← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
3 & Out - Bengals franchise Higgins, Jets and Adams looking to split, Deebo lands on DC
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John Middlekauff
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption. Acquired card has no cash access and expires in six months. The volume what is going on everybody? John Middelkopf3Now podcast hopefully everyone is doing well out there in society, in the real world and we're gonna talk a little football because I went on with Coward a couple hours ago and we talked a lot about football and then I thought, you know, I'm not gonna do a podcast. I'm leaving to Nashville tomorrow afternoon. I got a million things to do. I haven't really done any of them. I haven't even eaten dinner. I'm looking at the clock right now. It says 7:30 at night. Feel overwhelmed. I feel stressed out. But what type lesson would I be teaching my child? Then I realized I don't have a child. But you're getting married. You're starting to feel a little more mature. You're like, I gotta set the tone. So I decided I'm do a podcast. So I looked around the Internet. I saw some things earlier today I want to talk about, from franchise tags to Debo Samuel. Tweeted out some comments to Philadelphia, made a transaction today that I want to dive into. And we also do a mailbag. Onmiddlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMs and that'll be the show. So I was I refuse to be lazy as I'm getting married and changing my life and setting lessons to human beings that don't even exist in this house yet. But we gotta set the tone. We gotta set the tone early. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast. If you listen on Collins Feed three and out wherever you may listen. Apple Spotify, Spotify is booming right now and YouTube, all of our content is up there as well. So make sure you subscribe to that and the game plan. We will have a golf podcast tomorrow. We will look ahead for the Arnold Palmer and make some, make some bets, talk a little golf and we'll kind of go from there. So like I said, recorded with Colin earlier, we did about an hour podcast. We got a podcast here. A lot of content out. Did podcasts Debo Samuel reaction Saturday night. Did a podcast yesterday reacting to Matt Stafford. So we got you covered. I can nitpick and be critical or give my opinion on my beliefs on how to build a football team and what to value and what not to value. Start with the trenches. Don't worry about the wide receivers, right? Pick and choose your spots on the outside, win and lose on the line of scrimmage, and then you get really good players at wide receiver and you get a quarterback. It's not that long ago that Carson Palmer told the Bengals, no, I refuse to play for you. I would rather retire than play for you. And he has spoken about it over the years. A big reason was he didn't believe that the things they said they were going to do, they would do. And historically, the franchise has been viewed as very, very cheap. Now, Andrew Whitworth, I heard him talk about this, probably, I forget where, but over the last month, he's like, if Carson Palmer had been a part of those teams that Andy Dalton led, we could have won a Super Bowl. I mean, those teams were stacked. Now, a big reason they had a bunch of draft picks because of the Carson Palmer trade. But still, he's not wrong. The Bengals have actually been a pretty well run operation when it comes to acquiring players. Just because you're frugal doesn't mean you don't know who can play and who can't in a draft. I mean, and they have drafted a lot of good players, I would say, over the last 20 plus years, but they are operating completely different because of one man and one man only. And it's. He's got a chance to be the best player in the history of the franchise, and that's Joe Burrow. And Joe Burrow has held their feet to the fire. And I think he's doing it not because he views himself like an NBA player. Right? And that's. This is what LeBron James would do, or this is what any powerful NBA player would do. I think he's doing it because he knows you can't trust this operation. And at any moment they could pull back the reins and get cheap. And I think if this was Andy Dalton or Carson Palmer and not Joe Burrow, T. Higgins just would hit free agency. They would not have franchised him a second time. I can't imagine they would have done this five, 10, 20 years ago. But they, because of one man, they're doing it. And if I was a Bengal fan, like, I don't care if you got to pay him $26 million let's do it. Let's keep him around. And I have been saying like, oh, Trey Hendrickson, how are you going to keep them all? Hendrickson technically is under contract now. It's for a lot less money than he, I'm sure views himself. He's under contract for $16 million. He's easily worth probably 30 plus. But like he's, he's not a free agent, so he can't just walk out the door now. He could demand a trade or they technically could trade him or they can just extend them. And to me, if I was going to give a long term contract to one of the two guys, because they've already gone on record and said Jamar Chase is going nowhere. Now, Diana Rossini reported that the sides are pretty far apart, probably because Jamar chase wants like $150 million guaranteed. And based on last year, I would not blame them. But I would imagine the two numbers the parties are coming in at are at different ends of the spectrum. Probably one's at 100, the other's at 150, and maybe end up meeting at 120, 130 million. But Jamar Chase is going nowhere. If I had to pick one of the two guys between the pass rusher and I know he's 30 years old and T. Higgins, it's not even a question. And ultimately the T. Higgins situation, if you do, if you know they have said and reports have been they will work on a long term extension with the Higgins, I would have no problem paying them year to year. Now, it's not an ideal way to do business because when you give a guy a franchise