Hour 4 - Justin Fields and The NFL Draft

Jason and Mike discuss the concept of the Bears trading QB Justin Fields and taking a new rookie QB this coming NFL Draft.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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. Hello, Welcome inside our
four of The Jason Smith Show with my base friend
Mike Harmon. Oh oh, you did it so a long
time since we played that one live from the tire
ract dot Com studios. Tirect dot com will up you

(00:45):
get there and unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road
hazard protection over ten thousand recommended installers ti iract dot com.
The way tire buying should be Well, you know me,
I hate to say I told you so, I really really,
I I don't like now, I really I really no,
I don't. I don't like to say, but I feel
it needs to be said sometimes. You know, it needs

(01:07):
to be said because you know we do. I also
liked him when we say we have Tomorrow's takes tonight
or Tomorrow's takes a month ago, which, oh, by the way,
this Justin Field story and the number one pick in
the draft comes to us Jason locking for longtime friend
of the show inside It for Odyssey Washington post Uh

(01:29):
tweeted out earlier today that he talked to people. The
talk coming out of the Senior Bowl was that the
Bears could be ready to move off of Justin Fields
and trade him, considering they picked number one overall. Now
it's a big deal, and I've seen the story else
where I'm going. We told you that was gonna happen
in the beginning of January. January fourth, going into the

(01:53):
last week of the regular season, you and I had
a bitter disagreement about this. I said, if the Bears
wind up picking first, if somehow the Texans blow this
and they wiped up losing winning the game, and the
Bears lose and the Bears pick first, watch Justin Fields
get traded in the offseason. Why And it's pretty simple.

(02:14):
When you pick first, there is an overwhelming amount of
pressure to take a quarterback. Right It's your chance to
to get the best quarterback coming out of college football.
And this year there's four or five guys that people like,
it's a much better quarterback class and it was a
year ago. Bryce Young is the jewel of that of
that class. Yes he's not as tall, but boy, the

(02:34):
way that kid sees the field is outstanding. I'd love
to get Bryce Young. It's really difficult to say we're
not going to take a quarterback in that situation, right,
the pressure of take the quarterback, take the quarterback, because
in Chicago, in big time media markets where it doesn't
matter who you don't take. If you don't take a guy,
if you don't take a quarterback and he turns out
to be a star, that regime is gonna all get

(02:57):
wiped out because you didn't take the quarterback. You did
do it. You didn't take the guy you thought could
wind up being a bleep and superstar. So the over
I would say, if if you're if you're proportioning this out,
fifty of it is the overwhelming pressure at picking number one.
Then when you throw in they like Justin Fields. Do
they love Justin Fields? I don't know. The Bears love

(03:17):
Justin Fields. I think they really like him, and they're
more confident in him coming off of this year than
they were last year because the guy proved a he's
really good. He would have set a record for most
yards rushing by a quarterback in the season had he
not sat out the last week that that would have happened.
But do they love him, do they think he can
be an elite player? Or do they like Remember nobody
here drafted him. And when you can reset the quarterback clock,

(03:41):
think about that winning a super Bowl. Now, the whole
big thing is we're not paying a quarterback. Not paying
a quarterback. Okay, so you're not paying a quarterback as
you're getting Brce Young number one overall. You got him
for the next four plus years after that, and you're
getting draft picks for Justin Fields. You're getting good draft
picks because he's a guy that we number two on
my list of guys that are available now because Lamar

(04:01):
Jackson's number one. No, I told you tonight Lamar Jackson
number I'm gonna get to him. You changed it in
twenty four hours because justin Fields that Jason locking for
report and hey, the Bears move just you gotta stand
bad as a man if you're gonna say I told
you this was gonna happen, that you should have become him.
But now guys become available, then it would be Justin Fields,

(04:22):
and then it would be Aaron Rodgers. Then it would
be let's not talk about the other guys, but feels
now you can do that and you'll get a lot
of draft picks for him because teams are gonna want
and there are gonna be teams saying yes, I'd love
to go get Justin Fields. Give me Justin Fields. Justin Fields.
So when you throw all that around, yeah, there's almost
kind of like the Bears have no choice. The the
silver lining I will give you because I know you
don't want to see it, and look, I'd love to

(04:44):
see Justin Fields be a great quarterback for the Bears.
He's terrific. But the one silver lining I will say
is that if they can't find a way to make
the deal happen, which they should be able to because
they are people that are desperate for quarterbacks, they'll move
out of the number one pick. They're not gonna sit there.
If you're not gonna pick a quarter back at number one,
move out of that pick. Don't be stupid. Why why
am I Why am I paying an offensive lineman here?

