June 15, 2023 • 46 mins
Today on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, the value of the running back compared to other positions. Senior NFL reporter for TheMMQB, Albert Breer talks about turmoil in Buffalo with Stefon Diggs, the devaluing of the running back and whether DeAndre Hopkins will chase money or a title. Lions rookie RB Jahmyr Gibbs talks about the difference in intensity of practice at Alabama vs the NFL. Plus, deep dives on JFK, mushrooms and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar arrings, rating Winn and Jonas Knox on
Box Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
By the way, another morning of rain on my neck
of the woods.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I don't know, bro, I'm just it's so upsetting. It
is so like and Chris continues to say, you know,
the earth has to balance itself out and we should
be grateful and happy that we're getting all of this rain.
I've never seen this much rain since living here, and
(00:36):
it's almost been a decade. You know, She's right. I
guess we have to appreciate it because once it's gone,
you know what we'll be saying, Dang, I wish we
could get a little rain.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, I'm with you. I don't think I'm I'm trying to.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Look and this is there. You know, people in the
South are dealing with tornadoes and they've got all that
that fiasco that that's guy going on, and so we
could be much worse. But man, there there was a
slug in my backyard the size of a hot healthy
super hellpy like literally the size of a hot dog bond.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
They just they go drow to hell up soon just
hanging out. Oh, yeah, I've had a lot of slugs,
snails you call them slug. Do you have snails or
you call them them both slugs.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
There's some that are that have the.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, I had like a million snails. Yeah, some whole
bunch of snails, which I think is a slug that
just has a shell, right.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, it's it's a slug. It's a slug with a
backpack on cargo. Yeah, it's a slug with a backpack on.
And they just hang out.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And so you're saying that that that slugs are dropouts
and snails are smart.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
They just yeah, they don't stay at school. Yeah, they
they they want to pretend and they want everybody to
think that it's all by memory. They don't need their books,
they don't need their trapper keepers, they don't need anything,
Like we don't need a shell. We could just go
into class and we can memorize everything. And they're just
hanging out me And then I didn't realize because these
wild mushrooms were popping up in and around my backyard
(02:02):
and I hate mushrooms. Mushrooms are the most disgusting food
on the planet. Like every time I walk by the
mushrooms in the produce aisle. I want to just hire
somebody from outside to throw up on them, so they
have to get rid of all of them. It's disgusting.
They're revolting. Anybody that eats mushrooms, you should rethink what
it is you're doing in your life.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So wild hats mushrooms yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Wild mushrooms are popping up all over the place.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yea.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And they're bad. Okay, they're bad for dogs, right. They'll
do major damage to dogs from my understanding, Like if
your dog eats a wild mushroom like that, they'll turn
into a like like a rabbit with four eyes. Like
they just it ruins them, destroys them. And I didn't realize.
I didn't realize that part of the was that Rick Patino,
(02:55):
Rick Patino driving in on the on the program here,
John Caliperry, Sorry about that. Uh so you I didn't
realize that part of what grows wild mushrooms is specs
from the sluts, well bats slug same thing.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, that's and maybe that's what that's the what coffee
coffee something from bats, something from bats. And there's something else.
There's something else too, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Truffles aren't truffles from bats or something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I think those are those are mushrooms, aren't They aren't truffles. Mushrooms, Lee,
you're a mushroom guy. You're onushrooms right now? What is
the troubles are a fungus. They're not mushrooms. They are
edible spores apparently. And yeah, the new trend is like
mushroom coffee.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, mushroom coffee, it is the new trend. And uh
expresso express, uh martinis.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, that's different than mushroom coffee, like like a mushrooms
of fungus. And so what you're like every time you
have a mushroom, Like when you order a pizza and
you say, yeah, can I get a large cheese with
pepperoni and mushrooms? Why don't you just say can I
get a large cheese with pepperoni and athletes' foot?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Because that's what It's crazy? That is my favorite. That
is my absolute favorite go to for pizza. God, mushrooms
and pepperoni, No man jonas.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
There are other kinds of mushroom out there besides the
ones that go in your pizza. There's really good, like
you know, portini mushrooms.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
The mushrooms that go on your pizza are bad.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, what are you so those are just like those
are okay? Yeah, why are you some mushroom races?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You're normal? Yeah, prejudice racist, Come on, prejudice. You're you're
saying that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Those great ones aren't that good mushrooms, but the ones
going to pasta god so grow good for you. Man,
They're good for you.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
They're not You're mister health, but you and they are
good for you. Actually they grow. That's your problem. Yeah,
but whatever point.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Of ruffles are actually underground mushrooms in the fun guy
in the fung guy Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Okay, so they're coffin mushrooms, so stay underground as far
as coffin mushroom. Yeah, standard ground.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Okay, you don't know about truffle butter.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
It's nasty man. Anything that's got something to do with
mushrooms I think is just disgusting. I don't get it. No, Sam,
what are you? What is going on?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
All right?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Anyway? So yeah, that's what we're dealing with out here.
We've got more more, yeah, more rain, more rain, and
bowling pin slugs crawling around the backyards and destroying our surroundings.
But the point is we've got ourselves another issue in
the world of sports of oar, and that issue is
(06:04):
at the running back position. We've talked to nauseum about
the devaluing of the position, but I was looking up
just to kind of get a better perspective on where
we're at with something that was a foundational piece in
the NFL for years and years and years. So Christian McCaffrey,
now Christian McCaffrey finds him and finds himself on the
other side of the fence. He actually got paid, Like
(06:26):
he actually got paid, and he got paid while he
was in Carolina and now he's a member of the
San Francisco forty nine ers. He was actually speaking with
rich Eisen This was a few weeks back, and he
talked about just sort of how the position is valued.
This is before all of these other instances like Josh
Jacobs and Saquon Barkley and Dalvin Cook and Eckler and
(06:47):
all these guys and all this stories have been popping
up this week. Christian McCaffrey talked about this a little
while back, and he had some interesting things to say,
not only about the value of the position around the league,
but in comparison to other positions and the utilization of
the franchise dag.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
When I look at what you know, receivers make and
fall receivers make around the league, and then you look
at what running backs make, you know, we're at the
bottom of the list, and you know, you got backs
who had two thousand yard seasons. You've had backs who've
had seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred yards receiving,
and you know a lot of people use the injury
(07:27):
the injury argument, but you know, I don't know if
that's necessarily valid when you look at some of the
receivers who have been hurt who still get big contracts,
and so I understand we touch the ball the most,
but in my opinion, I think we create a lot
of value in doing so as well. So there's a
lot of arguments multiple ways, but I definitely think somewhere
(07:47):
along the line the franchise tag and what the market
did to the running back position, I think they're definitely undervalued.
And I think if you ask the running backs around
the league, they would probably say the same thing.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So so they need to get a running back to
the union, you know, and unionized.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Is that possible? Can they do?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Not doubt it? If you boycott it, like, oh, running
back United, we're boycotting the league. They'd be like, well,
that's another receiver.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's just a separate, separate office, said the NFLPA, like
running backs over there, and they all just have.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Their own running running back number six.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You know what when he brings up the franchise tag
because the franchise tag has been I know in certain
cases like Kirk Cousins used the franchise tag beautifully and
he's gotten paid and paid and paid, and Drew Brees
used the franchise tag and he got big contracts and
all that. But like this, this is the part that's
kind of when you take a step back and look
(08:48):
at it, it's it's it's pretty wild to think about.
So of all the position groups and the franchise tag
number attached to those position groups, the only position group
that has a lower franchise tag number than running back
is kicker, slash punter. Like just think quarterback, wide receiver,
(09:11):
tight end, O line, d tackle, d end, linebacker, cornerback, safety,
all of them have a bigger franchise tag number than
the running back. The only one the running back beats
out is the kicker slash punter. And that's based on
the average of the top five salaries per per position
(09:34):
up in the upcoming year. And obviously it scales depending
on you know, what the salary cap is at that point.
But like we're talking about one of the most important
positions in the NFL, and the saving.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Seemingly and even if it were the most important, you're
talking about you're still talking about running backs, right, Yes,
I just again, I just think that seemingly it being
the most important position, which is not it's the quarterback,
but knowing how important of running back is to a
quarterback success. You take away Edgar and James and Marshall Folk,
(10:10):
you don't have a Peyton Manny, you take away Corey
Dylon and what was Anchwan's Smith? Smith? Achwan Smith, you
take away those backs that Kevin Folk, You take away
those those backs from Tom Brady. You don't have a
Tom Brady. You take away Jerome Bettis from from Ben Roethlisberger.
(10:33):
You don't have a Ben Roethlisberger, you know. And we
can keep going, right, we can keep going like the
name like if Joe Montana doesn't have Roger Craig Ricky
Waters Rathman. If he doesn't have that, you don't have
a a Steve Young or a Joe Montana. You take
(10:53):
away Emmitt Smith and Moose Johnson. You don't have a
Troy Aikman, And for what it's worth, you probably don't
have a Michael Irving. You know. So if you go,
you take away Thurman Thomas, you don't have a Jim Kelly.
You can go. You can continue like anything you look at.
