April 22, 2024 • 31 mins
Colin explains why the Lakers don't stand much of a chance against the Nuggets even with stellar performances from LeBron James and Anthony Davis. He tells you why he was right about Damian Lillard and wrong about James Harden. Plus, NFL Network inside Tom Pelissero joins the show with breaking news: the Jets are trading QB Zach Wilson to the Broncos
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
All Right, here we go.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
It is a Monday, and we are live in Los Angeles,
and it is the Herd. Wherever you may be and
however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part
of your day. Uh top on next hour, Colin Wright,
Colin wrong, Jamak. I know you were out and about
with the America. I was grounded here in Los Angeles
(00:50):
watching playoff games the whole weekend. Lakers Denver. Stop me
if you've seen this result before from ninth straight.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Season on the line tonight for Lebron.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
But yes, I.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Survived nash Vegas. It's not Nashville, nas Vegas. Yeah, awesome city.
It's great, so you need to get there soon. I've
been to Nashville more than once. Great city. I would
suggest leaving the wife at home.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Well, no, she likes Vegas, he doesn't and Nashville. So
the thing about greatness like the Denver Nuggets is they
create clarity. How do you compare to greatness? They really
illustrate a team's flaws, And when the Lakers face Denver,
you really see their flaws that can be hidden against
average teams to slightly better than average. D'Angelo Russell can't
(01:34):
trust them in big playoff spots. Austin reeves he's a
nice four, not a great one. Lakers bench eh, Darvin
ham Meh, a d.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And Lebron were great.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Thirteen total assists, fifty nine total points, fifty six percent
from the floor. Lebron and ad were fantastic. It's a
great one two punch. But Denver has the world's best
player in Jokich and maybe the best duo in the
league with Jamal Murray, who's one of the rare players
who significantly better in the playoffs than in the regular season.
(02:08):
Aaron Gordon, a top athlete, defender, Michael Porter seventeen and
seven KCP, always lethal in the postseason, and an experienced
championship winning coach. Twice in Game one, Denver just shifted
gears for like ninety seconds to two and a half minutes,
blew the Lakers doors off, and again Lebron and eight
were great. But the Lakers have lost nine straight to Denver,
(02:30):
and they've led by ten or more in half of
those games. But the difference is the Nuggets give you
consistent excellence with an occasional spurt. The Lakers are hot
and cold. There's a nuanced analytics stat called organized offense
percentage by quarter. It's boring, but what it illustrates is
(02:53):
Denver is literally the same team the entire game, and
the Lakers were very good early and very bad late.
As Lebron as he's gets older and gets tired, he
often gets very sloppy and that initiates these big Denver
two minute runs and it's game over. So Denver's very
much a marathon runner. They run the first mile at
(03:14):
the same speed as the last mile, and they know
it's Steve Prefontaine. They can endure more than you can
over the course of a couple hours, and you're just
watching an excellent team. And I said before the series,
it's not that the Lakers are going to lose, because
they are, But what if they get swept again or
lose in five games, which they will. What are the
repercussions Lebron has options? Golden State is interested. Will Darvin
(03:39):
Ham get run out? D Lo's gone? Are they tired
of just Austin Reeves ad and nobody else on the
bench you can really trust? There are repercussions for great
players when they lose. Maybe not for KD who's a
bit of a wanderer, but there have been historically for Lebron,
who is not He's just mobile. But when he gets
his feet in the ground in the place he wants
(04:00):
to live, he's going to make changes. So this series
and these games nine straight times, I've watched all these games,
they're all the same. D LO doesn't deliver. It feels
like they're slightly out coached. They have moments of excellence,
but it's the continued consistent success that Denver provides and
it creates clarity. That's the great thing about championship teams.
(04:23):
You look at the Chiefs, you start looking at great
teams across the board. Michigan this year. They point out
your flaws, what you need to work on, and boyd
does Denver do that to the Lakers and here's Lebron
after you don't.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Have much roof air versus Denver Tant, especially out there
on their home floor. They're just a team that's been
through everything, and obviously they're defending champions. So no, you
got to execute, you gotta make shots, you got to defend,
and then you can't give them extra possessions.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
No you can't.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
All right, it's draft week.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It is draft week, and Caleb Williams is going to
go number one to the Chicago Bears. And I'm reading
the athlet this morning, and there's a quarterback coach in
the NFL who played in the league, and he talked
about Caleb Williams. He said, listen his arm. There's a
lot of wild stuff here. This kid's spectacular talent. This
(05:12):
is generational stuff. But he also added context, said this
NFL quarterback coach, who again played in the league, and
I think he made great points about Caleb Williams, and
I'm going to show him to you. The first one
he said, is the Bear's head coach safe. You have
a first year coordinator. It's not like he's going to
a place that's stable. It's not like the Jordan Love
(05:34):
takeover in Green Bay. The coach continued, not going to
be like that. In Chicago, defensive head coach hot seat
new Oc there was quarterback stuff for the last number
one guy with justin fields. Half the team wanted him
to stay, half didn't. Those things are huge factors for
a young quarterback coming in at the start of his career,
(05:55):
and he continued, look at Brock. Purty goes into a situation,
all the boxes are checkedization good defense, play caller, developer
of talent, knew exactly what he was looking for. Those
things are critical. If Purty goes to the Panthers, we
don't know who he is right now. I do not
disagree with any of those points, but I'd like to
(06:17):
add that something else is true. If you're destined to
be a star in this league, you will be. Trevor
Lawrence entered a complete clown show year two in the AFC.
He won a playoff game justin Herbert's had two coaches,
(06:38):
both whiffs. He's gotten to the playoffs in a division
with mahomes. Joe Burrow entered with a young head coach,
losing record, frugal owner, nor indoor practice facility, none in Cincinnati,
a northern climate, horrible offensive line at the time, didn't
have a dominant weapon running for his life and his career.
(07:00):
He's two plays for winning a Super Bowl. Yes, yes,
where you land is really critical, but the great ones
find a way to do it. The Colts were a mess.
Colts were a mess before Peyton Manning. He won four
MVPs there and got to two Super Bowls. If Caleb
Williams and I believe he is is generationally great, you'll
(07:25):
see it. The Bears GM and owners will see it.
And if Matt Eberflus isn't the guy, he'll be gone.