(05:05):
Why am I paying? Why am I move out of
there get more picks, somebody else will trade up. They
will want Bryce Young, they will want to go up
to number one to go get him, So they will.
They will not pick number one if they're not taking
a quarterback. But when it's out here for Justin Fields
and teams are going to be interested because suddenly Justin
Fields is at the top of that list of quarterbacks available.
Bears trading Justin Fields. We told you over a month ago,

(05:27):
and here's where we are today. Yeah, I think it
comes down to this is I never thought it was
a non starter. I still am very strong and resolute
in my analysis. To say it would be unwise or
dare I say it in the vernacular of hot talk
sports hot take, hot talk sports radio, Um, it would

(05:49):
be dumb because you have proof of concept of Justin
Fields at least to say, all right, we've got we've
got something to work with here. Now is he a
complete passer at this point? No? But part of that
is also, well, what are you working with here in
terms of uh your do you have world class options
in the receiving game? You had a pretty good run game.

(06:11):
Montgomery may or may not return, more likely he doesn't,
but you have Khalil Herbert, assuming he comes back healthy
and ready to go fine. Offensive line got a lot
better as the year went on, and the fact that
they started to scheme for what fields could do, go figure, uh,
certainly assisted in that in making them perhaps better or
at least look better and great out better than they

(06:33):
would have otherwise. But as much as I like Darnell
Mooney on virtually every other team in the NFL not
named the Ravens, he's a number two or maybe a
number three in a lot of cases. I mean, I
like him, but he's not He's not a star. Cold
Comet showed up for about four weeks where he gained
most of his statistics. Do you like what he is

(06:55):
as a talent growing and going and going forward? Sure?
But what else is there to that receiving corps Chase
Claypool please? Uh? You're hoping that that guy becomes a
viable three when it comes comes together for this next
year and then you rounded out from there with guys
you've picked up along the way. Um, so you have that,

(07:16):
you know what, I think A lot of it I
I would take with justin fields and the fact that
he could quote unquote be available this would be like
on a car lot, you'd be had rolling a bunch
of his highlights. It's like, oh wow, he gets you
in the door. I wow, that's a good looking car.
And then you got people excited, right, you wetted the appetite.
And then you start looking at it and they start

(07:37):
seeing all the surcharges and the extras to really make
what that's gonna work. So you bring them towards the
back of the room and it's got a lesser car,
but it's something you want to move. And maybe that's
that's the case with the number one pick, if you
want to play it that way. I really think the
number one pick is the way you go and trade
away that to Carolina or to the thirsty him or say,

(08:00):
who has a picture of himself on a bear that
he put up on social media which was creepy as hell,
But that's fine. That that means Justin Field is getting
treaded to the colts. That's what that means is he's
just number one. No, they're gonna Ryan Paul Is gonna say,
come into my office. You really like this guy. Let
me interest you in this because you get to choose
your own adventure and that's the biggest thing for the Bears.

(08:23):
You've got a guy, proof of concept, that could be
a guy, and you got a year with Luke Getzy,
and you got a year uh in this system, and
you started to build around him. Why not continue to
build around him with the war chest that you have
of overall one hundred million dollars, the war chests that
you have in terms of draft selections and more that

(08:44):
you will get by trading away from the number one
overall pick that's another couple and number ones, twos whatever.
To fortify around Fields while he's still on that rookie deal,
instead of burning it all down and saying, you know,
let's take what's behind door number two? Is he? Are
you sure he's gonna be able to play in the NFL?
I don't know, but they tell me at number one

