This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen to fifteen, powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Processions kt z R two SA at iHeartRadio Station.
Good afternoon, Welcome back to the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host Jay Gonzales. Today, my usual partner, Steve Rivera is out today taking care of some family business. He's on his way back from New Mexico. He will be here tomorrow. I've got Henry here running the board as he always does on Mondays. And I've got a good friend making his debut as a as a co host, our friend Ryan Dunn. He owns a couple of sports businesses. I've just learned he's got a second one here in Tucson.
We've had him on as a guest talking about TGA Premier Sports, which does youth programs, after school programs, those kinds of things. And now I hear he's bought a T shirt company or a uniform company that he's now out there ellen uniforms and teachers to to teams around around town. So Ryan, welcome, Thank you for doing this. I appreciate you being here. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Ryan is also a former sports information director
at at Arizona. So he's got a background in Arizone Athletics and he went out and got a real job and and has he's has his own businesses. Uh. You you also might if you've heard heard us have him on the show in the past. He's also married to somebody who you probably know better than you know him or I, and that's Alisha Halliwell who now goes by a Lisiah holliwell done. Former All American Pitcher College World Series champion, now the mother of two right, two small ones, yeah,
two little ones. So Ryan's here, and Ryan's been a golf coach. He's a really good golfer. I have golfed with him. Makes me sick sometimes, but then I just kind of watch and I go, Okay, he's good and I can't play like that again. Ryan, Thanks for being here.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
A lot to talk about. The Olympics are going are full on. Uh, there's been a lot of stuff over the weekend. I'm having trouble keeping up with it. But one thing I didn't have trouble keeping up with was watching Chase Buddinger this morning. Uh. For those of you who remember Chase, he was here in the mid nineties, played towards the tail end of a louto I mean nineties two thousands, tail end of lude Olsen's time at Arizona. He was a McDonald's All American and I found I
saw today as they were talking about him. He was a mcuh cole McDonald co MVP of the McDonald's All America game with Kevin Durant of all people.
You know, I was thinking about this several weeks back when he qualified for the Olympics. But it's unbelievable to me, and I don't think people will realize that that guy is one of the best in the world in two separate sports. Yeah, I mean, that's unbelievable.
Right, Yeah, I mean you talk about your you know your I mean, he's not Bo Jackson, he's not Deon Sanders, but you're right the best. You know, if you're an NBA player and he seven years in the NBA something like that, you're you're one of the best in the world to ever play the game of basketball. And now he's in the Olympics as a beach volleyball player. As I recall when he was being recruited, he I think
he's seriously considered. Maybe I'm confusing him with Judd Buschler, but I think he seriously considered playing volleyball instead of basketball. Decided to come, you know, I think he felt his financial future was better, you know, in basketball. But he was an equally good, you know, high school volleyball player when he came here. Look, the guy can leap out of the building. Incredibly athletic. He's tall, he's got these
long arms. So I watched his match today. I don't know if you saw it, Ryan, but he was dominant. I don't know how you get the ball past him.
Yeah, he absolutely was. And I was thinking back to his career here at Arizona as far as basketball, and if you remember, he was kind of here during some some turmoil, some tough times, and it probably could have left after his freshman year, and it's kind of stuck it out for a few years. So, you know, just a really really good athlete.
Really good athlete, and seemingly a really good guy. You're rooting for him, you know, again, watch him play. They played France today, so they had they had the crowd going against him, and they just dominated him. They beat him in two games. And uh and it wasn't it wasn't close. And you know, but I mean, look, I only watched beach volleyball really during the Olympics. I you know, I you know, we've had the women's beach volleyball coaching Arizona on the show, but I've had not been out
to a meet. I've seen him on TV a little bit, but you know, I really pay attention to it only you know, in the Olympics, and I'm fascinated by the sport. You know, there's the whole Maverick and Goose thing from Top Gun and you see those guys playing. You're watching two people play volleyball. It seems like an extraordinarily hard sport. But he made it look so easy today. He was just incredible.
And certainly the link helps, right, I mean six seven and long and with twitchy muscles, I mean that obviously plays a big factor in his game. Right. Yeah. It it just blows my mind that the guy is one of the best in the world. Yeah, in two separate sports.
Well, if there's a better if there's a better beach volleyball team in the Olympics, I'm interested to see it to see how good they are, because it's not just about blocking at the net and all those kinds of things. You gotta do a lot of things. But they did them all and and those two guys were just really good. And it was really fun to watch because I'm like, you know, they did a profile of him. They showed him, you know, coming up through high school, his McDonald's All
America stuff. Then they showed him in the Arizona uniform and then in the Houston Rockets uniform, and now he's playing beach volle He's thirty six years old, so he's not a spring chicken to be out there competing at this level.
Yeah, no question about it. And you look across the board in the Olympics and then it's full of twenty three, twenty four year olds, and yeah, it'll be fascinating to see how they do in these next matches.
