February 15, 2023 • 35 mins
In Hour 3 of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Jason and Mike revisit the idea of newly released QB Derek Carr joining the Steelers. Plus, the whole show participates in a mock Aaron Rodgers darkness retreat and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside
our three of The Jason Smith Show with my bas
friend Mike Harmon, live from the tirect dot com studios.
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A big night tonight in the NFL, because we have
very quickly gone from the super Bowl. It happened. Now
what's next? Quarterbacks? The new Death Nations. We didn't even
get a day in my carman, not one day to
go wow, let's look that. Nope, Derek Carr is now released.
(01:06):
Anybody can go get him. Good luck everybody. We are
we are seamlessly went from the super Bowl right into
the next season. It's awesome. No, it's great. Everybody got
there one day to have their handwringing and moaning and
complaining about the holding call, and now we go into
the holding day of record with the celebration of Valentine's Day.
(01:26):
The number of people that tried to go back into
the religious part of it and put that in the
timelines today, I thought it was a little lot, and
I thought that was more aggressive than it's been in
past years. But you know, hey, go go and look
it all up. But when we're looking at the super
Bowl and moving on, Yeah, there's there's a number of
big names, right. I think about it, if Brady were
(01:46):
still potentially having a seat at the table, how much
crazier it would be. Because we've got the darkness retreat.
Maybe folks will look, maybe maybe you go out looking
for love today and then you decide you need a
similar retreat that Rogers is going on. Maybe you go
to a self century depriation. Deprivation can say a self
(02:07):
deprecation tank, I'm the worst. Yes, yes, well we we
do that here on this show. So it was really
uh joking at well, a self deprecation at myself. Uh.
In the moment, but century uh, deprevation, deprivation. I know
someone actually doing that later this week. Uh, and all
(02:29):
of that. It's like, all right, you do you. I
don't judge. I asked questions. I try to understand, just
like with Rogers, hey man, everybody comes at the world
from a different angle, but it does launches directly in
this new year, right, everybody jumping on the the justin
fields and the number one pick conversation, I would argue
(02:49):
a lot of them haven't watched much Bears football for
some of the arguments that I'm hearing being made about that.
Oh wait, I yelled at you about that too, So
it can happen to guys that actually pay attention A
on the way as well. But it's it's good right
the football while it's done. I feel like I could
wear my jet skier already, like Y'll show up by Frida.
(03:11):
Stop that's not not gonna have that. That's not happening.
Stop with that putting that out there, you stop. My favorite, though,
after the trade deadline was someone who had what was
it a dragon bender and changed it to Kevin Baran
Kevin Durant and like using a sharpie to add to
(03:33):
the front and back of the name, which was great.
You it's it's nice and easy car you know, stop stop,
yeah yeah, get your old Brett Farve jerseys and everybody
having the number four on it, dude, taking that off.
We're putting the Derek Carr your own name plate on there. Baby.
Oh man, I'll tell you look and I'll tell you
where Derek Carr is in for a bit of a
route awakening, all right, because it looks it's great time
(03:55):
because we go right from the end of the season
to the new season. It's like the the congratulations Chiefs,
it's over. Your super Bowl rate is over. Into the
next year. Now it's about car and Rogers and Garoppolo
and Tannehill and free agency and trades and trading justin fields.
It's always well the combines in the next couple of weeks. Right,
all of this we get into the next cycle. And
(04:17):
I think it's great because we we don't have everybody.
Well I'm sure plenty still will. But let's do segment
upon segment, an hour after hour and bring on people
to talk about dynastic qualities of this team. Who the
hell cares chiefs, the chiefs of dynasty. Let me ask
on Valentine's Day, do you love the Chiefs more than
you love them yesterday. It's like a long term relationship.
(04:40):
You need to you see the Chiefs and you you
didn't really have the ups and down. Sure things changed,
maybe a change of a job, maybe you had to move.
Maybe there was you know a little bit of a
problem during COVID, but you fought through it and you
read tool and you got yourself together and got yourself
another title, staying together there and extending your Dyna dynasty.
(05:02):
Whereas for other teams, you know, there were a lot
of variables that they could not control, uh, and things
were torn asunder on this Valentine's it was completely ripped
us undown. But this is why Derek Carr is in
for a big reality check because all you've heard the
last couple of weeks, Oh, Derek Carr is gonna be available.
(05:23):
He could get three years and a hundred and twenty
million from his next team. Well, I'm I'm seeing where
some insider says saying could be five or six years, hundred,
you know, hundred sixty seventy million. I'm like, are you insane?
I mean, just think think about something for a second. Right,
forget about. This is not even what I'm telling you
about Derek Carr. This is what the league to borrow
(05:43):
from Bucky Brooks. It doesn't matter what I say. The
League's gonna tell us what they think. Right. The Las
Vegas Raiders, who know Derek Carr better than anybody else, right,
they know him better than anybody else, said, they don't
have a planet quarterback. They don't know what's going They
didn't know what was gonna happen. To get to the Endcy,
we have no idea. We're gonna sit the guy. We're
gonna let him go. We don't have anybody on the
(06:05):
roster really, right, and we're gonna hope, but put all
our eggs in Aaron Rodgers basket and hope. Then when
he comes out of his darkness retreat, we're good to go.
But they know him better than anybody, and they decided
we don't want him. We don't want it, We don't
want him. In three years, Drew million, somebody else is
gonna want him with three million. Really, it's gonna happen.
The Saints were the only team to engage Derek Carr
(06:26):
in a potential trade. One team, Hey, Derek, cars available. Well,
we gotta look, we gotta kick the tires on him
right to see if we want to trade for him,
because once he becomes a free agent, yeah, we won't
have to worry about compensation, But what are the chances
that he winds up coming to our team? No, if
we can make a trade for Derek Carr that had
worked out, let's see what we can do. One team
engage the Raiders in a trade for Derek Carr, one
(06:49):
one out of the thirty one teams that could have
done so. And the one team that did said, we
want you to take a pay cut. So Derek Carr
of course said, no, I'm gonna take my chances on
the open market and get it. It's like you know
when you put a house up for sale, the first
bid comes in and it's low, you could sell it.
But now to take my chances at eventual I'm gonna
get my price. That's what Derek Carr is doing, and
I understand it. But when the first thing that wants you,
(07:11):
the only team that says they trade for he says
we want you to take a pay cut, Who's who
in their right mind would give Derek Carr three years
twenty million, six years, a hundred and sixty millions. No
one's gonna do that. If any team goes more than
two years and sixty million on Derek Carr, you're insane.
You deserve what you're gonna get. Because can Derek Carr
be a decent Bridge quarterback maybe with the potential to
(07:32):
be better if he finds the right fit. Sure, if
it happened for Geno Smith, it could happen for anybody.
But you're not gonna get locked into him for three
plus years. It's okay this year and next let's see
what you can do, because depending how it goes this
year after next year, we're gonna want to move on. Right,
Derek Carr is not somebody hitting free agency, like, hey,
here's Brady out there for them, And when Brady was
(07:52):
out there, he didn't have a lot of suitors. How
many people are really gonna go crazy to go get
Derek Carr when we we may have to pay him
a lot of money when we can get lots of
guys to pep like Ryan Tannehill or Jimmy Garoppolo, and
the fall off from Derek Carter those guys is not
that great, right, And those guys are gonna come much
cheaper than than Derek Carr allegedly would. I. I don't
think you're gonna see Derek Carr this huge market and developed,
(08:15):
because right now you would already be seeing things like
Derek Carr is set to go visit this team and
this team and this team. He's a free agent that
would have been out there already. His agent would have
said something. It would have been, Derek Carr is going
to see the Titans tomorrow and then he's gonna visit
the Jets on Friday. They're gonna know, visit this team
on Sunday, and this you would have had that. It
would have been all set to go because Derek Carr's
agent knows what's happening and wants to create buzz with
(08:36):
his client, right so you would know that if I'm
going to to know that Derek Carr is gonna hit
free agency on on Tuesday, then I gotta have a
plan out there and he's gonna go visit all these teams.
