Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts -  Mike Silver on Brady to Niners Theory, Middlekauff on Bears/Panthers Trade, Draft QB’s, Marcus Thompson on Wiggins Absence

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dot one eight hundred gambler dot net, West Virginia. This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward podcast. So give me six or seven minutes on this um. I've spent this week overwhelmingly on one time Aaron Rodgers to the Jets, and I know at times it feels tedious, but you know, I've something I've said probably twenty five times in my thirty year career about my shows radio or TV, is that you the consumer, You the listener,

You drive the bus. So I'm able to, because I'm on cable television, to see every minute of my ratings every day. You can't do that on broadcast TV, but you can do it on cable, and I monitor it, and I monitor it for one reason. You tell me what you're bored with, you tell me what you're interested with.

I think the height of arrogance as a broadcaster is pretending I know every day what's most interesting, so I follow you and I I And this has happened to me multiple times over my career that I've loved a topic, just thought it was absolutely wonderful and fascinating, and the next day I see my numbers and you didn't give a shit, and so I move off the topic. There are things that interest me far more that interest you. And conversely, there are times I've touched on topics and

I'm really shocked by how much you care. So then it's my job to make calls, take better notes, figure out why you like it, and talk about it. So in the Aaron Rodgers situation of the Jets, it's the combination of multiple things. The most popular sport in the country the NFL, the most crucial position quarterback, one gigantic iconic brand the Green Bay Packers, and the most polarizing quarterback in the most popular sport Aaron Rodgers. So this week I can watch my downloads, I can watch my

cable ratings. They've all been really, really good. So I'm going to spend it in a couple of minutes on this. I listened to most of the comments, the clips from Aaron Rodgers on the YouTube Pat McAfee deal, and you know, that's a friendly place for him to go every week, and I have no problem with that. I used to defend our Cineo Hall all the time when people would bang on our city of the Hall and they said, well, you know people go on there. He asked puff fluffy questions.

And my takeaways, it's called the Arsenio Hall Show. He can do whatever he wants. It's his show. You know. Some people have said, well, McAfee's just it's a comfortable place for Aaron to go. And my takeaway is it's pat show. He's a punter, you're not a journalist. He can do anything he wants with it. I can do anything I want with my show. But I'm not a former professional athlete. I don't have a relationship with Aaron, so I'll defend any broadcaster. This is not The New

York Times I'm in the opinion space. I've said before I liked Aaron Rodgers more than Brett Farve. I think he's smarter. I think he's more thoughtful. He's a unique guy. Probably wouldn't be my kind of guy to hang out with, but that's okay. You know, there's a lot of great athletes. You know Tom Brady doesn't have a beer during the season. I probably wouldn't hang out with him either. I'm drinking one right now. Her draft picks, by the way, Pilsner.

But I do think the most shocking revelation to me is that Aaron Rodgers after the retreat said ninety percent going in he was going to retire, and then he came out and was surprised the packers moved off him. It's just remarkable to me that a guy that's that smart would lack any self awareness. And I'll double down on this, when you're the center of your universe and you ghost people, Aaron has a history of ghosting people

who say anything critical of him. You surround yourself with yes men, and nobody called him out on his ship. You know, my wife calls me out on mine. My kids do I got friends that do I have bosses that would. And so the packers have never had an owner, right, They don't have an owner who calls him out in his stuff. If Green Bay had an owner, Aaron Rodgers would not take eight to nine weeks to make up his mind, if Jerry Jones or Stan Cronky would call him up and say, pal make a decision or we're

moving on. So it looks like that's an advantage not having an owner, But I think it's a disadvantage. It's a disadvantage for Farv who kept threatening retirement. It's a disadvantage for Aaron who kept threatening retirement. And neither guy had anybody that would demand they give him an answer. And then Aaron's not married. You know, he didn't have anybody to call him on his crap like our wives do, right, And so I really do think I call it the

green Bay quarterback syndrome. No owner, smallest city, you basically own the franchise. And I think ownership at its best is non meddling, is highly supportive. But but will hold coaches, star players accountable. That's Robert Kraft. He said, no, we're not going to trade Tom Brady, We're moving off Jimmy Garoppolo. It was the right move. Brady still had Super bowls with New England and Tampa left in the tank, and Garoppolo's a B quarterback. Some would say SC quarterback got

to a Super Bowl maybe C plus. So I think the lack of ownership has really hurt Green Bay. The other thing is they've been overly frugal. An owner can sometimes step in and say, go get that free agent, make it work. They don't have that, so in the end, sometimes in life, things you see as an advantage can be a real disadvantage. And it may feel like for far Aaron Rodgers it's such an advantage not having that hovering, meddling,

powerful billionaire. But I think in both cases Farb and Rodgers kind of took advantage of it, had leverage, manipulated, used it, and in the end the franchise booted both. I do think Jordan Love can play. I don't think he's going to be great. If he was going to be great, if he was Mahomes or Borough, they would have already moved off Aaron not given him an extension. Didn't take very long one training camp a month in

September to figure out Mahomes was really good. Let's move off Alex Smith, who was a pro bowler and making the playoffs when they moved off him. I also don't think he's Zach Wilson or EJ. Manuel, where you know instantly it doesn't work. He's somewhere in between. My takeaway is if you look at who the Packers play next year and the quarterbacks they play on average in the NFC, they want eight games this year with Aaron, I think they're about an eight to nine win team next year

with Jordan Love barring some injury. I do think they're going to get this deal done. I think they're going to get either a first round pick or a really good player from the New York Jets. But I don't see them capsizing at all. I do, however, find it absolutely remarkable that Aaron Rodgers was surprised when he came out of the darkness retreat his words not mine, and the Green Bay Packers had decided to move on. Wow.

