August 28, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason McIntyre fills in for Colin and calls into question Jerry Jones and the Cowboys organization for how they’ve handled Micah Parsons’ contract situation and why it’s holding the team back. He unveils his tiers of college football national championship contenders ahead of the monster matchup between Ohio State and Texas. Plus, NFL insider Albert Breer joins the show to tell Jason why Bears head coach Ben Johnson has been so tough on their young quarterback Caleb Williams.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
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or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
We are back.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, a beautiful Thursday here on the Herd.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Out in sunny Los Angeles. It's meat. Jason McIntyre barely surviving.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
I mean, jeez, are coming for the online Rachel with
the pison feathers.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Whatever they say, whatever they say, They're coming after me.
But I'm still surviving.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Then, Rachel.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We got a pretty good times.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
A lot going on. There is a lot.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
We are one week exactly one week from today, NFL season.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
We get packed not packers, I'm sorry. We get Eagles, yeah,
and caw and Cowboys. Oh it's he Is there anything
I on with the capital? You know, let's just dive
right into that, shall we remember?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
We are one week away from the start of the
NFL season and a week from today, it's Eagles Cowboys,
and the Eagles are defending champs.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
They got the best roster in the league.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
They're stacked, and nobody is talking about them for some reason.
It's all about the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones likes it
that way. He loves it that way. By the way,
do you guys remember what happened last year.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
In the Eagles Cowboys games? They met twice. Now dak
missed both games.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, let me just check here, okay, thirty four to
six was the first one that was Eagles winning, and
then it was forty one seven. Jalen Hurts satokancussion did
not play. So it's a little early for math. But
I'm not seventy five to thirteen. The Eagles smoked the
Cowboys last year. It was not competitive in any way,
shape or form. Yet the media remains obsessed with the
(02:00):
wo begone Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Why would that be? Well, wouldn't you know it? But
yesterday Michaeh Parsons.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Their star holdout hold in I don't know, showed up
at an airport.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Where's he going? He doesn't have to go to practice?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Well, Michael Parsons is going to get a second opinion.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
On his back.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
There's Micah at the I believe it's a Dallas Fort
Worth Airport. You know, tough to miss.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Michael Parsons a large individual.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Somebody snapped his photo and next thing you know, it's
wait a minute. So he's not gonna be at practice
this weekend, pivotal practices right before the season.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Well that ain't good because we.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Got everybody saying, ah, it's gonna be fine, he's gonna
show up.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
But it didn't stop there, folks.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Michaeh filed a grievance against the Cowboys over his fifty
year option, and it.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Continued the news in Dallas.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Jerry Jones loves this, right, Jerry, we'll get to you
a second, buddy.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There's more.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Michael Parson's older brother went on social media yesterday, and
I want to make sure I quote him correctly. It's
gonna get ugly. Put your gloves on. This is going
twelve rounds now. I don't know if he's talking about
like a Jake Paul fight coming up or what's happening.
Maybe it's his brother who's going toe to toe with
(03:18):
Jerry Jones and folks, the more I look at this
the more I just get disappointed and sad for Cowboys fans, because,
without question, this is the most futile organization in the NFC.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
A staggering stat. I'm sure you guys have seen.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Since twenty ten, every team in the NFC has made
the conference championship game. Yes, the pathetic Panthers, the sad
sax Saints, they've made a conference championship game since twenty ten.
There's only one team in the entire conference that hasn't.
And if you look at the bottom of the screen
there it's the Dallas Cowboys. Nineteen ninety five was the
(03:54):
last time they made the conference championship game, fifteen years
behind everyone else in the conference. That to me is
a very clear signal Jerry Jones is not serious about
actual football.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
The Eagles, who they're playing next Thursday.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
They're crushing free agency every year, they're crushing the draft.
Howie Roseman is building a juggernaut, and Jerry Jones is
out here creating reality TV shows.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
You've heard of Love Island Cowboys.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
They got Star Island, keeping up with the Kardashians.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
We about keeping up with the Joneses.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Yet somehow the media seems to think, Wow, this happens
every year. Here's Matt Mosley earlier this week talking about how, hey,
Mike is going to be there week one.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Remember who Jerry is, and remember how much he loves
the pageantry and the circus of all of this, and
the last minute get the deal signed is kind of
a fun thing for him. Dak got one of his
deals done the morning of the first game CD and
(05:00):
Zeke's were done four or five days. Every one of
these holdouts in in the Cowboys capitulating, right, I mean,
namely one that they've won, Like, well, look at the Cowboys,
they won this negotiation, Zeke Zach. I mean every CD
they all end and the deals getting done.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
So the worst part is Jerry thinks this is good
business because he's not serious about football. He's like, oh,
our names are in the headline. I mean they play
at a stadium called Jerry World. I mean, the guy's
obsessed with himself. That's not going to translate to building
a contender in the modern era.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
It's not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And on top of all this, there was a couple
of reports saying, well, wait a minute, the Green Bay
Packers are interested in Michael Parsons.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And everybody gets all excited about that. I'm like, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Let's be let's pause for a second. That ain't happening.
I mean, Jerry, there's no way he's trading Michael. We
all know and think, Yeah, he's gonna cave at the
last minute, because that's what he does.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
He chickens out.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
He talks a tough game, and then chickens out and
it signs a deal. So here's Tyler Dunn talking about
Jerry's history with his stars recently. This is headed toward
opening night. Jerry Jones is gonna know all eyes are on.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
The NFL is the NFL. He's the most powerful person
in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And then that's when the news breaks. They don't care
about winning. They just they just don't.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
If the Dallas Cowboys prioritize the winning, they wouldn't locked
up Dappy year ahead of time, Steve de Lammi year
out of time, Michael Parsons a year, a year at
a time. They just jerk around their best players because
they can. They think they're the smartest people in the room.
They don't modernize the franchise. And if you're a Cowboys
fan out there, I don't know, I guess the only
(06:50):
thing you can do is not show up to the stadium.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And that's why I say, you know, Jerry's kind of
unserious about the actual football product. I don't think he cares.
He's said, well, I want to win a Super Bowl.
I want to, but the actions are not backing that up.
And it's got to be disappout pointing if you're a
Cowboys fan. So let me address one of the points
that done made yesterday, because a lot of people out
(07:13):
there are thinking, hey, you know, actually, Jay Jerry Jones
has a point. Mike is under contract for three more years.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
He's got to show up.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
And play, and that's just that's that's not how it works.
I'm gonna turn back to twenty twenty one. Okay, that's
when Michael Parsons was drafted. I remember that draft fondly
because as a Jets fan, all season leading up.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
To that, we were in position to get Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I was so geeked, all excited, and then the Jets,
like morons, end up beating the Rams. I believe it
was out here at so far in December, costs themselves
Trevor Lawrence and have to settle for Zach Wilson. We
know Zach Wilson. I mean, I think he's working at
a coffee bean out here in Los Angeles. However, that
draft had a lot of other good players who went
(07:57):
the first round, and we just so happened to have
a full screen of all that those twenty.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Twenty one draft picks. Take a look at the final column.
Did they sign their extension?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
These are all guys drafted the exact same day as
Michaeh Parsons, Trevor Lawrence, and Jacksonville got his extension. It's done,
no drama. Jamar Chase Argue'll be the best receiver in
the league. Got it done, no drama, no holdouts, headlines.
Jaylen Wattle Miami got his deal. Penay Sewell, the great
offensive lineman in Detroit.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
J C.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Horn who's been injured.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
A ton and Carolina still got his extension done. Patrick
Certayan defensive player of the Year. Devonte Smith of the
Eagles Boy Eagles Cowboys. Hey, Devonte Smith in Micah's draft
class got his extension. Guys, I had to look this
up seventeen months ago.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
He got his extension. He was drafted the same day.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
As Michael Parsons and we all say the Eagles are
the worst we'll run organization in the NFL. Right now,
He got his deal done, and you look at a
very end of that list, and there's a gentleman named
Rayshawn Slater who went to the Chargers. Okay, July twenty seventh,
this summer, Rayshawn Slater four year, one hundred and fourteen
(09:11):
million dollar deal. Chargers locked him up. Great contract for
an offensive lineman. Less than two weeks later, he tears
his ptel attendant out.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
For the season.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But guess what, because he got extended, he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Have to worry about anything.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Can you imagine the panic Rayshon Slater would have right
now if he were playing for the Cowboys and Jerry
was jerking him around and then he tears his PATEL
attendant in practice and he's out for the year. But bro,
you didn't get your extension. You just cost yourself a
ton of money. He got taken care of. No worries Slater, Hey, man,
get healthy. You don't have a damn thing to worry about.
(09:46):
We don't need you to rush back because you got paid.
We want you to come back fully strong next season.
Easy well, ender, Michael Parsons, he doesn't have his extension.
