August 8, 2026 • 30 mins
Mike Harmon and Aaron Torres were dropping knowledge on the upcoming College Football Season. And things are heating up in the desert as tempers flared during a Raiders’ training camp practice!
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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 3 (00:28):
Gratings and welcome in. Get those fours up hour four
of the program here on a late Friday night into
Saturday morning wherever however you're listening. Thank you for being
part of our extended family, giving us a few minutes
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(00:48):
I may just be that little voice in the back
of your head, do the right thing, treat yourself well,
and you know, do all those great things. Go one
to know today. Eric torras In for Jason Smith and
I at Aaron Underscore Torres is where you find him.
You hear him Saturday nights here alongside Jason Martin building
media empire. So check that out at Aaron Underscore Torus
(01:10):
for everything he's got cooking. As we get ready for
a big football season. We had the Hall of Fame game.
We heard from Mike Lafloor getting excited about his rookie quarterback.
And look, it was a thirty three to thirty game.
We talk about overreactions. That's all we got. We got
one game. So I was getting excited about Kirk Cousins
(01:30):
and Max Crosby getting into it a little bit at
Raiders camps like I need some juice. Right. It's why
Dak Prescott calling it the greatest offense there is, Okay, cool,
It's it's little stories that give us little bread breadcrumbs
that will open it ultimately get us to opening day.
But we still have a long road to traverse. There
(01:50):
many a weary mile, many miles on treadmills and highways
and byeways nationwide, a lot of back to school celebrations
and tiers all in the those things leading us to
more great football.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
We're a lot closer than we were though.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
I mean, it is amazing, and I know we're gonna
switch gears to college football here in half a second.
But like we had with college football, we had those
two media days, we had the sec back, you know,
where there was some story every single day, John Summer,
I'm gonna throw the podium at you whatever. And then
of course big ten media days last week with Kurt
(02:25):
Signetti and it was like, oh, we are so close.
And then you look at the calendar. We're still even
now three full weeks until week zero and we are
still or right, you know, tomorrow will be twenty eight
days till that first full Saturday a college football. So
it's so close, way closer than it was, but not
as close as it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, we had a quote from one of the coaches
last week talking about no no distractions, no dogs, no cats,
no whatever else.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
But that's where we're I think it was Auburn's coach.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, I believe that is correct. Right, So you have
this build up where we get the press and media
days and everybody's raw. Ra's like, nope, now you gotta
wait wait a little more. So let those just date,
let's get the coaches pull out, let's get some of
these other things out, and as you alluded to, we
get into the larger let's wrap our arms around it
(03:18):
because every year we do it with the NFL. As
you're trying to set your fantasy rankings. We're trying to
figure out what the pluses and minuses in your algorithm
are of additions and subtractions on either side of the ball.
What's a strength of schedule and how do you really
properly calculate it for a season that's not been played.
It's been simulated in the Madden headquarters and elsewhere a
(03:41):
million times, but how do we get there? And that's
where we have the latest from rhtt Lashley, your SMU
head coach, and he's talking about his alma mater off
of something called the ESPN FPI. And this is not
to take a dig at a rival network. In the end,
we're all putting information into the air. Use it, dismiss it,
(04:04):
categorize it, put it where you want in your files
as you go through. I'm not getting into the slap
fighting of you know, whether the acronym is something that
you can say on errors or not. But it's all
information and you choose to do with it. When, especially
when we start getting into rankings and stuff, that's where
I kind of chuck. We talked about the quarterback tiers.
(04:25):
Mike Sando was on the network a couple of times,
and it's a lot of work, and it's a lot
of people that comment and vote for it. So I
don't dismiss their time and where you're going to, but
you take from it what you will. You as a
fan fantasy owner going out to the bar or the
water cooler at your workplace with your friends to kind
of talk about, wow, they ranked this guy low, like,
(04:46):
you know, the top one hundred that's going out, the
top one hundred players, Patrick mahomes twenty six? Well is
he still really twenty six? Doesn't he have to prove it?
Speaker 6 (04:54):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And those are great arguments for some. For me, it's
all right, cool, yep, talk amoungst yourselves and we'll talk
about the player, the team, and what's around him coming
into the year. But lastly, looking at the ESPN FPI,
so strength of schedule and looking at Powerhouse rankings. This
(05:16):
was his response when he saw where his Alma Maters ranked.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
When we start in crossing over into FPI or strength
of schedule, things that are gonna determine who gets in
the playoffs. And we want to say we know these
twenty teams have the hardest strength of schedule. It's impossible
like no offense to Arkansas. They can't have the hardest
strength of schedule in America to start the season because
no one's played a game. We don't even know who's good,
(05:40):
so we don't know what a good and an easy
schedule is right now.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, the hard part for some of it is you
take it with a grain of salt. That's something you
and I were talking a little bit off air, is
if you have the broadcast rights to a network, does
the coefficient go up a little bit in each piece
of your algorithm? Because we look at the toughest schedules
for the ESPN FBI, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Ole, miss
(06:10):
Mississippi State, Florida. There's your first seven and the Ohio
state comes in at number eight before you get A
and M, South Carolina, LSU, and onward we.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Go, yeah and so exactly what you just said. So
and listen, it's just a fun debate in general. But
what rhet lastly the head coach is saying from SMU
is a couple things. Is one, first of all, the
FBI is an ESPN based algorithm, and so his argument is,
(06:41):
to your your point, the first seven quote unquote toughest
schedules are all SEC teams, and as we know again
were we understand that we work for Fox and we
get all that. But ESPN owns the entire SEC. Every
SEC game is played on their network, so it behooves
them to, you know, to hype up that conference. But
(07:02):
I think a couple of things. One his larger point
of how can you create strength of schedule when no
one has played a game? He also tweeted this back
in late July around the Media Days, was basically saying,
especially in this era when to the point you've made
a few times, Mike, there's so much turnover on these
rosters it's impossible to know. But I think this speaks
(07:25):
to the public in general is tired of the SEC
being pushed down our throats. And again this is a
perfect point of well, when you have all these teams
ranked off of again a computer algorithm that is going
off last year with no actual metrics to determine what
(07:48):
is going to happen this year, then it's basically I'm
talking too much, but it preskews the perception of the
season right and so now all of us, sudden teams
are are over ranked in the preseason. So when they
start playing each other, oh my goodness, this team beat
that team, so it's a great win. Then you find
(08:09):
out that that team isn't very good to begin with.
