Colin Cowherd Podcast - March Madness Preview, Rodgers Decision Looming, 49ers Rebuild, Bears Trending Up? - The Colin Cowherd Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, it's time for our weekly hour
with John Middlekoff, who will eventually take some time off.
He got married last weekend. Let's do a few minutes
on March madness. So the last three weekends, this is

(00:22):
what I do. I sit around and watch streaming shows
at night, and I watch college basketball most of the day.
It was pretty obvious if you watch college basketball. The
SEC got fourteen teams in I'd said this multiple times
on FS one. It just looked different. I mean, the
Big Ten didn't even look like the SEC. SEC is deeper,
more athletic, better offensive teams, better scoring options. Michigan State's

(00:44):
as good as any Big Ten team I saw this season,
and they don't really have any shooters. They rebound, they defend,
they have a great coach in tom I isno, but
they'll struggle to score against good teams. I think the
SEC is going to fly through this. I have Auburn
winning the national championship. I think all these CC teams
are going to do pretty well in the tournament. Florida
Auburn are exceptional because they've played each other. I mean,

(01:06):
Florida wasn't great at the beginning of the year. They've
been on fire now a lot of times. The hottest team,
it doesn't really translate. But I watched Auburn played two
or three times deep, multiple guys that could give you
twelve fifteen points. Good coach, good size, aggressive, Houston is
a very good basketball team. But I'll take a couple

(01:26):
of SEC teams in dupe. I'll take Florida, Auburn, and
probably Duke Cooper. Flag will be healthy by the time
the tournament rolls around.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's the difference is when you watch college football last year,
Ohio State, year before, Michigan, year before that, Georgia, you
get a real the Joe Burrow LSU team. You can
see the NFL. You can see all these players, you know,
these twelve guys that are going to go to the NFL.
Last year's Yukon team, which went thirty seven to three,
I picked them to win. That's the easiest pick I've

(01:55):
ever made. That team looked a little bit like an
NBA team. Big size, great versatility, huge physicality, didn't make
a ton of mistakes. A guy that could coach in
the NBA coach early. That was a really good college
basketball team. The best one that I've seen in years.
I mean, even against Purdue in the National Championship not
really that competitive. It's different tea. You're going to see

(02:18):
a lot of close games. I mean, I watch Houston
play Arizona. Houston's a lot of people are picking them
to win the National Championship imminently beatable, great defensive team.
But I think if you watch college basketball, because it's
such a young sport and the really talented guys are
one and done, so even the guys that are really special,
many of them aren't developed offensively. But when you watch
college basketball, it doesn't look like the NBA. The offenses

(02:40):
often just dump it down to the big guys. Purdue
and Zach Edy just here's our big dump it down
and it's going to dominate. So I'm going to go
with the most athletic teams I saw. I'm going to
go with the teams that played in the hardest conference easily.
I mean, no conference has ever had fourteen teams in it.
I'm not gonna you know, these people that are upset
that North Carolina has got a playing game because they

(03:01):
had a terrible record one in twelve against Quad one teams.
They had some good out of conference wins before the
season started. Not worth the argument that used to be
fun ten fifteen years ago arguing for that team to
get in. But you know, if they win one game,
that's probably the ceiling and the team. You know, it
just I think we all kind of know the teams

(03:22):
that have a chance to win. And I also think
when teams are close, I like experienced coaches. You know,
I like Rick Patino. I don't think Michigan State can
win four games, but I like Iszo or you know,
coaches that have been in this spot before. That's an advantage.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
A lot of this.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Stuff is going to end up being like seventy two
seventy and take the better coaches because I don't think
there's a lot of teams. I mean, again, Cooper Flag,
if healthy, will be the best team in the tournament,
and maybe he's just good enough, you know, to just
take them to six wins. But I don't have any
strong conviction on it. Last year I took Yukon and

(04:00):
I thought that was I mean I watched Yukon and
Gonzaga and Duke a lot. Those are my teams. It
was pretty obvious they were just bigger and more physical
and push teams around and that was an easy one.
I'll go Auburn, but I have really no conviction somebody.
I think SEC teams will play very well in the tournament. Okay,

(04:21):
we bring on John Middlecoff three and Out podcast, former
NFL scout, newly married. I just gave my pick Auburn
the first time in school history. They are a number
one seed. I was saying. When you watch college football
at the highest levels, you can see the NFL. You
could see Ohio States players. You're like, oh, those guys
are going to be great NFL players. College basketball it's
really difficult. The best players do want and done. Do

(04:42):
you watch a ton of college hoops? No?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Not really. I mean I used to do a lot
growing up, but I would say over the eight to
ten years, I mean, let's face of the product's been diminished.
I mean, I dive in come Thursday Friday. But Rutgers
has two guys that are we could go in the
top five and didn't sniff the tournament. How's that? This basketball?
This isn't football. I mean the two guys on the

(05:06):
court at all times, and I checked their stats the
other day they both were good this year. It's stuff
like that that like, you know, I grew up Allen
Iverson Shack, all those the top guys played college basketball,
and it was awesome. You're a Tark guy, you know,
I'm a Fresno State guy when Tark went to Fresno
State with Chris Herron. I love college basketball as a kid,
but it's just it's not really the same though the

(05:27):
nil era little bounced back with Cooper Flag and some
of the guys recently.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, I think it's hard to tell a twenty year
old what college basketball was like twenty years ago. It's
the only sport, the only sport that's less talented than
it was twenty years ago. Boxing's probably the second because
some guys who would have boxed went into UFC, and
it used to be you'd get Patrick Ewing coming back
for a third year and Tim Duncan and Chris Paul.

(05:53):
So it's just I mean, I always tell young people,
go watch five Slamma Jama, go watch the high lights
on YouTube. That's what college basketball. And they never won
a Natty. There was a team that had Chris Mullen,
Bill Wennington, Walter Berry, Mark Jackson at Saint John's and

(06:13):
did not win a national championship. Filama Jama had the
Clyde Drexler, Larry Mshu, Rob Young. I'm missing two or
three guys did not win a national championship, So it's
just different. It's it's like again, Cooper Flag's great. If
Cooper Flagg came back two more years and they had
three other NBA guys that would have been Duke twenty years.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Ago, there is talk about him coming back. Now, wake
me when that actually happens. I am fascinated though, and
you and I talk so much college football during the
fall and we both love it. And obviously the growth
of the SEC over the last ten to fifteen years
really the saving effect. Yeah. I could be wrong here,
but I thought I saw on Twitter like fifteen twenty
minutes ago the SEC just set a record, Yeah, fourteen teams.

