August 14, 2024 • 33 mins
Colin celebrates the near return of college football after a report about increased ticket sales and interest due to conference realignment. He reacts to unfortunate NFL breaking news with Vikings rookie QB JJ McCarthy out for the year after suffering a knee injury in his first preseason game. Plus NFL insider Albert Breer joins the show to explain why the Vikings are confident they can succeed with Sam Darnold at QB
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhert
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome in live in Los Angeles. It's the Hurt wherever
you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks
for making us part of your day. A lot going on,
very exciting show. Jmac, I'm gonna do a little story.
I'm gonna tell a little story. And I've told this,
(00:50):
I think I wrote about this in one of my books,
but I want to tell a little story about years
and years ago. My first job out of college was
in Vegas, and I sat down. I don't play video poker.
I don't play poker at all, little blackjack, So I
sat down. Union Plaza was the casino, and it's going
(01:13):
to take a few minutes. So I'm in Vegas, out
of college, starving, and my boss at the time, Dawn
was his name, he took me to a big sales call,
but he said, it's like the vice president of the casino,
and he said, you're like an intern. You know, you're
(01:33):
like fresh out of college. So you stay down here.
And you know, it was noon, so I ordered a
diet coke and I sat, you know, talking to the bartender,
not drinking. And I sat next to a guy who
had just sold ten twenty TV radio stations, a Texan Arkansas,
Texas guy. He looked like the Marlborough Man, looked like
(01:55):
he had a lot of money, white shirt, good looking,
square job, his watch costs more than my car. And
over the course of time, at like thirty minutes, I
was just kind of like trying to start up conversation.
I was very annoying, even more so than now. And
I said, I asked about his life story, and he
(02:16):
was waiting for somebody to come pick him up, and
they were late, so he was just sitting there playing
it and looking out at the kind of the valet.
And I asked for advice. I said, you've obviously a
very successful guy. Played to his vanity a little bit,
and I said, give me some advice. I'm like twenty
one year old kid from rural Washington now in Vegas
in sales. I want to do play by play, and
(02:37):
you know, he went on and on and on, and
he talked about, you know, there's kind of two types
of people, and he gave me an example. And this
was at a time where a million dollars was a lot.
This is like thirty five years ago, see sixty almost
forty years ago. I remember it very I remember what
he was wearing, very tanned, looked like he'd vacationed a
lot in his life, but worked hard. And he said,
(02:58):
you know, there's kind of two types of and do it.
Test Tell somebody, uh, I just made a million dollars,
and see how they react. He goes, there's two types
of people. They'll be like, wow, how'd you do it?
And they want to be part of something new and
(03:20):
fun and exciting. And then half the people will go, no,
you didn't, yeah right, sure, and dejectedly walk off. He goes,
you don't want to be around those people. You want
to be around people that want to be part of
something fun and new because life's changing. And I always
remember that conversation. Some people just want to go to
(03:43):
the country club and hang out with the same guys
every night and complain about life and play bridge. That's fine.
I have tried to surround myself with young people, part
of something new and fun. Don't be threatened by change.
Don't be threatened by new join the party. Not everything
new is great, but don't be negative all the time.
And I think about this because I saw this last night.
(04:06):
I sent it to my producer Ryan. The college football
season preview from stub Hub shows forty two. That's not
a small number. Forty two percent growth in ticket sales
and college football this season, forty two percent, most of
(04:28):
it fueled by the new matchups created by conference realignment.
Aren't you kind of embarrassed? Old guy playing bridge tonight?
N I l pack twelve conference realignments the end of times.
I'm exhausted for you politics, sports, terrified of anything new. Smile,
(04:54):
Embrace something that's a challenge. You could fail at pack
twelve stadiums. I grew up with them. Cal against Washington State,
it's empty. You know what won't be Oregon against Ohio State,
Penn State, USC stadiums won't be empty. The nil Well, yeah,
why not pay the players? Everybody else is getting rich?
(05:14):
How about the employees making a little money transfer portal.
Five of the last seven Heisman winners are transfers. It's
not the end of the world. The guys transferring are
just like you, transferring for a better job, more respect,
little better pay. That's why we all transfer in life.
It's just not called a portal. I'm not trying to
(05:37):
lecture you, but the constant, perpetual negativity and fear of change.
Forty two percent growth in ticket sales, mostly because of
conference realignment Texas Oklahoma to the Sez, Oregon, Washington, SCUCLA
to the Pack to the Big Ten. It's exhausting. New
stuff is fun. Think about this, only fifth Dean college
(06:00):
football programs. Of one hundred what thirty five Division I
programs in the last decade, only fifteen made the playoffs.
That's just not inclusive enough. Invite new people to an
occasional party. Let your wife make the list, right, Let
(06:21):
her invite some people you don't know, not the same
old guys playing bridge. I was told the transfer portal
Christian McCaffrey skipping a bowl game, the nil conference realignment,
it was going to ruin the sport. I've never in
my life been more excited for college football. I cannot wait.
(06:43):
Week zero starts in what ten days? How can you
not be excited about it? Oregon hosting Ohio State Penn
State USC. You don't have to wait once a decade
for a Rose Bowl matchup Michigan USC, like week two?
How are you not excited for that? Do not?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Mister Rogers used to have a saying, he said, whenever
you're a little kid. He used to talk to kids
and say, find the helpers, Like if something happens you
lose your mom in a department store, find the helpers
in life. Find that fifty percent of the crowd that
(07:26):
that rich cowboy at the Union Plaza in Vegas told
me about. Find the fifty percent that want to join
something new and fun and different. It's a better life,
it's a happier life. Not trying to lecture, but college
football is going to explode this year. Join the party.
Don't complain about it? All right, So there's no reason
(07:54):
to thump our chest on this. But you know you've
heard of the gold medal count, the gold medal count,
how about the television official count? The ratings are in
Everything exploded in Paris, with one exception, women's basketball. The
(08:15):
ratings couldn't even beat the Tokyo Olympics that happened during COVID.
The men's with fading old stars Lebron Katie Steph got
twenty million viewers, overdoubled the last Olympics. And it's Lebron
and Steph and Katie. It's the old guys. People couldn't
(08:38):
get enough. Break dancing was a hit, and yet the
women who won gold attendance down, ratings flat. How everything
else exploded because there was a giant wave in women's
college basketball and they forgot their surfboard. Not only Caitlin Clark,
(09:02):
but Angel Reese and Caitlin should have been on this team.
Women's basketball had a moment and they couldn't meet it.
The reality is they got too insular. They're too loyal
to the niche women's basketball media. Stop it ruffle feathers.