tag, especially the second, which last year was like 21, now it's almost a 27, that all hits your cap and you owe them that much in cash. But like you're basically giving them a two year, 48 million dollar contract instead of giving them a four year, $120 million contract and guaranteeing them 70 or 80 million dollars, especially when you have to factor in other positions that are of need. I eat a line of scrimmage. And you keep your quarterback happy in the short term because really, you know, Joe's just worried about 20, 25 and if he's got T. Higgins, if you've got Jamar Chase draft or running back, all of a sudden your offense is extremely dynamic again. And you hope with Al Golden. Listen, I think Anna Rumo got a little bit of a raw deal just a couple years ago. He's viewed as one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL and now he's like the village idiot. But Al Golden's really good. He's been there before, he's comfortable with the organization. We just saw him in college kicking ass and taking names for Notre Dame. I mean, he was easily one of the best assistant coaches in all of Saturday. So if I'm a Bengal fan, as long as Trey Hendrickson is on this team and we keep T. Higgins, like our defense can't be as bad in the way we play down the stretch, like we should be a factor and you know, today, listen, we can nitpick how they're doing it, but having T. Higgins on the team for 2025 is better than having him not on the team. Speaking of bad decisions when it comes to wide receivers, I couldn't even imagine. And there were some people, not many. Most people were probably. I know where I felt is thinking like this Aaron Rodgers deal. Listen, I don't know if he's going to lead the team to a Super bowl, but if he plays a couple of years, they're going to be a playoff team and it will resurrect a franchise that was dead. And it turns out he destroyed it even worse his Achilles tour. Then he came back and their team sucked. And all while during that time he mandated after he hurt his Achilles, essentially they trade for his buddy who and I'm a devonte Adams guy. Fresno State Bulldog pro Devonte Adams. That was a disaster trade because it did absolutely nothing for their team. And they gave up a third round pick to win what, five games? And they cut Aaron Rodgers. They are going to cut devonte Adams because of his cap number. Nobody is trading for him. And all of a sudden you look, you go, in our two years of Aaron Rodgers, what do we have to show for it? And the answer is picks given to other teams. And sometimes I'm all for taking risks. I'm a pretty big risk taker in life. But it can be a humbling experience when, especially not that you get cocky, but when some of your risks pay off and they bear fruit and you're like, ah, this, this life thing, this business thing, this whatever thing, I know what I'm doing. And then all of a sudden you make a move that was like, yeah, I would have traded for Rogers too. And it blows up in your face. But it was pretty crazy during the season as they're firing everybody that they kept doubling down on that experience and it led them to just give away a pick for devonte Adams that, yeah. Something they would clearly like back. Debo Samuel has tweeted, it's not often that you get a guy who wants a trade, but he, like, him and Kyle, have a really good relationship. I think Debo really liked being a part of the 49ers and I was with him on that plane flight when we got deplaned on our way to New Orleans. Hearing him talk about the 49ers, like it was very positive, but like also demanding a trade. Like, I don't want to be here anymore and when you trade me, I will retreat, retweet and repost every single picture of me in a commander's jersey. It's one of those like clean splits. It's like Devo tweets. I love John, I love Kyle. Those are my homies. But I'm out. And listen, I've seen every single opinion under the sun of Debo's fat. He's over the hill. The commander's got a steal. Like I said the other day, I think this is a win win for everyone involved. The 49ers were not going to pay him 17 and a half million. The commanders can't like what they see on the open market. When you have to, you know, basically lock in several years of contract to buy a player who's decent on the open market, you're not getting the guy for one year, $15 million, you know, if you like the player and he has a market, you have to give him a multi year contract. And because free agency, there are multiple people bidding, supply, demand, it drives up the price. It's why you see every year like that guard got $45 million guaranteed and $21 million a year. The Denver Broncos gave Mike McGlinchey $50 million guaranteed. What happens? Because, yeah, the Bears were also offering him a contract and it drives the price up. So you go, wait, I can get Deebo Samuel under a cost control contract for a fifth round pick. If it works out great, we're in good shape. If it doesn't cost me a 5th round pick and some money that I'm going to spend anyway, but I don't have that many options to spend it and I have a general manager that knows him. So I'm probably on the. It doesn't feel like there are that many people in 49er land that believe Deebo has anything left. I do believe he could have a productive season. And a productive season for Deebo isn't 95 catches. Like, look at his best years, like 77 catches now. He had almost 1500 yards from the line of scrimmage and he had a ton of rushing touchdowns. Like those days are over. But can he give you some big plays? You know, weight has been a big concern, I think sometimes and I've been fired a couple times. Do you know what it did for me? It motivated me and I know Deebo wasn't technically fired, but this has to be a pretty motivating experience. Like Deebo, you didn't just get traded, you got traded for a fifth round pick. You know, that's what, that's what the league thinks of you. That's the, the only way that you could keep your salary was to get traded for a fifth round pick. So I do