(06:58):
And I've been fascinating. When I got married last week
in Tennessee, my brother and I and my brother in
law we played golf at Vanderbilt's golf course. We actually
hate Manning was out there. Their clubhouse at the Vanderbilt
golf Course was as big as any clubhouse, non like
Olympic club I've ever seen. That wasn't even the old
clubhouse at the golf course. The SEC money because of

(07:21):
the football programs over the last fifteen twenty years. You
know better than me. But when I think SEC basketball,
forever Kentucky and there was always you know, Florida Billy Donovan. Now,
I know they got fourteen teams, but they got five
or six that could, like should win the national championship.
I just thought Nat Oates had a quote that anything
less than a Final four this Alabama basketball is a disappointment.

(07:43):
So at the gym, I was watching Tennessee Florida day.
It was fantastic. Okay, how good is so the talent
in the SEC because of the football money baseball, they
dominate golf, they dominate basketball. They've been good. They have
clearly taken another stick up right these last four or
five years with the money behind it.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
I watched Michigan Michigan State, and Michigan won the Big
Ten tournament. I watched some of that. I've seen Purdue play,
I've seen Michigan State play, you know, and I've seen
you know, Oregon play, yeah, and UCLA multiple times. In
my takeaway is the Big Ten's just I mean, Michigan
won the Big Ten tourney. I think they're a fifth seed.

(08:25):
So it's the only sport where the conference championships have
no impact off and on the seating. So no, it's
just one of I think for people that haven't been
to the South, they may struggle. Like I was talking
to an SEC fan the other day and he goes,
we really can't compete with Ohio State and Michigan money

(08:46):
USC now they're collective in football's eighteen million, Oregon's is
sky's the limit. They can still kind of compete, But
there are the big dogs in a Big Ten are
really at the top of the food chain, Texas being
you know, the obvious dominant the minute they walked into
the SEC. That's the Rockefellers of that conference. They just

(09:07):
have as much money as they need. But in the
other sports, the Big Ten money gets funneled to football.
But in the other sports, I watch actually a lot
of Big Ten basketball over the last three or four weeks.
It just doesn't look like SEC basketball. I watched Auburn
play probably in January once, February twice, and I watched
them here in March, you know, for thirty minutes each time.

(09:31):
As you said, it's just athletes everywhere and deep. They
have like eight guys that can give you double figures
if it was their night. So it's just different. And
whereas in the Big Ten football makes you a lot
of money and some basketball teams do, in the SEC,
baseball makes bless you a lot of money. Yeah, it's

(09:52):
a different ball game. So and I also think what
you're seeing is in football, John, I think those Pac
twelve teams that moved into the Big Ten are fine.
The weather argument's weak because your last game USC UCLA
play each other at the end of the season. So
the truth is your last game is like you know,

(10:13):
November seventeenth, team may have a cold game at Penn State.
It's really tough on the basketball teams. I looked at
UCLA's travel schedule this year. You just I mean, it's
like it's like got an NBA feel. You're back across
the country all the time. And that's where I think
the Pac twelve teams are really those four teams that
went into the Big Ten. I think in basketball it's

(10:36):
really hard for UCLA and USC and Washington and Oregon
the trade when you're playing multiple games a week. I
don't think they'll have great impact in that conference for
a while.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, I saw Mix. Mix had some great lines this year.
One of his was like that they had went to
like around the Statue of Liberty multiple times throughout the season,
and all the Big Ten teams are complaining about come
out west. He's like, you guys are in zero degrees.
You're coming out here to sunny southern California seventy eight degrees.
Give me a break. You guys are having the time
of your life coming out here. For us, it's it's
more difficult, but that's what they all signed up for,

(11:11):
the more money that comes along with it. That's where
you know, Texas and Oklahoma, the travel is clearly not
nearly as prohibitive and difficult. I mean, all these people
get to come home, even the Big Ten. I mean
one one problem I think for the West Coast teams
in basketball is they get stuck out there. You know,
guy Haveberman calls games for the Big Ten. All the
you know, the core teams of the Big Ten go

(11:34):
home after games and then go back to their opponent
when they play two games in a week. That clearly
isn't the case for USC, you know, UCLA, Washington, Oregon.
They're just kind of stuck. And that's just listen, this
move was made for football in basketball is kind of
a lung for the ride here.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
That's right, That's absolutely right, and I think UCLA and
USC are both feeling it. Okay, let's do some NFL.
You know, I had said this last year. I thought
the Niners were going to start regressing. I thought they
should have started the rebuild last year. They did it.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
This year.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
They let Debo and Hufunga and green Law, Savarious Ward go.
They have twelve draft picks, but it's a week draft,
so let's say you hit on six year draft picks.
I thought last year was the first year in the
last several I just didn't think their defense was intimidating.
I thought when Bosa was off the field, it was weak.
I thought you could kind of manipulate it. I said this,

(12:28):
I think Darnold and the Seahawks have a chance to
be really interesting. Where are you on the Niners right now?
A lot of draft picks. I mean, they didn't want
to let Haufunga and Greenlaw go. Those are excellent instinctive players.
I mean, now you're getting to a point now where
you're really crossing your fingers with Christian McCaffrey and Trent
Williams big time.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
I think every move in a vacuum is easy to justify.
It's not. I mean green Law was coming off of
torn achilles, came back for a half, he looked like
Fred Warner junior, and then couldn't play the rest of
the season. Who fungat acl multiple injuries to it, like
all the moves in a vacuum. Oh, let him go.
You're not going to pay that much for banks, trade
this backup running back who was going to make five

(13:11):
million dollars on the totality, though, You go, that's losing
a lot of guys like who are going to be
your backups? I think they would have somewhat started it
last year. It's much more difficult, though, when you have
a team coming off being up late in the Super
Bowl against the current dynasty. So you go, we are
right there. All these guys are championship level players. I

(13:31):
think they're big mistake in where they got really rattled
for a long period of time. The Niners, like fifteen
twenty years ago, they could extend the Patrick Willis's, the
Frank Ors, the Vernon Davis's, relatively cheap, and they were
great at it because Parrague Marat, their mundy guy is elite.
He's like Howie Roseman, but he's not a GM. He
just like runs the Yorks money and he runs their
international soccer team well as the Caps exploded players. I

(13:54):
don't want to say it's the NBA, but they do
have a lot more juice. When Jamar Chase says I'm
not playing for anything less than third forty million dollars,
like he's not really bullshit, Like he's not taking a discount.
The top guys have some juice, but now the middle
tier guys, like they would have laughed at Brandon Au
ten years ago and they would have won, but they
were kind of in no man's land, and their coach,
you know, who has a lot of juice, didn't want

