PMS 2.0 1393 - Terry McLaurin Signs Extension, NFL Preseason Week 3 Recap, Ian Rapoport, Dan Orlovsky, & AJ Hawk

Welcome to the Thunderdome and welcome once again to the Pat McApee Show.

I am Ian Rapper Court

Football.

And these are the guys.

Hell yeah.

I waited a little bit too long again.

I tried to nail it.

You're fitting teeth.

You're not strikes, but when you're, yeah.

That was one thing.

That was one thing I learned in our little pre-show discussion is that

Schraeger apparently killed it.

guest hosting.

Yeah, a lot of people saying it's way better than Rap Sheet.

Yeah, which again, we agreed with, but not resoundingly.

Seems wrong.

It does.

It feels.

So Ian Rappaport.

Thanks for being here, Ian.

Very happy to be back.

We got Boston Connor.

We got Ty Schmidt.

We got Tone Diggs.

Darren Butler is not joining us because he doesn't like me because he likes Schraeger better.

No.

He was here last week.

Is that what he said?

Jeez.

When he texted me.

He cozy.

It's kind of upsetting.

Yeah, that's fair.

I'd be pretty pissed off, too, if I heard that.

Well, New England guys, too.

It's kind of messed up.

Well, New England slash Indy, but yes.

Sure.

Pat is once again.

I have no idea where he is.

No,

I have not been able to find him.

Has he talked to you guys?

No.

Nope.

Hasn't texted or anything?

No.

Not much.

Radio silence.

Yeah.

I hope he's okay.

I don't even know if he's on Earth.

Yeah.

Somewhere on the Earth.

Maybe.

Maybe.

I hope he's okay.

Best wishes with Pat McAfee.

Getting some much needed rest and God knows whatever the heck Elsie is doing.

We got got some fun stuff for you today.

We got a lot to get to.

A lot of football over the weekend.

We got some breaking news away from the football field, but right before this show started, we had some breaking news on the football field for the Washington Commanders.

That is a great tweet right there.

You guys watched me write it.

Wow.

It was awesome.

I actually wrote it and then had the wrong picture, so I had to edit it.

and re-bump it just to get the

tweets on it.

Prose.

Prof.

Yep.

Not my first time doing it.

Bad look.

no it's fine uh terry mclaurin who had been staging one of the nfl's most high profile hold-ins has agreed to terms on a three-year deal worth up to 96 million dollars that is the contract extension gets a 30 million dollar signing bonus and has the opportunity to earn more than any receiver over the age of 30.

it has been a long road for mclaurin I'd like to know the final details of this deal to see how close it actually came to DK Metcalf's $33 million.

That is what he wanted.

Didn't get to the 33,

and I believe the base is going to be lower because 96 is the max.

So my guess is it's closer to the 30 million dollar mark than the 32,

but it's really nice for Terry McLaurin.

It is thankfully one of the NFL's longest running sagas is now over.

We have been able to process this now, even though it's been a couple minutes.

Give me your thoughts.

I mean, as a Patriots fan, it kind of stinks just because you're one of those teams that wants Terry McLaurin.

I feel like there's probably at least 25 teams that are disappointed, at least fan bases-wise, for the Commanders and for also the other teams kind of looking in on this.

Is this bad for, you know, a Cowboys, a Bengals, where an extension gets done and this is just going to amplify theirs even more?

It feels like we were saying for a while here, like...

Terry's the one that will get the deal done.

The others, not really sure, but Terry McLaurin always felt like the one one guy that was probably going to stay with his team.

Again, just disappointed as a fan who's not a Commanders fan.

But I mean, the Commanders, if you're just looking at the team now with Debo and Terry McLaurin and Zach Ertz and Jaden Daniels and wild Bill Krosky Merritt, it's all of a sudden.

Which is a whole other story we're going to get to in a second.

Oh, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, but they look, they're amazing now with Debo and Laramie Tunsel and everything.

And now I think Super Bowl's right back on.

Yeah, I do agree, though.

I'd be interested to see what the actual contract is because, like, last week when you were hosting and we were talking about this,

really everything that we've heard about him in the last several weeks has been like, hey, they're way far off on money.

You know, he wants one thing and he's kind of being steadfast.

And they don't know if they want to get to that point.

And it's reported at what, you know, 32 a year.

You kind of just laid out what it will actually be.

So it'll be interesting to see how much he's actually making and how much he maybe had to concede or, you know, how much they had to concede.

But if you're a Commanders fan, I mean, we've been talking about like this needed to get done.

They need Terry McLaurin on the field this year to kind of, you know, make sure that Jaden Daniels potential just keeps going on the up and up.

So I think, yeah, this is great news and, you know, just in time.

No,

like this, you had to get it done if you were the commanders.

Like, this is great for Terry, but the commanders had to get it done.

Just like Ty said, like, the number one thing for them is that Jaden Daniels doesn't go into like some sophomore slump, like that he continues to get better.

And the only way to do that is with a number one wide receiver.

And Terry McLaurin is by far their number one ride.

Debo is great,

but Terry's a number one wide receiver.

Everyone who watches knows football knows exactly what I'm saying there.

But like

a rookie quarterback, so you have the money and you want him to continue to get better.

And I mean, this is a new ownership with a fan base that is coming back to this team.

And the one thing that you didn't want to do is lose them again and say, oh, this owner is the same as the last one.

And we just didn't pay one of our guys who's been with us forever and shows up every single day and is the consummate professional.

I was actually curious to see,

you're right about that.

I mean,

this is an organization now that is more of the organization that does things right as opposed to the way it was in the past, which is basically an organization that did everything wrong.

Paying one of your best players, even if it's a little more than you wanted.

It's like, okay, let's say the deal comes in at 30 million.

Okay, fine.

So you want it to pay 29.

All right, so you overpay a little bit for one of your good players.

That's fine.

I'm really curious to see what the fan base actually ends up thinking about Terry McLaurin because it got a little not great.

Yeah.

I think the fans were kind of a little out on him, like some of the antics.

And he did what he needed to do to get paid.

And I think he should have done that.

But

the fans felt some sort of way about Terry McLaurin during this whole process.

I'm curious to see where that goes.

Yeah, definitely.

No matter what, when it's a big, you know, team or a big contract, fans are going to feel the way they feel during it.

But I feel like now that it's done.

It's dunkered.

you know like fans

fans of a team sure maybe in the moment when things are getting released of him talking on the sideline during practice and not actually practicing but because of who terry is too like for washington

you know you just mentioned how it used to be everything used to be done terribly and terry lived through that and now he's you know on the good team and i feel like we've said all these things for you know the last four months with Terry, but it, but it is true.

You know, he went through the shit.

They finally got a quarterback.

They got good.

He wants to get paid.

To your understanding, what was kind of like, did they ever get a best offer, like a damn near an offer that they were going to...

From another team?

Yeah, yeah.

To trade him?

Like, was it ever close?

Were they ever like tempted with the team?

And then I'm assuming you don't know, but should I just, or should we start looking at contracts like this, similar to how like Trey Hendrickson's is, where, sure, he signs a three-year extension.

It's great.

But, you know, in two years, there's going to be no money in his last year, and then we're just going to do this again.

Yeah, I mean, I would say, like, there's a reason that players want it front-loaded.

Now, like Terry McCoy is probably the last contract he signs.

So, like, this is a good one for him.

It's three years.

My guess is he probably wanted a little less, maybe wanted two years to have another option.

But, like, three years is fine.

He's going to finish his career with the commanders probably.

But, yeah, I mean, like, when, you know, if you're a really good player, like, teams often do not want to give players third contracts.

That is when you decide, like, all right, we're going to move on or not.

If you are good enough to get a third contract, sometimes this fight happens.

One helmet guy.

I mean, right.

And like TJ did it.

The Steelers took care of him.

Trey Henderson is still going through it, and we'll talk about that.

But like, to get the real money, the guaranteed money for a third contract, it's like lightning has to strike.

And sometimes you got to...

You got to be the guy who shows up at the car dealership and talks to reporters and says, I'm disappointed in the team.

Oh, no, what do we got?

What do we got?

No,

I'm just looking at the contract details that are being texted me because everyone wants to know what are the real numbers.

Yeah, the guarantee.

Yeah, the guarantee.

And then just like, what's the base?

Like, how much does he actually get?

But, like, to get a third contract, you got to go through this.

And I think it sucks.

And it's too bad.

And you got to be willing to withstand a lot.

Like, it's not for everyone.

Some guys sign.

Like, Trey Henderson could have signed.

With the Bengals and gotten a deal that would have given him a huge bump this year and not a lot guaranteed after.

And he wants more.

And to do that, he's got to be willing to take the franchise, like getting frustrated and the Finn base getting frustrated with him.

And it's not for everyone, but that's why there's only a couple of these.

Yeah, well, and you kind of just laid it out perfectly there, too, about why fan bases get angry.

It's because people like you say, he was offered a huge bump, but he wants more.

It's like that, you're the problem.

You just actually saw it

face to face.

But like, that's the other thing, too, is that like the players, especially a guy like Trey Henderson and Terry McLaurin, who weren't drafted really high and know, you know, one, how difficult it is to succeed, but two, the likelihood of people who are drafted in the third and fourth round getting their third contract in the NFL.

I'm sure it's not that high, especially at that amount of money.

But like when you're a player in the NFL, if you don't, you know, stand up for what you want, guess what?

You don't get it.

And so, so what else are these guys supposed to do?

And when it comes to the fans, like, you know, we'll see what happens with the Trey Hendrickson situation.

But like, you know, if anyone is upset about Terry McLaurin McLaurin now, like they're not going to give a shit week one when he has 100 yards and a touchdown.

And it's the same thing with Trey Hendrickson.

So it's like, if you're not willing to kind of take a little bit of heat in the middle of the summer when there's nothing else to talk about and it's just like, oh, this guy's beaten.

Because that stuff always comes around and we always hear the two sides of the story.

And as long as those guys end up performing on the field, which everyone expects them to do because they're two of the best players at their respective positions, then, you know, sometimes you have to do this kind of stuff to get a little bit more money.

Yeah, usually I feel like fans only hate the player when they're offered basically the same deal.

And, you know, they still force their way out.

Like, if Trey Hendrickson ends up getting traded and signs like a two-year deal with a bunch of money in this year and not much money next year, then Cincinnati fans will hate him.

And that's when

people will take it as a shot.

Like, I'm assuming Cincinnati fans, if that were to happen, they would take it as a shot.

towards like the the city itself versus the front office that trey hendricks been dealing with but yeah it's just nice one of these situations is done, honestly, because we've been talking about Terry Michael and Trey for, you know, since the draft.

So it's nice that one of them finally has a green check next to it.

I mean, I'm happy with it.

You know, when these situations happens, you end up calling the same people over and over and getting no response.

And it's like, finally, then it happens.

It's like a big thing.

And then you're like,

all right.

Yeah.

What do we do now?

Terry McCormick was one of the best players to come from Ohio State in quite a while.

One of the also best players to come from Ohio State.

One of the greatest football players who ever lived, a tackling machine, star for the Green Bay Packers, and good friend of ours is also joining us today, AJ Hawk.

Yay!

Hog!

Hogo!

What's up, AJ?

Hogo.

Killing it Rapse.

You're good on there, man.

I appreciate it.

But one question I have for Terry McLaurin, what do you think the numbers looked like, say, four weeks ago compared to now?

Like, is there a ton of movement when you have these situations?

Probably not.

And, you know, I think what basically happens is, and, you know, I would say this is similar to the Trey Hendrickson situation, is the team gets to a point where they're like, this is around where we'll be.

So like, you know, either take it now or we're just going to spend the next several weeks arguing over a little bit.

And what you end up doing is you say, let's just argue.

And so, you know, like the Trey Henderson deal, the, you know, he's going to get a...

probably double or something like that this year and then more money into the next two years and the argument is over guaranteed money not overall base and so that's that argument that's kind of why they're taking their time and not there yet if they end up even getting there for the McLuran my guess is it was more like he wanted to get close to 33 million from DK Metcalf how can we kind of help you get there without guaranteeing

without guaranteeing you know

what we want what we didn't want to do like how can we help you and not take money away from us right and so what they did was probably up the incentives and say if you earn it, you are able to make $32 million.

Like that's kind of how they bridge the gap.

And, you know, the numbers come out like they come out.

We're all talking about 96 million.

And then, and I do this too.

So this is not like, I do this too.

And then the real numbers will come out and we'll be like, oh, by the way, here's the base.

But, you know, if you're McLaurin and you say, like, I'm worth 32 million, there's nothing wrong with the commanders going like, okay.

Go earn it like for us, but go earn it.

What's that guarantee going to look like here on this one rap sheet?

Like, what's the range?

I mean, I would imagine it's going to be more than half.

Like, probably what this is, is he's guaranteed this year, which he was obviously already going to play this year, guaranteed next year, and then a little bit guaranteed the following year.

So, what this probably does is lock McLaurin in for at least 2026, which is some security, and probably 2027.

At that point, he'll be like, 33 years old, and then they'll have to pay the quarterback.

Yeah.

And like,

you guys hit it on like this is why you do the like you do these deals now.

You pay as much money and this is why you can pay Bobby Wagner like $12 million.

Most teams don't have $12 million for a off-the-ball linebacker who's a veteran great leader, but when you have Jaden Daniels on a rookie deal, you can do that.

Erskine Pays.

Tackling machine, Raphael.

He's an absolute tackling machine, though.

Don't be slandering him in the middle there.

That guy's been doing it forever, Bobby Wagner.

AJ, if there's one thing that the people know that I love, it's tackling machines.

Now, you are my favorite tackling machine.

That's you, AJ.

I think that's you.

You're my favorite crew person.

What?

Yes.

Hero.

Oh, yeah.

Female thrower.

Yeah.

That's one of the nicest things in America.

We did have some other breaking news over the course of the weekend, by the way.

And I think of all the things that happened, this was probably the most important.

AJ, specifically, I want to get your take on this.

Pat McAfee, our esteemed host, who is right now in Parts Unknown, was honored over the weekend in the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Congratulations, Pat.

Hell yeah!

Hell yeah!

Woo!

AJ,

you know him well.

You've seen his exploits on the college field and on the professional football domain.

What are your immediate thoughts about this honor for our friend?

I mean, I think it's well-deserved.

I mean, I don't know when he became eligible for this, but he should have got it right away.

I mean, go back and look at Pat's stats and what he did in college.

It's unbelievable to think about.

The punter is an absolute weapon.

I've said all the time, Jim Tressel used to always say, punt is the most important play in football.

And I ended up buying into it, man.

I understood what you can do when it comes to field positioning, everything about the punt game.

But I think it's awesome.

Rich Rod, his old guy, is back here.

Yeah, and Bill Stewart going in as well.

It's an awesome thing.

It's going to be a great weekend for him.

Yeah, it'll be sweet.

I wonder, to your point, too, about how long it took to put him in.

How many all-time leading scorers aren't immediately put into their

school's Hall of Fame?

It is so sweet to see.

I don't really know, you know, or I didn't know Pat as a football player, to be completely honest, whether it's the Colts or

the Mountaineers.

No, not at all.

I've really just, I mean, he played for the Colts and I was a Patriots fan, don't like the Colts.

And then, you know, at West Virginia, I was damn near too young while he was there.

So seeing all the old clips come back up are really sweet.

Like having some of the, like, he still has a Fiesta Bowl record for longest punts, all that.

Like, that'll probably last forever.

I'm assuming he probably would want to say retire five, retire Pat White

as well.

That typically, uh, I feel like that is kind of a go-to, but I'm so pumped for him, especially with Bill Stewart.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, I mean, being able to go in with a guy who, you know, coached him and obviously passed away early, like, that's that's really sweet.

Um, yeah, I, the, the, because it's not like uh, the pro football hall of fame.

I assume these guys can get, like, we see plenty of people who are still in college get their numbers inducted, like, in their last home game or, or whatever.

Um, So I don't know.

AJ, are you in the Ohio State Hall of Fame?

Yeah, I don't know.

I went in, I believe, right before COVID, I think.

Congratulations,

dude.

That's awesome.

Do you have to give a speech?

Is Pat going to give a speech?

Do we know?

I would assume.

Is there a thing?

Probably, I think.

I mean,

I'm sure there's a speech somewhere.

I don't know if you're getting...

I know we didn't give a speech.

They announced like all four or five of you at the, like during a timeout or during halftime of the game.

Well,

did you go in with like other football players or was it just you and then like same setup as Pat?

Nuge.

Nudge went in at the same time as me, Mike Nugent.

So that was cool.

I grew up with him, played with him in college too.

So yeah, that was pretty awesome.

That's cool.

Yeah.

I'm happy for Pat.

Yeah.

Trying forever.

That was awesome.