believe if not now, then it never will happen. But, but I do think that Debo will be motivated and I think the 49ers were able to maintain. We're still like a pro player operation, but we're doing what we probably should have done the last couple years, be a little more cutthroat. Philadelphia, you know, speaking of Devonte Adams, they trade the conditional third round pick for him and it just blows up in their face. It's a disaster. He's on the team for half the season. You have to cut him at the end of the season, you know, when it's, whenever he retires, no one will ever speak about his jets tenure. And what Philadelphia got with Darius Slay is the complete opposite. They traded a third round pick for a guy who became their full time starter for five years and made several Pro Bowls and was a starter on a team that went to multiple Super Bowls and won one. Like when you make a trade for a guy now obviously the big first round picks, when you trade for the Jalen Ramsey's, the Tyreek Hills, the Khalil Max, it's your, all your chips are in the middle of the table. But when you make a move like we're trading a third round pick for a disgruntled player who makes decent money, but we still believe can be a really good high end starter, this is the best case scenario. You trade, you get a starting corner, who makes Pro Bowls, who's on your team for four or five years, who you like, then you cut for basically no dead money. Like that's a seamless transaction. And Howie Roseman, look at the Jets. This is why good teams stay good and shitty teams stay shitty, right? When you trade a mid round or you know, a late second day, early third day pick and you get a starter for multiple years at a premium position on a winning team, that's gold That's a big time transaction. So listen, Darius Slay's Philadelphia Eagle career comes to an end and maybe his career, I know there were some people in Philadelphia land that I know thought that he might retire. I think Darius had said after he plans on playing another year, I still think he could probably get one year, I don't know, 10, 12, 14, 14 million dollar contract somewhere. Maybe not 14, but I would say 8 to 10. I don't know who pays on the open market out there in society. Eight to ten million dollars. So I would guess that Darius Slay plays another season. But what a fantastic little run he had in Philadelphia. And last but not least, Sean McVeigh love Jimmy Garoppolo. I mean there were people talking about reporters who are clearly in deep with the rams. Like Sean McVeigh could, if they did trade Matt Stafford, start Jimmy Garoppolo. And I thought what? I think Diana Rossini said that and I had the same reaction that her co host Chase Daniel had. I think that's fucking insanity. And it is like you, you couldn't go into the season after making the playoffs twice with this version of Jimmy, but you feel pretty good. If Jimmy Garoppolo is your backup quarterback and Stafford gets injured, he has to start a game, hell, he has to start a month. You could win a couple games, you can keep your season afloat. And I think Jimmy Garoppolo has done your classic transit transition into, you know, I've made 100, $150 million and now I'm just going to be a backup for the next, I don't know, five, six years ideally and make anywhere from three to $7 million a year and rack up another, I don't know, 15 to $30 million. And as long as I don't have to play much, I can maintain that price point. The time when I do have to play a lot, that would be a problem because I'd probably get exposed. But Jimmy Garoppolo is in that sweet spot. Andy Dalton's in it currently. Long time starter, transition to backup, start racking up those 5, 8 million dollar paychecks. Boom, boom, boom. And the difference of the Jimmy Garoppolos and the Andy Daltons relative to Chase Daniels and those type players is those guys have started for a long period of time. So, you know, you feel much more comfortable with a backup quarterback who's not just a lifetime backup, a guy who has been a starter in the NFL. You know, I view Marcus Mariota and I think I would rather have Jimmy Garoppolo and definitely Andy Dalton than Mariota. But the one thing you feel good about having Mariota on your roster is like, if we get into a pinch and this guy has to start two games, three games a month straight, he knows exactly how to operate as a starter. He knows how to run the huddle, he knows how to prepare. He knows what a given week, what entails. He knows how to lead young guys. He knows how to deal with the veterans like he can just make a seamless transition. Obviously there's a drop off from your starter to him as a player, but like, I can just put them in sometimes with these lifetime backups, you never know what you're going to get and oftentimes you're like, oh, my God, this is a disaster. So I think Jimmy Garoppolo is in that sweet spot. Sweet spot. Maybe Stafford rolls an ankle, misses a game, you can win it with Jimmy. So I get where Sean McVay is coming from. Let's, let's dive into my friends at Microsoft. So welcome to Chasing Challenges brought to you by Microsoft. And in the NFL, just like in the business world, overcoming obstacles is the key to success. Microsoft empowers business decision makers with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management with trustworthy, responsible technology to turn challenges into opportunities. In this segment, we will explore some of the biggest challenges being faced in the NFL and how they can be overcome. Whatever challenges you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say, bring it on. This week we're discussing the challenges faced by every general manager. You know, when you leave the combine, you have not only talked with agents of your own players, so you get a gauge of what my free agent that I want to keep is going to cost or what they are realistically going to ask for and probably the floor of their contract. But while you are talking to them, they represent other guys on other