Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts - Matthew Stafford’s Future, NFL Draft Combine, Steph Curry’s Impact On Basketball, Embrace Caitlin Clark

put it on my pizzas. I love that. I talked about this before vacation, then it happened during vacation, and I was told by a source. I really trust that Matt Stafford's agent and the Rams are going to meet at the Combine this week and try to bang something out. The Rams like him, Matt likes him. They want to stay together. He understands the importance of McVeigh and Pukinakua and the organization, and the Rams like him. And it's a bad quarterback class and Aaron Rodgers is an option,

but not a preferred option. Stafford's better now so. But here's an interesting thing. A lot of Giants have pushback on this. We're not giving up the number three pick. So my take is, would you flip picks with the Rams because it's different. If this was a great quarterback draft class, I'd be very reluctant to give it the number three pick because I could trade down, right, which the Rams would do if they got the number three pick. They would trade down and get more picks. The Giants

not necessary. They're not necessarily going to trade down. They're just going to draft the quarterback. Or they would get Stafford so they wouldn't have to. But when you as a GM, I would have no problem getting Matt Stafford giving them a three year deal, maybe four. You know, I would draft a quarterback second year into it and just say, okay, I'll take the Rams pick late first you get my draft top of the first. I would have no problem doing that because they've been unwatchable for

a decade. The coach and the GM are on the hot seat in New York between Jade and Daniels and the Eagles roster. You're non competitive. You're not a competitive team going forward. But when I say that, Giant fans are you cannot trade the number three pick. There are drafts. I agree with that. This isn't You're not getting cam Ward. This is not one of those drafts.

And the general manager, what's also just speaking realities, would never get another job, right. So to me, now if I was the owner, I could not We would not be doing that. That's I think it's risky business. I

would also not be business. Look at the last two quarterbacks that were older, they got a lot of money that the Packers, who are one of the best drafting teams of like all time, We're like, yeah, we're done with Aaron Rodgers, and then Kevin O'Connell was like, yeah, I'm done with Kirk Cousins, and both those teams regretted those moves immediately. I mean the Aaron Rodgers thing, well, they had to make that move. Like I don't blame them for making that trade the Jets, but that was

a disaster. The Cousins thing was even worse because at least Rogers at one point in time was one of the greatest players ever. Cousins always had some limitations coming off the Achilles and let's face the Colin They're probably gonna cut him in the next seven ten days. Yeah, he's going to get cut. So now Stafford at this point in time is better than that version of Rogers and definitely Cousins. But I you know where I come with Stafford. You know he is going to accumulate it.

I looked he made over two hundred and twenty million dollars in Detroit. His career earnings right now are about three hundred and sixty million dollars. So when his career is over, he will be over four hundred million dollars. So even after taxes and after paying agents, he will have accumulated before he's forty years old, over two hundred million dollars in net income. I'm not even talking about what he's made off the field in la I know I see him on sleep number commercials. He is really

really rich. Right at this point in time, when you spent a decade and a half almost in an irrelevant franchise and losing constantly in the peak of your powers, wouldn't you go like, look at what Tom did? Like, wouldn't it makes sense to behy Sean. It doesn't get any better than the Rams. I know we're well run. I know I have an elite coach. I'm in a huge market. I have made Peyton Manning level money, and I have gotten my ass kicked and we drafted the

top ten. Now I'm with a franchise who I don't even know. These guys are bringing in and all of a sudden, by mid season they're as kickers, Like, why would I want what I would come out? I would have stopped this conversation. I will do whatever it takes. I'm not gonna make five million dollars, but why wouldn't he be like, I'm making twenty seven this year. Let's do a two year deal for like forty million. Guarantee every penny you go out and buy players. I want

to be here. I'm gonna go Brady, I've already people like, don't count other people's money. This guy has made so much money and he played and such a bad franchise, shouldn't he Like, I wouldn't want any part of the Giants. If you're Matt.

and I'm not begrudging them. But Stafford and these people that it gets out either through their agent or sources. Stuff gets out when people wants it want it out. Right, Like in my entire life, stories get out when people want it out. That's the reason stuff gets out. I've got secrets in my career in negotiations never gotten out because the company doesn't want them out, and I don't want them out. This time into my negotiations, nothing gets out. I don't want it out, they don't want it out.

I always tell my bosses keep it out of the press. I don't want anything in the press. But when people do, it does get out there. It's generally because the sides want a deal, they want to remate. So when I see the Matt Stafford stuff, my take is Matt wants to stay in Los Angeles. He's got a gorgeous place near the beach, and I think her moost are Manhattan Beach. It's great weather. He was in the Midwest for years. He's a Texas Georgia kid. He probably likes warm weather.

