← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
3 & Out - Maxx Crosby Trade Fallout, 49ers Land Osa, Chiefs Add Kenneth Walker & Dad Diaries Returns
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human hey, this is Levar Arrington here from up on Game. This message is brought to you by Apple Card Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at applecard.com Today's podcast is brought to you by Ferguson Home where it all comes together. Whether you're a homeowner creating your dream space or a pro managing multiple projects, Ferguson Home is where you'll find the top products by brands like KitchenAid. Visit your local showroom or visit FergusonHome.com do you want to find a stress free way to buy your next car? Start at CarMax and shop your way. 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Savings with three plus lines include third free line free via monthly bill credits credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required the volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing? Hopefully everyone is doing well. I'm John Middle Cop the three and out podcast and I just recorded a big podcast. So here's the deal. We were going to dive deep into the Max Crosby Ravens. The angles from the two teams, the tampering period. Just that situation. 49ers made a trade. I think on the podcast I said the packers traded for Hargrave. He got cut. Then they signed him but regardless, he's a Packer. Bills signed Bradley Chubb. Some thoughts on the Chiefs. We got some quarterback thoughts on Daniel Jones. I mean, that guy, talk about highway robbery. His agent deserves a race. Whatever the going rate of an agent is for an NFL player, it's typically pretty low, a couple percent. That guy deserves like 50%. Daniel Jones agent is one of the great businessmen of all time. Kirk Cousins, the Raiders, and some dad Diaries. We haven't done that in a while, so we'll try to bang that out today. We'll have Fugazi Friday tomorrow, and other than that, just grinding along. So I'll be on the herd with Colin on Friday filling in. Just. I'll be down in LA for like 24 hours, so a quick little trip so you can catch me on the herd and we'll have a podcast out on Friday, like I said. But so nothing changes. We'll, we'll keep, we'll keep charging along. We'll keep swinging our pick. And you guys know the drill. If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three and Out. If you want to watch, we're up on Netflix every single day. I put out the golf podcast yesterday with some, with some bets, some thoughts on the PGA Tour. We did a little mailbag as well, so might have one reacting to the players on Sunday off the figure out my schedule this week. Maybe things die down with football, so that, that is definitely potentially in the works. But let's just dive right into the Max Crosby fiasco. I mean, the simple reality of the tampering period, which essentially is free agency, right? When these deals get done on Monday and Tuesday before the league year starts, there's not much change after that. And let's be real, once you get, I mean, I'm recording this Wednesday afternoon, things have coming to a screeching halt. All the guys are off the board beside, like a potential A.J. brown trade. And it's very rare that a guy signs a contract and changes his mind in those 24, 48 hours. Why, and I've said this forever, the, the, the unofficial tampering period starts at the combine. So when these deals start flying on Monday, with Schefter in that cave, with McAfee pumping out these deals, it's because the market has been established for a couple weeks. You don't commit to something for 20, 30, 50, $100 million without knowing that's the most money you can get or that's the best deal you can get. Or when you see the different deals that's the deal. You want to take like a Mike Evans, right? You have a pretty good idea. You, you have a very good idea. You don't have an idea. You know for a fact, like this is the, this, these are the three offers. This is the best offer or this is where I want to play. I saw the bill center said like, probably could have got more money elsewhere. I, I can live on $13 million a year. This is where I want to be. So these guys are making financial decisions with their agents whose job at the combine, which, you know, for me you're BSing with people, having some cocktails, doing some interviews, having a good time. For the Howie Roseman's, for all the GMs, it's meeting with agent after agent after agent after agent. And I remember being at some drinks, my first night there with a couple GMs and they just said, these agent meetings are exhausting because at that time at the end of February, they're just throwing out numbers because they don't necessarily know in concrete what the market is going to be. I remember hearing a story, it's like, well, what do you think your guy wants? He's like some, somewhere between 8 to 13 million. He's like, well, what's the number? Well, they don't know. And then after a couple of weeks talking to all the different GMs, they could get more specific. Well, we got something on, you know, in hand for $12 million a year, a four year deal, right? And then you kind of work from there like this is as high as we can go. This is what we're willing to do. And we typically don't see and I think a lot of it, you know, in the Crosby situation, which is a trade, which is different than a contract, but there is so much on the line. I mean, max Crosby makes $30 million a year. They were giving up multiple first round picks, which the Ravens have never done. You saw some of these deals, Alec Pierce, Linderbaum, I mean Jalen Phillips, we're talking astronomical amounts of money. Jalen Phillips got $80 million guaranteed. He got $120 million. Linderbaum, you know, depending on who you talk to. I think I thought he was a really good setter. You know, some people think he's a little overrated making $27 million a year. I mean, these are, these are large sums of money in the National Football League, especially for non quarterbacks. A center, right? So you saw Kobe Bryant, the safety go to the Bears. He's signed a three year deal at $43 million. I mean, you do the math. You're talking like 13, $14 million a year. This is a lot of money. So typically when I commit and I say I'm in, I'm in. Because, like, this is too much money to screw around. I don't want to operate in bad faith. And one thing, just talking to some of the GMs, and it's been well established by the reporters, Albert Breer has been talking about this. When you make a trade, you exchange injury information. Here are our MRI scans, here are all the X rays we have. You give it to the team so they have that information, you know, a week ago or whenever the, the trade came to fruition on Thursday or Friday, over the course of the weekend. The Ravens have that information. Now. You could argue once you get your hands on a guy once, once your team doctor sees them, maybe they have a different opinion, but you have that information. And these deals are not done with like, hey, I, I'm giving you a Ferrari. And then all of a sudden you look outside and it's a Honda Accord. Like, you know what you're getting? The transparency in this league when it comes to deals, from what I have heard is really, really high. And the Max Crosby thing was well established. So when the Ravens