Yeah, well, it's must watch TV. And if you, especially if you're from Tucson, you and your follow Arizona basketball, you followed him when he was here. You can't help a root for him because again, he was one of the good guys when he was here. As you said, he was here during a very tough time pares on a basketball. He stuck with it, got his team to the Sweet sixteen unexpectedly that last year under Russ panel, and you know, you just got it. You just got to be rooting for me, and it was it was
fun to watch. I mean, I'm sitting there, I'm just waking up, you know, still, you know, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. And a friend of mine texted and said, hey, Chase buddingers on in three minutes if you're interested. Turned on Peacock and it was on, and I just sat there and watched it. Beat all O. Matches don't last a long time. You don't have to sit there for an hour, right, I mean it was over in thirty five forty minutes. It was two quick sets. I know, I'm sure it goes to three sets. It
takes longer, but it was quick. Watched it, got up, had my coffee and got my day going. So it was great to watch him. So congratulations to Chase. A lot of other UFA people that are competing. We saw men's basketball yesterday. They they look touchy in the first half. Uh you know, Serbia's good. I heard a stat that when when uh Nikola Jokic was on the was on the court, the teams were about even, but when he was off the court, they got outscored by twenty six points.
And that's how in the United States just has more guys than they do.
Oh, no question that. That's where the United States is going to excel in this tournament. It's just the depth that they have.
I mean, what's the name Jason Tatum didn't even play play, didn't even play, right, I mean, Henry, I mean, what do you do with that? Right? I mean, we didn't even need him and we and we kicked your ass because they because they're being pretty good.
I feel like a lot of people were complaining about him not playing.
But they were yeah, you know. And Kerr answered to that, he said, look, he even said I heard the interview, said I told him before the game, the way lines up with who they're, who they have and who we have, he might play out like this, you might not play. And he said Tatum handled it very well, and you know, he said, look, he'll play in the next game, and he will, but you know, again, you know, Katie who hadn't even practiced and hadn't played, he didn't play in
any of the exhibition games, and he goes off. I mean, he was incredible in that first half.
Yeah, you know, and talking about the depth, it's not like, you know, one through thirteen, you can play every single guy, right, fifteen twenty minutes a game. It's right, that's just not how it works in the flow of things. So yeah, very interested to see how things progress going forward, and I'm sure Jason Tatum's going to see his time probably in the next round.
I think Serbia was up like maybe ten early on, either in the first quarter or something like that, and I'm like, oh, you know, I'm like, you know what, you know, what's happening here, and it was kind of like relax, everybody, just relax, you know. They took charge. Lebron was good, Kad was excellent. Devin Booker came in at a time I think they were down, and he had a couple of three pointers the first two times
he touched the ball. He's funny watching Joel Andbi get booed, you know, because he's got both France and US citizenships, so they're pissed that he went and played for the US instead of going to play for Friends, which would have been interesting because with with with who they've got for him to go over there. But he was essentially not wholly effective. But nobody had to be great yesterday, even though Kevin Durant was great, nobody had to be great for them to win that game.
Yeah, no question. And again I think, you know, you look at the roster that the US put together. I mean there's just superstars up and down the line up, so kind of pick your poison.
Guess my wife was watching the game with me, just you know, was on and yesterday morning, and you know, I'm just saying, you know, just explaining how hard it must be for Steve Kerr to coach a team like this, right with so many stars, clearly, so many egos, and and you know, she was she was like, well, shouldn't they just always win this? I said, well, they went
through a period where they didn't. You know, they came out with the Dream Team back in ninety six, I think ninety two or ninety six, don't I think it was ninety ninety two. The Dream Team comes on ninety two. Then they had Dream Team too in ninety six. They kicked everybody's ass. Then it kind of got like there were a lot of NBA guys who just decided, I don't really care about this. They didn't play in at
a bunch of them. We lost a couple of Olympics, and all of a sudden, everybody got fired up again. To now you got these guys who are coming here, and I think probably guys like Lebron and those guys had a lot to do with saying, look, we're the best in the world. Let's go show them that we're the best in the world. Plus other teams started getting good and it wasn't you know, it wasn't a waste of time to go play in the Summer Olympics. So it's great to see them get off to a good
start and we'll see what happens. All right, We've got a fun show, I think for you today we're gonna start talking some football. We've got a lot of Olympics stuff to talk about. We're gonna talk some football today, both NFL and the u A. In the first hour here coming up in in about ten minutes. We were gonna have at Finley. He's a good friend Formerers and Daily Star reporter covered airs on a football he's uh, he's in Chicago now. He covers the Bears and he's
the NFL beat writer for the Chicago Sun Times. And so we're gonna, uh, we're gonna talk with him about not only the Bears, but stuff going on around the league. A couple of major, major contracts signed over the weekend with some quarterbacks I've got some issues with I think both of them. H And so it we'll talk to him and see what he says. He's covering the Bear, so we'll ask him about Caleb Williams and how's he doing. Uh. He had a story on Caleb Williams just this morning
where he Caleb basically says, I'm ready to go. We'll see you know, we'll see you know.
We both watched a lot of USC obviously being in the Pac twelve, and you could see it obviously has incredible talent, but there's there's some flaws there that aren't gonna work all the time in the NFL. So right, I'm really really interested, more than almost anybody I've seen come into into the league at the quarterback position, uh, to kind of see how exactly how he's going to perform exactly.
