FnA with Kevin Figgers & Adam Auslund discuss the Lakers being sold yet again, NFC East preview, and preseason recaps + NFL Insider Vinny Bonsignore joins the Show!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
That is right.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Fn A on f ZR is back. I am back.
Thanks for adding for holding it down for me last week,
but I appreciate it. Yes, it's good, Thank you. I
K FIG one is where you can find me on
X at follow Adam A is where you can find
Adam on X and we might even open up the
phones here early what yeah, here in the first hour
at eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox. Well, based

(00:25):
on our first topic of conversation here to start the show,
you might want to get your thoughts and see what
you think about it. Okay, but we do have a
pretty big show lined up for you guys today.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
We don't even need a producer. Look, Ma, no producer
we finds over there.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Emmy's holding it down.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Okay, now for now, Mark is here. We're good skeleton crew.
Do you think does it say more about us that
they respect us so much that they think we don't
need a producer or they don't respect us so they're
like whatever they.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
However, matter of perspect to write, They've.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Only been doing this show for a long time, and
long before we had somebody that was paid to give
us a rundown and help us with sound and everything
we did.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
We did it all, my man.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
We'll get by.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, the old talk hotline that we had that we
used to get calls, phone calls in on, run the board,
play the music book, the guests, talk to the guests,
the talk as hotline. We did all of it. That's funny.
I always, I always love Skeleton Crew and it reminds
me and I forget exactly who the stand up comedian was.
And he says, you know, you ever hear somebody say like,
I'm not fat, I'm just big boned. And he was like,
that's interesting. I don't think I've ever met a fat

(01:36):
skeleton before. Like that one always stuck with me. He's like,
you got a point.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Actually, in my anatomy class, here we go, all right, college,
our our teacher was on the bigger side, I would say, okay,
and uh yeah, she was old woman. She may have
been from San Antonio.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
We'll see a self described big bone person. Well, she
was proud of it.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
She talked about using not just her skeleton to help
future generations study anatomy, but also she said she'd make
a good cadaver. How does she know that exactly like
because she was fatter, she said on the air, they

(02:26):
make for better cadavers to study for the students in
the class, more.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
For her to go around. I guess is that what
it is?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, more to love, more to study. I don't know,
that's what the teacher said.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, someone who used to be big boned but now
was small and spelt is our guest coming up next hour,
Vinnie bonsignor of the California Post. He is out in
Kansas City where the Rams get ready to take on
the Kansas City Chiefs. So he's going to talk about, uh,
the Rams, He's gonna talk a little about the Raiders,
cover them in Fernanda Mendoza's debut on Thursday Night, talk
about the forty nine ers and many other big storylines

(02:59):
around the NFL. As not only our training camps will underway.
Preseason is underway, so if any Bonciero joined us at
the top of next hour.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Will also continue our series of previewing every NFL division
leading up to kickoff on Is it a Thursday Night
game between the Patriots and the Seahawks? Is that?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Where it is?

Speaker 5 (03:18):
You know?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
The champs get to host it this time around. Obviously
it's in Seattle. I think it's a Wednesday night. Actually,
is it a Wednesday? I think it moves to Wednesday.
I think I do that on Wednesday. So we are
getting football every day of the week. That is coming
up pretty much. Yeah, okay, but we'll preview the NFC East.
We previewed every other division. We still need Kevin's thoughts
on the NFC West, now you know my thoughts.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, the NFC South from last week, which I thought
Adam did a very good job. Yeah, of it was
so forget. It's such a forgetting division. To be fair,
the Panthers used.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
To be in the old NFC West.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
That is true, because that made all the geographic sense
in the world.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
By the way, Yeah, that was rough for them, and
they still dominated at times. What's up forty nine ers year.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Just as much as it makes sense for the Cowboys
to be in the NFC East, it can't get much
further east than a Lington in Texas.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Okay, that part of the realignment still doesn't make a
ton of sense.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
You're right, Well, they had to keep that together for
the rivalry aspect of it. I guess I understand it
from that standpoint.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
There generally to be some teams that suffered in this way.
But okay, also coming up later next hour, we'll get
into the NBA. With the NBA three, we'll talk about
what happening with the Lakers after nine months, they have
new ownership already, Russell Westbrook just retired. There's a lot
to talk about in the NBA as well, we'll get
to at the end of the second hour.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
And also speaking of a little bit later in the show,
speaking of the NBA, Christmas has been rested away out
of their hands.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
How dare they out of their hands?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
My cold dead hands?

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, I guess not. So we'll see whether or not
the NBA should continue to stay its claim and have
Christmas be its day, or maybe they should move and
pivot onto something else.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
All right, let's get things starred though a little. First off,
they still done that's wrong.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
So preseason kicked off on Thursday, along with a three
games we had on Friday night as well, and we
actually saw a lot of starters get so run. These
first couple of days are Adam and Joe Burrow is
out there, Breeze Hall and Garrett Wilson.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Tonight operative words, some Courtland.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Sutton had a couple of great catches for Denver on
Friday night. Kyle Pitts Jordan Love played for the Packers
the other night. But Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback for the
Pittsburgh Steelers teaming up yet again with Mike McCarthy the
dynamic duo, if you want to call it that.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
I don't call it a duo at all. I think
it's mostly just Aaron Rodgers. He was the one that
carried them to that Super Bowl. When Mike McCarthy was
out there still making dumbass decisions, they just overcame him.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Mike McCarthy finds a way to win eleven games a year,
regardless of where he is, regardless of his shortcomings as
a coach, he finds ways to get wins.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'll give him that. He's a professional. He's an adult
in the room, and there is a standard there. But
the standard is typically lower than a Super Bowl, I.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Would say, especially going into this season.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
But Aaron Rodgers was speaking to the media on Thursday
and essentially told him in no uncertain terms, he wasn't
playing in the preseason because it doesn't mean anything to anyone.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Ever, Let's take a listen to what Aaron Rodgers had
to say earlier this week.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
We have that markin me and I can be Aaron Rodgers.
I'm old enough now. I got a little different.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Preseasons a lot different. You know, teams don't.

Speaker 6 (06:09):
Run anything anymore, you know, they just really don't even
you know, joint practices. I think the first year we
were doing them, it was fun because you got to
play a team that wasn't going to play how they
played in the preseason. They're going to show you a
lot of different things they were working on. It was
like a real day it camp. But as that got on,
it just stopped being like that, just turned into fights
and nobody showed anything because somebody's brother, you know, was

(06:32):
on the staff and they might show them the film
and blah blah blah. So I think those are waste
of a day. And I think preseason football is good
to see guys with the pads on under the lights,
how they react to the nerves. But it's not real
regular season football, so there's no advantage for you, I

(06:52):
don't think.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
So.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
That last part was very illuminating. It's not regular season football,
you're right, Yeah, no, Duff, it's football. Yes, we are
Vanella defenses. We've been seeing that all our lives.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
But is there a problem with that, because here's the issue.
If you're Aaron Rodgers, even playing for five thousand years,
and you have two feet and nine toes out of
the door.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
You make him sound like petrified woods speaking of skeletons
and fossils saying. Is that Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Now, he already's saying he's out the door, this is
his final season. He's already announced that this is his
retirement tour. Of course he doesn't mean anything for you. You've
seen everything under the sun. You're not going to run
out there at forty fIF fifty years old and get injured.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, they're not gonna surprise you.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
I understand it. But for guys on the fringes, like
this is a way for them to actually get some
real game film out there, Guys who might get cut,
who might be vying for a practice squad spots, who
might be vying for the last spot on a potential
NFL roster. It's meaningful for them. You can't just say
it's totally meaningless for everybody.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
He probably should have considered that first game he ever
played with the Jets extended preseason and made sure he
actually wasn't out there in Sarah's achilles. That's how we
should have gone about it, like, oh, we got an
extra game. Now in the NFL season, we got seventeen games. Yeah,
I don't need to play in this first game. And
that's kind of where I think things will go eventually. Yeah, well,
they'll keep reducing preseason games and they'll keep adding games

(08:11):
to the regular season. And I'm somewhat here for it.
But tell me if you like this theory, Kevin, all right,
what about what about just I don't know, forgetting preseason altogether,
adding three or four games to the regular season, but
also adding like twenty five to thirty guys to your
roster to where then a month into the NFL season

(08:35):
you have to make cuts. I think that would add
some real intrigue here, and I also think it might
reduce some of the injuries. Actually use more of your roster.
Everybody's talking about the health of guys. We're seeing what's
happening with Chris Johnson, the CTE stuff. What if you're
rotating more guys in and out, why don't we just
expand rosters? Is this a money issue where guys aren't

(08:58):
willing to give up carries, to give up touches because
they're paid so much.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
I would say owners probably don't want to end up
paying you know, as opposed to paying sixty guys. They
don't want to play ninety guys or whatever it is.
Let's just reduce these pay of all the guys.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
They'll be all for them.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
Sure, they'll go for that.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Spread the money around.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I mean more likely in your system, which they're not
going to do it because they have a feeder system
and it's called college football at this point in time
is to have basically their own minor league where they
can call up and send guys down left and right,
kind of like we have the G League and obviously
Major League Baseballs at the system in place for decades.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Didn't the UFL and XFL merge at some point?

Speaker 3 (09:31):
They are If they have merged, yes they have. There
are still there's arena football in this they are not.
I think arena football is still around on a much much,
much much smaller scale than it used to be.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Storing Canadian Football League and European Football League. Just put
them all the pot.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, just have a have your unofficial or actually have
an official minor league system. But again that's also money
out of the owner's pockets. And again, why do they
need to do that. When they have they don't have
to pay for it. College football feeds them automatically, so
you wouldn't need to necessarily do that.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I'm thinking of the health of the players. Okay, I'm
a good person over here. I'm not like these rich owners.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
You're right, I understand, and you have a point, But
my point is there is actual value to the First
of all, there's a fan standpoint and there's a player standpoint.
So I want to start when it comes to the
player standpoint with Aaron Rodgers. And even with the scrimmages,
it's like, oh it's vanilla, nobody shows anything.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
It wasn't vanilla when D'Angelo Hall broke his ankle because
who crossed him up in that moment of hard knocks
DeAndre Hopkins. I think it was back when he was
playing for the Texans, and D'Angelo Hall would be like, no, no, no,
I didn't get crossed over, like I wasn't Tyron Leu there,
I was tripped.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
There.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
There's a hole in the ground.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
The even if it is vanilla, especially for rookies, guys
that don't have a lot of experience, undrafted guys, you
at least want to be able to see that they
can at least do the most basic things. It's almost like,
I guess for an analogy, It's like, I want to
make sure that you can do a basic arithmetic before
I start throwing you into do algebra, you know, before
I started doing all this sophisticated stuff. Can you cover

(10:56):
a guy, Manda Man, do you have a bait? Do
you know basic zone concepts? Can you blow can you
translate what happens from the classroom once in the field
against a different opponent to Aaron Rodgers' point under the lights.
It's just a different environment for a lot of guys,
for guys like him, you know, for for guys like
Dak Prescott who have played forever. Sure, it has very
little value to you, but to say it has no
value whatsoever is short sighted and you're you're you're short

(11:17):
changing the other guys.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
The majority of the guys on the back of your roster.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well and dudes are fighting for jobs out there. Remember
the terminator storyline with the New York Jets. In whichever
time they were on.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Hard not seventeen times the Jets had that was fun
four times with with the Rex Ryan it seemed.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Like the guy named John Connor. Connor. Yes, those storylines
do intrigue me towards the end of the preseason where
you're really not seeing any of the starters anymore, where
Joe Burrow isn't getting six passes off like he got
the other night.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
But that's a good point.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Joe Burrow hadn't played the last couple of preseasons, and
Zach Taylor said, you know what, that could be a
reason why we've gotten off the slow starts the last
few years because guys haven't played in the preseason.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Really necessarily the case, have his entire defenses not played
in the preseason, because I'm pretty sure it's more to
do with the defense given up thirty points per game.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
That has a lot to do with it, too.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
But even offensively, we've talked about this with the Bengals
the last couple of seasons. They've gotten off the slow starts,
even offensively in the first quarter of the season, and
you know, people say like, oh, we got to use
the first few games of the season to work our
way into it. It's like, I don't know, you missed
the playoffs by a game or two. Those first couple
of games matter. Every game matters at that point. So
some teams like the Rams don't start anybody, never start anybody,

(12:26):
doesn't affect them at all. But Zach Taylor looking doing
the audit of his team and says, you know what,
maybe getting us some reps in the preseason actually does
matter a little bit, just to get our feet wet.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
So is this one more example of Aaron Rodgers does
not speak for everyone?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Why a few of those in the one of all?
It seems like, you know, I just I would like
the other end of the spectrum, someone much younger, maybe
here way in on what preseason means to them, as
maybe a newly drafted players, second year guy.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Let me get Caleb down, say ye I A preseason
don't mean squad. Let me just be ready for regular
season action with the with the Cowboys, and I'll be good.
I feel like answer now From a fan engagement standpoint,
I think it's a little more interesting and nuance because
it's it's meaningful to you if you love football and
it doesn't matter who's playing, and you say I'll watch.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Pop Warner, I'll watch the NFL, I'll watch the UFL.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
There's a select number of people who are like that,
and it doesn't matter if I recognize the names on
the back of the jerseys or not. So I understand
that outlook. Should fans care, that's up to you. Do
many of them care? I think outside of your own
individual team, you probably don't. The way I look at
preseason football at him as almost like regular season baseball
to a degree, you kind of follow. Hear that, Rob

(13:37):
Manfred for the most post preseas just being honest with
you, You're not wrong. You follow your team. You watch all
of your team's games. If there are some intrigue with
a certain matchup, if you, hey, you know, if Mizerowski
is facing off against School or something, and you're not
a fan of either of those teams, then yeah, you'd
watch possibly. But generally speaking, I'm not watching the Cardinals
take on, you know, the Steelers in a preseason game

(13:59):
on a.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
Random set night in August.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
But my team, my favorite team, who read all the
articles and keep up with the practice s reports. I
want to see those guys and see how they play
on the field. That's kind of how I equate it.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Preseason football is a fluffer. It's for play to getting
to the actual NFL game. I use that verbisio that
gets everybody going. That's not sexual. I mean, I'm just
saying like that's there is something to building up that
excitement till the climax of the NFL kicking off.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
The problem is, and I think this is where having
only three instead of four preseason games it needs to
be five for the teams that were played in the
Hall of Fame game.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
God, that's excessive and it's.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Going to get reduced again once they add more regular
season games. Are going to take away preseason games, you know,
after the first half of the first game, maybe game two,
unless you have a lot of intriguing you have a
lot of a rookie out there. If you're a Raider
fan and Frianana Mendoza, you know, is going to play
snaps in the preseason throughout the entire preseason.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
And that's a team in a different part of their
life cycle where you know more young guys are going
to be playing in the preseason. So there could be
more intrigue from Raiders fans.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Definitely, But if you're the Cowboys, and nobody's gonna be
out there playing of all your veterans, and why should they?
Why am I even watching? What's the point after the
first game where you just jones it for football and
I finally see some Yeah, it's the Giant Star and
Jerry's out there acting important on the sideline. But then
there's just a.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Bunch of backups out there, just like, why.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Do I care? Let me ask you a question here,
quiz one of the most memorable preseason moments you can recall,
because for the most part, for me, it's just about
guys getting injured in the preseason.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
There's like, like everybody talks about Terrell Davis making the
tackle on special teams, but I can't sit here.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
And act like I remember that in the moment.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
No, we saw this part documentary and when he made
the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
That's part of his legacy. But I didn't see that
happen live.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I don't remember that just because it swayed Mike Shanahan
to keep him on the team as a six round pick.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
I do remember the Hall of Fame game when the
expansion Houston Texans and your guy Dom Caper's with the
David Carr defense and Jeremy Shockey, who I just won
a National champion with Miami, was a first round pick
by the Giants.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
He showed out.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
He showed out, called a pass, ran over like three dudes. Yes,
And John Manner was like, oh, this was like Mark Bavaro,
who was a great.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Giant tight end from back in the day.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
I remember that packers with the Giants.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Mark Bavar was with the Giants.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
But outside of that stand out preseason performances, you remember
injuries like I remember Trent Green getting hurt. I do
remember that vividly, and we obviously know the fallout with
Kurt Warner being the starter and the rest was history
with the greatest show on.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Turf, Jason c Horns tearing up his knee right. You
mentioned shaky. The other performance I remember, I think the
first play maybe of his career in the preseason, Sean
Taylor had to pick six. Somebody was backed up at
the goal line and just his great instincts, Ballhawk got it,
ran it in easy light work for him, and I

(16:51):
was like, oh my god, this guy, like we didn't
already know coming out of Miami that he would be good,
but he showed up in his first game. Most definitely,
there's a few instances like that Romanowski breaking Carrie Collins
jaw who was on the Carolina Panthers and they were
coming off a twelve and four season, making the NFC
Championship Game back in ninety six. Oh I remember that

(17:13):
because then they went seven to nine the next season.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
Sounds like you remember, like it was yesterday.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Well, Collins was never the same after that. You know,
he was on his way up coming out of Penn State.
He had that big second season. They got within a
game of going to the Super Bowl. Uh, that was
one that always stuck with me. But outside of that,
it's yeah, it's not a lot of plays. He got
there eventually, at least with the Giants. Did he didn't go?