teams who are free agents or who might be a guy like represent a guy like Darius Slay, who's not a free agent but pretty clear he's going to be cut. Then he gets cut. Now he's a free agent and you start gauging the market. This is what we need. These three positions. We want these group of six, seven players to fill those three holes. This is what it's going to cost. Then you have to go, well, we got this much cap space or maybe we will have to make some cap space, which the cap in the NFL I would say is one of the most fluid numbers in the history of American business. Right? You can create and make it look like anything you want it to. It's like this team is $50 million over the cap. They cut three guys, then all of a sudden they're signing a guy. But you do need to work with your owner and go, listen, we can be aggressive and we can sign these three guys even though we don't have that much cap space because we can give a much bigger signing bonus and then push that down and kick the can down the road and manipulate our books. But the way you can manipulate the salary cap and all GMs at this point know this is by giving huge cash up front. And that is not a general manager or a head coach's decision to make. You need to convince the owner who some owners are very much behind you. The 49ers and the Eagles spent an ungodly amount of cash these last couple years. And if you look teams like the Patriots and the Cowboys have not. So you can manipulate anything. You are willing to fit under a number if you want to give more cash up front. And I think conversations after the combine turn into, we can get these two guys if we are willing to do this. And while the conversations have started between the coach and the agent, the GM and the coach and the agent, the front office and the agent, it now turns into the general manager and the head coach dealing with the owner. And can we convince him to pay this much of actual cash in the next couple weeks to sign this guy? Because any coach or any owner has no problem, yeah, we'll give him three years, $50 million, and just pay him over the course of the deal. That's easy to do. But the way some of these contracts work, especially in a competitive market, is who is willing to give the biggest signing bonus. You learn this in basic finance classes. Money up front is more valuable than money down the line. It's why last year, Jordan Love signed the big contract over the offseason. He got $75 million, I think, before, like the middle of December. So how you structure contracts can be the difference of landing a player or not landing a player. But it's not the general manager's money. It ultimately falls on the owner. And as we've seen, some teams have more available cash than others. And more importantly, some owners are more willing to part with that cash than others. I think this is a time if you're a general manager where you have to turn into a salesman. You have to convince the people with the money, which is the owner. He usually leans on the president. He probably has an accountant you have to deal with separate from your own cap guy and you have to convince him this is worth it. This guy is going to be the difference of us winning eight games or 10 or 11 and we're going to be in the playoffs and have a chance to make a run. Now those conversations and if you can convince your owner to part with his money can come back to haunt you if it blows up in your face. But that is what's going on right now is a bunch of general managers who will spend the rest of this week, I don't want to say, begging their owner but attempting to convince them that spending this extra $10 million, $20 million, 30, 40, 50, you know, you pick these numbers are getting huge now in this modern day NFL spending sprees come the middle of March to cut those checks and the guys who can will land the players and the guys who can't will come out empty handed. So that's it for this week's chasing challenges. Remember, Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. 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That's code JOHAN for new customers to get 150 bucks in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler in New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino Gentleman Resort in Kansas 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng co Audio. Okay, let's bang out a couple middlekopf mailbags. Onmiddlekopf. Onmiddlecoff. Is the Instagram firing those DMs? Get your questions answered here on the show. This is a bit of a spicy take, so it might make the show was quote, I changed the culture over and over again when your father that coached the team and ran the program recruited about a million guys through the transfer portal at every opportunity. The worst take of the combine was it the quote, Gucci luggage. Quote, the real culture changer. I think he means Travis Hunter. Been a big supporter of the Sanders family and the combine shenanigans kind of left me disappointed. Your thoughts? I actually right before I recording this part of the mailbag, I saw Todd McShay's post that he talked to people at the combine that interviewed Shador and Chador, I guess acted in the interview like he didn't give a shit how into it, you know, like what they thought of him. Basically he was just acting how he normally acts and didn't care what their reaction was, even though obviously it's. It's a job interview. I could understand the tough transit transition of he's played for his dad for so long. And Dion is one of the biggest personalities in the history of sports. And I would say in a good way, probably at least of my lifetime, top two or three cockiest athletes of all time, but he's also one of the best. I mean, you could argue pound for pound, he's one of the best pure athletes in the history of civilization. And Dion is an all time great football player. Shador is not an all time great prospect. So when you go into these situations, and again, I haven't heard any of this, most of my friends work for teams