August 26, 2024 • 45 mins
With Colin out, LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn & Jonas Knox fill in reacting to the kickoff of the college football season with Georgia Tech's shocking upset of #10 Florida State. They question how Mike Tomlin has handled the QB battle in Pittsburgh as the preseason in the NFL comes to a close. Plus breaking news in the NFL: WR Ceedee Lamb & the Cowboys agree to a massive contract extension ending his hold out before the start of the regular season
#2pros
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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
noone Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sports Radio 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 (00:29):
Un Prodrick, it is the Herd here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
We'll scare this audience. I two pros and a cup
of Joe.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Filling in for Colin, it is Levi Arrington, Brady Twin,
Jonas Knox with you, taking you all the way up
until noon Pacific time, three o'clock Eastern time on.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
A Monday morning and a Monday morning.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
After the first edition of College Football for twenty twenty.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Four, oh I lived up to its expectation.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Man, tell you that all those disrespectful people that we've
talked about on our show.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Position is not did How about that dude linebacker is alive?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Bouns back Week zero divers big day for the underdogs,
and it all started in Dublin, Ireland. Well, yeah, you
didn't get the Notre Dame fan base there, Brady Quinn.
But you did actually get a good game, unlike that
beating that Notre Dame gave to Navy last year.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, it was a good game, a little unexpected, I
think for a lot of Florida State fans that flew
across the pond Ford. I have a number of friends
who went down for it, and I have to tell you,
I don't feel that bad. And when it was all
said that, I think they had a fun trip minus
the game. But as we talked about, I mean it
was it couldn't have gone off to a better start,
I think as far as a top ten ranked team
(01:45):
in preseason rankings. This is one of the reasons why
preseason rankings are so irrelevant in my mind, because we
honestly have no idea what these teams are going to be.
I mean, the storylines that we heard about Florida State were, well,
this is redemption, right. This is all because of what
happened to them last season getting left out of the
playoff and all the opt out players know. You can't
(02:07):
count the bowl game versus Georgia that wiped the floor
with them. No, this is about redemption for Florida State.
I even saw people tweeting that after that first drive
when they go up eight to nothing in the game,
only come to find out that, yeah, maybe you lost
a lot of pieces from last year. Maybe it's actually
been There's only been one quarterback, one quarterback in the
(02:30):
past decade that's been able to win a national championship
that was a transfer quarterback. I'm not saying that transfer
quarterbacks don't help potentially improve your program, but the reality
is it took Joe Burrow into his second year at
LSU for him to be able to win a national championship,
and he's the only one that was a transfer quarterback.
So we get all you bought into the hype because
(02:52):
the transfer portal and all this stuff going on. The
reality is the games still won in the trenches. Georgia
Tech ran the heck out of the football and even
though they were the undersized team, they came out on
top and the end it was it was a fun
game to watch. I found it thrilling, even though I'm
sure there's a lot of Florida State fans who are
should be upset about it.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
So I love rankings. Though I love rankings because I
go into the game looking at Florida State and I
say to myself, this is a top ten rated team.
This should be a fun game for Florida State to
show off their wares, to show off their high price
free agent. I mean, they're transfer quarterback. My bed shouts
out to DJ who can't throw further than five yards accurately.
(03:34):
But what it is, all I'm saying is I thought
it was like, Okay, here we go. They're showing the
pre hype of of the Florida State players doing their
river dances and all kinds of stuff. I don't even
know if the river dance comes from Ireland and Dublin,
I would assume it comes from it. Okay, Well, and
then they were on point. Then the bottom line is
they didn't bring that river dance to the football field.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
And yeah, that man right there, number forty four line, you.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Want to talk about a linebacker, show it taking advantage
of his opportunity of being in front of the big stage.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Guy my man was playing.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
He looked like a linebacker, Yes he did, and he
played like a linebacker. He did say, you know what,
I knew there was going to be a problem we
were doing up one game when the show came on
and I was panding it off to mister Jonas knops. Yeah,
I was handed it off to Jonas, and I meant
to get you on the show this weekend too. We
had some great quarterback conversations. Got to revisit on with you, Q.
(04:30):
But I'll tell you what. We're watching the game and
I'm like, I don't think that they're intimidating Georgia Tech enough.
And yes, they scored pretty quickly, they got it downfield,
they ran it in, but Georgia Tech was able to
answer it, and then it becomes a defensive struggle. What
I took away from the game is like they allowed
(04:51):
Georgia Tech to be close for too long, and they
started gaining some confidence. They started making some plays that
gave them more confidence. And then it turned into, wait,
we're still in it too, we can beat these dudes.
Then it turned into y'all some trash. Y'all ain't even
supposed to be.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Out here with the with the yellowjackets. Y'all not even
supposed to be out here with Georgia Tech. We own Dublin.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
And to me, that's why I love college football, and
that's why I love rankings. The reason why I think
they are are what they are. Yes, they're overrated, Yes
we're right. We don't know what type of team we're
getting until they start playing one hundred percent. But the
fact that we put these expectations on these programs and
they have to go out there and they have to
(05:40):
perform with them, and you play a team that's actually
a pretty pretty good team. I mean, Georgia Tech is
not a slippy team. It's a major it's a major
conference team.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
And you gotta go out there.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
You gotta beat them. You gotta play, you gotta beat them.
No weeks off, No, oh, you'll still make the playoffs
at the early parts of the year, don't matter. Just
keep playing. No, you gotta go out there and play
or somebody's gonna clip you. And now every other team
that's ranked and rated has to go into their first
week of games knowing, knowing that the expectations of what
(06:15):
they carry, what they're ranking, is now on the line.
It's not a given. It's not a given you're gonna
go out there and beat a team that's unranked. So
you better, you better get your head where it's supposed
to be. Think about it, the right way and approach
the game the right way, and you better play otherwise
you're gonna have forty four and company coming into your
house taking your candy, taking your taking taking a kool
(06:41):
Aid out of your refrigerator, and.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
You don't want that.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I mean, why doesn't it happen more? You know, like
because we've talked about it before to where you don't
get a preseason, so you just roll out what you
got and if if teams are a little sluggish or
maybe you're not as it's like you end up. That's
why when when somebody plays a Alabama plays a Wafford
or somebody like that to open up the year, I'm
never critical of it because I always think, dude, they
(07:04):
don't get a preseason. And like Marvin Harrison Junior said
this recently, it was like, yeah, I wish we had
like maybe a preseason game in college football like we
have in the NFL so we can gear up for
the year. Because now you look at it and you go,
so Florida State might have just if they had national
championship hopes, like, yeah, the expansion of the playoff is
going to help, but like they can't afford to lose
(07:26):
the rest of the way. Really, I mean, like that's
a problem for them for the university. And on the
flip side of that, if Georgia Tech is all high
and mighty on this win and Florida State goes out
and lose through three or four games, this win against
a quote unquote top ten team at the time, it
isn't going to amount to much at the end of
the things because we're going to look at it and go, yeah,
but that team turned out to be not very good,
(07:47):
So you're just basing it off of we assume this
team is going to be good. There's a ten next
to their name, and that's where we're at at this
point in time. The assumption is based on what they
do in recruiting. I mean, that's what it comes down to.
If you look at preseason rankings on any given year,
it's in essence recruiting rankings. They are stacking up the
(08:09):
teams they feel like are the most talented, because we
believe that the most talented teams end up finding a
way to play in the major bowls and for.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
A national championship. So that's really what it comes down to.
And as you know, we've kind of touched on like
dju Unglela. He comes in as the transfer quarterback. It's
his third school, you know. And I think you have
to pause now too, because the bigger picture discussion is this.
If you have a transfer quarterback and that head coach
(08:39):
went somewhere else and he didn't bring that quarterback with him,
isn't that a red flag? Isn't that telling you something?
Jonathan Smith is now in Michigan State and Aiden Childs
followed with him from Oregon State. My imagination leads me
to think, like the quarterback with you, well know that
(09:00):
he didn't want dju unless I don't want you exactly.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Absolutely, So I think there's cause for concern for a
lot of programs out there where you find a program
that didn't want to bring their quarterback and then trying
to find the rationale behind it, because clearly Michigan State
needed a quarterback, but Jonathan Smith didn't choose to take
that Oregon State quarterback. He chose to take Aiden Chiles.
(09:26):
So that was the first thing too that I think
bigger picture discussion was brought to the forefront of my
mind of like, well, let's just look at the stats too,
and I'll reiterate what I said a moment ago. In
the past decade, there hasn't been a national championship won
by a transfer quarterback with the exception of LSU and
Joe Burrow, and it took him into his second year.
(09:50):
So when you look at some of the programs that
are looking at bringing in transfer quarterbacks in their final
year of eligibility, I look at it and that's why
I've said I think George is the favorite. Carson Beck
was a kid they recruited. He's come up through their program.
He understands the expectations of Kirby Smart and Georgia, and
(10:10):
he's been there the entire time building for this moment.
You know, you look at Ohio State with Will Howard
with Dylan Gabriel to beat they might be tough to beat,
but they both have quarterbacks that didn't choose to initially
go there. Dylan Gabriel's on his third school went to
UCF originally, then Oklahoma, not Oregon. It's tough to be
(10:33):
able to develop chemistry, to know the offense like the
back of your hand, like you would if you had
been in the program for three or four years. That's
difficult to do. It's difficult to throw at anticipation. It's
difficult to understand the body language of guys running in
out of cuts or when things break down, being able
to look for that guy. I know this guy. I mean,
(10:53):
when I was in college on a kid, a guy
named JFF Samarge had Marie Stovod Raymon McKnight. I knew
because I'd thrown with them so much what they were
going to do. Even when they had their back turn
to me, I knew which way they were going to
try and anticipate all of that because I could read
their body language. It's hard to do that in college,
especially because think about it, I mean, you're limited with
what you can do because of the hours you're allowed
(11:15):
to have organized based on the NCAA rules. It isn't
like the pros where you can go ahead and get
together and go go on a vacation of your downtime
and all that stuff, and you're working twenty four to
seven anyway, pre practice, post practice, during practice, you know,
special teams drills, you're with your wide receivers over there looking.
