The volume.
Danny Parkins co host breakfast Ball, the winner of the mythical FS one NFL Picks Championship. It should be noted it's just like the USA Today High School Basketball Championship. It's all mythical, so let's not go crazy on this ship.
It is definitely true that I only made it a competition between you, me and Nick once I started to crush it and distance myself off the field. Yeah. So you know, going into next year, if I start four and nine, you know, it's just luck. But when I'm crushing it, it's skilled and you guys are in a competition you didn't even know you had entered.
Yeah, I had no idea. Yeah, I have had the last three shows in a row. I've had about as much fun as I can have at this point of thirty years doing it. So because I love free agency, I love the movement. I love when stuff breaks on the show. You know, I just I sometimes I think, you know, the audience thinks we love football and football season, but I actually find it more challenging when the season's over and we have to sit there for two hours in the morning and figure out ways to be compelling,
and there's not a lot out there. So this week it's basically you've got B level players sometimes C plus players transitioning.
To bad teams.
And yet I had so much damn fun this week, and I want to start with the Bears because I honestly, and I don't remember the last time I thought this. I it's obvious Ben Johnson now runs the organization because he basically by acquiring a guard a center, a guard is telling Ryan Poles, your picks were not good? You know the organization? Well, that's that's my take is is are certain coaches. Rabel in New England is running the show.
Belichick for years ran the show. Mcveay's got a lot of power in Los Angeles, whereas Brett Veat really runs personnel because Andy Reid doesn't want to do it. Sean Payton's running Denver. Didn't it feel like to you this is all Ben Johnson's stamp.
So I've heard you say this, and I think that you're like eighty five to ninety percent correct. Ben Johnson clearly now outranks Ryan Poles. And it's not a straight like who makes more money, but it kind of is. Ben Johnson makes considerably more money than Ryan Poles, and obviously Ryan poles Is stock is down and Ben Johnson's stock could not have been higher. So Ben Johnson has more say. And the Jonah Jackson move is directly tied to Ben Johnson. And that was the first move that happened.
They traded a late round pick for a guard from the Rams who had been a former pro bowler, but before he was with the Rams, he had been with the lo and Ben Johnson obviously the Lions have the best offensive line them and the Eagles in the NFL. He knows how valuable that is. I think Ryan Polls has taken a little too much heat in this regard. He was Matt Ryan's offensive lineman at BC. He is a former offensive lineman. He was on a practice squad
in the NFL as an offensive lineman. His first ever first rounds pick because the first year he didn't have a first round pick because the previous regime had traded one away to acquire justin fields. So his first year, his first raft, he had two second round picks and he took Kyler Gordon and Jakwan Brisker, who are both starting players in the secondary. And then the next year when he had the ninth overall pick. He traded down
one spot, passed up Jalen Carter. I disagreed with it, but he didn't think the organization was ready for the headache. And he took Darnell Wright, who looks like he's going to be the right tackle for the team for ten years. Maybe not an All Pro, but he looks damn good.
But he he's going to get as And some of the draft people were like, should it have been Broderick Jones, the guy who went I think seventeen to the Steelers, who wasn't able to start for a year plus and definitely is not guaranteed to be a ten year starter in the NFL. And then so I think first time he had a first round pick, he drafted a tackle. He gave Nate Davis money. Nate Davis had a pretty
good reputation. Mark Schlrath has told me that he's like, Nate Davis was one of my favorite guards in the NFL when he was in Tennessee Atlanta. Taper off a little bit, Bear's paid him, and it looks like Nate Davis got paid and stopped trying. Yeah, but it's not like that guy didn't have good tape, and it's not like people didn't like him, and it's not like that
wasn't a significant investment in the offensive line. Tevin Jenkins was a former second round pick as a tackle who he moved to left guard Ryan Poles did, and he was a better guard than tackle, but then he got hurt and he can't stay on the field and he never invested in center, which was has been a disaster. That Bears literally haven't had a good center since Olin Krutz, and left tackle is Braxton Jones, who I would not say is good, but I would also not says bad.
He's a replacement level player that Ryan Poles drafted in the fifth round out of Southern Utah. That's a draft win. What happened last year was a mediocre offensive line got hurt with a rookie quarterback, and you fired your play caller and your head coach so you couldn't scheme around it. The offensive line was a disaster year. Your quarterback got hit sixty eight times, and it became a fire alarm, like this is we are going to get Kayleb Williams killed.
We are like, really with David Carr level of sabotage here if we don't overhaul it. So that's long winded and maybe a little bit more in the weeds than people that don't follow the Bears want to know. But like, I don't think it's that Ryan Poles doesn't prioritize the offensive line. I think it's that when he took over, he had such limited resources with draft capital that it took a while. And last year was never supposed to be a good offensive line, but it wasn't supposed to
be that bad. And I think that anybody would have spent on the offensive line this offseason, but Ben Johnson kind of turbo charged it, and so he gets credit for it. But I can't. I have a hard time believing that. A smart guy who came up under Brett Vick, who, by the way, I'll add one more detail. He was the director of college personnel in Kansas City when they lost that Super Bowl to Tampa, and in the off season they signed Jokes, they drafted Creed Humphrey, and they
drafted Tray Smith. Creed Humphrey now set the market at center, Trey Smith set the market at guard, and now Joe Tooney's a Bear, and he was an All Pro for a couple of years in Kansas City. So he was in Kansas City when Mahomes got killed in a Super Bowl, they brought in three new offensive linemen. He's the GM. In Chicago, when KAYLEB Williams got killed, they brought in three offensive linemen, one of whom is literally the same
guy they brought in Kansas City. So I think Ryan Pohls knows about the offensive line, cares about the offensive line, prioritizes the offensive line. He just made a couple of bad mistakes. Nate Davis most principally not investing in a real center probably right behind it, and he underestimated how little depth he had to protect Kayla Williams last year.