I'd say the only one that you can't really make
(11:14):
that argument point is with more recent quarterbacks like Pat
Mahomes is going to be Pat Mahomes. Yeah, he's going
to be Patrick Mahomes. I mean that's just the way
their offense is structured. And I think that that becomes
the issue. I think that trend of being able to
have interchangeable running backs and them not having to be
really big name running backs came from Andy Reid. I
(11:37):
really do. I think it came from Andy Reid. I
mean you think about what he was able to do
in Philadelphia. He took really like obscure talents like Brian
Westbrooks and Douce Staley's and turned them into like really
really helpful pieces to his offense. They were a passing offense.
(11:58):
People may not know that he's been airing it out
for a long time. Donovan McNabb was airing that ball
out in Philadelphia. And what you do. You had, You
had Douce Staley, you had Correll Buckholder, you had Brian Westbrook,
then you had Shady McCoy. You have all these guys
that had the same type of style. Can catch the
(12:20):
ball out of the backfield, can catch screens really well,
can get upfield, can do all of these things. They're elusive,
they're not very big. You saw this developing with Andy
Reid's offense, and what is this league? It's a copycat league.
Who has the best offense out there? It's Kansas City
(12:40):
and they do not have their running back by committee.
I mean when they had Leshan McCoy, Lashan McCoy wasn't
even playing. They was using other guys when they made
the Super Bowl run. So it's easy to say you
can look at the historical value of what the running
backs position presents, but the bottom line is Jonas like
(13:03):
you can find guys to be just as serviceable. It's
sad to say, but you can find guys that can
be just as serviceable in these new styles of offense,
that where you don't have to value the position the
way you once did.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So who would you say yet, off the top of
your head. You may you may already know this, But
who would you say led the league? Which team led
the league in rushing last year? Off the top of
your head, Yeah, you guess.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
If I had to guess, I would probably say Tennessee. Yeah,
if I had to guess.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
It was the Bears, who were the worst team in
the league.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Who was the best?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
The Bears were the worst team in the league. They
led the league in rushing. Oh okay, they led the
team of the league in rushing. Yeah, yeah, and Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But I don't know. I don't know that that that
the correlation is because they could run the ball.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
But like, that's a team who part I mean, they
ran the ball because of justin fields. Obviously that was
his effectiveness rushing the football. He nearly broke the record
he would have if he'd played the final week final
game of the season, Mike Vick's record, Lamar Jackson's record. Rather,
but that's like an indication that that's a team that
(14:14):
has to rely on the run because their passing game
wasn't there. They were the worst team in the league.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Hey, you know what else is interesting? I know we're
up against the break? What else is interesting? When you
think about running, it's almost like comparable to the three point.
The three pointer in the NBA and how Steph Curry
changed the whole environment of how you approach playing basketball.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
It's like the mid range of football.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Two points aren't good enough anymore. Yeah, it's almost like
if you can't if you can't do something that is
extraordinary being inside the three point line, then you're now
as a perimeter player, you're kind of obsolete. Big men.
You know, you got to be able to rebound, you
got to be able to you know, box out stuff
(14:56):
like that. But do you have the skills to come
out to the perimeter and be the joker? You know
all these different new you know Kevin Durant, you know
hell Lebron James. These guys are are are six seven,
six eight, six ' nine and above, and they're out
on the perimeter because you can't keep up if you
(15:17):
can't shoot three pointers. And we saw that in this
year's finals. We saw it in this year's playoffs, and
we've seen it in the Golden State Warriors becoming what
they've been able to become it and I almost look
at it like you almost can't run the ball. You
can't run the ball to win games anymore. You got
to be able to throw it and air it out
(15:38):
and get into the end zone to be able to
keep pace with these types of teams that can throw
the ball, that are finding ways to get the ball,
push the ball up field.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, we've talked about it before, Like the Niners, that's
a team that still runs a football. They've had a
different leading rusher for like the last five years. Carlos
Hyde was their last running back who led the team
in rushing in multiple years in a row. So it's uh,
it is a different game altogether.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Right now, we're going to talk to Albert Breer, senior
NFL reporter at the MMQB. You can get him on
Twitter at Albert Breer ab what's happening? Happy Thursday?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Hi, Hey guys, what's up?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Just trying to figure out what the hell is going
on with Stefan Diggs and Sean McDermott and Josh Allen
and the Buffalo Bills. I mean, give us the details,
give us the dirt.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
What if you use detail?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
What's going on here?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Ab Well?
Speaker 7 (16:38):
I think usually when you take on somebody else's problems,
eventually they're going to become your own problems. And look,
I think I actually think like Stefan Diggs is a
good guy. You see how popular he is in the
locker room. Obviously he's a great player. But you know,
I think some of the I it's friction that exists
(17:00):
between he and the Vikings. I think it would have
been a naive for Buffalo to think there wouldn't come
a point when eventually that could happen to them. And
we've seen this before with you know, big time receivers,
and I mean look at Terrell Owens. You know, San
Francisco's problems became Philadelphia's problems became Dallas' problems, right, and
then Randy Moss, you know, Minnesota's problems became Oakland's problems.
(17:22):
Became New England's problems. So this is unusual. It certainly
has happened in the past. And I think, you know,
they're going to get this worked out, and I think
he's gonna be fine this year, mostly because Buffalo doesn't
have a choice because they're in such a win now spot.
They've leveraged so many contracts. They've already paid him. I
(17:42):
don't know how many people have talked about this. They've
already paid him twenty three million dollars for this year US,
so they'd essentially be paying because they restructured him, you know,
and so he had an enormous base salary and they
just turned it into a signing bonus and gave it
to him base more or less minus like the million
dollar minimum days. And so you know, they have to
(18:03):
work it out now, you know. I think it's certainly
the sort of warning sign you get though where you
love to have Stefan Diggs for the next five years
or so. But I think if you're Buffalo now, you
have to prepare for the idea that eventually there could
come a point when you're moving on and you got
to find a new number one receiver for Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
It sounds like a whole lot of when a head
coach says, we just we just need some time apart.
I was saying earlier in the show ab that, I mean,
that's that's relational terminology for I don't want to be
with you anymore, or we shouldn't be together, you know,
I need my space from you for one reason or another. Like,
(18:50):
just the terminology seemed to be kind of interesting. I
don't I don't want to read too much into it,
but well, I mean if.
Speaker 7 (18:59):
You get said the one thing though, LeVar, like, I mean,
I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
There, you got it.
Speaker 7 (19:05):
I mean, there is there is a there is you
know somebody who was subtracted from the equation over the
last year, and that's Brian dave Ball, you know who
helped to develop Josh Allen, who got the most out
of Stepan Diggs. And you do wonder you know, in
a lot of cases, like when you've got a defensive
head coach, you know, the offensive coordinator kind of becomes
(19:27):
the biggest voice for a player and vice versa. Right, Like,
I'm sure you had offensive head coaches over the course
year career where the defensive coordinator was probably the biggest
voice for you on a day to day basis.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Right Williams, and raise the biggest voice. I'll raise you one.
I had Ray Bob my rookie year. I had Ray
Rhoades my rookie year. So so.
Speaker 7 (19:54):
I mean, I I think like subtracting Brian Dayball from
the equation could be a factor here, you know, you
certainly so the frustration at the end of the season,
and there were a ton of expectations on that team,
and I think that team's talented enough to win a
super Bowl, you know. And and let's remember this too,
and I think this is something that you know, kind
of gets under sold a little bit. Think about everything
(20:14):
Buffalo went through last year, you know, like the Demorrow
Hamlin thing that they got displaced twice by snowstorms, there
was a there was a shooting that they helped that
community heel. They were a big part of the rehabilitation
process for that community after the top supermarket shooting. That's
(20:36):
at the end of the year was typically spent was
only spent. Josh Allen Let's hurt. At the end of
the year, Von Miller had torn his acl That team
had been through a lot, you know, and you know,
you take that plus maybe some of the personal frustrations
that guys like Diggs and Allen might have had at
the end of the year first year with that day
ball and go as far and you know, I certainly
(20:59):
think there are a lot of the problems. Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Albert Breer, senior NFR reporter at the MMQB, joining us
here on Fox Sports Radio. You can get him on
Twitter at Albert Breer AB.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
So.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I guess, big picture, we could always talk about the
devaluing of the running back position, but it does feel
like the hot button issue, especially over the past several
days on at ground level, just in the moment as
opposed to the big picture aspect of everything. Where do
we stand on Saquon, Josh Jacobs, Dalvin Cook, like there's
(21:31):
a lot of people, Jonathan Taylor even came out and
spoke about just the whole situation as far as the
immediate effects of the running back position. Where do we
stand on those?
Speaker 7 (21:43):
The hard thing is Jonas is like I think for positions,
you look at it and you say, if you're going
to resign a guy after three years, it's like, okay,
so I am going to get in this guy right
where fourth, fifth, sixth year, Like that's going to be
the prime of the guy's career, and I'm going to
(22:04):
pay them at the top of the market. I'm also
the very best to him, and well running back at
the primary your career almost right away with people to leave,
you know what I mean. Like so like Zeke Elliot's
a good example and had that he's sort of become
a cautionary tale. But Dallas got two rushing titles out
of him, you know what I mean. Like in Dallas,
I would say if you ask anybody, that organization being
(22:27):
able to lean on him was a big part of
their ability to develop Dak Prescott in a proper way,
you know. And so yeah, they had to pay a
tax at the end, but they got value out of it.
