Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks talk NFL Combine buzz and more!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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I feel like I'm gonna just be doing a lot
of set up today for the master himself. I'm talking
about the great Bucky Brooks, who is in Indianapolis at
the NFL Comby Bucky, How are you today? I am
doing great, Steve, what's up with you? I am getting
ready to listen to everything you have to say now

(00:42):
before we get into some details. And as usual, I
heard this earlier from our buddy TJ when he said,
everyone keeps telling you that the combine doesn't matter until
it does, So you know, you sort of going with
that mindset, like what are we really going to see
the underwear Olympics and everything else? And then inevitably, every

(01:02):
single year we got major storylines coming out of the
NFL Combine but Bucky, you've been around the combine for
a long long time. There was a hint that a
few teams may decide not to send anybody to the combine,
feeling like it's not of great use anymore, that the
interview process, which used to be critical, is a little

(01:24):
to rehearse these days. Obviously, the medical portion of the
combine is always important, but give us your personal observation
of where we sit right now with the importance of
the NFL Combine. The combine is still very important. Team
still viewed this as a great opportunity to get the

(01:46):
medical information, to get to know all of the prospects,
because this is the first time that they've been able
to talk to them and to see these guys go
through a battery of tests. Did we give you a
kind of an idea of their athletics while I'll seeing
some drills that lets you know where they are when
it comes to their positions specific development, Bucky, you've worned

(02:08):
so many hats in this industry, you know when you
when you're watching these athletes, uh, these perspective NFL players
at the combine, what what are you looking for specifically?
Are you sting like an open you know sheet where
you're just saying, I ay, just whatever comes at me

(02:29):
is going to be the thing, or are you looking
for specifics and trying to evaluate whether the guy has
the talent to make it at the next level. Well,
first things first, you're just trying to get a gauge
of their general athleticism, how fast they run, how high
they jump, the balance and body control, what is their
quickness like when they have to stop and change directions

(02:52):
and those things. And then you typically go in with
every prospect with a handful of questions that you want
to kind of get resolved by the end of the weekend.
And so some of those are on the field. So
it may be, for instance, Jerry Forter Jr. Came in
and there are questions about his speed, questions about his
ability to back pedal and those things. He ran to

(03:14):
forty but then elected not to run through the position drills.
So now when I go to his pro day, I
gotta see what he looks like when he backs pedals,
high turn and drives all that other stuff. So you
go in with a handful of general questions and then
a few specific questions that you want to see them
answer doing their workout all right, So Bucky you're a

(03:35):
super Bowl champion. Everyone knows that that is the ultimate goal, right,
And you know, I know that it seems like at
times we talk about quarterbacks at nauseum, because well we do,
and that's because it is the most important position on
the field. Doesn't mean that other positions don't have a
huge impact, but you're most likely not going to get

(03:56):
the ultimate prize unless you have the right guy at
the top of the ticket at your quarterback position. So
in evaluating quarterbacks over the years, you know, I keep
hearing about the old it factor, and I'm not sure
exactly how to define that because at the combine you
can talk about arm strength, you can talk about a
lot of different things from an athletic standpoint, and obviously

(04:19):
you've got plenty of film on them during their college years.
But in translating the adjustment from the college game to
the NFL game, something that you did, and obviously everyone
is going to have that right of passage if they're
going to play at the NFL level. What are some
of them maybe common denominators amongst quarterbacks emerging from the

(04:41):
college ranks, of those that succeed in the NFL. You know,
when you think about the quarterback position, everyone to tell
you about the leadership, ability, the accuracy, the judgment and
all those things. But the it fact that that you're
speaking to is if your favorite team's quarterback has the

(05:03):
ball with two minutes left, do you, in your heart
believe that your team is going to win? That's what
the IT factor is. If you're a team going against
Tom Brady, that queasy feeling that you have because you
know he has the ball back, that's the it factor
that everybody wants from their franchise quarterback. And the only
way that you can really feel that or since that

(05:27):
is you got to be around the guy. You have
to see him pull off some of these magician like
tricks where like he pulls a rabbit out of the
hat and finds a way to win the game. That
only continues to build the belief in that player. But
that IT factor is the feeling that gives everyone around
the team hope that this quarterback can find a way

(05:50):
to help us win. So the measurables are something they're
available to everybody. As you go at the combine, how tall,
how heavy, all the different drills that they run, their
times than everything else. It always amazes me. You know,
we just had the twenty twenty three Pro Football Hall
of Fame class announced and one of the inductees this year,
long overdue for the honor, is Zach Thomas, who had

(06:13):
great career in the NFL as an inside linebacker. And
I'll never forget because in his days at Texas Tech,
he was a unanimous All American. He was a tackling machine.
You know, he was one of the top tacklers in
the country's all over the field. He was five foot eleven.
And the next thing, you know, here's a guy that
everyone knew, everyone saw play at a high level at college.

(06:36):
He dropped all the way to the fifth round. Same
thing happened with a Chris Spielman out of Ohio State.
Go back to Mike Singletary. I mean, the guy was
averaging twenty five tackles a game at Baylor and he
was downgraded does the second round and he said, oh, goss,
he's five foot eleven. I'm like, yeah, but he could
play football. How much still do the measurables get in

(06:59):
the way of identifying those that can actually play the game.
The measurables matter, They matter a lot because a lot
of times people think that scouts are trying to find guys,
but really what scouts are doing is they're trying to
eliminate guys. What you're trying to do is you're trying
to take this database of historical information that you have

(07:23):
on players who have played in the league, players who
have succeed seated in the league, players who have played
at a high level in the league, and you're trying
to take those composite numbers, and you're trying to make
a baseline profile the guys that play well in this
league check off these boxes. And people don't like when

(07:45):
you talk about, like, oh, with Bryce Young is good,
but don't don't, you know, ignore the height, ignore the size.
He's a really good player. But what happens is those
outliers are outlines for a reason because the overwhelming majority
of people who possessed their traits haven't made it in
the league. Now that doesn't mean that Bryce you can't

(08:06):
make it, but it just means that the odds suggest
that someone bigger, faster, stronger is going to have a
chance to have more success than he will. And so
it's just one of those things that when you're a
decision maker, some of them leaning towards playing the odds
as opposed to Hey, I'm a rose a dicing gamble

(08:26):
on displayer, so Bucky. As you know, I worked for
the Raiders back in the Al Davis days, and the
Combine really got started at the time that I was
working for the Raiders back in the nineteen eighties. And
I remember early on and Al Davis was very much
into measurables, right, I mean, he wanted to know how
fast you were, all the different things as far as

(08:47):
you know, these specific numbers. And one of the guys
that I'll never forget jumped out right in the beginning
was my dear friend Christian Nakoy, this guy out of Azusa, Pacific.
Has anyone who ever matched his number seriously as a
running back? I mean from the combine, he was what
six one, two hundred fifty three pounds and he was
doing things that were just absolutely absurd at the combine

(09:10):
and because of that, he ran a four four five
three pounds would be uh yeah, he was, Yeah, he
actually was at two sixty when he ran that um.
But it was the type of thing that projected him
the suddenly where he won from complete unknown out of
Azusa Pacific all the way to a second round pick

(09:31):
in the draft that one year. So is it? I
mean to me, it's sort of a hidden miss type
of thing, where again, um, you can look at a guy,
you know how tall he is, you know all these
different agility drills and say, wow, this guy really is
an insane athlete. But then you have to figure out,
but does he have the motor? Does he have the

(09:54):
desire to build on whatever physical gifts he has and
to full advantage of it. The greatest of the greats
are those that have the god given physical abilities, and
then you add on the desire to be the best.
You get those two combinations, the guy's probably gonna end
up in Canton, Ohio. Is there still any way to

(10:17):
find out whether the guy's going to have the motor
to run for five years, ten years, whatever is necessary
to max out whatever gifts they were given physically. You
know a few different things that teams have tried to
do to kind of figure out if they can max
it out. There are a bunch of psychological tests that
teams will use with the prospects, and they hope that

(10:41):
those results would give them kind of like a peak
behind the curtain, or how they got thinks, how it operates,
what's the best way to manage him or coach him
those things. But even with those tests and all the
tests that we do physically on the field, they're still
unknown about whether a player really has it. And the

(11:03):
thing is, you can't figure it out until they start
playing because the game is hard, it requires some grits,
some resilience, and you just don't know how people gonna
respond to their disappointments and failures very early in their career. Yeah,
and what's really frustrating I've seen too many examples of this,
and again this is coming from somebody that wouldn't dare

(11:24):
put one toe on an NFL field, okay, is those
guys that come out of college and all they're thinking
about is that next payday coming out of the rookie contracts.
You know, if I put four or five really good
years in, I'm going to hit the jackpot. And once
they hit the jackpot, suddenly that desire to continue to

(11:47):
push themselves seems to disappear. And you never see it coming.
Like you've seen nothing but one hundred percent effort from
this guy, and all of a sudden he gets to
that level and he gets the big deal, and he
he's now set for life, so to speak, and suddenly
that burning desire disappears. It can be very frustrating for

(12:07):
a lot of owners, and we've seen it all too often.
Not bad guys, I'm just saying, like, maybe it's just
human nature that once you're set, okay, then I don't
I don't have to worry about any I don't have
to bust my ass the way I have to get
to this point. Yeah, I mean that's something that you
always have to guard against. Complacency is a real deal.

(12:28):
It's a thing that you have to talk about. Is
a thing that you have to keep keep your team
working through. You have to hammer them even harder than
you did the previous season, and then you have to
do all that while hoping to not lose them with
those approaches. But yeah, it's a hard, hard deal. You
have to have a level of mental stamina, and you know,

(12:48):
you got to have a competitive spirit to continue. You
don't want to get up every day and handle the
things that you have to handle to put yourself in
a position to play on the team and to eventually
win a game. All right. So Bucky is in Indianapolis
at the combine. We got a lot of stories that
came out today. A couple of quarterbacks stories right off
the top. How tall is one quarterback? And how far

(13:09):
can another quarterback broad jump? How important is it for
the future of these quarterbacks? Keep it right here. This
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hell yeah, Steve Harman, Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday,

(14:12):
and we are alive from the tai iraq dot com studios.
Well I am and see Bucky is hanging out big
time in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine. All right, So Bucky,
we got a lot of stories coming out today. Let's
start with Bryce Young, someone that you and I have
followed since his high school days. I don't know how when.

(14:32):
What was the first time you've heard about Bryce Young.
I heard him about it when he was in eighth grade. Wow.
I was coaching over in Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks.
Bryce Love and his dad came by to school to
kind of visit because they're trying to figure out where
he was going to play in high school. He didn't
go to Notre Dame. He've ended up going to Cathedral

(14:53):
for his freshman year, where he split time with a
senior quarterback before he moved on to Motor Dame. And Day,
by the way, is the only high school in America
to produce three Heisman Trophy winners. John Hewart way back
in the day, Matt Leinart and of course, Bryce Young.
So we've been following his career. I'd certainly have been
following it since his days at modern day, his original

(15:15):
commitment to go to USC and then of course d
committed and played at the University of Alabama, where he
has been a superstar for the last couple of years.
So shocking news, right, he's been listed as a six
footer and as someone that used to call myself six
feet when I wasn't when I was really five eleven.
He measured out though, at five ten and an eighth,

(15:36):
which Bucky is the exact same height that Kyler Murray
was measured at when he was the combine. Now eyeball
test tells me the Bryce Young is taller than Kyler Murray,
but according to the combine measurements of the exact same height.
But what impact at all will this have on Bryce

(15:58):
young stock for the up coming NFL draft. I have
a impact, maybe not a great impact. The one thing
that Bryce Love, I mean Bryce Young has done is
he's owned it from the beginning. He's talked about the side,
he's talked about his frame. So coming in at five
ten and the eighth will puts him in at Kyler

(16:19):
Murray range puts him into Russell Wilson range. He elected
not to work out because he put his effort into
adding weight, so he hit the magic number being over
two hundred pounds. I would anticipate by the time he
gets to a second protect that weight will be adjusted.
He'll probably be a little lighter so he can get
back to kind of playing like he played during the

(16:40):
regular season at Alabama. But it's a conversation starter for sure.
And there are some teams that will tell you we
can't draft a quarterback that's small, even though we love him.
We love the intangibles, all the stuff that he brings
as an accurate quarterback. Man that frame, the durability could

(17:01):
become concerned. And so that's why you've seen some of
the team's kind of backup all of them for a
little bit. Always interesting me when you have a shorter quarterback.
I remember when Doug Flutie came to the Chargers started
one full year before Drew Brees took over as their
starting quarterback, and I used to talk to him about,

(17:22):
how do you see anything? I mean, he is, you know,
five nine tops, and but he had a big arm.
I mean, that's a big part of it. Doug Flute
had a big arm, but he because but he says, look,
I've always been this height my whole life. In other words,
it wasn't like I suddenly got to the NFL and

(17:42):
I'm just five foot nine. I've always been this height.
So whatever adjustments I had to make to find throwing
lanes or being able to see down the field, I've
long adjusted to, going back to my high school days
and all through college. And I think when you hear
Bryce young Buck, he's saying pretty much the same thing.