(14:15):
to get rid of their best receiver, and he took
advantage of him, and that really rattled them because they
immediately regretted it. If they could do that all over again,
they would have traded him before the draft instead. Now
they're trying to trade him. He's got an ACL and
like he's untradeable for anything of value, and they're kind
of in a weird spot. But the elephant in the
room is the quarterback. And listen, Mike Silver has known
the Shanahan family for thirty plus years and he's been

(14:37):
reporting like they are telling everyone, take a deep breath,
we're cutting some costs and we got to kind of
recalibrate because I think they saw what the Rams did
these last couple of years. Yes, now the difference is
and look look what the Bills did last year. I
mean the Bills got rid of like half their big names. Well,
Josh Allen's one of the greatest talents I've ever seen.
And Matt Stafford, while older, was right there with would

(14:59):
be con Josh Allen ten years ago. He just played
first shitty franchise Like that's not Brock Purty and we
all know that. Look at the NFC colin the two
best quarterbacks you'd say, you know, I would say win
wise and statistically would be Jalen and Jared Goff are
on loaded rosters offensively, Like we would say, you put
either one of those guys on like the Jags or
a bad team, it's gonna be props. Pretty's the same thing.

(15:21):
When he's on a good team, he's proven he canna
be a really good player, but like if you're cutting
costs and depending on some randos, it's just it's a
pretty scary I do think they are gonna low ball
brock perty and they're gonna make this more difficult because
they before it was just like hey, Trent, what do
you want? Which I know would have a problem with
doing that to Trent. Yeah, but the two receivers, it's like,
you're not Jamar Chase and your team doesn't play like that.

(15:42):
It doesn't make any sense. Like I get the Cowboys.
They throw out to Ceedee Lamb every other play. Brendon
and I you had a career year seventy five. But
at the end of the day, they do have a
big time coach at a bad year, but he's proven
to be really good and still a culture. They get
Robert solid Back. I wouldn't count him out yet, but
it's gonna be a lot of new names Colin, and
they're gonna be very dependent on these high They have

(16:04):
the eleventh pick, like you need a Micae Parsons, you
need to you know, look at the Eagles and the Cowboy,
When the Cowboys got Mike or the Eagles got Davonte Smith,
you're gonna have to nail this well.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
And also, there are certain positions in football running back,
I think wide receiver, some say cornerback, where you can
come in and make an impact pretty quickly. It's very instinctive.
But where the Niners are drafting offensive line, maybe another

(16:36):
tight end, you know, a play calling linebacker, a crucial
safety in their defense. Those are hard positions to go
college and pro. I mean, if you look at very
few tight ends come into this league, brock Bauers is
a total outlier. Very good tight ends have struggled because
the blocking assignments now are so so difficult compared to college.

(17:00):
So the Niners are asking players from college in the
twelve draft picks to come into positions replace excellent instinctive,
smart veteran players. Forget just making tackles. I mean green
law is, I mean he is. He and Warner are
anchors and communicators, and I think those kind of positions
to replace, I have no problem. You know, it'd be

(17:22):
one thing. If they're replacing you know, one corner one
running back, you get to the offensive line. In Kyle
Shanahan's system, you're lost until Thanksgiving. That's a tough rebuild.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Oh for sure. Same with wide receivers. I mean, same
with listen. Even if they draft a defensive lineman with
the eleventh pick, Khalil Mack, who's one of the better
players of his generation. I think at four and a
half sacks his rookie year. Yeah, Jared Verse last year,
who came on toward the end, wasn't a dominant, dominant
force all season long.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I covered Warren Sap in Tampa. It wasn't until the
end of his first year that he made an impact.
Here two he was fantastic. But this league, there are
guys that can make impacts. But I don't see the Niners.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Their schedule sucks, their schedules bad. They have a last
play schedule and they get to draft really high in
every round. I think one of the divisions they play
is the AFC South. I mean, I would say even
before this mass exodus, I still think ten wins is
very very you know, look at what the Rams have
done these last couple of years. I think sometimes when

(18:26):
you are as they say in most you know, world
industries on boarding players, I think McVeigh uses that too.
It takes a little time and then you kind of
catch fire. I mean I think they were they one
and four last year, and two and three and six
the year before. Now, you don't want to make a living.
It's you do that ten times. A lot of times
you're gonna end up with seven or eight wins. But

(18:49):
you start a little slow and then you peak. One
thing is very, very key for the forty nine ers.
I'd say two guys. Trent Williams gotta be on the field.
And if Christian McCaffrey is just healthy, which who knows,
I mean multiple a keilles. He tore his knee, but
he is a major, major wild card in the NFL,
going back to the Panther days. When he's on the field,
he's one of the best players in the league. When
he's off, especially with Kyle, he kind of derails their operation.

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Speaker 1 (20:37):
So I thought the team, you can tell who has
the power in most organizations. McVeigh runs the Rams. I
think Shanahan until recently had power on the draft. Andy
Reid doesn't want it necessarily, Belichick did, Sean Payton does
in Denver. You can tell the moves when coaches are
making Chicago clear signaled that Ben Johnson's running the show

(21:03):
for him to replace the entire interior. O line was
telling Ryan Poles, you got your picks, stink, And I thought, frankly,
for the Chicago Bears, who I've been saying this for
so many years, they're like, they're just a defensive culture.
For a guy to come in and spend money on
guards and centers, I thought it was a real moment

(21:26):
in the history of the Chicago Bears. I was like, wow,
this field. I mean, how many years have the Steelers
been hamming egging it on their offensive line? Tomlin runs
the show. I for the first time that I can remember.
I really like the direction where the Bears are going well.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I think sometimes when you get like the whiz kid,
the great offensive coordinator, they just want to score points
and they're thinking quarterback and wide receiver. Ben Johnson's pretty lucky.
That is welcome to stardom in the NFL. Started with
the trenches. I mean, I mean, let's face it, the
Lions really separated them with a dominant offensive line. So
they go and trade for a guy. It's crazy. You

(22:05):
and I talk about these young quarterbacks. By that second
year Thanksgiving, it's like you're on the clock, like your
career is in troubles. It's like that now with free
agency the Rams side, Joja Jackson last year, three years,
fifty one million dollars. Less than a year later, it's
like traded. I mean these teams now, the money and
the cash bonuses sealing that not in a million years,
I would say, up till what seven eight years ago,

(22:25):
would have ever happened because no owner, it's like he's
a good player, and it's like, yeah, not a great fit.
Seal later. So they get a guy that they know
the Falcon Center is good and you see Andy Reid's
quotes on Toony, He's like he's one of the toughest
guys I've ever We don't want to trade this guy.
We just there's money involved and we can't afford to
keep them. One of them play play.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
We had the best year of his career arguably because
he went to left tackle.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
And was excellent. To me, he's like his generation's Logan Mankins.
I mean, just a plug and play guy who could
play multiple positions as a stud. The other thing is
when you have a smaller quarterback, you know, non paid Manning,
Tom Brady, the FLA Gol. That generation, all those guys
were huge, you know, Carson Palmer, Caleb. This generation is
a little smaller. Well, Sean Payton dealt with one in
that generation, and they always invested in centers and guards.