(09:25):
Who cares if you leave a couple of talented, albeit
not that popular players off for Caitlin Clark, Team USA
left Jalen Brown off this team and Isaiah Thomas on
another team and put in Christian Laitner. Isaiah still pissed
about it, Get over it. They won the goal best team. Ever,
probably this was a moment, and I'm not here to lecture.
(09:49):
We won, As I say on Mondays often, you know
where Colin was right.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Where Colin was very right.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, I was very But it's no need to bang
on women's basketball. This is a teaching moment. Is that
you've heard of that saying a disruptor like Caitlin Clark
was the disruptor. Connor McGregor kind of ended boxing. Nobody
(10:19):
wanted to watch boxing, and Dana White lean into it. Yes,
sometimes Connor was inappropriate and did dumb things, and Bryce
Harper fought with teammates. But when you get these moments,
here comes the wave. Grab your surf forward right it.
Don't get don't get insular, don't get precious. Don't lecture
us that we didn't watch the sport. Everything in Paris
(10:42):
exploded except women's basketball. And now the Premier League starts Friday.
College football ten days out. Dodgers Yankees will headline a
very interesting baseball postseason, NFL preseason, and the WNBA. It'll
be off the agenda. I spent all summer talking women's basketball.
(11:06):
It's crazy. We were like, this is amazing, this is fascinating,
Caitlin Clark is Taylor Swift and sneakers and now it
it's over. Nobody's gonna care, so there's no reason to
pound our chest or lecture. But it was a moment,
it was your time. Well, we only had a few practices.
(11:29):
Christian Leitner wasn't even in the NBA yet, this was it. Anecdotally,
I watched twelve minutes of the women's team the Japan game.
They had one player over six to one, and I
thought they're going to cruise, and they mostly did one
close game, but breakdancing exploded. This should have been. This
(11:50):
should have been the Olympics of Katie Ledecki, Simone Biles
and the women's basketball team, and it was the only
thing that was flat or down from Tokyo. Caitlyn Clark
now trying to drum up interest in the Yankee Booth
recently over the weekend, talking about not being picked.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I think a time, it gives you something to work for,
and obviously it's a tough turnaround. You know, I played
ten games in the WNBA before they pick the roster,
so that team is so talented. I think the USA
on the women's side is just so dominant but it's
definitely definitely something for me to work for a twenty
twenty eight and obviously that's in LA so that would
be a fun first opportunity for myself.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yes, twenty twenty eight in Los Angeles, they will crush,
but that's four years down the road. That's not the moment.
The WNBA was just flying regular commercial flights like you
and I, Caitlin arrive. They now have a two year
deal for their own flights. This was it. This was
the moment. They always say in real estate, it's all location.
(12:55):
They always say in business it's all about timing. You
had both Paris was the location, and the timing was now,
and you left your surfboards at home. All right, we
got stuff today. We got a lot of stuff. Aaron
Rodgers man, he's on New York Radio yesterday, getting all
(13:18):
prickly to the fascinating moment where he was talking about
the Malaysian airliner.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Weren't you weren't pining for Aaron Rodgers thoughts on the
missing airliner. You weren't waiting on pins and needles for
that one.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Colin, he's half quarterback, half podcaster.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
I like how you laugh about the jets and then
point at me.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Like a look at that you Got's a fan of
the Jets.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Now you're rooting for the Jets this year because you're
a fan. I'm rooting for Aaron because I think it's
better story. When Matt Stafford goes to the Rams, it's
a great story if he wins. Brady goes to Tampa,
better story if he wins. Let's face it, If Russell
Wilson was playing great with Sean Payton, it's a better
story than restarting with bow Nicks and Russell's career going
to Pittsburgh. I root for quarterback play. I do it
(14:15):
in college. I do it in pro. I like good
quarterback play and what happens if you don't have good
quarterback play after about four weeks, I don't have to
watch your games, so I like to be engaged watch
the league red zone take notes. The Jets are much
better for the NFL and my content. If they're good.
They've been boring and bad forever thirteen years. It's I
(14:37):
want that one o'clock window. Like I said before, I'm
rooting for the Bears. I'm rooting for Washington. I see
the one o'clock window at Fox. I want those NF
I know the late games will be good, the Baltimore,
Kansas City Borough Josh Allen. I know, Monday Night Football,
Sunday Night Football, the Fox late game. I know those
are good. It's that one o'clock window watching the red zone. Like,
give me some games, give me some quarterback play. And
(14:59):
I have a feeling the NFL has engineered the Jets
schedule to put Aaron on those late big TV games.
They'll be at one o'clock six weeks in if they're
losing these things, so I want to see it work.
He was on wfa N yesterday they were doing I
guess there. I don't know if the station of the
morning show was at Jets camp, and he talked about
the pressure of playing in Gotham.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
We realize that success and failure is not binary wins
or losses. You know, as a mindset, it's going out
there and willing to put your best on the line,
and when that's not going to be good enough in
a win loss matrix, Every single time I've been fortunate
enough to play for two organizations that's set a standard
of excellence. Not hey, let's just have a pretty good season,
(15:42):
you know, No, let's be the best. And I think
that's the less you want to play it. You don't
want to play in a city where they're just so excited,
you know, win a few games every year.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Okay, I don't want to be negative, but there is
a difference between the Packers and the Jets. I would
like to state that unequivocally. Okay, those are two different organizations,
all right, So it's not like he's just played for
two similar organizations. One is always great offensively, one has
(16:10):
been a mnemic for a decade plus. One is always
almost always over five hundred. One is almost always under
five hundred. One has continuity small town America, drafts and
develops brilliantly, and always has an offensive coach. The other
(16:31):
is the Jets. So these are not similar organizations. One's
got no owner, therefore Mark Murphy diligently and quietly runs
the team. The other has Woody Johnson and it's a
bit of a clown show, very impulsive running through gms
and coaches. So it's not the same environment. Also, strangely,
(16:53):
the Jets are one of the rare franchises that aren't good.
Yet the expectations are always high. The Mets have that.
Why would the Mets be good? They're never good? Right,
you have to go back and talk Keith Hernandez. So,
by the way, this is breaking news. This is breaking
news and not good news. JJ McCarthy Vikings rookie gonna
(17:17):
miss the entire season torn meniscus, sources tell rap sheet
Ian Rapaport. Disappointing. It gives McCarthy the best chance in
a long career, though is a year long repair of
the torn meniscus. So bummer. Now, he wasn't going to start.
He just looked very good in the opener. So it
(17:40):
doesn't change what I think of the Vikings. I think
JJ McCarthy will eventually flourish to some level with the Vikings.
I do believe that, and I think Sam Darnold's going
to start. I got to tell you, the Donald thing
is fascinating because they really do have very offense at personnel,
(18:01):
and the Lions and the Packers may be better, but
they don't have great defenses. So we saw Baker Mayfield's
career reborn, Gino Smith reborn Sam Donald could have that,
but I mean Kevin O'Connell won games last year, Josh
Dobbs won a game without a practice, Sam Donald, and
I think it's a better roster now. They'll win games.
