disrespect to Chicago. Like, I'm not taking that interview. All right. So, Mr. Logical, what's your early thoughts on this game? We'll make our official picks on Friday. But what's your early thoughts? If it gets hairy, if it gets scary, if it gets tight and tense,

[01:03:08] I'm going to lean on Freeman and Notre Dame to be able to make the plays to wiggle out of that. I just think watching Ryan Day's face in that Michigan game, it felt like a man that was contemplating all these other things other than, like, moving the ball after. Because after Jack Sawyer got the interception, game still 10-10,

[01:03:35] it's like we needed, like, I need energy on the sideline, and the camera was going to him. I didn't feel like he was getting guys ready. I don't feel like he was on the headset telling Chip Kelly, yo, take the shot. I don't care. If it's one-on-one with our best guy against their best guy, throw that thing down the sideline. I don't care what the coverage is. If you get one-on-one over there, give them a shot.

[01:04:03] I just felt like that was a big momentum moment, and they just came right out, went three and out, and punted the ball back. So, I just feel like if it's like that with Notre Dame, I think Freeman will be able to go to Riley Leonard and be able to go to these guys and be like, yo, I need a championship drive out of you. Six minutes, 37 seconds left in this game. We're down 17-13. I need the drive of your life right now, and I think they'll deliver.

[01:04:32] I don't know if Ryan Day can go to Will Howard down for six minutes left. Hey, I just don't want to see that happening. I'm happy that Ryan Day is still with us because when that fight was going down at the end of that Ohio State-Michigan game, I feel like if Ryan Day had access to a roof, he wouldn't even be here with us right now. He literally, like, his face was like this. And, you know, so Notre Dame,

[01:05:00] so the first thing that I think about this game is I don't know how Notre Dame is going to score. That's the first thing that I think about when I look at this matchup. You know, like, the Penn State game was odd because you didn't give up a catch to a wide receiver, and you held on for a three-point win, and they still scored 24 points on you. You ain't holding a Buka, Smith, Tate. That ain't going to catch some balls.

[01:05:28] They might catch 20 between them. Like I said, that Michigan game, it was tight. It was probably the only time all year I think Ohio State's been punched in the mouth. The Oregon game was a little bit more back and forth. They had 30-plus points. But I think that was only because it was Michigan. You know, just like James Franklin, right? Usually it's like, well, you can't beat Ohio State, can't beat Michigan. You usually do well against everybody else. I think with Michigan, considering the losing streak that they're on to Michigan,

[01:05:58] and that was the talk leading up to the game is you can't lose to this Michigan team. And then he tried to out Michigan Michigan. You know what I mean? Like he's not going to try to out Notre Dame, Notre Dame, because to do that, Will Howard probably has to run the ball 15 times. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Like, I don't know what happens. I think it's going to be a great game. I think it's going to be a great little sport game. Ohio State has, like, they have all-American talent on the field.

[01:06:25] They have guys who could have been all-Americans if they were playing at other schools. Like, you know, there's guys that— They've got SEC speed. I mean, Big Ten speed. I mean, so they just—they have playmakers on the edge. I mean, the Jack Sawyer, strip sack, bounce catch, fumble recovery. Like, I think probably the best angles you see of that is just all the Texas, like, position players that were in the end zone waiting for the ball. It was like they just walked—they were just walking to the sideline.

[01:06:54] It was like, I can't even chase him down. Like, by the time he scooped the ball and everybody realized it, he was already at the 40 going away. Even the dude that he beat off the edge was just, like, trying. But, you know, he's 335 pounds and I'm catching them from behind. And remember, we spent the last few weeks before the playoffs talking about how beat up Ohio State's offensive line was. That's Notre Dame now. And, you know what I'm saying? And Ohio State, in addition to Jack Sawyer, they got some JTT coming through as well. You know what I mean?

[01:07:24] And then you got the corners on the outside. This is probably going to be the best secondary that Riley Leonard has seen this year. So if he can't run the ball effectively and Notre Dame can't establish the run, this could go south real quick. You know what I mean? But I think it's going to be a close, tight game. And I think that the winner of the game—cliche, cliche, this is a Mike Tomlin moment. Whoever wins this game is going to be the team that makes the least mistakes. Yeah. That was my Mike Tomlin right there.

[01:07:53] But in other news, you know what I'm saying? You also got Carson Beck following his girlfriend down the South Beach. I don't know who that benefits besides Carson Beck. I mean, you get an experienced guy. You get a guy that played in one of the most prominent college football conferences. A lot of eyes. Coming off the surgery, true.

[01:08:22] But you figure you give him a 21, 22-year-old. They're probably going to heal a little better. You know, not like he's like, you know, 36 years old coming off injuries. And Miami is losing their top four receivers as well, including their all-time leading receiver. Maybe Carson Beck. Maybe that moves the needle. Maybe you get, you know, a couple more transfers in it. Like, you know what?

