Fox Sports Radio's Saturday Countdown

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports Countdown. We're setting you up for the sports weekend.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And covering all the action from the.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Stadiums to the arenas. This is Fox Sports Countdown. You
know what I'm gonna The countdown starts now by from
the Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Have some fun.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Here's Brian No, Rich Hornberger and Jared Smith.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Oh what is going on? Welcome in Happy Saturday to you.
I'll trip the band aid off. We do have a
little bit of bad news. No Rich Hornberger today. Okay,
no Rich sho. But it's okay. We got good news
got Jared Smith? You do have me. I don't know.
I agree with the news that is, but please no

(00:49):
very nice?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh wow, yeah, first starting to show.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Starting off very positively. He referred to him, what did
you say, a little prickly at times they refer to it.
I know I can be a little prickly. What a
great description of Chris Purffett describing himself. But we love
But you know, we start off with great news over here, Jared,
because ball is back and we do have a bunch

(01:17):
of ball to talk about. Yes, it is preseason football,
but sometimes you can take things that do matter from
the preseason that will translate to the regular season, right,
Like I guess, like, first off, before we get into
certain individual performances and all of that, how much do
you take off generally speaking, how much do you take
away from preseason football that will apply to the regular

(01:39):
season in your mind? Like what percentage would you put
on that? Roughly?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
It's a good question because a lot of people were
chattering this week about if you bet on preseason football,
then you need to call the number. And yet I
don't affirm that logic because I think there's, first of all, there's.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
A fomo element to it.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
We haven't had football in six months since February, so
people are clamoring for it, So I think there's at
least a ten.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Percent bump in.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
However much interest you show just based off the fact
that we're hungry for football, then I think there is
an element of especially if you're a new regime in
Arizona of Vegas. You know a team that is younger,
with new coaches and a new quarterback, and there's a

(02:29):
lot to learn from just going through the basic motions,
like say what you want about Fernando Mendoza and you
know what the Raiders are going to be this year,
they he looked like he was ready to play NFL
football Carson Beck and Hall of Fame game. I know
he didn't play this week because of the injury, but
last week when he made his first you know appearance,

(02:51):
he was ready to.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Play NFL football.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
So that's obviously not going to translate to how successful
their career is going to be in ten years. But
I do think there's at least some level of Okay,
I want to watch how this kid handles himself in
his first game, in his first real action, facing live
bullets for the first time when it's not practice, and
I think there is some value to watching that and

(03:15):
absorbing that and taking that with you to the regular season. Now,
I'm never gonna handicap a regular season game and ask myself,
how did this team play in the preseason, like like,
that's not we're not going to translate it to regular
season results. But there's a lot of things to be
learned from. So I would say at least fifty percent
of what I'm watching during the preseason is all right,

(03:35):
this is a young kid, a rookie, a new regime,
new head coach. How do they handle competition and how
do they handle the moment.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Well, the first part of preseason for me is it
should look good, right like when the advantage is in
your favor, right where Take a guy like cam Ward
quarterback at the Tennessee Titans. If you're going up against
mostly forty nine or backup guys, it should look good
and it didn't, and that's alarming. I think that the

(04:05):
preseason there's such a reaction to, hey, we can't overreact,
and largely that's true, but there are instances where you
don't want to underreact either. If you have a starting
offense and they're going up against a lot of backups,
it should be a hot knife through butter. And if
it looks the opposite of that, that's a bad sign.

(04:26):
And I'm not saying that cam Ward is doomed. I'm
not saying the Titans are doomed. That's just a bad
sign because I wouldn't look at a number one offense
dicing up a number two defense and being like, whoa
look out for this offen this team, man, look out
for this quarterback. That happens a lot, and you can't
fall for the banana and the tailpipe that happens all

(04:47):
the time. But I think the opposite is true. You
should be dicing up a number two defense, and if
you aren't, it's telling. If you look at cam Ward's
performance against the Niners, who were resting a lot of dudes.
He went five for twelve for fifty seven yards. That's
three drives, and we read the fine point, it looks

(05:08):
uglier where he was sped up. I'll get you a
quote from his head coach, Robert Sala in a second.
But the second two drives they went right down the
field and scored. It was largely run run, run, short pass, run, run, run,
short pass, touchdown, right like that, That's pretty much what
the first drive was. The next two drives three for
eight for twenty three yards, and we're talking little dink

(05:30):
and dunk passes from cam Ward. He only had two
passing attempts that were more than seven air yards. Jared
seven air yards. That's nothing like a little ten yard
out is way more than seven are yards, right like,
that was it. And his longest completion went for five
point eight air yards. That is not good against a

(05:51):
lot of backups. So cam Ward looking if he I
don't think you could just brush that aside and be like, ah, no,
big deal. The quote from Robert Salo was it looked
like the mechanics were a little bit more sped up
than it has been. I'm sure they'll look back at
it and see that the protection was pretty good and
he could have moved through the process a little bit.

(06:12):
So it's dink and dunk passes. It's looking scattered right
like and looking like I gotta get rid of the ball,
and it's like, dude, you had time, you could you
can take your top. So there's a lot of clean
up in Tennessee right like you had the number four
overall pick. Carnel Taite were excited, you know, three targets
and no completions. So that's a that's a bad sign

(06:35):
for the Titans. A team that's trying to get on
the right track and they've got a lot of work
to do.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Yeah, I've got I've got cam Ward is I think
my lowest graded starting quarterback outside of Deshaun Watson and Frankly,
I don't even know if Watson's gonna be the starter
in Cleveland, to be perfectly fair, So you know, I
cam Ward might be the bottom of the barrel this year.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Trubisky Levice like there's not.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
There's not a lot in the cupboard with Tennessee, and
you know, you got a new head coach, and I
am excited for to see what Brian Dable can extract
out of this offense. I mean, I think that's you know,
the one thing that you know, you maybe have some
confidence about is that he will improve under Dable. But
it's gonna take some time probably, And I think.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Overall Tennessee is a cell for me this year.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
I'm not I'm not very high on on what they're
doing in in in titan Land. I think of the
bottom feeder teams. I was actually interested to watch a
little Gino last night because I just I want to
see what this offense is going to look like under
Frank Reich. Now, I'm I think it's a smart move
that they're holding him out because I just you can't

(07:45):
have a quarterback aging quarterback injury, especially to his foot
at this stage, and and you know, have anything transpired
during the season, so it obviously you don't want to
play during the preseason if you're hurt. But I do
want to see Gino get some run with the ones
and see what that offense looks like, because that's your
Week one game right there, you know, Titans Jets, and
you want to talk about a game that's gonna tip

(08:06):
the scales for two teams that have very low win
totals in twenty twenty six, the Jets of five and
a half and the Titans at six and a half.
That game right there, you get the revenge angle with
Robert Seal obviously being the former Jets head coach. You
get Aaron Glenn and and his you know staff, you know,
going through some renovations in the offseason. We'll see what
Reich's offense looks like. I thought, you know, the Jets

(08:29):
running game look good. I think that's going to be
the strength of their team is on line and running game.
And yeah, I kind of like the Jets in that
Week one game. I think you're gonna catch.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Points on the road.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
I don't think cam Ward looks great last year, and
I'm not too excited about him this year. So if
you want an early look for Week one, I think
it's three. I think you're getting three with the Jets. Yeah,
so that would be probably on my list. That's there's
it's mostly two and a half, but.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
There's a three.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
There's a three out there in the marketplace right now,
you can go bet the Jets plus three.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
I think that would be a bet for me. Week
one is the Jets plus three.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, I'm looking at some other things that happened. You
mentioned Mendoza, and for a guy who hasn't played under
center hardly at all at IU to play under center,
you know, more play action passing in the offense with
the Raiders, and he looked good. I mean, he looked
the part. Again, he can't overreact because it's against backups,

(09:24):
but when you're doing when he's doing something that he
hadn't done in college, and you want to see how
the footwork looks, it look good. And his numbers were
fine under center. He was three for four passing for
thirty nine yards when lined up there, So that was
a good sign for the Raiders. He didn't look like
he was swimming, you know, he didn't look like the
moment was too big or you know, the play call

(09:48):
in the huddle was nine miles long and he's just
swimming in information. He didn't look like that out there,
so a good sign. Some passes that were lasers that
were on time, So the Raiders are looking at that
like Okay, right, there's a good first step for him,
and I think that I know that translates. It's very
similar with Joe Burrow. If you bring him into the
mix with the Bengals, he's playing under center a lot more.

(10:10):
They want to use a lot more play action there
in Cincinnati and open up the offense more. And Burrow
looked good. You know, he was completing passes while under center,
but he got smacked twice, you know, like he got
hit on the opening drive hard Orlando Brown is left tackle.
He had a bit of an ola, you know, quick

(10:31):
pressure situation going on right there. That's the thing, man
is I think we look at these quarterbacks and I
wish we're Joe was on the show this morning. You know,
we look at these quarterbacks where it's like, Okay, Mendoza
under center a lot more, Joe Burrow under center a
lot more, and we just laser focus on the quarterbacks
as if that's it. It's like, well, the offensive line,

(10:52):
this is a whole new like realm for them as well.
So they got to get up to speed. They got
a mesh as well. And when you bring that limit
to your offense that hasn't been there very much at
all with the Bengals that there's a whole learning curve
for the old line as well.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
So for those listening that maybe don't understand why that's
a big transition. So there's three things in the NFL
right now that are kind of the soup de joor
of how can we get our quarterback and how can
we deceive the defense? How can we get our quarterback
into easy reads, easy throws, easy windows, and how do
we deceive what we're doing to the defense. There's really

(11:32):
three ways to do it. Obviously, play action is one,
like that's the obvious way to deceive a defense. You're
faking like you're doing something, but you're really doing something else,
and it's really the linebacker level. The second level is
what you're trying to manipulate there under center. The reason
why play action is more effective under center is because
you're getting movement, whereas if you're in the shotgun, everything

(11:55):
is in front of the defense right like you're right
next to the running back. The defense is staying right
at both players. They're both in the same spot and
there's no movement. It's just you're you're leaning to your
right right like you get the snap let's say the
running backs on the right side of you and you
just you know, you know, rotate over and then move.
But under center, you're you're sprinting towards that running back

(12:17):
and you're really, you know, faking like you're going to
give it to him, and it actually manipulates the linebackers
more than when you're in the shotgun.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
So for a quarterback. And the third way is motion.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
That's the third you know cheat code to deceive a defense.
The way that that works is you could it's a
tell if you move a player from one side of
formation to the other. You could tell if you're in
zone defensor and man, it's just an easier way to
decipher what the defense is showing you. And if you
give the quarterback that answer, that cheat you know, if
you give him the the answer key to the test,

(12:49):
he's gonna be able to you know, have a success
on the test. So those are the three ways that
offenses offensive coordinators are really implementing deception into the off
Mendoza about ninety percent of his snaps in college were
under were in the shotgun, So for him to go
from shotgun to under center was an adjustment and that
was an adjustment that I was curious about to see

(13:11):
how he handled it.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
He handled it great. He's gonna be fine.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
He had one throw play action motion play action under
center and into a tight window, and I posted a
video about it on my.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Twitter account yesterday.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
I mean, it was as tight of a window as
you could throw it into, and it was an anticipatory throw,
meaning the window when he threw it. The guy was
still covered, but he threw it into the window and
threw him open. It was the most NFL throw I've
seen in the preseason so far. So I think Mendoz
is gonna be just fine. And I don't know Brian

(13:44):
like it. How soon is too soon to get this
guy in the starting lineup, Like I know, Cousins was
brought in to be the starter. I think everyone thinks
he's gonna be the Week one starter. But we're hearing
already that Mendoz is gonna get some more QB one
reps in camp.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
So I I don't know if this is.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Gonna be a whole preseason thing, like Mendoza might start
the whole preseason. Yeah, he honestly might get significantly more
reps than Cousins in the preseason, and I'll be interested
to see how he looks when he gets the reps,
especially with the offensive line. The first team reps I
think are very important for a quarterback to gel with
his offensive line, especially if there's gonna be a lot

(14:23):
of changes with going from the shotgun to under center.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, we've talked about it where I would just wait.
It's the brave heart thing.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Hold.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, I would wait with Mendoza because I just look
back to last season and it's not the perfect comparison,
but it's pretty good. With Tyler Shuck and the Saints,
where he didn't start the first what eight games, he
started the final nine games, and you know, Spencer Rattler
took all the bullets. You know, the team is losing

(14:52):
games left and right. He won one game as a starter,
and then here comes Tyler Shuck, and all of a sudden,
it lands differently. You're looking at what he does well
instead of what he doesn't do well. You're looking at, hey,
the Saints have won four straight games. The Saints are
a trendy pick this offseason. I've heard Tyler Shucks and
they mentioned in MVP conversations and I'm like, watch, way,

(15:14):
whoa whoa. He had ten touchdown passes in six interceptions
last season Jared as a rookie. That's fine, you're not
going from that to MVP. But the point is because
he came in after Rattler and after the losing, you're
looking at everything he's doing well, and that's what the
Raiders want. If you start Mendoza week one, he's gonna

(15:37):
take his lumps. The team's gonna lose games. These teams
that they're facing in the first seven weeks. It's at Chargers, Chiefs,
at Patriots, Bills, Rams. There are a lot of l's
in that mixture right there. I would let Kirk Cousins
start the first you know, four to seven games. If
he started seven games, you could still start Mendoza for ten.

(15:58):
I think that's the way to do it. But he's
looked good so far. In the stat I love here
is that Mendoza last season at IU he was under
centered just three percent of the time.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Wow, I thought it was not. I was more than that.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
That's like, you're never under center. NFL teams last season
quarterbacks playing under center, they played under center thirty five
percent of snaps, Like a thirty five percent of the
time quarterbacks in the NFL were under center. Mendoze was
only under center three percent of the time at IU,
So you got to get all adjusted to that, all
used to that. It's not gonna look like a finished product,

(16:34):
you know, right away as an NFL rookie. So I
would not not not start him out of the gate.