It's not like that. You don't have as much practice time.
So I keep kind of going back to that too.
(11:37):
When you look at the teams that I feel like
have consistency a lot, oftentimes it's because they've got those
guys who they're rolling in that have been through their program.
And Tom Brady talked about this too, about how now
there's college football teams, they're not programs anymore. They're teams.
I mean, you're kind of signing up to go play
for that team in that year. Whereas a program, you're
(11:59):
getting there and you're being developed, Like you go in
through it your freshman year and you're kind of putting
on muscle mass, you're getting stronger, you're learning the offense,
you're learning what it means to be a student athlete
at that university. Like all that stuff has gone out
the window now. And I think that's one of the
reasons too, why you see these inconsistencies for players who
are really experienced, or when you go over to Ireland,
(12:22):
you're like, well, that's not that big of a deal.
Florida State, it's more talented team didn't work out that day.
So I just think it's kind of beware as we
head into Week one of college football, Beware for a
lot of those underdogs, because I think there's a number
of teams that like the margin of difference isn't as
big as maybe Vegas things, or or I should say,
our friends out west, it.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Still should be talent that wins out. I just I
don't I'm not exactly sure why FSU came up short
against Georgia Tech. But when you think about those teams
like a Georgia or an organ or an Alabama or
in Ohio State, they stockpile talent. And I think one
of the biggest things that that college sports is going
(13:06):
to have to adjust to in in the football rom
and probably another sports as well, is not not being
able to have the stockpile of talent two and three
two and three positions deep. I feel like you can
always look out of Georgia or an Alabama or in
Ohio State. You can always look at those schools and
say that they're going to be a team that contends
(13:26):
for a national title, because if somebody goes down, there's
not only one player that's ready to step up, there's
two players. I mean, at one point, think about your
boy two of steps in at halftime, at halftime and
wins the national title at halftime, and I know he's there,
and I get all of the things that you're saying,
and there are definitely points well taken, but I still
(13:46):
think that college football has always been about stockpiling talent
and enough talent where it can carry you through an
entire season to the playoffs, to the championship round of games.
That's that's that's how I look at it. So to me,
I looked at Florida State and I came away from
that game saying, you're not as talented as they thought
(14:07):
you were, You're not as good a team as the
country thought you were. Or it's just too early and
that chemistry or that that continuity just hasn't taken shape yet.
And you know what, unfortunate for you, fortunate for Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech takes advantage of a big stage, puts their
name out there. Florida State has has an aUI the
(14:27):
first week out.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I mean, based on what we've seen so far, four
games into the college football season, it does feel like,
you know, we're gonna see a lot of happy fans
in Morgantown this weekend, and it does you know, if
we're just looking at, uh, looking at how this all.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Well, I mean, I'll say it's going to be a challenge.
They have a good quarterback in West Virginia. We have
two new coordinators. So you want to talk about continuity,
talk about getting continuity between coach and play.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Are they playing Penn State? I don't even know. That's
so good, that's all good. I'm underplay it though.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I'm a downplay it, A don't play it because I
think our defense is going to come out and do
what it needs to do. And I honestly, I think
the maturity of Alor and then the maturity and and
the look of our backfield, I think we're going to
surprise people in the passing game, and I think.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
We're going to be who people thought we were in
a running game. So I'm confident. I would say the
one thing that always stands out, and I think this
is every coach's concern was when you go back and
watch that game, but really any of the other college football
games that you saw, and going back to the initial
point of there are no preseason games, right so you
don't really have that warm up of hey, we're full
(15:32):
go like this, you got to tackle them to the ground,
right like. Oftentimes there's limitations to how the offensive line
and d lines are preparing how guys are hitting when
they're actually trying to get dives down to the ground
when they're out in space. All that was to me
on display, you know, sloppy, poor tackling penalties at times.
I mean, there's there's those things that you just can't
(15:53):
prepare for until you get out there and you actually
start playing in a real live game scenario. And I
thought that was one of the things that stood in
the way for Florida State. I thought Georgia Tech played
a bit of a cleaner game as far as you know,
miscues and tackling in general, and just better play up front.
But I think that's the concern for any you know,
favorite going in like a Penn State for example, which
(16:14):
was a double digit favorite. Now I think they're hovering
around about eight points or so eight and a half,
depend on the book. But the general point is that's
that's every coach is concerned. That's James Franklin's concern, that's
Neil Brown's concern, that's every single head coach is concerned
with that first game of the season is just trying
to play a clean game. I mean, where you're not
missing a bunch of tackles or missing blocks and missing assignments,
(16:35):
all those things. So I thought that was one of
the things that stood out to me as well. If
you're looking at a reason for shocking up out Florida State,
you ended up losing that game. That was another reason.
I think you can tally up there, which again is
a concern for everyone in college football. Think it's a
dope point.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It is The Herd here on Fox Sports Radio, two
Pros and a cup of Joe filling in for Colin
and the crew. Here it is LeVar Arrington, Brady Quinn,
Jonas Knoxching. Brought to you by NAVI and save big
on your water and energy bills with a new Navvi
and tankless water heater navig tankless water heaters provide endless
hot water for spotlight comfort. Navian makes it easy to
go tankless. Visit tanklessmade Simple dot Com. Coming up next
(17:13):
here on the Verage, we are going to discuss a
decision that should be made very very soon at quarterback
for one team in the NFL, and things got a
little bit easier last night.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
We'll discuss right here on FSR.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern nin Am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
All right, so, speaking of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Steelers, we
mentioned earlier that the Patriots are they haven't yet announced
that Drake may is going to be the starter, even
though Girodmeo said that he's outplayed Jacoby Brissett. Jacoby Brissett's
also got a shoulder injury that he's dealing with. Well,
Mike Tomlin and the Steelers, I mean, they got to
(17:56):
see Russell Wilson in five snaps in the preseason game.
Justin Fields came in. Russell looked pretty good and the
brief stint that he had over the weekend. But Mike
Tomlin discussed that there's still more work to be done
when it comes to them making a decision at QB.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
We'll make a decision at the end of our work week.
This upcoming week, we got three days of Stealers versus
Steelers work, and why.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Not do it then?
Speaker 6 (18:19):
It kind of, you know, minimizes the Steelers versus Steelers work.
When we started making decisions prior to the completion of that,
We've got ample time to prepare for Atlanta and make
whatever decisions or announcements regarding divisional labor or pecking orders
and so forth, and so we'll do it at the
end of the work week.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Steelers versus Steelers. Yeah, and I'm anning factor. I mean,
I'll let you have it. But that sounds about right.
You already heard my opinion on this. They knew who
the starter is. I don't know why they're doing it
this way. It just it bothers me, man. I just
it's almost like this is how you create problems within
(18:58):
your own locker room. Is when you're a coach and
you are not more defiant or more outspoken about who
your leader is, then when you do face adversity earlier
in the season, it leads to that same question being
amongst the dudes in the locker room. I mean, and
that's one of the reasons why I'm not against like
quarterback battles are quarterback battles. The hard part, though, is
(19:23):
at some point you have to define who that guy is,
and then you have to give that guy every chance,
every opportunity to go be the guy. And if you've
got him going out there splitting reps in his preparation
or looking over it, I mean, it's just looking over short.
It doesn't work. It never allows anyone to feel like
(19:43):
they're the guy and then go out there and they
can play free and they can make throws and make
mistakes and still come back from that. I mean, imagine
being in any other position and constantly feeling like, well,
if I miss this tackle, then I'm not gonna play anymore,
or if I miss this car, I mess up my alignment,
I'm not gonna be able to play anymore. I mean,
that's that's the hard part about it. With a quarterback position,
(20:05):
there's so many things that you're responsible for. So there's
you know, a multitude of things you could get wrong
on any given play, and so at some point you
have to be able to play with a degree of
It's okay, it doesn't have to be perfect. I just
got to keep taking profits, keep moving the football, keep
things going forward, because there's all these variables that impact
(20:27):
my job. And so when adversity strikes, and instead of
sticking with a guy and letting him fight through it
and see if he can overcome a bad half of
football or bad three quarters of football, you then have
a locker room that's in question too. Because the head
coach was in question about it. So that's the thing
that I hate. I think it almost sets a tone
(20:48):
for how the season's gonna go. Like, and you've been
pretty outspoken, LaVar about not being very optimistic about the
Steelers this year. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
That?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Is fair? And I can understand why you'd say that
from the for the reasons you've made, but now even
more so, like I'm starting to feel that way just
because of how they're letting this whole thing drag on.
It's like, I don't care who it is, name the guy,
let him go be the guy, and then let's see
what you've got after eight nine games. You've got a
(21:18):
new coordinator, You've got two new quarterbacks, so whichever one is,
there's going to be a learning curve. There's gonna be
a process of breaking these guys in truth and letting
the offense settle in truth.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
I would say this, I would offer this if I
were Mike Tomlin. I look at my OC I look
at my offensive line coach, and I'd be like, coaches,
sit them down. Broderick, sit down, James, Zach, Isaac Dan
sit down. You do understand that you are dictating the
(21:50):
decision that has to be made for this football team
at the quarterback's position.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
It's your poor play that is for.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Me to not be able to say. I declared definitively
that Russell Wilson is the starter. Now we know Russ
is the starter. We know we're gonna start him. But
y'all out there playing for such a pits poor effort
that this man is giving the ball to Naji every
single time. He's throwing it in the flats, in the
(22:23):
flares every single time because y'all can't block anybody, and
it doesn't look like Russe is gonna run, so he's
gonna try to throw the ball because he wants to
be seen as a throwing quarterback. And he isn't running.
