Colin Cowherd reacts to BREAKING NBA NEWS: The Lakers are being sold for the second time in 14 months. Colin discusses the shocking news and why Luka Doncic finds himself at the center of turnover after LeBron James departed in free agency.
After the Vikings announced Kyler Murray as their starting QB, Colin makes the case for Murray as one of the most underrated players in the NFL right now.
Plus, NFL reporter Albert Breer joins the show to tell Colin after his training camp tour he believes the Cowboys and Lions should be taken serious as Super Bowl contenders.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh do we have a whopper today breaking news. We
are live. It is The Herd. Wherever you may be
and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us
part of your day. Well, just fourteen months after Mark
Walter and his group bought the Los Angeles Lakers from
(00:51):
Genie Buss and the Bus family. That was fourteen months ago.
It has now been sold about eighty percent of it
a majority stake to Bob Iger who's been running Disney
forever and Josh Kushner for twelve and a half billion dollars.
(01:11):
So the Mark Walters group made two point five billion dollars.
He could be in real, real trouble according to a
federal investigation, so he may need two point five billion dollars.
I'm not going to speculate, but he didn't buy it
to sell it. He didn't think the Lakers were a
(01:31):
high price condo that he could flip, so he may
just need the money. And he made two point five
billion very quickly. And according to Ramona Shelburne, who I
trust in these matters, this all came together in the
last couple of days. So congrats to Bob Iger, who
(01:55):
I kind of know. But without Lebron, the Lakers are
not exactly Disneyland. It is fascinating to consider how much
of a stabilizing influence Lebron was to the Lakers. Three
years before they had Lebron, they had the worst record
in the NBA. For you accumulate three years, worst team
(02:18):
in the NBA, Lakers, And now two months after he leaves,
they bail on him. They've got a new owner and
a little bit of chaos upstairs. So and here's the
thing about the Lakers owning the Lakers. Do I think
Bob Iiger and Kushner over paid for it? Absolutely. Iiger
likes basketball, He's had a relationship with ESPN and the
(02:39):
NBA for years and Adam Silver. In fact, the last
time I saw Bob at a game, he was with
Adam Silver at Laker games the last time I saw
Bob at a Laker game. So they're very, very close.
And I'm sure Adam Silver you know there's stuff going
on behind the scenes, a federal investigation with Mark Walters.
He needs cash fast, that's the only thing you could guess,
(03:01):
because they're not giving up that cash cow called the Dodgers,
which Walters group primarily owns. But here's the thing. We
all know the Lakers overpaid for Austin Reeves because they
had to keep him, else he would have walked away.
They'd get nothing for him. And we know they overpaid
for Walker Kessler, which I understand because now with Wimby
(03:23):
you've got to have bigs and the Lakers just had
no size. But what I really think is interesting is
did they overpay for Luca? Hear me out on this.
The Lakers did not make with Luca as their centerpiece
the opening night NBA TV schedule. Think about that they
(03:44):
would have with Lebron. So think about this. We view
Luca as generational. He is the centerpiece. Here come the trophies.
Mark Cuban, a pretty smart business man, sold the Mavericks
with Luke as the centerpiece. Championship head coach Rick Carlyle
(04:06):
quit year three with Luca quit walked away. The Mavericks
traded him, and not for a big package. Genie Buss
loved and still loves the Lakers sold the team with
(04:27):
Luke as the centerpiece. Mark Walters is selling the team
probably has to do with the FEDS and the NBA
bailed on the Lakers, who, for the first time in
eight years, will not make the opening night TV schedule.
That is hard to believe. I mean they that is crazy.
(04:50):
So there's a pattern here, right, there's a pattern. Just
ask yourself, this be totally intellectually honest. Luca's been in
the NBA eight years. Go to Lebron's first eight years
in the NBA. Do you really think five different people
plus the NBA would bail on him. I don't. Lebron
(05:13):
left Cleveland twice. Both times they collapsed, and they were
begging him to come back for a third time to Cleveland.
I mean, he left him at the altar twice. They
went into the tank both times. They wanted him back
a third time. And they're not even bad now. So
and I'm we're all acknowledging that the Mark Walters Sell
(05:35):
is not something they planned. But I've said this about
Luca from day one. He's better than Carmelo Anthony, but
kind of the same. Atrocious defensively, never in great shape.
I never know if durability. I don't think he's gonna
play eighty two games in any season. He's been injured
the last two, missed a ton of games. And by
(05:58):
the way, is he a great leader? I think he'll
try to be now, but to this point not really.
You've had five different successful people in the NBA kind
of bail on him. One of them appears to be explainable,
but Lebron usually bailed on you signed short contracts. There's
like a Jennifer Lopez thing with Luca. The closer you get,
(06:21):
there's something going on behind the scenes that's chaotic. I
don't know what it is, but there is something going on.
The appearances look good from the outside, there's a lot
of turbulence. And again, we know Austin Reeves, we know
Walker Kessler. You had to overpay, understandable. I support both,
but the really concerning thing is, here's your centerpiece, eight
(06:44):
years in the league. League not putting him on Opening night.
Genie and another owner sell Rick Carlisle quit Cuban Cells.
I mean, Mark Cuban's a pretty smart guy. You could say, well,
it wasn't that Mark with Mark Cuban and have sold
the Mavericks if Lebron James was in year six. No way,
(07:07):
absolutely no way. People are just too willing, too willing.
And I was thinking about this today because this is
all about Mark Walters needing money for the investigation. That
seems pretty obvious, but it got me thinking about the career,
which I was guaranteed it was trophies. They stole them
from Dallas, and it's like, it's just for being so
(07:28):
iconic and generational and absolutely unbelievable. I got to tell you,
I think Iger and his group overpaid. The Seahawks went
for nine and a half. You can argue they have
the best GM in the league in his prime, the
best coach in the league, arguably after Sean mcvahon is prime.
Sam Darnol just hoisted a trophy, heath for the next
five six years is in his prime. And is there
(07:49):
a team in the NFL that has a better young
core of players than the Seattle Seahawks. Answer The answer
is no, or they're tied. So the Seahawks to me
at nine point six billion in a much more popular
league feels almost like a bargain for the price bob
Iger and Kushner paid. But again, Adam Silver Bob Iger
(08:15):
know each other, respect each other, been in business for
twenty five years together, or however long they've been at
that network. Nick Wright a few weeks ago said, go ahead,
bail on Lebron, But I don't trust it's going to
be Rosie with Luca as the centerpiece. I mean, I
don't trust the Lakers to be able to build a
team around Luca. They couldn't build a team around Lebron.