I suspect he will be after year one. Herbert got
the bag. I mean, Josh Allen think about this. Has
yet to have a great O line, has a defensive coach,
(07:46):
he's on his third coordinator, has never had a true
number two receiver, finally got an elite running back. In
the last five years they've been top FOIGN offense. You'll
figure out how to get it done. In every business,
talent overcomes, Talent wins, Talent separates. Yes, for ninety percent
(08:10):
of these players, For ninety percent of these players, it's
where you land, it's who coaches you. JJ McCarthy is
not talented enough. Nor is bo Nicks, Michael Pennix and
I like all three to some degree. They're not talented
enough to go to a clown show and deal with
a coaching carousel. Herbert is and in my opinion, Caleb
(08:31):
Williams is. If you're destined to be a star in
the entertainment business, singing music, athletics, you will be Jordan
hit on his third coach. Jordan eventually got Scottie Pippen. Eventually,
as Jordan fought with his owner and his GM in
the first couple of coaches and teammates, eventually it worked.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
It always does, all right, j MC.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I sat around Saturday and Sunday and after little morning workouts,
watched a ton of playoff basketball, and I've come to
the conclusion it is put up her, shut up time
for Joel Embiid. There's no way, with Jalen Brunson not
having a great day and no second star on that team,
that Joel Embiid should lose that game with a second star.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Would be interesting if they lost Game two and then
you started hearing rumblings about Joel Embid. I'm done in Philly.
Get me to New York to play with Jaylen Brunson.
We've know the embid New York stuff's been out there
for a minute.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Huh. That'd be very Kevin Durant of him.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
I'm out, I just lost to you guys.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I'll go play with New York.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
By the way, the environment at the Garden was in electric.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You know what I was telling my friend Jason Timph
on my podcast last night, I said, you know, NBA
players don't need any individual market to succeed. You can
get rich anywhere shoe deals, Instagram salary. But right now,
many of the best teams are about to be best
team OKC, Minnesota, Denver, Nuggets, Orlando. There's a lot of
(10:05):
brands that aren't very big national brands. And if the
Lakers get ousted, steps out, Lebron's out, the New York
Knicks become very valuable as a brand for the league.
I watched that game and the Knicks just because of
the Garden and those fans and the celebrities. It felt
(10:26):
like a Game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals. The
intense I'm sorry Cleveland and Orlando in Indianapolis and OKC
don't jump out of my TV like like Madison Square.
Garden does I mean the show Star Star Star Star Star,
big loud guys pumping, And there's something about the lights
in New York where they light the crowd. Maybe that's
due you can see the celebrities. That thing felt like
(10:47):
a Game seven of a conference final. The only environment
home teams by the way, eight to no.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I think that was the first time in like over
ten years that that's happened in the first round Game
one Minnesota environment with Anthony Edwards going off. I thought
that was the second best to the Garden. It was
just like, this is big time basketball. Yes, really fun stuff.
Home Team's Roll.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
We do it every day, at this time, every Monday,
at this time. Colin Wright or Colin was wrong, and
here we go where Colin was right. Doesn't matter how
well Lebron and ad play. They're not beating Denver. They've
lost nine straight because Denver starting five is too good
and too deep and too consistent. The Nuggets beat the
Lakers the same way every time they play. They'll be
(11:37):
Spurts one two, or three and Denver jet fuels it
for a ten to nothing run, and in the end
of the game, Yokic is just better. Plus Lebron runs
out of gas at this point in his career, and
when he does, he gets sloppy.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Jokic does not.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Run out of gas. Denver's a better team. And when
I suggested they may want to duck the Nuggets because
of the repercussions if they get swept again, was on display.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Where Colin was rough.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
It's not that the Suns lost. They were three to
zero against the t Wolves in the regular season. They
weren't even competitive. It looked like they were poorly constructed.
I mean, Booker No showed what happened to beal the
t Wolves top to bottom, more physical defensive lapses. KD
(12:24):
gave you points, not much else. I said, I'll take
Phoenix in this series, but I mean, after watching that game,
I don't know if the Suns are constructed. It also
illustrates the difference between the regular season and the postseason,
because that was a two hour and thirty minute.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Mismatch where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Dame time delivered. When the Bucks made that move, I said,
I love Drew Holliday. But it's the right move to
make because he is a Steph Curry level score from
the perimeter in Chris Middleton and Drew Holliday can't give
you that. I just wish the Bucks would let Dame
set the tempt more than they allow him to set
the tempo. Thirty five points by a little guy and
(13:04):
a half is remarkable, and this is what he care.
I've said before, take out Steph Curry. You've got one
shot to win a game in the NBA. I would
choose Dave. I think he's that good. I think he's
a first ballot guy. If Steph Curry did not exist,
he would be the great small scorer, arguably in the
(13:25):
last ten years, where Colin was raw, Anthony Edwards best
player on the floor, took over things for the Tea Wolves.
I said Friday, I worry that he's going to become
Dominique Wilkins. Dynamic, spectacular, but historically overshadowed with all the
great players around him and no titles. But boy, he
was something a lot of energy. We know he's dynamic,
(13:48):
we know he's hyper athletic, but verbal, firing the crowd up,
talking trash to k D.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
He looked pretty good.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
He may have been the best player playing basketball this weekend,
where Colin was right three.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Excellent, steady.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
ESPN reporters reported on Bill Belichick. What we said is
that we didn't think he was going to get a
head coaching job because his inability to work well with others.
And we find out that that was Atlanta's primary concern.
That Robert Kraft, although not bearing him, did talk to
Arthur Blank and say we didn't really trust him. He
(14:28):
was about Bill and doing what Bill wanted. He was not.
We discover a top three candidate for the Atlanta Falcons job.
And again, no matter how great you are, you can
rule with an iron fist when you're winning, but when
you're losing, you look outdated and difficult and fair or not.
That's how Bill Belichick is perceived today by owners and
(14:52):
general managers.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I never loved the James Harden move to the Clippers,
but he does lubricate that off. One of the reasons
I was skeptical is this franchise needs to win in
the playoffs, and he is really disappointing at times in
the playoffs. But he had twenty points in the first
half and Dallas had no answer. He was the best
player on a floor. He was four for six from
three and I mean that move to get James Harden
(15:20):
felt like it paid off. Yesterday he was magnificent.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
In my five bold NBA predictions last week, I had
the Lakers in and the Warriors out in the play
in games. The Warriors are two steph reliant. I think
Pods and Coaminga are excellent young players, but they're not
ready to help you in April and May, and the
Warriors season ends after a brief play in experiment.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Where Colin was wrong.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
What's up with the Dodgers? Now we knew their bullpen
wasn't their strain, but they're three and seven in their
last ten. They've lost series to the Nats, the Padres,
and the Mets. Home runs no longer leading baseball. Run scored,
no longer leading baseball. It is a top heavy lineup.
Dave Roberts is a nice guy. Is he the guy
(16:17):
to lead a star filled roster? That's up for debate,
But the Dodgers for the last two weeks have been
a major disappointment.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Caitlin Clark sold more Indiana Fever jerseys in one day
than the Dallas Cowboys sold last year for the entire team.
