Big NFL Trade, Diggs on the Move, Should Reed Sheppard Start for Rockets?

Wednesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to the big trade between the Rams and Chiefs, discuss where Stefon Diggs could land, examine the possibility of Reed Sheppard starting for the Rockets, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm doing a Wednesday edition of the show. It's Sports

(00:02):
Talk seven to ninety. Wex A see Josh Jordan with you.
Following another Astros spring training tilt.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, they got a victory. WEX good on them.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
No comment.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Well, at least this one quote unquote counts just as
much as yesterday's, which was an exhibition. They don't count
at all. I just like to do this on purpose
because it's fun right out of the gate. So yeah,
Astros Orioles getting together for two, the Astros getting to win,
and before you know it, will step aside for another

(00:35):
pre emptied portion of the show. We got five thirty
Longhorns basketball coming up, so we're gonna sandwich as much
as we can in between here from about now until
five thirty ish or so more NFL fallout as the uh.
By the way, what is the official tampering window the ninth,

(00:57):
next Monday. It's just that day.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
No, the league doesn't start to the eleventh, so it's
two days.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Two whole days of actual, real, legitimate tampering.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
I mean the first five seconds March ninth window opens
for you to negotiate with players that are now free agents.
We're gonna hear this team is agreed to terms with
this player. Nick Cassario has agreed to terms with McKay
Becked and ah something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Is that what your reaction is going to be if
that's the player, see it will one be, but they won't.
There are gonna be a lot of players.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
And these days, these last couple of days kind of
with Casario getting the ball rolling around the NFL with
the two trades that they pulled off earlier this week,
and every day this week and today's no different, We're
going to hear from teams, both publicly and from reports
from outside sources, that these are the moves we intend
to make. We know Kyler Murray's gonna be available. He's

(01:47):
taken to social media today. The Chargers made an announcement themselves.
We've let go of these three players. I just mentioned
McKay Beckton, he is one of them. We've released them.
That's what's gonna happen for the next handful of days
because because this is what the GM and their internal
capologists have come up with, how do we get where
we need to be? How do we get to where
we can negotiate with players? However, for some teams, how

(02:10):
do we get under the cap, how do we get
cap compliant by the time the league year begins. So
this is as active as a time as there will
be really all the way through the first couple of
days of free agency. You know how it dies down
after the biggest names, except for like two or three
have found new homes. Former Texan is going to be
available very very soon. I don't think the Texans will

(02:32):
have interested in the reunion, but those names are gonna come.
And how much it matters to Houston because Houston's going
to have a few of those on a lower scale.
We already know about Jimmy Ward. There'll probably be a
couple of other players that they know the cap savings
are worth it, versus do we want to pay them
that to play with us next year, or negotiate a
deal to extend it or restructure it, things like that.

(02:55):
They're a handful of players that we're here in our
technical under contract for next year that will no longer
be don't have guaranteed money.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
There's a nice enough cap savings from it.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
So we'll start to tell you who we think those
might be if we don't hear reports on it already.
But this is a super super active time in the NFL,
just after the combine and just before Penn does actually
go to paper around NFL buildings.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
So with the deal from Montgomery, with everything we've talked
about the last couple of days, and let's face it,
some of the things we've heard, which again I don't
we always we make fun of Nick Cassario for not
saying much. I think every once in a while he'll
let in a little bit of of a clue of
what he's doing. All right, I like, okay, put this
way this offseason. I think, whether it's him, whether it's

(03:44):
Tamiko with some of his limited sound bites, like, at
least they're being transparent about which side of the ball
they really want to address.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't feel like they did that last year.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Well, I mean, it doesn't matter what they say, It
only matters what they do. And what they done is
create an enormous amount of need on one side of
the ball because you signed a bunch of players that
worked out defensively. You've drafted a bunch of players that
worked out defensively. They're all under contract. You don't have
to tell me what you're gonna do. I know what
you're going to do. Everybody knows what they're going to do.

(04:16):
They're gonna have a massive roster shuffle on the offense. Again,
they've already made part of it happen in the backfield.
They haven't told us explicitly. I haven't seen the release.
Nobody's reported that Joe Mixon's been released. Hey, guess what,
Joe Mixon's going to be released. You know that they're
gonna make changes with what they have in the tight
end room just because of where they were just a
year ago, and now they literally are sitting here today

(04:37):
on March fourth, with one starting caliber offensive lineman. They
don't have to tell us. He doesn't have to reach
a podium, and I don't have to visit our show.
He doesn't have to start a podcast. We know what
they're doing. We just don't know who did.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
It.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Will be on the other end of the phone, which
agency's talking to to lock in, which player We can
tell you who we think might make the most sense,
actually someone who might make a lot of sense for
the Texans. It's a name people that listen to Sports
Talk seven ninety over the last couple of years should
know extremely well.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I feel like this should be obvious. It's kind of
a trick tease. Well, I can't do that.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
I'm not asking you to. I'm not divulging who that is? Right?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
When are you going to divulge at three o'clock? No,
I'll do it at three fifteen. Why do we have
to wait two more segments? You don't have to mean,
I'll probably tell you during the break ha peak behind
the curtain. Not so much, by the way, since we
always like to bring them up sket The contract situations

(05:39):
are already being reworked across the NFL. Not to mention
releases and things of that nature, that's already kind of
been going on. But Dallas did a lot of reworking today.
They did a lot of Kansas City chiefing, if you will,
with their quir think give it's an a standard operating procedure. Yes,
he's the only one that has a five hundred million
dollar contract especial.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
All have the same deals mega mega millions, forty fifty
sixty million dollars, and every year that goes by they
restructure it.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, but how come his was the only one that
was pointed to as a five hundred million dollars deal.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Because he got a little bit more. I mean, his
deal is not the same as everybody else lengthier, but
all the quarterbacks go freaking Deshaun Watson's gonna have a
restructured contract. I mean, that's what they do. That's that's
that's just how it's the only one of the easiest
ways to do what people tell. You tell everybody on
the outside, you can't do well. You gotta win when

(06:31):
you're playing your rookie contract quarterback. No you don't. You
just restructure it and then the cap goes up, and
then you restructure it again, and then the cap goes
up again. You do have to sign lesser value players
that then play well. You do have to draft well.
Becomes extreme, like it's not a coincidence that Howie Roseman
and Brent Veach have taken their teams to the Super

(06:53):
Bowl multiple times and have obviously a very highly paid
quarterback and Pat Mahomes and some of that came before
he became that same thing with Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia,
wasn't even a first round pick. Well the other part
of both of their tenures there, and it's not they're
not necessarily the number one at it. They did draft well.
And Kansas City's had some years where they didn't draft well,

(07:13):
they've had some other years where they probably had the
best draft of anybody in the NFL. And you can't
succeed without it. It is exactly why Nick Cassaro has
a successfully run roster. He drafts well, He drafts well
enough that they can put better, more expensive players around
them because the less expensive players are really really good.
It's a pretty simple formula, but the execution is what

(07:35):
sets general managers apart.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
I think what is fascinating to me is what will
happen specifically after this offseason where I think what you'll
get is and you mentioned Danil Hunter yesterday. In addition
to this, I think Will Anderson Junior gets his deal.
I don't think CJ gets his, and then I am
very interested to see what the offseason of twenty twenty
seven looks like.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, the Texans will be in another very good position
in twenty twenty seven if you've had a little bit
of attention to where things stand there at some point
they will be like every other awesome NFL outfit that's
been ahead of them, like Buffalo, like Baltimore, like Kansas City,
like Philadelphia, and on and on and on. They will
actually let some really good players leave, and they'll feel
that the best way to keep us in a position

(08:19):
where we can still do what we want to do,
which obviously is win and have a little bit of
roster flexibility, is you know, we're going to have to
let somebody else give this older player this big, huge
deal because we have too many other players. I mean,
Kaylen Block and Kamari Lassiter will be finishing year three
in twenty twenty six. I mean they both could go

(08:39):
into the final year of their contract without an extension
as non first round picks if they play at the
same level they've been playing at. I would be very
surprised if the Texans wanted to do that, and I
would rate them in this similar scenario, similar play caliber
to what Nick Cassara has already shown a willingness to
do with players just like them, non first round picks
prior to playing in the last year of their contract

(09:01):
that he drafted that played at an exceptional level got
extensions during that third to fourth season in the offseason.
Did it with Jalen Peatrie recently, and did it with
Nico Collins less recently, but each of those four players
I think are all viewed exactly the same should be
viewed the same way by the Texans, And we're probably
looking at this offseason where Nico Collins there could very

(09:24):
easily be an extension for him. There's probably at the
very least some sort of change to his contract, but
I do believe it will come in the form of
an extension. So all these things play into what's happening
in twenty twenty seven. Knowing that you're not I think
internally they know they're not going to extend CJ. Stroud
to that extent this year because I think they feel
good about him playing better and him them being in

(09:45):
a financial position to do that next year. Because I
hope the decision is even less fuzzy than some people
think it is today. I hope the decision is extremely clear.
I don't even care if he earned himself a couple
of extra dollars along the way by playing well in
twenty twenty six and in twenty twenty seven. In January,

(10:07):
when they're in the playoffs and they do something they
haven't ever done before, that would be something to work
off of to sign him to a new contract.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Well, look, he's the only one that has honestly created
this much pressure to do just that on himself.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
I mean, I know that it's not all his fault.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, no, thanks to everyone around him, Yeah, both in
management and Corafield.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
But at the end of the day, whether it's fair
or not, most of the blame is going to be
on his shoulders and he's the only one that can
do anything about it by playing outstanding this year.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, there's so many quarterbacks that are I think, have
performed less successfully than he has as first round picks,
high league drafted, first round picks, and they all get extended.
You're not one hundred percent that this is what we
are going to win with in the future. In Arizona,
Kyler Murray's getting his money, We're going to have this

(10:58):
acrimonious situation. I mean, I don't know. Maybe CJ is
going to have to scrub his Texans off of his
Instagram account at some point in the next twelve months
before he gets his deal. Same thing happened with Tua
in Miami. I'm sure there's a lot of people in
their building, maybe you had on the coaching staff that
weren't one hundred percent that this is a guy we're
going to win with And he got his extension. Definitely

(11:18):
happened in Jacksonville. I know he's the number one pick.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
I know.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
We've made all these changes, We've changed coaches a billion times.
We gave him all these players, and it looked like
he was getting better. But then as soon as he
got hurt, we started winning without him. So I don't
And he got his extension. Yeah, it's happening that I
don't even think is debatable unless he plays more poorly
than every player I just mentioned by a lot in

(11:43):
his fourth year, Yeah, which I do not forecast.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
It's going to take a disaster fourth season. It's not
just going to take oh, he played as poor as
last year in order for that.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
So badly, they won thirteen times. I know, I know, Well,
he didn't win all those games. He won ten of them.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, he was out and they were a roll.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
They were managing their way through. Hey man, the defense
played great again today, undefeated, nine straight quarters of great
defense got them three wins without CJ.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I mean, Davis Mills didn't lose a game, that's right. Undefeated.
So yeah, but again I don't anticipate that being the
case this offseason. I think it's all about Will Anderson Junior. If,
as you say, they wind up giving another extension to
daneil Hunter not going to be upset about that. I
want every part of that defense to be as prepared

(12:32):
at least to be as dominant as it was last season.
Can't guarantee it will be because you can't guarantee the
health they had, And frankly, I mean we we always
bring that up because who got hurt other than I
think Petrie missed a few games and what had Didstingly
miss one game with his oblique injury.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
I wouldn't you anything like that. I would barely even
count if you didn't have a significant four to five
week injury. I do count the Petrie injury. A concussion
is even a bigger deal because of what could be
in his future unfortunately. But yeah, he missed three games
for that. And then once you had with both Jalen
Smith as your backup cornerback, and then what went on
at the safety position that was early vacated early in

(13:14):
the season, it was vacated by CJ. Gardner Johnson. They
went through multiple injuries there and they really never got
it totally settled because Reid wasn't healthy. MG Stewart was
lost for the year. Both of those situations. In Smith's case,
were talking about their thirteenth player on defense or their
fifteenth player on defense.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
He was a backup corner who would.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Probably never ever ever see the field because they don't
sit their corners. And then we're talking about the last
of the eleventh most important starter was that other safety position.
So they were an unbelievably solid ground. They had several
other injuries at defensive tackle over the course of the year.
The Edwards injury, the subtle injury, the fact that Photocasi
missed the majority of the season, the fact that heiness

(13:54):
never even played and I mean this in the nicest way,
barely even noticed because they did such a remote Nick
and his staff and Demiico and the coaching staff did
such a good job with the people that they did have.
Tommy TOGII was one of the most successful defensive tackles
league wide, not just as a reserve, not just in

(14:15):
limited duty, not at all. He played at an exceptionally
high level, and they just had they were going to
start playing him more. He obviously had to play more
because of some of those absence. It's those things goes
right back into what I said, you got to execute
that well, you gotta find players that are on the
lower end. They already extended him. They extended him before
he's took off last year, so he would be under

(14:37):
contract at a again the Cassario favorite. How much money
does this player make? Whose contractor is your favorite? The
ones that I know, These are the concrete numbers I
get to work with. I don't even have to go
into next season and wonder anymore. That's why he does
a lot of in season extensions and he does a
lot of what he did this week with David Montgomery.

