The volume. It's the Colin Coward Podcast presented by FanDuel. The sports calendar is packed. No better place to get in on the action than FanDuel. So many sports right now, NBA, College Hoops, March Madness, PGA two. UR app is safe, secure, easy to use. They've got exclusive offers, boosts, all that stuff this month on FanDuel, and when you win, you get paid fast. So jump into the action. They have live betting. You can combine multiple bets same game and
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seven hundred. Visit KS gambling help dot com, Kansas one eight seven seven seven seven oh stop Louisiana called one eight hundred and three to two seven fifty fifty or
visit WWWMA Underscore Helpline dot org. Slash problem Gambling visit www dot MD gambling help dot org Maryland one eight seven seven eight Hope, New York or text Hope New York four six seven three six nine New York one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net, West Virginia. This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward Podcast. So a little preamble before I go into Nick Wright
on Lamar Jackson. So the Ravens, as reported, have offered him a non exclusive franchise tag. He won't like it, he being Lamar Jackson, Meaning the Ravens are saying, we like you, but test the market. If somebody makes a big offer, they can match. But the Ravens are rolling the dice thinking there won't be a significant market for Lamar Jackson. Now you all know I like Lamar Jackson dynamic wow qualities when seventy five percent of it starts. Jj Watt went on to social media Twitter and asked
the question what am I missing? My response to jj Watt would be, you're not missing anything. Lamar Jackson's missing something. Games he's missed ten of the Ravens last twenty two games not available. Don't care how talented you are. Last two years, he's been banged up by the end of the year. So I've said this before. Bryce Young, I
think he's really good. But as the quarterback position has evolved to more mobile, more athletic, more running, smaller quarterbacks, these guys are not all built to play fifteen twenty years. They're not smaller quarterbacks in vogue, running quarterbacks in vogue. I get it. Teams saying, listen, we're gonna roll it for four or five years. We're not giving a big guaranteed money from year five to year nine. Mahomes overwhelmingly pocket quarterback, gets his money. Josh Allen runs, but he's
six six, two fifty. That's why he gets his money. Cam got his money, and Ben got his money. But if you're seeing a slight, if you're seen as somebody that has to excel out of the pocket if you've been banged up more than once. Lamar Jackson has his last fifteen starts. He's got an eighty five passer rating. A lot of people no longer see him as an
ascending quarterback. He's a slightly regressing quarterback. So I can like Lamar, But as the quarterback position has evolved to a more athletic position, people are rolling the dice on guys that move more and guys that are smaller. I've said it with Bryce Young. I think he's the best quarterback. He's five ten and a half. He waited at two or four at the combine. You and I know he's gonna play at about one ninety three. He's twenty pounds light and three inches short. So I draft him, But
two years later, I draft another quarterback. If he can get you out of purgatory, if he can get you out of the abyss, I'm Houston. I draft him, but I don't think he's at four oh one k here. That's day trading. You're gonna even another quarterback in three or four years, And I think Baltimore has come to that conclusion. Is if the market says Lamar's got four or five teams bidding on him, and Baltimore is going to have to pay up. They're betting that is not
the case. The Atlanta Falcons already come out not interested. Miami Dolphins already come out not interested. I think, Baltimore, says Culture coach GM owner Roster. If we can't get the right number, We're going to load up, get good at every position, and we'll find our Brock pretty in
the second or third or fourth round at quarterback. So the last two years, I have watched less and less NFL combine and I'm going to describe right now, and this could bore some of you, But one of the reasons I love coming on this podcast that it's different than my show podcast is I can take on topics and discuss things that I would never discuss obviously on my show. I'm going to talk a little bit about the process of the way I do this business. So
I've always said, you drive the bus. I'm not loyal to platforms and I'm not loyal to leagues. When I started in this business, I did a lot more college football than it got very regional, and over the last seven eight years, with Alabama and Clemson's dominance, I did less college football. This year. I did more college football than I've ever done because I thought the West Coast had a little bit of a renaissance. Michigan had a renaissance.
So I want the Michigan's and the USCS and the Notre Dames to be viable, not just three southern schools. And so I talked more college football. And the ratings went up in college football. So fifteen years ago I moved off baseball. Why because I watched the ratings, and I watched slowly the attendants go down, and the ratings go down, and the social currency go down, and so I am loyal to what you're watching. Okay, it's like it's a it's a grocery store. What you're buying, I'm selling.