Speaker 4 (16:40):
It's a massive adjustment to go from shotgun to under center.
I think, first of all, the learning curve of the
of the verbiage, I think is the hardest thing I've had.
You know, people in on the on the NFL side
of it, that work in you know, with teams, share
some of the play calls, in some of the protections,

(17:00):
and it's it's it's like learning a new language.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
It's insane.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
It's I honestly think, if, for example, like let's say
I was physically gifted enough to play in the NFL
and I got signed tomorrow, I had no I've never played,
you know, for any other team, and I just, you know,
got dropped into a training camp tomorrow, I honestly think
it would take me the entire summer just to learn
the playbook. Like I think I'd have to study every

(17:25):
day for a month. I don't know how these guys
do it. I I think it's probably the hardest thing
about the jump to the NFL is how different the
the the language is. And it's even harder because every
team has their own language. Like I watch a lot
of film study content. I think it's very informative for

(17:45):
me to learn more about the game. It kind of
brings me back to, you know, when I played, and
and and gets me into a more connected mindset with
the sports. So I consume a lot of that type
of content, and it's it's insane to see the amount
of knowledge that a lot of these players, former players,
a lot of people doing that type of content have

(18:07):
about each individual team having their own set of terms
for the same route, the same play, completely different language.
So I think that's the toughest part for these rookies,
and especially at the quarterback position, mostly the quarterback position,
because they have to know not only what they do,
but everyone else, Whereas the receivers really only have to

(18:29):
know the route tree and that and they can ignore
the part of the play call that's for the offensive
line and the protection and all that other stuff. So
I think what these rookies, and it's not a very
deep rookie class. I actually think Jalen Daniels is so
far maybe the best. The undrafted free agent at Tampa
looked really good last night. But there's a lot of

(18:50):
there's just so much of a learning curve that just
playing the position is almost an afterthought. Like you have
to be so buttoned up with your not knowledge of
what's happening on and off the field in the huddle
that how you execute the plays, your accuracy, your arm strength,
your basic physical traits. That just has to come like

(19:12):
second nature. You can't be doubting that at all, because
there's so much to learn. Luckily, Mendoza looks like a nerd,
so I'm sure he actually had a great quote about
avoiding the strip. It looked like a haunted house on
Halloween that he stay away from. So he's locked in,
And I do think, I don't know, what do you
think seven over seven and a half starts over eight
and a half starts this year? Like is that kind

(19:34):
of where you set the number? I feel like nine
ten starts feels like the right number.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, I think he gets about nine to ten. I
mean possibly more than that. If it's a grease fire
with Kirk Cousins and they're losing games. But yeah, I
think he could get to ten starts if he's healthy.
I think he can easily get to ten starts right there,
all right, we're often running. We got rich Uh, we
don't have riche Hornberger. He's with us in spirit here today.
But we've got Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian

(19:59):
no coming up next. This team has now suffered two
really big losses and they both play the same position.
We'll get to that right around the corner. It's countdown
right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
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 5 (20:25):
Stec ots here. I have a podcast empire. It continues
to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because my.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Wife wanted to kick me out of the house.

Speaker 5 (20:38):
It's called Stegatzi Company Live, which is available in podcast
form right when the show finishes. Every single day, some
of the biggest names in sports.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
A lot of phone calls.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
I love you on your show.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's one of my favorites.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
A lot of interact shit guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you could
expect from Studiotts and Company, end stew Gotson Company Live.
So listen to stew Gots and Company Live and our
original podcast. Please subscribe, rate and review stew Gots In
Company and God Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood depends on it.

(21:14):
You do it today and you can check all of
those out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever
you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
It is Fox Sports Radio's Countdown right here on Fox
Sports Radio. Uh so we've got the Atlanta Falcons. Huh,
Atlanta Falcons are in the news here and uh look, man,
bad news. It keeps getting worse and worse. The injury
issues you know at quarterback where Pennox Junior is coming
off of torn acl so he hasn't been cleared for

(21:49):
eleven on eleven's to a tongue of Iloa, who you
know had his struggles with my Dolphins well documented.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Jared.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
He's the guy right now and he's had some back
stiffness and it's just been a mess at quarterbacks so far,
and now you look at the pass rush. The pass
rush has gotten hit very hard. Here you had a
big time injury where you look at what has happened
with the Falcons here where it's a big time injury
and now it's a suspension here. So if you go

(22:18):
like Denzel Washington said in Man on Fire, which is
one of my favorite sports radio quotes. So I don't
know why I quote this all the time, where he's
like piece by piece, you know, if you take this
piece by piece. I don't know why I love that
so much.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
I just do.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Jalen Walker tore his ACL in training camp, so he's
done for the season, and he had a good rookie season.
Now we get word that James Pierce Junior he suspended
for the first eight games of the season, So that
those are the two rookie studs. You look last season
at the production over here, it was James Pierce Junior

(22:52):
ten and a half sacks he led the team. Jalen Walker,
as a fellow rookie, had five and a half sacks.
The Falcons pass rush had been hideous for years and years, Jared,
They were dead last in sacks back in twenty twenty one.
They were second to dead last in twenty twenty four

(23:12):
in sacks, and all of a sudden they improved to
second in the league. Last season. They actually had a
pass rush. But their two best rookies from last season
that they're gone, you know, like Jalen Walker's done for
the season and you have James Pearce Junior suspended for
the first eight games. That is brutal for the Falcons

(23:32):
and as they try to you know, they were right there.
They were eight and nine, like seemed like everybody but
the Saints was eight and nine last season. That's the
way it played out. Tampa, Carolina, Atlanta all eight and nine.
So they're in the mix to maybe take the division
and go from there. But the injury to Jalen Walker,
the suspension of James Pearce Junior, what's going on at quarterback.

(23:54):
I wouldn't be surprised if it's a grease fire in
Atlanta this season.

Speaker 4 (23:58):
I would tend to agree. And it actually makes me
like Tampa a lot more. I think so to me
Tampa because by the way, they lost a game to
Atlanta last year, So I think Tampa is my team
in the South this year. I bet over eight and
a half wins. I just think that division itself is

(24:20):
obviously very mediocre, and I just don't think New Orleans
is gonna be as good as the hype train is
kind of pushing us towards. And Carolina is a team
that I'm just I'm I thought it was very fortunate
for them to win the division last year. In fact
that I think it was that crazy Atlanta game that
Tampa lost that really flipped it. Tampa had to lead

(24:42):
in that game and then Kirk Cousins let it come
back and the rest is history. So I think, to me,
the weakness with Atlanta this year, and I'm sure you saw.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
The to eclip of him fumbling the snap.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Last night on h I think it was his first drive,
his first drive with the foul.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
I think it was the first shot on snap he
got just bumbled it.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
So there there's I don't want to get too much
into the specifics of the peer situation. Obviously, he's had
some legal troubles in the past, this this seems to
be kind of on that on that path, and the
Walker injury obviously is unfortunate. So we hope he gets
better and and and comes back stronger next year. Obviously,
Atlanta with a new head coach, with a new regime.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
I like Kevin Stefanski a lot.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
I just think he's kind of walking into a tough
situation and this is not gonna get any easier.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
There's not a lot to like with Atlanta this year.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
There's not a lot to like in that AFC, in
that NFC South this year, even Tampa.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
I was actually surprised, Brian.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
I mean, I I got a seven and a half
on Tampa, Like, this is a team that I would
say a lot of people were talking about when Baker
was playing in that m VP form last year, and
it didn't last. He obviously was banged up and they
kind of trend it down. But there was a moment
last year where where Baker was kind of an MVP
candidate and Tampa Bay got off to a five and

(26:05):
one start they beat.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
The Niners handily.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
So there was a moment last year where Tampa was ascending,
and I think that's the vibe I get in the
division this year is there's just not a lot that's
gonna stop Tampa from running through it.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
And so I think Tampa will be a little bit
healthier this year.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
They were so banked up last year, so banged up
every single offensive starter at some point that was some
kind of injury, the offensive line revolving door. All three
of their stud receivers, Evans and McMillan and Godwin all
missed a ton of time. Bucky Irving only played ten games.
So I think Tampa will be healthier this year. And
I think all of the things we're hearing and seeing

(26:45):
with Atlanta like Atlanta. I know Carolina's still there because
they were obviously the division champons. They have to give
them some at least level of credit. But I think
a lot of people thought with Stefanski and if Tua
can catch lightning at a bottle, that Atlanta's got a
chance to have.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Some success this year. I don't see it with the Falcons.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
I think they're an under on the win total, and
I think the Bucks to me, are gonna be the
winners of that division this year.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
Man, I still have nightmares of that Atlanta win on
the road against Tampa last season, where it was a
Thursday night game. Tampa's in the creamsickle uniforms. I was
on Tampa and they're ahead by two touchdowns late and
here comes Kirk Cousins. How it seems like ancient history
right with Kirk Cousins now on the Raiders. He's with
the Falcons last season and diced up Tampa late. Oh,

(27:33):
it was hideous if you were on on Tampa in
that game. But you'll bring that up.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Insane he did.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
He went crazy in that game.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Insane.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
You three touchdown, eleven catches, one sixty six three tons.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, that's the best game of his career, I think, yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
And it's that was the game where you're like he
sometimes it's that line is three catches for like fourteen
yards and that's it.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
And Perce sacks in that game too well.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
And back to Pierce. The reason he's out for those
eight regular season games he violated the NFL's Personal Conduct
policy domestic dispute involving his ex girlfriend, who is Los
Angeles Sparks forward Rakia Jackson. So that's why he's out
for eight games. And that's the thing, man, where you're
waiting as a team, like how long is the suspension?

(28:21):
What are we dealing with here on the heels of
losing Jalen Walker, And it's eight games, which is I'm
not saying that the length is wrong. I'm just saying
for a franchise, you're like, oh, we were hoping for less,
you know, Like that's a long suspension. So the pass
rush is obviously going to take a massive step back,
and what that dude does for the Falcons collectively not

(28:42):
gonna be good. You go from number two in the
league in sacks last season to who knows what with
those two rookies from last year gone for the first
half of the season. That has a lot to deal with.
Now here's Kevin's defanse. Give the head coach. He's talking
about the standards he still has for this team.

Speaker 6 (28:57):
Yeah, I mean our standard or our football team offense, defense,
and special teams remains the same whether it's the first
quarter or the fourth quarter of the preseason game. So
not good enough really across the board. And again that's
why we'll get back to work.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
Yeah, obviously talking about the preseason and it's got high standards,
But I don't know, like on the outside looking at
if you have high standards, I certainly don't. The arrow
is not trending up for the Falcons right now. But
let me pivot to another team and another quarterback. Here
how about Kyler Murray. So he's officially been named QB
one with the Minnesota Vikings, And I think this offseason

(29:35):
is just so interesting, Jared, where I liken it to
the old MTV show Pimp My Ride. You know, you
bring in like this JALOPI of a car and all
of a sudden, they put all the great bells and
whistles and you're like, whoa, it's a whole new That's
what Kyler Murray's resume. He's gotten the treatment of Pimp
My Ride in the off season where I think it's

(29:56):
it's a situation where because of of JJ McCarthy being
on the same roster, Kyler Murray looks like, all of
a sudden, the top ten quarterback in the minds of
a lot of people, It's like, what are you guys
thinking right now? I don't understand it. Where if you
look at the last four seasons, think about this, Jared,
Not only has Kyler Murray missed a lot of time,
He's missed thirty of sixty eight games. That's a lot

(30:20):
of missed games. Thirty games over the last four years.
And the stats are not great. He's ranked in the
bottom ten and we're talking about quarterbacks with at least
twenty five starts over here bottom ten in win percentage,
yards per attempt, touchdown percentage, passer rating bottom ten, And
all of a sudden, it's like Kyler Murray's a baller

(30:42):
again because he's got Justin Jefferson in a good supporting cast.
Koc I gotta see it to believe it, man, I
just think that Kyler Murray looks a lot better than
he's been for seven NFL seasons in the eyes of
a lot of people here, because JJ mccon karthy is
sitting next to him. It's like the scene in Hall Pass.

(31:03):
You've seen that movie where he's like, no, no, no, she
looks good because her ugly friends around her. If you like,
cut your hands in front of your face, all of
a sudden, she looks a lot worse. That's why I
think we are with Kyler Murray. I think he looks
better because JJ McCarthy looks so bad.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Oh, that is a great comparison.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yeah, Kyler Murray next to JJ McCarthy looks like an
all pro.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Absolutely, I think that's very fair to say. I think so.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
The bulk case on Minnesota is obviously you would expect
Kevin O'Connell to be able to get the most out
of whoever quarterback that they're getting, and I think that's
a fair statement to make. I think there's I don't know.
I don't know how I feel about the North this year.
I think there is a lot of optimism for Minnesota,

(31:51):
for sure, but I'm kind of in your boat. I
don't fully buy into that they're a playoff team because
this division is really rough.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
It really is.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Detroit's gonna be a lot better this year. They're going
to probably be a playoff team and probably a ten
win team. The Bears, I know that smartly Ben Johnson
is saying that, oh yeah, we know we had you know,
some things bounce our way this year, and he's using
that our word, that regression word. He's very smart, he's
very self aware. But I also think he's super competitive.
I think deep down he used his team as a competitor,

(32:24):
as a contender, and I think that's why he took
that job, is because he wants to win a super Bowl.
And I think he fully believes that. And I think
the Bears do have a lot of talent. I don't
know if they're gonna win a lot of close games
and get all the turnover look like they got last year.
I can't predict that, but I do think that they're
a team at their core that at least is on
the upswing, and then the Packers I think are I'm

(32:45):
a little bit down on the Packers this year. I
think last year was their year and they did not execute,
and I think it's going to be harder for them
with a more difficult schedule this year, and based on
some of the things I saw, I'm just so Minnesota
is kind of like the kaboo of a really good division,
and it's it's fair to say that they're a playoff team.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I just don't know what the ceiling is.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
I don't know if Kyler Murray's you're gonna be able
to get the most out of him this year, first
year in a new system. I think that's gonna be
the key is how he picks up on that new system.
I mean, listen, they've they've got a lot of weapons,
there's no doubt about it. But they've also got a
difficult schedule and a tough division, and I would kind
of lean to the I think their win total was
eight and a half. I would lean to the under there.

