Colin Cowherd Podcast - Nick Wright Pt. 2, NFL’s HUGE TV Ratings, Is Tatum A Top-10 Player? Mahomes A Top-2 QB All Time, Chiefs BETTER Without Tyreek?

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into Part two of the podcast with Nick Right. You know, I was thinking about this. I saw the ratings for both the AFC and the NFC Championship, like fifty six million people watch. But and I was saying this every yeah TV. Did I tell you my theory on this?

About everybody said Cable's dead? But so if TikTok lost forty percent of their audience, but it was only a platform for recipes, food videos, restaurant reviews, it would be an incredibly powerful but not weapon platform for the culinary industry. So we always shared television with soap operas, sitcoms, dramas. We no longer share it. It is singularly ours. Cable TV is all sports and occasionally politics.

and percentages. But uh yeah, so I think listen, I think it was contracting, contracting, contracting, and then A the contraction slowed a bit, you know, and b the people who stayed are our people ever people to want news, information, sports, or they're just really old, you know what I mean?

Like though, and those people we probably weren't getting anyway, So I totally agree, Like, if you were, it's and the people who wanted sitcoms and dramas and miniseries, they those people might have transferred, you know what I mean. Those people might have said, I'm gonna just just do Netflix and Prime and whatever. But the people that were into sports still are getting cable, you know what, like and so the and they know how to get us. So that is I've been a maze at the NFL.

The numbers this year used the conference championship games did fifty six and fifty seven or whatever it was. There's a visional round. Chiefs Bills, two of the smaller markets, some of Buffalo's audiences in Canada that doesn't count, did fifty million people. Nick I said this today on the air.

been greater. But it is a harder ask for busy Americans to say, hey, do you follow the European leagues? You don't know these players they usually go to bad teams. They don't make a playoff impact until year three, four five. People are busy. College football makes it so easy to follow the NFL. I watch Marvin Harrison with a Buckeyes crush, and then all of a sudden, he shows up on the Arizona Cardinals.

an NBA game on Celtic same time. Yeah, a real NBA game, which a is a testament to the women's college game right now is elite and with stars, the quality of play is super high because nobody's turning pro early obvious league is you can get your more money as a star college female player than you can't. I shouldn't say more. You make maybe equivalent money is in

the WNBA. So you have cohesion, you have Stars, you have all this stuff, but I can you know how much I love the NBA, right, I am disappointed right now in the league and a little worried about the league. Yeah, same, same, So I'm disappointed in that Saturday should have been an amazing day in the NBA. I had it written. I was like, oh, I want to watch that. Yeah, yo,

Kitchen Bid and Embiid can't play. And then the nightcap Steph Lebron, these two guys who are combined seventy five years old, but on the show, Okay, we'll keep doing what we've been doing for the last years, which is carry this goddamn league on our two backs. These two guys. Yeah, and love and respect to them. It's unbelievable. You know, I've told you. I think Steph does not get enough credit for being as great as he is at thirty five because Lebron is doing what he's doing at thirty nine.

So people think thirty five is not that old when thirty five is Jordan's last year with the Bulls, it's thirty five.

Let's say you told FS one I'm gone in two years. You told them I'm gone, and they looked at the numbers and they said, Okay, Colin shows the strongest show. He's our biggest brandy, all of it. And they put all of the marketing behind you because they're like, well, it's it's it gets the best numbers, it's this. Then the moment you leave, there's there's not. They haven't built

anything up. The NBA, in my opinion, should say, okay, Lakers Warriors will do the best number, but we can get eighty percent of the audience if we feature Anthony Edwards, and we need to start getting the public ready for when Lebron and Steph aren't there. And instead the NBA just keeps writing these guys and they got away with it because they did it with Jordan. And they only got away with it because Shaq and Kobe, you know what I mean, came together and we're there. There's no

Shaq in Kobe right now. You're gonna have to create Anthony Edwards Tatum this net. You're gonna have to make them stars and to still put all your eggs in the Lebron Steph Durant basket. From a ratings perspective, will don't be disappointed. Then when Lebron and Steph's teams one misses the playoffs and one is out in round one and all of America is like, you want me to give a shit about Jokic against the Timberwolves. I don't like. They haven't primed the audience for that, and I think

it's a mistake. I think it is a short term thinking mistake by Adams.

about business. I think you just have to put the popular people on and just it's not boxing, where if you put an old fighter on, you worry about his mental health and what are you doing to his brain? It's like Stephen Lebron are still by the way, they're both still insanely good.

book of wrestling. Wrestling creates stars, you know, Like they just say, this guy is going to be a star in our audience is gonna know it because he's gonna headline wrestle Mania, because we're gonna put him last on Raw, because we are going to make it, and for a guy we decide it's gonna be a star, for him not to end up being a star, He's gonna really have to screw this up because we are pushing pushing it. I think that you can. I don't think you can

turn nothing player on average or just fringe. Also, I don't let me put it like this. I don't think they could trick America and being like Listen and Nick, fans are gonna give enemy Jalen Brunson's the new face of the league. You can't make the seventeenth best player

to be like he's taking the torch from Lebron. I understand that, but you can pinpoint a few guys and be like, we are going to market Luca Jannis, Anthony Edwards and Jason Tatum, and we are occasionally going to take one point eight million people watching a Celtics MAVs game over two point two million people watching a Warrior Suns game because those people that we are going to be playing for the next ten years and Stephen Durant aren't.