(08:37):
Good luck, God bless Lakers. It's been It was a
good run with Lebron. He's saved your franchise, and you
want a championship.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But I am not optimistic that.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
They are going like you said, Oh no, they won't
be better next year. Oh yeah, just punt another year
of Luka Doncich's prime.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's a great plan. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I don't believe in their plan. Yeah, And increasingly, durability
has been a huge concern. So when I saw this
news today, I just kind of looked on a macro
level at Luca Dantage and everybody's like, oh, they overpaid
for Austin and they overpaid for Walker Castler, and I
think they did, but I think they had to. They'd
backed themselves into a corner. And I understood them moving
(09:16):
off Lebron. I really did at this age. But it
is interesting when you consider all of it with Luke
at the centerpiece. For what I've been told, he is
a lot of turbulence, a lot of team sales and
coaches leaving, and he gets traded and they didn't get
a lot for him. And you sit there as a
(09:36):
Laker fan right now and you're like, what is he
I'm gonna get sixty two games, no defense, leadership, hopefully durability,
forget it. I don't know. I'm not anti Luca, I
really not. But it's just been a very interesting set
of circumstances over the last eight years of people moving
(09:58):
off him. So you know, people often say this, Hey,
just report the facts, and I'm going to take your
advice on this. I think you're right. No more opinions
on this show, just facts. Well, at least for this rant.
(10:18):
Kyler Murray got named the starting quarterback over JJ McCarthy.
And there's this weird misconception about Kyler Murray that he's
no good. I just want to remind everybody factually, he
was the offensive rookie of the year with twenty four
touchdowns behind a battle line. He's been to multiple Pro Bowls.
(10:40):
Just reporting facts, led Arizona to the playoffs. Had a
passer rating one year, twenty twenty one over one hundred,
the only year he had ever had at least a
single one offensive lineman on the Pro Bowl. Cliff Kingsbury
was as head coach somebody who was fired by his
own alma mater. He has the fifth highest completion percentage
(11:00):
in the history of the National Football League and the
division he was in. The Seahawks won a Super Bowl,
the Rams won a Super Bowl, and the Niners went
to two. So it was in that stretch the best
division in football. Oh, by the way, bottom five ownership.
And here's another gem. Do you realize since he entered
(11:21):
the league he has more rushing touchdowns than Lamar Jackson,
the greatest athlete to ever play the position, more than Lamar.
Beware of writing off quarterbacks who are knee deep in
team and organizational fund dysfunction. You rode off, Darnold, You're
(11:42):
right off, Kyler Murray. This kid ownership down was in
a quagmire quicksand of dysfunction. Let me add this. His
cap hit this year is one point three million. Will
make less than Dylan Gabriel. In the last twenty years,
(12:05):
there has not been a player at that position this
productive for that price. He is free. He'll make less
than Mac Jones, significantly less in terms of a cap pit,
less than Dylan Gabriel as a cap pit. So they're
(12:27):
your facts. I know the video game obsession. He's not
a great leader, but you know, we tend to get
entrenched on opinions based on very early comments. Sam Darnold,
icy ghosts, Yeah, I saw the Jets. Kyler Murray, I
like video games. Yeah, I don't like Arizona's ownership. So
(12:49):
I'm just staying to the facts here. He was named
the starting quarterback yesterday of Minnesota, so dominant despite the
fact the other guys in camp, namely JJ McCarthy, had
a two year leg up knowing the offense. This guy
wins the starting job before they got to the games,
before they got to the intense scrimmages, here's his head coach.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yesterday, we gave the guys different challenges on different days,
you know, while letting them, you know, kind of compete
at the same stride.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Early on in camp.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
It's been a true competition, and we feel like we're
at a place, you know, where we've made a complete evaluation.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We'll move forward.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Kyler will begin, you know, the process of really looking
at things now as our starter. We'll still be getting
JJ a lot of work, a lot of reps because
it's very important that his you know, development and ongoing
growth and arrow up that we feel very positively about continues.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
All right. So the lead story today, fourteen months after
buying the Lakers, Mark Walters, the Dodgers owner, is selling
them to A Kushner and Bob Eiger, who's been the
chair and the guy running Disney for most of the
last twenty five years. Iiger's a big basketball fans. You know,
(14:09):
kids played basketball growing up. Bob loves the NBA, he
knows Adam Silver, He's been in business obviously. Disney owns
ESPN of the NBA for a long time. I think
it's a really really good ownership guy in Iiger. That's
good for the NBA. That's a good, strong, ethical owner
of the NBA. I am in no means blaming Luca
(14:32):
for the Mark Walter situation, but it is fascinating how
stabilizing Lebron has been for the Lakers before he got there.
Has Matt spill? Now he leaves and immediately two months later,
what in the name of heavy turbulence on this flight
is going on? So John Middelcoff joining us today, got
(14:57):
to say, from time time to time, you get a
curveball thrown at you. Thirty five forty five minutes before
the show, did not see this was coming. And again
Ramona Shelburne saying this came to pass and to a
conclusion in the last couple of days. That's it.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I feel like sports teams don't usually get flipped like
a Chevy Tahoe, you know, every six months. I thought,
once you buy it, you typically hold on to it,
especially a premium brand.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So yeah, I mean shocking news.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
App sot gots here. I have a podcast, Empire. It
continues to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me
out of the house. It's called Stagatzi Company Live, which
is available in podcast form right when the show finishes
(15:59):
every single day. Some of the biggest names in sports,
a lot of phone.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Calls, I love you guys, your show, It's one of
my favorites.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
A lot of interact sit guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Those are just some of.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
The things that you could expect from Stu Gottson Company
and Steve Gotson Company Live. So listen to Steve Gotson
Company Live and our original podcast. Please subscribe, rate and
review Stu Gotson Company and God Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood
depends on it. You do it today and you can
check all of those out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
(16:34):
Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Listen, Rich guys know things that you and I don't.
According to the reporting, this just came out in the
last thirty minutes that the Bob Iger Kushner group called
Mark Walter as recently as Sunday and asked if he'd
consider selling, and that's when the discussion started. So Iiger
(17:02):
and Kushner, obviously they can read the federal investigation into
Mark Walter and his group. I don't know what's going
to happen, but the answer would have been absolutely not
in my opinion at that situation not been going on.
So and Iiger and his guy Kushner, they were in
(17:23):
on the Vegas expansion team. That's where they were going.
So and obviously the Laker brand. You know, I've been
saying this for years, just the safest place for billionaires
to park their money is not in Wall Street, is
not in real estate. It's in hard assets like American
professional sports teams. The smartest guys owned teams in the
(17:44):
English Premier League, in the NBA and the NFL Major
League Baseball. You don't know if Google's going to exist
in twenty years or Meta is going to exist. The Yankees, Liverpool,
Manchester United, and the Lakers are going nowhere. That's the
smart money. It's going to own NFL, NBA Baseball teams
and English Premier League teams. That stuff isn't going to
(18:07):
disappear into the ether. You don't know what's happened in
the Navidia in the last five years. You have no
idea the teams and at the top of our sports landscape.
I mean there's changes made in college weekly, had not
that many changes in pro sports in America. Rich guys
own teams, and the teams don't dissolve. They move occasionally
(18:28):
from Saint Louis to la from Oakland to Vegas, but
they don't disappear very often. So I'm watching Hard Knocks
with the Seahawks. Boy, Mike McDonald is really impressive. The
head coach is he's Sean McVay defensive side. But I
was sitting there watching this episode of it, and maybe
it's the geography that the Seahawks are buried up in
(18:50):
the corner of the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it's the fact
that they don't have a lot of veteran star players.