And so the NFL Combine doesn't get huge ratings. But in the last couple of years I used to already be into it. Not as much as the draft of the season or the playoffs or college football, but I liked the combine. It's a beauty page, and I always understood that. But when Sean McVay says, I'm not going this year, Bill Belichick Matt Lafleur, I'm not going I had a conversation with a general manager in the NFL earlier last week, and you know I threw out my
theory to him. That was I said, if you told a young person. Trent Dilford told me this years ago, seventy five percent of NFL players don't love football. They love what football provides for them, but they don't really love football. Tony Gonzalez, the Hall of Fame tight end, once told me he thought three percent of players loved the game. Loved the game, not the lifestyle, the game and putting in the effort for the game. And so one of the things I've thought a lot about what
the combine is. I think more teams get fooled than actually find a gym, because if you go to the last ten drafts and you look at some of the great combine performances, teams are over drafting players. And so when you combine some of the reaches in the draft with Dilfer and Tony Gonzalez's theory, let me just throw this out to you. If I told you, listen, if you work really hard for the eight to ten weeks
and get in the best shape of your life. You're going to be richer than you ever dreamed, and you're gonna go first or second round, even though a year ago you were thought of as a third or a
fourth rounder. Would you put in the work, of course, you would much different than playing a season, than working out in Arizona or Miami at an academy for eight to ten weeks, prepping for the interviews, getting abs back, putting in the time that you would have to put in on a daily basis if you're an NFL player. So you get these guys that come in and they're in the best shape of their life they have been. They know exactly the questions they'll be asked. And I
think what happens is people get fooled. People get absolutely fooled. And I think it's just it's our human nature. If we're going to be rewarded, we're going to really focus. And that's why to me Belichick, Sean McVay, Matt Lafleur, I'm gonna pass. They don't want to get fooled. Go watch game tape. Game tapes the truth because you have to play hurt in games, you have to play against people that are bigger and stronger than you. How do
you react to that. That's the NFL, that's real. A game tape in the SEC or Big ten, that's real, a real performance, not ten to twelve weeks of working out in Arizona and Miami getting in the greatest shape of your life, therefore getting a pay day soon thereafter in the NFL draft. It's not real life. And I think for all of us, I want to see your actual resume job performance. What were you like for four to five years at your job? Not prepping for an
interview with me? Players now prep for the wonderlick. You can practice the wonder lick. It used to be if a guy scored high, it was just he was brilliant. Now guys score in the thirties. And I think some of the times I'm like, I don't know, they make really bad decisions as a quarterback. How do they get a thirty six on the wonder lick? So I see the numbers for the combine. I've peeled back on my combine talk. I just don't think it's as relevant vent
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one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred. Visit ks gambling heelp dot com Kansas one eight seven and seven seven seven oh stop Louisiana called one eight hundred and three two seven fifty fifty or visit WWWMA Underscore helpline dot org. Slash problem Gambling visit www dot MD
gambling help dot org. Maryland one eight seven seven eight Hope, New York or text Hope New York four six seven three six nine New York one eight hundred and five to two forty seven hundred Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net West Virginia. So let's start with Daniel Jones. You're in New York four years, one hundred and sixty million. Is batshet crazy Colin? But go ahead. Sorry. I went back to Duke, where he had an offensive coach, a legend Cutcliff David Cutcliffe. Yeah,
very the Manning family, excellent guy. In college, he had fifty two touchdowns and twenty nine picks. If you add in the fumbles, it's like fifty two to thirty five. It's not even two to one. It's like one and a half to one ratio in the NFL seventy two touchdowns running or throwing, fifty seven turnovers, fumbles or picks. So Mahomes obviously is the class of the league four to one. Other great quarterbacks give you two and a half to three to one. Daniel's not two to one.
Daniel is closer to one and a half to one. I got a worse ratio for you, Colin post rookie year, more games played than touchdown passes, more games started at quarterback, then touchdowns thrown. He is Last year was the last year we've ever seen him. He threw fifteen touchdown passes. It is This is why the franchise tag exists. So if a guy who in a contract year has an outlier season and again everyone's like this, he was great
this year. He had fifteen touchdown passes, you can then be like, okay, show it to us one more time. And I am shocked that the Giants made this decision. All year. This is the thing that's so baffling to me. People were arguing Brian Dables should be Coach of the Year. I agreed with them in large respect because they were like, look at what he's doing with Daniel Jones. And now they're like, here's one hundred and sixty million dollars Daniel Jones.
I thought what they would do this year was franchise Jones and risk taking a step back for the sake of information, meaning they'll say, Okay, Daniel, you actually have to play the real position now where it's not it's not just safe layups, run the ball, run you where
you're gonna have to. We're gonna throw a sophisticated passing offense at you, yea, and see if you can sink or swim, and if you swim, we'll pay you if you Because now they're in a weird spot where they have paid him, and I think they have to run this this high school offense again. And I'll give a guy credit. Greg Rosenthal, who works for the NFL dot Com writes good stuff. He's a smart guy, because I
didn't think about this. He said, he thinks that ownership maybe got had a say in this out ownership who had a relationship with Eli and held on to him too long, that they like how he carries himself, who he is as a person, and that they put their finger on the gale because I can't imagine Shane and Dayball. Yeah, I want to be tied to him for at least two more years and probably three. No, this has always
been my takeaway. This is a blue blood franchise. When I was in Connecticut, most of my friends were Giants fans and Yankee fans and and so you know, I listened, I went out and drink, and I hung out with Yankee and Giant fans. And there's first of all, Giant fans have had a lot of success, like Yankee fans. Yeah, they're often older. They're like Michigan Wolverine fans. They've been good since the forties, so they tolerate a little more.
They're a little more patient, right, sure. And I always said, even when the Giants win, they're an accounting firm. They've never wanted you at Wow, what a spectacular That's not what they are. Yeah. They take tide in intelligence, grinding, work ethic. That is their brand. Like the Ravens. Have they ever had a good team that wasn't tough as shit? They get they are physical right right. The Raiders want to be fast. There are certain the Steelers want to
have great linebackers and play defense. There are certain things we can know. So the Mara family, he looks like Eli big Lie. I mean, their haircuts are the same, Southern yep, carries himself yep, and all that stuff. They don't want to get on the carousel. So by the time this airs tomorrow, I still think Aaron Rodgers will be a packer. But everybody flew out, Woody Johnson, Robert Solid, Joe Douglas, Nathaniel Hackett, they all flew out to California.