It's actually, so I got my, my son Jude is here hanging out.

Jude, the dude.

Shout out to.

Hi, Jude.

Hey, Jude.

He'll be making an appearance in a little bit after we talk about some real stuff.

But he was asking about Pat and like how good he was.

And you have to be like, he was really good.

Like, I know Pete, like, he's obviously very good in this arena, but like, he was good yeah and like for those football dorks like the kind of guy you root for like well it's hard because a lot of football fans like you don't

like it's hard to kind of like just watch a kicker or punter and be like oh that kicker it's easy because if it's going through or whatever but punter you don't know but like when he retired he was it was widely known as like hey the the top punter is currently retiring right now which is why it was so wild at the time but no as someone who was from that area and has a ton of people uh friends and everything who was who did go to w during that time time very very well deserved because

like pat white was awesome steve slayt was awesome but you know there was a a lot of punting and a lot of points that had to come off of that yeah yeah yeah that's cool he kind of flipped the narrative too for punters because i can't who who was it that sean taylor damn near killed bro khoshka yeah oh no no sorry like brad norton or something yeah

and like that that was like the that was the whole thing with punters is like hey the the only time you see it you know philadelphia is jeff fiegels getting ear holed like stuff like that and then you see pat's hit on trending and Holiday, which is still like viral, used all the time, and like some of his hits in college.

So I think he did a lot, you know, to change kind of the narrative of like, hey, these guys aren't just sitting ducks out there who are, you know, going to get their heads taken off every time they're on the field.

Well, and also, like, you know, and I don't know how long we want to go down this rabbit hole, but like,

it's okay to celebrate.

It's okay to be happy.

It's okay to be demonstrative.

Like, I think for me, like, obviously, again, he was very good, but the, like, can you let this guy's personality show a little bit?

And that's okay.

And like, now in the NFL, it's embraced.

But, like, is it?

It sort of is.

I saw a lot of flags this weekend of people just doing normal stuff.

And it feels like there's going to be an extra.

I saw this.

I'm not even going to do it.

That is a point of answer.

They're going to do it right now.

No, I can't.

I don't want to get fined.

Yeah, sports are going to find you.

I assume there's an official somewhere.

That'd be cool.

The nose one is.

Are you brandishing the fake weapons?

I know they can't do that anymore.

No, no, he's doing drugs first down.

Is that what that is?

I thought it was.

I have no idea.

I'm just assuming assuming that's what they thought was just a cool way to signal first down.

I thought I was like, oh, shoot, I just dummied your ass, bitch.

I got to wipe my nose.

What happened?

What are you talking about?

See, like,

I'm worried there's going to be a fan running here one day and just throw a green dildo right on stage.

And what are we going to do?

What are we going to do?

We're going to do nothing.

Because it happened at the PGA tour this weekend.

It happened on an NFL field this weekend, I believe, or maybe it was college football.

But it's running rampant right now, so you better watch yourself.

I do appreciate the guerrilla marketing aspect of it for whatever it was.

well the wmba put up nets around the court so it's not happening therefore now yeah

playing baseball stadiums now actually

i mean i'm against it you should definitely not do it like those should player safety player safety like that could that could hurt someone

the fact that you had is that actually did they actually put nets up or you guys make a funny meeting yeah they put it up to that like do you have you been to a baseball game I've been to a baseball game.

Where the nets are down the first base.

They just did that for the whole court.

um he's met

he's joking see last time i saw i thought you guys were joking

it's a joke they say but it might have been serious

no one should be hit with the head though yeah yeah i mean that's yeah there you go it's not really did you watch the uh cowboys documentary i did pretty good jerry jones basically confirmed through the documentary like hey i ain't paying this this guy by the way that's how i took it at least there was no news on that this weekend was there no not really i mean

the micah stuff, we'll get to the micah stuff in one second.

Okay.

The Cowboys documentary, for those who have not seen it, was so good.

It was so interesting.

And it gave a portrait of Jerry Jones, not just like as the, you know, the guy who messes up the team, like all the fans, but like, this was a maverick, like walking across the field with Phil Knight after striking a Nike deal, which was like, would blow everyone's mind.

While the NFL is with Reebok.

Right, while the NFL is with Reebok on, I think, Monday Night Football, right?

Like selling Pepsi,

in the stadium when everyone else is, like, these are things that

suing each other.

Like, I kind of knew this, but like, I didn't fully, I wasn't fully aware of exactly.

Like, I definitely learned some things

watching this doc.

Yeah.

And I also learned a little bit about the Micah situation, which, you know, for those who don't know, this past weekend, Micah Parsons was caught,

not napping, right?

No, he was taking a break, stretching hisself.

He was stretching.

He's got a back ailment that he's been battling, which is why he's not been on the field.

He had to stretch his back on the training table.

And it was caught in 4K, right, as they say.

And then he, you know, was defended by, is that Mike Leslie, one of the local reporters.

Mike, appreciating the media has not taken this out of context, which I appreciate the media too.

But that was a lot of show.

I mean,

that was a lot to show the public in the midst of a contract stare down.

Like, he knew he was going to be on T for that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

A thousand percent.

And then, yeah, this thing.

He chose.

Yeah.

And someone said, like, you know, come to Atlanta and he does the, you know, call sign, basically, like, call, you know, Jerry or whatever.

Stadium shows.

Yeah, stadium shows.

To your point about, you know, just Jerry in general not knowing his entire story, I also didn't like knew he got sued, no idea why or what that situation was about.

And then just learning about basically what today's NFL is, you know, off the field, like business-wise, is just, it was all Jerry Jones.

Like we, we, it's funny watching The Kingdom because you learn so much about the history of the NFL when it comes to the actual football, like with Lamar Hunt and like what he changed when it comes to like the field goal posts and everything.

And then when watching this is so interesting because Jerry basically created the NFL's business.

There's a story he talks about when,

you know, he's getting during the lawsuit, during the owners' meetings, Jerry gets kicked out of the room because they have to talk about the lawsuit that Jerry has against the NFL.

This might be my favorite part.

Yeah, and he said he got real emotional.

He said he wasn't emotional.

And then while he stood up and walked out, he started getting super emotional.

His eyes welled up and everything.

And he just said he turned around and said, you know, look, if you guys win the lawsuit, you can take the team from me.

Like, I'm not going to fight you at all.

But if I win the lawsuit, I'm coming back for every fucking penny.

And it ended up being like uh i don't know 700 million dollars or something ridiculous whatever the number was at the time and it's crazy seeing that jerry like we we kind of talked about it before a little about how like people didn't want him go back to arkansas the jjs blah blah we said that last week but then you know after finishing the duck the the biggest takeaway was he knows what was happening and where everything was going and i think if i'm a cowboys fan the argument is like yeah he knew then but does he know now you know because because so much has changed since, you know, the times of the 90s and when he was, you know, taking over that after watching it, it makes me think like, there's no way he's going to re-sign Micah Parsons just because of the fuss that was made of it.

You look at the parallels with like the trade too, the Herschel Walker trade, like, and a lot of people are pointing to that and be like, hey, maybe he's going to do that now and kind of, you know, remake this team just like he did then.

But I think, I mean, like, the NFL is way different.

than when it was when the Cowboys were winning back-to-back Super Bowls, you know, just the entire landscape, everything.

But it also also was cool because now Jerry's just like a caricature, you know, like people have all these stories.

And like when you go back and you get this, and you see that, it's like, okay, well, you can see all these different pieces that are going in that like make the caricature that we see now.

But obviously, you know, in his heyday, and I mean, like, you know.

Time waits for no man, you know, like he's getting old.

It's just, that's just the way it is.

But when he was in his heyday, he was, I mean, he's about as sharp as they come.

Yeah.

Well, rap, since you've seen that, and then you saw,

I'll run it after I ask you this.

Okay, the um, the quote from Jerry with Michael Irvin talking about David Mulligetta and that whole situation.

Uh, yeah, let's just run it right now and then I'll get your thoughts on it.

We'll come back.

When we wanted to send the details to the agent, the agent told us to stick it up in our ass.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Wait, now, see, I was like, Just so you're clear, wait, wait, wait, wait, what do you mean?

So, so wait,

what do you mean people

talk?

Mike and I, yeah, Mike and I talk, and then we were going to send it over to the agent.

And we had our agreements on term, amount, guarantees, everything.

We were going to send it over to the agent, and the agent said,

don't bother because we've got all that to negotiate.

Well, I'd already negotiated.

I'd already moved off my mark over several areas.

And so the issue, very frankly, is

we've had the negotiation in my mind.

And

the agent's trying to get his nose in it right now and try to come in there and improve off the mark that we'd already said.

It's the mom and daddy deal.

You go into mama and she won't do it.

And she's the boss.

So bust them up.

She won't do it.

So you run into daddy, daddy says, do it.

And then you go back in and say, mama, daddy said it was all right.

Say, oh, mama, daddy did it.

We've all been there and done that.

Well, we've got this

resolved in my mind for the Dallas Cowboys.

And we've got it done.

And if the agent wants to finish up the detail, which is should, and do all the paperwork, and he can do that.

And we're ready to go.

But as far as the amount of money, the years, the guarantees, all of that, we've negotiated that.

How do you feel about that?

I mean, you know all these parties more than we do.

Yeah.

First of all,

that was amazing.

I mean, that was all of the rumors that I was hearing in like, I think it was like March.

It's either February or March, early, about like, you know, Jerry Jones calling in Micah, Micah thinking he's going to have like a regular conversation just about like leadership and the organization.

Jerry's in there and he really starts trying to like negotiate this deal.

And Micah's talking back and forth, like not negotiating in his mind, but just talking about what it might take.

And then they leave and Micah's like, call my agent.

And Jerry's like, okay, but we just did this deal.

deal like there's not a lot of precedent for this I mean the Cowboys have gone to players and

you know talk to them about contracts but like to think that they were literally doing the deal with Micah and then the agent just like gets to sign off on the final language like

like it's almost unfathomable to me and I would say this like the clip the the headline that everyone's running is where Jerry says you know the agent said you know, stick it up your ass or whatever it was.

Like, that's not really what he said.

Yeah.

Like, at all.

Like, you know, the better part of this is being like, you know, them talking to the agent and being, okay, let's get started.

And Jerry's like, well, what do you mean, get started?

We're already done.

Like, if you wonder why there's a disconnect, like, this is why, because one side thinks that they're done and the other side thinks they haven't started.

Like, how do you, how do you bridge that?

And like, you know, AJ, you did one of these like.

big-time negotiations.

Like, you obviously like, like, how did players deal with this in the locker room when like the owner or whoever goes to the player and tries to do a deal?

I don't know.

Has this ever happened?

Like, when does this ever happen to where an owner and a player directly actually come together and hammer out all the details on a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract?

Like, does that happen?

I don't know.

Yeah, like what you're saying is they go in straight to your agent.

Is that what you're saying, Agent?

Yeah, I'm saying that, yeah, normally guys can be involved for sure, but it's never like, as far as I know and people I've talked to and been around the league, I don't know any player that's just gone up to the owner's office, wherever they are.

I was in Green Bay for nine years, so they didn't have an owner.

A little bit different there, but just goes up there and works it out one-on-one.

We know there's guys that don't have, like, will

sign and they won't have an agent, but a lot of them still have lawyers, obviously, look over the contract, make sure everything is situated, you pay them hourly.

It's a lot cheaper than paying them two and a half or three percent.

We know that.

But like to think, hey, it okay, how many conversations was this between Jerry and Micah to where Jerry says, we got everything hammered out.

Like, was it one conversation?

One, one conversation.

One.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

Like, so Micah probably walked that thing out.

That was fun.

That was cool.

And then Jerry said, we got a deal.

I mean, and, and I think from my understanding of this, like, I'm sure the, not I'm sure.

I know that the Cowboys would have paid him a lot.

And I assume any starting point for a deal is like highest paid non-quarterback.

That's what came out this weekend, right?

Or that's kind of what Jerry said, right?

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

And that, right.

And so that's all true.

But what the Cowboys have wanted to do is lock players up to long deals.

Like, remember, Tyron Smith did like a, I think it was like an eight-year deal or 10, whatever it was.

And, like, what agents want, like, this was the argument with CeeDee Lamb, this was the argument with Dak, is they want fewer years because they want another bite at the Apple because they know, as we learned with Terry McLaurin, as we were learning with Trey Hendrickson, that third contract is hard.

And so, you want to get there sooner rather than later because you want to be still in your prime.

So, like, if you're David Mulligetta, like, you'd like a three-year deal.

You'd like a four-year deal.

Like, you're going to get the APY up anyway.

You'd like, you know, an earlier chance at the Apple.

And if you're the Cowboys, like you want like eight years.

So that's my understanding of like the Cowboys thought this was the long-term thing.

And then, you know, agent David Mulagetta was like, hold on, what?

We would never have agreed to that.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

So like to AJ's question, where Mologetta gets involved, for a situation in, you know, this is the highest paid.

So it is the most, you know, money going to one player.

So it's going to be a massive contract contract no matter what.

But for

kind of comparatively, like Lamar Jackson, for instance, Lamar doesn't have an agent, anything like that.

When he's getting his contract done, is that Lamar, you know, his mother in the owner in the GM?

Like, how did that work?

Is that kind of the setup?

More than one conversation, I can promise you that.

Yeah.

No matter what it did, it was more than one phone call or one sit-down.

I'm sure.

Right.

Definitely more than one.

And some do it differently.

Like when,

you know, with Lamar, I think it was,

it was some in person.

I think there was some email communications because, like, if you're a player and you're like, Lamar is not a trained agent, neither is his mom.

I know there's some advisors who have helped them,

but you know, not a trained agent.

Like, a lot of times you want to make sure it is perfect.

So you email it to like make sure that the language is right.

And I think when Laramie Tunsel did his deal, Saint Omni.

Saint Omni.

Yeah.

Yep.

Who,

you know, is emerging from the shadows.

Yes.

Interesting.

My guy.

Toad is a real person.

He's a real person.

Yeah.

We saw him.

Yeah.

Did you meet him?

Nah, we saw him.

Brief glimpse in the background of a video.

You sure that was him?

I mean, that was the gimmick Laramie Tunsell seemed to be swinging on the program that one day.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, Tunsell did his on email just to make sure that everything was buttoned up as it should be.

But like, one of the weird thing about

when you do a contract yourself is that let's say it's Lamar.

Like the the Ravens can't kill Lamar on a contract like it doesn't help them.

He's their starting quarterback like if they do some great deal for them that's bad for him He's gonna be mad and then it's like why did you take advantage of me?

So it's almost like the team is incentivized to do a fair deal because the players the agent and you got to be fair to the player who's also like it's playing dual roles here Whereas like if an agent's involved like the commanders doing this Terry McLaurin deal, they can get mad at Buddy Baker.

And I'm sure they're mad at Buddy Baker.

And then McLaurin walks in, and it's like, let's hug.

Yeah, love you, man.

Yeah, always wanted to get this done, like, super happy.

You know, it's like, that's,

it's, that's what agents are for.

That's what agents are for.

Well, then, in this situation specifically, like, what, what can happen?

Because it sounds like Jerry is not going to meet with Muligato.

Like, he's not interested in that at all.

They've had a very public war of words back and forth.

I'm sure they both kind of, you know, I don't want to say hate each other's guts, but like, Jerry doesn't seem interested in that at all.

So, like, what is the next step?

How do you get past that?

Like, when you said, one side thinks this thing's done, ironclad, he just needs to

sign.

And Micah's side's like, nah, we haven't even started yet.

Like, that in a vacuum seems like, well, this is never going to get done then.

You know, it's funny about all this.

And, like, I like, I always enjoy coming and hanging out with you guys.

But one of the cool things is that you're forced to talk about these issues in deep ways that, like, in 30-second bites on TV shows, you don't really get to.

This situation is even more bizarre than I appreciated.

Like, to talk about it like this, where one side thinks they're done and the other side thinks you haven't got started, like,

I don't know.

Jerry said that conversation happened in March, right?

Yes.

So that's a long time ago, and that market changed dramatically with huge guys signing big deals.

Yeah.

So there's no way Jerry in his mind can think that that conversation they had then is still in play at this point, right?

Like, how can he, how could you

possibly think?

That's what shook Haynes.

That's what probably pisses Jerry off the most is that, I mean, him and Micah might have had that conversation.

And then to Nick's point, that night, like, Max Krause, he might have gotten $95 million guaranteed in his extension.

Like, there's so many different things that could have changed.

And if you're Micah, the one takeaway, too,

from his side of things from this Cowboys doc is the whole Emmett Smith holdout.

You know, we were talking about it before the show.

I can't believe that.

I had no, again, another one of those things where, like, you just didn't know that this was happening.

Shit, I don't even know if if I was born yet, but Emmett Smith holds out for

three, four, five weeks, whatever the hell it was.