They're a very young team. But I honestly believe even
Vegas has the Baltimore Ravens, an eight and nine team
last year with better Super Bowl odds than the Seahawks.
(19:11):
Nobody thinks they can repeat. It was a one off.
No way donald will play mistake free playoff football again.
Things went in their favor. No actually they did not
go in their favorite All the opposite is true. Sam
Darnald goes to arguably the best division in football, has
a new coach, a new coordinator, a new O line,
(19:32):
a bad old line, and a new receiving corps JSN. Well,
we didn't know if he was at number one, and
again the offensive line was I think they were ranked
like thirtieth. They were a bad offensive line. They needed
a rookie Gray's Abel to shore up their offensive line.
The three best records in the NFC ended up last
(19:54):
year all being in the NFC West, and they had
to play the Rams, Stafford and McVeigh three times and
Kyle Shanahan and the physical Niners three times. So Darnold
four teams four years for the first time in years,
same head coach, same locker room, same culture, same city,
same house. Now he's married, same number one receiver, same
(20:18):
offensive line. I don't know. That kind of continuity to
me seems like a huge benefit. But literally, the eight
to nine Ravens last year with a rookie head coach,
having lost their best offensive lineman and Lamar Jackson did
not look like Lamar Jackson last year. He's a slower
version for a guy who's dependent on his legs have
(20:38):
better Super Bowl odds. The other thing about Seattle, they're
not aging out of this. They're older players, don't get
hurt much. Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Charles Cross, and their
best players are all young and getting better. Devin Witherspoon,
JSN start looking at their young players, Brian Murphy, Nicki Minwarrior,
(21:02):
Gray's Abel. So they're young players, are all just going
into their prime, and their Pro Bowl level excellent. Their
old guys are healthy. Donald's a young twenty nine, never
had a lot of injuries. They have the best GM arguably,
the best defensive coach, arguably, the best receiver arguably. And
(21:27):
over the last two years they've been fifteen and two
on the road. They're the best home team without an argument.
And yet they're kind of considered and they're not really mentioned.
People are like oh Rams in their own division. They're
not the Super Bowl favorites. And I'm watching them like
they're young players, are all just moving into their prime.
(21:47):
Their cap situation's good. Donald's still young, they're old guys,
don't get hurt. Leonard Williams is always available. Charles Cross
had a couple of injured weeks. He's good. DeMarcus Lawrence.
I mean, it looks better than he did four years ago.
But I think Donald, to a large degree, there's so
many doubters on him that Matt Hasselbeck talked about why
(22:10):
why he's still under the radar.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
One of the reasons that he doesn't get a lot
of respect is that he played the style of play
to win football games, to hoist a Lombardi. So much
of the year he was playing safe and conservative because
he knew he had the legion, you know, the dark
side defense on the other side. Now, in the NFC
Championship game, he played a completely different style, showed that
(22:33):
he could he cut it loose. Him and Matthew Stafford
almost a thousand yards of offense in that game. So
he's capable of it. But what I think his best
quality is right now is coachability. Mike McDonald set the
vision for how we're going to play offensively, and he
bought into it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah. Yeah, we always say this. We use manage the
game a lot with quarterbacks and like Donald smartly pulled
back and it's like, you know what, I'm not going to
take that two or three throw risk I do a
game I'm gonna pull back on that played air free
football in the playoffs and the super Bowl and hoisted
(23:10):
a trophy. But it's I mean, it's people think Kansas
City that doesn't have nearly the roster of Seattle. If
you said chief super Bowl, Yeah, raven super Bowl. Vegas
loves them. Seattle not even the best Super Bowl odds
in their division. I don't know. Maybe it's the geography.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays
and noone Easter, not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
All right, let's pivot now to the NFL. Albert Breer
is at the Cleveland Browns camp today. Sunday, he was
at the Bears. I saw him there Monday, Packers, yesterday, Vikings.
So let's start Vikings. You're there on the decision day.
There's always kind of interesting vibes with it. There's gonna
be some pr I don't think you and I are
(23:57):
surprised by it, but I am a little surprise. Happened
before their first game. I mean a weekend. Were you surprised.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
A little?
Speaker 7 (24:07):
I mean, I think really like what this came down
to for Kevin O'Connell and his staff was they wanted
to be able to project and not hope, and that's
what Kyler Murray offers them versus JJ McCarthy. They can
hope a lot of the nice things that they've seen,
of course the preseason with but that doesn't mean it
necessarily will, Whereas what Kyler Murray, it's more of a
known commodity. And here's the important thing. I mean, you
(24:31):
can't fool locker room, right. So if the locker room
sees which way this is going, maybe it's time to say, Okay,
here's our quarterback. We're building an offense for him. Because
an offense for Kyler Murray is going to look a
little different than an offense for JJ McCarthy. That just
gives them a month to do that and look like
the bottom line here, Colin, there's a lot of veteran
(24:51):
players in that locker room who don't care about your
three year plan or your four year plan or your
five year plan. There's guys like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jones,
Christian Darris, o' brian O'Neil Byron Murphy, Blake Cashman, Andrew
Van Ginkle.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I could go on all these guys.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Won fourteen games two years ago, so they don't want
to be sitting there waiting to see whether or not
what the competition bears is going to work. They want
to get go forward with their season, and this allows
them to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I think JJ McCarthy, I mean, that feels like it's over.
Do you think he'd get moved or they'll just say, hey, listen,
you know we're gonna play him in the preseason. If
he plays well enough, we'll keep him in the room.
Kyler has a history occasionally getting banged out. What do
you think his future is?
Speaker 7 (25:38):
Yeah, I mean, you say you never say never on
this stuff, but I do think JJ's handled himself pretty
good over the course of the offseason. He's made real
strides and technique and some of the fundamental stuff that
he needed to work on. He's gotten more accurate now,
Like is he where Kyler is?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
No?
Speaker 7 (25:55):
And that's why right now he's the second quarterback on
the depth chart. I do think Kevin O'Connell would like
to keep working with him, and I do think that
they feel like that there could be something there in time.
Obviously not what they thought it was going to be
when they took him. Tenth overall. But they do think
that there's there's talent to work with there. And if
you've talked to Kevin O'Connell before, you know how he
(26:16):
feels about the quarterback position. He feels like teams fail
the quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail the teams. And so,
you know, I think the way he looks at it
is if we can put him on ice for a
year and like, you know, get him to go through
an entire season where he's just the backup, which he
hasn't had a chance to do yet, that could really
(26:37):
wind up benefiting him in the long run, whether that's
in Minnesota or somewhere else. So I don't think he's
completely given up on him. I would say, you know,
you never say never. If somebody gets desperate, someone has
an injury or something and wants to come and trade
for him, you know, maybe you consider that, But I
don't think that's part of their plan right now.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
The coolest hot seat in the league is Matt Lafleur.
