← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
3 & Out - NFL Offseason Mailbag: Mendoza Overhyped? Herbert, Hurts, or Darnold? Criticism for Dak?
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The volume. What is going on everybody? John Middelkopf 3&out podcast how are we doing my people? Hopefully everyone is doing well and living life. Enjoying life. I am still in Los Angeles. I go home tomorrow. Then I actually go to Sacramento for night for my, my buddy's. He technically got married at the, at the courthouse but he's having a big party on Saturday night. So I'm, I'm excited for that one. See if some of my nice clothes still fit. You know as a podcaster you wear a lot of pullovers and shorts and sandals. We'll see if we'll see if I can still get those dress pants around the waist though. The peptide's starting to kick in. I'm starting to feel a little bit better. We're gonna do a big mailbag today, a little weekend mailbag at johnmittlecoffonmiddlekopf. Is the Instagram fire in those DMs? Get your questions answered on the show. A little bit of a slower time because all these teams are in draft meetings. There's no transactions. We'll probably dive deeper into the, into the draft next week. But yeah Today will be a heavy, heavy mailbag. You guys know the drill. Just fire into those dms. If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to the three and out feed. Obviously all the videos are up on Netflix every single day. Appreciate everyone checking that out and I think we. Like I said, I'm going to be home for a couple days over the weekend and my mom's and, and my brothers, but I'm gonna try to record some stuff on Sunday night in reaction to the masters. Might go live on YouTube on Sunday night. Probably from my brother's office who has like best Internet known to man. I think I got Starlink. It kicks ass to take names. So I'll keep you updated to that on the social channels. But yeah, let's just, let's just dive into the podcast. We will start today with. He doesn't actually put his name. It's kind of like it says wash with the money. Sign question for the back. Do you ever miss your scouting days when you see all the mock drafts and get the itch to dip your toe back in? Would love to see you rank some of these college guys by position one to three or five just to get your take on things from a scouting perspective. I think we'll hammer that home next week because it's going to be slow. It's a good idea. Just maybe my favorite player, maybe a player I think is a little bit overrated. I just, everyone does a mock draft. It's the same players, especially in this draft. I love Sonny Styles. He's a guy doing a little digging. I clearly, I mean, he might go five, but maybe we can hammer that home and do some kind of get nerdy. Get. Get really nerdy. I think the hard part about this draft, and listen, I've been doing this like this has been paying my bills much longer. This draft's a little boring. There's not that much star power. And you know, part of that's the quarterbacks, right? I mean, people have been trying to make Ty Simpson a first rounder. Maybe he ends up a first rounder. Not in a million years could I take him in the first round. I've been saying this over and over. Guys like Ty Simpson, guys like Mac Jones. I got no problem taking him in the third round. Mac Jones going to play in the league for who knows If Chase Daniels can play the league 14 years, Mac Jones can play in the league a decade and a half easy. But he's a backup and there's nothing wrong with being a backup. Hell, Kirk Cousins is going to make $20 million over the next two years being a backup. So. Well, actually $20 million just to be the backup this year technically because he's making 10, right. And he's going to get 10 next year. So the Raiders are paying him 11 and 11.3 and the the Falcons are compensating the other 8.7. So I to me, being a backing quarterback is one of the best jobs in America as long as you don't really have to play and then you can just keep that gig going. But Mac Jones proven there are some guys that if they do have to play, can be a really good player. And you know my favorite draft since I've been doing this was a couple years ago when the six quarterbacks, you know, Bo Nix, Pennix, obviously the top guys, May, Jaden and Caleb, but J.J. mcCarthy, that doesn't get any better. So hopefully next year is a loaded quarterback draft because that is the thing that most people talk about. And like I'm trying to appeal to the largest audience. Like the guard from Penn State is an awesome prospect. If I talked about him, I go out of business and my wife would probably not be happy. So I just. This draft also doesn't have great wide receivers. You know, it's crazy. But wide receivers and quarterbacks, you talk to some people, it's like Tate's the only guy in most drafts that would sniff going in the top 20. We can get into Makai Lemon next week, who you know, I like, but again, we'll dive into that. Good idea. That's why we utilize you guys for, for the mailbag, because you guys got good opinions, good takes and good thoughts. You and Colin are drooling all over Mendoza. Isn't the whole appeal of him that he is NFL ready If he needs to sit, why not draft a project quarterback with more talent? Well, that guy doesn't exist in this draft. Mendoza has an average arm, weak mobility and played like shit against Miami. Also they gave Kirk 20 million. Well, they didn't give 20 million. They gave him $11 million. They gave him $11,000,000. The Falcons are paying eight and a half, a little more than that. So they did not give him $20 million. They cooked the books because they had the Falcons situation that they could take advantage of. Mendoza is going to start week one. We actually played the cousin sound when he was with the Raiders. You know, I knew it the moment they signed Cousins, whatever, a week ago. I've lost track of time. I'm like, I bet they make it. So when he shows up to sign his contract and be there. He is going to be in the building when Mendoza does his top. It's not top 30. It's because it's not your top 30 players. But his quote unquote 30 visit even though Mendoza is clearly the Raiders top player on their board and they all spend time, they watch film together that day and even Cousin said Mendoza's probably going to start, Mendoza is going to start week one. That you know, I talked about this a couple days ago. It's going to be a tough situation for Clint