Speaker 7 (17:35):
Well?

Speaker 2 (17:35):
But did he really didn't go? I mean he was
there first of all. I don't know how he got
there and how they beat up Minnesota the way they did.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
Forty eight to nothing or something in an NFC title game.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Some say they intercepted some of their plays on the
walkie talkie and it was all out of the ordinary.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
That was Randy Mauls Chris Carter like that was like
a high flying Minnesota like.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
There's no Colpepper's first year.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think that was Dante because I think that the
previous year was ran those last year, so I think
a couple re stept in that year.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
That team was stat I mean multiple times. We should
have had the Minnesota Vikings within Randy moss era there,
and for whatever reason Carrie Anderson, they didn't end up
making it to the Zuerra.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
You can blame Gary when it came to that Giants
bug ass kicking. That's for damn sure, not quite close enough.
But as far as you listeners go, when it comes
to preseason football, are you into it? Are you jones
and for it? Does it do anything for you after
the first quarter of your first game? Are you still watching?
Are you just a big time football fan and you'll
watch regardless? Eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox is
the number. You can also hit us up on x

(18:34):
if you like, at KFIG one and at follow Adam
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(19:18):
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(19:43):
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Hold on to your books.

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FNA Cotton.

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Speaker 2 (20:20):
No producer, no problem. Tonight, I'm out a moles in
these Cavin figures. Coming up, we got Vinnie Bonsignor joining
us from Kansas City to talk more NFL. Get his
perspective at the top of next hour. Next segment, we
got a little bit of stranger than fiction animal related.

Speaker 10 (20:37):
This invited to be snakes go.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
On many different directions. I've seen a lot of weird
animal stories this week. Dude.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
What about the mountain lion infestation? More mountain lions being
caught in southern California more than ever, and we've been
on top of those stories.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Sharks all over the place. Hammerhead shark was spotted in
Malibu on Friday.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I'm too scared to even talk about that. But we
do have a color here. Emmett, I believe it is Emmitts.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
Let's go to Emmitt. Em what's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (21:04):
What's what's going on?

Speaker 11 (21:05):
Kevin and Adam, how y'all doing tonight?

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Doing great?

Speaker 9 (21:07):
Brother?

Speaker 3 (21:08):
How about you?

Speaker 9 (21:09):
Pretty good man? Pretty good.

Speaker 11 (21:10):
Uh, So for preseason, I'm kind of like in the
middle of like I don't care, but also there's some
intrigue to it. Like I'm a Seahawks fan, so I
kind of want to see like the guys we drafted
and that's kind of been the thing for like years now.
But also like I was definitely interested last night and
watching Fernando Mendoza play for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Speaker 9 (21:30):
Thought he looked good. May I add, but like.

Speaker 11 (21:32):
It's certain rookies for me, Like, I'm not gonna plan
my Saturday night like you were saying Kevin around, I'm
gonna watch a preseason game. I mean I will tomorrow
because the Seahawks play, but like unless it's something else
like my team, I'm not gonna go out of my
way to watch it. If it's on, I'm cool with it,
and I'm going to research the rookies. That's all I'm
doing for preseason.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, good call him, And I feel that too because
even in watching it as a Raider fan, appreciate the
call him it.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
Uh. Obviously I'm interested in Fernando Mendoza as well, but
also i want to see Jeremiah Love, who had a
couple of good runs for the Cardinals in that matchup,
So you tune in to see a couple of impact
rookies are a couple of guys, so you might have
your eye on you might be intrigued by if you
are a fantasy nut, especially if there's young guys you
haven't seen before. You want to see how they look
at playing at NFL game speed. I can certainly understand that.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, if you're dumpster dive and if you're looking for
a fantasy football player, that could be a bargain because
maybe he shows up in a preseason game and you
think that may move him up in the depth chart
somewhere nobody else saw it, or nobody else has the
foresight that you do the vision. That's another reason to
watch preseason football. And yeah, it's regional, as you mentioned earlier,

(22:39):
just like with Major League Baseball, which has become very
much regional. It can be regional and it could also
just be well is it my team playing? Outside of that,
I'm not that interested unless you give me enough storylines.
And let me tell you, there were not enough storylines
for me to watch the Jets tonight, even though Iron
Eagles on the call.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
I do appreciate you call the Noah the baby goat,
young goat, So what's the What's is there a nickname for?

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Definitely not the old Goat?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
I am not able to say that's tread lightly on that.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
The og Goat the original.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
You know something that we debated around this time last
year when our F and L and FSR journey was
kicking off there at him. I don't know our exact
one year anniversary at what point, but I know it
was around this time last year.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
No one cares, I mean no, we're definitely going to celebrate.
I think Brie as a cake for it. She's actually
going to fill in and produce that night.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
No one cares that much, I'll put it that way.
Fair enough, my care slightly.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I definitely don't care that much to throw a.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Party about it. But one of the first hot debates
that we had was about Michaeh. Parsons and the trade
that went down between the Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 9 (23:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
And you know, I argue that you don't trade a
generational talent at a premium position. You try to fortify
around him, and you argued, well, how big of a
difference is he actually making if the defense is trash,
even if he's a great individual player, shouldn't you want
to trade him away and get more depth on your
defense as a unit.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
So the first person in a long time not to
mischaracterize one of my arguments, Thank you. That doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
There's still time, basically a couple two and a half
hours left in the show. So what Dallas ultimately ended
up getting from that trade? So they get Kenny Clark,
They get a couple of first round picks. The twenty
twenty six pick from this past Aprils draft goes to
Malachi Lawrence twenty third overall. They traded the twenty twenty
seven pick to acquire Quinnin Williams. They also got more
cap flexibility. They signed Rashan Gary, They get Jalen Thompson

(24:32):
a free agency. They actually signed Quinn Williams to an
extension earlier this week. And I think one thing that
gets buried too, the fact that they had the money
to be able to put the franchise tag on George Pickens.
Having that money available certainly doesn't help.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
I believe there was a guy who will pointed out
that could be a possibility by not signing MARKA. Parsons.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Oh yeah, I still would rather have Michael Parsons than
George Pickens personally, But that's.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Me, what's not just George Pickens. That's just a part
of it that we'll get deeper into that as well.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
But first let's hear what Jerry I always have to
say when he was asked earlier this week whether or
not the Cowboys won the trade.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
It's like going to Las Vegas with some extra money
in your pocket, or going out there with the babies
new pair of shoes and formal the money in your pocket.
You can't be as good as a crapshooter as you
are when you've got the baby's new pair of shoes
going out there with it. So in a way, this
look actually created a mental part to us and to

(25:27):
my roll in it with me to step out and
make the moves and take the if you will, risks
that are involved in in which they are to be
where we are today with the complete makeover of the defense.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, it was an earlier part in that sound by
where you know, we talked about the fact that first
we have to we were in the position to have
someone as great as Micah to get the kind of
return that we had. He equated it to the herschel
Walker trade to a certain degree and says, if you
have more assets, you can take more risks, and if
you trust your process, you're going to hit on some
of those guys and you're going to miss on some
of those guys. It actually made a lot of sense.

(26:00):
I understood where he was coming from with that analogy.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
I did not understand the old adage of baby needs
a new pair of shoes, Daddy needs a new pair
of shoe. Lost me on that one. That's old school.
I think when you're throwing the dice, come on, come on,
daddy needs a new pair of shoes. I think that's
one of the sayings. But it's a little bit past
our time there. But hey, why do you go, Joe?

Speaker 3 (26:19):
His argument is not crazy like Parsons elite player. Dallas
turned the outgoing value onto multiple defenders and cat flexibility.
Now all those guys have to hit and produce for
you to say, First of all, I'll just say this,
I don't think it's fair to say who quote unquote
won the trade until we actually see what actually ends
up happening. Well, because if Michael Parsons ends up having
a and obviously his health is a big part of it,

(26:40):
and we don't even know at what point in the
season will join the Green Bay Packers. But if he
has a Reggie White or Charles Woodson type of impact
on this Packers defense and helps him win a championship
and the Cowboys don't win a championship, I mean, who
won the trade?

Speaker 4 (26:53):
I think it's pretty cut and dry at that point.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Here's what I don't like about this. It sure seemed
like it was fair to say who won the trade
when everybody was saying it was lopsided, and there was
obviously the Packers when it first went down. But now
that it's looking better for the Cowboys, people aren't willing
to say that they won the trade. I'm just saying,
you got to keep that same energy if you were
one of those people and you weren't the trade. A

(27:17):
lot of people were adamant that the Cowboys screwed up
here and they lost, and there were winners and losers immediately.
Now we took a step back and we let it
marinate while we were on different sides, and we still
may be this still needs to play out here. That's fair,
But a lot of my logic is what's rising to

(27:38):
the surface now and people are starting to see it,
and this has been the talk of the week. Actually,
the Cowboys, they're sitting pretty Maybe Jerry Jones, he's old
dog Gandler new tricks, like, that's what it looks like.
I remember that saying I know that adage, and I
think that applies to Jerry Jones.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Maybe now that goes into hoping that this all works
itself out. Now they're gonna be better defensive because they
can't be worse than they were last year.

Speaker 4 (28:02):
There's no guarantee it's gonna work out.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
With Mike. No, that's true. You're right, But this idea
is like, oh my god, the Cowboys are great. Maybe
they were and maybe they weren't. So I can't I
believe when you have a generational player at a premium
position at pass rusher who can be a game change who.
By the way, this entire idea that like the Cowboys
defense for Michael Parson's tenure, was god awful the entire
time he was there. His first three years there, there

(28:26):
were top five and from a uh, I forget the
exact metric and what it's called it's not wins above replacement,
but whatever the NFL metric is for that, he was
their best the first two years of his career. He
was basically their most valuable player based on the war metric. Uh.
And then all of a sudden, when Dan Quinn takes
the Washington job and they bring in Matt Eberflus to
be the defensive coordinator, actually Mike Zimmer and he was awful,

(28:48):
and then Matt Ebraflus and he was awful. They blow
it they then they blow it up and change everything.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
So and by the way, Kevin knows this team at
a pretty good granular level since he covers them in broadcast.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
For that, I did, yeah, working on their Castle Compass
Media networks, I do have an intimate knowledge to a
certain degree of how of how the roster works and
now the team works. So the idea that the defense
was just got awful the entire time Parsons was there
as a misnomer.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
The last year was bad. They were giving up twenty
eight per game. He wasn't having the impact you would
expect from a guy that caliber. But you're completely right,
it wasn't like that the entire time.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
And you know, ideas like, oh, you have to open
up cap space and find ways to fortify the roster.
I don't necessarily disagree with that, but when you have
a player of this caliber, I think you find a
way to be able to.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Figure it out.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Look, you could have traded your twenty twenty seven first
round pick and gotten Quinn Williams, and all of a
sudden you have Micah Parsons and Quinn Williams, and you
have that push up front and on the edge. You're
talking about the potential of having Miles Garrett and Aaron
Donald inside and outside.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Potentially, if you could afford to keep paying them both
for a while.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Here are the Dallas Cowboys. You can go cash over cap.
You can find a way to make it work.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
It is ain't the Dodgers.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
I know, it's not Major League Baseball. And the Rams
can find a way to pay all these guys. The
Dallas Cowboys can too.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Oh they're saying, f them picks is how they pay
for him. I did this stat from Quinn Williams when
they brought him in last season, which was impressive improved. Yeah,
they were giving up one hundred and forty three yards
per rush at the beginning of the year without him,
bitch what everybody was running on the Cowboys. After they

(30:19):
got Quinn Williams, they were only giving up one hundred
and five yards per game and three times they held
opponents to under eighty yards on the ground. So it's
not just him as a pass rusher, it is him
really stabilizing the middle of their defense. He made a
huge difference. Now it wasn't enough to get to the playoffs,

(30:40):
but my point was always he was never going to
be even if he didn't get this extension. He was
still under contract. He was not a rental, so it
made sense to trade for him. And he's still cheaper
than Micah Parsons. You could say Parsons is better. That's fair.
I don't know if it's a significant enough difference, given
the difference in salary both these guys are making, and

(31:03):
now you can move some of that money around to
forty five some of the other positions on this team.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
I mean, I can find now. Granted I don't want
to just discount Quinna Williams because he's one of the
best at what he does. I feel like I can
find a guy that can stuff the run. I don't
know if how easy it is to find someone who can,
you know, average fifteen sacks a season and be that
dominant on the edge.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
It's not, but some of those guys also, he looked
at Crosby. Is his team winning? No, even with Miles
Garrett he was getting all those sacks. Was his team winning?
It's like some of these guys. And this even applies
to Aaron Donald. Back when he was I think probably
the best player in football with the Rams, the difference
between him and the next best guy at his position

(31:42):
was greater than anybody else and the next best guy
at their position. But can he impact the game as
much as great as he was now? He still found ways.
Don't get me wrong. He's a generational player and I
think he can still dominate and be a pro bowler
when he comes back. I'm expecting it to happen with
the Rams, but it does matter to the position you play,
and some of those stats don't exactly tell the entire story.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
You have to be able to enhance his talents by
surrounding him with people that can help with that, and
getting a generational player at a position like that, I
don't think the answer is, well, we suck, so let's
get rid of him. It's like, no, we have someone
who is this great, who is this dominant at an
impact position. What can we do to make sure that
we enhance his abilities and put people around him to

