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Not a free agent frenzy yesterday, but still some notable names. Joey Bosa going to Buffalo. That to me is spicy because I thought he might go to San Francisco to play with his brother. But he goes to Buffalo. That's a nice addition for them. DeAndre Hopkins going to the Ravens got a lot of coverage, too much coverage because I think we're still living in twenty fifteen. You know, Raven's got d hop Okay, they're going to get DeAndre Hopkins and hope that he has one or two games
where you go, that's why they got him. Maybe he's going to have seven catches where you go, oh, look at those catches, and they might be big catches for them. But DeAndre Hopkins getting a hundred balls not going to happen. But DeAndre Hopkins going to the Ravens, Joey Bosa goes to Buffalo. March Madness punching their tickets. Bob Morris, UNC Wilmington, Saint Francis of PA and Gonzaga. The Cleveland Cavaliers are getting too good for shows networks to avoid them. I mean,
that's how good they've gotten. Because I can guarantee you Mothership and Fox and anybody else is going they want again, they want again. They're fifty five and ten. That's tied for the fifth best record through sixty five games in NBA history. You have to cover them now. Not exciting. I watch them. They're a really good team. They're a balanced team. I mean, that's not the kind of thing where you go, hey, tonight, the Cavaliers. All right, hey,
tune in for teamwork tonight. Watch the Cavaliers play both ends of the floor tonight on TNT, yes Seaton.
Which is funny because it's kind of what critics of the NBA are always looking for.
Where's the fundamentals, where's the teamwork?
All this individual iso play, That's not the game I grew up watching.
So the Cavaliers fifty five and ten. The Warriors in twenty fifteen went fifty nine and six. The nineteen ninety five Bulls went fifty eight and seven, The Bulls in ninety six went fifty six and nine. The seventy six Ers in eighty two win fifty six and nine. Those are the only teams who have had a better record through sixty five games, and please don't do this. Please, if you're an analyst at a network on a radio show, don't say the following, Yeah, but what are they going
to do in the postseason? This is about the regular season. If that's the case, do we go, yeah, Shay Gilg's MVP, but what's he going to do in the postseason? This is about the regular season. It's like the Seattle Mariners won one hundred and sixteen games. I didn't think they were built for the playoffs, but you still have to acknowledge that they won one hundred and sixteen games, and they proved not to be have not to have a pitching staff that was built for the postseason. But Cleveland
has done a wonderful thing here. They play really good basketball. It's not maybe your type of basketball, exciting basketball, you know, flinging threes all over the place. But Seaton makes a great point. This is about playing winning basketball. That's not exciting, that's not going to get you clicks, that's not going to get you the featured game on TNT or the Mothership. But the Cavaliers beat the Nets. They've won fifteen in
a row. First NBA team to have multiple winning streaks of fifteen or more games in a season since the six Phoenix Suns. They're they're that good that you have to cover them, which is kind of interesting, but I enjoy watching them. If you're going to talk about Shay Gilgis, you got to give him the MVP because he's playing on the team of the best record in the West, then you have to have consideration for Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell is the best player on the team with the
best record in the NBA. He's not gonna win. He's probably gonna get a ton of third place votes. It'll be SGA, then it'll be Joker, and then it'll be Donovan Mitchell. Just be fair, cover the sports. Just be fair occasionally and acknowledge some of these sports that they're not going to, you know, make the headlines here. They're not a ratings draw. But our job is still to
cover sports. We may go once again. I was there for a couple of the Spurs NBA championships, and I can tell you there was an audible groan when Ugh got to go to San Antonio again. You still saw one of the greatest teams in NBA history. I mean with David and Tim Manu, Tony Sean Elliott, one of the greatest coaches in history. But it wasn't exciting. We'd rather see a team that is more exciting, not as good, and maybe they don't win a championship, but boy, they were fun to watch.
Yes, Martin, the crazy thing is the best offensive basketball I've ever seen played in my entire life, all forty years of Marvin Prince's life. Twenty fourteen Spurs when they molly wop the heat in five games, that is what basketball is supposed to be.
It's so boring.
That's what you guys wanted, Just like seeing said earlier, you guys want all this teamwork, and then when people have teamwork.
They're not exciting. They don't draw ratings.
These guys don't shoot sixty threes.
You know.
That's but you know, we've kind of gotten accustomed to that's exciting basketball, or that's basketball, and that's not necessarily the case. Cleveland is a really good team, really good too, and they'll have home court advantage and let's see what they do when they, you know, collide with the Boston Celtics. I mean, that's probably what it's going to come down. To yes, seedon I'm on.
NBA dot com right now looking at the MVP ladder. Yeah, and they done Mitchell right now? Do you want to guess where he is in the top ten?
Oh? You extended it to top ten? Yeah, well I had to. Uh, I'm going to say, well I had to. I'm gonna say he's eighth. You're close.
He's seventh. Two weeks ago he was tenth. Yeah, now he's moved up to seventh.