(23:12):
They had high because the pressure up the middle it
rattles and he can't see where Peyton, Manning and Tom Brady.
Historically they had some pretty random guys on some seasons
when they had good teams playing center and guard, they
get away with it. Smaller quarterbacks cannot. It hurts pretty
sometimes when they get in past situations and the garden
center gets smoked. He's swimming. He can handle the outside

(23:32):
pressure because he can move around. Same with Caleb, he
can move, but up the middle you are screwed. So
they they could have I know they've invested draft picks
and some tackles. But we'll see how good those guys
turn out to be. But they went all in on
the garden center position because I think with a smaller quarterback,
it's really really important to just neutralize. Think how many

(23:53):
teams also have a good interior pass rush now, So yeah,
it was hard to I mean, that was a no
brainer moved by the Bears. And Ryan Pole is pretty
lucky that this the way this all. He kept his
job and he's still here and he gets to be
a part of this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
I mean a couple of years ago, he whiffed on
Villas Jones and I was like, oh, dude, you could
have called me. And then the.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Chase played with Rome. I mean, Rome was a pretty
looking back. You should have taken an offensive lineman.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, but Villas Jones, miss Chase Claypool, miss Roma Danze
not as good as we thought.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
You know.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
So again, I think you and I agree. I think
the Bears are heading in the right direction. You just
pointed out something and I've been on this for a
few years that I think there's a duality to all
the owners being billionaires and some being ten fifteen, twenty billionaires.
Is that number one. The downside is they're more willing

(24:47):
to just fire people quickly. They're more impulsive than they've
ever been when they were all worth six hundred million.
You're you're not just riding a seventeen to twenty five
million dollar check to blow out a staff. You're just
not doing now. These guys will just blow out a
seventy million dollars staff. So who does that hurt? It
hurts a young quarterback who has to have another staff.

(25:08):
So I mean Caleb Williams, even though he upgrades staffs,
it's a brand new system. So that's the downside. The upside, though,
is when you make a mistake with personnel like Rams
and Jonah Jackson where it just didn't feel great, you
can just move off it. And so you know this,
you know you can never move off NBA contracts or

(25:30):
baseball contracts. They're so guaranteed. In the NFL. Now, if
you make a mistake, guys just write shacks and go
all right, big jo, I mean for the Bears to
get Drew Dolman and Joe Tooney. Jesus, you have your
You're you may not be Philadelphia or Detroit, but that's
a top three interior O line in the league.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Well, let's you even use I mean, the craziest example
currently is his cousin's example. Now, I know Arthur Blank
is probably I don't know where he ranks, but he's
not near the bottom when it comes to wealth. They're like, well,
you're not gonna shove us around. We're gonna pay you
ten million for next year. He obviously he's not gonna
be the team next year, and we'll eat it until
we figure this out. But you are gonna capitulate and

(26:12):
you're gonna give us a trade eventually before the season starts.
That never would have happen. I thought it was like, no,
no human lives is gonna give him ten million dollars
guaranteed for next year. Cousin's gonna win this. They will
cut him. I thought he'd be cut, you know, Wednesday Thursday.
He's like, no, they just picked it up. But he's
still there and we'll just have a staring contest. It's
that that never would have happened without the influx of cash.

(26:33):
I thought this when some of these deals are I
mean Aaron Banks, the Niners left guard got, I mean
so much money. Milton Williams, who is obviously a really
talented players. He never played more than fifty percent of
the snap for the Eagles, got twenty six million dollars
a year.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
No, Milton Williams got paid like Aaron Donald. That contract
was but again they had two hundred plus million dollars. Yeah,
and I think Milton Williams for New England, I got
that that contract is stupid. But again, it's not a
great defensive tackle class. And maybe it's just not. And
so it's a great running back class, pretty good tight

(27:10):
end class.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
It is.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
There's some offensive tackles, none of them elite. But I
saw somebody saying it didn't think it was a great
defensive tackle class. You know, I'm not watching defensive tackle tape.
We don't have a Jalen Carter obviously, but I think,
like in New England's case, I'll give them a pass.
I thought, to be honest with you, one of the
strangest contracts to me was Cooper Cup. John Snyder the

(27:35):
GM Seattle has almost never missed on receivers. Jesus, He's
been fantastic with wide receivers. Cooper Cup doesn't separate. I mean,
Sean McVeigh moves off a receiver. I mean they resigned
two to Atwell because he gets open. They went and
paid for older Devonte Adams because if you go look
at the analytics, he gets open. Cooper Cup doesn't get

(27:56):
open at all. And so the Milton Williams contract I
get because of Rabel's trying to create. You know, it's
a bad defensive tackle class. He's trying to get big.
I mean a lot of linebackers, a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Milton Williams twenty six years old.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, but the Cooper Cup deal when you look at
the Sam Darnald contract, which could end up being just
a one year, thirty seven million dollar deal, if you
look at the way it's laid out, what do you
think Darnald is a two to three year play in Seattle?
Because the Cooper Cup move is like, damn, you are
you going all in on samdy? What is this? Why?

Speaker 2 (28:34):
I thought the moment Gino was traded, it was pretty clear,
and John Schneider doubled down. We tried to give him
an extension. He wasn't going to play ball because he
thought we were low balling him and we're just not
paying a guy thirty five million dollars giving you an
extension one hundred plus million dollars, and I you know
what I'd say to John Schneider, that's the way to
do it. That's good business. Well, you need a quarterback.
And ultimately, like you said, Sam Darnald's not that much,

(28:55):
not very expensive. No one is on his contract in
the NFL. It doesn't really exis beside Baker last year,
and Baker clearly is very underpaid. Now. I don't think
Sam Donald's as good as Baker Mayfield. You know, I
would take Baker Mayfield over Sam Donald. And obviously Sam
benefited from playing with Justin Jefferson, who's probably a Hall
of Famer, Jordan Addison's who's a star. It was a

(29:17):
great situation. This situation, once they get rid of DK,
is not as impressive. And I don't blame them for
trading DK. Like Steelers gonn give him a hundred We
can dive into that one hundred and fifty million dollars,
But listen, coordinators matter with some of these. You know,
if you're gonna if you're gonna buy a quarterback, especially
fifty five million dollars, guaranteed Rock Party's gonna get one
hundred and fifty plus, so it's a tiny, tiny little number.

