September 12, 2025 • 41 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon explain why you should be buying Jordan Love stock. And they give their take on the latest on the Kawhi Leonard scandal and state that fans maybe do not care about this and what could happen because of it!!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon, live from the Fox
Sports or Radio studios. Hey, don't forget check out our
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(00:50):
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Go check out our brand new channel on YouTube again,
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love bringing this content to you every single night, bringing
the pain nationwide. Let's go well. Thanks to Jay Lazer
(01:12):
for joining a few moments ago. Look obviously nine to eleven,
a day we will never forget. And it's been a
very emotional day. The Yankees, you know, their game earlier
tonight in the Bronx and the story he told us
about dan Quinn that after nine to eleven, dan Quinn
almost left the NFL to join the military, and not
many people know that story, and that was that was
an amazing a few minutes. It's always a great few
(01:33):
minutes fen with Jay Lazer, but sometimes you know when
you get you clearly he's the one responsible for them.
Michaeh Parson's trade to the Packers, You're welcome, NFL. But
that story about dan Quinn was just fantastic. No, we
always get the the x's and o's and the inside
dope on the league, but then it's the personal relationships
why he's been so successful, going all the way back
(01:53):
to the origin story with straighthand and all those guys
with the Giants. He knows these guys on a whole
other level. And every week we get some piece of that,
and this one as we commemorate the anniversary on nine
to eleven and the tragedies and trying to you know,
all these years later, still trying to come together that,
(02:15):
you know, Jay Glazer puts it in perspective with what
he gave us with dan Quinn, I just went for
a little bit of the flippant hey. Dan Quinn could
have given Halfley in the Packers a little advice about
Micah Parsons, you know, tomorrow, and we ended up getting
that absolute goal based on those relationships. Now, we spent
a lot of time a few minutes ago talking about
(02:36):
Micah Parsons, and rightfully so right the guy is for
every reason you want to say, has vaulted the Packers
into probably being the Super Bowl favorites at this point
just because not because well they are the only team
besides the Commanders to play two games. But this is
a Packers defense that has now slowed down to terrific offenses,
a great quarterback and a great all around offense. And
(02:58):
Micah Parson's presence has been everywhere tonight. He affected almost
every single play. Nobody the Commanders weren't comfortable in the pocket.
Daniels wasn't comfortable in the pocket. They never got untracked.
And yeah, the final score seems a little bit closer
than the game was. This is a game that the
Packers had in control throughout. But the flip side of
(03:18):
it is this now, is that you know, a year ago,
at this time, we're saying, man, Jordan Love is ready
to become the next star quarterback in the NFL because
he's coming off that twenty twenty three season, thirty two touchdowns,
you know, taking over the first year for Aaron Rodgers.
And wow, this guy thrown for four thousand yards. He's it, right,
(03:38):
he's it. He's the next great guy. The Packers got
it right. They said goodbye to Aaron Rodgers. They got
it right, right, perfect game in the playoffs against the Cowboys.
He they got it. They got it. Last year was okay,
not great. It wasn't quite as great as the year before. Also,
he was hurt, and he got hurt early on in
the season, right, and that game in Brazil one of
(03:59):
the reasons that when you go back on that field,
it's like, let's just hope that both sides come back
fairly clean bills of health. Yeah, and you don't know
how much that was able to that affected him throughout
the season last year, but clearly it was still a
good season. But it wasn't Hey, he's gonna blow up now, right,
His first year as a starter, he sat for a
couple of years. Watch now, he had a great first year. Okay,
(04:20):
let's see another year like this again. Still a pretty
decent year, but not quite well we expect, but also
gets muted a bit because of the success of your guy,
Josh Jacob's coming over. Fifteen touchdowns from a running back, Yeah,
it does a lot to kind of hammer your ear
does your quarterbacks overall, right, because if five of those
he still has a double digit touchdown yere, but five
(04:41):
of those become passes either to Jacobs out of the
backfield or to the tight end or one of the
ninety seven guys that had four hundred or more receiving
yards a year ago. If he's at thirty touchdowns, that
puts him in rare air because we didn't see many
of those last year.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, right, it's changed, right, we're pulling the strings a
little bit, so coming off it. Okay yah.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Still still still a really good year, but not quite
the year he had in twenty twenty three. Now Here
he is first two weeks of the season and his
quarterback rating of one twenty nine and one fourteen, four touchdowns,
no interceptions, two hundred yards passing Week one, nearly three
hundred yards passing here on a short week in Week
two against the Commanders, and I think it's time to Hey,
(05:23):
we got to make room that Jordan Love is that
guy that he is a top seven ish quarterback in
the NFL right now, that he is going to wind
up being that not quite a bounce back year, but
he's been pretty consistent his first two years and this
might wind up being his best one because Jordan Love.
When they when they first gave him the gig, it was, okay,
(05:43):
who's going to be his number one receiver? Right quarterbacks
need got you know, a young guy coming in. Who's
it going to be? And the Packers kind of did
the same thing the Chiefs have done the last couple
of years, which is, hey, we're gonna keep throwing wide
receivers at you. Uh and if they don't work out
after a year, it doesn't matter. We'll go to somebody else. Right,
And when you have someone like Patrick Mahomes, Okay, one
of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL, you can
(06:04):
do that. And Patrick Mahomes can make it work. You
see what works with Now to do it with a
guy that's only been in the league a year. That's
a heady thing, that's a tough thing to do. But
that's exactly what the Packers have been doing. We're gonna
give you Jayden Reid and Christian Watson and Dontavian Wicks
and now Romeo Romeo Dobbs because now it's Dobbs and
not Dubs and Matthew Golden. Early in the draft this
(06:24):
year and last year you didn't see anybody breakthrough, and
now this year is kind of the same thing. Right, No, Well,
by the way, Tucker Craft, who had the best game
of his career tonight with one hundred and twenty four
yard receiving, almost had as many yards as the Commander's
offense through the first three quarters. I don't know that
it matters with the Packers who the number one receiver is.
(06:44):
The way this offense is styled, it's one of those
every week, it could be somebody different, Right, Jayden Reid,
you think was gonna be the number one guy, but
he got hurt early tonight. Didn't matter, right, You say, Hey,
look at what happened to the Chiefs a week ago.
They lost Xavier Worthy early on in the game and
Travis kel said, everything's out the window. We were so XAVI,
you're worthy heavy, which I understand that the same time. Okay,
(07:07):
well you're still playing and myhomes is still playing. You
got Hollywood Brown, You still okay, you got my homes? Okay,
something homes go Oh that's out at the window. Hey,
Jayden Reid gets hurt. You think he was going to
be a decent part of the game. Playing didn't matter.
He still spread the football around and it's maddening for
every fantasy owner. I get it, I get it. I
don't want anytime someone wants to put a Packers receiver
into a trade with me, I go, no, no craft,
(07:29):
no well receiver involving craft tonight in Wisconsin. Oh yeah no,
that's it flying off the shelves at a buck of box. Yeah,
there will be shells and white cheddar in a craft party.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
So what would you do for at Oh dude, I would,
I would say things.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Would I would stick my head into just eat it
with my mouth like it's a pie eating Contestcuse me
say what. I love macaroni and cheese. I would just
as long as it's not too hot, Like I don't
want to get my face. But if it's a nice
face burn no, no, no, I would that's a badge of
honor do it. But I just had to work so
you'd have like a joker smile. How did you get
those scars? My father? Herror mirror was a fiend mirror. Uh,
(08:15):
but it really didn't matter because you saw that, Hey,
who was the guy? Who's Who's whose matchup? You can
exploit tonight Tucker Craft? Because how many times was Craft
wide open? It's not like you saw a Craft. Well, boy,
that's a tough one handed catch in traffic. This is boy,
he's wide open. This is the further development of Jordan
Love that maybe hey, okay, we saw guys breakout last year,
and Jade and Daniels broke out last year looking to
(08:37):
see who's going to continue their ascension, and we kind
of forgot about Jordan Love after last year because okay,
you didn't really build so much on twenty twenty three.
The Packers weren't better than they were a year ago.
But right now, now you have the defense behind you,
the running game is still going as well as is
Jacob's now over eighty yards of touchdown again every single
week he's in the end zone. Now it maybe it
(08:57):
doesn't matter that the Packers don't have a true number
one wide receiver because each week it could wind up
being somebody different. It's a difficult needle to threat right
and Patrick Mahomes has only been kind of doing it
the last couple of years because he's kind of turned
into a bit of a game manager the last couple
of years. But clearly Jordan Love may be better at
this part of it, at figuring out, hey, I can
(09:17):
make things work for all of these guys a different week,
because there's lots of weeks where nobody has a big
week in Kansas City boy and really struggle throwing the football.
I don't know why with the Packers, it's kind of like, well,
every week it's somebody different, And I think we kind
of been sleeping on Jordan Love a little bit coming
off of last year. But this may be that time
where he just decides, hey, man, don't forget about me.
There's a reason why I was next in Green Bay
(09:38):
and now this is the best team clearly that they've
had since he's been taken over a quarterback because the
addition of Michael Parsons to do that to you and
already really good defense, may become one of the top
three in the league. That's how good they've been so far.
And here he is someone completing over sixty percent of
it passes both first two weeks, quarterback rating really high,
four touchdowns, no turnovers, like this might be the best
(10:01):
version and the best team that he's had in Green Bay.
