3 & Out - Field Yates joins the podcast

John talks with longtime NFL Analyst at ESPN, Field Yates. John and Field dive into how Field got his start in the NFL, his relationship with Stephen Belichick, if the Giants should draft JJ McCarthy, what will the Patriots do at three, where Michael Penix Jr. may end up, and his hottest take for the upcoming draft.

Lastly, John answers your questions for this episode's mailbag segment.

6:40 - Field Yates

8:47 - How he got his start

17:22 - Belichick-Kraft saga

25:52 - Will the Giants from JJ

31:50 - Pats at three

34:24 - Michael Penix Jr.

37:15 - Hottest pick in the draft

42:04 - Mailbag

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #Herd

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
The eighty two game preseason is in the books, and
it's finally time for the real season. Don't miss out
on any of the NBA playoff action at Draftking Sportsbook,
an official sports betting partner of the NBA, from the
play in tournament through the finals. Draftking Sportsbook as you
cover with same game parlays, live betting odds, boosts, and

(00:27):
so much more. Download the Draftking Sportsbook app and use
code John new customers bet five dollars and get two
hundred in bonus bets instantly. That's code John John only
on DraftKings. The Crown is yours.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in West
Virginia visit one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New
York call eight seven seven eight open wired text hope
and y four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut,
help is available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight
seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG
dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino
Wan Resorting Kansas twenty one and over age varies by jurisdiction,

(01:07):
Voyd and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty
eight hours after issuance. See dkg dot co slash bball
for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? Beautiful
Monday today? Have a little different show today. We will
open up with my buddy. I've known him for a
while now. He works at ESPN. His name is Field Yates.
He's going to be on the ABC draft coverage on
Thursday and Friday and then on ESPN. Got an interesting

(01:51):
story though. Started working for the Pats when he was
in high school, played against Stephen Belichick at their Buddies Now,
and then he played college football where Belichick played, worked
in the NFL for Scott Pioli. I don't know if
a lot of people know that, but he'll tell us
a little bit about his story, and then obviously we
talk draft picks, specifically the quarterbacks some teams. It's here, baby,

(02:15):
Draft week is here. The game plan this week is
I think I'm wanna put out a little mock draft
and for three and out we do a top ten
mock draft. I'm not doing the whole first round, but
we'll do a top ten mock draft. I got a
couple of curveballs. I'm already prepared for a couple of
teams to do things that I don't see a lot
of people talking about just you know, educated guesses with

(02:35):
a little inside information. Could be wrong. We'll see, but
we will put out the mock draft on Wednesday. We
will be live. I think starting like pick five, I'll
be on on YouTube. I think I'm gonna be on
Collins channel. He's gonna join me. We'll put it out
as a podcast for Friday. I'm definitely gonna do another
podcast Friday for Saturday based on all the picks. So

(02:57):
we're gonna have a lot of content is going to
be flowing. So buckle up, get ready big time of year.
I love it. Who doesn't, So let's enjoy this week.
It feels like we've been waiting a long time and
it's it's finally here and it'll fly by. So get
ready for draft week. We got a lot playing. If

(03:19):
you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to
three and Out if you listen, if you'd like her
to watch YouTube, just you know, subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Don't think we will have because it's draft week A
go low. This week, Scottie Scheffer just beat the shit
out of everyone again. I mean, I it's like people
are like, you can't call him tiger. It's like, well,

(03:41):
he's won like four of his last five events. I mean,
and he's dominating. I'm not saying he's Tiger because that
would be It's like, I don't say anyone's Michael Jordan.
But what this dude's doing, I mean, holy Canoli. So
probably no golf this week, a lot of football and uh,
let's roll. But before we dive into field Yates, what
I wanted to do is tell you about my close friends.

(04:04):
Game Time, the official ticketing app of this podcast. I
was at the gym today and I looked in our
locker room. We have like this big TV with a
bunch of lazy boys. Everyone was in there and towels
just locked into a hockey game. NHL Playoffs has started. Basketball.
Looked up the Clippers just killing the MAVs. Like, oh,
Lakers lose, not gonna lie. Loved it. You want to

(04:25):
go to one of these games? You want to go
to a baseball game concert? I'd be lying if I
didn't check out the Taylor Swift album. First Take not bad.
You want to go see an artist, you want to
get out and have some fun, go to the game
Time app games, concerts, comedy shows. We got you covered.
Promo code John John jo Hn your first pair of tickets.

(04:47):
You will save twenty dollars. Twenty dollars in these inflationary times,
with how much everything I went to the grocery store
the other day, I would have died for a twenty
dollars discount. Didn't get it, but I can give you one.
So if you want toe pair of tickets to any event,
download the game Time at buy your first pair of
tickets promo code j o Hn. Very very excited. A

(05:11):
guy I've known for a long time, and I don't
know if you've noticed. He feels like a rocket ship
over there at the Mothership and you can find that
this week kind of a big week. And he just
happens to be on ABC. Who is he Howard Cosell? No,
he's Field Yates.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
I wish I were Howard Crossell.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
That'd be pretty sweet, right, just slightly more famous and
had like a slightly bigger role on ABC's coverage of
a lot of things relative to mine on the draft.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
But can't wait for it, can't wait.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
How many players have you watched for this draft?

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Probably close to four hundred.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
I think I wrote up Graded three hundred and thirty
one or two, so probably four hundred or so in
terms of total exposure. That process of whittling down that
back end of the four hundred was fairly straightforward. I mean,
as you know, once you get past a certain number,
and I'd argue that number is actually a lot smaller
than the public probably realizes. So much of it is

(06:00):
beauty and the eye of the beholder, right, I mean,
I think most boards are going to have, you know,
similar top twenty or twenty five players once you get
to like player fifty.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
It's so subjective.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
So much of it is about, you know, team fit system.
Some of it's about how one area scout has evaluated
the character of a prospect versus how a different area
of scouts evaluated the character of a prospect, and you know, medicals,
things like that. I'll influence those things. But I think
people get really fired up when it's Day four and
they hear that their team just drafted a fourth round
prospect in round six, and they think they've won the draft.

(06:35):
When the reality is that our job as a draft
analyt is to scout for all thirty two teams. When
each of the thirty two teams has such a different
process and they have such different criteria they're using to
grade these players, that it's not quite as relevant and
important within buildings as it is probably here in the public.
But that's a huge part of my job. So you
got to embrace it, you.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Know, before I think a lot of people, obviously if
they fall the in which as we know, a lot
of people followed the NFL know who you are, but
I'm not sure they know your background. Can you tell
a little bit about how you got started kind of
in high school and I'm pretty sure your college football
across career, same school as a guy named William Belichick

(07:16):
as well.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
Yeah, again, slightly less famous than Howard Cosell and ABC,
slightly less famous and accomplished them Bill Belichick at Wesley
and but yeah, back in my late high school into
my college days, I spent god knows how long.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
I think it was four summers.