(29:40):
And Clint Kubiak was with him in San Francisco with
Kyle Shanahan and Brock thirty, so they know him really
well and they feel comfortable with it. I think the
one thing all the Shanahan guys will tell you is, I,
then you can't play like this every single game. But
in theory, they go into the game, they want to
run the ball, and they only want to throw the
ball twenty five to thirty times. And of those twenty

(30:01):
five to thirty times, only ideally eight to ten are
going to ask you to really be crazy good. A
lot of these are going to be scripted in and
out of your hand. It's a pretty easy scheme. It's
why so many guys are, you know, the Cousins, the
Matt Jobs, the less talented. We saw him last year
in obviously he had more weapons, but listen, the last

(30:22):
two games were really bad. He played really well last season.
It's my big issue with going all in on JJ McCarthy,
and we'll see the Aaron Rodgers thing is still out there.
JJ McCarthy never threw more than twenty two touchdowns in college.
He did not play like the way Kevin O'Connell and
that offense wants to play. And I saw it with
Trey Lance when the Niners got you're a young player,

(30:43):
usually you go to shitty teams. It's like, I'll just
you get to win five or six games your first year,
No big deal. Like if Shador Standers gets drafted to
the New York Giants or cam Ward to the Titans,
the win loss record isn't as important as how it looks.
That is not going to be the case with JJ McCarthy, right,
if you don't win eleven twelve games, it's going to
be a disaster. So replacing Sam Donald is not really

(31:03):
easy where I think that. Listen, Geno's a solid player,
but I do think he's being talked about a little
differently than he actually is, especially once you start talking
forty five to fifty million dollars like I'd be out
of the business too.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, No, I mean listen, Geno's thirty four, Sam's twenty seven.
So there is there is something to be said that
Seattle's own line is not is not a top ten
O line, and Sam moves well, and as they draft
the O line, as it improves, by Thanksgiving. Sam can
move the chains with his feet, and I think that's

(31:35):
some of it. They kind of look at it as sad.
If we're going to get a quarterback with this O
line Geno and Aaron Rogers, they just don't move as well.
Cousins doesn't move as well. Sam can buy us time
as we develop our O line from this draft.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
But look at the other thing too. The last two years,
who liked Sam Donald, Kyle Shanahan and Kevin O'Connell, The
right guys are on them. They think really really highly
of them and the Vikings and stand after those last
two games, they had a financial decision to make. They
signed a lot of guys that they wouldn't have been
able to sign them all right without They re signed
the corner. They sign a couple offensive lineman Hargrave Jonathan Allen.

(32:11):
If Sam Donold's making forty plus million dollars for him,
they're not gonna have attacked the same offseason. It's also why, though,
like they're not dumb, they realize we go all in
on this young quarterback. It's why they have to think
about Aaron Rodgers, even if it is kind of crazy
to everybody. Well, it's like JJ McCarthy could be a disaster.
Kyle Shanahan's pretty good quarterbacks. Trey Lance would have dere

(32:33):
if he listen. No one rooted for him to get injured,
but once he got injured, it saved their season because
it was he was not gonna be able to function.
Now everyone will go, well, look at JJ in that
preseason game. It's like, well, the preseason is a pretty
big jump to the regular season, let alone big Sunday
night games against the Packers and the Lions. Like it's
a different animal. That's the one thing Seattle knows now,

(32:53):
Like they get a guy who's been kind of under
the ringer as a starter for a long time, so
it's a ton of experience, but then played in real
games all season long. Like every game the Vikings played
in last year was like that was real. There was
a lot on the line, especially as the season went on.
So I thought the move was an easy one for
John Schneider. I think it's pretty fascinating what the Vikings
are doing.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, you know, I want to throw this with Aaron
Rodgers and the Vikings, the Steelers, you know, the Giants interested.
So I've said before the Vikings is the obvious choice
if you could do it, if you wanted one more
year with their personnel and their coach Giants two to me,
Steelers three. I'll get to that in a second. But

(33:34):
I went and watched a movie this morning at eleven
forty called Black Bag. It was Steven Soderberg, Who's done.
He started with sexalizing videotape years ago. Very heavy stuff,
very quirky, plot twist, fascinating guy. The movie's great. I
love that hour thirty three. I mean, you're in and
out of the theater. It's fascinating, not a wasted scene.

(33:56):
But as I was watching it, I was I was
thinking as I walked out of the theater, is that
you can tell how smart an actor is by the
directors and the choices they make for movies. Bad dumb
actors end up in bad films and make bad choices.
Tom Hanks did not make a bad choice for like

(34:17):
ten years.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
I know Tom Hanks gets better scripts than the average guy.
But you know, even a movie like Big, you know
you're like smart actors choose smarter roles. And I think
this is the ultimate test for Aaron Rodgers. Hear me
out so the teams that want in Minnesota, Pittsburgh and
New York. Pittsburgh's got the best overall roster. The best

(34:41):
overall coach is probably in Minnesota. But here's something fascinating
about the Steelers. So in five of the last seven years,
and I think we both agree they draft and develop well,
they got dudes. This this is a real roster. Five
of the last seven years they've had it east a
three game losing streak at minimum at the end of

(35:04):
the year. And my belief is as the league has
gotten offensively smarter and the culture has changed and defenses
are limited, that Mike Tomlin is a raw raw coach,
kind of a motivator. That's why such a good as
an underdog coach. Is that the raw raw stuff, it doesn't,
it doesn't land or stick by Christmas on. It just doesn't.

(35:28):
Players have heard it, and that they're they're just not
a sophisticated team. Offensively. They can't get the O line right,
which Andy Reid, McVay, Shanahan, Gary Sean Payton, those guys
within a year can figure. I mean, the Denver O
line sucked. Peyton got there, it was top eight, you know,
his first year and that. I think if Aaron chooses

(35:49):
the Steelers, I think it's a big brand. It's a
good roster. You now have two high maintenance receivers who
want the ball. By the way, DK Metcalf's the most
penalized receiver since he entered the league. Temperamental. You have
an own line that can't figure out. They have no
sensibility for it. He's sort of an outsider in a

(36:12):
kind of a tough, blue collar city. He's an outsider.
And if he chooses Pittsburgh, I really think it tells
you a lot about Aaron. I mean, I'll tell you
I would choose the Giants over Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh just lost
their left tackle. They just lost Nagie Harris. It's like
the Giants have an excellent left tackle an offensive coach,
Aaron will have power. They have an elite weapon. And

(36:34):
by the way, what they need is a running back.
It's a great running back draft. It's hard to screw
the running back. I mean, the Giants will take a
running back somewhere early. So my take on Aaron is
if he chooses the Steelers, he's passing on offensive coaches
who clearly every rule advantage goes to that side, And
I'm fascinated by the choice he makes because I'm know

(36:57):
you start hearing things a lot of people think he's
going to Pittsburgh. If you just wanted to play one
more year, where would you pick? And why?

