Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts -  Nuggets Title Reaction, Jokic Dominance w/ Jason Timpf + Middlekauff on Bills Concerns, Payton’s Russ Project

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fourth quarter I thought they were relentless. I thought they were kind of dictating, kind of pushing, running Miami off the line, no cheap baskets, made everybody work for everything. Like you know, they always say offenses talent and skill, defense's effort.

excellent in this postseason run. Coming into tonight, their defensive rating in the postseason was only about two points worse than Golden State last year, who was an outstanding defense during the regular season and continued to be so during the postseason. Now, some of it, I do think it was about matchups, and this is kind of the beauty of basketball is like it's not necessarily how great of a defense you are in a vacuum, it's how well can you guard the Lakers? How well can you guard Miami?

How well can you guard Phoenix? And with those particular teams, you know, Phoenix didn't quite have the amount of rim pressure they needed. The Lakers didn't quite have the amount of off ball shooting they needed. Miami had all the off ball shooting in the world. But they didn't have the real high level shot creation that they needed. And that's the thing is, like again in the NBA, you don't have to be It's not about being that great

defense the grand scheme of things. It's about your specific matchup. And they took it very seriously in this particular postseason run. Mike Malone harped on it constantly. They all talked about it constantly after that game, too ugly loss to Miami. And you know what's interesting is they were missing threes

like crazy. This was a classic Eric Spolsure game. They ran about forty possessions of zone in the first two games of the series, then almost completely abandoned it in games three and four, and then that was almost all they did tonight, and it did a great job of disrupting Denver's rhythm. And they were missing a lot of

open shots. And what's interesting in basketball is you can't control shot result, Like if you're getting good looks, you fire away and you just hope they go in right, But you can control the defensive end of the flour. And I thought their second half was probably their best stretch of defense in this entire postseason. Hell, they had Jimmy Butler, pump baking at ghosts and not wanting to shoot the basketball. Bam and a boy was missing everything

around the paint. It was their defense that got it done, and that's what I enjoyed about it. It is like, at the end of the day, it was some of the traditional things that ended up winning in the end.

like Pippen. You know, Michael wasn't a playmaker, he was a great score. Pippen wasn't a playmaker, he was a great defender. You know, Like like Chicago didn't have a lot of that hybrid stuff where you could do both, right, Even Shaq and Kobe known as scores so Jokic and Murray both become ten plus assist guys. You know, the outther thing is when you're when you're a really great team, you not only win championships, but you often change the game.

The Warriors changed the game Denver. Now with their length, are they putting it into small ball? You can't really play small ball with them. You have to have an enormously successful shooting night. They're just too long, they're just too big. And I think to myself, great teams not only win. The Kansas City Chiefs not only surpassed New England, they've made that sort of defense first game, that kind

of game doesn't match up with Kansas City. You just can't stop Kansas City if you give them twelve possessions, you just can't. And so, not only is Kansas City now better than New England, they've kind of ended the idea of ball control because Mahomes needs thirteen seconds and he can drive down the field. And I think what Denver's doing? Are they ending small ball? Do we look at now? Miami's a pretty small team. If bands done on the floor, Golden State, they just don't match up.

They just can't get anything down low and I also think it was a throwback series. Denver's very much points in the paint, a lot of guys hitting twos. They won a championship on a night they couldn't hit free throws or threes. I kind of like the old school stuff. I got to tell you, people are going to watch them, and I think people are going to say, Okay, the small ball. Remember Houston for years chased the Warriors small ball and they could never win. They were shooting thirty,

forty fifty threes. You sort of look at Denver and think, oh, there is another way length twos playmakers. I don't know, I find Denver captivating to watch. I feel like I'm watching a little seventies and eighties and twenty twenty three. I feel like I'm watching a little of both.