(14:57):
How much are you paying your running back next year?
I want to as soon as possible, And he found
out before the league year even started.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and I don't.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
I mean, is he the most sexy guy you could
have gotten for that position? No, but I think he's
a vast improvement over what you had last year, especially
when you couple it with again, I think, I.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Mean, if you're saying he's replacing Nick Chubb and that's
an upgrade, I would agree.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
I essentially am saying that because it's not like I
think Woody Marks isn't gonna get carries all of a
sudden because David Montgomery's here.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, I mean you're you're taking your number two running back,
Nick Chubb and replacing with a presumable number one or
one A so's it's not even really it's a one
man out one man in sure, but their capabilities are very,
very different. You know, Nick Chubb started a bunch of games,
and as soon as it was very obvious that he
was not as the most effective back in their backfield,

(15:50):
what he marks took over for him, and more than
half the year he was your RB one and Nick
Chubb just kind of filled in the gaps. He had
some good moments, he had some good runs. It was
necessary for him to help spell a rookie, but he
wasn't a particularly effective back last year. David Montgomery will
be effective here next year. The gosh, at the very
very low end of things.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Effective, It's it sounds like it's like a backhanded compliment,
but it's not.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
I mean, if it's third and three, I feel like
he might get you three and a half yards. If
it's first and goal from the two, I think there's
a chance he might get into the end zone.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Those are effective runs, and these are regardless of the
linemen in front of him.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
It would be nice if the linemen were better than
the ones Nick was running behind. True, every year, it's
always Nick c Nick Chubb, Nick Cayley, Nick Cassario. Who's
going to be the new one this year?

Speaker 1 (16:33):
All right, we will get the three o'clock hour and
our first traditional segment underway next when we return a big,
big NFL trade today, there's a big name that has
been released from one of these Super Bowl contenders, the
best one hundred in Major League Baseball. How many Astros
are on this list? Plus what's going on in the

(16:55):
back cart for the Rockets. All of this and so
much more coming up on a Wednesday edition of the
program eight for as we get things underway on a
Wednesday edition of the Program. Astros beating the Orioles in
their spring training action you heard right here on Sports
Talk seven ninety before we took over four to two earlier. Today,

(17:15):
we've got Longhorns basketball coming up against Arkansas. That'll take
place at five thirty, and in the meantime, talk a
little bit about the NFL. In that prior segment, Big big,
big names on the move or being address.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Let's put it that way.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
The first one was the fact that the Kansas City
Chiefs got a bunch of draft picks today because they
traded Trent McDuffie to the Rams. They got four draft picks,
including the number twenty nine selection in this year's draft.
I guess they just didn't want to pay one of
the best corners in football, pretty simple. But to be

(17:53):
able to get a first like that is pretty good. Yeah,
end of the first I think the value is very
good for them. Obviously, the Rams trying to win the
Super Bowl with Matt Stafford before Matt Stafford becomes a
retired NFL player, So they're doing the things they've always done,
which is we don't really care about those picks. But
you got to remember they made a trade last year
that landed them the thirteenth pick in the draft from

(18:14):
the Falcons, so they still have a significantly better first
round pick to also put somebody probably on the field
that they can help that team immediately. Trent McDuffie helps
that team tremendously. Some of the issues with them this year,
clearly I thought were their past defense a little bit better,
a little bit less successful upfront than I thought they
were going to be with their pass rush, and obviously

(18:34):
that goes hand in hand with what they can do
on the back end. Trent McDuffie's played very well personally.
I think he's a touch overrated. I think he's really good.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think his best season maybe kind of came early
in his career, and everyone continues to put him in
that stratosphere. Very good player, deserving of the you know,
wanting to go get him, and maybe the Chiefs saw
it similarly. I think the Chiefs are also banking on
their own abilities to do what they've done before. They've
traded players away or let players walk out the door

(19:04):
before because they believe they can find better players for
or better value for players at the same position through
the draft and for less money. That's what they're banking on,
and that's why they wanted to go get these picks.
That's a little bit like Tyreek Hill when they sent
him out and landed several early picks and were able
to continue winning at an extremely high clip. Obviously they

(19:24):
won the Super Bowl. I think that's what they envisioned
this trade doing for them.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Again, we'll discuss this trade a little bit more in depth,
but the other big news, and I don't know how
surprising this is. I don't know what to make of this,
because Stefan Diggs has really become a journeyman all of
a sudden in the NFL. Still productive and all that,
not as much as he used to be, probably, But

(19:48):
the Patriots, fresh off of losing the Super Bowl to
the Seahawks, are going to or have, I guess, release
Stefan Diggs.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
It's strictly money. They get out of having to pay
him a guaranteed money on a date where it triggers,
so now they don't have to. They didn't have much
guaranteed money on his deal next year to begin with,
and so they move on. And yes, I mean journeyman
sounds a little rough, but it is definitely in the NFL.
It happens a bunch to players of his caliber. I mean,

(20:18):
are you looking at DeVante Adams that way? He was
super productive in Green Bay and then he went to
the Raiders, and then he went to another team. I mean,
will he be on the move again? I don't think so,
but it does happen. And Diggs is at a little
bit lower level than DeVante, but he'll be playing for
his fourth team in four seasons. He came back remarkably,
not only quickly from the ACL injury suffered with the Texans,

(20:40):
but productively. He was on the field for all seventeen
games the year before he came to Houston. He was
on the field for all seventeen games the year after
he was hurt here in Houston, plus four they had
four games of the postseason. He was there for all.
He played twenty one games last year and was super
productive in the regular season for a team that needed
somebody to kind of show the rest of the grow

(21:00):
the way. It's pretty an inexperienced group of wide receivers,
and he was one of the biggest reasons why I
think Drake May's season went as smoothly as it did.
Not a big play guy, not gonna go out and
have one hundred and forty hundred and fifty yard days.
Very often he might have a nine or ten catch
day for a lot fewer yards, And his numbers have
been on the decline from his year in Minnesota to

(21:21):
his year, our year in Buffalo, to his year in Houston,
to his year in New England, and now to where
he plays next year. But they told him this is
what's gonna happen. He sent out his Instagram goodbye as well,
and I'm sure there'll be interest in him. However, you
remember last offseason the Texans had acquired him and reworked
his deal so he would be available to hit free

(21:43):
agency after he was here in Houston, which I found
curious at the time, but that's the way that that
Nick Cassario played it. When he got hurt, definitely seemed
like it was beneficial to Houston in that regard that
they didn't have to be the team wondering what he
would be like after the injury, and then we were
just wondering what is going to be interested in him
and for how much money? As an agent reports the

(22:05):
deal and all of his lemmings and the media reported
for him, it sounded like an unbelievable deal. He missed
more than half the season in twenty twenty four, got
hurting in Game eight, out for the final nine games,
and not young in his early thirties, signed a three year,
sixty three million dollar contract with the Patriots.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
I was sixty nine.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Well, this is how it gets reported, and it's not inaccurate,
but that's why they report it that way. Well, so
what year is this of his deal? Well, this is
year two. How much is he getting this year? He's
not on the team. One's year three, LA's next year. Oh,
how much is he getting from them next year? Well? Nothing,
he's not on the team. It's not a three year,
sixty three million dollar deal. It's a one year, twenty

(22:51):
two and a half twenty three million dollar deal, which
is a lot for one year. But the team that
gave him sixty three million in theory had no intentions
of ever paying him sixty three million. He what could
they have possibly wanted from Stefan Diggs last year that
he didn't do? He exceeded all expectations and gotta can

(23:12):
you put all your stuff in a trash bag and
leave please?

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Well, this is why this is what bugs me about
the NFL.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
I understand why they're doing it and all that, but
it's just like, why, I know, I guess you have
to announce the deal and the figures and all that.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Well, because you've pro rated this and you've guaranteed that,
and that's you know, part of the additional guarantee, which
is what he's not going to get. They don't want
that guarantee to hit it's it's the same from them
as it is from the Texans. Well, they're gonna sign
Will Anderson to a deal. Let's put it. Let's say
he signs a two hundred million dollar deal on the
nose for five years, and it's actually gonna be more.

(23:48):
But that's that is exactly forty million dollars a year. Well,
is he going to hit the cap at forty million? Yes, Adam,
of course he is. He has it averages out to
forty million. And then I'll say, no, a him, he's
not because it's not gonna be anything like that at all.
They're gonna pro rate this, they're gonna take this signing
bonus that three years from now, they're gonna accelerate this
signing bonus. They're gonna lower his base salary, and it's

(24:11):
just the nature of walking around the extremely easy to
walk around NFL salary cap. And it makes everybody look good.
Oh the Patriots are they're big spenders this offseason. And
the agent gets to say, my client signed a sixty
three million dollar deal that he isn't gonna see all
of we know that. And that's what we have in
this sport that we don't have in the others. If

(24:33):
the Astros sign Rafael Montero to a thirty four and
a half million dollar deal, he's getting all thirty four
and a half million of it. If the Houston Rockets
sign Matt Maloney to a seven year, eighteen million dollar deal.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
You do Dorian Finney Smith, he's getting up.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Well, his contract's a little different because they signed into
a four year deal and everybody knows he's not going
to be here after next season at the very latest,
because the guarantees don't kick in there. That that's one
thing that NBA has that MLB does not. You don't
see all the money necessarily on these deals because there
is the ability to sign you signed a four year deal,

(25:11):
but the last two years aren't guaranteed. Jack Landell had
a contract for multiple seasons, four years, thirty two million dollars.
I think the Rockets signed him to a couple of
off seasons ago, but years two, three, and four weren't guaranteed.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
So there's a little bit of wiggle room. On the
NBA side, there's no whivel ers aren't guaranteed for dfs.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, it's I wish they had others like Jayshawn Tate
being out, as we immediately segue into that it matters
because these are minutes. I don't know what how many
more fifteen to twenty minutes a night Dorian Finney Smith
can get. Hopefully. What was said by Ema Doka today
at Rockets practice in advance of tomorrow night's first game

(25:50):
of a back to back Golden State indicated that Jabari
Smith Junior and a Men Thompson will be good to go,
So you'll only be without Jay Shawn Tate and or
Dorian Finney Smith because obviously it's a back to back,
he will play in only one of those games.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
I would.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Between these two teams, I would still go full throttle
in the Portland games, since they seem to give you
way more problems this season.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
They are trying so hard to lose games. Well, I
hope they turned their game succeeding tremendously.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Because the last two times the Rockets played them in
Portland it was not fun to watch either one of
those gus and.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Very certain, barring major absences by Rockets players, that the
Rockets are not going to lose to the Blazers at home.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
I'm gonna hold you to it.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
I'm happy to happy to be held to it.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Don't mess up the start of my weekend. Rockets, I
don't need that.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, that's the Rockets is I don't think people quite
realize when the Rockets all of a sudden couldn't win
at home. Oh my god, the Hornets whacked them. Oh
my god, the Celtics made them look awful. Who do
you think the two best teams in these have been?

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, maybe the.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
NBA the past two months, those two Charlotts almost never loses.
The Rockets win into their building and beat them as
a revenge for what happened here in Houston.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Did the same thing to the Pistons.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
By the way, the Hornets have been very good that
the Blazers, like I said, as of late, they have
not been there. They're trying to do what everybody else
in the West is doing, and that is not win.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Well are they gonna rest Denny? I mean, I don't
need to watch his free throws again. I don't think
that's it again. I don't I respect them for being
a near five hundred. I don't respect them for being
able to come in here and take care of the
take care of the Rockets anymore. They got their wins
this year already. Yeah, that's probably true. We end up

(27:42):
splitting that series, even though you didn't think that was
going to be the case.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
We shall see.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
That's not until Friday, As we mentioned a Steph Curryless
Rockets Warriors tilt tomorrow night at.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Toyota Center in the first all the back to back.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
All right, we'll dive into a little bit more between
that trade between the Race and the Chiefs plus is reached.
Shepper going to start starting for the Rockets on the regular.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
It's funny.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
I've asked that question of various media members, both on
and off the record, and I get lots of varying
degrees of responses one way or the other on that.
So definitely something we want to get into today as
well on a Wednesday edition of.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
The show.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
The a t on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
By the way, have you seen Patrick Mahomes' reaction to
Trent McDuffie being traded away to the Rams?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
What is it?

Speaker 2 (28:39):
One word? Damn?