This is what I've said. It's no criticism of women's
college basketball. It will come back down to earth. She
is a Tiger Woods or an MJ for whatever reasons,
she galvanized the country. Every game after she played, would
(16:52):
lose forty to sixty percent of the ratings. Women's college
basketball is much better than it was years ago, and
it's a quality sport that's getting better. But these numbers,
these merchandise sales, I do believe she will finally make
the WNBA a profitable league, which to this point it
(17:13):
hasn't been nothing against women's basketball, and it was nothing
against golf. But when a Tiger Woods rolls in or
a Caitlin Clark, they change everything. Where Colin was right
set a year ago. Clippers need to move off Kawhi Leonard.
He's a great player, but they didn't play him against
Dallas and it was one of the Clippers great playoff performances. Ever,
(17:36):
I don't think he's foundational. He's nonverbal. He's not a leader.
You don't quite know what you're gonna get him, or
when you're gonna get him again. I'm not doubting he
could add him as some icing to a really good cake.
He can't be the cake and he's out. Paul George Westbrook,
James harden Zubach looked just fine hammering a very good
(18:00):
Dallas team. Where Collin's right, we're Colin strong, plenty of
both On a Monday.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and Noone Eastern nine EM Pacific.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me three time pro bowler
LeVar Arrington and I couldn't be more excited to announce
a podcast called Up on Game?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You assd?
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman Zada and
Super Bowl champion Yup, that's right, Plexico Burds. You can
only name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game We're going to be sharing our real
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with Me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman, Zada, and Plexico
(18:44):
Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well he's covered the NFL for over two decades. Serious
Xam Holst NFL Network reporter insider's name is Tom Telli.
Show have the pleasure of bringing them on a handful
of times a year. So this is a very exciting
time for you. Draft is in Detroit. It's been such
a hit by the league moving it around city to
city to city, especially these northern tier cities, cold weather
that feel forgotten in the winter, and you bring in
(19:14):
the draft that it's unbelievable. So that'll be great for
Michigan's economy and Detroit and all that stuff. So we
said there are certain drafts. This will be the highest
rated draft for a couple of reasons. A lot of quarterbacks.
The league's never been more popular, and a couple of
star quarterbacks like Kayleb Williams, so there's some real star power.
And also New York's drafting high, the Boston market, Chicago.
(19:35):
It's gonna be a home run. Do you foresee all
your sources we here today there's a report New England's
taking calls, which I don't think is a terrible idea.
Do you think this is a big mover, shaker draft
or we're all hyped up and it'll be teams staying
in their slots.
Speaker 7 (19:57):
Well, it's served by saying I don't think that New
England listening to is a new development. They've been listening
for a couple of months now. But when you're sitting
at three and you don't have clarity about what's going
to happen on number two, there's every reason to think
that the Patriots, barring the type of offer that they
can't refuse, are gonna wait and take this all the
way until they're on the clock. You got Caleb Williams,
(20:17):
who is I would say, borring some type of act
of God locked in with the Bears at number one.
There certainly are a lot of signs pointing towards Jayden
Daniels going to Washington at number two, though not one
hundred percent. Got seventy two hours or so before this
draft here. If those two fall like that, New England
will be in the spot where they can stand at
number three. Take Drake may or maybe JJ McCarthy, or
(20:40):
see whether or not the Giants, the Vikings or some
wild card team is willing to up their offer, which
to this point the Patriots haven't gotten that type of offer.
Is my understanding. There absolutely have been conversations. Those have
been going on for weeks, but your best leverage might
not come until you're on the clock on Thursday night
if you're New England. Elliott Wolf as the new scouting
(21:01):
director there. He's been with the Patriots organization a couple
of years, the son of Ron Wolf. He's been in
the league a long time. He knows how to do trades.
You got your odd nails, a new head coach. The crafts,
of course, are going to be involved in that decision
as well. You got to weigh this out. You don't
anticipate drafting number three overall again for a very long
time if things go well here, so you better be
very sure you're getting the right guy or else getting
(21:24):
the type of offer that makes a lot of sense,
and still have that opportunity to get somebody else to
supplement that position.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
We started talking about this Tom, it just kind of
popped into our head. So look at how many of
the best quarterbacks in the NFL. We're kind of unfinished
in college. Mahomes, Alan Lamar, Jordan Love. Most of these
kids go to a big, powerhouse school, not a lot
of heavy lifting. JJ McCarthy or you know, they come
(21:52):
out pretty clean. You know what they are, you know
what they're not. But Allan was raw, Mahomes was raw,
Jordan Love had a bad land last year. And I
look at this draft and I think, oh, that's Drake May.
The traits are off the charts. I mean Mahomes arm,
I mean Lamar Jackson's twitchiness, Josh Allen size. But you
(22:14):
have to sort of buy into with Drake May. We
can clean him up. Offensive coaches like Kevin O'Connell. I
think he loves that challenge. But I look at Drake
May and I think, are we overlooking him and beating
him up because he's just not a finished product? In
(22:35):
a draft that keeps rewarding us with unfinished products.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
Well, there's also a line of those unfinished products that
haven't worked out. I mean Trey Lance to this point
in his career, obviously he's not even on the forty
nine ers anymore. Zach Wilson, I think people thought was
a little bit closer but still had work to do.
Obviously to this point that hasn't worked out. I mean,
everything's a gamble in the draft, and that's part of
the challenge of this is you know what's really unique
(23:01):
about this draft, and I had a bunch of scouts
make this point to me when I was doing my
annual quarterback rankings for NFL dot Com, is that there's six,
maybe even seven guys. If you throw in Spencer Rattlers.
Some people have him a little bit closer to that
top group. Some have him of Michael Pennis. But there's
six or seven guys you look at who could be
starters in the NFL, and they're all different. They're all
(23:26):
good dudes in terms of you think you can work
with them. There's not a guy that you're worried about,
Like you can make a case for a lot of
different guys being able to be starters in the NFL.
Jadan Daniels versus Drake May I've heard that on both sides.
I think that it's leaned a little bit more. If
you're taking a cross section of all the teams, there's
a few more people who would vote for Jayden Daniels
as the number two quarterback, But Drake certainly has some
(23:47):
big fans as well. With Daniels, you know, he's, outside
of Caleb Williams, the most talented passer in the draft.
Had a lot of productivity the last couple of years,
obviously at LSU, but he's a smaller guy who or
narrowly framed. He has put on weight, but there's concern
about just the hilacious hits that he takes whether that
play style is going to hold up at the next level.
With Drake, you're right, he's you know, six three in change,
(24:10):
he's two twenty. Big guys, got a pretty big arm.
The concerns on him one, he's not really naturally accurate.
A lot of coaches bring that up that you see
him miss a lot of throws, and so to your point,
you're gonna have some cleanup to do. Well, if you're
doing that cleanup and you're coming from that North Carolina
offense that is so dumbed down and simplistic, this is
(24:30):
a guy that you want to sit for a while.