I think two things are true. We all love preseason
polls and rankings, whether it's Mike Sando, the coach's poll,
the AP pole that's gonna come out because it gives
us something to talk about, not even people in sports
talk but fans in general. But it is also just
entirely speculation. And I give credit to another coach for
(08:32):
pushing back specifically on the SEC in this case.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No, And that's the beauty of it, right, It's all
into the nebula. And I remember Gil Brandt. Jason tells
the story repeatedly, like he was doing columns when he
was working over an NFL network. They'd have him do
a preview of a division or something for the NFL,
and gil Brandt at some point tapped him on the
shoulder and said, but what's your system?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Hmm? Interesting?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And that's like how the sausage is made, right, what's
the algorithm to get to this end? Because when we
go down this path and heavy SEC and if we
look at last year, right, if we take it off
twenty twenty five, and then this is where it's fun
and where it's fuzzy math from the SEC media days
into the Big ten and chestiness and going back and
(09:17):
forth right, google me, I win, Signetti and everything else.
For the SEC, for the longest time, it was about
the titles, and now that they've lost several years in
a row, it's no longer about the title. Let's look
to our depth of conference. Last year, they had nine
teams in conference at five hundred or better, two of
which were four and four Missouri and Tennessee. That leaves
(09:40):
us with seven teams that had three or fewer wins,
including Arkansas, who wash to eight. By the way, so
is that because they're terrible that it looks harder? Is that?
Is that what I take from it? It's really hard
that because they're going to be predicted to win no games.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Well, and it's it's to that point of your arguing
that your bottom is better, it's not, that's the thing, like,
it's not even a real argument to your point. Arkansas
finishes zero to eight in the SEC. Last year, Auburn
finishes one and seven. Guess who their won win was against?
It wasn't Texas or Georgia. It was Arkansas. By the way,
(10:19):
Kentucky wins two SEC games. Guess who they were against,
Florida and Alburn, who were both terrible. So I could
go on and on down the list. But like I said,
I think people are tired of it. And again looking
at this FPI, to your point, the first seven are
SEC teams. The first let's see here, this is insane.
Fourteen of the first fifteen teams are SEC teams. And
(10:41):
so you know, people just get tired of it. And
you know you brought up Missouri and Tennessee a second
ago finishing four and four. How about this first that Mike,
Neither of those teams finished with a win last year
against a team that finished above five hundred. So I'm
talking about Missouri Tennessee. So that was the middle that
(11:01):
everybody loved in the SEC. And so, like I said,
I think people are starting to open up their eyes.
And I do think because they don't have the championships
to back it up, it now gives someone like rhet
Lashly more confidence to say, you know what, I'm speaking
my truth and I'm speaking the truth.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
And I think, by the way, very random.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
But it's kind of important for rhet lashly that this
narrative isn't established early because SMU, on paper, according to
the coaches Pull, if you believe the coaches pol Matters,
is the second best team in the ACC and could
be competing with that third, fourth, fifth, sixth team in
the SEC for an at large spot in the College
Football Playoff.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah. I'm all for chaos and things to argue about.
And if you're a coach in this day and age
in college basketball and college football, you've got to be
just this side of a WWE wrestling Marriager. It is
completely about, Hey, come down to the Civic Center on
Saturday and watch me kick this guy's ass. Because that's the.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Only way we still talk about signetti of Google me
I win. We still talk about it three years later.
But that's it.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Like it's one liners. It's quick little hits, but trying
to get to the element of truth of hey, you
can win over with us. That's not the only game
in town. No matter what a network or their coaches
and their mouthpieces, they're out in their loudest right Paul
Fine BAM's been doing this forever. Sure has the voice
(12:29):
of your sec and no matter how much evidence is
stacked against him about the the equality of Ohio State
or Michigan or this Oregon team coming in this year,
guess what, They're not going to be ranked at the
top of his board. It's just not good for business.
It's better to argue the counter and so like it's
(12:50):
it's our era of hot take nonsense ranking style. Sure
a lot of ways, but for coaches like Lashly another,
as you're trying to fight for a scrap in the
transfer portal in the nil world, you've got to make
your voice heard. And maybe that just cuts through enough
(13:10):
to where there's cracks in a team in what they've done.
Oh yeah, and twenty twenty six is not twenty twenty three,
is not twenty twenty whatever. And maybe just maybe you've
got a shot at that guy in state that you
would have lost years ago. Well, maybe you've got that
shot at a guy who's maybe a tear up in
your star ratings for those national rankings. That'll give you
(13:34):
a listen because you went at the big guys we
are trying to establish.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
And I think, how do you get those guys? Even
if you're winning, you're battling the perception that the ACC
is inferior, and maybe the AEC is inferior. But again,
you could be eleven and one on the final day
of the season. You know, let's say hypothetically, you're really good,
but you lose to Miami, say in the ACC championship game.