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Well, good players don't like seeing other good players go.
Bad players probably don't either unless they were behind them,
are like, oh good, I get to start now. This
is it's a good player it's a four year starter.
It's a former first round pick, played at a high
level as a rookie, and played at that level or
close to it every year since. And now they have
an I don't know who with pick number twenty nine
and I don't know what position.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
So they pick one pick after the Texans as of
right now, until Nick trades out of that spot. Of course,
Texans currently had the number twenty eight pick. They also
get a fifth and sixth round pick for this year,
and then a third rounder in next year's draft, all
from the Rams in exchange for Trent McDuffie.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
I mean, the odds of them drafting a player or
utilizing those picks to get a player better than Trent
McDuffie is very very low. But this is they could
have paid him thirteen million dollars to play this final
season there. They obviously had basically decided and were they
and their agents had gotten together and said, well, this
is not there's no there's no way we're going to

(29:46):
reach an agreement on a long term extension with you.
He's playing. He would have played for them under his
fifth year option. This is a first round pick, twenty
first to overall pick. They had picked up his option
obviously when that was needed prior to this offseason, like
the Texans will do here for anybody they don't extend
like Will Anderson, er Cy J. Stroud, And then this

(30:06):
is the time, since they didn't do it prior to this,
to reach a long term extension. It's really their last
chance to do so. They knew they weren't going to
they were too far apart. They found a partner because
the Rams will be that partner to give him that money.
I'm sure they'll be an announcement probably just after the
league year of what exactly those figures are, and he'll
be under a long term deal, which is what this
player was after the Kansas City Chiefs. What six win

(30:30):
Kansas City Chiefs. They did not get better today, they
got worse.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Two days ago. They cut Juwan Taylor. They saved twenty
million in cap space. Makes me wonder if they use
this pick to maybe draft to tackle oh their offensive
line has been awful. They would, I think with or
without him. And they didn't cut him only because he
makes money. They cut him because I don't think that well,
the money for the performance was not a very good match.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
I'll say it that way a lot of fall starts.
It's just he wasn't playing at the level. I don't
think they thought it as a twenty million dollar tackle,
and I would tend to agree like that's a different
You know there clearly there's money involved in both of
those decisions, but you know, trying to find a player
to play as well as Trent McDuffie is impossible. They
will not do that trying to find a player that
can play close to the level or at the level

(31:18):
of Juwan Taylor. If they spend that money in free agency,
if they're one of the teams that you know, goes
out and gets a tackle, then they certainly can do that.
Or if they feel like they can replace him with
a younger player, or maybe they feel better about I mean,
they've drafted tackles in the last two drafts. Last year's
draft was a player I thought the Texans would have
been wise to take, and Josh Simmons. He had some

(31:38):
personal issues that took him off the field, but I
think his overall play was probably grated out as well
as just about any rookie tackle last year just wasn't
out there as much. So they got it right this
year if the tackle from BYU maybe the year before,
as somebody they feel a little bit better about. You
move on from a twenty million dollar problem.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Basically beat the Colts and then you lost six straight
games to end the season. And I know in the
middle of that was when Patrick Mahomes got hurt. But
he was playing in the game against the Texans, and
which I can't remember which game he got hurt in.
Was it the Chargers game or the Titans game, or
was it the Broncos game. It is one of those three.
I mean, I know he was there for all of

(32:16):
the Texans game. I feel like it was the next
week that he got hurt, but I can't remember, and
has obviously been furiously not only got the surgery done,
but rehabbing.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Like from when the Texans ended their season with their victory,
we already knew it was over. Yes, he got hurt
the next week, Okay, that's what I thought.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
But in case they thought maybe there was a chance
that it wasn't over, it was definitely the nail in
the coffin.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Hexans was the fourth loss in five games for them. Yeah,
they were already in a tailspin. It was bad, good, good,
the Texans need. They saw it all happen right in
front of him last year. It's it's okay. The newcomers
to the top of the AFC are so beatable, unlike
the former top of the Lamar Jackson's Ravens seemed kind

(33:02):
of hard to beat. Josh Allens Bill's the same, Pat
Mahomes Chiefs the same. It's why they were Chiefs were
in the conference title game every year. What if I
told you neither the Broncos nor the Patriots will be
in the AFC title game this year, very believable. They're
not at the level of the Chiefs, nowhere close. I
don't think they're at the level of either of those
other two teams. They had staying power. They were clearly

(33:24):
built for this every single year. We'll find out if
year three for Drake Mays is top top line. We'll
find out if year three for a bon Nicks is
the same. But I don't think anybody forecasts that the
way that you know, what is the AFC run through?
Does the AFC run through New England? That sounds stupid.
Prior to this year, if you said where does the

(33:46):
AFC run through, everybody knew it ran through Kansas City.
That that's just a very different dynamic of what to
look at in the AFC's It should be just as
open for the Jaguars and the Chargers and the Texans
and the Ravens and anybody this year, which is a
good thing.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Well, when they all come back, meaning the Ravens come
back with their team somewhat hole in a new coaching staff,
Mahomes whenever he comes back, like, I still don't just automatically,
like I'll put it this way, I don't just automatically
penciling that those two teams are gonna return to prominence,
like I would say with the Bills this year. So

(34:23):
the Bills will I have more confidence in the Bills
somewhat getting back to the standard that they played at
this last year, which I know wasn't great at times.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Well, I think I'm gonna lay out what you're saying
so people follow along why it makes perfect sense. You
don't think the Ravens might return to prominence. Yeah, because
Lamar Jackson was on the field last year and they
went eight to nine. You're not sure that the Chiefs
will return to prominence. Yeah, we just said their season
was already in a tail spin before he got hurt

(34:52):
and they finished six and eleven. But you feel more
comfortable about the Bills. The Bills were good. The Bills
were twelve and five last year. The Bills went on
the road and won in the playoffs last year. I mean,
returning to prominence is only a statement made in relation
to all of a sudden, the Patriots got awesome. If
the Patriots were what they had been every other year

(35:13):
during this Bill's run, the Bills win at least thirteen games,
maybe fourteen. And I'm not saying they're unbeatable or they're great,
but this falloff the Bills had was really just there.
I mean, I know there were issues over the course
of the season that people pointed out, and they have
wide receiver whatever. They managed to win a lot of
football games again in spite of all those things. And

(35:35):
they also think we needed to do something to get
better by firing their coach.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, they lost their playoff game because Josh Allen basically
picked a bad day to make some terrible decisions.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
And yet I would never I just don't. That's not
one of my concerns about the Bills, and it's a
big reason why I think they will be able to
return to prominence versus the other two we're talking about
is because.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Of Josh Allen.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Again, a return to prominence means winning as many games.
I mean, they won twelve times. They won more games
than every team in the NFC, but Seattle.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Right, and I don't think it's just a given that
the Patriots are going to be some sort of juggernaut again.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Same with the Broncos.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
I'm wide open. Yes, the Patriots have to prove it
a second year. The Broncos and now, while they've been
to the playoffs in back to back years, I think
there's a little bit of a proven element with their
quarterback and what they can do offensively and how much
he and Sean Payton actually see eye to eye as
opposed to the opposite, which it sounded like at the
end of the season, which is crazy, but those are

(36:34):
the things that they have to work with. They're a
little bit like Houston, though their defense is probably going
to be pretty awesome again next year. They're in a
really good spot to have allowed their team to grow
this way offensively, and I would expect a better season
out of Bonix in year three. I'd expect at least
the goodest season out of Drake May in year three,
but it's by no means guaranteed with young quarterbacks see

(36:56):
Houston's young quarterback. So who did win this trick? In
my opinion, I Chiefs. I think the Rams won the trade.
It makes sense for the Chiefs, but they're I mean,
Mahomes has another eight years let's say, of being really
really good. I think that's a reasonable number, and Stafford
probably has two or one. So they got a player
that will help them now. And even if Stafford retires,

(37:18):
if they miraculously figure out a way to you know,
find somebody that they can still win with. Well, now
Trump McDuffie will be there to do that with them.
They made their team significantly better in twenty twenty six
during MVP Matt Stafford's run as one of the best
players in the league. To me, that is a that's
a winning trade.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
It feels like they're it feels like this is Stafford's
last year no matter what, because it's the last year
of his contract. He's old and they're loading up.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
So whose decision is that? It's Mats Stafford's right? So
if he plays like he did last year, why would
you walk away, do you not? I mean, maybe it's family.
I don't want to miss more of my daughter's lives
moving forward. They're all still relatively young. But I mean,
I think it's really hard for players, especially quarterbacks like
Aaron Rodgers, who did not announce anything of significance today

(38:08):
even though the media was frothing at the mouth hoping
he would.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Tom Brady, if you're good, it's hard.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Why do I start, like, why did the Patriots say,
like you're kind of painting a Patriots Brady divorce with
the Rams? Like the Rams are awesome, The Rams are
super Bowl contenders, and they're gonna walk away from him
because they want to, Like that's what the Patriots did. No,
I think, and then Brady went to Tampa and was
still too awesome. To believe you walked away you said, no,

(38:37):
we don't want this anymore.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
I think Stafford walks away from them, And I don't
think he's walking away from them.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
I just think he's done.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
That's that's why I think this is kind of like
low enough for one last run.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
I wonder which team he's going to try to buy
into and ruin Stafford. Yeah, I mean, if he's following
the Brady Mall for Brady path, but he's not. Okay, good,
You'll leave that to Brady to go into the front
office and just be the butt of jokes moving forward
because he's laying the foundation for it. He's doing really well.
He's doing really well for us as the butt of

(39:07):
our jokes. A lot of don't. I mean, probably told
you what that is today, But it will come come
a little bit later, maybe in football five.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Probably so probably a safe bet.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Hey, they say the championship window is always open with
Astros owner Jim Crane. Not so fast, my friend says
one MLB insider will tell you who it is and
what they had to say.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
You'll hear from them next.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
It's been a minute since we've had Ken Rosenthal ruin
our day.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Wex Let's do it all right? Sounds good?

Speaker 1 (39:42):
So he and many others writing their articles right now,
doing what they do this time of year, getting ready
for the twenty twenty six campaign, the last one for
a while, because the labor stoppage is coming. Don't worry.
And I feel like some semblance of this thought process

(40:04):
or this way of thinking. I guess about the Astros
has been going on for a long time now. I
should say I don't think Ken Rosenthal is one of
those anti Astros guys. He's not my favorite guy. He's
very smarty, but he's not passing. He's not one of
the hacks based in New York. He's not a John Hayman.
You know, he's legit. But what he says in this

(40:28):
particular sound bite about the ASTROS window and about just
the roster in general, it might be a bitter pill
to swallow, because I do think there's a lot of
truth to this. This is the first of two sound
bites we have from Ken Rosenthal. We don't have it

(40:51):
all right, fantastic Basically saying that the ASTROS window is
shrinking and that the Astros are an a group they
should continue to act with some urgency. Isn't exactly brown
breaking breaking news ground at breaking news going into twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, it's kind of the things we've been talking about
about the not only the moves that could be made,
because that's the other part of what we'd be talking about,
but you got to consider what they're counting on this year. Now,
we talk about the quality of their lineup, and definitely,
if I tell you the names, it sounds that way. Altuve, Correa, Walker, Alvarez,
Pana Perettis. Now, let's siphon them off and let's put

(41:31):
them in order by age and tell you where they
are on the scale. And you've got several players are
on the wrong side of things, and you start with
Altuve and Korea al Twovey's I mean, I'm sure his
best seasons are behind him. How much of a dip
does it take this year? The last couple of years,
it definitely looked like the trend was underway and he
was gonna be less productive each year remaining. He's not

(41:52):
gonna be able to crank out quite as many extra
base hits. Maybe he'll still be able to hit the
ball over the fence quite a bit, which he did
last year. His slugging percent didn't change very much last
year to twenty twenty four because it had already taken
a huge dive his last five years. The worst two
slugging percentage is by a good margin. We're twenty twenty
four and twenty twenty five. Last five years. The worst

(42:14):
two ops is the only times he's been under eight
hundred were the last two seasons, same thing with his
pretty much all of the numbers. So he reached some
sort of resurgence to be an eight twenty five ops
guy or a one twenty five ops plus player. Not
likely to happen at age thirty six. And I really
do think there's a there should be a concern, and

(42:35):
there was the day they acquired him, even though it
was exciting and he's returning home and all the good
feelings that went with, well, they don't have vs Esak Perettis. Well,
Carlos Correa is a pretty awesome replacement currently immediately for
twenty twenty five to finish out the season. Obviously you
knew you'd have him for more years after that because

(42:55):
he'd be playing under the contract that the Twins signed
him to. But there's probably not greatness offensively in his future.
He wasn't bad last year. He actually probably was a
you know, he was definitely better here in Houston than
he was in Minnesota. And he's only one year removed.
Twenty twenty four. He was very good, very very productive. Okay, well,

(43:18):
this year he'll be thirty one and then thirty two,
So when is a decline expected?

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Now?