(09:06):
I have to do this. No flip the script, burn
the book and move forward. Well here here's here's the
devil's advocate side. This is why I disagree, is that
the Bears record wise, No, no, No Bears record one
want to I'd love to get Justin Fields. I'll call
Joe Douglas now and get just can't. Derek Carr and
you're like, and don't keep complaining about it. You're gonna

(09:27):
get David Stop, You're getting Derek Carr. Or really, if
you keep it up, you're gonna have Baker Mayfield as
your starter and and your guys Zach battling it out
in camp or the three way competition between Mayfield and
Zach and Gardner Minshew goes into its eighth week. Now
here at camp, um he's disagreed. Job going away? Are you?

(09:50):
Is the mustaches don't count? Mustache? Is that the Bears
are bad football team? Right? Bears are a bad team?
And are they going to be championship d in a
year and a half when it's time to pay Justin Fields?
Probably not? And so yeah, if you trade the number
one pick and you slide down, you get picked, you'll
get more draft picks. But are you gonna be ready

(10:12):
to win in two years? And when suddenly? Now, okay,
well now our guys are here to well know now
Justin Fields needs money? Oh man, this did not work?
Now could you be ready in three four years? You
draft Bryce Young number one, You get a bunch of picks,
and things come through and and the last couple of
years and you're just about ready to win. You have
Bryce Young on the last year or two of his deal,

(10:34):
and you have a window before you gotta pay him. Yeah,
that works. I mean, you know, it's it's a big thing.
It's you know, it's it's every team has two errors
of their team. They have the error there in and
the error they're in after they pay a quarterback, because
then suddenly you gotta cut corners a lot of other
positions and you can't do it right. The Jets are
gonna find it out this year when they spend all
kinds of money and free age. You're going, man, oh,

(10:55):
it's really oh, it's wow. It's really hard to get
these free agents to come in now here and playing
Roberts all of wants eighteen defensive lineman, and we can't
go sign that eighteenth guy. So there's two eras the
teams have, and the Bears can postpone that era by saying, hey,
let's reset the clock on it. If I thought the
Bears were close, and it's you know, next year they'll
go from three wins to to like nine wins, and

(11:16):
then he can get from nine to alright, but the
Bears aren't there. They need much more. They need a
lot more talent, need more influx, which they will help
with getting those draft picks. So that's why I'm I'm
of the ilk of yeah, Okay, if you gotta do it,
if you're gonna if this gotta go ahead, do it
right because Justin Fields might wind up being a really
good quarterback. Bryce Young could be a generational talent you take.
If you take Ryce Young, if you take Gryce Young, well,

(11:39):
Bryce Young, Bryce Young. We've been hearing about him for
three years. You've seen the guy play. You see what
he can do. You see some of the throws that
he's able to make. All Right, I I didn't know
he's gonna walk into the league a better past with
than Justin Fields. Is Is he gonna run like Justin Fields? No?
But I know he's walking in a much better passer
Right now with the Alabama Crimson tide, I'm walking around
with a bunch of the best of the best where

(12:00):
I can throw the air and know my guy's gonna
find it. How many times we gotta do this. It's
the same thing Bryce Young, as you know, when we
go Ohio State versus Alabama quarterback, we can weigh him
against each other and look at each other. Bryce Young
is different. Bryce Young is He's a different guy. You
see the small five Yep, he's gone. Now you can

(12:22):
see you can see. No, he's as tall as you. No,
I'm just picturing you in a Barret's helmet with really
big white shoulder pants, calling out signals and playing court,
wing it around batty. Yeah. I just I'm just not
buying the generational quarterback for this game. He could be

(12:42):
grobbed telling you, man, he could beat everything that Kyler
Murray is supposed to be. He can be and and
that's the whole thing. You see how accurate he has
throwing the ball down field and and and tight windows,
and he's better than any guy Alabama's had that you
brought up Kyler Murray. Now, I don't I don't want
to go anybody near to where Lincoln Riley has touched