You really think Michael Parsons wants to go out there
and play and jeopardize an injury like Slater with no
security and don't tell me, well, he's got the fifth
(10:08):
year option or they can franchise tag him.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
That ain't security.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Security is a four year deal with ninety one million guaranteed,
which is what Slater got, and Jerry for some reason
is reluctant to give him that money. And at the
bottom of that full screen graphic, I don't know if
we can get it again.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Our guys put it in gold lettering.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Okay, of all those guys that got their extensions, Micah
Parsons is the only player in this draft to have
three all Pro seasons. So you could argue, you know,
Jamar Chase has been great, Sewell's been awesome, Micah Parsons
has been the best player from his draft. That's a legitimate,
credible argument. And I know, hey, Jay, what's he done
(10:47):
in the playoffs? Okay, guys, what's Trevor Lawrence done in
the playoffs? You know, Penny Sewell, how did he do
against Washington?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Patrick?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Certain like you could play that game all day. But
the reality, Jerry Jones is just unseerious about football. He
doesn't truly care about winning, because if he did, his
actions would align with the smarter teams in the league,
like the Philadelphia Eagles, who they're gonna be playing next Thursday. Now,
the spread for that is seven. I would not be
(11:19):
surprised if that ticked up to seven and a half.
As we get closer, it's increasingly looking like Micah Parsons
is not gonna play his brother's on social media. He's
at an airport, Mike's getting a second opinion on his back.
This is headed toward disaster if Jerry doesn't step in
say hey, hey, hey, okay, just kidding. We had a
(11:40):
lot of fun with that. Now let's get down to football.
Let's get down to brass tacks. Because I'm just it's
you gotta be disappointed if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan
with how Jerry has handled this. So we have a
good show today, let's upgrade it to great. Actually, I
know Bears fans are unhappy with me. Somehow Rachel was
able to escape any enmity from the Bears, former Bears
(12:02):
coming after me online, even though we're in alignment on
what's happening with the Chicago team and Ben Johnson and
his quarterback.
Speaker 9 (12:09):
Well, I think it's more of a stylistic issue, right,
whereas you maybe think if it's more of a is
a good enough issue. In my mind, Ben Johnson is
a very precise coach, right, I mean everything he did
with the Lions the Mad Scientists. To be a mad Scientist,
you have to have pretty insight, you know, pretty concise
ingredients on exactly what you want to do, when you
want to do it, how you want to do it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And Caleb Williams has always been more of.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
A freelancer, and by the way, that's not a bad quality.
Some of the best quarterbacks we have going right now
can freelance out there. But it's not necessarily what Ben
is used to when you're coming from Jared Goff, because
he's not like that. So for me, the question throughout
this camp and now going into the season is how
do those two styles merge and can they live together.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
So we'll be talking a little bit about the Bears
coming up next, and listen, if you compare what's being
said in Chicago with what's being said about another rookie quarterback,
in the league right now. I know Caleb the second year,
but one of them's very positive and the other is
Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
So that's next here on the Herd.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
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Speaker 11 (13:25):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern,
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Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 11 (13:34):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
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We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
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Speaker 11 (13:46):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
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Speaker 10 (13:51):
So check us out. We like to get you involved too,
Take your phone calls, chop it up, as they say.
I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio,
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(14:13):
That's Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
We're back our number two here on the Herd.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
It's me Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowherd's joined by
Rachel Nichols. We have Albert Breer coming up. Albert Breer
just a mountain of information.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
The guy's amazing and listen.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I know it's football season for college in NFL, but
you know I love me some NBA and Rachel loves
the NBA.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
Two.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
We have a fun, spicy NBA topic for later in
the hours, just a few minutes. NFL fans, don't worry
and give it out. People seem to feel about this guy, Rachel,
I think they're gonna like our take on. Yeah, a
little conversation going on with that, Yes, yes, yes, it'll
be fun. But that's a The Hour and the Greg Jennings,
my guy, Greg Jennings, bodybuilder slash former NFL wide receiver.
(15:06):
He's going to be in the final hour. Greg Jennings
is like Arnold. Honestly, he is so jacked right now.
The guy's a machine, all right. So earlier this week
we did my Super Bowl tiers and the forty nine
ers in the top tier really ticked everyone off. Understandable,
Chiefs were Tier three.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
So I was like, why don't we do it.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
For college football? Sure staff is like, yeah, on board,
got it. Here we go College Football National Championship Tiers.
Let's start with the group we're calling the head of
the Class. By the way, head of the Class. Shout
out to my brother. We would watch that show in
the nineties all the time. It was that. I think, yes, Robin,
give it. Thank you, Rachel right, head of the Class.
(15:46):
Top college football contenders. Shouldn't be no surprise that Clemson
is up there. If you listen to Bruce Fellman when
he was on this week, they're stacked. They have one
of the best defensive lines in the country.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
They have sixteen starters back Clemson's in there.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Ohio State defending champs, have the best player in the country,
Jeremiah Smith. Caleb Downs, an elite defender Penn State Ratuons
drew Aller and eventual James Franklin's gonna.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Win a big game? Am I right? Is that gonna happen?
Speaker 8 (16:12):
Now?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Alabama surprised some people. Someone in the morning meeting, was
I Alabama?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Jay?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
You sure, folks? Alabama?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
From the notes, five star quarterback Ty Simpson has been
waiting on the bench for a few years to take
over for Jalen Milroe. Does that not sound like Arts
Manning or what? This is a really good team and
I'm a buyer in Kaylen de boor I didn't know
that Belichick.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Rachel had that earlier.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Belichick was going to Washington before he got to UNC.
Guess who was at Washington. Kayland wore smart as hell.
I like Alabama to make the playoff and contend for
the Natty. All right, let's go to the next group
called the Honor Roll, something I was on I think
in seventh grade and not much more after that.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
The Honor Roll.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Obviously Georgia Bulldogs are going to be there. However, they
are replacing fifteen starters, so I do think there's a pullback.
I know they don't replace, they reload. Don't worry with
five stars. They're in the mix, don't. I don't see
them winning it, but they'll be in the mix. Notre Dame,
I like a lot, is a buy on Marcus Freeman.
I think he's an elite coach and I think the
NFL comes calling very very soon.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I love their ground game.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Quarterback is a question, but my guy, I have a
couple of Notre Dame insiders who who are very plugged in.
They like the quarterback a lot. Oregon Ducks is a
bit of a mystery. This is again as a buy
on a coach, Dan Lanning. He's gonna have them competitive.
I gotta be honest. I haven't heard a damn thing
about Oregon since Ohio State smoked them seventy four to
zero or whatever it is and that Rose bull Do
(17:39):
you remember that game? That was unbelievable what Ohio State
did to them. But Oregon, Dan Lanning, will be fine.
And then the Texas Long Orange hook them Archbanning and company.
I think they lose this weekend and then go on
a bit of a heater against bad teams. So Texas
is in.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
The mix, on the honor roll.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
And finally we have a way listed. I was wait
listed at one university when I applied, I got into eight.
I was wait listed at the other and the wait
list here is LSU with nuss Meyer at quarterback. We'll
see what they're made of in the opener against Clemson.
You the team of my youth. Yes, I owned the
(18:17):
Miami starter jacket. I'm not gonna lie. It was so
fire when I was in seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
But I like the you.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I just don't love Carson Beck a lot, like the
coaching staff, and I think Notre Dame gets them this weekend.
My guys sellers. The quarterback at South Carolina. I think
they're going to be spicy. He's the guy I would
watch coming out of nowhere to go number one. Maybe
he carries the game Cocks to the playoff. And finally,
my dark horse, that Texas Tech Red Raiders. I was
in Vegas last week. I bet some teams in college football.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Texas Tech to make the playoff.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Was one of my long shot bets. I love what
they did in the portal. There's your college football tiers
from your boy. All right, let's bring in our guest,
Albert Breer, mister Monday Morning Quarterback, as is always obligatory,
I have to ask him about Ohio State right out
of the gate, Breer, are you disappointed? I didn't have
(19:07):
the buck Eyes winning at all?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Already?
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Who'd you have?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
So?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
I was looking at my phone.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You weren't even paying attention.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Should have been paying attention. That's on me.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
No, no, no, I had you want him.
Speaker 8 (19:20):
In the top two though I was paying attention for that.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Okay, So I think they're could be very good, but
I do think Penn State probably gets him this year.
Clemson's loaded, and Alabama is the team I bet to
win the Natty?
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Are you bet Alabama?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:34):
All right, we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
I like I think Ohio State is one of those
teams where I think we'll be a lot better November
than we are in September. It's I mean, fourteen guys
drafted more than that made NFL rosters. It's a lot
to replace. There's a question, of course, at quarterback. I
think the game on Saturday is going to be a
(19:59):
rock fight. I think both teams have excellent, excellent defenses
that from what I've heard, are way ahead of the
offenses right now. But yeah, I mean, like the way
the thing's set up now, where you know you can
have some bumps early and still survive to make the playoff.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
I think they'll be in good shape going into December.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Now, there's a rumor on a message board that you
will be at the game this weekend.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
And I also saw you'll probably be in the locker room,
maybe doing the coin toss or something like that.
Speaker 8 (20:26):
Because You're won't be in the locker room, but I
will be in the stadium.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
I do have access for that.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
I guess that's a big issue this week, right, Like,
I'll be okay, I'll be in the stadium, so yeah, yeah, no,
it's I'm excited to get out there.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Man.