pulled the trigger, at least we thought, like, they knew it was a risk. There's always a risk. I mean, hell, the packers just traded for an. In his prime, all time great speed rusher, tore his ACL in the middle of the season. It's football. You, you never know. And I think the big thing that sent rattles and really just sent ripple effects throughout the league was we got. Nothing is guaranteed. And at any moment in this time, we've become, I don't want to say complacent, but you just think when you get a yes in the time when it's not actually official, you just assume it's a yes. And the Raiders continue to do business. Everyone continue to do business except the Ravens. And that, that's where I will start. Because Eric Dasta talked today. Pretty vague. I mean, he, he did not get into specifics by any means in terms of what they saw. What gave them pause basically just gave the corporate cliche answer, I got to do what's best for the Baltimore Ravens. Which is true. Which. His job is not to be liked by all the other 31 teams. His job is to do whatever he can in the best interest of the Baltimore Ravens. But I think as we sit here today, no one could argue that he got cold Feet because he knew he got a guy who was coming off an injury. He already had the medical information. Now, did they see something to go, well, hell, in a couple years this guy could get arthritis, could get a degenerate knee. And that gave them pause. Did they see all the talk online of like, oh, oh my God, they, they kind of got fleeced a 29 year old guy for the 14th overall pick and a number one next year because let's face it, they were kind of getting universally crushed in the sense of they gave up a lot. Who in the league could have got close to that? And the answer was nobody. Because none of the bad teams were making that trade. And from what it looked like, that was the only offer where they had two first round picks on the table. And I also think to lay this out, you, you do have to understand Eric D. Costa's standing within the league. Obviously he's been with the Ravens forever. I mean, I think he was with the, originally the Cleveland Browns way back in the day with Bill Belichick. He's been a part of this organization for decades. I wouldn't say he is the most well liked guy in the league. I went up to him at the combine, tried to introduce myself, to put him out, lose pretty cold, which I, I'm, I'm not holding that against him. Doesn't know me from Adam, clearly doesn't listen to the show, whatever. I, I, I don't necessarily care, but people that I know have never had great things to say about him. I've always defended people in business. Like, you hear these stories of like, that guy's a complete, Sometimes it's jealousy. Like I, I've seen that for years when I was growing up. Anyone that lives in a town and you do business, there are going to be people in your industry or people that you know through friends who are successful in life that everyone thinks is a scumbag, who everyone thinks is an who. A consistent theme is you can't trust that guy. And maybe it's true and sometimes it's 100% true. And sometimes perception can take on a life of its own. But at the end of the day, if I run a company, if I run a football team, if I run my family, I have to think about myself first and foremost. Now you can argue in any walk of life there's a way to conduct yourself and there's a way to do business. And clearly this felt a little abnormal. This felt like not only he got cold feet, but he completely the Raiders because the Raiders had Done business with the thought that Max was on their team and that they have these picks for several days. It wasn't one of those, like, 12 hours later. Say what you want about, you know, a Josh McDaniels or some of the situations where a coach gets cold feet. It usually happens pretty quick. This lingered for a while, and it lingered. Now, part of it was Max had something over the weekend, didn't even get there till Monday night, and then was in the facility Tuesday. And Diana Rossini reported today that they started getting weird vibes. And I think the number one thing people thought when this went down yesterday is like, well, who are they going to sign? And part of it was Trey Hendrickson's market had plummeted. Relative. He thought he was going to get like three years, $120 million a year. It's like, bro, you're 32 years old coming off a major injury, and his market was really, really slow. Well, who had a front row seat to that? Eric Dacosta. So he's in there. They start negotiating with Trey Hendrickson. Dacosta claims that he was going to sign them both. Hard to believe. You're going to have multiple. You're gonna have two pass rushers making a combined $60 million. Hard to see. But I. I think it's pretty clear. You don't need to be conspiracy theorists to say they saw it. They started thinking twice about their picks. They knew they could get Trey for cheaper. But to say, and I saw rap sheet say this, there's no such thing as a failed physical, right? You can fail in ex. In. In is inspection, right? On a home, on a car. Physicals are subjective. You see things. It's well documented. Max Crosby is going to be able to play in 20, 26, a hundred percent fully healthy based on his injury. Their thinking, which is pretty clear, is big picture. Can he maintain it over the next couple years? That's their argument. Yet they signed a guy in Hendrickson who just missed half the season and had a surgery and who's also three years older. So I think we just have to lay it on the table. And Dacosta doesn't want to look like a bad guy publicly, even though he's already getting crushed. He can just say, hey, we had planned on signing them both. I was already talking to him before we saw Max. But it sure looks to me like they start getting their hands on Max, they start having second thoughts. Maybe they had second thoughts before even entered their building because of how much they gave up. And everyone's saying, no one would give up this much for an older player. And they go, well, we could just have an older pass rusher and keep our picks. And that's obviously what they decided to do. But this other notion of. And this goes back to the scumbag thing, like, oh, everyone thinks so, and so's a scumbag. It's like, well, no one will ever do business with them. Well, does he have anything to offer? Because I, I've heard that forever. And usually those guys maintain being successful. Why? Because they typically have something that other people want, whatever company or industry they're in. This notion that no one will do business moving forward because they don't trust Eric DaCosta, to me, is bullshit. Is there. Are the Ravens offering a lot of money? Are the Ravens willing to trade for whatever player more than another team? People will gladly do business with them. It's. It's a cutthroat world and scummy things happen and shady things happen, which clearly happened here. And I, I don't think it's really debatable that he started looking at his two options with a lot of humans do in a lot of different walks of life and went, I'm going to go with the better option because I'm not bound by this one. I, I was talking, I was trying to explain to my wife last night this situation. And she works in real estate. She sees deals fall through, like multiple times. A home, like, she