I had a head coach, tell me somebody who's got
a really good tracker with quarterbacks, Drake may is Jordan
Love where the tools are there, But you got to
sit him for two three years.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Ideally, we all know that's not the reality.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
In the NFL, almost all these first round picks go
out there unless you're in that type of a development
situation in Green Bay. And if you're Washington and you
want to make the case for taking Drake May over
Jayden Daniels, you better have everybody on board, which in
Washington is a lot of people from Josh Harris to
Bob Myers to Magic Johnson obviously Adam Peters and Dan
(25:07):
Quinn and Cliff Kings. Where you better have a plan
in place because what you don't want to do is
force a guy out there before he's ready, because we've
seen so many instances through the years where that really
is harmful to a guy's long term development.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So Dak went fourth round, Russell Wilson third, Brock Purty,
last guy taken, Kirk Cousins fourth, Brady the Goat, Joe
Montana third. We know this, a majority of quarterbacks go
first round that are great, but increasingly all these kids
in the last decade have ten thousand throws by the
time they're fourteen. It's a cottage industry quarterback coaching. So
(25:42):
there's a kid at Tulane, Michael Pratt, and you know
I saw him play. He was against USC a couple
of years ago. Clearly talented. We're not talking third fourth fifth.
I mean a lot of people have him like mid second.
What do we know about this kid? Because we have
a history here in the last decade, somebody's gonna pop
(26:04):
that's not in the first round.
Speaker 7 (26:08):
I'm glad you brought up that name, Colin, because we
actually have I did a short documentary on Michael Pratt.
It's gonna air tomorrow night on NFL three sixty on
NFL Network, eight o'clock Eastern time. Pratt has overcome unbelievable
hardship in his personal life personal tragedy. His best friend
in high school, guy named Bryce Gouty, who was a
(26:28):
top recruit, was going to Georgia Tech on scholarship, and
right before they were about to both leave an early
enroll at their schools, Bryce Gouty committed suicide last year.
You know, and Pratt has honored Goudy with a tattoo.
He wears his number. He's been you know, that's been
a big part of his driving force. Last year, during
(26:48):
the summer, Pratt also lost his brother who had been
his biggest fan. If you ever saw a big guy
after some of those big games lifting Pratt up into
the front row, that was his brother. He also passed away.
And when you talk to people about Michael pre it's
not even so much the player. You're right, I mean
he's done something. I mean he elevated that two lane program.
But it's about this guy, the way that he brings
people together. You know, is he a starter? Is he
(27:09):
a solid starter in the league. That's ambitious for some
of the scouts and coaches, but certainly this is guy
who's going to be in the NFL for the next
decade plus. As a person, he's unbelievable, and you're right,
this could be the next guy after that initial wave
of a six or seven players. One of the fascinating
things about this draft is, and this is a function
of nil.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Once you get passed.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
Those six or seven, if you include Rattler and then Pratt,
there's really nobody else that I can sit here and
tell you we're going to get drafted. Joe Milton probably
does just because he's got a howitzer, gonna throw the
ball the length of the field. Somebody's going to take
on that project in the late rounds. But you might
only have nine or so guys get drafted at all.
So if you want one, we got more teams that
have a quarterback need than there are guys who are
(27:53):
going to go in the first round that has a
tendency to push players up. I wouldn't be surprised if
we saw Rattler in the second round, and I wouldn't
be I'm surprised if Michael Pratt also comes off the
board by the end of the day two.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, I'm more Pratt. I think Rattler was a little
inconsistent for me, But again, I saw him play at
Oklahoma Oklahoma, and so I saw him in big games
and Rattler South Carolina and Oklahoma. Isn't that where he
played South Carolina and Oklahoma? Yeah? Yeah, So I saw
him in big games against really good teams, and that
(28:26):
worried me. Whereas Tulane. You know, I think the stuff's
all fascinating. I think all these guys are interesting, and
I think a lot of it's where they land. Caleb's going, Oh,
go ahead, what were you gonna say, Tom?
Speaker 7 (28:37):
You want a little breaking we want a little breaking news.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Please?
Speaker 7 (28:41):
Just traded Zach Wilson to the Broncos. They are going
to send a twenty twenty four sixth round pick for
Wilson and a twenty twenty four seventh rounder. Teams are
going to divide up his bonus. So Denver, three days
out from the NFL Draft, is a new quarterback. It
is Zach Wilson headed to the Broncos cap Hmmm.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I thought Arizona. He comes west to Denver, which is
by Utah, where he's from, closer to family. So basically
offensive coach Sean Payton. Offensive coaches tend to think this,
I can save somebody. Isn't that You get a lot
of that with offensive coaches. I mean even Mike McCarthy,
I can save Trey Lance. What does that feel like
(29:22):
to you? Does that feel like they don't need a quarterback?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Hmm?
Speaker 7 (29:28):
This is a really interesting one too, because remember Zach
Wilson played a BYU, he's from out there. He obviously
didn't work out for him in New York. So you
get him back home, you get him for virtually nothing
in terms of a late round pick swap. The Jets
are paying I don't know the exact numbers, but they're
paying a significant amount of his training camp roster bonus too,
So this is a low risk flier on a guy
(29:49):
who a few years ago, I mean, I had many
coaches make the case to me that Zach Wilson's take
was better than Trevor Lawrence, and Zach Wilson could have
been the number one pick in that draft. Again, a
lot of things have taken in place since then, and
it is not necessarily gone, you know, Zack Wilson's way.
We have seen flashes of Zach Wilson in the first
six games last year the Jets, I think they're three
(30:10):
and three. He played pretty good, not perfect, not you know,
superstar level, but he played well enough.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
And then it went.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
Completely sideways on him again with Sean Payton. What he's
gonna lock in on here with Zach Wilson is getting
Zach to do exactly what he tells him to do.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Right.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
Play in the system, play to your strengths. We're gonna
put playmakers around you. Just basically break him down to
the most simplistic level. Because Zach Wilson can make all
the amazing plays. It's like Robert Salaz said at one point,
He's got to make the layups consistently. Yeah, well, your
mechanics are constantly everything's off balance, everything's off one foot
(30:47):
fading away. You'll lose some of those easy plays. If
anybody can get the most out of Zach Wilson, it's
gonna be Sean Payton. I can tell you this, Colin.
That tweet's been sitting in my drafts for like a month.
So glad I had that ready to go and I
got the text live on your show.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Was off the table.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
A quarterback Draft week trade is done broken live here
on the hurt.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Look at that as I sit behind my gigantic organ
ready to play, take me out to the ball game.
As as everybody knows.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
But I think every time that I'm watching you, I
just want to hear about some Christmas carols.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Options. Tom.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's great seeing you as always.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
He airs two lane quarterback Michael Pratt airs tomorrow eight
Eastern NFL Network. Uh. This is considered like the second
round quarterback. Who I don't know why, I'll just throw
this name out here. This makes no sense, Jay McK
you'll know this. When I looked at Pratt play, you
know what I thought, Ken O'Brien, I'm just telling you
that's what I saw first time I saw him play.