And you know, we've seen kind of friction between players
and teams things before and they wind up working out
with like he got a contract, Nick Chubb got a contract,
(22:49):
Alvin Kamara got a.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Tract. All right.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
But so I think that this is always these are
always hard discussions to have because I'm sure a Saquon
Barkley looks at it, you know, and says, well, I'm
gonna pay me like like the number three receiver, you
know what I mean, you're gonna pay me like the
second pass Rustaurant team. So those are difficult discussions to have,
(23:16):
you know, because I mean Stake one was i mean
maybe the most important on the Giants roster last year,
and and and and getting them turn getting that turned
around and getting accomplished with Brian Daball and Joe Shane
wanted to get the complishing year one. Same goes through
Josh Jacobs. You know, Josh Jacobs with the Raiders. You know,
(23:36):
he kind of became central to everything they were offensively,
we're going through the ups and downs that Derek Carr
had and so like that's those can be very very
difficult discussions to have where you have to say to
a player, well, you know, we're not paying you for
past performance. We're paying you for where we think you're
gonna go. And like unfortunately your position, the prime of
(23:57):
your career sort of already happened, and you know, we
have to protect ourselves against the downside here, you know.
And that's like, I mean, that's the guy for three
years takes been at least five years, you.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
So those are always tough discussions to have. I think
they will find a middle ground. And I mean, look
like I think leafon Bell is a great, you know,
cautionary tale on the other side of it, where you know,
if I'm advising one of the these guys, I'm saying,
you know, let's let's go to the mat, let's fight
for every dollar. But at some point you just got
to take the money, because there are too many stories
(24:30):
of guys who didn't take the money, who wound up
in a really bad place because because they weren't willing
to accept the reality of that position in the league.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, I tend to have an agreeance with that. Let's
let's stay on the tailback position then and go to Minnesota.
Now you're talking about cautionary tales about the running back,
but this is a team that let Dalvin Cook go.
How much of an impact does that have on Minnesota
(24:59):
cut It doesn't look like they've brought anybody else in
or foreseeably are going to bring somebody else in to
replace him. Do they feel like they have that with
the running back they have on or running backs they
have on staff? And this is definitely a show me
year for Kirk Cousins. Right, because you don't have the
(25:19):
safety of a thousand, consistent, thousand yard rusher on the ground, right.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
And I think I think the way you want to
look at Minnesota globally, LeVar is this is sort of
their reset year. You know, they had like a lot
of guys who are on big contracts when they went.
Kevin O'Connell and Quacy Dopamza got there last year, and
I think their strategy was a little bit like and
I brought a buffalo, but a little bit like what
(25:46):
Buffalo did in two thousand and seven where they held
together to the corps for a year to try to
establish a program, and then they cleaned out the salary
cap in year two and they sort of reset the
table in year two they could build the teams the
way that they saw s it. And so like last year,
he saw the Vikings bringing back a lot of guys
(26:07):
like you know, Eric Kendricks and Harrison Smith and you know,
obviously Dalvin Cook is in that category, to Kirk Cousins,
uh And they basically said, we're gonna win with this
core right now. Adam Steeln is another one. We're gonna
win with this core right now. We're going to establish something.
We're going to get people in the building believing, and
(26:27):
then after we go through that, we're going to have
to reset a few things because we need to build
for the future. And so that's sort of what they
went through and Cook was part of that. As for
what they, you know, we're going to be doing at
running back, I look at where Kevin O'Connell came from
and the way that they value running backs with the
Rams and how you know, at one point they did
(26:48):
have a running back at the top of the market
and Todd Gurley and then they won a Super Bowl
without that. They wanted Super Bowl more with parts at
that position, and you know, guys like Cam Akers on
their officer, Sony Michelle, and you know, so I think
there's a belief that they can do a little bit
more with less of that position. And that's you know,
(27:08):
part of the reason why they gave Alexander Madison, who's
been a really good player for them, the contract they
did because they figure bring him back Madison and I
think it's like three and a half million dollars a
year was a better value for them than paying Dalvin
Cook at the top of the market.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Albert Breers senior NFL reporter at the MMQB, joining us
here on Fox Sports Radio. So, what's the latest on
DeAndre Hopkins. He's in New England to visit with the Patriots.
He was already in Tennessee. Does he have any other
stops lined up or is one of these two teams
going to be where he ends up being overall?
Speaker 7 (27:39):
I mean, I still think, like, you know, there's that
potential that he has an epiphany and you know, like says,
I just want to go win, you know, and like
maybe the money isn't all that different, and he says,
I just want to go to Kansas City, like and like,
let's see if we can figure something out, and maybe
Chris Jones does a restructure, we can figure something out,
or I want to go to Buffalo, you know, and
(28:01):
maybe that's part of making Stefan Digs happy.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Now.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
I think the Bills would probably look at it the
other way, like we need to get Digs the ball
and there's only one ball, and you know, Hopkins is
a volume guy, so that could be problematic. But I
do think that there's that part of it where it's
going to come down to what DeAndre Hopkins really wants
you know what I mean, does he want to go
chase a championship at thirty one years old or does
(28:25):
he want to take every dollar he can get? And
no one should blame him if it's the ladder, because
I mean, God knows, like these guys can only make
money for so long, and so I would never blame
a player at the end of his career for taking
one last day day. So I think that's sort of
what it is right now. You know, Tennessee's retooling obviously,
and you know the new general manager Rancart on there.
They've sort of, you know, chose this to be a
(28:48):
year of transition and they'll be going through that this year.
And New England obviously, I think, is you know, sort
of looking for a rebound and they need answers on
that Jones and you know, maybe having you know, DeAndre
Hopkins on board, getting a guy who's at least got
experienced as a tree number one receiver, you you can
(29:10):
give them, you know, a clear answer faster on who
Jones is going to be and with the decisions are
gonna have to make on him after the year, they
need to get to those answers as fast as possible.
So I think it's it's going to be does he
want to go compete for a ring, does he want
or does he want to take top dollar or is
there some balance between the two? And I think right now,
(29:31):
you know, my guess would be that he's probably somewhere
in the middle of there trying to balance it and
figure out what's the best thing is to do. And
and that decision, by the way, doesn't have it to
happen tomorrow. It could happen closer to training camp if
he wants to wait.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Get him on Twitter at Albert Breers, senior NFL reporter
at the m m QB. Always kind enough to join
us every single Thursday. AB appreciate it. As we get
as we get closer to college football, we'll get some
some Buckeye talk on. You know. That's how we do
it on this show.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
That's our year. Yeah, by the way, a b our
year list for words, it's Drew Aler. Come on, man,
we finally got a franchise, QB.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
What what do you guys do?
Speaker 7 (30:10):
You guys have you guys have that you guys have
to go and you guys have into Ohio to get
a quarter.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Come on, It's okay, you know, you guys have dipped
into Pennsylvania quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I think.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I think the biggest recruit, one of the biggest recruits
coming out this year, that Ohio State guide is from
from Pittsburgh, I believe, somewhere around there. I believe.
Speaker 7 (30:32):
So I remember, I remember getting I think no fense
was from here. Yeah that's correct, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, well and I was.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
And we do have we do if you if you
go and look it up LeVar, we do have a
receiver from Pennsylvania this year who's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Okay, oh that's right, mister b I mean you went there.
I'm just tell you guys, get a guys from p A.
I mean, I get it.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
The guy, the guy who might be our quarterback, is
that same high school.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Actually I think it's yes, it is, Yes, he is. Yeah,
you're right. Yeah, So there you go. We do play
better football in PA. But you know, it's it's our year.
It's our year to get you a B And I'm
gonna just start the antics now. I'm gonna start it early.
I think, well, our defense is going to be the
(31:29):
best defense. We're going to have the best defense in
the ten man. We don't have something. Yeah, we'll have
something for Michigan this year as well. Yeah, because we're
going to have an offense too, and and and you
know what, I know we're running a little late, but hey,
ab our running attack will be a light years ahead
(31:50):
of Michigan or Ohio State.
Speaker 7 (31:53):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
And we'll be able to throw mark it down. Yeah, man,
next Singleton k Tron Allen. You know, I mean like
mark it down. It's like get it down.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It's like it's like two Curtisinus's, you know, back in
back in Penn State.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Oh, we had Aaron Harris. So yeah, Curtisinus, Aaron Harris.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
There it is Albert again. We appreciate it and we'll
do it again next week.
Speaker 6 (32:17):
Are be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk, featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I test, We've got all the
bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do your
sofa favor and listen to Inside.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
The Parker with Rob Parker on the.
Speaker 8 (32:57):
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I'll just say this, man, we got a JFK on
one of the TV's in the studio. Easily in my
top ten, might be my top five favorite movies of
all time. I love this movie.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You've never seen it that.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
You've never seen JFK. Holy, let me tell you something.
Oliver Stone got ripped in half when he made this
movie because he's a conspiracy theorist and blah blah blah,
blah blah. And all this time has passed and you
go back and you watch this movie and some of
the stuff that's come out and some of the stuff
he talked about in nineteen ninety you look at it
(33:33):
again and you go, damn, he might have been onto something.
And the cast is unbelievable. It's a who's who of
who's in the movie. If you look up the IMDb
and lead A Lap is going to be all over
this when it comes to just the names of everybody
that was in it. It's it's absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Come on, you know you're not a bad looking man.