You could be pissed. That's different. You could be upset. Okay, you can't be surprised for the second or third year in a row talking retirement. You can't be surprised. You're not allowed to be surprised. As an adult with a functioning brain, you're not allowed to be surprised. Get off the bench. Bet the NBA with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Right now. FanDuel's given new customers ten times your first bet in bonus bets. Doesn't matter if your

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in host of Open Mike Mike Silver. He is he is a story breaking maven is what he is So. Sam Darnold has a lot of Trey Lance qualities. Coachable, big athlete, mobile, but not spectacularly fast, not a pretty thrower, not highly accurate, prone to some mistakes, but good in the room, coachable, big physical athlete for a big physical team and culture. That's what it felt like to me. It feels like Trey, Lance and Darnald are battling for the backup. Though am I too idealistic on this Brock

pretty thing? I think Kyle Shanahan loves Purty. I think he does. Yeah, he does. And it was settled. It was over. Purty was the guy. It was. They were good too. Couldn't even touch his contract for the next two years, couldn't even renegotiate till two years from now. Cheap deal, load up around him. Maybe Lance develops and you flip him, maybe he's your backup. Whatever, it was all good. And then if Brock Purtty had broken his leg in that game, nothing would have changed. A tough break, man,

we lost, Brock's the guy. He ripped out an important link of it in his throwing elbow. So yes, it changed. So what they hope, and obviously, based on their behavior so far, what they hope is that's six month timeline reasonable and if not, maybe it's seven, maybe it's even eight. But eventually the guy we get back is going to be the guy we had. He'll be able to throw it like you threw it before and we're good to go. And if that happens, then what you said is absolutely right.

But they do have to live in a reality now where it might not be that way, and sometimes they're setbacks, sometimes they're scarred tissue. Sometimes it just never comes back to what it was. I don't think that's likely. I think the likeliest thing is brock Purty will be back at some point, you know, not too late in the twenty twenty three season, looking like he did before. But

you have to hedge. So after last year's entire offseason of trays the Guy, I trace the guy tras the Guy and you and I infamously noted during that offseason that wasn't going super smoothly and accurately. Yeah, we accurately reported that he wasn't super accurate, that his arm was experiencing fatigue, and that he wasn't consistent. Um we've since been thou born to be true by including Trey Lance,

who was disgusted. But um so they have to have a plan C. I wondered if it would be Matt Ryan, if he'd want to do it, given his history with Kyle. I wondered if it would be a Dalton Brissette type of guy. They went a little younger. Interesting comparison, Darnald a lance Um. The one thing I'll give the lance

is that Darnold is not known for his intelligence. Not I'm not I'm not saying Sam Darnold's not intelligent for the record, I'm just saying he's not known as a quarterback who just you know, blows you away with hiss A whiteboard, a whiteboard where trade They saw something intelligence wise before the draft that got them super super fired up. So that gives me hope that maybe there's a jump to be made. So I think Plan A is lance is the guy. Darnold's the insurance. Maybe Lands starts a

game or two, but Party's the guy. Plan B is man. Party's not coming along great, but you know what, Lands stepped up. He's the guy. Darnold's the insurance. Plans C is Trey's not able to do it. He's gonna have to be the backup. We'll go with Sam Darnold and figure it out. Plan A minus, as you know, and

I will. I don't think it's likely, but you know, John Lynch is going to call Tom Brady in many or June and go, hey, I know you said for good, but it's your hometown team because he's the perfect guy as a hedge against Party. If you don't think Party is going to be right next year, but you think he's the guy in the future, you can just do one year of Brady and still keep that same plan.

It's interesting to me that both the Niners in Miami have constructed their twenty twenty three rosters to basically say, we can win now if our quarterback figure works out. In the Nighters case, Party's elbow comes back or lands fix a jump. In the Dolphins case too, it doesn't keep getting concussed. But hey, Tom, wake quake. We're built to win now. And if you came just for one year, WHOA. No,

you and I are leaning in the same direction. I mean, that's why the backups Darnald and Mike White are not really super viable long term pieces. They are your classic emergency starter, meaning if Purdy goes out, Brady steps in. Nobody questions whether Brady's the guy right right? Yeah, No, I totally agree. And again, so you and I can sit here and say Brady makes a lot of sense. I know they're gonna at least try. But are we

saying do we know what Tom Brady's gonna want to do? No, he said for good, So I'm assuming it's for good. I just know that if you were gonna go back on that, you've got two really attractive situations, one where your kids live and you have a place, and one where you grew up and your parents live. So Jimmy G to the raiders. You know, Jimmy G. Well, there's a lot of stories that can now be told because you don't have to cover him. So I'll throw out what I've been told by the years, by people in

the building, are around the building. He's a guy's guy. There are limitations on his arm. Despite being a pretty big, solid guy. He doesn't have much of a whip. Not terribly fluid, kind of mechanical. But he's a great locker room guy, kind of an alpha could at times not be flaky, but disappear in the off season. They felt like he relied a lot on God's genetic gift to him size, chest, confidence, wasn't a workaholic. He's as good as he should be considering his commitment. Okay, so first

of all, I love Jimmy like I do. And one reason I love him is because I did write some of that. Last August or September. I came out with a thing talking about how they have the press offence in twenty eighteen. After his five wins, they give him the money, he's the guy, and then they have the big, you know, celebration, and then he leaves and they don't hear from him again for months, and ghosting them over the off season was habitual, except for the year they