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Well, I'd be begging are we factoring Minnesota in with
these three? Or I would be begging Kevin O'Connell to
let me be the starting quarter back? All right? Yeah?
And when I when I see some of these reports
that you know he needs thirty forty million dollars, like
guy's made four and fifty million dollars. This is probably
going to be his last season? Is he going to
go out on the embarrassment that was the Jets situation
in these last couple of years. I to me, the

(37:31):
Giants thing is, I can't get with you there. Now
I'm with you. I think the Steeler situation is a
little overrated. I mean, they just they happen to have
Lamar Jackson, who's I don't know, the most unique quarterback
we've ever seen, and Joe Burrow, who went he's on
might be the best quarterback in the league. I mean,
you're not out doing those two teams. And then Cleveland

(37:52):
just resigned one of the greatest pass rushers ever and
for a weird organization that they are not easy to play.
That that division's really really difficul And I'm with you
on the Steelers. I thought that that DK Metcalf trade
was insanity, Colin. When you when you don't have your
quarterback to trade for DK Metcalf when down the stretch

(38:14):
of the season. Obviously your offense had some issues, but
Russell did not play well, your defense was falling apart.
You are not in the business of giving a guy
one hundred million dollars guaranteed trading a second round pick.
That's look what the Chiefs or Bills should do. Not
a team that's barely getting in the playoffs and getting
smoked the moment they get in. That was crazy. I
thought that was the craziest move when you factor in

(38:35):
money and a high draft pick. But I don't think
the Steelers and the Giants are that good options. Like
I see one the Giants I don't think would make
the playoffs with them. I mean, the Jets were a
muttered ar team, and I think the Steelers situation would
probably have some parallels, might look a little better, but
like the way this season nine to ten wins get
blasted by the Ravens or Bills.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
And with.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Point.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Last year, to my point, the Steelers were an awful
team down the stretch.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
I do think, and I would imagine. You know, Kevin O'Connell,
I don't think he's ever worked with Aaron. They're just
having long conversations because they go, are we confident that
we could win the division and win playoff games with
JJ McCarthy because they I'm telling you we've seen it.
I know you know this, but like you could win
just because this isn't the NBA when you just put

(39:24):
a great roster like guaranteed to make the playoffs. In football,
the cohesion and the quarterback play. Sam Donald threw thirty
five touchdowns last year. JJ McCarthy in fifteen games that
last year at Michigan throw twenty two. He's never played
like that. They did not, that's not and and Kevin
O'Connell clearly is much more like McVeigh than Shanahan. He
likes to throw the ball. I mean he is, that's
his you know, he wants to call thirty five forty

(39:47):
passes a game, even when Sam Donald's getting smoked in
the playoff games, like Kevin run the ball. He just
kept calling pass plays, So i'd be begging Kevin O'Connell.
I think that roster. I would disagree with you on
the Steelers. I think the Vikings have a better roster.
Now that your draft, we'll see what happens. I mean,
I thought they had an excellent free agency drafting or
I mean signed a couple offensive linemen plug and play,

(40:07):
a guard in a center, a couple of defensive linemen.
I mean their defense overachieved because Flores is such an
elite coordinator. Yeah, now, so they bring in a couple
more defensive linemen. I would imagine they draft defense their
offense stacked skill wise, so you know it'd be I mean,
it'd be a little weird, right if Aaron's career literally
paralleled the guy that always drove him nuts far off
of going to the Jets, then the Vikings. But that division,

(40:31):
I think the one thing right now on paper, wouldn't
you say the NFC North is the best division in
all of football? With the Bears looking vastly improved.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Well, I think it's the best division in terms of personnel.
I think the AFC West is the best division in
terms of coaching with Peyton, Pete, Andy and Harball. So
those are the two best divisions. And I don't think
it's a I don't think it's a coincidence.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Well, I just.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
The South is such a huge college football region that
both the NFC and the AFC South aren't very good.
I've always surmised that college football is so big in
that part of the country that you don't face the
same level of pressure that you do on northern teams
like New England, Boston Media, Philly Media, Baltimore Media. You know,
I mean like cold Weather Pittsburgh. They live, they don't

(41:24):
care about college football. They live for the NFL. These
NFCAFC South teams, you're like, eh, we'll keep Todd Bowles again.
If he coaches the Eagles, he'd be gone tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
You know what's funny is probably like a year ago,
Maria has a close friend who's really successful, girl UCLA
grad just crushed it. She's like thirty years old, she's
got multiple properties, and she was telling me this. She
had this acronym. I forget exactly what it was, but
it basically described high maintenance friends and the moment you
become a high maintenance friend in her life. She's got
too much going on, she got a young baby, she's

(41:57):
out on you. Yeah. If I would have told you
four or five years ago that we'd be a week
into free agency, and people like Russell Wilson Aaron Rodgers like, yeah,
well we'll get back to you here a little bit.
It's crazy how And I think both guys, if they reviewed,
let's use Geno and Sam, are viewed as low maintenance,
good guys. Everyone likes them, no problems. If both these

(42:18):
guys were viewed as just normal humans, like a Drew
Brees or I know he's like super high Carett, but
I just mean like normal guys, I think they both
would have been signed. Had been they would have had
a bidding war for these guys, because statistically they're still solid.
They're clearly not as good as they once were. But
it's like the first question. And I've been in these meetings,
not necessarily with these individual players, but players like this,

(42:40):
like do we want to deal with this? Like do
we want? And their stardom is now bigger than their
talent that it's like, is this high maintenance worth worth
the headache? Enough?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Look at Dez Bryant disappeared, ob John disappeared. Aaron Rodgers,
Russell not really interested, I think, and I'll throw this
at you. I love the NBA, but there's some high maintenance,
you know, these guaranteed contracts. I think the NFL people,
and I've had discussions with NFL people for my entire career.

(43:13):
They often reference, Dude, that's an NBA, that's an NBA idea.
They make fun of the NBA and how much players
and employees control the entire organization. Embiid. Everybody's hostage to EMBIID.
And I mean you've heard gms reference this before. Like

(43:33):
there Aaron and Russell are getting into sort of like
a little bit of NBA where you're like, this is
a team sport, like this is about the group and
the community not I mean when Aaron said, you know,
there's that picture in Malibu where he's you know, he's
got the pod pods on, and I'm thinking, every guy,

(43:54):
every NFL GM is thinking, listen, just make an f
and decision. Okay, Like you're not married, you don't have kids,
you're not doing much, you're golfing, and you're reading Greek mythology.
Like that to me, I listen. I've talked to two
gms and they're like, you couldn't I'm not interested in Aaron,
And I'm like, yeah, but he's he's still pretty good.