Now we gotta put Justin in. And Justin's on the
exact opposite. He's holding the ball, he's looking over the field,
he's getting chased out because y'all don't want to block,
(22:44):
and now he's running all over the place and we're
getting the same amount of yardage that we get if
he throws it. Russell throws the ball to nage your hair.
So what are we gonna do? Y'all need to step up.
Y'all need to drop a set act like you know
what's at stake right now. Now, you need to do
what you need to do. And that's how I'm gonna
be able to determine our Steelers on Steelers being able
(23:07):
to say that Russ is our starter, because otherwise y'all
putting us in a position where I'm gonna put Russ
out there, he's going to get sacked like fifteen times,
setting the NFL record, an end game season record. That's
all your fault. It's every last one of y'all's fault.
It ain't my fault, and I ain't the coach's faults.
Y'all's fault. It is weird how they're handled. It's to
(23:28):
ever tell you, guys a story about how Lovey Smith
handled a quarterback.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Wait what happens? And I'm glad? Coin was it? And yes,
what do you do? I'm glad? He asked.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, so what he decided on during the preseason was
he was flipping a coin to see who was going
to start at for this housing game. So yeah, so
there was one of those, uh, you know, one of
those situations there in Chicago. So I don't know if
i'd ever told you, guys, that before, but I forget
out and.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Then what happened? He flipped the coin and then it
head er tails.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
I mean, I don't remember what the result was, but
I just know that Kyle Orton ended up winning.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Well there you go. Yeah, so.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
That might be what they need to do because if
their offensive line doesn't block any better than what they're
doing right now, it doesn't matter who's in there, they're
not going to have very much offense.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I still couldn't get over the one clip I saw.
This is just how much of like I can't take
people on social media serious. Is They're like, oh, look
at Russell Wilson here holding on with the football. It's
like the right tackle gets blown out, I mean literally
takes a step back and is almost getting thrown into
(24:32):
Russell Wilson. They're like, oh, it's called Russell Wilson. It's like, okay,
are we just not going to talk about this three
hundred pound human being flying back into his face? Like, hey,
is that not a problem for Pittsburgh Steelers fans? Because
if it feels like that's where things have gone downhill
for them. Outside of Matt Canada's terrible play calling, was
their offensive line has slowly faded away. Yeah, that's just
(24:57):
the reality of it. I hate to say us. I
hate to say we because I never played for the Steelers,
but that is not what we're known for.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
The Steelers aren't known for that, Mike Webster, GERMANI Dawson,
Leon Searcy, Pouncy.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
We're not known for.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Bad offensive line play. We stink right now, and that
makes it hard, makes it hard to do anything that
you need to do. A running game is a kneemick
because we all have blocking, but we can't establish the past.
I'm on set up a discruntle Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
Fan sign George Truly LaVar Arringtons Township North Hills High School,
North Side raised and born in Pratt.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I don't see my team doing well right now. I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I don't have a positive prognosis for us. All Right,
I'm done, I'm off my soap box, all right. I
believe in Mike Tomlin, though something has to give. Though
I believe in Mike Tomlin, I will say that that
is the one caveat to all of this, is that
if somebody can kind of pull it together and figure
it out, it's going to be Mike Tomlin, but I
just don't like what I'm seeing.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Well, I mean, you can believe in Mike tom and
all you want. I believe in simply Safe. I'll tell
you that right now.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And during home emergencies, every second counts. That's why you
need simply Safe home security with simply Save twenty four
to seven monitoring agents act within five seconds of receiving
your alarm. Visit simply safecolin dot com to save twenty
percent today. There's no safe like simply Save. Coming up
next here on the Herd, it is two pros and
a cup of Joe filling in for Colin, we are
(26:34):
going to hear from somebody in the world of football
who apparently gets to pick and choose how things operate
in and around his program.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
We'll have that for you right here on FSR.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
One More Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and
noone Easter non a em Pacific.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
PAULI Fools go ahead with Tony Fousco.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
Yeah, as everybody knows we're the hosts of the award
winning Paully and Tony Fosco Show. But instead of us
telling you how great we are, here's how Dan Patrick
described us when he came on our show.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
What are you doing? Were interrupting our promo?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, you wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally of context.
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Let me put this into context.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Shut up.
Speaker 8 (27:29):
Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yee, We're told you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, we got some breaking news we're gonna get to
coming up here. Just told you it is the Herd.
Here Fox Sports Radio on a Monday morning, two pros
and a cup of Joe filling in for Colin LeVar Arrington,
Brady Quinns, Jonas knocks here.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
You didn't get it right downy Ben.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yes, we we do have a breaking news, a story
that has lasted the entirety of the NFL offseason.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
We knew it, We was calling for it for this show.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
It has now reached its conclusion, as reports are now
saying that the Cowboys var the Cowboys, the Cowboys, and
Ceedee Lamb have reached an agreement on a four year,
one hundred and thirty six million dollar contract. It makes
him the according to Adam Schefter, the second highest page.
(28:28):
That's not accurate, non QB and NFL history and all
that stuff, but nonetheless, the deal is done. He gets
thirty four million dollars a year annually. I don't know
why Schefter does this, and I don't know why he
does this. He knows he's not going to make as
much as Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson's new deal is a
four year, one hundred and forty million dollar deal, which
(28:49):
comes out to thirty five million per year. This deal
is a four year, one thirty six million dollar deal,
which is thirty four million per year.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I don't know why he says this. I mean, it's
it's all us. Like he's copying and pasting immediately from
the agent, like, hey, put this out there, because if
you say just everyone won't believe it. He's got to true.
By the way, it doesn't make it a bad deal.
I'm just saying I don't know why they get like
it's a great deal. And by the way, Ceedee Lamb
is probably right up there next to Justin Jefferson. But
(29:17):
I don't think anyone would make the case that Ceede
Lamb has been better than Justin Jefferson up top, Jones
up top.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Now, if you listened earlier in the show, Lebar and
I we were trying to predict how this was going
to turn out.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Sound like, do we have to sound from that? Yeah,
well we don't need to. We could probably turn kill
the sound. Yeah, let's do the sound, all right, so
take it away. There you go. Well, I don't know, Brady,
I mean, I disagree.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
I think this deal will probably get done, and it'll
get done by how we're.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, tell you what, Jonas, I think you're correct. What
is Q talking about? I don't know. Seems like he's
taking crazy pills. Ha ha.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Well, I'll tell you what, Toddy Lamb. He's going to
get the deal done before this year.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Guys are gonna win, and I think that I'm going
to double down on that. I'm gona triple down. It'll
be thirty four million dollars a year for CD Lamb.
I think you're right, Jonas, there you go. You're not
robots from earlier. That's from earlier, Yeah, from early. I
(30:21):
mean you act like you're robots that you're talking like,
what's wrong? Why you mad? I don't know why you
guys need to go to such a lens. Would you
guys get something wrong? I really wanted to just bleed
into the season. I thought it was I didn't think
it was gonna get done. I didn't think it was
(30:43):
gonna get done.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
But but you know what, Jamar Chase, you're on the
clock because I don't think you you ain't got it,
because you ain't gonna get it.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
So I was just gonna say I actually would make
the case I uxed next because it's a clear statement
that if City Lamb wasn't gonna surpass it with that deal,
he needs to take whatever office on the table from
San Francisco unless Washington now has a better chance of
signing him and give them the dots in trade. And
(31:11):
maybe they're back involved in the mixed given the connection
to the staff.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Says that being discussed is that being tossed around like
we I know we talked about it, but is that
being tossed around because I think that would be one
hell of a move for the Commanders to pull that off,
to get Ayuk and to get him back with Jayden Daniels.
If people don't know they're connected through asu W and
(31:36):
they were both playing at Arizona State University, I think
that would be a tremendous move.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
How much do you have the front office that knows
the front office well in Washington? Typically it helps get
these deals done if there's a deal to be made, right,
So whatever the forty nine ers asking price is, and
if the Washington Commandos have that draft capital or want
to trade a you know, trade whatever it is, maybe
it's player compensation that you know that helps to get
(32:05):
it done. When you know John Lynch knows Adam Peters well,
so that's one thing they have going for them in
order for that to be the case. But I think
if you're Brennan Ayuk, are you really gonna look at
I mean, maybe you look at Washington say okay, better opportunity,
But are you gonna replace Terry McLaurin. He's probably still
gonna be the number one receiver. So if that's the case,
you probably better off with where you're at. And wasn't
(32:28):
Deebo Samuel at one point on the trade block or
they talked about that. Yeah. I mean, if that's the
case and you do sign an extension there, I mean,
you're at least gonna be the guy for the next
few years. I mean, Ricky Piersoll, they took him back
into the first round, but he still needs to prove himself.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
But isn't it about fil and appreciate it more than anything,
like the fact that I think he feels undervalued and underappreciated.
Bat the Niners, I think you would will it take
less money from somewhere?
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Well, But that's the thing, is that whatever the Steelers offer,
whatever the Steelers offered was what caused them to go
back to the negotiation table the fort I think that.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I think that the number that the Stellers that would
have thrown out was probably more offensive than what the
Niners offer was.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
It's like somebody who breaks up is like, I don't
want to go see what the scene's like, and they
get out for about an hour and a half, like,
all right, never mind, you want to get back together,
let's talk.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I was wrong, baby, I was wrong.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
What do you think you think the Commanders will probably
be way more attractive. I think it's more acceptable for
the Commanders to make a more aggressive offer for a
guy like Brandon Ayuk than what the Stillers. If the
Stellers may an aggressive play on on Brandon Ayuk, it
does not fit the character of what that that organization,
(33:45):
how that franchise does what they do. But the Commanders,
on the other hand, they would they do fit that
and I think that would be a tremendous pickup for them.