Now you're battling that ten to Alabama team for a
(14:02):
playoff spot. And again it comes down to is Alabama
actually better or did we just like them more in
August than they've been writing that reputation since then. So
I give them credit for speaking out. I'll tell you this, man,
I mean, to the point that we've made football is close,
but it isn't here yet. And this was probably, frankly
the biggest story in college football of the day for
(14:24):
a day. And I know it's a Friday in August
and it doesn't mean anything once the games kick off,
but SMU's football coach made headlines and made waves in
an otherwise slow time.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
So yeah, the attempt to climb a lot harder than
if you're established at the top, right, because you're gonna
get a lot of opportunities and a lot of grace,
particularly if you lose a game or two early, especially
the way this is now structured, as opposed to trying
to come from outside that top twenty five to state
your case, because then the question about your strength to
(14:55):
schedule is always going to.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Be higher, and it's it's battling those preconceived notions. And
I think back to the original point. Listen, we all
rank things because it's fun to have something to talk
about in August. But to his point, how can you
know whose schedule is going to be toughest before a
(15:17):
game was played, especially again in this era where stuff
changes so quick? And again I'm going quick, you know,
a little side tangent, but go back to last year
LSU preseason top ten team. They looked good on a
piece of paper, probably in an FPI situation a year ago,
they weren't good once the games were played. Penn State
(15:38):
the same thing. So we're not making it just an
SCC thing. And so we all love preseason rankings because
it gives us something to talk about. But I think
the larger point of how do we actually know who
is good? And these polls that are coming out now
are going to define the narrative heading into the season.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
I think it's totally fair for him to push back.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
On fantastic as we're talking college football. See, we're getting
jacked up as football is imminent. At Aaron Underscore Tours
is where you find him in For Jason Smith tonight,
find me over at two Oldome Aeron'll be on air
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Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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Speaker 3 (16:57):
I hate that song.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Hey, welcome back in.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with me and
Mike Carmen. There's no Jason tonight, it's Aaron Torres in
his stet at Aaron Underscore Torres find me over at
Swollen Dome chime in at Fox Sports Radio. Earlier, I
posted the list of quarterbacks that Jason cole Are Esteem
Guest Hall of Fame voter put up of quarterbacks Hall
(17:19):
of Fame consideration. One of the leaders in the clubhouse
Ben Roethlisberger because he'll be on the pallet next year,
which is amazing, because that's five years, real fast, people,
that's how fast it goes, Just like that, and you
start pondering the sands of time. You'll have Keithley, you'll
have Fitzgerald, you'll have Drew Brees going in and all
(17:40):
of that process, and a guy that's a future Hall
of Famer Aaron to Kit put it back on the field.
We talked about it a little bit with Todd Furman
earlier in this vein, talking about the Los Angeles Rams
and the inevitability that Aaron Donald's eventually showing up on
a sideline, eventually strapping on the helmet for real, because
he had to do it for the purposes of their
(18:02):
workout the other day, which meant he showed up in
the tryout bin. In terms of lead transactions that you
have to record that he did a try out and
Sean McVay had a bunch of chuckles about it and
everything else. But when we look at the presumptive favorite
that you have, it still comes back to the thirty
eight no pun intended, thirty eight year old back of
(18:23):
Matthew Stafford who welcomed friend of his long standing. I
don't know if you know this, but he and Clayton
Kershaw go back a minute.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
They went to high school together. I think I read
that somewhere. I'm not totally positive. I'd have to look
into it a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
It might have popped up in the timeline once or twice.
But when we look at the rams, Puka Dakua, at
least in the moments and in the outward thinking, seems
like he's found a new headspace whatever he changed his agency.
I don't know if you saw that. You caught that one. Yeah,
that's for those that missed that. Folks that have been
with him and helping him and whatever else. They're gone
(19:00):
with everything he had going on off field, but he's
set for a massive payday. You have a couple of
other skill position guys in the offing as well. But
when we look at the defense as currently constructed, and
that's before Donald walks back on the field. You're talking
about a top unit. And that's with Jared Vers leaving
town that you're still talking about that depth on your
(19:22):
defensive line and offensively just weaponry all around. But it
all is predicated on Matthew Stafford and the guys behind
when we start talking about Simpson and the backup quarterbacks.
But you know, out here in Los Angeles, it's almost
the people I've talked to, they're more excited about the
(19:44):
other side of town. It's like, yeah, the Rams are
gonna be good, we know this, but the Chargers maybe
just maybe as like, okay, I like wishing and hoping, right,
we just had baseball trade deadline with a lot of
prospects flying around, But this is one of those there
are no sure things in life. But these Rams, again,
(20:04):
unless Matthew Stafford's backfalls apart, suddenly, they're gonna be pretty
damn good.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
They're gonna be good. But yeah, I just you know,
I don't know. I mean, thirty eight year quarterback dealt
with the back injury last year, and again even in
their own division, you have two really good teams and
trust me. We all know what's going on with the
San Francisco forty nine ers. Forty nine ers have had
success against them, and I here's the other thing about
(20:31):
the Rams, and I'm just trying to make the argument
for why it's a little bit overhyped. Okay, so listen,
do I think they're going to win the Week one
game in Melbourne?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
I was hoping you were gonna do a full strength
of schedule coming off of the Well, I'm not discussion
that we just had it.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well listen, the Rams have the seven
toughest strength to schedule preseason.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
No.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
But but I will say, like I think most people
probably expect them to win that game. Given the forty
nine ers injuries, including their head coach. I still think
if he has concussion like symptoms, I find it hard
to believe they're gonna let him fly basically twenty four
hours around the world whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Still have a lot of questions about that entire situation.
Shot so much about the reporting, but the police work
and how, at least for a short period of time,
everybody let that it's crazy and wear it.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Yeah, no, it was. It was a weird story.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
What I was gonna say about the Rams though, whoever
loses that game, and I know the Rams won't play
again until the following Monday nights, so they're gonna have
the extra day of rest as opposed to the forty
nine ers. But if the forty, if the Rams lose
that game, I could see it really hard to build
back up momentum, even against a pretty soft schedule. You
(21:46):
play Monday Night against the Giants, but then it's immediately
Brocos Eagles Bills, and so I could just see it
going a little sideways really quick. I'm not gonna sit
here and say, oh, you know, they're gonna be a catastrophe. Whatever,
They're going to be in the mix, but it just
it feels like everyone's given them a little too much
hype and credit going into the season.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
No certain lanman like it's games aren't played on paper,
all the euphemisms, all the cliches. As you go through
and as we talked about, you have the reigning MVP, who,
if you were to believe the report's last preseason, wasn't
going to be able to walk by week six and
lo and behold, there he is winning the MVP. And
(22:29):
we talk about some but ifs and butts in terms
of home field advantage or whatever else. But that's why
you play the games. They're at eleven and a half
over under total as we look at it. One of
the interesting little tidbits that came out is that the
Rams are are not going to arrive until just before
(22:51):
kickoff for the game in Australia, whereas the forty nine
ers going out a full nine days ahead of time.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Wow, what do you think that? What do you think
about that? I could actually make the argument for both sides.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I'm curious for your perspective.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I think it's the the ladder. I think I go
to the Rams side of it. And again, each team,
each coach, they've dealt with different lengths of travel and whatever.