(44:15):
And they're like that just eat. I mean Aaron Glenn
basically just said we're just no, thank you, and Aaron
was actually pretty good down the stretch. This isn't a
shot at Aaron. It's what I'm hearing from executives in
the league. It's like, no thanks.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Well, I mean, look look at the Titans. Their new
GM is from the Chiefs, so he's spent his whole
time around Andy Veach Mahomes, Alex the guy kind of
in this weird position who's like the president but he's
also kind of got a scouting background, is a packer guy.
They have no interest, even if they're going to take
cam Ward, Like, you guys, get Aaron Rodgers, bring him
to Nashville for a year, get a little buzz. As

(44:53):
you're building this new stadium. You haven't heard a peep,
you know. I was like, it's crazy, how think of
the top quarterbacks in this in the league, Patrick Mahomes.
The only maintenance they ever have to deal with is
his family. It's not him like he is. They don't
even think about him. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Herbert Burrow.
I mean, Burrow has kind of had to hold their

(45:16):
feet to the fire just historically this organization. If you
put Burrow in the Ravens or the Chiefs, he wouldn't
be saying a peep. He's just scared that this this
owner is going to be chief. Don't blame him. But
I think the league, the star quarterbacks are just full
of guys who are just you never the season ends
and it's like, I don't know what Josh Allen's doing,
is just doing? You had a bachelor party at the

(45:36):
Tiger Woods thing in Orlando just with his buddies. And
I think Aaron Rodgers and Russell they're different personalities, but
I think they both check the same box of like
I don't know if we have the energy and you're
and you're not good enough anymore for us to overlook that,
Because if you put Aaron Rodgers on Minnesota, you know,
I pretty good dealing well. But I can also see

(45:57):
it getting weird, like are you sure that you're comfortable
around with him? With JJ in that situation. But I
do think they're thinking long and hard, but these guys
don't really have options, so they can just kind of
wait it out and keep talking through it.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Yeah. No, I think it's a reality that there's there's
there's The players now are richer sooner. I mean some
of these guys now going forward, John, they'll come in
multimillionaires out of college. So you're gonna see You're gonna
see two things. Guys retire sooner, and guys have a
little more leverage sooner. And and I think the fear
on the end FL is we don't want to become

(46:30):
pro basketball where basically the employees are are running the team,
you know, like Kawhi showing up at four point thirty
and saying, yeah, I'm not going to play tonight, Like no,
we're not, We're not going there, and yeah, so where.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
The NFL benefits. I do think it could get much
weirder in the offseason with the holdouts and the hold
ends like that. That's probably is at the beginning of that.
But in the sport of football, unlike like in basketball,
these guys could play three hundred sixty five days a
year if they want to, right pick up games. You
can play whenever in football, the only time you can
actually play a game is in the confines of the

(47:06):
seventeen weeks. And that's the fun part. What Ray Lewis say,
you pay me Monday through Saturday. Sundays are for free.
The games are really the fun part for the players.
That's the problem with the NBA. Turn on the TV.
You never know who's gonna play. Even in the NFL,
guy making forty fifty million dollars, he's still gonna want
to play in the games, Laramie Tunzel. A lot of
articles are coming out like, you know, he's kind of
late to practice, doesn't always work hard. It's like, well,

(47:27):
you don't know that if you just watch the TV,
because you're like, he's a good players, so I want
him on my team. So it's the NFL. They're weird.
Stuff happens during the week when no one's paying attention
that the games. It's like all the guys want to play.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
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(48:06):
You know, I was watching a clip of Jim Harbaugh
and I had just had this discussion with Steve Kime
about a week ago, two weeks ago, and I said,
if I was ever a GM, because he owes jokes.
He said, you're not a talk show host. You want
to be a GM. And I'm like, you know, I
like my job, but I would love to be a GM.

(48:28):
You know, if I would have put thirty years into
that instead of what I'm doing. Who knows, you know,
you don't know. But I told him, I said I
would overdraft the offensive line. And Harbaugh said this, and
this is what Steve and I said. Jim put it
more smartly. He said, there's only one unit in a
football field that doesn't rely on any other unit, yet

(48:53):
every other unit relies on it. And he said, it's
offensive line. It makes your quarterback better, your running back's better,
your tight end doesn't have to block as vigorously, your
wide receivers have more time to get downfield. It keeps
your defense off the field if you have a great
offensive line. And it was one of those things where
when you go back to drafting Joe Ault over a

(49:13):
wide receiver, the Bears went wide receiver, and then this
year had to spend a fortune on their offensive line
instead of The Bears probably should have gone O line
instead of going with Roma Dunze. But it is interesting
that the more the NFL, you know, changes and becomes
an offensive league. We pay so much attention to quarterbacks.

(49:37):
But I and I made this pick the other day.
I think the Chiefs are going to struggle, and I
don't think they're going to win their division. I don't
think in this draft class there's a starting left tackle
good enough in their division to block Max Crosby or
Khalil Mack or the kid number fifteen Oklahoma Bonito. But

(50:00):
I do, and it's really interesting. I think. I mean,
right now, the three or four teams I like in
the league all have great old lions, all of them. Philadelphia, Detroit.
I thought the Rams finally got their act together offensive line.
I think Buffalo's last year was better than people thought.
I thought Denver's was better than people thought. I think

(50:21):
Kansas City, I think we've just baked it in, John.
They're not going ten to one in close games next year.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, I would agree there, but their offensive line was
future this year on the on the edges, and they
were able to well. I mean they were basically a
sixteen and one team. They threw the last game of
the season. So when it comes to coaching, when it
comes to the quarterback play, most importantly, their defense is
going to be good. So like part of the reason
they were winning all these games because they could win
nineteen to seventeen, they weren't allowing many points. That is

(50:51):
not going to change now the Chargers in the Broncos,
You and I have been saying this, anyone with common
sense has been saying this. The worst their teams were
going to be was last seas. They're both going to
be better. So if either Hufunga or Greenlaw play, that
defense is going to be improved. In Denver's defense was awesome.
When I saw DK Metcalf ask for a trade, a
lot of people that covered the NFL were like the Chargers,

(51:13):
It's like, guys, do you think that Jim Harbaugh is
going to trade a top whatever fifty pick and pay
a third contract to this kind of out there wide receiver,
though very talented, kind of the poor man's modern day
Torell Owens type. It's different, but I mean I think
physically they have some to dk Metcalf. Are you guys nuts?
And what does he do? He goes signs Makai Becton