You know, it's it's interesting about you know, as I you know, moved my operations primarily here in the next six weeks, primarily to Chicago.
How bad all the teams are?
Yeah, yet either the Bulls have led the NBA in attendance three or four straight years. So the passion the bears, the passion the Bulls people, I don't have it completely committed to that. I mean, the Bulls have led the attendance like twenty of the last twenty five years since I mean, it's legitimately crazy, Like I can look it up or one of your producers can look up.
Since Jordan left, like nineteen ninety nine till now, they've literally led the NBA in attendance more than eighty percent of the years. It's insane. Go ahead.
Yeah, So it's a sports town that has it's the opposite of Los Angeles. In LA, our owners are the richest, Steve Balmer, Stan Cronkey. In Chicago there's some of the poorest are Our owners are in there sort of earning prime. A lot of the Chicago ones outside of rickets are not. Our teams are all hyper aggressive, and we have star coaches everywhere. You know, Chicago does not. The difference is in Los Angeles, if teams aren't really good, people stop going.
In Chicago they don't. So I've always said, and you've never lived in LA, but I've always said LA it's a double edged sword, is that you have to be aggressive because our weather's so good, We've got beaches, and Vegas is so close. Like people just say we're not interested, Like the Dodgers are great, and they're like, yeah, we just won the World Series. We're going to spend four hundred and fifty million more and put one hundred and fifty into our clubhouse. Because in Los Angeles it's like
people move on. I mean, Steve Balmer was rolling, he builds a new facility, people are like, yeah, Lucas in town, there's other stuff, Whereas in Chicago there and I haven't been there enough, but there, I feel like there is a real pride in the city. People in Chicago kind of kind of look at you sideways. If you even mention the weather, It's like, yeah, you know our winners,
you wear a coat. It's just funny. I feel like I'm moving to a city that is sort of diametrically different in terms of ownership, teams, star power, and loyalty. And I do think LA is a great sports town. It's better than Miami, which also has beaches and weather. But people here are really really distracted in Los Angeles, and they're not as much in Chicago.
I think that you're one hundred percent spot on. I like, there's not a ton to add. I mean, I can go deep on like any of those topics. But like you know, Jerry Reinsdorf owns the bulls in the White Sox and he cares way more about the White Sox than the Bulls. His son, Michael Reinstore basically runs the Bulls, but both teams have a bunch of minority partners. He
doesn't own over fifty percent of them. It's just it's like a bunch of rich guys that own one percent five percent, and they cobble it together and they go from there. And he, you know, it looks like he's getting right, even though he loves baseball, but he's the diehard baseball fan. He hates spending money they have. There's
a crazy thing going around Ishpia. You know, the guys who on the sode you know, yeah, yeah, they're apparently they're apparently buying up minority ownership in the White Sox
and they're reportedly in line to be next. Yeah, and White Sox fans are cautiously optimistic because there's this like funny thing going around Chicago in the you know, in one of the towns in the north shore of Chicago where I was from, where a lot of the wealth in Chicago lives, like on Lake Michigan, Ishpia is building a mega mansion on Lake Michigan that is estimated to be worth more than any single contract with the White
Sox have ever given out in team history. It's estimated to be like aet eighty six million dollar mega mansion compound. And I believe the largest contract the White Sox have ever given out is still the seventy five million dollars because it was Yasmani Grondal and then it was the left fielder whose name I can't remember because the White Sox are terrible, but the biggest one ever is seventy five million. The Cubs ownership and the Cubs organization is excellent.
They frustrate some people because they are top ten and spending and people think they should be top three. But they make a ton of money and they spend them a lot of money, but they don't really operate.
People and people I know in and out of Chicago, like the Rickets.
Tom Ricketts. Tom Ricketts is as normal of a billionaire, like, yeah, he sits. He doesn't sit in the suite even though he has won most of the games. He sits in the second row or the first row behind the Hubs on deck circle, and he shakes hands and takes pictures and signs autographs, and you know, the Cubs make a lot of money, and they put a lot of money into the team. They break even, is like what they say. But the rest of the ownership is pretty brutal. It's
pretty brutal. The mccaskee family wealth is all the bears, and there's a million of them, so in terms of kids and grandkids, and so they don't all want to be in it. And yeah, Chicago is an amazing city. And you mentioned like the pride thing, like pride in the city. I've only I listened. I've lived in New York where there's a ton of pride, Kansas City a ton of pride, Syracuse college Town, and Chicago. That's where I've lived. I've traveled all over the world, So I
am definitely bias. Chicago's my home. But people in Chicago, chicagoan's man. They take so much pride in the city, the people, the neighborhoods, being Chicago tough but Midwest nice, capital of the Midwest. And it's said that like Chicago became a like political lightning rod word for people around, like the gun debate and all of these things when it's so unfair and we don't have to get into it. We can, but we don't have to get into it.
And so I think that also kind of like hypercharged Chicagoans in the last call it ten plus years, where it's like, we know, we got some problems, and we know we have some gun violence and some poverty, and we got problems, but we have a lot of hard working Chicagoans who are working on it and caring about it and not moving out of the city and doing it. And it just seemed like people were who don't give a shit about Chicago at all, We're using it to
score cheap political points. And I think that even though the city's always had a tremendous amount of pride, in the last just how is our political cycle and the Internet has like polarized us even more. I think it's like rallied Chicagoans together even more to have like a tremendous amount of pride and like protectiveness over the city.