[01:08:51] He does throw the ball a lot. You know, you won't get a—like if you had a dual-threat quarterback coming in, maybe a wide receiver and a transfer reporter. Like, nah, I don't want to go there because that guy runs the ball a lot. Like Riley Nelson, you know, Riley Leonard and Notre Dame. Runs the ball a lot more than he throws it. But if you're a wide receiver, like I said, a transporter on Penn State, it's like, hey, you trying to come here? Like, yo, you know you got the statue back here. All you're going to do is throw the ball. So I'm going to get some opportunities.

[01:09:19] So with Carson Beck, a lot of—we noticed, like, with C.J. Strauss, his last year before he went to the NFL, he didn't run the ball a lot that season. He threw a lot from the pocket, saved his body because he's like, hey, I'm going to be a projected top-five pick. I'm going to throw the ball around the field, show my arm talent from the pocket. Maybe Carson Beck is getting that kind of advice. Hey, go down to Miami, get some of these speed guys that Miami can tend to bring in, make these guys look like superstars.

[01:09:47] Yeah, but you've got to have the arm in the middle of the problem. I imagine that he'll—I imagine that he'll bounce back. And I imagine— Well, I ain't talking about the injury. I'm just talking about his lack of arm to begin with. If you get enough space with a speed guy, like, you can—I think you'll make it work. Yeah, I think we're going to learn— You'll be in school with your girl, like, and they're going to pay you $4 million to do it, or whatever the number is. Yeah, he got $4 million compared to Cam Ward's one and a half.

[01:10:17] Listen, the price of the brick's gone up. It has. But, you know, moving on, you know, it is time for something that we have not done in a while. It's time to go around the association. So, you know, lots going on. You know, Zion Williamson suspended for a game because he didn't want to go to meetings on time. And, like, I don't know if this is just the beginning of him finally letting out the worst secret ever kept.

[01:10:46] He don't want to be in New Orleans. He doesn't—I don't know if he has enough cash to really, you know, leverage that kind of demand anyway. Like, what have you done? What have you done for us besides take our money and eat our food? I mean, the good news for him is that in the NBA it's always about potential, potential, potential. So people are going to see—like, so, you know, in the NFL you want to look at a quarterback,

[01:11:13] and a quarterback's having a bad—like Sam Darnold, for example, had some bad stuff. You can say, oh, hey, look at the teams that he played for. You know what I'm saying? But then Sam Darnold also had things on his resume that stained him, like I seen Ghost or whatever. Yeah. You know, that you're like, yeah, I'm trying to, you know, build a quarterback here, but I don't know if I can. Whereas with Zion, you can't teach his size—pause. You can't teach his athleticism.

[01:11:43] You can't teach the things that you think he can do. And you just attribute it to him being hurt. But we know he's consistently ill-prepared and unavailable. So why am I in the other NBA franchise? Why am I looking at Zion Williamson as an asset to my team? It just depends on who you are. Like, if you're a team like the Phoenix Suns—and I'm not trying to present the Suns as a destination for him,

[01:12:12] but what I mean by that is the Phoenix Suns staff, their medical staff, has been lauded all throughout sports as being one of the better management teams. You know, if you feel that you have that type of infrastructure in your building, you might take a chance. You know what I mean? Yeah, but like we look at a guy like Luka. Luka's always looked the way Luka looks, and he just plays that way. Doesn't jump, doesn't get himself injured, but he's like—

[01:12:41] He doesn't look like he's in shape, but he's always prepared to play. Right. Zion is often injured, and there's often rumors of his weight. And granted, maybe it's just that's the story you go with because he doesn't really give you much else. I guess I've always talked about his lack of, like, personality as far as just being one of the young faces of the league. You never hear from him. You don't really see—you don't really see much out of him often. Like, John Moran's been injured a lot, but he's still in the news. He used to be for negative stuff.

[01:13:11] Now he's like, at least he's entertaining. When he plays, he's out there. He's making, like, these dynamic plays, like, you know, the over-the-tomahawk dunks and stuff like that, and dunking on big players. So he's out there, you know, showcasing when he's on the floor. And I feel like sometimes Zion just doesn't do that. So then, as—from my NBA team, it was like, I don't know what you brought to New Orleans. Like, they didn't have any success with you.

[01:13:36] In a league where having a dynamic number-one overall draft pick does change your fortunes. It's happened for many teams, and it's also been, like, a detriment when your team fails. You know, when Cleveland took Anthony Bennett, but when they took Kyrie, like, they didn't win that many games. But you can see, like, okay, this guy, get him some help, and it can pop. Like, Paolo Mancaro, you know, if you look at even LaMelo Ball being a top-three pick,

[01:14:05] you can see promise with these guys. Ja Morant, he had him up to second in the Western Conference a couple years back before the injury bug's kind of, like, been taking him out of the game on top of a couple suspensions here and there. But you can see, like, okay, this guy has changed the way we as an organization play basketball. Well, I think that outside of his injury history, because he's only played in eight games this year, you know, averaging 22-7-5, you know, rounding up.