And the Cowboys are like one in five.

I think it was 0-2, right?

0-2, yeah.

But I remember it was like dramatic.

Very dramatic.

This part of the doc is like, hey, without Emmitt Smith, this team sucks is basically how it was being posted.

The backup running back fumbles twice, and I'm like,

that's when somebody, I forget if that guy got cut on the spot, but

I forget which part that was.

But if you're Micah Parsons and you see that, then all you think is like, shit, I just got to wait a couple weeks.

This defense without me is, they're not screwed, but they're not going to be as good.

If I wait two weeks and we give up, you know, four touchdowns in a game, I'm going to get more than what I asked for.

Right.

Well, how about this?

You guys have been locked in on preseason games, right?

Of course.

How's the Bengals defense looking?

Not that good.

They give a 40 again.

Again?

Again, yeah.

41 to the Colts.

Riley Leonard was dicing him up.

Jason Bean was dicing him up.

Sorry.

I was just going to say, I mean, you know, it's not all doom and gloom, though.

They picked off Sam Hartman a couple times a few weeks ago.

Looked pretty stiff in the back end.

I mean, you know.

He's a male waddle, yeah.

Every time that they have a picture of him and they have his helmet on, I'm like, what are we doing?

Missed opportunity.

You're saying he should play without him.

Hold on.

His hair is unbelievable.

Maybe the best hair in the MC.

He does have fantastic hair.

Why did you bring up their defense?

Just because you wanted us to say that they gave up 40 again this week?

No, because I think they would be better if they had Trey Henderson.

Probably.

So like this is sort of the point, right?

Like you're the Bengals.

You're looking, I mean, AJ,

I know you've seen this, right?

You know how good Trey Henderson is.

Do you think that he's watching that defense and going,

imagine what it would be with, like, this is good news for him, right?

I mean, isn't this sort of why you do this?

It's kind of leverage.

He knows you kind of have leverage when, of course, you lead the NFL in sats.

You've been killing it the last, what, however many years.

And the defense that you play for is, you know, has not played very well, obviously, last year and then into the preseason.

Yeah, it's like an Emmett Smith thing.

Let's say they come out first couple games and they get rocked and give up 48 points and they get no pressure on the QB.

Guess what?

Trey Hendrickson.

Yeah, man, we really could use this guy.

Of course.

That's what your leverage is, like the production that you can offer the team.

Yeah, but that's the other thing about this situation is that we talked all last year about how the Bengals can't bring back T.

Higgins and Jamar Chase because if they do that, then their defense is going to suck and they're not going to have enough money for Trey Hendrickson.

And then they did that.

And now we're in the situation where it does stink, but they just don't, they don't have enough to go around.

The real problem with the Trey Hendrickson situation is

too nice.

They do have enough to go around.

Yeah, of course.

Because this year's number is going to be high.

It's going to be double this year.

It's the next year's number, which I would say, like...

You can worry about that next year, but go ahead.

No, no.

But I mean, that's the salary cap gymnastics.

If they want to make it work, they can make it work.

But instead, they've just decided not to.

And this situation would have been, you know, done.

I feel like it would have been over now if Trey Henderson took a harder stance, to be honest.

And granted, maybe they just say, like, nope,

you'll have to just sit out the entire year and forfeit the year.

Or maybe they probably just trade him, which I would have assumed, but he's let them walk all over him too many times.

Yeah, and I want, like, he's obviously an unbelievable player, one of the best pass rushers in the NFL.

But, like, does he make them 27 points better on defense?

Like, if they bring him back and he gets a new deal and he's happy, like is it they're giving up 13 points instead of 40?

Like I don't know if you could make that argument.

So if there is any sort of bad blood still looming, like maybe it is like you have a hard introspective look and it's like, hey, even if we do re-sign this guy, like our defense sucks.

And he's not going to make a huge deal.

Obviously, you're not doing that because you have Joe Burrow and you have those two guys and you think if you can get marginally better on defense, then you can have a chance to go deep in the playoffs.

But like it it is interesting that that feels like more of a standstill than Micah or anything.

Like there's just, there's no new news on this.

Like

it just, it makes no sense.

I mean, I just, like, let's say the Micah deal, okay?

Like, at some point, you would think, like, Jerry Jones and Dak Prescott did a deal the freaking morning of the season.

Like, two hours for a kickoff, Dak does a deal.

So, and I was, I knew for a fact, I would have sworn that the Dak deal was not getting done.

I had a story written the night before.

That sucks.

About a DAC deal.

It was a whole long time.

It's a huge waste of time.

600 words.

Me and Pelico were working.

600?

You're crying about 600 words.

There were so many words.

Okay, that's not that many words.

No, not at all.

It was a long story.

Well, it depends on how to do it.

Yeah, double space.

If we're like slimmed down margins.

Yeah, if it's like Times New Roman, it's like this much.

Yeah.

What's the one we used to use for Helvetica?

Wingdings?

Ariel, I remember, being the big one.

Yeah, Ariel was the one when you had to write like a five-page paper.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

Size 14 periods?

Yeah.

Yep.

Right.

I had a whole story written.

12 points.

That Dak Prescott was going to be the biggest free agent in NFL history.

I knew a deal wasn't getting done.

I just couldn't get anyone to be like, yes, we are done talking because the Cowboys kind of kept talking.

And then just like Sunday morning, the deal popped.

And so like,

maybe that happens with a micah deal.

Maybe they wake up and they go, like,

let's just figure out to get our best player on the field because like i don't know that it's that hard to do can i ask you a question yeah with trey and micah um are there teams reaching out about trades

uh yes there are teams uh both sides teams who

i mean you know we talked about the packers i mean there's they're both listening i saw some raiders you don't get the sense that are the raiders rumors potentially true about tray i don't know i don't know where i saw them i just saw him on the internet this weekend so i think the raid the raiders do need some edge help i know that um and But, you know, it'll be more like the trades we saw last night.

And, you know, it'll be like

a guy who we've never heard of.

I mean, at least

Sam Howell gets traded.

Like, we've heard of him.

Coreback.

But it's like, you know,

are the Raiders in a position where they're going to give up a really good player and a premium draft pick for a player who...

Like, is he going to take them to the playoffs?

Well, is that going to be the price no matter what?

They're not going to come off that?

You know, this is the problem right there.

It's like, I know for sure that's the price.

Yes.

But then what if a team goes, instead of that, we're going to give you a pretty good player, like a starter who's good, and then a third rounder next year?

Is that enough?

And it saves you all this money, but like you got Joe Burrow.

No, the Cowboys deal is different.

Like Micah's, if you're trading for Micah, it's going to be all the picks.

Paul,

it'll be the Herschel Walker trade.

Just with Trey, yeah.

20 versus 30, whatever.

Right.

Trey, it's like,

you know, they don't, the Bengals do not want to trade him.

I know that for sure.

But so I think the stance for him.

They like jerking him around too much.

Yeah, they like screwing with him.

Just reading him like shit and still comes back.

He's so good.

Yeah.

He's a loyal, loyal dog.

And that's exactly why.

This is the curse of Joe Burrow, though.

It's like you have a chance to win the Super Bowl every year.

So how could you trade one of your best players?

Yeah, it's a good point.

I mean, Trey is just like Terry.

I'm sure there's a bunch of teams that want him.

What you said about about Mike or the Dak contract, though, like how Sunday morning they wake up and then all of a sudden there's a contract done.

Like that sounds more like the Jerry Jones handshake.

Let's figure this out at the end versus the, you know, at the beginning with Micah.

Because like, I'm assuming if you thought that he was going to be the biggest free agent ever, that the agent was probably done.

And then Jerry was like, hey, Dak, let's figure this out.

And then one of those classic, you know, handshake deals.

Like, I wonder if you kept digging on that.

If that is probably how that got done, is one of his like patented handshake deals.

And then I wonder if he said that to Micah, like in their meeting in March or whatever, where he was like, hey, meet, this is how me and Dak did it.

And then he laid out what they did.

And then during that explanation is when he said, this is what I want to do for you.

And then Micah is thinking about, you know, whatever

nachos or whatever he's going to get from the stadium right after this conversation.

And Jerry, to AJ's point, is like, holy shit, we just saw Micah.

But there was just some massive disconnect there.

And it just, it's crazy that that happened in March.

If you told me that happened in March, I'd tell you, you're full of shit.

I would have thought that happened two weeks ago.

Well, that's crazy.

Yeah, because the idea that

we made him an offer to be the highest-paid defensive player ever, that was like four different defensive player contracts.

I mean, contracts ago.

That was March.

Miles Garrett gets done.

Was it the day before free agency, right?

Something like that.

It was like TJ was not too long after.

Max was right there because the Miles one was right after Radio Row because he was going around Radio Row saying like, Cleveland sucks.

I don't want to just go to Caton.

I want to win the Super Bowl.

And that whole entire thing happened.

And then, you know, it got done right after.

And then Max was right then, too.

AJ, could you imagine?

I'm sure you have never done this.

I'm sure you've never had this, but a player signs a massive contract extension right before kickoff.

I mean, does that not seem purely insane?

Yeah, I mean, it does, but why?

Like, it shouldn't now.

Like, you could do it.

I think guys could do it, especially if you're an outside rusher.

Yeah, cool.

Let's go play on third down here.

We'll get 25 snaps and maybe two sacks in a cost fumble.

And in the crowd, everyone says, oh, I'm Grotty.

His holdout, it's completely forgotten about because this guy's an impact player and wins his games.

Yeah, that's probably right.

And that's all that matters.

But that's why everybody wants these guys, though.

Is there a chance they don't play Rap Sheet?

Like, could it be, let's say it's week four of the NFL season, is there a chance that Trey and Micah still have not sued up for any team?

There is a chance.

Yes.

And with like, with Micah, like, you know, both these guys, I mean, you guys have talked to Trey more than I have, right?

Like, he is a principled dude who is very serious about the situation.

And I would say Micah is the same.

Like, these are two smart guys who care greatly, who are very invested in their own contract situations.

So, like, I did not think that Terry McLaurin was going to sit out.

Like, once he started ramping up, and we talked about this last week, I was like, all right, like, they're getting a deal done and he's getting ready to play.

And, like, we have not seen that with these guys.

Like, so could i see them sitting out games like you know normally i'd be like ah players aren't going to give up the money like mike is back might be tight might might continue to hurt he's going to get a big contract eventually he's going to get a big contract eventually i don't know that he puts himself in harm's way without it i don't know like i said this last week though 25 million is a lot of money this year when he's he's been playing on a rookie contract I think this year he's due.

Oh, that's fifth.

That's his fifth year.

Yeah, this year he's due to make more than he has his entire career.

I think.

Yeah, than like

by a lot, I think.

Yeah, because I think it's been like four or five million a year, if I remember correctly looking at it.

But this is the deal.

So, like, let's say, like, we're all talking about this, right?

And it's like, obviously, fascinating.

We've been talking about it for two months.

And these have all the Terry McLaurin one has been interesting, but like, to me, these are the ones that are kind of more of the meat, right?

Like, you got the Bengals who do not want to trade Trey Hendrickson, but

would do it for a price that would hurt another team's soul.

Like, if you're a good team, you're going to trade like a starting player and a pretty good draft pick next year to get this really good player.

Like it's going to have to hurt in order to trade for him.

And if you're someone trading for Micah, like you're going to give all the draft picks.

The problem with the Cowboys is like first year head coach,

pretty good roster.

Like they should win.

They should be playoff bound.

If you trade your best player, does it just ruin the season?

I think that's the problem for the Cowboys.

That's a good question.

Yeah, and that's what sucks with their thought too is like the the conversation around the cowboys is that they are going to be good like you just said it right there too like people do are very high on the cowboys and they went out and they grabbed george pickens and they made you know their team better and now sounds like pickings has looked Yeah, incredible.

He's very good.

Yeah,

he's so good.

And now he's playing with CeeDee Lamb.

He'll only be better.

But the Micah thing has just completely ruined the Cowboys.

I mean, the Cowboys could have the second coming of Brady, and I wouldn't know because this Micah Parsons thing has been going going on for so long.

It's crazy.

I mean, that's like, I thought about that.

So, like, I was at, when I was at their training camp, I was there, and they played the Rams, you know, practicing with the Rams.

So it was like Micah and then Stafford, and I was dealing with the Stafford, like, what is going on with his back injury?

And, like, if I say the word disc on TV, make sure I say it properly.

We've all been there.

And you're not a doctor.

I'm not a doctor.

I do play one on TV.

Nice.

Nice.

But yes, his aggravated disc.

And like, like, meanwhile.

Doogie Hauser.

Doogie Hauser is another one that comes up in conversation in the family because I'm like having to explain to my kids that there was really a show of a 13-year-old doctor.

And we were like, yeah, this could happen.

Yeah, it was a great show.

I mean,

they remade it.

They call it like the good doctor.

Wow,

I saw it.

It was like a kid.

Yeah, it was like a kid.

A little different.

I thought the good doctor was just like a little 15-year-old.

I'm playing you after.

Okay.

Yeah.

It was very well active.

There was some other things going going on there.

He was an autistic doctor.

Oh, okay.

The good doctor.

Doogie was just ahead of his time.

Just so smart for 13.

The good doctor.

It is a great show.

It was a great show.

It was.

I'm watching The Pit now, by the way.

So good.

Boy.

You got to strap in for that one, though.

I'm not watching that.

Actually, I don't know.

Noah Weil of ER fame.

Yes, yes.

I mean, he's.

Season two is coming up.

Mr.

Ah, who cares, I think is what Ty said.

Unbelievable.

That's good.

I was not ready for the emotional toll it would take on me.

There's a lot of

where do you watch that?

Is that like a streaming service?

Yeah.

Good to know.

I'm just curious.

We've talked about this a little bit, and I've always wondered this.

As an insider,

how do you watch your games on Sunday?

What's your setup like?

Because you obviously got to have eyes on everything.

It's a great question.

Do you have any suggestions for me?

Well, I was just going to say, if you're not doing YouTube TV, you're doing it wrong.

Hey, man.

YouTube TV, you know, we've talked about it at an awesome.

It is the best.

Every game, every Sunday, all in one place with NFL Sunday ticket.

New users right now could be you, Rap, because

I'm getting the feeling that you aren't a YouTube TV guy, which is the wrong decision.

Now you're only going to pay $34.50 per month for your first eight months.

Way cheaper than any other cable package.

I mean,

you can go look it up or you can just listen to me because I know I'm right.

You can catch your favorite live NFL moments with the most live NFL action all in one place.

And we've actually actually made it easier for you.

You know, if you just go ahead and scan that QR code that's up on the screen right there, you can go ahead and choose the plan that's right for you.

So if you're not watching NFL football on YouTube, TV, rap,

why don't you go and enhance your game day experience this year and do that?

Don't be a fool.

I will say that when I go over to a friend's house and they have the

quad box?

Was that?

The quad box.

The quad box.

They got the quad.

I'm always like, all right.

Like now we're in business.

That's the only option.

And now you can customize the quad boxes.

Bet you didn't know that.

You can.

Oh, man.

I don't want Browns, dolphins right there.

You know, it's not.

You just got it last year?

No, no.

It's a unique feature that has only been introduced by YouTube teams.

They're the GOATs.

They are the GOATs.

I will look into it.

Now,

I missed the QR code, so I'll have to go to the next one.

We'll send it to you.

I got a question for you.

Got it.

Foxy put up that graphic of other stuff we haven't talked about.

Why are we hearing nothing about that Saints quarterback battle?

I checked in on that cause.

Is that why?

I think so.

What's that?

What you said?

I I said, who cares?

I care.

I care greatly.

I care whether it's

all 32 teams.

That's not true.

I would say the fact that it hasn't been obvious is probably a sign that it could go either way, which is not exactly what you want.

Right?

Feels like it's a bad time for Tyler Shuck, right?

Because if you draft a kid in the second round, you're probably thinking like, hey, let's really

hit this guy.

You want him to win the job.

Yeah, or this guy up.

Is there the flip side where like, hey, we're going to stink this year no matter what, so we might as well throw this guy out there and see what we have because there's a good chance we're going to have like a top five pick next year, maybe.

And, you know, we maybe we don't want to go quarterback if Shuck's really good this year.

They have to see him, and I think they will see him.

But I don't,

I always go back to, and we kind of talked about this with the Anthony Richardson situation last week.

You know, it's like, is it easy, like if they have to bench a quarterback, it's probably easier to bench Rattler than like start hay start Hayner, but start Shook.

It's not gonna be Hayner.

Shuck.

Start Tyler Shook and then pull him.

Like that's, does that hurt his development?

Good.

Does it?

Yeah, a thousand percent.

It kills his development.

But to Ty's point, does it matter?