(13:03):
because they all they all get drafted really early. But
then what are you getting? Yeah, you wait till everybody
wants a tank for Caleb Williams and they go should
we thank for him? But I mean that that would
be the other part of this argument, though, Jason, if
you want to extrapolate, is if you don't think Fields
is any good. They're gonna suck, aren't on paper? The

(13:23):
two guys for the following year, better that the class
come in here. Okay, true, true, you know what I mean?
The number one kick the can down the road and
still have all those draft picks that you traded away,
the number one and the Bears have the number one

(13:44):
pick in the draft again, congratulations Chicago. But you get
my point. If it's if it's that bad, then in
theory you're you're drafting near the top of the board again. Well,
you know what I say to that, I say, that's
a story and a worry for another day. Let's worry
about this day first. Let's worry about a year plus

(14:05):
from now. A year plus from now, Let's get Derek
Card to the Jets first, let's start to the Jets.
If that happens, it's both of your faults, Rogers said
all along. You know, hey, listen, let me go there.
If there was a lot of interesting Derek Card, don't
you think we would have heard something already? Would don't
you think we would have heard a darkness retreat of
his own? Oh you think he is? Hey, No one's calling,

(14:27):
just telling them in the Darkness Retreat make it seem
like there's interest, but room. I had to book the room.
I mean because because because look, Rogers has it on
Friday to Tuesday, so I can only get it now.
It's like an Airbnb. I can only get it now
until Friday morning. I gotta check out by like by noon. Yeah,
I can't. They could have shared it. Just be sure

(14:50):
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
Fox Sports Radio. That Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon live from the tiraq dot Com studios,
where it's not just about justin Fields potentially being available.

(15:12):
We got that report earlier today from NFL insider Jason
locket Ford. We told you was gonna happen. We told
you a month ago. Stop trying to speaking into existence.
Look at you. You're good, Derek RD of the Jets,
and you're gonna like it. No. Now, I'm making just
Fields get traded. Now, I'm making that happen for you.
Shoes on the other foot, now, isn't it smart? Guy?

(15:33):
I actually get I guess would get the better of
the deal. Either way, I don't lose. You get Derek Carr. Wait,
all right, is there any scenario in which I don't
get Derek Carr? If there's somebody else, you can get

(15:53):
Bigger Mayfield, Ryan Tannehill. I don't want that one either.
You can get Jacoby Brissett. H Okay, last ditch Okay, okay,
Garoppolo for half a year, Okay, Next you get Mike
White just stays. You can get who else is out there? Yeah,

(16:15):
you ain't getting anything else. Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna win this with Rogers just going to to Vegas.
I'm not gonna wine. You never know, he never know
what's gonna happen after the darkness retreat. Man, You people
change and dark I know you know many people I
know that do darkness retreats and then come out of
it and tell me darkness retreats. I have people that
do the you know, century deprivation tanks and going in

(16:38):
hiding hyperbaric chambers and all of those things. I certainly
know know that part of it. I I have not
known the four day darkness rey. Yeah, sign No. Hundreds
of people everybody's doing it, and I actually kind of
want to do it now. I also want to I
would like to do it because if I scheduled it
right now, I might be in the same place. You know,
here's here's the morning briefing, and there's a me and

(17:00):
Aaron Rodgers staring at each other. If alongside Schefter and
everybody else said, now it's about I don't know as
much as the other guys do because they're not in
the inner circle of trust. Greg, you put so much
lacquer on this thing, of course it's going to go up.
Uh Is that you know? I mean I I look
at it as if I went into a darkness treat
and I think you would be the same way. You

(17:21):
come out with bruises on your shins because you just
keep bumping into stuff. For four days, I forgot that
was there, you know. I thought I might be tired
enough that I just sleep for the better part of
what do you do? I just took a lot. I
hibernated like a bear. I hope in my eyes it
was still dark. I went back to sleep. That's what
I did. I dreamed. I was you know, it was

(17:42):
suddenly like I was visiting Sweden, nickin like I did
when it was twenty hours of Darkness a few years ago,
the same kind of thing. Everything's lit up, I can
to light Otherwise it's just pitched black for twenty hours
a day. What do you do? I slept Twitter and
about a fresk of Mike hats swollen down the Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmen. Now it's