Mister gallis not bad looking at all. That's Kevin Bacon
hitting on Kevin Costner. You're not into that, Noop, I
don't care, on bar, you got a bad looking man, mister.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I know that the Kennedy's are are an American family,
like American success story, powerful family, but it's just not
doesn't interest me.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
You know, here's a fun fact about this movie. Somebody
that was obsessed with the JFK assassination was the Great
Derek Thomas of the Chiefs, like obsessed with it. Like
there was a on his A Football Life documentary. There
was a radio host, I believe it was a radio
host or a TV host in Kansas City. He could
never get Derek Thomas to come on because he just
(34:40):
didn't want to do interviews. The only way he was
able to get him to come on is if he
could talk about the JFK conspiracy and just everything that
came along with it. How about that little little factoid.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
For you, shouts out to one of the goats.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
He was amazing, Sam, You're an idiot. It's an idiot,
all right. So we transitioned smoothly from a Rice Texas
preview from the nineteen sixties over to apparently somebody who
(35:17):
thinks like it's the nineteen sixties, and that would be
Nick Saban, according to Jamiir Gibbs. And this actually popped
up a couple of days ago. But I wanted to
get your thoughts on at LeVar because I know you
and Patrus were talking about just sort of the you know,
the the Nick Saban effect in Alabama yesterday and just
sort of his approach to games and their approach towards
(35:40):
building programs. You talked about USC, Penn State, just sort
of what the approach is for some of these schools.
And Jamiir Gibbs, who's the first round pick of the
Detroit Lions this year, they were asking him recently about
running back. Yeah, they running back. Asking him recently the
differences between the NFL thus far and with Nick Saban
(36:01):
and Alabama, and he said the following quote, Saban, we're
probably hitting every day full pads in the heat for
two hours. Here. We get good work in, but they
don't try and kill us. Now, he's not the first
guy that's come out and complained or at least spoken
about just the grind of the Alabama practices. That's been
a story that's been out there for a while. But
my question is, if it's so rough and they beat
(36:23):
you up so bad, why does he continue to land
some of the best recruits every single year.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Because they win. There's a method to the madness, for certain,
But again, is the method that the players are that good?
Or is the method that there's a combination of really
really solid coaching, too great coaching and the players are
(36:50):
really really good or you know, is it that there's
the preparation and they're really really really good and there's coaching.
What is I don't know what the combination of what
the success is. I just know that Nick Saban has
has been able to establish greatness connected to to Alabama
(37:15):
and and to me, it's created a sustainable surplus and
and and just a constant restocking of five star, four
star players and prospects that are coming out of high school.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I mean, would you want to go to Alabama coming
out of high school knowing all these stories about the
grind the practice if you knew that it was simply
a vessel to get you to the NFL and your
NFL dreams if you knew it was going to come
with all this grind and there would be, you know,
something on the back end that could you know, deter
(37:51):
you from getting a longer term contract because you're beat
up coming out of the school. That wouldn't steer you
in another direction.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Or at least I mean, I think you got to
take everything into consideration when you're trying to choose a school.
I chose. I wanted to win a national title. I
wanted to win a few national titles. I loved Florida
State because Florida State was, you know, very competitive and
was close to winning a national title. And I mean
(38:20):
I never visited the school, but I was. I was
very intrigued and interested and liked it. Same with Miami.
If I knew that there was a school I could
go to and I was guaranteed the opportunity with my
hard work to be able to actually play for a
national title, I would probably entertain going there absolutely if
(38:45):
everything else fit, you know, if the school fit what
I wanted out of school, if if the coaching staff,
if we kind of had a you know, a good,
good kind of understanding of one another. Because there's there's
also the personal, the personal aspect of it too, where
you want to accomplish on a personal level as well,
(39:07):
And do I have an opportunity to do that or
am I just a name in the crowd. You know,
I never wanted to be just a name in the crowd.
I wanted to and I knew if I could play,
if I if I got on the field, I would
be okay. But you know, one of the biggest reasons
why I chose to stay in Pennsylvania outside of me
wanting to play at a linebacker position, and linebacker you was,
(39:31):
you know, and is penn State. I just was nervous
to go out of state and play out of school
that had so much talent.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
What do you mean you traveled to Germany to play
basketball when.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
You were a kid. Yeah, but it's like if you
make the wrong decision and you go somewhere like like
for instance, they had they had Jamal Reynolds that had
committed to their the same same time I did. They
already had a few really really good line on that team,
and I was like, man, these dudes are from Florida.
(40:05):
So if I go to Florida and it comes down
to we're just as good as one another, and we're
playing the same position. They gonna go with the Florida
kid over over the out.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Of towner, and that was that Florida state or Florida.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
That was a Florida state. So so I guess the
things have really changed since I was coming out of
high school, because it used to be colleges really stayed
in certain recruiting areas for their school and and now
it doesn't seem as though they have any type of borders.
It's just as much as they can afford in terms
(40:41):
of being able to travel around and go and go recruit.
So I think I think today's day and age of
recruiting and going to, you know, schools out of state
is a much easier proposition to navigate than it was
back then. And no knowing what you know now, if
(41:01):
I think I can get on the field and play,
I think you make I think you certainly are going
to entertain going to Alabama. And for what it's worth
to be able to say what Jamiir said is almost
in some ways in some regards, even though he may
not realize it yet, it's a badge of honor. It's
a badge of honor to be able to make it
through it out of Alabama week of practice. It's a
(41:23):
badge of honor to be able to make it onto
the field for Alabama. So there's that aspect of it too,
because I interview John Jonathan Allen one time, and Jonathan Allen,
his his mindset falls right in line with how Nick
Saban is.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
He's an impressive dude. I actually heard that interview. Yeah
that's that's a guy who you want drafted to your team.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Yeah that's a little man. Yeah, grown ass man. So,
you know, just everybody has different opinions. But and I
get you could say, you know, it's it's easier, or
we get a lot of good work done without you know,
you're getting beat up or anything like that. But I'll
tell you what. I had my most impressive games, my
best games, my best times when I was in college,
(42:07):
and it was because I didn't have no money and
I wasn't you know, there's a difference between making it
and trying to stay making it and making it and
still trying to make it right and the type of
work that goes into it. You don't have a choice
because if you if you make the choice to not
be what they want you to be, they'll have somebody
(42:29):
else take your spot. So there's the idea, there's a
fear factor level, there's there's a I have to do
this level, and those who can't handle it, they transfer
and they kind of you know, and in most cases,
more often than not, not the few cases that you
see where they go to a different school and they
do well, those those guys fade away. Transfer guys fade away,
(42:52):
you know, and and it's kind of it's sad. I mean,
in some cases now with the transfer portal, it does work.
I do believe that that it does have an opportunity
to work for older guys that may have not had
an opportunity. There might be a guys that just really
are just better or in a better situation and a
(43:12):
better fit, and it's better for you to go somewhere else,
like transferring does work for some, But for me, historically
it's always exposed weak, weaker guys, you know, weaker mentally,
you know. But there that's a little different now. But
with that being said, I just think that those things
it's a badge of honor to be able to go
(43:33):
through a rigorous work and get yourself prepared for games.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
And I also think that Saban gets I don't want
to say it's a bad rap. I just think there's
a feeling that he's this, you know, because what he
gives the media and what he gives his players, I
think are two different things.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
I've hung out with coach Saban. He was recruiting me
to the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Super cool, dude, that's that's And I've heard the same thing,
like Jason Taylor has said, like he to this day
he's talks to Nick Saban, and the narrative was, well,
Nick Saban was a bust as an NFL head coach.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Not really, he doesn't. No, he just didn't win a
super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, like he did win a super Bowl and they
went with Dante Colepepper instead of Drew Brees like that,
that's what happened. But I think that if you hear
him do any of the pre and post game when
Alabama gets eliminated, he's fantastic if you hear I just
think what he gives us the media and the public,
and what he gives his players are two different sides.
(44:28):
And I think he's got a lot of people fooled,
which is why part of it is why he's able
to land such top recruits, like why he's able to
get players to buy into what he's done over the past.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
His wife is pretty dope. His wife is pretty dope too.
They're a really good team. They're a really good team.
And I don't know how involved he is in recruiting
at this point, because he's just he's a legend. I mean,
he's he's achieved greatest of all time at what he does.
Who wouldn't want to, first of all, play for that
(45:00):
the greatest coach of all time in college football and
even in you know, one of them in sport in general.
Who wouldn't want to entertain playing for a legend? I
know I did when I went to Penn State, you know.
So I think there's cache involved with that. There's a
lot that is involved with that, And but I think
that you got to have a lot of great coaching,
(45:22):
you know, that goes along with that, And their coaching
staff is one of the largest in the entire country,
and the resources that they have are phenomenal. So you know,
that's something that you would want to be a part of.
But I'll say this to you, Jonas, I can guarantee
you that a lot of Nick Saban's coaches, and maybe
even Nick Saban at times deals with a little bit
(45:44):
of heartburn, little bit of you know, jelly belly, a
little bit of unsettled at belly. You know what I mean. Right,
So if you get tired of chewing chocky and assets
all day, maybe you should try prolosac otc. With just
one pill each morning, you can experience a full twenty
four hours of zero heartburn. And yes it is possible
(46:06):
while taking prowlsac otc. So use as directive for fourteen
days to treat frequent heartburn. Now you should know it's
not for immediate relief, so you got to get into
the system. You got to get into the matrix, kind
of like what you do at Alabama. You want to
get into the matrix, go through the process and won't
be immediate, but it will happen great point.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Search FSR to listen live.