drafted Trey Lance. He was really a tent of that off season. So I wondered how that was gonna go for me. After I wrote that, next time I saw Jimmy, it was all good. And you know that's yet another I do love Jimmy. I think he's awesome. I love his temperament. I think he had the best temperament for Kyle Shanahan, who gets really tightly wound and gruppy on game day. Sometimes not on game day. I think it

rolled off Jimmy. Well. He was super popular. I think his arm, don't I wouldn't say anything bad about his arm. His release is so good. And I don't think they're five other quarter backs on Earth who really throw it like he does in terms of release and short range, short to media rage accuracy like it's You know, there were a lot of route or plays that were pointed out to me where people said it looked like Jimmy

went through his reads and led this guy perfectly. What might have happened here is Jimmy saw it late, but he gets it out so quick and so perfectly that it just looked like that. So I do think his arm is really good. People have talked about his deep balls. I don't know. So anyway, is Jimmy Garoppolo. You know, there's a lot of quarterbacks who are not grinders. One of them we suspect in Arizona because they put a clause in his contract about video games. One of them

is trying to get a fully guaranteed deal. Now we

should talk about that. By all metrics, he deserves relative to Deshaun Watson, and he deserves to get paid way more than Daniel Jones, etc. But I think one of the things hurting Lamar is this perception that he's not grinding in terms of off the field, and Jimmy is another guy who has acquired that reputation, and you know, will that change with Josh and Vegas probably if you look at how he acted when they drafted Lance Yes, and also look, I love I love Jimmy in twenty

twenty two, I don't give it f Jimmy, which was liberating. And I told him, you know, in late December what he was hurt. I said, dude, you realize that the most Niner thing ever is going to be for you to somehow come back and play the Super Bowl like it just is. And there was a moment sitting in that stadium with the link early where I'm like, purdies out, Josh Judson's in, Christian McCaffrey just ran through five dudes.

They're tied, and I'm like, it's gonna happen. Josh Judson's gonna win this game somehow, and Jimmy Garoppolo is gonna come back in two weeks and start the Super Bowl against Patrick mahofs. So it didn't get quite that far, but I don't want to discount what he did. He really bailed about last year. He played at a pro Bowl level. He got hurt. There was some tension after

he got hurt. The way it was explained to me is that you know, Trey Lance, who was hurt, was coming to every meeting and really was engaged with Brock. Jimmy's style was to not show up a lot. Kyle had never specifically said this is mandatory, get your butt in here, and so he wasn't disobeying anything. It was just a different approach. And it's possible that that's what Jimmy was taught in New England, by the way that Bill's approach is when you're injured, just you know, stay

out of it. But that if there was any tension at the end, you know, it was a three year breakup, so of course there was tu shit. But if there was tension at the end, Kyle, I think, was frustrated that Jimmy wasn't hanging around the way Trey was. So I do want to move segue into Lamar Jackson. Years ago, Kirk Cousins got a guaranteed contract. It was highly criticized, dubious,

too expensive. Minnesota was pretty desperate in a division with Aaron Rodgers, and so they offered it and Kirk, you know, with a chip on his shoulder, said I'm going to sign it. However, moving forward, nobody else offered a guaranteed contract, including the significantly more talented Aaron Rodgers. My takeaway has always been I've seen this since I ran the volume. I'll make people an offer. I'm not going to offer you something just because I feel an inferior podcast company

makes you an egregious offer. So Cleveland's a desperate franchise, much more desperate than Minnesota was with Kirk Cousins. I don't believe Baltimore, a highly functional organization, should look at Cleveland and go, well, they set the market. If you're not available on Sunday, I can't give you a fully guaranteed contract, right you have to I have to be guaranteed, you know, buy and large. Brady showed up every Sunday Five showed up, Eli Manning showed up, Daniel Jones shows up.

There are guys that get dinged up for a variety of reasons. I love Lamar, but I worry that it's now personal because he doesn't have an agent. And when you don't have an agent, it does get personal because you are discussing people who are, if not lamenting, they are discussing your weaknesses and liabilities face to face. That's

why I have an agent. Mike, So I don't have to deal with these kind of conversations, which is why when you and I renegotiate our deal, will use agents and they can do all that crap take the arrows for us exactly. Yeah. So, first of all, I believe the Ravens are not shiny organizationally, and I have been as big a fan of that organization publicly as anyone for a long long time. I think they've botched this too.

I have written that they effed around and found out they were willing to go into the season, go and find we'll just play it out with Lamar and am I saying Lamar intentionally sat out all those games to spite them. No, but he didn't have that feeling that

he was taken care of. And his coach came out publicly and was like, hey, I think he'll be back in a week or two, and which you know, I don't love if I'm a player with a bad D. And they lost a winnable playoff game potentially against the Bengals they didn't have him, So they've budged it too. And if it's personal, maybe it's personal in their ed too, but they've budged it so let's let's assess a. Would it be easier if he had an agent? Yes, it

would be easier. Doesn't mean he has to, doesn't. You know Roquan Smith doesn't have an agent and they got their thing done. It would be easier, especially right now gauging the market all that. It would be better I think for everyone. But you know that's not my decision. Um is. I'm told to Colin that Lamar's Lamar can't get past, and we've all been there right in our careers. Lamar can't get past. I'm better than Deshaun Watson, and I'm not screwing up off the field like and I'm

not saying he's wrong. I think he is totally. Absolutely, He's always been a better thrower than anybody wants to admit. So so the you know, Gene Hackman's fallen sheriff in unforgiven says to Clint Eastwood, you know, I don't deserve this, and you know Clint says, who's got nothing to do with it? You know deserves got nothing to do with it. He deserves to get a guaranteed deal more than Deshaun Watson or Kirk Cousins. Yes, he deserves to get paid

more than Daniel Jones, for Heaven's sake. For Heaven's sake, Daniel Jones, I mean, come on, that's that deal's not going to age. Well, I'm sorry, but as you know, it's all about circumstance and leverage. And he could have signed after year three, gotten a bunch of money upfront, and now be trying to renegotiate from strength. He didn't do that. He didn't do what Kirk Cousins did and play out two franchise tags and putting his organization in a box to the point where they blinked and took