(32:26):
make him The Rams did that with Aaron Donald by
the way they went, and then he ended up making
one of the biggest plays in his career against the
forty nine ers of getting that seck.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Throwing down Joe Burrow at the end of the Super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
At the Super Bowl he did he did it against
Jimmy Garoppolo in the NFC Championship Game. He was placed
in a position to be able to do that because
they were able to put pieces around him.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
I don't disagree with the logic in the rationale. I'm
not saying that you're completely wrong or you're obviously wrong
or anything like that, and I never said that. I
would never didn't know. Oh, you disagree. I think there's
an argument just on both and I'm taking the other
side where I can see where Jerry Jones was coming
from the Dallas Cowboys. While everybody else was zigging, I

(33:08):
was zagging a little bit and like, big picture wise,
this could work out for them, and right now it's
looking like it might.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Part of me still feels like this was an ego
thing for Jerry Jones because there was no talk of
trading them. Initially they had this handshake, weak wink agreement,
the agent wasn't involved, and then it kind of all
went downhill.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Then Micaeh requested one.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
So I still think there's a little bit of like
an egle played to a certain degree when it comes
to Jerry Jones, and if he had his druthers, he
would rather keep Michael Parsons.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
One thing that I will say, I think that's still
an element the Cowboys.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Offense potentially, and we'll talk about this when we get
to our NFC preview coming up next hour, NFC East Preview.
Their offense has the potential to be so great and dominant.
The defense just needs to be decent for them to
be considered a team that can win eleven twelve games
and be into the postseason to potentially make an impact.
So there's an element of the defense doesn't have to
be great, they just need to be somewhat respectable, which

(33:55):
they weren't for the majority of last season, and getting
more town overall on the defense and just making them
an okay unit as opposed to trying to swing for
the fences. I think there's an argument to be made that,
based on how their offense is structured, they just need
a defense that can just keep them in gangs.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
They look like the Lakers going into this season. Their
offense might be so good they can carry them if
their defense is just okay. They don't have to be
top ten. Just don't be bottom ten or don't be
bottom five, and you're gonna be in a lot of games.
As you mentioned there, I think the Cowboys could be
very dangerous. But I do like the mindset of Quinn
Williams and everything he's been talking about. Not so much
concern with the contract getting paid and all that. He's

(34:33):
showing leadership and just saying I'm trying to win, I'm
trying to get better every day. I think that's also
a factor to why Dallas was able to pony up
for him. It's the right guy, the right temperament to
help lead your defense too. And there were some question marks.
Don't get me wrong, none of this should override the play,
but there were some question marks about Micah Parsons and

(34:55):
like how vocal of a leader he was. And I'm
not saying that's the difference between the and that's why
you do it. I'm just saying it's kind of a
bonus maybe with Quinnean Williams and getting that part of him. Yeah,
I mean, some guys can be vocal leaders. Some guys
lead by example. I don't know if there's a right
or a wrong.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Or a better or worse, but it could be that
he's his temperament is better for this locker room than
Michaels was. Only the guys who are in there know
the answer to that question. What's coming up next?

Speaker 2 (35:18):
A little bit of stranger than fiction. Not one, but
two snake stories, and neither of them take place on
a plane. I'm out of Maslin. He's Kevin figures. This
is FNA on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
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. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, with all that, it sounds like you've got a
pretty big night planned.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Huh, Fna Cotton, It is FNA on FSR.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Thank you, Amy. Apparently it is our one year anniversary today,
Adam five days ago, today, last year?

Speaker 4 (35:58):
Are you series our first show?

Speaker 2 (36:00):
You're ad FNA cotton celebration bitches. Let's go cool, Emmy,
thanks for the research on that.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
We'll be celebrating with our friend Vinnie Bonds and your
from the California Post. Coming up in the very next
segment to go around the NFL preseason carousel. Past food
customer defending critcision called nine after her.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
McDonald's run out of McNuggets.

Speaker 12 (36:22):
Strange.

Speaker 11 (36:22):
You can't give a drunk man riding a horse at
wy he got unlike cars, boards that don't have motors,
they have a mind of their own.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
Strange.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Twenty four year old man jus of throwing an alligator
through a drive through window. Strangel fish. Well, you know
my phobia snakes, sharks, spiders, Right, that's something elemental like

(36:54):
a bat as Christian Bale said, and batman begins love,
yeah that and be scary too. Hate. There's a lot
of things that could terrify you. A lot of phobias
out there. I forget what the phobia is called for
being afraid of snakes, but the one thing that scares
me more than a snake is a snake with a

(37:14):
blow torch.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
Like a snake that spits out fire.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Yeah, Dyland Okay or whatever the name was, didn't know
that was a thing that basically happened yesterday in Virginia,
where at Forest Middle School in Bedford, Virginia, a class
python escaped its terrarium and terrorized the school by knocking

(37:41):
over a heat lamp and causing a fire that damaged
not one, not two, not three, but eight classrooms in
the middle of the night, which had firefighters having a
wrangle not just the fire, but nate foot python. They
said when they found the snake, it was sharpening a
number two pencil, probably using that as a weapon. Next,

(38:02):
they're dangerous. I'm like muldoone from a Jurassic Park. I
just feel like they should all be destroyed, all snakes.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
Snakes are part of the circle of life, Adam.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Okay, not my circle. They're not in my inner circle.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
If we don't have snakes, then you're gonna be infested
with rats.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
You want that, I'll settle for rats, would you, honestly?

Speaker 2 (38:22):
I will. I'll take out the BB gun.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
I don't think I would be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
I hate snakes.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Leinster's running wild. I got cats. I can handle rats. Okay,
that's not a problem. I don't know, not those New
York rats. Bedford County Public Schools said the eight classrooms
damaged by fire and water because it sets off the
sprinklers and then it starts to flood. They will be

(38:48):
temporarily closed for repairs. But the worst part about this story, though,
is that the damage will not delay the start of
the school year scheduled for August. I'm sure the kids
are so disappointed. I know, school's out for pythons.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Oh wait, the python, I assume for those who care,
the python is.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Safe, right, Yeah, the python's fine.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
The python didn't catch on fire like anaconda or anything. No, unfortunately, yeah, unfortunately.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
I just mean PETA's online three for you had.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Him better Peter than a snake. Now, this wasn't the
only snake story, and it's not just about pythons here.
That came about this week, all right. In Wilson County, Tennessee,
a woman driving on the freeway noticed something on the
hood of her car. It was a five foot long

(39:39):
gray rat snake. We go, non venomous. So the driver
starts to pull over, and there's video of this, and
the snake just tucked and rolled like Leo in one
battle after another. It just bailed and hit the eject.
But I'm out, Seriously, you're out. The snake was then
seen attempting to hit Hike on the side of the

(40:01):
road later, but no one picked it up. Maybe the
thumb for the snake, which is a little hard to have. Yeah,
did work out for him, but tough to see that happened.
I think both of these happened in the last forty
eight hours. Snakes are running wild.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
So did you see the report from earlier this week?
And I believe it was Arkansas. I believe it was
a high school kid who practiced the entire time with
a cotton mouth in his helmet.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Now that is poisonous.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yea, yes, it was a poison his cotton mouth and
it was like, h helmet feels a little weird.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Took it off. Cotton mouse sitting right there.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
What if that was the cure for CTE by a
snake with the cotton mouth?

Speaker 2 (40:36):
Were a disclaimer after that segment.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
Stuffing a cotton mouth into your helmet, that's.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
What kids do. Not try this at home. I was
obviously joking, this is not the way to go here.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
And then there was the one out here where you
had the two rattlesnakes who were doing like a snake dance.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Oh, I did see that side of the road.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Was it sexual? Were they fighting? Don't?

Speaker 3 (40:54):
I couldn't. Maybe a little bit of both makeup sex.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
I don't know. That's some kiky stuff with the snakes.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Snakes got into it, like what's.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Your snake kink? I was gonna say, when's the last
time you see a snake out in the open?

Speaker 3 (41:07):
Ooh uh, it's been a long time.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
I couldn't tell you.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Hot shot for you. I don't go outside at him.
So that's that's the issue.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Smart man. I just saw a snake sign recently in Burbank,
like you know, don't tread on me, watch for rattle
snakes in this area. And that was freaking up.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Hey, when's whacking day? Call me when the time comes?
Speaking of you, all right?

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Coming off next?

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Got me?

Speaker 2 (41:31):
We got him, Vinnie bon signor we'll join us talking
to all things NFL, including the Raiders Quarterback battle right
here on fn A on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
That is right hour two of fn A on FSR.
If you guys want to hit us up on X
you can at K fig one is where you can
find me. You can find Adam at Follow Adam A.
We are at f inn a show on x as well.
Coming up next segment, we will get into the NFC East.
We will continue our preview of all of the divisions
in the NFL leading up to Opening Night, and we

(42:03):
will touch on the NFC East coming up in the
very next segment.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
But right now, Adam, who do we have Alan Dragan did?
Thank you Gutty Well join the show tonight on the
one year anniversary of FNA on Fox Sports Radio as
a guy we've known a little bit longer than that,
and he's been covering the Raiders a little bit longer
in that not so long that he was covering the
Snake Kenny Stabler, not that long as we talked about

(42:30):
snakes and Stranger than Fiction in our last segment. But
it is our friend Vinnie bon Signor follow him at
Minnie bon Signor covering the NFL for the California Post
now and of course on the radio on nine to
twenty am in Vegas talking about the Raiders. Vinnie, thanks
for doing this here on FNA on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 7 (42:50):
Absolutely and happy birthday or anniversary what are we talking
about here.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
We'll take it. Just don't ask our age, no ideas. Vinnie,
I want to ask you to start things off. Let's
center in on the Raiders here before we get to
Case and the Rams. I know you're in Kansas City
and we appreciate you coming on with us live this
late here on Fox Sports Radio. But you had to
tweet that got a little bit of traction and some

(43:16):
friction with some people the other night, saying quote, I
totally get why the Raiders will start Kirk Cousins and
be patient with Fernando Mendoza. But anyone who thinks this
is some one sided deal and that Kirk is worlds
ahead of Mendoza just doesn't know football. Y'all don't know ball,
not like Vinnie b here. So tell me, if if

(43:37):
Kirk Cousins is, like, you know, a six on the
quarterback scale, how far is Fernando Mendoza from him? Is
he a five and a half? Is he a four?
How close do you think he is? Where's the gap there?

Speaker 7 (43:50):
Yeah? I mean, if we're going on that metric, I
would say I would say a five. And here's the thing.
If if it really was that Kirk was that far
ahead of Fernando Mendoza. The writers have major Colton right now,
because that would to me, it wouldn't be so much
that Kirk Cousins looks fantastic, which he looks okay, he
looked okay, it would be that Fernando doesn't look very good.

(44:14):
And that's not anywhere near the case. He has looked good.
And I think people got a glimpse of that last
night when they when they got a chance to see
Fernando out there doing his things. So this isn't some
I mean, you know, you got everyone needs to understand too.
Kirk Cousins in the last couple of years, he hasn't

(44:35):
been great. He hasn't been a great quarterback for the last
couple of years, coming up the Achilles injury, and you
know where he is in terms of the calendar. So
so yeah, it's not a wide, huge goal between those
two quarterbacks, nor should it be. And if it was,
the writer to be in trouble right now.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
So Fernando was critical of his own performance the other night,
and Clint Kubiak praised him and thought he played up
pretty well.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
From your assessment.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
You wrote about this in the California post you thought
he played well as well as far as the starting
quarterback going into the season. Klint Kubiak And I don't
know if he was just saying this for political purposes,
but he says, yeah, we want all these guys to
get reps with the ones, whether it's eight and O'Connell,
whether it's Fernanda Mendoza and obviously Kirk Cousins. How realistic
of a possibility. Do you believe that it is that
by the time opening week comes in Week one, that

(45:23):
Fernando Mendoza would be the starting quarterback for the Raiders.

Speaker 7 (45:27):
Yeah, if it was me, I think it would be
a There would be a pretty good shot of that happening.
But I do believe that the Raiders are are going
to try to slow play in a little bit with Fernando.
It's why they went out and got Kirk Cousins, and
I totally get that to understand it. It's probably the
right thing to do at least to start off the season.

(45:47):
But to me, it's only a matter of time for
Bernando Mendoza's the quarterback of the Raider is the starting
quarterback of the Raiders now. The only thing I think
that would change that calculus is if the Raiders get
off to a great start, there's a bunch of pixie
dust that's that's been put on them, and they will
go on this run that nobody has foreseen. And if

(46:08):
that's the case, and they're winning a bunch of football
games with Kirk Cousins as a quarterback, they're going to
ride that out as long as they possibly say. They
owe that to themselves, they owe that to the fans,
they owe that to guys like Nex Corosey and Colton Miller,
guys that have been around for a long time that
deserve a chance to win. They're going to ride it
out if that were to happen. I don't necessarily see

(46:29):
that happening. The schedule is really tough. I don't know
that they're quite there yet right now to make that
kind of a run. So, for for me, Kirk will
start the season, but it probably won't be too too
long before Bernando's out there being as a starting quarterback.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Do they have enough of an infrastructure there, enough pieces
to kind of not just protect Fernando Mendoza when he
gets out there, but also some real weapons, so he's
just not just putting that David Carr situation where a
guy gets shell shocked or in his career. Maybe Sam
Donald ask, Yeah, that's.

Speaker 7 (47:03):
A really great question, and I think they do. And
I give a lot of credit to John spy Tech
and the front office, Clinton Kubiak. Heck, you could even
throw Tom Brady in there. Uh, they did a lot
of good work during during the off He's another thing
that this is a flawless team or anything like that.
To me, there there's still a year away from from
really turning the corner. I think twenty twenty seven is

(47:24):
where it's all where it all is for the Raiders.
But when you think about guys like Tyler Linnenbaum, who
already made a difference last night, and I saw that
in training camp, you know, having a Colton Miller healthy now.
And when you talk about guys like Black Bauers, Match
and Genty, those guys are block blowers and block Bauers. Obviously,
that goes without saying. He's arguably the best tighten in

(47:47):
the NFL. Ash and Genty to me is somebody that has,
you know, NFL Offensive Player of the Year written all
over him. He's that good. He just didn't have a
whole lot of help last year. But I think the
offense all I is going to be better this year.
I think that Ashton is going to be great. I
think Brock's going to be really good. So I think
the coaching staff is miles and miles ahead of last

(48:11):
year's coaching staff, and specifically talking about that offensive line,
way ahead of where it was last year. And I
think you got a little bit of a glimpse of
that last night as well. So I do think, you know,
it's not the greatest team by any stretch of the imagination,
But I do not believe that that this would be
a David Carr tape of the situation if you put
Fernando out there. And that's one thing that you know,

(48:33):
if you were if you were talking about going into
last year or the year before, people will be going, oh,
oh great, the Raiders had Fernando Mendoza a geez everything else,
I'd be worried about about for him and for them.
And I don't get the sense that that's the case
at all. I think that they're they're a little bit
further ahead of the game in terms of the roster,
and that's a good thing for Bernanda.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Vinnie Bobs and you're joining us here on f and
A on FSR. He is an NFL columnist for the
cow form of your post. Is currently in Kansas City
getting ready for the Rams and Chiefs coming up later tonight.
So the Rams are a great team. We know that
likely not going to see anybody of notes as far
as their roster goes coming up in tonight's game, But
stats have been going to get some run obviously Ty

(49:15):
Simpson as well. You've been at Rams camp. How have
those guys and I guess more specifically, how has Ty
Simpson looked and what are we what should we expect
to see from him in his NFL debut coming up
later tonight.