[01:14:33] You know, I think that he has moments. Like, you know, for example, last year in the play-in game, you know, he had the, what was it, 44 points against the Lakers before he got injured. Right, before he got injured. But that's what I'm saying. But if you're a team, you can talk yourself into, and considering that he got his max deal, what was it, two, three years ago now? Yeah, he got the rookie max. Yeah, so since he got that, you can kind of, maybe you can eat that from the standpoint of

[01:15:01] this is not a five-year 275 that we're talking about. But I think they're almost automatically due and owed the next one. The NBA contracts are weird, and I believe it's like, it's a years in the league and an age correlation. So it's like, your rookie deal goes from like 19 to 22. You can extend it to like 25. And if that puts you at like seven years in the league, you can get this kind of deal.

[01:15:30] So like the Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum deals. So I think it just puts them in this space to where... Yeah, so he originally signed... His contract right now is five years, 197. Correct. So now the next one that he's owed per like the NBA, CBA, and everything else is one of those... He's up for that next max extension. But see, I think it also depends on who you are, right?

[01:15:58] Like the whole scared money don't make money element of this. So like we talked about these NFL teams, you know? So if you're a team, and I'm just making up teams. I'm not saying that he's going to go to these places or anything. But if you're somebody like say... I don't want to use Washington, but if you're somebody like Toronto, you know what I mean? Like you're like 8-32 right now or something along those lines. You got nothing going for you, you know? So like why not take a swing for it?

[01:16:28] You know, like because otherwise... I think it's a $300 million swing. No, but that's fine. But that's what I'm saying. That's the element of it is that you're taking a chance hoping that it works. And, you know, because otherwise, what else are you going to do? Keep drafting top, you know, six or seven and hope that you hit on something? Don't know if it's paying out yet. Right. You know what I mean? Like so... If he was John Morant and he wanted out...

[01:16:57] I consider it because I've seen... Like I said, I've seen his impact on the team. Memphis, as we think about it with Gasol and Zeebo and Mike Conley and all those years. Well, Mike Conley got like... I think he was the first guy to get like this crazy big five-year 115, 130 deal. And it was like, whoa, Mike Conley Jr.? Yeah. He was getting more than like everybody else. Highest paid player. Big player for a while, yeah.

[01:17:24] So, they changed how they played when Jai got there. Like it was high flying. It was threes. It was like effort. It was showtime. It was very like Laker-esque showtime in the Midwest with the high flying young gun, dancing, tattoos, dredge, the whole thing. I haven't gotten one...

[01:17:51] I can't think of any moment other than Zion pulling up lame in the play-in game last year to where it's like, oh, he's really done something for New Orleans. Like I said, even that came up short. This lack of availability for all those years, especially when he was out there doing like pregame East Bay dunks and then sitting on the sideline throughout the...

[01:18:15] Like when I think when they made the playoffs, it's like, dude, you out here doing win no dunks pregame in front of us and then sitting down in Valenciaga sweatsuits. It's like, what are you doing? And if I'm an executive, he's not on my list at all. Well, I mean, his NBA career isn't over. He's going to be somewhere. Like I don't think nobody's going to not sign him or, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him at the trade deadline at all.

[01:18:44] I see him. And this is like not a knock to James Harden, but James Harden had like the superstar status and it was like a guarantee. He's going to get his money. He's going to do his thing. But then it was like a quick fall off. I don't think Zion's going to be like Ben Simmons. I think it's going to be more like James Harden where you could get $50 million a year. But I don't think there's many people that are going to pay you more than 30 million.

[01:19:14] Like you're up, you're up, you're up for the $50 million a year contract. But I don't think there's going to be more teams that are willing to give you more than 30 million. Grand 30 is still a lot. Right. But it's not a lot when you are in line or expected to get 50. And I think that's going to be Zion. Okay. And then you got Jimmy Butler, you know, he was serving his seven game suspension, had his meeting with Pat Riley and said, yo, change is nothing. Still one out.

[01:19:43] Let me see something real quick. And see, and this is the problem with these dudes, right? Is that, you know, we talked about a couple of weeks ago how he has the power in this situation being the player. And this is one of those moments where all the reports and, you know, reports are to or not to be believed. But most things that have been reported say things along the lines of Phoenix is the only team that he would be willing to sign an extension with.

[01:20:11] You know, and that's where you kind of paint the picture of, bro, you already screwing me by trying to leave. And you're about to hurt my return, too, because, you know, you got in your mind that you want to try to play super team again. Jimmy Butler has career earnings of three hundred twelve million dollars. That little seven game suspension, even if he only kept the court of it, it's still ninety million, eighty, ninety million.

[01:20:41] So it's like that little seven game suspension probably didn't hurt him. People like him. The price to break is still the price to break. I'm out. I want out. So at a certain point. Like I said, all the good businesses, you know, realize you got to lose something. Somebody's got the compromise. So maybe you don't get Phoenix. Maybe you get Milwaukee on the phone. Maybe they're willing to move Middleton or somebody else. You know, maybe you have to just.