And this is the big bounce back. You're the big
springboard year for Jordan Low. Yeah, absolute complete roster and
coming into the year, great expectations. They were one of
the more heavily bet and then you add the Micah
Parsons theory and now you've seen it in practice for
two games. And what he does to disrupt what I
(10:23):
didn't think was a great offensive line in Washington and
they but they'd be better with Tunsel, and he made
him look like a rookie on a number of those
rushes he had. You watched just no matter where he
lined up, it was absolutely disruptive. And you never saw
Jaden Daniels really get comfortable at all over the top.
And that'll be curious to see how that offense in
(10:44):
year two, right, because we always had the second half
of a season where Kingsbury's offense drifted. Last year was
the first time that didn't happen, So you're like, all right,
did he get better or is it all Jayden and Daniels.
So let's try to figure out where that is. But
now you've got the loss of Eckler, you already got
rid of Robinson. That offense suddenly may not be a dynamic.
And it takes nothing away from green Bay because we've
(11:05):
seen two dominant efforts and you've got great balance for
Jordan Love. A lot of it becomes the as long
as the guys in the pass catching room all recognize
that on any given Sunday, it's their turn, and we
don't have those issues that we've seen in so many
other locker rooms that crop up going, well, I'm supposed
to be the guy getting eight targets a game, and
(11:26):
I've got to be that guy. Right. They extended Christian Watson.
He's coming back off an acl Remember twenty twenty two,
what a beast he was going down the field that
he was going to be the big jump ball threat
seven touchdowns and then we've seen him just beset by injuries.
But you add Golden you got to keep taking those
shots downfield. Right, eventually, that's gonna work. You had two
(11:48):
plays to him early on that go for incompletions that
should have been massive gains to rival, you know the
greatness that you saw from Tucker Kraft. Instead for the game,
he's got zero in the receiving line on those two targets.
Those are the only two shots they took to them.
They did do them a solid, so you at least
got something in your fantasy lineup with his two carries
(12:09):
for fifteen yards. But think about once that deep ball
starts to connect. Now you're really pulling the strength from
Matt Laflour. You're licking your chops on the other side.
For Halfley, you know, your defense was already a top
ten unit and now you've got the ultimate and disruptors
showing up. Yeah, they're second on the board in the NFC,
and the third team is San Francisco, who we've talked about.
(12:34):
That won't be the case for much longer. They're at
eighteen to one and drifting quickly as Alabama Mac takes
over for the foreseeable future. But for Jordan Love, you
know the sit and wait, there's the argument for it.
Operational efficiency consistency in your coaching staff and trust in
your process. I sixers and then looking at a guy
(12:57):
that now is set up to be the third great
quarterback you've had for thirty years. It's certain teams. I'm like,
come on, really, you go from one guy to the
next guy field guy. Oh, but you've never had a
guy no, no, no, But I'm the guy who's got
to watch these guys bury me time and again. The
ony win they got was when it didn't matter at
(13:18):
the end of last year. Hey, win one for Virginia
on our way out. Too soon for you to complain.
You have the eighty five Bears. Come on, man, that
was just a couple of years ago. You're fine, Hey,
that was Monday night. We commemorated the.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Kids.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Jim McMahon out there and commemorated the eight. In the
year twenty one hundred, they'll be commemorating the Look what
I got a still I got the eighty five Bears
that I'm also commemorating the two thousand and five White Sox.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Jason, go get back on the Johann Durant Express.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
You know, if that was a three D ride at
Universal would be your favorite ex Exit Out Out a
Fresca exit Swallen Dope, Jason Smith, Mike Harbin, I saw
the baseball whiz right past me. More on this game
every time plus two big hot takes coming up next.
Keep it here Happy Thursday Night, Jason and Mike Fox
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Speaker 2 (15:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
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Speaker 1 (15:55):
From Fox Sports Radio. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. We got
more from Thursday Night Football coming up in a few minutes,
but a couple of people who either probably or definitely
(16:17):
are on the way out. And the first thing I
want to say is this, he was really big last year.
It was great last year. If the Mets missed the
playoffs this year, there's no way you can bring Carlos
Mendez a back. He'll be the first manager let go
the day after the season ends, because this has just
been an absolute disaster for the Mets, who were the
(16:39):
best team in baseball and now they're one of the
top four worst teams for three months and they just
keep showing up every night, and they look like a
team that's just waiting for something. And this is what's
this is not all of it is obviously the started. Look,
I told you what was going to happen. Hey, all
these guys you're going to start the season was starting
pitcher are great, but they're we're all going to hit
(17:00):
their innings limits in August because I either haven't pitched in
a while, or they've never been a starter before, or
they haven't had any kind of this kind of responsibility.
What's gonna happen when they all hit the wall in August.
That's what happened. They all hit the wall in August.
So you know, I'm a GM from three thousand miles away. Well,
but then you got the the wonder kids or kids, Yeah,
what are we doing with kids? Are great? Kids are great,
the kids, but they're not Savi should have brought them
(17:23):
up a month ago. You waited too long, and I
understand that, but this is so embarrassing. I mean, look,
they're giving away this, but they won't even be in
a playoff spot by the end of the weekend, right
that that's how that's where it's going to go. And
with ten games left they might get eliminated. Yeah nothing
league dude ends up completing eight you you can't even
chase it, That's what I mean. Where you can't bring
Mendoza back if you miss the playoffs because clearly there's
(17:45):
no motivation there, there's no there's there's no creativity, there's
no way to spark the team. Like it's no, we've
hit a line. He's not Mendoes, he's not out there
pitching the Mendoza line is you're fired. But like, there's
certain things a manager can do, whether it's juice the
line up a little bit or something to just bring
a different energy to the team and to the you know,
(18:05):
to the lineup every night. And they can't do it,
and he can't do it. He keeps saying it's on me.
He said after the game tonight, another loss, that this
loss of the Phyllis sweep at the hands of the
Phillies are just absolutely abysmal. For nothing before the Phillies
come to bat and again, yes, you let the other
posing pitcher pitch eight innings. You don't get a hit
after the first innings. It's terrible. I don't even know
if they finish over five hundred, like they look like
they feel like they have quit. They have a little
(18:27):
bit of juice when McLean pitches, when Tong pitches, maybe
when Sprot pitches again, but I mean, come on, man,
this is embarrassed. This is absolutely embarrassing. And I don't
know that it would be much more past the first day,
the day after the regular season, Mets get a new manager,
right because David Seras in year two, he's brought a
lot of talent in. They signed one so to everything
they want to do, they've done. But but I mean,
(18:49):
and you can't get rid of the players. But there's
some kind of different message that needs to be out there.
When you have an August where you set a record
for runs in a month. Your friend Chies record for
runs in a month. They scored over five runs a game,
one hundred and fifty three runs in August, and they
go eleven and seventeen, I mean eleven and seventeen. Like
(19:09):
there's you can't hit the end of a season like
this and not have there be some ramifications. You can't
just hit the end of the season and go Okay,
well it didn't work for us, but eh, all right,
well wait we're worried about Everything's gonna be fine. We'll
back at it. Get him next year because the future
is bright and all our kids are up pitching. No,
there's gotta be some sort of of of repercussions on it,
(19:31):
and that's gonna be The Mets are gonna have a
new manager. But you have all the kids that come
up and they've done their job. You bring back Alonso,
you bring in Juan Soto, who's had one of the
great years that we've seen in Major League baseball. Now
you can decide down distance, you know in which time
lane in length you're looking at and say, well, he
didn't hit well in this two week block whatever, But
(19:52):
the aggregate is there for you that he's done his job. Now,
you got fifteen games left on this schedule. It's at
the thirteenth best schedule remaining according to the old good
folks at Tankathon series against Washington and Miami. Uh. And
then you've got three each against Texas, San Diego and
(20:13):
the Cubs. Yeah, good luck, good luck Cubs who've struggled
through the end of this year. Pete crow Armstrong, what's
spawn a time MVP candidate, Kyle Tucker, same, he's been hurt.
They've been flailing along. San Diego can't get out of
their own way. But it looks like, you know, that's
that's the weekend that they'll figure out, Yeah, how to
get right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it all tonight.
(20:33):
Don't worry about it. Well, it's just tough, right. I mean,
you look at the front of the lineup right now,
Like lind Door can't hit the broad side of a
barn the last two three weeks, and he just shrugs
like no, no, no, like they need you, like you're at
the top of the order in a hotly contested battle
to just stay afloat in the wildcard and you're just
kind of like, ah, what are you gonna do, Like
(20:54):
when he said last night, I don't know. We just
haven't able to find that thing. This year we did
just not we have been able to find that spark. Dude, Jerry,
you're in a wild card position, man, and you have
fifteen seventeen games left. Find it? Find I keep looking,
It's like I can't find it. Keep blocking, keep trying
to find it. Your guy clearly spent plenty of coin
to try to build a winner. You've got a top
(21:15):
heavy lineup when it comes to name recognition in Major
League Baseball, and down the stretch you're getting a bunch
of blanks. Like all you're getting is juice from the rookies.
That's what you do if you're in Tampa. That's what
you do. If you're Cincinnati or one of these squads
trying to just goose a little bit of life into
(21:36):
the back end of the year. Or Colorado. Hey, look,
here's Eric Carross's kid, and I hope he does really well.