You're at the Packer camp Monday. What was what was
the vibe? What was your take?
Speaker 7 (27:03):
So I look at them a lot like Seattle last year,
and I think they were this team last year too, right,
like where I think both green Bay and Seattle going
into twenty five had a lot of good players that
if they if a few of them elevated to great,
then you'd really have something. And that happened in Seattle,
right with JSN, with Murphy, with Cross, with Witherspoon, good
(27:23):
players becoming great players. And so I think that's still
the question in Green Bay. And the cruel twist in
it is that after training camp last year they traded
for a great player and Micah Parsons and he got
hurt and one of those young guys who did become
great for them, and Tucker Kraft he got hurt. So
how do those two guys look coming back? How does
(27:43):
Jordan Morgan look at left tackle? How does Matthew Golden
look at receiver? Like They've got a lot of They've
got a good base of young towent, but so much
of it I think is going to be all right?
How many of these guys can elevate and become real
difference makers and that, you know, I mean some degree
goes for the quarterback too, right, You know, I think
they feel good about where they're at now, whether or
(28:04):
not they can take another step versus where they've been.
They've been in the playoffs. I believe the number now
is is six of Matt Lafleur seven years. You know,
how can they get back to the conference championship round
and ultimately a Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
I think it's going to have to be their young
talent taking another step.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, Luther Burden wasn't there. You and I were at
the Bears for two hours on Sunday. I sat and watched.
In My take was the offense dominated the defense they
got at Roma. Dunze is now healthy, it's fast, it's efficient,
Caleb slim down. I thought accuracy was clearly improved. That
was my take.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
What was yours, just a certainty, was what it looks
like Caleb is playing. You know, last year, I think
his head was spinning at this time of the year,
and you know, Ben was really trying to feed him
through a fire hose, like let's see how much he
can handle. Okay, he can do this, he can't do that,
And then you build an offense. But you have the
basis of all stuff that you throw at him now
(29:01):
and you're building on it. And it's a really logical
teaching progression that I think sometimes coaches are careful with
the young players now because maybe they're not quite as
strong willed as they used to be twenty or thirty
years ago. But Ben felt like Caleb could handle it,
and I think, you know, you see the proof in
year one, what it became in year one, and now.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
They get a chance to play up to build off
of that.
Speaker 7 (29:24):
And that's what I'm seeing is like what you hear
from people in that building is Caleb's really moved through
the offseason, which Ben's a tough coach with this level
of joy and focus and you know, really tells me
that personality he's got, He's found a way to meld
it into what Ben Johnson is building in Chicago, and
that's great news for everybody there. I think Colston Lovelin
(29:45):
is going to be a monster for them this year.
I think Luther Burden is going to be a huge
factor when he gets back healthy. Like you said, a
Dunze's healthy now, if they can work out the left
tackle position, the offense should be dynamite defensively. They do
have questions, Yeah, all right, Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I don't see the point in starting Deshaun Watson. I
would just go with a kid. By the way, if
Deshaun struggles, who cares. It's a great quarterback class. That
may be the best possible scenario. What do you hear
and what'd you see?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I don't think they've made a decision yet.
Speaker 7 (30:19):
You know, my guess would be Deshaun Watson starts the
first game, should do or Sanders starts the second game.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
They have joint practices with the Bills next week.
Speaker 7 (30:29):
You gather all that information and then you know at
the after the second game, you make a decision. The
one thing about Deshaun that I think is interesting, though, Colin, like,
we've seen him as a top five quarterback, right, we
know that the ceiling has at least been there in
the past.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Now whether it's still there or not is debatable.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
But he's started to feel more comfortable coming back off
the injury, and he's knocked some of the rust off,
and so I don't know that his ceiling is lower
than should do it even though he's been through everything
that he's been through the last few years. So you know,
I've had this thought for a while. I still have it.
(31:10):
This organization sunk two hundred and thirty million dollars and
three first round picks and to Shawn Watson.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
And what would be worse than just.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
Chalking it up and saying it's the sun costs and
moving it on, moving on. It would be not knowing
that there's still something there, you know, it would be
not knowing there's still something there and then he goes
and balls out somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
So I mean to me, logically, I.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
Look at it and say, you could start the season
with DeShawn and then if it doesn't work, it's very
easy to go to Shador.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I think it'd be more difficult the other way around.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
So I think Chador needs to clearly win the job
or else they probably give to Sean at least a
few games to start the season, because again it's easier
to go from the older guy to the younger guy
in season.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
So you've been to the Cowboys, Chiefs, Rams, Chargers, Seahawks, Broncos, Bears, Vikings, Packers.
Now you're at Cleveland. So I'm going to show you
my predictions.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Run them off.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
There's seventeen of them now, and I probably like the
cryptkeeper based on the lighting in here.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay, so tell me the team and it doesn't matter
what they did last year. The team you've seen that
you're like people they could win the Super Bowl? Is
there a team you're like way better than either Vegas?
The narratives that that you just came out and went fast,
(32:27):
young athletic coach, quarterback, everything kind of clicked Detroit.
Speaker 7 (32:35):
I feel like everybody's forgotten about them, And I think
the Jamira Gibbs contract is bright flashing lights at what's
actually happened there the last few years and how well
they've drafted and developed and ultimately kept their own.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You can go down the list.
Speaker 7 (32:51):
Pinay Sewell, I'm on a row, Saint Brown, Jamison Williams,
Now Gibbs, Aiden Hutchinson, Brian Branch will probably get a contract,
Samuel Porter will probably get a contract. Jack Campbell got
one to lead McNeil's got one. This is from This
is premium talent up and down the roster. I think
Golf's way better than people give them credit for. If
their offensive line, if that if that group is fixed,
(33:12):
Blake Miller fits in it right tackle, Piney Sewell makes
the smooth left tackle. I still think it's one of
the most talented rosters in the league, and the other one,
the other one, Colin, and maybe this is just you know,
you get drunk on the hype sometimes some years with
this team. But I kind of like where the Cowboys
are at too. I mean, I think their offense is
(33:33):
going to be dynamite, and I don't think they have
to be great on defense to contend. You know, it's
sort of the reverse of the Texans. You know, the
Texans just have to be pretty good on offense and
for Super Bowl because their defense is so good.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I think the Cowboys sort of have the reverse of that.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Now, so you spend you know, you've been doing this
for a long time. Yeah, and you drink a lot
of coffee. I was with you at the Bears camp
the other day. This is my now. I don't want
to do what you do for a living because it's
a lot of hard work and this is easy lifting.