But if you look back, like size has been winning in the NBA lately, like this Denver team, Gigantic, that Milwaukee Bucks team in twenty one, Gigantic, that Lakers team in twenty twenty, Gigantic, that Toronto Rafters team in twenty nineteen massive, Even that Warriors team with Kevin Durant, when you really put Kevin Durant with Andre Gudala and Raymond Green on that front line, they were massive. They're just

you have to win with size in the NBA. And what was so interesting with this particular Denver team, and this is what actually your Kansas City Chiefs reference kind of makes sense to me. Like I can't tell you how many times over the years as a toward Cowboys fan, I'd be watching, like Aaron Rodgers put together these long, drawn out drives and then it just felt like the

Cowboy offense could never get in a rhythm. And the three and out is almost just as much of a product of the rhythm as it is the defense, just because there's a flow to football in the same way there's a flow to basketball, and it's when you see a team that's going to get a million offensive rebounds and they're going to score consistently, get back in transition

and force you to attack their set defense. Sometimes denver best defense is their offense, just by the way they beat you up on the interior of the other end of the floor. I do not on the One of the weird subplots of this series is Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo could not make a shot in the paint to save their life like they were. They were awful,

awful shooting inside the paint in this series. And a big part of that is those dudes are banging with Aaron Gordon into Kola Yo Kitschall series and it just wears on you. And so that's a big part of their attack. And then as you go down the roster, you mentioned Jamal Murray, and that's such an important part. His playmaking has been a revelation in this playoff run. He's averaging over seven assists a game. That means Jokich

and Murray are giving you almost twenty assists a game. Yeah, and then you've got the Murray, the KCP Michael Porter Junior element, in the Aaron Gordon element. All these guys are coming back. This to me feels like a team that could just as easily make four or five consecutive Western Conference Finals and win multiple championships. That becomes an interesting exercise to kind of think about what the rest of the league does from here, because I think it's

gonna in a bunch of different ways. You talked about small ball, nine hundred percent agree, Like, there's just there's no doubt that if you try to march into a series against the Denver Nuggets next year and you want to play four dudes that are below six eight, then you're going to be up against it from the standpoint of competing on the glass and in the physicality areas

of the game. I mean, Miami did about as good as you possibly can do because of how well coached they are, but even they looked physically overwhelmed at times, and look at what ended up. Most of the pivotal plays at the end of this game were offensive rebound putbacks and Jokics just mauling dudes around the rim. It

was their size that got them beat at the end. Now, as I look around the league, though, like everyone's got to make significant improvements, Like I think Phoenix had some real success with pull up jump shooting against this Denver team, But they need to confront their size issues. That's gonna be something they have to confront. Yeah, oh absolutely. And then the Lakers ironically were the by far the most successful offense against the Nuggets. That was so weird about

that series. You go in there and you're like, Lakers are the best defense, They're gonna be great. Denver cooked La more than they cooked any of the other teams, Like it didn't make any sense. And then on the offensive end of the flour, we all talked about the Laker offense all season. The Lakers were actually the most successful offense against the Nuggets, in large part because of Lebron James rim pressure, ruey Ha Mura rim pressure. They were actually able to attack the paint in a way

the Miami Heat couldn't. But they have to make so many improvements in terms of their perimeter athleticism because guys like Bruce Brown and Jamal Murray just absolutely destroyed them, and so all these teams have to make significant improvements. You're going to see. I think you're going to see a lot of teams get really aggressive this offseason because

they know they're not good enough yet. And I think you're going to see a couple centers get some big paydays that don't make a ton of sense, as guys try to throw money at an extra body to throw at Jokic. I think you're going to see a guy like Dwight Howard back in the league, Like it's going to be this whole summer is going to be like, how do we deal with this team who's bringing all their guys back, and it's going to be an interesting chount.

his prime. He's got six more years of it. He's in the best shape by the way he's.

I'm not a rearview mirror guy. I love having a new potential dynasty. I don't know if they are, but it has the makings of one. I mean, when Lebron went down to Miami, you felt like, oh, this could be special. But d Wade was always a guy that hit the floor a lot aged very quickly. You know, it's like a running back not many years, and so you could see by like year two, it was like d Wade wasn't as good on back to back. She kind of said there's going to be an expiration date

pretty quickly on this run. But I look at I look at Denver, and I'm like, at least for three more years, at least three more handful, because I think I think, to be honest, Murray, Jokich, Porter and Gordon a right smack dab in the middle of their prime, like not near the end of it, like three years from now, let's come back and talk about it. Then they're closer to the end of it, but this will be fun. By the way, I also love KCP bubble team. This team hit a big three in this game. I

loved the game. I love guys like that. There's every championship team's got a guy. I love the KCP. He's had an interesting career. He goes to the free throw line, ladies, talking to all these guys, settle down, settled out like kcp's like telling everybody, Hey, I've been here, so I just nothing I didn't like. And by the way, we all love Miami, but they need Dame. They need a score, they need another player. So the good news for Miami is they lost. They were overwhelmed, but you know exactly

what they need. They need a score.