(51:35):
and he's he's got a huge I see yesterday, he's
got a huge smile on his face. Like, have you
guys not followed Jim Harbaugh's career since Stanford? This they
might draft a wide receiver this year in the third round.
I would expect tight end d lineman running back like
it's Naji Harris. When I was living in the Bay Area,
Naji was his senior year, was one of the biggest

(51:55):
recruits in the country. I think he won number one recruit.
He was number one, and it was I need to
go to Alabama, but Jim was recruiting him very hard.
And I saw a clip that Jim at an Antioch.
I think he went to the homecoming game. He announced
their king and queen and so like that's who he's Listen,
I'm not the biggest nause star running back. First round

(52:15):
guy but he is a solid, runs downhill, physical guy.
Like that's how Jim wants to play. Jim wants to
play a lot like this version of the Chiefs and
clearly Denver, I think Sean would like to be a
little more explosive down the field. But like that, that
division is going to be really physical. And same thing
with the I mean, we know how Pete Carroll, why

(52:36):
did he butt heads with Russell Wilson. Russell wanted to
throw it fifty times a game. Pete wanted to throw
at about twenty in play d and run the ball.
So I think this defense is gonna or this divisions
is gonna look a lot like each other. Now you know,
if for she Rice is healthy, Xavier Worthy came on.
I do think the Chiefs offense could get more explosive,
and I would also guess that they draft are running back.

(52:57):
I think all these teams in this division could draft
running backs, and if two of the four of them
become stars, whichever ones those guys go to, like the
next Yamire Gibbs or whoever, Nick Chubb, you know, you
name it, those second round running backs hit for one
of these teams could be the difference. If all of
a sudden, you tell me Denver it has a version
of Nick Chubb or you know Alvin Kamara on their squad.

(53:17):
I'd be like, well, why couldn't they win twelve or
thirteen games? Same thing with the Chargers, and maybe this
is the year the Chiefs win. Two years ago when
they won the Super Bowl, I think they won eleven games.
So the difference between eleven and fifteen is like a
couple of missfield goals and a couple fumbles go your way.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Yeah, the yeah, it's it's I thought, I thought DeVante
Adams was obviously a great move for the Rams, but
I thought, Najee Harris, there were a couple of moves
I loved. Offensively, I think Deebo Samuel to Cliff Kingsbury
and Jaden is a sensational move for them at this point,
he'll get tons of looks, and by the way, it

(53:54):
will give Cliff another twelve offensive plays because Deebo's such
a unique player. And then I also thought, I thought,
I thought Najie Harris. I'm like, remember a couple of
years ago when Kevin Dohnson wasn't going to start for
the Steelers. McVeagh grabs him, and he literally is the
highest rated guard in the league. Najie Harris with a

(54:17):
Pittsburgh go line, everybody's like almost a semi bust. Watch
him with hardball, watch him be really effective with hardball.
I think of this all the time. Is I remember
GM telling this years ago? He said, I used to
love drafting Georgia guys when Mark Rick was there, great recruiter,

(54:38):
didn't squeeze all the juice out of a player like
you got. You know, these guys had a lot of upside.
Nick Saban squeezes every ounce of talent out of guys.
And one of the things I look at John when
these offensive coaches like McVeigh will go and find wide receivers.
He looked at DeVante and he thought jet Staff lab

(55:00):
year was like third tier. He's like, DeVante's gonna make
eighty catches for us. So I thought, yeah, I mean so,
I do think when you see these offensive coaches they
find some of these defensive cultures and they find players
and go get me that.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Well, I think you look at the Eagles last year,
Mackai Becton. This year they trade for that former first
round pick from the Densons because now listen, you're not
going to hit on them all, but the power of
having good coordinators and now so many of the offensive
ones are also the head coach. But you see it
a lot when the star offensive line coach or the
star defensive line coach. It's like buying a cheap stock

(55:36):
and the guy a year later turns into a twelve
million dollar player. You can't afford, but you bought low
like you profited from it. And I think the best
teams always have that ability. I also think the Washington
commanders with Debo and with Tunzel Tounsel not as much
because he would get paid no matter what you got. Debo.
He's in a contract years like Debo. If you ever

(55:56):
want to make a even of that's right, two year,
forty million dollar contract. Again, you got to slim down
and give us all you got. And I think sometimes
getting those guys motivated is a really big deal for
these you know, it used to be a guy going
to their third contract probably be like thirty four years old.
These guys are a little younger now, you know, they're
twenty nine, thirty years old sometimes on their third you
know DK Metcalf, Yeah, they're not as old as you know,

(56:20):
in previous generations. So sometimes these teams now with their
cap space, these free aging classes after like the first
ten names, most of them like the average fans like
who's that guy? You can take advantage of it with
traits overpriced guys on other teams at Adam Peters really
did that with Tounzel and Deebo Samuel a ton of
cap space, But I'm not going to buy all these
players and pay premiums on guys that aren't quite worth

(56:42):
it like the Packers. Listen. I understand Aaron Banks has
been a starter for the forty nine ers, but to
give him that much money to be your little guard
fell a little desperate to me. As guard works. We
have seen some questionable guard contracts in recent memory, and
I understand offensive linemen more of a plug and play.
It's a lot of money to pay a guy. You
might be able to find stuff plug and play starter
in like the third round, and the Packers historically have

(57:03):
always been able to do it.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Yep, all right, John Middlcoff form her NFL scout. He
is newly married. Now have you guys done the honeymoon yet?

Speaker 2 (57:13):
We just came home, you know, we had work to
do Colin, and we were in Nashville. We got there
on Tuesday, and most of our people got there Wednesday,
so it was basically a honeymoon in a marriage or wedding,
you know, for five days. I don't quite have the
drinking ability that in my younger days. But then we
get home and you know, obviously free agency is kicking off.
She's had changed to this luxury brokerage, so she's really busy,

(57:37):
and I realized, like, you go go on the honeymoon
necessarily to go hang out and party, just to kind
of come down and nice. But so no, I think
we're going to go to Costa Rica right before I think,
you know that last week you and I have been
talking about the last couple of years, that last week
the preseason where the games are kind of over and
there's nothing going on as college football. Her mom had

(57:59):
won this trip. So we're going to Costa Rica, I think,
for like six days that last week of August, right
before the NFL season, So we got a little time.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
That's That's a great place because I've had multiple friends
go there, all of them absolutely, all of them absolutely
loved it. John as always, Buddy, congrats on everything in
your life and uh what it cross today.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Thanks Colin, see you buddy.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
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Colin Cowherd Podcast - March Madness Preview, Rodgers Decision Looming, 49ers Rebuild, Bears Trending Up?

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Colin Cowherd

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