So I and this this is not an indictment on anybody that goes public, but it discounts in politics if you're trying to get legislation passed. It counts in contracts. It counts when I when I, I mean stuff is out when somebody is trying to create leverage. But they truthfully they want to stay where they're at. So I think he'll be a round.

we regret that Iuke deal. And now they're kind of burned and now they're pivoting like, oh, we got to be careful with doing that stuff. The Rams learned early on because Todd Gurley's need just one and this Stafford thing. I think they have just been they've been tough with him. You know, he's been you know, with Detroit, they always bet right over and gave him and he was always the highest paid guy. You know. The last couple of years, it's been hard. He's like, I'm only making twenty seven.

They're like, well, we'll give you a couple of million dollars more, but we're not. We're not giving you two years, one hundred million dollars. Mat that's just not happening, right, And we want you, you want us, we're winning, listen, And I know you only have a chance, Like once he leaves, he's probably not going to make when he's forty two years old, retired thirty million dollars his first shot whatever he does. So I understand you have the

opportunity to make a lot of it. But he's made so much in winning, like he could go down as a legendary player that I would be very careful about driving this hard negotiation. Now. I think he also knows, like, what what would the Rams do? You know, Sean McVay. They're not really in the business of just like, oh, we'll figure it out on the fly like that. They understand what they have, but I think they have some negotiating power because, like you said, he doesn't want to leave.

Look at his options like the Giants are, the Titans are going to try. What are we talking about?

thought about. Aaron's got a place in Malibu, and it's like, hey, if we get trapped here, we'll bring on Aeron for a couple of year deal plus Aaron. From all the indications, Aaron wanted to be a Jet and was dumped for the second time, so I think Aaron does not want to end his career like that. And again, I thought in his last ten games he had like a ninety eight passer rating. He was pretty good. So my take

is Aaron. It's not a I mean I had somebody that I really trust tell me this that Aaron Rodgers is who McVeigh would go after. I mean, he went after a guy in Baker Mayfield that came with baggage. He went after him in one second.

Stafford will sit in there. He will get peppered as he delivers a strike, and that you know, at the level in which the Rams, I mean they're the only team that went toe to toe with the Eagles, you know, so it's like they're trying to compete for the Super Bowl. That difference in standing in there throughout the course of a season, in the big games, I think there would be a drop off unless Aaron was just willing again to play like he did, and I don't think at

forty one years old he would be. I mean, that is one thing Stafford will sit in there kind of like the old school quarterbacks and still get hit. So I understand maybe his negotiating, like, hey guys, I'm taking a lot of hits here too, Like I mean, I need some money for this, for these bruises that I wake up with every Monday morning.

You're not going toe to toe with a Herbert I don't think, or a Mahomes, But I think you put him in the AFC South with Shane Steikin. I think he can go toe to toe with a CJ. Stroud on most Sundays. What do you think happens with Sam?

million dollars type contest, isn't he? And clearly with good coaching you can. I mean, his team was sixty minutes away from the number one overall Sea and he played a massive role in that. So I think you gotta be careful. Yeah, I think that game exposed a little bit. When he starts getting blitzed, he starts you know, I don't want to say seeing ghost. He's come a long way since then, but he looked dramatically different in those

two games than he did. But you'd also say he's you know, Aaron Glenn became a head coach, one of the best defensive coordinators in the league and just was blitzing them every single play. And Sean McVay and Shula are just they had that defense roleing I mean they went, they were hitting Hurts, they made him look bad in

that game, they were playing good defense. So I still would have no problem given now that, here's the thing, like, you know, these quarterbacks, the dominoes, all these teams looking are gonna have some ranking going into the combine when they talk to the agent. So it's like, are you

all in on Sam Donald? Because if you draft or if you signed Sam Donald to a multi year deal, you're probably not drafting a quarterback if you're the Giants, if you're the Titans, if you're the Raiders, But if you take Cousins or Rogers, you know, you're probably still

have no problem drafting a quarterback really high. So I think Darnold would be the one guy that would just get signed and immediately become, you know, kind of not your long term starter, but at least in the immediate next couple of year starter.

college football. I think it would go for him as well, which wouldn't shock me if he doesn't throw. Though, Chador isn't, you know, some elite prospect in terms of his qualities, Like, if you're Josh Allen, you should throw at the combine. Why you're throwing one hundred miles an hour. I remember Lamar Jackson when he got all the pushback about Pollan's common about the wide receiver. He's like, I'm not gonna run. It's like, Lamar, you're gonna run a four to two.