is consistently used to seeing deals not get completed, sometimes just sell a home, and it doesn't even matter the price point. It could be 800 grand or it could be a $10 million home that people back out. And until you're legally bound or there's like money on the line that you're not going to get back, that people have cold feet all the time. He had cold feet. He pulled out. And because of the setup of the league year, he's not technically bound by anything. So did he break unwritten rules? Sure. Did he break actual rules? He did not. It's why he was able to back up, do a press conference, sign another guy, and at the end of the day, I think he'd argue, there's no blood on my hands. You could be mad at me, but I made the right decision for the organization. Now we can debate like you knew when you originally pulled the trigger on this trade, what you were getting, right? Obviously a really good player, but he was an injured player. He was an older player relative to a lot of position players who had been traded For a similar hall, right? The, the Khalil, Max, the Jalen Ramsey's, those type guys in the prime of their career. And maybe you had too many days to think about it. Maybe this deal goes through if several days ago Max just shows up on a Monday and they just are in the momentum of it and they go with it. But he had several nights to think about it. He saw Trey's market diminish from what he probably thought it was originally going to be. But this notion that he was going to sign both guys, I honestly have a hard time with that. I really do. I'm actually going to call bullshit on that one. And I think anyone with a working brain will too. But I understand him saying that he's got to say something, he's got a lie. But I, I also think like, there are a lot of guys in this league that are just well liked or a guy that you feel comfortable doing a deal with. Like, this guy kind of has a track record. Now, I saw Will Compton posted something yesterday. For those of you old enough to remember a wide receiver named Ryan Grant who was on the Redskins at the time, and as Will said, he played with him, played four years, never missed a game, signed like a four year, $30 million deal with the Ravens. And within 24 hours, Michael Crabtree, who was on the Raiders, got cut and became available. So they failed him in his physical. AKA said we're out of the deal and signed Michael Crabtree. They did it a couple years ago with Michael Brockers. They, they backed out. Michael Brockers went on to start every game for the next couple years. So he has a track record of backing out of deals when he sees that he has a, that he views a better option. And you know, talking to people in the league, they, their issue is there's a transparency of like your cold feet have to be determined as we're negotiating the deal. But once you give the go ahead on the deal, like especially something of this magnitude, which has clearly never happened. Right. There's one thing, you know, the example being used is Drew Brees with Nick Saban. That was just a free agent signing. Obviously Nick Saban and the Miami Dolphins made the wrong decision, but the Raiders didn't even just start operating from a position of who we're going to sign without Max's money. But I'm sure started utilizing their free agency plans knowing they had the 14th pick. I mean, this was Saturday, Sunday, Monday. I mean, you're, you're talking three and a half days in the busiest time of the year that might as well be a month. So I think it's really fucked up. I think people will badmouth Eric Dasta, but if his owner doesn't care, why does he care? And there are a lot of people in all the towns that we live in who make a lot of money and do really well in life that everyone thinks a complete scumbag. And maybe that's the case with Eric Dasta. I know this. A lot of those people sleep fine at night. Whether you agree or disagree with them. I, they don't give a. And do I think he gives a. I do not. I, I honestly do not. Because I think it's in his kind of nature to be like this and part of, as a gm, and I'm not even defending it. I'm just saying, like, I, I, I, I get it. Like, I, I see it, and from everything I've heard, this is very on brand with the individual. But this notion that no one's gonna do anything with the Ravens ever again. Give me a break. Break. What a joke. Uh, I, and I also think from the Raider side and, and people, like, a lot of people are at fault here, like, no, this was on the Ravens. I, I, I don't put any of this on the Raiders unless it comes out. They withheld middle medical information that, that has not been reported anywhere. From all reports, they gave everything. The Ravens knew exactly what they were getting. So they, I don't know what the Raiders could have done. They were shopping this guy to everybody. They took the best offer he obviously had basically since the combine to feel comfortable about what he was going to offer and pulled out. I, I, I, I To me, the blame pie is 100% why this deal fell through because of the Ravens decision. The Raiders had nothing to do with it. And one thing I learned, and I, I don't think I talk about enough, I, I never talk about it, actually, and I never hear anyone else talking about it. And someone in the league who is in charge of signing guys brought this up to me. He said there are two different things. There's the salary cap, whatever that number is, being compliant with the league. Right. It's a hard cap. You got to be under the number. If it's a $200 million, a $300 million cap, you can't be $10 million more than that number. And then there's a cash flow issue. So you can have a salary cap of $250 million and spend way over that amount in a given year with signing bonuses and upfront Cash. You know, Jimmy Haslam did it for years. Jeffrey Lurie, the 49ers did it for years. They spent more actual cash than the salary cap. Right, because of signing bonuses and ways to manipulate the cap. Because you can give people up front and then you can push it back over the life of the deal in the, quote, unquote, void years. I mean, Howie Roseman's been making a killing doing this for the last seven, eight years, right? Because Jeffrey Lurie is willing to invest. He says. But even if you are those guys, every team has some sort of a cash budget. So when Spy Tech makes all these moves and signs all these guys. Now, the Raiders give less, quote, unquote signing bonuses than other teams, but clearly they're guaranteeing a lot of money. You bring CROSBY back, that is $30 million that you were going to pay Max Crosby again, as of right now, I think there's a decent chance that he's still on the team that you had not budgeted for. So that's where people are going. You really fucked the Raiders because they had a budget or they had an idea of not having Crosby on their team. That's why they made all these moves. Now because of the new influx of cash from Brady's billionaire buddies that bought into the team. Maybe big picture, it won't be an issue and they can just fire with the money if they can convince Max to stay. Because one thing that is very clear at this point, that has come out over the course of the last couple days, maybe a week, is that several weeks ago, maybe a couple weeks before the combine, Max Crosby had gone to Max or Mark Davis's house, who's his good buddy. And I