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Welcome in What Drive with Nick Great Episode two twenty three A Ton to Do Today, we are live on YouTube. Apologies that Tuesday we were not able to be live on YouTube, so we will make sure we carve out real time for your questions and comments at the end of today's show. So if you would like to right now start sending in some questions or comments, you feel free also and update real quick. I have asked you guys to start, you know, subscribing to the YouTube page, liking, commenting,
leaving reviews, all those things. We are now up to one hundred and forty six thousand subscribers. So I would love if we could get to one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers by round two of the NBA Playoffs. That feels about right about six weeks from now. So let's yeah, that's not a huge ask, right, that's doable. Let's make that goal for by May first to be at one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers. There's no plaque or anything
that goes for that. By the way. That plaque that we have demands is it on a wall in your apartment or is it leaned up against a wall in your apartment. There's really that.
I guess it's going to be like laid down somewhere. And I was and I was going to be able to go one up with it being propped up. But yes, it's propped up. It's not hung up, but.
It's not just laying down.
It's like on on your dresser, leaning against to where it's at eye level for people, so you can show it, but not quite enough to like get the hammer and nail.
Fine, un do all that.
Yeah, no, I get it, by the way, By the way, I get it.
Deposit.
Yeah, listen, man, we've all been there. All right, here is what is not on today's show. Not on today's show. Harden playing defense on KWHI. That might actually somebody asked me a question in the comments on that, because I've now decided I want that in the show. Not enough to reorganize the whole thing. It's the dumbest play in NBA history, and that's a league that has employed Jordan
Poole for five years. So we'll get to that. Best sporting event of the year for some March Madness tips off in about ninety minutes, which means, you know, if there's ever a day for me to make massive errors or drop an f bomb on TV, today's to day because nobody will be watching. It's a weird thing doing a sports television show and you know nobody's watching it. But that's gonna be the case. Listen for maybe you people catch it on YouTube after the fact, and then
what might be the biggest story in sports. So you might say, why is it not in the show? The show hey Otani, his interpreter here is the loose facts, and I'm gonna put facts in quotes. The story as is being told is show. Hey Otani's interpreter was four and a half million in the hole gambling show Hey paid it off, and there is now an investigation. I'm going to go ahead and say more facts are going to come out, and I am not making any allegations
with that. I'm not trying to protect anyone. I'm not trying to fame anyone. I am simply saying this. The show Aotani discussion right now feels like election night coverage. When all we have is those six people that vote in Delaware or wherever Vermont at midnight and it's like, oh, four to two, Trump's ahead, It's like, well, we could spend time analyzing that, or we could wait literally a few hours or in this case, a few days before
we have real data. So I think we're gonna get real information on the show Hey story, and rather than spend a lot of time on it when we have minimal information, I'd rather wait. So my guess is by the next time we're doing the pod, there will be real reporting on it. And I also have the ability. I'm good pals with Jeff Passing, so all probably hit him up this weekend and ask him to give me the dummies version of what is known and what is believed and then we can maybe talk about it more Tuesday.
But the speculation right now to me seems to be a bit of a fool's errand so we're not going to spend a lot of time on that demanse. What are we going to spend a lot of time on? Go ahead?
The Bucks and Celtics. They played last night.
Damon Tatum put on a little clinic and the Bucks we're able to keep the game pretty close despite not having Giannis. So we already know a few of your thoughts on these teams in the East. But you've it's it's kind of conflicting. You've got the Bucks as your finals pick, but you have the Celtics a top of your tiers of your tiers right now?
What's up with that?
Yes, so right now, the Celtics deserve the respect to say they're the best team in the league. They have a top six all time point differential. That's meaningful to me like that is, and the other teams on that all time point differential list are some of the best teams ever. They have a universally respected excellent starting five, they're healthy, and they have seven wins, more than every
other team in the league. They're gonna finish like sixty five and seventeen, and no other team in the league is going to get to sixty wins, So they deserve to be a top the tiers, so to speak. I can believe that while also believing Milwaukee or Denver would beat them in a series. And so to me, those are the Those two ideas are not in conflict, at least in my mind. I also think Miami, well, it's a little bit of that, and it's a yeah, I
guess it's a lot of that. It's not that I don't think the Celtics are a good playoff postseason team. They've made a final, They've made four conference finals since Tatum's been there. It's more that I think the Bucks have been a work in progress all year. But if we pause and take a moment and say, what we thought of Milwaukee last year was they needed a guy
just like Dame, and they added Dame. Now, the defense took a step back, But I think some of the skepticism about Milwaukee was, all right, if you add a guy like Dame, what does it do to Yannis? Well, Yannis offensively, and he didn't play last night. Obviously, you could Argue is having the best season of his career. He's averaging point three beneath his career high end points, he's averaging by a full half assist his career high and assists, and he's averaging by four percentage points his
best shooting percentage ever. He's thirty one points, eleven rebound, six assists, sixty two percent from the field every single night. And here's the other thing that to me is noteworthy about what the Bucks have done recently, including last night. To bring it to last night, the Bucks ability as of late to play these other good, too excellent teams and to play them without Yannis and to be really good, I think is highly impressive. So they didn't have Yannis
for the Clippers game they won. They didn't have Yiannis for the Sun's game they won. They didn't have Yiannis last night, and that was a three point game against a full strength Celtics team in Boston. I actually think that, and I think Yannis missing a little bit of time here could actually be good for the Buck in this regard. It allows Dame to really get in a pre postseason rhythm, which Dame's been good but not great this year. Dame has not been as good as he was last year.