[01:21:11] You know, I want to say coward, but just for the sake of. Surroundings, move them, move them and let some of these other young guys take that opportunity. If you want to feel like you want to disrespect them, get a next guy that comes in twenty two. I mean, get just get just get back another way. But like you're you're you're not doing your team any favors by like you're putting yourself further and further behind the eight ball anyway by not moving them.

[01:21:40] Because that's going to be. I mean, every other team knows you're desperate to move them. Now you're going to get lowballed. Other than, like I say, the money has to match. Well, see, the problem with these the problem with these NBA teams is. And I know you're going to tell me I'm being two five right now. But but the thing that's wrong with these NBA teams is they don't follow the Bill Belichick strategy. You know, I'm a trade you a year too early versus keeping on to you a year too late.

[01:22:10] These teams have to start seeing that players like Jimmy Butler at a certain point are going to want out. You know what I mean? Like that's just the way the NBA works. You've seen it enough times. You saw players that aren't as good as Jimmy Butler, like Black Brad, who signed a two hundred and fifty five million dollar deal with the Wizards and then still wanted out at the same time. You know what I mean?

[01:22:37] And so so from that standpoint, it's like, OK, we went to the finals twice. We ain't in no position to win the finals right now. Obviously, we are not making the moves that need to be done to make ourselves a championship contender. So trade Jimmy Butler before he even has the thought that he doesn't want to be there and get some value back versus waiting for him to bitch and moan due to things that he's doing.

[01:23:05] Just like Dame Lillard, you know, like we're Portland made that Western Conference finals and it was mostly due to other teams being hurt. It's like, OK, we didn't reach our ceiling. CJ gone. You got to go to. Sorry. We love you. But this is this is the last stop on this trip. You know what I mean? And that's where these teams fuck up, because Miami, if Miami model fucked up by allowing.

[01:23:32] I won't say allowing, but the conjoining of all these superstars to the big markets. Now you're falling into a situation where you had guys like James Harden, Steph, KD, LeBron, AD, Mello, Russ. All these guys were on the same team for so many years. Packed all your all your entertainment value. You you directed towards these particular six teams.

[01:24:00] And then now those guys are old. They're not as entertaining. And now you have teams like Charlotte who have a superstar. Can't highlight them because they're not going to win a lot of games. Orlando has superstars. Can't highlight them. They're not going to win a lot of games. Austin has a bunch of superstars, but you shit it on them the entire last season. You show the entire playoff run. They win the championship. You don't highlight them even more. You got Cleveland on pace to potentially break or be close to the Warriors records.

[01:24:31] Same thing with OKC. But because you put all your eggs into these big market baskets, an argument that you and I used to have. I'm like, nah, that's not a big deal. But now I'm seeing it because we have a sports podcast. And I'm like, I'm not that interested in the NBA. Like Paul George being in Philly. Why? Yeah. I mean, Houston, you can't tell me with the makeup of the Rockets. That wouldn't have been a good place for Paul George to go. You know what I mean?

[01:25:00] If you want to be a facilitator and a defender and not have to worry about averaging 25 points or whatever. He probably could have gone to Chicago. He probably could have gone to Chicago or somewhere like that. Which is odd because Chicago, big market. It's the third biggest city in the whole United States. But you got these guys thinking that they're going to win championships. It's like, look at the teams that have won championships in the last 10 years.

[01:25:27] I don't think any team outside of. Outside of Golden State with Durant. Yeah. Everybody else looked like crazy. But it's like Boston was deep. Everyone can shoot. Denver had the MVP. Everybody around him could shoot. Right now, OKC is looking like their, you know, championship. My NBA champion, by the way. Cleveland is playing out of their mind. But it's like that takes a while.

[01:25:56] And most of these guys who are doing these, I'm making this move for championships. It's like, you're not going to championship-ready teams. And you got guys thinking that they're championship cards like Paul George. I don't want to be disrespectful. Even with the health and beat, it's not a championship game. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. I don't want to be disrespectful. I like Paul George. You know what I mean? And I would even like to interview Paul George one day.

[01:26:22] But, Paul George, you were a fucking dumbass for going to Philadelphia thinking that you were going to rejuvenate Joel Embiid's career or whatever you thought. He was hobbled. He was. Joel Embiid was hobbled a few months, a couple months before you signed your deal. He didn't get any healthier in the time that he was hobbled out of the playoff. Then he went and played in the Olympics. Then he played in the Olympics, and now he don't want to play back-to-backs.

[01:26:51] It's like, why are you there? Like, what did they tell you? Yeah, why did you go to fifth? What if they told you that? Unless you thought Tyrese Maxey, unless somebody told you, like, unless somebody told you, yo, Tyrese Maxey is the new Allen Iverson. Evan Turner was like, yo, Paul George just really let the media tell him where to go. He was like, the dude don't think for himself. I was like, that's some real beef there. But he was like, yo, he was like, there's no way, no reason to hell he should have gone to Philly. He was like, everyone was saying I should go to Philly.