So I just think that would be the longer term, better decision, because I don't think they have a post Lebron plan. I don't think they do.

Marsh Madwieth. So I like the college route for marketing, not the academic side, the marketing for the kids. But right now, domestic players, there's not many great ones. There's a lot of good ones. I want you to rank where Jason Tatum is. And I'm talking game seven. Pick your star, Okay, So who do you go with?

of him Jannis, no doubt. It's very interesting because Embiid throughout the in every situation except for the one you just said, Embiid, I don't know about him, you know what I mean, like in a game seven spot, but so but Embiid's I mean, he's thirty five a game put An it's next to him. Uh. No one on the Knicks, not Brunson, no one on the Calves, not Donovan put Haliburton with it. He's not there yet. He's close. Jimmy Butler. Yes, Jimmy Butler is ahead of him in these circumstances.

a maybe Oklahoma City Jokich, Yes, if he's healthy. Kawhi yes, like again, if we're assuming health.

get mad. But for Tatum needs the exact team he has, which is a great supporting cast because in every meaningful playoff series he plays the other team's gonna have the better, the better number one, like you know what I mean, against the Heat, against the Bucks, maybe not against the Sixers, just because Embiid hasn't proven it in the playoffs yet, and anyone out West that makes it to the finals

burdon me. The other team's gonna have the best. And again that's not an indictment, it's just reality of how the NBA works, which is why he needs to have the better two, three, four, five, which he very well made. That Celtics seems damn good, but it's it's gonna have to be in the model of as we've talked about the four Pistons, kind of the model of the eight Celtics, where it's the collection of all of the talent around it to overcome the superstar. Right, let's end on something fun.

So I ask you before we end real quick, just because you said lists and it got my brain going. Right now this moment is and I have to ask you mahomes question before we end. Is Mahomes in your opinion, a top two all time quarterback? Yes?

was a machine, big, strong, fast, quick. He was like Aaron Rodgers with more size, more of a power arm. I mean, he had all it was just he was. He was better than Elway at just throwing a ball in Elway was great. Marino, I've never seen anything like Elway. I think if Aaron Rodgers was, it just was bigger and more natural. And no, JC was the best high schooler, the best college guy. He just had those rumors that hurt him in the draft. But he wasn't productive like

a Brady or a Manning. So what you're seeing with Mahomes now is the most naturally gifted player, including Marino. He's the most natural to gifted.

Twenty two seasons as a start, because you take out both of their rookie years because luckily both didn't play the rooki years. Twenty two seeds as a starter, seven super Bowls, which is bananas. That's thirty thirty two percent. Ten super Bowl appearances that's forty five percent. Fourteen conference championship games that's sixty four percent Mahomes as of this moment. Two super Bowls in six years, that's thirty three percent

just out of Brady. Four super Bowl appearances in six years, that's sixty seven percent, way ahead of Brady, and six for six on conference championship games that's one hundred percent. That's way ahead. If he wins in two weeks now, he's fifty percent of his years as a starter, he's won the Super Bowl, sixty seven percent he's been there, and the other two years he lost in overtime the

round before. So the production, he is on pace to shatter everybody's the numbers, he's on pace to shatter every bucks. So this is where I so you said I like lists. So this is my quarterback lists, and it is kind of a rich tapestry of raw talent accomplishments. Iye test

all of it. Brady is one for now, Mahomes is two, Hayton Manning is three, Joe Montana four, Elway Marino is really hard five six six ' five because Elway went to five super Bowls, has more MVPs, has more rings, and I kind of feel like, but Marino was better, Like I know that sounds shitty, and then rounding it out of guys like what I would call modern era, so like Post Bradshaw, Starbuck Post that is Rogers Brett and the guy who I think is the most underrated

of all time. And Steve Young. Yes, he was the closest thing to Mahomes before Mahomes as far as creativity, athleticism crazy. So like I think if Mahomes, like I'm ready to say Mahomes was is better than Peyton Mannick, like I have him ahead, and Payton won five MVPs, and I think he can run down Tom. I don't, and I don't think Tom did something interesting because Tom

was on with you. You know, he did a couple of interviews today and in one of them he was asked about Mahomes and Tom said, you know, was talking about how great he is and all these things, and then he was like listen, man, because he was asked about someone else being the goat, and he said at the end it was so it was so slick. He was like, listen, if anyone can get to seven Super Bowls, Like I want to shake their hand because I like he's made it very clear. Oh yes, someone else can

be the goat. They better get seven fucking rings, though, because I don't want to hear nothing about someone because he knows seven's gonna be hard. But so he's like, that's the stand, just to be clear. Get to seven and we can talk. But I don't think you have to get to seven. Like the point I always make Forget Russell. Michael Jordan retired the first time, retired in nineteen ninety three, had three rings. Magic was still playing at that time, had five. Kareem had just retired, had six.