(18:04):
not just justin Fields. We had Jordan's Schultz of the Score, NFL,
NBA insider. He comes on the show all the time,
has a big story on the Score today. That UH
intimates and implies that when the Ravens were interviewing candidates
to be their offensive coordinator, they told them maybe we

(18:25):
have Lamar Jackson, maybe we won't this year, and that
was part of the interview process. So my coaching Lamar, Well,
you've been watching the news, right, I mean you want coach? Right?
Maybe not? I mean I don't know. Yeah, Look, people
have to let this go. Now, Lamar Jackson is gonna
be on a new team. Let it go, Let it go,

(18:47):
let it go, don't hold it on anymore. Okay, let
it go. That perfect world. You're gonna wear a big
flowy blue dress and climbing up the staircase of Sachet
my hips like Elsa when I'm walking out going. Uh,
he's gone, all right. If the Ravens were going to
keep him, they would assigned him, alright. The money that

(19:09):
he turned down was a hundred million dollars less guaranteed
than he wants. He's not staying, all right, it's not
happening the Ravens this weekend. Hey, reports came out over
the weekend that the Ravens are listening to offers that
listen for Lamar Jackson. It's ending with him being traded
now likely it's gonna be a little bit of a
process because the Ravens really don't want to look like

(19:29):
the team that wouldn't pay Lamar Jackson and they let
him go. But that's exactly what it's gonna be, all right.
I mean, I'm sorry that that Deshaun Watson got two
thirty million dollars, but when that happens, that changes things
for the NFL. So, yeah, Lamar Jackson wants more than that,
because he's worth more than that. Yeah, I'm sorry, be
mad at the Browns like everybody else's, but that's how
it goes in the National Football League. You have a

(19:51):
guy that's twenty five years old that won the m
v P, and you're like, I don't know if you
want to pay you, so you're gonna franchise or nobody's
gonna do not report not report that guy. I already
the end of the season. He hurt his knee. We
didn't see in the rest of the way, didn't nope, nope, no.
I told he's not gonna play. He's played his last
game as a Raven. He's not going to risk a
big time injury to his knee when he doesn't want
to be there and he wants to be another team

(20:12):
and wants to get a big contract. Lamar Jackson has gone,
all right, just just just come come to grips with
that that this is how it's going to end. Now.
I'm hoping it doesn't take forever for this to happen
where it's not We're gonna wait and there's no movement
and we franchise you and then he says I'm not
showing up, and then it's holding out from training camp
and then there's a trade. I'm hoping it's quicker than that.

(20:33):
So teams should call the ravens now and hey, let's
get what do you want. We'll give him the money,
We'll give you the first round picks you want. We'll
do this. I'm hoping teams say do that, but I
think it's gonna wind up taking a long time. But
it doesn't matter because it's gonna end the same way
with Lamar Jackson on a different team. In Yeah, I
think in the curiosity of it, if at all, is
what's real, what's imagined. As far as how hurt, he

(20:56):
was right because depending on who you believed and what
messaging you want to get out. And again, it's Lamar
and his mom and whatever that makeshift arrangement is, which
mayor may not be as makeshift as everybody wants to believe.
I can't believe there's not lawyers and managers and advisors
that are still there. They may not be the traditional
agents that everybody wants and the power brokers. But I

(21:18):
doubt he's truly acting alone, uh in this stuff. But
you know, we know from the Raven side of things,
Bashati was probably what would you say, metal stand or
maybe the number one slot with the gold of most
adamant and vocal about the hatred of Deshaun Watson's deal.
Why because his guy was next in line. Forget about

(21:41):
Kyler Murray and those guys. I mean, those are other contracts,
those are other considerations. But Lamar Jackson being out there
as a former m v P was a deal that
they had to uh look at. And whatever the real
again versus imagined and reported numbers, the leaked numbers, how
far apart are they? We? We the world may never
just like the center of a tutsie rope up and

(22:02):
getting there with the owl. But we're we're looking at
a situation whereby there's there's no need to act right.
We're creeping towards the eleventh hour. But well, you know,
we're at ten fifty five right now and just waiting
on what the next route is. How healthy is he?
What are they gonna do? Can they convince him with
his new offensive coordinator on board, that all right, here's