But I will tell you for about how long? How
many has it been? Twenty days and seventeen camps, So.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
Eighteen tomorrow will be the last one before I actually
get to go home and see my family and reintroduce
myself that it's going to be eighteen camps in eighteen days. Yeah,
you can come on out in twenty twenty seven. Though, Colin,
you can jump in the rental.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
I can't pull myself away from middle coughs. What were
you talking about?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I got I got, I got you to come out
to Bears the other day. That was great. Oh my god, Yeah,
that was good. That was good.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Good seeing you, Albert
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
Foxsportsradio 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 1 (00:28):
Oh do we have a whopper today breaking news. We
are live. It is The Herd. Wherever you may be
and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us
part of your day. Well, just fourteen months after Mark
Walter and his group bought the Los Angeles Lakers from
(00:51):
Genie Buss and the Bus family. That was fourteen months ago.
It has now been sold about eighty percent of it
a majority stake to Bob Iger who's been running Disney
forever and Josh Kushner for twelve and a half billion dollars.
(01:11):
So the Mark Walters group made two point five billion dollars.
He could be in real, real trouble according to a
federal investigation, so he may need two point five billion dollars.
I'm not going to speculate, but he didn't buy it
to sell it. He didn't think the Lakers were a
(01:31):
high price condo that he could flip, so he may
just need the money. And he made two point five
billion very quickly. And according to Ramona Shelburne, who I
trust in these matters, this all came together in the
last couple of days. So congrats to Bob Iger, who
(01:55):
I kind of know. But without Lebron, the Lakers are
not exactly Disneyland. It is fascinating to consider how much
of a stabilizing influence Lebron was to the Lakers. Three
years before they had Lebron, they had the worst record
in the NBA. For you accumulate three years, worst team
(02:18):
in the NBA, Lakers, And now two months after he leaves,
they bail on him. They've got a new owner and
a little bit of chaos upstairs. So and here's the
thing about the Lakers owning the Lakers. Do I think
Bob Iiger and Kushner over paid for it? Absolutely. Iiger
likes basketball, He's had a relationship with ESPN and the
(02:39):
NBA for years and Adam Silver. In fact, the last
time I saw Bob at a game, he was with
Adam Silver at Laker games the last time I saw
Bob at a Laker game. So they're very, very close.
And I'm sure Adam Silver you know there's stuff going
on behind the scenes, a federal investigation with Mark Walters.
He needs cash fast, that's the only thing you could guess,
(03:01):
because they're not giving up that cash cow called the Dodgers,
which Walters group primarily owns. But here's the thing. We
all know the Lakers overpaid for Austin Reeves because they
had to keep him, else he would have walked away.
They'd get nothing for him. And we know they overpaid
for Walker Kessler, which I understand because now with Wimby
(03:23):
you've got to have bigs and the Lakers just had
no size. But what I really think is interesting is
did they overpay for Luca? Hear me out on this.
The Lakers did not make with Luca as their centerpiece
the opening night NBA TV schedule. Think about that they
(03:44):
would have with Lebron. So think about this. We view
Luca as generational. He is the centerpiece. Here come the trophies.
Mark Cuban, a pretty smart business man, sold the Mavericks
with Luke as the centerpiece. Championship head coach Rick Carlyle
(04:06):
quit year three with Luca quit walked away. The Mavericks
traded him, and not for a big package. Genie Buss
loved and still loves the Lakers sold the team with
(04:27):
Luke as the centerpiece. Mark Walters is selling the team
probably has to do with the FEDS and the NBA
bailed on the Lakers, who, for the first time in
eight years, will not make the opening night TV schedule.
That is hard to believe. I mean they that is crazy.
(04:50):
So there's a pattern here, right, there's a pattern. Just
ask yourself, this be totally intellectually honest. Luca's been in
the NBA eight years. Go to Lebron's first eight years
in the NBA. Do you really think five different people
plus the NBA would bail on him. I don't. Lebron
(05:13):
left Cleveland twice. Both times they collapsed, and they were
begging him to come back for a third time to Cleveland.
I mean, he left him at the altar twice. They
went into the tank both times. They wanted him back
a third time. And they're not even bad now. So
and I'm we're all acknowledging that the Mark Walters Sell
(05:35):
is not something they planned. But I've said this about
Luca from day one. He's better than Carmelo Anthony, but
kind of the same. Atrocious defensively, never in great shape.
I never know if durability. I don't think he's gonna
play eighty two games in any season. He's been injured
the last two, missed a ton of games. And by
(05:58):
the way, is he a great leader? I think he'll
try to be now, but to this point not really.
You've had five different successful people in the NBA kind
of bail on him. One of them appears to be explainable,
but Lebron usually bailed on you signed short contracts. There's
like a Jennifer Lopez thing with Luca. The closer you get,
(06:21):
there's something going on behind the scenes that's chaotic. I
don't know what it is, but there is something going on.
The appearances look good from the outside, there's a lot
of turbulence. And again, we know Austin Reeves, we know
Walker Kessler. You had to overpay, understandable. I support both,
but the really concerning thing is, here's your centerpiece, eight
(06:44):
years in the league. League not putting him on Opening night.
Genie and another owner sell Rick Carlisle quit Cuban Cells.
I mean, Mark Cuban's a pretty smart guy. You could say, well,
it wasn't that Mark with Mark Cuban and have sold
the Mavericks if Lebron James was in year six. No way,
(07:07):
absolutely no way. People are just too willing, too willing.
And I was thinking about this today because this is
all about Mark Walters needing money for the investigation. That
seems pretty obvious, but it got me thinking about the career,
which I was guaranteed it was trophies. They stole them
from Dallas, and it's like, it's just for being so
(07:28):
iconic and generational and absolutely unbelievable. I got to tell you,
I think Iger and his group overpaid. The Seahawks went
for nine and a half. You can argue they have
the best GM in the league in his prime, the
best coach in the league, arguably after Sean mcvahon is prime.
Sam Darnol just hoisted a trophy, heath for the next
five six years is in his prime. And is there
(07:49):
a team in the NFL that has a better young
core of players than the Seattle Seahawks. Answer The answer
is no, or they're tied. So the Seahawks to me
at nine point six billion in a much more popular
league feels almost like a bargain for the price bob
Iger and Kushner paid. But again, Adam Silver Bob Iger
(08:15):
know each other, respect each other, been in business for
twenty five years together, or however long they've been at
that network. Nick Wright a few weeks ago said, go ahead,
bail on Lebron, But I don't trust it's going to
be Rosie with Luca as the centerpiece. I mean, I
don't trust the Lakers to be able to build a
team around Luca. They couldn't build a team around Lebron.