And Dame talked about kind of the emotional toll that you know, he got divorced, he had to move, he feels lonely. All those things are real things. Sidebar of the sidebar, demanse, did you see the DeAndre Ayton quote? Uh, nothing wrong, no, no, no, so on himself. So I'm gonna read it to you and then I'm I'll tie this to the Dame stuff in a moment. So I'm going to read you the story from Kurd Hyland on Pro Basketball Talk. It has taken DeAndre in a while
to adjustin Portland, both on and off the court. Back in November, he averaged fourteen and nine shooting fifty nine percent. Solid numbers, but Ayton was passive much of the time, not the inside presence Blazers were counting on. Since the break eight and has averaged twenty four and fourteen on sixty four percent. So what changed? Aighten talked about that adjustment with Aaron Finchris of The Oregonian. Uh, and this is what he wrote, or this is what he said, quote,
my body just wasn't my body? People forget the humane difference of me adjusting to everything.
Oh, I did see that. Just being good mattress.
Just being yes, yes, just being comfortable and waking up. Quote. I didn't have a bed for quite some time. I was on an air mattress, just trying to figure things out. So I'm now going to give you two facts. Fact one, DeAndre Ayton is twenty five years old. Fact two, DeAndre eight and currently makes thirty two million dollars a year. I'm gonna add a third fact, Fact three, DeAndre Ayton
makes his money with his body. If you are a grown man and you are in the mid eight figure earnings club, you know what, I'm going to lower that. If you're in the seven fig you know what I'm going to lower that. If you're in the mid six figure earnings club. If you're a grown man making more than two hundred thousand dollars a year and your body is how you make your money, you're not allowed to sleep on an air mattress for more than one night. And that has to be a really disastrous scenario for
it to be one night. That is when he's like, when he's like, oh my goodness, the humane part of it, here's the here's the adult part of it. I'm a super rich guy. This is affecting my performance at work. I need the best bed of available in the Portland area delivered to my house today. And oh wait, you're
gonna charge me, you know, triple for overnight shipping. You know what, I've got it, and it's my job to make they pay me this, to make sure things like sleeping on an air mattress are not part of you know, the potential difficulties. So when people say the humane parts of NBA players, I guess I'm in humane. There that that quote right there. Sorry, DeAndre Aiden, You're not a serious person. You're not an adult yet. I am not
comfortable with you being a major part of my franchise. Now, Dame saying I'm lonely and I'm going through a doce that I totally understand. Money doesn't fix that. But if you are super rich and you are having a problem that literally money fixes like I do. Like, let me ask you this. If DeAndre Ayton had said, well, you know, I wasn't playing well because the place I moved to the fridge and stove were broken, so I hadn't eaten
for a week. Would you say, oh, this poor guy, or would you say, you know what, buddy, you got to figure that one out. There's options there. The air mattress is not a viable excuse. So what I try to be an empathetic person, and for Dame going through a divorce, I can only imagine how horrifying moving away from your family. Those are real things that I think too often people are like, ah, you're rich, get over it.
Money doesn't help you there. It might ease some of the things, like you can see your family easier than someone who's not rich can. But so I feel for Dame in that regard. DeAndre Ayton talking about sleeping on an air mattress is, honest to god, one of the most embarrassing quotes from an athlete in years, like give me a break by I didn't.
Get that either.
I also just told one of the producers of the podcast that I couldn't watch TV over the weekend by accident. But it's like similar scenario internet. They're actually not similar scenario. No, not internet problem. I was just tied up, had some things, but I initially led with I wasn't able to watch TV this weekend, and that just wasn't true. So it's like a But the thing I didn't I didn't understand. I didn't get why he was saying he had to sleep on air match. He could have slept in an
hotel next year. A bunch of other also listen.
While you and eight and are the same age, you and Aighton do not have the same ability to fix problems with money. So like if you if your work was hampered, if when you moved to La it was like, Man, I'm falling behind at work because I can't work from home because the Internet's not set up in my house. Yet, that does not make you less of an adult. That is a legitimate excuse for someone that is starting off
in their career. If you made thirty two million, if every two weeks to Monse, you got direct deposited a million four in your bank account and you told your employer you're like, sorry behind on emails, my hot spot got cut off. Then they'd say, Okay, you're not a serious person. So how does this have to do with Celtics bucks. Oh, because I was talking about and here's the other thing I said about the Celtics. Tell me
if you agree with me to Monse. This Celtics season feels a little raven Z in this regard, if you don't get over the hump, now, when are you going to so embeid? It's hurt the Bucks fired their coach. They don't, you know what I mean? They the Bucks start.
Last year with the Celtics too. I guess now they got Porzingis. They made the extra moves.
And they got Porzingis, they got Drew, you know.
What I mean?
The last year they weren't the one seed Milwaukee was.
There were a lot of pieces to it. And so there is an element of if this Celtics team this season all add one caveat, if they get to the finals and play a very competitive series against Denver and Jokis just kills them, then maybe the Celtics don't retool anything and they're just like, you know what, we are running up against a generational player the correct But you might say, well, that's what happened to the Ravens, but that isn't what Because the this year's Chiefs team didn't
have the profile that this year's Nuggets team has, Nobody is watching this year's Nuggets team saying this is the worst Nuggets team in years, that there's something wrong with them. So but if the Celtics fail to make the finals, or make the finals and lose to anyone but Denver, or make the finals and lose to Denver but it's a washout, then I think they have real hard questions to answer about are we really really really good but not gonna be good enough? All right? Next?