And well, people would be watching, right, you're the number one pick in the draft. They always watch the number one pick in the draft. You always have people rooting against guys like that. Look I'm rooting. I'm rooting for him, you know. I mean, he's not done anything wrong to me. He was at USC, he was pretty good. I thought I didn't think honestly, didn't think he was the best quarterback in the Pac twelve last year. I thought that was Michael Pennix. And I've said that a million times
and the record showed it. I thought he was the better. I thought Penis was the better quarterback. And now the obviously, you know, I'm not an NFL scout, so they obviously thought, you know, he's a better guy. The draft of number one, Penis went later in the first round. You know, he's going to be a backup quarterback this year behind Kirk Cousins over in Atlanta. So let's see what happens. But I did, like, if you're asking me about pro quarterbacks, I did like Michael Pennis better.
Yeah, I mean there's no question he was a better college quarterback, at least at least last year. Yeah. Leading Washington all the way to the title game. And then one of Washington's key guys, Roma Doonsdays on the Chicago area, right Williams is gonna have a have a chance to, uh, you know, do some really special things with them.
Yeah. So so talk a little bit about that with Pat coming up, and then in the in the second hour, we've got Greg Hanson joining us. We're on the eve of Arizona football starting their camp. There'll be a press conference tomorrow with with Brent Brennan. The media is invited to come in and have a chat with him. We'll have some lunch with him and just kick things around. We'll play that press we'll play that press conference on the show tomorrow, and then they start practice Wednesday morning.
Practices are open. They started I believe nine thirty or nine forty in the morning. If you want to get out there and see and you know, we're gonna we're gonna run through it with Greg. He's been doing some stories on some of the Big twelve teams. He had a big call him on on Central Florida yesday, which is I think one are the mystery teams to us, just a team that we don't know much about, right We've heard of Kansas State, We've heard of Kansas, We've
heard of Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor. I don't know that we know that much about Central Florida, and I don't know that people realize how good they might be.
And it seems like they're in ils pretty good too, right, I mean they're getting players, they're getting high school players or getting good players from the state of Florida. Obviously, if you can get some pretty good players from the state of Florida, you're got a pretty good chance to be good.
Absolutely, So we'll we'll kick kick some things around with Greg Hanson. Getting ready for Arizona football season to start, for at least for practice, fall camp to start this week. All right, let's go ahead, take our break. We're going to come back. We'll be joined by Pat Finley of the Chicago Sun Times, talking Bears, talking NFL, and talking quarterbacks. So stick around.
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Streaming live I mean iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Bar with Steve Rabera and Jacinzalez on Fox Sports.
Forty Welcome back time on the ball. Here I fought Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host for the day. Ja Gonzalez, my partner Steve is out today he'll be back tomorrow. I've got Henry running the board, and we've got Ryan Dunn, former Arizona sid also owns a couple of sports businesses here in town. And on the phone, we've got the one and only Pat Finley joining us. Pat out there covering the Bears, and you've got all kinds of stuff going on. Pat. How you doing.
I'm doing good. How about you, guys?
We're good. We're good. It's hot as hell, but we're good. I golfed on Saturday afternoon, which by about the twelfth hole, I started thinking it was a big mistake, but I grinded through it, and you know, and I got myself home, so I did.
Okay, I think it rained.
I think it ran maybe three inches today here. So yeah, so we all have our problems there, Jay.
Yeah. So Pat covering the Chicago Bears that you have in for a bunch of years, also covering the NFL overall. But let's first go to the Bears, because both Ryan and I were talking about Caleb Williams is kind of like almost the story of the year, at least going into the season in terms of everybody wanted to see. He's wanting to see what's gonna happen? So I want to go there first. You did it, You wrote a story about him this morning. Just give us the lowdown
on how does he look? What do you think?
So far, so good? He's got it whatever it is, and if you can find it on a backfield at practice, I think we've seen it. He's just so comfortable as in being himself, and he's also comfortable playing quarterback in a way that Justin Fields never really was. You know, we talked about this last year, maybe the last couple of years, where Justin was this tremendous athlete who just
really didn't have a great feel for the position. He might be the best running quarterback in football, but you know, when you needed third and seven and you needed to complete the pass, he just kind of wasn't your guy. I think Caleb can be. You know, he just looks like he knows how to play the position. And that is a very basic thing. But that is very different. If you have a Chicago Bears uniform.
Well that's the thing, right, I mean, you know you can you can go get these guys and then they show up and they start, you know, working with against NFL athletes and it's a whole different game for them, and you don't know, like I'm going to say it, and I said it, you know, before he came on, I thought Michael Penix was a better college quarterback. I thought he was a better quarterback last year. I didn't think Caleb Williams was the best quarterback in the Pac twelve.
You know, but obviously, you know, again, I'm not an NFL scout. They drafted him because they he's apparently what they need. What you said, he looks comfortable running the position. What does that mean?
That means that he can make his progressions quickly and on time. It means that when he takes off outside the pocket, he looks downfield and looks for receivers instead of looking to run, which is what Justin did you know, unprompted his offensive coordinator today said, you know, when he's on the run, you know, and he looks and he throws deep. I don't think he's thrown an interception yet.