(22:24):
how we can best utilize you. Here's what we plan
to do this offseason to shore up the receiving corps
and give you some more options, maybe change up a
little bit of what you have to do physically, which
has made him an m v P and one of
these highly sought after players. Notice how it's a catch
twenty two and all of this, but it's it's now

(22:45):
the idea of can you get back to the table
and have a real conversation one last time before everybody
you know does their huffy walk away in the opposite direction,
because what are you replacing him with Huntley? I'm sorry,
I'm glad. Hey, hey, that's that's Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Yeah,

(23:06):
and we also have to call him snoop now, I think,
But anither way, the idea is that, I mean, he
got to the Pro Bowl, and good on him. Nobody
can ever take that away. But we we we saw
what that was in terms of your offense dipped to
what twelve points a game? Come on? Uh? And this
goes back to your Kenny Picket argument whatever, I guess

(23:26):
in some ways of all right, as long as the
defense shows up every week, you're in the game. Uh.
And and that may be true, but you're you're looking
at Lamar and the playmaker he was, at least for
those first few weeks we had him on that Dynasty team,
and fantasy was he was brilliant until he wasn't before
he finally got hurt and missed the rest of the year.
So now it's it's the question for the Ravens of

(23:50):
Look what you have on your roster, Look what your
other options are around the National Football League to replace
him or in the draft. Do you really want to
go down that road? Or do you pay the piper?
I would pay the piper, but for our our purposes here,
that's only if it's Roddy Pipe. I like the intrigue.
That's the only pipe. If it's Roddy Piper, you're paying him.

(24:11):
That's the only piper you're paying. His daughter is a
pretty good wrestler. Now, too rowdy Roddy Piper. Wherever we
can talk about him, we do no question about it.
Just when you think you have all the answers, nice
the questions. He was the best. Now, look, if you're
telling I might wear a kilt like Juju Schuster did
to the Super Bowl at our next doubting in Vegas,

(24:34):
you don't know and just sign autographs going Jujus, I
was the guy that got held. What I'll be doing
is I'll just you know, it'll be calf time all
the time. Where is he going to end up? Now?
This is this is a this is a big thing
because where will Lamar Jackson end up? If I had
to put my money on a destination for Lamar Jackson.

(24:57):
First of all, you can wipe out the a f C.
The Ravens are not gonna do it. I'd i'd see
if they have the sack to trade him to the
to the Patriots, but that's not gonna happen. He's gonna
go to the NFC or a team in the a
f C that the Ravens feel like, well, they just
can't get their act together, so maybe the Jets. But
he's gonna go to the NFC. Now, somebody's got a
really ponia. Okay, this is Lamar Jackson, So you're not

(25:19):
talking about Aaron Rodgers. Where well, maybe we don't have
to give up as much draft wise because we gotta
pay him a lot of money, or maybe don't have
to pay him all his money because we're giving up
stuff in the draft. There's a lot of give and
take for for the quarterbacks at the top right justin fields.
If you trade for him, we don't have to worry
about a new deal for him for another couple of years.
We trade the picks. But Lamar Jackson is someone who

(25:41):
you are going to trade. You have to trade big
time draft capital and you gotta pay him right, So
you're talking about, okay, who's gonna guarantee him two fifty
million dollars and be okay trading the multiple first round
picks it's gonna take to get him. This is where
it comes to my favorite D word, desperation and who
is the most desperate team. A team that's tried to

(26:02):
figure out their quarterback position so much the last couple
of years. They brought in four guys mercy five. Sure, hey,
but we're but no, we're moving to the NFC. You
can trade them here. A team that's tried to figure
out their quarterback position so much in the last couple
of years. They brought in four guys they started five.
They have a newish owner who is desperate to cut

(26:24):
through and solve a problem and turn this team back
into being relevant like they were when they had a
superstar quarterback a few years ago. The team that's gonna
pony up that has a draft capital that is the
most desperate. It's not the Atlanta Falcons, who has mostly
been mostly linked to It's gonna be the Carolina Panthers
and that's where Lamar Jackson is gonna end up. Desperate