out of the regular season, it's like, can Jamal Murray be what he was in twenty twenty And he ended up eating way better than that, even but he was dealing with some nagging stuff with his knee. Michael Porter Junior and his back issues flare up from time to time. But what's great about the Jokic thing is like you can just throw four dudes out there with him, and he's winning fifty regular season games, so like you, you're not going to suffer in the standings, you're not going

to struggle. You can buy rest for Jamal Murray during the season and buy rest for Michael Porter Junior. And then when those guys are available in the postseason, it's the simple fact of you better find a way to score on them easily on the other end, because there's just nobody ever really truly bothered them in this postseason. And that's just going to be a recurring theme as far as Miami goes. And this is what is so

interesting from the same point of continuity. And I actually wanted to bring this up because it was something I talked about a lot after Game four. But I do think it's really interesting that from like twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one. It was kind of like the Mercenary era, right, Like, the Warriors signed Kevin Durant outright and they win a couple championships in a row. The Raptors trade their continuity for Kawhi Leonard, a mercenary comes in, they win a title.

Lebron James sh saw off a half decade of draft prospects in the Lakers to bring back Anthony Davis. They immediately win a title. The Bucks coming off of a really disappointing loss to Jimmy Butler in the Bubble, they go out and they trade for Drew Holliday. The immediately win a title. That was kind of like that era.

But now we're in this era where it's like, suddenly, you saw last year a Celtics group with Marcus mar Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum and Al Horford that had a ton of reps together that made it to the finals. And then you saw a Warriors team with a bunch of dudes who've been playing together forever make it to the finals. This year, the Heat and the Nuggets teams that had been together for a while, and my theory on. This is like there's so much talent in the league. Now,

every team has two stars. It's like Philly's like the tenth best team in the league. It's like they got Harden and Embid and Tyree Spacsi. It's like everyone's got two stars. Everyone's got good role players. So it's the groups that play the best basketball that end up winning. And so you have to learn how to play good basketball over years. And so I do think it's interesting how continuity has taken center stage.

it's it's cyclical. So Lebron and Durant move and they have success, so everybody thinks that's that's Kevin Durant and Lebron are two of the twelve best players in league history or fifteen best players. You can move around the league all you want, it's not gonna You're not gonna duplicate their championships. So I think Denver I do think people will look at Denver and try to get bigger

to combat them. It was like when the Spurs had you know, early in the Spurs, when they have Robinson and Duncan, It's like, wow, like this is this is a lot, And I think people will try to combat that. But I think a lot of what Denver does is unique to them. There's just not many guys like Aaron Gordon in the league that big. I mean just I saw him the other days. He was doing something after a game and he had like a sweater on and he was at the microphone and I'm like that ain't

sit ups and deadlifts. That dude is just built, not like any human I've ever met, Like six ' ten broad He's just not on the market.

I was so happy for the city because I've always said Detroit and Denver don't get the love. But everything works in Detroit. They like bowling. I've seen the ratings college basketball. You know, New York City is a great sports city, but they don't love college football, they don't love NASCAR. Detroit loves everything. Denver's the same way. Denver loves everything. Every star was out the night in Denver, every coach, every player, it was like it was it meant so much to the city.