that you know in the playoffs. But, and I'm not saying I just mean I haven't even text anyone at the combine about interviews with guys in general, but most people that I know in the league would not have interviewed Shador Sanders. I would say this, you do want to go into these meetings having been someone who sat in one of those cars when a kid was getting. Meeting, getting, you know, meeting the, the front office and the coaches. It should be a pretty humble experience, right? Whether you are Caleb Williams, whether you are Miles Garrett, whether you are Kyler Murray. I'm just picking some recent in Recent memory, just some high, high level prospects. I would imagine when they go in there, they're just kind of on their best behavior. They're trying to impress like you or I would in an interview setting. So part of, you know, Shador, if, if it is true, I mean, again, I'm just basing this off Todd McShay and I've seen some other people tweet about this. They're going to entrust you if I'm going to draft you to be a quarterback. Really, really high with the entire keys to the franchise, more than likely, unless I get a complete bailout of like hitting on Brock Purdy in the seventh round, my career is going to sink or swim with how you play and operate. And part of being a quarterback is leadership, leading everybody, not just the coaching staff, the other players, the whole organization follows you and that type stuff. Imagine being in a situation you've never, none of these people have ever met Shador, right? Most of these people, if I'm Pete Carroll or if I'm Brian Dable, I probably haven't even watched them play that much. Now, if you're day ball, I would imagine you've done some work over the last couple months on them, but relative to the work you will continue to do, it's probably a small, small percentage. So the first reaction, and I say this all the time, and I'm a Shador fan, like, I think he's a good player, but like the personality, stuff like that matters a lot. And I think the league is full. I mean, think of the best players in the NFL at that position. Patrick Mahomes, like the heartbeat of their city. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, like resurrected those franchises and think of what they mean to their coaching staff, their teammates, just how good of guys they are, 24, 7, 365 all the time. And the amount of pressure that's on them. And those guys, these are talking fucking MVPs and champions like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. Shador, you're just trying to get drafted. You're not even considered the number one quarterback. So I, I think you go in there really cocky, like Deion could do that. And listen, I, as someone who looked up to my dad and operates a lot like my father, who definitely was not Deion Sanders, I don't. He's just emulating his father, but his father can operate and act differently than him. So I do think you got to be very careful in these meetings. I would say this for any player, especially a guy that's Going to get drafted in the first round, any position you should be on your best behavior. And I'm sorry, like you got to kind of kiss the ass of these guys. Why wouldn't you want to? You want the team drafting the highest to draft you get the most money. So if that stuff, man, you got to be very careful about the way you interact with these coaches of just coming off like you're kind of too cool for school because you know what they'll. What they say is like, this fucking league will humble everybody. I don't care who you are. I saw andy Reid go 4 and 12 and get fired. I just saw Kyle Shanahan go 6 and 11 and get his teeth kicked in on a weekly basis. You know, just saw Mike McCarthy, who had three straight 12 win seasons, not even sniff the playoffs, get run out of town. This league will kick your ass no matter how good a player you are. Look at Aaron Rodgers. A couple years ago, Aaron Rodgers won the MVPs. By this year, he can't win a game to save his life. I just think it's a very, very humbling sport. And I think that's what most coaches and GMs just. I can take some cockiness like with Justin Jefferson, right? Or with Miles Garrett. I'm not even saying Miles is, but I'm just being like if my star player little cocky. It's like, okay, four time Pro Bowler, two time All Pro. It's like, okay, back it up. But like when you haven't done anything, most of these people, fair or not, look at you. Like, who are you? Like I said, you're not even the top quarterback in the draft. And I'm a fan. Like I'm pro the player. But part of being a quarterback is all the other stuff, right? It's how you act, how you conduct yourself. Everyone's and the reality your dad's not there anymore. He's going to be a fascinating just. I don't even know. It's going to get weird. I mean it clearly already is getting weird. Listen, who do you think saying that. Who are the teams shoulder ain't interviewing with the Eagles and the Chiefs. He's not talking to the Bills, right? He's not sitting there with the Packers. It's pretty clear the teams he's talking to, Titans, the Browns, the Giants, the Raiders. I mean it's. Why wouldn't you want those teams to like you? If anyone could do it, it would be Travis. The Panthers just had the worst defense in the league and have and has ever seen the worst defense the league has ever seen. But there's also a clear hole at wide receiver. Would you spend the money in free agency on defense and draft tmac or go big for T. Higgins and draft Jalen Walker and Williams? Let me look. You know what I haven't looked at in a minute? The draft order. Where is the Panthers rounds? So the Panthers are drafting eight. I'd have a hard time taking a wide receiver at 8. I really would. You just took a wide receiver high in the draft in what's his name from South Carolina? Leggett. I to me the trenches. I would take multiple defensive linemen. I would 1000%. You listed the two guys from Georgia. Two guys from Georgia. The defensive tackle from. From Michigan. Like I'm