Now is that better than San fran No, If we're
looking at it at face value, San Francisco is right.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
There at it. We know that they're right there close
to it.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
If Brock Purdy can be the man that he's been,
whether you want to call him franchise or or game manager,
I don't really care what you label them as. If
he can come out and play at the level he's
played at since he's been starting, and maybe even a little.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Higher, this team is the team to beat.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
They get Trent Williams back, I hear there's positivity there.
Maybe I don't know, maybe he gets it done next.
We don't talk very much about Trent Williams and his deal.
Think that's a very big piece, a major piece of
the puzzle for the San Francisco team. If they put
all those things together, they put this the bit and
get into the season. I think they're the team to
beat outside of Philadelphia in the NFC. So if I'm
(34:50):
Brandon Aiyuk, if they offer me less money, I just
take the take a one year like play the rest
of your contract out. Don't even take an extension. Play
your co tracked out so that you can get a
free agent market of this.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Is it right? This is the last one.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
Either they can well they could, they could tack them,
and I don't think that they're gonna put a they
they were seeing a trim where they're not putting exclusive
tags on guys, right, So if they don't put an
excusa tag going, didn't he yeah an exclusive? Yeah, that's
why he's gotta stay. He's got to play on the tay.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
But they gave they gave the the unrestricted to a
couple what uh to a lot of guys. Actually, most
got non exclusive franchise.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Play this year out, play the last year your deal out.
Don't do any deals with anybody. Play take the chance,
bet on yourself, bet on yourself. That's what I would say.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I mean, the hard thing about that is, let's just
let's just say if you are Brendan Ayuk and you're
not going to surpass the total value of the contract.
So you're not going to pass Jefferson at one hundred
and forty, You're not going to pass CD at one
hundred and thirty six. Maybe you could the signing BTUs,
you know, maybe maybe you get thirty nine forty million
up front, which would be a significant amount on Maybe
(36:04):
it's a little short term deal, who knows. Maybe it's
only a three year deal, maybe it is a four
year deal. However they figure it out. My only point
is you're not going to surpass the average annual value,
since that's the metric that we all use to equate
if you reset the market or not. But you can
find other ways of doing that, whether it's guarantees or
a signing bonus that would surpass what Ceedee Lamb just got.
(36:27):
If that's the case, do it. I mean, the forty
nine ers have money, so that's one way he could
get it done. And if that's the case, man, it'd
be really hard to play for fourteen million this year,
which I believe is his number on the fifth year
option and then be staring or looking at thirty or
forty million and a signing bonus dead square in the
face and somewhere around thirty million a year if that's
(36:50):
the number that you could be making on a three
four year extension like that. To me, I'm like, I
don't know. I don't think I can play this year
for fourteen million, even if there was greener pastors on
the other side, having all that staring me in the face.
So now ceedee.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Lamb's deal is done four years, one hundred and thirty
six million, as reported earlier and predicted by LeVar and
I here on this show. But this conversation, yeah, we're
talking about but the conversation does now turn to all right,
Dak is in line?
Speaker 7 (37:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Is Dak going to get his deal done sometime soon?
Are they just going to let this thing roll out
and he gets into next season? And because the last
time they tried this, he went out and snapped his
leg and still got paid, so it's like they can
they can roll this thing out. But now I wonder
if this does maybe speed up the Dak conversation because
reportedly talks you know, have gone well, there was some optimism,
(37:47):
yet still no deal for Dak Prescott. So that's where
we stand on the on the Dallas Cowboys and your
boy Michael Parsons is going to be in line next year.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
There are Yeah, what's he looking for? Why don't we
just get him on and ask like, what are you
looking for in the contract? You just bring me out.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
I think anybody who's looking at the highest paid player
on the defensive side of the ball, can you know
you look at their contract?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
What?
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Yeah? Yeah, there you go. Hey LeVar, see if we
can get him to come on. I mean he's on
with Central Time and they're in Dallas, so yeah, see
if we'll come on the show.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Eleven eleven y'all asked that eleven eleven, Why, well, no,
no specific time, and that's that's this show I'm talking about,
Like in the mornings on our show. Yeah, hurt, I
get it. But our time, which was perfect, it's perfect
time to ask that question intentional. I'm certain we could
probably get that done. Yeah, get it.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Get him to call in at like what four thirty,
you know, four thirty Central time something like that. Yeah,
he's knowing, Micah, he's probably up.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
Yeah, Yeah, he's probably up and he's got a new one,
so you know you might be up changing the diaper
jump all he does.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
All right, Oh no, that's a baby boy. Good for him. Yeah,
Now do you guys want to uh also have the
on them. I will tease that. You don't need to
tease it. It is gonna be a well, you know it.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Just it feels like there's maybe some question marks going
into the season for for somebody else in the NFL.
And uh, and that's somebody is Deshaun Watson, a man
who listened, uh, since we're just being honest here on
the show, feeling in for Colling here on the herd. Uh,
A guy that LeVar has defended for for months and
(39:30):
months and months now is being us defense. One of
the great great quarterbacks in the league, and somebody who
is going to bounce back and have a strong compe now.
He did not play at all in the preseason. They
made the decision to hold him out in the final
preseason vision. We talked about that because look, they had
a bunch of injuries on the offensive line. The plan
(39:52):
was to play, and then the plan wasn't to play.
He had to like rest his shoulder because a soreness,
and like there's just been a lot of an honest
th So Kevin Stefanski did speak about the decision not
to play Deshaun Watson in the preseason, but is pretty
confident that he's going to bounce back and respond when
the regular season kicks off.
Speaker 9 (40:12):
I think we've had a lot of time together as
an offense, as a teammate with his team. He's a winner,
continues to win games for us. I'm excited for him
with all the work that he's put into this offseason.
I'm excited for him.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yeah, so he started, well, hold on, wasn't there a
miscommunication or something that happened again as to whether or
not he was going to play in the final preseason game.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
So, like I guess when they were asking Deshaun about that,
he kind of said, well, that's news to me. Like
that was sort of you know, thrown out there in
camp that there was a little bit of confusion as
to whether or not he was going to play in
the preseason, even though it seemed like Stefanski had made
it clear like yeah, we're aiming towards the preseason even
last week, you know, he said, yeah, you know, we're
(40:59):
still planning on him to play in the preseason finale,
but with all the injuries and whatnot, we're just going
to take it day by day. But that is the
plan as of right now. And then you go back
to last year and there was also the confusion about
his injury. Members Stefanski gave some messaging that made it
seem like it was what a pain tolerance thing, and
then they had to come out afterwards and say no,
it was more than that, and then the messaging got
(41:20):
changed again to well, I don't even know if it
was a hit. He suffered the injury in a prior game.
Like it feels like there are two different conversations that
are being had in one building, but there.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Can only be one this season. That's I think that's
the point.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
I think the stakes are really really high for whoever
did that contract. Stakes are high. For the ownership who
did that, allowed it and their paying its stakes are high.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
I would even go as far as to say, even
though that money is guaranteed, if you don't want to
leave this game being known as someone who stole that
big bag, which some people will applaud it, I mean,
you want in a losing effort didn't matter. But if
the legacy matters to you, do you want your legacy
(42:16):
to just be well? I was awarded the largest guaranteed
contract in the history of the game, but I'd never
delivered when I went there, I would assume that you
have enough competitive nature fuel that's driving you where. You
don't want to come out of this game and be
looked at as someone that really really totally underachieved for
(42:40):
what it was that they were able to make in
terms of a contract.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
I think I think the stakes are high. I don't know.
I'll continually say it. I'll continually say it. They cannot
move on from Deshaun Watson until after twenty twenty six.
It's crazy. It just financially it would be crippling in
(43:06):
many ways. I mean, I guess, tell me he's crippling
them more. Being on the team you would be use setting.
I mean, after this year, one hundred and thirty seven
million dollars in dead cap crazy, After the next year
seventy three million dollars approximately in dead cat. His aging
(43:27):
crushed that contract. Now again, you could, I mean, look,
maybe they could. There's nothing to restructure. It's all guaranteed already.
They was out on town when that deal got done.
Oh yeah, a party. I guess you could do a
you could do a post June one designation and split
that out, but that's still after the twenty twenty five season.
(43:48):
You have two more years of Deshaun Watson, regardless of
what you think about him as a quarterback, good, bad
and different whatever, off the whatever they think, They've got
two more years before there's any sort of transition that
they can make. And that is all because of that contract.
(44:11):
And so as far as he was never going to
play in the preseason, never and especially behind an offensive
line that was banged up too by the way this
training camp in preseason, and so you know, we'll see
what they look like this year. But the hard part
for Browns fans is this team, this roster is, in
my opinion, probably the best in the NFL as far
(44:33):
as overall talent both sides of the ball, the depth
that they have as well, and so all they need
is him to go in there and manage the thing
and they can get to the playoffs and potentially win
a super Bowl. That's how talented this roster is. If
he's able to go in there, stay healthy, just manage
(44:54):
this thing, they can win a Super Bowl. That is
not hyperbole and it's not Jim Schwartz did an unbelievable
job with that defense last year. You know, the offense,
I think, you know, look, Chrubb's gonna start on the
pup list, but they still showcase the ability to run
the football despite not having him last year. When he
comes back, that's gonna give this offense some extra juice.