affect the game even when he's not making shots. Like do you remember that ridiculous chase down block that Max Shrew's had in the fourth quarter with like four minutes left where I think it was. I think it might have been Jamal Murray. Somebody had a breakaway layup and he was Christian Browning and yeah, yeah, and he came flying in and blocked it. And I was like, that is just sheer force of competitive will when he can't

buy a bucket. And there was literally like ten of those dudes out on the court tonight because nobody could really make anything, you know, even Jokic missed one of

his late little push shots that he always makes. So I wanted to talk about a little bit about Yokic in his place atop the league because I think even as we talk about the tier that you had mentioned, which is Luka, Janis, Jokic, and Steph, I think that Jokic has demonstrated a level of offensive I don't know what it's called, like inevitability, like like consistent shot creation

that's even a level above some of those guys. This kind of reminds me a little bit of Lebron in the early twenty tens where there's kind of like the changing of the guard where it's like Kobe's tailing off right and Duncan's tailing off, and so Lebron's kind of filling that void, and then some of the younger guys like kd just wasn't quite there yet. Steph Curry's not

quite there yet. That's kind of the way I'm looking at this right now, Like Jokic feels like he's at the absolute peak of his powers here in his late twenties, and Giannis is like dealing with some flaws in his game in the half court, and Steph just didn't quite shine through against that dominant Laker defense the way that

Jokic did. And Luca's struggling in the margins of basketball, like he's unbelievably great, but he's struggling defensively, and he'struggling with his attitude, and he's struggling with kind of maintaining the flow of a team with how kind of ball hockey he can be sometimes, And so like, do you do you potentially see Jokic starting a run here where he's the best player in the world for a while.

Kobe wasn't. I mean, Kobe won force of just a wilfulness, and then with Shaq and then with Gasol, like Kobe willed his way to a championship, a lot of that was Jordan. Jordan wasn't always easy to play with. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Then you

get Magic and Lebron where they make everybody better. I feel like Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Lebron, and Jokich feels similar to me that stylistically they're all different, but their ability to make minus players plus players B minus player A B plus C minus player A C plus Like I mean, Murray was an A player in this. I always thought of him kind of as an A minus A B plus and I'm like, no, he was an a player with some A plus knights and he's not

doing that without the screens. Inevitability is a good word, like Russell Magic Lebron. It wasn't just them. I've said this before to you. Is the greatest stat Lebron's basketball careers in high school where he averaged like twenty six a game. As a junior, he scored He could have scored fifty a game. As a senior he scored twenty seven. That told me all I think all I needed to know about Lebron is junior and senior year he averaged like a point and a half more. That's never been

Lebron games to outscore people. It's always been about elevating others because he knows he can get his points. And it's like that told you what Lebron was. He I mean the Lebron James best basketball playerrever. If I said, what do you think he averaged his last year of high school, you'd be like forty eight, like no one more point than his junior year. And I think that's the key. I think free agents and people are going to look Jason at Jokic and be like Denver's not

a bad place to live, right, Harden, Luca. It's like, man, am I going to get the shot?

start with something. In the last twenty four hours, I do kind of a pre camp standings and we're through the draft, coaching free agency OTAs, and my only woe was I put in Miami in first, in Buffalo and second, and I had two reasons for it. I think Vic Fangio is the most underrated coach assistant in the league. I think he's a great defensive coordinator. Between he and Jalen Ramsey, I think their defense is going to be a handful. Secondly, I like the momentum of Mike McDaniel

and Tua. I think they get better and better and better. I watched them out Coach Sean McDermott two of the three games last year, clearly and arguably three of the three games. And also the Stefan Diggs story. Something's amiss five years in, they can't solve the offensive line. They've added more defensive linemen at all over gotten extension. I'm not anti defensive Coach Pete Carroll, Tomlin Belichick obviously very capable.

Where what do you make of the Stefan Digs? A lot of the Instagram stuff, it just for that stuff to go public. What did you make of it?