Speaker 3 (43:23):
While I say he was very, very good. He's also
produced back to back seasons of less than fifty five rbi.
He's produced four consecutive seasons of sixty five or fewer RBI.
When he was in his heyday with Houston, even if
he missed time, he was more productive than that. And
where he bats in the lineup and who's on base
and all that, that's somewhat out of his control. But

(43:44):
he needs to hit the ball over the fence. He
needs extra base pop, and that's what I'm sure you
guys heard me lament a lot last year. He's coming
off of a five hundred and eighty four played appearance season.
He hit the ball over the fence thirteen times. That
is not.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Stinky good, say stinky like you normally do. That is
hard to believe.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
And I think he knew it, and I think it's
one of the things he worked on this off season.
Pretty hard to say whether or not you see any
results here during spring training with limited duty, he's hit
a couple of really nice line drives. I don't think
he's driven the ball the way he wants. I don't
think he's quite got the launch angle that he wants,
because that's what I think he's actually working on. Anything
I just said about him, I think he has said

(44:26):
himself because I remember him saying things similar to that
when we talk to him at FanFest. So those are
two things that from the time to Strike is now
is probably there. I could probably say the same about
Walker about where he is in his career. So the
idea that they're an aging team and things are, you know,
tightening up in terms of the windows on its way

(44:47):
down at least if it's not completely closed, it's on
its way down and you've unlatched it. The locks aren't
on anymore, and it can actually slide down on its own,
but it's definitely open. In twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, I guess, like if you don't feel like the
American League is wide open, like the AFC is to
a degree in the NFL, like, how would you describe
the American League? Because we keep talking about if the
Texans had been or if the Astros had been even
remotely healthy, they probably win the division again. And I

(45:27):
don't know what happens after that going to the postseason,
but you know, missing the postseason it was just so
out of character for this group for for so long.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Not being there and not even participating.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Even if you think that the year prior was just
a hiccup because you got the two games, neither of
what you won, I would categorize.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
Just look at last year. Quickly. Last year, the American
League was three really good teams, and I include Seattle there.
I think Toronto, New York and Seattle were the three
best teams in the American League. And whether or not
you are aligned with that, with what their record was,
there were there only three teams to win nine games,
none of them one more than ninety five though, So
while I would put them in that tier, I don't
think they were significantly better than anybody else. I think

(46:07):
Detroit was there for the first four and a half
months of the season and then they completely fell apart.
So the Astros, Red Sox, Guardians, and Tigers were basically
the same, and one of them unfortunately couldn't make the postseason.
It was Houston. Roughly the same records, roughly the same seasons,
roughly the same issues, weaknesses. What have you now? Spin

(46:28):
it forward because now there's a few other teams in
the mix, But spin it to twenty twenty six. I
don't know how the Tigers could fall apart this year
the way they did last year, because they have reinforced
their pitching staff, maybe as well as anybody in baseball,
because they're the team that signed for Fromber Valdez, and
I think among all available starting pitchers, including Dylan Cees,
they got the one who's most likely to make sure

(46:50):
your team is where it should be. I feel much
better about what Valdez will do for Detroit. Then they
do what Dylan Cease will do for Toronto. So the
Tigers are in the upper echelon now. Okay, So now
there's two spots left. There's only two spots left, and
I think the same teams are in the mix again.
I think the Royals would be added to that. I
think the Orioles probably bounce back a little bit this

(47:12):
year and are added to that. And I think one
of the other Al West teams is added to that.
I keep seeing everybody being not so down on the Rangers,
even though I am, but I'll select the Athletics in
that place.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
I think there's four or five teams.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
The Astros are not significantly better than any of them
for those last two playoff spots. I think it's wide
open to say who the best team is like the AFC,
but I do think the Texans are in a second tier,
not the first tier, and that's for the first time
in a while.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Should get their offensing gear.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Just kid, I mean a player who will probably have
zero at bats for the Astros this year hit his
first spring training homer. It's his first spring training period.
He was a draft pick last year out of LSU.
Ethan Frye had an opposite field homer off of one
of the Orioles relievers who's got major league experience. That
was good to see. Bryce Matthews had a little bit

(48:06):
of everything today. His offense was fantastic. He drove in
a run, he stole a base, He scored from second
base on a wild pitch on a strikeout, so when
the catcher threw down to first, he just never stopped.
There wasn't even a play at the plate. He got
around the bases so quickly, and then he made two
not so great defensive plays at second base want to throw,
and won a fielding play. I do think he has

(48:27):
an outstanding chance to make the team out of spring
training because he's a much more flexible player than Nick Allen.
He provides much more promise offensively, and I just think
it's time. But yes, the results of today's game. Pitching
was good. Aj Bluebaugh pitched well again. Colton Gordon pitched
well again. And for them to pitch early enough in
the game, they were facing a handful of legitimate Baltimore

(48:50):
Orioles starting level players. The further you go into the game,
the fewer of those players that you see, which probably
is worth noting. Yesterday the Astros pitched tremendously well and
they saw nothing but great players because they were playing
Team Venezuela. That's a to me, that is a much
more important good reps result from how you performed. I

(49:11):
know they also won, but it's more about how did
those guys go out there and perform. And the few
guys that have a chance to beat major leaguers this year,
they're starting to do a little bit more the regulars. Essentially,
the regulars have done next to nothing.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
All Right, we're gonna switch gears football for the second
consecutive day, another mock draft telling the exact same story
we discussed yesterday for the Texans and the Cardinals. That's
straight ahead love supports so much such a flawed character.
I know you're a big fan too. Uh yeah, big fan.

(49:47):
You never watched a single episode of NYPD Blue. Wasn't
he on another cop show? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Hill Street Blue.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
I watched that more than the show you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
He didn't come in till I think later on, though
I've never actually really sat down and watched that.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
That's old. I mean you're gonna ask Matt Thomas about it.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
But the theme song is great? Great?

Speaker 3 (50:02):
And then what then? You got fifty seven minutes of you?
Now you gotta watch the show. It's forty three true,
a lot for commercials. I don't think you were cranking
up your DVR to watch Hill Street Blues and fast
forwards through the commercials. It was you recorded it thanks
to your VCR plus code and we're then able to
watch it, but probably not on your DVR.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
VCRs were barely even invented when that was still on
the air in the I think it was done in
the early eighties.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
You want to record this? Yeah, okay, great, where's the
TV guide so I can get the VCR plus code?
Or do you even know? I know the VCR's clock
mechanism is still blinking, So the odds of us setting
up a recording is pretty slim. And one more thing,
make sure the TV's on the right channel so you
can record that and you can't turn the channel and

(50:51):
you can't watch something else.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
I'll tell you what. It blows my mind. We're sitting
here on March fourth, twenty twenty six. Carson is about
right at seven and a half years old right now.
This is the age I was when my parents bought
our first VCR and I was the only one in
the house that learned and then knew how to program it.

(51:14):
Like it came with instructions that were fairly easy. Obviously,
I was a seven year old and I figured it out,
but nobody else ever did so I had to like
set it for everything. And there are people listening right
now that have no clue what a VCR even is.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Facts.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
We rented a VCR one time from the grocery store
that was also a thing. In fact, the first time
case you take this take the case, it was like
it was like industrial strength. They needed to protect it
for the right for the next renter. It's what happens
when you rent things like that. And carpet shampoours from
the local grocery store. I think it was Tom Thumb

(51:50):
and Austin watched a RoboCop for the first time with
that VHS copy The Memories So Great. Thanksgiving eighty eight
was a banger Robocut. We watched RoboCop and we begged
to watch it again. In all the dad, you might.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
As well, you're gonna have to return the VCO.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
It's I was like eight years old. I had no
business watching that movie. Very violent, and of course all
the boys wanted to watch it again. And we're begging
our dads because we knew our moms weren't gonna go
for it.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
And the dad's let us.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Wasn't even I mean, there's some cursing and there's some death,
but it wasn't. Was it that bad?

Speaker 2 (52:25):
You're not you haven't seen it in a while.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
There's a lot of death. I would not let Carson
watch that movie today, No chance, no way, no how.
Murphy when he gets shot up at the beginning.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
He did not live. The director's got yeah, he did not.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Really, you think you have it bad, Just remember they
killed this guy and brought him back to life so
that he could work some more.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
That's the meme.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
There you go, all right, let's get back to uh
talking about the Houston Texans. So we talked earlier what
was the uh what was the author's name? Oh, jeez,
that was ranking the the players for free agency. And
I think he also did a mock draft. We talked
about him earlier this week. It was an ESPN mock.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Yeah, Jordan Reed, does that work for ESPN? You had
a mock draft, a couple round draft, and suggested that
the Texans might have their phone to their ear as
the twenty eighth pick arrived, which is their own first
round pick based on the results of twenty twenty five's
regular season and postseason, and that somebody they know well
who they've worked with before on draft day and of

(53:29):
course worked with together as Patriots executives. That's Monty and Nick.
He thought, Jordan did that the Texans would be willing
partners in a trade and they would say, yeah, if
you want your quarterback of the future, good luck with
Ty Simpson, but you can have them. They felt like
in this mock that the player that they might have

(53:49):
targeted twenty eight might still be able to be targeted
at thirty four, where they would now ultimately have their
next pick and they went with an offensive lineman and
Dane Brugler his work for NFL Network his Beast hopefully
will be out shortly and all your draft information will
be found there. It's one of the most comprehensive and
outstanding pieces of work put out every year by one

(54:11):
of the many draft experts out there. I certainly respect
the work that he does a tremendous amount and will
reference it as often as possible. Over the next several months,
he put out his mock draft as well, and as
you teased, sure looks similar. At number twenty eight, the
Arizona Cardinals with the Houston Texans pick draft Ty Simpson,

(54:33):
quarterback Alabama, and it notes, like we have several times,
the Texans did the same thing last year. The Giants
wanted a quarterback, they traded with the Texans to get
number twenty five and draft Jackson Dart and then the
Texans landed a different pick with which they landed an
offensive lineman. Will this mock say the exact same thing
with the thirty fourth pick in the twenty twenty six

(54:57):
twenty twenty six NFL Draft, the Houston Tech and select
We'll tell you in the next segment.

Speaker 4 (55:04):
The ad on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Ninety with you on a Wednesday afternoon. Josh Jordan is
our producer. We're taking you until five thirty today and
then we'll make way for Longhorns basketball as they take
on Arkansas Rockets with another night off tonight. That'll resume
their schedule tomorrow with the first of a back to back.
The Golden State Warriors will be in town. I think

(55:27):
it's gonna be Draymond Green and a bunch of jamokes.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
He's one of them.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
He's one of the jimokes.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
What is a jamoke in NBA parlance these days? To
you a player who doesn't really matter, Yes, he's a jamoke.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Then well he's gonna make himself matter by barking at
the officials.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
He's not a good NBA player. I think everybody knows
that now.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Steph Curry is still out with that injury. And then
this was crazy. Did you see his quote? It's gonna
be a manage the pain type situation when I do
come back.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
He's old.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
Now, he didn't just get a great I mean not
to go too deep into this because I know everyone's
still you know, staying in their car and not going
inside to the office or to the house because they're
waiting on the follow through on the t's to who
the Texans will take with that first pick in the
draft after the mock trade. But this is why predicting

(56:16):
great things for the Golden State Warriors in the twenty
twenty six postseason what was his name, Well, he was
not alone. That's why. You can pretend that they're going
to be healthy at the end of the year. You
can pretend that they're going to be healthy enough during
the year to put themselves in a good position, but
it was so unlikely to happen, and they also had
to be very good, which was not enough of a

(56:38):
sample last year. I think to say, yeah, they're going
to be very very good. Maybe they're a little bit
tough to beat in the playoffs by a two seed
that had never been to the playoffs before that took
them to seven games. That that was who they beat
in the playoffs, the Rockets last year. The Golden State
Warriors are absolutely destined for the play in tournament, which
I don't think they will win and I do not

(56:59):
think they will make.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
The playoffs again. Nature is healing. I love to see
it go away and go to Cap Hell.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Yeah, we'll see if Steph does end up playing more
than he doesn't the rest of the year, twenty two
games missed, They're eight and fourteen in those games. It'll
be twenty three games missed when the Rockets and Warriors
get together tomorrow night. I believe the believe the Rockets
are favored to win this game tomorrow night, and let's

(57:26):
see if they can come through with that and send
Golden Steven further down. They just don't have enough firepower.
That they don't have good enough players. What they have
not been able to do, which is kind of remarkable
around Steph and Clay and Draymond. The players that they
added around them in the early days of that obviously
when one of them was Kevin Durant worked out very well.
The year they drafted James Wiseman. I think a lot

(57:48):
of people in the league were concerned. The stinks that
they got away with having a super down year and
right into the lottery and now they have the number
two pick, and this is just going to extend this
window and they go Jonathan Kuminga. I mean, it looked
like they might find some pieces to actually build around
and win with if and when these guys weren't what
they were. They don't have anybody. Moses Moody's a nice player,

(58:10):
you know, Potzemski's being a rotation for most teams. He's
a nice player. Gary Payton Junior the third, is a
nice player. But these aren't. These aren't usable pieces unless
they're elite around them, unless they're Curry and Jimmy Butler
or Durant and all these So they're I mean, they're
they're below five hundred team now. They're a team that's

(58:31):
grasping to make the play in tournament if they move
forward with this roster. Quite honestly, Steph Curry's chances of winning.
They went all in with the Jimmy Butler trade, and
it really was for one year. It was for last
year because he was healthy at the time and so
was Steph at the time. And if they could make
it through this season, this is the championship, we think
we might still be able to win. They both got

(58:52):
hurt in the playoffs, obviously, Jimmy Butler's injury was a
little bit more of a freak injury. He got hurt
in the Rockets series when he got up ended. Steph
Curry got hurt in a normal This is how Steph
Curry gets hurt during his career. They are a non
factor in the Western Conference. Yeah, that's real, sad.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Let's talk about what the Texans are going to do
in the NFL Draft at the end of the first round.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
If they're there, Yeah, the odds are if there is
a quarterback that some team likes for the second year
in a row, the Texans are in prime position to
move their pick for that player. And with the Jets
in both of these cases being they have the number
two pick in the draft and it is a you know,
it's a one quarterback draft, maybe two. The Cardinals don't

(59:36):
have the number one pick in the draft, just like
the Jets don't have the number one pick. So those
are two teams that many people think are possibilities to
want to slide into the first round before they come
back up again. The Jets have the second pick or
the first pick of the second round. The Cardinals have
the second pick of the second round. Well, the Cardinals
are in a bad spot because of the Jets. Wait

(01:00:00):
and the quarterback might just be sitting there. Maybe they take
Tys Simpson. They can't wait. The Jets can pretend and say, well,
if as long as they don't jump us, or another
team doesn't jump us, we can get our guy. They
might be just as compelled though, because of the jumping possibility.
But the Texans are in a good spot there at
twenty eight if the draft falls a certain way, I think,

(01:00:20):
and in both of these mocks, at twenty seven in
Dane Brugler's Mox of the Athletic and at twenty three
in reids over at ESPN, they have Caleb Loomo, the
tackle from Utah, going off the board. I think if
he is on the board, the Texans might not say, Okay,
you could have your quarterback and we'll move back four
spots or six spots, because I think they might truly