Everyone's head's gonna turn and you're gonna be the talk of the combine. It was a mistake not running. Now, granted it all worked out. I don't blame Chador for not throwing in this environment because it's not the best environment. If I'm cam Ward, you have a huge arm, throw, yeah, I would No one cares about completions and completions you're throwing people you don't know. Let that ball rip as all the coaches and gms are sitting there in the

boxes and in the seats right there in Indy. So I think those two guys and a huge part of the combine is the interviews. And with a quarterback, and I would throw Jackson Darton here, who I think is gonna gain some momentum as a potential first round pick. Is the person like, what are you like as guy? I mean last year you see some of these clips, it was a pretty high level class. You know, Jane Daniel's really high level guy. Obviously Caleb everyone had known him for years and he was a lot to go

number one. But Drake May, Michael Pennix, I mean, the bo Nicks, JJ McCarthy. So it was like that they're gonna crush these interviews. Coaches, this is the first the gms and the scouts have been watching these guys for years. The coaches, you know, NFL coaches don't really watch as much college football as the average fan would think. The head coach might have it on, you know, Andy Reid does, but a lot of guys are just sco tunnel vision.

They don't know that much about these players and definitely have never met him and a lot of times haven't really evaluated them. So this is kind of their first exposure. So meeting them as a human being and getting to know the guy and getting to know like their football smarts and their football IQ. It's a huge, huge moment for all the guys that you know, we're in the

mix to. I mean, all these guys are draft We're gonna get drafted, the majority of the guys going to Combine, but definitely the guys that have like the ability to get drafted in the first round. I mean there's just a lot of money on the line, you know, getting drafted.

guys now can be there in a zoom interview. There is a big difference if you're interviewing someone to be the thirteenth overall pick standing there and talking to him and meeting him, seeing him face to face than zooming him. So I do believe you should go. I saw my guy Tim Kala Kami in the Bay Area, Kyle Shanahan like McVeigh stop going. Well, it's one thing when you're going to the Super Bowl or the NFC Championship every year. He reported, Kyle's probably gonna go this year. Kind of

need to meet these guys. But my thing is like, if the top coach is there and the Sandy Reid runs the league, like, you should be there. And so I do believe there's value, not in like your change of direction in a condra okay, but like you might draft this guy in the second round. It's kind of gonna be a big deal when it's like a year in you hate the kid and it's your own fault when you didn't put in max effort to get to

know him, to get to meet him every opportunity. I mean, at this point in time, the salary CAP's almost three hundred million dollars. It's pretty big business. Yeah, you know, these are your most important assets. So I do think the value is more less about the running and catching the gauntlet drill and more just sitting with the kid

and interviewing them and being there with your coordinators. Not every coach needs to go, but to me, the head coach and the coordinators should all be present with the with the scouting staff.

a receiver. I don't know if he's a number one receiver in the NFL. Maybe on a weaker team. He's certainly good enough. But you can't be a number one receiver if you have a young quarterback who's trying to get reps confidence in timing. It's a timing position. Running Back isn't Cornerback isn't you can I mean high school to college, college to the pros running back in cornerback, you can walk in and just play. You could just I mean those are two positions. I've been told this forever.

You would know this is a scout running back in cornerback. You could miss some of camp, you could be a you could have a contract hold out. You're ready to play week one or week two.

I mean he's very young. I think it's impossible to go do what he did. What he did in college was the Big twelve, wasn't the SEC or the Big ten, but it was still one of the greatest athletic achievements we've ever seen. The amount of snaps he's playing, do you agree, Oh yeah, But if you're going to be a both way corner wide receiver just playing corner alone, think of the wide receivers right now in the NFL, the talent on a weekly basis of just pick up

a random team who their schedule is. On a week you're chasing those guys for sixty seventy snaps. He would be the number one corner and then you would try to play full time wide receiver. I think it would be borderline impossible. On the body. I don't think it's And you go back to look at Deon Sanders, I don't even think he had that many catches in his career. And this is and Dion, I mean, was just a better prospect. Yes, I mean, try sound is a great prospect.