Kubiak. It's probably not Cousins not beating Mendoza out. Cousin's going to be the backup. They, they quote unquote paid a lot for a backup. $11 million a lot for a backup. But when you have a rookie quarterback when beside Max Crosby, you don't have that many guys in Linderbaum making a ton of money. They don't have a high price wide receiver. They don't have, you know, their tackle doesn't make premium money. They're running backs on a rookie contract, their star tight ends on a rookie contract. That's why they were able to sign all these defensive guys. But it I do believe that by the time they get to the middle of training camp and Mendoza has a firm grasp on the offense, Mendoza is going to be the starter but he's not, not a good prospect. He's 6 foot 5, 230 pounds. Greg Cosell said it today, that is a, that's a trait. Size is a trait. Turn up, put on YouTube and watch Ty Simpson. He doesn't look that big. Like not being that big is to me a negative trait. Right? So, so when you're 646 like Drake May, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, look at Patrick Mahomes, he's fucking built. Size matters. This is a league full of grown ass men with Miles Garrett and Max Crosby and TJ Watt and all these guys chasing you around. You see the size of Leonard Williams, you see the size of Leonard. He is a enormous human being. So I think the notion that he doesn't have good traits, he doesn't have a great arm, he isn't an average to above average army. Well those guys in the Shanahan Kubiak system have thrived since Elway. Those guys have kicked ass and taken names in this system. It is a system conducive. You don't need the biggest arm. But he's accurate. His, his, his like brain, his football IQ is an A plus which matters playing quarterback. Oh yeah, he's Tough, which is something we don't talk a lot about if you are not tough. It is extremely hard to be a fantastic quarterback. Look at the top three quarterbacks over the last six, seven years. Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, I would say all have a plus toughness. All these MVPs, obviously Mahomes, the Super Bowls, the other guys winning a bunch of games. Elite toughness. Like that matters. Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert this year played with a broken hand or wrist or whatever. He had lower arm injury, broken bone somewhere down there. I think it was like wrist, hand area. Aaron Rodgers this year, 41 years old, same thing. It's like fucking cast it up, let's roll. This isn't like, hey, we're load managing. You're going to miss a month. That's not how it rolls on Sundays, you know. So Mendoza, I watched him. No one got hit harder that I saw at quarterback in college football than Mendoza got hit in that Ohio State game. First play of the game. Like most people, when that happened, you went Indiana, season's over, he's out. Two plays later, he shook it off and came back in. That was when I was like, damn, I'm sold. Not that I wasn't high on him. And then he went on the run. I don't think he played like shit against Miami. So to act like Mendoza is some good prospect. Is he, John Elway, Andrew Luck? No. But is he a damn good prospect? I believe he is. And I think one thing we do a bad job of, especially with quarterbacks, you know, it's like, well, if he was in the draft with so and so. Well, he's not. And if he was, then the Raiders would. If like Drake May was in this draft. Yeah. Then it would be. They'd have a legit conversation. And who knows, maybe Drake May goes above him. But he's not in a draft with Andrew Luck's not in this draft. Right. Caleb Williams, not in this draft. He's in a draft with a bunch of guys that historically would go in the third round or later. And a lot of these guys obviously this year are going to. So I'm high on Mendoza. Had too much to drink at a hotel bar and got talked into a Hilton vacation timeshare meeting. That gives us three nights in a hotel for $400. But I have to attend a meeting about a timeshare decided on Lake Tahoe for three nights. Please tell me Lake Tahoe is great and worth worth it before my wife divorces me for falling for this nonsense. Is it $400 a night for three nights. So $1200. Because if you got three nights in Lake Tahoe for a total of $400, that, that is a steal. Forward me the link. You know, I would guess it's $400 a night. I, I've been saying this forever and let's use the, the golf tournament, for example. Most of those guys, right, the Kelsey brothers, Mahomes, all the quarterbacks, the coaches, whoever that have that didn't grow up on the west coast, specifically in California, that have never been to Lake Tahoe. Do you notice what happens when they first play in the golf tournament? They always come back and they come back until essentially they're kicked out and not allowed back because they're not quote unquote famous again. Charles Barkley's been playing for 30 plus years. I would imagine Mahomes and Josh Allen and kind of that crew of guys will play as long as they are welcome there. Why? Because it's paradise. Lake Tahoe. Listen, I no longer ski. I haven't skied and I can't even tell you the last time. 20 plus years, I loved it. Like when I was in junior high and high school, I used to go with buddies because Tahoe, to me there was way less traffic when I grew up in Davis. You get to Tahoe if there's no traffic, like an hour and a half depending, you know, snow, it can slow down when you're going through the Sierras. But I just can't, I don't want to get injured. I've seen my friends. My good buddy's wife tore acl. A couple years ago, one of my buddy's sons broke his ankle because he ran into a rock. I'm just like, I'm not getting injured anymore. So Tahoe in the winter is not that appealing to me like it used to be when I was younger. Tahoe in the summer is like, my wife looked at me the other day, part of it is Arizona is pretty hot in the summer, as some of you may know. She's like, I might just go to Tahoe for like a month. You can join me or not, but, but I'm going. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going to join you. So I cannot recommend Tahoe more than in the summer. It's definitely more expensive than it used to be, but it's just, it's a vibe. It's the ultimate quote unquote lake town. Because the lake is enormous and it's just beautiful. It's very chill. Have a couple Beers, have a couple cocktails, just look at the water, can rent a paddle board, rent jet skis, just go swimming it by a beach. It's the best. I, I don't know what heaven looks like. Don't know if I'll ever get invited in, but hopefully it's got a little piece of Lake Tahoe up there because it really is heaven. Like, it's pretty special. No variable takes question. Well, the last podcast I did that came out on Thursday, I had actually recorded it on. I guess I'm recording this on. Yeah, when it came out on Thursday, I recorded it on Tuesday, partly because I was playing golf on Wednesday and I didn't know my time and if I would have time to record it and I wouldn't have. So I'm glad I did. But obviously there was no mention of that. The story did not break until after that was long gone to the producers and I was like, we'll talk about this later in the week. Now, my, my fugazi is this before we dive into some of my takes, I think a lot of you assume being married, everyone's marriage is different, right. I, like probably many of you are in a traditional marriage where it's kind of like baseball. There are a lot of unwritten rules. We don't have a handbook in our house of what we're allowed and not allowed to do. It's just kind of understood we're in a monogamous relationship. There's no seeing other people, there's no flirting with other people. And there's definitely no, like, you know, cheating in the relationship. It's not tolerated. Right. And if, if you were ever caught in pictures like that, there would be paper served to you divorced, and your money would go bye bye. She'd take the kids and it'd be, it'd be gonzo. That's, that's part of getting married. You're. You're in a relationship with one other person. That's a relationship I'm in. But I also never assume that other people's relationship just equal mine and the older you get. So I, I think when people see those pictures, which again, I'll dive into in one second, people assume that, like, your relationship is no different than everyone's relationship. I don't believe that. I haven't for a long time and from this point on, I never will. So I to assume that they are just in normal monogamous relationships in their home. I don't go that far. Now, when the pictures broke, my first take, and this is well out there is this, this is a private investigator. These were not. I've never been to Sedona. I've lived in Arizona for a while. My wife's been there a bunch. She's always wanted me to go. For whatever reason, the timing just hasn't worked. Her mom goes up there. When she comes, it's beautiful. It typically, at least in my understanding, is a place that draws couples in. It's a place where couples go and a lot of, like, women go with their friends. That is the vibe up there, right? And the place they were is essentially a couple's retreat. I said this about Tiger woods, and one thing I'm a little uncomfortable to do, and part of it is I, it's probably. I'm jaded from Twitter, like, in 2026, I hate the pile on. I, I, I, I think that's just loser mentality. Not that I'm not having the same conversations on text, but every single person piling on. Like, I, I'm just kind of not into that. Like, I watch Tiger and maybe it's, I had a child. I'm maturing. I'm like, you know, he's got young kids. I'm not going to sit here and just take a giant dump on his situation with the Range Rover on its side, him popping, you know, who knows what? Like, everyone has the same takes. Like, I'm just not as into that anymore when it comes to certain situations. And like, both these two people have kids, so while their spouses may be cool with it, maybe they're not. Who the knows? I, I'm not sleeping with either one of them. Right? But, like, she, and listen, I, I don't, I don't know Mike Vrabel at all. I've never really spent time with him. One time at the Combine, I was with Du Staley at the main bar that everyone goes to. I stake 44s in Arizona Prime, 47 or whatever. And we were at the bar and I was basically standing right next to him. But I was, it was one of those where I was like, in the conversation, but I wasn't saying much. So I, I don't know the guy at all. I, I don't know Diana that well. The times I've been around her, she's really cool. I, I like her. Like, my first reaction is like, she's cool, right? But I, I've never hung out with her. She just, she seemed cool. The interactions I've had, I do think if they, if their spouses do not know about this, their children definitely don't you know he has older kids, obviously her kids are young. I've always thought like in these situations it's so easy for people on the outside to just get on social media. I mean, we've seen this with like people threatening defensive linemen. You suck on Twitter. It's like you would never say that to the guy's face, not in a million years because he's pound you. In these situations it's a little different. Obviously Mike Vrabel would beat the shit out of most people, but all these takes, people would never say to their face, it's clear these photos, what's going on? Like there is no conversation to be had. We all have the same reaction. They're sleeping together, right? I got news for you. A lot of people in pro sports are sleeping with other people. Just like a lot of people in society are sleeping with other people. That's their deal, that's their gig. I don't give a. The other thing that I kind of hang my hat on is I truly don't care. Right beside my wife and I guess maybe my close friends. But even then, like, I'm not a dictated relationship guy. I do not care what you do sexually with other people. I just do not. That's on you. That's on you to figure out, like, maybe I'll judge you a little bit, but like, I'm not one of those guys. Like, I just don't give a shit. I don't have the energy. Obviously those pictures when you first see them are kind of funny. It again, all these people, like, there's no argument to be had. We know what's going on. I just hate this pile on world that we live in. I really do. What can be said? It's going to be really hard for her to ever function online because everyone's shitting on her. When I see the double standard for the guy, it's like, well, his fucking owner got a hand job on the day of the AFC championship game in South Florida before he flew out to Kansas City, whatever, seven, eight years ago. You think Robert Kraft's wife, I don't even think was in the dirt before he had the 30 year old on his arm. Like the world of the billionaire owners. If some of these stories ever got out on those guys, you know, you think these pictures are bad. The one