Alex Smith and he was free. And they didn't do what Deshaun Watch. He hasn't done with Deshaun Watson did him Maybe he will, But Deshaun Watson showed up at training camp uncomfortably with an organization that didn't want him, reporters hounding him about something he didn't want to talk about, and fans checking out a circus, and he knew he wasn't gonna play. It turned out he wasn't gonna play for you know, almost a year and a half from

that point. But by doing that and having the will to do that he created leverage and the Browns were desperate and he got that deal. So you know, you put all those things together, and if you're Lebar Jackson, well you don't have that kind of leverage or you haven't exerted that kind of will, now, could you. Yeah, you could say I've not played for thirty two million, go ahead and have fun with Tyler Huntley, and I'm just gonna sit away. I'm not saying he should, but

he could do. You think the Ravens, frustrated by it, would just say we're gonna move on. We're gonna draft another quarterback because we like our roster, our culture, our coach, and our defense. You know, maybe, but I also think we're living in a weird world where, yeah, no one has stepped up and offered Lamar because partly because a lot of teams think we're just doing the Ravens work for him. We're gonna give him this deal he likes, and they're gonna match it, and we're going to alienate

the people we have. The quarterbacks we have now who knew we were trying to replace him, So why would we do that if if Lamar were free? First of all, different story. Second, of all, Let's be honest, desperation isn't confined to the Cleveland Browns, and there aren't that many really good quarterbacks, which is why you and I are talking about ninety three year old Tom Brady. Sorry, Tom, I know you're only forty five. Yeah, that's why we're

talking about to Brady. That's why we're talking about Lists and Aaron Rodgers. There are only so many transcended ones, and I think Lamar's transcend it. I'll stick up for Lamar as a player. I think he's one of the very, very best. He won seventy five percent of his starts in the AFC. Yeah. The only you know, I think there is a little PTSD from the Russell Wilson trade, honestly, because for ten years we saw a guy be transcended in my opinion, and then oh whoa, he looks nothing

like that guy. And by the way, Geno Smith is now a pro bowler in his place. So that was that through people. But at some point if Lamar Jackson was like, I'm not playing for you, I'm sitting out, at some point some owner or some GM or some coach or all three are gonna be like, man, our quarterback stakes. We're all gonna get fired, or if you're the owner, we're gonna lose. But we could go get that guy, Just go get him. John Middlecough Azol was

full of insight. Let's go in to it. The Jalen Ramsey move a third and basically a bust tied end from the Dolphins who does doesn't play much is that's not nearly I'm not sure why they were so impatient. It feels like a salary dump. They're trying to clear something up to make a big move in free agency. That's that's what it felt like to me. Now, I don't think Jalen Ramsey's ever been a guy you build a culture around at Florida State, Jacksonville or LA. He's

just really talented. But I think the guys that you build a culture around, like Aaron Donald Are Cooper Cup are harder to get rid of. Talent comes and goes, and so I think Jayalen's really talented. He's he had a very good last game with the rams and interception. You know, I'm not sure if it was the best place for the Dolphins to spend money. They already have a corner people like, but their secondaries not very strong. They're all in, yeah, but but for the Rams, it

just felt like they're starting over. You know, they've got four sevens, four or fives. They now have a second, two thirds. They don't have a first or a fourth yet. So they got twelve draft picks. They're kind of rebuilding this puppy. Before we dive into my theory on the Dolphins and why I think I think this might be leading to something, one thing on McVeigh is, you know, the knock on Gruden over his ten year as coaching,

was very impatient, you know, changes on your fast. Lebron has some of that, and you know he loves a guy that he starts playing with him any sours on him, And like, I don't have the theory that they're going to tank because McVeigh almost jumped off a bridge last year losing a little bit. He's not going to coach a season and suck and he's too good to ever probably get the top two or three picks, especially next year with the with the quarterbacks. But you know he

loved Matt Stafford two years ago. They traded for him, then they extend him. Now he's banged up and it feels like, oh, they might trade him or they would definitely listen to it. Well, so he was good enough to give all this money too, and a year later things get weird. I'm Sean McVeigh guy, but it does feel he's got a little Gruden in him that he'll change on you fast once he thinks you're not as good as he maybe thought six months previously. So I was told a month ago, and I've set it on

the air at Fox. I was told a month ago that the Rams were going to go heavy this offseason to the offense. McVeigh would come back if there was a commitment to I'm an offensive coach. The league's pivoted to that. Give me guys. So who did they get rid of? Bobby Wagner, Jalen Ramsey, Floyd. They've moved off defensive guys. So they're gonna draft. They have a second and two thirds. They're probably gonna go after an offensive lineman, a wide receiver. They may go out for a running back.