Speaker 7 (49:26):
Yeah, I think you're gonna see a lot of Ty
Simpson tonight and during the preseason. This is a good
opportunity for the future quarterback of the Rams to kind
of get out there. It's it's it's interesting because I
know it's Sean McVay. He doesn't show any of his
cards during the preseason. The play calling and the plays
that that that's that the Rams are gonna are going

(49:48):
to use tonight. You might as well be a couple
of kids out in recess, you know, drawing up plays
in the sand. That's that's kind of what you're going
to see from the from the Rams tonight. But that's
these are the opportunities that ty Simpson because you know,
we have to understand that the longer matt you know,

(50:09):
Matthew Stafford plays, the better for the Rams. For the Rams,
the more he is matt Stafford, the more opportunity they
have to go potentially play for the Super Bowls. So
they want they want to get as much as they
possibly can out of Matthew Stafford. That could be a year,
it could be two years, who knows. You never know
how long Matthew wants to play. So the longer it
is before we see ty Simpson as the starting quarterback,

(50:31):
quite honestly, the better for the Rams. But that day
is coming at some point, and they do believe that
it's ty Simpson who's going to be the heir apparent,
and so these opportunities like you're going to get tonight
and the last couple or the next couple of preseason
games are really important for the Rams for ty Simpson
just from a development standpoint and kind of a glimpse

(50:52):
to see what exactly it was that prompted the Rams
to invest the thirteenth hick overall on a super are
now you know, Super Bowl, or buts of a team
to go get a quarterback that might not pay off
for another couple of years. So if I'm a Rams fan,
I'm pretty excited about tonight just to see what Ty
Simpson where the development is right now, where he is

(51:15):
at this stage, and get a little bit of a
glimpse of what the future right look like for them.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
You know, when sticking with the Rams conversation, you wrote
something recently about Aaron Donald, and all of us expect
Aaron Donald to at this point in time come out
of retirement rejoin the Rams. Even if he's not going
to be one hundred percent of what he was, We
think he might be seventy sixty percent, which would be
better than the majority of players at his position. But
you did write about a cautionary tale when it comes
to guys coming out of retirement, and it doesn't always

(51:40):
work out the way that you expect. We obviously know
that Aaron holds himself to the highest standard and he's
been working out and is not going to come back
and be a shell of himself. But I guess the
fear of the unknown. You never truly know exactly how
it's going to work out until you get out there
on the field. Is that something that the Rams themselves
have discussed internally that maybe the expectation for Aaron be

(52:00):
a little bit too high.

Speaker 7 (52:02):
Yeah, And I know that from the Rounds perspective. It's
never been a case where they're like, man, we got
to have Aaron Batch. We have to have Aaron of
you know, twenty twenty back. We need him and and
that's what we expect it to be. I don't think
that there's any expectation that that is, you know, what
this is all going to be about. And they don't

(52:23):
need them to be necessarily because if it was, and
if it is, hey, you know, they would take that
any day of the week, Aaron Donald Wood and so
would everybody else. But that's probably not likely. And when
you look at the precedent of this type of a situation,
which quite quite honestly it's a little bit of an

(52:43):
uncharted territory that they're going into, I don't know that
there's ever been someone that was gone that long, you know,
of this caliber of an Aaron Donald caliber that came
back and you know, all of a sudden it was
great and they were back to being what they were before.
There's really no evidence of that at all. So I

(53:04):
think everybody has to manage their expectations as a result
of that. He's thirty five years old, he hasn't played
football or competitive football in two seasons. He was he
was actually showing, you know, some signs of not necessarily declined.
But you know, he was in his tenth year the
last time we saw him. You're gonna you're gonna see

(53:25):
a little bit of the wear and tear and a
little bit of that. It's professional football. Nobody beats father time.
And now it's two years later and he hasn't played
it down since then. So I think everybody just needs
to temper their expectations. And I know that from his perspective,
knowing Aaron Donald, knowing what it takes to be Aaron Donald,
knowing the standards that he sets for himself, and and

(53:48):
really doesn't accept anything less than that there's still to
me a little bit of a chance. And he says,
you know what, I gave it a shot. I just
don't feel comfortable about where I am right now. And
for that reason I'm not going to come back. I
think I do believe he is going to come back,
and I do think that they're going to figure out
a way to maximize the level that he comes back at.

(54:11):
And the good news is, with Miles Garrett and everyone
else that they have on that defense, they don't need
him to be the old Aaron Donald, which would be unrealistic.
If that is who he is, fantastic, But if it's
seventy percent of Aaron Donald, they'll make that work in
a condensed, reduced role that kind of maximizes uses him

(54:32):
in higher leverage situations known passing downs, late game situations,
probably a little bit more down the stretch, you know,
when when the games get a little bit more important
and a little bit more meaningful. But yeah, I think
it would be It would be unrealistic for everyone to
sit here and say, Aaron Donald's coming back to the Rams.
He won't skip a beat. It's going to be the
Aaron Donald of old, and they're going to that's going

(54:53):
to be a celebrated moment. There's really not a lot
of history to sugget that would be the case.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Any bonds and your is our guest here on fn
AN and Fox Sports Radio. But you Bonsignor from the
California Post joining US Live late night as he is
in Kansas City, Vinny. What did you and what were
your feelings on the Micah Parsons trade a year ago?
And how do you feel about it now with the
Cowboys with getting a little bit of a bigger picture
and more clarity on what moves they made.

Speaker 7 (55:22):
Yeah, that just kind of felt like a oh Man
At first of all, I didn't agree with it. I
don't think you trained a guy like a Micah Parsons
and and i'd I'd love to see him right now
on the Cowboys, and I think most Cowboys fans would
agree with that. It just seems like it just seemed like,

(55:43):
you know, it was almost like the bear got poked
in Jerry Jones, and sometimes you don't do that depending
on where his mood is at that particular time. And
Michaeh Parsons had the audacity to maybe challenge him a
little bit, and Jerry Jones said, Okay, I'm going to
send you to gree in Bay and thanks for the memory.

(56:04):
So I didn't agree with it then, I don't agree
with it now. He's just too good of a player
to me, anyway to trade. I don't think you ever
replaced a guy like a Michael Parsons, And I don't
think that the Cowboys are better for not having him.
Saying that, you know, they were able to give them
credit the assets that they got in that trade they
went and flipped to go really help themselves. But still,

(56:28):
to me, Michael Parsons is one on one. I don't
There's not many scenarios that I would agree with that
where you drop a picture of, hey, we're going to
trade Michael Parsons. I just I didn't feel good about
it at the time, and I still don't feel good
about that.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Annye, we talked about quarterback competition potentially with the Raiders.
How you see the situation in Cleveland plan out. We
know that money plays, and we know that Jimmy Haslam
has paid so much money to Sean Watson. He's like,
I got to get something out of this guy, right
at least at the very least give him first crack
at being able to win the starting position. Do you
think it's possible at all that Shador Sanders could beat
him out and be the starting quarterback for the Browns

(57:04):
or do you think it's a foregall conclusion that if
he's healthy going into week one, Deshaun Watson will be
their starter.

Speaker 7 (57:10):
I almost think you have to. You know, it's just
it's so much money. It's not just the money too,
it's the assets that you gave up to go to
go get him. And at some point, if you're the
Cleveland Browns, you know, you at least have to play
it out and say, look, you're healthy. I got to
see what I got, you know, like I need to

(57:31):
see something back for this, uh, you know on the
return on investment. That doesn't mean that that I think
that Watson's gonna, you know, turn back the clock to
be the Shawn Watson of old. But but I need
to at least give that an opportunity to be the case.
And you know what, I kind of you know, I
know that Deshaun has has had his issues, and you

(57:53):
know those are they're well talked about. But me, you know,
I'm kind of hoping it'd be nice. It would be
a good story if some somehow, some way he was
able to turn back that clock or or at the
very least he's healthy and can finally go out there
and play at de Shaun Watson, because we forget he

(58:13):
was a really good quarterback at one point in time
with the Houston Texans and seemed to be on his
way and and everything's sort of the trade went way
off track in terms of him, a lot of injuries.
It just hasn't been good in Cleveland. But if I'm
the Browns, I gotta I gotta try to at least
get something out of De Shaan Watson. Now, if he

(58:35):
goes out there and it's kind of still the same,
you know, forget the injuries. If he's just not that good,
then I think Shador Sanders does deserve a chance to
go be the starting quarterback. But if I'm the Cleveland Browns,
considering how much I've I've already paid to Shaun Watson,
how much I still owe him, and what I gave
up to go get him, I'm gonna I'm gonna I

(58:57):
need to see something for that return. It's just it's
just too much in all aspects to just park him
on the sideline if I think that there's any chance
that he could go out there and be a good
quarterback again.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
Last one for you, Vinnie, before we let you run,
We'll go back to the state of California and the
forty nine ers. You wrote a piece on Christian McCaffrey
and he has been practicing and he's dealing with some
tightness or soreness, but their kind of nebuless as to
what exactly he may or may not be dealing with.
He was Philly healthy last year for the first time
and god knows how long. And the forty nine ers
just in general, I've been snake bitten by injuries over
the last couple of years. I don't know if the

(59:33):
electrical substation has anything to do with it or not,
but obviously the Rams and the Seahawks are kind of
the class of the division. The forty nine Ers, despite
their injuries, had a great year last year, but a
lot of people say that's because they had a pretty
weak schedule. Just what are your outlook for the forty
nine ers. We know they are a very top heavy
roster that I have dealt with injuries. Do you think
they have what it takes to hang with the forty
nine ers or excuse me for the Rams and the

(59:53):
Seahawks going into this season.

Speaker 7 (59:55):
Well, and it's interesting because with all the interests of
injuries that they did have last year still won what
twelve games with the playoffs they won a playoff game,
But that is with Christian McCaffrey out there. You go
back to twenty twenty three when he was the offensive
player of the year, running for a bunch of yards,
catching a whole bunch of footballs and gaining a bunch
of yards. There they were. They went to the Super

(01:00:17):
Bowl that year. The very next year, he played what
was it five games? Six games? Six games? I think
maybe a little bit less than that. They're a six
and eleven team when he wasn't out there because of
and this was twenty twenty four tightness in his tightness,
calf tightness that they downplayed during the during training camp,

(01:00:38):
and that turned out to carry over into the regular season,
and that turned into an achilles injury. And then he
comes back before it was four games actually and and
you know then he had a knee injury, and they
went from being a Super Bowl team to a six
and eleven team with without you know, with McCaffrey playing

(01:00:58):
all seventeen games a year, sixteen games the year before,
and then four games in twenty twenty four, the wheels
completely came off of their train. Last year, despite all
the other injuries, he was out there for sixteen seventeen
games and were they were still a pretty good football team.
So to me, he's one of those guys that the
forty nine ers couldnot lose him. They can't. They can't

(01:01:20):
afford to lose a whole bunch of guys again this year.
That would just be catastrophic for them. But the one
guy they truly can't lose is Kristin McCaffrey. So hearing,
you know, sort of what they're dealing with right now
with him is very reminiscent of what they were dealing
with a couple of years ago, and it didn't work
out a couple of years ago. So they I know

(01:01:41):
that they're there. They're being as careful as they possibly
can with Christian McCaffrey, but it would be a little
bit It feels a little ominous to me that the
exact thing that they were talking about a couple of
years ago that kept him, you know, on sideline for
every you know, was it thirteen games. You're starting to
hear the same type of thing. So if he's not

(01:02:01):
out there, that's just bad news for the forty nine ers.
If he is out there. Then they're as they're one
of the best offenses in the NFL. But that's something
that very much keep an eye on in San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Can't lose the last white running back. We can't have
that happen here. Oh is he not?

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
No Scattabou's back. Oh I put his leg back together
and he stops doing backflips, will be fine.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Yeah, I got some concerns about that guy. Vinnie bon Signor,
no concerns with him. Follow him at Vinnie bon Signor.
He covers the NFL for the California Post. He's out
in KC. He'll be covering the Chiefs Rams game a
little bit later today. Vinnie, we owe you big time.
Thanks for doing this late night here. We are not worthy.

(01:02:44):
You make us sound so much better. Thank you so
much for doing this.

Speaker 7 (01:02:47):
Thanks Vinny, never never a problem. And of course anytime
you give me the call, we're making it happen.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Appreciate you. I any thanks man, Have a good night.

Speaker 7 (01:02:55):
All right, have a good show you guys.

Speaker 9 (01:02:56):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
Speaking of Camp Scataboo, of course he resides in the
NFC with the New York Giants.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Where do we have the Giants.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Finishing in the NFC East. Spoiler alert, I don't have
them winning it. I'll say that, Oh, then they got Harball.
What are you talking about, Kevin?

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
They're fine. Now I'll be part of their problem.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
But we'll talk about the NFC East, our preview of
that division coming up next. Fn A on FSR, Nobody
does it better.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Fna Cotton, Welcome back in It's FNA on Fox Sports Radio.
I'm out of Moslem. He is Kevin figures And with
the iHeart App, you can stream us wherever you are.
Catch us in all of our Fox Sports Radio shows
live twenty four to seven in the new and improved
iHeart App. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app
to stream us live all day, every day, and be

(01:03:41):
sure to select Fox Sports Radio as one of your
presets in the iHeart App so it will always pop
up at the top of your screen. Again, just search
Fox Sports Radio in the iHeart App.

Speaker 3 (01:03:51):
Thanks again to Vinnie Bonson, You're of the California Post
for joining us. Last segment coming up later this hour,
we'll do our NBA three. We'll talk about the Lakers sale,
Russell Westbrook's retirement and what his legacy is, and maybe
some interesting comments that Joe Laca made about Golden State
Warrior fans and the way they feel about their off
season or like thereof let's be honest with you strikeout. Yeah,

(01:04:14):
so I gonna get to our NFC East outlook here first.
I want to go back because last week I was
not here. Adam held it down for me. I appreciate
it again. My NFC South take one of the worst
divisions in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
You're not going to take it a step further and
saying in all of sports, I.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
Don't know, the American League West is pretty bad right now, Adam, So,
I mean, I don't know. It's really difficult trying to
find somebody to win this division because I don't like
any somebody. I don't like a single one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
It's not like you can win with a losing record
or anything. Oh wait, that happened last year.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Yeah, I went with the Falcons to win last year
obviously didn't happen. It looked bad to start this season.
They actually got pretty decent towards the end and ran
out of time. I'm actually gonna pick them to win
the division yet again this year because I love them.
I have questions about literally every team in this division,
but I do think the fancy you will get the
most out of whoever the starting quarterback is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
They do have legitimate weapons. You sure you see two tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
I did see Kenny dropped a snap out of the
shotgun second play the game. It's preseason. He's still trying
to work his way into it a little bit. Drake Lendon,
Kyle Pitts, Bijon. Obviously, the offensive line is healthy for
the first time in a couple of years going into
a season, so I like that.