Speaker 5 (07:32):
And then I tell people every disposable hour I had
when I wasn't at school or at practice, I was
down at Patriots facility kind of working as a grunt,
sort of learning the football ins and outs. I called
that my football Rosetta Stone, where I was learning I
guess how the Patriots went about their business. But as
you can imagine, given all the success they were having
at that time and continue to have for fifteen more years,

(07:55):
that a lot of the league was emulating how they
were going about their business. So the way that I
was learning things, I think it's still pretty prevalent around
the NFL. When I first got into that New England building.
As a quick aside, the number of heavy hitters that
were in that building, which we didn't realize at the time,
pretty astounding, right Like Adam Peters was a scouting assistant,
Brian Flores is a scouting assistant. You had guys like

(08:16):
Jason Light on the scouting staff, Thomas Demetrov, John Robinson,
Scott Pioli.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Is that right?

Speaker 5 (08:21):
There? Is what four future NFL gms Manti Austin Ford
on that staff as well? Make it five right there,
So Bob Quinn, that's six. You just go through that
roster of people that were there. A lot of the
coaches obviously are well known because you know, coaches have
probably a little bit more notoriety than GMS, except for
probably during this part of the draft cycle. But yeah,

(08:41):
the Patriots days led into some time with Kansas City.
When Scott Pioli got hired out there, he had an
opening on the scouting staff, so I got my teeth
kind of cut there a little bit more. It got paid,
not much, as you know, but I got paid a
little bit to do some of that scouting work. And
then I would love to tell you that I had
like this perfect epiphany what was going to be next.
I wasn't totally sure what was going to be next,

(09:02):
but I had an idea it might be the world.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Of sports media.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
So it's been a different journey to get from where
I started to where I am right now at ESPN,
but certainly one that I think the scouting background has
played a pretty darn influential role in Did.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
You go to high school with Steven Belichick?

Speaker 5 (09:17):
Now, we didn't go to high school together, but we
played against each other on the football and the crossfields,
so fierce competitors.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Would you consider him a good buddy?

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, he is a good buddy. He's the best.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
He's gonna do awesome out there at Washington and fired
up for It's a big transition obviously to go from sure,
you know, the Patriots to the college football, especially with
how landscape has changed. But I'm proud of him for
taking that leap of faith. And I had a chance
to go out there for Washington Pro Day, which was
not tied to Steve, but just had a chance to
be out there for some ESPN assignments. And it's amazing

(09:52):
how different the college game is now compared to like
half a decade ago. It's also amazing what kind of
facilities and access and resources these big time college programs
have right now. It is absurd, man, it is they
might have better facilities across.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
The beautiful, beautiful, the.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Ridiculous, You kidding me?

Speaker 5 (10:11):
Like I'd have a hard time concentrating if I were
Jed Fish trying to call offensive plays in the sidelines
or Steve trying to call defensive plays on the sideline
with with that backdrop there. I don't know how often
it's Sonny in Seattle. It certainly wasn't sunny for much
of my time out there, which is only about thirty
six hours. But I did Oregon in Washington about two
weeks apart, and those two places. Man, Like, I was

(10:32):
at Oregon for the pro day for bow Nicks and
I was in there. I was walking through the indoor
facility and I told somebody there, so this might be
the nicest indoor facility that I've ever seen. And their
response was really, I mean, yeah, that's interesting because uh,
we're moving into the new one right next door about
six months from right now.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
This is about to become the indoor.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
Facility for like the other sports besides football. Right Obviously,
as we know, football is king in all these major
college programs. So if you think there's serious cash going
around in the NFL, just go step foot on one
of these top you know, ten, fifteen twenty programs in
college football. You get a real sense of where that
money is.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
You know what my theory is on those bad report
cards is listen, some of them might be kind of crappy,
but I wonder if it's a little overinflated. These guys
are all coming from Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Ohio State or yours.
And now it's like, listen, I pay you with that
paycheck that's ten twenty thirty million dollars. Sorry, your chair
is not personally up to your liking one one hundred convoluted,

(11:30):
not saying that some of them don't need to improve,
but I do wonder if some of these guys have
a false sense of like, Okay, I'm from college now
I'm going to the pros, Like the taj Mahall is like, no,
actually that's not the way it is.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah, that's an interesting point, and it kind of ties
to something that may have come up during this conversation
or may not. But I've been thinking about this a
lot over the past twenty four to forty eight hours.
Is you know Jayden Daniels, who we think could go
maybe will go number two overall to the Commanders, took
this it to go to DC and his agent seemed
to take issue with the fact he tweeted them.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
He used them emoji on.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
Top of a clip of Mike Florio from Pro Football
talking Chris Sims during their show PFT Live ripping the
Commanders for having all the quarterbacks in at the same time,
which didn't.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Really bother me. I was kind of I'm just had.
I had no reaction to it, right because during my.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
SUP everything he brought twenty guys in.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Yeah, we had we had tons of days where there
was five prospects at once, and sometimes it was, you know,
two guys at the same position. And when I was
in Kansas City one year, we were picking fifth overall.
So if we had there was a year, I think
that was the year that Russell o'cung and Trent Williams
both came out, and those guys both ended up being
I think top six picks. Like I don't think if
we had those guys in the building at the same

(12:46):
time it was some affront to society, right, It was
just that's what you did. It was an easy way
to knock out two pre draft visits in one day.
Maybe some of these guys had busier schedules than other,
But I think it's a reminder of where these athletes
are right now, right and this is the influence of
that il where like these guys are made, these athletes
are made to feel like royalty now and you probably

(13:07):
are treated differently as the starting quarterback, I mean, the
Heisman Trophy winner for sure.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Then, even though.

Speaker 5 (13:14):
College quarterbacks have probably already always had it pretty good,
I'm sure the lifestyle for these quarterbacks, these high level
athletes is different now compared to where it was I
think the player empowerment era is kind of upon us
where they probably feel like they have more levers to pull, right,
if you're bothered by something that a college is doing.

(13:34):
There's the leverage of like five different transfer windows where
you can say, I'm out right, I mean we're seeing
it left and right in college. Yeah, d I mean,
what was it twelve guys he lost this past week
or something like that.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
More we're stings.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
You know, Duke basketball has lost seven players to the
transfer portal. That season's been over for what three weeks now.
So I do think there's a little bit of an
interesting sort of adjustment to the NFL teams are probably
catching on to, which is that some of the way
that you have to kind of treat these players is
evolving compared to where things were. And I'm not talking
about twenty years ago or even a decade ago, even

(14:10):
just like a few years ago.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
I think we're in a much different time.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
You know, you're a Boston guy. You live in Boston
full time right now.