[01:27:20] So he was like, I'm going to Philly. You should have been like, hey, why y'all trying to trade for Mikael Bridges? Bring me in. I could do what Mikael Bridges does. You know what I'm saying? If I'm going to leave L.A., you should have gone to New York. But you should have, honestly, with the honor that you have in L.A. With the honor you have in L.A., the new building, you're from L.A. I mean, the West is probably a little bit more winnable. Just like Kawhi's on his minute restriction right now. Yeah, so I don't know.

[01:27:50] As he tries to work back into it. I just think the NBA, like, I know Charles Barkley and J.J. had their little spat of a week or so ago about the product. But it is, the referees are making a lot of games hard to watch. They're really like, just kind of fuck up the feng shui of the game as well. The NBA dried me some KY jelly. That's what it is. Yeah, lube up.

[01:28:16] You know, and then you look at, you know, well, first, let me, before I even say that, let me back up for a second. You know what I mean? 2-5 in the One Mic Podcast, in conjunction, let the world know that y'all need to be on the lookout for the Detroit Pistons this year. You know, and as I sit here, the Detroit Pistons went into Madison Square Garden last night.

[01:28:44] He knocked off the knickerbockers. You know, my guy, Kate Cunningham, averaging 25-7-9. Of course, that's rounding up. You know, you know, Asar is playing defense and jumping out the stadium. You know, you got fucking the veterans in there, the shooters. You got Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr., you know, Tobias Harris, who can play when Joel Embiid ain't on the court. Malik Beasley can play when Giannis and LeBron ain't hogging the ball.

[01:29:14] So, like, watch out for the Pistons, you know. But anyway, what I was going to say was, oh, yeah, and J.B. Bickerstaff, too. Can't forget that. What I was going to get to before I said that was the Warriors, 19-20, you know, and the one and only Draymond Green, because you know if Draymond ain't talking, he ain't being Draymond. Yeah. So, apparently, him, Steph, and Steve Kerr are not on the same page because Steph is

[01:29:42] like, hey, I want another championship. What we got to do to get a championship? Steve Kerr is like, well, hey, I'm the highest paid coach in the league. Like, I might want a championship again. Draymond's like, no! Bro, we don't need to make no moves because that's what bad teams and bad organizations do. And hold on, Mike. I'm going to get to that. I'm going to let Mr. Logical handle that. But the whole point about it, it was like, okay, y'all already don't really want to play Kamiga as it is.

[01:30:12] So, he's not a part of your future. You know, Moody, you know, like, he's there, but he's like Dipset. He don't do nothing. You know what I'm saying? When the drama come, Jim Jones, get out of there. That's what Moody does. He runs from the drama. Then you got Kevon Looney, you know, who just takes up space. Like, he grabs rebounds, but doesn't really provide anything else. You brought in Buddy Heald, who was supposed to be the clay replacement, but then you got

[01:30:40] Draymond cussing him out in the middle of plays. You know what I mean? So, like, look, pick a lane. And this is where the Warriors, they got lucky. Well, I ain't going to say they got lucky. They won a championship, but they did it in a way that most teams don't do it. They tried to play for the future and the present. You got to pick a lane. It might be time to let Steph go. It worked out. It might be time. I'll get a Warriors credit for sending Pat, but they still have Pat because they had a

[01:31:08] ultra dynamic superstar in Steph Curry. But even those windows closed. And it's nothing. And I believe that the problem is like everybody involved too close to this situation. You take a step back. You bring an independent arbitrator in. You look at him and be like, yo, 23 should have been gone two years ago. Hey, you won the championship. Hold on. The Draymond one? No, that one.

[01:31:37] Steve Kerr hasn't developed anybody. Yeah. I can give you that. He got a ready-made team. Okay. I thought you were going to have fun for that. Okay. Yeah. Mark Jackson had them at 50 plus wins. And all Steve Kerr said was, I'm cool with y'all shooting more threes. Because if you think about it, who did he bring in after Steph or Klay or Draymond? Mark Jackson had them playing some defense too.

[01:32:02] Now, if Mark Jackson would have had Steph, Klay, Draymond, and KD, he would have won two chips. What I, you know, the Achilles injury for KD, I'm pretty sure Steve would have won that championship too against Toronto. And if they could have kept them together, the reason they couldn't stay together is because of Draymond.

[01:32:23] I think it's time to really evaluate how many people need to be there this year or next year that were there during the championship run. I think it's time to send. Because I don't think that number is very high. I think it's time to send Steph up the river. You know, and not because of him. Not because he's not a great player anymore or anything like that. But like I said, you got to make up your mind what you're trying to do. And from that standpoint, you know, you gave Steve Kerr all this money.

[01:32:52] You know, I think it was what, two years, $35 million or so. You know what I mean? I imagine you want some return on investment for that. Now, with that being said, you know what I mean? You don't have the wiggle room to trade anything to get anybody that would help you win a championship. You know, because if you were to give up. The championship window is absolutely closed. It's absolutely closed. But if you're in that building. Baltimore is the wire. But if you're in that building, you don't believe that. If you're in that building. That's the thing.