thing I would say, if I was that famous, you got to be pretty cognizant of your surroundings. And I had a buddy text me that knows about Sedona, that is in the world of like, let's just say like knows the people that run that resort and people that go to that resort a long time that says those pictures are probably coming from surrounding houses because of the angle in which they were shot. I was clearly a private investigator. My gut said it's one of their spouses. I, it's just, I, I don't know. I mean, I, I just don't care that much. I mean, I, I really don't. I'm not that bothered. Like, I'm not a. The other thing, one angle is journalism. Like I'm not a journalist. I don't care how my journalists operate. Just feed me the information. So I got stuff to talk about. I guess that's the business I'm in. Like I'm not some moral high horse guy. I know what I'm okay and not okay and the way my relationship is and that's all I kind of worry about. But not a great look. I guess if you're in a monogamous relationship, could be a relationship ender. But who knows? Maybe they're in open relationships. I got no fucking clue. But everyone, like, you're not going to find me tweeting about it and crushing them because I just, I hate feel like I'm part of the crowd when it comes to that type stuff because I think that's such low hanging fruit now. And I, we just saw it a couple weeks ago with Tiger. We're seeing it again with this. And yeah, I mean it probably I heard someone describe it on the Internet that, you know, for her, because it's not like he's tweeting. It probably feels like she's, you know, every time she looks like she's drowning because everyone, and I mean everyone is just obliterating her, making fun of her. Well, they just think it's funny because they don't actually care, right? No one actually cares. No one really gives a shit. Right. We just go about our day. But this is going to have no impact on Mike Vrabel. I mean literally none. And by all accounts the athletics said they don't care either. Now can she keep breaking stories? Will she have the same access? Time will tell, right? I don't know. It's not the really business I'm in. But one time when we first started, way different, I would say example is when we, me and Guy who did, we did a local radio show in the bay and then we transitioned to do that show as a podcast. You know, first we started zero, right? We, we just started a podcast, but we didn't have any ads. If you don't have any ads. Just doing a podcast for free. And we're like, what are we going to do? And we started building it up, building it up. And then finally when the Trey Lance trade happened for the Niners, our business, like, tripled. We went from doing pretty good to, like six figures each. Crushing. Getting a bunch of ads. We're getting huge downloads and views, and business was going pretty good. One of our sponsors was a wine sponsor. It wasn't even just a wine sponsor. It was like this company where you could order wine and get it delivered to your house. And it was like a monthly subscription. They gave us a lot of money. We sent wine to the 49ers, to John lynch, to Kyle Shanahan, to Parag, to Adam Peters. And I remember John lynch, like, whenever I got there, sent me a text like, bro, you did not have to do. I didn't even know him that well. And it was just. That's. Why wouldn't I. I'm not a journalist. They were great for my business. I'm a businessman, right? So sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Does involve sexual favors for me, but I just. I feel very uncomfortable in this day and age about certain stories of just the pile on. And it's one thing when everyone's talking about a controversial play or controversial firing or whatever, but when these include people like Tigers, like, literally his life, right? Or her, like, her career, I don't know. And yeah, I'm a little biased. I've met her. She's cool to me. It's not like I. I'd even consider her a friend. I don't know her that well, but it's like everyone's on her. No one has any clue. Not. Not that we have clue. It's clear what happened. Like, I'm not disputing, like, of course they were doing what everyone thinks they were doing. Like, you don't go to that resort to, like, watch the game. It. Have some. Have some hummus. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet, the official sports betting partner of the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. We talk football on this show, but the NBA playoffs are right around the corner with Hard Rock bet. Every night is a shot to build the same game parlay and score a major bucket. 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Question for the mailbag. Jed York said recently he didn't know Kirk was on the roster and that he was hopeful Brandon Aiyuk would be on the team again. Is it concerning? He seems so disconnected with the team. I know you're well connected to me, the Kirk thing, like I don't need my owner dictating personnel. My buddy Mark who lives in Arizona, who I'm playing in this golf tournament with in the middle of May, text me. We've been texting on and off over the last couple days and he shot me a text. I played with Christian Kirk yesterday. Mark's kids play college football. He played college football, he loves football and was like, I didn't even know Christian Kirk was on the 49ers. So some of these moves in free agency that happen a little later, not everyone's dialed in and Jed York is not living and dying with every transaction. Do you think Jed York knows Mike Evans is on the team? Yes. Do you think Jed York knows they re signed Dre Greenlaw? Yes. Do you think he knows they signed a guy? My guess, I haven't even looked at his contract. I bet Christian Kirk's contract guaranteed money is pretty small. Let's pull up Christian Kirk contract. So they, they didn't give him nothing. They gave him a signing bonus under $2 million. Jed York runs a franchise that his family owns that's probably valued at $12 billion. So it's crazy to say, but chance, he's not even paying attention to a couple million dollars, which he's clearly not. I don't think it's that weird. I think the best ownership, they have to sign off on bigger amounts of money. Right? But under $5 million signings couple weeks after free agency starts, who knows? Maybe he was on vacation. Maybe he's not sitting in the free agency room with his gm. I don't want my owner doing that. So I would imagine a lot of owners, some of these