All right, So Caleb had his prode yesterday and his future teammate Keenan Allen was in attendance. You said on your show yesterday, if the Caleb will fall somewhere between Troy Aikman and Terry Bradshaw, so that means.
About three Super Bowls.
Well, let me, I like, how you put him right at where.
Patrick Mahomes is right now, give you a little time.
No, no, So that's not even how it happened. Wilds went through the fifteen most successful number one overall pick quarterbacks and he was like, do you think Caleb will be better than this guy? Then this guy then? And so right, he asked me, will he be better than Aikman? I said yes? And the next name he said was Bradshaw, and I said no, So that you know what I mean.
That's where it was. That was so much that he's necessarily winning that many Super Bowls, But it is that I think he will be a better player than Aikman. Bradshaw is, you know, kind of universally considered one of the ten greatest quarterbacks ever to am I gonna go ahead and install Caleb there. That seems a little too bullish, but I do think Caleb is gonna be great.
But go ahead, Yeah.
I mean, with that said, how long do you think it'll How long do you think it'll be until we Sue Mahomes and Caleb Williams face off in a Super Bowl.
So here's the funny thing about super Bowls. We very rarely get Marino Montana. Now I use that example because we did get marinomn Tanna in the one Super Bowl Marino one where it's like, these are the two best quarterbacks alive and they're in the Super Bowl, and you know, you got Aikman Kelly twice. Uh, But neither Aikman nor Kelly were really in the argument for the best quarterback in the league. You did get FARV Lway, but Lway was at the very very end and was no longer
MVP Lway. But it's pretty rare that you get, you know, two top three or four quarterbacks against each other in a super Bowl. So if we like, let's just go backwards and see and so, yes, I do think Caleb's going to be a superstar quarterback. But and some of that has just happenstance, Like Brady and Manning played in the same conference forever, so they played five times in the playoffs, but they could never play in the super Bowl because they for the entirety of Manning's career, they
were both in the AFC. So here are the Super Bowl matchups that we've had, just going backwards, Mahomes party, so that's number one versus like number nineteen. Great Mahomes hurt. Mahomes hurts. Now that was the MVP and the MVP runner up. But I don't know how that's going to age historically. People are gonna be like, oh wow, Burrow Stafford pretty good. Two guys both firmly in the top seven or eight. Brady Mahomes obviously a legendary matchup. It
didn't turn. The game ended up not being a good game, But that was from a quarterback perspective, probably the best you could have hoped for. Uh, Mahomes Garoppolo, no good Brady Goff when golf was at that you know, I understand, well, golf wasn't struggling yet, and that one looked better in the moment than it does now. And also that was a thirteen to three Brady Fowles whatever, Brady Matt Ryan. The year Matt Ryan won NFL MVP. That's pretty great one.
And the ended up being one of the greatest Super Bowls ever. Manning Peyton, Manning cam Newton. But that year Peyton got benched. Like that year Peyton was at the very very end. So Peyton got hurt and got benched and then came back. I think he had You're not gonna believe the year Peyton won his last Super Bowl Demonsey And I love this part of the I know I've said this so many times, but I love this part of the pod, the like natural discovery from things
that happened when you were in high school or earlier. Yeah, and I'm not being a smart ass here.
You're wandering off into uncharted territory for me, like I'm learning exactly.
And so so Peyton's final year in Denver, he had nine touch down, seventeen interceptions and a sixty eight passer rating and they won the Super Bowl, so like whenever, So it's such a unique spot. Peyton's second run really good. They had von Miller, Demarket, they had they were the best defenses in the league. Peyton's second year in Denver, when they made the Super Bowl and lost, he had fifty five hundred yards and fifty five touchdowns, one of
the great maybe the greatest quarterbacking season ever. But then by the end of his third year, you could tell, oh, wait, he's not the same guy. And then his final year in Denver was he got hurt. They didn't they brock Osweiler took over, Peyton, then took back over, and Peyton was just not the And even in that playoff run, in that entire playoff run when they won the title,
Peyton threw for two touchdowns and one pick. Just wasn't the same guy, all right, So back to what we were doing here, Russ Brady, Russell Wilson was pretty good, and Russell Wilson prime Peyton Manning was pretty good. But then you have things like Flaco Cap Brady Eli Big Ben Rogers is probably the best, like Caleb Mahomes possibility, which is, you know, Rogers at that point was maybe you know, in root to being considered maybe the best
quarterback in the league alongside Brady and Manning. Big Ben was already a super Bowl champion a couple times over. And so that's a that's a really good one. And obviously Breeze Peyton when it was prime Peyton. So that's
just you know, going through the last fifteen years. So it is our bet if Caleb makes a super Bowl, and I believe he will, he's almost it's almost guaranteed that it's gonna be a great super Bowl matchup because it's either gonna be him against Mahomes or him against Alan, or him against Lamar, or him against c J. You know it's gonna be or him against the Prince or
him against It's justin it's gonna be. It's very hard to imagine an AFC team without a great quarterback going, you know what I mean, making it to the super Bowl in this era. But yeah, I my confidence in Caleb is as high as it's been.
Question Okay, I mean, do you think he will be there the next.