going defense I do not like obviously you need skill guys but like I can find a wide receiver in the third round. I am taking physical players and to me it's a no brainer. Dan Morgan's my GM linebacker tough guy. I would not take the wide receiver. Honestly. The wide receiver is really good and there's going to be a lot of hype on McMillan coming into this draft. I mean he's a beast. He's six, five. I haven't even seen what his combine measurements and did he work out. I've been preoccupied with this wedding stuff so I'm not super locked in on all the measurements and times. I did see a lot of the. Some of the offensive lines lineman. Their times were the Texas A and M pass rusher. His, his workout was just incredible. I mean it really was. The problem is it's like one of the greatest workouts we've ever seen. But he has a career 4 1/2 sacks. You're like, ah, it's kind of a problem. And then Campbell and the Missouri offensive lineman both worked out really, really well. Now luckily for those guys, they've been high level players. I think the problem with the A and M pass rusher and Jim Washburn taught me this, he's a big believer is like you either get home or you don't. It's a skill. It's like guys with bad hands usually don't improve it. They always have bad hands. Now if you're a physical freak like Terrell Owens or DK Metcalf, you can get away with not having Justin Jefferson or Marvin Harrison hands, right? But if you are not a physical freak and you have questionable hands, it a lot of teams won't even mess with you. And I would say the same for pass rushers. It's not often. Like yeah, you know, I was a multi year starter and I had less than five career sacks and I came to the NFL and I started averaging 12 sacks a season. Usually doesn't. Maybe they're outlier situations but I would just go the line of scrimmage. We just saw the blueprint. We just saw the blueprint. It's not even the Eagles. I would just say successful teams. We saw the Bears do the opposite and they regretted it immediately. Big fan. Been listening to you for almost two years. I'm an executive MBA student at Oxford with a background in hedge funds and real estate. Smart dude. We'd love to have you speak to our class about the NFL and business. If you're ever in London, let's make it happen. You know, I've never been to London. I've always wanted to go and I think I will try to get over there in the next couple years. I've always heard great things. I'm sure many people listening have been. It's obviously just feels like one of the more popular cities in the world and everyone that goes has a good time. But I've never been but I would like to go and if I did I'd speak to your class. Did you just say the Chargers have the best bookend tackles in the NFL? My Lada just got rated as the 3rd best player by PFF and Lane is his bookend their top 5 but the Eagles are best by far. Also, if you're ever in Philly, Philly let me know. I'm at Trump Philly. I think he means a golf course. I didn't know Trump had a golf course in Philly. Also, why don't other owners give their GMs the money up front like Jeffrey does for Howie where he makes his job so much easier. They don't want to spend it. Now I will say this. You know, Jeffrey, part of spending a lot of money, the expectations are to win and win big. Like last year. Think about last year when they started whatever 10 and 1 and then lost all the games, got bounced in the first round. It felt like they just were drafting in the top five. It was a disaster. Why? Because they're spending so much money. So you spend that much money, I would say at minimum it's like NFC championship game. The 49ers were doing the same. They're spending a little less, but like one of the highest spenders in the league with cash 1, 6 and 11 season. John lynch of the Combine's like, yeah, we got a pullback. We don't have as much cash. We're going to, we're not going to be as active. You know why? Because Jed came in and like this. If we're going to cut huge checks, we better win. I think a lot of owners just they like keeping that money for themselves. Longtime listener, love the Pod from Tampa area, live in North Carolina Chapel Hill and have two daughters that recently graduated from unc. So one Bucks question and one regarding the Tar Heels. First, with the team Jason Light has assembled and with Baker playing well, if the Bucs add a pass rusher like Khalil Mack and draft a couple good defensive players, are they a legitimate super bowl contender next year? Second, I'm optimistic in Belichick having early success and also really liking him being at Carolina long term more than a couple of years. Would love to hear your takes. Also heading to Scottsdale with a wife and third daughter. 13, really excited about it. Any suggestions of what to do would be sure. Places eat Much appreciated. Laid back, enjoying tennis and trying new restaurants. The Global Ambassador seems to be a very, very popular place right now. I've never been Maria's eaten there. She said it's just a cool vibe. So I would check that out. If you're in Old Town, I would say the Mission is always a tough place to beat. Kierland Etta, cool little restaurant, super high end steakhouse if you're in that mood for that. Dominick's is my favorite. I would say on your first question, Tampa had, I mean a top, a championship level offense. The way they were playing, the way they were scoring points, how well I mean Baker was playing like a top six, seven quarterback in the NFL. Offense did not let him down. I mean their secondary, they were just getting gashed and I felt like down the end of the season. So yeah, I would say you got to feel pretty good about Vita Vea. Is it Clancy, the guy they drafted was that last year or two years ago. Feels like he's coming on. I would say they still have some, you know, older linebackers who are solid, but I would say a little longer in the tooth. I felt like their defensive backfield, what's his name, Winfield, was banged up a lot so that didn't help their corner play. And I think Jason Light talked about this is like we had some injuries and our depth got exposed. So part of the reason or part of the way you improve your depth is move guys that you were forced, you know, who were starting for you and turn them into backups by improving your starters. So super bowl champion I don't know, but it feels like they play the Eagles pretty well. I would say that if their defense, I mean part of the reason the Eagles won, I mean they had like the best defense in the league. So it's hard to compete with a team who has such a prolific offense and the best defense in the league. So if you can have a top 10 defense in elite offense, you're very, very competitive in the NFC for sure. First off, congrats on the wedding. Appreciate it. Secondly, do you foresee quarterback contracts mimicking what we've seen in major league baseball? 