Speaker 10 (01:05:25):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
The James Pierce suspension and rightfully so, by the way,
not the greatest human being, but a solid prospect, A
good player coming back after an eight week suspension could
probably adds some juice to a defense that I think
is actually half decent going into this year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
So I don't love any of these teams.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
I don't think any of them are that good, but
the best of the worst, I'm going with the Atlanta Falcons.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
So that is my NFC South take.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
I wavered last week, and I think I said both
the Bucks and the Panthers at one point. Maybe I
will go with the Panthers.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Didn't go with the hometown team, all right, the hometown
that Adam has never been to.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
That's my pick. I got big plans to you when
they get to the Super Bowl and they're hosting it
at Bank of America Stadium or whatever it is. Okay,
that's never gonna hosts the super Bowl. I don't know
if that's a formerly known as Eckerson Stadium? Was ericson?
Erics ericson? Because of the phone company? Yes, before we
get to the NFC East, do we want to take

(01:06:20):
this phone call?

Speaker 13 (01:06:20):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
You know what, Yeah, let's get to it. Who do
we have a.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Chance going from Alabama? Rull chance? Chance?

Speaker 13 (01:06:27):
What's up?

Speaker 14 (01:06:30):
Roll t?

Speaker 10 (01:06:30):
Thank you all for taking a call. So you're talking
about preseason earlier, and I believe I heard you say
does it meet anything to fans?

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
Yes?

Speaker 10 (01:06:39):
To me, To me personally, it means absolutely nothing, not
a zero zilch.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
It got you to call in and say that though,
can't be nothing.

Speaker 10 (01:06:52):
You know what it means. It means coach is making
bad decisions. I'm a Bill fan, right and for some
god awful reason, they're gonna put Josh Allen in the
game tomorrow. I hate it. He does not need any reps.
He's good, he's gonna be all right. You know what
I can go to to reference why he doesn't need
any reps twenty twenty, right, the COVID year they trade

(01:07:14):
for Diggs, there was no they didn't get to like
workout and I don't know, I don't think to get
any okays that year.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
It's chemistry, Yeah, trunk cadd training camp all that, Yep.

Speaker 10 (01:07:27):
Instant chemistry. It's just for a guy like josh or
or Lamar or even Joe Burrow out there getting sick,
it's just insanity to me. I mean, I hate it.
It's dumb. It's stupid. I think I can't remember the
team that lost to Guard yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
It's just dumb.

Speaker 10 (01:07:43):
Don't do it all. Only thing that can happen is
bad things.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
I mean we kind of said that earlier. The most
memorable stuff that is happened in the preseason in the
history of the NFL would be injuries.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
Yeah, the Cardinals lost one of their offensive linemen on
Thursday night, so you're right on that chance.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
You always a good call.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
Thank you appreciate you put a couple of shekels on
the tide. By the way, I think they're underrated going
into this season. Killing the Bores got everybody right where
they want them.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Mark, thanks for punching him up.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
I think that when we get back to the NFL
now weekend, I think BAM was picked to finish like
six or something in the SEC, which is yeah, I believe,
so they ain't heard of.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
But now back to the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
As you mentioned Adhim Nick Saban's ghosts rolling over bah wait,
he's a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
He's still still very much alive. To the NFC East
uh so obviously one of the more popular divisions in
the National Football League. If there's a national TV game,
one of these teams or both of them are probably
in it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
You know how long I hated this division because I
felt like they got undeserved nationally televised games in the nineties,
specifically late nineties early two thousands, just based upon what
the Redskins did, but the Cowboys did in.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
The mid nineties for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
It was like the Eagles didn't do like I I'm
sorry the Giants did in the late eighties early nineties.
It's like, how long are we holding onto this? How
long are we doing this?

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
But I get a lot of it was just big
cities as long as the TV ratings sold up. That's more.
That's what drives everything. So bringing up the caboose of
the NFC East for me is Washington commanders. Now, I
probably would have done this even before I found out
that Larry Tunsel torn his tourist tricepping is gonna miss
a lot of the season. The fact that I know

(01:09:19):
for a fact he has torn his tricepping is gonna
miss a majority of the season confirms it even more.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
It's just the majority, not the entire season. With the
torn Try said, they don't know yet, but it is
that the deer antler spray from bray lewis that's gonna
fix it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
It possibly could be, so it's gonna be a significant
amount of time the entire season is likely, but they
just don't really know at this point in time. But regardless,
you got a couple of new coordinators in there, You
keep McLay Terry mcclaur in healthy, will be great. I
do like to pick up of Stevan Diggs late. That
gives Jayden Daniels another weapon, but again, that offensive line
is he gonna be able to stay upright and protect it?

(01:09:53):
And for a guy that weighs four pounds like Jayden
Daniels does, and the way that he runs, he's already
been banged up. I'm not I don't want to project
RG three. I don't want to project that on anybody.
But Washington fans have already been scoring by a quarterback
that runs a lot that's been plagued by injuries in.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
His career, a guy that had a great rookie season.
Uh huh, and then everything goes downhill from there because
of injuries?

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
Can they run the ball? K Tron Allen actually looks
solid on Friday Night, and he's a guy I liked
coming out of Penn State, so he might actually end
up being their bell cal when it's all said and done.
But I just can't trust. I don't trust the offensive line.
I don't like the defense at all, to be honest
with you. And remember that magical run they had a
couple of years ago when they went to the NC
Championship game, took out the number one seed Detroit Lions.

(01:10:35):
They won five games in walk Hall fashion. Five that
doesn't happen. So they needed all that magic to put
themselves in a position to take out the top seat
that year. Last year, if you want to call it
a Mulligan because Daniels didn't play the majority of the season.
I think they have more issues than that than sure.
I just don't see it for the Commanders this year,
they just don't have enough. I think they come up

(01:10:56):
in last place in the NFC East.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
All right, I'll put them there as well. I think
I know where we're going next. Giants Harbaugh.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
Giants with Harball, and we've talked about him and how
it ran its course in Baltimore, all the blown leads
and everything else. I will say this, I'm not his
biggest fan either, but remember all things ended with Andy
Reid in Philadelphia. I think his last year they went
four and twelve, he got fired, He goes to Kansas City,
rejuvenates his career and is now won once again one
of the great quarters. I mean, this probably solidified his

(01:11:24):
Hall of Fame resume. He probably was gonna make it anyway,
maybe borderline in Philadelphia.

Speaker 4 (01:11:29):
Now, no question whatsoever, He's going to be a Hall
of Fame head coach.

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
It's a big bust sometimes, and he'll tell you that
sometimes it changes sceneory can help change your perspective a
little bit, different front office, different setup. So this actually
could end up being good for Baltimore and good for
John Harball, just like he was good for Philadelphia and
good for Andy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
The thing I would say with Andy Reid, though, I
never feel like the game passed him by. If anything,
he was ahead of his time with how much he
was passing the football. Didn't run at the Eagles, and yes,
should have had more balance to his offense. But then
the game kind of caught up to him. Everybody started
working with their passing attack. He made it work with

(01:12:08):
Alex Smith. He saw the potential of Mahomes. I don't
know if I think of John Harbaugh as still an
innovator in this league. He's more of a CEO type.
He's more of a professional. But is he a darkroom
guy that's gonna out scheme you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Well, I feel like he just holds a locker room together. Well,
we'll have to wait and see. It's a new outlook
for him. It was along he spent a long time
in Baltimore, so I'm gonna give him the benefit of
the doubt and say he was at.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
One time considered one of the best coaches in the league.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
We'll see what he does in a new environment with
a new team that he can mold in his own image,
because this is regardless of what the Giants try to
tell you.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
A rebuild, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
Can I amend something you said earlier. I'm not saying
you're wrong, Kevin.

Speaker 13 (01:12:51):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
I've been wrong plenty of times.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
You say it's not just Christian McCaffrey that's a white
running back in this league, pointing out camp scat. The
crazy thing with the Giants is they actually have two
running backs with their quarterback in Jackson Darr who thinks
he's a running back out there.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Running backs, they got two of them, and he's also
one hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet. I'm exaggerating, but obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
The off friend ways more.

Speaker 3 (01:13:15):
Obviously all alone, he's obviously got to take care of himself,
and it's been a big emphasis, and he's been asked
about it at training camp. Whether or not he's actually
learned to slide. I don't really know, U. I guess
we'll that'll have to wait and find that out. They
signed Patrick Riccard, who spent a lot of time in
Baltimore obviously with John which tells you that they want
to be able to run the football and they want

(01:13:36):
to be physical.

Speaker 4 (01:13:37):
That's great in theory. Is Camus Kataboo going to.

Speaker 3 (01:13:39):
Be back to the guy that he once was, because
that is one of the more devastating injuries I have seen.
He suffered a right ankle dislocation, a tibia fracture, and
a ruptured del toy ligament in his foot. That's a
lot to have to come back from.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
Not to mention the bruised ego after doing that backflip
where he didn't stick the landing, that's gonna be allowed
to overcome as well.

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
We're gonna do that and then stumble. You know, that's
a bad look, and people say, what the hell are
you doing? Man, this is our franchise here. The way
you tried to play it off like it's a bad look,
you're already white.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
You can just you suck.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Well, that's ridiculous. I don't know if you have to
No attack the white guy.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
I'm just saying, like he did cool there. He did
not look cool. So white guys flip, well, no, I
could do some flips on the trampoline back in the day,
but he made us look pretty stupid. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:14:31):
We don't have many of these white running backs left,
and one of them is trying to do backflips and
can't stick the land. He's embarrassing the entire white race,
is what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
I don't know if I like the words white and
race next to each other that close, but I see
where you're going. I mean, hey, I'm basically shining interpret
for the remainder for the rest of the audience.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
What you're trying to say. I'm trying to pick up
what you're putting down. Thanks for saving Melik Neighbors.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
By the way, don't even know if he's gonna be
ready for week one, so that's obviously a big mystery.
You lose Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals, you don't really
replace him on the defensive line. So Abdul Carter, sure,
r VR Reese love it. Fine. He's a young guy.
You don't really know what you're gonna get from him.
This is definitely a pseudo rebuild. They do have some talent.
I think they're better than the Commanders, but not that
much better than the Commanders.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
Why don't we talk about the top two teams in
the NFC East coming up next? We'll let it carry
over like the carries by those white running backs, which
one is a quarterback for the New York Giants. This
is your NFL divisional preview show of record. It is
FNL Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
Welcome FNA Cotton, Welcome back to the Fox Sports Radio studios.
It is FNA on FSR and for the best pregame
show every weekend, be sure to tune into Fox Sports
Radios Countdown presented by bet MGM every Saturday and Sunday
morning nine am to noon Eastern six to nine am Pacific.

Speaker 4 (01:15:51):
We will count you down to all of the biggest
games of the weekend. Tune in too.

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
Countdown presented by bet MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning
right here on Fox Sports and the Ihearts.

Speaker 2 (01:16:01):
We noticed the calls were lining up a minute ago
eight nine on Fox. If you guys do want to
get on as we continue to preview the NFC East here,
but Dave calling in from Idaho. Dave, what's up? You're
on f and an FSR.

Speaker 14 (01:16:17):
Hey, gentlemen, thank you, first time, long time.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
I love you guys, Thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 12 (01:16:23):
Let's let's let's talk about the most left on division
in the NFC. NFC Central. I'm a die Hardbackers fan.

Speaker 7 (01:16:32):
A sec.

Speaker 3 (01:16:32):
You mean the NFC North. Now you're taking us back
to two thousand and one, eventually.

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
The Central for almost two decades there.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
It's all.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
It's okay, brother, right, guys over.

Speaker 7 (01:16:41):
I'm fifty one.

Speaker 9 (01:16:42):
It's cool.

Speaker 12 (01:16:42):
It's cool. I'm fifty one. It's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Good.

Speaker 12 (01:16:46):
So I'm watching last night's game against the Steelers. Yet
great breakaway plays from both teams.

Speaker 14 (01:16:54):
Great game.

Speaker 12 (01:16:56):
But then I'm looking at ESPN and the Draftking stuff
comes up. The DraftKings have the Packers losing only six
games this year? What does that say about the NFC North.
I want to give Ben his Ben Johnson his his

(01:17:18):
props in Chicago with Caleb, let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
I think he wants to give himself some props too,
But yes, he does best.

Speaker 14 (01:17:29):
And that's why Detroit's falling right now. I love I
loved him. He's a great dude for what he did
for Detroit. But everybody's sleeping on the Packers. Everybody's sleeping
on the Bears.

Speaker 12 (01:17:45):
Nobody's sleeping on the Bears since Caleb came in.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
Well, people are sleeping on the Packers because they just
haven't really done a lot to move the needle this offseason,
the last couple I mean, outside of getting Michael Parsons
last year, and obviously he's going to miss the start
of the season.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
You know what, if the Packers done to really improve
their roster, get it.

Speaker 13 (01:18:05):
I get it, but they I've been a Packers fan
since I was seven, and we've won two Super Bowls
since I was seven, But everybody still sleeps on them.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
I mean, I'm awake if Jordan Love has a big season,
if you take away next step.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
We did our preview a couple of weeks ago for
the NFC Central if you want to call it that. Uh,
and I said at the time, I was like, I
literally can see a world where any one of those
four teams can win the division, any one of them, right,
it's a great division.

Speaker 7 (01:18:36):
Yes, show was amazing.

Speaker 14 (01:18:38):
That show was so good and oh I was so
excited when I was listening.

Speaker 7 (01:18:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
Yeah, what about to show?

Speaker 3 (01:18:44):
I mean, cho I do think the Packers probably don't
get a lot of love because they don't have a
lot of sexy, big names that jump off of the page.
Actually he has big names, but.

Speaker 7 (01:18:53):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 12 (01:18:53):
DeVante left Rogers left right, uh, Josh Myers is starting center.
Ain't there anymore?

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
Craft is coming off the injury exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
I mean, none of your receivers can ever stay healthy,
talented as all they all as they all are, the
guys can't stay on the field.

Speaker 12 (01:19:09):
So just like San Francisco, the same issue.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
Yeah, sure, absolutely, do you guys got a power issue nearby?
A factory, a Chernobyl nuclear plant, anything, I.

Speaker 14 (01:19:20):
Live in Ido, I have no clue.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
I've been the potato factory, so I have no clue.
Potatoes can give off electricity, right, they can light a
light bulb, So maybe that's the issue.

Speaker 14 (01:19:31):
All right, Yeah, a lot of guys you're sleeping on
the packers, but you gotta you gotta take in to consent.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
Well, look, somebody has to finish third, third place, fourth
place in the division.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
And thanks to the call. We appreciate the love and
thanks for the support.

Speaker 14 (01:19:44):
I'll take it.