Yeah, I mean, I think I have pretty good taste, and my wife's got remarkable taste. Is I mean, our favorite North American city is Chicago. The people I know that live in Chicago, it's one eight. It's been the best city in America, like eight straight years. Conde nas like it's great. I always said this, if the parents were the federal government and all fifty states were kids, California is the best looking and the richest and gets
the most criticism. They have to literally pay into the federal government every year because they make so much money. Like twenty eight of the states are more need a check to pay their bills, and those are the states that often criticize the good looking kid in the family, California more. And the second most criticized state is Chicago, which gets voted best North American city over and over. So you know, I've always said this that you know
I've traveled abroad. Mom was British. London is my favorite place on earth. And then you know, Los Angeles and Chicago I love because there are just lots to do. Some people want to live in small towns. I grew up with one. It bored to live in hell out of me. There's just not enough stimulation for me to each their own. I'm not into hunting, you know, it's
not my thing, but it is. It is funny that I tell Anne, we keep picking these cities that everybody tells us are awful, and we absolutely love them.
Chicago in the summer like I'm a year round Yes, for sure, I'm a year round Chicagoan Like, that's for me, that's my happy spot. I'm incredibly jealous of what you have set up right now at our network. I'm incredibly envious. But there's just something about the world class international city where you can do anything at any time relative to
some places. It's all so affordable. Yes, it's beautiful. And while the traffic with the construction right now on the on the Edens is hillacious, like when they're doing the construction, generally, like outside of that, it's pretty easy. Like, it's a pretty easy it's a pretty great public transportation or lane you know, or lane roads like in downtown. Yeah, alleys for like the trash isn't on the street, plenty of you know, you can take a train into Midway, into
O'Hare too, Wrigley two White Sox Stadium. Basically you have a zoo in your downtown. It's awesome. Yeah, Millennium Park relatively new, beautiful ton of green space. Yah. Done. It's the lake is the water supply to the city. You have a beach with a skyline behind you and a fresh body of water.
And by the way, not just a beach. Even my little area where I live has three public beaches.
Yeah. All the north shore suburbs yeah, well, met Wanetka, Glencoe are all awesome beaches. Awesome there. Yeah, it's it's I mean, listen, we could do this for hours. Man, I get sports, music, culture, food, cost of living, accessibility, cleanliness. Uh. You can fly anywhere in the world NonStop, you know what I mean. Fly to Tokyo NonStop, can fly to Hawaii non stop, can fly to anywhere obviously in Europe, most places in Asia. It is, it's the best. It's
it's the best. I love it. I love it so much.
But circling back, it is completely polar opposite of Los Angeles AND's.
Oh my god. Yeah yeah no. And but listen, I think that that, like I love you giving Chicago credit for it. I think that. And we've talked about this a little bit, like as both just like guys who love radio and you still do it. Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Philly, Boston, Kansas City. These are great sports radio towns, great sports towns, and they have a through line of cold weather like great Sportstown that is warm weather town are outliers and often you know, like Dallas
obviously Cowboys obsessed. I think Mavericks fans are a little underrated in the ecosystem of the NBA. Fans like Mavericks playoff games kind of jump off the screen. But like it's not it's not a great sports town. Miami, as you mentioned, not a great sports town. Obviously, La good sports down, but they can lose interest in those the cold weather cities. You're not losing interest. You don't lose interest, and the people from the warm weather cities like because
there's less to do there. Yeah, that's probably part of it, but I think there's also just a little bit of a like, man, we all are alling this together, like these are our teams. We rep it the city pride, and so I loved doing local sports in Chicago and Kansas City because it really was in the fabric of civic pride within those cities. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season?
You are all the new ways to get in on the action of Draft Kings Sports Book, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, Slams, dishing the ball, cleaning the glass, get behind your favorite players, prop bets. You can make on DraftKings. It's fun the home of NBA player props. If you're ready to place your first bet, make it really simple. Pick how many points your favorite players going to score. Go to Draftking sports Book. They
have an app, download it make your pick. If you're a first timer, here's something special new Draft Kings customers. All you have to do is about five bucks. Get one hundred and fifty in bonus bets instantly, So take it to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook Every point Counts.
Download their app takes ninety seconds.
Use the code column CLN to get one hundred and fifty bones in bonus bets betting just five only on DraftKings.
The Crown is yours.
Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight ope and Y, or text hope and Y four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven, or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino when resorting Kansas twenty one and over. Agent eligibility varies
by jurisdiction, Void and Ontario, New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issueins four additional terms and responsible gaming resources see DKNG, dot co, slash audio.
You know, we'll talk some free agency here. You know what's really amazing. So and I always give NBA executives a bit of a break. You get maximum these days, like two years of college tape and a guy you have to go back to high school tape because and the truth is, you could be at Gonzaga and a guard Jalen Suggs, and you only face an NBA guard in your out of conference games. I get very little to work on. In the NFL, you have often four years and three years of tape, and there's NFL bodies
everywhere in the big ten in the SEC. I'm getting NFL dude on NFL dude, multiple years of it. Yet this is astounding. The hit rate on draft picks, like playing for a few years is fifty one percent.
It's just interesting.
Steve Kai, my buddy, always says, if you can get three starters a draft like the Vegas Dealer Boom, you're good. Is that you get to the fourth round and all my gms or like you get to the fourth rounds probably not a starter. If you have the right system and you draft for the system, you have a much better chance. That's why continuity is so important in this league because Andy Reid, I mean even with Mahomes and Andy Reid and Brett Veach, they have missed on multiple receivers.
Now just think about that. They are I mean Veach's first or second best GM. Andy's brilliant who can make anybody work. He got sky Moore wide open in the red zone in the Super Bowl for a Cats like the literally nobody on him in a congested area, and sky Moore didn't work. And I can mention multiple other receivers there didn't work, and I wonder not to, you know,
catch off guard. But with all the tape, I think the reason that that draft percentage is so low, and I think it's harder is because the NFL pension for coaches is really good, and there's a lot of money in this NFL business, and virtually everybody feels like they're upgrading. I think in the NBA, assistant coaches know, if you're an assistant under Steve Kerr, you might as well sit there for years until the job opens, Like right right, Like theude, everybody knows if you don't have two stars,
you're not going to win. In the NFL, there is this sense, hey, is I can make this thing work. I mean, I draft a quarterback every year, and so every assistant in the NFL, every coordinator, wants to be a head coach as soon as possible, and it creates this transitional league.