(18:04):
It's not a factor because I've always been this height.
This is what I've been dealing with. And this is
why again I get back to this idea of you know,
suddenly like, oh, I'm going to stay away from this
guy because he measures an intern half shorter than we
thought he was. It doesn't make any sense. I mean,
what I'm looking at a quarterback is two things, accuracy

(18:27):
and decision making. Being able to think on your feet
and making the right decisions. Those to me are the
two biggest qualities I would be looking for in a quarterbacks. Well,
those quarterbacks are the biggest qualities, but the other stuff
can't be ignored because when you're Bryce Young and you're
in that height, you just worry about balls being batted down.

(18:47):
You worry about his ability to work away from pressure
because he's not a dynamic athlete. Like what's different than
Bryce Young and Caler Murray. Cali Murray was running for
five six seven hundred yards college. Bryce Young doesn't show
those capabilities. He could move around within the pocket, but
he doesn't have a superpower of athleticism that might level

(19:11):
the playing field when it comes to his heighth deficiencies,
and so he has to be a plus in all
those other areas accuracy, decision making, leadership, ability, the ability
to process information and communicated to his teammates. All of
those things. He doesn't have any wiggle room And so
it's a harder evaluation than some would say because everybody

(19:33):
else checks off the prototypical physical dimensions with the exception
of Bryce. So you would used to look at Alabama
quarterback as a guy that maybe had a solid college
career ak you know, like a J. McCarron and didn't
translate to the NFL. But all of a sudden, with
the success of Jalen Hurtz into a tongue of VLOA

(19:54):
until at least some degree mac Jones. Does that change
the dynamic elease of the view of Ice Young coming
out of that Alabama program. You know, I think you
try not to scout the helmet. You try and give
everybody to just do on their own accord. But you
can't help but think about two we're talking about Lawa
mac Jones, Jalen Hurts. What were the struggles? How long

(20:17):
did it take for them to pop? What things did
you do with them in the off season when they
return to help them take their games up a notch.
So it certainly impacts everything because they've been running the
same system forever. They've been some little tweaks and stuff,
but the system that they run has always been the same,

(20:37):
and so you just want to make sure that he
has that dynamic ability to make I guess, to make
the coordinator right when the play call is wrong. That
is the next level when it comes to quarterback play
and all the other stuff. Well, ultimately it always comes
down to this right place, right time, right system and
everything else that pretty much gauges well they or not

(21:00):
a quarterback especially it is going to have success in
the National Football League. By the way, We're brought to
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and save at Progressive dot com. All right, on the
other side, we're going to talk about another quarterback opening

(21:20):
up some eyes at the combine. But right now, let's
find out what is trending and talk about measurables. Wow,
Brian Finley is one of those guys that checks every
single box. You guys, you're not gonna believe this, But
when I was in college, so I'm five ten and
a half, I could actually I really worked on this
in the student rec center. I could dunk on a

(21:43):
ten foot rim a tennis ball. Now, I couldn't dunk
a basketball because gripping the ball is something that is
understated and how hard it is. But I don't know
if you guys believe me, but it's a true story.
I could actually. Yeah, I have I have pretty good
sized hands, so I can actually palm a basketball, but
I had the deadly I have decent hand eye coordination,

(22:05):
but I had the deadly combination of no speed and
no hops. I mean, you know, when you have no
speed and no hops, then it doesn't matter really at
all about your hand eye coordination. So that's that's why
I got into this business. Yeah, it doesn't. It's that's
hard to speed, no hops, hard to overcome those things. Yeah,

(22:27):
there's there's just nothing. Nothing there. Speaking of somebody who
has a lot of hops that would be jam right now,
he has put out a statement and I'm going to
read that to you in a moment. But this comes
after he had learned that he would be suspended by
the Grizzlies for at least the next two games. This
after he was seen on Instagram live earlier earlier this

(22:48):
morning with a gun in his hand, and he did
this Instagram life from a nightclub. So Morant has had
something to say now. Quote I take full responsibility from
my actions last night. I'm sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners,
the city of Memphis, and the entire Grizzlies organization for
letting you down. I'm going to take some time away
to get help and work on learning better methods of

(23:11):
dealing with stress and my overall well being. Close quote
it bears mentioning Steven Bucky that Morant has also shut
down his Twitter and Instagram accounts, so if you look
for them, you're not going to find them online. More
news for the grizz and it's not good. His teammate
Brandon Clark is done for the season with the left

(23:32):
achilles tear and still staying with the Grizzlies. Grizzes Dylan
Brooks is going to be suspended one game with no
pay after picking up his sixteenth technical foul this season.
From now on, with every two technical fouls that Brooks assumes,
another one game suspension comes with no pay. Speaking of

(23:53):
the measurables, where Bucky is at the NFL Combine, What
a show Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson is putting on to
a setting the signal caller record for vertical jump at
the Combine. Forty point five inches was his vertical leap
in college basketball. Number twenty three Kentucky is trying to

(24:14):
hold off Arkansas here in fan fill eighty one to
seventy one hunder two minutes to go in regulation. Oklahoma
is looking at an upset fifty one to thirty six
day lead against number twenty two TCU halfway through the
second half. Finals to mention here, Number two Alabama total
face plan, losing on the road to number twenty four
Texas at m sixty seven to sixty one. Brandon Miller,

(24:38):
who is allegedly tied to the murder weapon, which is
a crime that involved one of his now ex teammates,
fouled out in this game. Miller did and bricked ten
three pointers. Number seven Baylor loses dial with State seventy
three to fifty eight. And lastly, guys, number thirteen, Virginia
clinches at least a share of the ACC regular season

(24:59):
title with their seventy five to sixty stomping of Louisville.
I can't believe Bucky and Steve that the Louisville Cardinals,
the team with so much history basketball wise, is four
and twenty seven. What is going on with that program? Wow? Wow? Now,
I mean again, let's let's go back to when they

(25:21):
won that national championship with Patino. That doesn't exist anymore.
It's blank. It's unbelievable right how they have completely fallen
off them. Well, it's a lot of problems like that
right now, man, How did North Carolina go from a
preseason number one to most losses ever by a team
that was a preseason number one. Chemistry in connectivity, you know,

(25:42):
much like and I'm sure we're talking about it. The
NFLPA released those grades assessing all the teams. The bottom line,
the common denominated between the teams that have the most
successful there's a connectivity between player and coach, player the
player and coach to coach. And so if you have cohesion,
you have a group of people who are really pouring

(26:02):
into the players. Yeah, then you have an opportunity to win.
It doesn't matter what kind of experience they may have
in their restrict to sport. Yeah, very much. All right, Brian,
thanks so much. We'll talk to you a little bit
later on. Bucky is in Indianapolis for the combine, and
obviously we want to take full advantage of everything he's
seeing out there. We just heard BFEN talking about Anthony Richardson,

(26:24):
the Florida quarterback who not only posted a forty point
five inch vertical but also a ten foot nine inch
standing broad jumps, something everyone does during an NFL game
as the standing broad jump in their underwear. Well, what's
most impressive about these stats? He weighed in at two
hundred and forty four pounds and he's doing this kind

(26:46):
of stock. Now, what's more important his standing broad jump
of ten foot nine inches or the fact that he
completed less than fifty four percent of his passes this
past year for the Gators. All of it matters. But
those cool dimensions, they really matter. They matter because what
you can do is as an offensive coach, you can

(27:06):
talk to yourself into taking Anthony Richardson. You're saying, as
a sculptor, he's a big old ball of play. I
can just work on these things. I can work on
the Actually, I can get him a playbook to simplified,
allowing to play fast. And then if I do that,
I may tap into some unrealized potential based on what
he's already done in this league. That's scary, and so

(27:29):
I just think the Bears are trying to work through
all the scenarios. But I supposed to be a defensive player. Well,
Anthony Richardson says he's a blend of Cam Newton and
Lamar Jackson. Okay, well that's that's great, but it has
to translate on the field. This is and this is
no knock on him, because let's face it. He might
be in the right situation where a guy like Anthony

(27:50):
Richardson could be a star at the NFL level. But
to me, I guess it just gets back to some
of the legitimacy and the reason for beyond just optics
that you know, I'm sitting here watching you know, NFL
Network and watching the combines and everything else about why
we have certain drills and which ones are the most

(28:11):
important in terms of evaluating what a guy can actually
do on the field. I mean, Bucky, I mean, is
standing broad jump something that really has any validity when
it comes to how will you play football? So the
standing broad jump, in the vertical jump, they showcase how
explosive an athlete is. So if you tell me that

(28:32):
Anthony Richardson vertical over forty inches and that his broad
jump was either near or above eleven feet, I can
pretty much guarantee you that he's gonna run four four
or lower when he runs his forty because all of
those traits translate. So one of the reasons why you
want to see him jump and run because it continues

(28:54):
to allow you to check off the bucks in the
box when it comes to their athleticism. So that's why so, Yeah,
Anthony Richardson absolutely has tremendous athleticism and all of these things.
I pushed back onto Cam Newton comparison because Cam Newton
had I mean, he was all world his one year
at Aldred. He had fifty almost fifteen hundred rushing yards

(29:17):
to go with passing yards. Anthony Richardson didn't have that
kind of production. And so he's a good athlete, but
he's not He's nowhere near as accomplished as Cam Newton was.
All right, accuracy for a quarterback imperative. Your passing game
doesn't operate unless the quarterback can get the ball in

(29:38):
the hands of the receiver, not just in the hands,
but in the right position so the receiver can do
more with the ball right there. When we talk about accuracy,
when I looked at Josh Allen coming out of Wyoming,
and I saw plenty of his games over the last
couple of years there, he just wasn't an accurate passer
fifty six percent as both a sophomore and junior before

(30:00):
he opted out for the NFL draft. He was obviously
a big bodied athlete, but I'm like, how do you
teach accuracy? And the next thing I know Brian Dable
takes over sort of running that offense, tutoring him, and
he's completing, you know, high sixties. Is that an aberration?
Or can you take a guy like Anthony Richardson that

(30:21):
struggled at times with accuracy and actually make him a
more accurate passer? You can if you're willing to play hits,
meaning you look and you try and figure out what
are the best thing that this player does, and we're
just going to have him do those same things over
and over and over again. You heard Sean Payton talk

(30:43):
about helping Russell Wilson get back on track by trying
to take the best throws that Russell made and seeing
if they can build an offense around those throws. And
so with Anthony Richardson and some of these other guys
who are not accurate, you try and get him on
the practice field what were for them at their colleges,
and you begin to build your playing out with the

(31:05):
stuff kind of baked in as a basis. I always
remember a conversation I had with Urban Meyer about the
situation going on with Tim Tebow after he left Denver
and Tim Tebow in four years at Florida completed for
his career over sixty six percent of his passes. Think

(31:28):
of that, I mean, we think of Tim Tebow as
a guy that literally can't throw the football straight, yet
in four years of college, he completed, over the course
of his entire college career, over sixty six percent of
his passes. And I asked urban Meyer, how's this possible?
How are you able to get him to be that
kind of a passer in terms of accuracy as opposed

(31:51):
to what we see right now, and he says, it
all comes down to a system. It was very similar
to what happened to Vince Young at Tech, where Mac
Brown decided, all right, I'll tell you what we're going
to We're going to break this down because we have
this supreme athlete at quarterback, and we're just going to
simply say this, you got one target. If he's open,