(18:22):
So I'm not gonna guess on injuries. I said yesterday,
I got a text from two players that don't lead
me wrong very often. They were a little concerned that
JJ McCarthy would miss a lot more time than I
was predicting. So he's gonna miss the entire season. Torn meniscus.
Twin Cities Orthopedics did the surgery and repaired it today. Yeah,
(18:46):
I mean my take is I think they're a third
or fourth place team with Sam Donald. McCarthy was a probably.
You know, if you look at these quarterbacks, Caleb's going
to start now, Jaden and bow Nicks should be very
interesting early. But Pennix is gonna sit, McCarthy was gonna sit,
and Drake may was gonna sit. So this, I mean,
(19:08):
we kind of feel like a couple of these guys
are gonna play now and they're gonna make mistakes. Jayden Daniels,
Caleb Williams, Bowt Nicks three of these quarterbacks. But there's
three other guys Pennix, JJ McCarthy and Drake May that
weren't gonna play. So this is a bummer. The Viking schedule,
my idea of what they are and where they're going
doesn't change at all. I think it's a really tough
(19:29):
schedule early. It softens up a little later where you've
got your Arizona's, your Tennessee's, your Atlanta's in Chicago again.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
But I think whoever is quarterbacking for this team, Kevin O'Connell,
the tall, Sean McVay, the great thing about JJ's career,
and Donald, whoever is quarterbacking in Minnesota, you will get
the truest version of who they are. Sam Donald could
blame Woody Johnson. He could if he wanted to blame
(20:02):
Adam Gase, blame the culture, blame Todd Bowles. There'll be
no blame for Sam Donald. This is as smart an
offensive coach, great left tackle, two nice weapons, a running
back that can make plays happen. Like you know how
sometimes you know if you fail in life, you can
point fingers. That's all politics is about. It's all pointing fingers.
(20:25):
If Sam Darnold can't get it done here, then he
can't get it done in the league. He had a
really bad pick six at practice yesterday and it was
like Sam Darnold, he gives you one of those games.
So whether it was McCarthy or not, you're gonna get
a completely true version of right. It's almost like with McVeigh,
he could get golf to a super Bowl. He could
(20:46):
get Stafford there to win. That's who they are. Goff
may never win a Super Bowl, but he could probably
get you there a couple times. Stafford, even with an
imperfect team, can win it. With McVeigh, you get the
truest form of your quarterback. If you're good, you win
a bunch of playoff games. If you're great, you win
super Bowls. I feel like McVeigh does that and Kevin
(21:08):
O'Connell does that as well.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
So the Vikings are now waiting for the league to
rule on the Jordan Addison suspension for the offseason. DUI, yes,
that could be a game two, maybe three.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
TJ.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Hawkinson, I'm reading is not gonna be ready. They're great
tight end for the beginning of the regular season. They
don't know if he's gonna be back by week three
the bye week. So now Colin, you're looking at quarterback
goes down, Bajor bummer Jordan isn't gonna be suspended. That
stinks and Hawkinson not ready? Is that just too much negativeness.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
To like in preseasons? What it does? It actually does
Donald and the Vikings a little favor because this schedule
has some l's in it, and now there's no pressure,
So Donald's gonna have a much longer runway. That's good
for the entire room. So I mean, my take is
that could beat the Giants, but they're probably not beating
the Niners Houston or Green beat. It would have become
(22:04):
a huge distraction with JJ McCarthy, especially if the way
he's playing in preseason, it would have just hung over
the franchise. Now it won't. Now Jj'll get healthy, he'll
come back from this. He'll come back hopefully, and Darnald
has no distraction behind him. And so I mean, I
think it's not like a win for anybody that he
was hurt. But what you're gonna get now is there's
(22:27):
no question we're all in on Sam Darnald. There's no
talk radio debates now. If Sam throws a couple of
ugly pick sixes and he will. That's that's his reality.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
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and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast
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Speaker 1 (22:56):
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Speaker 7 (22:59):
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(23:23):
wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Albert Breer is joining us from Ravens Camp today, fourteenth Camp.
He's visited. By the way, there was there's some n
oh your eighteen nineteen, my bad says fourteen tier. Okay,
Ravens Camp, there's some news here on Mark Andrews. Can
you update us?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah? So he was involved in a car accident. They
don't think it's going to impact this ability to play,
but it'll probably be out of practice for a couple
of days. I don't think it's anything to be too
concerned about. Obviously, they feel fortunate that he's okay. They
examined him, he was in meetings. Yeah, it looks like
everything's NB all.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Right, Okay. JJ McCarthy out for the season. I had
said earlier, tough early schedule. To me, if there's any benefit,
and obviously your heart goes out to JJ McCarthy, the
benefit is there'll be no distractions because if you look
at the early schedule, there's some ls on this thing,
and there may be a losing streak. They're not I mean,
you go San Francisco, Houston, Green Bay Jets, that is
(24:24):
a rough month. My take is they're gonna ride and
die with Sam Darnold. There'll be no distractions. That was
my takeaway.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Your thoughts, Yeah, I think they were prepared for this.
I don't think the plan was ever to force JJ
McCarthy out there. One thing I do know about Kevin
O'Connell was, regardless of who he drafted, you know, and
they had talked about moving up for Drake May. Obviously
they move up the spot to get JJ McCarthy. They
were going to have a detailed plan as far as
(24:52):
how they were going to deploy the rookie quarterback in
the spring, in the summer, and what benchmarks he was
gonna have to hit for them to think about putting
that kid out in the field, and so to execute
that sort of plan and to build some flexibility into
what you're doing and when you're going to play him,
you have to have a plan that you like that's
an alternate to that quarterback, and they do have one
(25:13):
in Sam Donald. They love what they saw at the
end in Carolina from if you go back and you
look at the fourth quarter of that Ravens Niners game
from Christmas Night last year, and I know, look, I
know it was a blowout, garbage time, whatever, but Donald
looked like he was playing faster and looked like he
was playing more decisively with Kyle Shanahan and the talent
around him, and so like the feeling is some of
(25:35):
that should transfer over with Kevin O'Connell as his coach,
with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ. Hockins, and Christian Daras
saw all the people that are there. They're confident that
they're going to get a better version of Sam Donald,
and you know, maybe this winds up being like the
Baker Mayfield or Gino Smith stories, where you have guys
who were highly drafted, who were really talented, who fell
(25:55):
on their face a little bit in their first spot,
picking themselves back up and being better than second time around.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So Drake May six snaps, and I'm thinking to myself
in New England, I'm thinking, listen, you got to get
him snaps because because yeah, I'm I mean, is that
why that is weird? Right? Like I mean Bo Nicks
took like through twenty one passes, Drake May got six snaps.