Three Well, so here's another thing, and I know that this podcast, we're kind of doing bit of history lessons, but the quarterbacks that make super Bowls make them early. Russ made two on his rookie deal. Mahomes made two on his rookie deal. Burrow made one on his rookie deal. Cam was it the end of his rookie deal. Flacco, he's not a great player, was at the end of his rookie deal. Uh. You know, ever since the New Pay when the Eagles made it, they had Wentz on
his rookie deal. He got hurt. Foles was the backup, but Wentz got him to twelve and three or whatever they were thirteen and two something, and then Jalen obviously on his rookie deal. Purdy was on his rookie deal. So if Caleb is the guy that I think he is, the Bears probably should make a super Bowl in the next five years. If he is the guy that now. Lamar's great, he hasn't made one. Josh Allen's great, he hasn't made one. But those guys have had to go
through Mahomes. Their best years have all been ended by Patrick. You don't really have that so much in the NFC go ahead.
It seems like you just I honestly, these situations always confused me. I thought of it in my mind for some reason, I thought of my work.
It's probably really bad.
But as far as when teams trade up, are they trade away players to get higher in the draft. What if like the forty nine Ers gave Brandon ayyuk in like oh, trailing doesn't even play there anymore.
I guess, like.
Brandon Ayuken brock Party maybe to maybe move up to the second spot or maybe take the first spot from the Bears. I get it's very likely that some I always say no, but in the off chance that the Bears were attracted to those two.
So you're saying is no, no, no. So let me what you're saying is what a team that has? Because I know what you're saying, I don't know if the audience knows exactly what you're saying. What a team that feels like it has it has really good players but not good enough to break through? Would they want to kind of reset the quarterbacks key scale clock.
Because you get to pay them much too much?
Exactly right? So the Niners aren't a great example because their quarterback doesn't make any money, but the the So the example for that is, would if the Dallas Cowboys said to the New England Patriots, we'll trade you Dak for the third overall pick. You get stability, a known factor at quarterback while you try to build up the rest of your team, and we can resign cd Re, sign Micah, try to so without demonster. It's you didn't realize it when you were saying it. This is exactly
what the Niners did with Trey Lance. They had Jimmy g on a semi expensive contract, they had been to a Super Bowl, they had been banging on the door. They weren't good enough, so instead of trading players, they traded three first round draft picks to move up so they could start the rookie contract clock over. That's what
they did, and so they're, yeah, what you're described. Bill Barnwell wrote an article four or five years ago about this exact question, and it was about the Rams with golf, and he was ahead of his time on it was before they paid golf. He was because it was when golf the bloom was coming off the rows a bit. And the question was, would there ever be a team that drafts a quarterback, develops that quarterback, turns that quarterback
into a franchise quarterback. And instead of giving him the massive extension that then makes them have to tear away pieces of their team, trades him for a top five pick so they can start the process over and always and always have a superstar supporting cast, you know what I mean, like would And so that to me is
a legitimate question. If you have a quarterback, let me find the right quarterback example of who you've got to really thread the needle, and you've got to have the confidence in your own drafting and evaluations that you can then. So I'll give you an example. If I were the Miami Dolphins and the Minnesota Vikings, we're willing to give me. The Vikings wouldn't do this, but just follow me here
the eleventh pick of the draft for Tua. And I'm like, all right, sitting there, I can draft Pinnix, I might be able to draft McCarthy. Maybe they love Bonnicks, which I wouldn't understand. Whatever, but are we better off making sure we can keep Waddle, we can keep Tyreek, we can do all these things rather than this offseason pay Tua like he's great when we know he has a ceiling. That to me is a legitimate question, Like that's a legit correct, and so I I would the now quarterbacks
like you mentioned Justin Herbert. Herbert I think is too talented to roll the dice on that. But the Chargers right now are drafting, and the way his contract works because they've already paid him, uh, they could. They can't actually trade him right now, but we know how much Harball loves JJ McCarthy. They're sitting at five, he coach McCarthy. In this fake world where uh Justin, where Justin Herbert's tradeable?
Would it be a viable thought exercise that someone like the Chargers, like, you know what, we don't want to have to cut Keenan Allen or trade Keenan Allen. We you know, we don't want to have to tear our team down, and we want to get younger through the draft. You know what could you get for Justin Herbert from again, I'll use New England? Would New England give you the third overall pick and their second round pick and next year's number one for Justin Herbert? The answers yes, they
almost assuredly would. And then could we draft our quarterback and Marvin Harrison and have an extra first round pick? These are legitimate conversations that nobody in NFL front offices is having because trading away a stability at the quarterback position is so terrifying. But if you just right, if you had, if you had, if you owned the team and ran it and just could do whatever you wanted, it would be an interesting idea. So you didn't the I knew what you were saying. You didn't phrase it
exactly right, but it is. It's a smarter idea than like you gave yourself credit for it. All right, let's uh. Oh, by the way, DeAndre, I'm told.
He's listening to the show and he actually just sent us a picture of his room.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean it's just I mean, come on, man, I mean that's I mean, come on, man.
It's hilarious. The basketball.
This is why you should watch on YouTube. This is why you should subscribe to the show.
All right. Next, all right, So the Jets clearly haven't learned their lesson.
Yeah, so they've signed more players that have come off injuries. The eleven of their games this year will be coming from teams that want that had winning records in twenty twenty three. Another quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, As we're running for vice president. Is it time for Jets fans to be excited about this coming season or will they just be setting themselves up for failure or disappointment.