But it's like, all right, we're bringing up all the
guys that are impossible major leaguers to get at least
give you something to cheer four in September. That's what
it feels like the Mets have done the last couple
of weeks. It's like, is it strategic for these are
the guys that are gonna push us to No, no, no,
(21:57):
it's like a fuscation. These are the guys that'll be
at the top of your rotation in twenty twenty six. Yeah,
don't look over here anymore this year. I mean, really,
if they don't, if it's a it's such a bad
thing to miss, it's such a bad guy. And two
or three of the worst seasons and most painful seasons
and Mets I've seen in my life the two of
the last three years. So but they're sandwich by a
(22:18):
great year last year. But I mean, really, you still
got the men? Does is not making it? Mendoz is
not making it. You know who else is not making it?
Who's that? Angel Reese is not going to make it
to the Chicago Sky next year? Tonight final night for
a WNBA for team for the Shanna Appreciation Day. Come on,
they lose tonight and Angel Reese goes from her interview
(22:41):
where she threw the entire organization under the bus to
not playing again the rest of the season right now.
She sat out the one game because she got her
eighth technical foul. They decided to suspend her for the
first half of their game Sunday because of her comments
in which she mentioned her teammates name and who doesn't
(23:01):
deserve to come back and what she thinks about other
players trying to come back rip the front office as well.
And she never wound up playing the rest of the way.
And how legitimate is this that they said, oh, her
back injury, Well, she was playing, she was playing. She
played in that game and then she had to sit
out and now you suspended her for the first half.
And I said it at the time, and I hate
(23:22):
to say I told you so. But that day when
that interview came out and she said what she said,
what did I say? This is where the Chicago Sky
are going to debate her worth and value to this
organization and if her talent is worth it. And the
answer is going to surprise you, because what they've done
since they've got her is they were bad last year
(23:44):
and they were worse this year. And and she's one
of the top two players on the team, and yes,
you look and she's a star, and she's a terrific player,
But you get to the point where is Angel Reece
worth it? And I've seen a lot of people having,
you know, coming to her defense the last couple of
days ago. If you knew the Chicago sky and how
(24:04):
how and how bad that is in the front office,
you'd agree with Angel rees No, I'm with you on that.
That's not that's not the that's not the point. I
can hope thou any parallel. We've seen players rip the
front office because they didn't put a good product on
the floor or on the field. We've seen that many times.
Let me said many times, and many times, hey, it's
great players say that. But she went on and took
(24:26):
on her teammates, the women in the locker room with
her who wanted to have a meeting with her because
of what she said. You think, Courtney Vanderslut is too old.
We can't come back with her. The only two people
that should be definitely coming back next year me and
Camilla Cardoso, like, how do you go back into the
locker room after that? And that's just that. I can't
believe she wasn't suspended for the whole season. I can't
believe they they're not gonna announce she's gonna sit for
the rest of the year, right, But she wound up
(24:48):
not being not playing at all. She was with the team.
Uh you know, they said she tried to come out
for warm ups and and and couldn't go the last game.
So she sat today. She didn't even come dressed. Obviously,
end of the sea. You're not going to the playoffs.
But this is Angel Reese and you would want her
to go into the offseason with Hey, if she's gonna
be part of this team, we have some repairing to do,
right if she would beat out there if they felt
(25:10):
that she's gonna be part of the team going forward.
So probably, and not very quietly, they will shop her
because there's gonna be a team that say, yes, we
love Angel Reese. As young as she is talented, look
at what she does. She's the best rebound of the
league has seen, maybe in the last twenty five years. Yeah,
maybe change of pace, But she's got to understand that
she's part of a team here. They will be able
(25:30):
to deal her and get something good for her. But
this is where the Chicago Sky are saying is her
talent worth it? And the answer is gonna be no.
The fact that she has not really been part of
this team over the course of the past week and
a half tells you everything you need to know. I
don't know who it's gonna be. Maybe it's gonna be
a bottom feeder team in the league that needs a
player for some kind of identity. Maybe they train her
the wings, you know, for a player they're already a
(25:52):
bottom feater. Maybe, but what I'm saying is they're not.
You know, it's not like the Liberty or the Aces
are gonna say, yes, hey, we're really good. We're gonna
bring in a play or who was really good. But
she is she worth the trouble and the attention that
she brings off the court. Maybe it's as simple as saying, hey,
you know what, you're going to Dallas. You're gonna work
with Paige Becker's and we're gonna get a Riko gunbalwalle Right,
who now is not getting the shots that she's normally
(26:13):
used to. I don't know, because Page Beckers gets all
the shots in Dallas now right. I'm just I'm just
throwing this out there. It's gonna be teams that need
a fresh start, that need a different mix to try
to go forward. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's
the kind of trade that happens. But judging by the
last week and a half, yeah, Angel Reese is not
gonna be in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, there's a couple of things that have to go on.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
First off, you do the examination front office, whatever grains
of truth might be unearthed in a full review of
your processes, procedures, evaluations, et cetera. Right, you changed the
coaches was that was clearly not popular with Angel Reese
when they got rid of Witherspoon this offseason, So that
(26:53):
was already a latent issue waiting waiting to come up.
You see, she showed up right at final home game today.
Crowd loses their minds, and that's where we start getting
into the business, the business of this all of Well,
you're probably gonna change out a lot of players, Like
I don't I don't have the data in front of me,
but it seems like the rosters kind of bounce quite
a bit. We don't have the same level of continuity
(27:15):
necessarily with a lot of these squads, particularly on the
As we said, the team's on the bottom end of
the standards. Like it's the shuffle up and deal kind
of thing, so you're looking at shoe deals and everything else.
She's box office. Yeah, and the crowd loves it and
Chicago loves her. So all of that to say, you're
gonna go with whatever Cardoso and whoever else is your core.
(27:36):
You're gonna be like, is this a situation that can win?
Because the way this worked, I think it played out.
I really would have thought she would have tried to
give it the old college try, if for nothing else,
maybe anybody that's a fenced straddler would have slid over
to her side, even if just meekly. All right, she
gave it the old college try for the fans in
the final game instead, she had a really good looking fit.
(27:58):
She did come out, She signed a bunch of atographs,
took photos, whatever, So she knows she knows the game
like she she's playing the game. Well, but it's the
I didn't expect them to push her away because again
it was only a game and a half. Yeah, so
like whether she played or not, Like here she shows
up and clearly you got a lot of salty folks,
but you recognize that sometimes. Look in our business, in
(28:20):
most businesses, people are on teams and work with people
they don't particularly like. No, but you can make it work, right,
But it's always something. It's always something to the extent of, hey,
you go your way, I go mine. We're with each
other on the court. She has always been about herself
and everything she does is about herself. And so I
(28:41):
don't know how if she comes back play it out.
Let's say she comes back, there's gonna be changes, right, Sure,
she's gonna come back. You will have elevated her into
being bigger than the team, bigger than the head coach,
bigger than the organization because she says what she says
about her teammates and she gets to stay and you
have to figure stuff out around her. That's a difficult proposition.
(29:01):
And again I would get it if she was such
a big star and they won, right. I understand that.
If she was such a big star and they won
butt in two years with her as one of the
focal points of the team, they've been bad.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
One of the things she did say is she she
openly opined as she did all the stuff with the
team was I don't know if this is long term,
I'm obviously encapsulating and summarizing it whether this is the place.
So she's got to put it out there. Not quite
going James Harden, She's got one foot out the door,
all right, right, James Harden had in the back.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah. I'd say Darryl
Morey is a lot. But that's you know, she kind
of wants it as well. It feels like she wants it.
She wants to get to someplace else. It's it's it's
I if the Chicago skuy think going forward, we're going
to be a better team and this can work everywhere.
But when you break it down again, I'm sure they
(29:52):
thought about it. Is Okay, she's always going to be
a tough fit in the locker room. If she says
this at the age of twenty three about her teammates,
she's been the league for all of five minutes. Is
it gonna get better? Is she gonna mature as a
leader if she gets older? She hasn't. Okay, what about
our team on the floor. Team was bad last year,
we're worse this year. Okay, what about the coaching staff,
front office? Well, you know she doesn't like it. So
(30:12):
if we bring back the same people, who knows if
she's gonna buy in. Who knows if she's gonna she
likes to say, she likes to talk, so who knows
if what she says is gonna be something that's gonna
reflect on us, and is her talent and is her
star power worth all of that? When if you start winning,
if you make a trade and you bring in a
gun bar to somebody, whoever else you want to bring in,
(30:33):
because it would be star players coming in, and you
start winning, guess what that's gonna get people to come
to right, that's getting everybody to come. You're bringing star player.
That's gonna get people to come watch the games. So
it's not that suddenly it's a I don't even know that.
It's a really difficult decision at this point, it's we
she she If we keep her, this holds back the
entire franchise. We don't know what the future the franchise
is gonna be. And then you know what, it's easier
(30:55):
to start over. We tried it for a couple of years.
Obviously it's not working for you. Clearly you're making it
not work for us. So let's let's figure something you
hundred and seventeen thousand impressions one fourteen hundred retweets an
hour ago on Twitter, I love y'all with a heart
exit out about a fresco. They may have been her
Goodbye to the Chicago Sky. She should have done seth
(31:15):
Rawlins theme song burn it Down. Tell him how to
find out what's trending from someone who's been called the
seth Rawlins of Fox Sports Radio ampion because I watched
her burn a car down the other day.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
Who I did not burn down, burn it I did
not burn a car down, burned.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Tyshirt's car down. You even did the whole movie thing where
you turned in slow motion, walked away and through the
match Tyshirt's car went Why.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
I gonna tell people what I do on my free time?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
And why my car?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Because it was really cool, like the way you could
walk in Here's went up until that. Yeah, well, well
you ever read a car so it matches and you
have all that firewood in the back seat.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
It was just went right up. I was gonna go camping.