But I think the idea of get in, do our
work and go home works better for me. Yeah, because
your body will recover in the next week and a
(23:25):
half before week two.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Yeah, I could see both sides.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And I could see the fort niners getting there too
early and just being ready to go.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Home because everything in Australia wants to kill you. Oh okay,
any animal?
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Yeah, forget the Rams, how about the how about the
Wallabies and the Kangaroos? No, I just I could see
the scenario of just being there too long and being like,
we want to go home. But then the RAMS I
could see the opposite of listen, traveling body clocks are
a real thing. I mean, you're I believe you're either.
I know your daughter's flying east, but I.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Think, yeah, go and I'll be back. I gotta go
to Boise in a two weeks time.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Yeah, I'm saying, as somebody who did the West to
East not too long ago, that's a real thing. It
screws you up and let alone twenty four hours. So
I'm just saying, I see both sides. I see the
RAMS perspective, I see the forty nine ers perspective. I
see the positives and negatives to both sides on each side.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Whoever wins, we're gonna blame it at exactly right. It's
already already made logic point for all of it. Now,
something we started the show with. We got a couple
of great notes from folks. Danny g who you know,
the Cavino and Rich producer. He was leaving and you
know anytime we're gonna talk Raiders, he got excited, so
he was texting me. He's like I love it the
(24:43):
little scuffle Cousins and Crosby. That's fun, right, two veterans
getting after it. Obviously, kirk Cousins will apologize and move
on for his part of the matter, but it's hitting
that point even though it's been a couple of weeks
of you need to see other helmets. We'll see more
of these, you know, scheduled practices and joint practices here
(25:06):
in short order. But Kirk Cousins is the order of
the day. And we've been talking about it a lot,
and it it warrants as we get into this next
weekend now that we have the Hall of Fame game
in the rear view of talking about the expectations for
this Raiders squad. While we're working out west talking about
the Rams, let's move to the AFC side of things.
(25:26):
You've got Mahomes coming back for Kansas City. You look
at the Denver Broncos, assuming bo Nix's back and recovered
from that injury that ended the season, that you expect
Denver to be strong. They four to five things added
to their receiving core with Waddell et cetera. And then
(25:50):
you're you're just you're chasing if you're the Raiders, so
you have this big question. Mark didn't mean to dismiss
the Chargers, but we'd already ended them a little bit.
But we look at the Raiders and Kirk Cousins expected
to start, and his quote was, I'm trying to keep
the job as long as I can, sure, Mike, which
(26:11):
I like. Right, you're old. You know this is probably
your last starting run. Not a ton of money on
the contract. So if Mendoza comes along nicely enough, guys
get hurt, maybe he finds himself in another uniform. I
think Jacoby Brissett out of Arizona as a far more
likely candidate for that to happen. But for Kirk Cousins
to start things with the Raiders, they're over under his
(26:33):
five and a half wins. Their offensive line is the
one big question, no doubt to this whole thing. I mean,
Estan genty last year was really good on those ten
percent of carries. He didn't get hit in the backfield. Sure, sure,
So for the Raiders, they've got that decision to make
because I you know, as we talked with Jason Cole
a little bit earlier, and you and I chopped it
(26:54):
up as the show began, like the Fernando Mendoza thing
is real, And it goes back to the college station
as well, when you're trying to talk about strength of
schedules whatever, and he came from cal to a team
that was a playoff team, But how much was he
in additive and he ends up winning the Heisman? They going,
you know, it's totally fair into history. So same thing
here as that level of anticipation, especially if you're so thirsty,
(27:18):
literally living in the desert in Las Vegas, you want
to see the shiny new toy.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
But I'm surprised at how many people don't.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And you know, we did speak to Danny g but
I've heard from other Raiders fans who they've dealt with
twenty five plus years of losses at this point, another
four to five weeks to figure, you know, to let
Fernando Mendoza ease in.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
They don't seem to mind.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
And I was under the impression of you've waited all
these years to try to get the franchise quarterback. I
would have thought there would have been more of a
thirst to play him week one, but it doesn't feel
like that's the case. But I also think a big
part of it is exactly what you said. When the
O line is pacifly a weakness, maybe you're not as
eager to run out what we believe to be and
(28:05):
what we hope to be the franchise quarterback going for.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Obviously you four to five things in the middle because
you bring in Linderbaum, pay him a king's ransom as
your center. The problem is he can't be multiplied by five.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So we're waiting to see you've got Millard, Burford, Powers
Johnson and Glaize running across that offensive line. But last
year that was the big liability. And I mentioned the
genty stats because so many people rushed for him in
the fantasy world and then we heard about it all
(28:40):
the time and certainly in the message boards and on
Twitter whatever. He was getting absolutely decimated based on his
overall output. It's like, go watch a game, Go watch
how many times this guy got the ball and was
flattened before he had a chance to even think about
turning up field. Now, were there cuts he missed? Absolutely?
(29:00):
Where there are things he could have done better, Yes,
But when you become routinely used to getting hammered as
you're trying to secure the football. All bets are off,
so I get any quarterback right. If you're used to
having argument, right.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
That's the argument against play Mendoza week one?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
So why why Russia guy? If you don't need to
you know what we're gonna finish up. We'll talk about
the Raiders from a cinematic.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Oh, I know where.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I know where you're going with this before we get
out of here, because a big decision was made as well.