(32:13):
throw it, and he could do that accurately. If he's not,
you're going to run. I mean, that was pretty much
what happened. And because he was such a superior player,
Vincio became a superstar at the collegiate level. So this
is why I keep getting back to developing a system, Bucky,
where you identify what it is a player, and this

(32:33):
is not just quarterback, this is any player does best
and then put them in a position to succeed. Novel idea, Right,
let's put him in Why can't we do this at
quarterback more often? Why Why is it so difficult to
translate a guy that maybe does something extremely well at
the collegiate level and then put in a system that

(32:57):
will allow him to do something similar at the end
of level. Well, you have to have adaptability, creativity. You
have to be able to look at what the player
is and understand exactly what his strengths and weaknesses are.
And you have to be willing to put your ego
to the side and say that this is what he
does well. I may have to deviate from my preferred

(33:22):
system and learn how to put in a system that
doesn't necessarily work for me, but works for my quarterback.
That's why you don't see it as much. People sometimes
continue to stick with plays over players, and then a
good team, a championship team. It is always the players
matter more than the plays, all right. On the other side,

(33:43):
I want to get into another quarterback that likes to
have mayonnaise in his coffee. That's disturbing to say the least,
but will leave us the quarterback out of Kentucky. Is
he the top quarterback prospect in this draft? We're gonna
break it all down. This is Fox Sports Saturday. Steve
Harman and Bucky Brooks here at Fox Sports Saturday live

(34:06):
from the Tirack dot Com studios. Bucky in any at
the NFL combine, Will Levis, Will Levis, Will Levis. So
I hear noticeable buzz during the deep ball portion of
the NFL Combine. I saw will Levis a few times
over the course of the season. Nothing jumped out at me,

(34:27):
but all of a sudden, I see where well, I
guess mel Kiper has him listed as the number one
quarterback in this draft. So I want to hear from you,
Bucky Brooks and your scattering report on the Kentucky QB.
Will Levis. Great size, great athlete, looks like you want
them to look at the position, prototypical dimensions and those things.

(34:52):
A bit of a wild card in terms of a
guns leaguer in his play style. Not accurate. It is
kind of a guy who has a knapt for creating
big plays when you watch him work in the pocket.
Very inconsistent in terms of hitting the strike zone, delivering
the ball accurately in those things. Has flashes though, and

(35:17):
those flashes are next level wild flashes. And so when
people make the comparison to Josh Allen, it's a valid
one because the same things that Josh Allen struggled with
in college are the same issues that Will Levis struggled with.
I'm looking at Josh allen stats his last two years,

(35:38):
he only completed fifty six percent of his passes. Will
Levis has some of those same issues. And so what
people are doing is they're looking at how Josh Allen
was able to go to Buffalo, he found the right
offensive coordinator, and he has played at almost an MVP level.
At times, they're saying that Will Levin could maybe have

(36:00):
the same potential. All Right, so we talk about Levis,
we talk about Richardson, we talk about Bryce Young, We're
not talking about the quarterback that at least what I
saw this year was the single best performance by a
quarterback in any game all season, and that was CJ.
Strout against Georgia. He tore them apart. He showed a

(36:23):
certain level of athleticism that we were unaware of. He
played the best single game I saw by a college
quarterback all season long, and that's the last time we
saw him on the field. Where do we sit right
now with CJ. Stroud? I mean, did that game take
him to the next level? Or were the concerns, if

(36:44):
there were any about CJ. Stroud that existed before that
game still trumpeting whatever's whatever he may have gained from
that performance against Georgia. It's funny because with CJ. Stroud
it runs counter to normally what we want our quarterbacks
to do. So CJ. Strout is a guy that prefers
to operate in the pocket. He's not necessarily a creative

(37:07):
playmaker outside of the structure of the offense. But the
biggest not people having him is like, oh, he doesn't create,
He doesn't hit you with these wild plays on the move,
he doesn't do the Pat Mahomes thing. But when he
does what we expect our quarterbacks to do, sitting the pocket,
delivered the ball on time, layer the ball, find open windows,

(37:29):
throwing guys open. CJ. Strout does all of that. To me,
he's the best quarterback in the draft because he has
the most natural game and he has all the prototypical
physical dimensions. It is between he and Bryce Young, and
if you ask me, I'm gonna go with the bigger,
stronger prospect in that scenario. So to me, a lot

(37:51):
of it. I go back to Joe Burrow at LSU, right,
I mean, he was surrounded by insane talent, two receivers
that may well end up in the Hall of someday,
Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase not demand Edwards Hilaire. I mean,
they had so much, so much weaponry, and so you're like,
all right, how did Joe Burrow come from pretty much
anonymous to having the greatest quarterback season of all time?

(38:14):
How much was that the talent he had around him?
How much was that at Joe Burrow? I guess that
would be the same thing with the guy like C. J. Strout.
I mean, he's surrounded by insane amounts of talent and
we've seen the failure we went talked about the Alabama
quarterback situation where Bryce Young and the sudden success of
the Jalen Hursts to a tongue of ohoas Mac Jones

(38:34):
Ohio State. I mean the jury is still out on
Justin Fields. I mean, you look at these Ohio State
quarterbacks and their game, even though they've put up some
lofty numbers at Columbus, is not translated to the NFL.
In what way could c J. Stroud break that mold?
He can bring that mold because he is a Polish player.

(38:55):
From the pocket, footwork, accuracy, IQ in, anticipation, touch, timing,
all of those things. Man he delivers with rave reviews.
His biggest issue is how he handles pressure when the
pocket falls apart. His eyes tend to drop and he
doesn't show the poise that you would like sometimes. But

(39:18):
outside of that, isn't that a better thrower of the
football than CJ. Stroud? And so yeah, he can break
the mold. And I feel like with Justin Fields, there
wouldn't be as much criticism of Justin Fields if the
Bears didn't have the number one overall pick and we
on the media side couldn't speculate about, hey, they need
to take a quarterback Bryce Young and reset the clock

(39:41):
and all these things. I think the soap opera has
made it where we haven't given Justin Fields enough credit
for the work that he's put in on a bad
Bears offense. I'm a Justin Fields fan. I was a
justin Field fan coming out of high school and knew
the kind of high school career he had and what
I saw at a higher stay. And of course it
was difficult because he essentially had a missy year because

(40:03):
of the COVID situation, the breaviages schedule that the Big
Ten had that season, but he finished with a flourish
and he's with the Bears that the Bears haven't had
a Pro Bowl quarterback, says Jim McMahon. You know, it's
like it's the funeral home for quarterbacks when he had
up in a Bear's uniform. All right, Well, coming up
in the next hour. The combine is just one step

(40:24):
in the process in putting together an entire roster. What
do we've learned so far from this combine and how
will it translate into which quarterbacks end up with jobs
in twenty twenty three. Keep it right here. This is
Fox Sports Saturday, rolling along on another busy Saturday in
the sports where I went until the month of March.
Right now, a little bit of madness right down the road,

(40:47):
and we are broadcasting live from the ti Irac dot
Com studios Tirac dot Com. We're gonna help get you there,
and I'm at selection fast free shipping. Free Road has
a protection over ten thousand recommended installers Tirac dot com.
The way tie are buying should be. Bucky is in
Indianapolis at the NFL Combine. I want to take a
little respite from the combine for a moment here because

(41:07):
we still have a ton of NFL news to get to.
But I can't go through this show without your thoughts
on this Ja Morant situation. I mean, this is this
is just absurd on his live Instagram page that he's
at a nightclub with a gun clearly visible on him.
And this guy that already had some problems standing to

(41:30):
alleged incident this past summer. He's a guy that the
NFL is promoting as the it guy, and when I
watch him on the court, I believe it. He is
a superstar talent. But what the hell Bucky I mean?
I mean, I mean, is at the point where there's
nothing you can do about it. As long as he's

(41:51):
got talent, he's going to get away with whatever he wants.
If if you dare question him on his sam and
doing something like this, do you possibly jeopardize your situation?
If you're the Memphis Grizzlies. I mean, how would you
approach trying to knock some sense into Jean Morand it's

(42:15):
really disappointed to see what Job Moran has been caught
up in. My son as a sophomore in college, but
absolutely loves Job Moran, watches his stuff, sees the stuff
on YouTube, follows him, watches his excursions when he goes
to this jury store that shows up online and stuff
like that. And when you're as talented as Job Moran

(42:40):
and you've kind of made it where he was a
lightly recruited player. His story is a great feel good story,
but you know his I would say, his ego, his attitude,
the same things that make him great also had the
potential to be his fatal flaw. And so this was

(43:01):
really it seemed like a crowd for help or wake
up call where he's in the club, he has the
baby gun flashing, and it prompted the Grizzlies and the
NBA to sit him down for a little bit, and
it prompted I'm sure a handful of people that are
around him that are close to him to ask him

(43:23):
what's going on, the fact that he went out his
head and I need to figure out a way to
better deal with my stress. There's something going on with
your job away from the court that he needs to address,
and the Grizzlies need to help him address so it
can make better decisions. See call me a little bit
of a skeptic anytime I see a statement on social

(43:46):
media from a player involved in a situation. The full
statement from Jean Morant was, I take full responsibility for
my actions last night. I'm sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners,
the city of Memphis, and the entire Grizzlies organization for
letting you down. I'm going to take some time a
way to get help and work on learning better methods
of dealing with stress and my overall well being. Again,

(44:10):
the idea of stress very real, no question. I'm amazed
many times when we talk about, especially the superstar athlete
that have so much pressure on them to constantly perform
at the highest level night in night out, week in
week out. But how does that affect you walking into
a club with a gun on yourself and then posting

(44:35):
it on your own live Instagram. I mean, I don't
I don't see the connection there. To me, They're two
completely separate things. So I you know, like I said,
I'm a Jah Morant fan like everyone else. I want
to see this guy's averaging twenty seven points eight assist
at night. The guy is a superstar talent. I just
hate to see it get derailed by bad decision making.

(44:59):
And this is the thing, Bucky, when we talk about
those influencers on athletes. Some don't need it, you know,
but others do. And who are the people they're gonna
stand up to them and say stop, stop it right
now or you could lose everything. Yeah. No, I think

(45:19):
he has to get close to the line, and I
think he has to run the risk of losing some
things before he realizes how close he is to jeopardizing
all of the great stuff that he's kind of brought
into his life. Where I might disagree with you a
little bit, is him doing this on social media is

(45:40):
a cry for attention. Now, the root will be why
do you need attention from others? Why do you have
to run to social media to broadcast your life and
what you're doing. What is it that you're getting bad
from the attention and the adulation of I guess your
peers or your fans or whatever. That's the bigger thing.