I thought I have gray hair. I'm old I play
(31:47):
an Oregon. Of course I think Ken O'Brien, but that's
just the point. When I saw him, that's what I
thought of it, all right, Tom, thank you
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
Fox Sportsradio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
All Right, here we go.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
It is a Monday, and we are live in Los Angeles,
and it is the Herd. Wherever you may be and
however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part
of your day. Uh top on next hour, Colin Wright,
Colin wrong, Jamak. I know you were out and about
with the America. I was grounded here in Los Angeles
(00:50):
watching playoff games the whole weekend. Lakers Denver. Stop me
if you've seen this result before from ninth straight.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Season on the line tonight for Lebron.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
But yes, I.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Survived nash Vegas. It's not Nashville, nas Vegas. Yeah, awesome city.
It's great, so you need to get there soon. I've
been to Nashville more than once. Great city. I would
suggest leaving the wife at home.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Well, no, she likes Vegas, he doesn't and Nashville. So
the thing about greatness like the Denver Nuggets is they
create clarity. How do you compare to greatness? They really
illustrate a team's flaws, And when the Lakers face Denver,
you really see their flaws that can be hidden against
average teams to slightly better than average. D'Angelo Russell can't
(01:34):
trust them in big playoff spots. Austin reeves he's a
nice four, not a great one. Lakers bench eh, Darvin
ham Meh, a d.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And Lebron were great.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Thirteen total assists, fifty nine total points, fifty six percent
from the floor. Lebron and ad were fantastic. It's a
great one two punch. But Denver has the world's best
player in Jokich and maybe the best duo in the
league with Jamal Murray, who's one of the rare players
who significantly better in the playoffs than in the regular season.
(02:08):
Aaron Gordon, a top athlete, defender, Michael Porter seventeen and
seven KCP, always lethal in the postseason, and an experienced
championship winning coach. Twice in Game one, Denver just shifted
gears for like ninety seconds to two and a half minutes,
blew the Lakers doors off, and again Lebron and eight
were great. But the Lakers have lost nine straight to Denver,
(02:30):
and they've led by ten or more in half of
those games. But the difference is the Nuggets give you
consistent excellence with an occasional spurt. The Lakers are hot
and cold. There's a nuanced analytics stat called organized offense
percentage by quarter. It's boring, but what it illustrates is
(02:53):
Denver is literally the same team the entire game, and
the Lakers were very good early and very bad late.
As Lebron as he's gets older and gets tired, he
often gets very sloppy and that initiates these big Denver
two minute runs and it's game over. So Denver's very
much a marathon runner. They run the first mile at
(03:14):
the same speed as the last mile, and they know
it's Steve Prefontaine. They can endure more than you can
over the course of a couple hours, and you're just
watching an excellent team. And I said before the series,
it's not that the Lakers are going to lose, because
they are, But what if they get swept again or
lose in five games, which they will. What are the
repercussions Lebron has options? Golden State is interested. Will Darvin
(03:39):
Ham get run out? D Lo's gone? Are they tired
of just Austin Reeves ad and nobody else on the
bench you can really trust? There are repercussions for great
players when they lose. Maybe not for KD who's a
bit of a wanderer, but there have been historically for Lebron,
who is not He's just mobile. But when he gets
his feet in the ground in the place he wants
(04:00):
to live, he's going to make changes. So this series
and these games nine straight times, I've watched all these games,
they're all the same. D LO doesn't deliver. It feels
like they're slightly out coached. They have moments of excellence,
but it's the continued consistent success that Denver provides and
it creates clarity. That's the great thing about championship teams.
(04:23):
You look at the Chiefs, you start looking at great
teams across the board. Michigan this year. They point out
your flaws, what you need to work on, and boyd
does Denver do that to the Lakers and here's Lebron
after you don't.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Have much roof air versus Denver Tant, especially out there
on their home floor. They're just a team that's been
through everything, and obviously they're defending champions. So no, you
got to execute, you gotta make shots, you got to defend,
and then you can't give them extra possessions.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
No you can't.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
All right, it's draft week.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It is draft week, and Caleb Williams is going to
go number one to the Chicago Bears. And I'm reading
the athlet this morning, and there's a quarterback coach in
the NFL who played in the league, and he talked
about Caleb Williams. He said, listen his arm. There's a
lot of wild stuff here. This kid's spectacular talent. This
(05:12):
is generational stuff. But he also added context, said this
NFL quarterback coach, who again played in the league, and
I think he made great points about Caleb Williams, and
I'm going to show him to you. The first one
he said, is the Bear's head coach safe. You have
a first year coordinator. It's not like he's going to
a place that's stable. It's not like the Jordan Love
(05:34):
takeover in Green Bay. The coach continued, not going to
be like that. In Chicago, defensive head coach hot seat
new Oc there was quarterback stuff for the last number
one guy with justin fields. Half the team wanted him
to stay, half didn't. Those things are huge factors for
a young quarterback coming in at the start of his career,
(05:55):
and he continued, look at Brock. Purty goes into a situation,
all the boxes are checkedization good defense, play caller, developer
of talent, knew exactly what he was looking for. Those
things are critical. If Purty goes to the Panthers, we
don't know who he is right now. I do not
disagree with any of those points, but I'd like to
(06:17):
add that something else is true. If you're destined to
be a star in this league, you will be. Trevor
Lawrence entered a complete clown show year two in the AFC.
He won a playoff game justin Herbert's had two coaches,
(06:38):
both whiffs. He's gotten to the playoffs in a division
with mahomes. Joe Burrow entered with a young head coach,
losing record, frugal owner, nor indoor practice facility, none in Cincinnati,
a northern climate, horrible offensive line at the time, didn't
have a dominant weapon running for his life and his career.
(07:00):
He's two plays for winning a Super Bowl. Yes, yes,
where you land is really critical, but the great ones
find a way to do it. The Colts were a mess.
Colts were a mess before Peyton Manning. He won four
MVPs there and got to two Super Bowls. If Caleb
Williams and I believe he is is generationally great, you'll
(07:25):
see it. The Bears GM and owners will see it.
And if Matt Eberflus isn't the guy, he'll be gone.
I suspect he will be after year one. Herbert got
the bag. I mean, Josh Allen think about this. Has
yet to have a great O line, has a defensive coach,
(07:46):
he's on his third coordinator, has never had a true
number two receiver, finally got an elite running back. In
the last five years they've been top FOIGN offense. You'll
figure out how to get it done. In every business,
talent overcomes, Talent wins, Talent separates. Yes, for ninety percent
(08:10):
of these players, For ninety percent of these players, it's
where you land, it's who coaches you. JJ McCarthy is
not talented enough. Nor is bo Nicks, Michael Pennix and
I like all three to some degree. They're not talented
enough to go to a clown show and deal with
a coaching carousel. Herbert is and in my opinion, Caleb
(08:31):
Williams is. If you're destined to be a star in
the entertainment business, singing music, athletics, you will be Jordan
hit on his third coach. Jordan eventually got Scottie Pippen. Eventually,
as Jordan fought with his owner and his GM in
the first couple of coaches and teammates, eventually it worked.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
It always does, all right, j MC.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I sat around Saturday and Sunday and after little morning workouts,
watched a ton of playoff basketball, and I've come to
the conclusion it is put up her, shut up time
for Joel Embiid. There's no way, with Jalen Brunson not
having a great day and no second star on that team,
that Joel Embiid should lose that game with a second star.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Would be interesting if they lost Game two and then
you started hearing rumblings about Joel Embid. I'm done in Philly.