I mean it's practice, but that's still something. And he also carries himself in a way that I think he's a pretty natural leader, which you know, when you're twenty two, twenty three years old, you know, you don't think of a rookie quarterback as a leader, but boy, he's got to run the show here and he's got to have the respect of those around him.
You know, I've told you this day.
I think I told you this right after they drafted him. Boy, he is more comfortable being himself than I think I am being myself. But I'm twice as old as he is. He is just really, really really comfortable in his own skin. And I think that that translates, you know, at a player today. Tell me, you know, NFL guys have a really good BF detector, and he was being anything other than other than himself, they would have let him know
by now right, And he's not. And yeah, I think it's shaping up to be a pretty good fit for him, and definitely for the Bears, who you know, haven't had a good quarterback in one hundred and four years.
Paton. With a rookie quarterback, obviously you need weapons around him, obviously. Keenan Allen in the in the Fold and Roma Dunes, DeAndre Swift. How do you see those skill positions playing out, especially at the running back position with Khalil Herbert, DeAndre Swift and some others there.
Boy, you know they put him in a really good position. Justin field would probably have killed to have had this when he was a rookie. But you know you've got DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunde, who was the number nine pick and one of the Bear's three favorite prospects at any position. So you know they're thrilled. They you know, they think they got the number one and the number
three prospects in the whole draft. That's good. But running back, I mean, it's an old trope that Caleb's best friend is going to be a good run game, and you know they went out in time. DeAndre Swift. I think if history is any indication with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, I think he'll get maybe sixty sixty five percent of the carries and then you know the other thirty percent or so is going to be something between Roshawn Johnson
and Khalil Herbert. I think Herbert is the home run hitter in the group, and I think Roshan is the pass blocker, and they're down back in the group. So yeah, that's a pretty good, pretty good running back room. And you know, I haven't even brought up Cole Commett, who I think had the eighth most receiving yards among tight ends in the NFL last year, which is pretty impressive. He didn't really have much of a quarterback. And Gerald Everett, you know, the old Ramps tight end, comes in to
be the number two. That's a pretty good number two tight end. So I mean I just listed eight weapons that might be six more weapons than Bears teams we.
Used to have.
We're talking to Pat Finley, Bears beat riding for the Chicago Sun Times, four Mayriors on a Daily Star guy. So that's the connection. Pat. We want to make sure that they know that we we love you and we've loved you for a long time. Hey, so does that make you got the You've got the Hall of Fame game on Thursday, they're taking on the Texans, Right, yeah? Does that mean you know, is that kind of let's must see TV to see what's going going on over there?
I mean, this is kind of perfect, right, this is the guy everybody's talking about. They've got this first game, all the attentions on them. How you know, how much do you think we might see and what can we deduce from anything that we see?
What do you feel about Tyson Bagen. How's that striking because I think that's what's going to happen here. I think the backup quarterback is going to start the game. Has the Bears say that, they'll make an announcements more about what their plans are. Okay, I don't think Caleb is going to play. I'm sure the NFL. I'm sure the NFL would love him to, and I'm sure ESPN is leading on the Bears to do that. But you know, here's why. It's been nine years since the starting quarterback
has played in the Hall of Fame game. I went through the last five years worth the Hall of Fame games, and then each year a starting quarterback in that game was cut by his team before the end of the month. So this is not a place where you trot out your best players. You know, keep in mind too, if you're playing this Hall of Fame game, it means you've
ben given one extra preseason game by the NFL. So you know, the Bears could look at it and say, now, that's just one more chance for kileb to get hurt. We'll sit him here, you know, give him twenty twenty five snaps in the second game. You know they have a joint practice against the Bengals the week after that, you know they'll give them a bunch of works there. They said that they want him to get forty five to sixty five snaps this off season to feel comfortable
in game action. I wouldn't be surprised if they counted a joint practice against the Bengals as some of those snaps. Okay, you know, I may be wrong, but everything that I've seen and everything I've been told this pointing toward the Bears playing a lot of backup players on thirst.
Well not Bump, because I was going to put some money on it. Right, Come on, man, I.
Tend your name of their fifth string running back and put some money on that anytime.
That's just yeah, I know that's sick, but what are you going to do?
All right?
There are two big quarterback signings or extensions signed over the weekend, Jordan Love and two tongue by Law take which other. Let's talk about Jordan Love because that's the one that I'm like, what you know, is he the Who's what?
Now?
That third highest paid quarterback in the NFL. Should he be?
No?
But the way this works lately is that whoever signs the most recent contract is the richest guy. You know, the market is going up by the day here and because of that, you've got guys like Josh Allen, who I think is like number ten now in the list of highest paid quarterback and he's certainly not the tenth best quarterback in the league. Is probably closer to four. So are they worth it? No, But that's what the
market says, both with Jordan and with Tua. I ask you this because I don't know the answer to myself. Are they good?
Like?
Are they good? Are we sure? You know, Jordan Love had a great second half of last season, and you know, and you can certainly see it there. Who was Okay? You know, I don't know that that I would bank on either of these guys being a top ten quoiquarterback three years from now. I just don't know whether I would. But you know the fact is if you want to keep them, you got to pay him, and you got to pay him that sort of money, right, Yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah, I mean going back to two. I mean you have those injury concerns too, and not to mention all the weapons, I mean he has tons of weapons. Those those guys aren't always going to be there for the for the years to come. So yeah, there's definitely some question and you can't.