(46:02):
Why do you feel compelled to show off and act
in this manner in front of all of you, the
people that look up to you. There's something that's bringing
about that behavior. That's what needs to be worked on.
All right, Speaking of the NBA, I gotta I gotta
ask you right now. So you and I sit here
and so cal and we watched both the Lakers situation

(46:23):
and the Clippers situation. I gotta start with the Clippers.
With you, Russell Westbrook. They've lost every game he's played
in so far. With the Clippers. Here's another guy that
you and I have watched all the way back to
his high school days. And you know, he's had a
Hall of Fame career. He's done some amazing things in
the NBA. Um, what's wrong right now? Why is this

(46:44):
not working the way the Clippers had hoped when he
joined this team because he had flashes with the Lakers.
People forget with all the criticism Russell Westbrook. You know, well,
here's here's what Westbrook did. He showed up every game
and he was he was in the conversation station for
six Man of the Year. He was putting up some
pretty good numbers about the last twenty five or thirty

(47:05):
games with the Lakers. Clippers obviously thought he could help them,
and so far it's not working at all. What's going on?
You've only had four games. You still trying to put
it all together. Westbrook is trying to figure out where
he fits in with a new team. He may not
know the offense, he may not know exactly where everybody's

(47:28):
sweet spots are, so he can kind of work off
of what they do well. And the other thing is
he can't shoot. It's unfortunate, but he's not a three
point shooter. It's been proven time and time again. The
clip that played in one of the commercial breaks where
Doug Gottlieb outlined his percentages over the last three or

(47:49):
four stops. Russell Westbrook is not a great outside shooter,
and so he has to find a way to make
himself valuable without it always depending on his jump shot,
and only Russ and his coaches can figure it out.
But he has to be humble enough to listen to

(48:09):
the instruction from the coaches and really do what they're
asking them to do as part of the game plan.
So Clippers now have dropped five in a row, and
have dropped into the playing around of the playoffs, which
is still better than where the Lakers are to. I
want you to put your coach's hat on for a
moment here. I'm a Darvenham fan. I watch obviously a

(48:30):
lot of Lakers basketball and have been very curious and
his game plan and trying to navigate a tricky situation
with the Lakers when you have a lebron when you
have an AD. But they're in and out of the line.
Obviously the Westbrook situation they moved on from. You bring
in D'Angel Russell immediately he gets hurt. So they've had
a lot of extenuating circumstances that have led him to

(48:52):
where they are right now thirty thirty four. But last night,
after the game and they're losing at home to the
Minnesota Timberwolves, he certainly didn't offer any excuses, but he
started to put blame on the team when he talked
about how we showed no urgency on the court, and
then he talked about energy and all these different things

(49:14):
that are harped upon by the coaches to the team
all year long, game in game out, day in day out,
and they're still not doing it. Now, from my viewpoint,
I'm looking at that saying, well, isn't that your job
as the coach? I mean, if you're if you're if
you're giving all these different lists of things that you

(49:38):
have to get done as a player in order for
us to be successful. But it's not actually translating on
the court. How much is that on the coach because
that one thing he just he was really upset, why
did we not show any urgency last night? Minnesota showed urgency.
That's why they won this game on the road. So

(49:59):
where or does that line drawn from players responsibility to
the responsibility of the coach to get the players to
do what he wants them to do. Here's the thing,
particularly at the upper levels, it's a cooperation, not necessarily
a dictatorship. So Darvin Ham can stand in front of

(50:20):
the room and say, guys, we need to play harder
than the other team, we need to play together, we
need to put our emphasis on defense and rebounding and
those things. But Darvin Ham can't make the team play hard.
That has to be something that is in them. Now.
I appreciate him calling them out via media because what
he's attempting to do is hold them accountable for their effort.

(50:43):
But it has to be a level of accountability from
play of the player. And so someone whoever the leader
of that team is, has to hold the players accountable
for giving their effort because the effort has to be
there each and every night. And so that's a player thing.
The players have to want to play hard and pride

(51:04):
themselves and player harder than the opponent. I always remember
a situation in the Lakers locker room back in the
Kobe days. The year the first time they had Dwight
Howard and I was covering a game. It was a
regular season game, the Lakers blew a fourth quarter lead.
Dwight was available to the media first. Kobe was getting
some postgame treatment before he came out, and Dwight was,

(51:27):
you know, obviously frustrated, but I mean, you know, it
was pretty much the idea that, you know, we got
a lot of games, you know, we're gonna have to
move on from this. And then Kobe walked into the
room and everybody except me left. Dwight Howard to run
over to Kobe, and he was steaming mad. I mean
he was, I mean, I'd seen Kobe upset in the

(51:48):
locker room before, but it was one of those that
really he was teed off and he was, you know,
really worked up about blowing the game and not playing
to our level and blah blah blah blah blah. But
I stood there, Dwight Howard, and I looked at him,
and I said, what do you make of that? You know,
Kobe like going nuts? And do I look at me?

(52:08):
He said, Look, I want to win as much as
anybody else. But it's a long season. I mean, these
games happen, um, so when you're when you're when when
we're talking about that kind of level of intensity, that
sense of urgency that certain players always have. Not every
player is wired that way, so you know, and then

(52:32):
it gets back to that separation of the team concept
versus the individual. I just I'm just curious how coach
deals with something like that. If you want a team
that plays hard, you have to get players that play hard,
and guys that don't play hard, you gotta send them away.
It's no different. Everyone loves to pick on the mind

(52:52):
me heat and what they talk about we heat culture,
you know, like other teams talking about Yeah there's something different,
But when you ask the people who have played in
Miami about that. They talk about how different it is.
The expectation is set at the top is carried on
from pat Riley down to Eric Spoelstra to the players
on the team when you Dennis has them. If you

(53:16):
want a team to play it's hard. You're not only
got to demand it, but when those players don't play hard,
they have to come and sit down. And Darvin him
can't relent. If his ad, if his Lebron, if it's
any of the young players, when they're not doing what
he wants them to do, he has to set them down.
That's the only way you can get your team to

(53:36):
play hard. It's eighteen games to go, and he made
that point eighteen games ago. Remember Lebron said these will
be the most important twenty three games of my career.
And then he gets hurt and we don't know when
he's going to come back. Can't offer that excuse because
Darvin Ham said, we have the players right now. They
can win, especially in a wide open Western conference. All right,

(53:57):
we're gonna get back to little NFL talk and get
back to the court. So we talked about Bryce Young,
c J. Stroud, Will levi Us, He talked about Anthony
Richardson some of the other quarterbacks that are out there
that could project to NFL futures. But it really comes
down to a game of musical chairs. How many empty
seats are there and how many teams are looking to

(54:17):
fill those empty seats. The numbers don't add up, we'll explain.
This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harman and Bucky Brooks.
This is Fox Sports Saturday. We are alive from the
ti iraq dot Com studios Bucky and Indie for the
NFL Combine. By the way, later on Adam Kaplan, our
Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider, will join us live from Indianapolis.

(54:41):
Have you run into Adam at all over there, Bucky,
I have not, but there was a large contingent of
media people here, so I just did happen to see Adam.
By the way, he is a little stressed out about
the fact that inevitably they're going to move the Combine
out of Indianapolis, most likely to Los Angeles, which obviously

(55:03):
is where all of the NFL is going to move.
Got the studios all built there in the building where
the NFL network is, right next to Sofi Stadium. Would
you be sad to say goodbye to Indianapolis as the
home of the NFL Combine. I would be sad to
see it leave Indianapolis because everything in Indianapolis is perfect

(55:24):
for which the hospitals are nearby, everything is within walking distance.
I don't think you can replicate that in LA. I
think the more logical place if they move it would
be Dallas at the Star Jerry Jones's facility for the
Cowboys is right there in Frisco. They have hotels and

(55:45):
all that stuff nearby. I don't think it goes to LA.
I think if it leaves Indianapolis, I think it goes
to Dallas. Indianapolis is a dream location. I've covered five
final fours in Indianapolis. Obviously the super Bowl is there.
Really is a dream like. Everything is like you said,
it's all centrally located, it's walking distance to everything. A

(56:06):
great venue for that event. All right, Let's let's talk
a little bit about quarterbacks right now, because we talked
earlier about how many of these quarterbacks projected out of
this draft. A realistic in terms of possible franchise quarterbacks
down the road. But I'm looking at NFL teams right now, Bucky,

(56:28):
I'm looking at Houston, Indie, Carolina, the Jets, Raiders, Commanders.
Those are six teams right there that just need a quarterback,
like right now, they don't actually have a quarterback. And
then you have teams like the Saints, the Falcons, the
Titans that are looking desperately to upgrade their quarterback situation.

(56:54):
Then you got teams like the Patriots, the Bears, the
Dolphins who have young quarterbacks where they're trying to figure
out are they the guys? And then obviously you got
other teams like the Buccaneers, the Packers, the Rams situation.
I mean, that's half the teams in this league are
seriously looking at that quarterback position. And be honest, here

(57:16):
there's only a couple of teams, maybe three or four
teams right now that are really set at quarterback. But
I'm adding up the numbers. So even if we have
four or five quarterbacks out of this draft, maybe projected
to be first round or high round picks, and then
you have Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, and those are property
of other teams. You got Derek Carry, you got Jimmy Growl.

(57:39):
The numbers aren't adding up here. There's gonna be a
lot of teams who go into this offseason desperate to
get that quarterback and they're going to end up empty handed.
So let's start with Aaron Rodgers, because to me, it
all starts with Aaron Rodgers. Adam Schefter is reporting that
he believes the two most likely scenarios for Adam for

(58:02):
Aaron Rodgers is A He'll be with the Jets or
B he will retire. Now I'm thinking to myself, let
me ask you this. He is guaranteed, fully guaranteed, fifty
nine million dollars if he plays for the Packers in
twenty twenty three. Does retirement sound like an option when

(58:26):
you have fifty nine million, fully guaranteed if you put
on a pack of uniform in twenty twenty three, it
doesn't sound like. I know this. I wouldn't do it,
but I don't think any safe person would. I don't
think Aaron Rodgers will walk away from fifty nine million,
fully guaranteed. But he has said that he has made

(58:50):
generational wealth and he wants to do what his hearts,
content and all that other stuff. But it would be
hard for me to imagine him walking away from da
much money. Fifty nine million, All right, I do believe
though that unlike a couple of years ago when I
was sitting here with a lot of different people, Bucky
insisting Aaron's played his last game of the Packer and

(59:12):
I'm like, no, he hasn't. He's under contract of the Packers.
They're only going to get rid of him if they
feel like they have a better option, which they didn't,
so he went absolutely nowhere. I think they feel like
love is ready to go. They put enough time and
effort into him, and I think that they recognize that
a thirty nine year old Aaron Rodgers is on the
downside of a career, so I think they're ready to
move on. The question is where does he go. I'm

(59:36):
gonna give you two teams, the Jets and the Raiders. Okay,
and the Jets we've heard plenty of, but the Raiders
have Davante Adams, both teams looking for a quarterback. How
much are you willing to give up in a trade
for a thirty nine year old Aaron Rodgers? Well? What
how how much are you putting on the table in

(59:57):
order to acquire Aaron Rodgers right now? Well, you don't
know how long he's gonna play, all right, And so
because I don't know how long he's gonna play. I
can't give him a first round pick. I can give
a high second, but without assurances that he's going to
play for multiple years, I just can't imagine giving him
a top pick. And when you really delve into the

(01:00:19):
tape last year, I felt like he was beginning to
fall apart descent. He wasn't the same player. So I'm
thinking maybe multiple twos, maybe a player to throw in,
but I can't give up a first round pick. It's
amazing that no one's talking about the forty nine ers.

(01:00:41):
I mean, thinking about San Francisco right now. They are
a super Bowl caliber team, no questions asked. They almost
got there with down to their four string quarterback. Rock Party.
Looks like he's not going to be ready for the
start of next season. We don't know what you got
in Trey Lance, you know, basically played one year of
FCS football, and we're based in his huge in the
NFL on that you have a ready made team. I mean,

(01:01:04):
I'm still the mindset that if if you made one
phone call, if you're John Lynch, if you're Kyle Shanahan,
you called Tom Brady, where I'll be there tomorrow, all
on retiring a second Memories already put off his broadcasting
work at Fox until twenty twenty four. It's I'm ready
he made team. But that would also hold truth for

(01:01:24):
Aaron Rodgers. Why are we not talking about the forty
nine ers, which is the best team out there at
least short term looking for a quarterback? Yeah, I don't know,
while we're not talking about the nine is Maybe it
has to do with the relationship Kyle Shanahan and mad
La Floor. Maybe it also has to do with do

(01:01:47):
you want to take that take all of that on
the Aaron Rodgers experience? Do you want to bring that
into your locker room and have to navigate that for
a full season. It appears to be a live because
he doesn't appear to be happy at all. And so
if your cow Shanahan, you have to vet him out,

(01:02:09):
vet the situation out, and make sure it's gonna be
a great fit in the locker room. So if they
are thinking about it, I can understand him taking a
lot of time to deliberate over it. All right, So
why we wait on the Aaron Rodgers situation. A lot
of other quarterbacks we got to get to. But first.
Once again, we are brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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(01:02:33):
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more all protection in one place. Bundle and save at
Progressive dot com. Let's find out what is trending right
now as we welcome back mister Bright. Finley be Fann
is out there and watching a lot of basketball going
on KI ten. You believe it. We are eight days
away from selection Sunday, very exciting times, eight days away

(01:02:56):
from UCLA receiving a one seed in election Sunday. Well,
I'm hoping. I mean, these teams that are still on
the one line seem to be losing, and yet UCLA
seems stuck on the two line. I don't quite get it.
I don't quite get it either. Per Due recently had
lost three out of their last four, and people were
putting them above Ucla as far as the higher ranked team. Yeah,

(01:03:19):
like you, I don't quite get that. What I do
know is number three Kansas could be seeing themselves get
a loss today. They're down by ten on the road
to number nine Texas forty six to thirty six. Low
scoring game here halfway through the second half. Tons of
upsets though Number two Alabama going down sixty seven to
sixty went its Number twenty four Texas A and M.