Speaker 9 (01:19:45):
I'll love you guys, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:46):
Thank you. But I mean, the Bears are the hot
thing because of how they ended last season and Caleb
was so clutch, so hot second year under Ben Johnson. Defensively,
you know, one of my big issues with them is
the fact that they forced so many turnovers last year,
there's no way humanly possible they're gonna be able to
replicate that again. But if the offense could be more consistent,
maybe they can make up for that. So I like

(01:20:07):
Detroit more than a lot of other people do. I
like Green Bay, and I think Minnesota. This is kind
of the last stand for Kyler Murray, who was officially
named the starting quarterback earlier this week. In Minnesota. There
is a compelling case to be made for every single
team in that division to say that we can stand out,
we can win, and we can make a run in
the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
And do we want to give out the team that
we believe is going to finish second in the NFC
East now and save the number one team even though
they'll know it by a response here for the next hour.
Hell of a tease, Adam, way to go.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
Yeah, exactly, dumbass, Yeah, I you know what I think
of that's hold let's hold off on that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
There's lots of discuss.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
Yeah, we'll do it, because I think, first of all,
we might not even necessarily agree who's gonna win the
division versus who's gonna finish in second place?

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
We had them boys, Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
Let's see, you'll never know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
You really do like that Michah Parson's trade after all?
Here Kevi, oh, you.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Throw me for a loop if I in order to
pick the Dallas Cowboys, which I'm not going to say
whether I am or I m not that it's not
a confirmation that I sign off on the Michael Parsons trade.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
It's my quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:21:09):
Multiple things can be true at the same time.

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
Okay, fair enough. We will take more of your phone
calls here eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox if
you guys want to call in, even though we are
producer less tonight, Mark.

Speaker 4 (01:21:21):
Doing double duty. Shout out to Mark Ramsey.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Do you think Yeah, he looks like Michael Keaton in
Multiplicity right now. He's doing everything over there. We'll try
to screen your calls as well. If you're on hold,
stay on hold, we'll get to you. We'll talk more
NFL coming up next, and we'll also get to an
NBA three a little bit later in the next hour.
He's getting figures. I'm at a Moslin you're listening to

(01:21:44):
FNA on Fox Sports. What do you Vince make?

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
My final hour of FNA on FSR akfig one is
where you can find me at KFIG one KFI GG
the number one. On X you can find Adam at
follow Adam Hey Ax, Ashley, we are at FNA show
on X as well.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Coming up, we got NBA three three NBA stories for you. Really,
we got about four NBA stories we'll be getting into.
One of them is a hybrid NFL versus NBA. A
little bit here but uh us versus The phone lines
returning the break screened. A few more calls, No producer, tonight,
no problem. Let's go to Jimmy in Long Island. Jimmy,

(01:22:27):
you're on f and a Fostbat Radio.

Speaker 15 (01:22:29):
Jimmy, Hey, fella's first time, long time, thanks for taking
my call.

Speaker 9 (01:22:34):
I'm actually in Portland.

Speaker 15 (01:22:35):
Maine, and I'm at a wedding and my first time
encounter with a Bears fan, and I just want to say,
how delusional are these Bears fans? I mean, they've been
bad for how many years and they're riding the coattails
of Caleb Williams just like that.

Speaker 7 (01:22:52):
And then this guy.

Speaker 9 (01:22:53):
Says he lists off three players in the first three
players you list off on tight ends, he says, oh yeah,
we lost DJ Moore. But we gotta donsay they I
think they're the fourth worst team in the NFC North.
The Bears fans are completely delusional. Just want to hear
your thoughts. I'll hang up and listen.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
Thank you, well, appreciate the call. Completely delusional, I think
is a bit of a stretch. But I do think
that they're kind of They're slightly overrated going into this season.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
I'll say that I would say what Hans Solo once
said to Luke Skywalker, which is great, kid, don't get cocky.
They're a little bit over their skis, only because the
division is so tight. It's going to be so difficult,
and you expect a little bit of regression given the
amount of turnovers as you point out earlier, that are

(01:23:42):
repeatable by the defense that they had going their favorite
last year.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
And it's not like they went out of their way
to really improve the defense that much. I mean, one
of their big offseason signings was Kobe Bryant, and he's out,
he's been he's injured.

Speaker 4 (01:23:53):
He's going to miss the majority of the season in
the defensive backfield.

Speaker 3 (01:23:55):
So offensively, you assume, and you never know, Caleb is
gonna take that next step forward. Remember he completed less
than sixty percent of his passes last year. His magic
came at the end of games, almost like Bo Knicks,
and Bo was better that it was better than Caleb
from an efficiency standpoint, but a lot of his shine
came in the final two minutes of games, where he
would let a lot of comeback wins and a lot

(01:24:16):
of game game winning drives.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
I do have a lot of faith in Ben Johnson.

Speaker 1 (01:24:19):
I do too.

Speaker 3 (01:24:20):
I like Ben Johnson, and I think look what he
was able to do with Jared Goff. Not that golf
didn't have success with Sean mcvagh early on as well,
but people kind of cast him off and thought he
was done. And Ben Johnson revitalized his career, and Caleb
Williams obviously was able to be molded in Ben Johnson's
image to a certain degree, cut down on some of
the turnovers, cut down on some of the wacky play,
and be a little bit more consistent. I think that's

(01:24:40):
what people are hoping and expecting. So, like I mentioned
last segment, the defense is probably going to take a
step back when it comes especially when it comes to
forcing the turnovers. The hope is that the offense takes
a little bit of a step forward. Yes, you end
up losing DJ Moore, but you expected Dunes they to
take a step forward. You have the two tight ends
that you expect to take a step forward too. So
that's the expectation level around the Bears that the offense

(01:25:02):
is gonna get a little bit better even if the
defense gets a little bit worse.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
The thing is, I could see the offense being better overall,
but worse at the end of games, which is also
something that's probably not sustainable with just how clutch they
were laid. That's just there was a lot of magic
in last seasons Bears. That's probably not something you can
count on again. But that doesn't mean are talented, So

(01:25:27):
that that doesn't mean they fall off of a cliff.
I guess is my thing. They're not gonna come down
to a couple of games for the winner of this division.
It's gonna be determined by one or two games.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
That's it. Yeah, this division is a lot tighter than
I think a lot of people you know, will want
to admit. I think every people from all bunch of
different fan bases are gonna pop up player. You know,
the Green Bay Packers are being disrespected.

Speaker 4 (01:25:46):
We're great. The Bears are being disrespected. We're great.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
We can get a Viking fan to call and say
the exact same thing. We can get a Detroit Line
fan to call and say the exact same thing.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
And since there was x Men news a little bit
earlier today was.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
This about mister Sinnis no Adam Driver who got picked
to be mister Simson.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
I do like that. Maybe we could get into some
of the Marvel news at the edge of the show here.
But you know, maybe there could be a curse of
the Iceman or Caleb Williams.

Speaker 4 (01:26:14):
The whole George George Gervin controversy.

Speaker 2 (01:26:16):
Right, I'm just saying that's not the greatest look. And
what if he's not taking care of business at the
end of games that was the way he was last season.
I'm gonna call it the curse of the Iceman.

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
Okay, all right, you already have it banked up before
the season even starts.

Speaker 4 (01:26:30):
You have the potential curse in holding off in the queue.

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
All right? Who else we got here?

Speaker 14 (01:26:37):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
E dog, he's the one calling from Long Island. You dog,
what's up? You're on fn AL Box Sports Radio, Sir,
I ain't know we're all doing all right, better than
Caleb William's gonna be doing it at the end of games.
Lets tell you that right now.

Speaker 16 (01:26:51):
Okay, I can't you know, I can't stand in the
New England Patriots, but I begin to buy him contention
with the Buffalo Bills brand them win the division by
like the game or two. You know, sand is the
quarterback for the Browns. Yeah, I think he's gonna rise
to the occasion and and uh get the stunning job

(01:27:16):
goes San Diego Fernando Tatis, one of my favorite players
is hitting the ball horn. Now, I like the Padres
to win the division, overtake the overtake the you know
the dog.

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
What what happened here? You're all over the place. You
start with NFL divisions. Now you're going to the uh
nationally West.

Speaker 16 (01:27:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
All right, Well that bold prediction.

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
I will say it's for the Padres to make up
an eight game deficit to the Dodgers, which is where
they currently sits just eight like like thirty eight games
left in the season or something like that. Hey, crazier
things have happened, though, I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
Yeah, when di has got to save tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
Yeah, the Patriots competing with the Bills for the division championship.
I think the Patriots are kind of the popular pick
by most people, the biggest regression candidate, just based on
how easy their schedule was, how it wasn't you know,
very easy for them in the postseason, despite the fact
hockey next you Dog, what do we got?

Speaker 16 (01:28:16):
I dumb? Melissa?

Speaker 14 (01:28:17):
She still.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Did we just dump him? I tell Melissa?

Speaker 3 (01:28:24):
She that bitch.

Speaker 9 (01:28:26):
Joe.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
You tell Melissa and she's still thirsty for you. Way
to have the moral high That was great.

Speaker 4 (01:28:39):
Best to luck with you and Melissa in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
Joan Hart, Where were you going with it? Kevin?

Speaker 3 (01:28:45):
I don't even remember that. Melissa. Think really derailed me,
to be honest with you, he dog will Patriots, I don't.
I think the Patriots is still gonna be good this year.

Speaker 15 (01:28:53):
A J.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
Brown certainly helps, but I still think the Bills, even
with the new head coach, most of the infrastructure is
still there. I think the Bill is that the Bill's
division and then kind of everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
Okay, we've teased it long enough. Who are our top
two teams in the NFC East As we work our
way through and this is the last division we have
to get to in the NFC. In our divisional.

Speaker 3 (01:29:13):
Preview, it is my third place team, excuse me, second
place team in the NFC East. I'm going with Anthony
Gargano's Philadelphia Eagles, whoa still have it deep and uber
talented defense, excellent defense. My issue, I don't know what
to expect from them offensively. Now it's probably a good receiver,

(01:29:36):
might be auditioned by subtraction with aj Brown.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
To be honest with you, really.

Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
The locker room stuff, all the politicking. Sometimes getting just
a breath of fresh air. People in the locker room
are not looking over their shoulders and asking questions about
guys reading books on the sideline and all the other crap.

Speaker 2 (01:29:50):
So that can help. Was he always on the first
page like Lebron? That workout for.

Speaker 3 (01:29:57):
Lebron? That book's upside down? Play DeVante Smith? Can he
be a legit number one receiver?

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
We don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
Mkai Lemon, who they took out of USC, can't get
on the field. He's been injured, didn't do OTAs, hasn't
been in training camp. Maybe old Heaven.

Speaker 4 (01:30:13):
He might be Odell Beckham, but it has come out
of nowhere.

Speaker 3 (01:30:15):
In Week five of the season making one handy catches
and just catch the league by storm without any talents.

Speaker 2 (01:30:20):
We know that he might.

Speaker 3 (01:30:21):
Come out of USC We'll see D'altavian Wicks. Eh don't
really do much for me after. From a receiver position standpoint,
it is not an offense that Jalen Hurts is familiar
with playing in. Sean Manon is a Sean McVay, Kyle
m shanahan guy. Jalen Hurts is not a rhythm and
timing kind of passer. We can maybe hopefully at some point,
get Greg ho Sell on the show and he can
talk about this a little bit more. Obviously this is

(01:30:43):
his area of expertise, and watching the film.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
Maybe you're underestimating the rhythm of the Toush push. Maybe
I am.

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
I don't know if Jalen Hurts can do it. I
just haven't seen him do it. So until I see
him do it, I'm not gonna sit here and predict
a lot of great things for Jalen Hurts in this
type of off Also, Saquon Barkley, and by the way,
everybody is saying, like Saquon Barkley fell off, he was horrible.

Speaker 4 (01:31:04):
He aren't for eleven hundred yards last year.

Speaker 3 (01:31:06):
Now, granted it wasn't over two thousand like he did
the year before when they won the Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:31:11):
He was still productive. He just wasn't dominant.

Speaker 3 (01:31:14):
I do believe, especially and again, they were talking about
the Shana Hammick Bay system.

Speaker 4 (01:31:18):
It is built on a dominant run game.

Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
If they're going to be successful, Saquon Barkley has to
get off again. Will he be able to do that?
New offensive line coach. Their offensive line coach has been
there for a thousand years. He just retired, So you
have a new offensive coordinator, you have a new offensive
line coach, a new offensive line neess. In general, I
don't know. I got a lot of questions about this
Eagles offense. To be honest with the defense is fine.

(01:31:40):
I got questions about the offense. There are different questions
that I had last year about the offense. There's just
a lot of newness, and I don't know exactly how
to predict what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
With all the newness. It feels like the foundation of
their identity has been chipped away a little bit. No
doubt from the Super Bowl team that they were whether
they were losing it or winning it. They were competing
at the highest level in the NFL, and a lot
of that was run game physicality, just being able to

(01:32:09):
move your line backwards, and I don't know if they
can do that the way they used to and with
that that was really their superpower.

Speaker 3 (01:32:17):
I mean the super Bowl that they won, the one
that they lost to Kansas City, Hurts lit up the
Kansas City defense, it Hurts was great.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
The one that they won, he really didn't do a
whole lot, and Mahomes probably did more to help them.
I can see where you're going with this. I don't
know if I'm gonna go there.

Speaker 4 (01:32:35):
I feel that you disagree, which is fine.

Speaker 2 (01:32:36):
No, I don't know if I want to disagree. I
just I feel like I need a disagree.

Speaker 3 (01:32:41):
I'm the one who's supposed to like the Cowboys more,
that is true.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
How are you picking the Cowboys to win the division
in the NFC East and not me.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
It goes back to something I said earlier in our
discussion about the Michael Parsons trade and whether it was
a good trade or not, or who won it or not. Whatever,
the offense speaks for itself. We know how great the
offense can be. You got Dak, you got CD he
got Pickings. Pickens with a chip on his shoulder. By
the way, who's looking for a new contract. So you
have that after the dominant season he already had last year.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
They can't franchise tag him twice.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
They can. I don't know if they will because that
tag number keeps going up and up and up.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
Tag You're it again exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:33:16):
So if they have a top five offense, and I
expect that they will, the defense just improves a little bit.
You mentioned last year they made strides against the run,
specifically after they traded for Quinn Williams. You know that's
a formula for them to win at least eleven games.
You have a top five, maybe even a top three offense,
give me a top fifteen defense. Just don't be ranked

(01:33:37):
twenty eighth in one category and thirty second in another category.
Do you have enough on offense to be able to
do it? You should be better against the run. I
like Caleb Downs. He could be a good slot and
gadget guy for you in the defensive backfield.

Speaker 4 (01:33:50):
Christian Parker, new defensive coordinator.

Speaker 3 (01:33:52):
The defensive coordinator by far has been the biggest issue
for this Dallas more so than talent and anything else.
He talked about the fact that when Michael Parsons first
got there and Dan Quinn was a defensive coordinator, they
were pretty close to lights out defensively.

Speaker 4 (01:34:04):
Dan Quinn takes the commander's job.

Speaker 3 (01:34:06):
They are bring in a couple of different defensive coordinators
the last two years, and they've been god awful. Christian
Parker first year defensive coordinator, I don't know. He's a
Vic Fangio guy. We'll see how that holds up.

Speaker 2 (01:34:16):
This is the case where the devil you don't know
is actually better than the one you do, considering the
last two guys that were defensive coordinators kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
I mean, you know, Zimmer, I've been around for a
long time and it's historically had great defenses.