(45:15):
So I just look at him. I say. People can
say whatever they want, it doesn't matter. He's gonna be
there for at least the next two seasons. It's just
wild to think that the question mark for the Cleveland
Browns isn't the roster. It's the guy that gave two
hundred and thirty million dollars guarantees. He's just got to
hope he accepts the challenge. Man, So accept the challenge.
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
noone Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sports Radio 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 (00:29):
Un Prodrick, it is the Herd here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
We'll scare this audience. I two pros and a cup
of Joe.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Filling in for Colin, it is Levi Arrington, Brady Twin,
Jonas Knox with you, taking you all the way up
until noon Pacific time, three o'clock Eastern time on.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
A Monday morning and a Monday morning.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
After the first edition of College Football for twenty twenty.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Four, oh I lived up to its expectation.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Man, tell you that all those disrespectful people that we've
talked about on our show.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Position is not did How about that dude linebacker is alive?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Bouns back Week zero divers big day for the underdogs,
and it all started in Dublin, Ireland. Well, yeah, you
didn't get the Notre Dame fan base there, Brady Quinn.
But you did actually get a good game, unlike that
beating that Notre Dame gave to Navy last year.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, it was a good game, a little unexpected, I
think for a lot of Florida State fans that flew
across the pond Ford. I have a number of friends
who went down for it, and I have to tell you,
I don't feel that bad. And when it was all
said that, I think they had a fun trip minus
the game. But as we talked about, I mean it
was it couldn't have gone off to a better start,
I think as far as a top ten ranked team
(01:45):
in preseason rankings. This is one of the reasons why
preseason rankings are so irrelevant in my mind, because we
honestly have no idea what these teams are going to be.
I mean, the storylines that we heard about Florida State were, well,
this is redemption, right. This is all because of what
happened to them last season getting left out of the
playoff and all the opt out players know. You can't
(02:07):
count the bowl game versus Georgia that wiped the floor
with them. No, this is about redemption for Florida State.
I even saw people tweeting that after that first drive
when they go up eight to nothing in the game,
only come to find out that, yeah, maybe you lost
a lot of pieces from last year. Maybe it's actually
been There's only been one quarterback, one quarterback in the
(02:30):
past decade that's been able to win a national championship
that was a transfer quarterback. I'm not saying that transfer
quarterbacks don't help potentially improve your program, but the reality
is it took Joe Burrow into his second year at
LSU for him to be able to win a national championship,
and he's the only one that was a transfer quarterback.
So we get all you bought into the hype because
(02:52):
the transfer portal and all this stuff going on. The
reality is the games still won in the trenches. Georgia
Tech ran the heck out of the football and even
though they were the undersized team, they came out on
top and the end it was it was a fun
game to watch. I found it thrilling, even though I'm
sure there's a lot of Florida State fans who are
should be upset about it.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
So I love rankings. Though I love rankings because I
go into the game looking at Florida State and I
say to myself, this is a top ten rated team.
This should be a fun game for Florida State to
show off their wares, to show off their high price
free agent. I mean, they're transfer quarterback. My bed shouts
out to DJ who can't throw further than five yards accurately.
(03:34):
But what it is, all I'm saying is I thought
it was like, Okay, here we go. They're showing the
pre hype of of the Florida State players doing their
river dances and all kinds of stuff. I don't even
know if the river dance comes from Ireland and Dublin,
I would assume it comes from it. Okay, Well, and
then they were on point. Then the bottom line is
they didn't bring that river dance to the football field.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
And yeah, that man right there, number forty four line, you.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Want to talk about a linebacker, show it taking advantage
of his opportunity of being in front of the big stage.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Guy my man was playing.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
He looked like a linebacker, Yes he did, and he
played like a linebacker. He did say, you know what,
I knew there was going to be a problem we
were doing up one game when the show came on
and I was panding it off to mister Jonas knops. Yeah,
I was handed it off to Jonas, and I meant
to get you on the show this weekend too. We
had some great quarterback conversations. Got to revisit on with you, Q.
(04:30):
But I'll tell you what. We're watching the game and
I'm like, I don't think that they're intimidating Georgia Tech enough.
And yes, they scored pretty quickly, they got it downfield,
they ran it in, but Georgia Tech was able to
answer it, and then it becomes a defensive struggle. What
I took away from the game is like they allowed
(04:51):
Georgia Tech to be close for too long, and they
started gaining some confidence. They started making some plays that
gave them more confidence. And then it turned into, wait,
we're still in it too, we can beat these dudes.
Then it turned into y'all some trash. Y'all ain't even
supposed to be.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Out here with the with the yellowjackets. Y'all not even
supposed to be out here with Georgia Tech. We own Dublin.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
And to me, that's why I love college football, and
that's why I love rankings. The reason why I think
they are are what they are. Yes, they're overrated, Yes
we're right. We don't know what type of team we're
getting until they start playing one hundred percent. But the
fact that we put these expectations on these programs and
they have to go out there and they have to
(05:40):
perform with them, and you play a team that's actually
a pretty pretty good team. I mean, Georgia Tech is
not a slippy team. It's a major it's a major
conference team.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
And you gotta go out there.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
You gotta beat them. You gotta play, you gotta beat them.
No weeks off, No, oh, you'll still make the playoffs
at the early parts of the year, don't matter. Just
keep playing. No, you gotta go out there and play
or somebody's gonna clip you. And now every other team
that's ranked and rated has to go into their first
week of games knowing, knowing that the expectations of what
(06:15):
they carry, what they're ranking, is now on the line.
It's not a given. It's not a given you're gonna
go out there and beat a team that's unranked. So
you better, you better get your head where it's supposed
to be. Think about it, the right way and approach
the game the right way, and you better play otherwise
you're gonna have forty four and company coming into your
house taking your candy, taking your taking taking a kool
(06:41):
Aid out of your refrigerator, and.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
You don't want that.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I mean, why doesn't it happen more? You know, like
because we've talked about it before to where you don't
get a preseason, so you just roll out what you
got and if if teams are a little sluggish or
maybe you're not as it's like you end up. That's
why when when somebody plays a Alabama plays a Wafford
or somebody like that to open up the year, I'm
never critical of it because I always think, dude, they
(07:04):
don't get a preseason. And like Marvin Harrison Junior said
this recently, it was like, yeah, I wish we had
like maybe a preseason game in college football like we
have in the NFL so we can gear up for
the year. Because now you look at it and you go,
so Florida State might have just if they had national
championship hopes, like, yeah, the expansion of the playoff is
going to help, but like they can't afford to lose
(07:26):
the rest of the way. Really, I mean, like that's
a problem for them for the university. And on the
flip side of that, if Georgia Tech is all high
and mighty on this win and Florida State goes out
and lose through three or four games, this win against
a quote unquote top ten team at the time, it
isn't going to amount to much at the end of
the things because we're going to look at it and go, yeah,
but that team turned out to be not very good,
(07:47):
So you're just basing it off of we assume this
team is going to be good. There's a ten next
to their name, and that's where we're at at this
point in time. The assumption is based on what they
do in recruiting. I mean, that's what it comes down to.
If you look at preseason rankings on any given year,
it's in essence recruiting rankings. They are stacking up the
(08:09):
teams they feel like are the most talented, because we
believe that the most talented teams end up finding a
way to play in the major bowls and for.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
A national championship. So that's really what it comes down to.
And as you know, we've kind of touched on like
dju Unglela. He comes in as the transfer quarterback. It's
his third school, you know. And I think you have
to pause now too, because the bigger picture discussion is this.
If you have a transfer quarterback and that head coach
(08:39):
went somewhere else and he didn't bring that quarterback with him,
isn't that a red flag? Isn't that telling you something?
Jonathan Smith is now in Michigan State and Aiden Childs
followed with him from Oregon State. My imagination leads me
to think, like the quarterback with you, well know that
(09:00):
he didn't want dju unless I don't want you exactly.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Absolutely, So I think there's cause for concern for a
lot of programs out there where you find a program
that didn't want to bring their quarterback and then trying
to find the rationale behind it, because clearly Michigan State
needed a quarterback, but Jonathan Smith didn't choose to take
that Oregon State quarterback. He chose to take Aiden Chiles.
(09:26):
So that was the first thing too that I think
bigger picture discussion was brought to the forefront of my
mind of like, well, let's just look at the stats too,
and I'll reiterate what I said a moment ago. In
the past decade, there hasn't been a national championship won
by a transfer quarterback with the exception of LSU and
Joe Burrow, and it took him into his second year.
(09:50):
So when you look at some of the programs that
are looking at bringing in transfer quarterbacks in their final
year of eligibility, I look at it and that's why
I've said I think George is the favorite. Carson Beck
was a kid they recruited. He's come up through their program.
He understands the expectations of Kirby Smart and Georgia, and
(10:10):
he's been there the entire time building for this moment.
You know, you look at Ohio State with Will Howard
with Dylan Gabriel to beat they might be tough to beat,
but they both have quarterbacks that didn't choose to initially
go there. Dylan Gabriel's on his third school went to
UCF originally, then Oklahoma, not Oregon. It's tough to be
(10:33):
able to develop chemistry, to know the offense like the
back of your hand, like you would if you had
been in the program for three or four years. That's
difficult to do. It's difficult to throw at anticipation. It's
difficult to understand the body language of guys running in
out of cuts or when things break down, being able
to look for that guy. I know this guy. I mean,
(10:53):
when I was in college on a kid, a guy
named JFF Samarge had Marie Stovod Raymon McKnight. I knew
because I'd thrown with them so much what they were
going to do. Even when they had their back turn
to me, I knew which way they were going to
try and anticipate all of that because I could read
their body language. It's hard to do that in college,
especially because think about it, I mean, you're limited with
what you can do because of the hours you're allowed
(11:15):
to have organized based on the NCAA rules. It isn't
like the pros where you can go ahead and get
together and go go on a vacation of your downtime
and all that stuff, and you're working twenty four to
seven anyway, pre practice, post practice, during practice, you know,
special teams drills, you're with your wide receivers over there looking.