Where are those visits? Where's all those things? How much
buzz is there really gonna be for Derek Carr. I
think the guy is in for rude awakening. With what
he's gonna wind up getting on the open market. Well,
in the end, when we look at the listing of quarterbacks,
(08:57):
going back to your Lamar dgers, then wait for Lamar
kind of approach. You don't have a laundry list of
top notch quality guys that are difference makers. They got
guys that, if everything else is in place, could be
just fine. And that's the part of the discussion with
Derek carrs seemingly, to quote the great Dave Janstat during
(09:20):
his time with the Bears, all the pieces are in place,
they would go on to really be bad. But yet
Josh Jacobs had this monster year after he doesn't get
his fifth year option picked up. Uh, you know, he's
starting to talk about being amenable to maybe a lesser
deal to stick around if it meant Rogers was coming.
But we we look at Waller and renfro they missed time.
(09:43):
But you had Davante Adams and you had a terrible year.
Terrible year. Big leads and folks would were quick to say, well,
look what the defense it's like. No, no, no, they
stopped scoring points. Both things can be true. They can
run in parallel, defense collapses, but the offense goes into
hibernation in the second half and kept giving up lead
(10:05):
after lead to get to even your number. To put
it in perspective, Jason, what you're saying two years, sixty
million dollars that would still put him right at where
Jared Goff is, who's the tenth highest paid quarterback in
terms of salary cap hit. And I could get on
board with that just because you look at a lot
of the guys that are just below are actually guys
(10:27):
that are working towards their next contract or their real
money off the extensions that they've signed hasn't kicked in
just yet, right, Joe Burrow hasn't gotten that massive deal.
Trevor Lawrence eventually will. There's a picture Zach Wilson, I
went a little too far. Um then you've got just
an Herbert who will eventually get his etcetera. Hurts and
(10:50):
I'm going on down the line, but that's about where
he's at. But trying to give him a long term
deal just because he's the best of a bad class
of guys to hit the marketplace, forget about it. With Rogers,
There's only so many places he's going to accept a
deal too. And then with Derek Carr, you had both
the hey, you need to take a care pay cut,
(11:12):
but also the idea of, well, why is he gonna
do any favors to make something more digestible for the Raiders?
And you can tell me that there's no animus and
you know, he took the high road whatever. I'm not
buying that. Yeah, but I agree with you. But if
he really wanted to go there, Hey, this is where
(11:32):
I really want to be, that would that would have happened. Well,
but like there might have been some concession, but it
sounded like it was a deeper cut than just hey,
it's you know a little bit, let's make this a
little nicer. But because there's still the part of you
that is going to be bitter that wait, the Raiders
are also going to get something out of this. They
(11:53):
get to kick me to the curb and and make
me the fall guy from there. They've already made you
the fall guy, right, but but they get to do
all that, and they're gonna get get some compensation for
from the back end. But here so I think there's
there's still a percentage of pettiness, no matter how real
(12:14):
or imagine it is. And I still wouldn't be surprised
if he went and reunited with Dennis Allen. Yeah, but
here's the thing. If that was the case, and it
was just about I don't want my new team to
have to give up a lot of assets, so I'm
gonna hit for you, okay, But the fact that he
was asked to take a pay cut, like that's telling you, hey,
this isn't Hey, we love you, wink wink. Let's work
(12:35):
on a trade. A trend is not gonna happen. I
still love to get now we're just talking about a
matter of degree. But are you really gonna go like
you got? They told you got to take a pay cut.
So already the one team that wants you said, yeah,
we got you gotta take a pay cut on this.
But but with the money that was on the books.
I mean, look, I get it, you want what you
(12:55):
signed for, but you gotta be a realist too, because
you're not going into a per fig team otherwise, Uh,
they wouldn't be in the market for you. This is right.
So I mean there's a lot of you know, balls
being juggled when it comes to this. And for him,
you know, with the Saints, there there are a lot
of pieces that you kind of like. Defense is really
good opportunities there. Camp Jordan's already saying, well, the Bucks
(13:18):
are just gonna be the Bucks again now that Brady's gone.
Remember we used to beat them up all the time.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio AP. I know you're picturing this at home. I'm
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big red lipstick, pretending to play the guitar. I've got
(13:41):
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(14:05):
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(14:25):
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discover dot com. Slash Match. So earlier in the show,
I gave you what the best match for Derek Carr
would be, and number one is, he's got to go
(14:48):
to a team that look, he's leaving a team with
really good weapons. Is it really gonna work in New
Orleans where Okay, Chris Lave is pretty good, but you
don't know if you're guys are are still really is?
Is Alvin Camara still a lead? Is Michael Thomas Rever
gonna play? I mean, you can't go there. You go
you want to go to a team that has weapons
and look, a team like the Jets with Breece Hall
(15:08):
coming back in Michael Carter and you have three good receivers.
I mean, that's good, but I don't want him there.
So the best place for Trek Carr. And it's very simple.
If the Jets are a team that's a quarterback away,
the other team that's a quarterback away is the Steelers.
All Right, Kenny Pickett was brutal, alright, he was absolutely
(15:29):
brutal this year. And did he play a tiny bit
better in the last few games, Yeah, but a tiny
bit but but I I mean like it was incremental,
you know how much a little bit better he played.
But you're talking about a Steelers team that's got two
pretty good running backs Nazi Harrison Jalen Warren, really high
on Warren. You have a couple of good receivers or
you're hoping to take another big step, especially George Pickens.
(15:50):
Pat Friar Muth is one of the top tight ends
in the league. You know, the defense as long as t. J.
Watt plays is gonna be good, because you saw last
year when t J. Watt didn't play, they weren't good.
When he played, they won. Mike Tomlin's culture, where he's
gonna be protected against things is not gonna it's not
gonna be eaten alive by the press like he would
be in New York with the Jets. His first three
interception game. It's gonna be uh, Derek, can you take
(16:13):
us back to the point in the game where you
realize you sucked? What was that? Was that in the
first quarter? Was that second quarter? When was that? When? What? When? When?
When was that happened? Was that your first interception? Was
that your first incomplete pass when you missed Elijah Ware
who was wide open over the middle? I saw the
all twenty two already. I mean he said it there
going hey, drawing me to football, drawing me to football. Look,
I know you're trying to get at the Garrett Wilson.
The guys will bleep in Superstar, but you see the
(16:35):
guy help. But I saw you sucked right there, Derek.
What's your ants and there, Derek, if you want to
give me that answer right there. So that's a great
fit for it's a great fit. And the number of
people on my timeline telling me, are you kidding? You're insane?
Kenny Pickett is our guy. He's twenty four, Derek Carr
is thirty one. Are you nuts? You're crazy with this?
(16:55):
The you know, this is Valentine's Day, Love Mike car
But the number of Steelers fans that are talking up
Kenny Pickett, Like he didn't throw seven touchdowns and nine
interceptions in twelve games, right, like like like, that's not
the guy he was. Right whereas where he didn't have
one game and I would say he had one game
where his quarterback rating was above ninety. I mean, they're
they're talking Kenny picking Up, like the guy through forty
(17:18):
touchdowns last year. You want to replace him? What the
hell is wrong with you? Kenny pick It was not
good good. No. Here's the thing though, is and I'll
back the Steeler fans on this, uh one, I think
you're overrating uh at least part of the receiving call.
I think Deante Johnson's fine, not great. Uh Now. Pickings
on the other hand, throw it up and let him
(17:40):
get it. But you start forcing, what are you gonna do.
You're gonna make a lot of mistakes in that game,
trying to go ball time and time again. That's also
not the way the Steelers generally play football. Yes, Roethlisberger
did the longer he was there because he just freelanced
and did whatever he wanted, checked himself out of games
partially injured, and then would come back in three plays later.
(18:01):
You know, things of that nature. But when you look
at pick it didn't start the season as as the starter.
Obviously Trabiski is there down the stretch enough to win.
I'll leave it at that because it was it great. No,
but they won games, uh and the defense showed out
time and time again. We we've joked about it for
(18:23):
a long time. The is t J. Watt plan? That's
how I'm picking the game, d J Watt in or out.