Afford him, and I mean, and that's what you know. To me, that's the most important thing here is you know, the Packers have done this with a bunch of no name wide receivers and you know, in that sense, paying pay Jordan Love fifty million dollars isn't going to change the planning here. But at some point those guys are going to need a new contracts when they get to the end of their four year deal, and then the
Packers may be a little handstrung there. I mean, you know, in the NFL, this has gotten talked about ever since Russell Wilson went to the Super Bowl and back to back years for the Seahawks. But you know, really the cheap code in the NFL is if you can get a good quarterback on a rookie deal and then you can pay the people around him, you can you know, you can trade for Keenan Allen and give him twenty and a half million dollars the year because the Chargers
couldn't afford it. You know, you could give Dj Moore an extension, which I think that Bears may do between now and the start of the season. You can go get you know, DeAndre Swift as a free agent. I mean, that's a luxury thing that a lot of teams, you know, don't have the money to do. You know, if you're convinced that your rookie quarterbacks good, you can gould the
hell of a team around him. But you know, at some point you're gonna have to pay that guy, and when you do, you better carry the team on the Yeah.
All right, So I mean and you're looking at I mean like I see, you know, the other guys that are getting paid, and they should be getting paid. They've proven it, you know, Joe Burrow has been you know, in a Super Bowl justin Herbert. He's looked really good, you know, And I get it. You know, there's only thirty two starting quarterbacks and they're the best, the allegedly
the thirty two best quarterbacks on the planet. But man, I just you know, you just I feel like, I don't know what these these owners can't wait for somebody to prove themselves before they give him that money. I mean, is Jordan Love going to go somewhere else if he gets. If they're only giving forty nine million, I mean, what's going to happen? And that's what that's what, that's where my brain goes, being that I'm not the guy making the fifty million dollars.
Well, well, if we can sit here and praise the Packers all day for being patient with Jordan Love and letting him grow behind Aaron Rodgers and letting him develop
before he ever had to play a snap. But one of the reasons nobody does that anymore is because if he's good right away, then you've got to pay him because it's been five years since you drafted him in this contract, right, So that's I mean, that's another point, you know, in the favor of you know, if you draft a quarterbacks, you should probably play him right away because you know, the clock's kicking and he's only getting more expensive as every year goes by.
Which you're surprising about the Falcons drafting Michael Pennix.
Yeah, yeah, and boy, I still don't you know, I've asked a lot of people around the Bears because the Bears was picking right after that, and that's how they wanne up for the doom thing, Like, hey, what in the world were they doing, and nobody knows. I mean, I've yet to hear a good explanation and for why they did that, especially when you look at Tennis's age. You know, I agree with you. I think Pennis had
a better season last year than Caleb Williams did. But Pennix was also probably, what's four years older than he is. You know, that age really works against you typically in an NFL draft. Of course it didn't in this case. Going number eight overall was a shocker to most in football and definitely everybody outside of them.
Yeah, Pat, Going back to the Bears the running back room, we talked about DeAndre Swift. Now, is Khalil Herbert a guy that could be on the trade block here soon?
I don't think so. You know, I wondered that, you know, during the first couple of days of practice, you know, you're sitting around talking to people, and I just think that having three functional running backs is you know, not unusual in this in you know, this NFL is actually kind of what a lot of teams strive to do. He's entering the final year of his contract, so you know, you could sit there if somebody wants to throw a four at the Bears. Maybe they think of it, but I think about it.
But you know, if I.
Were them, and you know the Bears are in this position where they're trying to win now for the first time since twenty nineteen, I would keep Khalil Herbert, let him be your home run hitter, and figure that you know, you're running back is probably you know, this was probably going to get hurt at some point during the season and you'll need some backups there. It's just kind of the way it's been going in the NFL. I think
Herbert is really dangerous. I you know, I think a lot of teams would consider him a good kick returner, but the Bears aren't going to do that. But man, if you want a thirty yard run, you know, there was a time, what was it two years ago? I think he led all running backs in the yards per carry. Like that's a pretty impressive stat for somebody.
You're sharing time talking to Pat Finley, the Bears beat writer for the Chicago Sun Times of what's their ceiling and what's their what's their floor? Where you know, where are they going to fall? Any ideas have you thought about that?
Oh, that's a good question.
I don't know.
I think there's probably somewhere between seven and ten and ten and seven. You know, I know people who think that they can do better than that, but I really have to see it, you know, Jay is you know, as you know, Jay, I'm a little I'm a little jaded. After covering this team for the last eleven seasons. I've yet to see a playoff win. And they've played two
playoff games in my time here. The first one ended on a double doint by the kicker, Cody Parky, and the other was at the Superdome during COVID when nobody was allowed there. So not a whole lot of recent success here. But you know, you know, the upshot is they've got a defense that they think is top five, top ten somewhere in there. They have a quarterback in Killer Williams who I think is going to get better
with each week. And the great thing is because they've surrounded him with some pretty good offensive players, he can kind of play point guard and just get the ball in their hands and hope for good things to happen. You know, Caleb doesn't have to play a minus game for the Bears to win. That is really different than everything they had around Justin Fields, where Justin Field had to be a B plus a minus quarterback for the Bears to even be in the game. The roster was
that surrounding him. Now there's a lot more with a room for him. I think, you know, I think they're playing a great in the NSC North. I think that's probably the best division in football. And you know, if you're gonna beat the Lions, Vikings, and Packers regularly, you better put together a pretty complete football game.