Speaker 5 (14:26):
We've since moved down to Connecticut just to be closer
to ESPN, but we were in Boston for a long
time until.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Recent I consider you a Boston guy. Obviously, you know,
the Craft Belichick divorce felt less ugly at the time.
You know, even though it felt a little forced when
they had the press conference. It's gotten a little out
of control. Clearly, I would say, since, yeah, here's another theory,
I'm gonna run by you. Elliott Wolfe said yesterday or
two days ago. Right, we're open for business, no different

(14:51):
than money, no different than the Chargers. What if the Crafts?
You know, the easiest way to keep the conversation going
negatively about you trade back, draft offensive lineman, wide receivers.
Do you know the way to get people talking about
something else? Draft a quarterback? Yeah, so you wouldn't take
quarterback anyway. But I wonder if it's like, let's just

(15:12):
take quarterback guys, and it just gets all the conversation
on Drake may or JJ McCarthy immediately and off Bob
a little bit.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, yeah, I mean he is No, it has not
been good. But here's what I would say. The only
reason why I would disagree with the theory about like
moving on from the topic is that I think he
had multiple opportunities. Did Robert Craft to shift the narrative
or move away from the topic. But while he I
think has made it clear and the director of that

(15:40):
Patriots Dynasty piece has made it clear that ultimately it
was in the director's hands to influence how that piece
actually unfolded and what content they had on there. I mean,
anybody who watched it certainly felt like there was, or
at least many people that have watched it, including many
on more Patriots players and staffers, felt as though it

(16:03):
was an inaccurate depiction of Bill Belichick's influence, and Bill,
while he was in it briefly, I mean, certainly had
very little in the way of interest and being a
big part of that right, I mean, he had very
few words that seemed like there. So there are people
in Boston in the New England region that feel like,
you know, that that documentary spent more effort trying to

(16:23):
detegrate Bill Belichick than it did highlight the greatest dynasty
in the history of a sport. That might I say might,
because you know, the Chiefs have won three out of
the last four, but that might never be replicated over
a two decade span, so and then between that and
then you know, subsequent things that have taken place. It
feels like Robert Crafts had a chance to kind of

(16:45):
calm things, and yet it doesn't feel like he's been
as aggressive and calming things. And I think he probably
could be to allow people to turn the page and
Bill Belichick, I feel like, and I think Patriots fans
that I had like a reason head on their shoulders
respected Bill and were, you know, deeply conflicted when the

(17:06):
Patriots decided to move on. I think they acknowledged because
Bill said there might have been it might have been
time that they were sort of respectful of that part
of it. But now it's like Bill, Bill is just
as popular now as he has been maybe was after
like a super Bowl win, Like everybody's like, what are
we doing talking about a guy who took us to
nine super Bowls? And anything other than the light of

(17:27):
this is the greatest to ever do it? Why should
the narrative be anything other than that? The reality is
it shouldn't be and it has become that. And I
do think there might be an opportunity for ropper Craft
to maybe like put out the flames a little bit,
because it is getting a bit out of control right now.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, you know him and the family. I don't
know him, and I'm offended for him. I think it's ridiculous,
you know the way it's ridiculous. It's like, give me
a fucking break and listen the Atlanta stuff. Obviously, Rahie
Morse was a really good coaching candidate, so if you
want to hire him, that's not that crazy. But some
of these comments, like Carolina not that interested, like not

(18:06):
that Bill would have been interested in them. But do
you imagine that he's because it's weird, right, he's he's
gonna be seventy four next coaching cycle, a lot of
moving parts in the league. Things change really fast. Do
you think today? And I guess we'll see him next
week with Pat again, Like do you think he's pretty
pissed off like the way everything's going, or is he
just kind of that mindset he's so good, like compartmentalized

(18:27):
moving on because that's how he's been as a coach.

Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah, I think is more the latter where he's kind
of a peace with what took place. And I think
writing to take on this challenge of being a draft
analyst next Thursday night, and by the way, that's gonna
be must see, right.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
And how good was he with Pat the other day?

Speaker 4 (18:43):
Is unbelievable. Yeah, the two of them just obviously have
a very natural chemistry.

Speaker 5 (18:47):
And Bill is going to be excellent on that draft
broadcast next week because he ain't going there without pretty
darn good knowledge on these players, right Like, I don't
think Bill's gonna show up and J. C.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
Latham from Alabama's gonna come.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
Off the board gonna say, yeah, you know, don't know
a whole lot about that guy, right Like. You can
imagine Bill's done some pretty serious tape study on many
of these prospects, So that'd be cool to see on
Thursday nights, and we find a way to keep it going,
like through the entirety of the draft. I'm sure Bill
has some knowledge about some guys that might end up
going in Round seven. But I do wonder if a

(19:20):
couple of things is that there might be some people
around the NFL after Thursday night, if they catch some
of Bill's commentary, or maybe Friday, once they're having a
chance to catch up on it, that are saying to themselves, really,
like a league which saw eight coaching changes this offseason
allowed this guy to remain a free agent, you better

(19:40):
believe that there are some coaches who are feeling a
little bit of pressure innately already that after Thursday Nights
broadcast are gonna be saying to themselves, I better start
hot next year because Bill is effectively the thirty three
NFL coach. Now right, I'm not saying he would take
every job. I have no knowledge and he would take
any specific job. But don't you think there's owners out

(20:02):
there they're going to say to themselves, our team starts
one in five and Bill Belichick is available to come
on and take over on an interim basis, which exactly,
this guy's just sitting there waiting for you like you could.
And there's zero process of naming somebody an interim head
coach in the NFL. By the way, if a team

(20:22):
wants to name build their interim head coach after six games,
they can do it after one practice. Maybe it's one game.
I need to find out the exact date at which
you can name someone an interim head coach. Maybe it's
after one game, but like that's when the window opens.
And so I just would imagine that any team that
actually thinks is going to be good this year that

(20:43):
starts slow, the head coach are going to be feeling
the pressure realizing that the best ever is sitting I
was gonna say standing on the sidelines. That would be
the wrong way to put it. But it's sitting out
for the season, or at least part of the season.
But don't you think and I haven't asked him this,
I don't know this personally, but and just imagine that
when you're this close to the all time wins wreckord.
I think it's fifteen wins away from tying Don Shula. Like,

(21:07):
you don't think Belichick wants that. I know the guy
cares less about individual accolades than probably anybody, but he
probably cares about the history of football more than anybody
else on planet Earth. Right now, you have to imagine
he's fueled by the possibility of being the all times
wins leader.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I said the other day on the podcast, obviously the
NFC East is going to be circled. I do think
the Eagles like they want the Syriana thing to work.
You know how he hired him a little bit from obscurity.
They're paying between Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio, you know,
four or five million dollars each if they are successful,
even if they got bounced in like the second round

(21:42):
if they want a playoff game won the division. I
think that that they would try to figure that out.
I think the Cowboys, I mean, they have a coach
under his final year of his contract, and the Giants,
who are a major wild card in this draft. If
they suck again next year John maher did fire back
to back coaches after two years, this would be tables
third year in the last two years would be really ugly.

(22:03):
And obviously Belichick's I don't want to say love affair,
but he is very He treats the Giants and the
Jets like polar opposites.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
Right, totally.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah, I think that would be pretty intrigued. So to me,
the Giants and the Cowboys more than the Eagles. Now,
if the Eagles are terrible, then they're in play, but
they have so much talent and now they got ye suck,
I think they're gonna be okay. I think the Cowboys
thing lost some players this Dack situation. Now, McCarthy's proven
to be a good regular season coach. You gotta give

(22:33):
him that. It's just the playoffs and then the Giants, Like,
I don't know where you stand. I agree with Shrager
because I know how tied in he is in certain organizations.
Clearly they probably like JJ McCarthy a little bit, but
I don't think that helps him this year at all. Bro,
they draft JJ McCarthy, it's like, you're no better on offense.
They're as you think that's gonna happen, Because I know

(22:56):
you went on his podcast, I'm just kind of, yeah,
that's what he's talking about.

Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yeah, I will certainly defer to Peter because of how
tied in he is, So I think it's possible. My
big thing with the Giants and j J. McCarthy is
if he falls to pick six, I'm cool with it.
If they have to trade up from six to four
and give away their twenty twenty five first, that to
me is such a scary proposition. That's insane to go
from six to pick It's insane because that might mean

(23:20):
that might be six this year and seven next year.
To go up to four, right, that's just a crazy.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Thing to do.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
But if you look at relevant trade up comps in
the semi recent past, there aren't a ton of them.
But remember San Francisco and Chicago flipped two and three
during twenty eighteen draft. The twenty seventeen draft, the Trubisky year,
the Mahomes year, and San Francisco got a bunch of
extra picks. And by the way, San Francisco took Eric

(23:49):
Arson right, they wanted to get a quarterback, and they
were able to get Chicago to move up one pick.
So it might cost the Giants a freight. And that's
the part that makes me nervous is you know, I
I don't I like JJ Lott. He's got a lot
of really, really, really solid traits. I just don't know
that I can afford to double pay right. The sixth

(24:10):
or fourth pick alone.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
Is an expensive investment.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
But to do that on top of potentially you know,
moving up to four and trading away multiple picks to
get there, that to me is a little bit scary.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Well, that's the thing. I mean, you know, Caleb's going
to a pretty incredible situation for a number one overall
pick if we if we assume the betting markets and
the way everyone's talking, Jaden goes to the Patriots is
not a great situation. It just is roster wise, new coach.
The negativity. It could get ugly fast. That fourth pick's
a major wildcard. Like if you are JJ McCarthy, who knows.

(24:43):
The Patriots could take him to whoever the guy.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
I'd be surprised on that.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, okay, okay, So let's say JJ is gonna go
for you should pray like Minnesota comes get.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
You, right, no doubt, even though that's just gonna.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Got Davonte and some other act just something else the
Giants thing that that could be a tough situation. Man.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
Well, let me tell you what I have thought about this,
and I haven't actually done it, but I've thought about it.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
I've pondered this, like should I.

Speaker 5 (25:08):
Just make JJ the second or third quarterback on the
board for this reason? If JJ goes to Minnesota, there's
a pretty decent shot he has the best or second
best season as a rookie of any of the quarterbacks
in the class.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
Right wide receivers get.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
The Mahomes treatment, right, Yeah yeah, so But but if
he did, if he did play throwing to Jefferson and
Jordan Madison and TJ.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Hockinson when he's healthy, two really good tackles Aaron Jones
Brian Flores on defense scheme in that group up and
the Hecko job last year, like Minnesota could push for
like ten wins with JJ as a rookie and we'd
be talking about him now. As we know, it's always
about the long haul, right, Like Mac Jones. Twenty twenty
one draft comes out and by the end of the season,

(25:57):
people are saying, should he have been the number one
pick over Trump Lawrence? Now he's backing up Trevor Lawrence.
You know, it's all hyperbole because of the fact that
you live in a twenty four to seven, three sixty
five news and reaction cycle. But ultimately it's why you're
in your evaluations of the player going into the draft
last only until the draft begins, because the minute they

(26:19):
wind up in a situation, whatever that situation is, the
evaluation that player is different. So like I think Jayden
Daniels would have a better chance of a lot of
rookie success with the Commanders and the Patriots, and same
thing with Drake may Right. The Commanders are not a
fully formed offense right now, but they've got six picks
in the top one hundred. They got Tara McLaurin, they

(26:41):
got Johan Dotson, right, Like I think they found something
in Brian Robinson last year as or running back two
years ago, pretty solid player, right, Like they've got enough there,
you know, spend some money on a pair of interior
offensive line and Nick Allegretti entire be audition free agency,
like that team could be decent this year on offense,
whereas the Patriot Yeah yeah, and like the Patriots they

(27:02):
got so many holes right like on offense, you know,
like probably their best player right now is I think
either Mike and Wentu the right tackle or Ramondre Stevenson
the running back. And in this league, like it's just
not a great sign if your best offensive player is
potentially your running back, who I think is a good player,

(27:23):
but not like I don't think it's a top ten
back in the NFL. But what I'm saying, the Patriots
got some work ahead of them. I think they acknowledge that.
So if I'm the Patriots concurrent with drafting a quarterback
at three is and I know that this goes against
sort of everything I think Robert Kraft wants to say publicly,
is i'd message like we're in this for the long haul.
It's gonna take some time here, right Like, we need

(27:45):
to find some wide receivers. We got to find some
better offensive lineman. We just need some speed on this
offense and you can't knock out all of those priorities
in one off season, especially when you don't have a
quarterback in place.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
During free agencies.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
So why Receivers that are pondering like should I go
to New England are saying to themselves maybe, but like,
who am.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
I catching passes from again?

Speaker 5 (28:07):
So it's it's a fascinating dynamic when you're trying to
debate the ratings of these quarterbacks going into the draft,
acknowledging that by Friday morning my opinion of them could
alter a little bit.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, I mean, clearly drawed pretty high level guy. You've
never heard a negative thing about him as a player,
as a leader, even as an assistant coach, he's been
really good. Being the headman's a different animal, and like,
ohtal let's use let's use Alabama as an example, Kaylin Duboor.
That is not easy shoes to fill, and he doesn't
have any sec equity. But it's like, hey, guys, I

(28:39):
went one hundred and ten and ten. I just got
the Washington Huskies and the national champion. I kind of
know what I'm doing. So people are like, oh, yeah,
let's give this guy. Mayo can't be like, hey, I
coached the Raiders for the last four years, made the
playoffs a couple of times. I know what I'm doing.
I coached my all mater for the last four you know,
he has zero equity as the head coach. So that
thing can you could see it coming for a mile away,

(29:01):
you know, totally it goes bad. If I'm a quarterback,
which feels like it's gonna be Drake May Listen, He's
obviously a project. I would just bet against that because
I think the first couple of years Alex Smith, who
wasn't as talented as Drake May probably physically those first
four or five years are one of the ugliest things ever.
And it took Jim Harbaugh and Andy Reid changing his life.
But I mean, that's that's a long way to go
for rookie quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
So no doubt, no doubt. But they needed, like they
need to message that.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
And I I know that's hard to do, right because
no Oeer wants to come out and say, like, could
be five and twelve this year, guys, right, But I
think that, yeah, but I think that's important, Like, uh,
quarterbacks rarely ever wait anymore, right. I Mean Patrick Mahomes
is such an outlier and the fact that he sat
out all but one game teams, it's hard to resist.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
I mean even the.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Bears now tried it with Trey Lance. But Jim, yeah,
he played a couple of games.