Mcphay's like, listen, if I'm going to come back for this thing and have to face the Niners, you gotta get me some weapons. You gotta give me some help on the offensive side. I mean, of all the people in the Ramsey trade, they got like a third string tight end. You know, I thought I would have thought they would have gone to a backup edge because they don't really have an edge rusher. But you know, I listen mcvagh had a lot of success early. People that

do off and get impatient. They haven't had the long road, the struggle like the rest of us. Right, So you know, I get it. You probably see that in tech, you see it in football that you probably see it in Hollywood when somebody hits it at twenty eight thirty two years old. Man, your standards and impatience rise. The Dolphins I think over the weekend or maybe late last week they picked up two a fifth year option. I thought

that was nuts, you know, given his risk history. But then when they made this trade, I was like, well, I think you had mentioned last week and has come out since you know the Brady buzz is not going to die. Well, what did they do? They get Vick Fanjio, They add Jalen Ramsey. They kind of had their backup plan long term, just keep two under contract. Tom Brady

and coming to San Jose. It's just not happening, right, But Miami, he's already he's getting the taste of the life in Florida now for a couple of years, the no state income tax. I think the Dolphins buzz is about to pick up, and they're equipped. I mean now that their defense was a question mark boom at a star corner, you know, add Vic Fangio. I mean, that's this team. You see that that clip of Tyreek Hill

running dusting those guys in the sixty meter dash. So you're the one that I think I saw a clip of you saying that. The Tom Brady thing, well, people are it's not going to die. Yeah, I mean, okay, so Tom, it's not like you know, he's single now, so he's gonna he's not gonna broadcast at Fox. He's gonna sit around for a year, just watch football. Tom's connected, Um And I just think, you know, people say, oh,

you spend more time with your family. Kids after a while don't want to hang out with mom and dad. They want to hang out with little kids, their peers. Right, So I think Brady um Hill step he work six months a year. I mean, you get six months with his family, I know, and whenever you hear you know, I'm gonna go spend time with my family. It's like, you know, guys get off days even in the season. You know you're not You're not at the facility all day.

So I think if you have a popular player Tebow in Denver and they brought in Peyton Manning, you gotta go big. Nobody's gonna question Brady fills in for Tua or Peyton Manning for Tebow because Tua will have success with Mike McDaniels. Hell, he was leading in the Pro Bowl voting last year, right, So I don't know what's

gonna happen with Tom Brady. I don't have it sourced, but I did have somebody I trust out of the building, not a Fox employee, say he may play football, So you know it was somebody who's smart, somebody I've trusted for years. So he obviously heard it somewhere. But I said this a year ago, and I'll say it again. I thought Aaron Rodgers in Miami made sense. I really dig in. Yeah, a big star because TWA's got his fans,

two is going to have success. Nobody's complaining about Rogers or Brady in Miami, And I think sometimes when you're place a popular I mean, let's face it, last year, up until Thanksgiving, the Dolphins were one of the better stories in the league. I found pretty laughable the reaction to the Lamar collusion. No one wants him. Last year to Shaun Watson was given two hundred and thirty million dollars and we all laughed at like, that's the most insane contract. Only at one or two guys in the

league would do that. This guy wants that contract and no one will touch it. Well, we just said last year that that contract that he wants is moronic. No one would do that. Good player, but under no circumstances. If I owned a team or ran a team, I would trade for the player if I get him for a normal quarterback contract. But I can't pay him a guy who's been injured, and it's not he doesn't guarantee

me anything. He's got one playoff win. Well, yeah, I mean, you want guaranteed money, You're not guaranteed to play Sunday. Of his last twenty two games, he's missed forty percent. He's missed ten. So nobody wants to say this because it feels like you're taking a shot at Lamar's mom, but he needs an agent. Agents do two things. First of all, teams are now taking shots at Lamar. Why because they don't he doesn't have an agent. You would never take a shot at a star player because he

has an agent. And an agent represents lots and lots of people, So you don't want to piss off an agent because then he'll steer his clients against you or away from you. When you don't have an agent, and I've had several of my career, it's a vest. It's a little bit like a protective vest. Is that the agent keeps you out of the room with your boss so it doesn't get emotional. The agent make sure they say nice things about you. A good, powerful agent matters.

He's using his mom, and reportedly now he's doing some of it. You know, he's moved her off that. It's like, dude, I got no you know if my mom represented me or yours, did they get emotional? Were their sons? So I think when he did that, you know, I tried to tread lightly and be respectful. You can't have a parent be your agent. Come on now. Charles Robinson wrote a really good article where he got a lot of unnamed people in the league, GMS and agents talking and

this point. Listen, Mike mcglinchey's gonna sign in a couple of days. The owner just gives the GM the thumbs up. But when you're doing a contract like this two hundred plus million dollars guarantee, that's an owner run deal, and

these agents go right to the owner. This is not the GM and the coach ultimately aren't the final say on this one, right like they would be with a signing a wide receiver or this is the biggest contract that team has ever given out in the history of the league potentially, So that's coming from the owner and he has no direct path to the owner. I mean, it's just it's if me and you owned a condo for two hundred grand, we could figure out how to

sell it on our own. If we wanted a two hundred million dollars piece of property, we probably get some representation to help us out on the deal. Right right, the amount of money that's on the line is too enormous, Like he's at he's at a major disadvantage, and the Ravens know it, and that's why they did don exclusive tag. They go, We're not even gonna pay as much, and we're not worried about people bidding for your services because

you don't really know what you're doing. I also think the culture is so strong that between the GM, the owner, the roster, the defense, the assistance, there's kind of a feeling in Baltimore. Last year. I mean, shit, they went toe to toe with the Bengals twice at the end of the year with like third string guys, and we're Cincinnati needed a miracle touchdown to win one of those games. So I think they look at themselves and think, you know, we're really at an a level in terms of drafting

and developing. If we have to go get Max Duggan in the second round or we have to go get somebody we like, we will. So I mean, they've won a super Bowl with Joe Flacco, Trent Dilfer. They gambled on Lamar Jackson to some degree. You know, a lot of people thought he wouldn't be great. They've been able to find quarterbacks who others bailed on, who are different and they've got success with all of them. So I always just sort of trust the Ravens to figure it out.