That's my deciding factor because they're gonna play most games
close because the defense is always kind of solid. And
then obviously at next level when Watts available. But I
guess I would ask this question, is the trajectory of
(18:43):
pick it good enough to where you look and say,
all right, rookie contract, He'll grow into the role as
he's named the guy with a full off season as
the guy, and we build the offense to his strengths
versus guy going into his set in decade. Because what
are you doing with Derek Car Are you hoping that
he's the next Geno Smith? Derek Cars already Geno Smith.
(19:07):
I mean that's kind of what the guy is. He's
kind of Geno Smith, Kenny Pickett, he is on a
Zach Wilson trajectory. Okay, you need to flash a little
bit and show that you need to flash at least
a little bit as a rookie to show that you
can do that. I think I think when did he flash?
When did he flash? Had a play here and there.
(19:27):
I'm not saying that he was dominant and every completed
passes in games, but you gotta show that. Hey, this
is money. But I think that's grossly unfair to compare
him to Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson is so far below.
This is the levels thing that was really introduced with
Shakira and j Lo. But now Rihanna gets all the
credit because they went a little bit higher. Hey can
(19:47):
we pump that up to an eleven? But that's all
finally good. But you're doing that. We're doing the same
thing with quarterbacks Kenny Pickett. There's no way he's standing
over top of Zach Wilson. You think so, you think
you think he's real. Okay, let's see Zach Wilson this
year and let's compare him this year to exactly how
we watched can hang on, hang on, hang on, dud dude.
(20:13):
We talked about touchdowns for quarterbacks that are really good, Right,
so we gotta talk about touchdowns for quarterbacks that are
really bad. Zach Wilson through six touchdowns this year in
nine games. Can he pick it? Through seven touchdowns and
he played in thirteen games? Okay, that's not as good
as Zach Wilson. He threw more interceptions than Zack Wilson did.
All right, He's got a quarterback rating that's three points higher,
(20:35):
but his quarterback rating is seventy five, which is so
incredibly below average. Nothing Kenny Pickett did this year tells me, oh, yeah,
he can take that next big leap. There's nothing you
gotta flash a little bit. There's he's a little bit
from Trevor Lawrence going Okay, with the right with the
right coaching, he could be a guy that takes that jump.
And he got it because he got But you don't
believe in that. At the end of the year, with
(20:55):
the said, who's the one guy if I gotta believe
in any of this quarterback class because I'm not a
big fan of it. I mean, that was the desperate
was it was Trevor Lawrence and he did it. I mean,
that was the all stink step forward. Zach Wilson and
Zach Wilson Kenny Pickett had the same games this year.
They had the same games. They're the same games where
they threw for a hundred and fifty hundred and seventy
hundred and eighty yards, where they had no touchdowns and
(21:17):
one interception or two interceptions in a quarterback grade and
it was below eighty. I mean, really at least, but
how many times did you walk away from the Steeler
game saying, wow, he stinks just about every game? I mean,
just because they I didn't walk away, hey, Jack Wilson
the second coming, but we walked away from a bunch
(21:38):
of those Jets games, particularly you know when they lost
four out of five of the last games they played
because he won those first four. I mean, that was great, right,
But I was not walking away from those games thinking
he's great. In those four games he won, he threw
one touchdown, he threw one touchdown. They didn't they didn't
win because of him. They scored forty against the Dolphins
they wont Yeah, hey, they scored forty points and he
(21:59):
could and throw a touchdown in that game. He threw
ten yards ten yards in a ten point Let me
just tell you something. Let me just tell you something.
Trying trying to prop trying to prop up Zack Wilson
is not gonna work. Okay. It's like it's like trying
(22:20):
to sit on a chair with four broken legs. It's
not gonna happen. He did, I wasn't walking away going boy,
and I'm like, boy, we're lucky to win because Zack
Wilson has to get it and he hasn't gotten it.
He never got it. And that's why we're moving on.
Same thing with Kenny Pickett. H Kenny Pickna. Okay, at
the end of the year, they won three games. He
threw a touchdown in each of the last three games.
I mean this is he's a lower level Cooper Rush
(22:41):
the last three games of the season, and no one's
rushing to go sign Cooper Rush. Well, this way, if
Kenny Pickett became a free agent tomorrow, in addition to
Derek Carr, who's getting signed first, Derek Carr is getting
signed first still because they at least know the guy
can play. You're not bringing Kenny picking and saying, hey, Kenny,
you're our guy. We love those seven touchdowns you through, right,
(23:04):
But he's a guy in the room, and it's like,
all right, is Derek Carr gonna be our difference maker?
That's the question. Is Derek Carr the difference maker for
the roster that we have to bring him in at
the thirty to thirty five million dollars or whatever that
amount has to be versus what else do we need
to do with this roster? Is Kenny Pickett a guy
that we can grow with if we add another piece? Right?
(23:26):
Friar Muth is there? I like Friar Muth. I like
Pickings Deante a little less, but he's a good volume guy.
Dog Harris when healthy. You see the offensive line, which
could probably use a little tweak as well. Uh, he
and Warren are pretty good one too. Combo and we
and we stipulate that the defense is usually gonna be
solid and it could be exceptional when t. J. Watt
(23:49):
is available. Right, there's your setup. Is Derek Carr the
guy that you believe is that much better to potentially
lose out on other free agents? That he's that much
better than Kenny Pickett? I would argue after watching in
this past year. I don't think so. Let me ask
you this, If Derek Carr has the exact same season. Right,
I'll do the same thing that that we did with
(24:09):
Aaron Rodgers. If Derek Carr has the exact same season
that he had this year for the Steelers, how many
games do they win? Twelve? I mean the guy through touchdowns,
all right, I mean you got through touchdowns, all right,
That's that's pretty good. Right. The guy completed his passes,
that's pretty good. It's way better than what they got
(24:30):
out of Kenny Pick and it's way but it's also winging.
It's gonna be a much different circumstance winging around for
the Raiders in a division where you know there there
was some defensive lapses you had, well, Denver had a
good defense, but you knew you could beat their their offense. Uh, Chargers,
they were hurt all year. I keep going back to
that Frost Ferg is not even here to take that arrow. Yeah, no, No,
(24:52):
he's mad at you. Well he is, because I mean
I've had to say it repeatedly. It's like we talked
about health. That was the one of the one of
the big things coming out of Hey, look, everybody was
up and ready to play. I guess who was at
all season long? Chargers every year. But no, look, I'm
not denigrating you know, Derek Carry, He's the best of
this class. I'm just asking how good is that? That
(25:13):
doesn't end? If you're the Steelers and Mike Tomlin, is
that enough to place your guy for for for Derek
Carr to come in and for two years and sixty million?
Right because that we talked about that being where where
we should go to money based on the numbers right now? Yeah, okay,
because you can move on. You can also go back
to Kenny Pickett if Derek Carr stinks, and maybe Kenny
(25:36):
Pickett had some time to sit and learn and and
and actually be dynamic a little bit. Going down the
field is your quarterback needs to be dynamic. You can't
win with a game manager. You gotta at least be
on the quarterbacks. But that's the thing, though, is is
I think I can find more dynamic play with the
pickets of ability to move as he grows versus. And
(25:57):
then I don't use the word dynamic to describe Derek Carr.
Did you ever use that term to describe Derek Carr?
Has d games regularly? Derek Carr throws the football a bunch.
I mean I have more confidence that he's going to
move the team downfield than Kenny Pickett. I mean, look,
but I'm also looking at the structure and what what
they did and for a rookie year, how much did
(26:18):
they try to force him to push the ball down field?
Not to mention, they also got rid of guys uh
in the process. Hey, Chase Claypool beat it and he
turned out to be great, didn't he. But that's but
that's my point, right as they finally looked around like
we don't even have the guys we need for Kenny
backing at this point, I don't know that there's guys
(26:39):
out there. I think you have to get Jamaar Chase
and Justin Jefferson and Travis Kelsey and then maybe you
got a guy from that and maybe that's it. But
you know the idea that you know, Chase Claypool, I mean,
I love the bravado. I mean, you gotta believe in
bed on yourself, right, thinking he could still be a
top five talent. All but in the middle of the season,
they were looking like they we're gonna make the playoffs.