Get me to New York to play with Jaylen Brunson.
We've know the embid New York stuff's been out there
for a minute.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Huh. That'd be very Kevin Durant of him.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
I'm out, I just lost to you guys.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I'll go play with New York.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
By the way, the environment at the Garden was in electric.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You know what I was telling my friend Jason Timph
on my podcast last night, I said, you know, NBA
players don't need any individual market to succeed. You can
get rich anywhere shoe deals, Instagram salary. But right now,
many of the best teams are about to be best
team OKC, Minnesota, Denver, Nuggets, Orlando. There's a lot of
(10:05):
brands that aren't very big national brands. And if the
Lakers get ousted, steps out, Lebron's out, the New York
Knicks become very valuable as a brand for the league.
I watched that game and the Knicks just because of
the Garden and those fans and the celebrities. It felt
(10:26):
like a Game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals. The
intense I'm sorry Cleveland and Orlando in Indianapolis and OKC
don't jump out of my TV like like Madison Square.
Garden does I mean the show Star Star Star Star Star,
big loud guys pumping, And there's something about the lights
in New York where they light the crowd. Maybe that's
due you can see the celebrities. That thing felt like
(10:47):
a Game seven of a conference final. The only environment
home teams by the way, eight to no.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I think that was the first time in like over
ten years that that's happened in the first round Game
one Minnesota environment with Anthony Edwards going off. I thought
that was the second best to the Garden. It was
just like, this is big time basketball. Yes, really fun stuff.
Home Team's Roll.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
We do it every day, at this time, every Monday,
at this time. Colin Wright or Colin was wrong, and
here we go where Colin was right. Doesn't matter how
well Lebron and ad play. They're not beating Denver. They've
lost nine straight because Denver starting five is too good
and too deep and too consistent. The Nuggets beat the
Lakers the same way every time they play. They'll be
(11:37):
Spurts one two, or three and Denver jet fuels it
for a ten to nothing run, and in the end
of the game, Yokic is just better. Plus Lebron runs
out of gas at this point in his career, and
when he does, he gets sloppy.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Jokic does not.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Run out of gas. Denver's a better team. And when
I suggested they may want to duck the Nuggets because
of the repercussions if they get swept again, was on display.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Where Colin was rough.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
It's not that the Suns lost. They were three to
zero against the t Wolves in the regular season. They
weren't even competitive. It looked like they were poorly constructed.
I mean, Booker No showed what happened to beal the
t Wolves top to bottom, more physical defensive lapses. KD
(12:24):
gave you points, not much else. I said, I'll take
Phoenix in this series, but I mean, after watching that game,
I don't know if the Suns are constructed. It also
illustrates the difference between the regular season and the postseason,
because that was a two hour and thirty minute.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Mismatch where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Dame time delivered. When the Bucks made that move, I said,
I love Drew Holliday. But it's the right move to
make because he is a Steph Curry level score from
the perimeter in Chris Middleton and Drew Holliday can't give
you that. I just wish the Bucks would let Dame
set the tempt more than they allow him to set
the tempo. Thirty five points by a little guy and
(13:04):
a half is remarkable, and this is what he care.
I've said before, take out Steph Curry. You've got one
shot to win a game in the NBA. I would
choose Dave. I think he's that good. I think he's
a first ballot guy. If Steph Curry did not exist,
he would be the great small scorer, arguably in the
(13:25):
last ten years, where Colin was raw, Anthony Edwards best
player on the floor, took over things for the Tea Wolves.
I said Friday, I worry that he's going to become
Dominique Wilkins. Dynamic, spectacular, but historically overshadowed with all the
great players around him and no titles. But boy, he
was something a lot of energy. We know he's dynamic,
(13:48):
we know he's hyper athletic, but verbal, firing the crowd up,
talking trash to k D.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
He looked pretty good.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
He may have been the best player playing basketball this weekend,
where Colin was right three.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Excellent, steady.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
ESPN reporters reported on Bill Belichick. What we said is
that we didn't think he was going to get a
head coaching job because his inability to work well with others.
And we find out that that was Atlanta's primary concern.
That Robert Kraft, although not bearing him, did talk to
Arthur Blank and say we didn't really trust him. He
(14:28):
was about Bill and doing what Bill wanted. He was not.
We discover a top three candidate for the Atlanta Falcons job.
And again, no matter how great you are, you can
rule with an iron fist when you're winning, but when
you're losing, you look outdated and difficult and fair or not.
That's how Bill Belichick is perceived today by owners and
(14:52):
general managers.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I never loved the James Harden move to the Clippers,
but he does lubricate that off. One of the reasons
I was skeptical is this franchise needs to win in
the playoffs, and he is really disappointing at times in
the playoffs. But he had twenty points in the first
half and Dallas had no answer. He was the best
player on a floor. He was four for six from
three and I mean that move to get James Harden
(15:20):
felt like it paid off. Yesterday he was magnificent.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
In my five bold NBA predictions last week, I had
the Lakers in and the Warriors out in the play
in games. The Warriors are two steph reliant. I think
Pods and Coaminga are excellent young players, but they're not
ready to help you in April and May, and the
Warriors season ends after a brief play in experiment.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Where Colin was wrong.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
What's up with the Dodgers? Now we knew their bullpen
wasn't their strain, but they're three and seven in their
last ten. They've lost series to the Nats, the Padres,
and the Mets. Home runs no longer leading baseball. Run scored,
no longer leading baseball. It is a top heavy lineup.
Dave Roberts is a nice guy. Is he the guy
(16:17):
to lead a star filled roster? That's up for debate,
But the Dodgers for the last two weeks have been
a major disappointment.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Caitlin Clark sold more Indiana Fever jerseys in one day
than the Dallas Cowboys sold last year for the entire team.
This is what I've said. It's no criticism of women's
college basketball. It will come back down to earth. She
is a Tiger Woods or an MJ for whatever reasons,
she galvanized the country. Every game after she played, would
(16:52):
lose forty to sixty percent of the ratings. Women's college
basketball is much better than it was years ago, and
it's a quality sport that's getting better. But these numbers,
these merchandise sales, I do believe she will finally make
the WNBA a profitable league, which to this point it
(17:13):
hasn't been nothing against women's basketball, and it was nothing
against golf. But when a Tiger Woods rolls in or
a Caitlin Clark, they change everything. Where Colin was right
set a year ago. Clippers need to move off Kawhi Leonard.