You have the wood car.
Speaker 7 (31:59):
You can still go camping.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The wood paneling on the slide went up right away.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
Too any anyway, Packers meet the Commanders for Thursday Night
Football twenty seven to eighteen.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
A couple of injuries in this one though.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
For Green Bay wide receiver Jaden Reid broke his collarbone
from Matt Lafleur.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
He's headed to injured reserve.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
He's going to be out for the foreseeable future, but
they do expect him back this season. For the Commander's
running back, Austin Eckler went down on a non contact
injury was carted to the locker room. They believe he
tore his achilles no official word, but it is believed
to be an achilles injury. Jordan Love controlled the game,
put on a show nineteen of thirty one for two
hundred and ninety two yards and two touchdown passes. One
(32:41):
of them went to Romeo Dobs the other one the
other one went.
Speaker 7 (32:44):
To took A Craft.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Craft had six catches for one hundred and twenty four
yards and one touchdown. Jade and Daniels quarterback for the Commanders,
was twenty four and forty two for two hundred yards
and two touchdowns. In baseball, we've still got one game
going on. Angels and Mariners are tied at four a
piece bottom of the ninth inning in Seattle. Kenley Jensen
on the mound for the Angels, trying to close this out,
(33:07):
but the Mariners now have a man on first base
and they are down to their final two outs. Earlier today,
the Padres defeated the Rockies two zero, Phillies over the
Mets six to four. Mets have lost six in a row.
Guardians edge of the Royals three to two. Aaron Judge
homer twice for the Yankees, bringing his total to forty
six on the season, and they beat the Tigers nine
to three, while the Astros shut out the Blue Jays
(33:28):
earlier today six zero.
Speaker 7 (33:30):
And you were talking.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
About the WNBA, Well, the WNBA playoffs are set.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
So the one seed it's the Links and they're taking
on the eighth seed Valkyries, two seed Aces taking on
the seven seed Storm, third seed Dream taking on the
sixth seed Fever, and the fourth seed Mercury taking on
the fifth seed Liberty.
Speaker 7 (33:50):
Those are the WNBA playoffs set.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Officially Liberty Liberty, Liberty, Liverty, liberty, liverty. Just I've been
seen Monty throw that match, go ty shirt's cargo up,
yet I don't care I don't make heavy metal riff
going on in the background.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
Ye, I don't give a Can we actually do that
and tape that?
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Sure, Yeah, that's you probably have AI do that.
Speaker 7 (34:12):
I don't think we really want to do the real thing,
big home.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I don't think I can get the permits for that.
And we'll apologize after coming up next, get into Thursday
Night Football, not one but two big injuries to break down.
Likely you've seen the last of one of the great
running back careers and maybe now a little bit more
trouble ahead for the Green Bay Packers after what we're
going to say. That's coming up next right here, Jason
(34:37):
and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best friend
Mike Harmon. So, a couple of big injury notes coming
off of TNF and uh the Command do believe that
Austin Eckler did indeed tear's achilles in the second half
of tonight's game, a really awful looking play which he
you know, he peels off the line of scrimmage into
(35:11):
the flat. He's wide open, but Jayden Daniels goes over
the middle and untouched without a player within ten yards
of him. Austin Eckler looks to go, hey, be a
great team, and I'm fifteen yards away from anybody, but
I'm going to try to get in the play and
throw a block Like That's I want people to focus
on that that he is fifteen yards away from everybody,
but here's a play over the middle and he is
(35:33):
trying to bust his ass to get to the middle
of the field to throw a block and just takes
one step and crumples and you could see it. We've
seen achilles injuries like that, you know, for you know,
for the last few years in sports. Unfortunately they're getting
too easy to diagnose. And the commanders do believe that
he tore his achilles, and being thirty, injury prone, likely
(35:53):
obviously missing the rest of this year and who knows
after that. I just want to say, you talk about
success stories in sports, and Austin Eckler is the original
success story. This is a guy that went undrafted right
out of Western Colorado, Western Colorado.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
There that night in San Francisco in twenty seventeen, Week
four of the preseason, when Austin Ecklin made the team.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Wow, you were like you were there.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
When he doesn't have that game in San Francisco against
the Niners that night week four to the preseason, he's
not in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
I mean he he gets in. He has a you know,
a somewhat of a decent rookie year, runs for a
couple hundred yards, he's a he's a good part of
the Chargers offense for a couple of years, third down back.
Then the door really opens for him when Melvin Gordon
holds out five years ago, six years ago. Now, I
remember that, Melvin Gordon got mad at it. He did, Yeah,
(36:49):
he texted, he tweeted at me, Yeah yeah, what are
you saying? Uh, go get your money. That's when his
that's when the door opened for Austin Eckler, and all
of a sudden, it was Wow, this guy's the best
two way running back in the NFL. He's who everybody wants. Now,
a guy that can stand the field three downs, catch
the ball out of the backfield, and run the first
two downs. That's a huge advantage. Gets a big twenty
five million dollar contract with the Chargers again, undrafted guy
(37:13):
out to Western Colorado, who you think, Okay, he's as
low as it can be on the depth chart, and
he works his way up and he's one of the
best running backs for a good four to five year span.
In the NFL second team All Pro year ago right
with a You know when he goes to the Commanders,
when you think, ah, maybe this is the end of
his career. But it's been some run. You want to
talk about a success story about how not giving up
(37:34):
and continuing on. It doesn't matter where you go to school,
it matters what you do when you get that invite
to an NFL training camp like Austin Eckler. Is that
story you want to start singing the real American heroes,
Real American heroes. Now four hundred and seventy eight career
receptions and seventy three total touchdowns averaged four yards four
(37:56):
and a half yards of carry for his NFL career.
It's the the ultimate in the sporting universe of just
keep battling, you will be found. You know, not to
go all dear Evan Hanson on you, but that you
will find your space. And you know it's the lesson
I know you you talk with your daughter in athletic pursuits,
(38:18):
certainly with mine is like all you can do is
control what's in between the white lines. For Austin Eckler
took advantage of an opportunity thirty five million dollars later
on this career and hopefully he can battle back and
get himself back into another locker room. But if this
truly is it, and we know how the running back
situation works across the NFL, and certainly once you hit
(38:41):
thirty that you know people get a little nervous about
it all. But for him, one hell of a career.
He's one of our favorites to watch here. During his
year with the Chargers.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Hey, well, what would didn't he have like a like
one hundred and twenty yards of offense that game? I
remember to talk about yards rushing and fifty eight receiving
yet and it was, oh, hey, maybe this Austin Ekeler
is something. And his twenty nineteen through twenty twenty two
was just insane. Right, this guy he's averaging four and
a half yards of carry, led the NFL in touchdowns
twenty a double digit touchdowns. Also his receptions ninety two
(39:15):
seventy one hundred and seven. Like, you know, this is
somebody that did have heavy usage, right, So there is
that for Austin Eckler. But Fantasy MVP a twenty touchdown
season and eighteen touchdown many years? Was he a top
three pick? Like three four years he was a top
three picking fantasy. You were taking off that hoping he
would stay healthy, And for the most part he had.
One year in twenty twenty he wasn't He wasn't the
(39:36):
healthiest obviously, but other years, yeah, he was dinged up,
but he still played fourteen sixteen games. It's not like
he was he was out a ton. Yeah, it's one
of those fantasy heroes, right, And certainly you and I
have been doing this and the fantasy side long enough.
The guys come and go, and you have a lot
of one year wonders whether they showed up on a
cover of a Madden game or whatever it was. But
(39:59):
I mean, this guy puts a yeah, the one hell
of a career and the way they used him for
all of the misgivings and issues that people have had
with coaching staffs for the Chargers low these many years,
they knew how to utilize this guy. Uh, and and
he did the did the best and on both ends
as a running back and became one of the prototypical
(40:20):
guys that you want at the position.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Jason, knowing him, you should probably pump the brakes on
the whole.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Uh. His career is over well only because look he's
been injured. Yes, he has been And.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
This is anybody that has the will and the termination.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Wait, oh, I know I'm with you one night, because
there's no way you want to go out like this.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
Just look, don't think the Jets are gonna sign him
at one lay fair point.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
We're gonna get rid of Breese Hall and Braylan Allen. Hey,
come on in Austin Eckler. No, I'd love to see
him come back in a year and be a third
down back somewhere else to do it. But it's just
it's really hard when here's a torn achilles that's going
to take you into next season. Maybe, I mean, when's
he gonna be healthy enough to get back on the field.
Being over thirty, it gets really it's it's real. It's
just really difficult. She'd get the one of the few
(41:02):
benefits of getting hurt in week two.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
You got a full season?
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, yeah, no ish. I mean, I'm trying to look
silver linings man, because we're celebrating the guy's career and
his stick to itness and battling from the bowels of
a depth chart to have the career that he did.
Who's to say he can't do it again, but he's
got a long ramp up to do it. Exit out
about at Fresca, exit swollen Dome. So hey, best wishes
to Austin Eckler. What an incredible success story he has
(41:29):
been throughout his career. Coming up next, We've said some
glowing things about the Packers and maybe they're the Super
Bowl favorites right now. However, looks like they're gonna spend
a lot of time without a big important piece of
their offense. That's next, right here, Jason and Mike, this
is Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Let's give this parties.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon, live from the Fox
Sports or Radio studios. Hey, don't forget check out our
brand new YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube dot com
slash at Jasonsmithshow. That's YouTube dot com slash at Jason
(00:50):
Smith Show. Or if you're already within YouTube, just search
Jason Smiths Show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button.