Speaker 5 (29:52):
Yeah, yeah, And it sounds like, you know, Trey probably
is one of those and we'll see. He can still
rewrite the narrative. But you know, Trey might have just
been like a he was. He was the swing for
the fences, right. But the bottom line is those guys
are so much the outlier as opposed to the standard
in terms of when you expect a guy to actually play.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
So for the.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
Patriots and Drake may if it is Drake, and if
I had to, you know, sort of cast my bet
as of the time of this conversation, my feeling would
be that it's Drake made the has a decent chance
of being the third pick. That you need to also
be prepared for him sitting out for a while because
if you put him in that you know you and
I know this. We talk about quarterbacks busting. Sometimes teams

(30:34):
fail the quarterback too, right, like not putting the right
pieces around him, too much, organizational instability like that. That
stuff all is real and like I think Drake is
the kind of guy that like might need some time.
I'm not if he goes to swing on There's there's
no denying he could end up being an absolute stud.
Like the kid's got so much talent it's ridiculous. Like
I think the narrative round of actually become a little

(30:55):
bit unfair. He just might need some more seasoning as
opposed to somebody like Jada Daniels. But by the way,
he's got three more years of starting experience on him.
Drake started two full seasons in college. He was a
red shirt freshman. He took a red shirt year. Jaden
Daniels walked onto Arizona State's campus as a seventeen year old,
was under center, thrown to Ayuk right away and played

(31:15):
five straight years. Like he just got a lot more
experience underneath him, Like he's got a lot more high
level reps than Drake made us.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Okay, last quarterback here Michael Pennix, who might as well
have been thrown to Brandon Ayuk at Washington, very polarizing
guy in a vacuum. You didn't have to factor in
the variables. He's clearly one of the best players, but
you can't quite do that right. The age, the injuries.
The age doesn't bother me as much as the injuries
and the other thing that I can't get out of

(31:42):
my head, partly cause I had a little money on it.
Him against Michigan, which Michigan was an NFL team, and
he didn't get touched all season long. I think eleven
sacks going into that game. He was and he doesn't
get touched. I mean, he's a top ten NFL quarterback
not touched, and that's how well it throws it. That's
not really the fell though, Like you do get touched,
and you do get moved off your spot, and it

(32:03):
got derailed fast. I like him, I'm rooting for him,
but I can't act like that doesn't give me a
lot of concern that I know. It was only one game.
It was a pretty big game opposite CJ. Stroud, it
was only one game. But he saw in Georgia, You're like, Jesus,
did you see that? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Right, right, carried over so totally hit.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Same thing with Oregon when Penis and Oregon's also very
talented NFL like team would hit him a lot, and
you felt by the end of the game, like God
and I respect his toughness. Is this guy gonna be
able to get up that?

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Sometimes in scouting it's choosing to it's seeing what you
choose to see. So, like you know, the Michael Pennock's
believers will point to the game just before Michigan against
Texas where he was mites out. I mean, the guy
was avoiding pressure in my pocket. Yeah, unbelievable. Right, So
you put that tape on the scouting media, you can
imagine what the reactions would.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
The age does not bothered me as well.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
The medical I can't say bothers me or doesn't bother
me because I don't have a doctor who I'm consulting
with who would sign off on it or would say, hey,
you know, that's a medical red flag for us. So
I don't know that I can speak with complete certainty
on it. I would say that some teams have expressed
less concern than others to me about Michael Penix Junior's knee. So,

(33:13):
but the skill sets he's probably been and I've said
this a couple times in ESPN, the hardest player for
me to pinpoint exactly where I should be mocking, right,
because you talk to people in the league that will
tell you, Hey, you know, I know you have him
at thirty four on the overall big board, but I
think he's not get out of the first thirteen picks.
We know that run of eleven, twelve, thirteen as of

(33:34):
right now is Minnesota, Denver, Vegas. There are people I
talk to her like he's gonna be go. He will
go in the second round, There's no two ways about it.
So he's generated more split projections on mock drafts than
maybe any prospect that I've studied this year. And the
good is not just good, it's freaking outstanding. But every

(33:54):
player's got those strengths and limitations and the age, the mobility,
the I know he tested well at the Pro Day,
but he's not as athletic as Jaden Daniels or Drake
may or Caleb Williams.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
That much is for sure.

Speaker 5 (34:06):
Some of those things that Michael Pennick Jinger does not
do compared to those guys does make him a really
difficult projection.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
What's your hottest draft take?

Speaker 5 (34:15):
Hottest draft take? Now, I'm a believer. I'm a Chop
Robinson believer. He's a divisive prospect. Again, had an unbelievable
combine in terms of the forty specifics, get a rate,
first step, the flashes are awesome. He had eleven and
a half career sacks though Maryland for a year two
years at Penn State. Had four sacks this past season.
Two of them came against UMass. So there are some

(34:37):
that are saying, like, it's got all the tools, but
why didn't he put it together more often. I'm a
believer in Chop Robinson, and I think there's a chance
he ends up being the second edge rusher taken next
Thursday night, which would I think probably run counter to
how a lot of people are currently forecasting it. But
if you can find a team that wants to put
the emphasis on the you know, the athletic ability, the

(34:57):
first step quickness, the ben the torque, and some of
the competitiveness in the running game, like, it wouldn't surprise
me if there are teams that are saying, yeah, top
sixteen player in the draft.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, I know, I know you got to get out
of here, but I want to hear your take on this.
Joe alt I had I did a little thing like
a couple of days ago, six eight, six nine tackles,
and I get this guy's a better athlete than McGlinchey. Yep.
They do give me some concern because it is difficult,
and I know people say he's closer to Colton Miller,
but it's like, I don't know, and he didn't test
as well though he's not he's playing football, not testing combine.

(35:31):
So sure, I get it, But what's your take on
six nine guys, He's not Michael Jordan as an athlete,
but he's a good athlete playing against a league full
of guys six two sixty three that could all bend.
It's it's hard to get that low and it's given
a lot of guys trouble.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
Yeah, and he can, he can really bend. Like he's
a he's a pretty dark, fluid athlete. Like you know,
he's got incredible bloodline. Son of an NFL offensive Lindman.
You know, his father John in the Chiefs Hall of Fame.
His brother's hockey player. It was drafted in the second
round the AHL. Like, yeah, they got some pretty good
jeans over there at the old family. I do have
the top ring tackle. My GAP's a little bit narrower

(36:06):
between him and the next couple guys, and I think
some in the same role at different places have Joelt.
I don't think it's quite as like you know, cut
above clear cut above everybody else. I think it's I
think he's number one, But I think you can make
a compelling case for older fashion Now from Penn State
fight Withtanu from Washington. If you believe he's a left tackle.
It's a good tackle class. It's why I will continue

(36:27):
to point and maybe Tennessee will just do the very
obvious thing and take Joealt seven. But I continue to
wonder if Tennessee, who already traded multiple picks last year
to move up to get Will Levis, and next year's
twenty twenty five third has already gone as well. That
was part of the lagerious sneed tree, which, by the way,
those are justifiable investments, but they're a little short on