(08:37):
Good luck, God bless Lakers. It's been It was a
good run with Lebron. He's saved your franchise, and you
want a championship.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But I am not optimistic that.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
They are going like you said, Oh no, they won't
be better next year. Oh yeah, just punt another year
of Luka Doncich's prime.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's a great plan. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I don't believe in their plan. Yeah, And increasingly, durability
has been a huge concern. So when I saw this
news today, I just kind of looked on a macro
level at Luca Dantage and everybody's like, oh, they overpaid
for Austin and they overpaid for Walker Castler, and I
think they did, but I think they had to. They'd
backed themselves into a corner. And I understood them moving
(09:16):
off Lebron. I really did at this age. But it
is interesting when you consider all of it with Luke
at the centerpiece. For what I've been told, he is
a lot of turbulence, a lot of team sales and
coaches leaving, and he gets traded and they didn't get
a lot for him. And you sit there as a
(09:36):
Laker fan right now and you're like, what is he
I'm gonna get sixty two games, no defense, leadership, hopefully durability,
forget it. I don't know. I'm not anti Luca, I
really not. But it's just been a very interesting set
of circumstances over the last eight years of people moving
(09:58):
off him. So you know, people often say this, Hey,
just report the facts, and I'm going to take your
advice on this. I think you're right. No more opinions
on this show, just facts. Well, at least for this rant.
(10:18):
Kyler Murray got named the starting quarterback over JJ McCarthy.
And there's this weird misconception about Kyler Murray that he's
no good. I just want to remind everybody factually, he
was the offensive rookie of the year with twenty four
touchdowns behind a battle line. He's been to multiple Pro Bowls.
(10:40):
Just reporting facts, led Arizona to the playoffs. Had a
passer rating one year, twenty twenty one over one hundred,
the only year he had ever had at least a
single one offensive lineman on the Pro Bowl. Cliff Kingsbury
was as head coach somebody who was fired by his
own alma mater. He has the fifth highest completion percentage
(11:00):
in the history of the National Football League and the
division he was in. The Seahawks won a Super Bowl,
the Rams won a Super Bowl, and the Niners went
to two. So it was in that stretch the best
division in football. Oh, by the way, bottom five ownership.
And here's another gem. Do you realize since he entered
(11:21):
the league he has more rushing touchdowns than Lamar Jackson,
the greatest athlete to ever play the position, more than Lamar.
Beware of writing off quarterbacks who are knee deep in
team and organizational fund dysfunction. You rode off, Darnold, You're
(11:42):
right off, Kyler Murray. This kid ownership down was in
a quagmire quicksand of dysfunction. Let me add this. His
cap hit this year is one point three million. Will
make less than Dylan Gabriel. In the last twenty years,
(12:05):
there has not been a player at that position this
productive for that price. He is free. He'll make less
than Mac Jones, significantly less in terms of a cap pit,
less than Dylan Gabriel as a cap pit. So they're
(12:27):
your facts. I know the video game obsession. He's not
a great leader, but you know, we tend to get
entrenched on opinions based on very early comments. Sam Darnold,
icy ghosts, Yeah, I saw the Jets. Kyler Murray, I
like video games. Yeah, I don't like Arizona's ownership. So
(12:49):
I'm just staying to the facts here. He was named
the starting quarterback yesterday of Minnesota, so dominant despite the
fact the other guys in camp, namely JJ McCarthy, had
a two year leg up knowing the offense. This guy
wins the starting job before they got to the games,
before they got to the intense scrimmages, here's his head coach.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yesterday, we gave the guys different challenges on different days,
you know, while letting them, you know, kind of compete
at the same stride.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Early on in camp.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
It's been a true competition, and we feel like we're
at a place, you know, where we've made a complete evaluation.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We'll move forward.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Kyler will begin, you know, the process of really looking
at things now as our starter. We'll still be getting
JJ a lot of work, a lot of reps because
it's very important that his you know, development and ongoing
growth and arrow up that we feel very positively about continues.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
All right. So the lead story today, fourteen months after
buying the Lakers, Mark Walters, the Dodgers owner, is selling
them to A Kushner and Bob Eiger, who's been the
chair and the guy running Disney for most of the
last twenty five years. Iiger's a big basketball fans. You know,
(14:09):
kids played basketball growing up. Bob loves the NBA, he
knows Adam Silver, He's been in business obviously. Disney owns
ESPN of the NBA for a long time. I think
it's a really really good ownership guy in Iiger. That's
good for the NBA. That's a good, strong, ethical owner
of the NBA. I am in no means blaming Luca
(14:32):
for the Mark Walter situation, but it is fascinating how
stabilizing Lebron has been for the Lakers before he got there.
Has Matt spill? Now he leaves and immediately two months later,
what in the name of heavy turbulence on this flight
is going on? So John Middelcoff joining us today, got
(14:57):
to say, from time time to time, you get a
curveball thrown at you. Thirty five forty five minutes before
the show, did not see this was coming. And again
Ramona Shelburne saying this came to pass and to a
conclusion in the last couple of days. That's it.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I feel like sports teams don't usually get flipped like
a Chevy Tahoe, you know, every six months. I thought,
once you buy it, you typically hold on to it,
especially a premium brand.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So yeah, I mean shocking news.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
App sot gots here. I have a podcast, Empire. It
continues to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me
out of the house. It's called Stagatzi Company Live, which
is available in podcast form right when the show finishes
(15:59):
every single day. Some of the biggest names in sports,
a lot of phone.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Calls, I love you guys, your show, It's one of
my favorites.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
A lot of interact sit guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Those are just some of.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
The things that you could expect from Stu Gottson Company
and Steve Gotson Company Live. So listen to Steve Gotson
Company Live and our original podcast. Please subscribe, rate and
review Stu Gotson Company and God Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood
depends on it. You do it today and you can
check all of those out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
(16:34):
Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Listen, Rich guys know things that you and I don't.
According to the reporting, this just came out in the
last thirty minutes that the Bob Iger Kushner group called
Mark Walter as recently as Sunday and asked if he'd
consider selling, and that's when the discussion started. So Iiger
(17:02):
and Kushner, obviously they can read the federal investigation into
Mark Walter and his group. I don't know what's going
to happen, but the answer would have been absolutely not
in my opinion at that situation not been going on.
So and Iiger and his guy Kushner, they were in
(17:23):
on the Vegas expansion team. That's where they were going.
So and obviously the Laker brand. You know, I've been
saying this for years, just the safest place for billionaires
to park their money is not in Wall Street, is
not in real estate. It's in hard assets like American
professional sports teams. The smartest guys owned teams in the
(17:44):
English Premier League, in the NBA and the NFL Major
League Baseball. You don't know if Google's going to exist
in twenty years or Meta is going to exist. The Yankees, Liverpool,
Manchester United, and the Lakers are going nowhere. That's the
smart money. It's going to own NFL, NBA Baseball teams
and English Premier League teams. That stuff isn't going to
(18:07):
disappear into the ether. You don't know what's happened in
the Navidia in the last five years. You have no
idea the teams and at the top of our sports landscape.
I mean there's changes made in college weekly, had not
that many changes in pro sports in America. Rich guys
own teams, and the teams don't dissolve. They move occasionally
(18:28):
from Saint Louis to la from Oakland to Vegas, but
they don't disappear very often. So I'm watching Hard Knocks
with the Seahawks. Boy, Mike McDonald is really impressive. The
head coach is he's Sean McVay defensive side. But I
was sitting there watching this episode of it, and maybe
it's the geography that the Seahawks are buried up in
(18:50):
the corner of the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it's the fact
that they don't have a lot of veteran star players.