By the way, I'm sorry, I just have to get this one liner in and then you can do your thing. The irony of the professional athlete, maybe outside of Kyrie Irving, maybe including Kyrie Irving, who has lectured us more on the hideousness of Big Pharma, having literally the air of the Johnson and Johnson Farma corporation. Whoo him Go like, does Aaron know he's about to go work for Big Pharma? I'm not sure, but go ahead, sorry, as you were,
So they went out to go see him. Yeah, And you know there's multiple reports Mike Silver somebody as part of the volume Mike Silver breaks, a lot of NFL has been all over this. Yeah, he's been all over it. He had in his column for Balis the other day, kind of buried in it, like, oh him, by the way, keep your eye on Houston with Jimmy Garoppola. And I hadn't seen that anywhere, and now I'm seeing it pop up a few places, and I'm like, oh, that's interesting,
but go ahead. So Silver has been all over The Packers are done with him. Yeah, so the Packers, the Packers done with Aaron. And Aaron made a point this week to basically crap on Ian Rappaport and Adam Schefter, saying they don't know anybody in my circle. So I think that scares off some reporters. So all the leaks are coming from Green Bay, and all the leaks are the exact same thing, which is, we are done with Aaron Rodgers, so they are. I think Aaron to the
Jets could actually be really ugly. Now he'll make them better. But let me throw this at you. Buffalo's got a better quarterback and a better roster. Bill O'Brien, for all his critics, was winning a division with Brock Osweider. He's a competent offensive coordinator with Bill Belichick. Actually, and I also think Bill O'Brian's actually a good head coach. Yeah, he also doubled as the worst general man I've ever seen. And so Bill Obrian the GM hout out the legs
of Bill O'Brian the head coach, Ruan Mike McDaniel. We're tearing the league up to Thanksgiving. Tearing the league up forget the rest of the AFC, where he's no longer ascending player. He's no longer hungry. Burrow Is, mahomestall Is, alan Is, lamar Is Trevor. These are hungry or committed as sending players. Nick, I think it's very possible he's a third place quarterback at this point in his career. Well so, I so let me add a different piece to it. Year over year, the best offenses pretty much
stay the same unless there's a major change. Best defenses change a lot wildly, so that wh listen. I think the Jets have awesome defensive personnel, But I also think it happens that a team that was the third best defense in football one year, a couple bounces go differently. A couple you play, a couple tougher quarterbacks, and all of a sudden you're the eleventh best. Yes, so I think that they point everyone's like they won seven games
with the worst quarterbacking in the NFL. They did. But so now what if they have the tenth best quarterback in the NFL? Okay, well, what if the defense goes from winning them five games to only winning them three? Games? You know? And so I think that is absolutely in play that that same defensive personnel doesn't all, you know, have the outstanding years they had. So that's concerning. The
division is concerning. Here's what is also concerning. Do you know who the Jets play this year out of division? Mahomes and the Chiefs Herbert and the Chargers Jalen Hurts and the Eagles That that defense isn't quite as highly ranked yet of course, yeah, And so that it's tough, right, And so then there's the So I'm conflicted on this on a principal level. I think the as a union guy. You know this about me, My dad ran firefighters union. I'm a union guy. I'm you know, I'm not management.
I almost hate believing this and I'll explain what this is. Sorry, I'm building a long bridge. During the last CBA, the players wanted more money. The owners wanted them to have less money. The owners said, Okay, we don't want to pay you more. Howbout we ask you to work less, less offseason, less mandatory days. And the players said, okay, deal.
And I think the owners shrewdly understood we kind of have an, you know, an unspoken ally in the entirety of sports media that will shame any player that doesn't do the optional stuff. So even though it's optional and now you don't have to do it, you're gonna get killed if you don't do it. So I tend to, you know, be like, hey, I don't show up for a lot of work. I'm not made to, you know, I'm not paid to go to I get it. I do feel one can make an arguments a little different
with the quarterbacks. And it is not lost on me that the guy who held the trophy at the end of the year and not only showed up to everything, organized his own preseason in Texas to work with his new receivers and Aaron it's skipped all of it with the Packers, right, skipped the whole offseason that was optional. And then what did we see the first six weeks
of the season. They're not on the same page and then and I imagine this is super frustrating for Green Bay all of a sudden, Christian Watson might win damn Rookie of the Year by the end of it. Once they get on the same page, they're clicking. And I'm sure there's a level of damn it if you guys had been there from week one. If we win one more game, we're in the playoffs, we win too, you know. And so so here's why I bring all that up. If I'm the Jets, I really really want to know,
are you here for everything? Are you go? This is a whole new team. I know you know Nat Hackett, so you're gonna know the system, But are you going to spend the off season with my players to get on the same page. If you are, then I am much more interested than if it's I'll show up for the mandatory mini camp and training camp. It's too many young players and new everything to just parachute in. I just think that is I think that's a legitimate question
to ask. And I don't listen. I don't know Aaron. I don't know what he's gonna do. But the tendency of the last few years makes you think he's gonna say, I'm not doing OTA's right. I've got a hike to go on or something. Also, Aaron doesn't like to be controlled by the media. He doesn't have an owner in Green Bay, he controls the small town media. So there are some basic built in advantages that Aaron has been accustomed to. He didn't go to a football power. He