He's a great player, but they didn't play him against
Dallas and it was one of the Clippers great playoff performances. Ever,
(17:36):
I don't think he's foundational. He's nonverbal. He's not a leader.
You don't quite know what you're gonna get him, or
when you're gonna get him again. I'm not doubting he
could add him as some icing to a really good cake.
He can't be the cake and he's out. Paul George Westbrook,
James harden Zubach looked just fine hammering a very good
(18:00):
Dallas team. Where Collin's right, we're Colin strong, plenty of
both On a Monday.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and Noone Eastern nine EM Pacific.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me three time pro bowler
LeVar Arrington and I couldn't be more excited to announce
a podcast called Up on Game?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You assd?
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman Zada and
Super Bowl champion Yup, that's right, Plexico Burds. You can
only name a show with that type of talent on it.
Up on Game We're going to be sharing our real
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with Me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman, Zada, and Plexico
(18:44):
Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Well he's covered the NFL for over two decades. Serious
Xam Holst NFL Network reporter insider's name is Tom Telli.
Show have the pleasure of bringing them on a handful
of times a year. So this is a very exciting
time for you. Draft is in Detroit. It's been such
a hit by the league moving it around city to
city to city, especially these northern tier cities, cold weather
that feel forgotten in the winter, and you bring in
(19:14):
the draft that it's unbelievable. So that'll be great for
Michigan's economy and Detroit and all that stuff. So we
said there are certain drafts. This will be the highest
rated draft for a couple of reasons. A lot of quarterbacks.
The league's never been more popular, and a couple of
star quarterbacks like Kayleb Williams, so there's some real star power.
And also New York's drafting high, the Boston market, Chicago.
(19:35):
It's gonna be a home run. Do you foresee all
your sources we here today there's a report New England's
taking calls, which I don't think is a terrible idea.
Do you think this is a big mover, shaker draft
or we're all hyped up and it'll be teams staying
in their slots.
Speaker 7 (19:57):
Well, it's served by saying I don't think that New
England listening to is a new development. They've been listening
for a couple of months now. But when you're sitting
at three and you don't have clarity about what's going
to happen on number two, there's every reason to think
that the Patriots, barring the type of offer that they
can't refuse, are gonna wait and take this all the
way until they're on the clock. You got Caleb Williams,
(20:17):
who is I would say, borring some type of act
of God locked in with the Bears at number one.
There certainly are a lot of signs pointing towards Jayden
Daniels going to Washington at number two, though not one
hundred percent. Got seventy two hours or so before this
draft here. If those two fall like that, New England
will be in the spot where they can stand at
number three. Take Drake may or maybe JJ McCarthy, or
(20:40):
see whether or not the Giants, the Vikings or some
wild card team is willing to up their offer, which
to this point the Patriots haven't gotten that type of offer.
Is my understanding. There absolutely have been conversations. Those have
been going on for weeks, but your best leverage might
not come until you're on the clock on Thursday night
if you're New England. Elliott Wolf as the new scouting
(21:01):
director there. He's been with the Patriots organization a couple
of years, the son of Ron Wolf. He's been in
the league a long time. He knows how to do trades.
You got your odd nails, a new head coach. The crafts,
of course, are going to be involved in that decision
as well. You got to weigh this out. You don't
anticipate drafting number three overall again for a very long
time if things go well here, so you better be
very sure you're getting the right guy or else getting
(21:24):
the type of offer that makes a lot of sense,
and still have that opportunity to get somebody else to
supplement that position.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
We started talking about this Tom, it just kind of
popped into our head. So look at how many of
the best quarterbacks in the NFL. We're kind of unfinished
in college. Mahomes, Alan Lamar, Jordan Love. Most of these
kids go to a big, powerhouse school, not a lot
of heavy lifting. JJ McCarthy or you know, they come
(21:52):
out pretty clean. You know what they are, you know
what they're not. But Allan was raw, Mahomes was raw,
Jordan Love had a bad land last year. And I
look at this draft and I think, oh, that's Drake May.
The traits are off the charts. I mean Mahomes arm,
I mean Lamar Jackson's twitchiness, Josh Allen size. But you
(22:14):
have to sort of buy into with Drake May. We
can clean him up. Offensive coaches like Kevin O'Connell. I
think he loves that challenge. But I look at Drake
May and I think, are we overlooking him and beating
him up because he's just not a finished product? In
(22:35):
a draft that keeps rewarding us with unfinished products.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
Well, there's also a line of those unfinished products that
haven't worked out. I mean Trey Lance to this point
in his career, obviously he's not even on the forty
nine ers anymore. Zach Wilson, I think people thought was
a little bit closer but still had work to do.
Obviously to this point that hasn't worked out. I mean,
everything's a gamble in the draft, and that's part of
the challenge of this is you know what's really unique
(23:01):
about this draft, and I had a bunch of scouts
make this point to me when I was doing my
annual quarterback rankings for NFL dot Com, is that there's six,
maybe even seven guys. If you throw in Spencer Rattlers.
Some people have him a little bit closer to that
top group. Some have him of Michael Pennis. But there's
six or seven guys you look at who could be
starters in the NFL, and they're all different. They're all
(23:26):
good dudes in terms of you think you can work
with them. There's not a guy that you're worried about,
Like you can make a case for a lot of
different guys being able to be starters in the NFL.
Jadan Daniels versus Drake May I've heard that on both sides.
I think that it's leaned a little bit more. If
you're taking a cross section of all the teams, there's
a few more people who would vote for Jayden Daniels
as the number two quarterback, But Drake certainly has some
(23:47):
big fans as well. With Daniels, you know, he's, outside
of Caleb Williams, the most talented passer in the draft.
Had a lot of productivity the last couple of years,
obviously at LSU, but he's a smaller guy who or
narrowly framed. He has put on weight, but there's concern
about just the hilacious hits that he takes whether that
play style is going to hold up at the next level.
With Drake, you're right, he's you know, six three in change,
(24:10):
he's two twenty. Big guys, got a pretty big arm.
The concerns on him one, he's not really naturally accurate.
A lot of coaches bring that up that you see
him miss a lot of throws, and so to your point,
you're gonna have some cleanup to do. Well, if you're
doing that cleanup and you're coming from that North Carolina
offense that is so dumbed down and simplistic, this is
(24:30):
a guy that you want to sit for a while.