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar arrings, rating Winn and Jonas Knox on
Box Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
By the way, another morning of rain on my neck
of the woods.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I don't know, bro, I'm just it's so upsetting. It
is so like and Chris continues to say, you know,
the earth has to balance itself out and we should
be grateful and happy that we're getting all of this rain.
I've never seen this much rain since living here, and
(00:36):
it's almost been a decade. You know, She's right. I
guess we have to appreciate it because once it's gone,
you know what we'll be saying, Dang, I wish we
could get a little rain.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, I'm with you. I don't think I'm I'm trying to.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Look and this is there. You know, people in the
South are dealing with tornadoes and they've got all that
that fiasco that that's guy going on, and so we
could be much worse. But man, there there was a
slug in my backyard the size of a hot healthy
super hellpy like literally the size of a hot dog bond.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
They just they go drow to hell up soon just
hanging out. Oh, yeah, I've had a lot of slugs,
snails you call them slug. Do you have snails or
you call them them both slugs.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
There's some that are that have the.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, I had like a million snails. Yeah, some whole
bunch of snails, which I think is a slug that
just has a shell, right.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, it's it's a slug. It's a slug with a
backpack on cargo. Yeah, it's a slug with a backpack on.
And they just hang out.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And so you're saying that that that slugs are dropouts
and snails are smart.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
They just yeah, they don't stay at school. Yeah, they
they they want to pretend and they want everybody to
think that it's all by memory. They don't need their books,
they don't need their trapper keepers, they don't need anything,
Like we don't need a shell. We could just go
into class and we can memorize everything. And they're just
hanging out me And then I didn't realize because these
wild mushrooms were popping up in and around my backyard
(02:02):
and I hate mushrooms. Mushrooms are the most disgusting food
on the planet. Like every time I walk by the
mushrooms in the produce aisle. I want to just hire
somebody from outside to throw up on them, so they
have to get rid of all of them. It's disgusting.
They're revolting. Anybody that eats mushrooms, you should rethink what
it is you're doing in your life.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So wild hats mushrooms yesterday.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Wild mushrooms are popping up all over the place.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yea.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And they're bad. Okay, they're bad for dogs, right. They'll
do major damage to dogs from my understanding, Like if
your dog eats a wild mushroom like that, they'll turn
into a like like a rabbit with four eyes. Like
they just it ruins them, destroys them. And I didn't realize.
I didn't realize that part of the was that Rick Patino,
(02:55):
Rick Patino driving in on the on the program here,
John Caliperry, Sorry about that. Uh so you I didn't
realize that part of what grows wild mushrooms is specs
from the sluts, well bats slug same thing.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, that's and maybe that's what that's the what coffee
coffee something from bats, something from bats. And there's something else.
There's something else too, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Truffles aren't truffles from bats or something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I think those are those are mushrooms, aren't They aren't truffles. Mushrooms, Lee,
you're a mushroom guy. You're onushrooms right now? What is
the troubles are a fungus. They're not mushrooms. They are
edible spores apparently. And yeah, the new trend is like
mushroom coffee.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, mushroom coffee, it is the new trend. And uh
expresso express, uh martinis.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, that's different than mushroom coffee, like like a mushrooms
of fungus. And so what you're like every time you
have a mushroom, Like when you order a pizza and
you say, yeah, can I get a large cheese with
pepperoni and mushrooms? Why don't you just say can I
get a large cheese with pepperoni and athletes' foot?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Because that's what It's crazy? That is my favorite. That
is my absolute favorite go to for pizza. God, mushrooms
and pepperoni, No man jonas.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
There are other kinds of mushroom out there besides the
ones that go in your pizza. There's really good, like
you know, portini mushrooms.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
The mushrooms that go on your pizza are bad.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, what are you so those are just like those
are okay? Yeah, why are you some mushroom races?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
You're normal? Yeah, prejudice racist, Come on, prejudice. You're you're
saying that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Those great ones aren't that good mushrooms, but the ones
going to pasta god so grow good for you. Man,
They're good for you.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
They're not You're mister health, but you and they are
good for you. Actually they grow. That's your problem. Yeah,
but whatever point.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Of ruffles are actually underground mushrooms in the fun guy
in the fung guy Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Okay, so they're coffin mushrooms, so stay underground as far
as coffin mushroom. Yeah, standard ground.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Okay, you don't know about truffle butter.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
It's nasty man. Anything that's got something to do with
mushrooms I think is just disgusting. I don't get it. No, Sam,
what are you? What is going on?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
All right?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Anyway? So yeah, that's what we're dealing with out here.
We've got more more, yeah, more rain, more rain, and
bowling pin slugs crawling around the backyards and destroying our surroundings.
But the point is we've got ourselves another issue in
the world of sports of oar, and that issue is
(06:04):
at the running back position. We've talked to nauseum about
the devaluing of the position, but I was looking up
just to kind of get a better perspective on where
we're at with something that was a foundational piece in
the NFL for years and years and years. So Christian McCaffrey,
now Christian McCaffrey finds him and finds himself on the
other side of the fence. He actually got paid, Like
(06:26):
he actually got paid, and he got paid while he
was in Carolina and now he's a member of the
San Francisco forty nine ers. He was actually speaking with
rich Eisen This was a few weeks back, and he
talked about just sort of how the position is valued.
This is before all of these other instances like Josh
Jacobs and Saquon Barkley and Dalvin Cook and Eckler and
(06:47):
all these guys and all this stories have been popping
up this week. Christian McCaffrey talked about this a little
while back, and he had some interesting things to say,
not only about the value of the position around the league,
but in comparison to other positions and the utilization of
the franchise dag.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
When I look at what you know, receivers make and
fall receivers make around the league, and then you look
at what running backs make, you know, we're at the
bottom of the list, and you know, you got backs
who had two thousand yard seasons. You've had backs who've
had seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred yards receiving,
and you know a lot of people use the injury
(07:27):
the injury argument, but you know, I don't know if
that's necessarily valid when you look at some of the
receivers who have been hurt who still get big contracts,
and so I understand we touch the ball the most,
but in my opinion, I think we create a lot
of value in doing so as well. So there's a
lot of arguments multiple ways, but I definitely think somewhere
(07:47):
along the line the franchise tag and what the market
did to the running back position, I think they're definitely undervalued.
And I think if you ask the running backs around
the league, they would probably say the same thing.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So so they need to get a running back to
the union, you know, and unionized.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Is that possible? Can they do?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Not doubt it? If you boycott it, like, oh, running
back United, we're boycotting the league. They'd be like, well,
that's another receiver.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's just a separate, separate office, said the NFLPA, like
running backs over there, and they all just have.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Their own running running back number six.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
You know what when he brings up the franchise tag
because the franchise tag has been I know in certain
cases like Kirk Cousins used the franchise tag beautifully and
he's gotten paid and paid and paid, and Drew Brees
used the franchise tag and he got big contracts and
all that. But like this, this is the part that's
kind of when you take a step back and look
(08:48):
at it, it's it's it's pretty wild to think about.
So of all the position groups and the franchise tag
number attached to those position groups, the only position group
that has a lower franchise tag number than running back
is kicker, slash punter. Like just think quarterback, wide receiver,
(09:11):
tight end, O line, d tackle, d end, linebacker, cornerback, safety,
all of them have a bigger franchise tag number than
the running back. The only one the running back beats
out is the kicker slash punter. And that's based on
the average of the top five salaries per per position
(09:34):
up in the upcoming year. And obviously it scales depending
on you know, what the salary cap is at that point.
But like we're talking about one of the most important
positions in the NFL, and the saving.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Seemingly and even if it were the most important, you're
talking about you're still talking about running backs, right, Yes,
I just again, I just think that seemingly it being
the most important position, which is not it's the quarterback,
but knowing how important of running back is to a
quarterback success. You take away Edgar and James and Marshall Folk,
(10:10):
you don't have a Peyton Manny, you take away Corey
Dylon and what was Anchwan's Smith? Smith? Achwan Smith, you
take away those backs that Kevin Folk, You take away
those those backs from Tom Brady. You don't have a
Tom Brady. You take away Jerome Bettis from from Ben Roethlisberger.
(10:33):
You don't have a Ben Roethlisberger, you know. And we
can keep going, right, we can keep going like the
name like if Joe Montana doesn't have Roger Craig Ricky
Waters Rathman. If he doesn't have that, you don't have
a a Steve Young or a Joe Montana. You take
(10:53):
away Emmitt Smith and Moose Johnson. You don't have a
Troy Aikman, And for what it's worth, you probably don't
have a Michael Irving. You know. So if you go,
you take away Thurman Thomas, you don't have a Jim Kelly.
You can go. You can continue like anything you look at.
I'd say the only one that you can't really make
(11:14):
that argument point is with more recent quarterbacks like Pat
Mahomes is going to be Pat Mahomes. Yeah, he's going
to be Patrick Mahomes. I mean that's just the way
their offense is structured. And I think that that becomes
the issue. I think that trend of being able to
have interchangeable running backs and them not having to be
really big name running backs came from Andy Reid. I
(11:37):
really do. I think it came from Andy Reid. I
mean you think about what he was able to do
in Philadelphia. He took really like obscure talents like Brian
Westbrooks and Douce Staley's and turned them into like really
really helpful pieces to his offense. They were a passing offense.