(01:03:41):
Wade Taylor the fourth putting on a show with those
twenty eight points. Iowa's state and improves to five hundred
and Big twelve play after they shake off Number seven
Baylor seventy three to fifty eight, Seaton Hall, popping number
twenty Providence eighty two to fifty eight. Number six Markut
wins a six three as they eclipse Saint John's ninety

(01:04:02):
six to ninety four West Virginia. Un ranked West Virginia
boosting there NTUBAA tournament chances with their eighty nine to
eighty one home win against number eleven Kansas State. Number
twelve Tennessee did not score any points in the final
six minutes that led to them losing away from home
to Auburn seventy nine to sixty excuse me, seventy nine

(01:04:25):
to seventy, which is definitely a boost for coach Pearl
and his hopes of making the Big Dance. Number thirteen
Virginia with their seventy five to sixty homewin against Louisville
clinches at least a share of the regular season ACC
title and number three Kentucky with a win in Oklahoma

(01:04:46):
seventy four to sixty winners against number twenty two TCU.
In the NBA, we have seen. One of the things
that is trending is the public apology from Memphis Grisley
standout John Morant. This to explain him receiving recently today
learned that he is going to be suspended at least
two games by the Grizzlies and the NBA for his

(01:05:07):
behavior earlier today when he went on Instagram live from
a nightclub and apparently looked as if he had a
gun in his hand. Part of that statement from Morant
read quote, I'm going to take some time away to
get help and work on learning better methods of dealing
with stress and my overall well being closed quote. And
that is not the only news involving in the Grizzlies.

(01:05:30):
His teammate Brandon Clark done for the season with a
left achilles tear, and Dylan Brooks known to pick up
a technical or two sixteen technical fouls. Number sixteen was
last night, which then sets in motion the one game
suspension with no pay, and Stephen, Bucky, as I sent
it back to you, that means that if Brooks from

(01:05:50):
now on, if the next two technical fouls, that would
set in another game suspension with no pay. So with
every added two technical fouls, more games missed, more money loss.
But I'll tell you one guy who was earning his
money and the attention around NFL circles. That would be
Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson setting today at the NFL Combine

(01:06:13):
the QB record for largest vertical leap at forty point
five inches, which is just about two or three inches.
Shy of what, Steve Hartman, you were able to throw
down during your JV high school basketball days. You know what?
I was big in the intramural basketball during my five
years had used CLA. Was that a retort? Year? I

(01:06:37):
played all five years? I think I cheated. I really
did well. I was on the five year plan anyway.
At UCLA, by the way, we used to have games.
I don't know about you, Bucky, but we had games
when I played interramerals at UCLA that would tip off
at twelve thirty am because they had so many teams
that the schedule would come out and you would see

(01:06:58):
the schedule and your game would he's scheduled to tip
off at twelve thirty am. Imagine trying to stay sober
until twelve thirty am. I mean, that's that's a lot
of fun though it was. Uh yeah, I'm so be fan,
Thank you so much. By the way, one quick stat

(01:07:19):
when we talk about technical fouls going into this season,
the top five players in NBA history in terms of
career technical fouls. Let's see if you can guess some
of these names, Bucky, there's some pretty obvious names here.
My first guest would have been Rashid Wallace, right, But

(01:07:41):
it turnout Rashid Wallace is only third all time. Dennis
Rodman had two hundred and twelve, fifth all time. The glove.
Gary Payton two hundred and fifty technicals. That's number four.
She'd had three seventeen for number three, Sir Charles number

(01:08:01):
two three hundred and twenty nine technical fouls, but only
number two the record with three hundred and thirty two
technical fouls. The Mailien carmelone three hundred. Did you think
of carm Alone in thus terms three hundred and thirty
two technical fouls in his career? Wow? I definitely didn't

(01:08:26):
see that coming. No, I thought she'd for sure. Charles
sort of makes sense, you know, he was always mouthing
out and everything else. So that's your all time list
of most technical fouls in NBA history. All Right, we're
talking some quarterbacks because we've got the combine going on
right now, and this is this is everything you got
to know because you're like, all right, as we mentioned,

(01:08:48):
half the teams in this league, at least half are
looking to either get a quarterback or upgrade their quarterback position,
and they're just aren't that many quarterbacks available. Let's get
to Lamar Jackson situation right now with the Ravens two
options as far as franchise tagging Lamar Jackson if you
can't get a deal done. One of them obviously would

(01:09:11):
prevent him from going anywhere else. The other would make
him available for a couple of number one picks. Which
what do you think the Ravens are leaning? If indeed
they put the franchise tag on him. It's such a
tough one because I don't think they want to pay

(01:09:31):
Lamar Jackson. I can't figure out why they don't want
to pay him. I don't think they want to pay him.
So I would say that they want to make it
a non exclusive tag so another team can come in
and maybe give up two first round picks if they
signed Lamar Jackson to an offer sheet that they don't
want to match, right exactly. I mean that to me

(01:09:52):
would be the obvious thing if indeed you're ready to
move on. Okay, so let's say you've moved on to
Lamar Jackson. Now what if you're the Ravens. I mean,
I'm looking at the record with him at quarterback. It's stupid.
I mean stupid. I mean, I understand a lot of
teams understandably we're upset what the Browns did with Shaun

(01:10:14):
Watson giving him that full guaranteed contract. But the report
is Lamar Jackson, who represents himself, is not even looking
for that. This should have been done a long time ago. Yeah, like,
and this is very similar to what happened with Dak
Prescott and Jerry Jones dragged his feed and it ended
up costing him a lot more. They should have paid

(01:10:36):
Lamar Jackson years ago. Well, now, the price to agg
for Lamar Jackson is this. It has to be forty
five to fifty million dollars. At a minimum. If you're
talking about the New York Giants paying Daniel Jones forty
five million dollars, there's no way that Lamar Jackson comes

(01:10:57):
in anywhere close to that. It has to be significantly
more because Danda Jones hasn't accomplished anything near what Lamar
Jackson has, and so that's the going rate. Not even
DeShawn Watson has come close to the Lamar Jackson resume.
I mean, it's it's absurd, all right. So if you
weren't thinking of possible destinations for Lamar Jackson, teams that

(01:11:17):
would be willing to pay the price, not just with
the two number ones, but the long term deal to
tie up Lamar Jackson. We mentioned teams like the Texans,
the Colts, the Panthers, the Jets, the Raiders, the Commanders,
teams with the upgrade needs like Saints, Falcons, Titans. When
the list goes on and on, where would you see
a team that again, and you got to give the

(01:11:40):
Ravens credit. They completely flipped their offense from what they
were doing with Joe Flacco to Lamar Jackson, and we
saw what happened as Lamar, especially the MVP season. No
one had an answer for him. I mean, they were
just putting up ridiculous offensive numbers. But what team out
there not only needs a quarterback but would make the

(01:12:01):
necessary adjustments to their offense to get a maxed out
Lamar Jackson. Let's see. I would say the Carolina Panthers.
That would be easy. Frank Wright and kind of like
the staff to Dave as symbol. There's a lot of
variety in their their think tank, in those meeting rooms.

(01:12:23):
They could do it. I believe that Eric b Enemy
and the Washington commanders could do it. Now, that would
be a bit of a mess, But when I think
about the running game that they are trying to put
together with the receivers that they already have in place,
very problematic to deal with the Washington Commander's offense if

(01:12:43):
he goes there. I think those are the two best teams,
and I don't believe you have to overhaul and it
make it like what the Baltimore Ravens did. You can
do some of the stuff that Kyle Shanahan traditionally has done,
bootleg miss direction, play action stuff, because that's how he
played in Louisville. Remember, I think people forget he played

(01:13:03):
unto Bobby Petrino. Bobby Petrino in a pro style offense, yes,
he did, so he can run at pro style offense.
The people that talk about him only being able to
do what he's doing in Baltimore have nacy Lamar Jackson
from the time he's in college. He played the pro
style offense. He can play in a variety of skins, right,
and he put up the kind of passing numbers that

(01:13:24):
earned him a Heisman Trophy. And by the way, if
people forget he won the Heisman as a sophomore. His
junior his passing numbers were better than they were the
year he actually won the Heisman. So throwing the football
is not a challenge for Lamar Jackson. All right, there
is another quarterback we've got to get to on the
other side, and that's Derek Carr. And Robert Sala, the
coach of the Jets, made a bold statement about just

(01:13:48):
who Derek Carr is. We'll share that with you. This
is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harman and Bucky Brooks. This
is Fox Sports Saturday, and we are live from the
entire dot com studios. So are you there in any
of the entire week, Bucky or how does this work?
When did you get there? When you leave? What's your

(01:14:09):
schedule there? I have been here for a full week,
got here Tuesday morning to the Red Eye, and I
am leaving on Monday morning. Do you go to the
steak and shake down the street? Oh? No, that's not
necessarily on my agenda. I see it. They have new lights,
they have new lights, have places always open. Like I said,

(01:14:32):
I've covered Super Bowls, there, Final fours and everything else.
I always got to go there once because you know,
that's that's I don't know about you, Bucky, but you know,
as as someone like myself living in southern California my
whole life, La and San diego back and forth. When
I'm i travel, I always make a rule I only
eat local. I will never go to a place that
I could eat in La or San Diego. Do you

(01:14:55):
follow that or do you have a certain It depends.
I mean I try to sample the local fair. Yes,
but I mean, you know sometimes there's a high end steakhouse. Yeah,
everywhere calling your name. I understand that. Yeah. Um. Robert Sala,
the coach of the New York Jets, made some comments

(01:15:18):
related to Derek Carr. Here's the Jets coach. He's got
an lead mental makeup with regards to football IQ. He's
got a tremendous accuracy and arm strength and can put
the ball anywhere you want. And he's been asked to
do a lot in his career. I've said it before.
I think he's he's more in line with what Stafford's
career has been in terms of, uh, you know, if

(01:15:39):
you could just get him into a place that can
surround him with all the pieces to allow him to
just play quarterback ten to fifteen times a game, it'd
be pretty cool. But he's a solid young man. Okay,
So let's let's let's break this all down. So he
basically is saying that you saw Stafford a career loser
in Detroit. He goes to the Rams, who wins the
Super Bowl. That Derek Cark do the exact same thing,

(01:16:01):
having lost a lot more games than he's won as
a Raider, moved to another team and win a Super Bowl.
Do you see any comparison at all between Derek Carr
and Matthew Stafford. No, not at all. I don't see
any of that. I was I don't I don't see
I don't see any of that, because here's the thing
with Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford had a track record of

(01:16:25):
leading his team back. At one point, you look at
his fourth quarter comebacks, his game winning drives, it was
at the top of the charts. Only losing Detroit Lions franchise.
Derek Carter doesn't heavy any of that in his bag.
Derek Carr hasn't elevated the franchise, and I think what
was telling this year Derek Carr arguably had his best

(01:16:46):
supporting cast and played his worst. Uh No, So when
when Robert Salad talks about Matthew Stafford and he hints
around as a as a Hall of famer, I think
people need to understand what a Hall of Fame quarter
looks like. Like a Hall of Fame quarterback is special.
It's only a handful of didn't walk in the planet Earth.