second and third wave free agent signings don't have that much knowledge. So. So I don't think it bothers me. Now, the Brandon Ayuk thing, I was listening to my guy, Tim Kawakami. That was somewhat of a weird comment. I think he's trying to help his guys out. Like Jed you're not going to help them get more leverage in this situation. You're not going to help them figure out how to like facilitate a trade here. So I don't know. It was kind of an unneeded. I thought the comment was kind of stupid, to be honest with you. I would not have said that. But I also think Jed's not dictating what they do or don't do. I also think he gave him a lot of money, right? I mean, John lynch and Kyle did, but ultimately Jed signs the checks and they signed him to like a $75 million guarantee. Now some of that's up in the air because he's given some back, but he's still going to earn in a couple year period, like $50 million. So Jed knows that and that probably complicates the situation a little bit, but it doesn't. Again, kind of trivial, stupid shit, I think. Question for the bag. With the diversification of all these games, the Masters, NFL, especially NBA, being on so many different streaming platforms, do you think it'll turn into a negative in the long term? Obviously short term people are just going to pay the extra money, but with my Sunday ticket, the price keeps going up. And being fewer games on the package on Sunday each year, it makes it hard for me to see how this is a sustainable model. What do you think is the reasoning and is there a bubble on these streaming services? It's a good question. The one thing with the streaming services like Amazon prime had, they have the first couple rounds of the Masters in the morning. Well, what else does Amazon prime have? Thursday Night Football. What else does Amazon prime have? Baseball and basketball. So they have a bunch of content, right, Peacock? They have all these games. Football, basketball, golf majors, same thing. You know, Netflix is getting in the business, so I think you're getting a lot if you have these streaming platforms. What makes it complicated is for those of us, especially of an older generation, we are used to everything being on cbs, Fox, ABC and NBC. The channels that we just don't have to pay for. Those days are over. Right? And we're never coming back. And I think we're just transitioning. I don't have the answer, but in 10 years, it's much more likely that everything is kind of in some form or fashion on the streaming platforms. And that's where I think we end up. Does it make it a little complicated now? Yeah, but it is what it is. It's not going to change. And. And why have these leagues gravitated to Amazon? Let's Say they have all the money. Why do they sell stuff to Netflix? They have all the money. Why? Why am I Netflix? They're a lucrative business that was interested in the podcast space. This isn't that complicated of a situation from their standpoint. Now your question is for us, the consumer. Yeah, it's complicated a little bit. There's no disputing it, but it's not changing. So you either have to choose. Are you going to pay for it or are you not? I'm also a bad person to ask on this because I'm buying all this stuff no matter what when it comes to like, I buy ESPN plus, right? Some of you probably don't and. Well, some of you do because they have UFC or they've had UFC forever. I buy it for golf because I like watching the golf tournaments Thursday through Sunday, you know, Saturday, Sunday for ESPN plus. They have every PGA tournament before CBS or NBC turns it on at, you know, noon Pacific Standard Time. I was just watching a conversation on ESPN about tanking. Got. We've been talking about taking a lot too on this week. It's. It's clearly a polarizing topic. I don't know if this would work in the NBA, but to prevent tanking in the NFL, I was thinking, what super bowl winner gets the first overall pick? That way there is more incentive for being the best team and major consequences for being the worst. Super bowl champ might end up trading out of the spot, but at least it won't automatically go to a team that has bad for the last two months. What if Seattle had the number one overall pick right now? Is there any chance that they would take Mendoza? He, he fits the offense and in a year you could just transition to a guy making $10 million a year instead of 30. Or would they just take Jeremiah Love and be like, we're going to win the super bowl for the next couple years? It'd be fascinating. Here's the thing. There's a major difference in the NBA. I don't know if you saw. I wouldn't blame you. Who's watching? Warriors. Kings. But the, the Kings fouled Steph Curry's brother with a couple minutes to go for literally no reason. Just because they wanted him to shoot. They wanted to lose. The Jazz, all these teams are trying to lose. You do realize up until the last couple weeks, the Raiders were trying to win every game. The jets tried to win every game. The Cardinals and Jonathan Gannon were not trying to lose. Part of sports. Some teams are just going to suck, right? They're trying to win. That's the thing with football. None of these team. Again, the Max Crosby situation, he. He didn't like it, but I don't blame him. At that point, I got no problem trying to lose the last game of the season, maybe even the last two games of season. But no one in the NFL is actively trying to lose like December 1st, and that's whatever three and a half months into the season. So I don't think the NFL has an issue with it. I really don't. The NBA has kind of clouded the conversation, but I truly believe that everyone in the NFL is trying to win the overwhelming majority of the games. Quick college football eligibility question. Following up on your Dante Moore take. If when schools move away from the ncaa, why would they keep eligibility limits at all? It seems like programs would want to retain proven talent more broadly as budgets rise, could this start to change incentives for a certain tier of players, not the elite guy, but the next group where staying in college as a known commodity is more attractive than entering the NFL, could that meaningfully reshape how talent flows in the league? Well, then the NFL would have a problem. I talked to a buddy recently. I said, why do you think this draft sucks? And he says one major reason is a ton of underclassmen that would have come out and several would have ended up being in the first round