He is behind.
Let's he's starting at one, Shay Gildess, Alexander Nikola, Jokic, Jannis, Jason Tatum, Lebron James is at five, Jalen Brunson and then Donovan Mitchell. Ok his Steph just behind him, Kate Cunningham and Anthony Edwards.
Okay, but Jalen bruns is ahead of Donovan Mitchell. Correct, Like I gotta give that. What is value is value being notable, getting clicks, being popular highlights? Like, what is what is value now to where it used to be? Your team is winning at a historical pace if he's If Donovan Mitchell was averaging twenty nine instead of whatever he's averaging twenty twenty four, then then all of a sudden he's third, because it'd be easy to go, well, yeah,
he's averaging almost thirty. Well, he's averaging twenty four, and it feels like there's a big difference between twenty four and twenty nine that SGA and he's averaging thirty. Well, if he's averaging twenty four, is SGA going to be the MVP? I don't think so. It's tricky, Yeah, pulling and.
You could, maybe if you want to go deep cut on this with Mitchell, make the case by him shooting less. Three years ago he took twenty one shots a game. He's down to eighteen. He's opening up for his teammates. He's not being selfish. He's not a stat hog, and I'm not calling anyone else that. Remember Steph Curry when Kevin Durant showed up and he went from thirty points a game to twenty four and a half and they won.
You didn't see stuff complaining about his stats that year. Yeah, there's value in certain things that you do.
D Wade letting Lebron think the heat was his there's value in that. Lebron is showing value with what he's doing with Luca right now. I mean there's a lot of ways to equate value. And this isn't to diminish what SGA has done. He's going to be the MVP. He's been wonderfully consistent this year. But I think you've got to acknowledge certain people on certain teams at certain times, and this is one of those moments. They're fifty five
and ten and he's averaging twenty four. And I probably guarantee you that there's a lot of people haven't watched an entire Cleveland Cavalier game, and they're going to be voting on these things. It's like the Heisman, but you know, there's a lot of people vote on the Heisman. We tend to vote on highlights. If you're voting on highlights, Donovan Mitchell's probably not going to get a lot of love there. SGA does, but he's just so good. He
is unstoppable. He truly is. He can get to the hoop on anybody.
Yes, Marmon, if this was Utah, Donovan Mitchell always got some high lights.
Yeah, yeah, that's fair. But the Cavaliers are that good. Fifteen consecutive wins. Zion Williamson continues to play some pretty great basketball. Twenty two ten and twelve. I'm still not buying the stock because this is always a if he stays healthy, he's the king of well. If he stays healthy, yes, but he won't like all he's an ankle turn away from all of a sudden being out for a while and then coming back and then we have to have a slow rebuild again. But he's playing well. He's a
really good passer. He can't shoot, but that's what makes it even more amazing at his size, still going inside and dominating. And twenty two ten and twelve since January, so the last six weeks, seven weeks, he's been great. He's back to all when he's healthy. He's been on two All Star teams. It's just he's usually not healthy. But twenty two ten and twelve. A couple other notes there.
The Dodgers extend Dave Roberts and rightfully so. And let's see, we got a couple of bids that are on the line last coming up tonight, the Southland, the Patriot League and the Big Sky, so Lamar and McNeice, Navy and American University Montana versus Northern Colorado. Also the story that kind of slipped in and all of a sudden, it feels like, wait a minute, Tiger tears his achilles and he's out, won't be able to play probably for a year. And it was weird because and Seaton brought this up
this morning. Are we holding on to Tiger or is Tiger holding on for dear life to golf? Because I think it's us holding on to Tiger. I don't expect him to do anything. He can play in the Video Game League the tgl Okay. It's great to see him out there, but the days of two thousand long long gone. But it is a sport that you can play and play well when you get older. It's just he's going to be fifty years of age coming up, I believe in December, and that's an old and that's an old fifty.
That body has been through an awful lot. But we'll talk about Tiger and the achilles injury. And granted, the injury and the surgery is a whole lot different than it used to be with modern medicine, at least in the last couple of years here. And maybe there's a chance that we see Tiger and people will say the following, well, you only have to be healthy for the four Majors. It's not like you just show up at the Majors
and that's all the golf you play. It is weeks of preparation to get to that, and then after that it'll be weeks of recovery for him. With that body. It's not just four weeks out of the year. It's probably twenty weeks out of the year to get ready and then all of a sudden, you have to get ready again. You got to ramp it up. You can't do it. And that's always been my concern when we talk about Tiger going into a tournament. Can you be healthy? Can you play great golf for four days? And he can't.