(01:00:43):
like that player enough that they wouldn't want to move on.
In both mocks, they end up drafting the exact same
offensive lineman, Blake Miller from Clemson. So you see a
little bit of synergy around there. And it goes back
to our opening segment. Today, Nick doesn't have to go
to the podium or call Sports Talk seven to ninety
on the at tomorrow at five o'clock and say we're
probably drafting a tackle with the first pick, wherever that

(01:01:05):
might be twenty eight fifteen, if we move up, he
doesn't have to tell us. We know they need one.
We know they need more than one offensive lineman.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Everybody in the league knows that, and so I think
the draft will probably work out accordingly.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
But we also got to get there. The Texans aren't
going to have four open spots on our offensive line
when the draft gets here. They have four open spots today.
Free agency opens in a week. One of those spots,
I will guarantee you will be filled. I am willing
to guarantee you the Texans spend money on at least
one lineman for their four open spots. And now I'm

(01:01:42):
forty five minutes late. On the opening segment tees Go,
I said, the Texans will draft it, or will sign
a very specific offensive lineman it's available in free agency.
And I said, the listeners to Sports Talk seven to
nine to over the last couple of years will know
this player's name, know this name, not this player's name,

(01:02:02):
will know this name very very well. I said, it
was kind of a tricky way to tease you have
any guess at all. Why listeners of Sports Talk seven
ninety over the last couple of years. Would know this
name very well. No, because his name is Connor McGovern. Oh,
I saw this. Yeah, Connor McGovern has played very good football,

(01:02:24):
does not have a contract for next year after playing
very good football for the Buffalo Bills on the interior.
And I think not being the best available offensive lineman
and free agency, but being among the plug and play
high level players, is someone that they would target someone
they think they can sign. I think they could consider

(01:02:47):
he's not that different. Well, first of all, I think
he's a good fit for them, but they have so
much work. This is why the Tightust Howard deal is
so hard for me to wrap my head around. Because
they can go all in for insert lineman's name, and
it didn't matter what position. Because of Howard's positional flexibility.
They could have said, we're going all in for this tackle,
and we know we're gonna give him the best offer.

(01:03:07):
We're gonna talk to his agent. We already know the
ballpark anyway, and when he gets a better offer from
somebody else, will beat it. And if he wants less money,
then we'll lose him. But he's not gonna want less money.
No one wants less money. He's gonna sign here with us.
So now we have three linemen. We have three starting linemen.
We got Howard, we got Urserary, and we got this
new guy that we know we're going to sign. Well,
where does this leave at Ingram and where does that
leave the other spots? Now they have four spots to fill.

(01:03:29):
They if they go all in with one guy, now
they still have three other spots to financially figure out
and draft figure out. How do we feel how do
we fill all five spots. They're not starting three linemen
this year. It's not gonna be a new NFL. And
that's why I would still say that's tough to do.
But I think Connor mcgoverett, if you had to, if
you made me put my money or throw a dart

(01:03:51):
at the board, and I think it will stick, that's
probably the name I would go with first. Not because
he's the best, because I think that might make the
most sense finance actually for this team to target and
try to land.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
Okay, I saw his name floating around.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Anytime there is an interior guy, I know the tackle
has to be addressed, and I feel like if I
had to guess, I feel like that's gonna be that
first draft pick, and then the guards are going to
be the free agency signings.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
Yeah, the guards are usually a little bit earlier in
the draft that I don't are not as early in
the draft, so I wouldn't suspect that they'll really if
they have, if there's some guard out there or some
interior offensive line and they really feel like it's a
perfect fit. Is you know, someone they just don't have
any doubt about, but they also know he's not going
to be on the board at twenty eight. They do
have the weaponry to move up, and move up significantly,

(01:04:41):
probably not into the top ten, but probably high enough
because I don't think they need to for the guard
they might be targeting. But we'll get you into the
draftable names. But the names you're gonna start hearing if
you haven't already. We just mentioned one of them, Connor McGovern.
I think you're gonna hear the name Wyatt Teller a lot.
And I don't know how I lined up up on this,
but been getting his and his wife's Instagram posts on

(01:05:04):
for you page for about three weeks now. They just
had a big sale of all their Cleveland gear because
they know they're leaving. They obviously got together with the
Browns and they're not pursuing him in free Agency's been
there among the better starting offensive lineman for several years
at the interier at a guard position. I don't think
he's a break the bank interior alignment, but I do

(01:05:25):
think he's expensive, and I do think that might be
the next name on the list. I'm not sure what
they think of Lloyd cushion Berry. Injuries have kind of
sapped a little bit of his production, and I think
it's why Tennessee's moving on from him. We've already mentioned
the name Brayden Smith quite a bit. He might be
very near the top of the market.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
Foltz, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
Kevin Zeitler is somebody they went I think they would
have been interested in. Last year, he just decided he
wanted to play in Nashville, so he did not sure
what his thoughts will be this year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
He can play in Nashville again this year at least once.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
Isaac Saamulo, the long tenured offensive lineman now with the
Steelers or was with the Steelers been around ten years,
plays at a very good level, probably a pretty good
fit for what they do on the interior. Just some
of the names you should be hearing it the Texans
free agency discussions among the media.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
There are options. I have no doubt that they are
going to at least try. It's not a sure thing,
but make this line in front of CJ, by the way,
the best he's ever had, the best line's ever had.

Speaker 4 (01:06:25):
A bar.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
Well, I can't do anything about the bar. That's the
Texans fault, but I do think that's something that they're
going to attempt to do. I also think that the
NFL activity is fast and furious. Is that new league
year draws near from the super Bowl to the streets
for what former Texan We're going to tell you that next.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
The A team.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
All right, a little bit earlier in the show.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
So it's more about where he winds up than anything else.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Where.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Do you think Stefon Diggs lands this season after being
released by the runners up.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
In the twenty twenty five playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
Yeah, the Patriots told Stefan Diggs they're going to release
him as the league year begins. They had a trigger
in his contract that essentially forced them to make a
decision on this early. It was all by design, and
the decision they've made is to move on from him,
so he'll be available in free agency, just as he
was a season ago when the Texans had him under
a one year deal and elected not to do anything

(01:07:32):
about that after they converted it to a one year deal.
So in free agency last year he got a reported
three year, sixty three plus million dollar deal with the
Patriots turns into a one year deal with the neighborhood
of twenty three to twenty five million dollars of money earned,
guaranteed money, and now he hits free agency again. Productive
last year better than a thousand yards fewer yards per game,

(01:07:52):
and he's been trending in that direction each of the
last three years with three different teams. Next year will
be his fourth different team. He's very much and underneath receiver,
very much trusted by his quarterbacks here and in New
England obviously, and in Minnesota and in Buffalo everywhere he's
been for as much as all the other outside noise
from in the building and his own personal outside noise

(01:08:15):
from outside the building, that is pretty much always held true.
He's a guy you can count on two. You know
you need eight yards, he'll get you nine.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
You need it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
You need to get a drive started he'll do it.
He unfortunately had, I mean, his best play of the postseason,
he only had ten catches in four games, came against
Houston when he caught the ball well defended by Jalen Reed.
Just has had the strong hands that have been a
mark of his career and was able to hang on
to that touchdown pass, one of the three that Drake
May threw, one of the three the Texans gave up.

(01:08:44):
It's hard to pinpoint this, like I'm having trouble pinpointing
where Mike Evans is going. It was already reported or
at least written about. Jonathan Jones over at CBS Sports
wrote that he does not believe the Chiefs nor the
Texans are involved currently with Mike Evans, and of looking
at what Mike Evans is after, and I would certainly
rate him as a more If I'm out looking for

(01:09:05):
a wide receiver, I presumably am looking more for a
Mike Evans than for a Stefan Diggs. Granted, I don't
really think they play the same position, even though it
says w R before their respective names. He's your numbers three,
Stefan Diggs. Next year he's your number two. He certainly
plays in the slot a lot. I'm not sure what

(01:09:25):
team is out there saying we got to go get this.
But if you look back at last year, why did
the Patriots say that? And I think they said it
for all the right reasons. He's a veteran, we have
a young quarterback. We need someone to lead this group.
And remember, here in Houston, we know something about Stefan
Diggs as a football player. He's good to have in
the locker room. He's helpful to have work with your

(01:09:46):
receivers and your defensive backs. He's just flat out somebody
you want on your team. And the Patriots felt the
same way, and the exact same thing played out. He
was good to have on their team. And then he
was also additionally healthy and very Is there a young
team out there, a young quarterback, young offense, developing offense
with some young talent that he fits in with where

(01:10:08):
I mean, I don't think any team thinks he's gonna
have back to back years where he's the number one target,
number one receiving yards leader for his football team. He
was that last year. I don't think that's what a
team would envision again next year.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
I'm trying to think of a team where it would
make sense from a production standpoint. In other words, he's
gonna get his touches that he wants, he will get
the money that he wants. But it also makes sense
for both parties from a you know, competition standpoint.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Well, the other part of it is quite obviously he's
going bad team's not gonna sign him. Good team's gonna
sign him. He's gonna play for a good team. He's
gonna play for a playoff caliber team.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
What about the Titans?

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
Why would he play for the I mean, he wants
money like anybody else, and it's not individual. I'm not
saying this about Stefan. I'm saying it about players who
put the pads on and wear a helmet every Sunday.
They want money. I get it. I just don't want
to imagine that's they would have to have such an
unbelievable offering. And if you're Tennessee, I know what you're
pointing out young quarterback developing team, but they're I mean
the Patriots were them last year. You could make that argument.

(01:11:11):
Patriots were awful with Drake May starting in year one,
the Titans were awful with their cam Ward starting in
year one. Don't I don't think we're gonna see a repeat.
They're also it's kind of funny that they're linked in
this way. Now one of them moved on from Mike Rabel,
and then the other one got Mike Rabel, and then
the team to move on for Mike Rabel is already

(01:11:33):
looking for another head coach because the guy they replaced
Rabel with has already been fired and they've had an
interim coach because the firing was it was so bad
they fired him in season. I don't really think they're
on that same path, no, but I get that theory.
But again, I'll go back to Diggs for all this
movement that he's now made. His last year in Buffalo

(01:11:54):
that was a super Bowl contender. He came to Houston,
Y because they were a Super Bowl contender. Signing with
New England suggests what you're saying isn't crazy. No way,
he thought they were a super Bowl contender. He actually
played in the Super Bowl with them, but he didn't
sign there thinking I got a chance to play in
the super Bowl this year. Maybe he thought if he

(01:12:14):
played there for three years, which I doubt he thought
even with a three year deal. So maybe that does
open it up for a little more. My personal thought
is that's not what he's looking for now. He does
want as much money as he can get, and maybe
it is a lesser team with more space and more ability,
and the Titans have a lot of that. They have
a lot of money to spend.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
If it's not the Titans, though, I'm trying to think of, well,
we know there's another team in this division that's probably
not going to have Alec Pierce because he's about to
start negotiating with other teams. They actually without tagging him
in any way, the Colts can still negotiate with him
up until negotiate exclusively up until the ninth. But I
don't think Alec Pierce and his agents they've already been negotiating.

(01:12:53):
He can talk to us more, but we're going to
free agency now. He's probably got three teams lined up.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
Yeah, I think they knew he was pricing them out,
and that's what's gonna happen. So who is Daniel Jones
throwing to. Obviously they still have some of the other
veterans they kept when they you know, they drafted Ady
Mitchell just a couple of years ago and already shipped
him out in trade. I think they feel comfortable enough
with their group because Pierce was only fourth in targets
last year to begin with, which is nuts. But I

(01:13:21):
would believe Steph is playing for a team that probably
is a little bit better on paper already than Tennessee,
and probably not any of his four former homes Broncos.
I think if they had less in their group, their
wide receiver group, I would have said, that's exactly what
I'm thinking. I don't think they're really looking for something

(01:13:44):
like that. I like their group. I actually like their
wide receivers chargers. That might be somebody they could think about,
That might be someone he could think about. I could
see that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Just trying to find teams that were in the playoff
chase last year that could use him specifically, there's I mean,
those are the only ones unless Baltimore.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
I don't know. Baltimore and wide receivers never ever makes
sense to me.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
Or even freaking Kansas City. If you want to get older,
I mean, he already are.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
He's clearly still better than DeAndre and both of the
teams you just mentioned are former recent homes of DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
Yeah, Travis Kelcey was the one that led them in
touchdown catches last year with five.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
Yeah, Well, Travis Kelcey, as much as it seems like
his career should be over, there aren't ten tight ends
in the AFC better than him. He's one of the
best five AFC tight ends. He should be seeing targets still,
especially with what Kansas City is. I could see them
thinking about Diggs.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
Yes, well, because the other guy that keeps keeps getting
attached to them because he's already been there once with
baggage is Tyreek Hill. And if you're asking me which
one of those two I'd rather have on my team
that has baggage, it's the fun Dix.