Don't stop there, hit that thumbs up icon. Comment away.
Go check out our brand new channel on YouTube again,
just search Jason Smith Show and subscribe. Mike and I
love bringing this content to you every single night, bringing
the pain nationwide. Let's go well. Thanks to Jay Lazer
(01:12):
for joining a few moments ago. Look obviously nine to eleven,
a day we will never forget. And it's been a
very emotional day. The Yankees, you know, their game earlier
tonight in the Bronx and the story he told us
about dan Quinn that after nine to eleven, dan Quinn
almost left the NFL to join the military, and not
many people know that story, and that was that was
an amazing a few minutes. It's always a great few
(01:33):
minutes fen with Jay Lazer, but sometimes you know when
you get you clearly he's the one responsible for them.
Michaeh Parson's trade to the Packers, You're welcome, NFL. But
that story about dan Quinn was just fantastic. No, we
always get the the x's and o's and the inside
dope on the league, but then it's the personal relationships
why he's been so successful, going all the way back
(01:53):
to the origin story with straighthand and all those guys
with the Giants. He knows these guys on a whole
other level. And every week we get some piece of that,
and this one as we commemorate the anniversary on nine
to eleven and the tragedies and trying to you know,
all these years later, still trying to come together that,
(02:15):
you know, Jay Glazer puts it in perspective with what
he gave us with dan Quinn, I just went for
a little bit of the flippant hey. Dan Quinn could
have given Halfley in the Packers a little advice about
Micah Parsons, you know, tomorrow, and we ended up getting
that absolute goal based on those relationships. Now, we spent
a lot of time a few minutes ago talking about
(02:36):
Micah Parsons, and rightfully so right the guy is for
every reason you want to say, has vaulted the Packers
into probably being the Super Bowl favorites at this point
just because not because well they are the only team
besides the Commanders to play two games. But this is
a Packers defense that has now slowed down to terrific offenses,
a great quarterback and a great all around offense. And
(02:58):
Micah Parson's presence has been everywhere tonight. He affected almost
every single play. Nobody the Commanders weren't comfortable in the pocket.
Daniels wasn't comfortable in the pocket. They never got untracked.
And yeah, the final score seems a little bit closer
than the game was. This is a game that the
Packers had in control throughout. But the flip side of
(03:18):
it is this now, is that you know, a year ago,
at this time, we're saying, man, Jordan Love is ready
to become the next star quarterback in the NFL because
he's coming off that twenty twenty three season, thirty two touchdowns,
you know, taking over the first year for Aaron Rodgers.
And wow, this guy thrown for four thousand yards. He's it, right,
(03:38):
he's it. He's the next great guy. The Packers got
it right. They said goodbye to Aaron Rodgers. They got
it right, right, perfect game in the playoffs against the Cowboys.
He they got it. They got it. Last year was okay,
not great. It wasn't quite as great as the year before. Also,
he was hurt, and he got hurt early on in
the season, right, and that game in Brazil one of
(03:59):
the reasons that when you go back on that field,
it's like, let's just hope that both sides come back
fairly clean bills of health. Yeah, and you don't know
how much that was able to that affected him throughout
the season last year, but clearly it was still a
good season. But it wasn't Hey, he's gonna blow up now, right,
His first year as a starter, he sat for a
couple of years. Watch now, he had a great first year. Okay,
(04:20):
let's see another year like this again. Still a pretty
decent year, but not quite well we expect, but also
gets muted a bit because of the success of your guy,
Josh Jacob's coming over. Fifteen touchdowns from a running back, Yeah,
it does a lot to kind of hammer your ear
does your quarterbacks overall, right, because if five of those
he still has a double digit touchdown yere, but five
(04:41):
of those become passes either to Jacobs out of the
backfield or to the tight end or one of the
ninety seven guys that had four hundred or more receiving
yards a year ago. If he's at thirty touchdowns, that
puts him in rare air because we didn't see many
of those last year.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, right, it's changed, right, we're pulling the strings a
little bit, so coming off it. Okay yah.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Still still still a really good year, but not quite
the year he had in twenty twenty three. Now Here
he is first two weeks of the season and his
quarterback rating of one twenty nine and one fourteen, four touchdowns,
no interceptions, two hundred yards passing Week one, nearly three
hundred yards passing here on a short week in Week
two against the Commanders, and I think it's time to Hey,
(05:23):
we got to make room that Jordan Love is that
guy that he is a top seven ish quarterback in
the NFL right now, that he is going to wind
up being that not quite a bounce back year, but
he's been pretty consistent his first two years and this
might wind up being his best one because Jordan Love.
When they when they first gave him the gig, it was, okay,
(05:43):
who's going to be his number one receiver? Right quarterbacks
need got you know, a young guy coming in. Who's
it going to be? And the Packers kind of did
the same thing the Chiefs have done the last couple
of years, which is, hey, we're gonna keep throwing wide
receivers at you. Uh and if they don't work out
after a year, it doesn't matter. We'll go to somebody else. Right,
And when you have someone like Patrick Mahomes, Okay, one
of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL, you can
(06:04):
do that. And Patrick Mahomes can make it work. You
see what works with Now to do it with a
guy that's only been in the league a year. That's
a heady thing, that's a tough thing to do. But
that's exactly what the Packers have been doing. We're gonna
give you Jayden Reid and Christian Watson and Dontavian Wicks
and now Romeo Romeo Dobbs because now it's Dobbs and
not Dubs and Matthew Golden. Early in the draft this
(06:24):
year and last year you didn't see anybody breakthrough, and
now this year is kind of the same thing. Right, No, Well,
by the way, Tucker Craft, who had the best game
of his career tonight with one hundred and twenty four
yard receiving, almost had as many yards as the Commander's
offense through the first three quarters. I don't know that
it matters with the Packers who the number one receiver is.
(06:44):
The way this offense is styled, it's one of those
every week, it could be somebody different, Right, Jayden Reid,
you think was gonna be the number one guy, but
he got hurt early tonight. Didn't matter, right, You say, Hey,
look at what happened to the Chiefs a week ago.
They lost Xavier Worthy early on in the game and
Travis kel said, everything's out the window. We were so XAVI,
you're worthy heavy, which I understand that the same time. Okay,
(07:07):
well you're still playing and myhomes is still playing. You
got Hollywood Brown, You still okay, you got my homes? Okay,
something homes go Oh that's out at the window. Hey,
Jayden Reid gets hurt. You think he was going to
be a decent part of the game. Playing didn't matter.
He still spread the football around and it's maddening for
every fantasy owner. I get it, I get it. I
don't want anytime someone wants to put a Packers receiver
into a trade with me, I go, no, no craft,
(07:29):
no well receiver involving craft tonight in Wisconsin. Oh yeah no,
that's it flying off the shelves at a buck of box. Yeah,
there will be shells and white cheddar in a craft party.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
So what would you do for at Oh dude, I would,
I would say things.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Would I would stick my head into just eat it
with my mouth like it's a pie eating Contestcuse me
say what. I love macaroni and cheese. I would just
as long as it's not too hot, Like I don't
want to get my face. But if it's a nice
face burn no, no, no, I would that's a badge of
honor do it. But I just had to work so
you'd have like a joker smile. How did you get
those scars? My father? Herror mirror was a fiend mirror. Uh,
(08:15):
but it really didn't matter because you saw that, Hey,
who was the guy? Who's Who's whose matchup? You can
exploit tonight Tucker Craft? Because how many times was Craft
wide open? It's not like you saw a Craft. Well, boy,
that's a tough one handed catch in traffic. This is boy,
he's wide open. This is the further development of Jordan
Love that maybe hey, okay, we saw guys breakout last year,
and Jade and Daniels broke out last year looking to
(08:37):
see who's going to continue their ascension, and we kind
of forgot about Jordan Love after last year because okay,
you didn't really build so much on twenty twenty three.
The Packers weren't better than they were a year ago.
But right now, now you have the defense behind you,
the running game is still going as well as is
Jacob's now over eighty yards of touchdown again every single
week he's in the end zone. Now it maybe it
(08:57):
doesn't matter that the Packers don't have a true number
one wide receiver because each week it could wind up
being somebody different. It's a difficult needle to threat right
and Patrick Mahomes has only been kind of doing it
the last couple of years because he's kind of turned
into a bit of a game manager the last couple
of years. But clearly Jordan Love may be better at
this part of it, at figuring out, hey, I can
(09:17):
make things work for all of these guys a different week,
because there's lots of weeks where nobody has a big
week in Kansas City boy and really struggle throwing the football.
I don't know why with the Packers, it's kind of like, well,
every week it's somebody different, And I think we kind
of been sleeping on Jordan Love a little bit coming
off of last year. But this may be that time
where he just decides, hey, man, don't forget about me.
There's a reason why I was next in Green Bay
(09:38):
and now this is the best team clearly that they've
had since he's been taken over a quarterback because the
addition of Michael Parsons to do that to you and
already really good defense, may become one of the top
three in the league. That's how good they've been so far.
And here he is someone completing over sixty percent of
it passes both first two weeks, quarterback rating really high,
four touchdowns, no turnovers, like this might be the best
(10:01):
version and the best team that he's had in Green Bay.