went to cal he had more power. Green Bay, no owner, more power, pushes back heavy on the media. Why because he lacked power green Bay the organization. He's pushed the front office around. Here's something no athlete has in New York, true power. Right the media, sports talk, harsh columnists, the fans, talk radio literally controls GMS. It gets very reactionary. So my question about Aaron isn't the football. It's the off the field stuff. The paper Rozzie can't control him. You
can hide in La and Malibu. You can't hide in New York. You have to go to Jersey and live in the forest. Aaron's going to have to give up some personal control. He'll get major pushback from a left leaning media. He's not going to get in the Midwest. And I think I think the football stuff he'll be better than last year. But New York is not going to be pushed around by Aaron. They're just not Yeah, and I just this is a good lessons Maybe the wrong word, but there is you people can be as
high maintenance as I try to be. And I actually like I I think I'm not going to obviously like name names or whatever of our colleagues, like industry wide, but I think people know the people that seem to have remained pretty normal people even as the fame and everything has grown, and the people who, in a also somewhat normal way, once they've gotten very famous and very wealthy, have started to act a little differently, And you know
what I mean, treat people differently. Whatever it is. I think I will name this name in a positive way. It seems to me from my interactions Reverstoy, I've ever heard that Ernie Johnson Scott Van Pelt are two of the nicest people in the media. You know what I mean? That treat people well, do all these things, and they're super famous and accomplished. Right, you don't have to do that if you're that level of successful, talented and valuable. But the moment you stop being quite as valuable and
talented man. People remember how they've been treated. What a pain in the ass you've been. And there's not a lot of like grace, like, there's not a lot of and people the Packers seem to be active. Like if I were the Jets, I would have paused by the fact that the Packers are done with this guy, whether we trade for him or not. They're done with it. They they have more information on him than anybody. They're like, we've had our full well, you know what I mean.
It was good run, but we're done with it. And that would be at least a little concerning to me because I don't think he's a great player in him, I think he's a good player. Yeah, I don't think he's a great player anymore. People keep saying he won two MVPs. He did, and then this year he was average, not by his standards, by his standards, the worst year of his career by NFL standards, he was average. So very expensive, oldest quarterback in the league, right, he's the oldest.
Now Brady's gone, he's got to be old, expensive, old, deteriorating, Yeah, and a lot to deal with. I don't know, man, I don't know. Well, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Josh Allen. They're just bigger, stronger athletes. Lamar Jackson's faster. Mahomes is more accurate. Burrow is more accurate. I mean, it happens to all of us. I'll know it at some point. I can see young talented people out there. Aaron isn't as big as the good ones, isn't as fast, isn't
as healthy, isn't as committed. We have to just be honest, Burrow. These guys are like when you watch Mahomes, he is the greatest come from behind quarterback, not by a little Aaron doesn't have a skill. Burrow now and Mahomes are the best situational quarterbacks period on the planet. Josh Allen does things that even Mahomes can't do. He's physical, He's
the best physical. He's the best physical specimens. Not a knocks Aaron six one and a half, thirty nine years old, and it would like be if I didn't prep for my show. He doesn't commit in the offseason, so he's like a ninety two passer rating guy. Now, I love talking to Nick about hoops. I think if you watch my show and have listened to my show for years. You know, I'm an NFL, NBA guy with some college football. I want to start with discussing a place I used
to work ESPN. This week there was a moment, Nick where Kendrick Perkins sort of pushed back on Yokich, Steve Nash, and Dirt Navitsky winning MVPs. So what Kendrick Perkins was asserting is there have been three white players Dirt Navitsky, Dallas, Steve Nash Phoenix a couple of times, and Yokich who are not top ten in scoring but are winning MVPs. He said, what do they all have in common? JJ Reddick fired back, asserting that Kendrick Perkins was playing, you know,
the race card, and it was unfair. It was a highly contested moment and it was pretty riveting t vision. And I'm wondering, Nick, because you've been outspoken where you think Yoki is an overstated player. What was your reaction to that, you know, very turbulent TV moment. I didn't see the whole segment, but I saw the clip, so I will preface it with that. There is nothing and I know we're gonna talk about this, but I'm really
glad we are. There are very very few things that make me more frustrated than when people who know better, smart people act like someone invoking the idea that race could play a part in things means they are calling giant swaths of people racist. Kendrick did not call NBA
voters racist. Kendrick raised the point. I believe what he raised was an NBA history or in the last fifty years, whatever it is, there have been three guys to win League MVP without or in the last forty years, I think, without being in the top ten and scoring, and it was Dark Nash and to be Yokis this year. And in the last sixty years, there's been one guy to win three straight MVPs, Larry Bird, and now it looks
like it's going to be Yokis. Now that you raise that point and clearly implied race is a factor, that does not mean you are calling everyone racing. It is no different than if when I talk about offensive coordinators who've made it to the Super Bowl and the coaching opportunities they've gotten, and then there's Eric Bienemy and Byron Leftwich.