And that really hurts drafting. It really hurts drafting.
And the money now is so great as head coach that the money is now so great in college and pro in coordinator job that everybody is trying to upgrade. It's like being in college with a girlfriend. You're like just you're looking at everything right, And I feel like in the NBA, assistants are like, hey man, wait until you get the right gig, you know. So that's my take is why this draft number is so low. There's too much money. I think that that's I think that there's probably like.
A lot of factors and that is a good one, and I think that impacts It impacts everybody. I mean, it's not the exact same, but we're gonna we're gonna see it with Sam Donald, like situation matters. It just matters. He's gonna be worse in Seattle. He's like, oh, like Kobiak, like similar interestystem, good off, it's good. It doesn't matter. Donald's gonna be much worse. He's gonna be much worse. And I know you love him and he's your guy.
But I think he's gonna go twenty four and ten from thirty five and thirteen. I think he's gonna be about a twenty three twenty four, ten, twelve touchdowns. He'll be a He'll be a more athletic, cheaper, younger version of Gino.
Maybe that's about right, and fourteen wins to seven and we won't talk about him and he will have gotten paid. And it's like situation just matters. We do it. We do it all the time. Like what would have happened if the Bears would have taken Mahomes instead of Trubisky. Would Trubisky have three super Bowls? I don't think so, but be much better and Mahomes would still be awesome, But he wouldn't have the MVPs maybe, or he wouldn't
have all of the rings, like we don't. These are unanswerable sports talk questions, but like situation matters up and down. So if you want to pinpoint it on the draft, I'm definitely with you, and I'll go back to Ben Johnson in Chicago. Like Ben Johnson was one of the rare guys who was able to like have job offers and turn them down because he knew that they were
going to be there again the next cycle. Because he was like, I've got Laporta and A'manra and Gibbs and Montgomery and a top two offensive line and a head coach that everybody loved. Like he knew his stock wasn't really going to go down. But then, like I wanted to believe though, when he took the Bears job, I was like, oh, look at the Bears. Like he turned job down, turned jobs down two years ago, he turned jobs down last year. The Bears are the perfect job.
This is amazing. And then when he did the interviews, he was like, I knew midway through the year that I was leaving, and the Bears were like the job that he wanted among the jobs this year. You know, he was just he was just ready to take a job, just ready to take a job. And so I think I don't think this is directly addressing your draft point, but I think it for all of these guys, rookies, free agents, assistant coaches. Steve Spagnolo is amazing, Dave Tobe's
amazing is defensive coordinator and special teams coach. They also happen to coach with Andy Reid, and like they're not getting head coaching jobs. So Kansas City just benefits from, oh, you want to hire our offensive coordinator away? Who gives a shit? We have Andy Reid, but no one apparently wants to give Steve Spagnolo another head coaching job. That's just the Chiefs benefit. So the Chiefs benefit from continuity in more ways even than Mahomes and Reid and Veach.
They benefit from continuity all throughout the coaching staff, and that has to have ancillary benefits on everybody draft picks.
That's why when they miss on sky Moore, he still can have a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Like they squeeze the juice out of even their misses. By the way, the Rams with two to two out will has been a miss. They've squeezed every ounce an if you would have had a new coaching staff that have blown him out and you'd had to the Rams two two at is a great example. They're bring him back there, like, listen, we're gonna bring in DeVante, We're going to keep the kid.
We think we got a year to two to win a super Bowl with Matt, Like, let's just keep the continuity to two out was a continuity signing.
That's all he was.
And I think and so it's funny when when people say, why do you like the Rams so much the last two years? Gm ops owner, quarterback coach, Like, it's all the same people. I mean, they go through defensive coordinators, but it's the same scouts. It's the same people. So I am my staff at FS one, it's it's I would argue, in the history of this business sports talk radio on the radio site, it's the greatest staff ever assembled. It's an incredible staff. I mean I have writers, I
have guest bookers. My guys are could all have other jobs and we just have an incredible environment. Now I don't know about TV shows, you know, Steven A. Smith could have are thirty people. I don't know how any but I'm just as in terms of a radio staff and the humor and the writers and j Max, it's an incredible group of people from graphics on down audio. It's just really strong. And I've told people this before. They're like, they're like, how long do you think you're
going to do it? And I'm like, I like everybody so much, and I'm like, it's like and part of the reason I like it is because I'm quirky and they all get my bullshit and there's like like that and that's why Andy Reid is a barker, but Spags gets it, Mahomes gets it, Kelsey gets so Andy like
at the end of Philly can wear people out. And I think it's just one of those things where if continuity, Like I read a story the other day, fewer Americans are moving and I'm like, that's actually a good thing, Like mobility is for the young, Like I don't want a country where forty year old are like me and they're bouncing around. It's like it's probably not healthy for families, Like I can tell you.
That it's the stretch was really stressful for mine. I can tell you that. I'm like we're back to like we just took a nice family vacation. We're looking forward to another one this summer, but like together as a family unit, Like I'm when I get to maybe even in your spot and we can have some time apart, that would be fine, But for now it's yeah, it's stressful, that's fucking So.
I thought it was interesting today where Adam Schefter was almost annoyed with Aaron Rodgers, where he came out and said pick a team. So I said this on the air today, if you ever tell a corporation listen, I need more time all get back to you. You have to have the self awareness to know how that lands to the corporation, especially if you're in a valuable position. It's a big fu. You're literally going back thinking what
a what a prima donna. And it's where I usually tend to think really smart people have excellent self awareness. And I wonder sometimes with Aaron is he the rare smart dude doesn't read the room well? I mean he he goes on this darkness retreating Green Bay and then is shocked when they're like take a hike, like how can you be shot?