Right.
Well, suddenly the Lions are really damn good. Right Yeah.
I spent my whole life presuming the Lions we're gonna stick at every turn. Jay, you may, you may relate this a little bit, you know, growing up a Padre fans, you know, I always thought that the Giants would be five games better than everybody thought because they were always so well run. And I always thought the Dodgers would be five games worse because they, at least until Andrew Freeman, were always a little overrated. I kind of feel that
way about the Packers and the Lions still. You know, with the Lions, I'll believe it when I see it, And you know, I always think the Packers end up being a little bit better than everybody's sounds great.
All right, Pat, We're gonna let you go back to work. We appreciate you taking the time with us, and we'll get back with you a little later, you know, maybe once the season gets going. Because I think it's gonna be a fun season. I think it's'n be really interesting.
Uh.
I know the usual suspects are going to be up there, but I think there's some teams out there that that are going to surprise a few people.
Hard knocked.
Chicago Bears starts in eight days. If if there needs to be any more of a hype train going, they're going to be on HBO for five weeks starting next week.
You got you're.
Gonna get any airtime from that?
Oh?
I hope not, but probably I'll probably be in the background at some point.
Okay, Pat, Hey, thanks a bunch. Again. We appreciated have fun this, have fun this fall.
Thank you guys.
Thanks Pat.
That was Pat Finley from the Chicago Sun Times. He's a fun dude, and uh, you're good, but a lot of good insight. I'm sitting here thinking, Okay, I'm gonna put some money on the Bears to make the playoffs. You know what kind of odds can I get them? You know he I mean, he really late laid it out.
Yeah, And I think the interesting thing that he said was Caleb Williams doesn't have to play a a game, right And I think the same thing with the Pittsburgh Steelers with Wilson justin fields, you know, with their defense. Yeah, those guys don't have to be a four hundred yard a game right yard per game passers. They just have to control the game and not turn the ball over.
That's the thing. It just be smart with the ball and not do not do dumb things that put you in a bad spot. Okay, we're gonna take our breakword and come back. We'll take your calls five to two zero four one, six, seventy four forty. I've got Ryan done. Here's a runs a youth sports program with after school sports and summer sports. And if you've got some questions about you know, how you can get your kid out on the field, because you need to get them out there.
It's a it makes makes better people out out of these kids. So Ryan runs TGA Premier Sports. So if you've got some questions about how some of that works, we'll take your calls on that we're talking Arizona football next hour. We just spent some time talking about the NFL and then of course all the Olympic stuff going on. So I'd love to hear from you five to two zero four one, six, seventy four forty We'll be right back. If you're a.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just Surgeon.
I on the Ball, Welcome Back on the Ballgain on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jagonzalez your host for the day. Steve is out. He will be back tomorrow. I've got Ryan Dunn good, a good friend of the show and just a good friend. Right We've been friends for a while right here joining me for his debut. Time in the seat over there, and Henry's running the board with us. Give us a call. Five two zero, four one, six
seventy four forty. We just had Pat Finley on so in Chicago Sun Times talking about the Bears, but also things going on around the NFL. We were talking about quarterbacks, and we kept talking about him during the break. And I'm still don't see it, Ryan, I still don't see how you're giving Jordan Love fifty million dollars. How you're giving to a tongue of I low fifty million dollars when he might play eight or nine games. I don't see it.
Yeah, And again I think we talked about it during the break that you have to make that decision if you're a front office is is this guy better than anybody that's going to be a free agent coming up in the near future. Is this guy better than anybody that we see in college football that we have a chance to get. And if the answer is yes, I guess you have to pay them.
I guess you do. I mean, I guess again. We said that there's only so many quarterbacks, you know, NFL worthy starting quarterbacks on the planet, and if you get one, you think you have one, then you got to pay him and that's the market. But I just don't know that Jordan Love has done enough to get to Aren't that kind of that kind of a contract?
Now?
Does this put pressure on him? And does it make it harder or does it make it easier because he just relaxes and plays and says, Okay, I got my deal. I just got to go out and play. You know, how do you know? How do different people take that? I mean Joe Burrow, who's currently the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. He's earned it, right. He looks like a long term quarterback. Yes he had he had the knee injury, but he's gotten his team to do the Super Bowl. He's done things, and he looks like he
can do these things for a long time. He's a I don't know how good he'll be, but he's a Peyton Manning, Tom Brady longevity kind of guy is what you see in him. I see Jordan Love and to both guys that they could be out of the league in three years. Oh yeah, because they're just not good enough where they get passed by somebody else.