(36:48):
draft capital relative to other teams picking in the top seven.
I do wonder if Tennessee might be a potential trade
back team and they say we can have Joel at seven,
or we could have only Fashion who at eleven or
twelve or thirteen or fifty, or you know, we talked
about fifteen and feel pretty good about the outcome.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
All the same, Yeah, I think the problem is the Cardinals,
the Chargers, the type. I think there are a lot
of teams that want to hit.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
Everybody wants to go back the wrong way.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
So it's gonna be interesting because some of these teams
are gonna get stuck. Field Yates, ABC, No big deal.
See you soon, buddy.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
I appreciate you having me on Man.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Okay, time for a little middle cough mail bag at
John Middlecoff At John Middlecoff is the Instagram dms wide open,
very very easy to get involved in the show. Fire
in those dms, like my guy Riley here and get
your question answered, fire in wide open holler. Other than

(37:55):
Patrick Mahomes, should any quarterback make that kind of money?
Mahomes is a Hall of Fame generational quarterback up there
with the greats. Shouldn't everyone else make thirty percent less
because they need more talent around them to compete a
good question. Mahomes isn't even the highest, not even close.

(38:16):
I mean, there are several guys now making more than him. Right,
Herbert makes more, Borough makes more, Lamar makes more, Hurts
makes more. So you got a lot of guys. You
know he took quote unquote a team friendly deal. It's
just not the way sports work. It's not the way
the world works really, right, Things get more expensive, especially

(38:36):
in the world we're living in, as time goes by.
So yeah, in theory, he should be the highest paid
player by a substantial margin, right, I totally believe that,
But that's not the way the business works. So, like
we can talk about it, and I've been talking about forever,

(38:57):
like there should be a second tier like the dak Press, Scott's,
the kirk Cousins. If you got Mahomes and Lamar making
forty five to fifty, like those guys should make thirty.
We've been talking. We talked about it last show with Tua,
but it just doesn't work that way. You know, if
you factor in the importance to the television ratings, which
is the business to For example, the NBA, Lebron and

(39:21):
Steph Curry should make each like one hundred and fifty
million dollars. And even Jokich, who's the best player in
the NBA, people don't watch his games relative to those guys.
The ratings were awful last NBA Finals, so their value
is incredibly high. But they all make the same I mean,

(39:42):
give or take a few million, depending on when you
sign the contract. So I think a lot of people
in business say this all the time, like timing is
a big part of success or failure. Right. They look
at Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban got really rich because he
sold at the top in like ninety nine or two thousand.
The Internet TV sold for I forget the exact number,

(40:04):
but six months a year later it was worth nothing.
So it's like things change. Now, that's not the way
it works in quarterback contracts. But are we living in
a world where Brock Party in a year is going
to be making more if he has another good year
than Patrick Mahomes. I don't agree with it, but it's conceivable.
So it's like, yeah, I just it's just not the setup,

(40:27):
the way the cap leagues worked. It just it's never
gonna be. So it's it's kind of a dumb conversation.
It's kind of the conversation we have a lot when
it comes to should should you get one contract on
your team if you draft the guy not count? I
think we all agree, like, yeah, it's a pretty good idea.
Should the quarterback contract if you've drafted the player count

(40:50):
for fifty percent against your salary cap? People like yeah,
that's fair, But none of these ideas ever happened. And
it's like great think tank ideas, it's just it is
doesn't even feel like we've ever got remotely close to
any of that stuff. It's like, what are they gonna
do with the league meetings? Oh, they're gonna ban the
hip drop tackle, They're gonna change the kickoff rule that
they never changed the financial setup for players that way.

(41:13):
What are your expectations for Seattle this year? That's a
good question. I think they're a team to keep an
eye on this week because I look at them a
lot differently. If you go, well, they've added Michael Pennox,
Mike Okay, now we're cooking if Gino Smith they're starting quarterback.

(41:34):
But we know what they are. And let's face it,
we can talk a lot of shit about Pete Carroll
in terms of relative to like they had really stalled
the last couple of years. The defense was terrible. Uh,
But Pete Carroll's a Hall of Fame coach. And the
chances that Mike McDonald, who was an elite defensive coordinator,

(41:56):
is as good of a head coach as Pete Carroll,
I mean, the chance is just slim the nun, as
crazy as that sounds, because you're like, oh, Ite's been bad. Yeah,
might want to google the guy's resume. And obviously most
people listening to this podcast knows he's really successful. But
so it could be a doubt. You have a great
wild card at coach and your quarterback has proven that
he has a ceiling. Really good guy, easy story to

(42:19):
root for, but can only get you so far. So
I don't know. I'm kind of interested to like, do
you take a quarterback high in this draft? Because if
you do, then and depending on who it is, I'm like, damn,
who knows. Maybe they trade two first round picks and
trade up take a big swing. I wouldn't say it's
off the table. Hey, John Hope, you've been well been

(42:43):
an active listener for a couple of months now, and
I'm hooked. I like this guy. I grew up in
the Midwest and TV wasn't a big deal until the
Cardinals or the Rams were playing. We still remember the
greatest show on turf Era. Always a Rams fan, not
hopping on the Chiefs bandwagon since everyone here did. My
question is this, how many people prefer podcasts over listening

(43:03):
to TV? Talking about sports. Obviously, Colin is great when
he comes on, but I'm usually working. I get all
my information from podcasts. I have a guy for everything,
a guy for sports, business, faith, and honestly, sometimes me
and my wife just play true crime podcasts for fun
while we cook. Maria does that as well. I found

(43:25):
myself replacing the TV with podcasts. I have you and
Colin for sports, and I listen to a lot of
other subjects as well. Have the generations just adopted this
form of getting information. Honestly, podcast information just seems better,
more logical, and more entertaining. I would say I've always
been a big audio guy. But growing up right in

(43:49):
your example, pre podcasts, you just had to listen to
whatever whatever was on the radio. So if you like sports,
whoever your sports talk radio hosts were locally who you
were forced to listen to, and then depend on where
you were nationally, whatever you got right dependent on you know,
what affiliates, what city you lived in. But I've always

(44:09):
been a huge audio guy. In the moment, streaming slash podcasts,
over the last five years, my audio input has grown exponentially.
I'm with you. I'm not proud to admit this I
don't read enough. I read very little, to be honest
with you, besides like articles on the internet. But I've
felt like I've never taken in more information, and I

(44:33):
believe that's from podcasts as well as audio books. I
just started the Sam Walton audiobook pretty interesting. But the
amount of podcasts I listened to, like you said, for
like different things, like hey, I got a couple of
NBA podcasts, I got like five golf podcasts. I don't
really listen to football podcasts unless like Rascillok's talking about
it or something. And a lot of business podcasts. So

(44:56):
I'm with you. I listened to you know, Colin. It's
like sometimes because of my office set up, I can
watch you know an hour or whatever. But if I'm
on the go, I listened to him. I listen to
his podcast or the best of at the end of
the day. So I'm with you. And as someone who
started his career in radio and I'm not some radio