(26:59):
What do they do? They said, beat it and got
draft picks for him. So what did that say in
terms of where they were. They gut it out with
what they had and and I don't know that um
like I would do. I think it was be a
terrible move they brought in Derek Carr. No, I'm just
asking the question, as I have to uh to do
(27:21):
the full part of this, how good is he really?
Because we always put him in that eighteen to twenty
one range, don't we? Yeah, okay, you will, He'll be
middle of the pack at best, right, but when you
look at where you're coming from, you had the two
worst quarterback performances by any team in the league last year.
The Jets and the Steelers were not even close, right,
Jets and Steals two worst quarterback performances by any team
(27:42):
in the league. So yeah, if I can jump up
fourteen spots with how good my quarterback is, it doesn't matter.
If I'm jumping from thirty one to eighteenth. I'm still
pretty excited now if I'm jumping from but I'm but
then I'm not as excited. But from what you're telling me,
I didn't. But what you're telling me is you believe
there's no upside for Kenny Pickett at all. It's too
(28:04):
big of a risk. It's to to go into a
season thinking he's the guy when you have no idea
if the guy is gonna get it a second here,
now you have no idea. And and I, like I
said I would, I want to. I want you to
point two games where you can say, boy, I watch
this game, and this tells me Kenny Pickett is gonna
be a first round quarterback and a franchise guy. You
tell me. Nobody can tell me Kenny Pickett is gonna
(28:26):
be anything ever more than a game manager that can
maybe throw for a hundred and seventy five yards a week.
And and the Steelers have to bank on winning seventeen.
That's too much pressure to put on your defense, the
rest of your team. That quarterback is not gonna put
points up on the board. This is the ever of
the quarterback. This how you do it. You gotta put
points up, You gotta be dynamic. I've not seen anything
from Kenny Pickett tells me that's gonna happen. I I
(28:48):
wish we were in studio so I can give you
the big hug that you so desperately need. I need, ah,
I need a hug. You need a hug. Off that
take because you were trying to prop up Derek Carr.
You know why you're doing this, because you're trying a
k put another team out there, so he's not a
Jet and be you're gonna be able to point back
to all these arguments going, yeah, yeah, he's pretty good,
(29:10):
and now he's our quarterback. I see what you're doing.
You're not fooling anybody. Okay, Hey, no I don't want
him on my team. B doesn't mean there's not a
good fit for him. And see, I know in the end,
whoever I say I don't want the most is the
guy the Jets are going to sign. So it doesn't whoever,
it doesn't matter where do you see this stuff? I'm
gonna have to say about Ryan Tannehill coming up in
(29:30):
a couple of days, Ryan Tannehill, because whoever I don't
want the most, that's gonna be the guy that Jets getting.
That's how it's gonna car could end up in Carolina,
be the guy in Tampa. Whoever the Jets pick is
gonna be wrong, and they're gonna pick a wrong guy.
They're gonna give him a lot of money to make
it more wrong. Or he could be a Jet. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
(29:52):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Still picture in Harmon in the miniskirt. I'm still dancing
over here. It still has a lipstick on ye standard remix. Baby,
Let's go Bock Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
My best Friend Mike Harmon. Now, Aaron Rodgers went on
(30:17):
the Pat McAfee show today. It was very upset that
people thought his darkness retreated begun. I didn't say it
was starting today. It's the end of the week. It's
always been the end of the week. Okay, God, God,
it's always been the end of the week. Yeah. The
first he was upset, I mean, and actually took to
social media to say, hey, do do not question that,
which I agree with. I'm with him, I mean, so
(30:42):
here it is the darkness to treat friend, but it's
not going to be in until the end of the week,
so we have some time. Now that being the case,
let's see if we could actually get into Aaron Rodgers
darkness retreat. See if we can open the magical door
that gets into the darkness or treat. So here's what
we're gonna do. Everybody here on the show, kind of
(31:03):
turn the lights off, turn all the lights off, getting darkness.
All the lights off, all the lights off, lights off,
lights off, lights are off, lights are off. T Shirt,
get those lights off, Isaac low and crown lights off.
There we go, all right, all our lights are off
right now. No candles, we need some, We need some
(31:23):
darkness retreat music Alex ti Shirt. Yeah, not even the
glow of your phone at this point. No, no, no,
no no, I close your eyes. You're in the darkness retreat.
You're looking for a door. Where's the door? You're looking
for the door to Aaron Rodgers darkness Retreat. Where's the door?
(31:45):
No one's chasing you with a machete and you have
to get out, running for your life. Shila buff is
not chasing you. Quiet, quiet, You see a door with
a green handle. Oh, I thought you were going to
say behind the green door was a green handle, because
that's a whole other movie. Stacks of money in front
(32:08):
of the door. You have to do an astronaut leap
over the money to get to the door. It's got
a big you're taking us out of the moment. I
don't think that's there in the Darkness Retreat. I wait, look, man,
you're alone in darkness for four days. Don't tell me
that any Gronkowski like thoughts aren't coming into No, no, no, no, no. Listen,
(32:30):
the last thing you wanted the Darkness Retreat is Rob Gronkowski.
It's not going to be quiet enough. It's gonna be loud.
There's gonna be lots of things happen. And I'm saying
he in in Gronkowski inspired thoughts and activity. We're at
the door. We're at the door. We're at the door.
You don't even need to knock on it. You just
need to wave your hand in front and a sensor
will understand you're here. I'm nice, d you, Aaron Rodgers.
(32:58):
There's no anger. It's a darkness retreat. No one's upset
about anything. Everything's fine, everybody's happy. We're all friends. I
think I left my car lights on. Everybody's a friend.
The door opens, creeks open, A hand comes out, offers
you a cup of tea, just like it's the Mad
(33:19):
Hatter's Tea party, except that syahuasca tea. You drink the tea.
Everybody pretend you drank the tea. It runneth over. Jason,
you're drinking the tea at the doorstep to Aaron Rodgers.
Darkness Retreat. Isaac Lowan Crown, what do you see? Yes, Jets,
(33:41):
jets j Isaac Lowan Crown is seeing the jets. Mike Harmon,
what are you seeing after drinking the Ayahuaska tea? What
are you seeing? Giant pirate? Ship in the sky calling
me in the scar off sky pirate? Sky pirate could
also be confused is maybe it's a you're seeing a jet?
(34:02):
Or are you sing sky pilot? Eric Burdens. They're saying,
let's let's go. That's very obscure, really obscure. People don't
get it. But we're in the Darkness Retreat. It's okay,
I had Cod's there's no COVID in the Darkness Retreat.
There are toes and only your ten toes as you
walk in front of you. Let me take one off
(34:25):
Ray Alex Tyshert, What are you seeing in the Darkness Retreats?
What are you seeing? Helmet? Very good? It's what it's dark?
What color is that helmet? I'm seeing balls? How can
you see a dark helmet? In the Darkness Retreat. How
can you see a dark color? That's impossible some kind
of well you're not you're not really in the darkness,
(34:49):
or see spaceball you're pretending to be in the darkness,
or helmet you're not really there. He was my father's
brother's cousin's former roommates. I'm still the deserts. I'm seeing
Aaron Rodgers in a Jets jersey, and he's offering me
a big mac, saying, here, eat this, take a bite
(35:10):
as a symbol of my desire to join the Jets.
It's the wrong apple, East, Brother. I bite the big Mac.
I take the pickles out first and ask for extra cheese.
But then I bite the big and the taste it
tastes like victory. Hepsy East, don't eat dead poison. We'll
have more from the Darkness Retreat on Aaron Rodgers as
(35:32):
we stay in the room. Next here on Fox Sports Radio,
it's somebody farts.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night
on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside
our three of The Jason Smith Show with my bas
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Tirect dot com will help you get there an unmatched selection,
fast free shipping. Free road has protection over ten thousand
(00:44):
recommended installers. Tract dot com the way tire buying should be. Well.