You know, it's just too much to ask. He'll show those glimpses. The network's fall in love with him. They'll show every shot of every round. But I don't think he's threatening. And this was before he had the injury. But never rule out Tiger. There's certain athletes where you go Nope, I will not bet against him, But I don't know how much he wants to play. I mean, he's got a brand, he's got you know, a new business,
You've got merchandise to move. I mean, there's a lot attached to this, but the days of what we saw before, and that's where we're holding on to. All I asked for years ago was give me one more. That's it, and he gave it to me. He gave it to me. Tougusta. I'm fine. I think he's the greatest golf forever. I think the year two thousand, you can put that up with any other athlete in any other sport. What he did, he changed golf right before very eyes. Maybe this is all,
this is the way it ends. I'm full, this is Thanksgiving meal. I'm very lucky.
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Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app.
Why should you listen to Cavino and Rich.
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We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss.
And the fact that we've been friends for the last twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something, right, So check us out.
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He's Dominique Foxworthy, ESPN writer, commentator for and Scape, and former NFL cornerback. You can see him the Dominique Foxworth Show in season football podcast three times a week and also a regular with Get Up with Uh? Who is Mike Greenberg? I think is the host of that program?
Right? Is that right?
Don Mike Mike Greenberg? Mike Greenberg? Yeah, how you doing.
I feel like there's a lot of subtext there that I'm not gonna ask any questions.
I like Greeney, I like that greedy school.
Absolutely, I'm doing I'm doing really well.
I do think that I heard a little bit of a last segment, and I feel like you guys are giving Bobby Hurley a little short shrift. I don't know, like it's I feel like what you're deciding between is a longer run or a higher peak.
Because, to be honest with you, I was a pretty good.
College football player. Can you imagine how awesome it was to be a two time national champ white basketball player in the nineties. I think that Bobby Hurley probably, I think.
You probably had a good time. Dude got a pretty good time.
Okay, you would rather have Bobby Hurley's care than Danny Hurley's.
No, I'm just saying, I.
Wait a minute, No, we're not. I know what Bobby did. I'm talking about. You got to make a decision. Are you gonna be Danny Hurley or you're gonna be Bobby Hurley?
So is do I want to have a higher peak or a longer run? Because I think they both probably have enough money to be comfortable. Obviously, Danny's made more money and is well is revered.
I guess it's what benefits do you prefer?
More?
The short run.
Benefit is asking you a question, the question.
You you advertise me as a smart guy, I know, so I think the answer.
I think the answer is probably yeah.
As a forty forty one year old married man, the answer is Danny.
I want to be Danny. He seems like a responsible choice.
All Right, would you rather be Karen Caulkin or McCauley calkin.
It's easy.
It's Karen Caulkin because being a star when you're eight like that stinks. You get extra candy, it's not fun, and I mean, you indaberably have all these other difficulties that child stars have. Ye, I'd much rather be an adult, successful, Oscar winning actor than the dude from home alone.
All Right, what are the Niners doing? And is it time to panic? If you're a Niner fan.
Yeah, we've been thinking about this a lot because I think part of this is I don't think it's time to panic because you have Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, two people that are obviously very good at their jobs, and Kyle Shanahan is going to manufacture some level of offense out of whatever he has. The real question is are they going to be able to rebuild that defense. The defense has always been kind of the quiet key to the success that they've had there, and it's falling
off recently and they lost more players. But I think the question came up, should they completely should they trade Christian McCaffrey and try to accrue draft picks. That's a thing that we discussed on my show, honestly, and then also on Get Up Today. And I've been fighting against the tankification of everyone in media, where it's like either you win it championship or you trade everything and blow everything up. I think that might work as a strategy
in basketball and football. It just hasn't proved to be successful. If you look around at all the good competitive teams, none of them completely bottomed out their roster, well, not.
Intentionally at least.
I guess the Bengals might have bottomed out their roster because the Bengals just were poorly run. But all of the good successful teams like maintained some level of competence and built from that. So the idea that the forty nine ers or anybody frankly like I even would defend keeping Miles Garrett that anybody should, as a strategy just completely get rid of any semblance of competence in hopes that you'll get enough draft picks and you'll build something up.
It just doesn't work in football.
Yeah, you mentioned the Browns, but it feel they weren't even taking offers. Dominie right, Yeah, I.
Mean I get it.
I think that there's a reasonable way to go about a rebuild. I think the thing that I've come to and people talk about culture a lot, but culture is really important to big organizations in football, and to be clear, culture to me is like the accepted behaviors and activities processes in an organization. And it is impossible to maintain a culture in a locker room of sixty players, twenty five coaches in the front offices if you are constantly
throwing people out. The basketball team is slightly different. You bring in one really good player who has the proper mindset, and the culture around.
The fifteen guys changes immediately.
I do think there's something to be said for understanding that when you land in an organization, this is how we do things.
And like I.
Played for the Ravens, I played for the Broncos, under Mike Shanahan. These were places where when I showed up, I knew how things were done, and even though we weren't always great, like I understood. And you see, the Ravens are team that has had a pretty consistent leadership and they've managed to transition from era to era and still have that culture. I think that's really important. As Steelers.
You point to them, and there's a lot of teams that I think can fall into this category, and they happen to also be the teams that are consistently compared.