(33:26):
I would lean to the under on Minnesota's win total
in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
I'm so interested to see what happens with the Vikings
and what happens with Kyler Murray because the really interesting
thing is you can make a good case either way.
You know, you can make a good case that this
is gonna be a good team. You make a good
case that Kyler Murray's gonna have a strong season because
you could say the same thing with Sam Darnold. Right,
Sam Darnald, you look at his stats if you're comparing

(33:54):
them to Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray right, first seven seasons,
he hasn't had a season with over twenty six time
touchdown passes. You know, for seven seasons, that's a lot
to work with, right, not one season more than twenty six.
It's not like the thirties, the high thirties, you're touching forty,
it's not even He's not even close to that. Sam
Darnold with the Jets didn't put up numbers. Then he's

(34:15):
starting games here and there for the Panthers, then clearly
a backup for the Niners, and then boom, thirty five
touchdown passes with the Vikings. So I get it where
you're looking at Kyler and you're like, he's got more ability, right,
He's got more to work with. So if it worked
with Donald, couldn't it work with Kyler Murray. It's like, yeah,
it could, right, Like, but the talk and the optimism,

(34:38):
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's a lot over here.
But the compelling thing is you could make a legitimate
case either way Kyler stinks or Kyler's good. Vikings or
mediocre or Vikings popped this season, right Like, you can
make a case either way. That's why I'm so fascinated
to see how this looks with the Vikings and Kyler Murray.
But I just gotta tell you, Jared, I'll be late

(34:59):
to the part here. I got to see it to
believe it, because I could look great if you put
me next to you know, an actor that is not
easy on the eyes, you know, all of a sudden,
I look better like that. That's the situation with Kyler Murray.
Kyler Murray is at the beach and the guy next
to him is wearing a thong and is well overweight,

(35:22):
you know what I mean. And I was like Wow. Look,
Kyler Murray is in great shape. That's how he looks
next to JJ McCarthy. That's how bad it was for
nine last season. And I got to see what it
because here's the deal, Kyler Murray is not competing against
nine when Week one rolls around. No, Kyler Murray is
competing against the other team from that point on. So

(35:43):
the JJ McCarthy thing just goes away completely, and it's
all about how well Kyler's playing. I can't wait to
see what that looks like. All right, we've got Jared
Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian No rich O not
with us today, but he'll be back next week with
us in spirit today. Coming up next the parlay platter,
which have one selection for you. We pull it together

(36:04):
for a greater payout. Might have to look at plus
money over here, Jared, So we get.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Maybe we'll each two two picks. Maybe we'll do four, legger,
we'll do it, hey man, we could get Matt May.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Yeah, we can get as crazy as one over here.
We'll throw some picks at you. We'll just you know,
typical parlay. Let's bring this and let's bring Yeah, you're
building a sandwich like, hey, let's throw ham on this
thing too. That could be good, Like, yeah, we'll slather
some stuff on there.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
We'll do that.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Coming up, it is Fox Sports Radio's countdown. Keep it
locked right here on FSR.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
It is countdown right here on Fox Sports Radio. Hey,
be sure to subscribe to the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel.
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see
our best videos from all of our shows. And don't
stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and colm it away.
Let us know who takes you like and even who
it takes you don't like. Just search Fox Sports Radio
on YouTube and subscribe. All right, let's do.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
This, check this out later.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
All right, the platter, we just have one selection for you.
At least we pull it together for a greater payout.
We start with you, Jared, what do you like?

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Well, I'll give you some totals in the preseason today.
I think, first of all, I am betting the preseason.
I love betting the preseason. Obviously, you're gonna be frustrated
at times because there's gonna be moments where there's a
fourth string running back that's you know, relied upon to
win your bet in the fourth quarter. But I think
in general it's the only time in the football season

(37:43):
where the coaches are actually telling you what their strategy
is and they're actually telling you the truth. And then
of course the numbers move quicker, and I just I
personally enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
It gets me ready for the season.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
So the unders have been very profitable so far in
the preseason, eight to one so far in Week one,
obviously the over last week in the Hall of Fame game.
So let's give you two under and then we'll use
them as the first two legs of the plotter Jaguars
Saints under thirty five and a half.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
This is a horrible quarterback game.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
Nick Mullins, Bradley Carter and rookie Joey Aguilar are playing
for the Jaguars. The Saints are gonna give the majority
of the reps to Spencer Rattler and Zach Wilson and
Hunter Deckers four stringer also probably will see some time.
This is one of those joint practice games, and those
games can be a little chippy. They have tended to
go under over the last couple of years, even though

(38:31):
Bucks Jets went over last night. So Jaguars Saints under
thirty five and a half leg one leg two Rams
Chiefs under thirty six and a half. Another game where
I just don't think any starters are gonna play.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
McVeigh and Andy Reid.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
They are known for just sitting everyone in the preseason
Alotokan nuss.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Meyer justin fields for the Chiefs.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
At quarterback, and the Rams are gonna have Tye Simpson
and Matthew Caldwell backing up stets In Bennett. So no
real household names are really elite quarterbacks that are gonna
be playing in Jack Saint or Rams Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So we'll go under in both of those games.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Okay, we gotta get Wnba in the mix here. Yeah,
I gotta have that part of the pladder here. I'm
gonna go with the Links. Give me the minus one
TI on the money line. They're at the Aces tonight.
They're a small one and a half point favorite that
throughout the last meeting because the Aces were resting everybody
and they got blown out by like forty They got

(39:24):
crushed by the Links, but they played through Asia Wilson.
We all know this. If Asia Wilson is not on
the floor, they are completely discombobulated and they got worked
in that game. It has no bearing on tonight's game.
I you know, I initially think a man aces at
home after a drubbing, like they're gonna be a handful tonight.
You might want to take them at home plus the

(39:46):
points and plus you know, plus money on the money line.
But the Links are just a better team. They're just
simply a better team. They play much better defense. So
I like the Links to get the win on the
road because we're ramping up toward the playof Jared. We
only have about ten more regular season games and it's
playoff times. So I just like the Links, you know,

(40:07):
winning a lot of games. Late Lays had a ten
game winning streak snap. So uh yeah, I think that
the Links are just they're playing better and they're a
better team. So I'll take them on the money line
on the road tonight. And if you want to add
one more under to the mix here in this very
under Layton parlay bladder, Cowboys Seahawks under thirty seven and
a half. Right, think about the defending champs, not like

(40:29):
they're gonna be you know, throwing all their offensive guys
out there. Coleboys with all the offensive firepower they have.
You're not gonna see many of those guys in this
game either. So the under thirty seven and a half
to add to this under parlay with the exception being.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
A WNBA play what that one through? Yeah, I mean
over eleven to one.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Okay, you know we've got three unders Rams, Chiefs, Jack Saints, Cowboys, Seahawks,
and then the links on the money line. I got
plus eleven sixty. Now we don't We're not doing this
at MGM anymore. I'm looking for the best numbers. I
found a FanDuel a better price at FanDuel, But I
think in general, chop around, always shop around, try to

(41:11):
find the best numbers. But I got this parlay at
pretty good pricing at plus eleven sixty.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Now do you let me ask you a question. Do
you just concoct a parlay and it gives you like
the kayak thing? You know, like when you're searching for
a flight.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
I have an on screen that gives me the best
price at all the books that I used vigorously.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Wow, I gotta get in touch with you about that thing. Awesome?
All right? Coming up next, man, this is petty with
a capital P. Oh what is going on. Welcome in
Happy Saturday till you hope all is well. All is
not well with Washington Commander's quarterback Jaden Daniels. I love
this soap opera over here. So the saga between Jaden

(41:54):
Daniels and his former LSU university here Jaden daniels legal
team Jared, they sent a cease and desist letter to LSU,
and it's like, what's going on. They're demanding that the
university stop using the former quarterback's name, image and likeness. Now,
this whole dispute is about the number five that Jaden

(42:16):
Daniels used to wear at LSU, and so it seemed
like they had an agreement where no one else would
wear number five at LSU, kind of similar to Joe Burrow.
Joe Burrow's number has not been officially retired yet, but
no one has worn number nine since Joe Burrow won
an undefeated national championship at LSU. And so it seemed

(42:40):
like Jaden Daniels was gonna get the same treatment. And
lo and behold, you've got this guy that's gonna wear
number five this season. Dj Pickett. He is a sophomore cornerback,
five Star guy and when Brian Kelly was there. DJ
Pickett is like, okay, let me get this straight. You're
gonna give me all this money. I'm gonna come to LSU,

(43:01):
prestigious university, a lot of success, right, but I'm gonna
need the number five. And Brian Kelly's like, okay, they're
all over my back. You can wear five.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
What am I gonna do?

Speaker 3 (43:12):
And so DJ Pickett plans to wear number five this season,
and so Jaden Daniels and his legal team they're like,
wait a minute, what this wasn't part of the deal
and now it's this whole back and forth thing. I
think this Jared and we'll get to the LSU part
of this, and their goofy stance on retiring numbers and
wearing retired numbers. It's so weird, but I just lands

(43:35):
so poorly. For Jaden Daniels. It reads like he's trying
to retire his own number. It it feels like he's
this primadonna wearing shades and like eating grapes and being
fanned and like, no, no, no, no, no one is
to wear my number because I was so unbelievable. That's
how it lands. What I think it could be a

(43:56):
lot more harmless than that where it's like, oh, okay, cool,
so we get the Joe Burrow treatment. No one's gonna
wear number five. That's kind of cool, and all of
a sudden things change and you're like, wait, wait, what's
up with that? But it just it lands so badly
for Jade and Daniels here.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Agreed, And I think the one thing about college football
is the landscape is constantly changing. I mean, he Brian
Kelly's not even the coach of LSU anymore. So I
think there's just like there's just so much to unpack
here the first part about it. And to be fair,
like I don't have the same like comparable situation, Like

(44:36):
I can't put my mind inside of Jayden Day. I
can't walk in his shoes because I'm not a professional,
you know, NFL player who has had this insane career
in college where I want a Heisman trophy and I
had all these things. So I'm sure he's getting some
really bad advice. I'm assuming that's what it is. I'm assuming,
I hope that's what it is, But like, what's your

(44:59):
end goal here?

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Like that?

Speaker 4 (45:00):
I always try like when when when players get really
mouthy with the media and they get really out, you know,
outburst y, and they they really want to make their
presence felt in some capacity where they do something that
is kind of like, You're like, why are you doing that?

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Why you're saying that.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
I always try to put myself in in that player's mind,
like what's your goal here? And I tried with I
tried that thought exercise in this scenario, and I, for
the life of me, I have no idea what the
end like, what's your end game, Jaden, Because there's two
ways that this could go. Either LSU listens to and

(45:37):
they you know, don't use your number, and everyone at
LSU hates you forever because there's a new player who's
I mean, I don't know if this, you know, the
guy who's gonna be wearing you know, number five next
year's any good. But I'm assuming he's got to be
pretty good if they promised.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Them that number.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
So either all the LSU fans hate you forever and
you're like a parie and an outcast an LSU. Or
the other end game is you've got a season that's
about to start and you're in a legal fight with
your former team or your former school about a number, Like,
so I'm trying to think what, like, what is the
goal here, because when you send a cease and desist

(46:14):
letter like that's a serious thing, like that means you're
getting ready to sue them. And I just I don't
understand why you would try to sue someone for a number.
It just doesn't make sense to me. And you're right,
it comes off as very like who cares it's a number?
Like you're in the NFL, bro Like, It's just it's

(46:35):
a very odd hill to die on, especially with the
season about to start.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
I think that's you know, it's sometimes it's the old
Chappelle when keeping it real goes wrong.

Speaker 7 (46:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
Right, it's a little bit like that where listen, I
do things based on principle a lot of time, but
sometimes that gets you in trouble. You know, where the
prince I get it. I get the principle of it, like, hey, ls,
you told me no one would wear my number, and
now all of a sudden, someone's gonna wear my number.
That's that you're going back on your word. I can
understand where it starts, but where it ends is the problem?

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Exactly right? That yeah, privately, not publicly.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
Right because that's you can tell. And and Jaydon's smart
enough to know he's he's kind of like, that was
my legal team that sent the cease and desist. That
that's not that's not me said.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Right to do it without his consent.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
No, no, no, no, Like that's the thing is like
he was well aware of this, but he's sort of
distancing himself from it because he knows how this lands,
he knows how this looks, and it's it's just a
weird thing. I think LSU is silly how they go
about this as well. So a couple of things to
understand here. So the LSU policy on retiring numbers. Their

(47:50):
policy is that an athlete has to complete his or
her career and then there has to be five years
go by and then they can be nominated to have
their jersey retired the Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's like
the Pro Football Hall of Fame and LSU. It's just
so why do you handle it like that. I would
think if you're gonna retire a number, you just retire

(48:11):
it right away and stuff.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
They did it for Travis Hunter and Shador that's right.
The next year, Yeah, it.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Was immediately, and the other goofy thing about LSU is
this is according to their website, is any number retired
after January first, two thousand and seven. Right, so we're
past that quote does not preclude a current student athlete
in that sport from wearing the jersey number in that

(48:37):
or any other sport, subject to the discretion of the
head coach. So so you wait five years, then the
jersey is retired. Now that it's hanging in the rafters,
that number can still be worn. It's just up to
the head coach whether they give it out or not.
This is the dumbest policy ever. So LSU is goofy
with how they do this, and I think Jade Daniels

(49:00):
just looks completely petty for first, like like standing up
for his jersey to be retired. Uh, it's just a
calamity all the way around. Our guy, Chris Purfet, Technical
Producer extraordinariy, he's got something on this.