And this is the big bounce back. You're the big
springboard year for Jordan Low. Yeah, absolute complete roster and
coming into the year, great expectations. They were one of
the more heavily bet and then you add the Micah
Parsons theory and now you've seen it in practice for
two games. And what he does to disrupt what I
(10:23):
didn't think was a great offensive line in Washington and
they but they'd be better with Tunsel, and he made
him look like a rookie on a number of those
rushes he had. You watched just no matter where he
lined up, it was absolutely disruptive. And you never saw
Jaden Daniels really get comfortable at all over the top.
And that'll be curious to see how that offense in
(10:44):
year two, right, because we always had the second half
of a season where Kingsbury's offense drifted. Last year was
the first time that didn't happen, So you're like, all right,
did he get better or is it all Jayden and Daniels.
So let's try to figure out where that is. But
now you've got the loss of Eckler, you already got
rid of Robinson. That offense suddenly may not be a dynamic.
And it takes nothing away from green Bay because we've
(11:05):
seen two dominant efforts and you've got great balance for
Jordan Love. A lot of it becomes the as long
as the guys in the pass catching room all recognize
that on any given Sunday, it's their turn, and we
don't have those issues that we've seen in so many
other locker rooms that crop up going, well, I'm supposed
to be the guy getting eight targets a game, and
(11:26):
I've got to be that guy. Right. They extended Christian Watson.
He's coming back off an acl Remember twenty twenty two,
what a beast he was going down the field that
he was going to be the big jump ball threat
seven touchdowns and then we've seen him just beset by injuries.
But you add Golden you got to keep taking those
shots downfield. Right, eventually, that's gonna work. You had two
(11:48):
plays to him early on that go for incompletions that
should have been massive gains to rival, you know the
greatness that you saw from Tucker Kraft. Instead for the game,
he's got zero in the receiving line on those two targets.
Those are the only two shots they took to them.
They did do them a solid, so you at least
got something in your fantasy lineup with his two carries
(12:09):
for fifteen yards. But think about once that deep ball
starts to connect. Now you're really pulling the strength from
Matt Laflour. You're licking your chops on the other side.
For Halfley, you know, your defense was already a top
ten unit and now you've got the ultimate and disruptors
showing up. Yeah, they're second on the board in the NFC,
and the third team is San Francisco, who we've talked about.
(12:34):
That won't be the case for much longer. They're at
eighteen to one and drifting quickly as Alabama Mac takes
over for the foreseeable future. But for Jordan Love, you
know the sit and wait, there's the argument for it.
Operational efficiency consistency in your coaching staff and trust in
your process. I sixers and then looking at a guy
(12:57):
that now is set up to be the third great
quarterback you've had for thirty years. It's certain teams. I'm like,
come on, really, you go from one guy to the
next guy field guy. Oh, but you've never had a
guy no, no, no, But I'm the guy who's got
to watch these guys bury me time and again. The
ony win they got was when it didn't matter at
(13:18):
the end of last year. Hey, win one for Virginia
on our way out. Too soon for you to complain.
You have the eighty five Bears. Come on, man, that
was just a couple of years ago. You're fine, Hey,
that was Monday night. We commemorated the.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Kids.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Jim McMahon out there and commemorated the eight. In the
year twenty one hundred, they'll be commemorating the Look what
I got a still I got the eighty five Bears
that I'm also commemorating the two thousand and five White Sox.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Jason, go get back on the Johann Durant Express.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
You know, if that was a three D ride at
Universal would be your favorite ex Exit Out Out a
Fresca exit Swallen Dope, Jason Smith, Mike Harbin, I saw
the baseball whiz right past me. More on this game
every time plus two big hot takes coming up next.
Keep it here Happy Thursday Night, Jason and Mike Fox
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Speaker 2 (15:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Hey, what's up everybody?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up
on Game?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Huschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion Yup, that's right, Plexico Buruts.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me, LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman, Zada,
(15:47):
and Plexico Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
From Fox Sports Radio. Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. We got
more from Thursday Night Football coming up in a few minutes,
but a couple of people who either probably or definitely
(16:17):
are on the way out. And the first thing I
want to say is this, he was really big last year.
It was great last year. If the Mets missed the
playoffs this year, there's no way you can bring Carlos
Mendez a back. He'll be the first manager let go
the day after the season ends, because this has just
been an absolute disaster for the Mets, who were the
(16:39):
best team in baseball and now they're one of the
top four worst teams for three months and they just
keep showing up every night, and they look like a
team that's just waiting for something. And this is what's
this is not all of it is obviously the started. Look,
I told you what was going to happen. Hey, all
these guys you're going to start the season was starting
pitcher are great, but they're we're all going to hit
(17:00):
their innings limits in August because I either haven't pitched in
a while, or they've never been a starter before, or
they haven't had any kind of this kind of responsibility.
What's gonna happen when they all hit the wall in August.
That's what happened. They all hit the wall in August.
So you know, I'm a GM from three thousand miles away. Well,
but then you got the the wonder kids or kids, Yeah,
what are we doing with kids? Are great? Kids are great,
the kids, but they're not Savi should have brought them
(17:23):
up a month ago. You waited too long, and I
understand that, but this is so embarrassing. I mean, look,
they're giving away this, but they won't even be in
a playoff spot by the end of the weekend, right
that that's how that's where it's going to go. And
with ten games left they might get eliminated. Yeah nothing
league dude ends up completing eight you you can't even
chase it, That's what I mean. Where you can't bring
Mendoza back if you miss the playoffs because clearly there's
(17:45):
no motivation there, there's no there's there's no creativity, there's
no way to spark the team. Like it's no, we've
hit a line. He's not Mendoes, he's not out there
pitching the Mendoza line is you're fired. But like, there's
certain things a manager can do, whether it's juice the
line up a little bit or something to just bring
a different energy to the team and to the you know,
(18:05):
to the lineup every night. And they can't do it,
and he can't do it. He keeps saying it's on me.
He said after the game tonight, another loss, that this
loss of the Phyllis sweep at the hands of the
Phillies are just absolutely abysmal. For nothing before the Phillies
come to bat and again, yes, you let the other
posing pitcher pitch eight innings. You don't get a hit
after the first innings. It's terrible. I don't even know
if they finish over five hundred, like they look like
they feel like they have quit. They have a little
(18:27):
bit of juice when McLean pitches, when Tong pitches, maybe
when Sprot pitches again, but I mean, come on, man,
this is embarrassed. This is absolutely embarrassing. And I don't
know that it would be much more past the first day,
the day after the regular season, Mets get a new manager,
right because David Seras in year two, he's brought a
lot of talent in. They signed one so to everything
they want to do, they've done. But but I mean,
(18:49):
and you can't get rid of the players. But there's
some kind of different message that needs to be out there.
When you have an August where you set a record
for runs in a month. Your friend Chies record for
runs in a month. They scored over five runs a game,
one hundred and fifty three runs in August, and they
go eleven and seventeen, I mean eleven and seventeen. Like
(19:09):
there's you can't hit the end of a season like
this and not have there be some ramifications. You can't
just hit the end of the season and go Okay,
well it didn't work for us, but eh, all right,
well wait we're worried about Everything's gonna be fine. We'll
back at it. Get him next year because the future
is bright and all our kids are up pitching. No,
there's gotta be some sort of of of repercussions on it,
(19:31):
and that's gonna be The Mets are gonna have a
new manager. But you have all the kids that come
up and they've done their job. You bring back Alonso,
you bring in Juan Soto, who's had one of the
great years that we've seen in Major League baseball. Now
you can decide down distance, you know in which time
lane in length you're looking at and say, well, he
didn't hit well in this two week block whatever, But
(19:52):
the aggregate is there for you that he's done his job. Now,
you got fifteen games left on this schedule. It's at
the thirteenth best schedule remaining according to the old good
folks at Tankathon series against Washington and Miami. Uh. And
then you've got three each against Texas, San Diego and
(20:13):
the Cubs. Yeah, good luck, good luck Cubs who've struggled
through the end of this year. Pete crow Armstrong, what's
spawn a time MVP candidate, Kyle Tucker, same, he's been hurt.
They've been flailing along. San Diego can't get out of
their own way. But it looks like, you know, that's
that's the weekend that they'll figure out, Yeah, how to
get right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it all tonight.
(20:33):
Don't worry about it. Well, it's just tough, right. I mean,
you look at the front of the lineup right now,
Like lind Door can't hit the broad side of a
barn the last two three weeks, and he just shrugs
like no, no, no, like they need you, like you're at
the top of the order in a hotly contested battle
to just stay afloat in the wildcard and you're just
kind of like, ah, what are you gonna do, Like
(20:54):
when he said last night, I don't know. We just
haven't able to find that thing. This year we did
just not we have been able to find that spark. Dude, Jerry,
you're in a wild card position, man, and you have
fifteen seventeen games left. Find it? Find I keep looking,
It's like I can't find it. Keep blocking, keep trying
to find it. Your guy clearly spent plenty of coin
to try to build a winner. You've got a top
(21:15):
heavy lineup when it comes to name recognition in Major
League Baseball, and down the stretch you're getting a bunch
of blanks. Like all you're getting is juice from the rookies.
That's what you do if you're in Tampa. That's what
you do. If you're Cincinnati or one of these squads
trying to just goose a little bit of life into
(21:36):
the back end of the year. Or Colorado. Hey, look,
here's Eric Carross's kid, and I hope he does really well.