[01:33:21] That's why I say if you had an arbitrary conversation and you step back, you are in the entertainment realm of your team. The life of your team right now is entertainment based. Akin to the final years of the Lakers and Kobe when they gave him that big deal on the back end because he took the light money. He took light term money for the championship run.

[01:33:52] It faded. Paul Casale was gone. Lamar Odom was gone. We're going to pay you the swan song money. We're going to sell out this arena for 41 games a year for however long you feel like playing Kobe. You cool with that? Yeah. That's the problem right there. Like they should have traded Wiggins coming off of that championship. They should have gotten rid of. They should have enjoyed their championship. They should have tried to run it back.

[01:34:20] And then once they realized. They held the one to play too long out of loyalty. It was like the 22-23 season, right? Because they won it in 21-22, right? Yeah. The 22-23 season, January time frame. Hey, we gave it a valiant effort. We won our championship last year. We got fresh rings. But it's time to make moves. I would have kept Steph. I would move Draymond to wherever I could have moved him.

[01:34:50] He probably would have cleared waivers. And maybe he's. I would have tried to see if a team would have took Draymond and Klay together. You know what I'm saying? Because like I said, you just held on too long out of loyalty. Klay was nowhere near. It's a heartless business. Sorry to say. And you know, the same way that people like you always say, well, why y'all want the players to be loyal? Look at what the teams do. You know what I'm saying? We're talking about the NBA now. You know what I'm saying? If the players go and bounce, I'm going to help them get out of here.

[01:35:17] Yeah, like in the thing about it, I don't think there's anything. I don't think it's a negative separation. I don't think it's a negative divorce. I think it's just time. It's time. That's what I said about Mike Tallwood. You like you've done all your years in college. It's time to get the degree and move out of the dorms. It's like it's okay with that time of your team and your organization to be done because

[01:35:42] it's only so much you're going to do in the league where being fast, agile, and young are probably your biggest benefits. Having a fast, young, smart team with a good head coach is probably the biggest asset you have. It outweighs being big, strong, fast, and old. It's like it's just you can't compete at a certain point.

[01:36:08] Like Mike Tyson is the greatest boxer that most people have seen, you know, because a lot of people probably didn't see a lot of Muhammad Ali. But as far as Mike Tyson's career being on, you know, this digital age, post 80s and 90s, but even him fighting Jake Paul, Jake Paul is 30, 27 years younger than him. It's like it's nothing Mike could have done in that fight, really. It's just it's sometimes you just age out.

[01:36:35] It's nothing you can do about it, especially in the league where getting up and down the floor is the primary objective. If it was football and you could just use strength on skill and you can or baseball where you can just move guys around. Yeah, you could go out there with a 30 some year old Stanton and he can just hit bombs and get runs. But if you need him to have to run the first base every single time to beat out ground balls and eventually that speed is going to slow down.

[01:37:02] The NBA, the Warriors are slow. They're not dynamic. Draymond is probably living off the fact that they were once a dynasty and he doesn't think like anything needs to be peeled back because he's in the shit. Peel it back. Keep stuff for entertainment. Move everybody else. And don't look now, but is it time to break up the Sacramento Kings?

[01:37:28] You know, seven games in a row they've won now, you know, in that stretch, you know, saying first in rebounding, second in offense, third in defense, you know, top two in steals, you know, like so I don't know if this was one of those Mike Brown's voice was the problem issues, but there was a part of this story that I do like though, you know, allegedly,

[01:37:53] you know, from what I had heard, DeMar DeRozan, you know, the drink caterer himself, you know, put on the tape of Doug Christie playing some defense and showing the team like, look at coach get down, man. Like coach was a dog. And, you know, and I guess that was the moment that the light went off. Like, all we got to do is play with a little effort, just like Mike said. It's good.

[01:38:26] It's just, like I said, NBA, we talked about just having that number one overall pick and the impact that they can have on the floor. That's where they are. You know, you can having one voice in, one voice out, having a top tier talent, having young talent with older supporting staff, like what Detroit is running with now. Now, that's the NBA model.

[01:38:52] A lot of these teams that we project to do well are inverted. Old talent with some young guys you're trying to mix in. Like, nah, man, you need young talent with old guys that know their role and understand like, hey, in the NBA, like the Pat Bev kind of role. Pat Bev averaged 37 points in high school. In the NBA, I don't think he ever averaged 10. You mean? But you need older guys that know their role, that can help the young guy.

[01:39:19] Tim Hardaway Jr., probably giving Cade Cunningham a lot of information. You know, Jay and Ivy was in there before he got injured. Probably was something like, yo, you know, lean on the guy a little bit before you run off this down screen. That way you can get open better. Like, that's what you need. Like, a lot of these teams are just inverted to the point where, as a young guy, if the old guy's getting out of playing time, he's not going to tell me how to get more playing time. Right. He's not going to teach me. Like, Steph might teach you.