(26:44):
owner wanting needing to solve the quarterback position. They have
the draft capital, they got a bunch of trading away
Christian McCaffrey. They can clearly the clear out some more
if they need to. It's gonna be the Panthers that
wind up getting Lamar Jackson. I kind of dig that.
I don't think desperation is the right word, though. I
think it's more aggressive when it comes to Temper, right

(27:06):
because he couldna let that Matt rule thing fester for
a while, and he didn't. He just decided, you know what,
that's it. We're done. Uh. And what I what? I
gotta pay him out. I don't care make it happen. Uh.
It's like kind of like your Mets owner right with
you know, Steve Cohen, with all is whatever. We're gonna
buy everything that's on the marketplace. Some of it has

(27:29):
to hit right. I think Temper has got him in
that same same boat. Now, I wanted Steve Wilkes to
get that job, don't get me wrong. But they make
the decision. We move forward to this next iteration of
this squad. You have a number, you have a couple
of first round picks in second round picks at your disposal.
You've got a division that's in flux, right, New Orleans?

(27:49):
Whose quarterbacking there? What are they doing? Is Michael Thomas
gonna play? Is Eavela's Calvi Alvin Kamara gonna stick around? Uh?
You got a solid defense, Tampa Bay. You got a
couple of names guys at the wide receiver position. And
if you're healthy defensively, you've got some players. But is
Kyle Trash gonna be up to the task? You're bringing
in another guy? Is this suddenly where Baker Mayfield and

(28:11):
one of these other guys shows up? Either way with
Evans Godwin and company, it's a shrug of the shoulders
of I don't know what I'm going to expect. And
Atlanta you've got Desmond Ritter. Calvin Ridley is now a
member of the Jacksonville Jaguars if he can get himself reinstated,
by the way, today was the first day that that
he can go towards that application, uh to get back

(28:32):
into the league and and suddenly fortify that receiving corps
perhaps a bit more uh in Jacksonville, But in Atlanta,
cor Darrell Patterson free agent Algier good. Is he great?
Not sure? Um, Kyle Pitts is a guy that we've
loved on paper, got hurt last year, so what's he
gonna be able to do? I don't know. Drake London solid,

(28:56):
but as a team, you don't have a whole lot there.
So yeah, Carolina pushes every all the chips to the
center of the table. It makes sense. I think it
would be curious to see to see that play out
and and what Baltimore would get back in return, and
what decisions they'd make at quarterback. But hey man, I'm
all about the wheel spinning. Just stay away from my

(29:17):
game and as they said, Jets, You be sure to
catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific, Fox
Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with my base friend
Mike Harmon from the Tire Rack Dot Cob Studios. Time
now for the play of the Night. Play the Night

(29:41):
brought to you by Progressive Progressive making things even easier.
They'll help you bundle your home and car insurance together
so you can save on both. Learn more at Progressive
dot com or call one progressive. Well, what have I
said about Laker fans? Right? They put four good minutes
together and it's we're back. The Lakers are back. We're great.
They win one game A, the Lakers are back, We're great. Well,

(30:02):
they had everybody on the floor after the trade deadline tonight.
Lebron played, D'Angelo Russell played, Anthony Davis played, and well,
when you win big like that, even for one night,
you can be the play of the night. Nice night, right,
stud They look good. I mean that new lineup look
great to start the game. That deadline up a great
way to go to the great move that look Lakers.