But do you think we've gotten to a point, though, Dominique with the Steelers that they have to do things that are not traditional, Like you brought in you spend a lot of money, and you bring in DK Metcalf, you might bring in Aaron Rodgers. I don't know. It just feels like, hey, we can go nine and eight, and we can go nine and eight and again, how about we try to go ten and seven, eleven and six. How about we win a playoff game? How do we do that?
I don't know.
How about we do something different this year?
I agree with you, and I think a lot of the analytics and football has pushed everyone to try to make these risk optimizing decisions, which I think are great generally, But to your point, like leadership is sometimes making a decision with your plumbs, like make a decision, like an
aggressive decision that flies in the face. Sometimes it's going to sign a running back for more than what running backs go because in trading for Christian McCaffrey, we talked about the forty nine ers that accelerated that team, but everyone at the time was like, why would you trade for running back? And then you point to the same situation with the Falcons. Why would you draft a quarterback when you already have one that you paid a bunch of money. It seems like they're in a better position
now had they just stuck with Kirk Cousins. You can go through the list of times when people have made these kind of.
Irrational seeming decisions.
But I do think that it's about making calculated gambles, and that would be in Pittsburgh. I think you're alluding to Aaron Rodgers as a selection like that to me, as long as they are not convinced that it one hundred percent works, as long as they are aware that this is a calculated gamble that they think is worth making.
I think it's fine.
It's one of only organizations that I think is stable enough that that can bring in some unique personalities like Aaron Rodgers.
Dominic Foxworth from ESPN The Dominique Foxworth Show. You can see him on Get Up with Mike Greenberg as the host of Get Up. There. But if I'm Aaron Rodgers, well, I'm trying to figure this out. If I'm Aaron Rodgers, how do I convince the Vikings I can make this work? And if I'm the Vikings, do I need to be convinced that this is this is a chance. If I'm
Aaron Rodgers, that's where I want to go. If I can get Minnesota to go, Hey, you know what, we can have a Jordan Love transition here and you come in as long as you're willing to help him get better. That makes you a whole lot more of a playoff super Bowl contender than JJ does. I think to start out, can this work in Minnesota? Would you take that chance?
I wouldn't take that chance, But I think when I am, I'm not sure that it's the wrong It's not the wrong chance to take. To get back to the idea of sometimes you just got to make these kind of riskier decisions. I think when I make decisions in my life and when I'm evaluating decisions that other people have made, often think about, like, what is the worst possible outcome of either of these forks in the road that I go down, And which of these worst possible outcomes am
I more comfortable living with? And I think that's how you can look at it, because you can realize, like this, this could turn out really bad. And that's why if I were the Vikings, I wouldn't choose Aaron Rodgers as my bridge quarterback because I think the worst possible outcome
is one that I'm not comfortable living with. If I don't go Aaron Rodgers, the worst possible outcome is we were wrong on JJ McCarthy and we don't make a championship run and we're back looking for a quarterback next year.
I like that a little more than what happened to the last.
Organization that Aaron Rodgers joined as a former defensive back. Tell me, and I don't know if you've broken this down to be fair to you, but tell me what you see with cam Ward and tell me what you see with Shador Sanders. Yeah, and the separation between those two the biggest biggest differences are what, Yeah.
There are trends that happened in the league, and at one point shador stand would have been a much more attractive option, I think in this league because of how he feels like a more trustworthy, conventional, consistent type of player. But what we've seen recently in the league is the high end athleticism and explosiveness and the big playability. The creativity is what's going to drive you to the top of the draft, and that's what it is with cam Ward.
You're going to get the high end in the low and as much as I think turnovers are an incredible predictor of who's going to succeed in the game, which what is more important that is big plays. So I will take the turnovers occasionally, the inconsistent play and hope that we can coach it out of them and be really happy to have the high end explosiveness with his legs in with his arms, like the throws that cam Ward is making and the plays that he makes his
highlight tape, it's as good as anybody you see. If you pick out his ten best plays, you would assume that he is being revered like Hale Williams was last year. He has that type of ability, and I think that's the difference is teams are willing to take the risk of the downside because the upside risk or the upside potential is so great.
But I don't understand where a team goes we got to get a quarterback, and you will spend a top ten draft pick on maybe Shudoor Sanders, but you're not sure whereas I could, there are guys that I know are going to play in the league, probably for seven to ten years and probably be all pro. Right, But I think, why do teams continue to do this that you don't have to get your quarterback this year? Why not get a player that like if you say I
have Abdul Carter, I feel pretty good. Yeah, Travis Hunter, I feel pretty good. I like there's probably seven to ten of those guys that you can name right away, and you go like, I'm good here.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. The problem is the other strategy, essentially the lottery ticket strategy. Like Jayden Daniels, you just have to see it once every ten years for a coach or an organization to fall on like Washington. I live in Washington, DC. Washington was very far away from being competitive. Jayden Daniels shows up there in the NFC Championship game, and I think that coaches and general manners
see that, and then we look at Miles Garrett. Miles Garrett could be considered one of the best defensive players ever, and you would have traded him, honestly for a consistent starter at quarterback. The impact of your team would have been greater if you had, like a legitimate consistent starter at quarterback then having an all time great defensive end. That's as outrageous as it is. Like that, I think
explains I don't know that it is. I don't know if it's the right decision, but I think that explains why teams are so willing to roll the dice.