(01:17:07):
And I don't think that Derek Carr is one of
those guys. All right, So then it comes down to
because he took a shot at the Raiders and not
surrounding him with talent. They had arguably the best receiving
a leaguer, certainly in the top three in Davante Adams,
and they also had the league's leading rusher and Jacobs
this season. So if Derek Carr were to leave the

(01:17:27):
Raiders and end up as a Jet, has he upgraded
the skill position players around him? No, he hasn't. There's
no one on the team. And I like the Jets
young receivers. Garret Wilson is terrific. I like Elijah Moore,
but none of those guys are Dante Adams. They're not.
Damn they don't have a Darren Waller. They don't have

(01:17:50):
any of those guys. And then the other thing I
would say, did he upgrade the play caller? I don't
know if he has a better play caller Nathaniel Hackett.
Looking at last year's production in Denver, I would say
it's a down grade. So we'll see. Here's the thing
about Derek Card. Derek cars have an opportunity to prove
his worth because he's played for a lot of different

(01:18:12):
coaches for the Raiders, and none of them had necessarily
been able to coax out of that out of him,
that that gold jacket performance. So maybe the Jets have
the match recipe. Speaking of the Raiders, I don't know
if you saw this, but the NFL players Association how
to report card for the Raiders. That made it clear

(01:18:33):
that the players we're not happy with Josh McDaniels, that
he wouldn't listen to the players, he kept him in
the facility too long. He seemed to turn off a
lot of guys. Now, his record as a head coach
is dismal, so far in his brief from with the
Broncos and so far with the Raiders, taking over a

(01:18:54):
ten win team and turning him into a loser. But
when you hear reports like that, is that fixable? Does
Josh McDaniels do anything to change who he is? I
can't imagine. But if you've already got problems one year
into this experiment with McDaniels, is that something that can
be changed. It can be changed if they start winning

(01:19:18):
the one thing that players are willing to do. If
you're asking us to sacrifice a ton of time, give
a lot of effort, yeah we're cool with that if
it leads to wins. But if you're doing all of
this stuff and it's not producing wins, then it's hard,
particularly if there isn't the feeling that the players they
don't feel like the coaches really really care about them,

(01:19:40):
and so Josh McDaniels has to kind of tweak his
recipe just to make sure that the players feel valued
and love while also being demanding of them in terms
of getting their performance that he wants. If he wants
to be Bill Belichick, that's great. But the reason Bill
Belichick is who he is because he's one simple He

(01:20:01):
can walk into a room and he brings that resume,
and so he can get away with being who he
is based on that level of success. I don't think
McDaniels has figured this out yet. All Right, we got
a lot more coming up. Adam Capelan's going to be
joined us as well from Indianapolis. Plenty more to come
as we wrap up another week of the NFL Combine.

(01:20:22):
This is Fox Sports Saturday. Okay, thank you, Busy Saturday
as always here on Fox Sports Radio or broadcasting live
from the tirerac dot Com studios tirerac dot com. We're
gonna help get you there and I'm at selection, fast
free shipping, free road hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers,

(01:20:43):
tirerac dot com the way tire buying should be. I
mentioned earlier Bucky that we are eight days away from
selection Sunday. The NCAA Basketball Tournament really is an anomaly
when you think about it, because you have the whole
country filling out these brackets, and ninety nine point nine

(01:21:05):
nine nine percent of the people filling out a bracket
cannot name a single player in the tournament. They may
know the schools, they might know the coaches, but I
guarantee you ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of
the people that will fill out a bracket cannot name
a single player in the tournament. And it doesn't matter anymore.

(01:21:30):
We I mean, you look at like the MP's most
outstanding players of these final fours over the last decade,
pretty much since Anthony Davis and his one and done
here at Kentucky. It's like literally a who's who? Who's that?
Who are these people? Doesn't matter? That's how big the
nca Basketball Tournament is. It. It's it's it's it's really
unlike I mean, because you say super Bowl and everything else, Yeah,

(01:21:52):
but superway of start. We know the names, right, not
with the nca Basketball Tournament. Because I was wondering all
these one and duns and everything else would have an
adverse effect on college basketball, and to some degree, maybe
not as far as that tournaments concern. I mean that
tournament is absolutely unbreakable. It's crazy, it's unbreakable. And to me,

(01:22:15):
what it shows you that we need more tournaments. We
need more tournaments. There's a fascination with who can survive
in the single elimination tournament, right, There's something that's fun
about it. The pressure that comes along with playing and
a single elimination thing is different. It brings about upsets.

(01:22:37):
Upsets bring about excitement, and so that's what it is.
And I don't even know how many times the team
that is recognized as the national champion is the best team,
but they have survived a gauntlet, and so I just
think it's fun, like we should do it, just like
soccer does, like sometimes have these I mean, why not
have a tournament in the middle of the season. I mean,

(01:22:59):
just do some things to juice it up, because that
stuff is fun. It's fun to watch the tournament. There
is nothing like it. And so if you want to
ask some excitement to whatever it is, football, basketball, anything
at a tournament, well, and I want to now that
we now know that the playoff, which has never really
been a playoff, so made for TV event for ESPN.

(01:23:22):
I don't blame him. They're pointing all the money into it,
but it's not a playoff when you don't have representation
for all the power conferences. That will change as we
now will expand the playoff from four to twelve schools, name, image,
and likeness. Bucky has certainly changed the whole dynamic. By
the way. I don't know if you heard the kind
of deal that Caleb Williams got to go from Oklahoma

(01:23:45):
to USC, but I've heard numbers that would blow your
mind that it wasn't just following his coach. Let's put
it that way, because you might see yourself. Caleb Williams.
His his position in the draft for twenty twenty four
is already set. He will be the number one pick

(01:24:06):
in the twenty twenty four draft. Am I right about that?
Between him or Drake May? Okay, so Drake May maybe,
but I mean Caleb Williams is there. He really doesn't
have to play this year at USC. He could literally
sit out a season and it would not affect his
draft status. But he will play this year because he

(01:24:27):
is going to be compensated in a well. That number
he signed with USC is going to go up only
more so. I mean we're at the point now because
we've heard numbers four million, five million, we're talking maybe
ten million plus for some of these top stars to
continue their college careers. How much does that change the

(01:24:49):
dynamic of players maybe deciding to stay that extra year
in college and not just football, but basketball as well.
I think we've already seen some of that. But I mean,
how is this going to evolve? Because the numbers in
terms of compensation are only going to go up? Absolutely,

(01:25:09):
Because now what you do is you give your college
players options. They have options too, And I'm waiting for
the first quarterback that takes advantage of this, the first
quarterback that looks at the draft order. Yeah it says
I'm good. Yeah, I don't need to beat the number
one over Absolutely. I'll wait. I'll make enough money off

(01:25:30):
the field that I'll jump back in next year and
maybe I have a team and an organization that I
feel better about going to How about this, I'll interrupt
for a second, All right, talking about these expanded playoffs, Buck,
So you you sit there and let's say you're The
way it would work is the top four seeds would
get to buy five place twelve, all the way through
that sets up the quarterfinals. But if you're the fifth seed,

(01:25:53):
potentially you're looking at four games and the playoffs. And
let's say your quarterback is rejected to be a top
five pick in the draft. Is he really gonna play
four playoff games? Now? He might if there's a financial
incentive for him to play all those games. You know

(01:26:14):
that's going to be written into these name, image and
likeness deals to get them to stay on the field
until they get to the finish line. Yeah, some of that,
But I also think we haven't seen anybody that has
played in the postseason, like a playoff game that's elected
to bow out. Most of the guys will play in

(01:26:36):
a college football playoff game that has implications the games
they won't play in. I'm not playing in a weed
Either Bowl. I'm not playing in a Maynnaid's game. I'm
playing a game that has significance. We haven't seen guys
that have turned down other things like that. But we're
doubling the games here. Potentially, that's a lot of games.

(01:26:58):
I mean, Buck, I mean think about now you potentially,
if you're also let's say you let's say you're with Alabama, Georgia, right,
and you lose the SEC title game and you are
the five seat and you have a top five quarterback pick,
you are looking at thirteen games plus that's a seventeen

(01:27:20):
that's a full NFL season. That's a lot of games,
did you right? A lot? As you could get hurt.
I mean, they take out an insurance policies and everything else.
But I just like I said, I can't wait to
what I will call for the first time ever in
Division one football, legitimate playoff. Now we could say, all right,

(01:27:40):
now you're legit. You got all the Power five conference
champions in there, you got at least one representative from
the group of five, and then you got plenty of
at large bids to make sure that any any school
that really should be there is there. I mean, if
you're not in the top twelve, then come on, you know,
you know I'm actually with you on that, Hartman. What

(01:28:02):
I don't understand is why they never could have done
it like the Lord Levels. Yeah, I've always thought it
should be like the Lord Levels. Sure, there's sixteen teams
that play in the Lord Level playoffs. There's interest in that.
I know, people talk about, Yeah, the games won't be
waited but you never know when you line it up.
You never know. Maybe Georgia goes down to the eighth

(01:28:23):
seed in a quarterfinal round, who knows. But I just
think you should play these games, like play more games.
Cut off the stuff earlier, because if you don't want
the season to go too long, I think what you
have to do is then to kind of rethink conference
championship games and stuff like that, like when they play,
because you don't want these guys playing deep into January, right,

(01:28:44):
I would eliminate the conference championship games. Here's here's the
thing that when you mentioned earlier, Bucky, about the idea
that at the end of the tournament, any tournament, it
doesn't matter any playoffs. Is it the best team that
ultimately wins? Not necessarily? I mean, does anyone believes the
Giants were a better team than the Patriots. The Patriots

(01:29:05):
were undefeated, they were the better team that day. They
won that game. But if they played ten times, how
many of the games do the Giants actually win. Here's
an interesting stat about the nca basketball tournament. Since Michael
Jordan hit the game winner against Georgetown in nineteen eighty
two as a freshman, Since then, so We're talking from
eighty three to twenty twenty two, so that's almost forty

(01:29:27):
tournaments because he had one eliminated. Obviously, you how many
times the team that was ranked number one in the
country final AP poll going into the tournament has gone
on to win the championship. I'll give you the number
five five five times, and that includes teams like the
eighty three Houston team. Teams are ranked number one, Gonzaga

(01:29:48):
just a couple of years ago, remember number one. They
won that incredible game against UCLA on the half court
shot and then got blown out by Baylor in the
championship game. So only five to the last thirty nine
times has the team ranked number one go on to
win a championship. Now, people in college football say, well,
if you had a playoff back in the day, we

(01:30:09):
may not have had that epic battle between USC and
Texas that we got at the Rose Bowl in that
BC's championship game, because it's conceivable one of those teams
could have been upset. Does that less than the impact
in any way for you? Or only increase the impact
if you figure out a way to get to the
finish line. I just think that unique when you put

(01:30:32):
the tournament together. The playoff brackets like that where you
have to play four or five games. To me, it's
the survival of the fittest. I believe that you've earned
the right to be the champion. I don't like what
we have now, which is two games and you're the hip.
Because let's think about this, how many of us really

(01:30:53):
believe that TCU was going to be Michigan. Not many,
you know, and so like that made it exciting. So
let's continue to do that by expanding the field. And
let's just see if team's get earned it right? Can
they be at their best four weeks in a row.
Anthony Richardson ran four forty three. Oh, he put them

(01:31:14):
on the show now four four to three at two
hundred and forty four pound quarterback. Wow. All right. On
the other side, we're going to bring in another name
from Indianapolis. Not just Bucky there, but yes, Adam Kaplan's
gonna be joining us. This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve
Hartman and Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday. We

(01:31:35):
are live from the tirerac dot Com studios. So Bucky
in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine, and I say the
more the Merrier. Joining us right now is our Fox
Sports Radio NFL insider from Indianapolis, Adam Kaplan, Adam, how

(01:31:55):
are you today, guys? Good to be with You've certainly
been a fun day here because this is the big
workout there with the quarterbacks and skilled position players. All right,
I'm gonna jump in first, Bucky, because I know you
got plenty of collusions for Adam. Everybody is buzzying about
a certain quarterback out of the University of Florida right
now who's just dazzling with all his measurables. That's Anthony

(01:32:17):
Richardson at two hundred and forty four pounds runs a
four four three forty on top of vertical leap and
standing broad job and everything else. What does this mean
for a quarterback who barely completed fifty three percent of
his passes this past season here? Adam? Yeah, it only
started one season, Yeah, at University of Florida, And that's
certainly a real issue for teams. But at least it

(01:32:38):
gets some spotlight where you have something to look at.
Because you mentioned the inaccuracy, that's certainly a factor. It's
true when could have happened, but the reasons for that
you have to go through every path and see how
many drops there were with the ball from we're supposed
to be was a guy they are. That's part of
it when you value a quarterback. But the thing that's
interesting is no one knew how much you would weigh.