But here's the thing with Rogers, and there's a lot of it. He talks a lot, but do we believe anything he says, like, what do you mean he said he didn't have cell service? Like he's like he's like, oh, like, can you live in Malibu and like a twenty five million dollar house? You have cell service? Like it was just I think that he has a lot of narcissism to him, and he's like, I love the silence. And then he brought a film crew like what do you These things are just in conflict with each other. I
just you know what I mean. I think that he is a so I don't know that he knows exactly what he wants. And I think he loves attention, and I think that he he told Mark Schlareth and Stink
has told the story publicly. He did like a week sixteen or seventeen Jets game and he stinks that they talk for almost thirty minutes twenty something was about the running game because Stink's insane, and he's like five or ten minutes was about his future and he's like Aaron told me point Blake, like, I'm only going to keep playing if the situation is perfect. Well, now apparently it's down to the Steelers and the Giants. Imperfect imperfect. Now
at least the Steelers to me makes perfect sense. That one makes perfect sense. He loves Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin loves him. Mike Tomlin. Apparently it's impossible for this guy to have a losing season. Mason Rudolph, Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Duck Hodges. It doesn't matter. It's for this guy to have a losing season. So obviously you're hyper relevant. The fans care. You'll look good in the iconic jersey. You'll get to play against Joe Burrow, You'll play against Lamar Jackson.
The AFC North plays the NFC North this year, so the Steelers host the Packers, they go to Chicago. Aaron will eat that shit up like that. To me, that makes sense. He can have an expectation of playing in a playoff game and maybe winning a playoff game that Tomlin hasn't done since twenty sixteen. They're not going to win a super Bowl, but that makes sense. If he comes back and he plays for the Giants. It's just pure vanity. It's just pure I want.
To Okay, So I'm gonna argue because this was a discussion today on the show, and I said, because I've moved so many times that I get a yellow patout person cons and I said, I'm going to be Aaron Rodgers.
I don't have to move.
I get an offensive coach, I get neighbors and a really good left tackle, and I'm gonna have more juice in the building because the coach and the GM are getting fired or they had lost Nausee Harris in their left tackle. They're completely toned af to offense. I'm old and don't want to get hit, and they haven't had a good line for seven years. I'll have really no power in the building, and I'm gonna have two guys that are both gonna demand the ball and neither one
runs a complete route tree. I can make an argument selfishly, like every time I've ever thought about moving. My take is, who is my Spengali in the building? Will somebody get me? Brian Dables work with Daniel Jones, He's worked with Josh Allen. Brian Dables been around forever. Man Jeanie calls him one of his best assistants he's ever known. Like, you go into a building with a guy you can literally be
on the same wavelength. I mean, Arthur Smith does not appear to be likable and Mike Tomlin does not appear to care about offense, and you got two receivers who want to be ones. I look at Pittsburgh and think this is a powder.
Kick to two things. One I could be wrong. I obviously don't know the man. I don't think he cares about moving.
He'll like, come on, he travels to Tahiti in Thailand, and he lived for fifteen years in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and you know he'll be fine for eight months in Pittsburgh. I have a hard time believing that that is going to be a.
Determining factor for him. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just I think he'll be fine. He's a very well traveled individual. He'll have as much power in the offensive side as he wants. Who knows, maybe he'll fire Arthur Smith and they'll hire Nathaniel Hackett Like he's an He is the offensive coordinator in and of himself. I think he loves Tomlin. I think that they've flirted with each other. They wink at each other on the sideline. He shouts him out when he does the McAfee interviews. I think he's got
a respect for him. Conspiracy theory. McAfee today retweeted a video of Rogers talking about Tomlin from like twenty twenty one. I think it's happening. I think it's happening. I think he's going to announce it on that show. McAfee is a Pittsburgh guy or a Pennsylvania guy, whatever he is. He's doing some show in Pittsburgh coming out soon. He's
going it big night act. I don't fully understand the McAfee universe, but like I think Rogers, who's apparently making seven figures from the guy, which is amazing, good gig if you can get it. I think he's announcing that he's going to Pittsburgh with McAfee at his show in Pittsburgh, and he's a Steeler. That's what I think's happened, all right, And you're probably right.
I'm just telling you the stuff that matters to me, which is, don't have to worry about moving left offensive coach, great weapon, and I'm going to have power in the building. I'll get a stay in the building. Where do you think he wins more football games.
Pittsburgh? Yeah, so I guess. Okay, And this the other thing I wanted to say to you, And this is like a like developing more as my media career continues to just get older or whatever. I root for interesting powder keg great, awesome. It is so much more interesting if Aaron Rodgers is in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin that you know what point, Like I've said it, I had our guys work up a photoshop of him in a Steelers uniform the day the season ended. Like to me,
it's made. Obviously, if Minnesota wants him, that's a better situation obviously. So I see him holding I can see him holding out for that. I think they're going to go. JJ McCarthy will see but and the Steelers would be on national TV six times. They would be hyper relevant
and hyper interesting, good or bad, good or bad. So I am if he's gonna play and we're gonna talk about him and he's gonna suck all the oxygen out of a room, I would much rather him do it on a ten or eleven win team than a five or six win team. So I'm personally am rooting for Pittsburgh.
And now for our next segment, Whiskey Business brought to you by Green River Whiskey, the official whiskey of the Colin Cowhard Podcast. If you want to enjoy life simple pleasures, reach for Green River Whiskey. Whether it's Rye Whiskey, single barrel bourbon. You're getting over a century a craftsmanship packed into every bottle. Hop on over to Green Riverwhisky dot com and discover a legend in a bottle today.
Yeah, it's it's interesting, you and I both. That's you know. I like fresh produce. I'm a chef. Just give me the best ingredients. That's all I care about.