Here's the thing that I just don't understand, and I guess I do understand it. I just think it is so ludicrous that the we're just find that folks are don't have a problem with it. So the oldest tackle signed in free agency, the oldest is Tyron Smith. I'm looking at it on spot rank. He's the only tackle over thirty two years old that has signed in free agency. Okay, the Jets also signed or traded for another tackle, Morgan Moses, who's a good player and a healthy player. He's also
thirty three years old. If we then go to wide receivers, the people like, oh, Mike Williams, isn't that old. The wide receivers that have been signed that are older than Mike Williams is DeVante Parker who got five million max probably a million guaranteed, and Collins who got I'm trying to look at a million guaranteed, and then Mike Williams. Those are the only two wide receivers who have signed
who are older than Mike Williams. Why are Tyrantsman and Mike Williams available Because in the last two years they have each missed seventeen and eighteen games. So a team that last year was derailed by having an old injury prone roster, signed old injury prone players and they're like, ah, can't blame us if it goes wrong. So I just think it's a ludicrous way to run your team. And they're doing it all in service of an old the oldest player in the league coming off of torn achilles.
So I think the Jets are.
Poorly r getting fired at the end of the season.
Well, they made these moves because if they they trying to save their jobs, like, ah, this is the old you have. This is not a perfect analogy, but I'll use it. And people don't do this.
Let's do it.
You have squandered half of the company's expense account and the next day you have a meeting where they're gonna do an audit of it, and you're like, oh my god, they expect there to be one hundred thousand dollars here. If they see there's fifty, I'm fired. I'm just fired. Well, I guess I'm gonna take the fifty that's left and put it on black on one spin of the roulette wheel. If I win, then I keep my job. If I lose, I was fired anyway, Which for your like game theory
of your own personal wellbeing, I guess makes sense. But for the company, for the people you answer to, it's like, well wait a minute here, we can't get like the fifty you blue is gone, but let's not risk another fifty. And so the Jets had this amazing twenty twenty two draft. They got Sauce Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, and Breece Hall. And then last year was totally squandered because they chased the Aaron Rodgers rabbit without ever addressing the offensive line.
And now maybe they're gonna squander this year trying to build as if the NFL doesn't exist after this year. So I don't buy it. I don't like the hype, and I don't know what evidence people have that Aaron Rodgers is gonna be great again. He what last year? He was injured the year before, he was mediocre all year long, So we've got to go aways back, like Tom Brady has been great more recently than Aaron Rodgers has been great. That's noteworthy, all right.
Next, pretty noteworthy, all right.
So rumors are forty nine Ers whide receiver Brandon Ayuk could be on the run.
He's been linked to Pittsburgh.
I think for those watching on YouTube, we may show a tweet, uh but you So.
Here's let me just add some context here. He tweeted to Mike Tomlins saying that they're saying we look like twins. I think I see a resemblance. But here's why it's noteworthy. Ayuk had not tweeted in eleven months. So he gets linked to the Steelers by friend of the Pod Andrew Philipponi, who broke that story, by the way, and then he tweets about it. So that's why there's a little smoke where there might be some fire. But go ahead, I guess.
Yeah.
So you said that signs for changes to come in San Francisco. So question is, so the forty nine Ers in for the for a big regression like you predicted last year.
I don't know that they're in for a big regression. And to be fair, last year I still had them making the playoffs. I just thought quarterback play would bite them earlier than it did. It turned out it didn't bite them to the Super Bowl, so belief for them.
But uh, here is here is what is trip. They currently have the highest paid running back in football, the highest paid full back in football, the highest paid tight end in football, the highest paid left tackle in football, the highest paid defensive player of any position in football, the highest paid middle linebacker in football. That's six positions. They also pay Deebo three year, seventy million bucks. When all of those things happen, it's hard to then pay
Brandon Ayuk, right, And that's the beef. The beef is he wants a contract. And if the Niners believe Purdy is the real deal, they know that at some point they're gonna have to pay him. He's gonna go from one million to fifty million. So the point that I am making is, oh, and they signed who's the big d tackle they signed in the offseason to a big oh, Javon Hargrave. They gave him a big deal this past offseason.
That's why Quaton I don't want to say quietly, but they cut Eric Armstead because the fight, the salary gap. Chickens are starting to come home to roost a bit and it's why not winning the Super Bowl last year or the year before. They I don't want to say they were all in, but they were highly leveraged. And the odds that they are ever going to have more raw talent on the field than they had in last year's Super Bowl is low, and so I think Ayuk's
an excellent player. But so next year they're gonna be going to war with no Eric Armstead don't know the status and Dre Greenlaw, which is sad and suck. But he popped his achilles in the final game of the year. We don't know about Ayuk. Now they will have Hufanga back because he tore his ACL early last year. Hufunga is awesome, but that's another guy they need money for. I think Kufang is probably in line next year to
become the highest paid safety in the league. So I just think the Niners, I don't want to say they missed their opportunity, but the window is slowly closing on having this all star team. That's all.
That's all so good, I know.
I mean, and they're not saying that he's going to Pittsburgh, but you weren't high on Pittsburgh when they got Russell Wilson.
If they got Ayuk, how would you feel about Great Sea?
It'd be great for Justin I mean for their eventual starting quarterback, justin fields. The problem for Ayuk's fit in Pittsburgh with Russ is Russ doesn't throw over the middle of the field. Even when Russ was great, he didn't throw over the middle of the field. Why doesn't he field because he can't see it. He's too short. Just the reality. I know people like, ah, that's unfair. No, it's just true that the for shorter quarterback, seeing over the middle of the field is the hardest part to see,
that intermediate middle, and that's where Ayuk. You know, Ayuk doesn't make his money on those deep routes that Russ is still great at. He makes his money over the middle of the field. Uh. But and Justin fields, we don't know where he throws because he hasn't been a consistent passer yet. But we know he can see everywhere because he's a regular quarterback. Size all right, take quick break, come back, play a game? Right or wrong? What's right?