Because the Titans, they took Will Lovis, and then right after they said, like,

we're not hanging on to Will Lovis, right?

Guys, we're taking KM Ward.

And then they took KM Ward.

I'm really debating betting on one team to go 0-17 because I think the Saints might.

Do you really think they're that bad?

Yeah.

You don't?

They've been 80 million under the cap for 10 years.

Over.

That's what I mean.

You understand.

I don't get the over-under in this situation.

It's fine.

Because if your company goes under, that means you don't have to worry.

Right.

But if you go belly up, that insinuates over.

Yeah, so under.

Do football teams go belly up or do they go under?

I mean, if you don't.

This debate is irrelevant.

My point is, it just feels as though the Saints, it is doom and gloom.

And the whole Kellen Moore thing, like, I know some people don't believe in Kellen Moore versus others who think that he is going to be a great head coach.

Like, there's just a lot of question marks down there.

And outside looking in, should I bet on the Saints to go 0117?

It's so hard to go 0-17.

I know.

It's so hard.

It's like if you play Spades and you get the thing where, like, Bango, you get a point no matter what.

Right.

What's the thing where you get zero?

You get zero tricks, right?

Do you guys play Spades?

We play Euchre.

Euchre.

I think you guys are the same.

I believe it's similar.

Okay.

So, like, it's hard to have zero tricks.

Yes.

You will fall into a random spade or whatever.

I can't believe Debut's not here for this.

Debut loves spades.

Does he?

Yeah, he taught me how to play spades, actually.

That's why I'm bummed out of it.

Sure, AJ's played.

I played, I was in, I was in.

AJ is that a bit.

What was your locker room game, AJ?

Oh, the OIM played that one weird.

You roll the dice and you move it around.

I still don't understand.

Katan?

P-knuckle or something.

I don't know.

I don't know what it is.

Is that Boggle?

No, it's like, I can't think of the name right now.

I'm sure.

My parents were P-Knuckle growing up, but there was nothing with dice, I don't think.

Or dudes.

Mahjong?

What's that one?

That's the Marbles, right?

No, that's the Dominoes.

I thought

Mahjong was the Chinese.

The Dominoes are

in the Southeastern Asia game.

Were they playing risk?

By the way, shout out to Chinese Taipei, who I said one week ago today that they would easily win the College World Series.

And did they?

Yeah, they did.

Home Run King was throwing mid-80s in the game.

Yeah, their coach actually went to the mound with two outs left and the whole thing and said, I'm just looking to steal some TV time real quick, guys.

The girls in Taiwan are watching.

I want to get up here.

He actually said that.

Are you puncting?

Is this like the net around the thing?

No, no, no.

No, no.

This actually happened.

They have the broadcast from Taipei, and it made its way onto X.

And you watch the guy walk to the mound, and he gets to the mound, and they didn't have translations, so you don't know what he's saying until you read the tweet, obviously.

But he starts talking, and then the broadcasters from Taipei start dying laughing, and then you read it, and yeah, it was a nice nice little moment.

Tough, tough goal for those Nevada boys.

Yeah.

Boy, they really got

classed.

Well, they burned Gallegos in the U.S.

Championship.

That's what it takes to beat Fairfield CT, baby.

Yeah.

Is that what it was?

They used their best pitcher to get to the final score.

Correct.

And Chinese Taipei had been beating the hell out of everyone.

So the home run king was fully loaded with pitches going into the game.

He is three days.

Orlovsky's a Fairfield guy, isn't he?

He claims to be.

I think he is a Westport guy.

Oh, he is.

That's right.

I believe he's a Westport.

What was the final score?

7-0.

7-0.

Could have been worse.

Could have.

7-0?

That's pretty bad.

That's pretty bad.

That's like, in your life, that's like 49 to nothing.

It happens.

Runs are cut.

It happens.

Yeah, I guess it happens.

Well, I missed it.

Clearly.

I was hanging out in Nintendo.

You're watching Tommy Fleetwood.

Shout out Tommy Flew.

I was watching Tommy Fleetwood.

I was going to have that.

Shout out, Tommy.

Tommy.

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I don't even know what.

Football!

That's what we're going to talk about.

Early.

That was one thing.

It was too early.

Early there, Tom.

I've done this either four or five times.

I tried to remember.

And I think I've hit it zero.

No, no, no.

Last week, one time.

You've hit it every time.

You let us breathe.

You're just not, you're not hitting a home run every time.

You ground up the third sometime.

I had a false start there, which is my fault, not yours, even though.

It made me hold my water for quite a bit.

On three, Tony, on three.

Ha ha!

Right, you're like standing there in your stance and you're like, how can like, can we just go?

Can we just go?

Bingo.

Yeah, I want to get up to the ball and I want to fire off.

I felt bad about that.

Yeah, now you've hit it, though.

It's a football season.

You've been a solid, solid host.

Yeah.

I appreciate that.

No Schraeger, but no Schrager, but you'll get there one day.

You're creeping up there.

I love it.

I love it.

Connor, Ty, Tone hanging out with us.

AJ over there, hanging out with us as well.

See, Schraeger would never do that.

What?

But you just did, right?

Just got to mail it in a little bit.

Yeah, he just mailed it in a bitch.

No, Schraeger would never.

A little bit.

You know, the guys who are with us.

They're the best.

I didn't look at this guy.

I think the difference is Schraeger.

And I'm not saying you should, because you shouldn't.

He somehow respects us.

And you do respect us.

That's interesting.

What are you saying?

I'm saying that rap has a correct read on the situation and on the amount of respect that we deserve.

And Traeger does not.

And look, Traeger didn't pitch a perfect game.

Look, we're not talking about like we didn't have, you know, a couple tips for him.

Sure.

But

he had a no-no through eight.

Yeah.

So that's saying something.

Yeah, so something to think about.

I already botched that one.

No, you're not.

It's all right.

Don't worry.

When people ask me, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, when people ask me what it's like to come on the show, I say it's like hanging out with Pat and his idiot friends.

Yep.

And I feel like that's.

That is the respect.

Yeah.

So maybe Schrager's wrong and I'm right.

That's exactly what I said.

Well, maybe you're a prick.

That's fair.

Actually, you're not allowed to be talking to him.

Because you're a rat.

If you do.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You know what?

You know what?

You are so right, Tony.

Thank you so much.

I'm offended.

Go ahead.

My prim leader, leader, Mike Rabel, head football coach in New England, basically told me through one way or another that

I should probably start, you know,

taking names.

Yours being at the top of the list because these insiders, these rats are getting their cheese up in New England.

What's the deal here?

Yeah,

look at here.

There was a report today that Jalen Pope will have to have seasoned head and shoulder surgery.

Can you add anything to that?

No.

I don't know, other than I'd like to find out where some of these come from

you know some of these rats around here so we'll figure that out

yeah let's just say new england's building is gonna look a little cleaner uh going going forward what what's the deal which one of your little rat friends kind of snuck his way and got his cheese up in new england because the jalen pulk situation was a very uh very very loud one in new england second round pick last year hasn't been exactly what everyone's wanted and now there's some little rat bitch that you know, probably one of your little rat dogs.

I hope so.

And he broke some news about Polk.

What is this?

I appreciate Mike Vrabel so much.

Amen.

Like, and AJ knows this, like, when a coach is talking to the media, what he is really doing is talking to his players and his building.

So, like, what do you think the players thought when they saw that?

What do you think that all the assistant coaches thought when they saw that?

I have thoughts too, but I want to hear yours, AJ.

AJ.

Like, don't you think they paid attention?

They go, well, I don't want him calling me out like that.

Yes.

And they know the next time they have an open locker room situation and some reporter tries to come over to them and whisper and like pull them aside, hey, I'm going to talk to you.

Not like you're in the group.

You know, like Rapsheet knows.

Like the big time people feel like, hey, I'm too good to speak to you in a group.

I need to be one-on-one with you.

They'll poll someone one-on-one and they'll try to say something.

It's all, you know, it's us.

It's me and you.

Yeah, we're just back and forth.

Here we are, you know, off the record.

Here we go.

Like, those players.

It doesn't sound as dorky when I say it, just so you know.

Okay.

Yes.

But you know what I mean.

Like, these players are on notice.

Like, hey, I'm not going to be that dude.

Absolutely not.

But also, guess who else is?

The front office guys, all the people in the front office, all the equipment managers, the trainers, like everybody is kind of on notice.

And then you realize that's what the culture is here, and everybody kind of grows with it.

But yeah, it might take a little bit of time, I guess.

I mean, I think, so you guys have heard my story about how Vrabel kicked me out of practice, right?

I believe so, but if you want to give it quicker physically, did he throw you physically out?

He had to see, right?

Yeah,

when he was in Tennessee, and I was talking to Taylor Luan as he was like on the exercise bike coming back from

ACL surgery, I think it was.

And like, I was chatting with Taylor as I walked by, and he was just like,

because like, you know, he was bored as heck on the stupid bike and just wanted someone to talk to.

And Vrabel sees it, and from like all the way over there is like, get out of here, rapper port, get out of this practice, and like makes this whole deal about kicking me out, which I'm like,

but like, what's like, is this real life?

Like, and so I'm kind of like awkwardly move all the way.

I'm not gonna leave because where would I go?

I'm at my training camp tour.

Like, am I gonna go home?

So I like walker to stand like all the way in the back.

And then Willie McGinnis, who was with us at the time, is like, hey, man, like, they just canceled all of our one-on-ones because you got kicked out of practice.

Ugh, I blew it.

This is so bad.

And

And then he's like, hey, man, Willie, he's like, you got to apologize.

And I'm like,

God, like, seriously?

He's like, and you got to like really, oh, here we go.

Yeah, this is it right here.

And it was so, look at Vrabel.

Look at his happy face as I tell him I'm seriously sorry.

I can't believe you found this so quickly.

And it was so embarrassing.

And then later.

You look big next to Willie.

Actually, the angle kind of messes with me there.

Like, that was a little bit unfair.

That was, because otherwise I'm tall, but the angle makes me look short.

Exactly.

And then afterward, Vrabel's kind of like, he's like, ah, you know, wanted to show the media that they shouldn't talk to our players during practice.

So, you know.

And I was like, oh.

You were the sacrifice of the left.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Made an example of you.

Right.

And I was kind of like, I get it.

And that's.

He knew you could handle it.

Right.

And also didn't care about my feelings, which is fine.

He still doesn't, by the way.

Good coaching.

I like that guy.

But, you know, if you're a new coach and you're trying to set a culture and you're trying to help people understand that when information's in this building, like, I don't think this information came from his building.

Like, I assume for someone to report whatever that was, it had to check with Jalen Polk's side, his agent, whoever.

Like, at least that's what I would do if I had it.

But everybody was put on notice.

And I think, like, you know,

the Patriots have a lot to clean up.

And I think they're going to be better.

I actually think they could be maybe really good.

I think this was message delivered.

Yeah, it's too loud on that front.

Now,

as a Patriots fan.

The expectation front.

Yeah.

You don't want to hear it.

Yeah, exactly.

But as a Patriots fan, looking at this was one thing, but then when you hear like Bill Belichick come out and say his entire thing this past weekend about how, you know, hey, it's great coaching in college games.

You don't have to deal with an owner and an owner's son.

I think a lot of people, and I believe that's the exact quote.

I'm not sure if we have, we don't have the video, I know, because we couldn't find it.

But yeah, it's a lot of football, and there's not much in your way.

There's no owner.

is that really what he said there's no owner's son allegedly that is the exact quote and we haven't found the video of we couldn't find it but when when stuff like this comes out now

there's obviously no way vrabel is going to say anything about you know the owners and he's not checking the owners when it comes to stuff like this but does this happen where you know it's not you know vrabel is calling people out and definitely there might be people but would it go as far up as you know the owners and the owner's son being a leak i I mean, I don't know in New England if that was the case.

Like, I don't know that Jonathan Kraft is like whispering stuff to reporters.

My guess would be probably not.

Or if he does, like, I should get it.

Sure.

You know, not somebody else, but I haven't.

But like, in order to call out the owner or the owner's son as a coach, like, you have, you better be Belichick.

Yes.

Like, you, and, you know, and even still, you wouldn't do it in front of a microphone.

You do it in front of closed door, behind closed doors, be like, hey, like, can you not?

Like,

you know?

Yeah.

I've actually been a little surprised that Belichick has been as open about his sort of patriots disdain as he has, because

he is the most disciplined interview and person I have ever met.

It's

as a reporter, I could never get him to say anything I wanted.

Like, he says only what he wants all the time.

He must want this out there.

Well, I think if,

like,

old Bill, like, if that that documentary never comes out on Apple TV where it's basically just six episodes of them slandering him and killing him and saying that he really wasn't that big of a deal when it comes to the dynasty and it was all Tom and a lot, and Bill actually was the one providing a lot of roadblocks that the team was somehow able to get over.

I think he would have probably just let it die.

But then that came out and he was like, oh, okay, I'm not there anymore.

Like, I'll kill these guys.

My resume is bulletproof.

So, like, they can say whatever they want, and I can say whatever I want now, too.

I mean, that documentary, like, you know,

all I, I mean, we talked about the Cowboys one the first time.

Like, all I do is watch those things, and, like,

I thought it was done extremely well, but it was definitely not even.

If you were a fan, like, he was a fan of the Patriots, he hated it.

Like, if you're a fan of the Cowboys, you love that Cowboys documentary.

Agreed.

If you were a fan of the Patriots, you would have been like, this is bullshit.

What are we talking about?

Yeah, like the Chiefs documentary that's happening now, Kingdom, I think, is that everyone, I liked it, but I I think that's what everyone in New England expected the Dynasty documentary to be.

And then, you know, I guess it's a little difficult with the Patriots documentary because, like, Brady released his own one the year before, Man in the Arena.

Yeah.

If you remember that, through ESPN.

And that was exactly what everybody thought the Dynasty was going to be because Brady's documentary was 10 episodes.

You know, the first nine of them go through all nine Super Bowls that he went to in New England.

And then the 10th episode was his last Super Bowl at Tampa.

Makes sense.

Whereas, you know, that was made, and then a year and a half later, Apple TV comes out with a documentary.

And the assumption is this is going to be so much better.

It's Apple TV, Bill is in it, Robert Kraft's in it, it's all these people, all the Randy Moss, Bruce Ki, Vrabel, all these old players.

And then instead of getting that like recap of the dynasty, it was like, hey, we're going to try and explain to you why Bill Belichick wasn't as big of a deal as he was.

Which, to be fair,

this stupid argument.

I'm sorry.

It's so dumb.

Yeah, it just.

I hate it.

It's like

Tom Brady is awesome.

I love Tom Brady, okay?

Who doesn't love Tom Brady?

But, like, Belichick was intricately involved.

They needed each other.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's the same thing.

And Tom says that, though.

Tom doesn't deny that.

Yeah.

I just hope what they've done with Kansas City that, and I think they will just because Andy Reid is Andy Reid.

Like,

I just hope Andy Reid doesn't get killed for never winning the Super Bowl before Pat Mahomes, which he won't because he's an offensive mind.

Why is that not, oh, maybe, yeah, maybe because he's an offensive coach, but like Belichick created the offense.

Yeah, I mean, again, but people don't,

people won't ever think that.

And then you do go back and watch those documentaries about how like little knowledge Bill would tell the other coaching staff, and you wonder why those other coaches who go and be head coaches don't have as much success because he even played it close to the end, close to the vest in his own building.

I mean, that was one thing that was so interesting.

I remember AJ was talking about the reporters kind of like coming up to the players and being like, hey, man, like, just me and you.

Like, so I would try to do that early on with some Patriots assistant coaches.

Like, when I, so I covered the Patriots for the Boston Herald for three years.

And early on, you know, you try to buddy up to some assistant coaches, like, hey, like, you know, I know you're like the defensive line coach, but like, what do you hear about this injury to the tight end or whatever?

You know, Gronk or Hernandez or whoever it was.

And it's like, oh, I don't know.

Like, they don't tell me.

And I was like, thought the person with Joe.

It's like, they don't tell me.

Like, you really just know, like, you know, only what you need to know there.

And that's, that's kind of the way it is in New England, you know?

Provincialization.

Part mentalized, right?

You know what you need to, you should know.

Like, that's all it is.

I don't know.

I'm sure Bill is like every other coach who's very paranoid, doesn't want a player getting picked up.

And two weeks later, you're playing that team, you know, like when you're practice squad, guys knows too much info or something.

Yeah.

We have a fun guest coming up.

I want to do something first.

As you guys know, my son Max was here last week.

My son Jude is here this week.

Jude, can you come say hello really quick?

Jude the dude.

I'm not going to make him give a speech or anything.

Jude, the dude.

Young rapporteur, the tall one, they said.

He is a little tall.

Jude, say hi to the people.

I don't know.