Speaker 8 (49:12):
You know, we're we're talking a lot about reforms that
we need to do in college football and everything, and
between this and like, I know you guys brought up
the Dean Sanderson, but I was thinking about, uh, what
happened at USC. Everyone's like, why are you retiring Caleb
Williams numbers. It's like he's not done anything. It's like, yeah,
but USC has a policy if you win a Heisman,

(49:34):
your number gets retired, right. I feel like we need
a standardized system of retiring numbers across college football because
otherwise this is just gonna be total chaos. Like this
as everyone fights for numbers where they want to go,
You're getting guys like asking guys who haven't been there
in like years with their legendary guys like yeah, I
want to I want to wear this number as part

(49:55):
of like my nil deal to come to the school. Like,
maybe we just see the standardize across college football.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Here's the problem with retiring numbers. There's only so many numbers, right,
Like the yank go look at the Yankees Hall of Fame,
Like there's twenty two numbers retired. There's only ninety nine
that you could wear until you get the triple digits.

Speaker 8 (50:15):
I don't even think you will retire a number in
like soccer, you just like have to go to the
legend and ask him for permission to.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Wear it least can't retire retires.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
Is retiring numbers just like really silly at its core?
Like yeah, Like, at the end of the day, your
names in the rafters, you're a championship. You know, usually
everyone retires a number, like there's a championship banner, there's
a Heisman banner, there's a conference championship banner, there's divisional
The number actually, in my opinion, belongs.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
More to the team than the player.

Speaker 4 (50:48):
I understand the nostalgia around certain numbers like Jordan's twenty three, right,
but at the end of the day, it's literally a number,
Like prisoners get numbers too.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
You don't want those numbers retired.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
Like it's just I just I think it at its core,
it feels like a really silly Like I understand there's
a lot of tradition, a lot of pageantry that goes
into it, and that's cool. Sports is all about, you know,
all those types of nostalgic things. I get that, But
now we're having legal fights over it, like it feels
like that is a bridge too far.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Well to me, it's I agree with you. A lot
of it is goofy, and a lot of it gets
watered down. You know. When Nick Collison has his jersey retired,
it's like, what are we doing right?

Speaker 5 (51:31):
Right?

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Like I thought the Chador thing was a little crazy
one year.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Yeah, what was the Uh it was great? Gosh who
hosted the spis that one year where the joke was, uh,
this is not nepotism. It's not because Chador went thirteen
and twelve and almost won the Alamo Bowl or something like.
It was so funny. But uh, yeah, I think that
the whole Jersey retirement thing gets watered down. But it's

(51:58):
supposed to be a pot. I think what it boils
down to is it's really just certain classifications, right, like
you got G five classification or you're a first ballot
Hall of Fame. There's a certain classification you're trying to
get to, and even though the Jersey retirement it's just
like a category. I think it's more so that than anything.

(52:19):
But the way this lands for LSU and Jaden Daniels,
it's not good for anybody. That's the thing is. It's
not good for Jaden Daniels. He looks petty. It's not
good for LSU. They look completely goofy with their whack
and new Jersey retirement thing where it takes five years
to retire the number and you can still wear it.
It makes no sense. It's not good for DJ Pickett,

(52:40):
the sophomore cornerback, because he's like, yeah, I'm still planning
on wearing number five, and he's involved in this whole
story where Jayden doesn't want him to wear the number.
He's still going to wear it, and it's he's got
to play really well. All of a sudden he's under
a spotlight. It's not good for anybody. So it's just
they didn't handle it well. I don't think it means
all Jersey retirements everywhere need to stop or standardized system.

(53:04):
It's just this is supposed to be a positive thing,
and it's the opposite of a positive thing with this
certain story right here.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
I think this is one of those situations where we'll
look back on this story in like two or three
years and be like, I can't believe that we had
a legal battle over this. Like there's just so much
in college football that needs to be cleaned up and fixed,
and we need we have so much attention that deserves
to be spent on so many things that are really

(53:34):
important to growing the game and making the game more
fair and equitable. And you know, want these coaches bouncing
around and these players going all over the place, and
now we're arguing about something that happened four years ago.
Mm hm, and we're still, you know, stuck in the
mud on something, and people are you know, spending their
hard energy and dollars on things that literally of a

(53:57):
for an embroidered number on the back of a jersey
that was four years ago. Like it, it really does.
It really lands poorly, especially if the Commanders. And it
hasn't been a great preseason for Washington. They've dealt with
some injuries, Tunsils out for the year, they're one of
the best offensive linemen, so they've got a lot of
things that they're dealing with as well. And if it

(54:17):
starts poorly, like I feel the same way about the
Patriots situation, everything's quiet on the Verable front right now,
but if they start poorly, all of a sudden, the
vable conversation becomes back, you know, comes back to the mainstream.
No one's gonna talk about this once the season starts,
until the Commanders start losing games, and then someone's gonna

(54:38):
have to be blamed. And this is low hanging fruit.
I'm not saying at all that if the Commanders start,
oh and whatever.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
This is the reason why.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Right.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
But these are the things that get discussed when teams
are losing. When teams are winning, it doesn't matter, nothing
can be you know, everything's hunky dory. But when you're losing,
people will start pulling straight ran of distraction this and
overrated that and this is the type of story that
all of a sudden gets traction if Washington starts slow.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Yeah, it's one of those deals where you said it too.
It reminds me of Kevin Durant arguing with Eggs on X.
You know what I mean, like, why would you care?
Why would you what does it matter to you? And
Kevin Durant is like, oh, oh you called me out
and you've got you know, sixty three followers. Well, I'm
gonna hammer you. It's like, why do you here an

(55:31):
NBA superstar? Why do you care? It feels like that
to me with Jayden Daniels. Much different situation, but a
similar feeling where it's like, Bro, you're in the NFL,
you're a made man, You're the rookie of the year,
you made it to the NFC title Game, best rookie
season ever in NFL history? Do you why do you
care to? And go to these lengths to have your

(55:51):
jersey retired. It's just odd. It's just a very odd story.
And you know, in this day and age, everybody takes
it as personal. Nothing personal at all. Jayden Daniels my
favorite NFL quarterback. It's b Jon Jayden Daniels and Derwin
James my three favorite NFL players right now. So nothing personal.
I love the guy, but this is just a goofy
move and it just lands.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
I hope it doesn't have any impact on Like, I
hope it's just a story we talk about this week
and then we never speak of this ever again.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Yeah, it might be.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
It might be the gay hope. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
It's like DJ Pickett and Jayden Daniels are linked together now.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
I hope the team.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Or like you know, they're both wearing number five in
the in the NFL, and DJ Pickett picks off Jaden
Daniels and this will never go away.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Right that. I don't even know position he played. He
plays defensive back, he's corner.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
Yeah, he's a corner corner. Yeah, that would be funny
if they're playing the same number. Yeah, could be, It's possible,
it could be. Could be the case.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
Yours down the road. All right, He's Jared Smith FSR
betting analyst. I'm Brian no Rich oh with us in
spirit today, not with us, but it'll be back next week,
coming up next oh man. We got some changes over here,
including one hasn't been talked about a whole lot, but
could really change the look of college football in the

(57:11):
not too distant future. We will get that to you
right around the corner. It is countdown right here on
Fox Sports Radio. It is countdown right here on Fox
Sports Radio. All right, We've got some college football changes
to talk about here, Jared. The first part is targeting penalties. Right,
we talked a lot about targeting penalties. The way it's

(57:32):
gonna look in college football this season is if you
get you know, docked. If you get penalized for targeting
in the second half, right, you're kicked out of the
game first offense, you are not suspended for the first
half of the next game. Right, It doesn't carry over
your second offense. You are suspended for the first half

(57:53):
of the next game. So that's the way the rule
has been. And then your third offense again, if this
is in the second half, your third offense, you're suspended
for the entire next game. Wow, I'm okay with this
because if it's your first it's kind of like you
get a mulligan your first defense. Okay, you're not suspended
for the first half of the next game. We'll just

(58:15):
have that you're rejected from that particular game you're playing in.
Happened in the second half, So okay, you get a mulligan,
doesn't carry over the first half next game. But this
is your second offense, so we go back to the
old way and you are suspended for the first half
of the next game. Third offense. It's like, that's hard
to justify. This is just a football deal three times
in a row, and so I have no problem. I'm

(58:37):
okay with this. I would take this over the way
it's been, which is your first offense, you're penalized in
the second half, you're automatically suspended for the first half
of the next game. I don't like that as your
first one. Are you cool with this rule change with targeting? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (58:51):
I think one of the biggest silly things that they
do in college football is suspend like you don't punish
the son for the sins of the father, Like you're
suspending someone for a game the following week for something
they did in the prior game, it just doesn't make
sense logistically. I think it makes sense to remove him

(59:12):
from that specific game. That makes a ton of sense
to me. Yes, you committed a it's like a flagrant foul, right,
like a flagrant two in basketball, Like you're out for
that game. I don't think unless it's like an egregious
thing where you're swinging your helmet around and you're create,
you know, doing something crazy. Like if it's just the
targeting penalty and that's it, I don't think we should

(59:33):
be pushing that suspension to the next game.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Now.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
If it's multiple in the same game, I think that
makes a lot more sense. I think I can get
behind that because you do get the mulligan and you're like,
oh wow, it's kind of like I So I've had moments.
I'm sure we've all had these moments. You're driving your
car and like, you know, the car in front of
you stop short and you just get you know, you
just stop in time, like, oh, I almost got an accident.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Multiple times that's happened. I mean, my lapt happened.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
I'm sure most people you know they they swear, you know,
someone swerves and they have to like avoid and they're like, wow,
I just I just missed getting into an accident. There,
You're gonna be pretty darn careful the rest of the
ride home. You're not gonna drive like an idiot after
he almost get into an accident. So it's kind of
like that near miss, or, as George Carlin say, it's

(01:00:21):
a near hit. But there, now you get the breathe. Okay,
now I can breathe again and play. If you commit
the foul, the same foul within the next ten minute,
you know, in that same half, yes, then you should
be suspended for a game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
But I like the Mulligan idea. I think that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
I also like the fact that conferences can initiate an
appeal I think that makes a lot of sense too,
even though they do review it, you know, they go
to the monitor and review it. I do think sometimes
heat of the moment can overtake certain situations. So I
also like that there's an appeal process for this. I
think these rules that rule change makes a ton of sense.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
I'm fully in supportive it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Okay, how about this one so offensive pass interference, we're
gonna adjust it from fifteen yards to ten yards. If
you needed any more indication that this is all about offense, offense, offense, offense.
This is a great one here. We're gonna we're gonna
decrease it offensive pass interference from fifteen yards to ten yards.

(01:01:18):
If it's fifteen yards defensively, I'm fine with it being
fifteen yards offensively. If anything, I would be in favor of.
And now this is sort of like an offensive change,
offensive minded change. But I think it's ridiculous that defensive
pass interference in college football is just fifteen yards. You're
inviting all sort Yeah, you just throw a bomb down

(01:01:40):
the sideline. If you're the defensive guy and the offensive
guy has any chance to catch this ball, just tackle him.
It's fifty. It's better than giving up fifty. Just give
up fifteen. It should, at least bare minimum be a
twenty yard penalty in college football for defensive pass interference.
I'd be in favor of it being a but if

(01:02:00):
you don't want to go that far, these still are
not professional athletes, So okay, you don't want to make
it a spot foul. It's got to be more than
fifteen yards. That is just too low. So I wouldn't
have tweaked offensive pass interference. If anything, I would have
tweaked defensive pass interference. What do you think about P.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
I agree with that too, I do.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
I think I think OPI it's interesting because they're they're
the same call, but they're very different in terms of
the i'll guess i'll call it. The punishment does not
always fit the crime. Like OPI could be on like
a slant route for five yards and now you're moving

(01:02:39):
back fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
That's tough, you know, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
If you bowl over the defender on a slant route,
whereas where you're what you're describing on the defensive side,
it's it could be a fifty yard bomb and you
get pulled down and it's fifteen yards.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
So off like pass interference, I think is the most
volatile penalty because it rarely is aligned. The penalty rarely
aligns with what the actual play could have resulted in,
very rarely, you know, especially when there's deep balls, and
usually that's when the most pass interference occurs, is you know,

(01:03:13):
deep passes. Now in the NFL, it's spot and I
think I'm okay with that. The OPI is always interesting.
I think offensive pass interference is one of the most
agreed I don't want to say egregious.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
It's one of the most punitive.

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
Penalties to use a double I'll go back to back
on the penalty verbiage there, because man, like you're it's
first of all, it's rarely called, yeah, and when it
is called, it's always in one of those key moments,
and it usually is not as it's penalized more than
what the actual play would have been for, and that

(01:03:47):
I think that for that reason, I think I'm okay
with them reducing it because I don't see OPI call
too often on deep balls, like passes over fifteen yards
down the field.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Very very rarely will a deep ball get called for OPI.

Speaker 4 (01:04:01):
Most of the time the opis and again, they're not
called that often. They're in breaking routes or they're push
off routes, you know, like curl routes where you're trying
to get some separation close to the line of scrimmage,
you know, within ten yards from the defender, and it's
it's a fifteen yard penalty, and it just it's a killer.
It's an absolute killer. So I guess for the offense's sake,

(01:04:24):
I'm okay with it, but if I'm a defensive coordinator,
I absolutely hate this.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Josman, Yeah, maybe it's funny the twist here with offensive
pass interference, it's reduced from fifteen yards to ten yards.
I hate when the offensive player is clearly pushing off
down the field and there's no call whatsoever. The weird
twist is it seems like this reduction would benefit offenses.
But what if you're an official and it's like, well,

(01:04:49):
it's just a ten yard penalty as opposed to fifteen
and that was clearly a push off. Maybe they call
offensive pass interference a little bit more up. It's possible.
I wouldn't hold your breath for it. But I just
hate when it's egregious and they would clearly call it
defensive PI, and it's like, why wouldn't you call it
offensive PI. It's I hate when it just goes uncalled

(01:05:09):
and it's clear as day. It's like, you can't allow
them to push off well and hold the defender at
arm's length away as he tries to haul it in.
But it happens all the time, especially in college. I
hate that part of it. Now we do get the
Madden rule in college football. Here where John Madden. He
always used to say this Jared in the NFL, all

(01:05:31):
these NFL games that he would commentate. He's like, now,
if they call a fair catch, they can attempt to kick.
You know, it's an untied He said.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
That never and it never happened. I think I've seen
it once.