Jmack last year before the season said Chicago's the most interesting team, and they were early until they were just, you know, obviously bad, and then by week like ten, you're like, Okay, they're not interesting. Let's think about this the three most interesting teams next year. So I think this year the Bears are really interesting because if Caleb struggles again, he may not be the guy.
In fact, he's probably not so rookie quarterbacks.
I never think the team is too interesting because it's going to be ugly and you can't make any stern judgments, like, obviously Jane Daniels is terrific, he's Lamar Jackson, NFC.
It's over. We don't have to argue about that.
So I think Chicago is my most interesting team.
Well, then let's get those weekly hits on the TV show going Buddy, let's go Chicago. Let me think about Let me think about this for a second. I mean, I think Washington's pretty high on the list.
I I will say this, I think Kansas City pulling back for a year because the offensive line is absolutely in flux. Their left tackle has never been a starting left tackle. It's like boys, That's honestly, like having a Bentley and finding the cheapest insurance on the.
Market for it.
It's like, now, just just call progressive or something. Okay, let's not go discount insurance. So I think Kansas City. I predicted the Niners in Dallas would pull back last this year.
They did.
I'm gonna say Kansas City is gonna pull back for a year. Their offensive line is in flux. I mean, if this kid from San Francisco to left tackle doesn't move. Also, Joe Tooney may have been the most had more dexterity than any offensive lineman in the.
League last year.
He's gone. So Chicago Kansas City are fascinating. How about this Green Bay. I loved Jordan Love last year. Gave me pause. What if Jordan Love struggles this year? Like, what if it's about Chicago's better Detroit's really good. As long as Kevin O'Connell's coaching Minnesota, they're viable. I like, I really like Jordan Love. And then there were times I watched them last year and I'm like, oh, I don't know if the coaching staff right now trust Jordan Love.
Like I'm not sure they do. So I'm gonna go Chicago, Kansas City, Green Bay, and and and we'll do four, I'm going to say, And I don't know how interesting they'll be. I think New England Vrabel Drake may A basically at thirty percent new roster. I do think you'll get Travis Hunter. I think that's going to be a pretty damn interesting team. Those are my four Bears, Chiefs, Packers, Patriots.
Yeah, so let's revisit this after the draft, because I'm not at all convinced that the guy that the Chiefs paid is for sure the left tackle. I think it's for sure the left tackle now, But I could see them this is the last year of Kelsey. He's made it clear. We don't know how much more Chris Jones has in him. Obviously, Mahomes is going to be there, and Reed will be there, and they're going to be good for a long time. But I could see the Chiefs trading up in the first round for a tackle.
I could see that happening, or end or a tight end. Yes, I just think I could see a big draft day move for the Chiefs to try to inject a blue chip offensive player. So you know where should door Sanders gos? How far he falls? Is Dion Sanders like coach in waiting like like that? Does your door Sanders fall to twenty one and he goes to Pittsburgh and he goes to Mike Tomlin and he sits behind Aaron Rodgers then
they're really damn interesting. Or does he go to the Giants and it feels like a mortal lock that Brian Davile gets fired and they hired Dion Sanders. Pretty damn interesting either way. So I think that we're going to change a little bit of this out of the draft. I loved what urban Meyer said on your show. By the way side, note parenthetical on Travis Hunter. If you believe cam Ward is a superstar, then cam Ward's the
number one pick in the draft. If you have any doubt, then clearly Travis Hunter's the number one pick in the draft. In my opinion because it's just a value proposition. Like if you think he can be a Pro Bowl corner, well that's twenty five million a year. And it he can also be a slot receiver, well that's fifteen million a year, even if he's a slot receiver for twelve snaps a game. So I love it, and so I think wherever Travis Hunter goes, his team immediately becomes interesting.
But we's remove the draft from it to get back to your point. Obviously, I'm with you on the Bears. I think the Chiefs in an all in situation is a great pick. The thing that I don't agree with on the New England point is is that all the guys, the guys that they added are new but not terribly interesting. And while I love Drake May, I think he looks like Justin Herbert. To me, I was disappointed that they didn't figure out a way to get him a number one.
He has nobody to throw the ball to. And yeah, even if the line is better and Morgan Moses upgrades their left tackle situation, no doubt, Rabel, they spent all that money on like Colin Davis and Splaine and Milton Williams, And I'm like, man, help your quarterback with a rocket arm, please, Like now I know God who went back to Tampa. They can't help that. I know the Bengals franchise tagged T Higgins can't help that. You couldn't beat the fifty
eighth pick for DK Metcalf like Cooper Cuff. Better be a patriot, like do something to help out Drake May in terms of pass catchers because he has nothing in that regard. So to me, they need some weapon to totally get there, and Green Bay is just not new enough, like everyone's back Watson Dobbs wis read. They're so young, you know, they're so young that there's just not a
lot of turnover there to make them all that interesting. Though, I'm definitely rooting against Jordan Love and the Packers in general, just like the Chicago in in me kind of think who you let doubt? So, I think Washington. The reason I said Washington while you were thinking about it is I think Jaden Daniel said the best rookie quarterback season of my lifetime. Yes, I think it was better than Herbert who set the touchdown.
Record, better than Andrew Luck three Cam Newton, especially if you look at his third down and fourth quarter numbers. It's in their Joe Montana his eleventh year in the league, they let They led.
The league in fourth down conversions, fourth down with a rookie quarterback, they led the league. It was it was remarkable, and then he won playoff. He went to the NFC Championship game. But the guys who've had amazing rookie seasons recently, justin Herbert, it's been up and down.
C J.
Stroud this past year he won another playoff game. I don't think it was all his fault. He was staring at the sky so much as offensive line as the disaster. Diggs got hurt, Dell got hurt, Nico Collins got hurt at various points. But c J. Stroud did not take another step from his rookie year. Well we could say plateaued. If Jaden Daniels takes another step like the year two in the system, year two in the league jump, well,
then he's gonna win MVP. He's that he will win m VP like Mahomes won m VP his second year in the league, like Lamar Jackson won MVP his third year in the league. Second year in a system, like he will he will be the MVP of the league.