You know what they put on Michael's statue, the greatest there ever was, the greatest ever will be. They weren't counting rings. Then they were like, no, we saw him. He's better than everybody. He's the best. Nobody ever started by the way, counting rings until Michael got the most, and then people were like, oh, we got to count the rings and he's still I mean the most kind of the most. And so I Brady Brady does have

It's not like Brady doesn't have eye test stuff. Brady is, Yeah, as great of a leader, clutch all of it.

without Tyreek Hill they peeled both rings. Yeah, then all of a sudden, you're back ahead of the pace and people throw the two and oh at me all the time he was two and oh listen the Super Bowls and Super Bowl Tampa kicked Mahomes's ass. Everybody go rewatch the twenty eighteen AFC title game. That's one of the two wins, and tell me who played better that game. Like, no, you can't hold that one again.

I mean, Edelman goes down as one of the great playoff guys ever, but it was never an at least Oh, he's fantastic.

I think he's probably like that guy's an asshole. So if you can maybe vouch I'm not that bad of a guy, tell at the very least tell him that I think he does all. I love his spots with you. I love it. I think he does a great job. So here is you know, in the ten days we have of content between now and the Super Bowl, I talked to all this today. It is you putting your brain on this. I think would create days of stuff.

The last pass Mahomes ever threw to Tyreek is one of the most fascinating moments now that we can look back on it. So it's also the last time he threw an interception in the NFL playoffs. It's also the end of the only bad game of his whole playoff career. It was in overtime to Cincinnati. It was they had a dominating lead. If you remember, Patrick screwed up before the half like try to get a touchdown and threw

it short of the end zone. They didn't get a field goal, but no one cared because it was twenty one to three or something close to that. And then they lost. They lost, and Patrick fumbled through two, threw a pick. They go to overtime, and on third and ten, he throws a perfect bomb to Tyreek, hits Tyreek in the hands, but it's double covered and it's forty yard downfield.

You know, it's perfect past Tyreek doesn't quite get it, hits him in the face, mask bounce caught Cincinnati four plays later, field goal and the Chiefs lose.

I don't turn the ball over, we can't lose. And I am going to do something Tom did forever, which is managed the rest of this game to get us to the finish line. And I find it to be a fascinating like fork in the road of my numbers aren't going to be as good, it's not going to be as flashy, might not be as fun, but they haven't lost in the playoffs. Since then, he has taken five sacks and six playoff games. Three of them he had a broken ankle. Essentially, two of them were against

the number one defense in the league. When it hasn't mattered.

in the pocket waiting for the big play. You become innately less patient, more willing to sit in the pocket. Bad things happen for even Mahomes when you hold the ball a long time. So I think it's the classic. It feels good, but it doesn't necessarily make you a better quarterback. What makes a great quarterback his efficiency get rid of the ball. Multiple reads. Mix it up. Don't be predictable, you can become And I saw this with Dak and Dez Bryant. Dak was actually better when he

had a little Zekettle. You got a little left maybe it was Jason Witten, you got a little Lamari Cooper when you became very and by the way, Dez would get into the end zone. But people know Dez demands the ball, so you kind of know big play they're going to des Well, what does a defense want to know what you're doing? And so that's why this Chiefs team's interesting because we know where he's going with the ball. It's Travis Kelce, which is why the defense matters. Even

in this game Sunday. They're not dropping thirty four anymore. In these games, that's not who they are. They are more predictable in this brief window. So they weren't last year. By the way, they were less predictable in the Super Bow. This year they've been a little offensively predictable.

this first down, we are screwed. He's throwing a lateral ten yards best line scrimmage because and in the fourth quarter it's a three point game. In the fourth quarter, they're fine. Sean mcdermot's like, fake punt, gotta do something because Mahomes on the other side, the Ravens were never down more than ten, and they abandoned the run immediately because iding in part because they're like, oh my god,

we're playing Patrick Mahomes. Even though they're not scoring that they instill this fear that gets the other team out of what they normally would do because they think they're going that the Chiefs could at any point drop thorty on them, even though they haven't done it throughout the whole year. It's unbelievable, you know.

look that's the original dream Team. Oh this camera moves with me. I can't even know it. That's the original dream Team. And that's Satchel Page in the Kansony monitors running your camera China. What's going on? I don't I'll be honest, I don't know. I can't believe it moved when I moved, which means there's some artificial intelligence thing going on here, which is where I didn't sign up for. I think I was probably a mole in my house.