All right? Welcome back in What's Driven? Think right? Episode two twenty three, Demonsey, Let's roll and By the way, don't forget your questions and comments for the C block. Let's try to roll through this as quickly as possible, because that was a forty minute a block because I spent eight minutes on DeAndre Ayton's air mattress and an other ten minutes on Super Bowl history that was not scheduled part of the rundown.
Okay, go ahead, Oh yeah, we're playing right or Wrong. First off, we're start off Zion. The Pelicans are on a roll, and Zion has reportedly lost twenty five pounds in the course of the season. Right or wrong, Zion is officially here to stay.
So I think I want to tentatively say right. And I just think that with tempered expectations. When Zion came into the league, I said, this guy's going to be an MVP, And you guys know how strongly I feel about how good you've got to be to be an MVP.
I that's who he was gonna be. And I still think oddly Zion's initial Zion's second year, which was he played sixty games that year, and keep in mind that was not this eighty two game season, so he played sixty games, and I think was a seventy six game season. I could be wrong, maybe it was. It doesn't matter. He was twenty seven a night on sixty one percent from the field at twenty years old. No one, not even Prime Shack had done that.
That's almost numbers you're saying. Yanis is putting up just earlier this year. So the.
By the way, you're right, the well, so Yannis has more rebounds and assists. Yannis is having, you know, maybe the greatest high volume, scoring, high efficiency percentage season ever. But that obviously giannis Is season this year obviously hadn't happened then, and so Zion did something that no one had done up to that point. And then it went sideways for him on and off the court. And now he is he Listen, he's played fifty seven games, so
he's gonna play probably close to seventy games. The Pelicans are good. He's been really good. But I no longer look at him like, oh, he might be the best player in the league.
One day.
I look at him like, oh he could talent, talented as hell and a good player, like you know what I mean, he should be a multi time All Star, but not an MVP candidate. And so that's kind of a bummer. But by the way, a year ago, even this was in question. It was is he gonna, is his weight? Is his health?
This stuff?
It's always like it's always off the court stuff like discipline.
Yeah, so when he played, he was always excellent, but he doesn't seem quite as exploded, like explosive. He's just not quite as good as he was right when he came into the league. But he's healthier and the Pelicans are good. So I'm buying that this could be the new look Xion, which is good and bad so to speak.
All right, next, U so a top receiver in the draft, Marvin Harrison Junior didn't work out at the combine and now he's skipped working out at his pro day. He's slated to go after the top three quarterbacks to Arizona.
But does he does it?
It seems like he might not want to. Right or wrong, Marvin Harrison Junior is trying to avoid Kyler.
Wrong. I don't think that's what's happening here at all. I think it's that he is correctly saying, watch the tape, I am good enough. I don't have to jump through these hoops.
Is the last thing he did would break that was breaking that record.
I mean the last thing that last football we saw him play was for Ohio State, and so so I mean, he hasn't done any of the stuff guys normally do. But I'm okay with that. This is the the guys that are that can. I think Marvin's in a place where he can't really help his draft stock and he can now can't he hurd it? Like I know there are something neighbors might go ahead of him, but I think that, first of all, I don't buy it. Second
of all, he's not falling out of the tops. He's never he's never going top three because it's gonna go quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, and he was never going past seven. So he's almost as sure he is assuredly gonna be the first or second wide receiver taken, and he's almost assuredly gonna be the first wide receiver taken. So he's saying, I don't have to do this, so I'm fine with it, all right? Next, all right?
According to Saquon, after his move to the Eagles, his daughter said, does that mean we're gonna start We're gonna win now?
Right or wrong?
Saquon's daughter knows ball right or Wrong's daughter?
It was right. I believe she said it. I'll go ahead and say she knows ball. I don't think the Eagles are gonna be great, but they're gonna better than the Giants were. So yeah, you know what I mean. I don't wanna. I don't want to talk about Saquon's daughter. I should have taken this one out of the show. Wed, Yeah, all right? Next uh.
The NFL is considering changes to the hip drop to hip drop, tackling kickoff rules and potentially allowing for replay reviews of whether a game clock expired before the snap. But why right or wrong? Constant rule changes are good for sports.
In theory, they're good for sports, and practicality they're not. We can't spend all football season every year being like the refs aren't any good and then in the off season be like add more things to their plate, Like it just doesn't make sense. We the we go through the same thing every time where it's like the refs are not competent, make their job harder, and so uh and so I just I don't. I so in a perfect world, I understand a lot of these wanted adjustments
in the world in which we live. It doesn't make sense. Next.
All right, you said Tuesday that you're too busy, Sending cheers GM. Brett Veach mock drafts to build a bracket sounds like a straight up Nick Wright fan fiction. The producers and I have some questions right or wrong? Veach has replied, Okay, so text between Brett Veach and I are personal. What I will tell you is this. Brett Veach texted Kevin Clark, great writer, used to be for The Ringer and now he does podcasts for Omaha. He's on Around the Horn. You guys know Kevin Clark because.