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
It happened a couple of years ago. Dick or the
kicker with the Chargers, did this. Yeah, against the Broncos
in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Though very rare.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
Yeah, it's a fun rule though. A team they can
now in college football, they can choose to attempt a
fair catch kick, right, So you call for the fair
catch and then you get the You get the fair
catch kick where it's an untimed down. The defense would
be at least ten yards away from the spot of

(01:06:12):
the kick, and you can use like a holder and
it's a place kick. It's not, you know, like the
whole thing. It's almost like a kickoff if you will,
and if you make it, then you get the three points.
So that's off of a fair catch. You call for
the fair catch and you get this fair catch kick
where they can't rush you. It's untimed, so I don't know.

(01:06:33):
It could be a fun thing in college football.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
I think if we talk about it once throughout the
course of the season.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
It would be one more I think we do. We
get one instance over a halfion games. Yeah, over so
many games. There's this wind in Fresno or what it's
this fair catch and all of a sudden you're in
field goal regular. We got to get at least one.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Of these this season, right, fun.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
There's definitely there's definitely some rule changes in college sport
that I think are I think we're starting to get
closer and closer to the program. I'm just waiting for
the day that they make a catch two feet. I'm
waiting for the day because I'll be honest, I do
think at this stage it's fair to it's fair.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
To say that these guys are professional athletes.

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
I know that they're young and they're in college technically,
but we're past this point where I'm burying my head
in the sand and not calling these guys professionals. I mean,
they are acting and playing in terms of the way
that they go about their business like professionals.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
These programs are run like businesses.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
So I do like that there's a difference between college
and the NFL, but it does feel like that difference
is shrinking with each passing year.

Speaker 3 (01:07:45):
It does. Yeah, how about the challenge system? Now that
we get this in college football, you get to replay
challenges and if you're right on either of the two,
you get a third one, which I'm alright with that.
How about this too. Up to two sponsor patches are
allowed on jerseys right now. A third patch is allowed

(01:08:06):
in conference championship or postseason games. You got that, Like
it's we're getting to the w n B A or
MLS territory. Right We've got three jersey patches, all with
sponsors on. And also you can, uh, you could use
this on the helmet. It's permitted to be on the helmet.
So we're talking four square inches. It's gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
They're gonna do it on the jersey, but they better
not do it on the helmet. I might renounce my fandom.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
I mean you you'd come aboard right if you If
it's you know, the Nitney Lions helmets, and it just
says twist on it or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
To my stomach.

Speaker 4 (01:08:46):
That happens. Penn State Football presented by Eminem's Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
Right, some of these helmets are I think of Michigan's helmet.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Smacked like a lucky charm sticker on.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
The that's right, yeah, yeah, tricks. We'll keep it short.
I don't know, yeah, but that's gonna happen. We are
not that far away from this.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
Most of professional sports people. If this is this is
about as close as we've got. I mean, the line
between pro and college has never been thinner, never been thinner.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
It's it's very thin right now. By the way, let
me switch gears on you, because we had the Field
of Dreams game this week, right Twins Phillies and uh
so the Field of Dreams game. It goes back to
twenty twenty one and it was an epic game. You
remember that one, Jared where.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
It was the White Sox.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
One, Yeah, White Sox had a walk off against the
the Yankees. That was a lot of fun it was.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
And the next was Tim Anderson.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
I think it was Tim Anderson.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
Yeah wow, how about that memory?

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
Yea very nice. The next year it was the Cubs
beating the Reds and it was highlighted by the father
son moment where Ken Murphy Junior and senior. They were,
as I call it, playing catch?

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
You play?

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Can we can? We have a common understanding right here.
Anyone who says have a catch is a weirdo. Can
we put that into law or do you want to
sign off on that? Who says, hey, you want to
go out and have a catch? Did anyone say that
to you when you were young, Jared, you said you
want to go play catch? We were playing catch? We
play catch. We're not having a catch? What are we

(01:10:21):
about to drink tea? With English accents over? What are
we doing? Who says catch fish?

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Yeah? Right?

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Did you do your friends say hey you want to
play catch? That's what my friend said.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
No, I think they were.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
I don't remember.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
To be honest with you, I I felt like I
was more in the football realm. My dad and I
used to play it used to play catch. See there
there you go with with a baseball. I think in
football it was more do you want to run routes?
That's what I used to say. I want to run
some routes with my friends. Yeah, I guess that is
kind of a weird. I think the English language, when

(01:10:58):
you really break down the English language, there's an Instagram
account that does it really well. He like goes through
like what a what the how it should be pronounced,
and then he goes to like a weird word and
then it's pronounced a different way and he's like, no,
that's not how it's pronounced, and you're like, wait a minute,
he just did it with the other one. The English
language has a lot of quirks. That is just I

(01:11:18):
don't like you. You and you said it because in
England they have all these different weird ways to say things.
I personally love British accents in their vernacular. I think
it's hilarious. But yeah, that's a uh, that's that's a
weird one. I guess technically you can't.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Yeah. I never thought about football versus baseball. It was
play catch both times for me, Like we're just throwing
the ball around, we're playing catch. I like running routes.
That was always what I running routes. That's a good
I like that one. Yeah, run some routes.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
Yeah, let's run some routes.

Speaker 3 (01:11:55):
Yeah. I've never never as a kid, I never heard anybody,
not one and say you want to have a catch.
I'd be like, what have what?

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
Who are you to like, we're going for team time.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
That catch. Yeah, I just I don't get it. Man,
I don't understand. But I just read that blurb about
the field of a Dreams game and I just had
to bring that up.

Speaker 4 (01:12:18):
I think the field of Dreams games lost some luster.
I think it's to me, it's it was a one
and done. I think you did it once Costner came out.
I remember it was the coolest moment, and they've done
it every year since. I feel the same way about
the Little league game. I think you play so many
baseball games throughout the course of the season. I think
getting these guys out of a routine is unfair to them.

(01:12:39):
I think the whole point of baseball is routine. Every
day you show up to the ballpark at the same time,
everyone goes into their routine.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
And it's such a volume sport.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
It's really hard to throw these guys off their rocker
and send them to freaking Iowa in the middle of
nowhere for a game, or to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for one
night to go play a game. And I understand why
they do it. It's sponsorship, it's money, it's it's you know,
they're trying to hype up a random game in August.
But I think it it just it's it's lost the

(01:13:09):
luster after you do it once. I think those are
one and done's and you pop the you pop the
champagne cork.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
You can't RePOP it. Like that's it. It's done.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
And that's one, in my opinion, one of those scenarios
where I'd be fine if the gimmick games were one
and done and then we never really did them again.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
I disagree with you on this one. I'll push back
on this one because for a season to be one
hundred and sixty two games, you know, this is such
a long season. I'm all for, Hey, we got a
game in London right now, like, this is different. Hey
we gotta field a Dreams game. This is different. I'm

(01:13:46):
all for that. I'm all for spicing it up, you know,
like I want some things that are different and unique
and something to look forward to. Now. The thing that
I didn't like about how they did it to me,
it's more about how they did it than just doing it.
Where Netflix, I totally missed it. I was like, oh, shoot,
that's now. It wasn't promoted like crazy, and you can't

(01:14:09):
have it where it's the Phillies and the Twins. Where
do you do it?

Speaker 4 (01:14:12):
That's also you need I see, I agree that I
like a change up.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
I just think, now we've done it, what six five,
six years.

Speaker 4 (01:14:19):
In a row, let's do another change up, Like, let's
change it up again and do something else. Because you've
done the Field of Dreams game now for five straight years.
It doesn't have the same it doesn't have the same
cool factor. After you've done it five straight years and
you're sending the freaking Phillies and the Twins.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
That's the Phillies. You know, the Phillies are what now
a little over five hundred? There are you know? Six
seven games after this final there were seven games above
five hundred. Phillies won by the way, seven to one. Twins.
That loss on Thursday, it dropped them to sixty and
sixty three. Who is going out of their way to
watch the Twins in the Field of Dreams game? If

(01:14:58):
you've got know you've got the Dodgers in this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Yeah, the flex the Dream game.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
Absolutely, you just picked up Terrek Scooble. They're as hated
as they've ever been. Imagine if it's Terrek school Schooble
pitching in that game. If it worked out, you know,
timing wise, Let's.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Play a game on an aircraft carrier next.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
That would be fun, right, I'd be totally fun. I'm
all for doing things water. Probably the season is so long,
you have to do unique things.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
There's something else they can do.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
Because I like, we've done the Field of dream There's
gotta be something else, Like we gotta think people. You
gotta you can't go back to the well every year
and do the same thing you got. If you want
to be creative and outside the box, then go back
into the brainstorming lab and be creative.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
I just think that if you've got the right teams
in it, and you have the added element of, hey,
this game, the setting is different, the feel of it
is different. They're gonna watch. You're telling me, we're not
watching Dodgers Yankees and Schooble is pitching, like we're we're
watching that game. It's a field of dreams. We're not
watching the Twins.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
Did they do London this year? Did I miss that?

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know that
they did.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
I don't think they did.

Speaker 4 (01:16:10):
I know they did the opening in Japan, right, I
think they did that again her career somewhere overseas.

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
I don't know if they did. I don't think they
did again.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
I don't know. I don't remember complaining this year. I
normally complain where it's like.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
Well, they did Mexico, I know that because the total
was like a million runs. I'm okay with them doing
international series or doing these weird unique games. I just
think we need to change it up. I think after
doing the Field of Dreams games once, it was great,
it was cool, they did it. The first game was awesome.
All right, nowlet's do something else.

Speaker 3 (01:16:43):
I just think that not to do a whole thing
on how baseball is getting it wrong, but they do
get it. I don't like starting the season International League
totally where it's on it like it's like all your
doing for your audience is planning the seed that Hey,
life still goes on. You miss this game. Guess what happened.

(01:17:07):
You still woke up, you still went to work, you
still lived your life. You can miss more games, right, Like,
why would you plant that seed? As a league? That's
the dumbest seed do plant. And that's what they do
when they have these goofy start times when they're international.
All right, he's Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian
No coming up next. Prop it up. We'll look at
the prop betting market. Get you a couple of picks.

(01:17:29):
That's on the way. It is countdown right here on
Sports Radio. With the iHeartRadio app, you can stream us
wherever you happen to be. Catch us in all of
our Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven
in the new and improved iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox
Sports Radio in the app to stream us live all day,

(01:17:49):
every day, and be sure to select Fox Sports Radio
as one of your presets in the iHeart app so
it'll always pop up at the top of your screen.
All right, let's do this prop it as Okay, the
prop betting market shared. We start with you with something
you'd like.

Speaker 4 (01:18:08):
Well, I've been having some fun with baseball and obviously
been on football props. Yet I'll get you some football
props at some point. I'll also give you some player
futures at some point before we get the season started
in the NFL. But I've been having fun in Major
League baseball lately betting the daily strikeout Leader props.

Speaker 3 (01:18:25):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
So obviously, every single day there's.

Speaker 4 (01:18:28):
A fresh crop of starting pitchers, and they all have
various strikeout numbers. Usually they range between four and a
half and seven and a half on the high side,
like a Miserowski today is going to be in the
seven and a half eight and a half range, even
against the Dodgers. But the daily strikeout Leader market's interesting
because you really get some some fun long shots.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
And I've hit a couple of really good ones.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
I hit a Payton totally at twelve to one when
he had that crazy strikeout game against the Athletics.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
I hit a Logan Henderson at ten to one a couple.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
Of weeks ago. So these are really fun. I've got
three guys today that I really like. Jesus Lozardo for
the Phillies, I've got he's at eight to one. I've
got Mackenzie Gore for the Rangers. He's at sixteen to one.
I really like that one because he actually won. He
was the Daily Strikeout Leader last week. I had a

(01:19:15):
nine to one prop on him last week. He faces
the Athletics today, and then the other one I like
is Ian Seymour Tampa Bay Rays pitchers at sixteen to
one against the Orioles. His prop is six and a
half today two. So I would bet all these guys
over with their strikeout props. Ian Seymour over six and
a half, Mackenzie Gore over six and a half, and
it looks like Lozardo is also six and a half

(01:19:37):
against the Twins.

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
Okay, all right, So I'm gonna look at this Orioles
raise game, Kyle Bradish. He's going for the Baltimore Orioles.
I like under four and a half strikeouts for him today.
I've gone to the well on this so often, Jared,
The Rays they strike out the least amount of times
in MLB by a lot, right like Arizona the Diamondbacks

(01:20:01):
are number two in the league at least strikeouts. The
Rays have struck out thirty five fewer times than the
number two team. They just don't strike out. And you're
going up against the pitcher who is not a strikeout artist.
He's got more innings pitched than strikeouts this season. Kyle Bradish, So,
I like under Bradish's strikeout prop of four and a
half because the Rays they just do a good job

(01:20:23):
of not striking out. I typically go with Raisin Jays.
I look at who the opposing starting pitcher is. With
Raisin Jay's games, and a lot of times Jared not
all the time, obviously, but consistently they're going under that
starting pitcher's strikeout prop. So I'll take under four and
a half with Bradish today.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (01:20:43):
I mean when I so when, I'll give you a
glimpse bind the curtain of how I do strikeout props.
There's there's one website, Fangraps, which is tremendous and if
you're good at navigating the Fangraps website, there's a section
called pitch level Data where they give you the plate
discipline of all the teams and they'll tell you the

(01:21:04):
chase rate, the O swing percentage, which is the percentage
of pitches of batter swings at outside the strike zone,
and the contact percentage. Also the CSW percentage, which is
the called plus swinging strike percent I use those numbers exclusively.