But it's like, all right, we're bringing up all the
guys that are impossible major leaguers to get at least
give you something to cheer four in September. That's what
it feels like the Mets have done the last couple
of weeks. It's like, is it strategic for these are
the guys that are gonna push us to No, no, no,
(21:57):
it's like a fuscation. These are the guys that'll be
at the top of your rotation in twenty twenty six. Yeah,
don't look over here anymore this year. I mean, really,
if they don't, if it's a it's such a bad
thing to miss, it's such a bad guy. And two
or three of the worst seasons and most painful seasons
and Mets I've seen in my life the two of
the last three years. So but they're sandwich by a
(22:18):
great year last year. But I mean, really, you still
got the men? Does is not making it? Mendoz is
not making it. You know who else is not making it?
Who's that? Angel Reese is not going to make it
to the Chicago Sky next year? Tonight final night for
a WNBA for team for the Shanna Appreciation Day. Come on,
they lose tonight and Angel Reese goes from her interview
(22:41):
where she threw the entire organization under the bus to
not playing again the rest of the season right now.
She sat out the one game because she got her
eighth technical foul. They decided to suspend her for the
first half of their game Sunday because of her comments
in which she mentioned her teammates name and who doesn't
(23:01):
deserve to come back and what she thinks about other
players trying to come back rip the front office as well.
And she never wound up playing the rest of the way.
And how legitimate is this that they said, oh, her
back injury, Well, she was playing, she was playing. She
played in that game and then she had to sit
out and now you suspended her for the first half.
And I said it at the time, and I hate
(23:22):
to say I told you so. But that day when
that interview came out and she said what she said,
what did I say? This is where the Chicago Sky
are going to debate her worth and value to this
organization and if her talent is worth it. And the
answer is going to surprise you, because what they've done
since they've got her is they were bad last year
(23:44):
and they were worse this year. And and she's one
of the top two players on the team, and yes,
you look and she's a star, and she's a terrific player,
But you get to the point where is Angel Reece
worth it? And I've seen a lot of people having,
you know, coming to her defense the last couple of
days ago. If you knew the Chicago sky and how
(24:04):
how and how bad that is in the front office,
you'd agree with Angel rees No, I'm with you on that.
That's not that's not the that's not the point. I
can hope thou any parallel. We've seen players rip the
front office because they didn't put a good product on
the floor or on the field. We've seen that many times.
Let me said many times, and many times, hey, it's
great players say that. But she went on and took
(24:26):
on her teammates, the women in the locker room with
her who wanted to have a meeting with her because
of what she said. You think, Courtney Vanderslut is too old.
We can't come back with her. The only two people
that should be definitely coming back next year me and
Camilla Cardoso, like, how do you go back into the
locker room after that? And that's just that. I can't
believe she wasn't suspended for the whole season. I can't
believe they they're not gonna announce she's gonna sit for
the rest of the year, right, But she wound up
(24:48):
not being not playing at all. She was with the team.
Uh you know, they said she tried to come out
for warm ups and and and couldn't go the last game.
So she sat today. She didn't even come dressed. Obviously,
end of the sea. You're not going to the playoffs.
But this is Angel Reese and you would want her
to go into the offseason with Hey, if she's gonna
be part of this team, we have some repairing to do,
right if she would beat out there if they felt
(25:10):
that she's gonna be part of the team going forward.
So probably, and not very quietly, they will shop her
because there's gonna be a team that say, yes, we
love Angel Reese. As young as she is talented, look
at what she does. She's the best rebound of the
league has seen, maybe in the last twenty five years. Yeah,
maybe change of pace, But she's got to understand that
she's part of a team here. They will be able
(25:30):
to deal her and get something good for her. But
this is where the Chicago Sky are saying is her
talent worth it? And the answer is gonna be no.
The fact that she has not really been part of
this team over the course of the past week and
a half tells you everything you need to know. I
don't know who it's gonna be. Maybe it's gonna be
a bottom feeder team in the league that needs a
player for some kind of identity. Maybe they train her
the wings, you know, for a player they're already a
(25:52):
bottom feater. Maybe, but what I'm saying is they're not.
You know, it's not like the Liberty or the Aces
are gonna say, yes, hey, we're really good. We're gonna
bring in a play or who was really good. But
she is she worth the trouble and the attention that
she brings off the court. Maybe it's as simple as saying, hey,
you know what, you're going to Dallas. You're gonna work
with Paige Becker's and we're gonna get a Riko gunbalwalle Right,
who now is not getting the shots that she's normally
(26:13):
used to. I don't know, because Page Beckers gets all
the shots in Dallas now right. I'm just I'm just
throwing this out there. It's gonna be teams that need
a fresh start, that need a different mix to try
to go forward. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's
the kind of trade that happens. But judging by the
last week and a half, yeah, Angel Reese is not
gonna be in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yeah, there's a couple of things that have to go on.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
First off, you do the examination front office, whatever grains
of truth might be unearthed in a full review of
your processes, procedures, evaluations, et cetera. Right, you changed the
coaches was that was clearly not popular with Angel Reese
when they got rid of Witherspoon this offseason, So that
(26:53):
was already a latent issue waiting waiting to come up.
You see, she showed up right at final home game today.
Crowd loses their minds, and that's where we start getting
into the business, the business of this all of Well,
you're probably gonna change out a lot of players, Like
I don't I don't have the data in front of me,
but it seems like the rosters kind of bounce quite
a bit. We don't have the same level of continuity
(27:15):
necessarily with a lot of these squads, particularly on the
As we said, the team's on the bottom end of
the standards. Like it's the shuffle up and deal kind
of thing, so you're looking at shoe deals and everything else.
She's box office. Yeah, and the crowd loves it and
Chicago loves her. So all of that to say, you're
gonna go with whatever Cardoso and whoever else is your core.
(27:36):
You're gonna be like, is this a situation that can win?
Because the way this worked, I think it played out.
I really would have thought she would have tried to
give it the old college try, if for nothing else,
maybe anybody that's a fenced straddler would have slid over
to her side, even if just meekly. All right, she
gave it the old college try for the fans in
the final game instead, she had a really good looking fit.
(27:58):
She did come out, She signed a bunch of atographs,
took photos, whatever, So she knows she knows the game
like she she's playing the game. Well, but it's the
I didn't expect them to push her away because again
it was only a game and a half. Yeah, so
like whether she played or not, Like here she shows
up and clearly you got a lot of salty folks,
but you recognize that sometimes. Look in our business, in
(28:20):
most businesses, people are on teams and work with people
they don't particularly like. No, but you can make it work, right,
But it's always something. It's always something to the extent of, hey,
you go your way, I go mine. We're with each
other on the court. She has always been about herself
and everything she does is about herself. And so I
(28:41):
don't know how if she comes back play it out.
Let's say she comes back, there's gonna be changes, right, Sure,
she's gonna come back. You will have elevated her into
being bigger than the team, bigger than the head coach,
bigger than the organization because she says what she says
about her teammates and she gets to stay and you
have to figure stuff out around her. That's a difficult proposition.
(29:01):
And again I would get it if she was such
a big star and they won, right. I understand that.
If she was such a big star and they won
butt in two years with her as one of the
focal points of the team, they've been bad.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
One of the things she did say is she she
openly opined as she did all the stuff with the
team was I don't know if this is long term,
I'm obviously encapsulating and summarizing it whether this is the place.
So she's got to put it out there. Not quite
going James Harden, She's got one foot out the door,
all right, right, James Harden had in the back.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah. I'd say Darryl
Morey is a lot. But that's you know, she kind
of wants it as well. It feels like she wants it.
She wants to get to someplace else. It's it's it's
I if the Chicago skuy think going forward, we're going
to be a better team and this can work everywhere.
But when you break it down again, I'm sure they
(29:52):
thought about it. Is Okay, she's always going to be
a tough fit in the locker room. If she says
this at the age of twenty three about her teammates,
she's been the league for all of five minutes. Is
it gonna get better? Is she gonna mature as a
leader if she gets older? She hasn't. Okay, what about
our team on the floor. Team was bad last year,
we're worse this year. Okay, what about the coaching staff,
front office? Well, you know she doesn't like it. So
(30:12):
if we bring back the same people, who knows if
she's gonna buy in. Who knows if she's gonna she
likes to say, she likes to talk, so who knows
if what she says is gonna be something that's gonna
reflect on us, and is her talent and is her
star power worth all of that? When if you start winning,
if you make a trade and you bring in a
gun bar to somebody, whoever else you want to bring in,
(30:33):
because it would be star players coming in, and you
start winning, guess what that's gonna get people to come
to right, that's getting everybody to come. You're bringing star player.
That's gonna get people to come watch the games. So
it's not that suddenly it's a I don't even know that.
It's a really difficult decision at this point, it's we
she she If we keep her, this holds back the
entire franchise. We don't know what the future the franchise
is gonna be. And then you know what, it's easier
(30:55):
to start over. We tried it for a couple of years.
Obviously it's not working for you. Clearly you're making it
not work for us. So let's let's figure something you
hundred and seventeen thousand impressions one fourteen hundred retweets an
hour ago on Twitter, I love y'all with a heart
exit out about a fresco. They may have been her
Goodbye to the Chicago Sky. She should have done seth
(31:15):
Rawlins theme song burn it Down. Tell him how to
find out what's trending from someone who's been called the
seth Rawlins of Fox Sports Radio ampion because I watched
her burn a car down the other day.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
Who I did not burn down, burn it I did
not burn a car down, burned.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Tyshirt's car down. You even did the whole movie thing where
you turned in slow motion, walked away and through the
match Tyshirt's car went Why.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
I gonna tell people what I do on my free time?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
And why my car?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Because it was really cool, like the way you could
walk in Here's went up until that. Yeah, well, well
you ever read a car so it matches and you
have all that firewood in the back seat.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
It was just went right up. I was gonna go camping.