It's not like that. You don't have as much practice time.
So I keep kind of going back to that too.
(11:37):
When you look at the teams that I feel like
have consistency a lot, oftentimes it's because they've got those
guys who they're rolling in that have been through their program.
And Tom Brady talked about this too, about how now
there's college football teams, they're not programs anymore. They're teams.
I mean, you're kind of signing up to go play
for that team in that year. Whereas a program, you're
(11:59):
getting there and you're being developed, Like you go in
through it your freshman year and you're kind of putting
on muscle mass, you're getting stronger, you're learning the offense,
you're learning what it means to be a student athlete
at that university. Like all that stuff has gone out
the window now. And I think that's one of the
reasons too, why you see these inconsistencies for players who
are really experienced, or when you go over to Ireland,
(12:22):
you're like, well, that's not that big of a deal.
Florida State, it's more talented team didn't work out that day.
So I just think it's kind of beware as we
head into Week one of college football, Beware for a
lot of those underdogs, because I think there's a number
of teams that like the margin of difference isn't as
big as maybe Vegas things, or or I should say,
our friends out west, it.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Still should be talent that wins out. I just I
don't I'm not exactly sure why FSU came up short
against Georgia Tech. But when you think about those teams
like a Georgia or an organ or an Alabama or
in Ohio State, they stockpile talent. And I think one
of the biggest things that that college sports is going
(13:06):
to have to adjust to in in the football rom
and probably another sports as well, is not not being
able to have the stockpile of talent two and three
two and three positions deep. I feel like you can
always look out of Georgia or an Alabama or in
Ohio State. You can always look at those schools and
say that they're going to be a team that contends
(13:26):
for a national title, because if somebody goes down, there's
not only one player that's ready to step up, there's
two players. I mean, at one point, think about your
boy two of steps in at halftime, at halftime and
wins the national title at halftime, and I know he's there,
and I get all of the things that you're saying,
and there are definitely points well taken, but I still
(13:46):
think that college football has always been about stockpiling talent
and enough talent where it can carry you through an
entire season to the playoffs, to the championship round of games.
That's that's that's how I look at it. So to me,
I looked at Florida State and I came away from
that game saying, you're not as talented as they thought
(14:07):
you were, You're not as good a team as the
country thought you were. Or it's just too early and
that chemistry or that that continuity just hasn't taken shape yet.
And you know what, unfortunate for you, fortunate for Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech takes advantage of a big stage, puts their
name out there. Florida State has has an aUI the
(14:27):
first week out.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I mean, based on what we've seen so far, four
games into the college football season, it does feel like,
you know, we're gonna see a lot of happy fans
in Morgantown this weekend, and it does you know, if
we're just looking at, uh, looking at how this all.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Well, I mean, I'll say it's going to be a challenge.
They have a good quarterback in West Virginia. We have
two new coordinators. So you want to talk about continuity,
talk about getting continuity between coach and play.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Are they playing Penn State? I don't even know. That's
so good, that's all good. I'm underplay it though.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I'm a downplay it, A don't play it because I
think our defense is going to come out and do
what it needs to do. And I honestly, I think
the maturity of Alor and then the maturity and and
the look of our backfield, I think we're going to
surprise people in the passing game, and I think.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
We're going to be who people thought we were in
a running game. So I'm confident. I would say the
one thing that always stands out, and I think this
is every coach's concern was when you go back and
watch that game, but really any of the other college football
games that you saw, and going back to the initial
point of there are no preseason games, right so you
don't really have that warm up of hey, we're full
(15:32):
go like this, you got to tackle them to the ground,
right like. Oftentimes there's limitations to how the offensive line
and d lines are preparing how guys are hitting when
they're actually trying to get dives down to the ground
when they're out in space. All that was to me
on display, you know, sloppy, poor tackling penalties at times.
I mean, there's there's those things that you just can't
(15:53):
prepare for until you get out there and you actually
start playing in a real live game scenario. And I
thought that was one of the things that stood in
the way for Florida State. I thought Georgia Tech played
a bit of a cleaner game as far as you know,
miscues and tackling in general, and just better play up front.
But I think that's the concern for any you know,
favorite going in like a Penn State for example, which
(16:14):
was a double digit favorite. Now I think they're hovering
around about eight points or so eight and a half,
depend on the book. But the general point is that's
that's every coach is concerned. That's James Franklin's concern, that's
Neil Brown's concern, that's every single head coach is concerned
with that first game of the season is just trying
to play a clean game. I mean, where you're not
missing a bunch of tackles or missing blocks and missing assignments,
(16:35):
all those things. So I thought that was one of
the things that stood out to me as well. If
you're looking at a reason for shocking up out Florida State,
you ended up losing that game. That was another reason.
I think you can tally up there, which again is
a concern for everyone in college football. Think it's a
dope point.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It is The Herd here on Fox Sports Radio, two
Pros and a cup of Joe filling in for Colin
and the crew. Here it is LeVar Arrington, Brady Quinn,
Jonas Knoxching. Brought to you by NAVI and save big
on your water and energy bills with a new Navvi
and tankless water heater navig tankless water heaters provide endless
hot water for spotlight comfort. Navian makes it easy to
go tankless. Visit tanklessmade Simple dot Com. Coming up next
(17:13):
here on the Verage, we are going to discuss a
decision that should be made very very soon at quarterback
for one team in the NFL, and things got a
little bit easier last night.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
We'll discuss right here on FSR.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern nin Am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
All right, so, speaking of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Steelers, we
mentioned earlier that the Patriots are they haven't yet announced
that Drake may is going to be the starter, even
though Girodmeo said that he's outplayed Jacoby Brissett. Jacoby Brissett's
also got a shoulder injury that he's dealing with. Well,
Mike Tomlin and the Steelers, I mean, they got to
(17:56):
see Russell Wilson in five snaps in the preseason game.
Justin Fields came in. Russell looked pretty good and the
brief stint that he had over the weekend. But Mike
Tomlin discussed that there's still more work to be done
when it comes to them making a decision at QB.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
We'll make a decision at the end of our work week.
This upcoming week, we got three days of Stealers versus
Steelers work, and why.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Not do it then?
Speaker 6 (18:19):
It kind of, you know, minimizes the Steelers versus Steelers work.
When we started making decisions prior to the completion of that,
We've got ample time to prepare for Atlanta and make
whatever decisions or announcements regarding divisional labor or pecking orders
and so forth, and so we'll do it at the
end of the work week.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
Steelers versus Steelers. Yeah, and I'm anning factor. I mean,
I'll let you have it. But that sounds about right.
You already heard my opinion on this. They knew who
the starter is. I don't know why they're doing it
this way. It just it bothers me, man. I just
it's almost like this is how you create problems within
(18:58):
your own locker room. Is when you're a coach and
you are not more defiant or more outspoken about who
your leader is, then when you do face adversity earlier
in the season, it leads to that same question being
amongst the dudes in the locker room. I mean, and
that's one of the reasons why I'm not against like
quarterback battles are quarterback battles. The hard part, though, is
(19:23):
at some point you have to define who that guy is,
and then you have to give that guy every chance,
every opportunity to go be the guy. And if you've
got him going out there splitting reps in his preparation
or looking over it, I mean, it's just looking over short.
It doesn't work. It never allows anyone to feel like
(19:43):
they're the guy and then go out there and they
can play free and they can make throws and make
mistakes and still come back from that. I mean, imagine
being in any other position and constantly feeling like, well,
if I miss this tackle, then I'm not gonna play anymore,
or if I miss this car, I mess up my alignment,
I'm not gonna be able to play anymore. I mean,
that's that's the hard part about it. With a quarterback position,
(20:05):
there's so many things that you're responsible for. So there's
you know, a multitude of things you could get wrong
on any given play, and so at some point you
have to be able to play with a degree of
It's okay, it doesn't have to be perfect. I just
got to keep taking profits, keep moving the football, keep
things going forward, because there's all these variables that impact
(20:27):
my job. And so when adversity strikes, and instead of
sticking with a guy and letting him fight through it
and see if he can overcome a bad half of
football or bad three quarters of football, you then have
a locker room that's in question too. Because the head
coach was in question about it. So that's the thing
that I hate. I think it almost sets a tone
(20:48):
for how the season's gonna go. Like, and you've been
pretty outspoken, LaVar about not being very optimistic about the
Steelers this year. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
That?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Is fair? And I can understand why you'd say that
from the for the reasons you've made, but now even
more so, like I'm starting to feel that way just
because of how they're letting this whole thing drag on.
It's like, I don't care who it is, name the guy,
let him go be the guy, and then let's see
what you've got after eight nine games. You've got a
(21:18):
new coordinator, You've got two new quarterbacks, so whichever one is,
there's going to be a learning curve. There's gonna be
a process of breaking these guys in truth and letting
the offense settle in truth.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
I would say this, I would offer this if I
were Mike Tomlin. I look at my OC I look
at my offensive line coach, and I'd be like, coaches,
sit them down. Broderick, sit down, James, Zach, Isaac Dan
sit down. You do understand that you are dictating the
(21:50):
decision that has to be made for this football team
at the quarterback's position.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
It's your poor play that is for.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Me to not be able to say. I declared definitively
that Russell Wilson is the starter. Now we know Russ
is the starter. We know we're gonna start him. But
y'all out there playing for such a pits poor effort
that this man is giving the ball to Naji every
single time. He's throwing it in the flats, in the
(22:23):
flares every single time because y'all can't block anybody, and
it doesn't look like Russe is gonna run, so he's
gonna try to throw the ball because he wants to
be seen as a throwing quarterback. And he isn't running.