(30:25):
You know, I'll think about that over the happening in
the final three. It's just Billy Beck and still lets
the Lakers are back, But let kids are we're back, man.
One of that their job is to sell, sell, sell.
They can curse the team in their moves and the

(30:46):
lack of cohesion, execution, et cetera, and private on the microphone.
I don't know that out of the game. Did you
see that? Hey, I don't want to say we're back,
but we're back, man, I just see this. We're back,
We're back, yelling around like your Stanza. It's like it's
like they're convincing each other that I'm not crazy. We're

(31:07):
back right, Like, look, hey, the stars look good. Everybody. Okay,
it's what one game inside, We've solved all our problems.
You know, this is why the Lakers fail. And and
Patrick Beverley talked about it when he did his podcast yesterday, Um,
he's waiting for a buyout to join his new team.
When they said what was was it with the Lakers?
It wasn't talent, It was other stuff going on. He

(31:28):
didn't say stuff, what is it? It's just there was
a bunch of other stuff that would always seem to
be in the way. Didn't go into a lot of detail.
And I give him a lot of credit for that
because you look, you know there's stuff He could have said, well,
this happened, This happened, This happened, but this is one
of those things. It's looking at this. The Lakers win
one game, right, the new guys play. There's been struggling
all year, Right, the regular season is a marathon. I

(31:51):
like the way the Knicks have been attacking it because
when they had a really bad loss a week and
a half ago, Jalen Brunson said after the game, We're fine.
It's good. The regular season we had, we have a
lot of games left. We're fine. Where we're at. Everything
is good. I love that. But the Lakers are just Yeah,
now we've jumped past all the hard work and continuing
to to coalesce and and get cohesive and now we're

(32:12):
That's how everything is, and this is why the Lakers failed.
So they have one game, are back. Now, let's relax. Oh,
we just lost three in a row. Oh now we
gotta win on We just now we wont great, but
we lost three in a row. Again. This is what
happens to the Lakers. This is why they fail because
it's stuff like this that gets in their way. Well,
I think a lot of it is trying and trying
to ascertain what your role is. I mean, we watched
watching with Russell Westbrook. What do I do? Lebron James?

(32:34):
Is he in or he is he out? Is he
about getting his own individual accolades? And this is not
a hate take, it's it's something that I think is
kind of the common, uh breakdown of where we're at
in this. All right, he got the record, what's the
last twenty three games, right, Because if you're that injured,
how many games are you gonna miss down the stretch?
And are you gonna be ready for anything, let's say

(32:56):
the final two weeks. They really need you to push
in minutes because that was a big top pick a
conversation today, right of trying to back off his minutes
and and maybe you got a little bit of that today.
But is this Pelicans team the same team you saw
a month and a half again, No, they've been terrible
for long stretches of time here in recent recent memory.
And and Zion what I mean they held him in

(33:18):
check today? Uh, he never got out of his chair,
and his in his street clothes was great, and he
won't for another couple of weeks. So, you know, trying
to say, all right, we got this wind. It's like
it's important to get the wind, but you also have
to look at, you know, on the larger scale, what
what is this team at this point? This one's uh
in a free fall? So yeah, you can pass them,

(33:39):
but are you gonna be ready for the long haul?
I like what D'Angelo Russell brings. I'm curious to see
how it plays. Anthony Davis canna stay healthy? Because clearly
he's got a little bit of fire in the belly
right now, there's a little bit of anger there. What
it's directed towards, I don't know. But if it keeps
him on the court and motivated to prove all the
doubters wrong, or the doubters in his own mind, than great.

(34:00):
The Lakers fans win Twitter at out about a fresca,
Mike gets swollen down the Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mi car and all right, now, let me
ask you this hot take you like the most we've
had in the last two nights of the show. Derek
Carr is the fit with the Steelers because with the
hatred we've gotten online, we've gone viral with that. I
can never go to Pittsburgh again. Or when I told

(34:24):
you tonight, I am legend is a top three action
movie of all time? Which one? Which hot take do
you like better? Derek Carr? I am no one I
like better. I like as much as I Derek Carr
is gonna be a jet as much as I like
all of that, and the people of Pittsburgh being mad
at you, and you'll never get another sandwich or Iron
City beer. The other one expands our audience globally, So

(34:46):
if we can get that one to trend even half
as hard as the Pittsburgh one, will be global icons
here momentarily. Yeah, we'll be like Ciskel and Ebert if
that happened. Damn right, let's go Twitter. Coming up next,
my buddy Ben Mallard for for Ebert, I'm ciscal or Francisco,
I'm Ebert. Will you see it in the balcony to
Fox Sports Radio Steelers Yo,