(11:58):
People may not know that he's been airing it out
for a long time. Donovan McNabb was airing that ball
out in Philadelphia. And what you do. You had, You
had Douce Staley, you had Correll Buckholder, you had Brian Westbrook,
then you had Shady McCoy. You have all these guys
that had the same type of style. Can catch the
(12:20):
ball out of the backfield, can catch screens really well,
can get upfield, can do all of these things. They're elusive,
they're not very big. You saw this developing with Andy
Reid's offense, and what is this league? It's a copycat league.
Who has the best offense out there? It's Kansas City
(12:40):
and they do not have their running back by committee.
I mean when they had Leshan McCoy, Lashan McCoy wasn't
even playing. They was using other guys when they made
the Super Bowl run. So it's easy to say you
can look at the historical value of what the running
backs position presents, but the bottom line is Jonas like
(13:03):
you can find guys to be just as serviceable. It's
sad to say, but you can find guys that can
be just as serviceable in these new styles of offense,
that where you don't have to value the position the
way you once did.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So who would you say yet, off the top of
your head. You may you may already know this, But
who would you say led the league? Which team led
the league in rushing last year? Off the top of
your head, Yeah, you guess.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
If I had to guess, I would probably say Tennessee. Yeah,
if I had to guess.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
It was the Bears, who were the worst team in
the league.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Who was the best?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
The Bears were the worst team in the league. They
led the league in rushing. Oh okay, they led the
team of the league in rushing. Yeah, yeah, and Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But I don't know. I don't know that that that
the correlation is because they could run the ball.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
But like, that's a team who part I mean, they
ran the ball because of justin fields. Obviously that was
his effectiveness rushing the football. He nearly broke the record
he would have if he'd played the final week final
game of the season, Mike Vick's record, Lamar Jackson's record. Rather,
but that's like an indication that that's a team that
(14:14):
has to rely on the run because their passing game
wasn't there. They were the worst team in the league.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Hey, you know what else is interesting? I know we're
up against the break? What else is interesting? When you
think about running, it's almost like comparable to the three point.
The three pointer in the NBA and how Steph Curry
changed the whole environment of how you approach playing basketball.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
It's like the mid range of football.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Two points aren't good enough anymore. Yeah, it's almost like
if you can't if you can't do something that is
extraordinary being inside the three point line, then you're now
as a perimeter player, you're kind of obsolete. Big men.
You know, you got to be able to rebound, you
got to be able to you know, box out stuff
(14:56):
like that. But do you have the skills to come
out to the perimeter and be the joker? You know
all these different new you know Kevin Durant, you know
hell Lebron James. These guys are are are six seven,
six eight, six ' nine and above, and they're out
on the perimeter because you can't keep up if you
(15:17):
can't shoot three pointers. And we saw that in this
year's finals. We saw it in this year's playoffs, and
we've seen it in the Golden State Warriors becoming what
they've been able to become it and I almost look
at it like you almost can't run the ball. You
can't run the ball to win games anymore. You got
to be able to throw it and air it out
(15:38):
and get into the end zone to be able to
keep pace with these types of teams that can throw
the ball, that are finding ways to get the ball,
push the ball up field.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, we've talked about it before, Like the Niners, that's
a team that still runs a football. They've had a
different leading rusher for like the last five years. Carlos
Hyde was their last running back who led the team
in rushing in multiple years in a row. So it's uh,
it is a different game altogether.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Right now, we're going to talk to Albert Breer, senior
NFL reporter at the MMQB. You can get him on
Twitter at Albert Breer ab what's happening? Happy Thursday?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Hi, Hey guys, what's up?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Just trying to figure out what the hell is going
on with Stefan Diggs and Sean McDermott and Josh Allen
and the Buffalo Bills. I mean, give us the details,
give us the dirt.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
What if you use detail?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
What's going on here?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Ab Well?
Speaker 7 (16:38):
I think usually when you take on somebody else's problems,
eventually they're going to become your own problems. And look,
I think I actually think like Stefan Diggs is a
good guy. You see how popular he is in the
locker room. Obviously he's a great player. But you know,
I think some of the I it's friction that exists
(17:00):
between he and the Vikings. I think it would have
been a naive for Buffalo to think there wouldn't come
a point when eventually that could happen to them. And
we've seen this before with you know, big time receivers,
and I mean look at Terrell Owens. You know, San
Francisco's problems became Philadelphia's problems became Dallas' problems, right, and
then Randy Moss, you know, Minnesota's problems became Oakland's problems.
(17:22):
Became New England's problems. So this is unusual. It certainly
has happened in the past. And I think, you know,
they're going to get this worked out, and I think
he's gonna be fine this year, mostly because Buffalo doesn't
have a choice because they're in such a win now spot.
They've leveraged so many contracts. They've already paid him. I
(17:42):
don't know how many people have talked about this. They've
already paid him twenty three million dollars for this year US,
so they'd essentially be paying because they restructured him, you know,
and so he had an enormous base salary and they
just turned it into a signing bonus and gave it
to him base more or less minus like the million
dollar minimum days. And so you know, they have to
(18:03):
work it out now, you know. I think it's certainly
the sort of warning sign you get though where you
love to have Stefan Diggs for the next five years
or so. But I think if you're Buffalo now, you
have to prepare for the idea that eventually there could
come a point when you're moving on and you got
to find a new number one receiver for Josh Allen.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
It sounds like a whole lot of when a head
coach says, we just we just need some time apart.
I was saying earlier in the show ab that, I mean,
that's that's relational terminology for I don't want to be
with you anymore, or we shouldn't be together, you know,
I need my space from you for one reason or another. Like,
(18:50):
just the terminology seemed to be kind of interesting. I
don't I don't want to read too much into it,
but well, I mean if.
Speaker 7 (18:59):
You get said the one thing though, LeVar, like, I mean,
I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
There, you got it.
Speaker 7 (19:05):
I mean, there is there is a there is you
know somebody who was subtracted from the equation over the
last year, and that's Brian dave Ball, you know who
helped to develop Josh Allen, who got the most out
of Stepan Diggs. And you do wonder you know, in
a lot of cases, like when you've got a defensive
head coach, you know, the offensive coordinator kind of becomes
(19:27):
the biggest voice for a player and vice versa. Right, Like,
I'm sure you had offensive head coaches over the course
year career where the defensive coordinator was probably the biggest
voice for you on a day to day basis.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Right Williams, and raise the biggest voice. I'll raise you one.
I had Ray Bob my rookie year. I had Ray
Rhoades my rookie year. So so.
Speaker 7 (19:54):
I mean, I I think like subtracting Brian Dayball from
the equation could be a factor here, you know, you
certainly so the frustration at the end of the season,
and there were a ton of expectations on that team,
and I think that team's talented enough to win a
super Bowl, you know. And and let's remember this too,
and I think this is something that you know, kind
of gets under sold a little bit. Think about everything
(20:14):
Buffalo went through last year, you know, like the Demorrow
Hamlin thing that they got displaced twice by snowstorms, there
was a there was a shooting that they helped that
community heel. They were a big part of the rehabilitation
process for that community after the top supermarket shooting. That's
(20:36):
at the end of the year was typically spent was
only spent. Josh Allen Let's hurt. At the end of
the year, Von Miller had torn his acl That team
had been through a lot, you know, and you know,
you take that plus maybe some of the personal frustrations
that guys like Diggs and Allen might have had at
the end of the year first year with that day
ball and go as far and you know, I certainly
(20:59):
think there are a lot of the problems. Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Albert Breer, senior NFR reporter at the MMQB, joining us
here on Fox Sports Radio. You can get him on
Twitter at Albert Breer AB.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
So.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I guess, big picture, we could always talk about the
devaluing of the running back position, but it does feel
like the hot button issue, especially over the past several
days on at ground level, just in the moment as
opposed to the big picture aspect of everything. Where do
we stand on Saquon, Josh Jacobs, Dalvin Cook, like there's
(21:31):
a lot of people, Jonathan Taylor even came out and
spoke about just the whole situation as far as the
immediate effects of the running back position. Where do we
stand on those?
Speaker 7 (21:43):
The hard thing is Jonas is like I think for positions,
you look at it and you say, if you're going
to resign a guy after three years, it's like, okay,
so I am going to get in this guy right
where fourth, fifth, sixth year, Like that's going to be
the prime of the guy's career, and I'm going to
(22:04):
pay them at the top of the market. I'm also
the very best to him, and well running back at
the primary your career almost right away with people to leave,
you know what I mean. Like so like Zeke Elliot's
a good example and had that he's sort of become
a cautionary tale. But Dallas got two rushing titles out
of him, you know what I mean. Like in Dallas,
I would say if you ask anybody, that organization being
(22:27):
able to lean on him was a big part of
their ability to develop Dak Prescott in a proper way,
you know. And so yeah, they had to pay a
tax at the end, but they got value out of it.