Speaker 8 (20:40):
It'll be my two sons first game there with two,
which is going to be pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah, all right, final college football. Got to ask about
Arch Manning. I keep asking every guest this week, do
we know if he's good? I mean, yeah, I'm enough
with the UTSA highlights. Okay, can we wait to see
him live bullets against a good team with a smart defense.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
Actually, Jmack I asked around about him, you know, going
back to you know, like May, when you started to
see him popping up as the number one overall pick
in mock drafts, and you know, with all due respect
to him, I can't remember that ever happening before where
you had a guy who has two college stars being
projected in the next year's draft to that level. So
you know, the guys who are on the ground, who
(21:24):
do the school calls and have been in Austin, you
would all say, like, the physical tools are there.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
He's a great kid. You know, he's been.
Speaker 8 (21:32):
Raised right, so there are a lot of like great
pieces to put together there. But I mean, I think
the leap that everybody's making here is they assume that
he's got all the stuff that Peyton and el I
had and so they're making that leap where they say
he's Peyton and Eli plus athleticism, and I don't know
that's really respectful to how difficult it is to see
(21:55):
the game, to think the game the way that Peyton
and Eli did. And that doesn't mean that Arch won't
get there, But there's a process in getting there.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
You know.
Speaker 8 (22:03):
Part of it is playing against better competition, which will
happen on Saturday for him. Part of it is, you know,
when teams get six, seven, eight games of game tape
on you figuring out what you do well what you
don't do well, and now they're able to game plan
more specifically, can you CounterPunch? You know, there's still a
lot that we have left to find out about Arch Manning,
(22:23):
And I think he'd agree with this, like I, as
far as I've never talked to him before, but far
as what I know about the kid, I think you'd
agree that there's still a lot left unknown about what
he's going to be as a quarterback. And unfortunately, you
know the way all this stuff works today, we're never
going to give a kid like that the opportunity to
(22:43):
to just let that happen naturally, but you kind of
wish that it could.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Yeah, no shot of that. All right, Let's shift our
focus to the NFL. Listen, I don't love talking about
the Cowboys. They sink right. They're the longest drought in
a conference championship game in the NFC by a mile.
And then you got Michael Parson showing up at the airport.
I'm gonna get a second opinion on my back. His
brother is tweeting out this is going twelve rounds. I mean,
(23:09):
at what point does this turn from circus to kind
of like some Shakespearean act where it's really just sad
and depressive.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Yeah, I mean, I would say that, like a lot
of this is kind of you know, what Jerry's invited
over the last few years in the way he's handled
a lot of these contract negotiations.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
The pacing of.
Speaker 8 (23:27):
It actually isn't much different than the negotiation with Zach
Martin two years ago, with the negotiation with Ceedee Lamb
and Dak Prescott last year, where you know, offers were
made very early in the off season and then there
was you know, basically radio silence. The team goes to
California for camp, there's not much movement, and then at
the very end there's a push to get a deal done.
(23:49):
Now we'll see what happens and what results from that
final push to get the deal done.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You know.
Speaker 8 (23:55):
But I'd say there are you know, a couple of
key differences between this one and those. You know, one
certainly is you know, the the public rankor that this
sort of taking place over the course the last three
or four months, where a lot of this stuff has
gotten out there and become kind of nasty in the
public forum, whether it's between you know, Jerry and the
(24:15):
agent David Mullagetta whether it's between Micah and the team itself.
Obviously there's the stuff at the stadium that last preseason
game with the nachos and the lying on the training table,
So this one's gotten more public publicly nasty than than
than those before it.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
The other difference is just.
Speaker 8 (24:34):
Kind of how these guys are seen in the locker room,
you know. And I would say, you know, Dak and
CD and Zach Martin were all beloved figures in the
locker room, and I don't know that it's quite that
way with Micah. Now it doesn't have to be. He's
a great player, you know. He's a motivated player, you know,
and I think that if you pay him, he's going
(24:54):
to be worth every penny. But that does add a
different twist to the tenor and negotiat and so.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I can see them getting a deal done in the
next week.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
I could also see this, you know, turning into something
that drags into the season where you know, all of
a sudden, Michah Parson's.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Back is acting up or his ankle is acting up, and.
Speaker 8 (25:16):
You just kind of have this like weird sideways sort
of season from one of your very best players, which
of course can put the rest of the team in a.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Tough spot too. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays and neonon Easter not a Empacific.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Yeah, at what point, I mean, Micah probably has a
little more ammo to empty the clip.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I mean, he could simply go on his own.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Podcast and go off, yeah and shift the attention from Jerry.
He could control the narrative. Jerry can meet the media
as much as he wants. I mean, I know he's
a billionaire and he's the owner. I think Micah has
the leverage here. Let me get on the screen, Albert.
We looked at the twenty twenty one draft, all the
best players in the first round and Jamar Chase signed
(25:59):
Davante's Smith extension.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
All these guys got their deals.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Early, held the DeVonta Smithfield has done seventeen months ago. Okay,
there's one guy on the list who doesn't have a deal.
Doesn't this even further, Amma, Like Jerry doesn't know what
the hell he's doing.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
But again, like this is sort of the way that
they've handled it, like, and I think that's part of it,
is he does know what he's doing, you know what
I mean? Like and I think there's a piece of it,
Like for a lot of these owners it's keeping the
money in your own pocket for as long as you can,
and that could be an element here. It's control over workforce,
which is something Jerry's talked about in the public forum
(26:35):
and in the private forum too, of the of the
of the ownership meetings.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Wait wait, hold on, what do you one of the
leaders in.
Speaker 8 (26:42):
The pack when it comes to that stuff and making
sure that everybody knows who's in charge, you know. And
then I think there's also the entertainment aspect to it,
you know. And I I a couple of years ago,
I would have told you were crazy for saying these things,
and I thought people were kind of off base when
they did say But the more it's happened this way,
(27:03):
and the less aggressive that they've gotten about doing deals
in the months of June and July, the more I thought,
like maybe there is you know, a side benefit that
he sees in this whole thing that they're going to
be in the a block and a lot of you
know a lot of shows like this one, you know,
like that they're going to be the most important thing
(27:23):
over the summer. I mean, will we really be talking
about the Cowboys right now if it weren't for this, No,
j Mac No, I mean it's sort of I don't know.
I mean that maybe because the coaching changed, but they didn't.
I mean, all due respect Brian Schottenheimer, this wasn't like
a headline grabbing higher. You know, Dak's coming back for
another year. I just I don't know if there's anything
that will capture the imagination of the public that's going
(27:45):
on there right now.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
And so if you want.
Speaker 8 (27:48):
To be a real conspiracy theory theorist about this, you
could look at it and say, Jerry's going to get
a deal done.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
His way early, or you're going to have to wait
until late.
Speaker 8 (27:58):
And the headlines may be part of the benefit for
for Jerry when it comes to all that.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Okay, So Albert, you're a smart guy.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
You've been in radio, TV, writing, you cover the league forever.
Do you want to win headlines and be in the
A bloc in July and August or do you want
to be in playoff games that matter in January and
get into the game in February?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Like, well, you know what.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
My answer is exactly, and.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
That's well, the only reason I'm pushing back. Now, you
said an interesting phrase. I almost didn't like it where
you said control over players. So are any are any
other owners speaking in that tone like that vibe, Hey,
we got to let them know who's in charge or
is that just.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
A jar think that? I mean most of them think
that way. I get that, if you want to the
truth of it, most of them think that way.
Speaker 8 (28:45):
I mean, that's why there are so many rules in
the CBA that pertain to this sort of stuff, you know,
like whether it's franchise tags, it's strengthening the rules over
holding out. I mean, guys have to pay fifty thousand
a day for for for for days they miss in
training camp, you know, And that's why players have had
to get more creative and doing things like holding So, like,
(29:08):
if you don't think your owner has has has that
in the back of his head and how you can
maintain control over his workforce, like you.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Are either you know, rooting for one of the teams,
the rare.
Speaker 8 (29:23):
Guy like that, or you have your head in the
clouds about the way these guys operate.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Just reality of it, you know what I mean. Like, so,
I think.
Speaker 8 (29:30):
Jerry's a little bit more forceful about it, and Jerry's
probably one of the more vocal guys inside the meeting room,
but it exists everywhere, and it's all over the CBA.
You know, there's so many different things in the CBA
that the point to even the length of it, you
know what I mean, Like doing a ten year deal
where you have the opt outs, Like what is that?
Speaker 5 (29:48):
That's control over workforce? So I mean, I know that's
sort of a corporate term for it, but it's exactly
what it is.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean, Jerry could go to the table and
say we have you for the next three years.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
You can't do anything, come play.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
And honestly, I'm at the point whereer, you know, I'm
not rich or wealthy. If I were a rich guy
and I sided with Michael Parson, I'd say, Micah, I
got you.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I'll float some of your lifestyle. I don't want you
go on a plane. Get your contract.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You deserve it, You've earned it, just like everybody else
in your draft class.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Go screw listening to him.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
I mean, again, maybe that's a little aggressive on my.