What does that say about the movie? To come at
Aaron Underscore Torres is where you find it. Find me
over at Swollen Doum.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
That's right, You can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
again YouTube, just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, we close up shop with one of the greatest
actors of all time and his latest movie, which is going.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Straight streaming.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
We'll do that next up, Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Gratings and welcome in. Get those fours up hour four
of the program here on a late Friday night into
Saturday morning wherever however you're listening. Thank you for being
part of our extended family, giving us a few minutes
of your time here at Fox Sports Radio the iHeartRadio
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(00:48):
I may just be that little voice in the back
of your head, do the right thing, treat yourself well,
and you know, do all those great things. Go one
to know today. Eric torras In for Jason Smith and
I at Aaron Underscore Torres is where you find him.
You hear him Saturday nights here alongside Jason Martin building
media empire. So check that out at Aaron Underscore Torus
(01:10):
for everything he's got cooking. As we get ready for
a big football season. We had the Hall of Fame game.
We heard from Mike Lafloor getting excited about his rookie quarterback.
And look, it was a thirty three to thirty game.
We talk about overreactions. That's all we got. We got
one game. So I was getting excited about Kirk Cousins
(01:30):
and Max Crosby getting into it a little bit at
Raiders camps like I need some juice. Right. It's why
Dak Prescott calling it the greatest offense there is, Okay, cool,
It's it's little stories that give us little bread breadcrumbs
that will open it ultimately get us to opening day.
But we still have a long road to traverse. There
(01:50):
many a weary mile, many miles on treadmills and highways
and byeways nationwide, a lot of back to school celebrations
and tiers all in the those things leading us to
more great football.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
We're a lot closer than we were though.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
I mean, it is amazing, and I know we're gonna
switch gears to college football here in half a second.
But like we had with college football, we had those
two media days, we had the sec back, you know,
where there was some story every single day, John Summer,
I'm gonna throw the podium at you whatever. And then
of course big ten media days last week with Kurt
(02:25):
Signetti and it was like, oh, we are so close.
And then you look at the calendar. We're still even
now three full weeks until week zero and we are
still or right, you know, tomorrow will be twenty eight
days till that first full Saturday a college football. So
it's so close, way closer than it was, but not
as close as it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, we had a quote from one of the coaches
last week talking about no no distractions, no dogs, no cats,
no whatever else.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
But that's where we're I think it was Auburn's coach.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, I believe that is correct. Right, So you have
this build up where we get the press and media
days and everybody's raw. Ra's like, nope, now you gotta
wait wait a little more. So let those just date,
let's get the coaches pull out, let's get some of
these other things out, and as you alluded to, we
get into the larger let's wrap our arms around it
(03:18):
because every year we do it with the NFL. As
you're trying to set your fantasy rankings. We're trying to
figure out what the pluses and minuses in your algorithm
are of additions and subtractions on either side of the ball.
What's a strength of schedule and how do you really
properly calculate it for a season that's not been played.
It's been simulated in the Madden headquarters and elsewhere a
(03:41):
million times, but how do we get there? And that's
where we have the latest from rhtt Lashley, your SMU
head coach, and he's talking about his alma mater off
of something called the ESPN FPI. And this is not
to take a dig at a rival network. In the end,
we're all putting information into the air. Use it, dismiss it,
(04:04):
categorize it, put it where you want in your files
as you go through. I'm not getting into the slap
fighting of you know, whether the acronym is something that
you can say on errors or not. But it's all
information and you choose to do with it. When, especially
when we start getting into rankings and stuff, that's where
I kind of chuck. We talked about the quarterback tiers.
(04:25):
Mike Sando was on the network a couple of times,
and it's a lot of work, and it's a lot
of people that comment and vote for it. So I
don't dismiss their time and where you're going to, but
you take from it what you will. You as a
fan fantasy owner going out to the bar or the
water cooler at your workplace with your friends to kind
of talk about, wow, they ranked this guy low, like,
(04:46):
you know, the top one hundred that's going out, the
top one hundred players, Patrick mahomes twenty six? Well is
he still really twenty six? Doesn't he have to prove it?
Speaker 6 (04:54):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And those are great arguments for some. For me, it's
all right, cool, yep, talk amoungst yourselves and we'll talk
about the player, the team, and what's around him coming
into the year. But lastly, looking at the ESPN FPI,
so strength of schedule and looking at Powerhouse rankings. This
(05:16):
was his response when he saw where his Alma Maters ranked.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
When we start in crossing over into FPI or strength
of schedule, things that are gonna determine who gets in
the playoffs. And we want to say we know these
twenty teams have the hardest strength of schedule. It's impossible
like no offense to Arkansas. They can't have the hardest
strength of schedule in America to start the season because
no one's played a game. We don't even know who's good,
(05:40):
so we don't know what a good and an easy
schedule is right now.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, the hard part for some of it is you
take it with a grain of salt. That's something you
and I were talking a little bit off air, is
if you have the broadcast rights to a network, does
the coefficient go up a little bit in each piece
of your algorithm? Because we look at the toughest schedules
for the ESPN FBI, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Ole, miss
(06:10):
Mississippi State, Florida. There's your first seven and the Ohio
state comes in at number eight before you get A
and M, South Carolina, LSU, and onward we.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Go, yeah and so exactly what you just said. So
and listen, it's just a fun debate in general. But
what rhet lastly the head coach is saying from SMU
is a couple things. Is one, first of all, the
FBI is an ESPN based algorithm, and so his argument is,
(06:41):
to your your point, the first seven quote unquote toughest
schedules are all SEC teams, and as we know again
were we understand that we work for Fox and we
get all that. But ESPN owns the entire SEC. Every
SEC game is played on their network, so it behooves
them to, you know, to hype up that conference. But
(07:02):
I think a couple of things. One his larger point
of how can you create strength of schedule when no
one has played a game? He also tweeted this back
in late July around the Media Days, was basically saying,
especially in this era when to the point you've made
a few times, Mike, there's so much turnover on these
rosters it's impossible to know. But I think this speaks
(07:25):
to the public in general is tired of the SEC
being pushed down our throats. And again this is a
perfect point of well, when you have all these teams
ranked off of again a computer algorithm that is going
off last year with no actual metrics to determine what
(07:48):
is going to happen this year, then it's basically I'm
talking too much, but it preskews the perception of the
season right and so now all of us, sudden teams
are are over ranked in the preseason. So when they
start playing each other, oh my goodness, this team beat
that team, so it's a great win. Then you find
(08:09):
out that that team isn't very good to begin with.