Speaker 2 (01:21:17):
And Tampa and Toronto.

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
Are two of the highest contact rates in the league.
Actually they are one and one and three Tampa's one,
Toronto's three.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Arizona is also up there as well.

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
So those are just great tools to use to help
assist with your strikeout prop.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
I like it, man, I like it. Very good stuff.
Get the tape in the middle of the glasses and everything.
It's beautiful stuff. All right, coming up? Oh, what's going on?
Happy Saturday to you. Hope all is fantastic. No rich
O with us today, but he'll be back next week.
I think he had to attend a wedding. And you know,

(01:21:53):
keg stands the whole thing, you know, or better.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Wedding now than in football season.

Speaker 3 (01:21:58):
That's right, get it out of the way, right. I
saw a funny joke. It was just like a meme
or something. It was about Notre Dame football. It was
something like, all right, get all the birthday parties, all
the weddings out of the way five weeks from now,
Like I don't know you basically the football season has started.
That sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:22:16):
Someone's planning a wedding right now for the like there's
like three or four days in October November that are
just like you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Know, elite college football days.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
There's some poorchemo right now that's booking a flight to
a wedding for that weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
I feel it's funny. One of my one of my
good friends, we did radio in New York a long
time ago, Bruce Jacobs, but he lives in Phoenix now,
and he got married. It was Notre Dame was facing
Michigan and hey, I swear he's a you know, a
huge sports guy. And he was like, I'm sorry, man,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So you know you're

(01:22:53):
doing the I remember one year another good buddy got
married and it was a Notre Dame college foot ball
playoff game. It oh, I'm sitting there with my you know,
my phone watching it's in the reception and the whole thing.
But uh yeah, it was kind of crazy of these
people like you gotta watch out for these wives that
win a plan of wedding dates during football games, like that's.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
You're married to very gal. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
So here, so here are the two days that I
had so I track all the game of the year line.
So one of the sports books here in town puts
out lines for games months from now, and it's very
you know, I'll bring it up. I'll you know, mention
the lines when we get to these games in October November,
because it's interesting to see how much the lines move.
Here are the games on October seventeenth. Tennessee, Alabama. That's

(01:23:40):
a big one. Oh yeah, Miami Florida State, big points
bread but obviously big rivalry as well. Ohio State Indiana.
Anyone remember that game from last year in the Big
Ten championship.

Speaker 3 (01:23:49):
Amazing Like Mendoza got smacked right away and was like
incredible games. Yeah that bit.

Speaker 4 (01:23:55):
Yeah sure in Bloomington, Notre Dame at BYU, big game
for your Irish by He is not an easy place
to play.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
We know, we love bear Bachmeyer. It's gonna be a
fun game.

Speaker 3 (01:24:03):
Actually Blackmeyer, Oh my gosh, I don't hate anybody's game
more than bear Back. By the way, he was recruited
by Notre Dame. He was almost Notre Dames quarterback, which
would give me nightmares. Oh I hate his style, like listen,
he's a very physical runner. But his passing game, oh
it is Maybe it's his number. It's the forty seven number.

(01:24:26):
People don't like the number. I can't I can't do it,
can't go in Nebraska. That'll be a big points spread,
but still fun game.

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
Kansas State Kansas obviously not a huge you know game
in terms of the playoff, but big rivalry in the
Sunflower State and then Michigan Penn State. Massive game for
my nitny Lyons, probably their toughest test of the year
on the road at Michigan. That's one of the really
only tough Big ten games that is. That's just October seventeenth.
How about November seventh, Georgia, Addo, miss I don't remember

(01:24:55):
that playoff.

Speaker 2 (01:24:56):
Game from last year. I do LSU Alabama.

Speaker 4 (01:24:59):
How about the mister Kiffin welcoming in the Crimson tie
to Baton Rouge BYU Utah. The Holy War Literally, it's
like a basically a religion out there in Utah between
those two teams.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
Michigan Michigan State.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
Nice rivalry, Ohio State Oregon kind of a big deal,
a big game. And then Notre Dame Miami another huge
game for your Irish. So those two days, I might
go to that one jar that would be a good
game to go to November seventh, October seventeenth, I would say, though,
if you have a wedding plan for those two days.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
I'm sorry, I'm just I don't know what to say.

Speaker 3 (01:25:31):
Who does Penn State play October seventeenth?

Speaker 4 (01:25:33):
Again, they it's the Michigan game. That's their I think
that's their biggest game of the year in terms of
like they're probably the only game they're at underdog in
all year.

Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
Is that the game where the Nitney Lions break out
the Nabisco helmet patch? You know? Is that the game? Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
The remember the scene in what's the movie?

Speaker 4 (01:25:52):
The Ricky Bobby movie talladeg Nits where he's got the
fig newtonshield?

Speaker 7 (01:25:59):
Yes, I love this dangerous Yeah right, yeah, we're not that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
We're not that far of fig Nowtons. You know. I
can't quite see around it. Yeah, all right, So let's
talk some Lakers, shall we. So the Lakers they have
been sold again. There's being passed around over here. So
Mark Walter he sells the Lakers nine months after he
acquired the Lakers, right, He sold him to Bob Iger,

(01:26:26):
former Disney CEO, and Josh Kushner, who is a venture capitalist.
And you look at Mark Walter. In nine months he
made two point five billion dollars by just swapping out
the ownership rights to the Lakers. This was Ramona Shelbourne
on ESPN this listen. I think you got to hear
it from another voice right, Like sometimes it just jogs

(01:26:49):
your attention span. Over here's Ramona talking about this sale.

Speaker 9 (01:26:52):
You know, Mark Walter purchased the Lakers just last year.
That went through in twenty twenty five and was approved
by the the governors at ten billion dollars. So from
October of last year to right now, he just made
two and a half billion dollars on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
He made two.

Speaker 3 (01:27:09):
Point five billion dollars in less than a year by
just acquiring then selling the Lakers. I think we missed
out on an opportunity, Jared. We should have been the ones. Yeah,
just scraped together ten billion dollars. Rich Hornberger former you
know NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
He's got the money in his couch cushion problem.

Speaker 3 (01:27:24):
Absolutely, we could have been the Lakers ownership group and
sold him for an easy two point five billion dollar profit.
Right here, It's amazing, Like, I get why you would
do this, I understand it. But if you think this
is the Los Angeles Lakers, it's an iconic sports brand
and they've been sold twice within a like a nine

(01:27:45):
month span, it's just weird to me. Where this is
kind of like they're in friends with benefits territory. Yeah,
it was like a sports version of that where you're
not there for the long haul. It's not a committed thing.
It's just like a fling. It was a fling for
Mark Walter with the Lakers. He had a fling with
the Lakers. That blows my mind.

Speaker 4 (01:28:08):
Is owning a professional sports franchise the biggest status flex
in like today's just because it's hard to get in.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
It's one thing to have the money.

Speaker 4 (01:28:17):
Tons of people have the money to buy a sports franchise,
but you have to get through the process and the
owners have to approve you, and it's it's like a club.

Speaker 2 (01:28:27):
It's it's the it's really.

Speaker 4 (01:28:28):
One of the more high profile, highly exclusive clubs on
the planet. Yeah, So it is interesting that you would
want to flip it literally like it's a like it's
a vacation rental and you're trying to you know, make
a quick buck, get the passive income and move on.
I I don't I don't understand the thought process behind
it unless there is some other thing that this that

(01:28:51):
you know, Walter wants to buy.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
I don't know this.

Speaker 4 (01:28:55):
It'd be one thing if it was like the Rays
or you know, a lesser team, but the Lakers. It
really there's got to be something to the story.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
That we're missing here.

Speaker 3 (01:29:06):
Yeah, and there's like, uh, there's we're looking into Mark
Walter and he had some debts to pay off.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
And all this stuff is always follow the money.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
Yeah, I might have something to do with it, but
I mean he's still gonna be making money. He owns
the Lakers, you know what I mean, Like you sell
it for a two point five billion dollar profit now,
but over time, and I mean you're coming out on
the losing end of that thing. So I don't know.
Maybe it had something to do with that, with all
that you know, mumbo jumbo and you know, re liquid

(01:29:36):
dating and I don't even know what.

Speaker 4 (01:29:37):
I guarantee you that there is some line items somewhere,
either in his estate or somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
For tax reasons.

Speaker 4 (01:29:44):
He had to have because you don't just sell the
Lakers like they're an asset. They are something that you
keep and it appreciates over time. You don't just flip
it like again, it's like a house rental. There's gotta
be something. There's gotta be something with his financials that said, listen, dude,
you can't keep this.

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
You got it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
That's what I think it will get Chris Prophett in
a second. But that's where I think that it's just
I hear it's an offer offer he couldn't refuse, you know,
like he got a godfather offer. And it's like did
he did he? He got it in the moment, But
is it a godfather offer? A few like, okay, you

(01:30:21):
own the Lakers for the next decade, that's all of
a sudden, not a godfather offer anymore. Chris prophet or
technical producer extraordinary, He's got something.

Speaker 8 (01:30:28):
Yeah, So this was this was kind of underreported as
part of this with Mark Walter is that And I
had seen the article a few times, like earlier, and
I know, I think I think it was the New
York New York Post too, uh reupt it. But Mark
Walter is actually under investigation by the FBI, and before
this sale happened, there was like a seizure of his
phones and uh computer, I believe yeah, yeah, I'll hear

(01:30:53):
last less than a month ago, so this would I
believe this was in July or June or so. He
basically had some electron on ex sees by the FBI.
There's some investigation ongoing into his finances. So I I'm
kind of putting a little bit of two and two
together here. This feels like this is kind of a
dump off in case anything might be coming up. I

(01:31:13):
don't want to speculate too much, but it is definitely
the timing. The timing definitely raises a lot of questions.

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
It's like a dump off pass. You know, there was
some pass rush Chris in his face and he just
got it to his running back checked down. Yeah, right,
this is a.

Speaker 8 (01:31:28):
And also you know, going to a Kushner, who are
you know, very close with you know, the current sitting president.

Speaker 3 (01:31:34):
Well, and that was the whole FIFA thing right where you.

Speaker 8 (01:31:37):
Know, Josh Kushner was one of those guys who was
trying to do that private investment plan with FIFA.

Speaker 3 (01:31:42):
Yeah, and it fell through. This stat is crazy. Shout
out to Yahoo Sports. The two point five billion dollar
increase in the Lakers sale just the sale value alone,
right like that that increase, that difference. He bought him
for ten, he sold him for twelve point five. So
that two point five billion dollar increase achieved in just
nine months is more than any NBA team had ever

(01:32:05):
sold for before twenty nineteen, so we're just talking twenty
nineteen and the twenty twenties. Before that, no team had
been sold for two point five billion dollars. Wow, and
that was just the increase the profit with what Mark
Walter got out of owning the Lakers for just nine months.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
That's for him.

Speaker 4 (01:32:26):
I guess if I can make two and a half
bill in a month or two months, then sure, yeah,
I guess I would sign up for that.

Speaker 3 (01:32:34):
By the way, while we're talking about the NBA, Oh yeah,
absolute ROI to the nth degree. ROI to the nth
You know, it just shortened it there. Opening When you
talk about the NBA and how they screw up stuff
a lot like it's a joke that they've they're still
looking into the Kawhi Leonards. Yes, he's got paid under
the table. Just do something about it, fine, can you?
Can you please? So we hammer them when they're stupid,

(01:32:56):
I think we got to applaud them when they get
something right. Jared, look at the trip header for opening
night of the NBA. This is October twentieth, So we
start off Celtics at the Pistons. So you get two
teams in the east, right, Pistons had the best record
in the East, Celtics no Jalen Brown. So it's like,

(01:33:16):
all right, what do the Celtics look like? Here we
got Tatum back, you know what's gonna what's going on?
What the powers in the East? How do they look?
Then right after that you get Jalen Brown's new team
and Lebron. The Sixers are at the Knicks. That's the
next game of it. And then you have the nightcap
Thunder at the Spurs. That is a fantastic triple header.

(01:33:39):
The only thing you could look at is say, I
don't know that Celtics Pistons is a marquee matchup. Like
your selling point is no Jalen Brown. Maybe you could
have done better than that. But Sixers Knicks Thunder Spurs
opening night. That's a pretty good run. That's a good
little docket you got going on right there.

Speaker 4 (01:33:59):
Usually, so usually when we're in the months between October
and January, the NBA is an afterthought for me. However,
I will make an exception because it's a Tuesday night
in October. There's no football on that night, and there
might be a matching game. But that's okay, right, right right,
And I need an excuse, so I posted this this week.

(01:34:19):
It finally came, Brian. I ordered when the Knicks won
the championship. I ordered the official team hat.

Speaker 2 (01:34:25):
It finally came.

Speaker 4 (01:34:26):
It's been two months, but it finally came this week.
So I need an excuse to wear it. So that
will be my night. I'm gonna take Tuesday and I'm
gonna take the night off work. I'm gonna go to
Actually its four o'clock, so i'll be like the evening
off work, take the afternoon evening off work, and I'm
gonna go to some local watering hole. I don't know
where yet. We'll figure it out in October and I'm

(01:34:48):
gonna wear that hat. And I'm gonna watch the Knicks
play the Sixers on Opening Night, and I hope they
kick Lebron's teethed in. They're four and a half point favorite.
By the way, if you're interested there you go betting
that game.