won't say demanded a trade, but they agreed that you should trade me. It's the best for the organization. So Max Crosby essentially wanted a trade. Now, I do wonder, once you have this situation take place, you would want to. You wanted to be a Raider for life. Then the Mendoza situation happened. You got pissed, you stormed out, and you said this, maybe it is time to leave that. Then you go to another organization that's supposed to be one of the top organizations in all of American sports, and you spend the day there, and by the end, the GM calls you into the office and said, we're not doing this, actually, we're gonna fly you home and the trade's off. I don't care who you are. If you're the most confident human of all time or very insecure and lack confidence, that would rattle you. That would really, really rattle you, and I've said this forever, when you are drafted by a team, the coach, the gm, no one will ever be as invested in your success originally as those people are to you. So once they pivot off you, the, the next people involved will never be as invested. Now, sometimes if you're a great player, you know Harbaugh loves Khalil Mack, right? There are clearly examples. But my point is that there is never quite like that original love. And there is a connection between the Raiders owner and Max Crosby that clearly would just be different of him going to the Ravens, who, if they would have gone through it, still would have treated him more like an acquired asset than a guy that they had drafted, that they had nurtured. And, you know, like a Kyle Hamilton, like a hello, De Nada, like a Terrell Suggs, they wouldn't have looked at him the same. And I, I also think this has to put in the back of his mind, maybe I just played this out. And I think it's hard for the Raiders now to go back to the market given that no one worth their salt is going to offer them anywhere close to what they just got. I would imagine most of the offers coming in based on the previous thing that they thought they had is 50 cents on the dollar. If they had picked 14 in a first round pick, it wouldn't shock me if some people are offering like two twos. Because also if you're a GM now that this is out there, that if in a couple years Max Crosby's knee falls apart, you will get fired, right? Especially if your team's not doing well, people will go, well, you knew this is why the Ravens backed out. So that puts pressure on you to not overpay or even get aggressive from a financial standpoint when it comes to trading for Max Crosby. So given what you just got in theory for Max, could you now trade him for way less? Like, could you trade him for a second and a third just to get rid of the money and just because he wants to get traded. So you're basically just trading him to trade him, you still get some value, but nothing near what you got. Like, if you're not getting a first rounder, like if every team now that's in the mix and interested in Max Crosby is not offering a first rounder, does that make sense in my. My answer would be no. And that's where I think the Raiders brass kind of has to turn back into salesmen. Like, can we fix this issue? And I do wonder if after Max went through what he Just did. That has to be a little, you know, I, I, I would say life altering. Someone telling you, yeah, we, we think your knee's not going to work, right. We think in a couple years you will not be able to play football because that's essentially what they told him. Maybe in not so many words or maybe in more words bullshitting, but like, we think your knee screwed because when you're told it's one thing in the draft, right, if rumors get out, so and so Caleb down, so and so, shoulder might not work. I remember when Leonard Williams, who's now on the Seahawks, there are rumors he's got this shoulder, he's going to need surgery and it may never be the same. Well, a decade later, he's still kicking ass. So it's like, it doesn't necessarily matter from a draft standpoint. Okay, A couple teams think that, but if the other part, teams in the league don't think that, who cares? But they're also not telling that to your face when you are in the building thinking you're on the team. And then the GM calls you into the office and says, we're not doing this because we think you're not going to be able to function in a couple years. That that has to throw off. And just whatever your mental clarity is and your football confidence and your professional confidence of like, I'm here, I'm gonna help this team win a Super bowl, it's got to throw you off. It would for me. It would for you. It has to for Max Crosby. And I do wonder if that changes the dynamics of this situation with him and the Raiders, because it was just an all time, it was an all time tweet when it came out from the Raiders that they backed out. It was an Alzheimer that. All these reporters that are really dialed in didn't really have that many answers. And let's face it, still don't. No one can say, like in everyone's kind of doing this in pencil. No one can say this specifically what they saw and this is why they backed out. You know why? Cause I don't think they had a true reason. I think some of the doctors said, yeah, we're a little nervous with this. This could go wrong in a couple years. He was already having some second thoughts. He knew he had the bird in the hand, he'd get Trey for the number in which they signed him and said, okay, we're out. And then the Raiders are now in this kind of bizarre, weird situation with their star player, who I, I think and I Said this yesterday in my initial reaction and I, I think I stand by it sitting here, whatever, 24 hours later on Wednesday afternoon. I would probably just keep him at this point. I would keep him at this point over giving him away for 50 cents on the dollar because we just added a bunch of really good players. We're going to add a quarterback. We're going to add potentially multiple guys in the draft because we draft high in every round. Who's to say, hey, listen, Max, this year could be a little bumpy. I mean, we should be better than we've been the last couple years, but we could take strides. Six or seven, you know, wins. But in a couple years, why couldn't we be a playoff team? And you could be a huge part of that. And you can kind of get like it was all worth it and we'll just, we'll just erase that video that you posted on Twitter and Instagram and we'll just pretend that never happened and we'll just move on. And money, you're usually makes everyone happy. And we're paying you $30 million the next couple years and let's just move forward. That would be my guess. Again, I, I don't have any inside information on this, but given the way I know teams think and the way that they kind of. They're like hyenas when there's like a dead animal. They kind of, you know, they kind of come in for an easy meal. That's what it feels like a lot of people when I see that a lot of teams are re engaging with the Raiders for way less than they originally offered because, and in fairness to those guys, if there's validity to what the Raven saw, to pull the trigger with a lot of draft capital and have this blow up in your face, I, I do think it would be a fireable offense. So, yeah, that's. We'll just keep monitoring this situation. Obviously, if he is traded, we will. We will have a reaction from there. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet. Florida's sportsbook March is officially here and that means more college hoops. And it takes center stage, baby. Stakes are rising, the shots are falling. And now is the time to hit the hardwood with Hard Rock Bet. Sign up today and double your winnings on your first 10 bets. Max $50. That's right. Your winnings are doubled on your first 10 bets. So if you would have won a hundred bucks on your bet, that makes 200. 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Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more@applecard.com all right, two truths and a Lie Here we go. I went to College with college football coach Jim McElwain. I began my broadcasting career doing play by play for the Las Vegas Stars and I've been a Verizon customer for 15 years. Okay, I lied. All three are true. Verizon isn't as expensive as you think. In fact, if you bring in your ATT or T mobile bill to a Verizon store, they'll give you a better deal. That's right, a better deal on the best network with the most ways to save on plans, streaming and phone deals. So take that AT and T or T Mobile build to your local Verizon store today, get a better deal and start saving based on route metrics Best overall Mobile Network Performance US Second Half 2025 all rights reserve must provide recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply. We did have a trade today. The 49ers traded for former third round pick Osa Adigazua. I think I said that name right. Interior, really good pass rusher, three technique. The Cowboys last year gave him a four year $80 million contract. They gave him a $20 million signing bonus. And I, I think the 49ers, I'm sure like this guy coming out of the draft clearly liked him in the pros. You know he's like a four or five sack a year guy but he's a good pressure guy. He to me is a good scheme fit. The 49ers have like a one gap get up the field, not like playing two gaps stuff in the run, just penetrate, just get and ideally you got Fred Warner, who knows, maybe they bring Dre Greenlaw back. Our linebacker makes 15 tackles a game. Our defensive linemen are paid to disrupt the backfield and Adam Peters attempted to do this last year and I never have a problem with this is when you trade a third or fourth round pick for a player who's already under contract who if he was a free agent would have cost you a lot more than you are going to pay him with the trade. Now to get that cheap contract you, you have to give up a third round pick. Which isn't nothing though the 49ers, they were in the second round and they're drafting 27th in the first round. So that is a late third round pick. I mean you're talking about something closer to 100 than you are 70. So it's, I think you view it go, we need this player. He's an immediately plug and play asset and next year he's on the books for $16.7 million that if he was a flesh free agent, he would cost us more than $16.7 million if we were going to acquire his services. So I think they got to take advantage. They had a good draft last year. They still got a first and second round pick this year. But I, I like the trade and I also understand from Dallas perspective a lot has changed in the sense of last year when they extended this guy. They probably thought him and Micah were going to be on the team. Then all of a sudden they get rid of Micah. They have Quinn and Williams, who's a better player. They trade for Rashawn Gary. They have two first round picks. Wouldn't shock me at all. If they take a defensive lineman and you start investing so much money into your defensive line, you go, listen, we have an excess, we can utilize this to get a draft pick. We are paying Pickens a lot of money now. We are paying, you know, the kicker's not going to be cheap whenever they get that deal set. So I, I understand the Cowboys making this trade. To me this is your classic like win, win. This trade makes a lot of sense. And I think the Niners were pretty desperate for some defensive line help. People that could play, not one of those like practice squad guys. And they weren't going to go down the road. Like they essentially gave this same deal a couple years ago to Javon Hargrave. They gave him four years, $80 million and guaranteed $40 million and it blew up in their face. Now Hargrave's kind of a unique player. He's this undersized interior pass rusher. He actually was not bad against the run last year. He's now in the packers who they just gave him $23 million. He's one of those guys you're going to look back, mid round pick, I think he was like a fourth round pick, third round pick. He made a lot of money, you know, and he parlayed that Eagles success that last year for the Eagles when he had double digit sacks into just financial windfall for the next four or five years. So you know Hargrave, I think you're the packers, they had gotten rid of so many guys, right, that they had got rid of Kenny Clark. Last year they, they got rid of Rashawn Gary. This year, Micah Parsons currently injured, that they, they, they had to do something. So I, I have no issue with this deal. They, they gave up, I think like a late round pick to acquire him. But yeah, the other thing is the Bills trade or not Traded, they signed Bradley Chubb, who's coming off a year we had eight and a half sacks. I think the Bills have really struggled to hit on a guy in free agency with their defensive line. Years ago, they signed Von Miller to a, a ton of money after he got traded to the Rams and won the super bowl and had a, had a sack in every round, including the Super Bowl. Clearly they regretted that last year they, they got Joey Bo. So they gave him like one year, $12 million. He just did not live up to that contract. And this year, again, they are taking premium guys, people that were, you know, Joey Bo's a third overall pick, obviously, Von Miller's a Hall of Famer. Bradley Chubb, you know, was what, the fifth or sixth pick in the draft, fourth pick. I mean, they're going after this blue chip pedigree now. They, it's not like they got Bradley Chubb like Bosa for one year, $12 million. They gave him three years, I think like $44 million. They guaranteed almost 30. So they paid a decent amount of money. Now I think they would say, hey, listen, if he can replicate what he did last year, give us eight and a half, nine, ten sacks, especially because in theory we should be leading in some of these games with our offense, this should make more sense. And I, I've said this forever. The moment they made the Sean McDermott move to go with Joe Brady, you've seen the last two moves they've made to trade for DJ Moore to sign Bradley Chubb. I mean, I, I don't think there's a team in the afc, you know, the, the Rams in the NFC for sure, that is just like anything less than making it the super bowl is a gigantic disappointment. And, and I, I think that's just a fact. So props to the Bills. They're being very aggressive. They're trying to make smart, aggressive moves. You know, D.J. moore is different than A.J. brown. He costs less. Not as good of a player, but you can get for pick 60. You couldn't get A.J. brown for pick 60. And you can get a guy a couple of years ago that caught 96 balls. So can DJ Moore catch 80 or 90 balls for me and make some big plays in the cold down the stretch in the playoffs? You know, Bradley Chubb, like, can