Pretty tall.

I bet you.

I see you, Jude.

Jude, are you snacking?

Are you seriously eating on the show?

What are you snacking on?

It's okay.

It's like Brad Pitt.

Yeah, Farora Lofsky, actually.

Yeah, a little oatmano.

That's fine.

You're allowed to eat on the show.

Well, that's not true.

All right.

Do you have any football?

No, it's not true.

Do you have any football knowledge to impart to the people?

Football is a sport.

It is.

Let's go.

Who's your favorite fantasy pick this year, Jude?

Who do you like?

Keep it close to the vest.

I like it.

Respect.

How about this?

How about this?

Jude is starting tackle football for the first time.

Here we go.

Okay.

He gets his uniform.

He gets his pads today and his first pad at practice on Thursday.

AJ, what advice do you have for my good friend Jude as he starts tackle football?

Keep your head up, don't break your neck, and run and hit as hard as you can.

Bingo.

He said, run and hard hit.

Yeah, you can't see him.

There you go.

You can't hear him.

Can't hear me.

Say bye to the people.

You grab that 55 jersey and you take down the biggest son of a bitch on that field.

Yep.

There you go.

That's the advice, brother.

I'm going to pick 54.

There you go.

That works too.

Goodbye.

Good choice.

Yeah.

All right.

Bye, Jude.

One of his favorite players.

Yep.

Do we have our esteemed guest on?

We do.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you, Jude, very much for hanging out with us.

Glad he did not embarrass the family, just as Max didn't last week.

Would like to welcome back to the show.

I'm trying to do a good intro because I think the boys were sad about my bad intro for them.

Nope.

Nope.

No, no.

Nope.

Do your thing.

We're just, hey, we're just here, man.

Dan is a respectable.

Trying to give you some constructive criticism.

Dan Orlofsky joins the show.

What's up, Dan?

What's going on, guys?

Such nice colored shirts.

It's ready to roll.

How are you doing, man?

What's going on?

Not much.

Fantastic.

I can't love AJ's advice more to your son, who is just about to start tackling a football.

The second thing he hit him with was don't break your neck.

So

rough to start there.

Number one thing.

Keep your head up.

Heads up.

Keep your head up.

Yeah.

I got one.

I got one.

He likes to drop the head, AJ.

And I tell him all the time, dude, you're going to get hurt like that.

He's like, what do you mean, get hurt?

I'm like, dude, you're going to get hurt like that.

Not the worst thing.

It's not the worst thing that could happen, Dan.

It's all right.

We can figure that one out.

You can figure it out.

We'll get it.

Yeah,

I have to be honest.

Like, I'm a little nervous.

I know my wife is not that excited that Jude is playing tackle football.

I am beyond excited.

Yeah.

And I think.

What is she nervous about rap?

Just because it's football?

Does she not want him to get hurt type of thing?

Yeah, I guess, you know, just injuries.

But, like, you know, kids are taught so much better now than I think they ever were.

And he wants to play defense.

He wants to pick passes off.

He's very fast.

Hell yeah.

He wants to play safety.

Hell yeah.

Young Cooper just

Well,

Cooper's also cool.

Come down and fill that alley.

Yeah.

He jumps past us.

He knows.

He might

let a pass get over his head, but he also will pick off one as well.

He's an aggressive player.

He's a high-risk, high-reward guy.

We got any like exotic blitz packages for him?

Yeah, little Jude off the edge blitz.

Yeah, that's a little Derwin James or like

How Hamilton.

Yeah.

DC's yelling, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles.

And we know that, hey, Jude is coming.

It's actually great.

Well done.

Thank you.

I like it.

Well done, Tunde.

Thank you.

Well done.

Thank you.

So Dan, we had before you came on, we had the Terry McLaurin contract.

Negotiation saga ended three years up to $96 million in the contract.

You know how important he is to that offense.

I got two questions for you.

One is what's your initial reaction to this deal?

And then the other thing is he hasn't practiced with them.

Like, can they get back?

quickly enough to make an impact early.

Yeah, reaction was about time, you know, it and i got like many people like super bummed and upset that it it got to that point and i was one of those people and i am one of those people that like who you are does matter in contract negotiations you are paying the person you know at times i'm not saying just as much as the player but it should have some type of you know that

and i thought that terry had been like the face of that franchise during some really down times and i was upset that it got to that point.

But I'm also tip of the hat that they figured it out before the season.

And the second thing, no, I don't think they can hit the ground running.

I think you have to be super, super, super smart, especially for a team that coming off of last year has, you know, the aspirations and belief that they'll be playing in January.

We talk about it all the time when it comes to the soft tissue injuries and specifically hamstrings for guys that are running a long time.

So I think Washington needs to be super smart about how they go about his next four to six weeks.

And, you know, I know CD missed some time last year and didn't really suffer, at least to my brain, recalling last year, any type of injury that forced them to miss time.

But Iyuk, I think, did at some point previously.

So you just got to be really smart.

This is an offense that runs no huddle as well.

So this isn't an offense that has the traditional run a play, get back to the huddle, take you know, 40 seconds.

And so the temple that they play in has a little bit of benefit, but also

there's a tax to their bodies as well.

So I think that one of the things that just paying attention to is how he's getting used, his snap counts, you know, in that first month of the season.

Yeah.

You know, I think they need to be smart and keep on the long-term vision for this season.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

So four to six weeks is basically the, and that's training camp.

It's like, allow this to be their training camp now.

And like, if he doesn't play 80 snaps, like that's okay, okay.

But just let him kind of ease his way in, is what it sounds like, which makes sense.

I want to, boys, I've got some questions for you.

I want to go back to one thing you talked about last week.

I was pretty up in the air on Matthew Stafford, what was going to happen.

You were not up in the air.

You believed that it was going to be okay.

And then I think as you were on, he started practicing.

It is a week from there.

He had no setbacks.

First of all, how happy are you to be exactly right?

And two, you've seen some clips.

I mean, does he look like himself?

Yeah, I mean,

I've got an unhealthy obsession of being right.

And so it's not, at times it's a good, it's a bad thing.

Yeah, he looks like himself.

You know, I think one of the things that's probably most impressive about Matthew is,

and this is, you know, kind of going back 10 years when Matthew started to go to those quarterbacks, especially at Southwest California.

I think Adam Daydow is the guy that led the way.

Matthew really wanted to become become more of a technician throwing the football.

He was that gunslinger and had tremendous talent, but he really wanted to become his best as possible.

And I think that's the thing that stands out when you watch him not only play, but even some of the clips you're watching right now is just how much he, you know, as the back end of his career, has become just a technician.

And that's become a huge part of how well he's played down the back stretch.

So I don't think we have to sugarcoat this when it comes to the Rams.

And you had heard floats about this over the past year, at least I had, was, you know,

they were all in on maybe like one final run with Stafford and McVay together.

I don't think it's crazy to say that if they had beaten Philly last year, they would have gone to the Super Bowl.

And maybe Matthew wouldn't be a Ram right now if they had gone and won it.

I do think that there are some people who have that same thought process of like, like, this is the final run.

Like, this is the last year of this, hey, we can go win a Super Bowl.

This quarterback is capable of going to win that Super Bowl with this coach.

And so I thought that was one of the reasons why they were extra cautious.

And that's why I didn't really have a ton of doubts.

So,

yeah, I think he looks great.

And like, listen, dude, if they, I think there's two things about their football team, Ian, that

probably they're searching for.

They got to get more explosive in the run game.

They're really efficient in the run game.

They got to get more explosive.

The teams that were like six out of seven, you know, final

six or seven playoff teams last year, they were all explosive in the run game.

The Rams weren't.

And then two, they can't be in third and longs.

Some teams can, and they can survive.

The Rams can't.

Their offensive line is really good unless it's third and obvious passing situations.

If they take steps forward in those two things, they'll be in the NFC title game.

It's

fascinating story from someone who knows Stafford so well.

That's all well and good.

Two big stories.

But I think it's fair to go to our good friend Tone Diggs for the biggest story of the weekend.

Yeah, Dan, I'm not sure if you saw the Cleveland Browns played a preseason game, their final preseason game.

Simple question first.

How many games do you think Kevin Stafansky is going to be suspended for the mishandling of the quarterback situation in the preseason finale?

Can't believe that he played Joe Flacco, even though he hasn't played at all yet this preseason.

No, but in all honesty, there's a lot going on on on the internet, and one side's not going to change their mind, the other side's not going to change their mind.

But just from the football side and the tape, and what you've seen, how do you make of the whole Cleveland Browns quarterback situation?

Yeah, just from this past weekend, I thought, number one, Joe looked really sharp.

Number two, Dylan Gabriel did as well.

Dylan Gabriel played super fast.

I thought he made some big-time NFL throws to the perimeter.

Just plays at the

NFL speed.

He sees it clean.

He sees it fast.

He moves quickly and he executes at a really high level on a consistent basis.

That's just what the two games of his tape have shown.

If you take away the pick six, which I thought was miscommunication, and the fumble, which I believe was his, but that's a very correctable thing.

It's crazy clean and it happens real, it's very two-alike.

And I know they're the left, it's very two-alike.

Some of these throws happen crazy quick, okay?

Chador, it was a struggle.

A lot of the things that we saw Shador

do in college that were concerning coming out showed themselves.

Haught the ball.

It seemed like he wasn't looking to read the defense.

He was just trying to see where the offensive line moved to, and then he was going to move off of that.

Had slow eyes.

And so that showed itself.

And that was concerning coming out of school.

And it was concerning against the Rams' defense.

So the overall takeaway is this, Ton.

Like, one game.

Carolina, pretty darn good, dude.

Like, really, really, really impressive.

One game against the Rams.

Like, this ball has got to be a throwaway.

It's first and 10.

The defense won the rep.

Throw the ball away.

Now, everyone might go, oh,

it's a three-yard loss.

So, second and 13 is almost impossible to come back from.

And then, second and 12, you could check the ball not even move.

Maybe it's third and nine.

It's third and forever.

So, like, those were the things that you were just,

at least me, like, you were concerned about coming out of school.

And, okay, he's going to have have to fix that.

He didn't.

It doesn't mean he can't.

We don't have to sit here and say that a coach who's dedicated his life to football and dedicated his life to the development of players

in football is sabotaging an NFL legend's son's career.

We don't have to go that far.

If you've ever spent time with Kevin Stefanski and talked to Kevin Stefanski, you would be like, man, he's just a really good guy.

Andrew Berry, their general manager, if you ever spent time and talked with Andrew Berry, you'd walk away, like, dude, he seems like the nicest person on the planet.

I don't think those two guys got in, you know, cahoots together and said, let's sabotage an NFL legend's career or his son's career.

So, um, internet was talking.

Just think internet was talking.

Yeah, my gosh.

He was playing with lineman that got cut, Dan.

Yeah.

Imagine lineman getting cut in preseason.

That's absurd.

Players getting cut on cutdown, Dan.

I just never had come on.

Yeah, so I just think everyone needs to take a deep breath and being like, he had one good game.

He had one bad game.

He has to develop in some stuff.

He's got to improve in some stuff.

And hopefully for his case, he does.

You know, like, I think it could be as simple as that.

Ty, you got a question?

Yeah, Dan, I don't think the trade is that big of a deal.

And I know you were talking about sleeper teams in the NFC this morning, and you know, you had the Vikings on there.

They trade Sam Howell and go out and sign Carson Wentz.

Are you surprised at that whole situation with a team that has NFC Championship Super Bowl aspirations and it's kind of just like, hey, this is J.J.

McCarthy's team.

If we're going to go where we want to go, he's got to be the one that takes us there.

And should we just operate under the assumption that it's KOC and no matter what or who's, you know, who's under center, like he's going to get them right.

And the Vikings are still going to be kind of hell to deal with this year?

I think the Vikings are going to be absolute hell to deal with this year.

I don't, I'm not like the, it doesn't matter who's under center.

You have to have a really good player to be, you know, one of those real, true competitive teams.

I think it speaks to what they believe in JJ and what they've seen about, you know, in JJ over the course of the last 16 to 18 months.

I'm not overly surprised.

Also, the guy that they have third string, I think Matt.

Brossner has been pretty impressive as well with like the way that he plays.

So I think that he's got a future.

I'm not all that surprised with the same Owl trade.

You know, Carson's got a past with Josh McCown, who's their quarterback coach.

I think that

they

firmly believe in J.J.

McCarthy.

And if they have added reservations about who he was going to be as a player, would have done something different than Carson Wentz.

I think Carson Wentz is the, if something happens to JJ and we need a guy to play for a week or two.

Howell didn't necessarily fit what they were doing schematically.

Carson's got a little bit of past when it comes to all the offenses he's been in.

This team's got a chance.

I don't feel all that different about this team than I do.

You know,

the Rams, I don't want to say as high as the Rams, but like, listen, if they hate, stay healthy and JJ plays the way that

Sam Darnold did or in that vein, this team very much so can be an NFC championship contender because they're so deep.

They're so, and their lines of scrimmage are so good, and they're coached so well.

They're top five coaching combinations.

So I think they need to add a veteran receiver because the Addens, Addison suspension and just the JJ hamstring gives me a little bit of like deep breath.

Hold on, Dan.

Just to happen.

Ian.

No, no, no.

Nothing happened.

What?

Is there any truth to the Tielen, back to the Vikings rumors?

They are in discussions.

Those two sides have had talks.

You freaked me out because you said it.

Well, I saw, yes, I'm sorry for doing that to you, but I also saw Dan tweeted when those rumors were going yesterday that he would hate that for Bryce Young.

But obviously, that would be great.

That would be great for JJ.

Listen, Dan, I want to hear your take.

And I know guys have some more questions for you.

I want to hear your take on this too.

But like,

it would suck for Bryce Young.

But for Thielen, this would be, and the two sides have had conversations.

I wouldn't be surprised if a deal happened.

It has not happened yet.

And I know the Panthers are fine not trading him.

But, God, for Thielen, this would be the most amazing reunion, right?

I mean, how cool would that be?

Yeah, I think,

yes, for Thielen to be able to go back home, go to the place that he started his career, finish his career, be on a team that could, you know, have legitimate NFC championship and Super Bowl run aspirations.

Obviously, with the Addison injury, there's a little bit of need there for a player that can perform at a high level.

No, yes, excuse me, suspension.

Yep, correct.

So, yes, yes, yes.

There's another side to it, though, as well.

It's like, man,

I would hate for Bryce to lose him.

I really would.

I thought he was so important for Bryce's finish last year.

And I would also say Tet McMillan and Xavier Legette

have like really unique skill sets.

Their frames are really important when it comes to where a quarterback comfort comfort.

is comfort level and throwing them the football.

They're big body guys.

Tet's a little bit more lanky.

Xavier's a little bit more thick.

Adam's the feel guy.

Adam's the

possession guy.

And so for Bryce to lose that, while it would be a plus for Jay Jane, certainly a great story for Adam,

it's a loss, in my opinion.

Big time, big time loss

for Bryce in Carolina.

Sure.

Yeah, important years, right?

I'm kind of hands going in.

We got the guy back?

Yeah, he's there.

All right, okay.

AJ,

I know you got a question.

I think you have a question for Dan as we

try to make sure that he's got service.

I just keep saying words are good.

All right, go, AJ.

I got a question.

You are good, Dan.

I think it's good.

Where are you with the Denver Broncos?

We know there's a lot of people that are very high in the Broncos and what Bo Nicks could possibly do a year two with Sean Payton.

Where are you exactly?

How do you think they stack up in the AFC?

Yeah,

they're probably top three defense in the NFL.

I think they're going to be an absolute problem in the AFC West.

Yes, you got to beat Kansas City to beat Kansas City and actually get it done finally.

It's the best division Patrick's ever played against.

I think like the things that are most stand out about this, we, one, it'll be a top five offensive line of football this year.

Sean Payton, back when he was with the Saints, they always had one of the best offensive lines, specifically guard, center guard.

They've got that again in Denver.

It'll be a top five offensive line.

I think the two things that stand out to me are that our big question mark are, you know,

Sean talked about having that Joker when it comes to that tight end guy that he would move around.

And the thing that I know about Sean's offenses are Sean wants that Joker to be a multifaceted player.

What I mean by this is that he wants that Jimmy Graham type of guy that you could put out and put by himself or move around.

And that guy's going to give the quarterback information of the defense.

Are they in man?

Are they in zone?

Is it going to be one safety?

Is it going to be two safeties?

But then also, also, it gives that guy a matchup that you believe can be a winner when it comes to those one-on-one situations.

And they make the trade or they acquire Evan Ingram.

And I would say that Evan necessarily hasn't been that type of guy.

Like he hasn't been the guy that you put out there by himself and he just kills people.

He's definitely been a get-the-ball to type of player, certainly in Jacksonville, where like you want to find ways to get him the football.