Speaker 8 (30:20):
Part, but I mean, but that's the thing is like,
so what Jerry's told him is like, we have you
for the next three years. Well, why do they have
him for the next three years, because for the next
three years, because they have the last year of his
contract franchise Tag one, franchise Tag two. And so those
are mechanisms of control, you know. And I mean there
(30:41):
are teams that are more aggressive, so they don't have
to use those mechanisms of control because they don't want
it to come to that point with their players. You know,
in a lot of cases, you have a good relationship
with your player and you just don't want it to
come to that.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
You may believe that.
Speaker 8 (30:55):
You should have control over your workforce, but you know,
the Eagles are a great example of it, Like where
you mentioned DeVante Smith, like they never just things, never
like came even close to coming to a head with
him because he did him so early.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
You know Aj Brown, They revised his contract, they.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Gave him, you know, a big bump when when he
had outplayed the contracts he initially signed.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
So there are definitely ways to avoid it.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
There are definitely teams that don't want to exert it.
Jerry's just never been afraid to exert these sorts of mechanisms.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
And again, like that whole thing, like I have.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
You for the next three years, even though you're only
under contract for the next year. Is of course, you know,
a pretty clear way of explaining to your player, like,
even after your contract expires, I still have you because
of the rules that we put in.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I don't like that.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
I mean, maybe the WNBA player should talk to the
NFL guys and be like, hey, hey, oh you guys,
this is the playbook, is.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
What we're going to do.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
But the other thing looking at that, Sean Slater got
a new contract July twenty seventh, two weeks later torn
patella out for the year. He doesn't have to worry
about anything. Albert, he got he got his money. Hey,
don't rush back. We're good, you got your contract. We're happy,
like I'm.
Speaker 8 (32:17):
I mean, Cale McGarry's the other one that's not his
high profile, but he got hurt in Atlanta, I think,
a few days after his contract. There are tons of
examples of it, for sure, and that's that's part of
the leverage that owners have, is fear that something like
this is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yees.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
So if I'm Micah, hey man, I just saw what
happened to McGary, what happens later, I'm sorry, I don't
want to go out there.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
My back is hurt. I mean, honestly, you have to.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
If you're Dak Prescott and you probably know him as
well as anybody who covers teams, at some point he has.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
To think, hey, man, I got paid. I don't care.
We're not winning the super Bowl, We're not sniffing it.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
I mean, I think the Eagles have a better chance
to repeat than Dallas does even getting.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
To the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
And I think Dak is probably fine with that. Hey
I'm wealthy, I've got generational wealth. I got my girl,
I got my kid.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I'm fine.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
I don't At some point, you just have to not
care because if the owner doesn't seem to care, why
should the quarterback. I'm just gonna go play and make
money and that's it.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying. I mean,
but there's also like you only have so many years
to to to to maximize your time in the field,
you know how you're going to be remembered and all
that different stuff. And I think you know, Dak's not
really wired that way where it's where it's like, okay,
like well, like my owner is as all and as
I am so I'm not going to put as much
into it, Like I just I have a hard time
(33:30):
envisioning ever seeing anything that anything like that happening with
that particular guy like Dak Prescott's not that way, but
I would agree that like it doesn't always send the
best message to your locker room when you're doing these
sorts of things, you know, I mean, I think in
a lot of ways, these contract negotiations send messages to
(33:51):
the locker room. And I think, you know, for example,
like Terry McLaurin in Washington, I think one of the
tricky things about that one is, and was over the
course of the last few months, was like, I mean,
if you're if you're in a negotiation with somebody who
isn't all that well liked or well respected in the
locker room and there's a dispute, well, I think guys
kind of, you know, just look the other way on it.
(34:14):
But if it's a guy like a McLaurin, like, they're
gonna be guys in the locker room, they're gonna look
at it and say, like, you messed with that guy,
And now that they've paid him, they can point and say,
you know what, we took care of him like it was.
It got a little messy, but in the end we
were we were able to find a solution and he's
happy and we're happy.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
And that's the kind of guy that we pay.
Speaker 8 (34:34):
So, you know, I think more often than more often
than people realize, players keep score by contract, players keep
score by money, and so you know, they're paying attention
to the way that you handle these sorts of negotiations
because they know if one of the biggest stars in
the team can be treated a certain way, well, and
(34:56):
they're certainly not going to be exempt from it.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Right, let's move off the Cowboys. I know management will
love that.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
I do have to ask, I'm taking some heat in Chicago,
Albert Okay, yeah, they're upset with me, Kyle Long. Is
they taking jabs at me like this? Caleb Williams Ben
Johnson stuff. Again, I'm listening to the quotes and I'm
looking at the actions of Ben Johnson, and I'm just
telling you, from my point of view, something's going on there.
It doesn't feel like it's off to a good start.
(35:24):
They've had like four or five months together, and the
messaging from Ben. Now, maybe this is his personality.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I don't know. His upbringing.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I don't know his background. It just doesn't seem positive.
And then they signed Bagent to a random out of nowhere.
This guy came out of nowhere and they just signed
him to a deal. I'm like, what is happening? So
to maybe talk talk bears fans off the ledge or
side with me either one.
Speaker 8 (35:46):
I think he's being I think I think Ben's being
intentionally tough on on on Caleb Williams like.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
I think that's that that that's.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
Really the long and short of it, And this is
Ben being himself and this is the way he coaches,
and you know, as far as I can tell, like,
Caleb has been on board with it, and it produced
some really ugly days early in training camp, like it
did not look good. But if you talked to Ben
about it, what he would tell you is we were
(36:14):
going through a process where we wanted to feed him
through a fire hose and give him as much as
we possibly could, overload him with information, overload him with scheme,
and then come back and narrow down what he's doing
and figure out what he does well and what he
doesn't do well. So of the stuff that he doesn't
do well out and build an offense around his strengths,
and so I think, like you juxtapose the early days
(36:39):
in camp against the second preseason game, and you see
a guy who was playing much faster. You see a
guy who's playing much more confidently because they had figured
out exactly what he does best. They'd honed in on that,
and then they really sort of fine tune some of
the stuff as far as how fast he's playing, how.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Quick the ball is getting out, all of that.
Speaker 8 (37:01):
And I know it didn't look quite the same against
Kansas City. He wasn't quite as sharp against Kansas City
in the last preseason game. But I think this has
gone according to plan, and you know, we'll have to
see what it looks like when the regular season starts.
But I think people who've been around Ben would remind
you like they had days like this with Jared Goff
in training camp in Detroit, and nobody made this big
(37:23):
a deal out of it because golf was already a
proven commodity. We already had an idea of what golf is.
You know, we'll see if it works with the younger guy.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Huh.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
That's positive and upbeat, and I like it. I appreciate it.
I do have to ask Caleb kind of had the
run of the show last year, he could do whatever
he wanted.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
He was watching film by himself.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Reportedly, well, guess what the year prior at USC, he
was also just doing his own thing, a.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Lot of backyard football.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Right, So two years of just hey, freelance, make a play,
go go get us some points.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
How tough is it going to be to go from
that into follow my lead?
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Drop read react quickly like it's probably at least a
year with Ben before we see anything close to what
he wants.
Speaker 8 (38:06):
Right, Well, it's a mentality change, you know. I mean,
you're you're trying to coach a playing style out of somebody,
and that's not an easy thing to do, you know.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
I think beyond just that, like in.
Speaker 8 (38:16):
College, like he was asked in a lot of cases
to be the best player on the field, and I
think you saw that reflected in the way that he played.
It was a lot of big play hunting, a lot
of passing up the the the easy stuff. And what
they're trying to teach him to do is play the
(38:39):
game and and and play quarterback and and in a
more between the lines sort of ways instead of constantly
coloring outside the lines. You can run and scramble to
create throws. In the NFL, you can't do it all
the time. And I think I'm a Homes because I'm
doing a story on Pat and Pat and I talked
about this, you know, earlier in the month. Is like,
(39:04):
if you look at his numbers, Mahomes' numbers, he averaged
over ten carries a game when he was at Texas Tech.
That number for his NFL career is under four per game.
And that's a very intentional thing that for Mahomes was
going from having to be the best player on the
field and almost every play too.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
I've got good teammates around me.
Speaker 8 (39:24):
I can trust them, I can get the ball in
their hands, and then when I need to be superman,
I can always put the cape on. That's what they're
trying to get Caleb to do in Chicago is there
are going to be certain plays where we just want
to have your hands at ten and two on the
wheel and just run the offense. And we know that,
we know that you're capable of the bigger stuff when
we need it, but it can't be all the time.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
And I think there were points last year we saw.
Speaker 8 (39:47):
What happens when he's trying to be that guy all
the time and they're trying to dial that back and say,
just play quarterback four times out of five, and then
that fifth time you can go and show everybody exactly
what you're capable of.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Your analogy for Klee have got me thinking of the.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
Great movie Old School, where Will Ferrell, you know, used
to be a party animal. Then he's really resigned to
the birds, and his wife's like, we don't want to
see old Frank the tank and then he just comes
out and he's beer bong and or funneling whatever the
kids call it.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Anyways.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
Albert Breer, Monday Morning Quarterback, Great stuff as always, Hey,
good luck to your Buckeyes this weekend.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
I loaded up. I could use a new car, so
let's let's go buck guys.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Money on them.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah, a couple of bucks.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
I like it a while.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah, yeah, we'll do all right, Albert, thank you, all right,
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox 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 (00:28):
We are back.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, a beautiful Thursday here on the Herd.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Out in sunny Los Angeles. It's meat. Jason McIntyre barely surviving.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
I mean, jeez, are coming for the online Rachel with
the pison feathers.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Whatever they say, whatever they say, They're coming after me.