Yeah, no question. I mean it could go either way with either guy, right, I mean, you saw some really good things out of Jordan Love right at the last half of the season. H Tua obvious he saw some really good things. But he has so many weapons around him, and I think, as Pat Finley said just a little while ago, you're not gonna be able to hold onto all those receivers because you're gonna eventually gonna have to pay them too. So they're just not gonna be able
to afford all those guys. So it'll be very interesting to see those those guys here in the next few years.
How big of an NFL fan?
Right?
Are you a huge NFL fan?
Yes?
Okay, pretty big. What are you looking forward to this NFL season? What you know? What do you want to see?
Well, I'm one of the few Jacksonville Jaguars fans out there. I don't know if there's anybody else's son that the Jacksonville Jaguars fan.
Tell me why?
I was born in Jacksonville, so that's part of it. Yeah, ever since they announced the team, ever since they had the team, I was a Jaguars fan.
Do you like have gear and stuff?
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Been to some games I have, Okay, I have all Right, Well, what do you think of them? You know?
And Trevor Lawrence is another one, right, I mean, he just got a huge contract, and I would say he's probably better than the love to a tongue of Iiloa. I mean, because he has done some things. He got them to the to the AFC Championship. Is he a top five, top ten quarterback? I don't know that you could say that right now, but he does show some things. They put some weapons around him, so you know, I'm I'm really looking forward to the Jaguars. I think they're
gonna have a better year. They really got unlucky by the injury bug last year. They played the Bengals on a on a Thursday night and they lost three or four starters in that game, really key players, and they just they were never the same the rest of the year.
I don't know that I've ever known a Jags fan. It's it's entire I don't think I have Henry shaking his head like, no way.
I don't know that I've ever met one here in Tucson.
They're few and far between, all right, So aside from the Jaguars, I mean, you know, are we gonna are we just gonna watch the Chiefs and the forty nine ers, you know, run the table, not run the table undefeated. But I mean, you know, is that who we're looking at again? You know what's gonna happen with brock Purty? Right, there's another guy, really good quarterback. He's got him to a Super Bowl, got him doing you know, he's done really well. Is he a fifty million dollar quarterback?
That's a good to me? And almost nobody's a fifty million dollars Well okay, but you know Patrick Mahomes, sure, you know, Joe Burrow, sure yeah, Josh Allen, I guess yes, justin Herbert. But you know, the Niners did a really good job in the draft of putting some more pieces around brock party. I mean, they got a couple receivers that look to be guys that are going to contribute right away.
And when you've got a Christian McCaffrey in your back in your backfield, I mean we don't go to call. It's hard. All right, let's take this call.
Hi.
You're on the air and I on the ball.
Hey Jay, how you doing?
What's up? Powered what's going on?
I had to call you? Uh, do you need to have a cap?
I heard somebody mention a cap for the NFL quarterbacks And what do you think about that?
Who's gonna put up with that?
Right?
Well, they could do it put performance bonus. I know the players Association want, but they got to they have to get their full money, whatever the contract is. They got to do the whole season.
Yeah, boy, I don't know that anybody. I mean, you've got a salary cap for salaries as a whole, and even that was hard to get, you know, way back way back when. So I don't know that you're ever going to cap you know, individual salaries for by positions or anything like that. That's something that the teams themselves have to do, but they're not going to. You know, we've seen that. We've seen at all levels, at the college level, nobody's capping coaches salaries, nobody's capping you know,
player salaries in the NFL. And if the market is fifty million dollars and if a guy can get it, you know, more power to them. I guess I'm not criticizing those two guys forgetting that money. I'm just saying, what are you guys doing? You know what you know, if you're an NFL owner and you give fifty million dollars shit, that means you're not right. As Ryan said, you're not getting the receivers or the running backs sort of the right. They can't have to do it.
They're not getting evernybody. There's no multi twenty million receivers. But the real reason I called was last night, I bring my kid to the graveyard ship at ten thirty. And you know Arnie Spaniard, he just goes hyperbole and hot takes about the U his Wildcats.
I haven't heard that, you hear, no, no, what he's saying.
Oh my gosh, he went off last night thing. Oh boy, there they're.
They're going to a lesser conference because no UFC UCLA. They're gonna run rough shot over the big twelve and and and and the U of A Wildcats quarterbacks the third best in the country.
It was crazy, he.
Was so he made you look like a non fan. Wow, funny, I just saw that you.
I was like, oh my.
Gosh, that's pretty funny. Well arguably, okay, the best team in the Pac twelve was Oregon and not USC or or Utah, so at least the best program as of now. So I think it was kind of a fair deal, you know, the the Yeah, Washington's really good, but how good are they going to be this year? I think, you know, if you talk about the the the ten teams that left, I think in order you go probably Oregon, Utah,
maybe Washington, maybe USC and then Arizona. So that's the way I see it, So I Utah and you will be very good.
But they they forgot the elephant and they should have introduced the ambiguity. But on the flip side, the basketball program is one of.
The best the leagues, and that's gonna be the U of.
A is not gonna be in the top bunch.
Right, that's gonna be fun though, that's gonna.
It's gonna be great. And she would say, too, all right, you can have a good one.