Speaker 4 (01:34:26):
I don't know what happened two years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:34:28):
And Matt EBERFLUSSI obviously built, has staked his reputation, got
a head coaching job based on his defenses obviously didn't
work out.

Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
I'll take my chances with the unknown so li.

Speaker 3 (01:34:37):
And knowing a system. Vic Fangio is one of the
best defensive minds in the NFL. We know the system works.
Now do they have all of the ingredients for the
system to work. That's the question. Upfront. Defensively, they're better.
I don't know if they're dominant, but they're better on
the back end. Defensively is my issue. I don't know
if they have enough to hold up on the back end.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
I didn't want to agree with you, Kevin, but I
think I have to agree with you. The logic is there.
The Cowboys offense is the most reliable thing in this
entire division. There's question marks all over the place, including
on their defense. But I got question marks on everybody
else's offense and mostly everybody else's defense.

Speaker 3 (01:35:19):
Too, except for Philadelphia. I have very few questions about
Philadelphia's defense. The Giants defense could be decent, could be,
but again the Dexter lawrence, and they were bad against
the run with Dexter Lawrence last year.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
So I just I will take in this league the
offense that's more reliable over a defense that's reliable with
the Philadelphia Eagles, because there's only so much you can do,
especially today's NFL with it being such a passing league,
and what an advantage you can have if you're really

(01:35:50):
able to put up points like the Cowboys can with
all eleven starters returning.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
Now, one thing that Cowboys have working against them, and
we have to see if this stays chalked. It did
last year for the Patriots, who at the easiest schedule
going into the season, and it played itself out that
they ended up having the easiest schedule of the season.
The Cowboys have the fourth most difficult schedule in the
league this year.

Speaker 2 (01:36:12):
That's not great.

Speaker 3 (01:36:13):
So they have that working against them. They're going to
be a battle tested throughout the entire.

Speaker 2 (01:36:17):
Season, so that against survive that battle. That's the problem,
speaking one battle after another.

Speaker 4 (01:36:22):
I'm picking them to survive that battle.

Speaker 3 (01:36:24):
But it would I look it obviously would not surprise
me if the Eagles won the division. Obviously they've been great.
They have a great front office infrastructure. I got questions
about the all and look, if Jalen Hurts comes out
and does own the offense, then look out, give me
three four five weeks. If Jalen Hurts running the Sean
McVay type offense under Seawan Mannon and lighten things up,
I would gladly say that I was wrong. But again

(01:36:45):
it's one of those I have to see him do it.
Before I can predict that he can do it. Maybe
with the Cowboys, it's uh.

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
Survived the battles, lose the war as in losing the playoffs.
I feel I get to the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:36:57):
I feel like they've been doing that for thirty years.
So I'm that's that's been their MO that's appropriate. So
that's how it shakes out. So I have the Dallas
Cowboys winning the NFC East. I feel like you're kind
of on the fence or you don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:37:11):
I think I think I do as well. I just
he talked me into it. I wanted to pick them,
but I didn't think you were going to pick them too.

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
Oh yeah, I still hate the Michael Parsons trade and
would rather have kept him.

Speaker 4 (01:37:22):
But that being said, they're coming around, Kevin. I'm looking long.

Speaker 2 (01:37:25):
I'm no, I see it.

Speaker 3 (01:37:26):
I'm not coming around. See I'm looking at their Their
defense with a new coordinator, with new talent, just needs.

Speaker 2 (01:37:33):
To be better, just be a little bit better. Their
entire starting eleven returns and off Pickens is still what
is he? Twenty five? He's so good, and I mean
they were missing Ceedee Lamb a lot last season. Absolutely,
they can be better. That's hot. Actually impressed me last

(01:37:53):
season with the way he played for me.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
I mean, Dak, I mean to me, Dak played the
same way he's played the last five years. Now. Grant
he got hurt a couple of years ago, which also
didn't help their case when they were so bad a
couple of years back. Thatk has been a consistent thirty
six hundred yard, thirty touchdown guy. Now the playoffs are
a different story. He's put up numbers when he's been healthy. Yeah,
he just hasn't done it until your point about the

(01:38:15):
Cowboys in the biggest spot.

Speaker 2 (01:38:17):
He hasn't done it in the postseason. All right, Well,
there's your NFC East preview. What are we getting to
coming up here, Kevin?

Speaker 4 (01:38:25):
We got some NBA three? All right, we got some
NBA three.

Speaker 3 (01:38:28):
The Lakers were sold under some interesting circumstances earlier this week,
interesting times, the retirement of can you call Wissell Westbrook
a legend? Some do, some don't.

Speaker 2 (01:38:38):
Legendary triple doubles?

Speaker 3 (01:38:39):
Yeah, and then the ulary.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Staff hadding, what no, I wouldn't say that you just did.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
The owner of the Golden State Warriors has some interesting
comments about his fans that I really stood out to
me earlier this week.

Speaker 4 (01:38:52):
Huh, I found out to be interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
Okay, so we'll.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
Talk about that coming up. It is fn A on FSR.
Kevin figures Outam Aliston NBA three coming up next.

Speaker 5 (01:39:00):
Different amazing than you don't know anything about basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
Fna Cotton is FNA on Fox Sports Radio, and Madam
Moslin he is k fig. Kevin figures. If you missed
any of today's show, you'll want to catch the podcast.
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get that podcast.
Right after the show, today's podcast will be posted. Be
sure to follow the podcast rated five stars, and you
can even provide a review. Again, just search Fox Sports

(01:39:25):
Radio wherever you get your podcasts, follow the feed and
you'll find today's full show posted or right after we
get off the air.

Speaker 3 (01:39:32):
And we've talked a lot of NFL on today's show,
I mean rightfully. So it's that time of year. No
training camps run theway, preseason games are run the way,
A bunch of meaningless football games.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
Well, we did get some calls about that we did,
which is great.

Speaker 3 (01:39:44):
You know what, we can call it meaningless. We can
start with the show talking about preseason and how important
or unimportant. It may be for certain people. I enjoy
it personally. You know, if I got nothing else to
do on a random Friday or Saturday night, yall throw
on the you know, the Commanders and the Broncos.

Speaker 9 (01:39:57):
Why not.

Speaker 2 (01:39:58):
I don't think you were wrong when you said it
beat regular season baseball, preseason football over regular season baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:40:04):
Well, first of all, I didn't actually say it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
I said I miss.

Speaker 3 (01:40:07):
I said it's comparable to regular season baseball. On that
if you watch preseason football, more likely than not you
were watching your team. And in regular season baseball, it's
rare that the masses are going to tune in for
a national game on a Tuesday night between the Reds
and you know, the Cardinals or something.

Speaker 2 (01:40:24):
Let me put it this way, then, quiz, did you
rather watch that Raiders preseason game or a Dodgers or
Angels game?

Speaker 3 (01:40:36):
I would probably rather watch Well, honestly, I'd rather watch
the Dodgers the Angels.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
What's the point? Okay, Raiders preseason versus regular season Dodgers
in August? Who you go with?

Speaker 4 (01:40:47):
Who are the Dodgers playing? How important is it Milwaukee today?

Speaker 3 (01:40:50):
Dodgers playing the Milwaukee Brewers on the same night that
the Raiders are playing the Arizona Cardinals in a preseason game.

Speaker 2 (01:40:56):
That happened? It did happen? And what happened?

Speaker 3 (01:40:58):
What'd you do?

Speaker 2 (01:40:59):
I split screened it. You cut the baby in half?
I split screened it.

Speaker 3 (01:41:04):
Even though the Dodgers and Brewers are fighting for the
best record in baseball and it's a pretty big series
in Los Angeles this weekend, still definitely had an eye
on the Raider game, the meaningless pre but again.

Speaker 4 (01:41:14):
Rookie quarterback Fernando, I gotta watch Fernando, come on.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
I want an answer. I'm gonna scream at you like
Christian Bale did on the set of Terminator Salvation giving it?
Who was?

Speaker 3 (01:41:25):
It gone to my head if I had to watch one.
I'm watching the Raider game.

Speaker 2 (01:41:28):
Yeah you hear that, Rob Man, friend, You're cooked. So
baseball with the lockout coming up next year, oh yeah,
that's gonna hurt. All right.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
Speaking of lockouts, it might be one pinning in this
league coming up here soon too, in the next couple
of years.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
Huh, what can no why.

Speaker 10 (01:41:44):
Me?

Speaker 2 (01:41:45):
Steph Curry would say.

Speaker 13 (01:41:49):
Little from carry.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
Out God.

Speaker 4 (01:42:03):
For our NBA three segment here on FN a on FSR.

Speaker 2 (01:42:06):
Do you like how JR. Smith S knuck into those highlights?
I'm sure JR likes that he's got.

Speaker 3 (01:42:12):
A shirt off right now celebrating I thought we was
winning with Yeah, three big stories up from the I mean,
there's probably a couple more than that, but one of
the biggest ones a shock earlier this week when we
find out that the Lakers, after I guess it's officially
been what ten months that Mark Walter has owned the
franchise barely after ten months of officially owning the franchise,

(01:42:34):
he is going to sell them to Josh Kushner and
Bob Iger at a twelve and a half billion dollar
franchise valuation, and there's a two and a half billion
dollar profit that Mark Walter will be netting from the sale.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Kevin, you smell that some stinks now? It is not me?

Speaker 3 (01:42:52):
Could it be because Walter is currently under investigation by
the SEC and the federal government. Oh yeah, and properly
channeling billions of dollars allegedly and apparently his insurance firms
to other business firms.

Speaker 2 (01:43:03):
They nabbed his laptop and cell phone before he became
the owner of the Lakers nobody knew about it, at
least so he didn't. He certainly knew about it, but
he didn't even care. He still bought him. How dare he?

Speaker 3 (01:43:17):
So there was like the why is he selling the team?
Is it because he needs these funds to pay off
these loans? Or is it because it's like, Oh, I
just happened to get a random call from a couple
of guys. Is saying like, oh, and they knocked my
socks off with an.

Speaker 2 (01:43:30):
Offer in seventy two hours.

Speaker 3 (01:43:33):
That's what we are.

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
It takes thirty days to close a house, and you
can sell the Lakers in seventy two hours. Here's the question.
So the news came out about him getting raided by
the Feds a couple of.

Speaker 4 (01:43:47):
Weeks ago, you have about three weeks ago something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:43:49):
So did Bob Iger and Kushner. They're calling the good Cush.

Speaker 3 (01:43:55):
I hadn't. I hadn't heard that, but that's pretty I
hadn't heard pretty good the good cush get hurt?

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
Did they go, well, we might have a shot if
we just ask. It can't hurt to ask.

Speaker 9 (01:44:08):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:44:08):
Here's what I under how I understand it.

Speaker 3 (01:44:11):
And Kobe Price, who covers the Lakers for the California
Post got an exclusive interview with Bob.

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
Iger Obi Trice, And that was not Obi Trice, it was.

Speaker 3 (01:44:18):
Kobe Price, so you probably know a little bit. Kobe's
nice guy and got an exclusive with Bob Iger. And
from what I understand from what come Kobe's writing, Bob
and Kushner were on the phone with somebody. I don't
know who this somebody is talking about the Las Vegas
franchise because they were in the running along with Jerry

(01:44:39):
Colangelo's group and the Walton family, who of course bought
him with the Denver Broncos, the Walmart State, those are
kind of like the big bidders when it came to
the Las Vegas franchise. So in the process of having
this conversation about the Las Vegas franchise, whoever they were
speaking with said, you know what, you guys might want
to lob a call over to Mark Walter. He might

(01:44:59):
be interested in selling the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (01:45:01):
See that's good information because the entire time it sounds
even fish here for even them to take a shot
in the dark.

Speaker 3 (01:45:10):
It's like who tipped them off? You wouldn't just randomly
say let me call MARCUSI if he wants to sell, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:45:15):
Why would you think a guy that hasn't even had
them for a year. And we're not talking about any
sports franchise. We're talking about the Los Angeles Lakers. Why
would you think that guy's willing to sell.

Speaker 3 (01:45:24):
The only way that you could if you're independent of
this phone call with this mystery person. And there's been
a lot of rumors as to who this mystery person
may or may not have been. Is if they thought
that he was in trouble with the Feds, Yes, that
they thought, which they all knew they three weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (01:45:37):
Well, and who knows how long.

Speaker 3 (01:45:38):
I mean, these billionaires running these giant circles, they all
know each other.

Speaker 4 (01:45:43):
Walter was just at the White House with the Dodgers.
Was that a month ago?

Speaker 12 (01:45:47):
Maybe?

Speaker 3 (01:45:47):
If even that?

Speaker 2 (01:45:48):
Kind of think he gave Donald Trump the ring and
a ring, a championship ring.

Speaker 3 (01:45:54):
So you don't think Walter talks to the President, talks
to people in the government, the s He's all these
billionaire people know each other and know what's going on,
and there might be there may or may not be
funky business going on with a lot of these guys.

Speaker 7 (01:46:07):
You were born rich and you're going to stay.

Speaker 3 (01:46:09):
So I don't think this is the case, but it
would not be implausible for Kushner and for Eiger to
say Mark's got may be in some financial issues and
he might have to start selling off assets.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
He's back into a corner. We might be able to
take him off his hands for twelve billion.

Speaker 3 (01:46:24):
What a steal. What is the biggest asset that he
currently has? It's not the Dodgers. The Dodgers.

Speaker 4 (01:46:29):
As of last check, their valuation is about eight billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
Which is odds onling behind the Yankees in.

Speaker 3 (01:46:35):
Major League Baseball. Yes, the odd part about that is
the Dodgers own Dodgers Stadium, they own a piece of
their own TV network and sports Net LA. The Lakers
don't even own Crypto dot com arena. Nope, they pay
rent to the La Kings right, and yet still twelve
and a half billion dollar valuation they're sold for.

Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
It is Honestly, this may shock you, but I think
it's true if you really think about it. The Lakers
selling in less than a year after Mark Walter buys
them and is injecting them with the Dodgers' philosophy and
Dodgers people and they're doing a complete teardown and they're
going to modernize them, and everything that has been talked

(01:47:13):
about him selling to me is more nuts than Luka
Doncich being traded to them getting I think it's more
of a long shot or it was more unpredictable than
Luka Doncic being traded.

Speaker 3 (01:47:33):
Because it's just.

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
Because it happened in seventy two hours, like a flash
bang like that. There's no way I would think that
would happens. Like it takes one guy to really like
Anthony Davis, an idiot named Nico Harrison and make that
move with Mark Walter. There's so much red tape and
there's so many people to talk to to sell a team.

Speaker 3 (01:47:56):
Stars get moved. Things happen overnight, not to that, but
they do happen. For something like this to happen in
such short order, Yeah, this is totally unprecedented for one
of the marquee franchises on the planet if we're talking
about sports franchises, not just the North American sports.

Speaker 2 (01:48:12):
And the point is, while people said, well he made
two and a half billion dollars in less than twelve months, great,
that's the point of being a billionaire is so you
can own one of these prestigious all time franchises, which
he did and he still does with the Dodgers. But
you don't buy the Lakers to then flip them in
a year less than a year.

Speaker 3 (01:48:31):
If this isn't a house you know, or or you know,
a duplex or something, that's not how this works.

Speaker 2 (01:48:36):
It is not protect their house.