And you know, we've seen kind of friction between players
and teams things before and they wind up working out
with like he got a contract, Nick Chubb got a contract,
(22:49):
Alvin Kamara got a.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Tract. All right.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
But so I think that this is always these are
always hard discussions to have because I'm sure a Saquon
Barkley looks at it, you know, and says, well, I'm
gonna pay me like like the number three receiver, you
know what I mean, you're gonna pay me like the
second pass Rustaurant team. So those are difficult discussions to have,
(23:16):
you know, because I mean Stake one was i mean
maybe the most important on the Giants roster last year,
and and and and getting them turn getting that turned
around and getting accomplished with Brian Daball and Joe Shane
wanted to get the complishing year one. Same goes through
Josh Jacobs. You know, Josh Jacobs with the Raiders. You know,
(23:36):
he kind of became central to everything they were offensively,
we're going through the ups and downs that Derek Carr
had and so like that's those can be very very
difficult discussions to have where you have to say to
a player, well, you know, we're not paying you for
past performance. We're paying you for where we think you're
gonna go. And like unfortunately your position, the prime of
(23:57):
your career sort of already happened, and you know, we
have to protect ourselves against the downside here, you know.
And that's like, I mean, that's the guy for three
years takes been at least five years, you.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
So those are always tough discussions to have. I think
they will find a middle ground. And I mean, look
like I think leafon Bell is a great, you know,
cautionary tale on the other side of it, where you know,
if I'm advising one of the these guys, I'm saying,
you know, let's let's go to the mat, let's fight
for every dollar. But at some point you just got
to take the money, because there are too many stories
(24:30):
of guys who didn't take the money, who wound up
in a really bad place because because they weren't willing
to accept the reality of that position in the league.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, I tend to have an agreeance with that. Let's
let's stay on the tailback position then and go to Minnesota.
Now you're talking about cautionary tales about the running back,
but this is a team that let Dalvin Cook go.
How much of an impact does that have on Minnesota
(24:59):
cut It doesn't look like they've brought anybody else in
or foreseeably are going to bring somebody else in to
replace him. Do they feel like they have that with
the running back they have on or running backs they
have on staff? And this is definitely a show me
year for Kirk Cousins. Right, because you don't have the
(25:19):
safety of a thousand, consistent, thousand yard rusher on the ground, right.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
And I think I think the way you want to
look at Minnesota globally, LeVar is this is sort of
their reset year. You know, they had like a lot
of guys who are on big contracts when they went.
Kevin O'Connell and Quacy Dopamza got there last year, and
I think their strategy was a little bit like and
I brought a buffalo, but a little bit like what
(25:46):
Buffalo did in two thousand and seven where they held
together to the corps for a year to try to
establish a program, and then they cleaned out the salary
cap in year two and they sort of reset the
table in year two they could build the teams the
way that they saw s it. And so like last year,
he saw the Vikings bringing back a lot of guys
(26:07):
like you know, Eric Kendricks and Harrison Smith and you know,
obviously Dalvin Cook is in that category, to Kirk Cousins,
uh And they basically said, we're gonna win with this
core right now. Adam Steeln is another one. We're gonna
win with this core right now. We're going to establish something.
We're going to get people in the building believing, and
(26:27):
then after we go through that, we're going to have
to reset a few things because we need to build
for the future. And so that's sort of what they
went through and Cook was part of that. As for
what they, you know, we're going to be doing at
running back, I look at where Kevin O'Connell came from
and the way that they value running backs with the
Rams and how you know, at one point they did
(26:48):
have a running back at the top of the market
and Todd Gurley and then they won a Super Bowl
without that. They wanted Super Bowl more with parts at
that position, and you know, guys like Cam Akers on
their officer, Sony Michelle, and you know, so I think
there's a belief that they can do a little bit
more with less of that position. And that's you know,
(27:08):
part of the reason why they gave Alexander Madison, who's
been a really good player for them, the contract they
did because they figure bring him back Madison and I
think it's like three and a half million dollars a
year was a better value for them than paying Dalvin
Cook at the top of the market.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Albert Breers senior NFL reporter at the MMQB, joining us
here on Fox Sports Radio. So, what's the latest on
DeAndre Hopkins. He's in New England to visit with the Patriots.
He was already in Tennessee. Does he have any other
stops lined up or is one of these two teams
going to be where he ends up being overall?
Speaker 7 (27:39):
I mean, I still think, like, you know, there's that
potential that he has an epiphany and you know, like says,
I just want to go win, you know, and like
maybe the money isn't all that different, and he says,
I just want to go to Kansas City, like and like,
let's see if we can figure something out, and maybe
Chris Jones does a restructure, we can figure something out,
or I want to go to Buffalo, you know, and
(28:01):
maybe that's part of making Stefan Digs happy.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Now.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
I think the Bills would probably look at it the
other way, like we need to get Digs the ball
and there's only one ball, and you know, Hopkins is
a volume guy, so that could be problematic. But I
do think that there's that part of it where it's
going to come down to what DeAndre Hopkins really wants
you know what I mean, does he want to go
chase a championship at thirty one years old or does
(28:25):
he want to take every dollar he can get? And
no one should blame him if it's the ladder, because
I mean, God knows, like these guys can only make
money for so long, and so I would never blame
a player at the end of his career for taking
one last day day. So I think that's sort of
what it is right now. You know, Tennessee's retooling obviously,
and you know the new general manager Rancart on there.
They've sort of, you know, chose this to be a
(28:48):
year of transition and they'll be going through that this year.
And New England obviously, I think, is you know, sort
of looking for a rebound and they need answers on
that Jones and you know, maybe having you know, DeAndre
Hopkins on board, getting a guy who's at least got
experienced as a tree number one receiver, you you can
(29:10):
give them, you know, a clear answer faster on who
Jones is going to be and with the decisions are
gonna have to make on him after the year, they
need to get to those answers as fast as possible.
So I think it's it's going to be does he
want to go compete for a ring, does he want
or does he want to take top dollar or is
there some balance between the two? And I think right now,
(29:31):
you know, my guess would be that he's probably somewhere
in the middle of there trying to balance it and
figure out what's the best thing is to do. And
and that decision, by the way, doesn't have it to
happen tomorrow. It could happen closer to training camp if
he wants to wait.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Get him on Twitter at Albert Breers, senior NFL reporter
at the m m QB. Always kind enough to join
us every single Thursday. AB appreciate it. As we get
as we get closer to college football, we'll get some
some Buckeye talk on. You know. That's how we do
it on this show.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
That's our year. Yeah, by the way, a b our
year list for words, it's Drew Aler. Come on, man,
we finally got a franchise, QB.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
What what do you guys do?
Speaker 7 (30:10):
You guys have you guys have that you guys have
to go and you guys have into Ohio to get
a quarter.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Come on, It's okay, you know, you guys have dipped
into Pennsylvania quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I think.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
I think the biggest recruit, one of the biggest recruits
coming out this year, that Ohio State guide is from
from Pittsburgh, I believe, somewhere around there. I believe.
Speaker 7 (30:32):
So I remember, I remember getting I think no fense
was from here. Yeah that's correct, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, well and I was.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
And we do have we do if you if you
go and look it up LeVar, we do have a
receiver from Pennsylvania this year who's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Okay, oh that's right, mister b I mean you went there.
I'm just tell you guys, get a guys from p A.
I mean, I get it.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
The guy, the guy who might be our quarterback, is
that same high school.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Actually I think it's yes, it is, Yes, he is. Yeah,
you're right. Yeah, So there you go. We do play
better football in PA. But you know, it's it's our year.
It's our year to get you a B And I'm
gonna just start the antics now. I'm gonna start it early.
I think, well, our defense is going to be the
(31:29):
best defense. We're going to have the best defense in
the ten man. We don't have something. Yeah, we'll have
something for Michigan this year as well. Yeah, because we're
going to have an offense too, and and and you
know what, I know we're running a little late, but hey,
ab our running attack will be a light years ahead
(31:50):
of Michigan or Ohio State.
Speaker 7 (31:53):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
And we'll be able to throw mark it down. Yeah, man,
next Singleton k Tron Allen. You know, I mean like
mark it down. It's like get it down.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It's like it's like two Curtisinus's, you know, back in
back in Penn State.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Oh, we had Aaron Harris. So yeah, Curtisinus, Aaron Harris.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
There it is Albert again. We appreciate it and we'll
do it again next week.
Speaker 6 (32:17):
Are be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk, featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I test, We've got all the
bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do your
sofa favor and listen to Inside.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
The Parker with Rob Parker on the.
Speaker 8 (32:57):
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I'll just say this, man, we got a JFK on
one of the TV's in the studio. Easily in my
top ten, might be my top five favorite movies of
all time. I love this movie.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You've never seen it that.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
You've never seen JFK. Holy, let me tell you something.
Oliver Stone got ripped in half when he made this
movie because he's a conspiracy theorist and blah blah blah,
blah blah. And all this time has passed and you
go back and you watch this movie and some of
the stuff that's come out and some of the stuff
he talked about in nineteen ninety you look at it
(33:33):
again and you go, damn, he might have been onto something.
And the cast is unbelievable. It's a who's who of
who's in the movie. If you look up the IMDb
and lead A Lap is going to be all over
this when it comes to just the names of everybody
that was in it. It's it's absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Come on, you know you're not a bad looking man.