Speaker 3 (01:14:57):
They should probably be aiming higher because as they don't
know what the heck I mean, they're almost assuredly not
in the long term Rashid Rice.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Stakes.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
I think they know the best thing is to let
him play until he doesn't have a contract there and
then let him play somewhere else if he's not suspended
for something somewhere else. That's again, you're trading away a
really good player in Trent McDuffie, and he's gonna get paid.
You chose not to be the team to do it.
You stockpile a little bit of draft arsenal, although you
got one first round pick this year, a third round

(01:15:28):
pick in the future, and two much later picks in
the future after that, so you're the talent of the Chiefs.
There's still some talented players, but not nearly as much
talent there literal talent. Their offensive line is not among
the better offensive lines, even with Humphrey and Smith. Their
wide receiver group were dogging. They couldn't run the ball
at all last year. And it wasn't only because of

(01:15:48):
their line. It's because they're not as they keep going
back to Kareem Hunt for crying out right, and now
you've taken a good player off of the defense. You know,
Jones is very good, Carl Aftis is very good, Bolton
is very They do still have some good play, but
just they're not as talents as a team. It's not
just Mahomes and it's not just Kelsey. It's an overall
we need to reinvigorate this team with talent. Probably not

(01:16:12):
Steph Diggs at the front of that list.

Speaker 1 (01:16:14):
I think it's gonna be fair. For whatever reason. I
feel like Stefan Diggs is gonna wind up.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
In the NFC.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
I think he played so well. He was such an
important part of a very good team and a very
good offense, one of the five best. Again. Yeah, they
didn't play anybody. I get it, but teams are gonna
value that. I think if he wants to play for
a winning organization, he'll have that opportunity he's gonna get.
Like I said, last year, shocked, someone puts sixty three
million dollars in front of him, even though it turned

(01:16:41):
out to be less. I can't possibly think that's happening again,
especially a lengthy deal. It's it's just a two year
deal where maybe he makes it all because he plays
there two years.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
All right, we're gonna switch gears here because our signature
segment is next. It's Wednesday. That means it's time for
some Wednesday BS. And what his mouth on the media,
It's not me. No is gonna absolutely unleash on which
NBA team and their star player you're gonna find out
you're gonna hear from him next in Wednesday's BS. All Right,

(01:17:18):
we're not gonna be steiling bits as per usual. We
are gonna be talking about some BS. And I don't
think that this is a news flash Wex. Zion Williamson
has been underwhelming in his career as an NBA player
for the most part, and a big reason why is
because he can't stay on the floor. And a big
reason why he can't do that is because he wastes

(01:17:39):
too much. Does that about cover it?

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
Prior to this year, that was the reason.

Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
And I will say he's how many games does he
missed this year? It's not that many.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
He's played in forty six of their games.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
That's a that's remarkable for him.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
He's playing at the lightest weight of his career. Two
plus two still equals four.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
Well, Steven A. Smith is not impressed.

Speaker 1 (01:18:04):
He uh took to the air waves and basically just absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:18:12):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
He was ripping on the Pelicans and Zion. So do
they have like a fifteen hour marathon show today? How
did they ever get to that? After all the teams
they loved to talk about for no reason, how did
they ever get to the Pelicans.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
That's a good point because Zion doesn't played for the
Lakers or the Knicks or the thunder.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
All right, So he let her rip the Warriors on
the Pels and former number one overall picks on Williamson.
All right, s As, let's hear it. Would you have
to say, you.

Speaker 5 (01:18:42):
Got people that are alcoholics, you got people to the
drug addicts and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
What was Zion's problem.

Speaker 4 (01:18:53):
Into Wollas Day?

Speaker 5 (01:18:55):
It could be everybody from a restaurant on a ship
to your grandmama knew about.

Speaker 3 (01:19:05):
Are we done? I'm done? You just stop. That's enough.
I don't want to hear it anymore. Stop push, there
we go. I can't even understand him. He's just yelling
too much. What a waste of time. I didn't know
that beforehand. But my gosh, man.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
He thinks Zion's fat, and he thinks a lot of
people are very familiar with his game, and that he
likes to eat.

Speaker 3 (01:19:26):
Now there's Zion doesn't even deny it. Zion and I
think maybe this is why they were talking about it,
because he had recently sat down with ESPN for an
interview and he basically said as much he he didn't
do the things necessary to give him at least a
chance to be healthy and to kind of get up
and down the court. His athletic skills in that crazy

(01:19:47):
large NBA body were what set him apart, but they
were also what were possibly going to derail him and
I even though I cut steven A off, that is
among the things he was getting at. Like people were
concerned already. People knew this already, and they thought, Okay, well,
he's going to become an NBA players, he's going to
want to play NBA basketball. He's going to recognize he's

(01:20:07):
got to do things to allow that to happen. And
it's remember we're it's twenty twenty six right now. He
began his career in twenty nineteen, the twenty nineteen twenty
twenty season following the twenty nineteen Daft way longer as
seven seasons of NBA basketball that have taken place. This
one's not yet complete, and he's not in obviously his

(01:20:32):
organizations and shambles. They're awful and so badly run. Joe Dumars.
He's not a great NBA player only because he can't
stay on the court. If you look at what he's
actually capable of doing for the games that he's played,
even as a rookie, and definitely in any of the
other years and this year too. You want a guy
that can go out and get you twenty three, twenty
four points a game, hit an exceptionally high percentage of

(01:20:54):
his shots. Basically get to the basket any time he wants.
He can do that terrible free throw shoot.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
For the type of basketball that he plays, you would
have thought that would have get gotten better.

Speaker 3 (01:21:04):
He knows his limitations. He's a miserable three point shooter.
He takes less than half of a three pointer per
game in his career. That's smart. I don't have that game.
I'm not gonna have that game. I can't develop that game.
I'm just gonna do what I do well. But it
also none of the stuff matters because almost everything they've
done since as an organization has been wrong. Trading for

(01:21:27):
this player, trading away that player, trading for this player.
Now everybody in the country knows about it because it
got on Steven A. Smith's radar.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
Well, they responded, this team, this organization they had, I think,
but I.

Speaker 3 (01:21:41):
Think it was more about ADMIN had franchises back.

Speaker 1 (01:21:44):
I think it was more about striking back at Stephen A.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Smith.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
They attached a video along with it. This is the
Pelicans official Instagram x account at Pelicans NBA stick to
Solitaire Steven and a video accompanied it. One of these
clips is steven A Smith shooting an airball in Toyota Center.
Another one is a regrettable first pitch, another example of

(01:22:12):
why I will never ever do something like that if
I'm asked, so don't even try. Not that you were
going to, but I'll never throw a first pitch. And
of course the season that he averaged one point five
point per game in his college career. I can't remember
where he went to school, do you know, off the
top of your head.

Speaker 3 (01:22:32):
I mean, there's so many games to look up.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
I don't think there are.

Speaker 3 (01:22:36):
Yeah, and it you know, it included just a lot
of regrettable sports related parts of his career. We just
happened to patch past the March second anniversary of the
one hundred point game from Wilt Chamberlain, so they included
that mocked up photo of steven A holding up the
very memorable paper that had one hundred written on it.

(01:22:57):
That's how Wilt Chamberlain the picture from him in the
locker room post game when he scored one hundred points,
and they have steven A in a similar pose. It's
obviously photoshopped, and it has the number one point five
on it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
And that was just one game for Wilts, this is
an entire season's worth.

Speaker 3 (01:23:11):
And then the actual caption that you read from when
he was working a game and playing Solitaire on his phone,
which the people behind him because he didn't have quite
the strength of the anti glare screen that a super
big time person knows they need to have when they're
going to be out in public. He then tried to
turn that into money when he signed up with a

(01:23:35):
prediction market company, which not a good one, not a
reputable one. He and other people at ESPN they got
linked up to that. I had to all divest and
apologize and all that. So they brought that up too,
which is nice. It's a pretty clever way of saying.
It's that out of our business. Leave us, leave us.
We're down, we know we're down. Just leave us alone.

Speaker 2 (01:23:56):
But he can't, he responded.

Speaker 3 (01:23:58):
Steven A.

Speaker 1 (01:23:59):
Smith responded, what do he say pulling out stuff from
a decade, two decades, three decades ago?

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
No problem, see y'all tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
On first take, remember one thing in all caps you
asked for this. I don't know what he's gonna pull
out next. What is he gonna say that the Pelicans
aren't a good franchise He's not gonna say anything that
we don't already know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Right, I'm gonna maybe the PELS admin will craft a
memo from the internal officer, from the desk of Joe
Dumars or something, and they'll write on it. Hey, man,
let's go about our business today. Try to put the
best product on the floor. By the way, we asked
for this, yeah, I mean, like an internal memo. Yeah,
they asked for this. Actually they didn't. Now the Zion

(01:24:41):
Williamson part of all this, Like I said, it's a
big deal to have.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
They they chose him, they sunk their money into him,
they extended him, and it obviously has not worked out
because the team is he's played his most arguably the
most basketball, the highest percentage of games this year, and
they stink. They're terrible. They're one of the worst teams
in the NBA, and they're headed towards the top of
the draft again right now, in the sixth worst spot
because all the other things that they've done around him

(01:25:06):
and because of him, they've they've made some really awful moves,
and this upcoming draft, which is loaded with talent, is
going to be the worst move of all because Dumars
last year in the draft, traded that pick away which
is going to land in the lottery, which is going
to land a very good player which they will not have.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
Who to go to again Atlanta?

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
Hmm?

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
Nice?

Speaker 2 (01:25:25):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:25:25):
From Wednesday bs and that involving social media to another
social media spat between a hanging on by a thin
thread backup NFL quarterback and one of the most successful
coaches in recent memory. Those two went back and forth,
and there's another chapter in that feud.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
It comes up next.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
Run down the list for me, I can't think of
all of them.

Speaker 1 (01:25:49):
I actually, I mean, I don't know that. He's had
a lot of feuds.

Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
He just doesn't like to be, in his mind unfairly
dis and he's happy to oblige with a response.

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
He is one of the corniest guys we've ever seen, though,
given his status, given his success at once.

Speaker 3 (01:26:11):
It's a little bit awkward for him to lead a
football team in the manner in which he does, unlike
many other quarterbacks who kind of I actually think he's
a natural leader with how he plays. I don't think
he's much of a natural leader with how he acts
and talks.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
But you know, like Eli Manning. I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:26:28):
I mean all the stuff we've gotten from Eli Manning
because he's been in the media and commercials for the
last several years. I would say, how did Eli mann
How did people follow this guy?

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:26:39):
And Russell Wilson, in my mind, has had a much
better career than Eli Manning, But nonetheless he's had fun
poked at him quite a bit. When he joined the
team that's led by a horse in Denver, he had
a famous little media day quip about Broncos Country. I

(01:27:00):
believe it was. That's right. He self glossed himself about
how you should be frightened of what might be coming
because he's close by. It's very dangerous. Yes, it's even
in his handle danger Russ Wilson. Uh So, he's kind
of given people some ammunition over the years if they
want it, a little bit like Aaron Judge the leader.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
Yeah, well different though you could argue Aaron.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
Rob don't you think Aaron Judge His misque in center
field was just like Russell Wilson throwing the interception.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
Not quite, but.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
We're this close to winning at all. If you are
best player could just come through here. It didn't work
out for him. It also didn't work out there in Denver.
And that's why when Sean Payton got up.

Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
In front of everybody at the you know, an im
media scrum and said he had recently told Giants owner
John Marra he was hoping they would turn to Jackson
Dart at quarterback once their their game passed.

Speaker 3 (01:28:00):
Yeah, not against them later in the season price and.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
He basically threw shade at Russell Wilson. And that's where
Russell Wilson And this was back on October twenty first
of last year. Forty four point five million views on
this by the way, classless but not surprised. Didn't realize
you're still bounty hunting fifteen plus years later through the media.
That was his tweet last October about a guy who

(01:28:27):
would wind up playing in the AFC Championship Game with
you know, a new quarterback, Bo Nix, and things have
gone well for I'll say this, it wasn't looking good
for Sean Payton after Russell Wilson was unceremoniously shipped out
of town and hadn't done very well there. It was
looking like, oh, you're nothing without Drew Brees. And I

(01:28:48):
think he's done more than salvage that reputation with what's
happened basically ever since. Yeah, okay, well, I mean you can't.
Are you gonna argue with the Broncos Sea last year?

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Yeah, the defense led them. They were awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
Said about Drake May and the Patriots too.

Speaker 1 (01:29:06):
Then in the playoffs, Yeah, I mean, as a guy
who's still bitter about that eighteen to fifteen loss to
the Broncos, it wasn't like they were lighting up the
scoreboard against the Texans. O.

Speaker 3 (01:29:19):
What Bonicks did is when they had and he did
it all year. He's done it for two years actually,
when they absolutely positively have no more time to waste
in the game, they actually have to get going offensively
if they have any chance of winning. That's what they did.
They did it for two years now, and they did
it against the Texans. They heck, they did it against
the Giants, against whom Peyton was talking about. We'll see

(01:29:42):
if it's a little bit easier for them moving. I mean,
play with the lead, go ahead and score a bunch early.
They leaned on their defense like Houston, but their offense
came through a lot more than Houston's, and that's why
they were at the top of the AFC.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Well, going back to Russell Wilson, he went on the
Bus and with the Boys podcast and was asked about
this back and forth with Sean Payton and finally went
on the record to address the fallout between he and
the Broncos head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:30:08):
I don't say much. I never hardly ever say anything.
I think there's a time and place. But sometimes you
get fatigued of people talking about you. You just see
likes you mentioned. You're all human, you know, but it's
one thing for people that maybe aren't in the field
or aren't people say bots or whatever, talking like I
don't worry about that stuff like this. That never but
to me, when you've been in the ring, or you've
been on the same side and this and that, and
I got the same amount of rings as you got,

(01:30:28):
meaning Sean listen, I got a lot of respect for
him as a play call or this and that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
But to take a shot, I don't like.