But I'm still surviving.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Then, Rachel.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We got a pretty good times.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
A lot going on. There is a lot.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
We are one week exactly one week from today, NFL season.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
We get packed not packers, I'm sorry. We get Eagles, yeah,
and caw and Cowboys. Oh it's he Is there anything
I on with the capital? You know, let's just dive
right into that, shall we remember?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
We are one week away from the start of the
NFL season and a week from today, it's Eagles Cowboys,
and the Eagles are defending champs.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
They got the best roster in the league.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
They're stacked, and nobody is talking about them for some reason.
It's all about the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones likes it
that way. He loves it that way. By the way,
do you guys remember what happened last year.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
In the Eagles Cowboys games? They met twice. Now dak
missed both games.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, let me just check here, okay, thirty four to
six was the first one that was Eagles winning, and
then it was forty one seven. Jalen Hurts satokancussion did
not play. So it's a little early for math. But
I'm not seventy five to thirteen. The Eagles smoked the
Cowboys last year. It was not competitive in any way,
shape or form. Yet the media remains obsessed with the
(02:00):
wo begone Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Why would that be? Well, wouldn't you know it? But
yesterday Michaeh Parsons.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Their star holdout hold in I don't know, showed up
at an airport.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Where's he going? He doesn't have to go to practice?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Well, Michael Parsons is going to get a second opinion.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
On his back.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
There's Micah at the I believe it's a Dallas Fort
Worth Airport. You know, tough to miss.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Michael Parsons a large individual.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Somebody snapped his photo and next thing you know, it's
wait a minute. So he's not gonna be at practice
this weekend, pivotal practices right before the season.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Well that ain't good because we.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Got everybody saying, ah, it's gonna be fine, he's gonna
show up.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
But it didn't stop there, folks.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Michaeh filed a grievance against the Cowboys over his fifty
year option, and it.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Continued the news in Dallas.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Jerry Jones loves this, right, Jerry, we'll get to you
a second, buddy.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There's more.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Michael Parson's older brother went on social media yesterday, and
I want to make sure I quote him correctly. It's
gonna get ugly. Put your gloves on. This is going
twelve rounds now. I don't know if he's talking about
like a Jake Paul fight coming up or what's happening.
Maybe it's his brother who's going toe to toe with
(03:18):
Jerry Jones and folks, the more I look at this
the more I just get disappointed and sad for Cowboys fans, because,
without question, this is the most futile organization in the NFC.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
A staggering stat. I'm sure you guys have seen.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Since twenty ten, every team in the NFC has made
the conference championship game. Yes, the pathetic Panthers, the sad
sax Saints, they've made a conference championship game since twenty ten.
There's only one team in the entire conference that hasn't.
And if you look at the bottom of the screen
there it's the Dallas Cowboys. Nineteen ninety five was the
(03:54):
last time they made the conference championship game, fifteen years
behind everyone else in the conference. That to me is
a very clear signal Jerry Jones is not serious about
actual football.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
The Eagles, who they're playing next Thursday.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
They're crushing free agency every year, they're crushing the draft.
Howie Roseman is building a juggernaut, and Jerry Jones is
out here creating reality TV shows.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
You've heard of Love Island Cowboys.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
They got Star Island, keeping up with the Kardashians.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
We about keeping up with the Joneses.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Yet somehow the media seems to think, Wow, this happens
every year. Here's Matt Mosley earlier this week talking about how, hey,
Mike is going to be there week one.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Remember who Jerry is, and remember how much he loves
the pageantry and the circus of all of this, and
the last minute get the deal signed is kind of
a fun thing for him. Dak got one of his
deals done the morning of the first game CD and
(05:00):
Zeke's were done four or five days. Every one of
these holdouts in in the Cowboys capitulating, right, I mean,
namely one that they've won, Like, well, look at the Cowboys,
they won this negotiation, Zeke Zach. I mean every CD
they all end and the deals getting done.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
So the worst part is Jerry thinks this is good
business because he's not serious about football. He's like, oh,
our names are in the headline. I mean they play
at a stadium called Jerry World. I mean, the guy's
obsessed with himself. That's not going to translate to building
a contender in the modern era.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
It's not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And on top of all this, there was a couple
of reports saying, well, wait a minute, the Green Bay
Packers are interested in Michael Parsons.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And everybody gets all excited about that. I'm like, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Let's be let's pause for a second. That ain't happening.
I mean, Jerry, there's no way he's trading Michael. We
all know and think, Yeah, he's gonna cave at the
last minute, because that's what he does.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
He chickens out.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
He talks a tough game, and then chickens out and
it signs a deal. So here's Tyler Dunn talking about
Jerry's history with his stars recently. This is headed toward
opening night. Jerry Jones is gonna know all eyes are on.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
The NFL is the NFL. He's the most powerful person
in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And then that's when the news breaks. They don't care
about winning. They just they just don't.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
If the Dallas Cowboys prioritize the winning, they wouldn't locked
up Dappy year ahead of time, Steve de Lammi year
out of time, Michael Parsons a year, a year at
a time. They just jerk around their best players because
they can. They think they're the smartest people in the room.
They don't modernize the franchise. And if you're a Cowboys
fan out there, I don't know, I guess the only
(06:50):
thing you can do is not show up to the stadium.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And that's why I say, you know, Jerry's kind of
unserious about the actual football product. I don't think he cares.
He's said, well, I want to win a Super Bowl.
I want to, but the actions are not backing that up.
And it's got to be disappout pointing if you're a
Cowboys fan. So let me address one of the points
that done made yesterday, because a lot of people out
(07:13):
there are thinking, hey, you know, actually, Jay Jerry Jones
has a point. Mike is under contract for three more years.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
He's got to show up.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
And play, and that's just that's that's not how it works.
I'm gonna turn back to twenty twenty one. Okay, that's
when Michael Parsons was drafted. I remember that draft fondly
because as a Jets fan, all season leading up.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
To that, we were in position to get Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
I was so geeked, all excited, and then the Jets,
like morons, end up beating the Rams. I believe it
was out here at so far in December, costs themselves
Trevor Lawrence and have to settle for Zach Wilson. We
know Zach Wilson. I mean, I think he's working at
a coffee bean out here in Los Angeles. However, that
draft had a lot of other good players who went
(07:57):
the first round, and we just so happened to have
a full screen of all that those twenty.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Twenty one draft picks. Take a look at the final column.
Did they sign their extension?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
These are all guys drafted the exact same day as
Michaeh Parsons, Trevor Lawrence, and Jacksonville got his extension. It's done,
no drama. Jamar Chase Argue'll be the best receiver in
the league. Got it done, no drama, no holdouts, headlines.
Jaylen Wattle Miami got his deal. Penay Sewell, the great
offensive lineman in Detroit.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
J C.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Horn who's been injured.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
A ton and Carolina still got his extension done. Patrick
Certayan defensive player of the Year. Devonte Smith of the
Eagles Boy Eagles Cowboys. Hey, Devonte Smith in Micah's draft
class got his extension. Guys, I had to look this
up seventeen months ago.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
He got his extension. He was drafted the same day.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
As Michael Parsons and we all say the Eagles are
the worst we'll run organization in the NFL. Right now,
He got his deal done, and you look at a
very end of that list, and there's a gentleman named
Rayshawn Slater who went to the Chargers. Okay, July twenty seventh,
this summer, Rayshawn Slater four year, one hundred and fourteen
(09:11):
million dollar deal. Chargers locked him up. Great contract for
an offensive lineman. Less than two weeks later, he tears
his ptel attendant out.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
For the season.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But guess what, because he got extended, he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Have to worry about anything.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Can you imagine the panic Rayshon Slater would have right
now if he were playing for the Cowboys and Jerry
was jerking him around and then he tears his PATEL
attendant in practice and he's out for the year. But bro,
you didn't get your extension. You just cost yourself a
ton of money. He got taken care of. No worries Slater, Hey, man,
get healthy. You don't have a damn thing to worry about.
(09:46):
We don't need you to rush back because you got paid.
We want you to come back fully strong next season.
Easy well, ender, Michael Parsons, he doesn't have his extension.
You really think Michael Parsons wants to go out there
and play and jeopardize an injury like Slater with no
security and don't tell me, well, he's got the fifth
(10:08):
year option or they can franchise tag him.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
That ain't security.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Security is a four year deal with ninety one million guaranteed,
which is what Slater got, and Jerry for some reason
is reluctant to give him that money. And at the
bottom of that full screen graphic, I don't know if
we can get it again.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Our guys put it in gold lettering.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Okay, of all those guys that got their extensions, Micah
Parsons is the only player in this draft to have
three all Pro seasons. So you could argue, you know,
Jamar Chase has been great, Sewell's been awesome, Micah Parsons
has been the best player from his draft. That's a legitimate,
credible argument. And I know, hey, Jay, what's he done
(10:47):
in the playoffs? Okay, guys, what's Trevor Lawrence done in
the playoffs? You know, Penny Sewell, how did he do
against Washington?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Patrick?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Certain like you could play that game all day. But
the reality, Jerry Jones is just unseerious about football. He
doesn't truly care about winning, because if he did, his
actions would align with the smarter teams in the league,
like the Philadelphia Eagles, who they're gonna be playing next Thursday. Now,
the spread for that is seven. I would not be
(11:19):
surprised if that ticked up to seven and a half.