and a ton of guys would have gone in the second and third round. Obviously, Dante Moore is the best example of like a guy going back that historically would have come out. He would have been the number two pick. But there are a lot of guards and linebackers and wide receivers that just would have been like the 48th pick or the 33rd pick or the 75th pick. Those guys now go back to school. I haven't thought about it with the question you posed, but if you just. Could never leave Ohio State and just make millions, just guarantee your career, the NFL would then have a problem on their hands and would have to work with the governing bodies of whatever the SEC and the Big Ten super League they were running. So they're not quite there, but you pose a pretty good question because the NFL cannot let that happen. And I'm with you. Why wouldn't they just create their own rules? Part of the eligibility is you don't stay in college unless you're Chris Farley and Black Sheep for eight years. Some of us, you know, five and a half. But most of us, I had a college roommate that was done in like three and a half. So that would be a problem because then if they separate from the NCAA and Ohio State just has a football program and you can stay as long as you want, it is no longer associated with the school in terms of going to class. Now you could argue, are people going to class now? Because historically you could argue, were they really going to class? Some of these schools now with online classes, no one's doing shit at some of these schools. So definitely an interesting question and would be a major problem for Raj and they would almost have to go to the bargaining table with those schools to make sure that they have some limits of you get five years to play or something. Which like you said, why would Ohio State or Oregon or Michigan or Alabama or Georgia agree to that? I don't know. Could get weird. Could get weird. Good point. With how quarterback contracts are exploding, do you think the NFL is heading toward a model where good but not elite quarterbacks actually become the hardest asset to build around? It feels like once you pay that middle tier guy, your margin for error everywhere disappears. Also, how much do you think scheme versus quarterback talent really matters? We're seeing more plug and play success with certain systems. Do you think a top tier play caller can elevate an average quarterback into contender or does that ceiling always show up in January? One more a lot of questions here. We'll just stick with the first two. I think you get a major problem and I don't never understand this. I would not extend a guy to a huge money contract. And if he's not an elite player, when they gave 2 of that money, it was insane. Honestly, I wasn't that comfortable with Trevor Lawrence's contract. I think some of these teams get way too aggressive. Right now you could argue Dak Prescott was overpaid, and he's still technically overpaid, but he's become a really good top 78 quarterback. So it's a. It's not an easy situation. But the Kyler Murray two of situations I never got, it never made sense to me. You can't pay great money for good players. In a perfect world, you get Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold, who are Pro bowl fringe Pro bowl guys, you know, not Baker last year, but a couple of years ago. And you're paying them 30% less than the elite guys. This can't become the NBA where Luca gets the same max as a guy who's like a fringe all star because that's what a max guy at eight years in gets. And that's kind of what the NFL became with quarterbacks. And it kind of became that way with Some all wide receivers are not equal, right? Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase are not the same as Brandon Iuk. And the 49ers get Brandon Iuk $30 million a year. It's like this is insane. So I, I think it's actually on the specific GM and coach to know this is not worth signing this contract. But you're in this tough position. Are we going to let them walk? Good organizations ideally don't want to franchise players because you have to pay them all that money where Jerry Jones is franchise tag George Pickens. But I would rather pay George Pickens one year $27 million than give him three years $27 million every year and guarantee basically the whole contract. So I think it's very situation based. Like Sam Darnold. No issue paying him $30 million a year. Would I want to pay KYLER Murray or two of $30 million a year? I would not. Do I want to pay Daniel Jones $40 million a year? I do not. It's just a. It's a very individual base situation. Tell me the player and I'll tell you what I would want to do. But every player is so different. There are some guys that, you know, JSN got $120 million. Is JSN just every year going to have 1800 yards? Probably not. You got to overpay a little bit because of what just happened to your team last year. The success, his individual success for sure. But look at Puka started acting weird. They're like bro, we're not giving you a contract. We're just not doing it. It's like, well, you get a franchise, well, we'll deal with next year when next year comes. But we're not copy and pasting this contract right now. It's not happening. Which I appreciate the Rams and if in a couple weeks they draft a wide receiver at 13, that even adds more pressure to Puka. It's like if you don't figure this out, this might be your replacement. He can either be your running mate or your replacement. I think good NFL teams kind of drive a hard bargain. It's like Josh Snyder's got to retain Kenneth Walker. No, he doesn't and he didn't. He let him walk. First time messenger. Who would you rather start next season with if you're a head coach, Herbert Hertz or Darnold? There's pros and cons to all three. Well, right now hurts the a lot going on. So he would not be the guy Darnold just won a Super Bowl. Herbert has been Atrocious in the playoffs. Now, he has never played on a team as good as Seattle's team, but there is no disputing in his playoff games. It has not gone well. But if I was a coach, I would take Herbert again. Money factors in. Herbert makes a lot more money than Sam Darnold, though this year I think they're paying in actual cash, like $25 million. Herbert, from a financial standpoint of what you have to pay him as a team, is not that much cash this year. But I would take Herbert now if you wanted to push back. You're like, he shits the bed in the playoffs. And who