Speaker 5 (01:30:34):
I don't think it's necessary, especially when I'm not even
on your own team anymore. So for me, I've realized
I've stayed quiet for so long. There's a time and
place where I'm not For me, I know who I
am as a competitor, as a warrior, as a as
a champion. To I've beaten Sean to, you know, like
we've been on the same place and the same thing,
and so it's not a matter of disrespect. Just don't
disrespect me.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Which one of these guys that is very unlikable comes
off less unlikable here.

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
I do not think Russell Wilson is unlikable at all.
He's a little awkward. I don't dislike him. I don't
think he's personally unlikable at all. He's a nice guy.
He's a regular guy. He's not he's not a fiery, crazy,
lunatic leader like we just described him. He's a little awkward.
I don't he's not I don't have dislike for him.
Sean Payton's an arrogant punk and everybody knows. Everybody knows that,

(01:31:23):
everybody in the media, in every city he's ever been,
in every locker room he's ever been. And he's a
good leader, he's a good coach, and Russell Wilson's one
hundred percent correct. Although I'm still waiting for him. Where
is the time and place I thought it was going
to be At the end of the clip, I was
gonna pat Taylor and Will on the back for all right,
you got him on and now he said it. He said,
there's a time and place is it? As his Hall
of Fame acceptance, he pointed out the obvious and accurate.

(01:31:47):
What what makes you so awesome?

Speaker 4 (01:31:49):
Dude?

Speaker 3 (01:31:50):
Compared to me? Were the same. You've done it as
a coach one time. I've done it as a player
one time. We happen to be on the same team
for a couple of years. It didn't go very well.
What's the difference between these two? Like he's he's reached
the highest level and accomplished the highest prize one time,

(01:32:10):
just like Sean.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
Do we think that if Bonnicks was healthy the Broncos
win that game last year?

Speaker 3 (01:32:16):
I do? Do you mean the Conference title game?

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
Yes, and which.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
I think I well, if I didn't know for a
fact going in they would be able to do to
the Patriots offense what each of the three defenses they
faced it did to him. But I had a pretty
good idea, and then they did. They were gonna win
that game. And I think decidedly if if Bonnicks had
not been hurt, I'm not sure what the number would

(01:32:47):
have been because remember the announcement came so fast after
the game that he.

Speaker 2 (01:32:51):
Wasn't playing that because that's when it happened.

Speaker 3 (01:32:53):
I would have absolutely slammed the Broncos in that game
at home against them with their defense, with the way
Drake May is playing offensively, where the way their team
is playing offensively, I mean, Jared Stidham's team almost beat them.

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
Yeah, that's a good point when you look at it
that way. It's kind of hard not to think that
it would have if he.

Speaker 3 (01:33:14):
Ran for it on fourth down to get a first
down on the final drive of the game. Yep, Jared
Stidham's team had a chance to beat them.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Yeah, that's that's wild to think about, and it kind
of puts It really does put things into perspective for
both of the AFC finalists this year, and it just
every time I think about it, I'm going to get
bigger bitter. I don't think I'm quite gonna be as
bitter as I as I am about twenty eighteen for
the Rockets the Courts a championship to facto.

Speaker 3 (01:33:46):
Yeah, we'll take something out of this conversation that just
it probably will blow your mind because it's unfathomable, but
it all happened. The postseason last year in the AFC
will be a top because we hit you with a
football at five and it has to do with postseason
quarterback play. Well, how about the all time greatest quarterback
in the postseason. He's going to make two appearances in
football at five. His first name is Tom, his last

(01:34:08):
name rhymes with Brady. That's next, I'd.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Know football at five featuring shade thrown at Tom Brady.

Speaker 3 (01:34:20):
Let me get you one quick thing about the twenty
twenty six postseason following a twenty twenty five NFL season.
We just talked about the Astidham era Broncos one afternoon
and the poor performance in week one, two, three, and
four of the postseason for Drake may Bo. Nicks was
only able to make it through the early portion of

(01:34:40):
the postseason before injury. Earlier on today's show, I said
Josh Allen picked a bad day to have a bad
day with his decision making. We haven't even talked about C. J.
Stroud's postseason performance. Trevor Lawrence played once, lost once, threw
the ball to the other team twice, and Herbert the

(01:35:02):
AFC playoff quarterbacks This past year, were trying their dog liss.
Holy cow, were they back?

Speaker 5 (01:35:13):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:35:13):
Granted, the Texans defense was in the playoffs, the Patriots defense,
the Broncos defense, these are good. In the Chargers, they
are all good. That's who you play. That's who's there
every postseason. Doesn't have a bunch of quarterbacks, all of
the quarterbacks playing almost what I would call dreadful football. Now,

(01:35:33):
there's a certain website the NFL has for statistics, and
I go to it all the time. It's fantastic, except
for one thing. I'm gonna point it out here. You
want to look up what the AFC stats were for
all the quarterbacks this past postseason, and they list all
of the quarterbacks. I asked them to list all of

(01:35:54):
the quarterbacks that threw any passes are lined up at quarterback.
So there's a couple of non quarterbacks out there. Maybe
they threw a pass, they lined up there, they kneeled that,
whatever it was, and that's fine. But if you're asking me, okay,
you got that list up, so who is the highest
rated passer following the regular season, I could tell you
because it's listed here, and I'll read you off. These
started quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers was at the bottom of the list.

(01:36:17):
He was bad against the Texans. I didn't even mention
him and he was the worst one he played the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:36:23):
Stroud was just barely better than Aaron Rodgers. Jared Stidhon
was a touch better than that, still awful. Justin Herbert
touch better than that, still terrible. Drake May and his
ten turnovers just a little bit better than that. There
were seven total turnovers. Some of those fumbles he recovered
a little bit better than that. Trevor Lawrence a little

(01:36:43):
better than that, but also bad. These are quarterbacks you
do not win with passer rating of less than eighty seven.
There's Bo Nick's right at eighty seven, and the number
one rated quarterback was Josh Allen. Except for these three
guys that, according to this list that only lists your
performance after the regular season, number three highest rated quarterbacks.
When you click on postseason Passing AFC twenty twenty five,

(01:37:08):
you know who they are ahead of Josh Allen just THEFC,
Josh Allen, Boknicks, Trevor Lawrence, Drake May, Justin Herbert, Jared Stidham,
c J. Stroud and Aaron Rodgers. Who are the three
quarterbacks listed ahead of them. You can look at me
like you're confused, because you should be. I yeah, go ahead.
Number one, Joe Burrow, Number two, shud Or Sanders, number three,
Joe Flacco. The three quarterbacks who threw passes in the

(01:37:33):
Pro Bowl games, they actually list them here on this list,
and they've always done that, and it's hilarious that they
think that makes any I mean, you have to pay
a little bit of attention not to get fooled by that.
But you know, when they list out the schedule, they
list out five weeks of postseason because they sneak in
a week four game the Pro Bowl games, and a
full box scorer is listed for you, so we have

(01:37:55):
the stats to go along with it. Probably the best
game of Shuder's career. He had one away point nine
passer rating. He was awesome, Almost as good as Joe Burrow,
but not quite. So there you go the AFC where
the Chiefs are trading away their best corner and Russell
Wilson is yelling nicely at the Broncos head coach. That's

(01:38:16):
what the AFC quarterbacks produced in last year's postseason, and
I want to call it wide open moving forward, Yes,
I do. And that is why now one of those
teams we didn't mention because they weren't in the playoffs
and they landed the number one pick is run by
the greatest quarterback in NFL history, that's Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
Is Are they run by him?

Speaker 3 (01:38:36):
They are run by if you can read more of
the article that I linked to for our discussion here,
and it essentially indicates what we all thought when Mark Davis,
the owner, brought him on. It was to run the organization.
You know who he is. It's a spinoff of the
conversation we just had during the break. You get these

(01:38:57):
people that sidle up to the right person, yep, and
they get the go ahead to pretty much do anything
they want, even though they're unqualified to do so, like
say Jackie eustterbuta cal McNair or Tom Brady's personal trainer
assistant Sinsey, Alex Guerrero, or Tom Brady to Mark Davis.

(01:39:20):
If you want me to tell you Tom Brady is
unqualified to run an NFL team, I could absolutely make
a case.

Speaker 1 (01:39:27):
For it, which, by the way, isn't even a novel
thing in sports. If you're going to talk about him
being the goat of quarterbacks. The goat of basketball similarly,
cannot run a team in his profession that he played
so well at. So Michael Jordan, Yeah, Michael Jordan Wizards,
Isaiah the then the Bobcats Magic.

Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
As a coach, yeah, But as an owner, he's elite.
He is a leade.

Speaker 3 (01:39:51):
He now he knows who to partner up with. He's
he's got a lot of good things going and he
is a part owner of a bunch of franchises across sports.
But back to the issue, all indications are Mark Davis
absolutely trusts Tom Brady, the driving force behind hiring Pete
Carroll and then hiring Chip Kelly and hiring the coaching staff,
almost all of whom has been wiped out in the

(01:40:14):
twelve months since they made that decision. Chip Kelly didn't
even last the year after they gave him a three
year deal that made him the highest paid OC in
the NFL. And these are all awful decisions made since
Mark Davis has been listening to Tom Brady.

Speaker 1 (01:40:29):
You can't even say, well, it's not the Patriot way,
because the Patriot Way only works if you have Tom Brady.
This is the Patriot way with Tom Brady.

Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
That doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
So the article that we're talking about does open the
door for are they doing things already inside the organization
that are rubbing a lot of people the wrong way?
Not to losing and not the bad decision on who
to hire his coach, but the way that he lets
someone like Alex Guerrero infiltrate their facility and be there
at practice and likely basically I don't know if he's

(01:40:59):
looked at as a snitch or someone who works only
for Brady. So everyone's on eggshells because he's around. But
that's something along the lines of what they're alluding to.
And this the whole purpose of talking about the Raiders
this offseason isn't they have the number one pick and
the Fernando Mendoza era is about to begin, But rather
they're going to trade Max Crosby, their clear most important

(01:41:22):
and best player. I think they did a great job
drafting Brock Bowers. I think he's gonna be the best
tight end and one of the best tight ends in
the AFC for years to come. Ashton Genty, I think
he's gonna be fantastic and Max Crosby. They have three
really really good players and all he's done there is
play for six different coaches and done a lot of losing,
and they didn't see eye to eye. Right after the

(01:41:44):
Texans game when they said, well, I think your season
needs to be over now. We need to get that
knee looked at. We need you to not come in anymore,
he stormed out of the facility. Wasn't really happy with it.
It wasn't a ruse. He did have surgery on his
knee and didn't need to get it corrected. But most
people think that they are not compatible anymore. Now they're
going to get a nice haul for it, so it's

(01:42:05):
not necessarily a bad thing because the Raiders in twenty
twenty six, seven and eight with Max Crosby probably would
lose a lot of football games, which they will do
without him now whenever they move him.

Speaker 1 (01:42:17):
And he still wasn't done by the way Tom Brady.
What else is Tom up to?

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
Well?

Speaker 1 (01:42:21):
Do you remember when he was calling Logan Paul being athletic.

Speaker 2 (01:42:26):
In WWE quote cute? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:42:28):
I remember, And then the wrestlers all got mad at
Tom Brady because he said cute and they were like, hey,
why don't you come try it out sometime?

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
There's no way you can is.

Speaker 3 (01:42:35):
He is he going to be in the next royal rumble, No.

Speaker 1 (01:42:38):
Way, not even a chance. But he decided to fire
back yet again. He was He made a I don't
know if it was an unscheduled appearance in a Gronk
I think it was a TikToker and it was an
Instagram video is what it was on Gronk's account. They're
out playing it, I would assume. Actually, I don't know

(01:43:00):
they were at There were palm trees in the video.
That's all I can tell you.

Speaker 3 (01:43:03):
Maybe they both maybe they both signed one day contracts
with the Bucks, so they get retired there together.

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
Like Emmitt Smith did with the Cowboys after playing for
the Cardinals.

Speaker 2 (01:43:11):
And it was weird.

Speaker 1 (01:43:13):
So Logan Paul was the subject matter of Tom Brady
who comes from off camera and just starts calling him
a very bad name.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
Ohe And that's what.

Speaker 3 (01:43:25):
Logan Paul is.

Speaker 2 (01:43:26):
He's an entertainer.

Speaker 3 (01:43:27):
I mean, he has shown a lot of skills in
those combat sports.

Speaker 4 (01:43:33):
But the actually, I don't know. I just don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:43:39):
I don't know if this guy the big boys they're
luck get hit.

Speaker 4 (01:43:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:43:46):
Tom, So if you can't make that out, it's Gronk.
At the beginning, Brady comes from behind him, running up
towards the camera and basically just calls Logan Paul a
witch with a bee and then basically says, why don't
you come get hit like we did in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
I mean, the.

Speaker 1 (01:44:09):
Argument was originally Logan Paul saying he's an athlete and
Tom Brady's saying, no, you're not.

Speaker 3 (01:44:14):
This is just it's screams of a setup. This is
going on and on and on. I don't know what
it's going to result in. I don't know how Tom
and Logan or Tom and the Paul's or what event
this is all lining us up to be KO have
our money stolen from us for some event.

Speaker 1 (01:44:31):
Tay Tom to show up at wrestle Mania.

Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
I just don't. I don't see that because I just don't.

Speaker 1 (01:44:36):
Tom's personality does not lend itself to pro wrestling very well.

Speaker 3 (01:44:40):
Does Tom's personality lend itself to being roasted?