As we get closer, it's increasingly looking like Micah Parsons
is not gonna play his brother's on social media. He's
at an airport, Mike's getting a second opinion on his back.
This is headed toward disaster if Jerry doesn't step in
say hey, hey, hey, okay, just kidding. We had a
(11:40):
lot of fun with that. Now let's get down to football.
Let's get down to brass tacks. Because I'm just it's
you gotta be disappointed if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan
with how Jerry has handled this. So we have a
good show today, let's upgrade it to great. Actually, I
know Bears fans are unhappy with me. Somehow Rachel was
able to escape any enmity from the Bears, former Bears
(12:02):
coming after me online, even though we're in alignment on
what's happening with the Chicago team and Ben Johnson and
his quarterback.
Speaker 9 (12:09):
Well, I think it's more of a stylistic issue, right,
whereas you maybe think if it's more of a is
a good enough issue. In my mind, Ben Johnson is
a very precise coach, right, I mean everything he did
with the Lions the Mad Scientists. To be a mad Scientist,
you have to have pretty insight, you know, pretty concise
ingredients on exactly what you want to do, when you
want to do it, how you want to do it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And Caleb Williams has always been more of.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
A freelancer, and by the way, that's not a bad quality.
Some of the best quarterbacks we have going right now
can freelance out there. But it's not necessarily what Ben
is used to when you're coming from Jared Goff, because
he's not like that. So for me, the question throughout
this camp and now going into the season is how
do those two styles merge and can they live together.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
So we'll be talking a little bit about the Bears
coming up next, and listen, if you compare what's being
said in Chicago with what's being said about another rookie quarterback,
in the league right now. I know Caleb the second year,
but one of them's very positive and the other is
Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
So that's next here on the Herd.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at neon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 10 (13:19):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 11 (13:25):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern,
two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of
course the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 10 (13:32):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 11 (13:34):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world.
Speaker 10 (13:38):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well, other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss.
Speaker 11 (13:46):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
twenty years and still work together, I mean that says something, right.
Speaker 10 (13:51):
So check us out. We like to get you involved too,
Take your phone calls, chop it up, as they say.
I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio,
maybe the most interactive show on Planetar. Be sure to
check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern
two to four Pacific, and if you miss any of
the live show, just search Kobe and On and Rich
wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social media.
(14:13):
That's Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
We're back our number two here on the Herd.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
It's me Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowherd's joined by
Rachel Nichols. We have Albert Breer coming up. Albert Breer
just a mountain of information.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
The guy's amazing and listen.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I know it's football season for college in NFL, but
you know I love me some NBA and Rachel loves
the NBA.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
Two.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
We have a fun, spicy NBA topic for later in
the hours, just a few minutes. NFL fans, don't worry
and give it out. People seem to feel about this guy, Rachel,
I think they're gonna like our take on. Yeah, a
little conversation going on with that, Yes, yes, yes, it'll
be fun. But that's a The Hour and the Greg Jennings,
my guy, Greg Jennings, bodybuilder slash former NFL wide receiver.
(15:06):
He's going to be in the final hour. Greg Jennings
is like Arnold. Honestly, he is so jacked right now.
The guy's a machine, all right. So earlier this week
we did my Super Bowl tiers and the forty nine
ers in the top tier really ticked everyone off. Understandable,
Chiefs were Tier three.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
So I was like, why don't we do it.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
For college football? Sure staff is like, yeah, on board,
got it. Here we go College Football National Championship Tiers.
Let's start with the group we're calling the head of
the Class. By the way, head of the Class. Shout
out to my brother. We would watch that show in
the nineties all the time. It was that. I think, yes, Robin,
give it. Thank you, Rachel right, head of the Class.
(15:46):
Top college football contenders. Shouldn't be no surprise that Clemson
is up there. If you listen to Bruce Fellman when
he was on this week, they're stacked. They have one
of the best defensive lines in the country.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
They have sixteen starters back Clemson's in there.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Ohio State defending champs, have the best player in the country,
Jeremiah Smith. Caleb Downs, an elite defender Penn State Ratuons
drew Aller and eventual James Franklin's gonna.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Win a big game? Am I right? Is that gonna happen?
Speaker 8 (16:12):
Now?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Alabama surprised some people. Someone in the morning meeting, was
I Alabama?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Jay?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
You sure, folks? Alabama?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
From the notes, five star quarterback Ty Simpson has been
waiting on the bench for a few years to take
over for Jalen Milroe. Does that not sound like Arts
Manning or what? This is a really good team and
I'm a buyer in Kaylen de boor I didn't know
that Belichick.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Rachel had that earlier.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Belichick was going to Washington before he got to UNC.
Guess who was at Washington. Kayland wore smart as hell.
I like Alabama to make the playoff and contend for
the Natty. All right, let's go to the next group
called the Honor Roll, something I was on I think
in seventh grade and not much more after that.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
The Honor Roll.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Obviously Georgia Bulldogs are going to be there. However, they
are replacing fifteen starters, so I do think there's a pullback.
I know they don't replace, they reload. Don't worry with
five stars. They're in the mix, don't. I don't see
them winning it, but they'll be in the mix. Notre Dame,
I like a lot, is a buy on Marcus Freeman.
I think he's an elite coach and I think the
NFL comes calling very very soon.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I love their ground game.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Quarterback is a question, but my guy, I have a
couple of Notre Dame insiders who who are very plugged in.
They like the quarterback a lot. Oregon Ducks is a
bit of a mystery. This is again as a buy
on a coach, Dan Lanning. He's gonna have them competitive.
I gotta be honest. I haven't heard a damn thing
about Oregon since Ohio State smoked them seventy four to
zero or whatever it is and that Rose bull Do
(17:39):
you remember that game? That was unbelievable what Ohio State
did to them. But Oregon, Dan Lanning, will be fine.
And then the Texas Long Orange hook them Archbanning and company.
I think they lose this weekend and then go on
a bit of a heater against bad teams. So Texas
is in.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
The mix, on the honor roll.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
And finally we have a way listed. I was wait
listed at one university when I applied, I got into eight.
I was wait listed at the other and the wait
list here is LSU with nuss Meyer at quarterback. We'll
see what they're made of in the opener against Clemson.
You the team of my youth. Yes, I owned the
(18:17):
Miami starter jacket. I'm not gonna lie. It was so
fire when I was in seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
But I like the you.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I just don't love Carson Beck a lot, like the
coaching staff, and I think Notre Dame gets them this weekend.
My guys sellers. The quarterback at South Carolina. I think
they're going to be spicy. He's the guy I would
watch coming out of nowhere to go number one. Maybe
he carries the game Cocks to the playoff. And finally,
my dark horse, that Texas Tech Red Raiders. I was
in Vegas last week. I bet some teams in college football.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Texas Tech to make the playoff.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Was one of my long shot bets. I love what
they did in the portal. There's your college football tiers
from your boy. All right, let's bring in our guest,
Albert Breer, mister Monday Morning Quarterback, as is always obligatory,
I have to ask him about Ohio State right out
of the gate, Breer, are you disappointed? I didn't have
(19:07):
the buck Eyes winning at all?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Already?
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Who'd you have?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
So?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
I was looking at my phone.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You weren't even paying attention.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Should have been paying attention. That's on me.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
No, no, no, I had you want him.
Speaker 8 (19:20):
In the top two though I was paying attention for that.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Okay, So I think they're could be very good, but
I do think Penn State probably gets him this year.
Clemson's loaded, and Alabama is the team I bet to
win the Natty?
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Are you bet Alabama?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (19:34):
All right, we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
I like I think Ohio State is one of those
teams where I think we'll be a lot better November
than we are in September. It's I mean, fourteen guys
drafted more than that made NFL rosters. It's a lot
to replace. There's a question, of course, at quarterback. I
think the game on Saturday is going to be a
(19:59):
rock fight. I think both teams have excellent, excellent defenses
that from what I've heard, are way ahead of the
offenses right now. But yeah, I mean, like the way
the thing's set up now, where you know you can
have some bumps early and still survive to make the playoff.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
I think they'll be in good shape going into December.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Now, there's a rumor on a message board that you
will be at the game this weekend.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
And I also saw you'll probably be in the locker room,
maybe doing the coin toss or something like that.
Speaker 8 (20:26):
Because You're won't be in the locker room, but I
will be in the stadium.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
I do have access for that.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
I guess that's a big issue this week, right, Like,
I'll be okay, I'll be in the stadium, so yeah, yeah, no,
it's I'm excited to get out there.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Man.