I heard you, I think yesterday or two days ago, kind of on the Sean McDermott experience, and I was thinking about it over the last twenty four hours. I think a lot of times. And the works for offensive coaches too, And now Shawn's technically the defensive coordinator. You are, your success is very predicated on the other side of the ball who you hire, So just look at some of the offensive coaches right when did Andy Reid? Obviously Mahomes was a big element of this got rid of

I think Bob Sutton was the defensive coordinator. Spagnola last five years, three Super bowls in their defense has been dramatically better with often young players, Kyle Shanahan back to back defensive coordinators become head coaches. They've been awesome. And now he hires Steve Wilkes. Everyone's really high on Sean McVay. Excellent defensive coordinators, so you need help on that side of the ball. When were the Bills really good for that three or four year stretch? Brian Abel turns out

he's a star maybe Ken Dorsey. I mean, we're gonna there's gonna be a lot of pressure on him because they got a little loosey goosey last year with Josh Allen, who just is kind of a loosey goosey player. His talent is just so elite right now. The thing with the team building and I know you talked about the offensive line with the Bills. Their GM has a lot of juice Brandon Bean, you know, and they have invested heavily in the defensive line, which no one really like.

That's a smart thing to do, but it's like, have they hit on the right guys. I like von Miller fifty five million dollars for a guy thirty three years old. It was a lot of money. Yes, it was a lot of money, and he was having a really good season last year. But what happened he got hurt. You know, older guys. You saw JJ Watt a couple of years ago. Again, elite guy, champion. It's hard to overpay those guys. John.

knows what he's doing to coach the defense. So let's just say their defense a little bit better. What if their offense, like what if Ken Dorsey? I mean, for every counse Shanahan and Sean McVay, there are a lot offensive coordinators that turn out to not be that good. So that would be my biggest concern if I was a Bills fan. The thing with the Dolphins, though, Colin doesn't the quarterback concern you. I mean, you Cushing away from like missing the season.

I I just don't like the way Buffalo is trending. And the other thing is with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. I know Aaron's going to be fine, and I think he's using He's smart, he knows the narrative on in Green Bay was his buddies were the old guys Bachtiari and Cobb. He didn't work with young guys. So in New York he's made a point to put his arms

around the young I love these young players. He's smart, he sees It's like I've said before, when you get divorced and remarried, you're like, what was I really bad at?

Miami's my woe pick. I think Carolina has a chance to win their division, mostly because it's a bad division. Is there a woe pick for you at this point a division that I.

game he plays. In good point. Their culture, you know their quarterback. I'm not a huge like. I don't really like those type players because I think they're ceilings pretty low. But physically you get to go to a place that's just kind of equipped with a running back, weapons, a defense. He's an older, younger player. I mean, it's not out of the realm possibility they win twelve or thirteen games, right if they maximize and stay healthy and they're in

that division. No one's intimidated, especially Baltimore and Pittsburgh by the Cincinnati Bengals, right, even though Bengals have been beating them, but they will view of healthy that they should win the division. So I'd say the Steelers are a team that I might lean to pick. I'm definitely gonna pick to make the playoffs, but to potentially win the North Well and the other thing.

to audible in and out of trouble. And so I kind of look at Kenny Pickett and I'm like, Okay, I don't love him. His ceiling maybe seven and a half. But you know, with Tomlin's defense, with a culture that can win a division, it really can.

since Fresno State. I think for the first time in his career he was really kind of told like essentially, you suck get out here. Yeah, you know, like you're not good enough to play here. They've left, he left the building the last couple of weeks. That's a team that what's crazy is that the end of the Sean Payton era in New Orleans, they had a really good defense and they still have a lot of physical pieces. They've been a physical team. Yeah, then Drew's career kind

of ends, and obviously they go into this court. They don't have a quarterback. Derek does not have to be Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. If he can just play like the tenth eleventh best quarterback in you know, the NFL, they could especially winnu factor in their division. Their strength of schedule, like why couldn't they win ten eleven games?

learned so much from Sean Payton. I could tell after about four or five meetings with him, there's no way he was going to stay out of the league. He just he's so curious, he's such a good storyteller. He's so he's just he's like intellectually twitchy, like he needs to work right. He can only golf so much. You've met guys like this.

It wasn't lost on me that he goes out and gets Mike mcglinchy right tackle, Ben Powers at guard. They already have, they have Garrett Bowles coming back, who's their best onlinement, and they do have an interior guard they like on the roster, and so I think we're going to see a significant upgrade on their O line. And Sean told me a couple of times off the air and on with Russell Wilson, he said he's got to go back to leaning into what he does and that

is basketball on grass. He's got to move, that's what he is. What do you in vision? I think they're going to take a big leap. What do you envision with them?