Now we gotta put Justin in. And Justin's on the
exact opposite. He's holding the ball, he's looking over the field,
he's getting chased out because y'all don't want to block,
(22:44):
and now he's running all over the place and we're
getting the same amount of yardage that we get if
he throws it. Russell throws the ball to nage your hair.
So what are we gonna do? Y'all need to step up.
Y'all need to drop a set act like you know
what's at stake right now. Now, you need to do
what you need to do. And that's how I'm gonna
be able to determine our Steelers on Steelers being able
(23:07):
to say that Russ is our starter, because otherwise y'all
putting us in a position where I'm gonna put Russ
out there, he's going to get sacked like fifteen times,
setting the NFL record, an end game season record. That's
all your fault. It's every last one of y'all's fault.
It ain't my fault, and I ain't the coach's faults.
Y'all's fault. It is weird how they're handled. It's to
(23:28):
ever tell you, guys a story about how Lovey Smith
handled a quarterback.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Wait what happens? And I'm glad? Coin was it? And yes,
what do you do? I'm glad? He asked.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, so what he decided on during the preseason was
he was flipping a coin to see who was going
to start at for this housing game. So yeah, so
there was one of those, uh, you know, one of
those situations there in Chicago. So I don't know if
i'd ever told you, guys, that before, but I forget
out and.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Then what happened? He flipped the coin and then it
head er tails.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
I mean, I don't remember what the result was, but
I just know that Kyle Orton ended up winning.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Well there you go. Yeah, so.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
That might be what they need to do because if
their offensive line doesn't block any better than what they're
doing right now, it doesn't matter who's in there, they're
not going to have very much offense.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I still couldn't get over the one clip I saw.
This is just how much of like I can't take
people on social media serious. Is They're like, oh, look
at Russell Wilson here holding on with the football. It's
like the right tackle gets blown out, I mean literally
takes a step back and is almost getting thrown into
(24:32):
Russell Wilson. They're like, oh, it's called Russell Wilson. It's like, okay,
are we just not going to talk about this three
hundred pound human being flying back into his face? Like, hey,
is that not a problem for Pittsburgh Steelers fans? Because
if it feels like that's where things have gone downhill
for them. Outside of Matt Canada's terrible play calling, was
their offensive line has slowly faded away. Yeah, that's just
(24:57):
the reality of it. I hate to say us. I
hate to say we because I never played for the Steelers,
but that is not what we're known for.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
The Steelers aren't known for that, Mike Webster, GERMANI Dawson,
Leon Searcy, Pouncy.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
We're not known for.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Bad offensive line play. We stink right now, and that
makes it hard, makes it hard to do anything that
you need to do. A running game is a kneemick
because we all have blocking, but we can't establish the past.
I'm on set up a discruntle Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
Fan sign George Truly LaVar Arringtons Township North Hills High School,
North Side raised and born in Pratt.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I don't see my team doing well right now. I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I don't have a positive prognosis for us. All Right,
I'm done, I'm off my soap box, all right. I
believe in Mike Tomlin, though something has to give. Though
I believe in Mike Tomlin, I will say that that
is the one caveat to all of this, is that
if somebody can kind of pull it together and figure
it out, it's going to be Mike Tomlin, but I
just don't like what I'm seeing.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Well, I mean, you can believe in Mike tom and
all you want. I believe in simply Safe. I'll tell
you that right now.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And during home emergencies, every second counts. That's why you
need simply Safe home security with simply Save twenty four
to seven monitoring agents act within five seconds of receiving
your alarm. Visit simply safecolin dot com to save twenty
percent today. There's no safe like simply Save. Coming up
next here on the Herd, it is two pros and
a cup of Joe filling in for Colin, we are
(26:34):
going to hear from somebody in the world of football
who apparently gets to pick and choose how things operate
in and around his program.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
We'll have that for you right here on FSR.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
One More Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and
noone Easter non a em Pacific.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
PAULI Fools go ahead with Tony Fousco.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
Yeah, as everybody knows we're the hosts of the award
winning Paully and Tony Fosco Show. But instead of us
telling you how great we are, here's how Dan Patrick
described us when he came on our show.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
What are you doing? Were interrupting our promo?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, you wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally of context.
Speaker 8 (27:22):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Let me put this into context.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Shut up.
Speaker 8 (27:29):
Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yee, We're told you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, we got some breaking news we're gonna get to
coming up here. Just told you it is the Herd.
Here Fox Sports Radio on a Monday morning, two pros
and a cup of Joe filling in for Colin LeVar Arrington,
Brady Quinns, Jonas knocks here.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
You didn't get it right downy Ben.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yes, we we do have a breaking news, a story
that has lasted the entirety of the NFL offseason.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
We knew it, We was calling for it for this show.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
It has now reached its conclusion, as reports are now
saying that the Cowboys var the Cowboys, the Cowboys, and
Ceedee Lamb have reached an agreement on a four year,
one hundred and thirty six million dollar contract. It makes
him the according to Adam Schefter, the second highest page.
(28:28):
That's not accurate, non QB and NFL history and all
that stuff, but nonetheless, the deal is done. He gets
thirty four million dollars a year annually. I don't know
why Schefter does this, and I don't know why he
does this. He knows he's not going to make as
much as Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson's new deal is a
four year, one hundred and forty million dollar deal, which
(28:49):
comes out to thirty five million per year. This deal
is a four year, one thirty six million dollar deal,
which is thirty four million per year.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I don't know why he says this. I mean, it's
it's all us. Like he's copying and pasting immediately from
the agent, like, hey, put this out there, because if
you say just everyone won't believe it. He's got to true.
By the way, it doesn't make it a bad deal.
I'm just saying I don't know why they get like
it's a great deal. And by the way, Ceedee Lamb
is probably right up there next to Justin Jefferson. But
(29:17):
I don't think anyone would make the case that Ceede
Lamb has been better than Justin Jefferson up top, Jones
up top.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Now, if you listened earlier in the show, Lebar and
I we were trying to predict how this was going
to turn out.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Sound like, do we have to sound from that? Yeah,
well we don't need to. We could probably turn kill
the sound. Yeah, let's do the sound, all right, so
take it away. There you go. Well, I don't know, Brady,
I mean, I disagree.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
I think this deal will probably get done, and it'll
get done by how we're.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, tell you what, Jonas, I think you're correct. What
is Q talking about? I don't know. Seems like he's
taking crazy pills. Ha ha.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Well, I'll tell you what, Toddy Lamb. He's going to
get the deal done before this year.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Guys are gonna win, and I think that I'm going
to double down on that. I'm gona triple down. It'll
be thirty four million dollars a year for CD Lamb.
I think you're right, Jonas, there you go. You're not
robots from earlier. That's from earlier, Yeah, from early. I
(30:21):
mean you act like you're robots that you're talking like,
what's wrong? Why you mad? I don't know why you
guys need to go to such a lens. Would you
guys get something wrong? I really wanted to just bleed
into the season. I thought it was I didn't think
it was gonna get done. I didn't think it was
(30:43):
gonna get done.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
But but you know what, Jamar Chase, you're on the
clock because I don't think you you ain't got it,
because you ain't gonna get it.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
So I was just gonna say I actually would make
the case I uxed next because it's a clear statement
that if City Lamb wasn't gonna surpass it with that deal,
he needs to take whatever office on the table from
San Francisco unless Washington now has a better chance of
signing him and give them the dots in trade. And
(31:11):
maybe they're back involved in the mixed given the connection
to the staff.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Says that being discussed is that being tossed around like
we I know we talked about it, but is that
being tossed around because I think that would be one
hell of a move for the Commanders to pull that off,
to get Ayuk and to get him back with Jayden Daniels.
If people don't know they're connected through asu W and
(31:36):
they were both playing at Arizona State University, I think
that would be a tremendous move.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
How much do you have the front office that knows
the front office well in Washington? Typically it helps get
these deals done if there's a deal to be made, right,
So whatever the forty nine ers asking price is, and
if the Washington Commandos have that draft capital or want
to trade a you know, trade whatever it is, maybe
it's player compensation that you know that helps to get
(32:05):
it done. When you know John Lynch knows Adam Peters well,
so that's one thing they have going for them in
order for that to be the case. But I think
if you're Brennan Ayuk, are you really gonna look at
I mean, maybe you look at Washington say okay, better opportunity,
But are you gonna replace Terry McLaurin. He's probably still
gonna be the number one receiver. So if that's the case,
you probably better off with where you're at. And wasn't
(32:28):
Deebo Samuel at one point on the trade block or
they talked about that. Yeah. I mean, if that's the
case and you do sign an extension there, I mean,
you're at least gonna be the guy for the next
few years. I mean, Ricky Piersoll, they took him back
into the first round, but he still needs to prove himself.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
But isn't it about fil and appreciate it more than anything,
like the fact that I think he feels undervalued and underappreciated.
Bat the Niners, I think you would will it take
less money from somewhere?
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Well, But that's the thing, is that whatever the Steelers offer,
whatever the Steelers offered was what caused them to go
back to the negotiation table the fort I think that.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I think that the number that the Stellers that would
have thrown out was probably more offensive than what the
Niners offer was.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
It's like somebody who breaks up is like, I don't
want to go see what the scene's like, and they
get out for about an hour and a half, like,
all right, never mind, you want to get back together,
let's talk.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I was wrong, baby, I was wrong.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
What do you think you think the Commanders will probably
be way more attractive. I think it's more acceptable for
the Commanders to make a more aggressive offer for a
guy like Brandon Ayuk than what the Stillers. If the
Stellers may an aggressive play on on Brandon Ayuk, it
does not fit the character of what that that organization,
(33:45):
how that franchise does what they do. But the Commanders,
on the other hand, they would they do fit that
and I think that would be a tremendous pickup for them.