(45:17):
diehard of like from the business, I actually thought the
business was kind of a racket and I could see
it coming at the end of my time doing that.
Now it's become way bigger the audio. The audio has
always been a powerful medium. But yeah, I would imagine that,
think of everywhere you look. Then this speaks for music

(45:38):
as well because of the streaming ability. How often do
you go somewhere and not see countless people with headphones
in their ears? So yeah, I mean, I hate to
disagree with you, and I'm glad this is that way.
But I knew like five years ago, when I first
got into podcasting financially started making any money, I was like,

(46:01):
we're on something here, Like this thing is gonna be
massive and even less than I mean, I started podcasting
in twenty sixteen, probably didn't make any money till seventeen,
but it's yeah, it's a powerful audio is never going away,
just like you know, television videos never. I mean, I
watch a lot of YouTube on my phone, so I

(46:22):
consume a lot of video, or at my desk, I
have YouTube going, you know, and I have a YouTube TV,
which is essentially TV obviously, but I watched a ton
of YouTube. I watched a ton of YouTube and listen
to a ton of podcasts. I haven't read a newspaper
not named The Wall Street Journal in five years, I
mean dead series. Unless someone sends me an article, I

(46:43):
don't go think about that. I'm not even forty years old.
I grew up in a home where we got Sacramento
b San Franisco Chronicle, Davis Enterprise. My dad kind of
got into the stock market late in life, like his
dad died, his brother had died in Vietnam, so he
didn't his mom was already did didn't have any siblings.

(47:03):
Sold you know, his dad's house. It was like, what
am I gonna do with I think at the time
should have held on to it longer, but like eight
hundred grand, so he just invested it, and he's like
cock stock market is incredible. This was when he was
probably like sixty and so he started getting So we
added the Wall Street Journal. I mean, if you went
to John Middlecoff's parents' house eight nine years ago, there

(47:27):
were six newspapers in the in the uh in the driveway.
Six It was the Woodland Press. Democrats sometimes would come
to I don't even know if they subscribe, but they
would just throw it out the window. I don't know
anyone that reads a newspaper beside an article going viral
or whatever. So well, we still are taking in information.

(47:49):
I still want my information. Where do I get it?

Speaker 4 (47:51):
How do.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
I get it. And that's where podcasts. We like audio
and we like video. I've always said like, I'm I
don't care. I just go where the consumer would go.
If podcasts failed tomorrow, I would just go wherever I
had to go to find the audience. And that's where
I knew. One thing was clear when I was in radio.
I'm like, this is not sustainable. Everyone using their phone.

(48:14):
The other powerful thing is when you're in a car, right,
the overwhelming majority of people connect their phone to their car.
It's why music radio is so fucked, Like, if you're
gonna listen to music, you're not gonna give it what
with the I still kind of do every once in
a while, but the majority of younger people don't. They
stream Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, whatever to their car. And

(48:37):
I started seeing it. This is like twenty fifteen sixteen,
these radios they started going under. Sports Talk's no different, right,
good question. Do you think Jordan Love should be paid
as a top ten quarterback salary as it currently as
it's currently rumored. He looked great at the end of
the year, but it looked icy for the first half
of the season. I think Love is better, but could

(48:58):
it be worth the wait a season like you suggested
with Tua and just paying a premium what I think
would be fair. Right, you could get a lower cost
right now, Like if you just put four years one
hundred and twenty million dollars in front of them and
guaranteed eighty So it's like, what would that average thirty

(49:24):
a year? Would he sign that? He might? Like, I mean,
he's never made any money. You're offering me eighty five
guaranteed thirty a year. He might, but he also might not.
But would you just wait and say if you know,
or maybe that's one hundred and fifty five years one
fifty you know, it's hard. I mean he's, like you said,
he's played six seven good games. What probably is the

(49:48):
prudent move, even if you would have to pay a
little more, why not give it like till mid October,
let's just see five six more games because they're games
last year. Let's face it. I don't think it's hyperbole.
He looked like Aaron Rodgers. He was fucking incredible in
certain games. You're like, uh, this is unreal, And like

(50:12):
most of us, we didn't know anything about him because
he never played. That's where I think makes us tough
because everyone was kind of gone, God, what the hell
is this guy? But he never played and then by
the middle of the year he started getting this kind
of feet under him. He was really confident. You're like
Geez Louise, a part of being a good player. What

(50:32):
makes Josh Allen, what makes Lamar, what makes Patrick Mahomes?
These guys good players every single year. Peyton Manning and
Tom Brady did it for like forty plus years combined.
Every year shown up playing well. Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers
every year. Right, there can't be these ups and downs.
I mean, you can have a down year, but if

(50:55):
over the course of ten years you've had one down year,
like you've proven it over the period of time. It's
always what made Eli so maddening, like he was kind
of a roller coaster. Right. You like your high end
guys to be good every year, you know, Jalen Hurts,
I know statistically was all right, but if you watched
last year, you're like, God, something's missing here. So it's
where it does get challenged. Say what you want about

(51:16):
Cousins or Dak You kind of know what you're getting,
so I would say, is there a number right now
that he would sign, Like, would he signed three year
on hundred million dollar extension right now if I guaranteed
eighty five So it's basically like thirty three a year, Like,

(51:36):
would he sign that right now? Because it'd be pretty
hard to turn down if you've never made that much
money and you're like, well, what if it does go bad?
So I don't know, he's a he's a fascinating This
is a fascinating situation, kind of unprecedented because usually guys,

(51:58):
even Baker that signs a contract this offseason, he did
have years before of playing. He's played a ton of
games right in Cleveland. It's like Jordan Love has one
season as a full time starter, but like by the
Andrew look pretty damn good knowing how aggressive, how he
and the Eagles are and how stacked the roster is.

(52:20):
If Jalen Hurts has another mediocre year passing the football,
do they start looking for another quarterback like they did
when Carson Wentz had doubts?

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
I think they're pretty into Jalen Hurts. Like I, it's
it would have to get pretty ugly pretty fast. They're
paying him a lot of money, signed a massive contract
like Carson signed a big one. This thing's in a
different stratosphere because of the guaranteed money changed so dramatically
over like a four year span. So my guess would

(52:51):
be he's getting along. He's getting a long leash. He's
getting a long leash. Like they're in now You never know,
like Sirianni got fired, would they go with someone else?
It is a little complicated, but I think he's going nowhere.