[01:39:48] But Steph knows I'm never coming off the floor. So, you need to get a team where you get young guys on the floor, old guys on the bench to help them out, and they can get in the game and make it work. That's what Boston is. That's what Boston is. Boston's a bunch of role players that come on the floor, know their role, mix them with some old vets in the starting lineup. Drew Holiday and, like, Al Horford, those kind of guys.

[01:40:17] Even Porzingis has kind of moved around and been kind of an outsider. You know, he's been through some stuff. He's like, yo, I can teach these guys what it's like to understand what your role is. Because I was a top five draft pick, and then all of a sudden I was discarding. I'm supposed to stand in the corner for Luca. Now I'm here. I'm free to roam. These are the ways you can get open. These are the ways. This is the way you get me the ball. I can help you look good. You know? Right. Things like that, and I feel like if teams were just kind of embraced that, they'd be

[01:40:47] fine. Instead of thinking, like, oh, it's championship or blessing. Nah, it's development. Development gets you to championships, but you got to develop first. Because you can't just manufacture it. Those days are over. I mean, like I always say, man, even the Pistons forced MJ to lean back. You know what I'm saying? Man, like, it just comes with, like, unless you go out here and do what the Heat did, do what the Warriors did. And even the Heat didn't even work the first year.

[01:41:16] You know what I mean? So, like, sometimes you just got to take those lumps to get there. But, you know, that goes back to where people talk about the media, where championships make or break, you know, who you are as a player. So, you know, when you have a player like, say, a Dame Lillard, you know, who did the things that he did in Portland, who was obviously one of the best players in the NBA, but it wasn't good enough.

[01:41:42] Kevin Durant, you know, said you took those same Warriors to game seven, but it wasn't good enough. You got to go get the ring. So what did he do? He became a bitch for a ring. You know what I'm saying? He bent over and took a ring. And then you, but then you, you know, and we're still seeing it. Like, you know, like we just talked about Paul George a little bit ago where it's like,

[01:42:03] you know, hey, maybe the problem is you just got to be, or you all have to be more consistent. The answer isn't going across country. You can't be 34 years old getting paid $34 million of a team's cap. And you can't play 34 consecutive games of an 82 game season. Right.

[01:42:28] And all these guys are getting paid crazy amounts of money thinking it's like 2018. Like, dog, it is 2025. You are older. You're out here doing podcasts, wearing boots, like in the knees, always iced up and taped up. Your back's hurting. You need. And that's why we always talk to me asking for $50 million a year. If you can't give me 75 games and, you know, and that's what we were talking about with the,

[01:42:53] with the Clippers is that realistically speaking, obviously, you know, Kawhi and Paul George have health issues, but y'all should have been Boston West. Like y'all were the older version of what Boston became, you know, Tatum and Brown, Kawhi and Paul, you know, but the health wasn't there. You know what I mean? So, so you didn't even have to go somewhere.

[01:43:22] Cause like what tells what it tells me for the fact that you went to Philadelphia in the first place shows me that you don't believe in yourself. So why should I? And the thing, like I said, I don't know why he went to Philadelphia. Hold on. I'm looking it up right now. Give me one second. And, you know, but that's just the way that it is. Like, and I know the Knicks are trying to keep up with Boston. You know, they had the Villanova thing going on. They got rid of DiVincenzo, brought in McHale.

[01:43:50] Another, another bad, like another bad move. Another like. For what? Why? Why'd you, like, I get you was trying to move Julius Randall. You wanted to move him, but it's like, you could have kept DiVincenzo. DiVincenzo was a good piece. Chemistry matters in the game where we've all seen Princeton come to the NCAA tournament

[01:44:16] and beat top teams because guys know exactly where this play is supposed to run. This guy's going to cut here. The defense doesn't know. I know for a fact when I get this ball in the high post and turn around, this guy's cutting to the hoop and I'm going to bounce it to him. We'll get a layup. I know that's going to work. Like, having guys who like being around each other, who don't mind taking eight shots one night and 12 another night, but they just grind and battle and play defense.

[01:44:45] That's what you need. I think Minnesota made a bad move because, like, you think you could have gotten over the hump. You just meet to the Western Conference Finals. If you don't switch Rudy Gobert on the Luka Doncic, I think you're doing pretty well in that round. But you switch fucking Rudy Gobert and Luka Doncic. Like, you should have had Ant on Luka for the last 90 seconds of that game. He should have sat with him on the bench.

[01:45:12] Like, when he was in there in the locker room, Ant should have been outside. He should have been throwing a towel at Luka. Like, whenever Luka was ready to wipe down, he should have been like, here, man, damn. I got you. I got you. Let's go. Let's run it. And that's the thing. Like, you were at the Western Conference Finals. What did you think you were accomplishing? You already paid Cat. So, it wasn't even as if you traded him on some, oh, damn, his contract is coming up. You already paid him. You already paid him.