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
Now. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:34:58):
Wow, it got lines and everything, and lines are up.
That's a good thing with Boston Detroit, so you get
the Celtics Pistons. It's at three pm Eastern time. It's
lunchtime if you're on the left coast over there. Yeah,
and then it's all in the whole day ball. Yeah. Yeah,
we got hoops galore on Tuesday. And that's another one.
You're not doing this on Monday where it's Monday night football,

(01:35:19):
not Thursday night football. Like, steer clear of the NFL.
They are the king, they're the goliath. Just be smart,
you know, don't don't wear your string bikini when you're
not in bikini shape right now, and you're gonna be
around supermodels. Like that's a bad move.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
That is a great.

Speaker 7 (01:35:36):
The NFL is the Giselle Buncheon of supermodels and we're
walking around, you know, wearing a grubby T shirt trying
to compete with You can't compete with that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
You cannot. So I agree, put it on a Tuesday night.
Great idea.

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
And it's one of these things too. College football hasn't
learned this lesson yet. You know, some of these commissioners
are like, we could put our college football playoff games
against the NFL. You shouldn't do that. You should not
do that.

Speaker 4 (01:36:03):
There's enough time on the sports calendar in January for
you to space all that out. You don't need to
compete with the NFL. It's just it doesn't make sense,
and you're hurting your face. You're hurting us the fans. Now,
with the NBA, it is a little bit different because
they're playing a different sport and they're you know, there's
a ven diagram, and obviously there's a lot of overlap

(01:36:24):
in the NBA NFL ven diagram, but there's way more
overlap i think in the college football NFL than diagram
because it's just it's the same sport.

Speaker 3 (01:36:33):
Absolutely, Yeah, but you got there's nothing wrong if you're
the NBA, if you're college football. Some of the powers
that be they look at it as like cowering to
the NFL. No, it's just being smart. They're the lion
in the jungle. You're not like, just know where you stand.
You don't want to go head ahead with that. Yeah,
you're like a dough Okay, Like you're not going ahead

(01:36:58):
to head with the lion.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
You are our food, you are prey. You are not
the predator in this scenario.

Speaker 3 (01:37:04):
That's right, all right. He's Jared Smith FSR betting analyst.
I'm Brian No coming up next a monstrous While we're
talking lions, a lion's share of the touches this season
could be really interesting. From a fantasy standpoint, a prop standpoint.
We'll get to that right around the corner. This is
countdown right here on Fox Sports Radio. It is countdown

(01:37:26):
right here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay. So, if you're
looking for a running back in the NFL that will
probably get a ton of touches this season, Dolphins running
back Devon a Chan might be your guy. This is
his head coach, Jeff Haffley. He was a guest on
the Rich Eisen Show recently, and this is what he

(01:37:47):
said about how many touches his man a Chan might
get on a game to game basis. Check this out.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
I just gave a heads up this morning and told
him you better be in good shape because I told
there might be some games where I have to pick
him up and carry him back.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
In the locker room because he's gonna be so tired.

Speaker 1 (01:38:01):
And I told him I don't ever want to see
one of these head taps all year. And he looks
me right in the eye and said, you'll never get
that head tap for me. I said, don't worrybody, After
you touch ball forty forty five times, I might have.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
To pick you up and I'll carry you back into
the locker.

Speaker 3 (01:38:13):
Room forty to forty five touches in a game, Jared,
And you might think this is sort of like off
season coach speak, and you know, sometimes we get drunk
with optimism over here. But look at the Dolphins. Who
are they giving the ball to? Exactly? Are there gonna
be games where a Chan gets a ton of touches? Yeah?

(01:38:34):
There will. He's their best offensive threat they don't have.
It's like a instead of a who's who of wide receivers,
it's a who that's what they have at receiver right now, exact.
So a Chan is gonna get a ton of touches.
So you think about that from either a fantasy perspective
or we cover the sports betting angle over here. But

(01:38:56):
prop bets, if you're looking at catches, receiving yard yards,
rushing yards season long prop bets, I think all is
on the table for a Chan this season.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
Nine to seventy four and a half was the latest
rushing yard number I saw. You might get that in
the first half of the season if if he gets
forty touches a game.

Speaker 3 (01:39:16):
Yeah, thirteen to fifty last season, Jared, Right, like, thirteen
to fifty, that's.

Speaker 4 (01:39:20):
Yeah, three hundred and five total touches if you count
the sixty seven receptions on eighty six seven. Chris incredible
year for him last year, and that was without Tyreek
Hill and with a ton of offensive line injuries.

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
So a lot of.

Speaker 4 (01:39:36):
Times you could write the leading indicator for what a
team's strategy is typically is their first or second draft pick.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
Like it kind of points you in the north Star
direction of where this franchise is going. Well.

Speaker 4 (01:39:49):
In the first round of this year's draft, the Dolphins
took the biggest offensive tackle maybe in mankind history, Gaydon Proctor.
He's like three hundred and sixty pounds. He's enormous. So
if that is an indicator of the rebuild process and
where Miami's focus is heading into this season, then yeah,
I think running the ball and allowing Malik willis to

(01:40:09):
because when you watch and I watched a little bit
of the game last night, he certainly looks like a
guy who can play the position. Now, I don't want
to like overreact, I don't want to go crazy with preseason.
I think again, when you're watching preseason, you're looking for readiness,
and you're looking for spunk and excitability, Like, does this
guy look like he's ready to play, And I thought,

(01:40:29):
you know, some of the rookies certainly fit that category.
I thought Jayalen Daniels, the not Jayden Daniels, Jylon Daniels,
the other Daniels. I thought he looked good for Tampa
last night. I thought Milke Wallis played well. He made
it a few nice throws. Caleb Douglas, the rookie receiver,
made a really nice catch, and I think overall, this
is a Miami offense that has some pieces that excite me. Now,
the problem is they're rebuilding everything on both sides, so

(01:40:52):
it might take some time to get up to speed. Well,
when you're getting up to speed, the best thing to
do is to be safe and to be secure, and
I think giving the ball to your best player is
the sharpest way to do that. So I certainly expect
him to get a ton of carries. I expect the
offensive line to be active early. They need themselves to
be healthy. And I think Malik willis like, I'm not

(01:41:15):
I'm not throwing the baby out at the bathwater. Yet,
I'm giving him a chance to succeed. This is the
first time, you know, he's been a backup for I
think three years. This is the first time he's had
the opportunity to really be the guy, and I'm interested
to see what it looks like because the moments where
he filled in for Jordan Love, he had some moments
in Green Bay, like, he had some games where he

(01:41:36):
looked really good, but the offense wasn't designed for him.
I think the skill set of what the Packers offense does,
which is spread it out with Jordan Love, throw it
down the field, that's not what Malik Willis is good at.
So now you have an offense that's specifically designed for him.
You clearly have a head coach that's willing to give
the best running back, the best player, a ton of
carries to take the pressure off the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
I'm not saying that they're going to.

Speaker 4 (01:41:58):
The playoffs this year, Brian, but I'm in intrigued with
this offense because I do think Willis and Ashane have
a chance to at least play to sum ceiling.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
Yeah, I think that Malik Willis won't be a disaster
that I would just start right there. How good he'll
be this season specifically, I don't think it's gonna be
great because he's just not surrounded by great talent to
throw to. The Dolphins picked up Jalen Tolbert from the
the Cowboys. They picked up two two at well from

(01:42:27):
the Rams. And then it's a bunch of rookies. Malik
Washington was a holdover, he's been there, but and then
it's rookies. It's Chris Bell, looks like Douglas from Texas
Tech's Kevin Coleman junior from Missouri, Like those are their guys,
and it's like, look, maybe Douglas or Chris Bell emerges,
but yea, is it gonna be like a star studded
true wide receiver one out of the gate. Like, no,

(01:42:50):
it's not going to be that. So they're gonna rely
on a chan a ton And so you look at
some of these prop numbers you mentioned it where it's
in the realm of like nine to seventy five and
a half rushing yards.

Speaker 2 (01:43:03):
And I don't like betting overs on season line.

Speaker 3 (01:43:06):
I know it's tough.

Speaker 4 (01:43:06):
That's one that I look the over on for sure,
because of volume. I think with most of these props
it's games played. Like if you play, what the touches
do is they is they cap the number by like
twenty five percent based on what your actual projection is
because they expect you to miss games. So if he
plays in sixteen or seventeen games, he's a thousand yard back,
no doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:43:26):
That's the thing to me is I think it's a
lot harder to take the unders on a chan because
outside of injury, I don't think you're getting home Like
the touches are gonna be there, the volume is gonna
be there. They're gonna rely on him because they don't
have much else to rely on. So outside of he
sustains an ankle injury and he's out for eight games,

(01:43:49):
I don't think your unders are cashing. He had thirteen
fifty in terms of rushing yards last season. He had
eight rushing touchdowns on you could shop around, but on
DraftKings it's five and a half. It's his touchdown mark
right here, and it's plus one thirty to the over.
He had eight last season. He gotta get to six
this season. They're gonna rely on the guy. So outside

(01:44:12):
of injury, man, you tell me you want to lay
minus won fifty five on under five and a half.
Rushing touchdowns for.

Speaker 4 (01:44:18):
Agent, touchdowns are so fluky too, like the I personally
like my strategy with season long props is I start
at the top and I try to find the guys.
Like last year, I thought Saquon was the obvious choice
because he had such an unbelievable season the year prior,
right when he was the Offensive Player of the Year.
He goes, you know, did their thing. I thought to myself,

(01:44:42):
there's no way you're repeating that. And the number is
just insanely high, like it was like twelve eleven hundred,
twelve hundred yards last year. I kind of feel that
way about Jonathan Taylor this year, where it was such
a good year last year and the Colts caught lightning
in a bottle with Daniel Jones and it was like
an explosion.

Speaker 2 (01:45:01):
Well now he has to repeat that and his numbers
twelve twenty four and.

Speaker 4 (01:45:04):
A half like that, that's a really that's a high
freaking number for And I know Jonathan Taylor is great
and he can absolutely eclipse it. But I typically start
at the top and work my way down. Then when
I get to that you know, beefy middle kind of
where a Shane is, That's when I'll look to all Right,
it's all about games played. It has nothing to do
with the number itself, because the numbers modest enough to

(01:45:25):
where it's not about the average, it's about games played.
Whereas I could see a world where Jonathan Taylor plays
all seventeen games and still goes under twelve twenty four
and a half. That's an insanely high number. He has
to basically average one hundred yards almost every game.

Speaker 2 (01:45:37):
It's a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:45:38):
So I think that's that's kind of the strategy I
employ when it comes to season long props, and then
the further down the list, I go, like when we
get to the really bottom of the barrel guys, then
it's about usage. Then I really handicap the usage. Like
when you're handicapping guys that are kind of in that
maybe RB two tier, or maybe they're fringe starters, they're
kind of you know, you know guys, you know, guys

(01:46:01):
that are gonna be part of a committee. That's when
I'll handicap the usage and some of the more minute
things when it comes to you know, season long props
or rushing props. But guys at the top and guys
in that kind of middle tier, it's it's games played.
It's games played. And I think as long as Asian
gets to fifteen or sixteen games. I just don't see
a world He's not a thousand yard back.

Speaker 3 (01:46:21):
I yeah, right, That's where I'm at too. The thing,
I think it's really hard to predict injuries and foresee them.
But there are some times where you know, I look
at a guy like Christian McCaffrey, where he had a
monstrous workload last season, and he's been a guy who's
been consistently banged up, and so you look at his

(01:46:42):
season long rushing prop, it's very similar to a chance, right,
A Chan's right around nine seventy four, nine seventy five, right,
Christian McCaffrey's at nine forty nine. So you got to
get to the nine p fifty mark if you're taking
the over, I go under there. I would go under
there as well. I just I don't know. I can't
bank on him being blessed with great health for a

(01:47:03):
second straight season.

Speaker 2 (01:47:04):
No, especially when they're gonna rely on six under.

Speaker 4 (01:47:08):
It's like it's just like closer to sixty that they
that all of the props, every single one go under.

Speaker 2 (01:47:14):
So you have you better have a darn good reason
to bet the over on some of these.

Speaker 3 (01:47:17):
No doubt, No doubt, but I think that sometimes, especially
with the running back market, with season rushing yards, there
just seems to be this trend of like I just
hit all unders and uh yeah, I'm gonna make a profit.
And that's fine. But unless you're betting every single one
and you're just let's say you take I don't know,
three to five season long rushing prop bets, right, rushing yards,

(01:47:41):
I think, yeah, they're gonna be If you're taking unders
in all five, you're gonna have a couple of duds
in there, right, Like it depends on who you're picking specifically.

Speaker 4 (01:47:50):
Yeah, So I just looked this up because Connor Allen
works for this four for four Football does a great
job with these season long props.

Speaker 2 (01:47:56):
It's it's a fantasy site.

Speaker 4 (01:47:58):
So the under last year, I'll give you the percentages
for the unders last year. So receiving yards, sixty eight
percent receivers last year went under their season long number.

Speaker 3 (01:48:10):
That's a great stat It.

Speaker 4 (01:48:11):
Is sixty five percent receiving touchdowns. So that makes sense
when you think about the variance with receiving, right, there's
a lot of different receivers on a team, and just
because a guy's the number one guy, or even the
number two guy.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
The defense might be completely.

Speaker 4 (01:48:26):
Bracketing that person and says, anyone, but this guy's beating
us today.

Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
You can't do that with quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (01:48:31):
You can't do that with running backs, like you can't
just bracket coverage and eliminate a guy completely from a game.
That's why I think receiving yard props tend to be
under same thing with passing yards. Sixty four percent of
passing yard props last year season long stayed under the total,
and then we start to go down the list from
their fifty seven percent passing touchdowns rushing touchdowns. Rushing yards

(01:48:52):
are kind of coin flips fifty four percent fifty five percent.
So if you are looking for overs, rushing yards is
your best bet, I think, because that typically is the
one category that tends to go over more than any
other category. Do not look to receiving yards overs. I
just I wouldn't do it. I would only bet unders
on receiving yards. I think there's too many ways you

(01:49:14):
can scheme guys out of games, and same with passing yards.
I'm so. I think another one too that I really like.
I like trying to find quarterback rushing props that are mispriced.
That's another market that I think the books struggle with.
Like I think Lamar Jackson's a good example this year.
I'm kind of on the undertrain with Lamar. I see,
I see it like a six hundred yard rushing prop

(01:49:34):
for him. I feel like with a new offense and
with his aging legs, I just don't think they're gonna
have a lot of design runs for him this year.
I think he wants to be a pocket passer. Last year,
what was his number last year? He only ran for
three hundred and forty nine yards last year? Yeah, like
and again, he played in a decent he played in

(01:49:54):
sixteen he played in thirteen games.