They're a very young team. But I honestly believe even
Vegas has the Baltimore Ravens, an eight and nine team
last year with better Super Bowl odds than the Seahawks.
(19:11):
Nobody thinks they can repeat. It was a one off.
No way donald will play mistake free playoff football again.
Things went in their favor. No actually they did not
go in their favorite All the opposite is true. Sam
Darnald goes to arguably the best division in football, has
a new coach, a new coordinator, a new O line,
(19:32):
a bad old line, and a new receiving corps JSN. Well,
we didn't know if he was at number one, and
again the offensive line was I think they were ranked
like thirtieth. They were a bad offensive line. They needed
a rookie Gray's Abel to shore up their offensive line.
The three best records in the NFC ended up last
(19:54):
year all being in the NFC West, and they had
to play the Rams, Stafford and McVeigh three times and
Kyle Shanahan and the physical Niners three times. So Darnold
four teams four years for the first time in years,
same head coach, same locker room, same culture, same city,
same house. Now he's married, same number one receiver, same
(20:18):
offensive line. I don't know. That kind of continuity to
me seems like a huge benefit. But literally, the eight
to nine Ravens last year with a rookie head coach,
having lost their best offensive lineman and Lamar Jackson did
not look like Lamar Jackson last year. He's a slower
version for a guy who's dependent on his legs have
(20:38):
better Super Bowl odds. The other thing about Seattle, they're
not aging out of this. They're older players, don't get
hurt much. Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Charles Cross, and their
best players are all young and getting better. Devin Witherspoon,
JSN start looking at their young players, Brian Murphy, Nicki Minwarrior,
(21:02):
Gray's Abel. So they're young players, are all just going
into their prime, and their Pro Bowl level excellent. Their
old guys are healthy. Donald's a young twenty nine, never
had a lot of injuries. They have the best GM arguably,
the best defensive coach, arguably, the best receiver arguably. And
(21:27):
over the last two years they've been fifteen and two
on the road. They're the best home team without an argument.
And yet they're kind of considered and they're not really mentioned.
People are like oh Rams in their own division. They're
not the Super Bowl favorites. And I'm watching them like
they're young players, are all just moving into their prime.
(21:47):
Their cap situation's good. Donald's still young, they're old guys,
don't get hurt. Leonard Williams is always available. Charles Cross
had a couple of injured weeks. He's good. DeMarcus Lawrence.
I mean, it looks better than he did four years ago.
But I think Donald, to a large degree, there's so
many doubters on him that Matt Hasselbeck talked about why
(22:10):
why he's still under the radar.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
One of the reasons that he doesn't get a lot
of respect is that he played the style of play
to win football games, to hoist a Lombardi. So much
of the year he was playing safe and conservative because
he knew he had the legion, you know, the dark
side defense on the other side. Now, in the NFC
Championship game, he played a completely different style, showed that
(22:33):
he could he cut it loose. Him and Matthew Stafford
almost a thousand yards of offense in that game. So
he's capable of it. But what I think his best
quality is right now is coachability. Mike McDonald set the
vision for how we're going to play offensively, and he
bought into it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah. Yeah, we always say this. We use manage the
game a lot with quarterbacks and like Donald smartly pulled
back and it's like, you know what, I'm not going to
take that two or three throw risk I do a
game I'm gonna pull back on that played air free
football in the playoffs and the super Bowl and hoisted
(23:10):
a trophy. But it's I mean, it's people think Kansas
City that doesn't have nearly the roster of Seattle. If
you said chief super Bowl, Yeah, raven super Bowl. Vegas
loves them. Seattle not even the best Super Bowl odds
in their division. I don't know. Maybe it's the geography.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays
and noone Easter, not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
All right, let's pivot now to the NFL. Albert Breer
is at the Cleveland Browns camp today. Sunday, he was
at the Bears. I saw him there Monday, Packers, yesterday, Vikings.
So let's start Vikings. You're there on the decision day.
There's always kind of interesting vibes with it. There's gonna
be some pr I don't think you and I are
(23:57):
surprised by it, but I am a little surprise. Happened
before their first game. I mean a weekend. Were you surprised.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
A little?
Speaker 7 (24:07):
I mean, I think really like what this came down
to for Kevin O'Connell and his staff was they wanted
to be able to project and not hope, and that's
what Kyler Murray offers them versus JJ McCarthy. They can
hope a lot of the nice things that they've seen,
of course the preseason with but that doesn't mean it
necessarily will, Whereas what Kyler Murray, it's more of a
known commodity. And here's the important thing. I mean, you
(24:31):
can't fool locker room, right. So if the locker room
sees which way this is going, maybe it's time to say, Okay,
here's our quarterback. We're building an offense for him. Because
an offense for Kyler Murray is going to look a
little different than an offense for JJ McCarthy. That just
gives them a month to do that and look like
the bottom line here, Colin, there's a lot of veteran
(24:51):
players in that locker room who don't care about your
three year plan or your four year plan or your
five year plan. There's guys like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jones,
Christian Darris, o' brian O'Neil Byron Murphy, Blake Cashman, Andrew
Van Ginkle.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I could go on all these guys.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Won fourteen games two years ago, so they don't want
to be sitting there waiting to see whether or not
what the competition bears is going to work. They want
to get go forward with their season, and this allows
them to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I think JJ McCarthy, I mean, that feels like it's over.
Do you think he'd get moved or they'll just say, hey, listen,
you know we're gonna play him in the preseason. If
he plays well enough, we'll keep him in the room.
Kyler has a history occasionally getting banged out. What do
you think his future is?
Speaker 7 (25:38):
Yeah, I mean, you say you never say never on
this stuff, but I do think JJ's handled himself pretty
good over the course of the offseason. He's made real
strides and technique and some of the fundamental stuff that
he needed to work on. He's gotten more accurate now,
Like is he where Kyler is?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
No?
Speaker 7 (25:55):
And that's why right now he's the second quarterback on
the depth chart. I do think Kevin O'Connell would like
to keep working with him, and I do think that
they feel like that there could be something there in time.
Obviously not what they thought it was going to be
when they took him. Tenth overall. But they do think
that there's there's talent to work with there. And if
you've talked to Kevin O'Connell before, you know how he
(26:16):
feels about the quarterback position. He feels like teams fail
the quarterbacks more than quarterbacks fail the teams. And so,
you know, I think the way he looks at it
is if we can put him on ice for a
year and like, you know, get him to go through
an entire season where he's just the backup, which he
hasn't had a chance to do yet, that could really
(26:37):
wind up benefiting him in the long run, whether that's
in Minnesota or somewhere else. So I don't think he's
completely given up on him. I would say, you know,
you never say never. If somebody gets desperate, someone has
an injury or something and wants to come and trade
for him, you know, maybe you consider that, But I
don't think that's part of their plan right now.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
The coolest hot seat in the league is Matt Lafleur.
You're at the Packer camp Monday. What was what was
the vibe? What was your take?