(26:23):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Well, Denver's getting bet bo Nick's ready to start, and
know England's not doing that with Drake May. I think
to their credit, they're going to prioritize his development because
they felt like when they drafted and they got an
enormously talented kid who just wasn't ready to play, who
played for multiple offensive coordinators in college the last four years,
he's really only played two full seasons, and so you know,
(26:45):
they they looked at him as a puppy, you know,
a guy who's a kid who's got great tools and
who can move around really well, who's got great arm talent,
but needed to be rebuilt from the waist down. And
so they're going through the process of doing that and
their prioritying his development at every step. And so a
big piece of not putting them out there last week
wasn't a lack of confidence in Drake May. It was
(27:06):
a lack of a confidence in the second offensive line.
The second offensive line had gotten beaten up in camp
some by the defensive backups there, and they felt, you know,
for the good of his development, that the right thing
to do was to only put him out there in
the first preseason game behind the first offensive line. And
so when the first offensive line came off the field,
he came off the field with them. Now the next
(27:27):
step of it and allows him to sequence this this
this thing is that they had a joint practice yesterday
with the Eagles, and I'd expect that he's gonna play
a whole lot more tomorrow night against Philly. But every
step of the way, it hasn't been about getting ready
to play this year. It hasn't been about you know,
getting him live reps. It's been about prioritizing his development,
and you know, they felt like the best thing for
(27:47):
him to do last week, in accordance with his development,
was to only plan behind that first offensive line. Again.
I think he gets more extensive playing time this week.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Brandon I Yuke, is it? I heard it was a
little ug or behind the scenes that anybody wanted to acknowledge.
What have you heard? I also, I you know, two
thursdays ago, I was told it was really close. And
then yeah, it feels like there's some animosity maybe from
both sides.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Yeah, if you want me to give you a little
bit of a visual here, Colin, if this helps you out.
You know, I was in Cincinnati and I saw Jamar
Chase and his quote unquote hold in right, and he
was engaged. He was around the younger receivers. You talk
to people there, it's like he's just not practicing. He's
doing everything else, like he's getting himself ready to play
the season, you know. And a few days before that,
I'd been in San Francisco and as a start contrast
(28:37):
to that, where you know, during the practice, you know,
Brandon Ayuk was off to the side, sitting in a
golf cart and not really engage with anything. And so,
you know, I'm not sure that that situation has been
as I would say, harmonious as as some of the
other ones there across the league. And I think everybody's
been able to see that with some of the stuff
that's gotten on camera. We're showing some of it here now.
(29:01):
You know, I think the Niners really kind of got
to the point in dealing with that where they wanted
to drive a conclusion, and that's why they let him
go out and said to him, go find a better deal.
Let's see if there's a team that you want to
be traded to, and we will open up talks now
on trades with other teams where they've been very standoffish
about that until now. They asked for the moon and
the stars before the draft, and so the thought was
(29:24):
one way or the other, this is going to drive
us to a conclusion, get everybody closure on it. And
you know, their bet was that Brandon and I you
probably wouldn't be able to find a combination of money
and opportunity to win that was better than what he
had in San Francisco already. And you'd argue that's where
it's at right now is that you know, he's offered
over thirty million dollars by the Patriots. Didn't want to
(29:48):
go there because they're not in a position to win.
He was offered around twenty eight million dollars per year
by the Steelers, and like, you add that to a
team that's won, but not one at the Niners level recently.
It has stability to the head coach, but doesn't have
stability at quarterback. And you know, really, I think that
pushed you back to the table again. There's all that
(30:08):
water under the bridge that you're dealing with, so you
do have to deal with that. But I think the
fact that the Niners offer isn't far off from where
the Steelers were at least gave the sides the opportunity
to reopen talks, and talks really hadn't gone anywhere since May,
so at least got them back to the table where
they're talking again. And look, the Niners priority all along
has been to keep Brandon Ayuk long term. I've said
(30:29):
to see before, I think if all things were equal,
they would treat trade Deebo Samuel before they would trade
Brandon Ayuk. They want to pay him long term a
broad party. I think they've gotten an opening to do it.
Nothing for sure, but I think they've got an opening
to do that now.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
The I watched Jordan Love come out show off as whip.
It's just so easy. And then I watched Aaron and
the Tahus on Reddick and the You know, Aaron's talking
Malaysian Airliner yesterday because he got asked it legitimate question
from a producer and I'm like, oh, good god, it's
a circus. I nobody. You know, green Bay now has
(31:04):
moved on. But are you taken a little bit by
how seamless I mean Brady leaves New England. Yeah, they
dry up, I mean dry up. Green Bay has turned
the fastest page I've ever seen. I Mean it's almost
like every time something happens.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Here's the difference, though, Colin, what when did they draft
the kid three years ahead of time? Yeah, that's the difference, right,
He's been in the building, right, like, so you had
the opportunity to develop him that way. And you know,
Matt Lafleur has been really consistent with me about this,
you know, as we've talked about her over the last
couple of years, how he really believes in doing it
(31:49):
this way, and because they had Aaron that that gave
him the flexibility to develop Jordan Love through the system.
I had a really interesting conversation with Jordan himself about
it too, where it wasn't perfect last year. You know,
they got off to kind of a quick start, so
I think they were two and one after three games, right,
and he played pretty well, and then they hit this
run and it was what six seven weeks where they
(32:10):
didn't look good. He didn't look good, and it really
kind of made you think, okay, like, is this the
wheels coming off for Green Bay. Jordan told me that
seeing Aaron Rodgers go through full seasons allowed him to
manage that a certain way and allowed him allowed for
him to deal with it a certain way. And his
point to me was, if going through an NFL season
(32:30):
is hard for Aaron Rodgers, it's gonna be hard for everybody.
And so getting to watch that, getting to rework a
his mechanics, getting to see how an NFL team works
over a three year period, and then getting put in
there with a bunch of young receivers like Wix, like Reed,
like Watson, like Dobbs that are literally growing up with
him put him in such an advantageous position, so when
(32:52):
things did come undone a little bit last year, he
didn't think the world was coming to an end the
way that a rookie might. And so I think so
much of this is the ability to develop him for
three years. Jordan's very talented, He's a great kid, really
smart by all accounts. So he has the tools. But
there are a lot of players who have those tools
who don't make it because they're not in the right situation.
Jordan Love was in a really great situation with a
(33:14):
coach who was committed to developing him the right way.
And I think you see the result now. And I
don't think the end of last year was a fluke.
I think he's gonna have a big year this year.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Albert Breer at the Ravens Camp Mark Andrews, Okay, that's
good news. It's good senior as all was. Albert
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
Fox Sportsradio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhert
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome in live in Los Angeles. It's the Hurt wherever
you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks
for making us part of your day. A lot going on,
very exciting show. Jmac, I'm gonna do a little story.
I'm gonna tell a little story. And I've told this,
(00:50):
I think I wrote about this in one of my books,
but I want to tell a little story about years
and years ago. My first job out of college was
in Vegas, and I sat down. I don't play video poker.
I don't play poker at all, little blackjack, So I
sat down. Union Plaza was the casino, and it's going
(01:13):
to take a few minutes. So I'm in Vegas, out
of college, starving, and my boss at the time, Dawn
was his name, he took me to a big sales call,
but he said, it's like the vice president of the casino,
and he said, you're like an intern. You know, you're
(01:33):
like fresh out of college. So you stay down here.
And you know, it was noon, so I ordered a
diet coke and I sat, you know, talking to the bartender,
not drinking. And I sat next to a guy who
had just sold ten twenty TV radio stations, a Texan Arkansas,
Texas guy. He looked like the Marlborough Man, looked like
(01:55):
he had a lot of money, white shirt, good looking,
square job, his watch costs more than my car. And
over the course of time, at like thirty minutes, I
was just kind of like trying to start up conversation.
I was very annoying, even more so than now. And
I said, I asked about his life story, and he
(02:16):
was waiting for somebody to come pick him up, and
they were late, so he was just sitting there playing
it and looking out at the kind of the valet.
And I asked for advice. I said, you've obviously a
very successful guy. Played to his vanity a little bit,
and I said, give me some advice. I'm like twenty
one year old kid from rural Washington now in Vegas
in sales. I want to do play by play, and
(02:37):
you know, he went on and on and on, and
he talked about, you know, there's kind of two types
of people, and he gave me an example. And this
was at a time where a million dollars was a lot.
This is like thirty five years ago, see sixty almost
forty years ago. I remember it very I remember what
he was wearing, very tanned, looked like he'd vacationed a
lot in his life, but worked hard. And he said,
(02:58):
you know, there's kind of two types of and do it.
Test Tell somebody, uh, I just made a million dollars,
and see how they react. He goes, there's two types
of people. They'll be like, wow, how'd you do it?
And they want to be part of something new and
(03:20):
fun and exciting. And then half the people will go, no,
you didn't, yeah right, sure, and dejectedly walk off. He goes,
you don't want to be around those people. You want
to be around people that want to be part of
something fun and new because life's changing. And I always
remember that conversation. Some people just want to go to
(03:43):
the country club and hang out with the same guys
every night and complain about life and play bridge. That's fine.
I have tried to surround myself with young people, part
of something new and fun. Don't be threatened by change.
Don't be threatened by new join the party. Not everything
new is great, but don't be negative all the time.
And I think about this because I saw this last night.
(04:06):
I sent it to my producer Ryan. The college football
season preview from stub Hub shows forty two. That's not
a small number. Forty two percent growth in ticket sales
and college football this season, forty two percent, most of
(04:28):
it fueled by the new matchups created by conference realignment.
Aren't you kind of embarrassed? Old guy playing bridge tonight?
N I l pack twelve conference realignments the end of times.
I'm exhausted for you politics, sports, terrified of anything new. Smile,
(04:54):
Embrace something that's a challenge. You could fail at pack
twelve stadiums. I grew up with them. Cal against Washington State,
it's empty. You know what won't be Oregon against Ohio State,
Penn State, USC stadiums won't be empty. The nil Well, yeah,
why not pay the players? Everybody else is getting rich?
(05:14):
How about the employees making a little money transfer portal.
Five of the last seven Heisman winners are transfers. It's
not the end of the world. The guys transferring are
just like you, transferring for a better job, more respect,
little better pay. That's why we all transfer in life.
It's just not called a portal. I'm not trying to
(05:37):
lecture you, but the constant, perpetual negativity and fear of change.
Forty two percent growth in ticket sales, mostly because of
conference realignment Texas Oklahoma to the Sez, Oregon, Washington, SCUCLA
to the Pack to the Big Ten. It's exhausting. New
stuff is fun. Think about this, only fifth Dean college
(06:00):
football programs. Of one hundred what thirty five Division I
programs in the last decade, only fifteen made the playoffs.
That's just not inclusive enough. Invite new people to an
occasional party. Let your wife make the list, right, Let
(06:21):
her invite some people you don't know, not the same
old guys playing bridge. I was told the transfer portal
Christian McCaffrey skipping a bowl game, the nil conference realignment,
it was going to ruin the sport. I've never in
my life been more excited for college football. I cannot wait.
(06:43):
Week zero starts in what ten days? How can you
not be excited about it? Oregon hosting Ohio State Penn
State USC. You don't have to wait once a decade
for a Rose Bowl matchup Michigan USC, like week two?
How are you not excited for that? Do not?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
You know?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Mister Rogers used to have a saying, he said, whenever
you're a little kid. He used to talk to kids
and say, find the helpers, Like if something happens you
lose your mom in a department store, find the helpers
in life. Find that fifty percent of the crowd that
(07:26):
that rich cowboy at the Union Plaza in Vegas told
me about. Find the fifty percent that want to join
something new and fun and different. It's a better life,
it's a happier life. Not trying to lecture, but college
football is going to explode this year. Join the party.
Don't complain about it? All right, So there's no reason
(07:54):
to thump our chest on this. But you know you've
heard of the gold medal count, the gold medal count,
how about the television official count? The ratings are in
Everything exploded in Paris, with one exception, women's basketball. The
(08:15):
ratings couldn't even beat the Tokyo Olympics that happened during COVID.
The men's with fading old stars Lebron Katie Steph got
twenty million viewers, overdoubled the last Olympics. And it's Lebron
and Steph and Katie. It's the old guys. People couldn't
(08:38):
get enough. Break dancing was a hit, and yet the
women who won gold attendance down, ratings flat. How everything
else exploded because there was a giant wave in women's
college basketball and they forgot their surfboard. Not only Caitlin Clark,
(09:02):
but Angel Reese and Caitlin should have been on this team.
Women's basketball had a moment and they couldn't meet it.
The reality is they got too insular. They're too loyal
to the niche women's basketball media. Stop it ruffle feathers.
(09:25):
Who cares if you leave a couple of talented, albeit
not that popular players off for Caitlin Clark, Team USA
left Jalen Brown off this team and Isaiah Thomas on
another team and put in Christian Laitner. Isaiah still pissed
about it, Get over it. They won the goal best team. Ever,
probably this was a moment, and I'm not here to lecture.
(09:49):
We won, As I say on Mondays often, you know
where Colin was right.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Where Colin was very right.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, I was very But it's no need to bang
on women's basketball. This is a teaching moment. Is that
you've heard of that saying a disruptor like Caitlin Clark
was the disruptor. Connor McGregor kind of ended boxing. Nobody
(10:19):
wanted to watch boxing, and Dana White lean into it. Yes,
sometimes Connor was inappropriate and did dumb things, and Bryce
Harper fought with teammates. But when you get these moments,
here comes the wave. Grab your surf forward right it.
Don't get don't get insular, don't get precious. Don't lecture
us that we didn't watch the sport. Everything in Paris
(10:42):
exploded except women's basketball. And now the Premier League starts Friday.
College football ten days out. Dodgers Yankees will headline a
very interesting baseball postseason, NFL preseason, and the WNBA. It'll
be off the agenda. I spent all summer talking women's basketball.
(11:06):
It's crazy. We were like, this is amazing, this is fascinating,
Caitlin Clark is Taylor Swift and sneakers and now it
it's over. Nobody's gonna care, so there's no reason to
pound our chest or lecture. But it was a moment,
it was your time. Well, we only had a few practices.
(11:29):
Christian Leitner wasn't even in the NBA yet, this was it. Anecdotally,
I watched twelve minutes of the women's team the Japan game.
They had one player over six to one, and I
thought they're going to cruise, and they mostly did one
close game, but breakdancing exploded. This should have been. This
(11:50):
should have been the Olympics of Katie Ledecki, Simone Biles
and the women's basketball team, and it was the only
thing that was flat or down from Tokyo. Caitlyn Clark
now trying to drum up interest in the Yankee Booth
recently over the weekend, talking about not being picked.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I think a time, it gives you something to work for,
and obviously it's a tough turnaround. You know, I played
ten games in the WNBA before they pick the roster,
so that team is so talented. I think the USA
on the women's side is just so dominant but it's
definitely definitely something for me to work for a twenty
twenty eight and obviously that's in LA so that would
be a fun first opportunity for myself.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yes, twenty twenty eight in Los Angeles, they will crush,
but that's four years down the road. That's not the moment.
The WNBA was just flying regular commercial flights like you
and I, Caitlin arrive. They now have a two year
deal for their own flights. This was it. This was
the moment. They always say in real estate, it's all location.
(12:55):
They always say in business it's all about timing. You
had both Paris was the location, and the timing was now,
and you left your surfboards at home. All right, we
got stuff today. We got a lot of stuff. Aaron
Rodgers man, he's on New York Radio yesterday, getting all
(13:18):
prickly to the fascinating moment where he was talking about
the Malaysian airliner.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Weren't you weren't pining for Aaron Rodgers thoughts on the
missing airliner. You weren't waiting on pins and needles for
that one.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Colin, he's half quarterback, half podcaster.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
I like how you laugh about the jets and then
point at me.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Like a look at that you Got's a fan of
the Jets.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Now you're rooting for the Jets this year because you're
a fan. I'm rooting for Aaron because I think it's
better story. When Matt Stafford goes to the Rams, it's
a great story if he wins. Brady goes to Tampa,
better story if he wins. Let's face it, If Russell
Wilson was playing great with Sean Payton, it's a better
story than restarting with bow Nicks and Russell's career going
to Pittsburgh. I root for quarterback play. I do it
(14:15):
in college. I do it in pro. I like good
quarterback play and what happens if you don't have good
quarterback play after about four weeks, I don't have to
watch your games, so I like to be engaged watch
the league red zone take notes. The Jets are much
better for the NFL and my content. If they're good.
They've been boring and bad forever thirteen years. It's I
(14:37):
want that one o'clock window. Like I said before, I'm
rooting for the Bears. I'm rooting for Washington. I see
the one o'clock window at Fox. I want those NF
I know the late games will be good, the Baltimore,
Kansas City Borough Josh Allen. I know, Monday Night Football,
Sunday Night Football, the Fox late game. I know those
are good. It's that one o'clock window watching the red zone. Like,
give me some games, give me some quarterback play. And
(14:59):
I have a feeling the NFL has engineered the Jets
schedule to put Aaron on those late big TV games.
They'll be at one o'clock six weeks in if they're
losing these things, so I want to see it work.
He was on wfa N yesterday they were doing I
guess there. I don't know if the station of the
morning show was at Jets camp, and he talked about
the pressure of playing in Gotham.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
We realize that success and failure is not binary wins
or losses. You know, as a mindset, it's going out
there and willing to put your best on the line,
and when that's not going to be good enough in
a win loss matrix, Every single time I've been fortunate
enough to play for two organizations that's set a standard
of excellence. Not hey, let's just have a pretty good season,
(15:42):
you know, No, let's be the best. And I think
that's the less you want to play it. You don't
want to play in a city where they're just so excited,
you know, win a few games every year.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Okay, I don't want to be negative, but there is
a difference between the Packers and the Jets. I would
like to state that unequivocally. Okay, those are two different organizations,
all right, So it's not like he's just played for
two similar organizations. One is always great offensively, one has
(16:10):
been a mnemic for a decade plus. One is always
almost always over five hundred. One is almost always under
five hundred. One has continuity small town America, drafts and
develops brilliantly, and always has an offensive coach. The other
(16:31):
is the Jets. So these are not similar organizations. One's
got no owner, therefore Mark Murphy diligently and quietly runs
the team. The other has Woody Johnson and it's a
bit of a clown show, very impulsive running through gms
and coaches. So it's not the same environment. Also, strangely,
(16:53):
the Jets are one of the rare franchises that aren't good.
Yet the expectations are always high. The Mets have that.
Why would the Mets be good? They're never good? Right,
you have to go back and talk Keith Hernandez. So,
by the way, this is breaking news. This is breaking
news and not good news. JJ McCarthy Vikings rookie gonna
(17:17):
miss the entire season torn meniscus, sources tell rap sheet
Ian Rapaport. Disappointing. It gives McCarthy the best chance in
a long career, though is a year long repair of
the torn meniscus. So bummer. Now, he wasn't going to start.
He just looked very good in the opener. So it
(17:40):
doesn't change what I think of the Vikings. I think
JJ McCarthy will eventually flourish to some level with the Vikings.
I do believe that, and I think Sam Darnold's going
to start. I got to tell you, the Donald thing
is fascinating because they really do have very offense at personnel,
(18:01):
and the Lions and the Packers may be better, but
they don't have great defenses. So we saw Baker Mayfield's
career reborn, Gino Smith reborn Sam Donald could have that,
but I mean Kevin O'Connell won games last year, Josh
Dobbs won a game without a practice, Sam Donald, and
I think it's a better roster now. They'll win games.
(18:22):
So I'm not gonna guess on injuries. I said yesterday,
I got a text from two players that don't lead
me wrong very often. They were a little concerned that
JJ McCarthy would miss a lot more time than I
was predicting. So he's gonna miss the entire season. Torn meniscus.
Twin Cities Orthopedics did the surgery and repaired it today. Yeah,
(18:46):
I mean my take is I think they're a third
or fourth place team with Sam Donald. McCarthy was a probably.
You know, if you look at these quarterbacks, Caleb's going
to start now, Jaden and bow Nicks should be very
interesting early. But Pennix is gonna sit, McCarthy was gonna sit,
and Drake may was gonna sit. So this, I mean,
(19:08):
we kind of feel like a couple of these guys
are gonna play now and they're gonna make mistakes. Jayden Daniels,
Caleb Williams, Bowt Nicks three of these quarterbacks. But there's
three other guys Pennix, JJ McCarthy and Drake May that
weren't gonna play. So this is a bummer. The Viking schedule,
my idea of what they are and where they're going
doesn't change at all. I think it's a really tough
(19:29):
schedule early. It softens up a little later where you've
got your Arizona's, your Tennessee's, your Atlanta's in Chicago again.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
But I think whoever is quarterbacking for this team, Kevin O'Connell,
the tall, Sean McVay, the great thing about JJ's career,
and Donald, whoever is quarterbacking in Minnesota, you will get
the truest version of who they are. Sam Donald could
blame Woody Johnson. He could if he wanted to blame
(20:02):
Adam Gase, blame the culture, blame Todd Bowles. There'll be
no blame for Sam Donald. This is as smart an
offensive coach, great left tackle, two nice weapons, a running
back that can make plays happen. Like you know how
sometimes you know if you fail in life, you can
point fingers. That's all politics is about. It's all pointing fingers.
(20:25):
If Sam Darnold can't get it done here, then he
can't get it done in the league. He had a
really bad pick six at practice yesterday and it was
like Sam Darnold, he gives you one of those games.
So whether it was McCarthy or not, you're gonna get
a completely true version of right. It's almost like with McVeigh,
he could get golf to a super Bowl. He could
(20:46):
get Stafford there to win. That's who they are. Goff
may never win a Super Bowl, but he could probably
get you there a couple times. Stafford, even with an
imperfect team, can win it. With McVeigh, you get the
truest form of your quarterback. If you're good, you win
a bunch of playoff games. If you're great, you win
super Bowls. I feel like McVeigh does that and Kevin
(21:08):
O'Connell does that as well.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
So the Vikings are now waiting for the league to
rule on the Jordan Addison suspension for the offseason. DUI, yes,
that could be a game two, maybe three.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
TJ.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Hawkinson, I'm reading is not gonna be ready. They're great
tight end for the beginning of the regular season. They
don't know if he's gonna be back by week three
the bye week. So now Colin, you're looking at quarterback
goes down, Bajor bummer Jordan isn't gonna be suspended. That
stinks and Hawkinson not ready? Is that just too much negativeness.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
To like in preseasons? What it does? It actually does
Donald and the Vikings a little favor because this schedule
has some l's in it, and now there's no pressure,
So Donald's gonna have a much longer runway. That's good
for the entire room. So I mean, my take is
that could beat the Giants, but they're probably not beating
the Niners Houston or Green beat. It would have become
(22:04):
a huge distraction with JJ McCarthy, especially if the way
he's playing in preseason, it would have just hung over
the franchise. Now it won't. Now Jj'll get healthy, he'll
come back from this. He'll come back hopefully, and Darnald
has no distraction behind him. And so I mean, I
think it's not like a win for anybody that he
was hurt. But what you're gonna get now is there's
(22:27):
no question we're all in on Sam Darnald. There's no
talk radio debates now. If Sam throws a couple of
ugly pick sixes and he will. That's that's his reality.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me three time pro bowler Levarrington,
and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast
called Up on Game? What is up on Game?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler t J.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
Hutchman and Super Bowl champion Yep, that's right, Plexico Birds.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me, LeVar Arrington, TJ. Houchmanzada
and Plexico Birds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(23:23):
wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Albert Breer is joining us from Ravens Camp today, fourteenth Camp.
He's visited. By the way, there was there's some n
oh your eighteen nineteen, my bad says fourteen tier. Okay,
Ravens Camp, there's some news here on Mark Andrews. Can
you update us?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah? So he was involved in a car accident. They
don't think it's going to impact this ability to play,
but it'll probably be out of practice for a couple
of days. I don't think it's anything to be too
concerned about. Obviously, they feel fortunate that he's okay. They
examined him, he was in meetings. Yeah, it looks like
everything's NB all.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Right, Okay. JJ McCarthy out for the season. I had
said earlier, tough early schedule. To me, if there's any benefit,
and obviously your heart goes out to JJ McCarthy, the
benefit is there'll be no distractions because if you look
at the early schedule, there's some ls on this thing,
and there may be a losing streak. They're not I mean,
you go San Francisco, Houston, Green Bay Jets, that is
(24:24):
a rough month. My take is they're gonna ride and
die with Sam Darnold. There'll be no distractions. That was
my takeaway.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Your thoughts, Yeah, I think they were prepared for this.
I don't think the plan was ever to force JJ
McCarthy out there. One thing I do know about Kevin
O'Connell was, regardless of who he drafted, you know, and
they had talked about moving up for Drake May. Obviously
they move up the spot to get JJ McCarthy. They
were going to have a detailed plan as far as
(24:52):
how they were going to deploy the rookie quarterback in
the spring, in the summer, and what benchmarks he was
gonna have to hit for them to think about putting
that kid out in the field, and so to execute
that sort of plan and to build some flexibility into
what you're doing and when you're going to play him,
you have to have a plan that you like that's
an alternate to that quarterback, and they do have one
(25:13):
in Sam Donald. They love what they saw at the
end in Carolina from if you go back and you
look at the fourth quarter of that Ravens Niners game
from Christmas Night last year, and I know, look, I
know it was a blowout, garbage time, whatever, but Donald
looked like he was playing faster and looked like he
was playing more decisively with Kyle Shanahan and the talent
around him, and so like the feeling is some of
(25:35):
that should transfer over with Kevin O'Connell as his coach,
with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ. Hockins, and Christian Daras
saw all the people that are there. They're confident that
they're going to get a better version of Sam Donald,
and you know, maybe this winds up being like the
Baker Mayfield or Gino Smith stories, where you have guys
who were highly drafted, who were really talented, who fell
(25:55):
on their face a little bit in their first spot,
picking themselves back up and being better than second time around.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So Drake May six snaps, and I'm thinking to myself
in New England, I'm thinking, listen, you got to get
him snaps because because yeah, I'm I mean, is that
why that is weird? Right? Like I mean Bo Nicks
took like through twenty one passes, Drake May got six snaps.
(26:23):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Well, Denver's getting bet bo Nick's ready to start, and
know England's not doing that with Drake May. I think
to their credit, they're going to prioritize his development because
they felt like when they drafted and they got an
enormously talented kid who just wasn't ready to play, who
played for multiple offensive coordinators in college the last four years,
he's really only played two full seasons, and so you know,
(26:45):
they they looked at him as a puppy, you know,
a guy who's a kid who's got great tools and
who can move around really well, who's got great arm talent,
but needed to be rebuilt from the waist down. And
so they're going through the process of doing that and
their prioritying his development at every step. And so a
big piece of not putting them out there last week
wasn't a lack of confidence in Drake May. It was
(27:06):
a lack of a confidence in the second offensive line.
The second offensive line had gotten beaten up in camp
some by the defensive backups there, and they felt, you know,
for the good of his development, that the right thing
to do was to only put him out there in
the first preseason game behind the first offensive line. And
so when the first offensive line came off the field,
he came off the field with them. Now the next
(27:27):
step of it and allows him to sequence this this
this thing is that they had a joint practice yesterday
with the Eagles, and I'd expect that he's gonna play
a whole lot more tomorrow night against Philly. But every
step of the way, it hasn't been about getting ready
to play this year. It hasn't been about you know,
getting him live reps. It's been about prioritizing his development,
and you know, they felt like the best thing for
(27:47):
him to do last week, in accordance with his development,
was to only plan behind that first offensive line. Again.
I think he gets more extensive playing time this week.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Brandon I Yuke, is it? I heard it was a
little ug or behind the scenes that anybody wanted to acknowledge.
What have you heard? I also, I you know, two
thursdays ago, I was told it was really close. And
then yeah, it feels like there's some animosity maybe from
both sides.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Yeah, if you want me to give you a little
bit of a visual here, Colin, if this helps you out.
You know, I was in Cincinnati and I saw Jamar
Chase and his quote unquote hold in right, and he
was engaged. He was around the younger receivers. You talk
to people there, it's like he's just not practicing. He's
doing everything else, like he's getting himself ready to play
the season, you know. And a few days before that,
I'd been in San Francisco and as a start contrast
(28:37):
to that, where you know, during the practice, you know,
Brandon Ayuk was off to the side, sitting in a
golf cart and not really engage with anything. And so,
you know, I'm not sure that that situation has been
as I would say, harmonious as as some of the
other ones there across the league. And I think everybody's
been able to see that with some of the stuff
that's gotten on camera. We're showing some of it here now.
(29:01):
You know, I think the Niners really kind of got
to the point in dealing with that where they wanted
to drive a conclusion, and that's why they let him
go out and said to him, go find a better deal.
Let's see if there's a team that you want to
be traded to, and we will open up talks now
on trades with other teams where they've been very standoffish
about that until now. They asked for the moon and
the stars before the draft, and so the thought was
(29:24):
one way or the other, this is going to drive
us to a conclusion, get everybody closure on it. And
you know, their bet was that Brandon and I you
probably wouldn't be able to find a combination of money
and opportunity to win that was better than what he
had in San Francisco already. And you'd argue that's where
it's at right now is that you know, he's offered
over thirty million dollars by the Patriots. Didn't want to
(29:48):
go there because they're not in a position to win.
He was offered around twenty eight million dollars per year
by the Steelers, and like, you add that to a
team that's won, but not one at the Niners level recently.
It has stability to the head coach, but doesn't have
stability at quarterback. And you know, really, I think that
pushed you back to the table again. There's all that
(30:08):
water under the bridge that you're dealing with, so you
do have to deal with that. But I think the
fact that the Niners offer isn't far off from where
the Steelers were at least gave the sides the opportunity
to reopen talks, and talks really hadn't gone anywhere since May,
so at least got them back to the table where
they're talking again. And look, the Niners priority all along
has been to keep Brandon Ayuk long term. I've said
(30:29):
to see before, I think if all things were equal,
they would treat trade Deebo Samuel before they would trade
Brandon Ayuk. They want to pay him long term a
broad party. I think they've gotten an opening to do it.
Nothing for sure, but I think they've got an opening
to do that now.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
The I watched Jordan Love come out show off as whip.
It's just so easy. And then I watched Aaron and
the Tahus on Reddick and the You know, Aaron's talking
Malaysian Airliner yesterday because he got asked it legitimate question
from a producer and I'm like, oh, good god, it's
a circus. I nobody. You know, green Bay now has
(31:04):
moved on. But are you taken a little bit by
how seamless I mean Brady leaves New England. Yeah, they
dry up, I mean dry up. Green Bay has turned
the fastest page I've ever seen. I Mean it's almost
like every time something happens.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Here's the difference, though, Colin, what when did they draft
the kid three years ahead of time? Yeah, that's the difference, right,
He's been in the building, right, like, so you had
the opportunity to develop him that way. And you know,
Matt Lafleur has been really consistent with me about this,
you know, as we've talked about her over the last
couple of years, how he really believes in doing it
(31:49):
this way, and because they had Aaron that that gave
him the flexibility to develop Jordan Love through the system.
I had a really interesting conversation with Jordan himself about
it too, where it wasn't perfect last year. You know,
they got off to kind of a quick start, so
I think they were two and one after three games, right,
and he played pretty well, and then they hit this
run and it was what six seven weeks where they
(32:10):
didn't look good. He didn't look good, and it really
kind of made you think, okay, like, is this the
wheels coming off for Green Bay. Jordan told me that
seeing Aaron Rodgers go through full seasons allowed him to
manage that a certain way and allowed him allowed for
him to deal with it a certain way. And his
point to me was, if going through an NFL season
(32:30):
is hard for Aaron Rodgers, it's gonna be hard for everybody.
And so getting to watch that, getting to rework a
his mechanics, getting to see how an NFL team works
over a three year period, and then getting put in
there with a bunch of young receivers like Wix, like Reed,
like Watson, like Dobbs that are literally growing up with
him put him in such an advantageous position, so when
(32:52):
things did come undone a little bit last year, he
didn't think the world was coming to an end the
way that a rookie might. And so I think so
much of this is the ability to develop him for
three years. Jordan's very talented, He's a great kid, really
smart by all accounts. So he has the tools. But
there are a lot of players who have those tools
who don't make it because they're not in the right situation.
Jordan Love was in a really great situation with a
(33:14):
coach who was committed to developing him the right way.
And I think you see the result now. And I
don't think the end of last year was a fluke.
I think he's gonna have a big year this year.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Albert Breer at the Ravens Camp Mark Andrews, Okay, that's
good news. It's good senior as all was. Albert
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Colin Cowherd
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