Mister gallis not bad looking at all. That's Kevin Bacon
hitting on Kevin Costner. You're not into that, Noop, I
don't care, on bar, you got a bad looking man, mister.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I know that the Kennedy's are are an American family,
like American success story, powerful family, but it's just not
doesn't interest me.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
You know, here's a fun fact about this movie. Somebody
that was obsessed with the JFK assassination was the Great
Derek Thomas of the Chiefs, like obsessed with it. Like
there was a on his A Football Life documentary. There
was a radio host, I believe it was a radio
host or a TV host in Kansas City. He could
never get Derek Thomas to come on because he just
(34:40):
didn't want to do interviews. The only way he was
able to get him to come on is if he
could talk about the JFK conspiracy and just everything that
came along with it. How about that little little factoid.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
For you, shouts out to one of the goats.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
He was amazing, Sam, You're an idiot. It's an idiot,
all right. So we transitioned smoothly from a Rice Texas
preview from the nineteen sixties over to apparently somebody who
(35:17):
thinks like it's the nineteen sixties, and that would be
Nick Saban, according to Jamiir Gibbs. And this actually popped
up a couple of days ago. But I wanted to
get your thoughts on at LeVar because I know you
and Patrus were talking about just sort of the you know,
the the Nick Saban effect in Alabama yesterday and just
sort of his approach to games and their approach towards
(35:40):
building programs. You talked about USC, Penn State, just sort
of what the approach is for some of these schools.
And Jamiir Gibbs, who's the first round pick of the
Detroit Lions this year, they were asking him recently about
running back. Yeah, they running back. Asking him recently the
differences between the NFL thus far and with Nick Saban
(36:01):
and Alabama, and he said the following quote, Saban, we're
probably hitting every day full pads in the heat for
two hours. Here. We get good work in, but they
don't try and kill us. Now, he's not the first
guy that's come out and complained or at least spoken
about just the grind of the Alabama practices. That's been
a story that's been out there for a while. But
my question is, if it's so rough and they beat
(36:23):
you up so bad, why does he continue to land
some of the best recruits every single year.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Because they win. There's a method to the madness, for certain,
But again, is the method that the players are that good?
Or is the method that there's a combination of really
really solid coaching, too great coaching and the players are
(36:50):
really really good or you know, is it that there's
the preparation and they're really really really good and there's coaching.
What is I don't know what the combination of what
the success is. I just know that Nick Saban has
has been able to establish greatness connected to to Alabama
(37:15):
and and to me, it's created a sustainable surplus and
and and just a constant restocking of five star, four
star players and prospects that are coming out of high school.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
I mean, would you want to go to Alabama coming
out of high school knowing all these stories about the
grind the practice if you knew that it was simply
a vessel to get you to the NFL and your
NFL dreams if you knew it was going to come
with all this grind and there would be, you know,
something on the back end that could you know, deter
(37:51):
you from getting a longer term contract because you're beat
up coming out of the school. That wouldn't steer you
in another direction.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Or at least I mean, I think you got to
take everything into consideration when you're trying to choose a school.
I chose. I wanted to win a national title. I
wanted to win a few national titles. I loved Florida
State because Florida State was, you know, very competitive and
was close to winning a national title. And I mean
(38:20):
I never visited the school, but I was. I was
very intrigued and interested and liked it. Same with Miami.
If I knew that there was a school I could
go to and I was guaranteed the opportunity with my
hard work to be able to actually play for a
national title, I would probably entertain going there absolutely if
(38:45):
everything else fit, you know, if the school fit what
I wanted out of school, if if the coaching staff,
if we kind of had a you know, a good,
good kind of understanding of one another. Because there's there's
also the personal, the personal aspect of it too, where
you want to accomplish on a personal level as well,
(39:07):
And do I have an opportunity to do that or
am I just a name in the crowd. You know,
I never wanted to be just a name in the crowd.
I wanted to and I knew if I could play,
if I if I got on the field, I would
be okay. But you know, one of the biggest reasons
why I chose to stay in Pennsylvania outside of me
wanting to play at a linebacker position, and linebacker you was,
(39:31):
you know, and is penn State. I just was nervous
to go out of state and play out of school
that had so much talent.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
What do you mean you traveled to Germany to play
basketball when.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
You were a kid. Yeah, but it's like if you
make the wrong decision and you go somewhere like like
for instance, they had they had Jamal Reynolds that had
committed to their the same same time I did. They
already had a few really really good line on that team,
and I was like, man, these dudes are from Florida.
(40:05):
So if I go to Florida and it comes down
to we're just as good as one another, and we're
playing the same position. They gonna go with the Florida
kid over over the out.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Of towner, and that was that Florida state or Florida.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
That was a Florida state. So so I guess the
things have really changed since I was coming out of
high school, because it used to be colleges really stayed
in certain recruiting areas for their school and and now
it doesn't seem as though they have any type of borders.
It's just as much as they can afford in terms
(40:41):
of being able to travel around and go and go recruit.
So I think I think today's day and age of
recruiting and going to, you know, schools out of state
is a much easier proposition to navigate than it was
back then. And no knowing what you know now, if
(41:01):
I think I can get on the field and play,
I think you make I think you certainly are going
to entertain going to Alabama. And for what it's worth
to be able to say what Jamiir said is almost
in some ways in some regards, even though he may
not realize it yet, it's a badge of honor. It's
a badge of honor to be able to make it
through it out of Alabama week of practice. It's a
(41:23):
badge of honor to be able to make it onto
the field for Alabama. So there's that aspect of it too,
because I interview John Jonathan Allen one time, and Jonathan Allen,
his his mindset falls right in line with how Nick
Saban is.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
He's an impressive dude. I actually heard that interview. Yeah
that's that's a guy who you want drafted to your team.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Yeah that's a little man. Yeah, grown ass man. So,
you know, just everybody has different opinions. But and I
get you could say, you know, it's it's easier, or
we get a lot of good work done without you know,
you're getting beat up or anything like that. But I'll
tell you what. I had my most impressive games, my
best games, my best times when I was in college,
(42:07):
and it was because I didn't have no money and
I wasn't you know, there's a difference between making it
and trying to stay making it and making it and
still trying to make it right and the type of
work that goes into it. You don't have a choice
because if you if you make the choice to not
be what they want you to be, they'll have somebody
(42:29):
else take your spot. So there's the idea, there's a
fear factor level, there's there's a I have to do
this level, and those who can't handle it, they transfer
and they kind of you know, and in most cases,
more often than not, not the few cases that you
see where they go to a different school and they
do well, those those guys fade away. Transfer guys fade away,
(42:52):
you know, and and it's kind of it's sad. I mean,
in some cases now with the transfer portal, it does work.
I do believe that that it does have an opportunity
to work for older guys that may have not had
an opportunity. There might be a guys that just really
are just better or in a better situation and a
(43:12):
better fit, and it's better for you to go somewhere else,
like transferring does work for some, But for me, historically
it's always exposed weak, weaker guys, you know, weaker mentally,
you know. But there that's a little different now. But
with that being said, I just think that those things
it's a badge of honor to be able to go
(43:33):
through a rigorous work and get yourself prepared for games.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
And I also think that Saban gets I don't want
to say it's a bad rap. I just think there's
a feeling that he's this, you know, because what he
gives the media and what he gives his players, I
think are two different things.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
I've hung out with coach Saban. He was recruiting me
to the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Super cool, dude, that's that's And I've heard the same thing,
like Jason Taylor has said, like he to this day
he's talks to Nick Saban, and the narrative was, well,
Nick Saban was a bust as an NFL head coach.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Not really, he doesn't. No, he just didn't win a
super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, like he did win a super Bowl and they
went with Dante Colepepper instead of Drew Brees like that,
that's what happened. But I think that if you hear
him do any of the pre and post game when
Alabama gets eliminated, he's fantastic if you hear I just
think what he gives us the media and the public,
and what he gives his players are two different sides.
(44:28):
And I think he's got a lot of people fooled,
which is why part of it is why he's able
to land such top recruits, like why he's able to
get players to buy into what he's done over the past.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
His wife is pretty dope. His wife is pretty dope too.
They're a really good team. They're a really good team.
And I don't know how involved he is in recruiting
at this point, because he's just he's a legend. I mean,
he's he's achieved greatest of all time at what he does.
Who wouldn't want to, first of all, play for that
(45:00):
the greatest coach of all time in college football and
even in you know, one of them in sport in general.
Who wouldn't want to entertain playing for a legend? I
know I did when I went to Penn State, you know.
So I think there's cache involved with that. There's a
lot that is involved with that, And but I think
that you got to have a lot of great coaching,
(45:22):
you know, that goes along with that, And their coaching
staff is one of the largest in the entire country,
and the resources that they have are phenomenal. So you know,
that's something that you would want to be a part of.
But I'll say this to you, Jonas, I can guarantee
you that a lot of Nick Saban's coaches, and maybe
even Nick Saban at times deals with a little bit
(45:44):
of heartburn, little bit of you know, jelly belly, a
little bit of unsettled at belly. You know what I mean. Right,
So if you get tired of chewing chocky and assets
all day, maybe you should try prolosac otc. With just
one pill each morning, you can experience a full twenty
four hours of zero heartburn. And yes it is possible
(46:06):
while taking prowlsac otc. So use as directive for fourteen
days to treat frequent heartburn. Now you should know it's
not for immediate relief, so you got to get into
the system. You got to get into the matrix, kind
of like what you do at Alabama. You want to
get into the matrix, go through the process and won't
be immediate, but it will happen great point.
Speaker 6 (46:27):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Search FSR to listen live.
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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