knows, maybe he just becomes the worst playoff quarterback we've ever seen. But he's a really good player. I know someone voted him their mvp. I would not have done that. But I think Herbert's really good and I'm not. If you want to sell stock on him, I will buy some. I think eventually he has a good playoff game. Said this before, big paid Manning fan. When I was young, early on it was pretty ugly come January and then it flipped. And I'm not saying Herbert is Peyton Manning, but I think he's pretty fucking good and he's just gotta exercise those demons now. The longer it goes, it becomes this elephant in the room. You know, no one cares about touchdown passes in a random October game against Denver, the Chiefs anymore. Right? We all know you're good. You're gonna go to Pro Bowls, probably eventually win a division with Harbaugh. You just. There's going to be a lot of pressure on him in the playoffs. But I would take next year. If I, in all things being equal, money wise, I would take Justin Herbert. Can I push back on the Jason Light Love, big bucks fan. Our second half of the season last year, starting 62 was a disaster. The run game with Bucky and White was not the same. Abuka went from looking like the steel of the draft to losing momentum and finishing week. The defenders under a defensive head coach with a heavy draft pick was pitiful. I don't think we have drafted a Pro bowler since 21. We haven't signed anyone. We let two offensive coordinators go who clearly were better head coaches than our guy. Evans is now gone and I don't think he wanted to leave Tampa, but he was fed up with Todd. I think this might be a season where the team performs or wear it down. Interested in hearing your take over the course of like five or six years from building up a couple of years before Brady and then those three or four years with Brady. I think the last couple of years no team had more drafted players on their team than Tampa Bay. I think last year it was like 44, 43 of the 53 man roster were guys Jason Light drafted and they had been winning the division and they went from Tom Brady and transitioned with Baker Mayfield to go to the playoffs. Back to back years. Last year was a disaster. I put that more on Todd and clearly the offensive coordinator who got fired. But this is a massive year to me for Baker Mayfield. Like Jason Light is not going anywhere. If this year doesn't go well, Todd Bowles will get fired. Jason Light will keep his job. Jason Light has proven to be a pretty good drafter and he was the salesman to land Tom. And then obviously the transition to Baker Mayfield, like you get credit for that. But they do have a lot of Pro Bowlers on the roster, right? Because so you draft. We haven't drafted many Pro Bowlers. Hard to make the roster when you got Worfs and Vita Vea and all these guys already starting. I wanted to say Witherspoon. It's not Witherspoon. It's again, my brain's a little outside of football season. You know your guys good safety whose dad played the NFL. But I'm a believer in Jason White. I don't know what to tell you now. That being said, I like New Orleans to win the division this year and my guess would be he's a nice guy. I would guess that Tampa has a new coach in 27. Can I tell you all my friends at Quints, a well built wardrobe is about pieces that work together and hold up over time. I've known as I've aged, I've needed to get some stuff that you know, I can wear to a high level event that I can wear to a nice dinner with my wife. Look at me, I'm wearing a cashmere sweater. If you would have told me that five years ago, I never would have believed you. But that's where my friends at Quints comes in because they work directly with factories and they cut out the middleman. So you're not paying for brand markup, just quality clothing. Everything is built to hold up to a daily wear and still good season after season. This is going to last me for years. I really like it. I'm going to take the San Francisco for the Super Bowl. So here's the thing. Refresh your wardrobe with quince. Go to quince.com/3 and out for free shipping on your first order in 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q U I n c e.com the number three and out. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Three and out. Huge Eagles fan. Love that you came up through the scouting side with us. Why doesn't Dak get the same quote unquote stacked roster criticism Jalen gets? Feels like they walked into similar situations, but Jalen has had more success. I get that Howie and Jerry are viewed different, but still the narratives don't line up. Also, I know middleman is trending. Tagline. Just what about paying homage to the little guy with Jack coughs? Just kidding. You know your listener base is full of degeneres. I feel you. Yeah, we can't, we can't do that to the little guy. I'm old enough to remember for the first the Jason Garrett era and then definitely the Mike McCarthy era. Dak Prescott has got shit on. Dak Prescott has taken a lot of heat over the years. To think that he has got a free pass would be not, not a proper representation of the conversation around the Dallas Cowboy quarterback. Now last year he did not have a stack roster. He did though in the McCarthy era and he did not play well. It was a disaster in the playoffs, removing the Tampa game when they were Tampa was 8 9. Dak threw five touchdowns in the Monday night playoff wild card weekend. But Dak has got destroyed, right? And Dax got crushed for being this overpaid quarterback. I think Dax got a lot of heat. You know, I, I really do. Sometimes I think if I were those guys and you're just getting just shit on. You're like, I'm making 50, 60 million dollars. I'm the starting quarterback. I wonder if we think it's a bigger deal than those guys think. Like if you're Jalen hurts that article, it's like, okay, what does that mean? I'm a starting quarterback. I see my direct deposits every week during the year. I don't exactly know how the pay periods work in the off season, but definitely during football season. Do these guys care that much about the criticism? Because eventually you would get like this kind of hard shell where you just are somewhat, especially if you're a little older, able to kind of, I don't want to say quiet, all the outside noise, but just kind of be numb to it. But Dax taken a lot of heat over the years, a lot. And the Eagles the last couple years have been a way better roster then. I mean Jalen