Speaker 8 (20:40):
It'll be my two sons first game there with two,
which is going to be pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah, all right, final college football. Got to ask about
Arch Manning. I keep asking every guest this week, do
we know if he's good? I mean, yeah, I'm enough
with the UTSA highlights. Okay, can we wait to see
him live bullets against a good team with a smart defense.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
Actually, Jmack I asked around about him, you know, going
back to you know, like May, when you started to
see him popping up as the number one overall pick
in mock drafts, and you know, with all due respect
to him, I can't remember that ever happening before where
you had a guy who has two college stars being
projected in the next year's draft to that level. So
you know, the guys who are on the ground, who
(21:24):
do the school calls and have been in Austin, you
would all say, like, the physical tools are there.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
He's a great kid. You know, he's been.
Speaker 8 (21:32):
Raised right, so there are a lot of like great
pieces to put together there. But I mean, I think
the leap that everybody's making here is they assume that
he's got all the stuff that Peyton and el I
had and so they're making that leap where they say
he's Peyton and Eli plus athleticism, and I don't know
that's really respectful to how difficult it is to see
(21:55):
the game, to think the game the way that Peyton
and Eli did. And that doesn't mean that Arch won't
get there, But there's a process in getting there.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
You know.
Speaker 8 (22:03):
Part of it is playing against better competition, which will
happen on Saturday for him. Part of it is, you know,
when teams get six, seven, eight games of game tape
on you figuring out what you do well what you
don't do well, and now they're able to game plan
more specifically, can you CounterPunch? You know, there's still a
lot that we have left to find out about Arch Manning,
(22:23):
And I think he'd agree with this, like I, as
far as I've never talked to him before, but far
as what I know about the kid, I think you'd
agree that there's still a lot left unknown about what
he's going to be as a quarterback. And unfortunately, you
know the way all this stuff works today, we're never
going to give a kid like that the opportunity to
(22:43):
to just let that happen naturally, but you kind of
wish that it could.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Yeah, no shot of that. All right, Let's shift our
focus to the NFL. Listen, I don't love talking about
the Cowboys. They sink right. They're the longest drought in
a conference championship game in the NFC by a mile.
And then you got Michael Parson showing up at the airport.
I'm gonna get a second opinion on my back. His
brother is tweeting out this is going twelve rounds. I mean,
(23:09):
at what point does this turn from circus to kind
of like some Shakespearean act where it's really just sad
and depressive.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Yeah, I mean, I would say that, like a lot
of this is kind of you know, what Jerry's invited
over the last few years in the way he's handled
a lot of these contract negotiations.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
The pacing of.
Speaker 8 (23:27):
It actually isn't much different than the negotiation with Zach
Martin two years ago, with the negotiation with Ceedee Lamb
and Dak Prescott last year, where you know, offers were
made very early in the off season and then there
was you know, basically radio silence. The team goes to
California for camp, there's not much movement, and then at
the very end there's a push to get a deal done.
(23:49):
Now we'll see what happens and what results from that
final push to get the deal done.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You know.
Speaker 8 (23:55):
But I'd say there are you know, a couple of
key differences between this one and those. You know, one
certainly is you know, the the public rankor that this
sort of taking place over the course the last three
or four months, where a lot of this stuff has
gotten out there and become kind of nasty in the
public forum, whether it's between you know, Jerry and the
(24:15):
agent David Mullagetta whether it's between Micah and the team itself.
Obviously there's the stuff at the stadium that last preseason
game with the nachos and the lying on the training table,
So this one's gotten more public publicly nasty than than
than those before it.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
The other difference is just.
Speaker 8 (24:34):
Kind of how these guys are seen in the locker room,
you know. And I would say, you know, Dak and
CD and Zach Martin were all beloved figures in the
locker room, and I don't know that it's quite that
way with Micah. Now it doesn't have to be. He's
a great player, you know. He's a motivated player, you know,
and I think that if you pay him, he's going
(24:54):
to be worth every penny. But that does add a
different twist to the tenor and negotiat and so.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I can see them getting a deal done in the
next week.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
I could also see this, you know, turning into something
that drags into the season where you know, all of
a sudden, Michah Parson's.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Back is acting up or his ankle is acting up, and.
Speaker 8 (25:16):
You just kind of have this like weird sideways sort
of season from one of your very best players, which
of course can put the rest of the team in a.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Tough spot too. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays and neonon Easter not a Empacific.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Yeah, at what point, I mean, Micah probably has a
little more ammo to empty the clip.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I mean, he could simply go on his own.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Podcast and go off, yeah and shift the attention from Jerry.
He could control the narrative. Jerry can meet the media
as much as he wants. I mean, I know he's
a billionaire and he's the owner. I think Micah has
the leverage here. Let me get on the screen, Albert.
We looked at the twenty twenty one draft, all the
best players in the first round and Jamar Chase signed
(25:59):
Davante's Smith extension.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
All these guys got their deals.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Early, held the DeVonta Smithfield has done seventeen months ago. Okay,
there's one guy on the list who doesn't have a deal.
Doesn't this even further, Amma, Like Jerry doesn't know what
the hell he's doing.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
But again, like this is sort of the way that
they've handled it, like, and I think that's part of it,
is he does know what he's doing, you know what
I mean? Like and I think there's a piece of it,
Like for a lot of these owners it's keeping the
money in your own pocket for as long as you can,
and that could be an element here. It's control over workforce,
which is something Jerry's talked about in the public forum
(26:35):
and in the private forum too, of the of the
of the ownership meetings.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Wait wait, hold on, what do you one of the
leaders in.
Speaker 8 (26:42):
The pack when it comes to that stuff and making
sure that everybody knows who's in charge, you know. And
then I think there's also the entertainment aspect to it,
you know. And I I a couple of years ago,
I would have told you were crazy for saying these things,
and I thought people were kind of off base when
they did say But the more it's happened this way,
(27:03):
and the less aggressive that they've gotten about doing deals
in the months of June and July, the more I thought,
like maybe there is you know, a side benefit that
he sees in this whole thing that they're going to
be in the a block and a lot of you
know a lot of shows like this one, you know,
like that they're going to be the most important thing
(27:23):
over the summer. I mean, will we really be talking
about the Cowboys right now if it weren't for this, No,
j Mac No, I mean it's sort of I don't know.
I mean that maybe because the coaching changed, but they didn't.
I mean, all due respect Brian Schottenheimer, this wasn't like
a headline grabbing higher. You know, Dak's coming back for
another year. I just I don't know if there's anything
that will capture the imagination of the public that's going
(27:45):
on there right now.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
And so if you want.
Speaker 8 (27:48):
To be a real conspiracy theory theorist about this, you
could look at it and say, Jerry's going to get
a deal done.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
His way early, or you're going to have to wait
until late.
Speaker 8 (27:58):
And the headlines may be part of the benefit for
for Jerry when it comes to all that.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Okay, So Albert, you're a smart guy.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
You've been in radio, TV, writing, you cover the league forever.
Do you want to win headlines and be in the
A bloc in July and August or do you want
to be in playoff games that matter in January and
get into the game in February?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Like, well, you know what.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
My answer is exactly, and.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
That's well, the only reason I'm pushing back. Now, you
said an interesting phrase. I almost didn't like it where
you said control over players. So are any are any
other owners speaking in that tone like that vibe, Hey,
we got to let them know who's in charge or
is that just.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
A jar think that? I mean most of them think
that way. I get that, if you want to the
truth of it, most of them think that way.
Speaker 8 (28:45):
I mean, that's why there are so many rules in
the CBA that pertain to this sort of stuff, you know,
like whether it's franchise tags, it's strengthening the rules over
holding out. I mean, guys have to pay fifty thousand
a day for for for for days they miss in
training camp, you know, And that's why players have had
to get more creative and doing things like holding So, like,
(29:08):
if you don't think your owner has has has that
in the back of his head and how you can
maintain control over his workforce, like you.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Are either you know, rooting for one of the teams,
the rare.
Speaker 8 (29:23):
Guy like that, or you have your head in the
clouds about the way these guys operate.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Just reality of it, you know what I mean. Like, so,
I think.
Speaker 8 (29:30):
Jerry's a little bit more forceful about it, and Jerry's
probably one of the more vocal guys inside the meeting room,
but it exists everywhere, and it's all over the CBA.
You know, there's so many different things in the CBA
that the point to even the length of it, you
know what I mean, Like doing a ten year deal
where you have the opt outs, Like what is that?
Speaker 5 (29:48):
That's control over workforce? So I mean, I know that's
sort of a corporate term for it, but it's exactly
what it is.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean, Jerry could go to the table and
say we have you for the next three years.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
You can't do anything, come play.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
And honestly, I'm at the point whereer, you know, I'm
not rich or wealthy. If I were a rich guy
and I sided with Michael Parson, I'd say, Micah, I
got you.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I'll float some of your lifestyle. I don't want you
go on a plane. Get your contract.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You deserve it, You've earned it, just like everybody else
in your draft class.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Go screw listening to him.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
I mean, again, maybe that's a little aggressive on my.
Speaker 8 (30:20):
Part, but I mean, but that's the thing is like,
so what Jerry's told him is like, we have you
for the next three years. Well, why do they have
him for the next three years, because for the next
three years, because they have the last year of his
contract franchise Tag one, franchise Tag two. And so those
are mechanisms of control, you know. And I mean there
(30:41):
are teams that are more aggressive, so they don't have
to use those mechanisms of control because they don't want
it to come to that point with their players. You know,
in a lot of cases, you have a good relationship
with your player and you just don't want it to
come to that.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
You may believe that.