(01:33:00):
Talking to the quarterback coaches this week, they thought in
the two thirties. I mean, he weighs nearly two hundred
forty five pounds and over sixty four. You want size
and size matters a quarterback, and that's a great thing,
and you get to see the guy through alive that
we're allowed in today. It's a pretty cool effect. The
media was allowed for the first time ever to go
to all the workouts, no restrictions. You could do whatever
you want other than you can't film it, but you
could tweet and say whatever you want about it. And

(01:33:23):
kudos to the NFL A lesson this week. I thought
that that was a nice surprise. I didn't know that
was coming, so that was awesome. And getting to see
Richardson up close and it's pretty interesting. And then he
runs in the four four's identities a quarterback, it doesn't
mean a whole lot, but you know this though, if
in this league where a lot of guys run. That
gives you a little bit of extra value. You know,
Adam in thinking about this, because you're tight with Philadelphia,

(01:33:48):
how much will Jalen hurts improvement over a three year
period maybe lead somebody to think about taking Anthony Richardson
as a developmental type prospect. Oh, exactly what it is, Bucky.
But here's the thing. Let's not forget two things that
Jalen Hurts. He didn't go in the first round and
want the second round. B And I know people don't
want to hear this, but it's one hundred percent truth

(01:34:09):
because I know I fought with Eagles over this. He
was drafted as the backup for Carson Wentz. There was
never any thought that he'd become the full time starter.
They actually extended once his contract ten months before they
drafted the Hurts. It's just a very strange, unique situation
which we had not seen before. But I get your point, yes, absolutely.
In fact, this is what the bead of coming to

(01:34:29):
combine is. I get to see coaches in person, and
one very successful offense quarterinator told me, and this team
does not need a quarterback. So he was able to
speak more freely. He said, look, you have to have
a veteran quarterback who's got to come in and play
right away. You can't expect him and play. And this
is a major This is the relationship, Bucky. As you know,
the relationship between coaches in front office is major in

(01:34:50):
this one because if you miss on Richards and he's
going to go in the first round, you guys are
probably get fired. That's just the way it is. You
have to get it right. And this is this coach said, look,
you have to be on the same page with this decision. Everyone,
No one could. You can't be forced to draft the
player you see. You see the athleticism, but you know
that he's a project. And going back to the sixties,
one more nugget for you, going back to the sixties,

(01:35:13):
quarterbacks only start one game one season at Division one football.
There's a high percentage of failure here. So you have
to be you got to you gotta do your due
diligence and got to collect the information. Rice Young at
five foot ten, is he's still the number one quarterback
prospect in this draft? Yeah? He is, Steve, and I
don't think that's really changed. I mean, look, he at
least he was over two hundred pounds. He's a little
shorter than we expected. He's under five eleven, but that's okay.

(01:35:36):
I know that there's not a bit much of the
history of quarterbacks being draft in the first round lower
than six feet, but you're just going to have to
get over whoever drafts him. That's I still believe he'll
be a tough five pick whoever drafts him. Plus is
in historic year, Steve, As you and I know for quarterbacks,
you need a quarterback. Fourteen to need a quarterback. So

(01:35:56):
he just you have to get over the quarter the
body type, and everyone I've talked to this week they
were expecting his frame to be small, and it's small.
It's not going to change. It's not going to change
in matter of weeks, and you just have to have
a plan to try to get him stronger. But the
the talent level, it's unmistakable. Who was the biggest surprise
when you talked to coaches, who were they surprised about

(01:36:19):
when it came to the quarterback? Was this Other than Richardson?
I would say, how Yeah, Well, here's the thing that
will LEVI us everybody if you studied him, you know,
they had a great arm that that was. But he's
another guy. He's bigger in person that you expected. There

(01:36:40):
was something comments and okay, here's one for you. I
know Max Duggan was sort of a scrambler and a
little bit of a runner and college level to run
as fast as he did. And I know, as Bucky
as you know that the turf and looks so stadium
is fast. But I mean, this is crazy how fast
these quarterbacks are running. That's the thing that I took
out of it. And I don't want to knock any

(01:37:00):
not just quarterbacks at any position. But as you know,
the times of fashion on this turf, and I have
some teams adjust for that. Also will have one of
the pro days too. So here's the things. Some of
these guys a run this week, and they ran really well.
They probably will not run at their pro day. So
now that the Bears have thrown it out there that
the number one overall pick is there for the tay
game for the right price, how many teams are lining

(01:37:22):
up for number one? Is it all targeting the same
quarterback in terms of Bryce Young? How do you think
it's all going to play out with that number one
overall pick now, Adam, Yeah, it's going to be a
quarter It's going to be a quarterback if the if
the Bears trade. And by the way, one of the
teams in the top ten told me when they talk
to the Bears this week, pretty clear that they are

(01:37:43):
they are sold on justin fields for at least the
near future, that they're not shopping them, that they're they're
not looking to bring anyone in and compete with them.
That was sort of like the take that they got
because it came up. So Yeah, I think when you
look at this situation, when the Bears they know in
the they're in I talked about this last week on
on FSR. They're they're in a major rebuild and they

(01:38:05):
know they need picks. They they're roster's dad, let's call
it like it is. They're reason why. As as Terry
Fatino said the Falcons GM, I thought, this is a
great line. When you have a ton of cash space,
there's probably a reason for it because you're probably not
very good because he doesn't want to be in that space,
and when you're picking in the top five, you're probably
most likely not very good. Yeah, that's I mean, that's

(01:38:28):
that's true. That's true, Adam. The quarterbacks are going to
dominate fiegent Free in a little bit. But I gotta
figure out what's going on with Baltimore and Lamar jacks
This saga says, I mean, I know, I get this
talent going into the press conferences this week and in
the body line with folks, the beauty of being here.
Sometimes you can't really tell through video, but watching John Horrible,

(01:38:52):
he's just uncomfortable. He's sick and tired of talking about it.
It's obvious. Look, I'm just telling you, I'm talked about
this now for like four or five months. They're not
trading him. They no matter what the internet rumors are,
They've never considered it. They won't discuss it. Lamar Jackson,
as John Harball has clearly said more than once, they
built their whole offense around Lamar and the running game,

(01:39:12):
and they're just gonna have to live with. He does
have an agent, The mom's heavily involved, the nflpa's assisting.
It's just they're not there yet. The Panther that excuse me.
The Ravens really don't want to use their franchise tag,
but they know they're going to have to borring anything unforeseen,
and that's that's where they are. But you know the
other thing is and you said, I'm sure you're probably
whatever the Rashad Bateman, who was the first round pick

(01:39:33):
a couple of years ago at receiver for them. He
was responding to Eric da Costa's comments, and I don't
think he really liked it about the receiver corps. The
key here is once Lamars is healthy and ready to go,
which he will be a pretty significant spraying knee, they've
got to help him. They do what the Eagles did
with the Jalen Hurts. I understand that the Ravens don't
want to throw the ball out, but at least get

(01:39:54):
better talent at the wide receiver position. That that's something
that Dakasta has got to do. Fucky. And now we're
talking about what kind of PA package you have put
together to get Aaron Rodgers away from the Green Bay Packers.
Buck he's saying, I wouldn't give up at number one,
maybe multiple twos, And I'm thinking to myself this idea.
Adam Schefter reporting that he's either retiring or he's going

(01:40:15):
to play elsewhere, most likely the Jets, and I'm thinking
he's going to walk away from fifty nine million fully
guaranteed if he stays in Green Bay in twenty twenty three.
So you put everything out on the table about the
future of Aaron Rodgers right now, Adam, And this is
a constantly evolving story. Where do you stand right now

(01:40:37):
on your best guests on how this is going to
play out for Aaron Rodgers? And if a team does
make a deal, what will they have to give up
in order to get him? All right, So let's pick
the latter first for the package to get a first
round pick of where they need leverage. They're going to
need more in the Jets. I'll just go back to
my reporting from the Super Bowl. So before anyone knew

(01:40:58):
that the Jets would be on der, Card said that
look for Derek Carr to draw into some of the Jets.
But there's a mutual interest there. That'll be one A.
They want Aaron Rodgers badly and the OC Nate Hackett
and Rodgers are very close. The Jets really want this
to happen. They're the number one team now, trust me
on this one. The Packers will get calls if Rogers

(01:41:20):
decides he wants to play. There's all the indications so
far that is that he wants to play. I'm not him.
I don't know him. I mean, if he decides not
to play, as you just talked about walking away from
I have a hard time believing he'll walk away from
the money. Now let's eliminate the Raiders here. He made
it very clear he's not looking to play with a
team that's in a rebuild. The Raiders to me are
a non starter. Knowing what I know about him. They

(01:41:41):
wants to have a chance in a championship again, and
the Jets talking to them, they really believe that with
a highly qualified quarterback, and even with Card by the way,
they know that there are twelve or thirteen win team
with a great quarterback, maybe not a cell Card maybe
Ken of eleven wins, who knows, But fact matter is
there a playoff team with him. That's kind of where
it's at. So that explain into it. From a leverage standpoint.

(01:42:01):
You get a first round pick. They need other teams involved.
Last thing with Derek Carr, where do you think he
is up? If I would say this one, it will
be the Jets. If Rogers does not go to the Jets,
it's again cars one A now what happens if Riders

(01:42:25):
goes to the Jets. I think the Panthers would be involved.
He visited here Wednesday with them. See one thing that
gives the Saints. The Saints of one advantage. Talk to
someone close to Car. He really after what happened with
the Raiders, he's looking for trust people out of his back.
And he does know Dennis Allen because Allen was his
head coach for one season, his rookie season in twenty fourteen.

(01:42:47):
That does mean something. That's why he visited there. The
Panthers in some areas they're better than the Saints. It's
it's pretty close between two that the tiebreaker obviously would
be with Dennis Allen. But I am told he really
hit it off well with the Panthers front off, particularly
the coach, said Frank Reich, who is an offensive head coach,
And that definitely means something to Derek Carr. All right,

(01:43:10):
one more thing before we let you go here, Adam
so Bucky, I was mentioning to him that you said
the last time we talked about the future of the
combine that it could ultimately end up in Los Angeles.
He would like to see it in Dallas. Oh, I
still think it's going to be in LA because of

(01:43:30):
the home of NFL network. I just in twenty twenty five,
by the word, they're locked into the combine here in India.
Next year Dallas. I wouldn't roll it up because of
because of their facility, which is I don't know if
you guys have been there, it's just incredible. Yes, it
really could by the way that Vikings. I mean, obviously
the weather is not good this time of year, but
they are facilities incredible as well to the best facilities

(01:43:52):
in the National Football League. But I still think it's
going to be in LA. I'd love to be wrong
about that, but Bucky knows this. It's it's so great here.
Indianapolis is such a great job. You know nothing. Guys
is and scouts love this. You do not need a
car at all, You just walk everything. It's Indianapolis. I've
covered five Final Fours there, I've covered super Bowls there.
It is the easiest city for these type of events

(01:44:14):
to get around by far, not even close. And remember
one more nugget for you. Remember this name Lucas Vaness,
a defensive vent out of Iowa who's I don't know
a lot of people said, seck around, that ain't gonna happen.
He's going to go no worse than the middle of
the first round. Could even go Hire. He had a
great work out here, but he just didn't start a
lot of games at Iowa. But he's my top sleeper.