I think race has played a factor, even if it is a subconscious factor in this Yeah, and I think that if we are just flatly analyzing the Yokis situation, since nineteen eighty three, guys have won an MVP with a team not being a top three or four seed Moses in eighty two, Russ the triple double year that you mentioned Yoki's last year. So right or wrong, that was an aberrant event that was in a So he
got an exception that there? Right, I just said, in the last sixty years, only one guy has won three in a row yea. So him winning three in a row would be an exception to what the history is. Sure it is it in play that there is. And I saw some an NBA trainer, a white NBA trainer. I forget who it has actually tweeted this. I think it's an interesting point. His belief that the general media, the white general media, tends to subconsciously, maybe unintentionally, underrate
good white players. They think, ah, probably not that good the guys who are like actually, you know, and those guys actually get underrated by maybe a guy like JJ Reddick. Right, Maybe JJ didn't get enough credit for how good of a player he was because he was white. That doesn't mean they're racist. It means race works in our brains a bunch of my ways. While while that happens simultaneously, yeah, slightly slightly overrating the great white players, right, and and
do I think that happens? Yes? Do I think it is noteworthy that every time Michael or Lebron or Young honest one back to back, the voters then said, Okay, let's let's try someone else. Let's you know what I mean, Let's just give someone else to try. But Bird won three in a row and Yokes about to win three in a row. I think it's noteworthy. I don't think that means we're calling anyone God dog clans and it is it is to me trying to shut down a conversation.
I actually do not think. I think if I'm listening all the reasons that Yokich is now going to win probably his third trade MVP race would not be in my top five, but it would be a It would be somewhere on that pipe chart, a very small one. So I think it is a. I think it is more nuanced than people give it credit for. And I didn't I would have been very upset if I were Kendrick and A and a teammate did that to me,
I wouldn't e liked it. So I'm listening to cag his podcast with Paul Pierce, and he mentions how he's like, Man, I've been in this league a long time. I read body language. He goes, when Lebron had that night and a D didn't even get up, I don't care if you have a bum ankle, you get up. And he said he thinks the Lakers are looking at these next ten games without Lebron as the future of a D. Can they win without Lebron? At they can't? Ad he's gone?
But it was really interesting. So I mentioned something I'd been tipped by somebody and around the Lakers that said, you know, Lebron and a D. After that reaction to Lebron breaking Kareem Abdul's jabbar all the time scoring record, they're not boys. It's not hostile, but then they're not guys, right you tell from body language. KG points this out. When I mentioned that two days later, I got the strongest reaction from Lebron's people on anything I've ever said.
What does that tell you? They got really defensive. I think there is a feeling Lebron feels like he kind of needs him for at least this year, because I had been told in the last year there are times Lebron is disappointed. He came in post bubble out of shape. It was his turn to sort of triumphantly take the team when Lebron's missing eighties off and not playing as well. You know, they've only played like twelve games together since the bubble, that's their longest streak, and there's been some
disappointment in the Lebron camp. When I said that, major reaction from Lebron's group, and I trusted my source. So my takeaway on this is Lebron left d Wade okay and didn't give him a heads up one of his best friends ever. You know, Mellow is one of his best friends ever. He's never really actively pursued him and
said bring him in. He did with Westbrook, sure, he didn't do with Mellow, And I guess my takeaway is this is that the Lebron a d thing is over, but Lebron's really sensitive to it because he did move off Wade, he did get criticized for it. I think it's over. I think Lebron's smart enough to see the temperature in the room on social media. He's not. He's gonna he's gonna be there for him when he's miked. He's like, I love you, man. He makes sure everybody knows.
But I'm not going to just say the AD's reaction to the Kareem moment is nothing. Well, listen, I certainly not nothing. I don't know what it was. It was one of the most bizarre things I've seen in sports in a couple of years. I was one of the most bizarre, shocking things I've seen in sports, and I don't I don't have any sourcing on what was going on. I think I speculated with you, but I it's been so long and this was just blind speculation because it
was so bizarre. I thought something bizarre had to have happened. You know. That was right around the trade deadline, and we knew the Lakers called about Kyrie and we now know Durant was available. And I, again, I have no sourcing on this, and I've said it on TV a couple of times and no one as sexs me like you're onto something, so I'm probably wrong. I'm just saying in the moment, I was like, I wonder if part of it. Once the nets were like, we're not doing Kyrie.
It's like, well any interest in Anthony Davis for Kevin Durant and that that filtered back to to a d and he felt betrayed, you know, and felt hurt, you know whatever, because something had Here's what I do know, without having any sourcing, something happened. Because that was weird. That was as weird as it gets. With all that said, I I don't think the Lakers are dead this year. Man. I don't. You can say I'm crazy. I just I go up and down the Western Conference. I'm like, Okay,
the one seed is Denver. I know a healthy Lebron and Ad can beat them. I know that I've said the one year. Totally agree. Memphis now is off into the week Memphis is who knows with Memphis by the way, got John Morant reportedly Jamax said this to meet today on the air. Is that this was two days ago in this airs. Is that you know when Jaw goes out, his teammates don't go with him. He's got his guys. Is that is there a resentment that he has blown
the season up in that room? I don't know, but I do know that Memphis is right now not looking as good as they were at any point in the last eighteen months. Yeah, the three seed, God love them is light the damn beam Sacramento and I got respect of Sacramento. My lovely wife who you adore, She's from Sacramento. Love the people there no defense, none the best offense in the league, but no experience and no defense. Same with Dallas since Kyrie showed up. They you shoot fifty
three percent against the mass no defense, right. We joked about this on the show. NBA used to be a race to one hundred with the MAVs. It's kind of like a race to one twenty five. It's like who's gonna get in there first? Like the um Phoenix. Set them aside for a moment. They are, they should be the favorites. I get it. Dallas is my pick at the beginning of the year. I don't think Kyrie's part of winning. I don't love it. Last year they have