A big night tonight in the NFL, because we have
very quickly gone from the super Bowl. It happened. Now
what's next? Quarterbacks? The new Death Nations. We didn't even
get a day in my carman, not one day to
go wow, let's look that. Nope, Derek Carr is now released.
(01:06):
Anybody can go get him. Good luck everybody. We are
we are seamlessly went from the super Bowl right into
the next season. It's awesome. No, it's great. Everybody got
there one day to have their handwringing and moaning and
complaining about the holding call, and now we go into
the holding day of record with the celebration of Valentine's Day.
(01:26):
The number of people that tried to go back into
the religious part of it and put that in the
timelines today, I thought it was a little lot, and
I thought that was more aggressive than it's been in
past years. But you know, hey, go go and look
it all up. But when we're looking at the super
Bowl and moving on, Yeah, there's there's a number of
big names, right. I think about it, if Brady were
(01:46):
still potentially having a seat at the table, how much
crazier it would be. Because we've got the darkness retreat.
Maybe folks will look, maybe maybe you go out looking
for love today and then you decide you need a
similar retreat that Rogers is going on. Maybe you go
to a self century depriation. Deprivation can say a self
(02:07):
deprecation tank, I'm the worst. Yes, yes, well we we
do that here on this show. So it was really
uh joking at well, a self deprecation at myself. Uh.
In the moment, but century uh, deprevation, deprivation. I know
someone actually doing that later this week. Uh, and all
(02:29):
of that. It's like, all right, you do you. I
don't judge. I asked questions. I try to understand, just
like with Rogers, hey man, everybody comes at the world
from a different angle, but it does launches directly in
this new year, right, everybody jumping on the the justin
fields and the number one pick conversation, I would argue
(02:49):
a lot of them haven't watched much Bears football for
some of the arguments that I'm hearing being made about that.
Oh wait, I yelled at you about that too, So
it can happen to guys that actually pay attention A
on the way as well. But it's it's good right
the football while it's done. I feel like I could
wear my jet skier already, like Y'll show up by Frida.
(03:11):
Stop that's not not gonna have that. That's not happening.
Stop with that putting that out there, you stop. My favorite, though,
after the trade deadline was someone who had what was
it a dragon bender and changed it to Kevin Baran
Kevin Durant and like using a sharpie to add to
(03:33):
the front and back of the name, which was great.
You it's it's nice and easy car you know, stop stop,
yeah yeah, get your old Brett Farve jerseys and everybody
having the number four on it, dude, taking that off.
We're putting the Derek Carr your own name plate on there. Baby.
Oh man, I'll tell you look and I'll tell you
where Derek Carr is in for a bit of a
route awakening, all right, because it looks it's great time
(03:55):
because we go right from the end of the season
to the new season. It's like the the congratulations Chiefs,
it's over. Your super Bowl rate is over. Into the
next year. Now it's about car and Rogers and Garoppolo
and Tannehill and free agency and trades and trading justin fields.
It's always well the combines in the next couple of weeks. Right,
all of this we get into the next cycle. And
(04:17):
I think it's great because we we don't have everybody.
Well I'm sure plenty still will. But let's do segment
upon segment, an hour after hour and bring on people
to talk about dynastic qualities of this team. Who the
hell cares chiefs, the chiefs of dynasty. Let me ask
on Valentine's Day, do you love the Chiefs more than
you love them yesterday. It's like a long term relationship.
(04:40):
You need to you see the Chiefs and you you
didn't really have the ups and down. Sure things changed,
maybe a change of a job, maybe you had to move.
Maybe there was you know a little bit of a
problem during COVID, but you fought through it and you
read tool and you got yourself together and got yourself
another title, staying together there and extending your Dyna dynasty.
(05:02):
Whereas for other teams, you know, there were a lot
of variables that they could not control, uh, and things
were torn asunder on this Valentine's it was completely ripped
us undown. But this is why Derek Carr is in
for a big reality check because all you've heard the
last couple of weeks, Oh, Derek Carr is gonna be available.
(05:23):
He could get three years and a hundred and twenty
million from his next team. Well, I'm I'm seeing where
some insider says saying could be five or six years, hundred,
you know, hundred sixty seventy million. I'm like, are you insane?
I mean, just think think about something for a second. Right,
forget about. This is not even what I'm telling you
about Derek Carr. This is what the league to borrow
(05:43):
from Bucky Brooks. It doesn't matter what I say. The
League's gonna tell us what they think. Right. The Las
Vegas Raiders, who know Derek Carr better than anybody else, right,
they know him better than anybody else, said, they don't
have a planet quarterback. They don't know what's going They
didn't know what was gonna happen. To get to the Endcy,
we have no idea. We're gonna sit the guy. We're
gonna let him go. We don't have anybody on the
(06:05):
roster really, right, and we're gonna hope, but put all
our eggs in Aaron Rodgers basket and hope. Then when
he comes out of his darkness retreat, we're good to go.
But they know him better than anybody, and they decided
we don't want him. We don't want it, We don't
want him. In three years, Drew million, somebody else is
gonna want him with three million. Really, it's gonna happen.
The Saints were the only team to engage Derek Carr
(06:26):
in a potential trade. One team, Hey, Derek, cars available. Well,
we gotta look, we gotta kick the tires on him
right to see if we want to trade for him,
because once he becomes a free agent, yeah, we won't
have to worry about compensation, But what are the chances
that he winds up coming to our team? No, if
we can make a trade for Derek Carr that had
worked out, let's see what we can do. One team
engage the Raiders in a trade for Derek Carr, one
(06:49):
one out of the thirty one teams that could have
done so. And the one team that did said, we
want you to take a pay cut. So Derek Carr
of course said, no, I'm gonna take my chances on
the open market and get it. It's like you know
when you put a house up for sale, the first
bid comes in and it's low, you could sell it.
But now to take my chances at eventual I'm gonna
get my price. That's what Derek Carr is doing, and
I understand it. But when the first thing that wants you,
(07:11):
the only team that says they trade for he says
we want you to take a pay cut, Who's who
in their right mind would give Derek Carr three years
twenty million, six years, a hundred and sixty millions. No
one's gonna do that. If any team goes more than
two years and sixty million on Derek Carr, you're insane.
You deserve what you're gonna get. Because can Derek Carr
be a decent Bridge quarterback maybe with the potential to
(07:32):
be better if he finds the right fit. Sure, if
it happened for Geno Smith, it could happen for anybody.
But you're not gonna get locked into him for three
plus years. It's okay this year and next let's see
what you can do, because depending how it goes this
year after next year, we're gonna want to move on. Right,
Derek Carr is not somebody hitting free agency, like, hey,
here's Brady out there for them, And when Brady was
(07:52):
out there, he didn't have a lot of suitors. How
many people are really gonna go crazy to go get
Derek Carr when we we may have to pay him
a lot of money when we can get lots of
guys to pep like Ryan Tannehill or Jimmy Garoppolo, and
the fall off from Derek Carter those guys is not
that great, right, And those guys are gonna come much
cheaper than than Derek Carr allegedly would. I. I don't
think you're gonna see Derek Carr this huge market and developed,
(08:15):
because right now you would already be seeing things like
Derek Carr is set to go visit this team and
this team and this team. He's a free agent that
would have been out there already. His agent would have
said something. It would have been, Derek Carr is going
to see the Titans tomorrow and then he's gonna visit
the Jets on Friday. They're gonna know, visit this team
on Sunday, and this you would have had that. It
would have been all set to go because Derek Carr's
agent knows what's happening and wants to create buzz with
(08:36):
his client, right so you would know that if I'm
going to to know that Derek Carr is gonna hit
free agency on on Tuesday, then I gotta have a
plan out there and he's gonna go visit all these teams.
Where are those visits? Where's all those things? How much
buzz is there really gonna be for Derek Carr. I
think the guy is in for rude awakening. With what
he's gonna wind up getting on the open market. Well,
in the end, when we look at the listing of quarterbacks,
(08:57):
going back to your Lamar dgers, then wait for Lamar
kind of approach. You don't have a laundry list of
top notch quality guys that are difference makers. They got
guys that, if everything else is in place, could be
just fine. And that's the part of the discussion with
Derek carrs seemingly, to quote the great Dave Janstat during
(09:20):
his time with the Bears, all the pieces are in place,
they would go on to really be bad. But yet
Josh Jacobs had this monster year after he doesn't get
his fifth year option picked up. Uh, you know, he's
starting to talk about being amenable to maybe a lesser
deal to stick around if it meant Rogers was coming.