Now is that better than San fran No, If we're
looking at it at face value, San Francisco is right.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
There at it. We know that they're right there close
to it.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
If Brock Purdy can be the man that he's been,
whether you want to call him franchise or or game manager,
I don't really care what you label them as. If
he can come out and play at the level he's
played at since he's been starting, and maybe even a little.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Higher, this team is the team to beat.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
They get Trent Williams back, I hear there's positivity there.
Maybe I don't know, maybe he gets it done next.
We don't talk very much about Trent Williams and his deal.
Think that's a very big piece, a major piece of
the puzzle for the San Francisco team. If they put
all those things together, they put this the bit and
get into the season. I think they're the team to
beat outside of Philadelphia in the NFC. So if I'm
(34:50):
Brandon Aiyuk, if they offer me less money, I just
take the take a one year like play the rest
of your contract out. Don't even take an extension. Play
your co tracked out so that you can get a
free agent market of this.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Is it right? This is the last one.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
Either they can well they could, they could tack them,
and I don't think that they're gonna put a they
they were seeing a trim where they're not putting exclusive
tags on guys, right, So if they don't put an
excusa tag going, didn't he yeah an exclusive? Yeah, that's
why he's gotta stay. He's got to play on the tay.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
But they gave they gave the the unrestricted to a
couple what uh to a lot of guys. Actually, most
got non exclusive franchise.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Play this year out, play the last year your deal out.
Don't do any deals with anybody. Play take the chance,
bet on yourself, bet on yourself. That's what I would say.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I mean, the hard thing about that is, let's just
let's just say if you are Brendan Ayuk and you're
not going to surpass the total value of the contract.
So you're not going to pass Jefferson at one hundred
and forty, You're not going to pass CD at one
hundred and thirty six. Maybe you could the signing BTUs,
you know, maybe maybe you get thirty nine forty million
up front, which would be a significant amount on Maybe
(36:04):
it's a little short term deal, who knows. Maybe it's
only a three year deal, maybe it is a four
year deal. However they figure it out. My only point
is you're not going to surpass the average annual value,
since that's the metric that we all use to equate
if you reset the market or not. But you can
find other ways of doing that, whether it's guarantees or
a signing bonus that would surpass what Ceedee Lamb just got.
(36:27):
If that's the case, do it. I mean, the forty
nine ers have money, so that's one way he could
get it done. And if that's the case, man, it'd
be really hard to play for fourteen million this year,
which I believe is his number on the fifth year
option and then be staring or looking at thirty or
forty million and a signing bonus dead square in the
face and somewhere around thirty million a year if that's
(36:50):
the number that you could be making on a three
four year extension like that. To me, I'm like, I
don't know. I don't think I can play this year
for fourteen million, even if there was greener pastors on
the other side, having all that staring me in the face.
So now ceedee.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Lamb's deal is done four years, one hundred and thirty
six million, as reported earlier and predicted by LeVar and
I here on this show. But this conversation, yeah, we're
talking about but the conversation does now turn to all right,
Dak is in line?
Speaker 7 (37:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Is Dak going to get his deal done sometime soon?
Are they just going to let this thing roll out
and he gets into next season? And because the last
time they tried this, he went out and snapped his
leg and still got paid, so it's like they can
they can roll this thing out. But now I wonder
if this does maybe speed up the Dak conversation because
reportedly talks you know, have gone well, there was some optimism,
(37:47):
yet still no deal for Dak Prescott. So that's where
we stand on the on the Dallas Cowboys and your
boy Michael Parsons is going to be in line next year.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
There are Yeah, what's he looking for? Why don't we
just get him on and ask like, what are you
looking for in the contract? You just bring me out.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
I think anybody who's looking at the highest paid player
on the defensive side of the ball, can you know
you look at their contract?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
What?
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Yeah? Yeah, there you go. Hey LeVar, see if we
can get him to come on. I mean he's on
with Central Time and they're in Dallas, so yeah, see
if we'll come on the show.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Eleven eleven y'all asked that eleven eleven, Why, well, no,
no specific time, and that's that's this show I'm talking about,
Like in the mornings on our show. Yeah, hurt, I
get it. But our time, which was perfect, it's perfect
time to ask that question intentional. I'm certain we could
probably get that done. Yeah, get it.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Get him to call in at like what four thirty,
you know, four thirty Central time something like that. Yeah,
he's knowing, Micah, he's probably up.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
Yeah, Yeah, he's probably up and he's got a new one,
so you know you might be up changing the diaper
jump all he does.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
All right, Oh no, that's a baby boy. Good for him. Yeah,
Now do you guys want to uh also have the
on them. I will tease that. You don't need to
tease it. It is gonna be a well, you know it.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Just it feels like there's maybe some question marks going
into the season for for somebody else in the NFL.
And uh, and that's somebody is Deshaun Watson, a man
who listened, uh, since we're just being honest here on
the show, feeling in for Colling here on the herd. Uh,
A guy that LeVar has defended for for months and
(39:30):
months and months now is being us defense. One of
the great great quarterbacks in the league, and somebody who
is going to bounce back and have a strong compe now.
He did not play at all in the preseason. They
made the decision to hold him out in the final
preseason vision. We talked about that because look, they had
a bunch of injuries on the offensive line. The plan
(39:52):
was to play, and then the plan wasn't to play.
He had to like rest his shoulder because a soreness,
and like there's just been a lot of an honest
th So Kevin Stefanski did speak about the decision not
to play Deshaun Watson in the preseason, but is pretty
confident that he's going to bounce back and respond when
the regular season kicks off.
Speaker 9 (40:12):
I think we've had a lot of time together as
an offense, as a teammate with his team. He's a winner,
continues to win games for us. I'm excited for him
with all the work that he's put into this offseason.
I'm excited for him.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
Yeah, so he started, well, hold on, wasn't there a
miscommunication or something that happened again as to whether or
not he was going to play in the final preseason game.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
So, like I guess when they were asking Deshaun about that,
he kind of said, well, that's news to me. Like
that was sort of you know, thrown out there in
camp that there was a little bit of confusion as
to whether or not he was going to play in
the preseason, even though it seemed like Stefanski had made
it clear like yeah, we're aiming towards the preseason even
last week, you know, he said, yeah, you know, we're
(40:59):
still planning on him to play in the preseason finale,
but with all the injuries and whatnot, we're just going
to take it day by day. But that is the
plan as of right now. And then you go back
to last year and there was also the confusion about
his injury. Members Stefanski gave some messaging that made it
seem like it was what a pain tolerance thing, and
then they had to come out afterwards and say no,
it was more than that, and then the messaging got
(41:20):
changed again to well, I don't even know if it
was a hit. He suffered the injury in a prior game.
Like it feels like there are two different conversations that
are being had in one building, but there.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Can only be one this season. That's I think that's
the point.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
I think the stakes are really really high for whoever
did that contract. Stakes are high. For the ownership who
did that, allowed it and their paying its stakes are high.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
I would even go as far as to say, even
though that money is guaranteed, if you don't want to
leave this game being known as someone who stole that
big bag, which some people will applaud it, I mean,
you want in a losing effort didn't matter. But if
the legacy matters to you, do you want your legacy
(42:16):
to just be well? I was awarded the largest guaranteed
contract in the history of the game, but I'd never
delivered when I went there, I would assume that you
have enough competitive nature fuel that's driving you where. You
don't want to come out of this game and be
looked at as someone that really really totally underachieved for
(42:40):
what it was that they were able to make in
terms of a contract.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
I think I think the stakes are high. I don't know.
I'll continually say it. I'll continually say it. They cannot
move on from Deshaun Watson until after twenty twenty six.
It's crazy. It just financially it would be crippling in
(43:06):
many ways. I mean, I guess, tell me he's crippling
them more. Being on the team you would be use setting.
I mean, after this year, one hundred and thirty seven
million dollars in dead cap crazy, After the next year
seventy three million dollars approximately in dead cat. His aging
(43:27):
crushed that contract. Now again, you could, I mean, look,
maybe they could. There's nothing to restructure. It's all guaranteed already.
They was out on town when that deal got done.
Oh yeah, a party. I guess you could do a
you could do a post June one designation and split
that out, but that's still after the twenty twenty five season.
(43:48):
You have two more years of Deshaun Watson, regardless of
what you think about him as a quarterback, good, bad
and different whatever, off the whatever they think, They've got
two more years before there's any sort of transition that
they can make. And that is all because of that contract.
(44:11):
And so as far as he was never going to
play in the preseason, never and especially behind an offensive
line that was banged up too by the way this
training camp in preseason, and so you know, we'll see
what they look like this year. But the hard part
for Browns fans is this team, this roster is, in
my opinion, probably the best in the NFL as far
(44:33):
as overall talent both sides of the ball, the depth
that they have as well, and so all they need
is him to go in there and manage the thing
and they can get to the playoffs and potentially win
a super Bowl. That's how talented this roster is. If
he's able to go in there, stay healthy, just manage
(44:54):
this thing, they can win a Super Bowl. That is
not hyperbole and it's not Jim Schwartz did an unbelievable
job with that defense last year. You know, the offense,
I think, you know, look, Chrubb's gonna start on the
pup list, but they still showcase the ability to run
the football despite not having him last year. When he
comes back, that's gonna give this offense some extra juice.
(45:15):
So I just look at him. I say. People can
say whatever they want, it doesn't matter. He's gonna be
there for at least the next two seasons. It's just
wild to think that the question mark for the Cleveland
Browns isn't the roster. It's the guy that gave two
hundred and thirty million dollars guarantees. He's just got to
hope he accepts the challenge. Man, So accept the challenge.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.