Kevin and I were at this The reason we'd have a podcast last Thursday was because I was speaking at this media conference. Kevin was there. So Kevin and I took a picture together and he texted to Veach and do you know what. Veach replied, I'll send you the screenshot. De manse. Veach replied, two of my guys tell Nick to send me his latest mock So, uh take that for what you will if you guys are interested in my latest mock draft. Uh. When I open up my
downloaded files, this says, pff. Mock results parentheses, twenty eight in parentheses. So this is my twenty eighth that I've done, but this is where it landed. With the first round pick, the Chiefs took Lad McConkie. We then traded Lugerius Snead for the forty third overall pick to Atlanta. With that draft pick, we took Kamari Lassiter, the cornerback. With the final pick of the second round, we took Jatavian Sanders, the tight end from Texas. We then made another trade.
We traded down from eighty one. I'm sorry. We traded up from ninety five, packaging the one hundred and fifty ninth pick to get pick eighty one to target Texas a defensive cackle to Andree Sweat. We then took another corner cam heart in the fourth round with our fifth round pick, took a value positioned Zack Zenter, the guard from Michigan who got hurt in his final collegiate game. Probably gonna have to miss the year, but that's a guy that should be a Day two pick. That's gonna
fall because of the injury. The Chiefs have Trey Smith and Joe Tooney at the guard positions for next year. But Joe Toney maybe could be gone in a year, so you slide Zack Zenter into there. Then we traded back. This is how sick I've gotten on these mock drafts. I traded pick one, eight four and the seventh round pick. I'm sorry the I traded with the Raiders and one of the things I got back was a future sixth round pick. But the mock drafts, there's no future drafts.
It's not like I'm actually acquiring that capital to do anything with it. It just felt like good value. And after those trades, I ended up drafting Jalen Green, the edge rusher from James Madison. Now that's a small college player, but he had like eighteen sacks last year. I liked the upside. And with the final pick of the draft, I took the good looking quarterback from Notre Dame. Sam Hartman.
Felt like he's a guy that, after a couple of years under Andy, being in the quarterback room with Patrick Mahomes, could be a guy that shows enough in preseason that we can then flip him for maybe like a fourth round pick. So go ahead and clip this off for social media. My mock draft here, and I'll just share it to you know what, m is interesting. I don't know if I want to share it to the whole world,
because that could give those other gms an edge. Let's just clip this off on social media and send it to me so I can distribute it as we want. That was mock Draft twenty eight. Let me just try demon's pick a random number between fifteen and twenty eight.
Twenty seven.
That's boring, but okay, twenty seven. Uh twenty seven. Let me pull up mock draft twenty seven. Uh, oh my goodness. That was the one where I had four trade downs. That's too many. I ended up drafting thirteen players and had four trade downs. I'm gonna have to pick one where I didn't do trade It's just so hard. When there's value out there, you want it, you know what I mean. You want to make these trades. So let me find one where you said twenty one.
Twenty one, all right?
Perfect? Uh? With the first round, Oh, this one, I got lad McConkie again. Oh, and then this one, Xavier Worthy slid all the way to the third round. Oh my goodness, gracious, I also drafted Zach Zenter again. I must really like Zach Center. Okay, we can move on. I don't know where we're at in the show. I know I said we were gonna go faster, but uh, we can move on. Go ahead, So I gotta read
this one. Yeah. Last week I asked Amanse to watch Barbie and Oppenheimer during his day off for the old Barbenheimer. Oh that's a great You should make this your profile picture to.
Monse, good day.
Did you do this, Demanse? Uh?
I did. I watched Oppenheimer. I watched Barbie.
Uh.
I enjoyed Oppenheimer. There's I gotta go back and rewatch it. I get Oppenheimer's the bad guy for creating the bomb. Yeah, and then like they do past with like regular color and they do future stuff with like black O.
It's like, but I.
Really enjoyed the movie and honestly taught me a little bit more about Hiro Shuman than I already knew.
I did not do too much digging in that.
But uh, but yeah, Barbie, I gotta say, man, I was not entertained at all. And this is not just like a boy thing, like it was just like I don't that's not the it's it's it was cool.
It was it was a nice movie.
No, that's fine. You don't want to step on it. You just felt like you didn't like it. I get it.
Yeah, it's just it just wasn't It just wasn't for me.
But so here is. I understood the message of Barbie, and I thought it was a art one. What I found so fascinating about Barbie was the way they I think smartly created the Barbie universe. I was because when I heard they were making a Barbie movie, and like, how are they gonna do it? But the fact they had all the different types of Barbies and all that, I.
Thought it was.
Actually I thought it was a well thought out movie.
But we don't have to Definitely definitely well done. No, I'm not saying the movie sucks. It's just not for me. Yeah I did, But yes, I loved it was very cool. Okay, and very loud.
Quick break, Yeah, very loud. It was great. Quick break, right back, answer some of your questions. I talked about James Harden closing out in Kawhi What's Right? Yes, all right, welcome back in What's Right with great demand. Before we get to the listener questions, go ahead and let's talk hard in Kawhi real.
Quick all right, Travis Kelsey, No, I'm joking you. At the top of the so you tease at the top of the show. James Harden played defense on UH for the first time.
Ever in his in his career. He gets Kawhi Leonard too bad.
It was against his own teammate, obviously, what was going on there?
To me?
He just demon's do you know when this happened in the game.
It was third quarter, right, third quarter? They were up. It was eighty to sixty eighty to sixty one.