And I want to see how Sean Payton uses him because you don't want to just put him out there.

Because I always say this, AJ, you put a tight end like that out there and he doesn't win in matchups, you're not really as a defense that worried about him.

So, like, you don't gain the benefit of the matchup.

Okay.

So, how does Sean Payton use him?

And then, Troy Franklin, who's their second-year receiver that they took out of Oregon in the fourth round, is like this long, lanky, vertical threat.

If he takes a step forward, man, and he has in camps and preseason games, that really gives them two pretty darn good receivers with him and Sutton.

So, like, I'm super, super, super high on Denver, but not only or just because of their defense.

I was so, I spent some time in Denver too, and I talked to Sean Payton for a while.

I, you know, you never quite can tell what someone's going to say about their own expectations because, you know, some coaches are like, ah, you know, we haven't accomplished that.

He was like, I think we're going to be good.

Like, he was

really buying into and like.

wants the expectations set, wants the team to know how good they are.

And like, I agree.

And I think the ref, I would tell you this,

and I don't mean to count you off, sorry, from my, just from a football perspective, I tell you, the only team that I think in that conference is better when you take both offensive and defensive lines,

I don't think anybody in that conference.

Wow.

Maybe Baltimore.

But when it comes to like, how good is your offensive line and how good is your defensive line?

They're if as good if not better than everybody i mean that's that's about as

that's a pretty good example of why they're going to be really good connor's got a question for you yeah dan uh you look fantastic today whoever did your makeup this morning knocked it out of the park so please pass on uh my warmest regards uh with that being said dan you know Indianapolis obviously the hotbed of the National Football League with you know the AR and Danny Dimes situation and we're still believe ours but people are starting to think that maybe after the agent of Anthony Richardson comes out and says, Yeah, I don't know what the hell this team's doing communicating with us this way.

And, you know, that whole entire situation.

What do you think of the Colts?

Should we expect a sturdy four-win season in Indianapolis?

Should it be some higher hopes?

Is this the end of AR in Indianapolis?

Do you think the Colts should hang on to him and maybe run this thing back next year with, I don't know, Carson once again after he goes to KOC?

What do you think about Indy?

Could you imagine?

I could.

Indy's just

respectfully just not that appealing to me

right now.

The football team, not the city.

The city's great.

Yeah, I love the city.

Love the city.

Love the city.

Yeah, the football team, like, I kind of, we know kind of what Daniel Jones is.

He's going to have some moments when he's good.

And then you're like, hey, man, they've got really good perimeter players.

So I just.

Like, if Daniel Jones beeks, are they 10 and 7?

You know,

are they 10 and 7 and 7 in the playoffs?

And then, but you're not beating anybody that matters.

Right.

You know, you're not beating anybody in the playoffs that you think are the Baltimores, the Buffaloes, the Kansas Cities, the Denvers, the Houstons.

And so that's why I was one of the reasons why I was on board with Anthony.

Anthony has to play.

Like, Anthony, I don't care if it's the Colts.

I don't care if it's, I don't care who you are.

Anthony Richardson has to find a way to get on the field.

And so if I'm in his agent, yeah, I want him out of Indy because I want him to go to a place that he's going to have a chance to play.

And it doesn't seem like if you're Indian, you weren't going to give him the chance to play.

And I'm not absolving Anthony from his role in some of this.

He certainly has it, you know, going back to last year, but there's not a ton of like high-end appeal for the football team right now, respectfully.

And then also for Anthony, it's like, yeah, I think you're trying to find a new home or you're going to, and you're not all far from it right now, like being in that Trey Lance world where you're just like, all right, am I going to get lucky to have a bunch of playing time in the preseason and try to prove myself as a backup and then hope to get on the field somehow?

But it doesn't seem like Indy believes in him.

Well, that's the thing, Dan, is like, you know, everyone says like he needs to play.

But if you look at the Colts, that was like the most intriguing.

quarterback like place where he actually had a legitimate opportunity to play.

So if he's not going to be able to play here, like, you know, I mean, no team is trading for him thinking like, oh, this guy's going to get on the field and he's going to play for us, right?

Like at this point, if Danny Dimes doesn't get hurt and he comes on and is unbelievable, like he's going to be a backup quarterback somewhere, correct?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

The situation, Ty, to your point, is probably best in Indy when it comes to the reality of getting on the field.

I don't know what the behind the doors situation is, though.

I don't know how much the trust is from the organization and coaches down to him and then him to them.

And does he want to be there?

do they want him there i that's just me thoughts i'm not making anything up here so i just don't know if they and he believe you know separate starts are best for both parties

so i was thinking about the carson went situation uh saturday when we found out that he visited there and you sort of knew like all right hold on like if carson's visiting who are they trading and then and like what so that's like they trade sam how they signed carson and the first text i get was from one of the quarterback guys that I know.

And it's like, do you think Carson could be this year's like Sam Donald?

And look, hopefully he doesn't play because that means JJ has been great and injury-free.

If Carson does play, like that's an amazing situation for him.

And so like, you know, he's done it.

He's experienced.

He's played at the highest levels.

He's where he is now in his career, but could absolutely have like a career rebirth.

Okay, fine.

But like.

When you go to Anthony Richardson, like if a team like, let's say the Vikings needed a backup, like they're not trading for Anthony Richardson because they don't know for sure what they're going to get.

So, like, these guys were saying, like, where's he going to play?

Like, that's like, I don't, I don't know how this ends, but my guess is it ends with him getting another shot in a camp battle next year with some other team after they've, everyone has kind of moved on and said, here's your fresh start.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Yeah, like, I sent out a tweet kind of when it happened.

And I was at the Philly Entertained Trading Forum, the Los Angeles Rams Entertained Trading Forum.

So, it's like, again, Ian, you're and Ty's comments are accurate.

Is it's not a great

long-term reality right now for Anthony that more than likely his future is at a place where he's just trying to find his footing in a backup situation that has the chance to become a starter if it's an older guy or injury, but that also means he's going

more time without taking snaps, yeah, like more time without getting snaps.

Like, but also, you never know.

I remember being in free engine and I was in with the Houston Texans in 2008 when Matt Schaub was the starting quarterback.

And I, one of the reasons why was like Schaub had missed like 16 games over the previous two seasons, and I wanted to play.

And I was like, sweet, I'm gonna go there so I can play.

And then Schob started like 50 straight games.

Yeah,

yeah, you also like never know.

So

going back to the moment of drafting him, Indianapolis should have said, we are all in on him playing all the time, and we're not going to worry about winning and losing.

We're just going to develop him and get him his reps, or he's not going to play until his third year.

And they didn't either.

And again, he's got his own hand in it as well.

But that it wasn't the ideal kind of process of calendar for him.

Yeah.

Well said.

Great stuff, Dan.

Appreciate you as always.

I know you're getting ready to go.

Let's see.

We got a golf course.

We got a kids game.

What is it?

Is that your house?

Wow, your house looks amazing.

Me and DeShambeau have the same house.

This is

ESPN's campus.

Oh,

come on.

Schools campus?

ESPN.

Oh, yeah, that looks great.

We've never been.

Reminds me back when I was an intern there.

You guys have never been?

No.

I've been once.

Connor's been.

I spent a summer there.

It was lovely.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

It's awesome.

All right, Dan, thank you very much.

Go hang.

We'll talk to you.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

I hate to say it, guys.

That was not a very promising outlook from the Colts' perspective.

I mean, I hate to say that.

I mean, right?

Like, that was...

He was right.

And it's been like that for like three years.

I know, but like, again, like, when you talk about the, like, I know it's not great, but like when you talk these issues through, like, that sounded way worse.

See,

the very last thing he said is why,

because because I've talked to a few Colts fans now, why they're all very, very mad about the situation is because of what Dan said.

You either draft him day one, knowing, and they said they know he needs to be developed, and you let him play, and no matter what happens, kind of like, you know, the Bills knew that Josh Allen needed developed, and he basically played from day one, and no matter what the record was, he played and he developed.

Or you do what, you know, other teams do, and you let him sit for three years and you don't play him at all and hope he develops that way.

And they did, they did, they kind of tried to toe the the line and it didn't didn't work out age-wise at least you could kind of compare it to Drake May like when Drake came in him and AR were basically the same age AR might have been a little younger but they were basically around the same you know

yeah age but AR got hurt after five games and Drake May had his first start after five games so like I understand maybe that they handled it wrong but like this has been Shane stiking Chris Ballard from day one baby this is there's no one else to blame it is all stiking and ballard and it is basically strictly on them how it has been handled.

When it comes to Shane Steichen, I feel like most people, or at least how I feel is, unbelievable play caller.

But what has happened the last four years has happened, and like he's he's the guy.

And maybe I think that because like Vrabel has come in and flipped it immediately, and Steichen and Vrabel are two completely different people.

I shouldn't compare them.

But like his culture, it felt like never settled at all.

Well, and the thing with Steichen, too, is like he was here and probably had somewhat of a say in which quarterback they drafted, and they went with Anthony Richardson.

So, if like it goes bad again, are you going to afford him another opportunity?

Of, okay, we're going to have another top five pick.

Like, now let's see, like, you got to develop this guy.

We know the last one didn't work out well.

Like, and typically, especially with you know, Mr.

Ursai passing away, like, I just feel like in the NFL, like, you're usually not afforded that opportunity twice.

Yeah, and I think that's right.

And look, like, a couple of things stand out to me.

And, like, first of all

to for them to decide that anthony richardson is not the guy he had to definitely be not the guy correct the gm and head coach are invested and should want the guy they drafted to be the starter

right everybody right

and so it's like if he's not then either daniel jones is about to have a career resurgence which i like daniel jones a lot like we played a round of golf together he shot 83 at westchester country club and made me look like a terrible golfer.

That's DJ.

I mean, he was hitting bombs.

That's what he does.

Literally, he's a big SOB.

NFL quarterback.

I mean, it's one of those things where he's like, yeah, I don't play a lot, and then goes and shoots 83.

I'm like a world-class golf course.

Yeah, he's a good athlete.

Cool.

Great.

And that is why, like, I have faith in Dan Jones, too, though.

And Steichen, because I, because like Steichen is a good play caller.

He is.

It's just everything else that comes with being a head coach.

At least it appears it hasn't gotten as well.

I'm like,

you were saying that before, and I find myself getting a little frustrated because, like, I think Shane Steichen is a good head coach, and I would like to see him have the opportunity.

He's responsible for what's happened.

I'm not saying that, but I would like to see him have a quarterback good enough to give him the opportunity to be a good head coach.

And it's like, you know, I don't,

hopefully for them, Daniel Jones has a career resurgence

and they're really good.

And like, you know, look, like, it's, so like, AJ, like, you're in the locker room.

You got Anthony Richardson, who you've just seen the comments from his agent, who's kind of looking around and saying, like, we're not sure how the organization treated us.

Like,

is that weird?

Like, are people like picking sides?

Like, how does this play out, do you think, behind closed doors?

Yeah, I mean, it's a good question.

When it comes to quarterback competition, there's definitely sides.

Like, there's

certain receivers want this guy, certain receivers want that guy.

The O-line wants certain guy usually.

But

also at the same time, there's a good chance that all the players do like and respect both quarterbacks, but some of them work out better for others, whether this guy's in or that guy is.

But what I mean, when agents start talking about the organization, all that stuff starts happening.

I think guys are used to like all the weird outside noise when it comes to the NFL.

Like before I got in the league, I used to always wonder that, like, how do these guys hold out a training camp and all this stuff?

And they come back and their teammates are still okay with it.

Like, are their coaches all pissed at them still?

And then you get there and you realize, no, this is just how it is.

Like, it's a professional thing, and you're not going to hold anything against the guy for how they handle a a situation.

But players will definitely hold a franchise accountable and they will they will remember exactly how they may have treated them, how they treated their close buddies or someone they feel like they screwed.

And I'm not saying anyone got screwed over here, but when it comes to quarterbacks, like if you're, you draft a guy in the first round and your quarterback doesn't, he doesn't become your franchise dude, it doesn't kill you like it used to.

It used to really be tough with the salary cap and all the guaranteed money they got.

Now with how the salaries are, you can still, it's easier, I guess, to recover and figure it out.

And with quarterbacks bouncing around, to your point, like, I mean, Dan Jones is here.

Sam Darnold, Geno Smith, like it does happen a lot.

Baker in Tampa, like Tampa didn't have a, you know, future, if you will, when it comes to a quarterback, and then they just got Baker for the next 10 years.

I know we don't have it, but to your point, AJ, Quentin Nelson did an interview.

We might be able to find it real quick, but it was basically them asking him about Danny Dimes and Anthony Richardson.

And he doesn't have any animosity towards the players and he might not even have any animosity towards the team itself but like he's sick of it he he said in the in his interview like i mean shit this is seven years in a row now where i've had a different quarterback for basically my entire career since andrew luck retired and like i'm not saying quenton nilson is going to cause a fuss but i'm assuming

for him to speak out exactly doesn't speak at all doesn't really do any interviews never really hear him talk but for the one time for him to speak, for it to be like, yeah, you know what?

This sucks.

Yeah, okay, sweet.

We finally let's just

say so.

I think I'd be lying if I said it wasn't.

You know, you look around the league and see just like the consistency of having a like Patrick Mahomes or like a quarterback behind you that's like been the franchise player

for

years and years and years and getting to build that chemistry with that quarterback year after year is

something

that there is an advantage to when it comes to OI play.

So to answer your question, yeah.

Yeah, it sucks.

I haven't known a quarterback in seven years.

They're all different and none of them like the same shit.

It's the worst is basically what he just said.

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I mean, and look, you know, you got to go out and play a season and you got to try to win, but like, that's not a, like, that's the kind of enduring message right now, right?

I mean, isn't that like, you know, like, talking about how the plays in the locker room, AJ, like, isn't that the locker room?

Like, that's, that's must be.

Figure it out.

Courtneylle said, hey, figure it out.

Like, it's your guys' job to figure out, like, you know, the roster development and how to bring people in and who to get rid of.

Hey, figure it out.

We need a quarterback.

I've been here.

And it is true.

Like, the O-lineman, they all, like, it's one big cohesive unit, and that quarterback is attached to the hip.

Like, they know exactly how those guys like to move, where they set protections, all of that stuff.

The,

The continuity is gigantic, and that's what he was saying there.

Well, think about how important the quarterback position is in getting it right if you are drafting that high.

The commanders, it was on Git Up this morning, the sneaky humbo question of the day was which organization has the longest streak or had the longest streak of a different quarterback starting each year.

And this will break a streak for the commanders of eight straight years where they had a different quarterback starting game one.

I believe the Colts will be at seven, I think, this year.

But the commanders picked number two overall, Jaden Daniels.

He comes in.

Now we think they're potential super Super Bowl contenders every single year because they got it right.

The Colts did not get it right.

And this is how we're talking about them.

So, like, getting the quarterback right in the first round is literally the most important possible thing in the NFL.

Even for like the team.

Like, I think that's what I,

and obviously, if it's seven straight years, sure, like, that that could get old.

But even just for the team itself, like, and I wonder what the psychology of it is for, you know, like Quentin Nelson or the old line.

Like, when they're, if you have the choice to, you know, maybe shoot the shit and hang out with Dan Jones or just go the hell home, it's like, well, you're not going to be here next year.

Why the hell would I kind of get to know you?

Like, what's the point?

Seriously, like, I wonder how close he's actually been able to get with his quarterbacks because he's basically been the face of the Colts since he was drafted.

I mean, not the face, but he's been one of the best players since he's been there.

Yeah.

And so you genuinely wonder how close he feels he can actually get with some of the QBs just because

it's been seven straight years.

I mean, it's absurd.

I mean, and this is why, like, you know, at the end of, like, I don't know how good the cults are going to be, but let's say that they're

not that good.

Yeah.

Let's say they're not that good.

Hopefully that's not the case because I like the guys there, but let's say they're not that good.

When you get to like November and everyone's tired and they've lost a bunch of games and it's like, do I do that extra lift or do I work?

Like, this is why seasons sometimes spiral in a bad way like this and so like if we are looking back on this and you know and if it's November and they're like really bad I'm like I get I get it I think the other the other piece of it is like you look at that division and it is so gettable like Houston has been but it you know it's like we're in a time right now where if you at least have like a little bit better than average quarterback play, like you are a contender to win the, you know, you're a contender to win the FC South.

And so it's like you go year after year after year when you have these other great players.

And it's like, hey, you know, I mean, somehow we've managed to fuck up the most important position in sports where your team can't go if you don't have a guy.

And it's just like,

you know,

we look at Jacksonville, like, they're probably only going to get better if Trevor Lawrence can figure it out and all that kind of stuff.

Cam Ward's young.

They think he's the guy.