Give me a break. Deon's one of the greatest athletes in the history of America. So I do think he just needs to focus on one of the positions, and I hope and I think he's making the right decision right now at corner, and then he can be at just a high level corner. I don't think it's possible to go both ways. I don't think any team wants him to be. That doesn't mean you can't, you know, Ben Johnson type coordinator can't run a trick for him, bring him in on offense. They used to do that

with Dion when I was a kid. But like, I want you to be a lockdown corner, Derek Stingley, He's probably gonna get a hundred million dollars offseason. Why because he goes up against your number one wide receiver who are all making one hundred and eighty million dollars and locks him down. Derevas did it, Sherman did it? You get paid a lot of money, and he's it's more valuable because find it's much easier to find a wide receiver than it is a corner. There just aren't that many.

Most teams don't have one good corner, right The teams that have two are like complete outliers in the nation. Yets. Yeah, So I hope he stays just at one now we'll see I think, you know, Dion, who's essentially like feels like his father, constantly talks like he's going to do both ways, like, so he's not slowing it down. And I do think Dion speaks for Travis a little bit,

and Travis hasn't walked away from it. So I do think it's going to be interesting to see in Indy when he talks exactly what he says, because if he does say like, I plan on doing both like he's telling you like, eventually you got to just listen to what he's saying and believe him.

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Three of them are NBA franchises and one was the Warriors. Now, if I would have told you twenty years ago it's going to go Cowboys and Golden State Warriors, you anybody would have thought, what the hell happened? They were a mess for twenty years. I mean I grew up with them with Rick Berry in the seventies. You know, they had some interesting teams Tim Hardaway, but it was just kind of a dead brand, which the Yankees were, by the way, in the eighties, the Don Mattingly years, it

was a dead brand. You can look back and there's a lot of people that can take credit. But I've thought about this. The Lakers were very big pre Lebron and the Cowboys were big before Dak and most of these organizations that are listed. The Celtics have been big since Bill Russell. Yeah, but you look at the Warriors and as somebody that covered them, can you make an argument if there are eight billion dollar franchise, that's seven and a half of that have been driven by Steph Curry.

Half the time, those two beat writers are talking to each other and they're saying, Hey, if you don't show up to practice, I won't show up to practice. And then we both get the day off like that was happening back then, and nobody would show up to practice and get any kind of story. It's been driven by Steph. It's been driven by more than Steph. I'm a little bit defensive on behalf of your guy, Draymond Green's legacy. I know he can annoy people, but I think because

he annoys people, they start rewriting history. I see people say, oh my god, drayam am was drafted into the perfect situation. Nobody has been drafted into a more perfect situation. And I go when he showed up, there was no situation. There was no situation to speak of. Nobody cared about

this team, nobody cared about this franchise. Nobody expected anything good on twenty twelve draft night, and that guy was a second round pick, no guaranteed spot, and he had to scrape claw wrench jobs away from guys getting paid a lot more money, with a lot more organizational investment. He became the best defensive player of his generation, which then merged with Steph Curry being the best offensive player of his generation, and a lot of other things have

gone right in between some other things going wrong. But it's a crazy, just miracle of a story. And yeah, I think you're right to hit on it that we almost take it for granted. We almost act as though this has always been a glamour franchise. They've always been here. It was not that way they were Clippers North.

I mean, Philadelphia has a tush push. People are a little uncomfortable with it outside of Philadelphia. It's not changing football. It's just a really good fourth down play. Steph curR has changed every single level of basketball. Everything he's changed. I mean, I just I look at the shots being taken now, and like anything else, any cultural change is that at some point they all go south. Like analytics for baseball, You're like, yeah, the game is more efficient.

Oh wait, now it's more boring. Oh wait, three pointers the math are better than two pointers. Oh wait, now it's boring. That's the way analytics all work is that these are TV products, and initially they make the game more efficient, and they work on a volume scale regular season, but ultimately analytics don't generally work in any sport quite as effectively in postseasons, and they generally aren't good for television.

And so Steph, now there's a little bit of a Okay, we all fell in love with small ball and Steph, but now it's been copied so often and people are doing at such a a much more a poor level. They don't I mean, Houston can't shoot, and they're I mean, we got Wemby and guy is shooting too many threes. Joel Embiid's never shot more threes. He shoots twenty nine percent. So but I do think Steph more than any athlete of my lifetime literally changed Muhammad Ali personality driven athlete.