Yeah, they were up. It was either eighty to sixty one or eighty one sixty one. They were either up nineteen or twenty one points with twenty minutes left in this game. He can't do that. He just can't do it. The it is, I understand, you're playing the Blazers, you feel like you're gonna win, You're dominating them. I get it. This is outrageous. I mean, it's just I don't want to be, you know, someone that makes a big deal out of minor things. But this is not a minor
thing to me. And this is like, this is and I love the NBA, but this is the type of thing that if it happened in another sport, people would be losing their minds. Like let's say that the go ahead and.
Football would be tackling your running back like you're going to like making your running.
Back like try to juke you because you're up twenty four in the third quarter, Like this is it's just I.
But it's like if anybody in the league is going to do that. I was saying, it's it's James Harden.
Like that's the other problem, Like you don't you you haven't earned the right to be this silly. I'm sorry you haven't. You just haven't. And so I hate it. I legitimately hate it. All right, let's get to some of the listener questions.
Do you think let's be explained, like will he have to speed said?
He was like it was good for team vibes, that's what he said, Harden answer, and he was like yeah. He was like, I'm just trying to keep it loose and happy and good for teams.
Oh all right, well, Gabe Felters, So that's what it is. Gabe Felter said, Hey, Nick, I believe the Chiefs could sit at thirty two and pick what's best for the best for them.
And attackle wide receiver.
Should the Chiefs be aggressive to unload Sneed while they could get something for him unlike t Higgins.
Well, listen, the Chief's been ready to trade Snead, but the problem is that nobody they had. The Chiefs had worked out the Sneed compensation as far as what they would get in return for him with another team, but in order for that team to agree of the trade, Snead then has to agree to a long term contract with them. And Steed evidently wants twenty three million a year, and no team's been willing to pay it, and so I think teams are willing to pay twenty but not
twenty three, and so the hang up. So the Chiefs clearly are prepared to trade Sneed, but also because they've been so judicious in free agency, they don't have to trade them. And they can carry the nineteen million dollar cap hit this year because they signed Chris and because they signed Hollywood. They can sit there at thirty two, and if a D lineman, corner, wide receiver, or tackle they love is sitting there, they can draft any of those spots. It's not like, oh my god, we have
to get this position. We have this player ranked as the forty ninth best player in the draft, but he's the best left of that position, so I have take him at thirty two. It also allows them to trade down if they want to, if they have a bunch of guys they still like, so they can, as as some would say, let the draft come to them rather than rush it. All right, go ahead.
Salvador Finelli asked question for demonte how are you enjoying LA compared to New York?
Yeah, traffic, traffics traffics.
Traffic is traffic, uh And I hear a lot of talks of people comparing New York traffic to Los Angeles traffic, and Los Angeles traffic is in the league of its own. In my opinion, I like driving everywhere that I go, though I don't really miss walking. But yeah, no, I'm really enjoying it. The weather's obviously super dope. The people are interesting. There's a time that I was I hate it when people like when like the best example I could think of is when I got in that car
accident like two and a half years ago. The guy like hit me from the side and they got out, and I had a green light, and they were speedy, and they got out and they're like what the f bro, like what And I'm just like, dude, do you think that I wanted to get in a car accident with you? Like, what's the point in getting out in New York? That was in Kansas was in Kansas City. I haven't got an accident New York, thank god.
But yeah, so it's just like I was.
Like, no, I was trying to play pretend, you know, like, what the hell are we talking about? What a car accident two and a half years ago? Okay that was Kansas City.
Yeah. Yeah.
Basically, I just think some of the people are hoity in the in the LA area. Like I was pulling out and it was just like one of those areas where in order to get in I have to kind of pull out of where I'm at and a civilian, I'm on the sidewalk, I get that. A civilian walks past my car and literally stops, turns around, bends over and looks inside of my car. And I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to I'm just trying to go like what do you I'm sorry that I'm.
Right here you were able to walk around, But yeah, I'm loving it. It's cool.
I haven't been doing too much lately with the Achilles, but excited to get back out there.
Okay, good, Caleb asks, would I ever consider making a top fifty quarterback list? I got it, like the NBA Top fifty list. That's an interesting project. Top fifty quarterback because top fifty NFL players is so hard because like, how do you cross pollinate positions offense defense? Top fifty quarterbacks could be fun. And then Usio says, shout out to Demanse, you're improving your game. Real progress being made
as a host compared to a year ago. More focus, more knowledge, more good takes, keep it up, one love. I totally agree with it. I actually had somebody ask me the other day if this is what you want to do professionally, like pod like, is this what Demonse wants to do? And I told him I was like, I don't think so. I was like, I don't you know. This has always kind of been a side gig. But the fact that somebody asked that, I think speaks to your progression over the year and a half.
I appreciate that.
It's super nice you guys say it was a really fun show. Good job everybody, thanks to our tech team for getting everything set up. I gotta go. I got a very busy day. I'm getting a haircut for the wedding. That is the pre wedding haircut, meaning I'm getting a haircut today just to set up the haircut that I evidently have to get right before the wedding. I don't understand it either. To be honest with you, I get a busy day. Talk to talk to you guys later.
What's right? Hey, it's snicker right. Thank you so much for watching. Please do us a favor. Click subscribe. It helps my ego and Demansey's got a financial bonus writing on a number of YouTube subscribers will help him out. And also click the bell. I don't know what the bell does, but they tell me to tell you to click the bell. And your audio listeners, people that have commute drives, whatever it is, subscribe to the podcast as well. Wherever you get the podcast, same show, just you know,
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