But we we look at Waller and renfro they missed time.
(09:43):
But you had Davante Adams and you had a terrible year.
Terrible year. Big leads and folks would were quick to say, well,
look what the defense it's like. No, no, no, they
stopped scoring points. Both things can be true. They can
run in parallel, defense collapses, but the offense goes into
hibernation in the second half and kept giving up lead
(10:05):
after lead to get to even your number. To put
it in perspective, Jason, what you're saying two years, sixty
million dollars that would still put him right at where
Jared Goff is, who's the tenth highest paid quarterback in
terms of salary cap hit. And I could get on
board with that just because you look at a lot
of the guys that are just below are actually guys
(10:27):
that are working towards their next contract or their real
money off the extensions that they've signed hasn't kicked in
just yet, right, Joe Burrow hasn't gotten that massive deal.
Trevor Lawrence eventually will. There's a picture Zach Wilson, I
went a little too far. Um then you've got just
an Herbert who will eventually get his etcetera. Hurts and
(10:50):
I'm going on down the line, but that's about where
he's at. But trying to give him a long term
deal just because he's the best of a bad class
of guys to hit the marketplace, forget about it. With Rogers,
There's only so many places he's going to accept a
deal too. And then with Derek Carr, you had both
the hey, you need to take a care pay cut,
(11:12):
but also the idea of, well, why is he gonna
do any favors to make something more digestible for the Raiders?
And you can tell me that there's no animus and
you know, he took the high road whatever. I'm not
buying that. Yeah, but I agree with you. But if
he really wanted to go there, Hey, this is where
(11:32):
I really want to be, that would that would have happened. Well,
but like there might have been some concession, but it
sounded like it was a deeper cut than just hey,
it's you know a little bit, let's make this a
little nicer. But because there's still the part of you
that is going to be bitter that wait, the Raiders
are also going to get something out of this. They
(11:53):
get to kick me to the curb and and make
me the fall guy from there. They've already made you
the fall guy, right, but but they get to do
all that, and they're gonna get get some compensation for
from the back end. But here so I think there's
there's still a percentage of pettiness, no matter how real
(12:14):
or imagine it is. And I still wouldn't be surprised
if he went and reunited with Dennis Allen. Yeah, but
here's the thing. If that was the case, and it
was just about I don't want my new team to
have to give up a lot of assets, so I'm
gonna hit for you, okay, But the fact that he
was asked to take a pay cut, like that's telling you, hey,
this isn't Hey, we love you, wink wink. Let's work
(12:35):
on a trade. A trend is not gonna happen. I
still love to get now we're just talking about a
matter of degree. But are you really gonna go like
you got? They told you got to take a pay cut.
So already the one team that wants you said, yeah,
we got you gotta take a pay cut on this.
But but with the money that was on the books.
I mean, look, I get it, you want what you
(12:55):
signed for, but you gotta be a realist too, because
you're not going into a per fig team otherwise, Uh,
they wouldn't be in the market for you. This is right.
So I mean there's a lot of you know, balls
being juggled when it comes to this. And for him,
you know, with the Saints, there there are a lot
of pieces that you kind of like. Defense is really
good opportunities there. Camp Jordan's already saying, well, the Bucks
(13:18):
are just gonna be the Bucks again now that Brady's gone.
Remember we used to beat them up all the time.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio AP. I know you're picturing this at home. I'm
the one in the suit, Harman's in the hot mini skirt,
big red lipstick, pretending to play the guitar. I've got
(13:41):
the legs for it. Or I'm the guy that brings
these folks to the party because I did in Vegas
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Yeah, buddy tonight, Yeah, go ahead. Well,
I just wanted to give it not because we're always
getting cool suggestions from the Twitter and Instagram world, and
we got a note from just saying hello from Joe
(14:05):
in Sydney, Australia. So put that little pin up on
the wall. Because we are global were Afternoon Drive in
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continues to grow. I think the a f L starts
playing again soon. I'm not sure. It might be. It
might be. I'm not sure, but I think it. Star
were brought to you by Discovery at the end of
(14:25):
your first year. Discovered credit cards automatically double all the
cash back you've earned. That's right, everything you earned doubled.
Seriously see terms and check it out for yourself at
discover dot com. Slash Match. So earlier in the show,
I gave you what the best match for Derek Carr
would be, and number one is, he's got to go
(14:48):
to a team that look, he's leaving a team with
really good weapons. Is it really gonna work in New
Orleans where Okay, Chris Lave is pretty good, but you
don't know if you're guys are are still really is?
Is Alvin Camara still a lead? Is Michael Thomas Rever
gonna play? I mean, you can't go there. You go
you want to go to a team that has weapons
and look, a team like the Jets with Breece Hall
(15:08):
coming back in Michael Carter and you have three good receivers.
I mean, that's good, but I don't want him there.
So the best place for Trek Carr. And it's very simple.
If the Jets are a team that's a quarterback away,
the other team that's a quarterback away is the Steelers.
All Right, Kenny Pickett was brutal, alright, he was absolutely
(15:29):
brutal this year. And did he play a tiny bit
better in the last few games, Yeah, but a tiny
bit but but I I mean like it was incremental,
you know how much a little bit better he played.
But you're talking about a Steelers team that's got two
pretty good running backs Nazi Harrison Jalen Warren, really high
on Warren. You have a couple of good receivers or
you're hoping to take another big step, especially George Pickens.
(15:50):
Pat Friar Muth is one of the top tight ends
in the league. You know, the defense as long as t. J.
Watt plays is gonna be good, because you saw last
year when t J. Watt didn't play, they weren't good.
When he played, they won. Mike Tomlin's culture, where he's
gonna be protected against things is not gonna it's not
gonna be eaten alive by the press like he would
be in New York with the Jets. His first three
interception game. It's gonna be uh, Derek, can you take
(16:13):
us back to the point in the game where you
realize you sucked? What was that? Was that in the
first quarter? Was that second quarter? When was that? When? What? When? When?
When was that happened? Was that your first interception? Was
that your first incomplete pass when you missed Elijah Ware
who was wide open over the middle? I saw the
all twenty two already. I mean he said it there
going hey, drawing me to football, drawing me to football. Look,
I know you're trying to get at the Garrett Wilson.
The guys will bleep in Superstar, but you see the
(16:35):
guy help. But I saw you sucked right there, Derek.
What's your ants and there, Derek, if you want to
give me that answer right there. So that's a great
fit for it's a great fit. And the number of
people on my timeline telling me, are you kidding? You're insane?
Kenny Pickett is our guy. He's twenty four, Derek Carr
is thirty one. Are you nuts? You're crazy with this?
(16:55):
The you know, this is Valentine's Day, Love Mike car
But the number of Steelers fans that are talking up
Kenny Pickett, Like he didn't throw seven touchdowns and nine
interceptions in twelve games, right, like like like, that's not
the guy he was. Right whereas where he didn't have
one game and I would say he had one game
where his quarterback rating was above ninety. I mean, they're
they're talking Kenny picking Up, like the guy through forty
(17:18):
touchdowns last year. You want to replace him? What the
hell is wrong with you? Kenny pick It was not
good good. No. Here's the thing though, is and I'll
back the Steeler fans on this, uh one, I think
you're overrating uh at least part of the receiving call.
I think Deante Johnson's fine, not great. Uh Now. Pickings
on the other hand, throw it up and let him
(17:40):
get it. But you start forcing, what are you gonna do.
You're gonna make a lot of mistakes in that game,
trying to go ball time and time again. That's also
not the way the Steelers generally play football. Yes, Roethlisberger
did the longer he was there because he just freelanced
and did whatever he wanted, checked himself out of games
partially injured, and then would come back in three plays later.
(18:01):
You know, things of that nature. But when you look
at pick it didn't start the season as as the starter.