I've seen him, but he's he is a starts every game for you at a very very critical condition. I'm with you. I mean, what made Russell Wilson so special? And I've seen him live several times in his heyday, he was just a magician. He kind of had this Steve Young flair, obviously the deep ball, and he looked like a shell of himself. And you know, I think most of us, if you're going to be bullish on

his comeback, he'd be like, well, Nate Hackett dysfunction. And then if you were going to be bearish on the situation and be like, well, he's a lot of miles on those tires right running around. You can't play like that forever. He's probably him and Aaron Rodgers are probably the two most fascinating situations this year for just high level Hall of Fame level guys in new scenarios. Obviously, Russell's been there a year, but now gets Sean Payton

no longer he's in charge. I think some of the stuff was overblown, Like Peyton Manning had an office at the facility right in Indian Denver. No one cares about that stuff when you're winning. It just gets weird when you're not. Now, Peyton like Tom are just better dealing with guys one on one. Like, I don't know if that's something you change. I mean some of the question marks with Russell just being a little different. You know, that's not something you usually flip a switch at it.

Thirty two, thirty three years old. Like, I'm pretty confident Sean Paige. You talk to people in the NFL that he's viewed as one of the best offensive minds and just schemers of his generation, so offensively like the scheme, He's going to figure it out. It's just Ken Russell. Is he still the athlete and if his athleticism is let's say it was once a hundred percent, is now

sev not eighty eight percent. That's a big problem for a smaller player who's not ever going to play like a Brady or Maning in the pocket.

to be Lamar. I'm not going to be Kyder Murray. I'm not those guys. I want to establish my guy myself as a pocket guy, because it was almost as if he was stubborn not moving. If you watch their games, when he moved, he moved the chains. He's not a great pocket passer. Jalen Hurts isn't yet a great pocket passer. Lamar's better than people think. He's not Burrow. And I thought it was almost one of those where Sean Payton said this to me.

you pick up a first down run. He's still very elusive. So sometimes, you know, people have told me this before in my career. Sportscasters like, lean into what you are. You know, if you're a storyteller, be a storyteller. If you're funny, be funny. If you're a great journalist, lean into it. I think Russell needs to lean back into Russell. So I want to go from there to a team

you know very well, the forty nine ers. I think it's impossible to yank a player that went aight, and Zho is a starting quarterback.

a little bit in the OTAs. But this fall, if he just beat Sam Darnald out, like he went from the number three pick in the draft and traded for three first round picks to two years later not the starting quarterback because mister irrelevant is and competing with Sam Donald who's playing for three million dollars to be the backup quarterback. So I do think there's a lot on the line come August. Right in training camp, they have

some joint practices the preseason games. My take is though, I just the forty nine ers thought that they could have their cake and eat it too and this player, and they realized he needed so much work and he got hurt that they were just a ready made machine. It's why they always kind of went back to Jimmy Garoppolo. And then when they just they didn't luck into Brock party because they he made the team last year out

of training camp. Like they what he did in training camp, Kyle kind of fell in love with They really liked him. Now they didn't think he was in end up being a starting quarterback, but through injuries, his play through whatever, the end of the season and then those couple of playoff games before. I guess the Dallas game was hard. I mean their defense was playing really well. The Eagle game didn't even happen. That he was a more explosive

player than Jimmy Garoppolo. And we know the weapons they have, right, and I think now that they have Christian McCaffrey, they just go, we don't need because I'm not asking you to play like Patrick Mahomes. We run the ball a lot, we throw a lot of quick screens, we throw a lot of wheel routes. We are not bombs away like the Buffalo Bills or the Bengals. That's not the way

we play. So we just need a guy to be very very accurate basically, like the ten yard window, passed the line of scrimmage right, and perty was awesome at that. Of course he was. He's been a four year starter at Iowa State. He's a multiple All big twelve guy. He had a lot of experience, very confident, and it's just an accurate player. I mean that's his strength and that's not Trey's strength. And you know, the Bills several years ago were like, screw it, We're going to figure

it out with Josh Allen and learn through it. And they weren't even close to being a super Bowl contender at the time he started when he got there. That's the opposite with the forty nine er. You could argue it would have been an easier landing spot if he just went to a shitty team and just got to screw up on the fly and figure it out. That was I think the forty nine ers thought the opposite, and then once they got it, they're like, yeah, we can't.