Thanks a bunch for cal appreciate it. Yeah, I mean that's how I see it, right, I think you know the way that the way the team's divvied up, I think both the Big Ten and the Big Twelve got kind of equal, you know, equal teams. And then when you talk about let's go to basketball, clearly you know the the Big Twelve they've got they got Arizona, I know the Big Ten got U c.
L A.
You know Oregon. They're good sometimes good, not good other times. So I think both both conferences are happy with who they got in the in their in those leagues.
Yeah. Absolutely, I I'm really interested to see Utah football. Right. Obviously pick to win the league by the media, Well, that's all as has to be. He has to be back himself, right. If he's not, then I don't see it.
Well, the's two things. One one he's got to be healthy for the whole year, and then two he's got to be good. He hasn't played a lot in the last two years, so you know, Yeah, I mean they're they're they're they're kind of a mystery team. You expect them to be really good. But it all presumes that cam Rising is good and is there the whole year.
And they lost a lot of players. They lost a lot of players to the portal, they lost a lot of players to the draft, so they really had had to reload. So it's gonna be a really interesting team to watch.
Well, so much of what people think of Utah's about Kyle Whittingham, and you know, this is twenty years now that he's been there, or this is his twentieth year something like that. I mean, that's kind of unheard of and in college football. So you know, that stability I think counts for a lot, at least among people who think about the programs. But again, we you know, we don't know. I mean, they came to Tucson and Arizon
just kicked the crap out of them. And I get, I know they didn't have Cam Rising and guys were missing and stuff, but Arizona didn't just barely beat.
Them, no hell, And it was from the very very beginning of that game.
They beat the hell out of them. Now, that's gonna be a fun game when they meet. It's Arizona's fourth gime of the season and it's at Utah. They're going to want some for sure. Uh, And that that's gonna be fun. And that's gonna tell us a lot about the two teams. But you know, if if I'm taking quarterbacks, I'm taking no. A Fefeedo over Cam Rising for no other reason than the injury issue.
Yeah, and we've seen guys come back from injuries and be successful, but we've also seen guys that just aren't quite the same after taking a year off or a year plus off. And remember he didn't play.
At all last year night at all, never got on the field.
Yeah, and it never got tough thing to come back from.
It really is. So but you know that's gonna be I I'm ready. I'm ready for the football season to get going, you know. I mean, we'll go to practice. Practices are in the morning for those of you who do want to go to Arizona for practices until they start school. They're practicing at nine o'clock in the morning, trying to avoid the heat as much as they can.
It'd be interesting to see how Brent Brandon runs these practices, because under under Jed Fish, they would practice some in the indoor facility, then they practice some outdoors on the grass. They would do a little bit of both. I don't know how they'll do it. It would be interesting to see how the practice is run. Jed Fish was running the offense, so he's out on the field and he's
making changes and talking to quarterbacks and stuff. Brent Brannan is more of the He's got a defensive coordinator and in Dwayne A. Keeney's got an offensive coordinator in a Dino Babers, they're going to coach and so it'll be you know, I remember watching Dick Tomy coach and I don't know if you were around at that time, Ryan, but during a football practice, Dick just walked around right now, certain things happen and he'd get into the middle of it and so but he was letting his coach's coach.
Yeah, and I think going back to your point, you know, we kind of know what Dwayne A. Keene is about on defense, but Dino Babers, you know, he hasn't called a play and yeah, by some time as an offensive coordinator, So what is that going to look like?
Right?
And I have a feeling we're going to see a lot of some of the same stuff that they ran last year. That know, if a FIDA was successful at right, there's just no reason to change that, right.
There isn't and that and that's what you look for in a coach, and that's what you hope Brent Brandon will will ask for You know, again, we've seen what happens when you try and force your style as a coach onto a player and that's not what the player does. Kalil take.
Yeah, I was just gonna say we've seen that here and it didn't work.
And Reckwood could have been maybe the best quarterback in Arizona history. Turned out he wasn't for a lot of reasons,
not just about the coaching, about Colilt as well. Right, you know, he wasn't He wasn't perfect either, But you know, it sounds to me from what the conversations we've had with Brent Brannan, and you know, whether it's been in press conferences or you watched the interviews we had him on the show, it sounds like he's gonna they're building their their system around what the guys can do, as opposed to having a system and making the players fit into that.
Yeah, and you're always gonna have new wrinkles, right, I mean, Dino Baber's is going to run some stuff that the Arizona has has not run, Brandon hasn't run before exactly. So we're gonna see a little different style than we did last year. But I do think We're going to see a lot of the same same kind of thing. And I think the run game is going to be really really important this year. I mean they have to
keep no I A feeda healthy. I mean, there's no question they he has to be healthy, right, he has to be healthy.
And he as we've talked about with other quarterbacks, he can't do this all by himself. And he's got weapons. I saw stat today that Jacorey Mayor, the running back from New Mexico, he's the He's the transfer that scored the most touchdowns of all of them.
I actually did stats for Fox Sports one New Mexico versus Fresno State last year at the end of the season, and so I did a lot of Jacory Krossky merrit research and man, he is he is really good.
Yeah, yeah, all right, we're gonna take our break word to come back. Henry's got breaking news and there's lots of it. Then we've got Greg Insen at about four twenty. We'll talk some more. You have a football, so stick around for all that.