he come through? We got some other good defensive linemen and be one of those guys that when we have a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter, can tee off and make some explosive plays that we wanted out of Bosa and simply just didn't Quite get. So I think Brandon Bean's doing a pretty good job. Like these are moves, if I was him, I would make. The other thing I haven't hit on yet is the Chief signed Kenneth Walker who I think it's fair to say they like Kenneth Walker a lot coming out of college. And if you watch him at Michigan State, he was, I've said this before, I mean he got Mel Tucker $90 million. I mean him single handedly got Mel Tucker $90 million. Michigan State was bad before and they've been bad after. It was kind of Kenneth Walker, he was a fantastic player at Michigan State. His NFL career was a little underwhelming. Had banged Ben banged up, had never quite lived up. I mean he was drafted, I think 41st. I mean you get some of those guys in the early second round. They become star players. Especially you know, Nick Chub was drafted there, Debo Samuel was drafted there. Like you can get impact guys. He really just had a really good second half of the season and an excellent December and January for Seattle. I do wonder if coach Reed and bringing B enemy back one of their philosophy, philosophical changes they have been they're as pass heavy as any team in the league and they are as dependent on Patrick which has paid dividends over the years and rightfully so. He's one of the great players of all time. But once a guy tears ACL once you go through a season where he couldn't just pull magic out of his hat every single game and he doesn't play as well, maybe you think to yourself of like we do need to become a little more run dependent. We knew we do need to hand like the ball to guys sometimes 25 times a game. And I also think you need to add another running back to go along with them. But I do wonder if offensively this year they become a little bit more of a run heavy team and it'll be interesting what they do in the draft. Could they take the Oregon tight end at 9? I mean they easily could take an offensive lineman at nine and then all of a sudden you got a good guard, you got a good center, you got a young left tackle who has top five ability. You get a right tackle who's a plug and play guy and you go, you know what we're going to do? We're going to run the ball a lot. That's going to be one of our philosophies this year to help our quarterback who's coming back from an ACL injury to help our, you know, our wide receiver. Grew is not exactly, you know, Rice and John Taylor. Right. It's not exactly Michael Irvin and Harper, you know, so it's a crew where she Rice in trouble again? Kelsey's older that we're going to play defense. We, we have one of the best defensive coordinators in the league. We still got some high priced guys on our defensive line and we're going to run the ball. Now that's easy to say as we're sitting here in March. Will that actually get executed? But I think when you give a guy that much money, I think you need to rely on him in the run game. And he's probably a little bit better in the passing game than I gave him credit for. But I do wonder if we're going to see a little bit of a different Chiefs team coming up. Couple quarterback things. One thing that's buzzing out there on the interweb is Kirk Cousins potentially going to the Las Vegas Raiders as the backup SL mentor for Fernando Mendoza. Kirk Cousins is owed $10 million this year from the Atlanta Falcons. I mean that, that, that contract will go down as one of the all time. I mean some of these quarterbacks right now, two is making $55 million from the Miami Dolphins. Kyler is making $36 million from the Arizona Cardinals. Cousins is making $10 million from the Atlanta Falcons. These are all time, this is legal highway robbery. So props to those guys for getting these contracts. Their agents are probably being underpaid for negotiating those deals because that's pretty nuts. But when you see Fernando Mendoza talk and how goofy he is, he does have a lot of similarities to Cousins a decade ago. And I, I do wonder. You get a guy who's kind of been through the ringer, who's been a backup, who's been a starter, who's been a high paid Pro bowl level guy who's gone through some shit. I do think he could give great advice and be a great guy for Fernando to lean on. And one thing that's key for young players is to have veteran players for them to look up to. It's the big question with Jaylen Carter. It's like, are we comfortable with making him the star of the team and paying him $45 million? It was easy to pull the trigger when he was the ninth overall pick. And it's like, what's he going to do? Get out of line with Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox and some of these veteran guys in the room? Of course not. I remember when I was in the league, the Giants drafted JPP who was like this raw, you know, just, just was like a piece of clay needed some more. Well, what did they have? They had O.C. in the room, they had Kiwanuka in the room, they had a bunch of veteran players in the room that it's like that's the type risk to take. And he went on to be a really good player for him. Because when you have a position group that has veteran players, you can take some risky guys. And to me it's no different with the quarterback. Even if the quarterback is not a quote unquote risky guy, you want to get him in a room with people they can look up to, with people they can bounce questions off of. It's why Joe Flacco has had this late career renaissance. People want Joe Flacco in the room to be a mentor and be a guy they lean on. Even if these quarterbacks say I'm not here to be a mentor, I listen, I, I understand what they're saying. They're there to compete, they're there. But once it's established you're the backup quarterback, you're a human being. And if you're a high character guy, you're just going to give the guy a lot of direction, a lot of life lessons and you're going to be able to show them just through your actions. This is what it takes to be a starting quarterback in the league Monday through Friday. These times, this is what I do. These are the recoveries. And you start these habits at 22, 23, 24 years old, where it's not like, well I figured this out by the time I was 28 or 29. I remember when the Chiefs traded Alex Smith and Patrick Mahomes gonna be the starter. You know one of the number one things the Chiefs look for in a backup quarterback, they wanted a veteran who was married and they side Chad Henny and he ended up playing there for years. They wanted a grown up in the room and that's exactly what Kirk Cousins is. So whether you had an immature wild card at quarterback or someone like Fernando Mendoza, that's viewed as a very mature, serious guy. You want a veteran presence around the guy so they can bounce things off of, just so they can watch, just so it takes a little pressure off them of like what do I do now? And let's we're human beings. You don't always want to ask your superior, right? And in football that's your position coach or your head coach or your coordinator. Sometimes you just want to ask a peer. Think about most people you're closest to when you first get hired in a job in your early to mid-20s out of college, usually the other