10 plus years and 500 million. Why don't more teams copy what the Chiefs gave Mahomes? Sure, when his contract news broke it was insane. But now he's the 13th highest paid per over the cap. You know why? Because most quarterbacks would not sign that contract. They're not doing that deal. Why would you want to lock yourself up for 10 years when you can get a new contract in three or four? It was talked about at the time. Mahomes gave him one of the, I would say more team friendly deals in the history of the league. So most of these quarterbacks won't sign those deals. I'd rather sign a four year contract. Four year contract, $50 million a year, $200 million guarantee, 180. And then in three or four years when I'm 31, sign a new contract for 300 million. So I think that's part of the problem. To entice a player to sign a 10 year contract, the number would have to be massive. Just want to ask you, what should the Bengals do moving forward? Is it worth keeping? Tee, even though we have so many problems in the offense and on defense, what should the plan be in the draft? Because the last couple years we kind of missed on our first round picks. Murphy and Mims. Should they do like the Eagles did this year by taking two DBs back to back or should they focus more on offense? It's a good question. I think the key is just getting good players. You know, it's when you take Mims or you take T. Higgins or you take whoever high if they become a high impact player, no one ever complains. Right? Part of the reason Rome dunes A was such a polarizing player, it's like, well some of these other offensive linemen we passed on are really good and Rome looks okay, but if Rome had been, I don't know, a Pro bowl level guy, it's not all his fault. I mean the quarterback situation, they were just. But I'M just saying. Let's just say he would have had a great rookie season. He would have 90 catches. No one would have complained. So whoever you draft, right? Like, let's say the Eagles, let's say Mitchell turned out to not be good. So it's all of a sudden the corner sucked. And then it was like their defensive line wasn't as good. It's like, howie, why'd you take a corner instead of a defensive lineman? This guy's getting smoked. I promise you this. And I do believe the trenches. The trenches, the trenches. But there are other positions. And if you do take a player, a corner, a tight end, whoever, if he becomes an impact player, nobody ever complains. No one ever goes, and I'm guilty of this, too, you should have taken this guy instead of that guy. Because you're like, fuck, I'm just glad this guy's on my team. Like, no one has ever said, you know, instead of T. Higgins, we could have taken player X, Y and Z. Like, no, that's a great pick. Hell, yeah. What a pick. Duke Tobin. So got to get these picks right. Especially this year. You missed the playoffs. You're drafting in the, I think the late teens. We pull up, the Cincinnati Bengals are drafting 17th. Get a good player. Seventeen. What up, John? With the off season being here, I've had a bunch of vids of Mel Kuiper popping up on my feed. Is he as big of a joke to front office people as I guess he'd be? Are these draft experts respected or is it all just for show? There will be no Mel Kuiper slander on the show. I love Mel Kuiper. Like I would say most people in my age range, late 30s, early 40s, we grew even older, 50s. I grew up watching Mel Kuiper. There was never. I never heard any bad words about Mel Kuiper when I was around football people. And still to this day, people make it fun. Now, they might not always agree like he has. I would say he has a strong opinion, but that's no different. If you go into a draft room, if you could see every draft room in the league, and that goes for good and bad teams, there are going to be people in that room with just absurd takes. It'd be. It'd be the equivalent of like putting them on a television show. They would go viral. So I think when you look at Mel Kuyper, just like you look at. You know, what makes Daniel Jeremiah pretty unique is he worked in the NFL for a long time before he started doing this. Mayock was the opposite. Worked in media for a long time and then transitioned to become a gm. I think DJ is probably has the most friends in the NFL in terms of. Because he worked with so many guys. Mel's just a lifetime TV guy. I mean Mel's an entertainer. But when I was at Cal Poly, I was a senior in college and I was helping the football program, working the athletic program. This is. I mean obviously the Internet existed in like 2007, but it was not the Internet what it is today. He used to call the SID at Cal Poly to get a bunch of information because we were going to have a guy, Ramsey's Barton, who was ended up getting drafted I think second or third round. So like Mel Kuiper, he did not fake his way into this. He grinded for a long time and he has some opinions that aren't always right. I'm no different. I thought the Saints were going to make the playoffs. I probably do the equivalent of betting on teams and picking teams and betting for against coaches as he does with draft players. The thing that Mel