Have a ruler in life you don't have to always hire an expert. Hire smart people and they'll figure out complex problems. Baltimore is really good at that. Speaking of a team that's trying to find their identity, that the big trade, that the draft trade that happened, I guess would that have been Friday night? On the panther side, this feels like it's got Dave Tepper written all over it.

He's a financial wheeler and dealer. He's getting bored, he's getting tired of losing, because that's a lot to give up Colin for this. Trevor Lawrence not in this draft, you know, and they've even it's been reported they don't even know exactly who they're taking. Last time the Niners try to do something like that, that's I would not operate making a trade without the player that you know, just to figure out two or three guys, and this is one of those. You know, if Bryce Young hits,

then it looks like a brilliant move. But I thought Chicago essentially solved, you know, people banged on the Chase Claypool move. But now the receiving corps DJ Moore Cole commet very capable young tight end Darnell Mooney a solid two and Chase Claypool, so they don't really have to go after a wide receiver in the draft. And they've got multiple extra picks so they can attack the interior offensive.

They're going to get McGlinchey the right tackle from the Niners. Yeah, by you know, they drafted some offensive lineman last year. A couple of them can play. You know, they could kind of go solve their defense, so justin fields doesn't have to be in shootouts. But I mean Cole Commet, Mooney, Claypool. But DJ Moore was getting a thousand yards of season with Kyle Allen, Darnald Baker Mayfield. I couldn't believe. I understand given away first in two seconds throwing Dj Moore.

And by the way, so you draft a young quarterback, you just lost your best receiver for him. I didn't like that addition. At I would have given you a corner, I'd have given you something. I would not have given you your best I wouldn't if I'm Caroline, I'm not giving you Dj Moore. They just extended him last year, so he's under contract for the foreseeable future. I thought, this is kudos to Ryan Pace because he can do

two things. One find out if fields can play now he's got weapons, and if he can't, he has the Panthers pick. They're probably not going to be great. And if his team stinks, they'd have two high picks to go up and get one of these quarterbacks next year, so that they're actually getting the best of both worlds. Yeah, Ryan Poles is the kid, and I did last year and he got a corner and a safety to start. He got a receiver of Vilas Jones out of Tennessee who played at USC. I could have told him he

can't track the ball. He couldn't at USC, could never track the ball. So I still don't trust this organization to draft and develop offensive players. But I do think what happens after that trade John is now we have clarity. There'll be no more excuses. Their running backs are serviceable, Cole comits a very nice young tied end. Now you have a real grown up wide receiver group. They're going to pay for a right tackle. Their offensive line last

year rated fourteenth. It wasn't the Giants, it wasn't thirty second, it was fourteenth, and they're gonna upgrade it. So it's going to be a reasonable offensive line. What it gives you John, now, whatever Justin Fields does. This is the truth. He has more than enough talent. Now you can't say

he doesn't have this. This This Claypool, Mooney DJ Moore are three very nice professional wide receivers see and I think on the panther side, I just wonder if if Tepper gets involved on who they ultimately want to pick and it's not the coach and not the general manners decision. I think Bryce Young is an elite player. He's just short,

which you know can be risky. But you know we've seen him two years ago played they played Georgia twice in you know, a month, and went toe to toe with them with a defense full of eleven pros and like first round pros. Yeah, but he's just he's just small. And you know, Anthony Richardson I was texting with Daniel Jeremiah because Anthony richards I said, what round would those guys gone in when you first broke in the league. Guys like Anthony Richardson and Will Levis who are just big,

physical guys. But you know, I have a long way to go. He's like those guys would have been mid round picks. Now both of them are gonna go in the top five. So this notion that that position it's so nuanced, it's so hard. You can't just draft like you can't a defensive tackle and hope he figures it out because the time in time they don't, and whoever they pick has this enormous pressure. I've seen it with Trey Lance, all these picks, the whole trade. It just

hangs over you forever. If things don't go well, it's hard. Well, the Colts, I think should move up to three because if somebody moves up in front of them, they're gonna get the fourth quarterback in an average quarterback draft. That would worry me. Now again, there's Max Duggan's going to be a second or a third round guy, and there's a lot of people that think, you know, a team like Indy could get him. I'll tell you this about I had somebody text me on this inside the league.

It's pretty interesting. So I said, you know, Will Levis's family has some IVY League connections. He's a four point student. He's big, thick kid, good arm. And somebody texts me in the league and said, look how chiseled he is. He said name the great quarterbacks that are chiseled, they don't exist. Is that when you get you ever go you ever go to the gym and see a wait, look to try to play basketball. How stiff you are. There's no fluidity, no fluidity. And and so this person said,

he is this is a danger sign. He's jacked, he's ripped, and he comes off sometimes as a little bit stiff. He doesn't come off as fluid. And he's strong. He's a smart kid. But the Will Levis stuff is interesting because you know there's so much of it. You like Ivy League family, huge arm. You know, his numbers look like Eli Manning's out of old miss, a non traditional SEC quarterback who you know, like one seventeen games in two years for a basketball school. It kind of feels Eli.

But the person who texts me, he's just like, you know, go look up the chiseled orderbacks. It's like you see Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning with a tight shirt on. They they're big, they got more of a chest, but you don't see you don't see ripped guys. It's not what you have to be loosed. That's why apply on metrics and Brady, You've got to be loose. You've got to be able to be flexible and move your feet, move your hips, and Levis is just ripped and jacked.