[01:45:38] You could have kept Nas reading his role because Julius Randall can't do what Cat does. Julius Randall can't do. Never mind. Yeah, it's just not. When you make a trade and regular people who aren't in the business, like, that doesn't make a lot of sense. It probably didn't make a lot of sense. Yeah. We beat this to death. When Daniel Jones got his $40 million, we were like, that doesn't make any sense.

[01:46:07] Right. Yeah. And that's just where we are. So, the NFL, that's where the NFL, that's part of why the NFL is a better product. You know what I mean? Because, like, yeah, you might see a team go out and grab somebody. But they're not trying to grab five or six dudes and be like, this is the move. You know what I mean? Like, we're not 6-11 this year. I'm going to go get four players and now I expect to be 12-5.

[01:46:37] You know what I mean? Whereas, in the NBA, like, what does Jimmy Butler think going to Phoenix is going to accomplish? They already got Booker, Durant, you know, Black Brad. You know, you went out and got the best defender in the draft. He's trying to get traded to Phoenix. And with the expectation that Bradley Bill isn't going to be in the package that goes back to Miami? He is.

[01:47:05] But even if, like, but even if what happens the first time Kevin Durant plays passive or misses a shot, it's going to be Draymond all over again. I don't think Jimmy Butler is that bad. I think he'll come there and play. Oh, I think he is. I don't think he's that bad. I mean, the dude, the dude went. I don't think he's Draymond bad because I think he can. Jimmy Butler is the reason that Cat can't look himself in the mirror to this day. That's Cat's fault.

[01:47:31] I think it's DeMarcus Cousins' fault when he was trying to post him up and he was looking at him like this, that picture. Yeah. Or when I think who choked him out? Ben Simmons? I think Ben Simmons choked him out. Cat's just one of those guys that's like he's too big to talk the way he talks. You need to fake it with some bass in your voice. You know what I'm saying? Fake-ass Joyner Lucas-looking ass. You know what I'm saying? But I'm just saying, but at the end of the day, you know what I'm saying? Like, you've got to do the work.

[01:48:01] You're laughing. Look at, I mean, it's a copycat league, right? Look at Boston! Like, yeah, they went out and got Drew Holiday. You know, they went out and got a Porzingis. But that core is there. They drafted their two best players. And when they got Harry, they fall into his purpose. All those trips to Eastern Conference Finals, even with Kyrie coming through and guys trying to figure it out,

[01:48:28] the best trade pieces were probably Tatum or Brown. 6'7", 6'8", guys can handle the ball. Wing defenders can shoot. Dynamic. They probably could have gotten you a haul from any team in the NBA. But they stayed. They still affirmed. Kept building. Kept building. Kept building. And then it, I think it gives other free agents.

[01:48:55] Like, you're looking around like, do I want to go to the Clippers for $18 million a year for two years? Or do I want to go to Boston for two years for $14.5 million? Right. And that's why the Warriors... And because the way Boston treated their players, the way they build, versus... If you went to L.A. and they had Harden...

[01:49:22] They had Harden, Westbrook, Kawhi, Paul George. With championship expectations. It's like, dog, what are you talking about? These dudes are 120 years old combined. In the league where they're starting lineups that are only 100. And that's why the Warriors cheated themselves. Like, teams like Orlando. Like, those guys are like 115 years old combined. You got four guys that are 130. Like, what are you talking about?

[01:49:51] And that's why the Warriors cheated themselves out of being in the best teams ever conversation. Because all you had to do was run it back and beat that man's ass. They were running back with Harrison Barnes? Yeah. Bringing in Durant? Like I always say, I've been saying this for 10 years now. About... If Harrison Barnes in one or two games goes... Three for eight. Five for 12 instead of two for 12, you win a championship. Game seven.

[01:50:21] If he goes... I think he probably went two for 10 that game. He was missing wide open shots. That's what I'm saying. If he makes... If he pump fakes and gets you three layups versus the four missed threes, Cleveland couldn't compete. Give that man a chance to redeem himself. Like, you know what I mean? We've seen that in sports where somebody has... They maybe have a bad moment and they overcome. And you look back and be like, you know, wow, that was amazing. Like, that's... You would have probably gave...

[01:50:51] We would have probably gave Steve Kerr credit for that. Like, look at where Harrison Barnes... Look at where he was last finals. Look at what he did this year. Like, look at, you know, Jalen Brown. Remember the first time they played the Warriors in the finals? He was out there dribbling the ball off his foot. Yeah. And now he come back and win finals MVP. Iron sharpens iron. And all I see is a bunch of plastic. It's cash. It's cash and grabs. It's all... He is.

[01:51:20] This is true, Mike. You know, but we will be back on Friday with our divisional round picks. We will have our official national title pick. You know, can Ryan Day ride the horse out into the sunset? Will Lou Holtz get the last laugh? Either way it goes, we'll be here. We love you. Like, review, subscribe, share, rate, do all the free things.

[01:51:49] Do all the good things. And for Mr. Logical, I am 2-5. Do not bring feelings to a fact fight. Don't do it. Peace.