But Shador is not Jayden Daniels, right, Jayden Daniels is Jayden Daniels. Everybody talked about his talent. That's why when people are like Washington's fine, They're gonna sit at number two because they knew what they had at number two, and Caleb Williams can turn out to be a great quarterback. That draft was different.
I mean I think right, I would push back on you because, like, who's a let's say, Geno Smith is like a mediocre quarterback, as stupid as it may sound to you, and it does sound to me, as I fixed my lips to say it, Geno Smith playing mediocre quarterback play will improve your team's success more than someone
like Miles Garrett. So like I understand that if they get a quarterback that is a legitimate starter, someone that for whom you don't have to shop every year, like you feel like your team, you've added a win and a half maybe to your team, you don't really change the trajectory of your team with certain players.
Like it's obviously I wouldn't have kept Miles Garrett. I mean, I gotta be honest with my fans. I gotta be honest with my team. You know, if you said, I got Geno Smith as my quarterback and I get you know, four first round picks or something in the future, as long as you trust management to make good draft picks, that makes that makes better sense for me. Miles Garrett may gave you fifteen sacks, great, he gave you fifteen sacks last year, and you guys were terrible, Like nothing
is going to change with that. You need a quarterback. I'd bring in Kirk Cousins. I'd bring in Kirk Cousins and say, all right, here, you go, give me a one or two years here, let's see what we can do elsewhere. But Miles Garrett at forty million dollars.
Right, So you're we started this as a draft conversation, but now you're arguing that you should take Abdul Carter I guess, or take a more shore player at a different position and then go sign a veteran quarterback.
Yeah.
The challenge with that is because quarterbacks are so.
Rare veteran quarterback but I don't want to so much money, but I'm reaching it, like with Shador Sanders and maybe cam Ward, Like, yeah, just because you're the best quarterback in the draft doesn't mean you're gonna be one of the best quarterbacks. And look, the draft is littered every single year with this philosophy. And I get it. You
want the lottery ticket. Only one person wins the lottery though normally, and you're gonna try to win the lottery with cam Ward going to Tennessee, Well, good luck with that. You're not winning anything anytime. Soon.
I think it's like moral hazard is what it is essentially, is like I think that you are making these decisions that I think optimize for success over the long run.
Nobody has the long run.
The guys who are making the decisions, they got three years, got three years to show some promise, and drafting an all pro d lineman is not gonna show nearly as much promise as finding a.
Quarterback that's serviceable.
That's how the game has been designed, that nothing's more valuable than a serviceable style.
Jones is serviceable, right, Yeah, I guess. Okay, so I could have I could have had Daniel Jones. I could have brought in Sam Donald at a reasonable price. Then I could have traded Miles Garrett.
Well, you said at a reasonable price. That's where you're wrong.
No, Sam Donald is a reasonable price. He's getting twenty seven and a half million dollars for the next two years. You wouldn't take Sam Donald a twenty seven million next year.
I take Sam Donald at twenty seven million next year. And that's again, Sam Donald has his choice of places to go. Sam Donald is not going to choose to come to your friends. Okay, where you had so like the situation.
Oka, my Cousins doesn't cost you anything. If they release him, you can sign him for the minimum. Would you take her Cousins as Okay, that's what I'm.
Saying to absolutely take her Cousins, But I'm not quarterback. I don't want to reach the Russell Wilson situation.
Okay, would you take Russell Wilson as your starting quarterback in Cleveland?
I would take Russell Wilson as a starting qui back in Cleveland.
The Cleveland situation is different though, because they do they already have the cap space tied up in a quarterback. That situation is uniquely bad. But I generally agree with you. From building a franchise is no Again, the best quarterbacks in football. You can't think of any except for Joe Burrow, who started out in bad situations.
They all start out in good situations.
I think it's foolish for all these bad teams to think that they can draft Lebron James. Most of these quarterbacks developed in situations that were already good.
Patrick Mahos best in the league.
He came into a team that won the division like the Bills, went to the playoffs the year before the Ravens got Lamar at the end of the draft. Dak Prescott came into a ready loaded team, like all these really good teams or good quarterbacks came in a good situations. So I agree that you're right. I'm just trying to explain why they make these decisions that appear irrational. It's like they're rolling the dice and hoping that they hit.
Was that kind of like a get up segment there that we were like fake yelling at each other. I don't know if you liked it, but we didn't. But you know what we didn't do. We didn't mention the Cowboys. So it's not a get up segment there.