Speaker 8 (30:55):
You should have control over your workforce, but you know,
the Eagles are a great example of it, Like where
you mentioned DeVante Smith, like they never just things, never
like came even close to coming to a head with
him because he did him so early.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
You know Aj Brown, They revised his contract, they.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Gave him, you know, a big bump when when he
had outplayed the contracts he initially signed.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
So there are definitely ways to avoid it.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
There are definitely teams that don't want to exert it.
Jerry's just never been afraid to exert these sorts of mechanisms.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
And again, like that whole thing, like I have.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
You for the next three years, even though you're only
under contract for the next year. Is of course, you know,
a pretty clear way of explaining to your player, like,
even after your contract expires, I still have you because
of the rules that we put in.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I don't like that.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
I mean, maybe the WNBA player should talk to the
NFL guys and be like, hey, hey, oh you guys,
this is the playbook, is.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
What we're going to do.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
But the other thing looking at that, Sean Slater got
a new contract July twenty seventh, two weeks later torn
patella out for the year. He doesn't have to worry
about anything. Albert, he got he got his money. Hey,
don't rush back. We're good, you got your contract. We're happy,
like I'm.
Speaker 8 (32:17):
I mean, Cale McGarry's the other one that's not his
high profile, but he got hurt in Atlanta, I think,
a few days after his contract. There are tons of
examples of it, for sure, and that's that's part of
the leverage that owners have, is fear that something like
this is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yees.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
So if I'm Micah, hey man, I just saw what
happened to McGary, what happens later, I'm sorry, I don't
want to go out there.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
My back is hurt. I mean, honestly, you have to.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
If you're Dak Prescott and you probably know him as
well as anybody who covers teams, at some point he has.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
To think, hey, man, I got paid. I don't care.
We're not winning the super Bowl, We're not sniffing it.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
I mean, I think the Eagles have a better chance
to repeat than Dallas does even getting.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
To the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
And I think Dak is probably fine with that. Hey
I'm wealthy, I've got generational wealth. I got my girl,
I got my kid.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I'm fine.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
I don't At some point, you just have to not
care because if the owner doesn't seem to care, why
should the quarterback. I'm just gonna go play and make
money and that's it.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying. I mean,
but there's also like you only have so many years
to to to to maximize your time in the field,
you know how you're going to be remembered and all
that different stuff. And I think you know, Dak's not
really wired that way where it's where it's like, okay,
like well, like my owner is as all and as
I am so I'm not going to put as much
into it, Like I just I have a hard time
(33:30):
envisioning ever seeing anything that anything like that happening with
that particular guy like Dak Prescott's not that way, but
I would agree that like it doesn't always send the
best message to your locker room when you're doing these
sorts of things, you know, I mean, I think in
a lot of ways, these contract negotiations send messages to
(33:51):
the locker room. And I think, you know, for example,
like Terry McLaurin in Washington, I think one of the
tricky things about that one is, and was over the
course of the last few months, was like, I mean,
if you're if you're in a negotiation with somebody who
isn't all that well liked or well respected in the
locker room and there's a dispute, well, I think guys
kind of, you know, just look the other way on it.
(34:14):
But if it's a guy like a McLaurin, like, they're
gonna be guys in the locker room, they're gonna look
at it and say, like, you messed with that guy,
And now that they've paid him, they can point and say,
you know what, we took care of him like it was.
It got a little messy, but in the end we
were we were able to find a solution and he's
happy and we're happy.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
And that's the kind of guy that we pay.
Speaker 8 (34:34):
So, you know, I think more often than more often
than people realize, players keep score by contract, players keep
score by money, and so you know, they're paying attention
to the way that you handle these sorts of negotiations
because they know if one of the biggest stars in
the team can be treated a certain way, well, and
(34:56):
they're certainly not going to be exempt from it.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Right, let's move off the Cowboys. I know management will
love that.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
I do have to ask, I'm taking some heat in Chicago,
Albert Okay, yeah, they're upset with me, Kyle Long. Is
they taking jabs at me like this? Caleb Williams Ben
Johnson stuff. Again, I'm listening to the quotes and I'm
looking at the actions of Ben Johnson, and I'm just
telling you, from my point of view, something's going on there.
It doesn't feel like it's off to a good start.
(35:24):
They've had like four or five months together, and the
messaging from Ben. Now, maybe this is his personality.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I don't know. His upbringing.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I don't know his background. It just doesn't seem positive.
And then they signed Bagent to a random out of nowhere.
This guy came out of nowhere and they just signed
him to a deal. I'm like, what is happening? So
to maybe talk talk bears fans off the ledge or
side with me either one.
Speaker 8 (35:46):
I think he's being I think I think Ben's being
intentionally tough on on on Caleb Williams like.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
I think that's that that that's.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
Really the long and short of it, And this is
Ben being himself and this is the way he coaches,
and you know, as far as I can tell, like,
Caleb has been on board with it, and it produced
some really ugly days early in training camp, like it
did not look good. But if you talked to Ben
about it, what he would tell you is we were
(36:14):
going through a process where we wanted to feed him
through a fire hose and give him as much as
we possibly could, overload him with information, overload him with scheme,
and then come back and narrow down what he's doing
and figure out what he does well and what he
doesn't do well. So of the stuff that he doesn't
do well out and build an offense around his strengths,
and so I think, like you juxtapose the early days
(36:39):
in camp against the second preseason game, and you see
a guy who was playing much faster. You see a
guy who's playing much more confidently because they had figured
out exactly what he does best. They'd honed in on that,
and then they really sort of fine tune some of
the stuff as far as how fast he's playing, how.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Quick the ball is getting out, all of that.
Speaker 8 (37:01):
And I know it didn't look quite the same against
Kansas City. He wasn't quite as sharp against Kansas City
in the last preseason game. But I think this has
gone according to plan, and you know, we'll have to
see what it looks like when the regular season starts.
But I think people who've been around Ben would remind
you like they had days like this with Jared Goff
in training camp in Detroit, and nobody made this big
(37:23):
a deal out of it because golf was already a
proven commodity. We already had an idea of what golf is.
You know, we'll see if it works with the younger guy.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Huh.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
That's positive and upbeat, and I like it. I appreciate it.
I do have to ask Caleb kind of had the
run of the show last year, he could do whatever
he wanted.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
He was watching film by himself.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Reportedly, well, guess what the year prior at USC, he
was also just doing his own thing, a.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Lot of backyard football.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Right, So two years of just hey, freelance, make a play,
go go get us some points.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
How tough is it going to be to go from
that into follow my lead?
Speaker 4 (37:58):
Drop read react quickly like it's probably at least a
year with Ben before we see anything close to what
he wants.
Speaker 8 (38:06):
Right, Well, it's a mentality change, you know. I mean,
you're you're trying to coach a playing style out of somebody,
and that's not an easy thing to do, you know.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
I think beyond just that, like in.
Speaker 8 (38:16):
College, like he was asked in a lot of cases
to be the best player on the field, and I
think you saw that reflected in the way that he played.
It was a lot of big play hunting, a lot
of passing up the the the easy stuff. And what
they're trying to teach him to do is play the
(38:39):
game and and and play quarterback and and in a
more between the lines sort of ways instead of constantly
coloring outside the lines. You can run and scramble to
create throws. In the NFL, you can't do it all
the time. And I think I'm a Homes because I'm
doing a story on Pat and Pat and I talked
about this, you know, earlier in the month. Is like,
(39:04):
if you look at his numbers, Mahomes' numbers, he averaged
over ten carries a game when he was at Texas Tech.
That number for his NFL career is under four per game.
And that's a very intentional thing that for Mahomes was
going from having to be the best player on the
field and almost every play too.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
I've got good teammates around me.
Speaker 8 (39:24):
I can trust them, I can get the ball in
their hands, and then when I need to be superman,
I can always put the cape on. That's what they're
trying to get Caleb to do in Chicago is there
are going to be certain plays where we just want
to have your hands at ten and two on the
wheel and just run the offense. And we know that,
we know that you're capable of the bigger stuff when
we need it, but it can't be all the time.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
And I think there were points last year we saw.
Speaker 8 (39:47):
What happens when he's trying to be that guy all
the time and they're trying to dial that back and say,
just play quarterback four times out of five, and then
that fifth time you can go and show everybody exactly
what you're capable of.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Your analogy for Klee have got me thinking of the.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
Great movie Old School, where Will Ferrell, you know, used
to be a party animal. Then he's really resigned to
the birds, and his wife's like, we don't want to
see old Frank the tank and then he just comes
out and he's beer bong and or funneling whatever the
kids call it.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Anyways.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
Albert Breer, Monday Morning Quarterback, Great stuff as always, Hey,
good luck to your Buckeyes this weekend.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
I loaded up. I could use a new car, so
let's let's go buck guys.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Money on them.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah, a couple of bucks.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
I like it a while.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah, yeah, we'll do all right, Albert, thank you, all right,
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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