Well, also, if he's great, not dinner up. But if he's great again, then we have found our top five quarter corrects. Mahomes Allen Lamar, Burrow, Jaden because we all like Jalen Hurts.
But we're like, well, the line that I think it's ridiculous, I think it's ridiculous. Still, I Eagle Stans got Eagle Stans kind of bothered me with this.
But I don't remember a time most of my life there have been three great quarterbacks maybe four in the league, and then it kind of peters out and to have five first ballot level Hall of Fame talent. If Jayden comes out and even duplicates last year with much better players around him, then we've got five first ballot guy. And by the way, now I'm moving because of his mobility,
I'm moving Stafford to six. And he I believe he especially if he could get in that Super Bowl circle again winner lose, You're gonna have a hard time keeping him.
All I think Stafford, now that he has a ring, is pretty I will be shocked if he's not a Hall of Famer with.
Where I mean, just think about this, He's not far from his prime. Okay for him to be the sixth best quarterback in the league, mostly because he doesn't move and the other guy's move. The NFL, like I've said this, we're in the golden age of quarterbacking, folks. If he's six, if Herbert and her seventh, we don't forget about her at all time. Hi, by the way, do you have a line to Harbaugh?
Can you like, yeah, can you tell him to throw a little bit more? Please? Dude? Yeah, that's fair, that's fair. But you use the Bentley analogy. I know that the winning went up, and I know the passer rating was very good, and I know he loves to run the ball. Can you just from the Football Appreciation Society, don't my guy, well, my guy justin Herbert not be twenty sixth in the NFL and attempts again or whatever he was. Please?
Well, they lost Palmer, so now they have lad mcconky. They need to tie it end in the first round and a receiver in the third. Like it's one of those things where and I've said this about Jim Harbaugh, it's kind of fascinating. San Francisco Yead Michael Crabtree. It was an online d line physicality. John Harbaugh is the same way. What's the one thing the Ravens haven't had wide receiver talent. They've always been a little shy, the Harbaughs,
it's their nature. He could have taken Michael Thomas, who he loved. It took Joe Old. It's who they are. Their DNA is we want to intimidate you, We want to physically like like listen, they let go of Mike Williams and Keenan Allen. They kept mosting Khalil Mack. That was very clear their DNA.
I know, I just as a guy who loves Justin Herbert, I want to see the guy throw a little bit more. What were we just talking about. I'm sorry, I feel like I lost my train of thought on Oh, but so Jamee's but Washington. What Houston did off of c. J. Stroud's rookie year was correct. Oh my god. We have a quarterback. He turned our franchise around. We won a playoff game. We have a ton of cap space and a stud quarterback who we know we have to pay on a cheap deal. Let's go all in and Stefan
Diggs was crazy expensive. Daniel Hunter was crazy expensive Hey Mixon, like Mixon didn't really work. He was fine. It wasn't really his fault. The offensive line was a disaster. Diggs was working then got hurt. Daniel Hunter was fantastic. Washington is in the exact same spot, and we've now seen what they've done. Like they debo, we're going to give Kingsbury and Terry McLaurin and Jade and Daniels, We're going to give them a toy and see how it works.
We are going to trade a ton of capital for one of the best pass blocking left tackles of his generation to protect our investment. And then they paid kin Law I think too much money, but they didn't want to get too much weaker on the defensive line when they lost Allen and they brought in Kinlaw. So maybe they'll do one more trade or for a move or whatever. But they're going to maintain Catholics. But but we've seen their moves detackle, left tackle, Deebo Samuel, plus what they had
in the draft, they're better. And Philly got worse. Now, Philly got worse by design and we know it and they should because they didn't want to pay Williams one hundred million dollars so they could pay Jalen Carter one hundred and fifty million dollars next year. Philly's top ten players are still all excellent. They deserve to be the favorite. But I think that what Jaden Daniels did, and like year two, does it plateau, does it go down? Does it go up? Because he's got way more talent and
he should be only more comfortable in the NFL. So of the to me, they are very high on my list of interesting, the division, the teams they play, sleeping vans, the ownership change, like Washington's very high on my list of interesting.
Yeah, Jade and Daniels the quarterback reminds me of Sean McVay the coach. Like you're like a month in and you're like, yeah, he's way ahead of where he should be. Like McVeigh was going up against good coaches and you're like, how are they so bad last year? And how are they like going when he had golf go toe to toe with Mahomes at the Coliseum, remember because there was going to be a game in Mexico, and you're like, okay, we're looking at maybe the greatest young coach by far
in league history. Maybe John Madden, Sean McVay. You know, people have said, you guys are getting high on him. It's like, no, no, Like like I can remember Jordan's rookie year and it's like, oh, that's I haven't seen that, Like the hand size, his just his ability to just play hard every second on the floor, which urban Meyer says that about Travis Hunter. It's like sixty fifth snap, he's literally racing down the field blocking people, like he
has a motor that never stops. I think Jayden Daniels is one of those, Oh yeah, this is this is Lamar Jackson. I watched Lamar his first year. He started week eleven. They got to the playoffs, and I went and watched him in person. I think it was against the Chargers.
No, I didn't know how to defend him.
It's like, you know, everybody was like on eggshales, like don't commit.
It was the non committal defense like he was. He was terrifying people. The rookie quarterbacks who have won at a very high level. You know, Dak Prescott had that awesome winning rookie season where he didn't really throw any interceptions, Russell Wilson, big Ben, every rookie quarterback who's won big in my lifetime. They weren't the reason, none of them like they weren't, except but chance's my point. That's fine and luck, but one big like they in the NFC
Championship game. They won nine one score games this year. He was like fourth quarter comebacks, third down, fourth down passing, running playoff wins. Now like listen, the counter argument is nine to one score playoff game, not nine to one score wins. And they beat Tampa by three in the wildcard round. They lose that game, we are at least having a little bit more doubt about about Jaden Daniels. But I just I'm I'm not going to invoke Michael Jordan.