Speaker 2 (01:49:56):
He don't play in thirteen games.

Speaker 4 (01:49:57):
So if you think he's gonna play in set seen games,
you're gonna add another maybe hundred two hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:50:02):
Yards to that.

Speaker 4 (01:50:03):
He still wouldn't have gotten over a five to seventy
four and a half, which is where I'm seeing his
number right now.

Speaker 2 (01:50:07):
I like it. That's one that I love the under on.

Speaker 3 (01:50:10):
Right. Stylistically, he changed his game a lot. Yeah. Now
you could argue it's because he was nicked up, and
if he's blessed with better health, maybe we see the
Lamar were used to see it possible. It's possible.

Speaker 2 (01:50:23):
Do we think he's gonna have great health for seventeen games?

Speaker 4 (01:50:25):
Though?

Speaker 2 (01:50:25):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:50:26):
And that's the thing with Lamar Man. He is not
Josh Allen. I joked around last year when Josh Allen
was banged. Remember the game against Jacksonville where he got
bent backwards at the goal line and you know he's
got a knee he's got I don't even know what
he was dealing with. It was like an ankle I
I maybe a hammy, shoulder like everything. Dion Dawkins, his

(01:50:48):
left tackle, was talking about if you guys knew what
he was battling through, it's amazing. And I joked around
that Lamar would be out until at least twenty twenty
nine if he had those injuries, Like he's just not
battling through these aches and pains. He's like if if
I'm not one hundred percent, man, I'm not out there.
And I don't like that at all. But from a
prop betting standpoint, you can take advantage of it if

(01:51:10):
you're looking at at unders to your point, because if
Lamar is not healthy, he's either greatly changing his style
out there or he's not even in uniform that game
against the Packers that was a huge game for the
Ravens in their playoff chances, and he's on the sideline
for that one too, and that's when Derek Henry went ballistic.

(01:51:31):
But he's not all right now.

Speaker 2 (01:51:33):
Yeah, I'm seeing so again.

Speaker 4 (01:51:36):
I use an odd screen that tells me what the
numbers are at all these different locations, and I'm seeing
some numbers even as low as five twenty five. So
I see a five seventy four and a half right
now with DraftKings, I would absolutely slam the under on that.

Speaker 3 (01:51:51):
I know the over I love the most with rushing
yards season long, I love Omari in Hampton of the Chargers.
Think Omari and Hampton is gonna nine and a half.
I just bet it, bet it while we're talking right now.

Speaker 2 (01:52:07):
They're gonna hammer.

Speaker 6 (01:52:08):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:52:09):
Herbert last year did not have a great season, and
their receiving room is not great.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
It lacks a lot of big play threat.

Speaker 4 (01:52:16):
And they only had fourteen percent of the receptions gaining
twenty or more yards last year. So I think the
Chargers in general, their offense is they have an identity.
They want to run the ball and play defense. That's
what Jim Harbaugh wants to do. And you got McDaniel
in the colin plays.

Speaker 3 (01:52:33):
You get your old lineman back, you get your tackles back.

Speaker 2 (01:52:36):
Oh d they want to run the ball and play.
They are gonna be a grinder team. I know.

Speaker 4 (01:52:41):
Mike McDaniel's got that goofy. You know, you think he's
gonna be kind of a nerd with the passing game.
Go look at that. And you know, Brian your Dolphins.
They want to run the ball. They want that was
what he was, the run game coordinator. It was San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (01:52:52):
That's what he did. They want to run the fricking ball.

Speaker 3 (01:52:54):
Man, they do. I love that one. I took it.
I might even get down on the Lamar under.

Speaker 2 (01:52:59):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:53:00):
I might join forces with you on that one.

Speaker 2 (01:53:01):
Yeah. He's not gonna play seventeen games this year, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:53:05):
Come on, you think Lamar's playing all seventeen that's crazy. Yeah,
he is the He is the load management of the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:53:12):
By the way, who uh, how many games is DeShawn
Watson gonna be playing for the Browns? Right? He's QB
one today against the Bears. The Bears, you get Deshaun Watson.
He'll start the first preseason game today for the Browns,
and then Shadua Sanders he'll be the starter next week.
So what's the over what's the over under on DeShawn
Watson starts this season?

Speaker 4 (01:53:34):
I'll say it's probably around the same number as Mendoza,
maybe seven eight and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:53:38):
I don't know. They might they might pull him, he
could be quick.

Speaker 4 (01:53:41):
They might go to Chador or Dylan Gabriel really quick
if they don't like what they see from uh from Watson.
So the Browns. So, ironically enough, the Browns, as bad
as their quarterback situation is for the regular season.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
In the preseason, it actually.

Speaker 4 (01:53:56):
Is a good situation because it's the only And I
was looking this up last night and I couldn't There
are very few scenarios in the NFL. I mean, I
can't even think of one off the top of my head.
I don't remember one recently where the quarterback position is
truly a competition, Like we really don't know who QB
one is. It honestly could go either way. Usually there's

(01:54:18):
a guy and maybe there's a slight competition, but everybody
knows who QB one is. Everyone's like, this is the
guy at least to start the season. I honestly don't
know who the Cleveland QB won. I honestly have no idea.
So what that does in the preseason is it sets
up a competition where Todd Munkin the offensive coordinator head coach,
is gonna be calling plays this year is you have

(01:54:42):
to show the best stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:54:43):
You have to.

Speaker 4 (01:54:43):
Put that quarterback, all of them in the most difficult
in the most up swinging situations to see what they have.
So it's a weird scenario where the preseason actually you're
gonna get less than usually.

Speaker 2 (01:54:58):
It's pretty vanilla on offense.

Speaker 4 (01:55:01):
I think you're gonna get a little spice from the
Browns because they have to figure out what they have
with these guys, and you gotta do it with live bullets.
So Cleveland, ironically, and we'll get to this in rapid fire,
a unique, unique preseason situation.

Speaker 3 (01:55:15):
By the way, their opponent, the Bears, their secondary, man,
holy cow, the injuries that they're dealing with right now
with Kobe Bryant, Kyler Gordon is nicked up. Their depth
is shot. Like their their secondary is so bad right now.
Where I look at the Bears as an over team,
not necessarily like a season win total, but just a

(01:55:37):
game to game. Their offense is gonna be really good.
Their secondary is a huge question mark. Their pass rush
sucks like they're gonna give up points and they're gonna
score a ton Like give me the Bears overs like
it's almost like blind overs there. I think the same
thing with the Lions. I think their offense is gonna
be as good as it's been. I think their old

(01:55:58):
line is gonna be better. They're gonna score a poll
points and their secondary is a huge question mark also,
So I think the Bears and Lions on a game
to game basis high point totals, I think consistently this season,
at least to start this season for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:56:10):
Yeah, I'm and I We'll give it to you in
a second anyways, in rapid fire, But I'm the I've
been betting a lot of unders in preseason.

Speaker 2 (01:56:17):
I'll be on the over in the Browns Bears game today.

Speaker 3 (01:56:20):
Okay, all right, little uh.

Speaker 2 (01:56:21):
For that reason alone you mentioned it.

Speaker 4 (01:56:23):
The defense is obviously going through some stuff, but I
think the Browns have to show you their best stuff.
I think they gotta figure like they gotta show you
something on offense. We gotta figure out what we got
with these quarterbacks. So it's not gonna be your typical
preseason snoos.

Speaker 2 (01:56:37):
Fest, I don't think.

Speaker 4 (01:56:37):
And also on the other side, Bajen and Ketam has
been really they've been. Go look at Tyson Bage's numbers
of the preseason last year, Liz lighting up the scoreboard
like it was Joe Botana.

Speaker 3 (01:56:47):
It's funny. One of my good friends is a die
hard Bears fan, and uh I was talking to him
about I kind of like Luther Burden over I really
like Colston Loveland over their season long, you know, receiving yards,
and I'm like, as it'd suck if Caleb Williams goes down.
He was like the coaching staff loves pagent. He's like,
don't be shocked if there's not a huge drop off,

(01:57:07):
and I'm like, I would be pretty surprised, Like what
do we do that we can't have the Caleb Williams
and Baigent like side by side of.

Speaker 2 (01:57:14):
In the preseason.

Speaker 4 (01:57:15):
Very different argument than the regular season. I think the
preseason he's in a he's above.

Speaker 3 (01:57:20):
Average, yes, quarter absolutely, but you're talking about there are
like believers that beagent wouldn't be the seismic drop off,
and it's like what that means for the preseason. He's
dicing up number two and three defenses. Yeah, so yeah,
I hear you. All right, we'll get the rest of
your picks coming up. He's Jared Smith FSR betting analyst.
I'm Brian Now rapid fire right around the corner. We

(01:57:40):
give you multiple picks Frisbee style. We throw them at you.
You catch him like you're a I don't know, like
a great Dane, you know, and you just go up there.
That's probably a bad dog. It would be a good.

Speaker 2 (01:57:50):
Golden retriever, right, older retriever retrieve things. You're gonna retrieve
the picks from us in about there five minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:57:56):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
You'll be the golden retrievers out there and catch the.

Speaker 2 (01:57:59):
Frieze green retrievers right for money. There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:58:03):
If they make green retrievers, you guys will be it
will be the green retrievers that we need in this society.
That's on the way. It is countdown right here on
Sports Radio. If you missed any of today's show, you
want to catch the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio
wherever you get your podcasts. Right after the show, today's

(01:58:25):
pod will be posted. Be sure to follow it rate
at five stars, and you can even provide a review. Again,
just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll find today's full show posted right after we
get off the year. Props to the crew, our producer
for the first time here on a Saturday, mister Garrett Ritt.

Speaker 2 (01:58:43):
Thank you, fellows enjoyed being here. Good show today.

Speaker 3 (01:58:47):
There you go, there's Garrett. Who are your teams? By
the way, Garrett, real fast.

Speaker 5 (01:58:51):
I got my Panthers getting ready to kick off here
in like an hour, and my Cubs are on fire
nine of eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:58:57):
So wow.

Speaker 2 (01:58:58):
Carolina and Chicago.

Speaker 5 (01:59:00):
In interesting families from Chicago, but most of my life
was North Carolina.

Speaker 3 (01:59:04):
Yeah, all right, cool.

Speaker 2 (01:59:06):
You don't get that half and half.

Speaker 4 (01:59:07):
Yeah, you don't get that hybrid too often, the Charlotte
Chicago connection.

Speaker 2 (01:59:11):
It's rare.

Speaker 3 (01:59:12):
Yeah, hey, rare one you checked that box. That's good.
Our technical producer at shortinar, that is mister Chris Purfet.

Speaker 8 (01:59:18):
We will try to do better next time. Behind the scenes.
Last hour was maybe the worst countdown I have ever given.
I don't know if I was just remembering my ten
and two's from driving class, but two and ten were
being mixed up tremendously.

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:59:31):
It was funny because when we have two minutes left,
he was like ten. I was like, we're down to town.

Speaker 2 (01:59:36):
I was like, what happened?

Speaker 8 (01:59:37):
But then I got it so in my head that
when we hit the two minutes by the way two
minute warning here, then I was like, to ten.

Speaker 1 (01:59:47):
Through.

Speaker 3 (01:59:47):
That's all right, hey, Top of the hour. Up on
game LaVar Arrington, TJ. Hushman's out of Plexico, Buris. They've
got you covered in less than eight American minutes. Keep
it locked right here on Fox Sports Radio. All right,
we've got some picks to make. Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (02:00:04):
Rapid fire.

Speaker 3 (02:00:07):
All right, Jared, we start with you. What do you like?

Speaker 2 (02:00:09):
All right?

Speaker 4 (02:00:09):
Three NFL preseason totals, two unders, one over. I'll give
you the over first. I kind of gave it to
you in the last Segmond, I'll give it to you
again over forty and a half, Browns and Bear, so again.
The quarterback situation for Cleveland oddly well suited for the
preseason because they're the only team in the league that
does not have an established starter. So open competition for

(02:00:29):
the most important position means Todd Monken has to go
deep into the playbook and actually show you some of
the best stuff because he has to see if his
quarterbacks can run the offense and figure out which one's
gonna play. And Bagent tore up the preseason last year.
Case Keenum is I would say above average for a
third stringer. So it feels like points in this one.
The two unders. I gave it to you in the platter,
give it to you again. Jack Saints under thirty five

(02:00:50):
and a half. Awful quarterback situation, Nick Mullins, Bradley Carter,
Joey Aguilar, Couch and then Spencer Rattler, Zach Wilson, Hunter
Deckers and it was a joint practice game. We like
the those games to stay under and also Rams Chiefs
under thirty six and a half. No starters are playing
in this game and not an ideal quarterback situation.

Speaker 3 (02:01:08):
Okay, let's go Rays and Blue Jays. We're hammering their
unders over here the opposing pitchers, So Kyle Bradish with
the Orioles, give me under four and a half strikeouts
against the Rays Rays do a great job of avoiding strikeouts.
Give me Cam Schlitzler, the Yankee starter. Give me under
six and a half strikeouts against the Blue Jays. And then,

(02:01:29):
in honor of rich Orenberger, who is not here today,
give me his Podres money line. They've won six straight
against the Guardians. I'll go with that.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Crime Junkie

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fox Sports Radio's Saturday Countdown