the number eight. Defense's fallen apart. I know you believe in the Warriors. I got a fact. I got a nut fact for you, Colin. Since nineteen eighty, the worst road record to win a title twenty one in twenty the Warriors have won seven times on the road this year. I don't think it's their season. Okay. So now then you have the Clippers, who made the brilliant decision of adding Russell Westbrook for no reason whatsoever. So and then there's Phoenix, which has everything you'd want, it not quite
as much depth as you'd want. However, there are certain teams that when an injury happens, the Bucks last year with Middleton, it's like, God, dog it what terrible luck. Couldn't see it coming. Bad timing, bad luck. There's certain teams when injuries happened, like the Lakers every year post bubble, it's like, well, yeah, one guy's in year twenty and the other guys man Injurer's whole career. Or the Clippers
it's like, well, Kawhi is his body's breaking down. The Sun's veteran leader and best player are incredibly injury prone. Now you can't like Kevin durant Is more Is post Achilles is injured all the time. So I just say that you can't. You always people always throw out the caveat of if healthy. Well, there are certain teams more likely to be healthy than us, and the Suns, Clippers, and Lakers are three teams that if they're hurt, it's like, yeah,
well that's you know, that's the risk you run. So the point I'm making is I think I think everything you said about the relationship might be correct, and the Lakers a long term might be correct. But I also think if they can survive this time without Lebron, I don't and I don't know the severity of the foot injury, but if they survive it, Lebron having three weeks off before a playoff run in a wide open West, I'm
not ready to write them off yet. Maybe I'm you know, a romantic, but I'm not ready to write them off. I will tell you one team that I think is going to feel like this could have been a year for a great run. And now his questionnaiming the run was the Pelicans. Yeah, Pelicans are looking I'm beliebl And now we don't know when Zion's ever going to play. Yeah, and that's a disaster. Well, the Zion John Morant class felt great. Zion can't get healthy and John Morant can't
grow up. So you know, it's one of the things, not that I defended job, but I said, you know, in the NFL, you know, a guy comes in after four years at Georgia, three or four years at Alabama. They've gone to college, they've the global perspective of classmates, they've had hard coaching. These are men. The two best guys in this year's draft forgo college, right. So it's AAU or international basketball to a paid league, to the NBA.
They can't drink in the team hotel. So I think part of what sort of endemic in this sport, and you've got to come to terms with it, is these guys aren't emotionally ready, and I think it's just a reality. I sort of build it in is when I look at these rookies. First of all, they all hit a wall year one, because college basketball is regional travel mostly thirty six games. NBA is domestic travel count preseason playoffs could be one hundred games. So they all hit a
wall like game sixty five. They can't keep weight on, you know, they're just they have to play defense. They're burning seven thousand calories at night. By year two, expectations ramp up, social media, parents, hanger honors, So the jaw situation, I think you'll get turned it around. And I'm not defending him, but isn't this sort of something that's built into the sport. These are kids now they have revenue, basketball, revenue, shoes, revenue, social.
Oh it's overwhelmed. Listen. So here's the thing. I'm amazed anybody at that age that money that fame doesn't just create disaster after disaster. So I am super you know, I've told the story to you before. I'm smart kid. I think good family, all the opportunities. Forget getting fifty million. I ride out of college one who wants to be a millionaire and won fifty thousand and it's gone in nine months, gone with it. By the way, I didn't I adn't buy a car and have any assets. It
was spent gambling, drinking out is spent. People are like, oh, you're paying for everybody's lifestyle. Yeah, of course you are. Of course you are. So I'm going to defend a lot of that stuff. Like people are like, oh, all these guys, they're paying for their friends. As soon as you have money, you like doing things that cost money,
and nobody likes to do them alone. So it's like, hey, guys, want to go to dinner, and if all your friends like, yeah, I've got money for Fridays and you have money for mass Rows and I guess what, You're all going to mass Rows and you're paying the bill. It's like, hey, guys, it's the offseason. You're on vacation, and they're like, yeah, I can pay for Branson and you're like, hmm, I was thinking Barbados. I guess we'll all go and all pay for it. So I understand, like all of that
stuff is to me totally reasonable. The gun stuff scares me, and again I'm going to couch it with this part of it. There is legitimate, understandable pushback from people who are like, hold on a second, we have more guns than people in this country. Everybody's allowed to have guns, and we only freak out when it's a young black guy. He wasn't breaking any laws potentially, all that got it. I actually think in a lot of ways there are fair points there as far as the apocrisy of it
all day. What is undeniable, though, is what he is doing is dangerous. Forget if it's right or wrong, it's dangerous. It would be dangerous anywhere. It is particularly dangerous in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis, Tennessee has the third highest homicide rate of any major city in the country fifty biggest cities. Bloomberg just had this fifty biggest cities in America. Memphis, Sinnesies murder rate
is number three. It is nine times New York City, Okay, which means if you are one of as far as gun violence, the most dangerous cities in America, you're one of the most dangerous cities in the world in developed countries. That's where he lives. We just saw in Memphis a Memphis celebrity, beloved young Dolf, a rapper, murdered at a bakery in the last year. I don't know if Jah's a real gangster or not. I don't know if he's hanging with real gangsters. I don't know if he's just
you know, playing for the Graham. I know that city. My wife, who you adore, her best friend, who you've met a few times, saw it the Super Bowl. Nicole, the who's with us all the time, lives in Memphis. We go to Memphis a lot. I know the city, I know the nightlife. I told this story on my pod the other day. I don't know if I should tell it or not, but whatever. We went down to Memphis for the Southern Heritage class. The Dean Stein Jackson
stating saw it. That night we went out, went out to a lot of the places that I know, like our places, Jagoes in Memphis. That that scene that those clubs. Right. One of the guys who's promoting one of the parties that night knew I was coming, He knew Nicole knew I was coming. Whatever. When we got there, he said, hey, thanks for coming. Nick. I was like, yeah, it's great whatever, and he said this is such and such. He's gonna be with you tonight. Like huh. He's like no, He's like,
I brought it. He's one of my security guys. He's just gonna be with you all night. I'm like, no, come on, man, like I thought he was doing it, like I was like some big shot. He's like no. He's like, eat, I know, I know my city, and I know I'll feel better he'll be with you. His point was, you have a little bit of notoriety, a little bit of jewelry. I'd feel better if I knew someone who knew everything about the city was here with you.