Obviously Trabiski is there down the stretch enough to win.
I'll leave it at that because it was it great. No,
but they won games, uh and the defense showed out
time and time again. We we've joked about it for
(18:23):
a long time. The is t J. Watt plan? That's
how I'm picking the game, d J Watt in or out.
That's my deciding factor because they're gonna play most games
close because the defense is always kind of solid. And
then obviously at next level when Watts available. But I
guess I would ask this question, is the trajectory of
(18:43):
pick it good enough to where you look and say,
all right, rookie contract, He'll grow into the role as
he's named the guy with a full off season as
the guy, and we build the offense to his strengths
versus guy going into his set in decade. Because what
are you doing with Derek Car Are you hoping that
he's the next Geno Smith? Derek Cars already Geno Smith.
(19:07):
I mean that's kind of what the guy is. He's
kind of Geno Smith, Kenny Pickett, he is on a
Zach Wilson trajectory. Okay, you need to flash a little
bit and show that you need to flash at least
a little bit as a rookie to show that you
can do that. I think I think when did he flash?
When did he flash? Had a play here and there.
(19:27):
I'm not saying that he was dominant and every completed
passes in games, but you gotta show that. Hey, this
is money. But I think that's grossly unfair to compare
him to Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson is so far below.
This is the levels thing that was really introduced with
Shakira and j Lo. But now Rihanna gets all the
credit because they went a little bit higher. Hey can
(19:47):
we pump that up to an eleven? But that's all
finally good. But you're doing that. We're doing the same
thing with quarterbacks Kenny Pickett. There's no way he's standing
over top of Zach Wilson. You think so, you think
you think he's real. Okay, let's see Zach Wilson this
year and let's compare him this year to exactly how
we watched can hang on, hang on, hang on, dud dude.
(20:13):
We talked about touchdowns for quarterbacks that are really good, Right,
so we gotta talk about touchdowns for quarterbacks that are
really bad. Zach Wilson through six touchdowns this year in
nine games. Can he pick it? Through seven touchdowns and
he played in thirteen games? Okay, that's not as good
as Zach Wilson. He threw more interceptions than Zack Wilson did.
All right, He's got a quarterback rating that's three points higher,
(20:35):
but his quarterback rating is seventy five, which is so
incredibly below average. Nothing Kenny Pickett did this year tells me, oh, yeah,
he can take that next big leap. There's nothing you
gotta flash a little bit. There's he's a little bit
from Trevor Lawrence going Okay, with the right with the
right coaching, he could be a guy that takes that jump.
And he got it because he got But you don't
believe in that. At the end of the year, with
(20:55):
the said, who's the one guy if I gotta believe
in any of this quarterback class because I'm not a
big fan of it. I mean, that was the desperate
was it was Trevor Lawrence and he did it. I mean,
that was the all stink step forward. Zach Wilson and
Zach Wilson Kenny Pickett had the same games this year.
They had the same games. They're the same games where
they threw for a hundred and fifty hundred and seventy
hundred and eighty yards, where they had no touchdowns and
(21:17):
one interception or two interceptions in a quarterback grade and
it was below eighty. I mean, really at least, but
how many times did you walk away from the Steeler
game saying, wow, he stinks just about every game? I mean,
just because they I didn't walk away, hey, Jack Wilson
the second coming, but we walked away from a bunch
(21:38):
of those Jets games, particularly you know when they lost
four out of five of the last games they played
because he won those first four. I mean, that was great, right,
But I was not walking away from those games thinking
he's great. In those four games he won, he threw
one touchdown, he threw one touchdown. They didn't they didn't
win because of him. They scored forty against the Dolphins
they wont Yeah, hey, they scored forty points and he
(21:59):
could and throw a touchdown in that game. He threw
ten yards ten yards in a ten point Let me
just tell you something. Let me just tell you something.
Trying trying to prop trying to prop up Zack Wilson
is not gonna work. Okay. It's like it's like trying
(22:20):
to sit on a chair with four broken legs. It's
not gonna happen. He did, I wasn't walking away going boy,
and I'm like, boy, we're lucky to win because Zack
Wilson has to get it and he hasn't gotten it.
He never got it. And that's why we're moving on.
Same thing with Kenny Pickett. H Kenny Pickna. Okay, at
the end of the year, they won three games. He
threw a touchdown in each of the last three games.
I mean this is he's a lower level Cooper Rush
(22:41):
the last three games of the season, and no one's
rushing to go sign Cooper Rush. Well, this way, if
Kenny Pickett became a free agent tomorrow, in addition to
Derek Carr, who's getting signed first, Derek Carr is getting
signed first still because they at least know the guy
can play. You're not bringing Kenny picking and saying, hey, Kenny,
you're our guy. We love those seven touchdowns you through, right,
(23:04):
But he's a guy in the room, and it's like,
all right, is Derek Carr gonna be our difference maker?
That's the question. Is Derek Carr the difference maker for
the roster that we have to bring him in at
the thirty to thirty five million dollars or whatever that
amount has to be versus what else do we need
to do with this roster? Is Kenny Pickett a guy
that we can grow with if we add another piece? Right?
(23:26):
Friar Muth is there? I like Friar Muth. I like
Pickings Deante a little less, but he's a good volume guy.
Dog Harris when healthy. You see the offensive line, which
could probably use a little tweak as well. Uh, he
and Warren are pretty good one too. Combo and we
and we stipulate that the defense is usually gonna be
solid and it could be exceptional when t. J. Watt
(23:49):
is available. Right, there's your setup. Is Derek Carr the
guy that you believe is that much better to potentially
lose out on other free agents? That he's that much
better than Kenny Pickett? I would argue after watching in
this past year. I don't think so. Let me ask
you this, If Derek Carr has the exact same season. Right,
I'll do the same thing that that we did with
(24:09):
Aaron Rodgers. If Derek Carr has the exact same season
that he had this year for the Steelers, how many
games do they win? Twelve? I mean the guy through touchdowns,
all right, I mean you got through touchdowns, all right,
That's that's pretty good. Right. The guy completed his passes,
that's pretty good. It's way better than what they got
(24:30):
out of Kenny Pick and it's way but it's also winging.
It's gonna be a much different circumstance winging around for
the Raiders in a division where you know there there
was some defensive lapses you had, well, Denver had a
good defense, but you knew you could beat their their offense. Uh, Chargers,
they were hurt all year. I keep going back to
that Frost Ferg is not even here to take that arrow. Yeah, no, No,
(24:52):
he's mad at you. Well he is, because I mean
I've had to say it repeatedly. It's like we talked
about health. That was the one of the one of
the big things coming out of Hey, look, everybody was
up and ready to play. I guess who was at
all season long? Chargers every year. But no, look, I'm
not denigrating you know, Derek Carry, He's the best of
this class. I'm just asking how good is that? That
(25:13):
doesn't end? If you're the Steelers and Mike Tomlin, is
that enough to place your guy for for for Derek
Carr to come in and for two years and sixty million?
Right because that we talked about that being where where
we should go to money based on the numbers right now? Yeah, okay,
because you can move on. You can also go back
to Kenny Pickett if Derek Carr stinks, and maybe Kenny
(25:36):
Pickett had some time to sit and learn and and
and actually be dynamic a little bit. Going down the
field is your quarterback needs to be dynamic. You can't
win with a game manager. You gotta at least be
on the quarterbacks. But that's the thing, though, is is
I think I can find more dynamic play with the
pickets of ability to move as he grows versus. And
(25:57):
then I don't use the word dynamic to describe Derek Carr.
Did you ever use that term to describe Derek Carr?
Has d games regularly? Derek Carr throws the football a bunch.
I mean I have more confidence that he's going to
move the team downfield than Kenny Pickett. I mean, look,
but I'm also looking at the structure and what what
they did and for a rookie year, how much did
(26:18):
they try to force him to push the ball down field?