I said, Dak, don't try to get me fired from the worldwide leader.
I know my responsibility. I even said they're looking for Lebron James in.
The draft.
Time.
I love it. Thank you, Dominting, no problem man, Thanks a lot, Dan Dominique Foxworth.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAPP.
Former head coach of the Cowboys, NBC Football Night in America, analyst Notre Dame football analyst. Always great to see Jason Garrett back on the program. Coach, good to talk to you again. Let me put you in the Minnesota Vikings situation. JJ McCarthy coming off an injury, would you entertain the idea of bringing in Aaron Rodgers.
I don't like that decision for them right now. I think you want to create an atmosphe if you're in an environment for JJ McCarthy to be the quarterback of your team, and I don't think you want to have a guy who's as accomplished as Aaron has been throughout his career. I think you probably want to have a more traditional veteran backup who can go in and play for short periods of time. I think Aaron Rodgers wants to be a quarterback of one of the thirty two teams.
I don't think he wants to be a backup. And I think you made that decision with pick ten last year that JJ McCarthy's going to be your guy, and I think you stick with it and create a great environment for him.
What are the Steelers doing or what should they do?
I think they should really entertain going to get Aaron Rodgers. I really do he played better when he was healthier at the end of last year. For me, when you analyze his career, A really interesting crossroads came when Matt Laflora was hired as the head coach of the Packers and Aaron had done things a certain way in the system for a long time, and Matt Lafleur had come from an offense where they were under center more with
the quarterback. They ran the ball, play action, maybe a little different than Aaron wanted to play, and I think there was probably some tension between those two guys early on, but eventually they kind of settled that, Hey, we're going to do some things that Aaron does well, but we're also going to do some things that I want to do as the head coach. I want to run the ball, I want to run play action stuff from under center.
And they got to that marriage and I think that worked out well for them, And so in Pittsburgh, I would try to do the same thing. I would not do what the Jets did and say, Aaron, you're the quarterback, but you're also the offensive coordinator and let's play GM two. When you bring your guys in, I would fit them in and say, hey, this is the way we want
to play in Pittsburgh. We want to play great defense, we want to run the ball, play action pass, and oh, by the way, we're going to create an environment for you, Aaron Rodgers, to do what you do best. And I would blend it that way. And I think we got forty one years old. Aaron Rodgers would embrace that. I think he'd embrace maybe taking some of the burden off of him to do everything every snap like he did
for a long time. I think he would understand playing for one of these incredible foundational teams and the Pittsburgh Steelers like he did with the Packers. I think he'd embrace that. And I think if he could fit into how they want to play, I think it could be a good marriage.
I'm wondering if you had contact with somebody before you signed them in free agency legally, but like Mike Tomlin, if you're Mike Tomlin, would you reach out to Aaron Rodgers and say, let's not waste time here if we can help each other great? Did you ever do that as the head coach of the Cowboys, to reach out to say I need to get an idea where you are right now?
Well, I think you have to be really careful with tampering rules and all of that. I think everybody knows with how these free agency rules and logistics have changed in recent years, that they have this dead period to a lot of people talking to the dead period. But I think you got to be careful about being direct. But I do think they are representatives that can talk to representatives, can talk to representatives to get the idea out that Hey, we want you in Pittsburgh. What's your interest.
Is it a resurgence of the running back position?
Well not in my mind. The running back position never left in my mind. And I don't want to be one of those guys. But I've been banging this drum forever.
You know.
I played for the Cowboys for eight years and we won three Super Bowls, and our running back was Emmett Smith, the leading rusher in NFL history, And I just saw the impact that he made on the entire team, the ability to run the football with the guy like that. We handed the ball to him twenty five times a game. He made the offensive line better, and the offensive line was really good. He made the quarterback better and the
quarterback was really good. He made the receipts better, the tight ends better, he made the defense better, and all of those guys made him better. And it was just the way to play football. And we won three Super Bowls in four years. And I haven't changed from that, you know. When I became the head coach of the Cowboys, that's the kind of team we wanted to build. We drafted lineman, we drafted running backs. You know. DeMarco Murray
in twenty fourteen led the league in rushing. Oh, by the way, it happened to be Tony Romo's best years of pro Dak Prescott in twenty sixteen won thirteen games as a rookie. Oh, by the way, Zeke Elliott led the league in rushing. You know. So the value of the running back to me has not changed. They're so impactful. And I've said this before, and Devin mccordy and I talk about this a lot. I think the New England Patriots and Tom Brady distorted the value of the running back.
When Tom Brady's your quarterback, you can load up on defense and you can only you know, the draft lineman real high, and you don't really need an every down running back, you know, because he was so amazing at making the whole situation work. And then people said, hey, you know, you don't need running backs, you know, and not that they didn't have good running backs in New England. They had role player running backs. They didn't have the marquee guy that were going to hand the ball to
twenty twenty five times a game. And for me, that changed everybody's perception of running backs that hey, you don't need this guy. Well maybe you don't if you have the best. If we're going to make Mount rushmore of players, the first facier chiseling is Tom Brady. Well, if you have that guy as your quarterback, maybe you don't need a running back. But short of that, the running back
helps everybody else. And I do think it's fun for me to see the resurgence because I think it's just a reaffirmation of those values.