You know, saw people on ESBN saying that they think Cam Ward's going to be the, you know, the best quarterback in that division by midseason, and they're going to win the division.

So, like, people are talking about the Titans that way in some respects.

And then, obviously, the Texans have had, you know, so much success as of late, but there really is no conversation about the Colts there in terms of, like, hey, they could win the division this year.

Yeah, and they paid people, to your point.

Like, it's not as if they have good players and they're on rookie deals.

Like, they've spent money on these guys, and they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

You guys mentioned the commanders.

I want to go back to one of the things that happened this weekend.

Brian Robinson got traded.

Oh, yeah.

Which, you know, I would say for the commanders is a thing.

Like, he was their starting running back for four years.

Now, that tweet right there, I will say, I was in Nantucket with some friends and family.

It was so hard to send that tweet.

Why?

Because the service is so bad.

No service, huh?

I was like punching my phone.

I'm waiting for like Ceviche, this like awesome seafood truck.

And I knew that there was no service.

But I'm like, all right, if I just hit send.

What do you do and go to Nantucket when you know it's this time of the year, right?

These are not my decisions.

These are not, and we had a great time drinking pineapple drinks and like hanging out with friends, hanging on the beach.

It was lovely.

Also, it was hard because you blacked out, you couldn't see your screen.

This was early.

This was early.

It was like 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock.

No drinks.

And I couldn't, it just wouldn't go.

And I had to call Palisero and be like, what, what?

Like, I'll pull this, Tom.

I'll pull this right now.

Anyway, the whole thing was ridiculous.

But so Brian Robinson goes from the Commanders to the 49ers.

They have a starting running back.

But everyone, it seems, is successful as a running back.

I mean, look, for fantasy, if people have him in keeper leagues or if, like,

I feel like this is the absolute biggest win for Brian Robinson you could ever have.

Yeah, without a doubt.

I mean, I think

you're praying that you get a full year of Christian McCaffrey, but at this point, like, there's just a very good chance that he's going to miss a couple games.

And you also don't need him taking as many touches or carries as he has in years past coming off the injury that he had.

So, yeah, I mean, shit, what was it last year?

Three different guys rushing for over 100 yards, it seemed like in, you know, different games for the Niners.

So it certainly does seem like anyone they get and put back there has the ability to have a, you know, a very solid day anytime they play.

Yeah, and those short yardages, too.

Like he's a much different running back than Christian McCaffrey.

Like, if anything, you can just think of it like, hey, if we have, you know, five to ten short yardage plays per game, that's five to ten massive shots that Christian McCaffrey doesn't have to take anymore.

And, you know, of course, they're important plays, but Brian Robinson, you said it.

He started for four years.

He's really, he's a really good running back.

And as the internet pointed out, him and Ricky Pearsall, they have a lot to talk about there.

They have a lot to bond over.

And now the Niners lead the league in that category.

Yeah.

Great time to be a Niners fan.

Yeah.

They're going to all come out to within the

favorite.

I don't know.

I mean, it's a great song.

Do the Niners still do the boombox since Debo's gone?

That's a good question.

Ooh.

Do the Commanders do the boombox then?

It's going to be an interesting that we need to draft.

Does that guy come?

So I saw, like, who is the guy who came out with Shador?

Yeah, the one

who played it out with the corner.

With the scythe, yeah.

Yeah.

I can't remember.

Does that guy, like, he got cut?

Oh, really?

Yes.

Who walks out with Shador now?

Who walks out with...

So Shador's not getting cut.

Shador's not getting cut.

Are the Browns keeping four quarterbacks?

It's a conversation that I think

we probably

we probably should have

coming up.

Not in this network.

No.

But we're going to continue on YouTube and some other places and get right into it.

That was our show.

Thank you, everyone, for hanging out with us.

Goodbye.

Nailed it.

See, now that's a pros pro right there, man.

That's what we're talking about.

Yeah.

Well,

what I really need is, for people who don't know, I have the countdown on my ear.

I spend most of my life with a countdown on my ear doing like the insiders, whatever.

And so like that, I can roll with.

When it's just out in the ether, the floating

football, that's one, you know, I just

feel structured.

It's tough, you know?

It's not, it's not, it's not the norm for you.

I think that's probably why, you know, you got to adapt a little bit to survive over here.

Um,

he's 100%.

He's adaptive.

He's right.

He's 100% right.

Adapt or die.

Adapt or die.

Thrive or survive.

What?

Thrive to survive.

Yeah, maybe.

Thrive.

Thrive as well.

Yes.

Did they trade Brian Robinson Jr.

because they love Austin Eckler, or is he going to be starting back, or is it going to be Bill Krosky?

Sick Bill Krosky.

It's going to be Wild Bill.

It's going to be Wild Bill Krosky.

I mean, his story is so crazy.

I did some internet sleuthing.

I also called his agent to be like,

a week ago, I was literally like, who's this guy's agent?

And a young agent I had not heard of.

I'm like, I don't know your player.

Can you like explain him to me?

And he's like, well, obviously you've read.

And I'm like, have I?

Have I read?

Have not.

And so like, he barely played his last year in college it was of eligibility issues regarding whether or not he was on the field for his first team that he played for so like gets drafted late hasn't played a lot of football recently and they were like this guy's like I swore he's good and I'm like cool everyone says their client's good this guy actually is good and so like there is a real chance that The commander starting running back is a player who played one game in college last year and bounced around and like just that's going to be it.

And like, meanwhile, Brian Robinson, who started three years for them, gets traded for a six-round pick.

Yeah.

Right?

I mean, that's just like...

NFL is wild.

That's Bill Krowski and Merritt Football.

Yeah, it's being a running back now.

It's a tough, tough business.

The other thing that happened this weekend, we talked about one of the quarterback trades, talked about Sam Howell going from the Vikings to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Las Vegas Raiders now may need to make a quarterback trade themselves.

I know this because of my sources, and also Pete Carroll literally came out and said it.

Aiden O'Connell gets injured, fractures his wrist,

out six to eight weeks, so he'll begin the season on IR.

And they now need to go trade for a quarterback.

They now need to go find someone who can back up Geno Smith and

someone who can be secure.

They want someone with experience.

We have talked about some of the teams that might keep four quarterbacks.

Like the Browns have come out and been like, yeah, we're planning to keep four.

I think the Giants have a chance to keep four as well.

Surely one of them, surely the Raiders call one of them, right?

I mean, doesn't this.

Like, is it like, because is it obviously off of those, you would think it's probably Jameis

or Kenny based on the T Leaves in that situation?

And I asked you earlier, I talked to you about it earlier, maybe Skylar Thompson from the Sealers, because he's played really well.

He started a playoff game in the past.

I see him.

Assume it's somewhat of that ilk.

Who was Geno's backup, Pete Pete Carroll's last year in Seattle?

Drew Locke.

Yes.

No,

it wasn't Pete Carroll's last year.

So I think Drew Locke, I think Pete Carroll didn't have Drew Locke, right?

Because there was a year in between.

I forget, but would Drew Locke not be one of those?

So that was my thought.

And then they drafted Jalen Milro.

So it's like, if you're going to draft a quarterback in the third round, might he be your backup?

I just, you know, the real problem with this, and like, I love trades, and this is why this time of year is wacky.

But like,

yes, the Seahawks could get something, I think, probably pretty real for Drew Locke, like a legitimate late round thing, five or six, something like that.

But then, God forbid, Sam Darnold gets hurt.

And it's like, do you trust, I'm not saying you don't, but like, do you trust Jalen Milro?

A lot of on his plate.

Is he going to have packages right away?

Do you know?

I think so.

Yeah, they're planning on using them.

But do you also trust?

I can't remember who we were just talking about.

Sam Darnold?

Yeah, no.

Oh, Drew Locke?

Yeah, Drew Locke.

I forgot his name.

Do you trust trust?

If Sam Darnold gets hurt, is Drew Locke going to come and it's like, all right, we're good.

Nothing changes.

We're a playoff team still.

Like, I don't think that's really.

Maybe.

Yeah, Milro.

You never know.

Is Ryan Taney Hill still on the scrap heap somewhere?

Is he in play at all?

You know, I don't, I mean, I don't think so.

Like, if, you know, he's been out a year.

Now, look, if someone's going to pay him 10 million bucks, my guess is he'd probably consider it.

I think for 10 million bucks, you'd probably consider a lot of things.

Whoa.

But nothing weird.

Like what?

I mean,

nothing strange.

I don't know.

Nah, you're

not.

Don't get yourself into trouble, Moody.

Dude, here, Buffs now.

Jude perked up.

He's like, what?

What?

Headphones off.

I was just looking at teams.

What about the Lions?

Are they looking for a backup quarterback?

Because right now I know they're not exactly, I don't think, thrilled with Henon Hooker.

And then who else?

Kyle Allen played a pretty good

one.

The backup quarterback world is so weird.

It's so strange.

Kyle Allen has bounced around so much.

And the Steelers last year.

Played so well this preseason.

Okay, so they do like.

They like

Hendon Hooker, I mean, when a, who was it that came out and said Hendon Hooker might need a fresh start?

Was it the GM or the head coach?

MCDC said it.

He did, okay.

So it's like.

That's not good.

Writing's on the wall, Henon.

What does that mean?

Why?

Why would he say that?

He just hasn't gotten any better at all.

Just giving him a heads up.

Kyle Allen outplayed him big time this preseason.

Are guys interested in, our teams interested in Trey Lance?

Because he's the third string on that team as well, right?

Is he the third string?

I wonder about that.

Oh, Eason?

I really wanted to.

Jakim's not there anymore.

No, it's Stick.

No, it's Heineke.

It's Heineke.

What happened to Eason Stick?

He's in

Atlanta or they cut his ass.

Fuck, man.

This is what I do this time of year, by the way, where I'm like, exactly.

This team is

like I go to these training camps and I don't, you know, I went to...

It was Heineke.

Yeah, Heineke's there back.

Well, maybe he's not.

But no,

and I actually wonder if Heineke would be the kind of guy

that the Raiders would trade for, but then in the division, are they really going to do that?

What about Danuch?

the nooch was drinking a just got coffee i love it so

ice cold beer looked cold yeah it did i was uh so i was in the airport with jude yesterday waiting to to come here and we stopped by the delta lounge shout out delta lounge shout out and he sees a he had an ice cold beer first one i know he had the kid yeah right first one

he had the kid version which is a chocolate chip cookie And so it's like three o'clock and he had a big old chocolate chip cookie.

And I'm like, Jude, one of life's good lessons, like when you're in the airport, time doesn't matter.

You can do whatever you want.

You can have a beer.

You can have a cookie.

Like, it's three o'clock.

You get 15 beers.

Watch your dad.

Like, as many.

Take notes, son.

Like, watching Denucci have a beer.

And I'm like, you know what, dude?

Have your beer.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You drink, like, in the airport, and you can do whatever you want.

That's like a universal thing, too.

I'm glad you said that because the no time in the airport is real.

I don't even think when you walk in,

they should take it off your phone.

So you can just do whatever the hell you want.

Because when you are in the airport, it's the worst place on the planet.

I mean, it's not, I don't even, I've been in so much, I don't even think it's the worst.

It's just not real life.

Yeah, it just sucks.

Like, it just, so why would I not have it?

It's 10 o'clock.

Like,

I'm having eight beers.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, for those of us, you know, it's like.

Some people here will fly around on private planes.

Like, that's a little different airport experience.

Those of us who are on the commercial flights,

you know.

Oh, I'll still have three beer, four beer before I get on a commercial flight, without without a doubt.

Yeah, and usually not beer, usually, you know, a little cocktail.

Yeah, three cocktails.

Three, four double.

Yeah.

There's three cocktails, four cocktails, double them up.

I mean, I don't wrong with that.

Okay.

No judgment.

Six to eight.

No judgment at all.

Yeah.

I mean, if I'm going to the airport, I'm getting drunk.

That's the bottom line.

Airport's for drinking.

I mean, that's like when I do my training camp tour, I'm like, I'm like, all right, like, let's see.

I got no rental car.

I got an Uber back.

I get fucked up.

I got a beer cocktail.

Not to say that, but might I have like one or two on the flight?

Yeah.

Yeah, I kind of scouted out.

Like, all right, I'm going to get fucking hammered in June.

I'm just saying, I want to make sure that anything that happens is safe.

I agree.

Of course.

It's smart.

So, yes.

We're talking about the quarterbacks, talk about the teams that might or might not keep four.

Where do you guys stand on?

First of all, it's pretty cool.

Why would you keep the four pick of the ball?

Why would you keep four, though?

That's a great question.

Each spot is so valuable.

Why are you keeping four, you think, Rap?

Especially with the emergency QB rule now.

It doesn't make sense to keep more than three.

Because you can have two and then.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

What?

Jude just texted me from his watch.

He doesn't have a phone, but he's got a watch.

Are you saying I can have beer at the airport?

Boom.

That's a good one.

No, Jude.

Push him on it.

Push him on it.

See what you get.

Hey, by the way, Jude, you're about 10 years away where it doesn't even fucking matter what your dad says.

So don't forget that.

I would say no cursing.

Oh, there he is right there.

Jude, wave.

Wave Wave to the people.

The dude.

I would say no cursing, but he just went to sleep away camp for seven weeks, so he's probably heard all that.

A lot of potty.

He's heard and seen more than, you know, we can teach him.

That's sleep away.

That's sleepway camp.

Hey, that's Bivook, baby.

So here's the answer, AJ, is you keep four because it has value to you, right?

So like, let's say the Browns keep four, and let's say Kenny Pickett stays on the team.

First quarterback injury that happens in the NFL this year, Browns are getting the call.

And so it's like, if the price is, I'm just making this up, if the price of fifth rounder now, like if I'm the, I don't even want to put a team's name into the ether saying they're, but it's like, if it's a playoff contender team and you lose your starting quarterback and Kenny Pickett is available and he might keep your season afloat, like, what's that worth to you?

Like, yeah, that makes sense.

That's

whatever.

Like, I'll pay.

If I'm like some good team who has the only chance of being good is to trade for Kenny Pickett, which you should have a better backup quarterback quarterback situation than that, but maybe you don't.

It's worth everything.

I'll give you anything you want.

That's why, I think.

You know?

It's got to be right.

Or why else?

Why else?

That's very valuable.

Each active spot on game day is very, very valuable.

So a team, I don't know, you got to feel pretty decent about the rest of your team if you're going to do that.

But he's the only one that they would do that because no team is trading for Shadur or Dylan Gabriel, probably.

I actually don't know if they would trade Dylan Gabriel.

Like, he kind of looked good.

I know he's small, but he kind of looked good.

Like, what if he's good?

Sure, but that's what I'm saying, though.

Because then your only bargaining trip is like, hey, have you met Kenny Pickett?

He's the current bell of the ball.

It's going to take two first-round picks to get, like, because no one else is.

You know why they pay in the slide?

Yeah.

In college football?

Guys, a Ken Pickett.

He was a first-round pick.

It's true.

Or, like, you know, the other one would be Jameis, and I think that's interesting, but it's like, he's a little more of a wild card.

And if, you know, if you, if you trade for Jameis, you're getting all of it.

Hell yeah.

What do you mean by that?

It's a lot.

Him and Jackson look like they love each other, too.

Yeah.

Maybe they trade Russ before the season starts.

I mean, what week would heard rumor Jackson Dart starts?

Is that real, AJ?

I read it somewhere.

That sounds real to me.

What week would I say Jackson Dart starts?

This is a great question.

These are the things that I think about when I'm like doing my nerd-out football stuff.

Let's say, let's just go down this rabbit hole, okay?

Let's say the Giants are better than people think they're going to be and in and in it.

Let's say they're four and six

by

November.

Is that right?

Four and six by November, okay?

Whenever that is.

And Russ has played okay, but like he has had moments like last year at the beginning and then moments like last year at the end where as you guys know like it was not.

It was a cliff.

He fell off.

He fell off, right?

And so they're four and six.

They're in it and they're playing okay and the offensive line's still together.

Do you put Jackson Dart in and say, okay, like, go.

And either he leads into the playoffs or he just plays and gets it.

And then next year he's your guy.

Like that's, that's my guess.

Okay.

Barring injury.

And if, like, if you're a Giants fan, and like for AJ, like for, you know, you're a player, you want your season to have meaning.

You want to make sure you're alive.

Like,

doesn't that give you a little bounce if a rookie quarterback comes in in like the middle of November, you know?

Yeah, I think that's the way to go.

Yeah.

Put Russ in.

Let's, let's hope we don't need to put our backup in or our young guy, like Jackson Dart.

Let's hope we can play as long as we can, and Russ has a great year, and here we go.

But yeah, knowing like I think the four and six thing, that's kind of that makes sense because it can kind of give the team that boost and that jump that you possibly could instead of you're gonna go one way or the other at four and six.