And now some might say and if boss is here this, then I might say, and Nick, maybe go to a different club maybe, but whatever it is, you're young, you're having fun. That is where John lives. And whether he is an actual tough guy or not. Actual tough guys see these videos and see how he's conducting himself. And I don't think it's being hyperbolic to say what he's doing is dangerous. Not that he's going to hurt someone.
That's something could happen to him. And and this last point I'll make on it, the opportunity in front of him there is like he's in a very unique spot because if someone were to say who are the best players in the NBA over the next you know, six years, so Lebron's gone, Durant's probably aged out of it, Staff might be aged out of it. So like you know, from twenty twenty six to twenty thirty two, are the best players? People probably say, well, Yannis Luca Yokitch and
then you say Job Tatum, whomever. Here's my point, there is a lot of money in being He's never going to be the best player in the league, but he might be the best American player in the league for a long time because all the guys ahead of him. There's different marketing available for the best American player. There's just is like they Luca and Yoki and Janis are not going to get all of the endorsements that the guy who's the best player in the league should get
as an American guy. Would that could all go to job. People love him, he's electrifying, but the shit he's doing is dangerous. It's flatly dangerous. And I hope he I hope he gets that, and I hope he's I hope he's all right. So when Sean Payton would come on the show with me this year on Mondays, he said, you know, Parcels used to say, you're first fifteen picks, do not take an undersized player, regardless of position. Tua is not a top fifteen pick. Kyler Murray now we're finding,
doesn't want to get hit. Jalen Hurts, great player, second round, Drew Brees, second round. Smaller players. I mean, you know, Dave half this league is undrafted. So I look at Bryce Young. He's five ten and a half, that's about three inches short, and he's gonna weigh I mean in the combine he's over two hundred. He ate a lot of steaks and a lot of potash. Yeah, yeah, you know that he's gonna play at one ninety six. What do you do with him? I do think he's the
most I think he has two things. I'll say he's accurate and Dave. I watched them in high school in college. His pocket awareness is fantastic. He has an absolute feel for the pocket, which I think Dave is a neat And eight, I don't think you can teach it. Some guys never Sam Darnold love him, never feels it. Ever, he runs away too early. He doesn't see it. Bryce Young's pocket awareness is a plus. Plus. He's small. He doesn't to me. He doesn't work in Chicago, a windy,
cold northern environment. But God Houston, Dave, Atlanta a dome Dave. I don't know. How do you pass him up? No? I think that you know. I talked to him about eight. I'm a member of the thirty thirteam. Okay, Parcels actually got it started and we were talking on there. There was five or six general managers on there, and they talked to people around the lid GM's personnel people more than I do. And there is a real split feeling on these quarterbacks. I mean they bryce young. You're talking
about in the right situation. But after this combine workout c J. Stroud, there's some people like there's one guy that was talking about Will Levins, how they like how he gets the ball out and for their style of offense, he would be perfect, you know. And then the Richardson's kid, I mean, he's got all the intangibles. I guess I have never studied him one year doing it makes me a little nervous with him. But the point is that
there's not in NFL general manager's minds. There's not a Trevor Lawrence in this opinion, So you know, I would not be surprised. I mean, I think that it'll be Bryce Young, but I don't know. I mean, I've heard a lot of different stories, and it's a matter of who's going to fit in your offense. You talked about the different cities, the mentality of their offense. You know, it's it's gonna be real interesting. I don't know any negatives except the size. Look at you know, Drew Brees.
People passed on him, we did at the Dolphins because of his size, but he was very accurate when he was at Purdue and he moved into pocket. He drew Brees did a lot of things that Bryce Bryce Young does. He really does without as good as supporting cast. And I have an Alabama Now. You know I said this in the preamble, So this interview about the combine, Belichick, Sean McVay, Matt Lafleur have said, Nah, I'm not going
to go. Here's what I worry about, Dave. When you plan a college or a pro football season, you're hurt by week three. Nobody's healthy. You match up against guys that are bigger and stronger than you. I want to see game tape. I worry it's a complete cottage industry. Now coach prepping for the Wonderlick, prepping for the Combine. Shit, I think you get fooled. I think Belichick has been
fooled by players. These guys come in, Dave. If I went to you and Trent Dilfer said something to me years ago, he goes, seventy five percent of these guys don't love football. They love what football provides for them. And I was told by my agent, get in the best shape of your life. You'll never have to work. You're going to be a late first rounder. Dave. I look at the combine now I think he get fooled a lot. I see some these combined beauty pageant contestants.
I mean, where did you fallen on it? You know, I agree with it. Well, it wasn't it wasn't the extreme back then as it is now. But I work.
I won't give the names. I've worked with about four or five agents in Naples, Florida, in your own stomping grounds, and they would bring in their college players and one of the challenges I had was get him to draw the circles called and picture this on a board, the circles of an offensive formation where one guy was drawn, you know, the size of a dinner plate, and the other guy, and then next to him was the guard. It was the size of a quarter. I mean, you know,
prepping him. So at the end of this week, all I did was what you're talking about, This is how you got to answer the questions. This is how when they drawing the board, this is what you got drawn. So you're one hundred percent right. And these guys are getting scold yes from the agent. But there's a lot of guys like mine, ex coaches, that are spending a lot of time with these guys. I sat in those meetings for over fifteen years as a head coach and a GM and head coach at the Dolphins, I asked
those questions. I know what the coaches want to hear when the tape goes on and you make a mistake. I know exactly what they don't want to hear too, right. So I mean I'm one of those guys that's been been schooling them. You're one hundred percent right, Yeah, No, I mean, shit, there's a real industry out there for a Dave wants that. Dave, here's a lot of money eats these kids circles, how to draw circles. So Aaron Rodgers goes in a darkness retreat and know, my takeaway is,
I'm pretty new school on this. I got fairly young kids. Whatever it takes for you to get your mind clear. Shit, I don't care, Dave. If you got to go to therapy when the season ends, go take six weeks, go find yourself. But I've had this belief for a long time that Farv and Aaron are really similar. That the lack of an owner allows the quarterback for the Packers, if talented, to essentially run the franchise. And because Green Bay is the smallest market. If they're bad at quarterback,
they're not on television. In my childhood seventies and eighties, the Packers were never on television. They I mean, they really weren't, and I think they're paralyzed by it. If there was a Jerry Jones or an owner in Green Bay and Aaron said I'm going to go into darkness retreat, he'd say, well, when you're done with that, I want an answer. Or you're going to go in a darkness retreat, I'm going to send you to the Jets. You'll be
dark for the rest of your career. You tell me when when you were with Jerry or Wayne Hyazinga, go back to all your owners, were there moments that an owner was actually really important to set a precedent, to be a voice to hold people accountable. Because Farvin Aaron have gone on this retirement threat tour, both of them for the last five years of their careers. Yeah, I would say no. I mean, that's probably not the answer
you want to hear. But quite honestly, you know, I was at Miami when Wayne Heizenga hired me, and Dan Marino was at the end of his career and The first job that I had was Gwynn and sit down and talk to Dan, who I knew was a fellow pit guy University of Pittsburgh, and tell him that we were changing offenses. And I didn't see there being a fit that he could be on the team, but we were going to go a different direction. On and on. I have chan Daily, who was going to do a
lot of movement stoff not to drop back. We were changing the Don Shula offense. When Jimmy was there, he kept that pretty much in place. I was completely getting a new playbook, and so I kind of went through that. Wayne Isaeka was never involved with it. Jerry Jones when I was at the Cowboys when Jimmy Johnson was there, Jerry Jones was never involved in what was going on with Troy Anklin. Never It would have never happened. Jimmy would have left earlier if that was the case. I
mean he would have. He wouldn't have put up with it. So I wouldn't buy that. I does it bother you? Does it bother you that Aaron has sort of a laws a fair attitude on updating the Packers. Yeah, it does, because last year we made a commitment to him. I mean, we really did. And yeah, it's a two way street. I get that because we kind of went through the same thing last year and we made this big commitment, big money commitment. So it does bother me. I personally
think he'll end up back there. I mean, yeah, you know, there's a hook to go maybe with the Raiders with Davante Adams because he's a buddy here. There's a hook to go with Hackett to the Jets because it might be a similar offense. But I don't think Aaron Rodgers wants a lot of change and he knows what he's getting in Green Bay with Lafloor. He knows the offense, he knows the receivers. You know, I don't know he knows what he wants to do. Talk about a guy
as an offseason routine. Now, all of a sudden, you go to the Jets and they want you in the weight room four days a week, you know, I mean, routine's change that is not going to finish. That was the biggest thing with Dan Marino and Dan and I talked about. I says, Hey, it ain't gonna be like it was. Dan. You know, we're gonna start OTAs like Tamar and we're gonna get in the offseason program. Tamar
whoa coach, I got offseason commitments, and I go. Dan had a lot of stuff going on, you can imagine, and it's been that way. He deserved it for years, and all of a sudden we were going to change that. The routine change in his mind, I think was as much as anything. I think that's gonna play a part in this with Aaron Rodgers at the end of the day, I truly do. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, listen, you drafted Jordan Love in the first round. At some point you have to pay. You don't want to pay him before
you've seen if he can play. And you know he's a tough one to sign. So because if you make a trade for Aaron Rodgers, okay, if I'm at the Jets, the Packers are gonna want multiple picks. Well, it can't be multiple picks. This is a one year deal. In their minds, we'll give you something for one year and then if it happens the next year, maybe we'll do
something for the next year. But I think it's a tough sell to get somebody to give up a lot to get Aaron Rodgers think about it when you're when you're back of your mind, you're thinking, this could be a one and done situation. If he didn't like it at Green Bay when an MVP's you know, he could surely have a problem with us. With the new system and new players, a new city, a new place to live, news media. I mean, so it's a one year deal. In my mind, if I'm on the they're in thinking
of giving up something for Aaron Rodgers the Volume. Make sure to check out The Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the Volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the rope, also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network.