And the players last year were kind of grumbling because they're thinking, we can't win ten games if this guy's not accurate, right, we can't figure it out on the fly. We're twenty five to twenty eight year old guys in our prime right to roll. And yeah, I mean if he doesn't win the backup job. They do have the three quarterback rule, you know, they change it. Technically they keep them, but to me, it's not out of the

realm possibility. They just maybe trade him at the end of training camp if Sam Donold like beats him out right, because once you can't have a guy nine million dollars being your third, You know.

They don't have a and if Jimmy is injured, I mean that they be Brian Hoyer would we wouldn't just trade a fourth to just see what you got to take your chances because there's some pressure on just being relevant if you're the Raiders. So I think there would be a couple teams if he shows signs of life. If he doesn't, uh, yeah, his value is very very small because he makes he's a third overall pick, he makes him cash. Right.

I'm not playing for that curmudgeon. You've been on this forever and listen. I think Bill's an awesome I mean, he's an all time great coach any sport, any era, at anytime. But the offensive game last year was an embarrassment to go with Patricia Right and Joe Judge. I mean, that situation that's beyond like arrogance or whatever. That's just crazy. I mean it was universally like this is insane again,

not a mac Jones guy. I do understand. If I'm mac Jones, like what he's been at Alabama, he knows what normal looks like, and that ain't normal.

of a year. I like business. I always have. Not necessarily a business person, but I enjoy reading about the structure of it and the architecture of businesses and the ascension of a business, especially since I created the volume and almost too a business. The successful companies that fail, people don't get dumb, They just get arrogant, and they start believing John in the culture more than talent. You know, Mike Krzyzewski got very precious on the One and Done.

Remember for years, Duke would not hang your jersey unless you graduated. And then, you know, Mike finally said that all these one and done guys, they all beaded me. Mike was like, Okay, I'm pivoting. Saban pivoted when he got laying Kiffin on the staff. That program first seven years was built on linebackers safe these corners. Then they went all in on five star wide receivers and quarterbacks on left tackles. Is that when I look at Bill Belichick, he didn't get dumb. He but when you fall in

love with your culture. I remember when I started the volume I talked to I emailed a couple of different people, successful business guys, and almost three people, a woman and two men, and very successful people, and they all said the exact same thing. Separately. I said, give me one piece of sage advice, and they all said, be willing to pivot, don't fall in love with your ideas of your culture. Whatever works, double down what doesn't get off

it immediately. And when I watch the Patriots, I mean, you're a former scout, you have people in the building. That's why I think DeAndre Hopkins is sort of an acknowledgment in Juju Smith Schuster. Hey, I got to get this right, like I fed up last year. That's what d hot feels like to me. Well, I think there's some tangible pressure. I mean there's always been rumors in NFL circles. Bill doesn't exactly treat the.

It's a different story when you're struggling to make the seventh wild card, right, and when you do, you lose by seventy five points to the Bills, or you don't make the playoffs, and you look around and you start making moves like that. I was also thinking about I wonder, you know, the older you get, especially some of these coaches or even business people in their seventies, it's probably harder if you kind of lean negative. And Bill can

be a little negative curmudgeon. Think about some of the successful guys right now, Andy Reid mid sixties, kind of happy, right, Pete Carroll a little more positive. There's something to just be positive every day. It's a little harder is now we're several years removed from Tom Brady. A lot of the guys that were around Tom Edelman, mccordy, they're gone. So these guys don't know what twenty sixteen was like.