All right, let's bring on Marcus Thompson. I've said this before in my career. My job is to tell you what I know, but I don't always need to know the why. Sometimes it's none of my business. The Andrew Wiggins situation is really none of my business. I know it's very serious. It's a family matter. What I was told, and now I have two people that have said it's really really serious. The Warriors totally support him, but there is some doubt if he'll be available going forward. There's

no certainty, there's real doubt. So let's bring in Marcus. You know a lot more than I do. I have been told it's extremely serious and the Warriors completely respect his privacy. And so again that's none of my business. I'm not talking anybody's fam that's none of my business. Let's talk about availability. You're reporting, you're sourcing, You're guessing. Is it a reasonable assumption that he would miss the regular season but perhaps be a postseason participant. You know,

it's possible depending on who you talk to. There's some people who expect him to be back. There's some people who don't want to put that on him, right, like, hey, dude, what you gotta do. We don't really want to pressure you, right, you know, you got to handle this. The difficulty about that proposition of missing the regular season to come back from the playoffs is who you're getting. I mean, that's

two months, two months of no basketball. I doubt he's picked up the ball a ball, right not to guess his condition. It wouldn't be great, So it would be a tall order to ask him, and then we don't know what his mental condition will be. We know this, this dude doesn't miss games, like he just doesn't. I mean his first six years he missed like four total games. Like, he doesn't miss games. So whatever it is, it's got

to be it's incredibly serious. Whatever it is. There's a locker room with dudes who want to win a championship who are like, oh, this is bad, Like you handle that, like, we're not even mad. So I don't know how. I don't know how you come back from that in the middle of a playoff setting and produce. I mean, we've seen crazy things but that would be a lot to ask, So I think they just have to start preparing mentally for the fact that he won't be there, and if

he comes, like that's a bonus. Yeah. I mean, they wanted Jonathan Kaminga perhaps to develop. He's very twitchy, very athletic, can be very forceful around the rim. They wanted him to develop. He doesn't have the touch, He's not the defensive player yet of Wiggins, but he's wildly athletic. But if you could get twelve minutes to night. He didn't do squat in the playoffs last year because Kurt didn't trust him. Yet, do you think Steve Kerr trusts him

because Iggy now has an injury? How many minutes per night in the playoff game? Do you believe Steve Kerr would be comfortable with Jonathan Kuminga. I don't really think he has a choice. I mean, the other option is a two way guy that they're probably going to convert, Anthony Lamb. So, I mean, jeez, Comigo was never seven pick. I do think he does a couple of things that the words could use, Like he's a ball pressure. He's good at that, So at some point they'll use him.

I think it's somewhere between twelve forty minutes, depending on how he plays. Right, it'll probably get twelve baked in maybe fifteen. If they're not good, especially in that second half, then he just won't go back to him. Like that's that's kind of how Steve has been. If he's playing really well, if he's giving somebody problems, now you up it because they need it. They don't have a lot of other defensive options, right, Like they don't have a

lot of lockdown guys. I mean, here's the interesting part this, Gary Payton is second make it back and how does that impact Because if if you don't get Wiggins and you don't have a GP two, the only other guy who can do what they what they do is doctor d Vincenzo and Jonathan can be here. That's it. The rest is like, y'oll beat you also dribble, So it's almost like, yo, what do you have to lose anyway?

Just run out there. If you don't win, you probably are the seventh seed anyways, So would you expect well, Clay Thompson's having his best year and maybe sex he is absolutely great. Jordan pool Deep and Genzo, Steph Curry had fifty against the Clippers. So it's a team that's guard heavy, and if things don't work out with the loss, with the movement of Wiseman and Wiggins, they're a small team and they're not going to be as good defensively. So you know I've said this before, I have thrown

this out there. Is that because Steph can still be on any night the best player in the league on any night against anybody. Clay has rebounded with an all star level second half in performance. Draymond is still a catalyst. Wiggins, we presume would come back. I'll throw it out there. If they got into the playoffs and got pushed around by a big, forget em beat or Jannis. I'm talking Yokich. They got pushed around a little bit by a big.

They have the arsenal of guards now, especially scoring guards. They're not moving Steph, but Jordan Poole, you know they've got enough guys they can move this team. I still believe believes we got a championship left. Could you see them going out and getting and I'll throw a big at you. You don't have to. He'll give you twenty two points a night without designing a single play for him, Anthony Davis and just say, listen, we know you're not giving us thirty eight minutes, and we know you're not

giving us eighty two games. We're not asking that. And because I look at the Warriors and I think to myself, right now, I've lost confidence without Wiggins and Iggy, I don't think. I don't think they can get to the NBA Finals. I don't now the break is of course, Marcus k D's out, and you know that's a big thing. And I don't trust the Clippers. Have you let's start with this. Have you lost confidence in this team going forward getting to the finals? Yeah, no question. They can't

win on the road. They lose the team as they should beat. I always thought it was gonna be tough anyway, Like repeating is not easy, Like it's not that's not now a team to do it. So even if they brought back the same team, it's not like what they had KD. And it was like, all right, we're we're about to repeat, Like normally it gets harder in the second year, But now I think they're they'll upset somebody.

Right That third series though, would be tough because whatever they do it's gonna be on stuff, it's gonna be on play right, it's gonna be on Dray Run. And now it's like you fight through one series, right, you upset somebody, you get another series that's gonna be harder. Now you can start to see it take toll, because keep in mind, they've been playing hard all year. It's not it's not like twenty eighteen, eight, twenty nineteen when they were chilling on like all right, we're here for

our finals run. Like, no, they've been They've been trying to be teams. So the difficulty I see is they've been putting in a lot of work and on the back end that catches up. We've seen this before twenty sixteen they chase seventy three, you know, got up three one and the legs are gone, right, and that's obviously a better setting for them, But it's just tough to envision and winning three series to get to the fire and didn't win a four for him, like that's a lot.