Speaker 2 (01:44:44):
That's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:44:44):
Did you see that one coming?

Speaker 1 (01:44:46):
But it was so good because of everyone else around him, right,
But for the twenty years he was crushing it in
the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
Do you ever think, man, I can't wait till this
guy decides to organize his own roast.

Speaker 1 (01:44:57):
It's why I want to I want to see Michael
Jordan get roasted. It will never happen. He would never
do this. Yeah, I'm not winning week after week after
week on the track.

Speaker 3 (01:45:07):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
I'm not going to sit here and say he doesn't
have a good personality or at least a good nature
about it. But I just I mean, could you imagine
like Tom Brady trying to cut a promo in a
WW ring.

Speaker 3 (01:45:18):
I can't all I could imagine his a co worker,
Gronk doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:45:24):
Yeah, Gronk's been at it. I've been at a WrestleMania
that Gronk was a part of in Orlando. Edelman could
do a better job than Tom.

Speaker 3 (01:45:31):
Of course, all these guys, Belichick probably could do this
as good a job as Tom.

Speaker 2 (01:45:37):
What does Jordaan think.

Speaker 3 (01:45:39):
She'd sign up for this? They got to stay on
the spotlight somehow.

Speaker 2 (01:45:43):
She would definitely be ringside. All right, there you have it.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
That's the latest on the Tom Brady now involved with
the league's one of the league's worst franchises, hoping she's
enjoying himself all while getting paid unbelievable money to call
games on Fox.

Speaker 2 (01:46:00):
What world? What a life he lives?

Speaker 1 (01:46:01):
All Right, We've got one more segment before Longhorns Arkansas
basketball and that is straight ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:46:09):
The A team on Sports Talk seven team.

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
Are you ready for the madness?

Speaker 1 (01:46:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:46:15):
I am pretty fired up.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
Is this the year that U of H gets it done?

Speaker 3 (01:46:22):
I doubt it? Unfortunately, I hate that I have to
say that is nice to note tonight is actually senior Night.
I got a handful of players, Manual Sharp among them,
that will be honored about twenty five minutes before tonight's
eight pm tip off of the ceremony for them during
their winning times they've had here recently, these are some
of the those are can't miss games and can't miss events,

(01:46:43):
and really, if you're already headed to the game, you
absolutely positively have to get out there for that. It's awesome.
They just they're really just not quite what they have been.
I do think he's tried to get them to be
playing their best basketball as the season's gone on. The
schedule might not have allowed for them to win all
those games. Obviously, they just got done with that three

(01:47:03):
game losing streak. But the more, obviously, the more the
season goes on, the more. I'm able to watch some
of the other teams a little disappointed in how they've
performed against Kansas, especially with how Kansas performed last night.
Kind of an embarrassing night for Kansas losing them. Not
Danny Hurley's team, Bobby Hurley's team. I just think there's

(01:47:25):
probably there's probably three or four teams that are better
than they are, and in order to win it all,
they're almost assuredly gonna have to beat one of them,
if not two of them, on the way, and it
does still seem possible, maybe even likely, they'll make their
way to through the tournament through Houston at Toyota Center.
I'm hopeful that that's what it will be, because I
do think that would be helpful for them. There's like

(01:47:48):
Arizona and Michigan specifically. I mean, those would be my
two best teams in the country. I think that's gonna
Those are the two seams sparring injury, and I know
there has recently been a significant one. I think those
are the teams that are gonna going to be there
at the end. I think Duke is obviously outstanding. I
still think Iowa State is very good. I think they're
more troublesome for Houston than other teams. So maybe if

(01:48:09):
you just don't have to face them, that would be best.
I've felt better about them in other years. It's probably
the simplest way to put it, and maybe it has
less to do with them and more to do with
the other teams. I think Arizona and Michigan, the teams
they put together this year are better than definitely better
than Duke in Florida last year in my opinion, and
maybe better than several other teams that U of H
has either beaten or been stopped by in the tournament

(01:48:31):
in years past.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
Well, that's not very satisfying it. They have an opportunity.
I'm just not going to lie to you.

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
I think the previous teams, probably three of them, at least,
I felt a little bit better about It. Doesn't mean
they can't because one thing they do have, and obviously
Jamal Shed's great, Marcus Sass is great, LJ. Cryer is great.
In their leadership is next level. All three of them,
especially Shed, none of them are the talent that Flemings is,

(01:49:02):
and he's that from moment one. He's been that all
year and he will be that in the tournament money,
making game winning plays. Sharp's made him, Criers made him,
Uzon's made him in years passed and again this year.
And I'm so confident that he'll make them because he's
been making them all year late in games, putting runs together.

(01:49:22):
He's unreal and an absolute slam dunk for the top five.
I'll go as high as five. I don't think he
gets out of the top five in the NBA draft,
which he will declare for unfortunately for you of age,
but good for him.

Speaker 1 (01:49:39):
And all that is to say, it's Longhorns basketball We've
got coming up around the corner here.

Speaker 3 (01:49:44):
There are some people in the building that are all
sec all the time. Some of them you'll hear on
the airwaves every now and then. Well Chris Gordy, for instance, Yes,
I had to talk about with him about the Longhorns
and their tournament hopes. He thinks they're in. I think
they're not quite fit yet to make sure that they
get in playing tonight against Arkansas's big challenge.

Speaker 2 (01:50:05):
Have you talked to Ross about this?

Speaker 3 (01:50:06):
Ross is locked in that He's like, Oh, they're in,
They're definitely all right. Well, they already have eleven losses.
If they lose to Arkansas, which they're playing out Arkansas,
there's a pretty good chance they will. Well, then they
cannot lose to Oklahoma in the season finale. I don't
think they will because Oklahoma's not very good. But they
can't lose to them because if they do, I think
their tournament hopes are actually squashed at that point. You

(01:50:29):
put a run together in the SEC tournament that would
help too. The SEC is not a great league this year,
but I think there's still work to be done. I
think they were in the tournament when they had their
winning streak and then they've played not as well since
then and it's absorbed a couple more losses. A win
tonight would be huge. Arkansas's a good team.

Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
You want to give aways some tickets?

Speaker 1 (01:50:50):
Go for it all, right, parent tickets to see Breaking
Benjamin and Chevelle with Kammy, Keyho and Star Said that's
October tenth at the Land's Pavilion. Tickets on sale now
at ticketmaster dot com. And then a pair of tickets
to see Cross Canadian Ragweed March sixteenth over at Rodeo Houston.

(01:51:13):
For full entertainment lineup or to buy your tickets now,
you can go to Rodeohuston dot com. But we would
like to give away a pair of tickets if you
know the answer to this question, and you can call
Josh and give them the answer. At seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three, two
one two five seven ninety We.

Speaker 2 (01:51:31):
Had a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:51:33):
Quarterback social media back and forth in the last few segments,
and we mentioned one of them as well as as
wex put it, he's running.

Speaker 2 (01:51:46):
An NFL franchise into the ground, give or take. I'm
paraphrasing what she said.

Speaker 3 (01:51:50):
Are we asking who the well? Okay, we're not, so
I'll save that for another day.

Speaker 2 (01:51:57):
All right. We actually gave a way his ex handle.

Speaker 1 (01:52:02):
We played audio of him talking about a feud he
had with an ex coach of his. Well, it even
happened in the AFC West. I'll give you that as
a hint, just to kind of mess with you here,
since Brady's also involved in the AFC West to some extent.
But who is the quarterback that kind of gave his

(01:52:23):
thoughts about why he went back and forth with his
ex coach?

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
We talked about it. You heard from him. Who is
that quarterback?

Speaker 1 (01:52:30):
Tell Josh At seven one three two one two five
seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:52:35):
I thought you were gonna ask who was Brady going
back and forth with what influencer, professional wrestler or entrepreneur, boxer, singer,
actor was he in a beef with? But you know
that'll be for another day. Does he have any I
would assume he does. Why can't well because most guys
that do what he does do Okay, Well, you don't

(01:52:58):
know what it is, and I don't know what it is,
so maybe it doesn't exist.

Speaker 2 (01:53:02):
I'll find out right now, but that's.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
For another day. What you can get the answer to
that question will send you to those shows at Astros
Baseball on earlier today, and didn't get a chance to
give you my unnecessary but very important World Baseball Classic
update of the day, two things for you. Last night
we mentioned that Jeremy Paney was not in the starting

(01:53:25):
lineup for his team, but he did get into the game.
He stroked a triple and part of the huge offensive
effort they put out there. He got the start today
in their exhibition game, got a couple of AB's in
and went about his daily's work. They are loaded and
I'm kind of surprised they're not the betting favorite. Somehow,
Team USA is so two. Team USA. The second straight

(01:53:47):
day they've absolutely smashed their Major League Baseball exhibition opponent.
Granted today was Colorado, hard to call them a major
league outfit, but nonetheless, in an eight inning game they
won by ten. The notes from that game, you got
your home run from Captain America in the first inning,
and for the third straight game, Alexander Bregman homer twice

(01:54:09):
now for Team USA for the Cubs the day before that.
The best note from the game is if I told
you that the Colorado Rockies had one inning where they
scored multiple runs and you had to guess which Team
USA pitcher that it was off of, and your hints
were He's a Dodgers legend, but if the game is meaningful,

(01:54:32):
he stinks. Who do you think it is?

Speaker 1 (01:54:33):
Clayton Kershaw? Hey, you got two guys out. He also
gave up a homer in two runs. Hey, Team USA.
If you want to claim supremacy over the world in
the upcoming World Baseball Classic, with Team USA getting started
in pool pay play right here at dyke In Park
and likely continuing in the quarterfinal round right here at

(01:54:55):
Dyke and Park Hey d Row manager Mark Deuroz. Don't
use Clayton Kershaw. If you're up fourteen nothing, use Clayton Kershaw.
If you're up thirteen nothing, Ask your coaches if it's
a good idea to use Clayton.

Speaker 2 (01:55:12):
Could you just say fourteen to thirteen nothing?

Speaker 3 (01:55:15):
Like, if you're up fourteen, you can send him out there.
But if it's thirteen nothing, maybe you need to have
a conference with your pitching coach and maybe even take
a poll the rest of the guys. Do you think
it's okay? Do you think he can manage out there?
I was shocked when they announced he was part of
Team USA legend. All that stuff is great, but he
can't get guys out at a high enough clip. I

(01:55:37):
don't think he wasn't even terrible during the regular season
last year, but at all, but I would. I'm not
forecasting it's gonna happen, but I feel like it's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (01:55:48):
It's a good thing that he finally was a major
contributor when they did win a World Series That wasn't
a gimmick.

Speaker 3 (01:55:55):
What did he do? Was your tongue in cheek?

Speaker 1 (01:55:57):
Just now? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (01:55:58):
You don't think he had a good postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:55:59):
I'm sure it was fine.

Speaker 3 (01:56:01):
You don't think he was the driving force like the
Joe Kelly of the twenty twenty five World Series champion Dodgers.

Speaker 1 (01:56:06):
Well, nobody thinks that about Joe Kelly except for disillusioned
Dodgers fans who worship and paint murals of fem.

Speaker 3 (01:56:12):
We never even played his anti Jake marisnik rhetoric from
a week back. Who cares it was false though it
was made up Like everything else.

Speaker 2 (01:56:20):
He says he's a jackass.

Speaker 3 (01:56:22):
Just so you guys know, of case, you were wondering
and you're getting home from work and you want to
tell everybody at the house the actual information Clayton Kershaw's
postseason era and is what will be one of his
last postseasons. It was fifteen forty three last year, down
from one hundred and sixty two in his last postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:56:42):
Taryl, you're saying he didn't he wasn't a driving force.

Speaker 3 (01:56:44):
He came around, man, he really brought it.

Speaker 1 (01:56:48):
It's just proof that they bought their championships. Everybody buys
their championships. What is your payroll? You bought it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:54):
It's not true.

Speaker 3 (01:56:55):
It is true.

Speaker 1 (01:56:56):
It's not true if you add guys from other teams
that other teams dravefted and cultivated and got.

Speaker 3 (01:57:01):
You're not but that that's part of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:57:03):
Free agency exists, not if not everybody has the same
amount of money to spend.

Speaker 3 (01:57:06):
Yeah, but they're all paying for their titles.

Speaker 2 (01:57:09):
I don't think they are.

Speaker 3 (01:57:10):
When you draft a player, does he play for free? No,
you pay him. Yeah, that's paying for your players.

Speaker 1 (01:57:16):
But you don't then go get go get players from
other teams in mass.

Speaker 3 (01:57:21):
You don't think when they traded with the Dodgers to
get Jordan Alvarez, they they started him off with some
deferred money.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
They don't know what happened.

Speaker 3 (01:57:27):
Then they put off his three hundred and fifty thousand
dollars salary for a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (01:57:33):
Again, even with all the injuries he has sustained, the
Dodgers want that one back.

Speaker 3 (01:57:39):
All right, you got no time for this? Okay, did
you catch any of the throwback nostalgia NBA game last night?
It was really good. It was very fun to see
all those.

Speaker 2 (01:57:49):
Guys was involved. So I can't say really good, but.

Speaker 3 (01:57:51):
There was like nine people involved and he was just
one of them was really well done. The graphics obviously
were very cool, and unfortunately the Sixers weren't into it.
When I saw Andre Drummond take back to back three pointers,
I knew they weren't serious and they got blown out.
If you're here for Longhorns basketball, perfect, they're next here
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:58:15):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety