November 6, 2019 • 41 mins
Doug reacts to the first College Football Playoff rankings and thinks the committee is sending a clear message about what constitutes a top 4 teams in the country. He also discusses load management in the NBA and why there's no getting rid of it. Plus, NFL Insider Kevin Clark joins the show to talk about where Cam Newton will play next season and why the Browns have struggled so much this year.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug Gotlive Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Man,
I hope you're having a good day. It is a
beautiful sunny day here in southern California. Dan Byerl join
us with some updates and games and the press. Ryan
(00:44):
Music and Cindy Katz co producing this memo Gemma, and
of course the one and only John Ramos and John
Ramos Show on the Ones and Twos. Welcome in. I
hope you're ready. Kevin Clark from The Ringer will join us.
We'll go through all the litany of issues, including including
Freddie Kitchens maybe honing in on what the biggest issue
is by his estimation with the Browns. Orlando Brown, whose
(01:08):
dad played for the Browns, did there son of Zeus
or Lando Brown Ravens offensive line will join us, will
get his take on what's it like to play with
Lamar Jackson and this offense that runs the football so well.
Chris Bruce, sorry, will join us. No days off, no
load management. But I don't actually understand the critique of
load management. I just don't don't get it. Don't understand
(01:33):
the critique of load management, right, like you didn't know
this was coming. And by the way, probably really smart
if you can get away with it. It's super smart.
And think about this for except a second. Would you
rather play eighty two games or sixty? Man? All right?
(01:55):
More in that to come get to that talk Lakers
last night they're come back. But but let me get
let me get to the college football playoff poll. Now. One.
I'm not going to freak out over the rankings, because
here's the other part. Number one and number four play
each other. Number one and number two and number three
(02:18):
play each other. The The only thing this hurts the
CBS this weekend, which I don't I don't know if
there there's five people that aren't gonna watch the game
as because it's two verses three as opposed to one
versus two, Right, Like, is anybody gonna go, Like, you know,
I was going to watch l s U Alabama, But
(02:38):
one's ranked two, one's ranked three doesn't mean that much
to me. If if Alabama was number one, then I
would watch. But outside of that, whoever wins this game
is going to be ranked number one next week and
then they could be vaulted by whoever wins the Ohio
State Penn State game. Right, if Penn State remains undefeated,
(03:01):
they have to go to Minnesota and take on p
J Fleck and the Golden Gophers, who PJ just got
a new contract extension. So um, I'm I'm gonna sit
here and tell you that this is a good thing,
that the four team playoff is a good thing. It's
(03:22):
the only remaining elite party in sports. Everyone else has expanded,
everyone else has watered down the product. Everyone else has
hurt the idea of who the true champion is. Separate
college football baseball, we just had a wild card team
(03:43):
win the wild card game, win a series against the Dodgers,
and then ultimately take down the Houston Astros. You go
back five years ago, six years ago, and it would
have been different. Right, we want exclusivity. That's that's that's
part of that, That's part of what drives up these
(04:06):
rights agreements. Right. We want something special, that's something that's unique.
I mean, um, the wave of the future in television
is you know, streaming and digital stuff, right, But why
has Netflix made it? Netflix didn't make it because they
(04:26):
went from being you know, Blockbuster where you could put
it in the mail, to where you could stream it.
Netflix made it because, in addition to that, they had
unique content. They were the only place in which you
could stream friends, right, the only place where you could
stream um, the office. And then they started producing their
(04:48):
own unique content. So I'll just get Netflix. Wait, hold on,
if you just get Netflix, you can't watch Jack Ryan.
Amazon has Amazon Prime. Not only they have movies and
shows that you can only get there like Netflix, but
they're also producing their own content, which is made Disney
go like, well, hold on, hold on, Hey, they bought
(05:09):
up a bunch of stuff. They bought up Fox TV, student,
Foxes movie studios in the movie they all the movies.
But they also have unique content. This is unique. This
is exclusive and unlike any other sport. There's a small
number and you know what I think it's great and
(05:29):
and as much as the rankings don't really matter, I mean,
does it really matter, it does give you a little
insight into what they're thinking. It doesn't mean that Clemson
will end up being ranked fifth, because if Clemson wins out,
the other two of the teams that are ranked ahead
of them will have one loss and they will very
very likely be in that top four. But what they're
(05:51):
saying is, hey, if push comes to shove, we are
less impressed with Clemson, less impressed with Bama because of
the teams in which they played. The only one I
would sit there and go like, hey, I kind of
think got screwed in this deal is Penn State probably
should be ahead of Alabama. But it's not like Penn
State played a litany of rank foes out of conference
(06:13):
where you're going there, their schedules that much better. So
it doesn't matter because at the end of the day,
clems it will be fine if they went out and
only two of the other four teams in the top
five will remain undefeated. But they're giving you a little
snapshot into what they're thinking as of now. They're not
(06:35):
completely out on Oregon. Probably weren't pressed based on how
they played, and because of their strength of schedule and
the fact that they scheduled Auburn the game which they
led for most of it, they're not the Pact twelve
is not totally dead. We want to emphasize strength of schedule,
better out of conference games. And oh yeah, by the way,
(06:57):
we see the complaints of the NBA in the NFL
and their playoff formats and how they continue to expand,
the NFL wants to add the NBA already has teams
that are five hundred, you know, making the playoff. It's
interesting in a sport which is rightfully accused of losing
its soul because it's sold its soul for money. The
(07:20):
college football Playoff, though, put together to make a bunch
of money. This is really a plus one, right. It's
really a way of creative plus just one more game.
But at least they are about trying to find the
best team, which is not really what the n s
A tournament's about, and not really what you totally find
with baseball, not really what you totally find with NBA basketball.
(07:42):
I guess basketball maybe, but you can't play a seven
game series and oftentimes your guys aren't healthy enough at
the end of the year to truly get a sense
of who is and who isn't the best of the best.
The Raptors one, they weren't the best team last year,
the Warriors were. The Warriors are banged up because it's
just too many games. But I I like it. Ohio
(08:04):
State has looked the best and played a competent schedule.
L s U has played a probably a superior schedule
and look good. Those are one A and one B.
It doesn't really matter that they ranked ahead of Alabama
and Penn State to their upcoming opponents, No, but it
does say, hey, we're paying attention to you played. That's
how I put Clemson fifth. And if push comes to shove,
(08:27):
we're gonna take strength of schedule over strength of name.
That's what they're saying. And I think that's reasonable, and
I think that's a good thing. And I think the
exclusivity of four teams is a good thing. So I
watched last night and was the reveal the greatest reveal
show ever? No, it's just four teams. I also truly
(08:53):
believe that, Like, there's legitimate conversations about expanding to six
as well as eight, because if you go to six
you're giving the five conference champions People say, well, that
waters down the regular season. It doesn't. It actually makes
your league championship. We're incredibly important. Which you don't realize
and most people don't realize, is like, look, if you
(09:14):
add in another set of teams, somebody's going to play
a sixteen game. That's too many games because there's the
conference championship game, and then you'd have the first round,
the second round, in the third round. That's too many games.
Too many games to just I don't care. If you
have eighty five scholarships and two bye weeks, you're gonna
have kids falling. It's just too many injuries. You won't
(09:36):
have the best of the best of the best. There
is no perfect system. There's no perfect nothing is. There's
no perfect system. Right. You want no salary cap in sports.
That sounds great, but then you end up having the
haves and the have nots, not just in terms of
the teams, but also in terms of the salaries. Also also,
(09:59):
you know, no salary cap in the NFL. Remember you're like, oh,
what would it be like with no salary cap? They
had no salary cap about a decade ago. Do you
know what happened. There's no ceiling, but there's also no floor,
and a bunch of dudes got low balled and teams
didn't spend any money because so you want a salary cap.
That's fine. That means some guys will get paid simply
because there's money hanging around and you gotta pay them
to keep them. Now get overpaid. There's no perfect way
(10:22):
of having instant replay review. You can't perfect. So the
world is imperfect, and there's no perfect way of having
a playoff. Like I love who doesn't love the n
c A tournament sixty four sixty eight teams, But let's
be honest, there's a team that's below five in their
league play really belonged to play for national championship against
(10:43):
other teams that lose one or two games, Like what
is the what are we doing there? We spend hours
arguing this thing. I mean, even with that many teams
that the first team left out, it feels like they
get slided and then goes on a whining tour the
entire next two weeks. Right, and tell me the perfect system,
(11:04):
and I'll show you one that doesn't. It's not. Actually,
it's totally imperfect, you know, the NFL and the division
champions get a home game. Remember when Seattle was under
five and they got a home game a couple of
years ago. No perfect system, there isn't. What just doesn't exist.
Let's let's see the NBA playoffs one through sixteen. Okay,
(11:25):
well one, you don't have balanced schedules. Well, let's balance
the schedule. Okay too. Now of a sudden, you're gonna
completely screw up TV viewing. You know you're gonna have
Portland playing against Washington, and you know that doesn't That
doesn't make that there's a reason that this has And
by the way, all the historic rivalries of the NBA
finals of the past Lakers versus the Celtics, that goes away.
(11:48):
So there's no perfect system. And I don't think the
Bowl system was perfect, and having dual national championships was bad,
but you're gonna have you with this, you will always
have a national champion and you always have the best
of the best. And no one is arguing how good
the teams at the top are. They're only arguing whether
or not one team who's not in that top four
could compete with them. And those are reasonable arguments to
(12:11):
have and it's reasonably think you should win a conference
championship and get a chance to play for a national championship.
But what a Northwestern had won the Big Tension championship
last year, they didn't win a nonconference game that got
to the Big Ten championship game. What do they won
that game? Do they deserve the right to play for
national championship? I argue no. Be sure to catch the
live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three
(12:32):
pm Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio A app lebron was great last night's
tatistically thirty points, tenner rebounds, tennisis third triple double row
currently in the NBA, and assist per game. Um the
Lakers one they came from I think it was sixteen down,
sixteen down to come back and beat the Chicago Bulls,
(12:55):
and it's pretty awesome, you know, just go in and
and the Bulls had complete controlled in the first half.
What's what's what's fast dating to be is what we're
doing that thing again? You know, we're doing this thing
like Nick Wright, like God, love him. Find someone who
loves you as much as Nick Wright loves Lebron James. Oh,
(13:19):
he's the back player in the league. Look at the stats, like, okay, yeah,
I mean, yeah, okay, stats are really good of late um.
But he was dominating the game statistically, and they were
(13:40):
getting their ass kicked, right, they were, they were they
They went on a sixteen oh run when he wasn't
in the game, right. So I'm not saying that that
(14:01):
the triple doubles are, but like this is what we
did with Russell Westbrook, Like a triple doubles does not
mean you're playing great basketball. It just doesn't, doesn't. I mean,
what what changed is Kyle Kuzmin's back. It gives them
punch out the bench. He had eleven of his fifteen
during their fourth quarter route you know, thirty eight nineteen
(14:23):
I think is with the what they outscored the Bulls
in the fourth quarter, and and Lebron and then you know,
and Anthony Davis came in and closed up shop and
he was good last night, and he's been good. He's
They're not reliant or totally on Lebron James, you know,
(14:43):
but like when he played the Spurs, like we're gonna
like a triple double against the Spurs, dude, he was
eight of twenty three, didn't make it three. He was
five attempt from the free throw line. He was not
good shooting the ball. They won, but that's partly because
the Spurs are not good. You know. Um, that's just
kind of the reality of it. Like he was great
(15:04):
against Dallas, great, really good. Um. But you know, let's like,
let's look at who they've played against, and when he played,
they got a very favorable start to their schedule. They
start off with the Clippers, who they lost to, against
the Jazz, who people like, and they beat, and then
they beat in Charlotte, Memphis, Dallas, San Antonio, in Chicago.
(15:26):
There might be one playoff team in that mix. Now,
it doesn't truly matter because and I've said this, and
I've given Lebron and his team's credit. Look, it's Lebron
and the Lakers coming to town. It's still even though
they didn't make the playoffs last year, they're still everybody's
biggest game. And the and the Bulls reacted as such
last night. But when you're being guarded by Otto Porter
(15:50):
or Lowry Markinson, you're marketing, you're supposed to be dominant. Anyways. Anyways,
it's a good thing, that they don't need him. But
I just I don't understand how he can't differentiate the fact,
you know how he can't point out that they actually
(16:10):
were worse when he was in when he was scoring,
and it's not all his fault. Their defense wasn't good
and the Bulls written shots and he does he is,
he is a leader. Look, Dwight Howard has been really,
really good. Dwight Howard has been good. But Dwight Howard
has been good because they don't need him, that he's
an ancillary piece. Anthony Davis has been their best player
(16:32):
up until the last game or so game or two,
maybe the Dallas game. In this game, the brom has
been great. He's facilitating sharing the ball. They're playing Caruso more,
they're starting develop a rotation. They're clearly cohesive. Like these
things are all good. But let's also point out that
their schedule has been extremely soft, extremely soft. People think
(16:54):
Dallas can make the playoffs. They took him to overtime
San Antonio. Maybe I was a close game, he didn't
shoot well. But for for three game roads stretch early
in the season against maybe one playoff team to win
all three, that's big because last year they weren't beating
the bad teams. They weren't. Now they've gotten Kuzmin back,
so they're not injured. But this is not the tough
(17:16):
part of their schedule, you know, it's not. That'll be
when you know, early December they go to Denver, to
Utah to Portland home for Minnesota, to Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Indiana, Milwaukee.
They got the Denver and the Clippers in Portland. When
they get home, let's see what they're doing then. But
for Lebron, he's playing well and they're playing well, and
(17:39):
the bench is a like, that's the thing he couldn't
How many teams in the past could Lebron James steps
off the floor and they can't make plays. Now they
get Kuzmin back, bringing him off the bench, and they're
all the better because of it. Be sure to catch
the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at
three pm Easter Noon Pacific. Kevin Clark covers the NFL
for The Ringer fallm on Twitter at by Kevin Clark.
(18:01):
Also check out the video series on The Ringer Slow
News Day featuring Kevin Clark. He joins us on the
Doug gottlips show. Um let's start with A J. Green.
You know, he's clearly not happy, although he does say like, look,
they want to play in the franchise Tech. Fine, it's
a bunch of money. Uh. Do do you think this
is A J. Green going like, I ain't playing until
(18:22):
I get paid? I don't know. I mean, listen, A J.
Green was put on a high school field in the
first practice of the season and injured himself, and no
players should be put in that position. If A J.
Green is upset at the Bengals organization subsition they put
him in twenty nineteen, I wouldn't blame him, but that
doesn't seem to be the m O of A. J.
(18:43):
Green throughout his career. He signed an extension there you
sort of know the deal with the Bengals at this point.
Um So, maybe if there is a little bit of rebellion,
that's that's his right, that's overdue, I think. Um So,
I think that you know, A. J. Green has been
a loyal soldier to since Donny Bengals, but I think
that at some point he's an elite receiver. He needs
a better franchise. Maybe that's the first job Cam Newton
(19:06):
is not going to play the remainder of the season.
What's the rest of Cam Newton's career look like. I mean,
it all depends on whether or not he is. You
know what. One of the weird things I think, uh
in the first couple of months of this season or
this offseason, was he had almost like Andrew Luck style reports.
No one knew anything about the shoulder. No one knew anything.
You know, obviously the foot develops, we know the severity
(19:28):
of that. At some point, you just get too injured
to be uh, to be good, to be what Cam
Newton was. Cam Newton has been hit one thousand, two
hundred times in his career. That is way more than
any other player in the NFL, okay, and I think
that at some point that catches up with you only
take some one hit to change your career. If he
can get back to his peak, which I think is
(19:49):
doubtful at this point just because of the damage he's
taken and what we've seen from him this year, and
that was frank aside from the shoulder, But even get
back to his peak, he would be the best quarterback available.
It's just whether or not he can do that. In
time for the agent class, and I think that maybe
a team might have to take a flyer on the
next year if Carolina moves on, Actually in Caroline should
stand Pat will yeah, twenty million dollars a year as
(20:13):
a bargain when Jared Goff makes thirty six. I agree.
You know, I talked to some NFL people, like you know,
the everybody says they're gonna cut him, Like nineteen million
and change for Kim Newton is not a bad deal
considering you know what Pat Mahomes is gonna sign for
Aaron Rodgers signed for. My issue is outside of Carolina.
I don't know how many systems he fits in right like,
(20:35):
and he really hasn't been healthy. So if they did decide, hey,
we're gonna go to the young route and we had it,
we had enough, I just well, he's not gonna accept
less money, and I don't know if he accepts an
inferior role. And I'm just wondering how many offenses and
offensive coordinators he fits with. In addition to the fact
that can't stay healthy, like it's the foot this year,
(20:58):
but it was the shoulder last year. There's the angle
that one of the things I think he might have
to accept is that there's not gonna be a team
if he's released. There's not gonna be a team who's
going to go all in on Cam Newton. For I
think that there's just still too many question marks with that. UM.
I just think that he might have to take not
a reduced role with sort of a a stop gap
(21:19):
starter job somewhere some on that maybe maybe a Tampa,
maybe a Chicago something like that, maybe a Tennessee where
they're making a change, give him a two year deal,
work some pretty good money, that sort of thing. I
don't think he's gonna get a long term deal anywhere.
I don't think the franchise is gonna say, hey, we're
pushing all our chips in the middle of the table
with Cam Newton. I just don't see that happening because
of all the question marks rounding his health. So I
(21:40):
agree with you the options will be limited. But I
still think he has some value because even if you
know Cam Newton had of his health is still better
than than most quarterbacks around this league. UM. You know,
I think that if he can't do the design runs,
that takes away an element to his game. UM. I
think that if he has think two two thirds of
his design runs between tackle. Uh was just incredible when
(22:02):
you consider the amount of time se he literally just
ran it up the gut. I think that element of
his game is going to have to change, but I
still think you can provide value, and I think you can.
You know, if he can still run even a little bit,
he can still provide sort of the read option stuff.
You at one point in his career, who was averaging
fifty yards pro read option. I mean, it was just unbelievable.
And so I think that a decently healthy Cam Newton,
(22:23):
they still a good option for a team that's looking
for a stop gap solution next year. Okay, listen, I'm
I'm going to admit that I feel like I'm I
will be painted as a negative guy for pointing this out. Like, look,
Lamar Jackson played well Saturday a Sunday, everything went right,
(22:43):
but like we're starting to give him credit for things
that didn't actually happen, right, Like he made some incredible
running plays against Seattley through the ball exceptionally poorly. They
did beat the Steelers on the road, but the Steelers had,
you know, two Mason Rudolph got hurt. He threw three picks.
He was bad. Who's not good in that game? And
I feel like we're we're doing this rush to hey,
(23:05):
every all these people were wrong, when like we we
gotta we gotta get thirty games in before we actually
see what's right and what's wrong. Because the questions were
about his accuracy and it's about his ability to stay healthy.
The accuracy has gotten slightly better and the health is more.
The more times you run it, it's gonna happen. Eventually,
(23:27):
it always happens. It's kind of what we're saying about
with Cam Newton, like he can't do this forever and
he's smaller than Cam Newton. Am I am? I? Am?
I being too negative In regards to Lamar Jackson. I
think a lot of the excitement Doug is around so
the offense that you've built around him, because at this point,
Lamar Jackson's it's perfectly in that offense is that there's
just an awesome, dominant offensive line and then speed everywhere
(23:49):
outside of an offensive line, right, and so Lamar Jackson
is the perfect quarterback for the offense that the Ravens
is built. And so I think when you start talking
about what or are sustainable and how the outlook for
the Ravens looks really good. I think it's a lot
of that. You know, he's not going to have to
be like Aaron Rodgers right where his coach failed him,
like Mike McCarthy last you know, seven years, and he
was basically having to make every play. Lamar Jackson is
(24:11):
not gonna have to do that. This is an organizational
triumph for the Ravens to build this quickly around Lamar
Jackson and know exactly what he needs. I agree, like
I think that Lamar Jackson, you know, we've been hyping
up as an m VP candidate at the Ringer Um.
I'm a part of that. I definitely think it's in
the conversation. But he's definitely a cut below Russell Wilson
at this point. He's definitely probably but in the season,
(24:32):
going to be clearly a cut below Deshaun Watson. But
I think right now, you know, being the first team
to to beat Bill Belichick in that defense, to put
up real, real points on them, I think that it's
I think some times he should just to rationally buy
him to the hype and right now I'm just I'm following.
I will follow Lamar Jackson. Anyway, right now, I am
(24:53):
all in on Lamar Jackson hype because what we've seen
through eight games so far. Okay, I remember him getting
booed off the field like it's the Chargers. So it
was that he was really bad of that game, and
he was really bad. He was bad against Cleveland this year.
I mean, we're all of Cleveland. Cleveland beat him and
he was a big reason why. For sure, for sure,
and listen, you know san Diego through what seven defensive
(25:15):
backs to him and he had trouble adjusting to that.
And I think that one of the things about the
NFL is defenses will start to game plan for you
and then things start to change. When Bill Belichick's faces
Lamar Jackson for a second time, does he have knowing
what he knows about Lamar Jackson will play the Patriots?
Does he have better schemes than how does Lamar Jackson
(25:35):
adjust to that? There are some people Chip Kelly is
a good example where they have a couple of good
ideas at the NFL level than people adjust and they
have no more good ideas, right, And so I think
that with Lamar Jackson, this is an evolutionary process He's
been really bad in games, but I think that his
ability to be this good at this point in his
career is encouraging. I agree with you, he's had his lows,
(25:55):
but I think those lows are getting mitigated a little bit,
and I think that he will be a good NFL
quarterback for a long time. Uh, let's get to Baker Mayfield.
How fixable is Baker Mayfield with this coaching staff right now?
I don't know, um, because he's clearly progressed in a
way I didn't think it was possible. I mean, I
(26:16):
think people are I've seen so many the connections between
Baker and Manziel this year, and it was just stats wise, right,
And I think that's totally off base because Baker Mayfield
was so successful as rookie year. He um, you know,
set the rookie touchdown record, all that stuff, and I
think that if there's an offense, you can thrive in
(26:38):
the Brownching defined it. But right now it seems like
he just developed a lot of bad habits. It seems like,
you know, in a lot of cases, there's just very
strange that he's making Cleveland. Um, as far as you know,
Freddie Kitchens taking the false start and all that stuff.
I mean, this is the top to bottom disaster right
now relative to their roster talent. And I think that
Baker Mayfield is fixable because we've seen what Baker Mayfield
(26:59):
is capable of and on on an NFL field for
right down, he looks like a broken quarterback. And I
don't know what you do. I think that you you
panic as much as you possibly can. I think, um,
when you see how good he was last year and
how bad he's been this year, and I think there's
real hope for him to be good starting, but they
have to be a dramatic overhaul. Okay, so help me
(27:21):
out with this, Kevin Clark from the Ring, you're joining
us on the Doug Gottlieb Show. One of the things
that Patriots are run into is honestly one of the
things that Lamar Jackson's run into. One of the things
that you say about the Niners is, for the first
time in recent memory, we have some horrible NFL teams.
Like we had teams, We had teams that we thought
that that ended up about mid season or late in
(27:41):
the season started to become bad and then they were.
But you know, we had the winless Lions team and
the winless Browns team whenever. But the disparity and good
teams and bad teams. You know, the Niners have played
a decent a couple of decent teams, um, but even
the decent teams have been favorable schedules for them. But
they played at the bottom of the league, the same
as true Cowboys have beaten up in the bottom of
(28:03):
the league. Top of the league they've struggled against. How
do we determine how good the Patriots are considering how
many of their wins came against the bottom of league. Yeah,
good luck. You know. It almost reminds me a little
bit doug of college football, where you just have these schedules.
It's like, well they haven't you know, they're playing a
bunch of Sunbelt teams or whatever. I mean, it's no
fault listen, NFL teams don't make throw on schedule, but
(28:24):
this is a schedule season. And what I mean by
that is really a team like to build who I
think have a lot of talent, and I think Sean
mcdermots a good coach, But if they makes the playoffs
with ten wins, a lot of that is going to
be because of the schedule they played, because early season
they beat the Jets, they beat the Dolphins, they get
the Dolphins twice, they get the Jets twice. Um, you know,
you get some just teams that they really haven't field
(28:45):
in the NFL team this year. And if you get
a lot of those, that's five six wins under schedule.
And so how do you determine it? I mean, I yeah,
you know, if you're too much the Patriots. You know,
the good news is they play some really good teams
they play. It's you know, the Baltimore Raven's answer the Chief.
They had the Dallas Cowboys in three weeks. I mean,
those are the type of games you have to circle
again almost like college, and say they're playing this team,
(29:09):
they're really good. That's where I draw my conclusions. I
think you can't learn anything from making Sam Donald's Ghosts.
That is not an accomplishment. In Kevin Clark joining us
in the Doug ot Lip Show on Fox Sports Radio,
watch the Chargers Packers game. Rogers wasn't great, but they
never had the ball like they just I mean, it
was a disaster. Right when they got the ball three
(29:29):
plays in the first quarter. You know, you had a
false start, you had holding penalties, and then the defense
couldn't couldn't get off the field. They did keep the
charges out of the end zone. For the most part,
defense has had some issues of late. How concerning are
they for you when you look long term at the Packers, Listen,
they still have a lot of rosters talent there. I'm
not insanely concerned. I will say they were getting turnovers.
(29:51):
I think they had seven turnovers the first two weeks
of the season, and I think that was fueling a
lot of the hype and a lot of the talk
around the Packers. And I think that a lot of
their free age it moves were shrewd. But I don't
they just haven't been a dominating defense. I don't think
they've gotten a turn over the last three weeks UM,
which I think, excuse me, they didn't get Trevor last week,
and they had one turn over the week before UM.
(30:12):
But I think that there's you know, you just start
to to look at the NFC teams, and you look
at the Saints, look at the Niners. You know, I
would say the Vicens have made a run these last
couple of weeks. I just don't see the Packers in
that in that vein with the top the top two
seeds in the NFC. You know, in my opinion, that's
the Niners at the Saints this point, I just don't
(30:33):
think obviously they have Aaron Rodgers, and you know, he's
always going to make throws that will beat teams. But
I just don't think they have the defense. We doubt
they did the first couple of weeks the season, so
I'm a little bit concerned. I still think their playoff team,
I still think that they had the capability to make
a nice little playoff front. But I don't see the
conversation we were having any uh, the beginning of the
season where they're a top NFC team, I just don't
(30:55):
see that they're a step on. Yeah. And and you know,
Aaron Rodgers, you talked about the start of the season
they played against the bad teams and start a season
right like again, and and and the Vikings team that
wasn't what they have become correct correct speaking of the
speaking of the Vikings, speaking of the Vikings, like, I
like the Vikings. I think they're good. I felt like
they gave away that game with their their you know,
(31:16):
play calling and Cousins seemingly lack of confidence. They're late
like that. That that is the Vikings in a nutshell,
good enough to beat anybody, but the really good teams
they just I can't buy in. Yeah, I mean, that's
that's been the book quote unquote on Kirk Cousins for
his entire career. If he doesn't be good teams, I don't.
I think Kirk Cousins is exactly kind of the I
(31:41):
don't even know how he would describe it. He is
in the middle of everything, which means I think he's
totally dependent on his surrounding cast. If the surrounding cast
is clicking, he can be a great, great quarterback and
not an elite quarterback, but he can put up and
he was the NFC or you know, the quarterback of
the month in October. He is the type of quarterbacks
can have great performances, but if everything is not perfect,
(32:01):
things can go south very quickly. So I think that
this is, you know, predicting what the Vikings will look
like in November in December is really hard. I mean,
they have the Cowboys next week, then they have Broncos
and the Seahawks. I mean, it's it's a really interesting
month for them because I think that the hallmark of
Kirk Cousin's crews and lack of consistency, and in order
(32:22):
for them to make the playoffs or get a buy
or win the division, he has to be more consistent.
And I think that that is one of the most
intriguing storylines. The second after the season is is what
Minnesota is doing? Sustainable? Is relying on the running game
to help the pass? Sustainable? Is Adam feeling going to
be healthy? A lot of question marks in Minnesota. I'm
intrigued to see where that goes. Kevin Clark check him
out in the Ringer Fall on Twitter at by Kevin Clark.
(32:44):
Of course, they have a video series called Slow Newsday
featuring Kevin. He does an outstanding job. Kevin thinks so
much for doing us anytime to I appreciate you. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. The Browns offense is and scoring
(33:05):
nineteenth and total offense turnovers UM twenty nine and third
down conversion rate and red zone percentage. All of these
numbers are down from last season, and all of them
are bad. They're not just a bad team in terms
of their record. You can actually be a good team
and be a little unlucky. They're not unlucky. They're bad.
They're not good. Schedule has been pretty difficult, although Denver
(33:27):
and Denver on the road is tougher than you think.
But that's not a good football team. Every stat will
tell you this is Freddie Kitchen, their head coach, when
asked about Baker mayfield percent completion rate this season, there's
a lot of factors to go into that. I don't
think he's just wildly missing passes, So I don't know.
I don't really look at that. I just want him
(33:47):
to get better today, just like I wanted better this
week more than last week. I truly do not look
at stats, man, I truly don't look at stats. Look,
I get the highole. I'm a field guy, right, everybody was,
I just go by field. I don't need stats. So
(34:11):
we're not we're not even talking about, um, what what
stats he used? Like no one is saying like, hey,
Freddie Kitchens isn't using the new wave of analytics. No
one saying that what we're saying is like Freddy Kitchens,
who and look, Freddy Kitchens was a quarterback, by the way,
(34:34):
I don't know you guys know that, right, Like he
was actually a quarterback and a pretty good one for
the Crimson tie play for Alabama. But the idea that
I don't even look at stats, excuse me, none of them.
Now I don't actually believe that to be true. But
who would actually say that out loud? I don't look
at stats. I'm a field guy. That's kind of the
(34:58):
average football guy, eatement, right, And now what they always say,
I'm a feel guy. And I think we've kind of
nailed the problem because when things are going bad, you
should not just use your eyes and your feel, but
any of the resources which can help you, even if
(35:20):
the resource is simple as and what's this completion fifty eight?
We got? We have to like, how can you get
better if you don't look at stats? I that's an
honest question. That would be my honest How how can Freddie?
How can we know you're better? Well, you know when
their losses, Okay, how do we know he's the offense
(35:42):
is better unless we look at completion percent the third
down percentage, red zone percentage, completion percentage. How do we
know he's not throwing it throwing the ball better? And
this idea is not wildly throwing well. He's definitely not
just missing. He looks bad. He's not getting better. He
looks like he's regressing. It doesn't look like he's lacking confidence.
(36:06):
A matter of fact, he might have too much confidence,
which I kind of think has been his fee to complete.
But Freddie Kitchens saying, I'm not a stat guy. I
don't even look at stats. Whether or not you believe
him or not, And I guess I'll go around the
room and ask if you guys believe him. Whether or
not you believe or not doesn't seem to matter. What
(36:28):
matters to me is that he said it, and when
you say it, it just kind of feels like I
cannot believe that was said aloud. Be sure to catch
the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at
three p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app. The League office, in
consultation with the NBA's regular sports Medicine, is comfortable with
(36:49):
the team's medical staff determination at Leonard is not sufficiently
healthy to play in back to back games at this time.
This from Asian Wardsnowski Kawhi. Leonard is missing a second
straight back to back game to night versus the Bucks,
which also happened to be a nationally televised game. He
set back to back games last week against the Jazz
on National TV. The Clippers have worked closely with the NBA,
(37:10):
sharing the required medical information on Leonard's knee. Decisions on
sitting games are made well in advance as part of
Leonard's load management schedule. It is possible Leonard will play
back to back games for the Clippers this season, but
that isn't in the plans in the near future. Um Like,
it's an impossible situation to say we're going to stop
(37:33):
this load management. That's like stopping tanking. Explain to me
how you stopped taking Explain it to me. How do
you do that? With the drafting system? How do you
do that? You can't relegate teams. It's not like in
Europe where if you finished in the bottom two you
get relegated to a lower league. Don't do that, and
(37:56):
every league allows their worst team to draft first. You know,
want the the rich to get richer. So how do
you stop a team from tanking, you can't. And tanking
has in fact worked um not every time as it
ended up in a championship, but plenty of teams have
bottomed out bucks for example, Astros, Sixers, UH Celtics, teams
(38:21):
have bottomed out in an effort to get better draft picks,
and generally it works. Some of bottomed down on purpose,
some of bottomed out by chance. But that's why the
drafting system is that is, and it doesn't guarantee that
you're going to pick the right guy. Case in point,
the Browns, right, Browns won one game over two years,
had the number one pick, had the number four pick
(38:42):
as well, so there would have been another quarterback available,
could have taken Sae Kwan Barkley if they wanted, you know,
could have traded back, could have taken one of those
incredible offensive linemen that were that that were available right like,
they could have chose not to. Instead they went quarterback
and they went defensive and look where they are. But
(39:03):
taking works, for the most part, gives you a chance,
and there's no way to stop it. It's not You
may ruin the experience for your current fans, you may
hurt the culture of your current program. But there's no
way to stop you from loading up and getting town.
The question is do you pick the right talent. There's
no way to stop taking can't cut the number of games.
That's not happening. It's not happening because no matter if
(39:27):
Kauai plays or doesn't play, you still are gonna sell
tickets based upon the entire season schedule. And two people
are like, I ticked off, Like I'm not gonna watch tonight,
Like okay, the game is still gonna be played. The
sponsors still gonna buy their their sponsorship, and it's still
technically counts, and oh yeah, by the way, like it's
(39:49):
not a bad idea. No one's ever handed out a
championship trophy for whoever wins most games in November. That's
not happened. Doesn't happen, you know, And to he once
in there, go hey, well, Lebrone, not load managing, like dude,
he did this his whole career. His last year in Cleveland,
he didn't play every he played every game. That was
the first time. That was the first time. We're simply
(40:13):
a lot like officiating. We're simply paying more attention to
it now than we have in the past, so and
now you know Gregg Popovis did this, and a lot
like the Astros winning a World Series, getting to another
World Series, and people saying, hey, if the Astros can
do it, we should do it. We'll start tanking. The
Sixers getting better now, NBA teams will start tanking, etcetera, etcetera.
(40:34):
He won an NBA Championship but one of finals m
v P doing the old load management and supposedly left
San Antonio because they made him play through injury that
he didn't feel he was right. So no one's ever
going to make Kauhi Leonard go out and play when
he's said to be healthy if he doesn't want to play,
because that's what caused him to get the hell out
of San Antonio, And the fear is he'd do the
(40:57):
same thing even with the Clippers. I just don't think
there's any way to stop it.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug Gotlive Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Man,
I hope you're having a good day. It is a
beautiful sunny day here in southern California. Dan Byerl join
us with some updates and games and the press. Ryan
(00:44):
Music and Cindy Katz co producing this memo Gemma, and
of course the one and only John Ramos and John
Ramos Show on the Ones and Twos. Welcome in. I
hope you're ready. Kevin Clark from The Ringer will join us.
We'll go through all the litany of issues, including including
Freddie Kitchens maybe honing in on what the biggest issue
is by his estimation with the Browns. Orlando Brown, whose
(01:08):
dad played for the Browns, did there son of Zeus
or Lando Brown Ravens offensive line will join us, will
get his take on what's it like to play with
Lamar Jackson and this offense that runs the football so well.
Chris Bruce, sorry, will join us. No days off, no
load management. But I don't actually understand the critique of
load management. I just don't don't get it. Don't understand
(01:33):
the critique of load management, right, like you didn't know
this was coming. And by the way, probably really smart
if you can get away with it. It's super smart.
And think about this for except a second. Would you
rather play eighty two games or sixty? Man? All right?
(01:55):
More in that to come get to that talk Lakers
last night they're come back. But but let me get
let me get to the college football playoff poll. Now. One.
I'm not going to freak out over the rankings, because
here's the other part. Number one and number four play
each other. Number one and number two and number three
(02:18):
play each other. The The only thing this hurts the
CBS this weekend, which I don't I don't know if
there there's five people that aren't gonna watch the game
as because it's two verses three as opposed to one
versus two, Right, Like, is anybody gonna go, Like, you know,
I was going to watch l s U Alabama, But
(02:38):
one's ranked two, one's ranked three doesn't mean that much
to me. If if Alabama was number one, then I
would watch. But outside of that, whoever wins this game
is going to be ranked number one next week and
then they could be vaulted by whoever wins the Ohio
State Penn State game. Right, if Penn State remains undefeated,
(03:01):
they have to go to Minnesota and take on p
J Fleck and the Golden Gophers, who PJ just got
a new contract extension. So um, I'm I'm gonna sit
here and tell you that this is a good thing,
that the four team playoff is a good thing. It's
(03:22):
the only remaining elite party in sports. Everyone else has expanded,
everyone else has watered down the product. Everyone else has
hurt the idea of who the true champion is. Separate
college football baseball, we just had a wild card team
(03:43):
win the wild card game, win a series against the Dodgers,
and then ultimately take down the Houston Astros. You go
back five years ago, six years ago, and it would
have been different. Right, we want exclusivity. That's that's that's
part of that, That's part of what drives up these
(04:06):
rights agreements. Right. We want something special, that's something that's unique.
I mean, um, the wave of the future in television
is you know, streaming and digital stuff, right, But why
has Netflix made it? Netflix didn't make it because they
(04:26):
went from being you know, Blockbuster where you could put
it in the mail, to where you could stream it.
Netflix made it because, in addition to that, they had
unique content. They were the only place in which you
could stream friends, right, the only place where you could
stream um, the office. And then they started producing their
(04:48):
own unique content. So I'll just get Netflix. Wait, hold on,
if you just get Netflix, you can't watch Jack Ryan.
Amazon has Amazon Prime. Not only they have movies and
shows that you can only get there like Netflix, but
they're also producing their own content, which is made Disney
go like, well, hold on, hold on, Hey, they bought
(05:09):
up a bunch of stuff. They bought up Fox TV, student,
Foxes movie studios in the movie they all the movies.
But they also have unique content. This is unique. This
is exclusive and unlike any other sport. There's a small
number and you know what I think it's great and
(05:29):
and as much as the rankings don't really matter, I mean,
does it really matter, it does give you a little
insight into what they're thinking. It doesn't mean that Clemson
will end up being ranked fifth, because if Clemson wins out,
the other two of the teams that are ranked ahead
of them will have one loss and they will very
very likely be in that top four. But what they're
(05:51):
saying is, hey, if push comes to shove, we are
less impressed with Clemson, less impressed with Bama because of
the teams in which they played. The only one I
would sit there and go like, hey, I kind of
think got screwed in this deal is Penn State probably
should be ahead of Alabama. But it's not like Penn
State played a litany of rank foes out of conference
(06:13):
where you're going there, their schedules that much better. So
it doesn't matter because at the end of the day,
clems it will be fine if they went out and
only two of the other four teams in the top
five will remain undefeated. But they're giving you a little
snapshot into what they're thinking as of now. They're not
(06:35):
completely out on Oregon. Probably weren't pressed based on how
they played, and because of their strength of schedule and
the fact that they scheduled Auburn the game which they
led for most of it, they're not the Pact twelve
is not totally dead. We want to emphasize strength of schedule,
better out of conference games. And oh yeah, by the way,
(06:57):
we see the complaints of the NBA in the NFL
and their playoff formats and how they continue to expand,
the NFL wants to add the NBA already has teams
that are five hundred, you know, making the playoff. It's
interesting in a sport which is rightfully accused of losing
its soul because it's sold its soul for money. The
(07:20):
college football Playoff, though, put together to make a bunch
of money. This is really a plus one, right. It's
really a way of creative plus just one more game.
But at least they are about trying to find the
best team, which is not really what the n s
A tournament's about, and not really what you totally find
with baseball, not really what you totally find with NBA basketball.
(07:42):
I guess basketball maybe, but you can't play a seven
game series and oftentimes your guys aren't healthy enough at
the end of the year to truly get a sense
of who is and who isn't the best of the best.
The Raptors one, they weren't the best team last year,
the Warriors were. The Warriors are banged up because it's
just too many games. But I I like it. Ohio
(08:04):
State has looked the best and played a competent schedule.
L s U has played a probably a superior schedule
and look good. Those are one A and one B.
It doesn't really matter that they ranked ahead of Alabama
and Penn State to their upcoming opponents, No, but it
does say, hey, we're paying attention to you played. That's
how I put Clemson fifth. And if push comes to shove,
(08:27):
we're gonna take strength of schedule over strength of name.
That's what they're saying. And I think that's reasonable, and
I think that's a good thing. And I think the
exclusivity of four teams is a good thing. So I
watched last night and was the reveal the greatest reveal
show ever? No, it's just four teams. I also truly
(08:53):
believe that, Like, there's legitimate conversations about expanding to six
as well as eight, because if you go to six
you're giving the five conference champions People say, well, that
waters down the regular season. It doesn't. It actually makes
your league championship. We're incredibly important. Which you don't realize
and most people don't realize, is like, look, if you
(09:14):
add in another set of teams, somebody's going to play
a sixteen game. That's too many games because there's the
conference championship game, and then you'd have the first round,
the second round, in the third round. That's too many games.
Too many games to just I don't care. If you
have eighty five scholarships and two bye weeks, you're gonna
have kids falling. It's just too many injuries. You won't
(09:36):
have the best of the best of the best. There
is no perfect system. There's no perfect nothing is. There's
no perfect system. Right. You want no salary cap in sports.
That sounds great, but then you end up having the
haves and the have nots, not just in terms of
the teams, but also in terms of the salaries. Also also,
(09:59):
you know, no salary cap in the NFL. Remember you're like, oh,
what would it be like with no salary cap? They
had no salary cap about a decade ago. Do you
know what happened. There's no ceiling, but there's also no floor,
and a bunch of dudes got low balled and teams
didn't spend any money because so you want a salary cap.
That's fine. That means some guys will get paid simply
because there's money hanging around and you gotta pay them
to keep them. Now get overpaid. There's no perfect way
(10:22):
of having instant replay review. You can't perfect. So the
world is imperfect, and there's no perfect way of having
a playoff. Like I love who doesn't love the n
c A tournament sixty four sixty eight teams, But let's
be honest, there's a team that's below five in their
league play really belonged to play for national championship against
(10:43):
other teams that lose one or two games, Like what
is the what are we doing there? We spend hours
arguing this thing. I mean, even with that many teams
that the first team left out, it feels like they
get slided and then goes on a whining tour the
entire next two weeks. Right, and tell me the perfect system,
(11:04):
and I'll show you one that doesn't. It's not. Actually,
it's totally imperfect, you know, the NFL and the division
champions get a home game. Remember when Seattle was under
five and they got a home game a couple of
years ago. No perfect system, there isn't. What just doesn't exist.
Let's let's see the NBA playoffs one through sixteen. Okay,
(11:25):
well one, you don't have balanced schedules. Well, let's balance
the schedule. Okay too. Now of a sudden, you're gonna
completely screw up TV viewing. You know you're gonna have
Portland playing against Washington, and you know that doesn't That
doesn't make that there's a reason that this has And
by the way, all the historic rivalries of the NBA
finals of the past Lakers versus the Celtics, that goes away.
(11:48):
So there's no perfect system. And I don't think the
Bowl system was perfect, and having dual national championships was bad,
but you're gonna have you with this, you will always
have a national champion and you always have the best
of the best. And no one is arguing how good
the teams at the top are. They're only arguing whether
or not one team who's not in that top four
could compete with them. And those are reasonable arguments to
(12:11):
have and it's reasonably think you should win a conference
championship and get a chance to play for a national championship.
But what a Northwestern had won the Big Tension championship
last year, they didn't win a nonconference game that got
to the Big Ten championship game. What do they won
that game? Do they deserve the right to play for
national championship? I argue no. Be sure to catch the
live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three
(12:32):
pm Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio A app lebron was great last night's
tatistically thirty points, tenner rebounds, tennisis third triple double row
currently in the NBA, and assist per game. Um the
Lakers one they came from I think it was sixteen down,
sixteen down to come back and beat the Chicago Bulls,
(12:55):
and it's pretty awesome, you know, just go in and
and the Bulls had complete controlled in the first half.
What's what's what's fast dating to be is what we're
doing that thing again? You know, we're doing this thing
like Nick Wright, like God, love him. Find someone who
loves you as much as Nick Wright loves Lebron James. Oh,
(13:19):
he's the back player in the league. Look at the stats, like, okay, yeah,
I mean, yeah, okay, stats are really good of late um.
But he was dominating the game statistically, and they were
(13:40):
getting their ass kicked, right, they were, they were they
They went on a sixteen oh run when he wasn't
in the game, right. So I'm not saying that that
(14:01):
the triple doubles are, but like this is what we
did with Russell Westbrook, Like a triple doubles does not
mean you're playing great basketball. It just doesn't, doesn't. I mean,
what what changed is Kyle Kuzmin's back. It gives them
punch out the bench. He had eleven of his fifteen
during their fourth quarter route you know, thirty eight nineteen
(14:23):
I think is with the what they outscored the Bulls
in the fourth quarter, and and Lebron and then you know,
and Anthony Davis came in and closed up shop and
he was good last night, and he's been good. He's
They're not reliant or totally on Lebron James, you know,
(14:43):
but like when he played the Spurs, like we're gonna
like a triple double against the Spurs, dude, he was
eight of twenty three, didn't make it three. He was
five attempt from the free throw line. He was not
good shooting the ball. They won, but that's partly because
the Spurs are not good. You know. Um, that's just
kind of the reality of it. Like he was great
(15:04):
against Dallas, great, really good. Um. But you know, let's like,
let's look at who they've played against, and when he played,
they got a very favorable start to their schedule. They
start off with the Clippers, who they lost to, against
the Jazz, who people like, and they beat, and then
they beat in Charlotte, Memphis, Dallas, San Antonio, in Chicago.
(15:26):
There might be one playoff team in that mix. Now,
it doesn't truly matter because and I've said this, and
I've given Lebron and his team's credit. Look, it's Lebron
and the Lakers coming to town. It's still even though
they didn't make the playoffs last year, they're still everybody's
biggest game. And the and the Bulls reacted as such
last night. But when you're being guarded by Otto Porter
(15:50):
or Lowry Markinson, you're marketing, you're supposed to be dominant. Anyways. Anyways,
it's a good thing, that they don't need him. But
I just I don't understand how he can't differentiate the fact,
you know how he can't point out that they actually
(16:10):
were worse when he was in when he was scoring,
and it's not all his fault. Their defense wasn't good
and the Bulls written shots and he does he is,
he is a leader. Look, Dwight Howard has been really,
really good. Dwight Howard has been good. But Dwight Howard
has been good because they don't need him, that he's
an ancillary piece. Anthony Davis has been their best player
(16:32):
up until the last game or so game or two,
maybe the Dallas game. In this game, the brom has
been great. He's facilitating sharing the ball. They're playing Caruso more,
they're starting develop a rotation. They're clearly cohesive. Like these
things are all good. But let's also point out that
their schedule has been extremely soft, extremely soft. People think
(16:54):
Dallas can make the playoffs. They took him to overtime
San Antonio. Maybe I was a close game, he didn't
shoot well. But for for three game roads stretch early
in the season against maybe one playoff team to win
all three, that's big because last year they weren't beating
the bad teams. They weren't. Now they've gotten Kuzmin back,
so they're not injured. But this is not the tough
(17:16):
part of their schedule, you know, it's not. That'll be
when you know, early December they go to Denver, to
Utah to Portland home for Minnesota, to Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Indiana, Milwaukee.
They got the Denver and the Clippers in Portland. When
they get home, let's see what they're doing then. But
for Lebron, he's playing well and they're playing well, and
(17:39):
the bench is a like, that's the thing he couldn't
How many teams in the past could Lebron James steps
off the floor and they can't make plays. Now they
get Kuzmin back, bringing him off the bench, and they're
all the better because of it. Be sure to catch
the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at
three pm Easter Noon Pacific. Kevin Clark covers the NFL
for The Ringer fallm on Twitter at by Kevin Clark.
(18:01):
Also check out the video series on The Ringer Slow
News Day featuring Kevin Clark. He joins us on the
Doug gottlips show. Um let's start with A J. Green.
You know, he's clearly not happy, although he does say like, look,
they want to play in the franchise Tech. Fine, it's
a bunch of money. Uh. Do do you think this
is A J. Green going like, I ain't playing until
(18:22):
I get paid? I don't know. I mean, listen, A J.
Green was put on a high school field in the
first practice of the season and injured himself, and no
players should be put in that position. If A J.
Green is upset at the Bengals organization subsition they put
him in twenty nineteen, I wouldn't blame him, but that
doesn't seem to be the m O of A. J.
(18:43):
Green throughout his career. He signed an extension there you
sort of know the deal with the Bengals at this point.
Um So, maybe if there is a little bit of rebellion,
that's that's his right, that's overdue, I think. Um So,
I think that you know, A. J. Green has been
a loyal soldier to since Donny Bengals, but I think
that at some point he's an elite receiver. He needs
a better franchise. Maybe that's the first job Cam Newton
(19:06):
is not going to play the remainder of the season.
What's the rest of Cam Newton's career look like. I mean,
it all depends on whether or not he is. You
know what. One of the weird things I think, uh
in the first couple of months of this season or
this offseason, was he had almost like Andrew Luck style reports.
No one knew anything about the shoulder. No one knew anything.
You know, obviously the foot develops, we know the severity
(19:28):
of that. At some point, you just get too injured
to be uh, to be good, to be what Cam
Newton was. Cam Newton has been hit one thousand, two
hundred times in his career. That is way more than
any other player in the NFL, okay, and I think
that at some point that catches up with you only
take some one hit to change your career. If he
can get back to his peak, which I think is
(19:49):
doubtful at this point just because of the damage he's
taken and what we've seen from him this year, and
that was frank aside from the shoulder, But even get
back to his peak, he would be the best quarterback available.
It's just whether or not he can do that. In
time for the agent class, and I think that maybe
a team might have to take a flyer on the
next year if Carolina moves on, Actually in Caroline should
stand Pat will yeah, twenty million dollars a year as
(20:13):
a bargain when Jared Goff makes thirty six. I agree.
You know, I talked to some NFL people, like you know,
the everybody says they're gonna cut him, Like nineteen million
and change for Kim Newton is not a bad deal
considering you know what Pat Mahomes is gonna sign for
Aaron Rodgers signed for. My issue is outside of Carolina.
I don't know how many systems he fits in right like,
(20:35):
and he really hasn't been healthy. So if they did decide, hey,
we're gonna go to the young route and we had it,
we had enough, I just well, he's not gonna accept
less money, and I don't know if he accepts an
inferior role. And I'm just wondering how many offenses and
offensive coordinators he fits with. In addition to the fact
that can't stay healthy, like it's the foot this year,
(20:58):
but it was the shoulder last year. There's the angle
that one of the things I think he might have
to accept is that there's not gonna be a team
if he's released. There's not gonna be a team who's
going to go all in on Cam Newton. For I
think that there's just still too many question marks with that. UM.
I just think that he might have to take not
a reduced role with sort of a a stop gap
(21:19):
starter job somewhere some on that maybe maybe a Tampa,
maybe a Chicago something like that, maybe a Tennessee where
they're making a change, give him a two year deal,
work some pretty good money, that sort of thing. I
don't think he's gonna get a long term deal anywhere.
I don't think the franchise is gonna say, hey, we're
pushing all our chips in the middle of the table
with Cam Newton. I just don't see that happening because
of all the question marks rounding his health. So I
(21:40):
agree with you the options will be limited. But I
still think he has some value because even if you
know Cam Newton had of his health is still better
than than most quarterbacks around this league. UM. You know,
I think that if he can't do the design runs,
that takes away an element to his game. UM. I
think that if he has think two two thirds of
his design runs between tackle. Uh was just incredible when
(22:02):
you consider the amount of time se he literally just
ran it up the gut. I think that element of
his game is going to have to change, but I
still think you can provide value, and I think you can.
You know, if he can still run even a little bit,
he can still provide sort of the read option stuff.
You at one point in his career, who was averaging
fifty yards pro read option. I mean, it was just unbelievable.
And so I think that a decently healthy Cam Newton,
(22:23):
they still a good option for a team that's looking
for a stop gap solution next year. Okay, listen, I'm
I'm going to admit that I feel like I'm I
will be painted as a negative guy for pointing this out. Like, look,
Lamar Jackson played well Saturday a Sunday, everything went right,
(22:43):
but like we're starting to give him credit for things
that didn't actually happen, right, Like he made some incredible
running plays against Seattley through the ball exceptionally poorly. They
did beat the Steelers on the road, but the Steelers had,
you know, two Mason Rudolph got hurt. He threw three picks.
He was bad. Who's not good in that game? And
I feel like we're we're doing this rush to hey,
(23:05):
every all these people were wrong, when like we we
gotta we gotta get thirty games in before we actually
see what's right and what's wrong. Because the questions were
about his accuracy and it's about his ability to stay healthy.
The accuracy has gotten slightly better and the health is more.
The more times you run it, it's gonna happen. Eventually,
(23:27):
it always happens. It's kind of what we're saying about
with Cam Newton, like he can't do this forever and
he's smaller than Cam Newton. Am I am? I? Am?
I being too negative In regards to Lamar Jackson. I
think a lot of the excitement Doug is around so
the offense that you've built around him, because at this point,
Lamar Jackson's it's perfectly in that offense is that there's
just an awesome, dominant offensive line and then speed everywhere
(23:49):
outside of an offensive line, right, and so Lamar Jackson
is the perfect quarterback for the offense that the Ravens
is built. And so I think when you start talking
about what or are sustainable and how the outlook for
the Ravens looks really good. I think it's a lot
of that. You know, he's not going to have to
be like Aaron Rodgers right where his coach failed him,
like Mike McCarthy last you know, seven years, and he
was basically having to make every play. Lamar Jackson is
(24:11):
not gonna have to do that. This is an organizational
triumph for the Ravens to build this quickly around Lamar
Jackson and know exactly what he needs. I agree, like
I think that Lamar Jackson, you know, we've been hyping
up as an m VP candidate at the Ringer Um.
I'm a part of that. I definitely think it's in
the conversation. But he's definitely a cut below Russell Wilson
at this point. He's definitely probably but in the season,
(24:32):
going to be clearly a cut below Deshaun Watson. But
I think right now, you know, being the first team
to to beat Bill Belichick in that defense, to put
up real, real points on them, I think that it's
I think some times he should just to rationally buy
him to the hype and right now I'm just I'm following.
I will follow Lamar Jackson. Anyway, right now, I am
(24:53):
all in on Lamar Jackson hype because what we've seen
through eight games so far. Okay, I remember him getting
booed off the field like it's the Chargers. So it
was that he was really bad of that game, and
he was really bad. He was bad against Cleveland this year.
I mean, we're all of Cleveland. Cleveland beat him and
he was a big reason why. For sure, for sure,
and listen, you know san Diego through what seven defensive
(25:15):
backs to him and he had trouble adjusting to that.
And I think that one of the things about the
NFL is defenses will start to game plan for you
and then things start to change. When Bill Belichick's faces
Lamar Jackson for a second time, does he have knowing
what he knows about Lamar Jackson will play the Patriots?
Does he have better schemes than how does Lamar Jackson
(25:35):
adjust to that? There are some people Chip Kelly is
a good example where they have a couple of good
ideas at the NFL level than people adjust and they
have no more good ideas, right, And so I think
that with Lamar Jackson, this is an evolutionary process He's
been really bad in games, but I think that his
ability to be this good at this point in his
career is encouraging. I agree with you, he's had his lows,
(25:55):
but I think those lows are getting mitigated a little bit,
and I think that he will be a good NFL
quarterback for a long time. Uh, let's get to Baker Mayfield.
How fixable is Baker Mayfield with this coaching staff right now?
I don't know, um, because he's clearly progressed in a
way I didn't think it was possible. I mean, I
(26:16):
think people are I've seen so many the connections between
Baker and Manziel this year, and it was just stats wise, right,
And I think that's totally off base because Baker Mayfield
was so successful as rookie year. He um, you know,
set the rookie touchdown record, all that stuff, and I
think that if there's an offense, you can thrive in
(26:38):
the Brownching defined it. But right now it seems like
he just developed a lot of bad habits. It seems like,
you know, in a lot of cases, there's just very
strange that he's making Cleveland. Um, as far as you know,
Freddie Kitchens taking the false start and all that stuff.
I mean, this is the top to bottom disaster right
now relative to their roster talent. And I think that
Baker Mayfield is fixable because we've seen what Baker Mayfield
(26:59):
is capable of and on on an NFL field for
right down, he looks like a broken quarterback. And I
don't know what you do. I think that you you
panic as much as you possibly can. I think, um,
when you see how good he was last year and
how bad he's been this year, and I think there's
real hope for him to be good starting, but they
have to be a dramatic overhaul. Okay, so help me
(27:21):
out with this, Kevin Clark from the Ring, you're joining
us on the Doug Gottlieb Show. One of the things
that Patriots are run into is honestly one of the
things that Lamar Jackson's run into. One of the things
that you say about the Niners is, for the first
time in recent memory, we have some horrible NFL teams.
Like we had teams, We had teams that we thought
that that ended up about mid season or late in
(27:41):
the season started to become bad and then they were.
But you know, we had the winless Lions team and
the winless Browns team whenever. But the disparity and good
teams and bad teams. You know, the Niners have played
a decent a couple of decent teams, um, but even
the decent teams have been favorable schedules for them. But
they played at the bottom of the league, the same
as true Cowboys have beaten up in the bottom of
(28:03):
the league. Top of the league they've struggled against. How
do we determine how good the Patriots are considering how
many of their wins came against the bottom of league. Yeah,
good luck. You know. It almost reminds me a little
bit doug of college football, where you just have these schedules.
It's like, well they haven't you know, they're playing a
bunch of Sunbelt teams or whatever. I mean, it's no
fault listen, NFL teams don't make throw on schedule, but
(28:24):
this is a schedule season. And what I mean by
that is really a team like to build who I
think have a lot of talent, and I think Sean
mcdermots a good coach, But if they makes the playoffs
with ten wins, a lot of that is going to
be because of the schedule they played, because early season
they beat the Jets, they beat the Dolphins, they get
the Dolphins twice, they get the Jets twice. Um, you know,
you get some just teams that they really haven't field
(28:45):
in the NFL team this year. And if you get
a lot of those, that's five six wins under schedule.
And so how do you determine it? I mean, I yeah,
you know, if you're too much the Patriots. You know,
the good news is they play some really good teams
they play. It's you know, the Baltimore Raven's answer the Chief.
They had the Dallas Cowboys in three weeks. I mean,
those are the type of games you have to circle
again almost like college, and say they're playing this team,
(29:09):
they're really good. That's where I draw my conclusions. I
think you can't learn anything from making Sam Donald's Ghosts.
That is not an accomplishment. In Kevin Clark joining us
in the Doug ot Lip Show on Fox Sports Radio,
watch the Chargers Packers game. Rogers wasn't great, but they
never had the ball like they just I mean, it
was a disaster. Right when they got the ball three
(29:29):
plays in the first quarter. You know, you had a
false start, you had holding penalties, and then the defense
couldn't couldn't get off the field. They did keep the
charges out of the end zone. For the most part,
defense has had some issues of late. How concerning are
they for you when you look long term at the Packers, Listen,
they still have a lot of rosters talent there. I'm
not insanely concerned. I will say they were getting turnovers.
(29:51):
I think they had seven turnovers the first two weeks
of the season, and I think that was fueling a
lot of the hype and a lot of the talk
around the Packers. And I think that a lot of
their free age it moves were shrewd. But I don't
they just haven't been a dominating defense. I don't think
they've gotten a turn over the last three weeks UM,
which I think, excuse me, they didn't get Trevor last week,
and they had one turn over the week before UM.
(30:12):
But I think that there's you know, you just start
to to look at the NFC teams, and you look
at the Saints, look at the Niners. You know, I
would say the Vicens have made a run these last
couple of weeks. I just don't see the Packers in
that in that vein with the top the top two
seeds in the NFC. You know, in my opinion, that's
the Niners at the Saints this point, I just don't
(30:33):
think obviously they have Aaron Rodgers, and you know, he's
always going to make throws that will beat teams. But
I just don't think they have the defense. We doubt
they did the first couple of weeks the season, so
I'm a little bit concerned. I still think their playoff team,
I still think that they had the capability to make
a nice little playoff front. But I don't see the
conversation we were having any uh, the beginning of the
season where they're a top NFC team, I just don't
(30:55):
see that they're a step on. Yeah. And and you know,
Aaron Rodgers, you talked about the start of the season
they played against the bad teams and start a season
right like again, and and and the Vikings team that
wasn't what they have become correct correct speaking of the
speaking of the Vikings, speaking of the Vikings, like, I
like the Vikings. I think they're good. I felt like
they gave away that game with their their you know,
(31:16):
play calling and Cousins seemingly lack of confidence. They're late
like that. That that is the Vikings in a nutshell,
good enough to beat anybody, but the really good teams
they just I can't buy in. Yeah, I mean, that's
that's been the book quote unquote on Kirk Cousins for
his entire career. If he doesn't be good teams, I don't.
I think Kirk Cousins is exactly kind of the I
(31:41):
don't even know how he would describe it. He is
in the middle of everything, which means I think he's
totally dependent on his surrounding cast. If the surrounding cast
is clicking, he can be a great, great quarterback and
not an elite quarterback, but he can put up and
he was the NFC or you know, the quarterback of
the month in October. He is the type of quarterbacks
can have great performances, but if everything is not perfect,
(32:01):
things can go south very quickly. So I think that
this is, you know, predicting what the Vikings will look
like in November in December is really hard. I mean,
they have the Cowboys next week, then they have Broncos
and the Seahawks. I mean, it's it's a really interesting
month for them because I think that the hallmark of
Kirk Cousin's crews and lack of consistency, and in order
(32:22):
for them to make the playoffs or get a buy
or win the division, he has to be more consistent.
And I think that that is one of the most
intriguing storylines. The second after the season is is what
Minnesota is doing? Sustainable? Is relying on the running game
to help the pass? Sustainable? Is Adam feeling going to
be healthy? A lot of question marks in Minnesota. I'm
intrigued to see where that goes. Kevin Clark check him
out in the Ringer Fall on Twitter at by Kevin Clark.
(32:44):
Of course, they have a video series called Slow Newsday
featuring Kevin. He does an outstanding job. Kevin thinks so
much for doing us anytime to I appreciate you. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. The Browns offense is and scoring
(33:05):
nineteenth and total offense turnovers UM twenty nine and third
down conversion rate and red zone percentage. All of these
numbers are down from last season, and all of them
are bad. They're not just a bad team in terms
of their record. You can actually be a good team
and be a little unlucky. They're not unlucky. They're bad.
They're not good. Schedule has been pretty difficult, although Denver
(33:27):
and Denver on the road is tougher than you think.
But that's not a good football team. Every stat will
tell you this is Freddie Kitchen, their head coach, when
asked about Baker mayfield percent completion rate this season, there's
a lot of factors to go into that. I don't
think he's just wildly missing passes, So I don't know.
I don't really look at that. I just want him
(33:47):
to get better today, just like I wanted better this
week more than last week. I truly do not look
at stats, man, I truly don't look at stats. Look,
I get the highole. I'm a field guy, right, everybody was,
I just go by field. I don't need stats. So
(34:11):
we're not we're not even talking about, um, what what
stats he used? Like no one is saying like, hey,
Freddie Kitchens isn't using the new wave of analytics. No
one saying that what we're saying is like Freddy Kitchens,
who and look, Freddy Kitchens was a quarterback, by the way,
(34:34):
I don't know you guys know that, right, Like he
was actually a quarterback and a pretty good one for
the Crimson tie play for Alabama. But the idea that
I don't even look at stats, excuse me, none of them.
Now I don't actually believe that to be true. But
who would actually say that out loud? I don't look
at stats. I'm a field guy. That's kind of the
(34:58):
average football guy, eatement, right, And now what they always say,
I'm a feel guy. And I think we've kind of
nailed the problem because when things are going bad, you
should not just use your eyes and your feel, but
any of the resources which can help you, even if
(35:20):
the resource is simple as and what's this completion fifty eight?
We got? We have to like, how can you get
better if you don't look at stats? I that's an
honest question. That would be my honest How how can Freddie?
How can we know you're better? Well, you know when
their losses, Okay, how do we know he's the offense
(35:42):
is better unless we look at completion percent the third
down percentage, red zone percentage, completion percentage. How do we
know he's not throwing it throwing the ball better? And
this idea is not wildly throwing well. He's definitely not
just missing. He looks bad. He's not getting better. He
looks like he's regressing. It doesn't look like he's lacking confidence.
(36:06):
A matter of fact, he might have too much confidence,
which I kind of think has been his fee to complete.
But Freddie Kitchens saying, I'm not a stat guy. I
don't even look at stats. Whether or not you believe
him or not, And I guess I'll go around the
room and ask if you guys believe him. Whether or
not you believe or not doesn't seem to matter. What
(36:28):
matters to me is that he said it, and when
you say it, it just kind of feels like I
cannot believe that was said aloud. Be sure to catch
the live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at
three p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app. The League office, in
consultation with the NBA's regular sports Medicine, is comfortable with
(36:49):
the team's medical staff determination at Leonard is not sufficiently
healthy to play in back to back games at this time.
This from Asian Wardsnowski Kawhi. Leonard is missing a second
straight back to back game to night versus the Bucks,
which also happened to be a nationally televised game. He
set back to back games last week against the Jazz
on National TV. The Clippers have worked closely with the NBA,
(37:10):
sharing the required medical information on Leonard's knee. Decisions on
sitting games are made well in advance as part of
Leonard's load management schedule. It is possible Leonard will play
back to back games for the Clippers this season, but
that isn't in the plans in the near future. Um Like,
it's an impossible situation to say we're going to stop
(37:33):
this load management. That's like stopping tanking. Explain to me
how you stopped taking Explain it to me. How do
you do that? With the drafting system? How do you
do that? You can't relegate teams. It's not like in
Europe where if you finished in the bottom two you
get relegated to a lower league. Don't do that, and
(37:56):
every league allows their worst team to draft first. You know,
want the the rich to get richer. So how do
you stop a team from tanking, you can't. And tanking
has in fact worked um not every time as it
ended up in a championship, but plenty of teams have
bottomed out bucks for example, Astros, Sixers, UH Celtics, teams
(38:21):
have bottomed out in an effort to get better draft picks,
and generally it works. Some of bottomed down on purpose,
some of bottomed out by chance. But that's why the
drafting system is that is, and it doesn't guarantee that
you're going to pick the right guy. Case in point,
the Browns, right, Browns won one game over two years,
had the number one pick, had the number four pick
(38:42):
as well, so there would have been another quarterback available,
could have taken Sae Kwan Barkley if they wanted, you know,
could have traded back, could have taken one of those
incredible offensive linemen that were that that were available right like,
they could have chose not to. Instead they went quarterback
and they went defensive and look where they are. But
(39:03):
taking works, for the most part, gives you a chance,
and there's no way to stop it. It's not You
may ruin the experience for your current fans, you may
hurt the culture of your current program. But there's no
way to stop you from loading up and getting town.
The question is do you pick the right talent. There's
no way to stop taking can't cut the number of games.
That's not happening. It's not happening because no matter if
(39:27):
Kauai plays or doesn't play, you still are gonna sell
tickets based upon the entire season schedule. And two people
are like, I ticked off, Like I'm not gonna watch tonight,
Like okay, the game is still gonna be played. The
sponsors still gonna buy their their sponsorship, and it's still
technically counts, and oh yeah, by the way, like it's
(39:49):
not a bad idea. No one's ever handed out a
championship trophy for whoever wins most games in November. That's
not happened. Doesn't happen, you know, And to he once
in there, go hey, well, Lebrone, not load managing, like dude,
he did this his whole career. His last year in Cleveland,
he didn't play every he played every game. That was
the first time. That was the first time. We're simply
(40:13):
a lot like officiating. We're simply paying more attention to
it now than we have in the past, so and
now you know Gregg Popovis did this, and a lot
like the Astros winning a World Series, getting to another
World Series, and people saying, hey, if the Astros can
do it, we should do it. We'll start tanking. The
Sixers getting better now, NBA teams will start tanking, etcetera, etcetera.
(40:34):
He won an NBA Championship but one of finals m
v P doing the old load management and supposedly left
San Antonio because they made him play through injury that
he didn't feel he was right. So no one's ever
going to make Kauhi Leonard go out and play when
he's said to be healthy if he doesn't want to play,
because that's what caused him to get the hell out
of San Antonio, And the fear is he'd do the
(40:57):
same thing even with the Clippers. I just don't think
there's any way to stop it.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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