We're talking to Jason Garrett Football Night in America analyst, But that brings me to Anshton Gent. We had an analyst who said, reminds me of Emmett Smith by faster.
Did you tell that analyst that Emma Smith rush for over eighteen thousand yards in the NFL? Yeah, and he was kind of good if you remind you of Emmitt Smith, but he's faster, you probably should draft him. I just think you got to be careful of talking about reminds me of that, you know, one of the greatest players ever to play in the NFL. But you know, I can see what they're saying. He seems to be a guy that is not overly flashy, but it's hard to tackle.
He's got excellent contact balance, always finishing forward. You know, those guys make a difference on your team. And you know, we were talking on Football Night in America all year long, maybe the last half of the year, who's going to be the MVP? And in about week seventeen, I blurted out, how about Saquon Barkley? Right? I mean, do you think he had an impact on that team? The offensive line
was great. I get all that, but when you have a runner who rushes for twenty one hundred yards in sixteen games and you don't think that's going to positively impact your quarterback. One of the best things that Kellen Moore did in the Super Bowl Dan is he kept running the football. Saique I think was twenty four cares
for fifty seven yards. There were forty seven Kansas City Chiefs on the line of scrimage trying to stop Sakuon Barkley, right, and all of a sudden, aj Brown is a big game and these receivers, well, it's because of the it's because of the runner and the threat of the running game that you have to load people up and you create favorable looks outside and it certainly helps your quarterback too. So if Gent is like Emmitt Smith but only faster, you should be the first pick of the draft.
The Commanders were great surprise last year, but as I've cautioned people, they did win a lot of games on the last drive, should last second, and it's hard to sustain something like that. Yeah, Jane Daniels was wonderful and they have gone out and gotten some other pieces here, and I do like that. But if you're going to handicap Commanders in the Eagles, what's the what's the separation between those two, at least right now going into next season?
Yeah, I think Philadelphia is still a cut above. And Philadelphia is losing players, and that's what happens when you have a championship team like they do, and they're so talented. But but Howie Roseman has done an amazing job building the team. And you know we're talking about it earlier. You know, one of one of Jeff Bezos's fourteen leadership principles is is great leaders are right a lot. And and you know.
Can I become a billionaire if I come up with silly things like that?
Yeah, but it's true. You know, if you simplify it, you got to be right a lot. And you have to be right in personnel because ultimately that's what separates teams. You can have the greatest personnel process there is. How we talk about it, how we go out on the road, our reports, all that kind of stuff. And when it comes to nutcutting time and you got to pick a player, you got to pick the right one. And Devin and
I were laughing about it, would pick one. The New England Patriots took Tom Brady in the year two thousand, middle of the fourth round. In twenty sixteen, we drafted Dak Prescott. You know, there's a lot of other guys that you're talking about, you're thinking about, but you got to pick the right guys. And how he's done an amazing job both in free agency and in the draft
picking the right guys for Philadelphia. So even though they're losing, guys, I have confidence in him to keep that thing going.
Can you be honest with me, would the Cowboys have taken Connor Cook out of Michigan State if he was available to pick before you guys took Dak Connor Cook went. I think to the Raider from what I always told you, guys were higher on Connor Cook than Dak Prescott.
Well, I'll take you through that whole draft. You know, you know, right at the top of the draft, we had the fourth pick and we drafted Zeke Elliott, which to me, it was a fantastic pick. He, you know, really changed our team in so many ways. But the quarterbacks went first, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz and then you know, the next guy up was Paxton Lynch. So there's conversation at the bottom of the first round about Paxton Lynch, should we trade up, should we do this?
Should we do that? I mean a lot of conversations about that. And then you know, there were other guys I'm trying to think who was in the maybe in the third round somebody went and then and then it got to Connor Cook and the the Connor Cook discussion was more about he played in the dropback system at Michigan State. He was under center. You know, we felt like Dak Prescott was one of the five guys in the draft that could be a starting quarterback for us
in the league. But he was a guy, and I'll be honest with you, I thought it was going to take him time because he played in the gun. There was a lot of quarterback run and at the time, that's not what we're doing, and so he had all the stuff, but it was like, huh, you know, he's probably two or three years away. Well, sure enough, he wins thirteen games as a rookie, so there goes that part of the evaluation. But we had no doubt about Dak in terms of we were all in on this
guy can be our quarterback in the future. It just seemed like Connor Cook was more ready to be our backup right now and then possibly the quarterback in the future. And Oakland traded up to get him. We fell back. We took a defensive lineman from Oklahoma in the fourth before we took Dak in the fourth, so you know, all those different things when you reflex back got him. Certainly fell favorably for us. But he ended up being an amazing pick and a great player for US.