I think I think he was for a long time all Lee was what people looked at and went, oh my god, look how big you get if you let your personality out. But I mean, that's just my take that Steph Curry is probably one of one in a cultural it's changing of sports esthetic and style of play.

actually become a championship winning coach. The crazy thing about Steph is that he's been doing it for over ten years and he has revolutionized the NBA and he's still the best at doing it. He showed people the way it could be done. He gave them the recipe and he's still the best chef cooking it. I didn't mean to make a chef curry joke right there, but you see what I'm saying. That's unbelievable to do that, to be so influential and yet remain the best at what

you're doing. Now, the other part of it that you've said, the malign influence on the sport with analytics, the optimization problem, I think that's real. There are these strange things where sometimes we like something when one person does it, but we don't like when a bunch of other people are doing it. I felt that way about Zachlow's writing. Zach

Low probably the greatest NBA writer of all time. He had a very particular sort of style that was highly informational and could be a little bit quirky but was fairly dry. But the way he did it was great. But so many younger writers coming up and bloggers coming up, they wanted to be like Zach Low because Zach was the man. And I looked at what they were doing and I went, I don't know if I like you

doing this. It doesn't work when you do it. This isn't a recipe that works when somebody else does it. It would have been better if you went with something else. And maybe even a generation before that, Bill Simmons might have been that guy. Or I loved Bill Simmons columns. But then I'm watching people try to be irreverent and funny in the way Bill did it, and it's just this doesn't scale. This isn't what I want, This isn't what I want. I just want Bill doing it. That's

what it feels a little bit like right now. In the NBA, where a lot of people loved watching those Warriors in twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, not everybody loved watching these teams that emulated the three point shooting. As optimization takes over and now most of the shots are going to be three pointers.

league and it's fascinating. And Angel Reese, I think her success helps Caitlin Clark. I think it feels Bird Magic, although I don't think Angel is close to Kaylin as an influencer. Bird and Magic both had that kind of ended up the perfect cities. Bird in kind of tough guy Boston and Magic and you know, showy Los Angeles. But it was funny because with male sports, I feel sometimes I feel bad for Caitlin Clark in the WNBA that people are trying to explain her popularity. Nobody ever

had to explain Steph Curry. It was just did he just shoot from thirty four feet off balance and make three in a row? And there's part of me that feels sympathetic to the WNBA and part of me that doesn't. First of all, I feel like when you're young, when Bryce Harper came into baseball, he went through an Andy duframe tunnel for about three years because he was flashy, right,

and baseball doesn't like flashy. So Caitlin's not the first athlete the deal with this, Tiger Woods had to deal with a lot of comments and a lot of traditionalists pushing back, and the netw only shows type, so Caitlin's not the first to go through it. But I do think the WNBA has gotten to a point where I want to say, girls, girls, she's the female staff. Just embrace the hell out of her. You're getting on private jets. So I tried to be I tried to defend the

WNBA initially, But how does that land for you? Because I think they've gotten to a point where I'm finding it hard now, Like if she if the chippy play continues, you may just lose me as a viewer.

of being Caitlin Clark. She's the one who's resonating. And we can either benefit from what it is, or we can tear apart everybody who's into it and make everybody feel bad about it and try to stop it from happening. That ladder move seems completely insane to me, and yet it's entirely infected.

work for me. So the truth is basketball's history. The WNBA should take a deep breath and realize basketball's history is best score. Alex English led the eighties in scoring in the NBA. Alex English. There have been so many players. Kiki Vandaway, I don't remember a basket. He just never missed. But there are players that are just aunt is dynamic and fascinating. Kobe was fascinating, but a lot of the bigs like and that's something we just have to be

honest about. Russell Westbrook's game. I've said this before. In his prime, I had a pay to watch him play. He couldn't shoot. I didn't love his handles, but sweet mother of vertical jump, the guy was like it was popcorn in a hot skillet. He was flying through the air. So the NBA is so caught up on Well, she's the leading scorer. People like different and no other woman shot thirty three footers. It's that simple.

what makes basketball sort of fascinating to me. That's why I wrote the Steph Curry article in twenty sixteen. There's this ineffable charisma of stardom, of superstardom that you just know it when you see it, and we're not always sure about all the elements you need for it to happen and for you to really pop in the way that Michael Jordan did in the way that Alan Iverson did, in a totally different way, in the way that Steph

Curry did. And the people who do it are worth billions of dollars to the league and to these sneaker companies. And then there are players who are effectively at the same tier or level that just can't and just don't and there's just something human about it, and it just is what it is, and you're just going to make yourself miserable trying to figure out how it ought to be and change reality.

It's one of my favorite You guys get into the into the weeds on stuff, which I'm completely fascinated by, and you do all this amazing homework and I just want you to know I don't know the download numbers, but all that all that wonky media stuff for a guy that's been in that probably too long, I find fascinating.