(53:13):
My wife and I greatly disagree on this, and I
can't think of a wiser business savant than you to
weigh in. Picture this. You wake up on a Saturday
morning and the undeniable craving hits fresh hot donuts. As
a guy you know, can be a little chubby, battles
my weight. I don't. I'm not a donut guy, more
of a croissant guy, ham and cheese. The only problem

(53:35):
is you're super comfortable in bed and don't want to
get up. You also don't want to tip someone to
get it for you. Talk about it for gazing. What
a dilemma. But here's a solution. Drone Nuts. I know
the name is incredible. Simply order your dozen donuts on
the app and the drone drops the donuts right at
your house, no human contact or tipping needed at all,

(53:59):
Patent pending. Can you imagine a better business venture? I
like I would be a little uncomfortable. Well, I am.
There's like where I live, the Scottsdale private jet where
all the rich guys fly out of. You can't even
fly drones in this area because like the planes kind
of fly right over the general area. Do you want

(54:21):
drones flying over your house in your backyard. It's one
thing for a guy to come up to your front
door and leave a bag at donuts. It's another thing
the drones flying over your house and other over other houses.
I think there'd be a lot of pushback on that. Ultimately,
if you get a dozen donuts. Again, I'm not a
donut guy, so I don't know. I'm just gonna pick

(54:42):
a number. Let's say a dozen donuts is thirty bucks.
Is that high or low? I don't know. I'm just
picking that number. You're tipping door dash three four bucks,
So I I see what The dronnuts is a good name.
But I don't think a lot of people young and
old want drones flying around everywhere. I think we're a

(55:06):
long way from that. I think there would be a
lot of pushback on just drones, even if they have
the other thing. When you need a relatively decent drone
to carry food and are you only doing one? How
many dozen donuts can it carry? Like? How many boxes?
Just one? And do an individual going back and forth

(55:28):
draft question from Pete. You were a scout and went
through December to late April draft process with people in
management above you, listening to all the mock drafts, player analysts, etc.
On ESPN talk shows, Fox Sports putting down Colin his
ways of explaining things are amazing. What does team management
say when they hear a mock draft rumor of the

(55:52):
offseason false reports? Can you give us some stories? Well,
I think when you work in it, everyone's paying attention
the mock drafts, right. We used to accumulate them all
in the office and have a packet, like if you're
Howie Roseman or Chris Ball or you're reading the mock drafts.
But ultimately the difference of what those guys are doing

(56:13):
than everyone on television besides, like schefter who like is
legit knowledgeable in terms of like he's just spewing knowledge
that he's hearing, is as a GM. I'm constantly talking
to the other gms, so I get an idea and
feel for kind of what's going on, not necessarily what
players are gonna pick, but just would this team trade,

(56:33):
would this team not trade? How dead said? Are they
what they're asking for? So I think they're It didn't
matter what I thought. I could watch all the information
have takes. There's only one decision maker in the room,
maybe two if they have to work together, the coach
and the GM. So a lot of us, like the
worker bees, the scouts, that whole time from December to

(56:57):
April is just all about not stop accumulating information. That's
really what you're kind of dead set on finding information
on every player and what you're hearing about him and
what other teams think about him. You're not as consumed,
like it's not really your job to kind of know
about other teams, I would say, because what they're gonna

(57:21):
want out of you, Like the second round comes, Hey
this guy kind of fell all of a sudden, the
GM and the owner are like, hey, what's this guy's deal? Right?
And he's from your area and you've been through Texas
four times and you've got eight contacts and you've been building,
you know, a scattering report on and off the field
on this player for twelve plus months. You better know

(57:43):
your shit. They don't care, like, hey, what was Kuiper's
mack again? So I think that stuff. It's very entertaining.
I do it for a living essentially now, But inside
that it doesn't matter as much. You have to know
your players. It's on your gm to be falling the
rumors and all that stuff to know what's true and not.

(58:04):
Your job is the rumors on your players. You better know.
You better know it all, and if you don't know it,
figure out a way to find out, because they're gonna
look at you. All of a sudden. The fifth round
comes like, wait, we had a second round grade on
this guy. What's going on? What are you hearing? What's happening?
Why is this free fall? There's something off the field.

(58:26):
So you're kind of always doing that something that's been
pissing me off for years. Why the heck does the
NFL start in August? It's still summer. I'm from Isle
and we have shit weathers for four months a year,
perfect football. I'm still able to be outdoors golfing, fishing,
hiking and pickleballing through September. Why doesn't the NFL push

(58:48):
everything back a month and give each team two by weeks,
stretch this thing into March. Let high school and college
be the ramp up and get the shine until we
get the best sporting events for the year. Uh. I
hate this answer. It's always been this way, so it's

(59:08):
never gonna change, but it's kind of always been that way.
I also think it doesn't really start in August. They
have training camp in argat August. I mean the football
season college starts September first, and the NFL starts September eighth.
So I think that I don't know. I don't know
what I tell you I do, it's it ain't changing

(59:30):
the NFL. I hear what you're saying with bad weather,
But to me, the NFL is the one team or
the one sport college as well that doesn't need to
worry about that. The other league's gotta they better transition
their sports because like here, like you said, March or whatever,
the NFL shines in February, March and April, right free agency,

(59:53):
the combine, the draft, all these rumors to the you know,
the Super Bowl up up till this week is a
really really big time, and then OTA's is really really
big as well. So like the reason OTA's kind of works,
Coaches are constantly talking, players are kind of it just
kind of keeps everyone. The NFL is now become an

(01:00:14):
eleven month sport. The month they take off is really July,
the end of June early July or I guess you know.
Summer break for NFL teams is usually give or take
June tenth through July twenty ish, some twenty two, some eighteen,
some twenty four, but give or take, coaches might come

(01:00:35):
in a week earlier. Got a question for the mailback.
From what I've heard on your pod, it sounds like
you're pretty high on Pennis. I'm a Broncos fan and
I'm hopeful we take Pennis at twelve. I know some
people have a second round grade on him, but he
has dominated while healthy for two years, playing great teams.
Am I overthinking it? Or should we take Pennix and

(01:00:56):
live with what he produced? To me, if you're a
Broncos fan you get pay you should be really really excited.
I mean, who are your quarterbacks right now? Seriously? Who
are the Broncos quarterbacks Stidham. I don't do they have
another quarterback on the roster. They signed a guy this offseason,
not that I can remember. I mean they gave Stidham
two years, ten million dollars. I mean, I think it's

(01:01:19):
pretty clear unless you do a massive trade up Pennix
or bow Knicks. If they draft the quarterbacks and be
one of those two guys, I'll take Michael Penox over
bow Nicks every day the week and fifty times on Sunday.

Speaker 5 (01:01:28):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
A lot of people think that they're gonna go with
bow Knicks as their quarterback, but I don't know. I
would want Michael Pennox if I am these teams, the Raiders,
the Broncos, the Minnesota If I don't trade up and
I just stay and I get Michael Penox, I would

(01:01:50):
be very, very excited. It's risky, but shit, so Trake May,
Jayden Daniel's risky. Hell, Caleb Williams risky. It's the NFL.
They get Michael Pennix. Yes, he's been injured before. Yes
he did not look good against Michigan, but holy shit,
he looked good ninety five percent of the time he
was at Washington, and he looked really good. So if

(01:02:10):
I was a fan and we just get this guy
in the teens or the twenties, if he doesn't go
in the first round, I'd be stunned. I mean I
would be floored that guy makes it the second round,
which feels impossible. Now a lot of people don't think
that these teams are gonna take him in the early teams.
Time will tell, but I would be excited. Appreciate everyone

(01:02:32):
keep firing in those dms.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
The volume