So I was correct that you got. I just liked Connor Cook more than you did Dak Prescott.
We did, Okay, We had healthy discussions about that.
You guys like Paxton Lynch. Didn't Jerry love Paxton Lynch? Yeah?
And you know one thing that that I always laugh about is that, you know, people go back afterwards in the draft and say, you know, there's like revisionist history. You guys would have taken him. You guys would to take you literally talk about three hundred players all day long. Hey, what would happen if this guy fell back? Would you trade up for him? So if you went back and and and transcribe those conversations, your history would be different. Right.
You know there's always the story that Bill Walsh like Steve Dills better than Joe Montana. Well he ended up drafting Joe Montana.
So I got all Cody Kessler, Cody Kessler, Christian Hackenberg, Jacoby brissaid, those are the other quarterbacks that were taken before Dak Prescott.
Yeah, and we felt we felt great about Dak. I'll give you a good story about that. You know, Wade Wilson was our quarterback coach for years. I don't remember way we passed a few years ago, but he was one of my teammates. He played nineteen years in the NFL, and it was our quarterback forever. And Wade never liked quarterbacks, like he would go work guys out and you know, in for the draft. I mean, and I would say, Wade, what'd you think of that guy? He can't play. He
can't play, he can't play. I mean, this went on for years. Dan, it went on for a year, and I'm like, he can't play, I can't play. I'm like, at some point we got to like one of these guys will never draft anybody, and I'll never forget it. I think it was a Friday night he called me early March leading up to that twenty sixteen draft, and he said, I think we got one. Oh well, I said what He's like, Yeah, I'm down here in Starkville, Mississippi. I think we got a quarterback. And he just raved
about Dak. He loved him. And then and then if you remember this, like two weeks later, Dak gets a DUI yeah, yeah, And so I'm like, you know, he was the face of the program. Everybody loved him the whole deal. He had all the stuff you wanted. And he and he gets a DUI and I'm like, hey, here's our guy. What the heck you know? And and and over the next month or so, we had some real aggressive conversations with Dak about the whole process. And
I'll tell you the quick story. We used to do this thing for about three hours with quarterbacks we're thinking about drafting. We get him in a room, a quarterback room, and it would be me and the time was Scott Lenehan who was our coordinator, and Wade and some other people, and and I would stand up there and I would put three plays in from our offense, three pass plays, five man protection of six man protection of seven man protection. I would talk really fast, use all our jargon, give
him every rule that we had, talk about defense. This is what happened, debt dot dot dot dot. And then I would erase it and say, okay, you're up, and now you got to give it back to me. And I would interrupt them on purpose and talk really fast and see if they could retain information, see if they could spit it back. See how much football he knew all that, but we had a real question about about this thing with Dak Prescott, about this dui, because she
just seems so out of character for him. So we get them up on the board and I'm talking really fast and put it all in and I'm like, all right, you're up. It's an empty whiteboard. Give me the first play. And he starts talking. He starts going through it, and about ten seconds into him like hey, stop, stop, stop, he hey, give me the story about this dui. Oh okay, And so I'm like, hey, get me to the bottom of this. And so he tells me the story. It
was fantastic. It was so accountable and specific detail. I had a couple of margaritas after the workout. I was going thirty eight in the thirty I got pulled over or whatever. I mean. It was like and it was clean and it was direct and it was accountable and I'm sorry for it and whatever whatever. I'ma keep going. And so he draws up the rest of the play and we're asking him a questions, stop, hey, go back again. You know you're the face of the program at Mississippi State.
You know this whole thing I'm peppering them, and he kind of stops and gives me another explanation. Okay, third time, he's getting drawn up another play. I stop one more time and he turns and it was a great answer. He said, I said, tell me what happened again on this deal. And he said, Coach, I don't know what you want to tell you. I told you exactly what happened. I took accountability for it whatever. And it was just a Dak Prescott answer. And I said to myself, I
need to be quiet. So he finishes up the interview and he's phenomenal. I can't tell you how good he is mentally, he's just off the charts. So sure enough, he comes to the Cowboys, has an amazing start to his career. All of that. Wade Wilson tragically passes away about four years later. So we're at the repast after the funeral and Dak comes up to me. He says, Coach,
I never told you this story. He said, you remember you did that meeting with me before the draft where you were talking really fast and you kept interrupting me and all of that. I said, yeah, he's like, Wade Wilson told me all the answers to the questions before I went in there, he said, he's going to ask you this. He's gonna ask you this. He's gonna ask you this. So he said, when I got a little frustrated when you kept parting with the question. I wasn't
mad about the question about the DUI. I was mad that I was forgetting all the stuff that Wade had already told me it was a setup.
That's great. Always great to talk to you. Thanks for sharing, and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Jason, you got it. Thanks Jason Garrett