But I also was two when Michael Jordan was a rookie, So I'm not completely dismissing what you're saying, but I just I'm with you. I'm pretty positive he's great and his team should be much better in terms of around him, when again.
Well, they won't be in as many one score games. So the truth is, you go, oh, they were nine and one in one score games. They will not be in ten one score games, and so.
To me, that's that's They're just again the whole premise was like most interesting. I'm with you on Bears, I'm with you on the Chiefs, I'm less so Patriots, and and I know we're just doing this off the top of our head, but Washington is very, very high on the list. Trying to think of the AFC team that you left out, I mean, listen, I think I do think Harvall Herbert is incredibly compelling. I think they're gonna win their division. You think they're gonna beat the Chiefs.
Yeah, I think the Chiefs. Listen, I I think, I mean yeah, I think, I think.
Yeah. But you know, there were static in his ear. He didn't really have it.
But I do think to win like they did last year, they went from the worst defense to like the third best. It's like, okay, that was all coaching. It was the exact same players, and you know that they not every defensive player knew that system. Wrote like some of these young guys are like, hey man, we are learning on the fly here. So I just think they also will draft as well as anybody in this sport for the next two years because of Harbaugh's connection to college football.
So I think they're gonna go get four to five I mean last year they went in the fifth round and got two corners, Like both can play. It's like, okay, they're gonna draft different than everybody else. It's the Pete Carroll out of USC. The first four years they hit on everybody, Like third, fourth, fifth, sixth, they were hitting on everybody. It's one of those built in advantages and I think it will pay dividends again this year.
Are you a believer in Pete Carroll? This time around?
There are ceilings with Pete. His fascination with Gino Smith is his ceiling. He doesn't care enough about quarterbacks as I don't think. I think the difference between offensive coaches and defensive coaches in this league is the urgency at quarterback. I mean Andy Reid's moving off a pro bowler, Yeah, Sean McVay is moving off Jared Goff. Defensive coaches, you get me Gino Hey, I can win a lot of games with Gino, and I think I mean, I mean Aaron Glenn, Hey, I can win a lot of games
with Justin Field. I think defensive coaches think differently. It's in their DNA, and I think Pete looks at Gino as hey man, he'll he'll complete a bunch of passes, stay out of trouble. And I just so I think Pete that's the ceiling for Pete, that that would infuriate me. Mike Tomlins got a lot of this. He just I mean, right now Steters don't have a quarterback Ron Revere. In Washington, I got Sam Howe.
I think Gino's underrated because he was under pressure more than basically any quarterback in football the last three years and still completed sixty eight percent of his passes and won a bunch of games and threw for a bunch of yards. So I think Geno's underrated. But he's obviously not great, and he's older. And I'm with you in your overall premise. There's obviously a million differences between someone like me and these athletes and coaches. Obviously that doesn't
need be said, but I'll say it anyway. But one of the biggest differences beyond the athleticism is I would be like, I'm gonna go coach against Andy Reid, Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh and Bo Nicks, Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes, like the right the path to winning seems borderline impossible. Like borderline impossible. These guys clearly don't think that way. They clearly have such ego belief confidence. Wherever that line blurs between delusion and confidence, all of these
guys seem to have it. They are the one percent of the one percent. But like when people like Aaron Rodgers should go quarterback the Raiders, I was like, I think he's smarter than that. I don't think he wants to go to a team with a ceiling that is seven wins, Like what is the best? And I'm rambling. But when Max Crosby was like, I want to be a Raider for life, a small part of me I think less of you. Like it's cool, it's cool, it's admirable. Your name will be in the Ring of Honor. But
I'm bummed. I want to see Max Crosby in his prime on a great team. Miles Garrett, it was just about the money. You could have gotten the money without saying you didn't want to go from Cleveland to Canton. They were gonna pay you. You said you wanted to win,
and then you're back in football. I want to see these guys be straight mercenaries and see the best players in their prime play on the best teams, and I know that these guys don't run from challenges, but I was like Pete Carroll at his age thinks he can turn the Raiders into a winner in that division with no quarterback, Like, I think you're crazy. I think he's crazy. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, there's no way he wins big in that spot.
Right, He'll argue, we got to play these guys anyway. If we're any good in the AFC, you're gonna might as well face them two times, have them have our kind of you know, I think. I mean, Chip Kelly told me he looked at the Raiders Chiefs games every play and he told me we can match up with him. He goes, if we get a good quarterback, we can match up with him. He goes, We had them beat twice, So I think, and I do think Kansas City last year was beeatable.
So I know. Listen, the league is designed for parody, and a big favorite in the NFL is ten points, so of course there's there is there is some truth to it. But you got a cleaner path in the AFC South. You know, you just like like teams most likely to host the playoff game next year, if you had to, there's one hundred grand on the table. You get to pick it up if you're right.
Buffalo, Buffalo, Baltimore, Houston, Philadelphia, let's see.
I think Ragget, but I think Baltimore and Philly like at least in those situations, it's like, well, Burrow is there, Jayden is there, like they there's those. They've real other teams like Buffalo's the number one pick. Buffalo's won the division five years in a row. They've got the MVP of the league, They've got the most talent. No other team is particularly compelling. I think Houston might be my number two pick. Rest of the AFC South sucks, and
I think Kansas City should still be there. Like I'm surprised to hear you having the Chargers catching them, But it's just I would be looking for do I have a quarterback, like if I was looking for a job, Do I have a quarterback? And do I have a path to winning? Like a reasonable path to winning? And I was so I don't think that there is really one in Vegas. Danny Parkins, that was a good hour anytime, buddy. This was fun as always. The volume