You have the wood car.
Speaker 7 (31:59):
You can still go camping.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The wood paneling on the slide went up right away.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
Too any anyway, Packers meet the Commanders for Thursday Night
Football twenty seven to eighteen.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
A couple of injuries in this one though.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
For Green Bay wide receiver Jaden Reid broke his collarbone
from Matt Lafleur.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
He's headed to injured reserve.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
He's going to be out for the foreseeable future, but
they do expect him back this season. For the Commander's
running back, Austin Eckler went down on a non contact
injury was carted to the locker room. They believe he
tore his achilles no official word, but it is believed
to be an achilles injury. Jordan Love controlled the game,
put on a show nineteen of thirty one for two
hundred and ninety two yards and two touchdown passes. One
(32:41):
of them went to Romeo Dobs the other one the
other one went.
Speaker 7 (32:44):
To took A Craft.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Craft had six catches for one hundred and twenty four
yards and one touchdown. Jade and Daniels quarterback for the Commanders,
was twenty four and forty two for two hundred yards
and two touchdowns. In baseball, we've still got one game
going on. Angels and Mariners are tied at four a
piece bottom of the ninth inning in Seattle. Kenley Jensen
on the mound for the Angels, trying to close this out,
(33:07):
but the Mariners now have a man on first base
and they are down to their final two outs. Earlier today,
the Padres defeated the Rockies two zero, Phillies over the
Mets six to four. Mets have lost six in a row.
Guardians edge of the Royals three to two. Aaron Judge
homer twice for the Yankees, bringing his total to forty
six on the season, and they beat the Tigers nine
to three, while the Astros shut out the Blue Jays
(33:28):
earlier today six zero.
Speaker 7 (33:30):
And you were talking.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
About the WNBA, Well, the WNBA playoffs are set.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
So the one seed it's the Links and they're taking
on the eighth seed Valkyries, two seed Aces taking on
the seven seed Storm, third seed Dream taking on the
sixth seed Fever, and the fourth seed Mercury taking on
the fifth seed Liberty.
Speaker 7 (33:50):
Those are the WNBA playoffs set.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Officially Liberty Liberty, Liberty, Liverty, liberty, liverty. Just I've been
seen Monty throw that match, go ty shirt's cargo up,
yet I don't care I don't make heavy metal riff
going on in the background.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
Ye, I don't give a Can we actually do that
and tape that?
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Sure, Yeah, that's you probably have AI do that.
Speaker 7 (34:12):
I don't think we really want to do the real thing,
big home.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I don't think I can get the permits for that.
And we'll apologize after coming up next, get into Thursday
Night Football, not one but two big injuries to break down.
Likely you've seen the last of one of the great
running back careers and maybe now a little bit more
trouble ahead for the Green Bay Packers after what we're
going to say. That's coming up next right here, Jason
(34:37):
and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best friend
Mike Harmon. So, a couple of big injury notes coming
off of TNF and uh the Command do believe that
Austin Eckler did indeed tear's achilles in the second half
of tonight's game, a really awful looking play which he
you know, he peels off the line of scrimmage into
(35:11):
the flat. He's wide open, but Jayden Daniels goes over
the middle and untouched without a player within ten yards
of him. Austin Eckler looks to go, hey, be a
great team, and I'm fifteen yards away from anybody, but
I'm going to try to get in the play and
throw a block Like That's I want people to focus
on that that he is fifteen yards away from everybody,
but here's a play over the middle and he is
(35:33):
trying to bust his ass to get to the middle
of the field to throw a block and just takes
one step and crumples and you could see it. We've
seen achilles injuries like that, you know, for you know,
for the last few years in sports. Unfortunately they're getting
too easy to diagnose. And the commanders do believe that
he tore his achilles, and being thirty, injury prone, likely
(35:53):
obviously missing the rest of this year and who knows
after that. I just want to say, you talk about
success stories in sports, and Austin Eckler is the original
success story. This is a guy that went undrafted right
out of Western Colorado, Western Colorado.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
There that night in San Francisco in twenty seventeen, Week
four of the preseason, when Austin Ecklin made the team.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Wow, you were like you were there.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
When he doesn't have that game in San Francisco against
the Niners that night week four to the preseason, he's
not in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
I mean he he gets in. He has a you know,
a somewhat of a decent rookie year, runs for a
couple hundred yards, he's a he's a good part of
the Chargers offense for a couple of years, third down back.
Then the door really opens for him when Melvin Gordon
holds out five years ago, six years ago. Now, I
remember that, Melvin Gordon got mad at it. He did, Yeah,
(36:49):
he texted, he tweeted at me, Yeah yeah, what are
you saying? Uh, go get your money. That's when his
that's when the door opened for Austin Eckler, and all
of a sudden, it was Wow, this guy's the best
two way running back in the NFL. He's who everybody wants. Now,
a guy that can stand the field three downs, catch
the ball out of the backfield, and run the first
two downs. That's a huge advantage. Gets a big twenty
five million dollar contract with the Chargers again, undrafted guy
(37:13):
out to Western Colorado, who you think, Okay, he's as
low as it can be on the depth chart, and
he works his way up and he's one of the
best running backs for a good four to five year span.
In the NFL second team All Pro year ago right
with a You know when he goes to the Commanders,
when you think, ah, maybe this is the end of
his career. But it's been some run. You want to
talk about a success story about how not giving up
(37:34):
and continuing on. It doesn't matter where you go to school,
it matters what you do when you get that invite
to an NFL training camp like Austin Eckler. Is that
story you want to start singing the real American heroes,
Real American heroes. Now four hundred and seventy eight career
receptions and seventy three total touchdowns averaged four yards four
(37:56):
and a half yards of carry for his NFL career.
It's the the ultimate in the sporting universe of just
keep battling, you will be found. You know, not to
go all dear Evan Hanson on you, but that you
will find your space. And you know it's the lesson
I know you you talk with your daughter in athletic pursuits,
(38:18):
certainly with mine is like all you can do is
control what's in between the white lines. For Austin Eckler
took advantage of an opportunity thirty five million dollars later
on this career and hopefully he can battle back and
get himself back into another locker room. But if this
truly is it, and we know how the running back
situation works across the NFL, and certainly once you hit
(38:41):
thirty that you know people get a little nervous about
it all. But for him, one hell of a career.
He's one of our favorites to watch here. During his
year with the Chargers.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Hey, well, what would didn't he have like a like
one hundred and twenty yards of offense that game? I
remember to talk about yards rushing and fifty eight receiving
yet and it was, oh, hey, maybe this Austin Ekeler
is something. And his twenty nineteen through twenty twenty two
was just insane. Right, this guy he's averaging four and
a half yards of carry, led the NFL in touchdowns
twenty a double digit touchdowns. Also his receptions ninety two
(39:15):
seventy one hundred and seven. Like, you know, this is
somebody that did have heavy usage, right, So there is
that for Austin Eckler. But Fantasy MVP a twenty touchdown
season and eighteen touchdown many years? Was he a top
three pick? Like three four years he was a top
three picking fantasy. You were taking off that hoping he
would stay healthy, And for the most part he had.
One year in twenty twenty he wasn't He wasn't the
(39:36):
healthiest obviously, but other years, yeah, he was dinged up,
but he still played fourteen sixteen games. It's not like
he was he was out a ton. Yeah, it's one
of those fantasy heroes, right, And certainly you and I
have been doing this and the fantasy side long enough.
The guys come and go, and you have a lot
of one year wonders whether they showed up on a
cover of a Madden game or whatever it was. But
(39:59):
I mean, this guy puts a yeah, the one hell
of a career and the way they used him for
all of the misgivings and issues that people have had
with coaching staffs for the Chargers low these many years,
they knew how to utilize this guy. Uh, and and
he did the did the best and on both ends
as a running back and became one of the prototypical
(40:20):
guys that you want at the position.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Jason, knowing him, you should probably pump the brakes on
the whole.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Uh. His career is over well only because look he's
been injured. Yes, he has been And.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
This is anybody that has the will and the termination.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Wait, oh, I know I'm with you one night, because
there's no way you want to go out like this.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
Just look, don't think the Jets are gonna sign him
at one lay fair point.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
We're gonna get rid of Breese Hall and Braylan Allen. Hey,
come on in Austin Eckler. No, I'd love to see
him come back in a year and be a third
down back somewhere else to do it. But it's just
it's really hard when here's a torn achilles that's going
to take you into next season. Maybe, I mean, when's
he gonna be healthy enough to get back on the field.
Being over thirty, it gets really it's it's real. It's
just really difficult. She'd get the one of the few
(41:02):
benefits of getting hurt in week two.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
You got a full season?
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, yeah, no ish. I mean, I'm trying to look
silver linings man, because we're celebrating the guy's career and
his stick to itness and battling from the bowels of
a depth chart to have the career that he did.
Who's to say he can't do it again, but he's
got a long ramp up to do it. Exit out
about at Fresca, exit swollen Dome. So hey, best wishes
to Austin Eckler. What an incredible success story he has
(41:29):
been throughout his career. Coming up next, We've said some
glowing things about the Packers and maybe they're the Super
Bowl favorites right now. However, looks like they're gonna spend
a lot of time without a big important piece of
their offense. That's next, right here, Jason and Mike, this
is Fox Sports Radio.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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