I just think they need to have a good showing and if they knock off Yo Kitch or knock off KD, that's something real. Now you're talking about all right, steps still legit who were keeping out of Draymond in Clay or maybe Draymond's like, yo, I'm out, I got an opt out of somebody wants to pay be a max, I'm out. Those are the decisions here's I don't think the rest. I don't think they're going Anthony Davis, the owner, wants to go young. That was the whole Wiseman thing.

I don't want a bunch of thirty five year olds so when they fall off, we're like a lottery team again. He doesn't want to do that. He wants somebody young. He wants to swap out Steff and make it a seamless transition to the next guy. So I think he'll want a guy who's young and ready to play. He wanted Steve Kirks, who played the young guys this year. So I don't think he's going thirty plus. He's going. He might go twenty five. That might be the compromise

instead of twenty one. It'll be twenty five. It's there, but it won't be it won't be enough, the thirties something unless he just asides, let's ride the wheels till they fall off with Stephen them. So most have observed and speculated that the Draymond pool punch created a bit of a rift and a chasm between young and old guys in the locker room. And they note, and I think with some accuracy, that it's a bad road team,

and on the road is where unity factors in. There's almost no explanation markets for being abysmal ship there as bad as the Rockets in the Orlando Magic and Detroit on the road. Do you believe it? Does? It does feel like this is maybe a clickier team, that the gap between young and old is sizable. Oh, I thought that that was true from the beginning. I mean, it's like literally like a red sea in between them. Right. I got the old kids who want championships, and then

you have like the home room squad. Right, you got the Hall of Fame, and you got the home room. They got six guys who have done much before in the league, and then you have this super high bar

of championship standard. Right. It was already like that, I mean, just tangibly just thinking about who they are at their ages, right, Like I mean Steph is an ancients guy in the league, right, he gets along with everybody, but he's thirty five he's got like kids and stuff, Like he's got an ira counclibility, Like he's not hanging out with twenty one year old like he'll do you know, he can put his arm around the guy in the locker room and all that,

but got teenage daughters. They just don't have anything in common. And you could look in the locker room and you could say this is this is this team looks like

they're having a bit of fun. There's some like gelling that you probably didn't think happened after somebody got rocked in training camp, right, But what you can't really there's this like unintangible part of the punch that you can't quantify, right, Like what happens if they don't have that and they get off to a start in the chemistry is great, and now they don't lose five straight road games to start the season. Like it's like it's almost like not

saving money. You know what I'm saying. You don't lose money, but you don't know you don't know what you would have done if you would have invested it, right, So we don't know how that impacted the season. All we know is they are also a rough start. It was kind of a mess and it felt like a set of tone for the season. So even if they're fine now, right, even if they're like they've overcome in and gotten through it, there was a cost that they paid that we can

kind of see now. And I think it again on the road first out the back five game road trip, they lose in the Charlotte and Orlando right like, and they're playing like Stephan It's not like they had a bunch of young guys. They weren't able to close against bad teams to start that on five road trip set of tone. So I think there is an intangible like costs from that, even if they might have gotten through it. And since let's pull it back to Andrew Wiggins and

you know, again I put it out there. I had a couple of people tell me they doubted strongly he would return. And my takeaway, as I believe people, has it been an uncomfortable story for you because you are a journalist, You're a guy that is constantly looking to uncover things. When you wrote your KD book, Steff book, you gave me nuggets that I never knew that's what you do. Has it been hard to cover it knowing it's intensely private. The organization's not going to let it out.

But your job is to cover stuff and uncover stuff. It hasn't been hard because this team just has fifty eight storylines all the time, right, So we could always fall back on you know, right about Steff, right about thing, right about Drakemond. But the difficulty is this is one of the rare situations where nobody's telling you anything. That's the difficulty, right. It's like they're they've they've really kind

of closed ranks. And this is the same team where they had a videotape leak, right, like an unprecedented leak of a practice punch. So I think they just got so fed up that they were like, this is one we're going to stop, right, And that to me is the most difficult part. Where it's like you talk to people and the people who normally be like, hey, man, I'm telling you what's going on, don't write it. Even they're like, yeah, we can't. We're not telling you anything

because just know it's bad and just trust us. Right, So in that sense, it's been It's not difficult because like I mean, these are pros man, they won championships. You know, if there was a player who they thought to be on the court and wasn't on the court, they wouldn't know how to bite their tongue. Like Draymond will pop off on the volume right on volume sports,

someone why is this guy not playing? So when these dudes who are professionals at the highest level, right, who are winners, they're like, man, this is bad, Like we we we support them, we rock with him. We're not We're not gonna throw like, you know, throw them under the bus or anything like that. It's easy to trust them because you kind of know who they are and

you know what they are. But I haven't been it's been a long time college since I couldn't find out like the inner details, you know what I'm saying, Like, it's been a while. And that's a testamental Wiggins. Like Wiggins, he doesn't put himself out there like that, and that's just kind of been his his deal and some guys like for most people, as you know, it's hard to shut people up. This whole industry runs on the fact

that people don't know how to shut up. Right. So for Wiggins, though, like he doesn't put himself out there like that. He's very private, and they are respecting it, and I kind of I respect him for that right, like I respect him for saying no, not not in this situation, because you know, they've literally had fights in practice that we found out of that literally the volume.

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