guys you're working hand in hand with, you're usually not very close with the boss. You're spending a lot of time with other people who are on your level. Some of my best friends in the NFL were other low level scouts when I was there. Now some of them are like GMs and assistant GMS, but those were the people I hung out with. I wasn't going over to Howie's house. Right. It's no different than Fresno State when I was there. Like, and I listen, I can text Pat Hill and Andy Reid. I consider these guys friends, mentors, and they impacted my life greatly. But the people I talk to most of the time that I was with those organizations were hell at Fresno State, some of them were players we were the same age who have gone on to be coaches now. And we just have a lot in common because we were really close then because we had a lot in common then. So it's no different as a player of like you just have more in common with another player. Even if that player is older than you, then you feel comfortable with your coach. So I'm always for signing a mentor and an older veteran guy for a young quarterback, regardless of the quarterback's wiring. It's clearly more important when you have an immature wild card as a number one overall pick. But even if you have what Fernando Mendoza is bringing to the table, checking all the boxes off the field, I, I think it's extremely impactful to have someone like Cousins in the room. Speaking of Kyler Murray, who, you know, they forever, they've gotten Jacobe Brissettes and guys like that in the room with him to try to elevate his maturity. As of recording this, he hasn't signed anywhere. I mean it's, it's pretty crazy that they paid him all that. I, I, I never understood that contract and it backfired in their face immediately and now they're paying him to who knows? But one thing I know is I saw the A's GM put out a statement of like if he's ever interested, our phone lines are open. Like guys, he's, he's never riding a bus in Albuquerque, I'll promise you that. But it'll be fascinating to see where he goes the other guy that at this point in time I almost respect it. Cousins took forever because it felt like he was always maximizing his dollars and getting paid just top dollar wherever he went. And he ended up Making I mean he's going to go down as one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. But say one thing about Cousins. Pull up his stat sheet for like a stretch of seven years. It's like 28 to 35 touchdowns every single year and 43 to 4, 500 yards. Like there was no dispute. We could argue he was never a top five quarterback, but he clearly hovered for a while between somewhere between like 7 and 15. And on his good days he'd be like 5, 6 or 7 and on his bad days he'd be lower. But he was a legitimate starting quarterback that if you did a good job building your team was worth a lot of money somehow he's had like two stretches in his career at like six or seven games. Daniel Jones just got another large amount of money. He got the the Giants to pay him $80 million after he threw 20 touchdowns. And then last year after a good month and a half tears Achilles and somehow gets multiple years $88 million. I, I, it's fascinating. I, I don't ever remember a quarterback who has done less and been injured more and constantly be able to get a lot of money. And I'm not even hating in a weird way at this point. I respect the out of it. And one thing that someone told me at the combine that his dad, his agent, himself, when it comes to business, they are ruthless. They don't care. They want every penny possible. And that's clear again. And he had the moment they made that sauce contract or the sauce trade and gave up the first rounders and had no other options and missed the playoffs and there weren't any other quarterbacks. He had them by the balls and now they are in the Daniel Jones business. There's going to be a ton of pressure on them in 2026. He's coming off an Achilles injury. Which one thing teams clearly they like the guy a lot. High character guy seems like a good teammate. Some people just like him. But as a player, I know he had a good stretch last year, but you'd be hard pressed to convince me you can be comfortable giving him any sum of money over like $15 million and he consistently gets it. And he consistently, the last time he did, he, he let down a team at the highest of levels and was released two years later. So I, if you told me right now, I was a betting man. This is the type deal that gets everyone in that building fired. And partly because not that he doesn't fit their scheme. We've seen guys come off Achilles injury. Now unlike Cousins or Rogers, he's younger than those guys but you have to give some like margin for error of it doesn't go that well right away. There's a feeling out process and I would say any player, any position, no matter how good you are, usually coming back from a major injury. There was like a slow transition process. It's why whenever I see people talking about the 49ers and they use like oh they got McCaffrey and Kittle, I I love George Kittle. He's one of my favorite 49ers in my entire life. Right up there like Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Patrick, Patrick Willis. He is a certified badass. Every team in the history of the league would want George KD on their squad. He is coming off an Achilles like that's a major injury, especially for a guy, an older player whose game is built on power and explosion. So like I I can't just chalk George Kittle's going to have a great season in 2026. They just resigned his backup Tanjes, who's actually a pretty good player. But like I I have a hard time just plugging and playing guys off Achilles injury and I this notion that Daniel Jones is just gonna look like he did last year, I I can't say that I, I don't feel comfortable saying that at all. Today's podcast is brought to you by Ferguson Home. Whether you're a homeowner creating your dream space or a pro managing multiple projects, Ferguson Home is where it all comes together. Ferguson Home is designed for the way you want to shop. Experience today's top products by brands like KitchenAid first hand by visiting a Ferguson Home showroom, where you'll explore stunning displays featuring today's latest products and innovations, or browse their extended selection of products online. Ferguson Home understands that every project is made up of countless decisions, and that's why their expert consultants are committed to helping homeowners, builders, contractors and designers bring all the details together. You can count on support from them start to finish. From choosing the right products to coordinating deliveries with your project schedule. Book a one on one consultation at your local Ferguson Home showroom or shop online@fergusonhome.com whether you're working on a new kitchen, a new bathroom, or a whole home remodel, you'll find the latest designs and technologies from the brands you trust at Ferguson Home. Hey, this is Lavar Arrington here from up on Game. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes. Subject to credit approval. Apple card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more@applecard.com all right, two truths and a lie. Here we go. I went to college with college football coach Jim McElwain, I began my broadcasting career doing play by play for the Las Vegas Stars, and I've been a Verizon customer for 15 years. Okay, I lied. All three are true. Verizon isn't as expensive as you think. In fact, if you bring in your AT&T or T mobile bill to a Verizon store, they'll give you a better deal. That's right, a better deal on the best network with the most ways to save on plans, streaming and phone deals. So take that AT and T or T mobile build to your local Verizon store today, get a better deal and start saving based on root metrics. Best overall Mobile Network Performance US Second Half 2025 all rights reserve must provide recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply. We'll, we'll get out of here on on the dad Diaries. You know, I, I said this yesterday. When you have someone, anyone that with this had little kids or has little kids, now we have someone in the six, seven, eight week range. You kind of do the same thing every day, right? You just, you get them up, you try to get them back down, you try to feed them, try to get them to sleep, which can be a challenge. I mean, there are some days he just stares at you like, motherfucker, I am not napping today. Don't even think about it. I don't plan on going to sleep and I'm talking during the day and as times when I probably should be asleep, I'm going to get extra grouchy. And you can read all the books you want. You can watch all the YouTubes, listen to podcasts about how to do this and how to get on a schedule. I am going to buck that trend every time you attempt to do it. So you just, you just kind of go day to day and just attack it. My newfound respect. I've said this before and I will say it again. I think it's easy, especially for guys to make fun of stay at home moms. The stay at home mom phase, when they are in the infant baby phase is as challenging as anything I've ever seen. I mean, I can last a couple hours, and then I crack. I mean, she does it all day, every day, and so many women do it, you know, in those first couple months. It is tough. I mean, those days where they just won't stop crying, it can mentally break you. It. It really, really tests the senses. And one thing, you know, I've always heard about, but until you experience it, I always thought, like, change the diapers. That's going to be disgusting. You become numb to that. Like, by day two, changing a diaper becomes like a pit stop in nascar. It's like in and out. But the one thing you're not quite prepared for, that you hear a lot about are the blowouts. And maybe early on the first month or two, he just doesn't have as much power in there. And then you get to the point. Last week, I don't know where I was, but my. Maybe I was at the combine or I don't know where I was, but Maria text me of like, we got a problem. Anytime you hear that, you're like, heart kind of drops. And then she sends me a picture, and there's just shit all over her leg, all over Jack's leg, all over the carpet. And he had his first true blowout. So I'm like, damn, I gotta. You gotta keep an eye for this. Because a lot of times you're feeding them, put them on your knee, put them on your arm, and you just. You know, part of babies is they are just farting and pooping constantly. And it's. Honestly, it's pretty funny. He like, smile after it. You just change the diaper. Pit stop. Boom, you're back rocking and rolling. Well, it starts. You got to be pretty careful. I don't care how well that you put on the diaper. It can. If it's big enough, it can find its way out. So the other day, I hear it like I normally do when I'm feeding them, and I don't really think anything of it. And then I kind of peek down and I see the tsunami coming out the side of the lake. And I'm on the couch, and we got a couple changing stations in. In our room and in his room that he hasn't. Won't sleep in, I guess, till he's older. So I think I got a couple options here. I could just let it all flow out on me and just deal with the, you know, the repercussions of that. After he, after he's done or I, I can beeline it right now for a room. So I tip him on his side to stop the flow, to go back into the diaper, and I run into the room and, and right as I'm getting into the room, I can see it coming out the other side. And I put them on the table. And I avoid what my wife experienced. There was nothing on me. There was nothing on the couch. There was nothing on the rug. And it's. It's truly one of my great father achievements so far in my short career of avoiding getting shit all over me. Because it looked. When I looked down, it looked. And, you know, the sounds are still coming out. It looked destined to just fill my leg. But I, I, I, in a split second, like Navy SEAL style, flip them on his side. And then I just ran, like, Tyreek Hill, you know, around the coffee table, around the wall, and boom, we're down, we're changing them, and we're out. So I, I, I am yet to get a blowout. I, I did hear a story from a friend. Well, Maria told me the story that her friend told her, that a big blowout in the car that was all over the car seat, down the side of the car. So that's something fun that I have a. I have to look forward to. But for those of you without children, just get ready. Those, those. Those early days. Runny poop everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Funny at the same time. Very disgusting. Adios. The volume. This is Daniel Cormier from the Daniel Cormier Show. This podcast is sponsored by Total Wireless, the official wireless partner of ufc. Power doesn't wait in the octagon or outside of it. You either make the move or you miss the moment. That's why you need a network that's just as powerful as you are. With Total Wireless, you get unlimited 5G data keeping you in the action from the walkouts to the knockouts. Now that's a total power move. Make your total power move today. Visit totalwireless.com or stop by your neighborhood Total Wireless store. Additional terms apply. See totalwireless.com for details. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. After the big Game. Like most people, I kept thinking about the commercials, and there was one that stayed with me. It was from the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate. And it wasn't loud or flashy. It showed a Jewish kid being targeted at school and another student who chose not to ignore it. As someone who was Jewish, that moment felt very real to me. Not dramatic, just familiar. And what struck me was how clearly it showed that hate doesn't always announce itself, but the impact is still huge. If you saw the blue square spot during the big game, it's worth thinking about. And if you want to show support, you sharing the blue square is one small way to do that. I'm U.S. transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all seem to be in a rush these days, from work to driving our kids around. But when you're behind the wheel, please do not speed. A few minutes saved by going faster is never worth the risk. So follow the speed limit, enjoy the drive, maybe bring some snacks for the kids. And know that along along the way you're getting quality time with your family paid for by nhtsa. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular dealer stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits plan features in Texas and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credits stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.