Not to mention, they also got rid of guys uh
in the process. Hey, Chase Claypool beat it and he
turned out to be great, didn't he. But that's but
that's my point, right as they finally looked around like
we don't even have the guys we need for Kenny
backing at this point, I don't know that there's guys
(26:39):
out there. I think you have to get Jamaar Chase
and Justin Jefferson and Travis Kelsey and then maybe you
got a guy from that and maybe that's it. But
you know the idea that you know, Chase Claypool, I mean,
I love the bravado. I mean, you gotta believe in
bed on yourself, right, thinking he could still be a
top five talent. All but in the middle of the season,
they were looking like they we're gonna make the playoffs.
(26:59):
What do they do? They said, beat it and got
draft picks for him. So what did that say in
terms of where they were. They gut it out with
what they had and and I don't know that um
like I would do. I think it was be a
terrible move they brought in Derek Carr. No, I'm just
asking the question, as I have to uh to do
(27:21):
the full part of this, how good is he really?
Because we always put him in that eighteen to twenty
one range, don't we? Yeah, okay, you will, He'll be
middle of the pack at best, right, but when you
look at where you're coming from, you had the two
worst quarterback performances by any team in the league last year.
The Jets and the Steelers were not even close, right,
Jets and Steals two worst quarterback performances by any team
(27:42):
in the league. So yeah, if I can jump up
fourteen spots with how good my quarterback is, it doesn't matter.
If I'm jumping from thirty one to eighteenth. I'm still
pretty excited now if I'm jumping from but I'm but
then I'm not as excited. But from what you're telling me,
I didn't. But what you're telling me is you believe
there's no upside for Kenny Pickett at all. It's too
(28:04):
big of a risk. It's to to go into a
season thinking he's the guy when you have no idea
if the guy is gonna get it a second here,
now you have no idea. And and I, like I
said I would, I want to. I want you to
point two games where you can say, boy, I watch
this game, and this tells me Kenny Pickett is gonna
be a first round quarterback and a franchise guy. You
tell me. Nobody can tell me Kenny Pickett is gonna
(28:26):
be anything ever more than a game manager that can
maybe throw for a hundred and seventy five yards a week.
And and the Steelers have to bank on winning seventeen.
That's too much pressure to put on your defense, the
rest of your team. That quarterback is not gonna put
points up on the board. This is the ever of
the quarterback. This how you do it. You gotta put
points up, You gotta be dynamic. I've not seen anything
from Kenny Pickett tells me that's gonna happen. I I
(28:48):
wish we were in studio so I can give you
the big hug that you so desperately need. I need, ah,
I need a hug. You need a hug. Off that
take because you were trying to prop up Derek Carr.
You know why you're doing this, because you're trying a
k put another team out there, so he's not a
Jet and be you're gonna be able to point back
to all these arguments going, yeah, yeah, he's pretty good,
(29:10):
and now he's our quarterback. I see what you're doing.
You're not fooling anybody. Okay, Hey, no I don't want
him on my team. B doesn't mean there's not a
good fit for him. And see, I know in the end,
whoever I say I don't want the most is the
guy the Jets are going to sign. So it doesn't whoever,
it doesn't matter where do you see this stuff? I'm
gonna have to say about Ryan Tannehill coming up in
(29:30):
a couple of days, Ryan Tannehill, because whoever I don't
want the most, that's gonna be the guy that Jets getting.
That's how it's gonna car could end up in Carolina,
be the guy in Tampa. Whoever the Jets pick is
gonna be wrong, and they're gonna pick a wrong guy.
They're gonna give him a lot of money to make
it more wrong. Or he could be a Jet. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
(29:52):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Still picture in Harmon in the miniskirt. I'm still dancing
over here. It still has a lipstick on ye standard remix. Baby,
Let's go Bock Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
My best Friend Mike Harmon. Now, Aaron Rodgers went on
(30:17):
the Pat McAfee show today. It was very upset that
people thought his darkness retreated begun. I didn't say it
was starting today. It's the end of the week. It's
always been the end of the week. Okay, God, God,
it's always been the end of the week. Yeah. The
first he was upset, I mean, and actually took to
social media to say, hey, do do not question that,
which I agree with. I'm with him, I mean, so
(30:42):
here it is the darkness to treat friend, but it's
not going to be in until the end of the week,
so we have some time. Now that being the case,
let's see if we could actually get into Aaron Rodgers
darkness retreat. See if we can open the magical door
that gets into the darkness or treat. So here's what
we're gonna do. Everybody here on the show, kind of
(31:03):
turn the lights off, turn all the lights off, getting darkness.
All the lights off, all the lights off, lights off,
lights off, lights are off, lights are off. T Shirt,
get those lights off, Isaac low and crown lights off.
There we go, all right, all our lights are off
right now. No candles, we need some, We need some
(31:23):
darkness retreat music Alex ti Shirt. Yeah, not even the
glow of your phone at this point. No, no, no,
no no, I close your eyes. You're in the darkness retreat.
You're looking for a door. Where's the door? You're looking
for the door to Aaron Rodgers darkness Retreat. Where's the door?
(31:45):
No one's chasing you with a machete and you have
to get out, running for your life. Shila buff is
not chasing you. Quiet, quiet, You see a door with
a green handle. Oh, I thought you were going to
say behind the green door was a green handle, because
that's a whole other movie. Stacks of money in front
(32:08):
of the door. You have to do an astronaut leap
over the money to get to the door. It's got
a big you're taking us out of the moment. I
don't think that's there in the Darkness Retreat. I wait, look, man,
you're alone in darkness for four days. Don't tell me
that any Gronkowski like thoughts aren't coming into No, no, no, no, no. Listen,
(32:30):
the last thing you wanted the Darkness Retreat is Rob Gronkowski.
It's not going to be quiet enough. It's gonna be loud.
There's gonna be lots of things happen. And I'm saying
he in in Gronkowski inspired thoughts and activity. We're at
the door. We're at the door. We're at the door.
You don't even need to knock on it. You just
need to wave your hand in front and a sensor
will understand you're here. I'm nice, d you, Aaron Rodgers.
(32:58):
There's no anger. It's a darkness retreat. No one's upset
about anything. Everything's fine, everybody's happy. We're all friends. I
think I left my car lights on. Everybody's a friend.
The door opens, creeks open, A hand comes out, offers
you a cup of tea, just like it's the Mad
(33:19):
Hatter's Tea party, except that syahuasca tea. You drink the tea.
Everybody pretend you drank the tea. It runneth over. Jason,
you're drinking the tea at the doorstep to Aaron Rodgers.
Darkness Retreat. Isaac Lowan Crown, what do you see? Yes, Jets,
(33:41):
jets j Isaac Lowan Crown is seeing the jets. Mike Harmon,
what are you seeing after drinking the Ayahuaska tea? What
are you seeing? Giant pirate? Ship in the sky calling
me in the scar off sky pirate? Sky pirate could
also be confused is maybe it's a you're seeing a jet?
(34:02):
Or are you sing sky pilot? Eric Burdens. They're saying,
let's let's go. That's very obscure, really obscure. People don't
get it. But we're in the Darkness Retreat. It's okay,
I had Cod's there's no COVID in the Darkness Retreat.
There are toes and only your ten toes as you
walk in front of you. Let me take one off
(34:25):
Ray Alex Tyshert, What are you seeing in the Darkness Retreats?
What are you seeing? Helmet? Very good? It's what it's dark?
What color is that helmet? I'm seeing balls? How can
you see a dark helmet? In the Darkness Retreat. How
can you see a dark color? That's impossible some kind
of well you're not you're not really in the darkness,
(34:49):
or see spaceball you're pretending to be in the darkness,
or helmet you're not really there. He was my father's
brother's cousin's former roommates. I'm still the deserts. I'm seeing
Aaron Rodgers in a Jets jersey, and he's offering me
a big mac, saying, here, eat this, take a bite
(35:10):
as a symbol of my desire to join the Jets.
It's the wrong apple, East, Brother. I bite the big Mac.
I take the pickles out first and ask for extra cheese.
But then I bite the big and the taste it
tastes like victory. Hepsy East, don't eat dead poison. We'll
have more from the Darkness Retreat on Aaron Rodgers as
(35:32):
we stay in the room. Next here on Fox Sports Radio,
it's somebody farts.
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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