Speaker 3 (01:48:37):
Sports franchises don't get flipped like this, so definitely not
the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (01:48:41):
Nobody does. I don't think anybody does. This is now,
I don't know if this is is this is maybe
wholly unprecedented.

Speaker 2 (01:48:46):
The average sale I think is like seven years or
something like that, at least in modern times, not seven
months almost.

Speaker 4 (01:48:53):
That's ridiculous, absolutely crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:48:55):
So what it sounds like Bob Biker's going to kind
of be the head of the snake running of the
day to day operation. Kushner's going to be the big
financial backing guy, and that's how it's going to work.
We know that Bob Biker has a great relationship obviously
with Adam Silver, with ABC, Disney, ESPN's relationship with the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:49:10):
Over the past however long thirty forty fifty years, it's
been you know, what else we know about Bob Biker.
He's been a Clippers fan the last twenty five years
on record I did hear you? Glowed about that?

Speaker 4 (01:49:22):
On one of your most recent Clipper talk podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:49:24):
There is audio of him on the Old Man and
the Three podcast with JJ Reddick saying, well, he grew
up in New York a Knicks fan, so he could
never be a Lakers fan, so he adopted the Clippers
when he came out to the West Coast.

Speaker 3 (01:49:34):
So he's going to trade Luka Doncic to the Clippers
for like sabotage purposes or something, and so the Clippers
can win. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
He's going to destroy them from the inside. If all
of a sudden.

Speaker 3 (01:49:46):
Jim already did that, you don't have to worry about
That's alright, it's already been done.

Speaker 2 (01:49:50):
It's so funny. Anyway, that was funny, bery, How dare you?
I'm just saying, all I know is a Clippers fan
now owns the Lakers. That's all I'm saying. Great, really,
that's what you have to cream goblin laugh.

Speaker 4 (01:50:05):
Let's go pretty sad if that's what we have to
go off of.

Speaker 3 (01:50:07):
Speaking of Clippers, former Laker, former Clipper now Jim Buss
can't be blamed for this. Russell Westbrook was a Laker
for a period of time in his career and it
was probably the darkest time of his career. But that
is the type of move he'd also sign off on
thousand percent. So Russell Westbrook announces his retirement earlier this week.
Obviously wins an MVP the triple doubles, which nobody had

(01:50:28):
done since Oscar Robertson for years.

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
Oh, he messed around and had a few triple doubles,
all right, he did four seasons he averaged a triple double.
I believe fairly polarizing.

Speaker 4 (01:50:36):
I think as a player to a certain degree, I
think he's seen you.

Speaker 3 (01:50:39):
Mentioned kind of half assed, but I think there might
have been an element of troop behind it, like he's
a bit of a stat stuffer.

Speaker 4 (01:50:44):
I don't know if that's necessarily the case.

Speaker 2 (01:50:47):
I mean, there is video of him boxing out his
own guys for rebounds and then other times his big
men letting him get the rebound, and they were justified
in okay see by saying, well, we want him to
push the break faster. I don't know some of the
stats I think are a little bit inflated. Not to
diminish Russ. He's still an all time great, top seventy

(01:51:09):
five player of all time. But when you talk about
polarizing and divisive, the way I put it is this,
and I always said this with Russ. I love watching
Russell Westbrook play basketball, but I also would never want
him on my team right because he's so erratic and
out of control and you just don't know what you're

(01:51:29):
going to get.

Speaker 3 (01:51:30):
I mean, I can think of multiple times in Oklahoma City,
at the peak of his powers, as our friend Brian
Seaman will say, and I mean, he could just go
down the lane and run by anybody at any time
that he wanted by how many times did he stop
and pull up for a seventeen foot jump shot that
clanked off the side of the backboard.

Speaker 2 (01:51:45):
I can think of a few in Game seven and
twenty sixteen against Golden.

Speaker 3 (01:51:48):
State, and that three one collapse therein lies the issue
is just like if you have certain limitations, either work
to make those better or just don't do it. And
I think then when the Houston Rockets had a bit
of a resurgence in the bubble, the Bubble year, in.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
Twenty twenty with him and James Harden with him and.

Speaker 4 (01:52:03):
James Harden, and he kind of played that role.

Speaker 3 (01:52:04):
And then the Lakers I think did a masterful job,
a coaching job by Frank Vogel and basically making him
into a jump shooter and taking away the driving lanes.

Speaker 4 (01:52:11):
But before they could do that, he had a great run, yeah, filling.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
Into his role, doing what was what he was being
tasked with or asked to do by Houston, just attack
the paint relentlessly.

Speaker 2 (01:52:20):
He had about a three month stretch where he played
some of the best basketball of his career. I think
he had a hamstring issue though, either in the bubble
or before it and throughout the hiatus two. But it
was a perfect team for him because you'd have four
shooters on the floor and then Russ so they can
right the floor. Yeah, driving lanes all over the place.

Speaker 3 (01:52:40):
So I agree with your assessment. He was great to watch.
I would not have wanted him on my team. Everybody's
this was not Monday morning quarterbacking. Everybody said it the
day that the Lakers traded for him, that this was
a god awful trade. They're going to rule the day
that they make this trade. He does not fit on
a Lebron James and Anthony Davis team, and sure enough.

Speaker 2 (01:52:57):
That's how it.

Speaker 3 (01:52:57):
And it's unfortunate because he became a bit of a
pariah with Laker fans, even though it wasn't his fault.
He didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:53:03):
But I mean, wasn't his fault. He was a vampire
that sucked the energy out of the locker room. According
to Dave mcmanifect, well, I mean he.

Speaker 3 (01:53:11):
Has a certain type of mercurialness and he can have
a bit of an attitude about him and doesn't suffer fools,
if you want to use that sort of term.

Speaker 2 (01:53:19):
He also just wants to make sure everybody has fun
out there, and then gets Lebron to do a double
take because what we're trying to win? What are you
talking about? Russ win, loser jaw just have fun. Yeah,
that's I had fun watching him. I too, I did too.

Speaker 3 (01:53:35):
You'll be all Hall of Famer.

Speaker 2 (01:53:36):
No, no, you can't write the story of the NBA
without him. He has a profound effect on the league.
So he's an unforgettable player.

Speaker 4 (01:53:46):
And by the way, it's not like he couldn't have
won again.

Speaker 3 (01:53:50):
The Thunder had a three games to one lead against
the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Speaker 2 (01:53:56):
Did they they did? You know, we talked a lot
about uh Snake's earlier. Maybe we can transition to Kd's
move going to the Golden State Warriors after that, and
now talk about what Joe Lacub said recently to his
Golden State Warriors fans.

Speaker 4 (01:54:09):
Perfect transition.

Speaker 3 (01:54:11):
So Joe Lacup was doing the interview on the podcast
earlier this week and he says, uh, he doesn't like
the criticism of the organization has received for quote unquote
doing nothing this offseason. Uh. He says he doesn't understand
the negativity surrounding the team. The fact that he says,
just because we didn't do anything doesn't mean we didn't
try to do anything. And I guess he expects that

(01:54:32):
to hold water for the fan base.

Speaker 2 (01:54:34):
Yeah, it's like they're obviously going to tune you out
when you say stuff like that. There it's a results
driven business. And even if you know they had the
problem is the reporting for Golden State has said they
were in on this guy. They were in on this guy.
They were in Kawhi.

Speaker 3 (01:54:52):
Kawhi Jalen Brown, the Jalen Brown. It sounds like they
could have had and they chose not to get him.

Speaker 2 (01:54:58):
And when you have Steph Curry on your team and
time is ticking and you're wasting an all time great
and not giving him a chance to compete for championships
at the end of his career, and he's still a
top ten player in the league right when he's healthy
and out there, he is still that good. He demands
so much attention. The gravity he has out there shooting
is the last thing to go and he's the greatest
shooter ever in NBA history. You got to go all

(01:55:21):
in and give up those extra picks or whatever the
assets are to make something happen.

Speaker 3 (01:55:26):
Because they've done a great job with their picks anyway.
You know, James Wiseman has been great for them. Jonathan
Mingo has been phenomenal. Wait, so I mean it's only
they get him back up the one. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:55:35):
Great?

Speaker 12 (01:55:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:55:35):
And by the ways, people praising Bob Myers like some
great GM. Okay, he's great, I guess recruiting Lebron James
on the podcast, or great at getting Kevin Durant after
the salary cap went up in an anomalous offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:55:46):
Sure, And let's not forget Jerry West was allegedly the
one who put his foot down about trading Clay for
Kevin Love back in the day, and he said, no,
we're not doing that.

Speaker 3 (01:55:55):
Right, So I understand if I were a Warrior fan
to your point at him, You're just wasting away the
final years of Steph Curry's career. And it's utterly ridiculous.
And this has been going on for the last three
or four years for them. They won the championship was
at twenty two, and they've been in a steady decline
since then and have not improved the roster.

Speaker 2 (01:56:11):
So it's really not that hard to figure out. Joe
lakeb Or you probably should have this figured out. Just
don't make those public statements like just just wear it,
just hide to something else. We're not hiding. We still
got one more segment left here and the biggest debate
of the night is coming up now.

Speaker 3 (01:56:30):
One one show fall.

Speaker 2 (01:56:33):
Who is owning Christmas Day, NFL or NBA.

Speaker 3 (01:56:37):
This say Santa Claus or Jesus?

Speaker 2 (01:56:39):
Okay, then there's that as well. It's FNA on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 10 (01:56:44):
You guys, give up Yes Thursday for more FNA Cotton.

Speaker 3 (01:56:49):
For the best pregame show every weekend, be sure to
tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by Bett MGM
every Saturday and Sunday morning from nine am to noon
Eastern six to nine am Pacific. We will count you
down to all of the biggest games of the weekend.
Tuning in a Countdown presented by Bett MGM every Saturday
and Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeart app.

Speaker 2 (01:57:09):
All right, before we get out of here, we got
to talk about it, Nis Canter Freedom.

Speaker 3 (01:57:14):
Oh nope, absolutely not so on folks. Oh I love
dead air for the next five minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:57:21):
So all right, all right, all right, NBA versus NFL
on Christmas? Who is owning the birth of our Savior?
Who's doing it?

Speaker 13 (01:57:32):
It's a classic depiction of good versus.

Speaker 2 (01:57:34):
EVA because for years this was the NBA's turf. In fact,
a lot of people felt like the season actually tipped
off on Christmas where you had five or six games,
and we still do. But they're not alone now, No,
they're encroaching on their territory. Fox Sides is the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:57:52):
You know you mentioned Terry Tate, the office linebacker last
week on the show. I think that's what the NFL
basically came in and did to the NBA on Christmas,
came in and kicked their ass out.

Speaker 2 (01:58:05):
The NBA is getting ragdalls.

Speaker 3 (01:58:07):
So last year, the NFL's trip awayheader averaged twenty two
point nine million viewers across all their platforms. The NBA's
five games slate average five and a half million viewers.

Speaker 2 (01:58:18):
Now you know Britney Spears says a lot of albums,
I don't give a damn.

Speaker 3 (01:58:22):
So here's what I'll say too. It's just like, yes,
there's gonna be different audiences, different there are people who
are fans of one league and not the other, but
they're also crossover fans, and that's who you're fighting for,
the eyeballs you're fighting for on a day like Christmas.
I don't think that the NBA should move because I
don't know where they're going to move to. It's kind
of a tradition, I want to say, a tradition unlike
any other, like the Masters. But you expect there to

(01:58:44):
be a slate of NBA games on Christmas Day. If
the NFL wants to muscle in and do their thing, sure,
but where else is the NBA going to go, well,
guess is my question.

Speaker 2 (01:58:52):
You just got to present it like it's a great
sports day. Hey, the more of the marriers of Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:58:57):
By the way, I've seen people do that at them.
They're like, here's the to play about play on Christmas Day.
And it was literally from like a West coast standpoint,
from nine am until nine pm there are sports on
literally every second of the entire day.

Speaker 10 (01:59:10):
Well, that's fine, Boarts, Boyts, Boyts, Bots, Boyts, Bots boyd if.

Speaker 2 (01:59:14):
They keep sound giving on Christmas. We're just loaded with
games in multiple sports.

Speaker 4 (01:59:19):
Yeah, it's like for the fir us, there's a certain
sect of people.

Speaker 3 (01:59:22):
I'd like to think that I'm one of them, and
obviously I love the NFL, but there's something special about
the NBA and the slate of NBA games on Christmas
Day that maybe I'm just waxing nostalogic, I don't know,
but it would feel weird if the NBA didn't have
a wide swath of games to choose for more to
watch on Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:59:37):
Well, how long ago the NFL start this? Two years ago?

Speaker 3 (01:59:39):
Two years ago, I believe that's when I first started
seeing Noah Eagle on Netflix with grey goldsenter somebody as
this color man on Christmas calling a big game. Because
if you remember, there was a while where I believe
the NFL will actually move their entire slate of games
to Christmas Eve so they wouldn't play on Christmas Day.

Speaker 2 (01:59:57):
There wasn't there a Raiders Saints game on Christmas see
you before.

Speaker 3 (02:00:00):
It might have been.

Speaker 4 (02:00:01):
I don't I feel, but I feel like they've done this.

Speaker 3 (02:00:03):
I think that they've done this on New Year's even
the past two where they wouldn't play on New Year's
Day to help, like to preserve the day for college
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:00:09):
So the NFL, everybody's playing fair anymore. Nobody cares. The
NFL does not give a riff your day, my day, no, no,
no our day. We're fighting for this day. We're competing
at all times. And remember what Lebron James said the
first year the NFL did this, after a game I
think against Golden State, he came out and really tried

(02:00:32):
to push the narrative that this is the NBA's day. Still.

Speaker 3 (02:00:36):
They said that the NBA day give us our day
back or something like that.

Speaker 2 (02:00:39):
Yeah, and I'm sure Adam Silver loved it, and he
was being a good ambassador for the NBA. I don't
think Roger Goodell gave an f evening, nor.

Speaker 3 (02:00:51):
Should he, nor should he. Everybody's trying to fight for
their own space right now. Every single league is I think, yeah,
everybody for themselves. This this is competition, This is big business.

Speaker 2 (02:01:03):
The NFL is trying to compete with Apple and Google,
right like that's Darndille said that because they've already beaten
every other league.

Speaker 3 (02:01:10):
I'd also heard a notion like, oh, maybe the NBA
can move the NBA Cup and maybe a way to
combat to the NFL is have some NBA Cup elimination
games we played on Christmas. Is Like, you can't do that.
Those games aren't even locked in yet. There's logistical issues.
No matter what the NBA does. It's early in the season.
This is the third to final week in the NFL season.
All these games can be very important.

Speaker 2 (02:01:29):
Important.

Speaker 3 (02:01:30):
NFL games are gonna beat NBA games in the regular
season any day of the.

Speaker 2 (02:01:33):
Week, regardless if it's a cup game or not. And
as much as I love the NBA and some of
the stuff they've done, like the n Season Tournament, I'm
still not on board with the NBA Cup. Not a fan, huh,
I'm not there yet, Kevin. It's by by that I look.
I'm not used to this soccer style.

Speaker 4 (02:01:48):
Thank you Mark, Thank you guys for listening.

Speaker 3 (02:01:50):
Much appreciated Project in Al is next here on Fox
Sports Radio.

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