I had a head coach, tell me somebody who's got
a really good tracker with quarterbacks, Drake may is Jordan
Love where the tools are there, But you got to
sit him for two three years.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Ideally, we all know that's not the reality.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
In the NFL, almost all these first round picks go
out there unless you're in that type of a development
situation in Green Bay. And if you're Washington and you
want to make the case for taking Drake May over
Jayden Daniels, you better have everybody on board, which in
Washington is a lot of people from Josh Harris to
Bob Myers to Magic Johnson obviously Adam Peters and Dan
(25:07):
Quinn and Cliff Kings. Where you better have a plan
in place because what you don't want to do is
force a guy out there before he's ready, because we've
seen so many instances through the years where that really
is harmful to a guy's long term development.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So Dak went fourth round, Russell Wilson third, Brock Purty,
last guy taken, Kirk Cousins fourth, Brady the Goat, Joe
Montana third. We know this, a majority of quarterbacks go
first round that are great, but increasingly all these kids
in the last decade have ten thousand throws by the
time they're fourteen. It's a cottage industry quarterback coaching. So
(25:42):
there's a kid at Tulane, Michael Pratt, and you know
I saw him play. He was against USC a couple
of years ago. Clearly talented. We're not talking third fourth fifth.
I mean a lot of people have him like mid second.
What do we know about this kid? Because we have
a history here in the last decade, somebody's gonna pop
(26:04):
that's not in the first round.
Speaker 7 (26:08):
I'm glad you brought up that name, Colin, because we
actually have I did a short documentary on Michael Pratt.
It's gonna air tomorrow night on NFL three sixty on
NFL Network, eight o'clock Eastern time. Pratt has overcome unbelievable
hardship in his personal life personal tragedy. His best friend
in high school, guy named Bryce Gouty, who was a
(26:28):
top recruit, was going to Georgia Tech on scholarship, and
right before they were about to both leave an early
enroll at their schools, Bryce Gouty committed suicide last year.
You know, and Pratt has honored Goudy with a tattoo.
He wears his number. He's been you know, that's been
a big part of his driving force. Last year, during
(26:48):
the summer, Pratt also lost his brother who had been
his biggest fan. If you ever saw a big guy
after some of those big games lifting Pratt up into
the front row, that was his brother. He also passed away.
And when you talk to people about Michael pre it's
not even so much the player. You're right, I mean
he's done something. I mean he elevated that two lane program.
But it's about this guy, the way that he brings
people together. You know, is he a starter? Is he
(27:09):
a solid starter in the league. That's ambitious for some
of the scouts and coaches, but certainly this is guy
who's going to be in the NFL for the next
decade plus. As a person, he's unbelievable, and you're right,
this could be the next guy after that initial wave
of a six or seven players. One of the fascinating
things about this draft is, and this is a function
of nil.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Once you get passed.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
Those six or seven, if you include Rattler and then Pratt,
there's really nobody else that I can sit here and
tell you we're going to get drafted. Joe Milton probably
does just because he's got a howitzer, gonna throw the
ball the length of the field. Somebody's going to take
on that project in the late rounds. But you might
only have nine or so guys get drafted at all.
So if you want one, we got more teams that
have a quarterback need than there are guys who are
(27:53):
going to go in the first round that has a
tendency to push players up. I wouldn't be surprised if
we saw Rattler in the second round, and I wouldn't
be I'm surprised if Michael Pratt also comes off the
board by the end of the day two.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, I'm more Pratt. I think Rattler was a little
inconsistent for me, But again, I saw him play at
Oklahoma Oklahoma, and so I saw him in big games
and Rattler South Carolina and Oklahoma. Isn't that where he
played South Carolina and Oklahoma? Yeah? Yeah, So I saw
him in big games against really good teams, and that
(28:26):
worried me. Whereas Tulane. You know, I think the stuff's
all fascinating. I think all these guys are interesting, and
I think a lot of it's where they land. Caleb's going, Oh,
go ahead, what were you gonna say, Tom?
Speaker 7 (28:37):
You want a little breaking we want a little breaking news.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Please?
Speaker 7 (28:41):
Just traded Zach Wilson to the Broncos. They are going
to send a twenty twenty four sixth round pick for
Wilson and a twenty twenty four seventh rounder. Teams are
going to divide up his bonus. So Denver, three days
out from the NFL Draft, is a new quarterback. It
is Zach Wilson headed to the Broncos cap Hmmm.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I thought Arizona. He comes west to Denver, which is
by Utah, where he's from, closer to family. So basically
offensive coach Sean Payton. Offensive coaches tend to think this,
I can save somebody. Isn't that You get a lot
of that with offensive coaches. I mean even Mike McCarthy,
I can save Trey Lance. What does that feel like
(29:22):
to you? Does that feel like they don't need a quarterback?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Hmm?
Speaker 7 (29:28):
This is a really interesting one too, because remember Zach
Wilson played a BYU, he's from out there. He obviously
didn't work out for him in New York. So you
get him back home, you get him for virtually nothing
in terms of a late round pick swap. The Jets
are paying I don't know the exact numbers, but they're
paying a significant amount of his training camp roster bonus too,
So this is a low risk flier on a guy
(29:49):
who a few years ago, I mean, I had many
coaches make the case to me that Zach Wilson's take
was better than Trevor Lawrence, and Zach Wilson could have
been the number one pick in that draft. Again, a
lot of things have taken in place since then, and
it is not necessarily gone, you know, Zack Wilson's way.
We have seen flashes of Zach Wilson in the first
six games last year the Jets, I think they're three
(30:10):
and three. He played pretty good, not perfect, not you know,
superstar level, but he played well enough.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
And then it went.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
Completely sideways on him again with Sean Payton. What he's
gonna lock in on here with Zach Wilson is getting
Zach to do exactly what he tells him to do.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Right.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
Play in the system, play to your strengths. We're gonna
put playmakers around you. Just basically break him down to
the most simplistic level. Because Zach Wilson can make all
the amazing plays. It's like Robert Salaz said at one point,
He's got to make the layups consistently. Yeah, well, your
mechanics are constantly everything's off balance, everything's off one foot
(30:47):
fading away. You'll lose some of those easy plays. If
anybody can get the most out of Zach Wilson, it's
gonna be Sean Payton. I can tell you this, Colin.
That tweet's been sitting in my drafts for like a month.
So glad I had that ready to go and I
got the text live on your show.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Was off the table.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
A quarterback Draft week trade is done broken live here
on the hurt.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Look at that as I sit behind my gigantic organ
ready to play, take me out to the ball game.
As as everybody knows.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
But I think every time that I'm watching you, I
just want to hear about some Christmas carols.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Options. Tom.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's great seeing you as always.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
He airs two lane quarterback Michael Pratt airs tomorrow eight
Eastern NFL Network. Uh. This is considered like the second
round quarterback. Who I don't know why, I'll just throw
this name out here. This makes no sense, Jay McK
you'll know this. When I looked at Pratt play, you
know what I thought, Ken O'Brien, I'm just telling you
that's what I saw first time I saw him play.
I thought I have gray hair. I'm old I play
(31:47):
an Oregon. Of course I think Ken O'Brien, but that's
just the point. When I saw him, that's what I
thought of it, all right, Tom, thank you
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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