Kuiper when makes his job impossible is, is he is just basing things in him probably more than dj. Like he. I don't think he really factors in character. So to me if you're not factoring in character, it's hard to totally judge a prospect. And I think DJ clearly does that a little bit. But I mean Howie Roseman and DJ are very close. So I mean in my experience, like how he offered D.J. the job that Joe Douglas took like five or six years ago, maybe that was when Joe left. When Joe left to become the just gm, I think he offered the job to dj. So I mean DJ is very, very well respected in the league and Mel Kuiper, I don't know. I think guys a fucking legend. So you're gonna win some. You're gonna lose something. You have some bad opinions. Cousins for Devonte. Win, win. I think you mean Kirk Cousins. I would say can Atlanta just not mess with any more wide receivers. You got Drake London. You got Kyle Pitts, you got Bijan Robinson. Can we just focus on the defensive side of the ball? I would not do that deal if I was the Atlanta Falcons, but I hear you. It'd be fun. My guy Pedic slinging it around. Devonte to Drake London Mooney. Is Mooney there? I kind of like Mooney. Always like Mooney actually. Thanks for all the content. Can you do a segment on the Ben Johnson media since leaving Detroit? I haven't read up on it. But it sounds like good content. The Ben Johnson on Ben Johnson media. You mean like him talking to the media? I don't really know what you're asking. I watched a couple clips with. With Pardon My Take. I will say this. For Ben Johnson, it doesn't feel like where he's most comfortable. Like, that's not really like Ben Johnson's forte as a coach. Like, Dan Campbell is very comfortable in a. In front of a podium. Now, I would say, like Sean McVeigh, born to be in front of the camera. You watch Ben Johnson, I saw some of the Pardon My Take clips. Whenever I've just seen him, I saw the combine, his press conference. I don't want to say he's awkward. He's just. He's not exactly like Rico Suave up there. It's not something that feels completely natural to him. Now, granted, he's never been a head coach and he's never even really have a team meeting yet. So I'm not going to make any huge judgments or declarations that just because he's not, you know, Mike Tomlin in front of a mic that he can't coach, if that's what you're asking. I don't know. Adam, from here in Australia, the NFL, sneaky, has a big, big following in Australia. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on rivalries between teams and keeping teams relevant. I follow the Niners and always hear about the infamous Raider rivalry, but it's completely dead and I don't know if it would come back. I've always thought the Raider and Niner rivalry was not like an NFL rivalry. It was something that existed in Northern California between people in Oakland. And I would say the Oakland Raider fan versus the Niner fan, it wasn't to me, it was not considered a rivalry. Outside of the Bay Area. A rivalry is the packers and the Bears. A rivalry is the Steelers and the Ravens, the Eagles and the Cowboys with Sean McVeigh and Kyle going to their teams. Kyle Shanahan versus Sean McVeigh. The Raiders rivals are Denver and Kansas City. So I think rivalries, you know, like the jets and the Giants, are they rivals? Well, locally, for coverage and people. Yeah, for sure. Outside, like me in Scottsdale. Do I view the jets and the Giants as rivals? No, the jets rival and again, rival would be strong. But like, it's like the Dolphins and the Bills, the Patriots teams in their division. Same for the Giants, like the Eagles and the Cowboys. So I think the NFL does a good job of the rivalries. Feel big, right. I mean, I think the Bills and the Chiefs feel like a real thing. The Bengals and the Chiefs feel like a real thing. The Ravens now against the Chiefs, and I would say even say the Bengals or I mean the Ravens against the Bills. A lot of good rivals. I mean, the 49ers and the Packers. I mean, I can't even count how many times they've played in the playoffs. In my adult life. They played, I think, four straight years in the 90s when I was a kid. They played multiple times with Harbaugh. They played several times with Kyle Shanahan. Like, that's a rivalry. They played a ton of big games. So I would say, yeah, to me, the teams, it would be the Raiders and the Niners and the jets and the Giants. Teams that are just the Raiders are gone now. So, like now they're in Vegas. It's like it doesn't even exist. But I hear what you're saying, but I don't think the NFL even thinks twice about those type things at all because it doesn't really matter. Appreciate everyone listening. Have a great day. See you. The Volume Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate First. Like, you know to check for the nearest bathroom first before the game starts. Now you're heading in the wrong direction and it sounds like your team's taking the lead. Checking first is smart, so check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary subject to terms, conditions and availability. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois this is Nikki Glaser from the Nikki Glaser Podcast. On a more serious note, I'm still thinking about that commercial with Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg hating on each other. Because when you listen to the reasons for hating someone or something, you realize just how stupid they really are. There is too much hate in this country and it's gotta stop. So join us at iHeart in standing up to it. If you see hate, speak up, call it out, and you can learn more by following OT's UpWithHate. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly check engine light on. Take the guesswork out of your Check engine light with O'Reilly Veriscan. It's free and provides a report with solutions based on over 650 million vehicle scans verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we can recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today auto Parts.