Speaker 7 (27:03):
So I look at them a lot like Seattle last year,
and I think they were this team last year too, right,
like where I think both green Bay and Seattle going
into twenty five had a lot of good players that
if they if a few of them elevated to great,
then you'd really have something. And that happened in Seattle,
right with JSN, with Murphy, with Cross, with Witherspoon, good
(27:23):
players becoming great players. And so I think that's still
the question in Green Bay. And the cruel twist in
it is that after training camp last year they traded
for a great player and Micah Parsons and he got
hurt and one of those young guys who did become
great for them, and Tucker Kraft he got hurt. So
how do those two guys look coming back? How does
(27:43):
Jordan Morgan look at left tackle? How does Matthew Golden
look at receiver? Like They've got a lot of They've
got a good base of young towent, but so much
of it I think is going to be all right?
How many of these guys can elevate and become real
difference makers and that, you know, I mean some degree
goes for the quarterback too, right, You know, I think
they feel good about where they're at now, whether or
(28:04):
not they can take another step versus where they've been.
They've been in the playoffs. I believe the number now
is is six of Matt Lafleur seven years. You know,
how can they get back to the conference championship round
and ultimately a Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
I think it's going to have to be their young
talent taking another step.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, Luther Burden wasn't there. You and I were at
the Bears for two hours on Sunday. I sat and watched.
In My take was the offense dominated the defense they
got at Roma. Dunze is now healthy, it's fast, it's efficient,
Caleb slim down. I thought accuracy was clearly improved. That
was my take.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
What was yours, just a certainty, was what it looks
like Caleb is playing. You know, last year, I think
his head was spinning at this time of the year,
and you know, Ben was really trying to feed him
through a fire hose, like let's see how much he
can handle. Okay, he can do this, he can't do that,
And then you build an offense. But you have the
basis of all stuff that you throw at him now
(29:01):
and you're building on it. And it's a really logical
teaching progression that I think sometimes coaches are careful with
the young players now because maybe they're not quite as
strong willed as they used to be twenty or thirty
years ago. But Ben felt like Caleb could handle it,
and I think, you know, you see the proof in
year one, what it became in year one, and now.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
They get a chance to play up to build off
of that.
Speaker 7 (29:24):
And that's what I'm seeing is like what you hear
from people in that building is Caleb's really moved through
the offseason, which Ben's a tough coach with this level
of joy and focus and you know, really tells me
that personality he's got, He's found a way to meld
it into what Ben Johnson is building in Chicago, and
that's great news for everybody there. I think Colston Lovelin
(29:45):
is going to be a monster for them this year.
I think Luther Burden is going to be a huge
factor when he gets back healthy. Like you said, a
Dunze's healthy now, if they can work out the left
tackle position, the offense should be dynamite defensively. They do
have questions, Yeah, all right, Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I don't see the point in starting Deshaun Watson. I
would just go with a kid. By the way, if
Deshaun struggles, who cares. It's a great quarterback class. That
may be the best possible scenario. What do you hear
and what'd you see?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I don't think they've made a decision yet.
Speaker 7 (30:19):
You know, my guess would be Deshaun Watson starts the
first game, should do or Sanders starts the second game.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
They have joint practices with the Bills next week.
Speaker 7 (30:29):
You gather all that information and then you know at
the after the second game, you make a decision. The
one thing about Deshaun that I think is interesting, though, Colin, like,
we've seen him as a top five quarterback, right, we
know that the ceiling has at least been there in
the past.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Now whether it's still there or not is debatable.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
But he's started to feel more comfortable coming back off
the injury, and he's knocked some of the rust off,
and so I don't know that his ceiling is lower
than should do it even though he's been through everything
that he's been through the last few years. So you know,
I've had this thought for a while. I still have it.
(31:10):
This organization sunk two hundred and thirty million dollars and
three first round picks and to Shawn Watson.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
And what would be worse than just.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
Chalking it up and saying it's the sun costs and
moving it on, moving on. It would be not knowing
that there's still something there, you know, it would be
not knowing there's still something there and then he goes
and balls out somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
So I mean to me, logically, I.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
Look at it and say, you could start the season
with DeShawn and then if it doesn't work, it's very
easy to go to Shador.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I think it'd be more difficult the other way around.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
So I think Chador needs to clearly win the job
or else they probably give to Sean at least a
few games to start the season, because again it's easier
to go from the older guy to the younger guy
in season.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
So you've been to the Cowboys, Chiefs, Rams, Chargers, Seahawks, Broncos, Bears, Vikings, Packers.
Now you're at Cleveland. So I'm going to show you
my predictions.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Run them off.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
There's seventeen of them now, and I probably like the
cryptkeeper based on the lighting in here.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay, so tell me the team and it doesn't matter
what they did last year. The team you've seen that
you're like people they could win the Super Bowl? Is
there a team you're like way better than either Vegas?
The narratives that that you just came out and went fast,
(32:27):
young athletic coach, quarterback, everything kind of clicked Detroit.
Speaker 7 (32:35):
I feel like everybody's forgotten about them, And I think
the Jamira Gibbs contract is bright flashing lights at what's
actually happened there the last few years and how well
they've drafted and developed and ultimately kept their own.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You can go down the list.
Speaker 7 (32:51):
Pinay Sewell, I'm on a row, Saint Brown, Jamison Williams,
Now Gibbs, Aiden Hutchinson, Brian Branch will probably get a contract,
Samuel Porter will probably get a contract. Jack Campbell got
one to lead McNeil's got one. This is from This
is premium talent up and down the roster. I think
Golf's way better than people give them credit for. If
their offensive line, if that if that group is fixed,
(33:12):
Blake Miller fits in it right tackle, Piney Sewell makes
the smooth left tackle. I still think it's one of
the most talented rosters in the league, and the other one,
the other one, Colin, and maybe this is just you know,
you get drunk on the hype sometimes some years with
this team. But I kind of like where the Cowboys
are at too. I mean, I think their offense is
(33:33):
going to be dynamite, and I don't think they have
to be great on defense to contend. You know, it's
sort of the reverse of the Texans. You know, the
Texans just have to be pretty good on offense and
for Super Bowl because their defense is so good.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I think the Cowboys sort of have the reverse of that.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Now, so you spend you know, you've been doing this
for a long time. Yeah, and you drink a lot
of coffee. I was with you at the Bears camp
the other day. This is my now. I don't want
to do what you do for a living because it's
a lot of hard work and this is easy lifting.
But I will tell you for about how long? How
many has it been? Twenty days and seventeen camps, So.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
Eighteen tomorrow will be the last one before I actually
get to go home and see my family and reintroduce
myself that it's going to be eighteen camps in eighteen days. Yeah,
you can come on out in twenty twenty seven. Though, Colin,
you can jump in the rental.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
I can't pull myself away from middle coughs. What were
you talking about?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I got I got, I got you to come out
to Bears the other day. That was great. Oh my god, Yeah,
that was good. That was good.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Good seeing you, Albert
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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