(01:44:34):
He is. He's a guy that a lot of people
are going to talk about in the opera half of
the first round as we get closer to the draft.
Great stuff, Adam. We'll have a full report from you
next week. Always appreciate it and enjoy the rest of
your time in India. Maybe, maybe, just maybe you'll run
into Bucky at some point, at some point, that sounds good. Guys.
That's Adam Kaplan our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider. Let's

(01:44:55):
find out what is trending right now? Is we welcome
back the one and only mister Bryant Fenlay be fan,
Steve and Bucky. You're soon to see Stephen Curry back
on your television screen. His impending return is slated for tomorrow,
when the Warriors will be visiting the Lakers at Crypto
dot Com Arena. Of course, Curry has been out the

(01:45:17):
last eleven games due to a lower left leg injury.
The Phoenix Suns are adding on to their front office
and they have selected now former Pistons executive Josh Bartlestein
to be Phoenix's new CEO Generational talent. In Memphis Grizzlies,
Job Moran has issued apology today made that public stemming

(01:45:39):
from his conduct that got him a two game suspension
from his team today where he went on Instagram live
at a nightclub this morning and posted video of him
with a gun in his hand. Paraphrasing his apology, he
said that he's going to take some time away to
help and work on things that he needs to work on,

(01:46:00):
like his stress and his overall well being. He also
has shut down his Instagram and Twitter accounts. By the way,
his teammate Brandon Clark done for the season with the
left Achilles Tare and Dylan Brooks, also on the grizz
is going to be suspended one game with no pay
for getting that sixteenth technical foul. This season, in college basketball,

(01:46:23):
chaos has ensued. Tons of underdogs are winning and there
is soon to be a big shakeup in the rankings.
After what happened in Austin. The Texas log words athoritatively
take down the third ranked team for the fifty National
champions Final score this afternoon from Booty Center in Austin,

(01:46:43):
But Texas log worn seventy five, but Kansas Jayhawks fifty
and that would be Texas Radio Network. Also number twelve
Tennessee goos down seventy nine to seventy against Auburn, who
shut out the Valls the last six minutes of that
second half. West Virginia on a range to winners against
number eleven Kansas State eighty nine to eighty one. You

(01:47:04):
also saw number seven Baylor go down an embarrassing fashion
against Iowa State seventy three to fifty eight in a Waco.
And lastly, Bucky and Steve number two Alabama makes a
mess of things as they lose in College Station to
number twenty four Texas A and M sixty seven to
sixty one in Brandon Miller, who allegedly is tied to

(01:47:24):
the murder weapon that was a crime involved in one
of his now ex teammates. Miller playing in this game
had nineteen points, he fouled out with a few minutes
to go and Brick to ten. That is ten three pointers,
two for twelve from long range. With that let's get
back to Bucky Brooks and Steve Hartman. All right, be fan,
thank you very very much. All right, Buckey, I want

(01:47:47):
to get to a few other names. We've talked a
lot about quarterbacks today. One of the big stories circling
around the draft right now is the status of Jalen
Carter out of Georgia after being involved in that deadly
crash situation. By the way, I'm looking at one mock
draft that now suddenly has the Colts moving up to

(01:48:08):
number one overall to take Anthony Richardson, and they have
Jaalen Carter plummeting all the way down to number seventeen.
So what's the buzz on the Jaalen Carter situation right now? Yeah,
I think it's a lot of TBD when it comes
to Jalen Carter. Obviously, the report came out early in
the week about him in a worst friant in a

(01:48:31):
rest warrant out for him. He goes to Athens, he
takes that, then he comes back. Man, I think teams
will continue to do more digging trying to find out
more about the details of that night, but also more
things about his character. You know, if the street racing
and some other stuff has shown up multiple times, you
have to have a little concerned about the maturity of

(01:48:53):
the prospect. And then when you take that and you
compare it with some of the other players that would
be available, there'd be some teams just opt for the
player who has a cleaner track record. And so we'll
see this as we get closer. We'll see some movement
involving Jalen Carter. But yeah, he could he could take
a little bit of a dip into the draft. Yeah,

(01:49:13):
I mean, he could be a free fault. If it
really becomes a ultra serious situation, it would seem the
Bears are set on Will Anderson junior like that that's
their guy, and seeing a lot of the projected drafts,
they feel like they could move down to probably four
wherein he is, and still safely get Will Anderson Junior,

(01:49:35):
which would be their guy. But let me ask you
this again about the Bears. He talked a little bit
about it earlier in the Justin Fields situation, and I
think you and I are both still wait and see
Justin Fields fans, But if we have one quarterback that
really comes out of this entire valuation process, not just

(01:49:55):
obviously the combine, but individual workouts and everything else that
just is that guy, Like he's like, Wow, okay, this guy.
Is it any chance the Bears could move Justin fields
and go quarterback with that number one overall pick. I
don't think so, because I think they have a guy

(01:50:17):
in Justin fields and I don't know if any of
these quarterbacks that we're talking about are better prospects than
Justin Fields. And so if you're not convinced that the
guy that you would take a quarterback is significantly better
than what you have, yeah, you don't make the move. Yeah.
I'm looking right now of teams that could try to
move up. We obviously mentioned Indianapolis. You know what's really

(01:50:41):
interesting here is the fact that you've got the Lions
and you have the Seahawks, and the Seahawks are at five.
They got the pick in the Russell Wilson trade and
the Lions are at six, and they got that deal
in the Matthew Stafford trade. And they had these two quarterbacks,
Gina Smith and Jerry Goff that had tremendous seasons. But

(01:51:05):
are they said that that wasn't an aberration that they
can build at least the immediate future around those quarterbacks.
How do you think those two teams, Seattle and Detroit
will handle the fifth and sixth pick overall in this
year's draft. I think they'd be selective. They believe in
the veterans that they have. They want to run teams

(01:51:27):
that are not quarterback centric. And so we hear this
and it sounds cliche. Best player available, you can't go wrong.
And I think for both those teams, two of the
top defensive players that are on the board will come
off the board at five and six and ed rusher
for the Seahawks and maybe an interior player, a defensive

(01:51:48):
tackle for the Lions. The Lions need defense. I mean,
offense was not their problem. I mean that offense was
clicking pretty much all season long. How about Gina Are
are you so that Gino wasn't a one year wonder
or I mean, it's not like he's got a lot
of wear and tear on the body, because frankly hasn't
played all that much at least live action games over

(01:52:10):
the course of his career. His accuracy was off the
charts this year. I mean what I mean, I honestly
went into the season I picked Seattle to be the
worst team in the league. I mean, I thought that
they were just going to tank it and put themselves
in a position to get a top quarterback in this draft.
As it turns out, there's still in a prime position

(01:52:32):
with the fifth overall pick. But should we expect Gino
Smith to build on what we saw this year or
was that a one year wonder season for him? He
might connect to the pack a little bit. The bigger
thing is the cooperation. Gino Smith wanted to play the
way that Pete Carroll wants to play me and he

(01:52:52):
didn't want to be run the ball. If they want
to play action, Gino take care of the ball, don't
turn it over. And he was compliant, unlike maybe his predecessor.
And so I think Geno Smith is going to be fine.
But at some point the Seattle Seahawks have to identify
the next guy, whether it's dis draft or the next draft.
They need to take a young quarterback that they can

(01:53:13):
groom to be the QB one down the line. Every
time I think about Geno Smith, I can't get out
of my mind. Being down in New Orleans for the
twenty thirteen Super Bowl, and of course everyone's talking about
the draft, and I got set up on a one
on one interview taped interview with Gino Smith. So I
sit down with him and my first question was pretty straightforward,

(01:53:35):
what are you here? What are you hearing about the
upcoming draft? And he just gives me this blank look.
I said, do you do you know what's happening? And
he goes, how many teams have you talked to you?
He looks at me, he says, are you clueless? I
met the number one picking this draft? Like, I mean

(01:53:56):
literally looking at me, like, are you the last person
to know that I'm going to be the first overall
pick in the draft? I mean I thought at for
a second, I thought he was joking, and I realized
he really thinks he's going to be the first overall
pick in this draft. Remember the first quarterback pick that
here was EJ. Manuel and Gino ended up in the

(01:54:19):
second round of the Jets. I like him, I mean
it was legit this season. I would love to see
him build on It would be one of those great stories.
You know. It's almost like the resurrection of Jim Plunkett
way back in the day, who was pretty much given
up for dead, and he shows up with the Raiders
next to the you know, he's winning a couple of
Super Bowls. All Right, we're gonna give some of the

(01:54:40):
final thoughts on what we'd take away from this NFL combine.
This is Fox Sports Saturday, sixty seven sixty one. The
Yagges turned the tide. Hey defeats number two out of
five off sixty seven sixty one, undefeated in the SEC
at home. That's Andrew Monica there from lairfield. The big

(01:55:04):
upset is a m takes care of number two rank Alabama.
That's our Progressive play of the day, brought to buy
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV,
and more all your protection to one place. Bundle and
save at Progressive dot Com. Steve Harbin and Bucky Brooks
with you. This is Fox Sports Saturday Live from our

(01:55:27):
Tirerack dot Com studios. Want to thank the crew today.
Of course, Chris jumps on in. He's a diehard Lions guy.
Did you know that book A Big Lion did? Yeah,
that's that's Chris. That's not easy when you're a lifetime
Lions guy. I mean, we make it do. There's always
something interesting. My brother in law of the last thirty

(01:55:48):
years is also a lifelong single minded Detroit Lions fans,
So more powered to you. Iowa Stam was here a
little bit earlier, of course, Brian Finley handling all the
updates as he does. And now Bo has settled in
on our Saturday shift here as our producer, Bo, how

(01:56:08):
do you feel being part of this show? Now? Fantastic, wonderful, interesting,
Well said exactly as I wrote it, So he's all in.
By the way. By the way, Bucky, you got number
two Alabama going down Number three Kansas got smashed by
Texas seventy five to fifty nine. So I'm thinking about
UCLA right now, my Bruins, who have a play game

(01:56:31):
tonight at paul against Arizona. If UCLA beats Arizona tonight,
and by the way, they haven't lost at Paulli Pavilion
two Arizona since twenty seventeen, Mike, Bruins cannot be denied, right,
they gotta be a number one seed at this point, right,
they have to be. I mean, they deserve to be
the number one seed. But you know how the thing

(01:56:52):
is in the tournament It's one thing to be the
number one seed. It's another team to be the number
one seed and events to the found four. So let's
see if they can handle it. But the pressure of
being the number one seed, well, at the very least,
here's what I say. Even if UCLA ends up a
two seed, you got to keep him in the West Region.
So six, seven, eight. The last time any school went

(01:57:14):
to three straight final fours was UCLA under Ben Hallin.
And all three of those years, say, were either the
one seed or the two seed in the West Region.
So Bob one or two doesn't really matter. Two of
those three years they actually had to beat the one seed.
One year it was Memphis, one year it was Kansas
to get to the final four. But you know they've

(01:57:35):
dominated the pack twelve this year. And yeah, I just
this nca basketball tournament. Well, first of all, one year
school is involved. You know, I've had some I had
some lean years there. Mccronin has just done a tremendous job.
But by the way, did you see this They were
they were handing out awards to coaches around the country

(01:57:56):
and mccronan got best dressed, and the reason being was
he's like one of the few coaches that actually wears
a suit anymore. A lot of guys show up in
sweats and everything else. And why don't we see that
in the NFL? What happened to the days when you
had a coat and tie on the sidelines at NFL games?

(01:58:19):
So why, why? Why can't we see that anymore? I mean,
it's really uncomfortable to wear a coat and tie, harsh
shoes on grass while you're on the sideline. Lombardi had
no problem with it. Lombardi was able to do it.
It's hot. You have the weather in certain situation down
in Jacksonville, the humidity, so now you're sweating through your

(01:58:41):
your button up shirt and all those things. Uh, yeah,
that's tough. I like where we're at right now in
basketball with the quarter zips and those things. I don't
know if he needed to be in a suit to
coach well, I mean, obviously Belichick with a hoodie and
everything else. I mean, be comfortable enough that I yet
I look good. I'm old school on that. All right,

(01:59:01):
It got about a minute to go here, Bucky, I
want your biggest takeaways? So what do you what have
you seen this week in Indianapolis? It just has really
stood out to you. The athleticism of today's prospects are amazing.
The guys have more obviously more information, so they're prepping
for the event. But the height, weight, speed, the overall

(01:59:23):
athleticism that we're seeing from these guys absolutely amazing. You
can see why the game is changing. Also had a
quick conversation with John Fox, former coach of the Panthers, Bears,
and Broncos. He talked about the biggest mismatch is defensive
line versus the old line, and you can see it
when you watch these guys work out of the combine
super athletes on the D line. B Jean Robinson, is

(01:59:46):
he going to be a top pick as a running
backer of those days gone? I think you'd be a
first round pick. I don't expect it to be a
top ten pick, even though he's the top ten talent.
And you're still saying, despite Anthony Richardson's glowing numbers, bright things,
the top quarterback in this draft. Bryce Show or CJ.
Strout keep it there on Fox Sports Radio

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