I think two things are true. We all love preseason
polls and rankings, whether it's Mike Sando, the coach's poll,
the AP pole that's gonna come out because it gives
us something to talk about, not even people in sports
talk but fans in general. But it is also just
entirely speculation. And I give credit to another coach for
(08:32):
pushing back specifically on the SEC in this case.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No, And that's the beauty of it, right, It's all
into the nebula. And I remember Gil Brandt. Jason tells
the story repeatedly, like he was doing columns when he
was working over an NFL network. They'd have him do
a preview of a division or something for the NFL,
and gil Brandt at some point tapped him on the
shoulder and said, but what's your system?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Hmm? Interesting?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And that's like how the sausage is made, right, what's
the algorithm to get to this end? Because when we
go down this path and heavy SEC and if we
look at last year, right, if we take it off
twenty twenty five, and then this is where it's fun
and where it's fuzzy math from the SEC media days
into the Big ten and chestiness and going back and
(09:17):
forth right, google me, I win, Signetti and everything else.
For the SEC, for the longest time, it was about
the titles, and now that they've lost several years in
a row, it's no longer about the title. Let's look
to our depth of conference. Last year, they had nine
teams in conference at five hundred or better, two of
which were four and four Missouri and Tennessee. That leaves
(09:40):
us with seven teams that had three or fewer wins,
including Arkansas, who wash to eight. By the way, so
is that because they're terrible that it looks harder? Is that?
Is that what I take from it? It's really hard
that because they're going to be predicted to win no games.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
Well, and it's it's to that point of your arguing
that your bottom is better, it's not, that's the thing, like,
it's not even a real argument to your point. Arkansas
finishes zero to eight in the SEC. Last year, Auburn
finishes one and seven. Guess who their won win was against?
It wasn't Texas or Georgia. It was Arkansas. By the way,
(10:19):
Kentucky wins two SEC games. Guess who they were against,
Florida and Alburn, who were both terrible. So I could
go on and on down the list. But like I said,
I think people are tired of it. And again looking
at this FPI, to your point, the first seven are
SEC teams. The first let's see here, this is insane.
Fourteen of the first fifteen teams are SEC teams. And
(10:41):
so you know, people just get tired of it. And
you know you brought up Missouri and Tennessee a second
ago finishing four and four. How about this first that Mike,
Neither of those teams finished with a win last year
against a team that finished above five hundred. So I'm
talking about Missouri Tennessee. So that was the middle that
(11:01):
everybody loved in the SEC. And so, like I said,
I think people are starting to open up their eyes.
And I do think because they don't have the championships
to back it up, it now gives someone like rhet
Lashly more confidence to say, you know what, I'm speaking
my truth and I'm speaking the truth.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
And I think, by the way, very random.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
But it's kind of important for rhet lashly that this
narrative isn't established early because SMU, on paper, according to
the coaches Pull, if you believe the coaches pol Matters,
is the second best team in the ACC and could
be competing with that third, fourth, fifth, sixth team in
the SEC for an at large spot in the College
Football Playoff.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah. I'm all for chaos and things to argue about.
And if you're a coach in this day and age
in college basketball and college football, you've got to be
just this side of a WWE wrestling Marriager. It is
completely about, Hey, come down to the Civic Center on
Saturday and watch me kick this guy's ass. Because that's the.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Only way we still talk about signetti of Google me
I win. We still talk about it three years later.
But that's it.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Like it's one liners. It's quick little hits, but trying
to get to the element of truth of hey, you
can win over with us. That's not the only game
in town. No matter what a network or their coaches
and their mouthpieces, they're out in their loudest right Paul
Fine BAM's been doing this forever. Sure has the voice
(12:29):
of your sec and no matter how much evidence is
stacked against him about the the equality of Ohio State
or Michigan or this Oregon team coming in this year,
guess what, They're not going to be ranked at the
top of his board. It's just not good for business.
It's better to argue the counter and so like it's
(12:50):
it's our era of hot take nonsense ranking style. Sure
a lot of ways, but for coaches like Lashly another,
as you're trying to fight for a scrap in the
transfer portal in the nil world, you've got to make
your voice heard. And maybe that just cuts through enough
(13:10):
to where there's cracks in a team in what they've done.
Oh yeah, and twenty twenty six is not twenty twenty three,
is not twenty twenty whatever. And maybe just maybe you've
got a shot at that guy in state that you
would have lost years ago. Well, maybe you've got that
shot at a guy who's maybe a tear up in
your star ratings for those national rankings. That'll give you
(13:34):
a listen because you went at the big guys we
are trying to establish.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
And I think, how do you get those guys? Even
if you're winning, you're battling the perception that the ACC
is inferior, and maybe the AEC is inferior. But again,
you could be eleven and one on the final day
of the season. You know, let's say hypothetically, you're really good,
but you lose to Miami, say in the ACC championship game.
Now you're battling that ten to Alabama team for a
(14:02):
playoff spot. And again it comes down to is Alabama
actually better or did we just like them more in
August than they've been writing that reputation since then. So
I give them credit for speaking out. I'll tell you this, man,
I mean, to the point that we've made football is close,
but it isn't here yet. And this was probably, frankly
the biggest story in college football of the day for
(14:24):
a day. And I know it's a Friday in August
and it doesn't mean anything once the games kick off,
but SMU's football coach made headlines and made waves in
an otherwise slow time.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
So yeah, the attempt to climb a lot harder than
if you're established at the top, right, because you're gonna
get a lot of opportunities and a lot of grace,
particularly if you lose a game or two early, especially
the way this is now structured, as opposed to trying
to come from outside that top twenty five to state
your case, because then the question about your strength to
(14:55):
schedule is always going to.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Be higher, and it's it's battling those preconceived notions. And
I think back to the original point. Listen, we all
rank things because it's fun to have something to talk
about in August. But to his point, how can you
know whose schedule is going to be toughest before a
(15:17):
game was played, especially again in this era where stuff
changes so quick? And again I'm going quick, you know,
a little side tangent, but go back to last year
LSU preseason top ten team. They looked good on a
piece of paper, probably in an FPI situation a year ago,
they weren't good once the games were played. Penn State
(15:38):
the same thing. So we're not making it just an
SCC thing. And so we all love preseason rankings because
it gives us something to talk about. But I think
the larger point of how do we actually know who
is good? And these polls that are coming out now
are going to define the narrative heading into the season.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
I think it's totally fair for him to push back.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
On fantastic as we're talking college football. See, we're getting
jacked up as football is imminent. At Aaron Underscore Tours
is where you find him in For Jason Smith tonight,
find me over at two Oldome Aeron'll be on air
tomorrow night here on Fox Sports Radio catch him as well.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
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 8 (16:26):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
For the show.
Speaker 8 (16:40):
That's right, You can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
I hate that song.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Hey, welcome back in.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with me and
Mike Carmen. There's no Jason tonight, it's Aaron Torres in
his stet at Aaron Underscore Torres find me over at
Swollen Dome chime in at Fox Sports Radio. Earlier, I
posted the list of quarterbacks that Jason cole Are Esteem
Guest Hall of Fame voter put up of quarterbacks Hall
(17:19):
of Fame consideration. One of the leaders in the clubhouse
Ben Roethlisberger because he'll be on the pallet next year,
which is amazing, because that's five years, real fast, people,
that's how fast it goes, Just like that, and you
start pondering the sands of time. You'll have Keithley, you'll
have Fitzgerald, you'll have Drew Brees going in and all
(17:40):
of that process, and a guy that's a future Hall
of Famer Aaron to Kit put it back on the field.
We talked about it a little bit with Todd Furman
earlier in this vein, talking about the Los Angeles Rams
and the inevitability that Aaron Donald's eventually showing up on
a sideline, eventually strapping on the helmet for real, because
he had to do it for the purposes of their
(18:02):
workout the other day, which meant he showed up in
the tryout bin. In terms of lead transactions that you
have to record that he did a try out and
Sean McVay had a bunch of chuckles about it and
everything else. But when we look at the presumptive favorite
that you have, it still comes back to the thirty
eight no pun intended, thirty eight year old back of
(18:23):
Matthew Stafford who welcomed friend of his long standing. I
don't know if you know this, but he and Clayton
Kershaw go back a minute.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
They went to high school together. I think I read
that somewhere. I'm not totally positive. I'd have to look
into it a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
It might have popped up in the timeline once or twice.
But when we look at the rams, Puka Dakua, at
least in the moments and in the outward thinking, seems
like he's found a new headspace whatever he changed his agency.
I don't know if you saw that. You caught that one. Yeah,
that's for those that missed that. Folks that have been
with him and helping him and whatever else. They're gone
(19:00):
with everything he had going on off field, but he's
set for a massive payday. You have a couple of
other skill position guys in the offing as well. But
when we look at the defense as currently constructed, and
that's before Donald walks back on the field. You're talking
about a top unit. And that's with Jared Vers leaving
town that you're still talking about that depth on your
(19:22):
defensive line and offensively just weaponry all around. But it
all is predicated on Matthew Stafford and the guys behind
when we start talking about Simpson and the backup quarterbacks.
But you know, out here in Los Angeles, it's almost
the people I've talked to, they're more excited about the
(19:44):
other side of town. It's like, yeah, the Rams are
gonna be good, we know this, but the Chargers maybe
just maybe as like, okay, I like wishing and hoping, right,
we just had baseball trade deadline with a lot of
prospects flying around, But this is one of those there
are no sure things in life. But these Rams, again,
(20:04):
unless Matthew Stafford's backfalls apart, suddenly, they're gonna be pretty
damn good.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
They're gonna be good. But yeah, I just you know,
I don't know. I mean, thirty eight year quarterback dealt
with the back injury last year, and again even in
their own division, you have two really good teams and
trust me. We all know what's going on with the
San Francisco forty nine ers. Forty nine ers have had
success against them, and I here's the other thing about
(20:31):
the Rams, and I'm just trying to make the argument
for why it's a little bit overhyped. Okay, so listen,
do I think they're going to win the Week one
game in Melbourne?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
I was hoping you were gonna do a full strength
of schedule coming off of the Well, I'm not discussion
that we just had it.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well listen, the Rams have the seven
toughest strength to schedule preseason.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
No.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
But but I will say, like I think most people
probably expect them to win that game. Given the forty
nine ers injuries, including their head coach. I still think
if he has concussion like symptoms, I find it hard
to believe they're gonna let him fly basically twenty four
hours around the world whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Still have a lot of questions about that entire situation.
Shot so much about the reporting, but the police work
and how, at least for a short period of time,
everybody let that it's crazy and wear it.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Yeah, no, it was. It was a weird story.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
What I was gonna say about the Rams though, whoever
loses that game, and I know the Rams won't play
again until the following Monday nights, so they're gonna have
the extra day of rest as opposed to the forty
nine ers. But if the forty, if the Rams lose
that game, I could see it really hard to build
back up momentum, even against a pretty soft schedule. You
(21:46):
play Monday Night against the Giants, but then it's immediately
Brocos Eagles Bills, and so I could just see it
going a little sideways really quick. I'm not gonna sit
here and say, oh, you know, they're gonna be a catastrophe. Whatever,
They're going to be in the mix, but it just
it feels like everyone's given them a little too much
hype and credit going into the season.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
No certain lanman like it's games aren't played on paper,
all the euphemisms, all the cliches. As you go through
and as we talked about, you have the reigning MVP, who,
if you were to believe the report's last preseason, wasn't
going to be able to walk by week six and
lo and behold, there he is winning the MVP. And
(22:29):
we talk about some but ifs and butts in terms
of home field advantage or whatever else. But that's why
you play the games. They're at eleven and a half
over under total as we look at it. One of
the interesting little tidbits that came out is that the
Rams are are not going to arrive until just before
(22:51):
kickoff for the game in Australia, whereas the forty nine
ers going out a full nine days ahead of time.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Wow, what do you think that? What do you think
about that? I could actually make the argument for both sides.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I'm curious for your perspective.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I think it's the the ladder. I think I go
to the Rams side of it. And again, each team,
each coach, they've dealt with different lengths of travel and whatever.
But I think the idea of get in, do our
work and go home works better for me. Yeah, because
your body will recover in the next week and a
(23:25):
half before week two.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Yeah, I could see both sides.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And I could see the fort niners getting there too
early and just being ready to go.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Home because everything in Australia wants to kill you. Oh okay,
any animal?
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Yeah, forget the Rams, how about the how about the
Wallabies and the Kangaroos? No, I just I could see
the scenario of just being there too long and being like,
we want to go home. But then the RAMS I
could see the opposite of listen, traveling body clocks are
a real thing. I mean, you're I believe you're either.
I know your daughter's flying east, but I.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Think, yeah, go and I'll be back. I gotta go
to Boise in a two weeks time.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Yeah, I'm saying, as somebody who did the West to
East not too long ago, that's a real thing. It
screws you up and let alone twenty four hours. So
I'm just saying, I see both sides. I see the
RAMS perspective, I see the forty nine ers perspective. I
see the positives and negatives to both sides on each side.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Whoever wins, we're gonna blame it at exactly right. It's
already already made logic point for all of it. Now,
something we started the show with. We got a couple
of great notes from folks. Danny g who you know,
the Cavino and Rich producer. He was leaving and you
know anytime we're gonna talk Raiders, he got excited, so
he was texting me. He's like I love it the
(24:43):
little scuffle Cousins and Crosby. That's fun, right, two veterans
getting after it. Obviously, kirk Cousins will apologize and move
on for his part of the matter, but it's hitting
that point even though it's been a couple of weeks
of you need to see other helmets. We'll see more
of these, you know, scheduled practices and joint practices here
(25:06):
in short order. But Kirk Cousins is the order of
the day. And we've been talking about it a lot,
and it it warrants as we get into this next
weekend now that we have the Hall of Fame game
in the rear view of talking about the expectations for
this Raiders squad. While we're working out west talking about
the Rams, let's move to the AFC side of things.
(25:26):
You've got Mahomes coming back for Kansas City. You look
at the Denver Broncos, assuming bo Nix's back and recovered
from that injury that ended the season, that you expect
Denver to be strong. They four to five things added
to their receiving core with Waddell et cetera. And then
(25:50):
you're you're just you're chasing if you're the Raiders, so
you have this big question. Mark didn't mean to dismiss
the Chargers, but we'd already ended them a little bit.
But we look at the Raiders and Kirk Cousins expected
to start, and his quote was, I'm trying to keep
the job as long as I can, sure, Mike, which
(26:11):
I like. Right, you're old. You know this is probably
your last starting run. Not a ton of money on
the contract. So if Mendoza comes along nicely enough, guys
get hurt, maybe he finds himself in another uniform. I
think Jacoby Brissett out of Arizona as a far more
likely candidate for that to happen. But for Kirk Cousins
to start things with the Raiders, they're over under his
(26:33):
five and a half wins. Their offensive line is the
one big question, no doubt to this whole thing. I mean,
Estan genty last year was really good on those ten
percent of carries. He didn't get hit in the backfield. Sure, sure,
So for the Raiders, they've got that decision to make
because I you know, as we talked with Jason Cole
a little bit earlier, and you and I chopped it
(26:54):
up as the show began, like the Fernando Mendoza thing
is real, And it goes back to the college station
as well, when you're trying to talk about strength of
schedules whatever, and he came from cal to a team
that was a playoff team, But how much was he
in additive and he ends up winning the Heisman? They going,
you know, it's totally fair into history. So same thing
here as that level of anticipation, especially if you're so thirsty,
(27:18):
literally living in the desert in Las Vegas, you want
to see the shiny new toy.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
But I'm surprised at how many people don't.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And you know, we did speak to Danny g but
I've heard from other Raiders fans who they've dealt with
twenty five plus years of losses at this point, another
four to five weeks to figure, you know, to let
Fernando Mendoza ease in.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
They don't seem to mind.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
And I was under the impression of you've waited all
these years to try to get the franchise quarterback. I
would have thought there would have been more of a
thirst to play him week one, but it doesn't feel
like that's the case. But I also think a big
part of it is exactly what you said. When the
O line is pacifly a weakness, maybe you're not as
eager to run out what we believe to be and
(28:05):
what we hope to be the franchise quarterback going for.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Obviously you four to five things in the middle because
you bring in Linderbaum, pay him a king's ransom as
your center. The problem is he can't be multiplied by five.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So we're waiting to see you've got Millard, Burford, Powers
Johnson and Glaize running across that offensive line. But last
year that was the big liability. And I mentioned the
genty stats because so many people rushed for him in
the fantasy world and then we heard about it all
(28:40):
the time and certainly in the message boards and on
Twitter whatever. He was getting absolutely decimated based on his
overall output. It's like, go watch a game, Go watch
how many times this guy got the ball and was
flattened before he had a chance to even think about
turning up field. Now, were there cuts he missed? Absolutely?
(29:00):
Where there are things he could have done better, Yes,
But when you become routinely used to getting hammered as
you're trying to secure the football. All bets are off,
so I get any quarterback right. If you're used to
having argument, right.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
That's the argument against play Mendoza week one?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
So why why Russia guy? If you don't need to
you know what we're gonna finish up. We'll talk about
the Raiders from a cinematic.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Oh, I know where.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I know where you're going with this before we get
out of here, because a big decision was made as well.
What does that say about the movie? To come at
Aaron Underscore Torres is where you find it. Find me
over at Swollen Doum.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (29:50):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 8 (30:00):
That's right, You can now watch The Odd Couple live
on YouTube every day.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube
again YouTube, just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, we close up shop with one of the greatest
actors of all time and his latest movie, which is going.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Straight streaming.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
We'll do that next up, Fox
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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