won the Super Bowl a couple years Ago they had a 2000 yard rush. I got a fugazi for you. Our local, our local neighborhood bar that we watch every major sporting event closed during Easter Monday. I'm all for employers employees getting Easter off, but seemed like a head scratcher for them to be closed for the big game. Safe to say the vibes at a depressed half empty Buffalo Wild Wings do not hit the same. Yeah, I think that's tough if you're in the sports bar business isn't part of being open. You know, Monday's not a holiday, right? I struggle with holidays because the world I'm in, you know, I work on a lot of holidays. I mean clearly Christmas, Thanksgiving, some are pretty obvious. But Easter Sunday, do a lot of people get Monday off? I'm probably the wrong person to ask. You know, I worked a job that's not even my job to on this Monday, so I, I didn't know that people were closed on that day. But I'm the wrong guy to ask. This is from Joseph. Great. Listen, while I'm on the road working on the wind turbines around the States, big Buffalo Bills fan and was wondering what your take about the quote O.J. simpson name being placed on the new stadium because the fans still wear his jersey at the games. Should they leave it off? I haven't seen this. They're putting OJ Simpson like on the ring of honor on the new stadium. He was acquitted. Glove doesn't fit. You got to acquit. My first reaction would probably be to leave it off. Are there a lot of OJ Simpson jerseys at Bill's games? I'm not a big jersey guy. It would take some confidence to just show up to a game in an O.J. simpson jersey. Now granted, in 2026, there's generations of people that don't quite understand, I think the gravity to that situation. Right when I was 1994, I think I was in fifth or sixth grade, my teacher had it on the radio. I think a lot of people had that experience. Either people brought TVs in, we were listening on the radio. My, my fifth or sixth grade teacher, I forget exactly what grade I was in, was a huge, huge sports fan. Her son, who was a year younger than me, was a Division 1 college baseball player. She loved sports. She was cool, she was tough. I mean, Ms. Parker, she used to scream at my ass. I remember one time in a parent teacher conference. You know, I grew up in a different generation than some of you younger cats. When you got out of line, you know, you, you got the occasional backhand and one time I like popped off in a parent teacher conference. My dad came to it and which was never awesome. And I remember her saying something, I'm like dad, that's she's lying, that ain't true. And I just remember I almost he held it together but I thought I was about to fly across the room. She like kind of looked at me side eyed but my take would probably be leave OJ Simpson off. But I could hear the arguments for the other side again, acquitted. I think everyone assumes he butchered her and Ron Goldman. Obviously Ron Goldman's family still does, rightfully so I'd probably believe the same if I was them. Most people just say OJ Is a murderer. So you want a person that's a murderer that played in the 70s. And again do people really wear the jerseys? You've been crushing on the herd. If the opportunity presented itself, would you make being a full time role in the show? This is my gig and I'm very, very lucky that this is my baby and this is what I built a business around through these guys and partnered with these guys. And Colin has been the best business partner I could ever ask for from just a standpoint of letting me do what I no one tells me what to do financially it's been, I mean more rewarding than I ever could have dreamed of when I, when I got into the business. But I, I, I don't want to do anything else. Like this is where I'm at my best and like this is this. It's a grind and I know a lot of people do multiple things like no one podcasts as much as me because that's my gig and that's what I love to do. I would never give that up. The the only way I would do anything would be doing more of this. That is what I aspire to do more of and I would never move anywhere because I don't have to. I've been lucky enough now you never say never things. You know, this podcast didn't exist like 20 years ago so I got to be ready to change. But I've been very fortunate. I don't not only plan on ever leaving Arizona, just keep expanding the business. There's so I would say I enjoy doing this. It kind of gets the juices flowing mixing it up a little bit and just I get fired up watching the way that they operate his crew, a bunch of guys but and someone asked me I was actually looking for the DM that how this works. Is this one of those where you know Colin Just hits me up and I just show up. Or this is through Fox. Or this, when I go with him, it has nothing to do with, with three and Out. This is all through Fox. So they got a lady that sets me up, that flies me out, you know, like a travel lady through Fox. You know, Fox pays me for appearances, a daily rate. This has nothing to do with three and Out. The Volume. This is completely. When I'm on the show, this is a Fox run operation. So this is a separate venture, obviously, but this, it's not connected. And yeah, it's cool. I, I enjoy mixing it up and just kind of getting out of your comfort zone. Coming down here to Los Angeles. It helps that I live, you know, an hour, 20 minute flight away. But, you know, my wife today, I actually, for the. I haven't taken a nap, I don't know in years, but definitely not since football season or, you know, when the baby's been born. So it's been a long time. I might have passed out from like 1 to 3 today. And it was glorious. And the mistake I made then was my wife called me and I told her I was kind of out of it. I was like, I just got up from a nap. She's like, it must be nice. Well, yeah, it was. It was fucking awesome. And let's enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the masters. Who Rory McElroy is currently as I'm finishing recording this. The. The final round just ended and he's in the lead. So Scotty Scheffler had a solid round. I would not mind. I think we would all agree a little Rory Scotty Sunday I picked Bryson, who tripled the 11th hole and looks like he's a disaster. John Rahm was even worse today, so we might get a little Rory Scotty showdown. I know that's what we're all rooting for. Have a great weekend and I will talk to everyone soon. The Volume.
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