That doesn't mean anything to a lot of the guys on the Patriots, right, And then you got this coach who just is a hard ass every day driving you through one thing with Nick Saban just there's a churn in college and he hasn't had the lows. I mean his low is like eleven wins, losing in the SEC championship game, right or something. You know, bill last couple of years. For their standards, there's a it's like a

Grand Canyon wide gap. And I don't think he just not that he's not an optimistic Obviously he knows what he's doing, but he's tough man to be around on a daily basis. The negativity people handled it because they also don't pay as much in terms of coaches assistant coaches historically. You know, they try to be cheap with

the players historically. And it's like it's one thing when you're winning, just like in any industry, if you're going to be part of a lot of success and you're eventually going to benefit on the back end, you're like, I can handle this, right, I can handle this crime. But when it's not working, like what am I doing this for? You started looking at yourself in the mirror and a lot of people turn on you.

way grass your club received at the highest level. I mean me, you the average guy, even if they're shooting in the seventies, can't tell. But at the pro level. It's why California guys typically have success on the California Swing, Pebble Beach, Tory Pines. This today, Ricky Fowlers, Andershoffley born and raised in southern California. Last before we hopped on, Phil Mickelson was like fourteen holes. He was three hunderd par California guy still lives out here, so you're very

comfortable with the grass. Now, this isn't your typical where if you're off the fairway, you're dead. They've never played this course before. You see Zilloy The Spelling mansion is on Hoole fourteen. It's for sale right now for one hundred and fifty five million dollars. So the monthly payment is close to a million dollars. The monthly taxes are like one hundred and twenty grand. But this is somewhat of a unique venue because they've never been here and

they might never come back. But I think typically it's it's guys that are smart. There is a kind of like a belichicker, and you've got to have strategy. Tiger was the greatest strategist ever. Phil could be a little loosey goosey. It's why he's never won a US Open and blown it a couple of times. I think Koepka, you know, it's weird. He looks like like a football player something, but he's actually a pretty boring golfer. Hits a lot of fairways, hits a lot of greens, doesn't

screw up. It's why he wins these big tournaments. Rory one of the knocks on him for being one of the most talented guys ever, a little phillish, not always the greatest decisions, you know, the talents there, And I think US Opens historically, we'll see how this thing plays out. It usually kills you when you make a bad one hole, can ruin your tournament.

eighty five Bears style the next couple of days. So it'll be very fascinating Friday Saturday if they if they try to hit them in the teeth with them curveballs.

run it. Phil's gonna bolt. But for the players that didn't defect going forward, what do you think is reasonable compensation to show up because you have to take care of some of these guys, especially now that the PGA scolded golfers that departed and defected and now took the money.

it was not sustainable the way it was going. Right. It's a little like the NBA. You know, ten to fifteen players. We talk a lot about like the top ten players, it's really the top three or four to carry the league. Right in golf it was It's always been the top three or four guys in any era that carry the sport. And then you create stars by the next seven to twenty guys when they battle those guys, and if you ever beat them, you become a star.

Like Jokic, how do you become a star certain knocking off the top guys and now we view him as an equal. But without his ability to beat those top guys, we wouldn't quite know how to gauge it. So the splintering of golf, which is much more niche than our team sports in America, it was never gonna work. And they're going up against an entity with unlimited money. So I have a buddy that works in Wall Street that text me. He's like, you know that the Saudi's have

like sixteen trillion in untapped oil. I mean, their wealth is unlimited, and golf I think they overextended themselves to try to compete against because they were going to their sponsors, who are some of the biggest companies in America, asking them to double down, and the guy's like, well, you're not producing double the why would I give you double the amount I'm already giving you, which is a lot

of money. It wasn't adding up. So the merger and as you see j Monahan, I don't know if you saw the headline the last twenty four hours, but he took a leave of absence probably I mean stress you know, this is something I think that was There are so many variables on this, but ultimately I don't know, like what are you just going to put everyone on salary?

Which might be which might have and now that they're no longer in a I think it's called a five oh one CE for tax benefits, which they're not going to do any and they haven't been able to just put Tiger Phil Rory, you know, pay him like I don't know, Steph for Lebron or Aaron Judges, pay them thirty thirty five million dollars a year and then whatever else you win. And that's the Sadis had the ability

to do. But I also think some of those guys, like the thing with golf, to have a legit tournament, you have to have access to the courses, and the Sadis were never going to have access to any good course because of the country clubs were all in a weird way integrated with the money guys and they didn't want, they don't need the Sadis. And then the public courses, the PGA Tour, the pebble beaches you go around the country are in business with the PGA Tour.