It's either going to be really terrible or, hey, let's make a run at this.

Not the easiest first.

Yeah, they got a couple.

Is this a schedule right here?

I mean, that is like Jesus.

I mean, New Orleans, okay, but like Philly twice, Denver, San Fran, like,

I mean, that's.

I mean, that first four weeks.

I mean, that's just, come on.

Like, it's tough.

That's tough.

They don't have a buy until week 14.

I see the NFL, baby.

I know, but, like, that seems like particularly like.

You go two and two in those first four, and that's a win though.

You get your field real good.

Yeah, I think then you put them in damn near.

I mean, it's like, you know, I assume Micah's playing for Dallas week two, but like, would I bet my life on it?

Probably not.

Like, probably not a bad time to see them.

I don't know.

Weeks six through nine, at least.

Those are very tough defenses to start with for your rookies.

I mean, yeah.

Yeah.

True.

Good point.

Right.

And that's the other thing.

It's like, do you protect, like, I don't think Jackson Dart was going to start anyway, but like, don't you protect him?

Like, Russ.

You try to.

Russ has been through it.

So, like, he'll be okay, but like, you'd like to protect him a little bit.

It's like you guys were talking about the Richardson situation.

Like, you're right.

That was like a mishmash of, like, but if you're going to protect Jackson Dart and like make sure that his development isn't isn't stunted, like you got to really do it.

You got to be like, until you're ready to go, we will just deal with every fan wanting you to play all the time.

Yeah, that's never going to stop until he does play.

Do you buy too, though, that Dable,

they need to show that like he is going to be the guy of the future and that like he's had development in order for him to keep his job?

Yeah.

Because I feel like that started as like he's coaching for his job.

And I feel like now maybe it's just with all the positive pub around the Giants in the preseason that that's kind of tapered off a little bit.

But what do you think about that?

I think there is something there.

It's definitely not nothing.

Like, it's like there has been a lot of positive buzz in the preseason, but like, I'm, I know we talked about this last week, Son, but I'm so curious to see when the games start, how much of the preseason storylines are we going to be?

Like, why are we talking about that?

Like, how much of them?

Yeah, like, every year, every year.

All?

Every year.

Yeah.

You know, like, maybe the Bengals defense is good.

Maybe the Jets' offense is good.

Slow down.

Like, maybe.

on both of those.

But, no, every year.

But you know what I mean, though?

I do, I do.

But every year, the preseason is mostly bullshit.

But then situations like Bill Krosky Merrick come out.

And then, you know, then all of a sudden this kid is a star.

Like, that's my favorite part.

When we were talking about the Panthers and Adam Thielen, and granted, this is a very specific player.

And I have been...

pounding the drum for him.

Go ahead.

But when we were talking about Thielen, it's like this dude, Jalen Coker, that they have, who's going into his second year,

at the end of Carolina's year last year, he was their number one receiver.

And it's probably because Lee Gett was their rookie last year that Coker didn't get love as a rookie receiver, but he's really good.

And there are random players like that that you find through the preseason that you root for.

But when it comes to storylines,

I typically think 100% of them are complete horseshit aside from Micah, Contracts, all that stuff, because that does actually linger into the regular season.

But yeah, if Shader Sanders or Dylan Gabriel comes out of my mouth during the regular season and they're not playing, shoot me because it shouldn't.

They legitimately aren't storylines when, you know, if Flacco's playing, no one should be talking about the Browns quarterback situation unless Flacco is playing terribly, which we know that won't happen.

Obviously, that's not going to happen.

Footsteps, baby.

No, I think that's a good point.

And that's why it's funny.

Like the,

you know, your question to Orlovsky was a good one about like the, you know, the internet chatter of

the why does does Stavansky hate Shador.

Like, I actually, I'm sure I should be annoyed by it, but I'm not.

I'm more like entertained by it because it's about the most, like, to think that a head coach would sabotage a team's quarterback for like whatever.

Stavansky would love if Shador was good.

It's

praying for it.

If they, if the Browns end right, like everything the Browns have done is to set themselves up to draft a quarterback next year.

They have an extra first-round pick.

They'd love the Jaguars to be god-awful terrible, and they are ready to draft a quarterback.

If they don't have to, it is a free first-rounder and they're all good for 10 years.

So like, do you think Stefansky cares whether it's Shador or Gabriel or who?

Anybody.

Anybody, any starting quarterback will do.

And so like,

the internet chatter of like sabotaging your own player is so insane and amazing.

I can't believe we're talking about it.

But like, that's what we do on a Saturday in the preseason.

That's where we're at.

And maybe that's why maybe everybody started drinking early.

It was really hard.

College football started.

I was not aware of that, by the way.

You guys talked about this in the pre-show.

Did you guys watch it all or no?

Week zero?

Good game.

Week zero started.

What did we learn?

Did we learn anything, AJ?

Football's back.

I was state's legit.

They got balls on them.

They go for it on fourth down.

They did.

Here it is right here.

Basically, or no, sorry, this was Rocco Beck running it in.

to take the 24-14 lead.

Rockobeck.

Can we figure the field out overseas, please?

Can we figure the grass out once overseas?

It wasn't happening.

But Quaid was sodden at big.

Was it awful?

Was it like

it was rainy, obviously, but look at it.

It always looks like must.

You couldn't see the lines, and there was a controversial spot on K-State on one of their drives.

But yo, K-State answered, and then this was the fourth and three they went for it, where if they did not get it, what a call.

He is good.

Was he not short there?

He was.

He was.

He was.

And they just kneeled it out from here.

Oh, okay.

But no, Rock Obeck looked great.

You know, there's still some questions about the K-State at the quarterback position and, you know, and his family and if they're getting along and stuff like that.

Newsflash, they're not.

Yeah.

His family?

You can't answer those questions.

Quarterback's dad and his brother beat the shit out of each other in the parking lot after the game.

They were very embarrassed.

Had you selected that around the field?

Or are you guys seeing that?

No, no, no, no.

Very real.

This is what I missed this weekend?

Yeah.

I really had no freaking internet.

But this one, this was nice because, you know, you're not fighting some random fan.

You're in Ireland fighting your family, which I believe is one of their pastimes.

Yeah, that is actually right passage.

Wait, so what happened?

So this video gets released online?

Avery Johnson's dad, right after the game, is like, oh, breaking.

Avery Johnson's dad fights a fan who's talking shit to him about Kansas State, blah, blah, blah.

Like an hour later,

that same video gets released and it's like, breaking.

Actually, Avery Johnson wasn't fighting a fan.

He was fighting his oldest son.

And then some other things came out about Avery Johnson that a lot of people did not know, including myself.

myself.

But yeah, that video took over.

There was a good

three-hour period on Saturday where if you opened your phone, you were at one part of the saga, whether you were just seeing it, whether you found out that they were brother and, or sorry, father and son, or whether you were getting the release joint statement from the two about how they can't be doing that.

Football was all the way back.

So how does it work?

So

they fight, allegedly.

Well, it's not allegedly.

No, yeah, they fight.

They fight.

And then somebody's like, all right, like, I know you guys just tried to punch each other, but let's sit in the same room and come up with a statement together.

Probably, you know what I'm saying?

I mean,

listen, if you've had,

yeah, how did it work?

If you fought my father because I ran away and he didn't catch me, but you fight your brother and you said, you just, I mean, you're family.

You hug it out and then you put out the joint statement.

I mean, yeah, what did you and Schultz do?

Well, he beat the fuck out of you.

Did you guys put out a joint statement?

Rap pooped his pants and had to go change his diaper and got out of there.

I did not put out a joint statement.

Okay.

I did release a statement to the Washington Post when they asked me about

that stuff.

What did you say?

That was a long statement.

I regret to inform.

Buck, Starbucks, bitch.

Is that what you said?

Don't get for light.

I have since had some Starbucks coffee.

They still do a nice job.

Yeah, for sure.

They do a good job.

But no, it was a great day.

It started with that.

Kansas absolutely routed in that game, and then it ended down in Hawaii.

Stanford went to Hawaii, and Hawaii won

on a field goal kick from a kicker who learned how to kick on YouTube.

I believe he's from Japan.

Oh, yeah.

Is this why people are texting me about a YouTube kicker?

Yeah, this is Hawaii's kicker.

I thought I was like missing an NFL tryout guy.

He like saw football somewhere and then was like, oh, I'm going to go

and learn how to kick.

And he kicked the game winner to beat Stanford on Saturday.

What a beautiful day of football.

Do you guys know we have some college football breaking news?

Great to kick.

Really?

No, would you like to hear some breaking news?

Yeah.

Yep.

This show,

is it okay to to say it all right this show will be live from columbus on friday that is pretty cute

and i'm gonna be guest no i'm not gonna be guest host oh you're not a college football guy i'm not a college what's going on in columbus do you even know yeah obviously it's uh who's playing huge football who's playing yeah who's playing hold on hold on I know this one.

You can pull this one.

Can I?

Trick question.

It's Ohio State is playing, right?

Yeah, that would be a good thing.

That's a good start.

Are they playing Texas?

Yeah.

Boom.

Let's go.

You know it.

You knew you could pull that one.

Is Pat going to be here?

I don't know.

Honestly, not sure.

Do you guys really not know?

No.

Really do not know.

I mean, I...

My assumption is Saturday.

That makes more sense.

Like, but I don't know about Friday.

I honestly don't.

I have not talked to him.

Of course, I have not texted him either, but he hasn't texted me either.

Sure.

That makes sense.

That's fine.

Pump, though.

Should be great.

Yeah.

I imagine that atmosphere.

Doing Doing the show in that atmosphere is probably awesome.

It's really fun.

It's pretty cool.

Depends.

Ohio State is over

when it comes to the Friday shows.

Usually it's rainy, or because it's Ohio State, they don't really care because they have cool shit like this all the time.

But like, I will never for the rest of my life forget James Madison, like JMU.

Seriously?

There were like 15,000 people.

Was there?

Yeah.

This was on the Friday, right?

This is on the Friday, yeah.

They don't get game days.

Before.

No.

They never get game day.

So like when schools like that have it, it's much better.

Ohio State, they've grown a little too comfortable when it comes to their success.

Oh, look at us.

We won the national game.

Yeah.

So, they're, oh, it's Friday.

Well, we play on Saturday.

So, this is like when I always appreciate College Game Day doing, like, a

like,

not that James Madison's random school, but it's kind of like a

place that you would not otherwise go because, like, it is electric.

Oh, yeah.

You know, and like, even if it's like cold or rainy, and I'm like,

well, when we went, Signetti was the coach.

Yeah.

So it was before Signetti went to IU.

Sig Signetti, yeah.

So when.

And this is how he became like a thing.

This is, yeah.

So he went from JMU, unbelievable, and he goes from JMU to IU.

Okay.

And that last year at JMU was when they had game days.

So we like met Signetti there and then full circle.

Yeah.

And the first thing he said was like, who hates the NCAA?

And all the kids.

Shit.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

He knows how to work across.

Yes, he does.

The maestro.

I will be watching you guys.

Okay.

Well, maybe.

Hopefully.

Hopefully.

Hopefully, I'll be not working.

I mean, that's what, you know, what's crazy is like cutdown day is tomorrow.

Do you guys know this?

Oh, yeah.

Four o'clock.

You'll be seeing a lot of tweets.

A lot of players will be released.

Anything high-profile ones you think could happen?

You know, I think there'll be a couple trades.

Like, I mentioned one last night.

Kyle Duggar, who has been the Patriot starting.

It's not like high, high-profile, profile, but like Kyle Dugger had been the Patriot starting safety for five seasons.

He could get traded.

Then they've been shopping him.

There's a tweet right there.

The no doubt's going to get Mike Vrable to yell at the rat.

Fucking rat.

Although I don't think there's any secret there.

But like there'll be a couple of those.

But I actually feel like a lot of the trades have probably happened already because like

it's not that much to haggle over.

You know, it's like if you want Sam Howell like, all right, you want to do like a six?

No, it's too much.

All right, how about a six?

And then we'll do a pick swap seven, like, cool.

You know, it's like you could generally figure it out.

You want a guy in your building earlier rather than later.

So, like, there'll be a couple, but I think most of them have probably happened.

You know, it's

weird, though, because like Tuesday will happen.

We'll all talk about the players who get cut.

A lot of them will like make a big deal over some player getting cut or traded, and then like, we'll never hear from again.

And then you get to Wednesday and you're like, okay, like the season's, yeah, like, it's, like, we're almost there.

Eight days away.

I get really like, and so there's some, you know, there's some things during the preseason that drive me crazy to no end.

One is the storyline stuff we're talking about before, like the stuff that should never see the light of day but does.

Unofficial depth charts.

Like those.

Hate them.

Like those a lot.

Hate them.

Nothing more I hate than the unofficial depth chart.

What is that?

Who puts them together?

I don't know.

Not the coaches.

Why is it not official?

Is it official or not?

It's stupid.

And some people tweet all about them.

yeah should they have to give an official uh yes too deep to you guys you think they should why when i was covering alabama

see how aj feels aj these are i don't think it's any of our business do you really not even navigate

when i used to hear about like the the uh depth chart and they're talking about they're putting guys like one a one b or whatever trying not to offend people and all of a sudden a team's got

out of 11 starting spots on defense they have 19 possible starters because they don't hurt anybody's feelings like that's the stuff i don't understand.

You're not a big ore guy.

You don't like the ore.

No, but, and I also think, like, hey,

why does a coach need to give us their, they're too deep?

I don't, do I have to give them, should they give us their game plan too?

Like, I don't know.

Sounds like someone was ranked 1B.

Yep.

That's a thing.

I don't know.

Like, it's wild to me.

Like, I think I remember hearing Mike McCarthy answer questions about him.

Like, yeah.

Like, I was pissed for him.

Like, yeah, well, he doesn't have to, he doesn't know right now.

Like, why does he have to give it to you?

I mean, I don't think you're wrong about that.

Like, I'm okay with not getting the depth chart.

I just don't like

PR.

You want stupid.

I want the real info.

I don't want like the PR department, and some of them are awesome, but like PR department puts together the depth chart and people tweet it, like me, as if it's a real thing.

And then the coaches are like.

Stupid depth chart.

I don't care about it.

Like when I covered Alabama, I covered Alabama for three years with Birmingham News.

And the unveiling of the depth chart was like a legitimate news item.

And Sabin would like wave it in front of our faces and be like, I know this is the moment you idiots, he didn't say idiots, but like would literally be like, I know you guys have been waiting for this.

So here's the depth chart.

So you could make a big deal of it in the paper.

You could do a whole thing.

And then he would, and we would make a huge deal of it in the paper.

Like that was a big, but at least like you knew it was kind of real.

That's college.

Like in four years in college, like that's, that's one thing.

Like you might have a freshman or a sophomore coming, especially with their recruiting classes.

It's like, oh, how many of these five-star kids are going to be starting this year?

And I think that's what it was, is like the fans would be dying for like his like, who is like a good recruiter.

It's like Mark Ingram going to be the starter.

Or is like Dante Hightower?

Like that was kind of when, you know, and that was a huge deal too.

Cause like, you know, watching them kind of build it up from scratch was really, really cool.

But it also like gave you an understanding for like.

like those new guys like the high towers and ingrams and all the guys that came in from Saban like they played right away and were awesome and that was like a so you could see why young me would want the depth journey

yeah right the NFL I would I don't get but the college makes sense yeah there's that and then there's like a guy gets injured and you're kind of like

all right like is he gonna play week one or not if he is cool if not like we'll talk about like coaches don't want you know it's like anyway they don't want to reveal the information and all you want to do is suck it out of them that's right

that's true that's why the Mike Vrabels of the world just want to get the rats out of they want to put me out of business exactly and and I'm going to support Vrabel in doing that I think we all are all right I think we have

I I think we have reached the end here, boys.

I think so, too.

We have crushed it today.

Great job last two weeks.

Appreciate it.

You guys are awesome.

Thank you for having me.

Always a pleasure.

I have enjoyed hanging out with you guys, as always.

Thank you very much for welcoming my sons into your building.

Cheer the dude.

And Max.

And Max.

Max.

And Mom.

Max appreciated very much how

he, so when we were in a talk, everyone was asking about the show, and he was like, Pat McAfee has the most random stuff.

So he just talked about like, and he just loved loved the random stuff.

So, thank you for showing your random stuff to my children.

Thank you for having me.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

I love you guys.

Not weird.

Not in the weird will.

All right.

That's all I got.

I love you guys.

I'll be back another time.

A better host will be in here tomorrow.

That is all for the Pat McAfee show.

Oh, yeah.

We got one, two, three, team, right?

Team on me, team on three.

Team on me, team on three.

One, two, three.

Team.

Yes, nailed it.

Bye.

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