Best of the week on The Herd

Summary

The Herd with Colin Cowherd – "Best of the Week"

Date: May 16, 2026
Host: Colin Cowherd
Network: iHeartPodcasts/The Volume

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Brief Overview

This week’s "Best of" episode on The Herd with Colin Cowherd delivers Colin’s hallmark blend of sharp sports opinion and in-depth analysis, focusing on recent developments in the NFL and NBA. Colin plays his signature “Where Colin Was Right, Where Colin Was Wrong” game, ranks the top 10 NFL quarterbacks, and discusses the implications of the 2026 NFL schedule release with senior NFL reporter Albert Breer. The tone is incisive, playful, and boldly opinionated, characteristic of Cowherd’s approach.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Where Colin Was Right, Where Colin Was Wrong

(Starts at 02:00)

“Where Colin Was Right”

• Steelers Backed into a Corner by Aaron Rodgers
  • Pittsburgh lacks urgency at quarterback. Their GM admits not knowing Aaron’s exact status (“We have no idea where he is…”). Colin says, “Aaron did it in Green Bay, he did it with the Jets, he’s doing it with the Steelers... He’s going to control the time and the place of my off seasons.” (03:17)
• NBA Playoffs: Embiid’s Consistency Issues
  • Joel Embiid, despite his talent, “can’t win a second playoff series” and is now “the only MVP to never make a conference final. And he’s now going to be owed $188 million guaranteed. That’s a bad contract.” (05:26)
• NBA Draft Lottery — Debunking Conspiracy Theories
  • Colin debunks the notion of draft rigging, noting big-market teams like Dallas or Chicago didn’t get the top picks; instead, “a bunch of unwatchable bad teams got all the best picks.” (04:27)
• Dodgers and Small Market MLB
  • “The Dodgers are not ruining baseball... Stop with the ‘little guy can’t compete’ — Milwaukee, when well run, is competing just fine.” (09:16)

“Where Colin Was Wrong”

• Surprise at Knicks’ Offense
  • “I am shocked the Knicks swept the Sixers... I’ll take an L on this one.” (03:46)
• J.J. McCarthy vs. Kyler Murray in Minnesota
  • Colin expected Kyler’s job to be safe, but the team views it as “a coin flip, a 50/50 position.” (05:08)
• Lakers’ Austin Reaves Overvalued
  • “Second straight playoffs, not healthy, lowest plus/minus among Lakers” and being “hunted” by opponents. “He’s not worth $240 million.” (06:13)
• Steve Kerr Sticking with Warriors
  • Surprised that Kerr is running it back with “a very old roster, very little flexibility.” (07:04)

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2. Colin’s Current Top 10 NFL Quarterbacks

(Starts at 13:01)

Criteria:
Production, durability, and current momentum.

Just Missed:
Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Baker Mayfield (“These are good quarterbacks, but they miss the cut... injuries, inconsistencies, turnovers.”) (13:41)

Top 10 List & Rationales:

1. Josh Allen:
   “He’s been better than Mahomes two straight years.” (13:59)
2. Patrick Mahomes:
   “Each of his first seven years led the Chiefs to a division title and AFC Championship. That’s very LeBron in the East.” (14:34)
3. Caleb Williams:
   “Unbelievably durable... makes throws only Josh Allen can make.” (15:04)
4. Justin Herbert:
   “Worst offensive line in the NFL, made the playoffs. That is insane.” (15:26)
5. Matt Stafford:
   “He just won the MVP. What do you want me to say?” (16:00)
6. Joe Burrow:
   “I’m not sure on a 4th-and-7 trailing by four in a Super Bowl if there’s a guy I want more.” (16:25)
7. Lamar Jackson:
   “Doesn’t play like anybody, doesn’t move like anybody. Two MVPs... highest passer rating in NFL history.” (17:00)
8. Drake May:
   “Led NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating at 23 with a bad o-line.” (17:29)
9. Jared Goff:
   “All he does is win... strangely, never misses a start. He and Caleb Williams — they don’t get hurt ever.” (18:00)
10. Sam Darnold:
    “Highest win percentage the last two years. Big, athletic, risk taking. No turnovers when it mattered.” (18:42)

Memorable Perennial Concern:
“Burrow’s absolutely the prettiest, best, clutch quarterback — like MJ before Pippen.” (19:42)

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3. NFL Schedule Release Deep Dive (with Albert Breer)

(Starts at 24:05)

• Schedule Fairness and Fatigue (Rams/49ers)
  Albert: “After their Australia game, the Rams get an extra day (Monday), Niners play Sunday. Shanahan was vocal at league meetings about losing home games, now the Rams get a break.” (28:48–30:00)

  “Owners are ultimately the commissioners’ bosses... The international thing is a big deal.” – Albert Breer (30:15)

• Holiday Game Packages & Playoff Ratings

  • Thanksgiving & Christmas games packed with marquee matchups:
    “Easily the best slate in my lifetime… Christmas is a direct hit at the NBA, that’s obvious.” – Colin (31:27–31:53)
  • NFL now swings for the fences with premier teams to “break records” rather than using broadcast windows to prop up bad games. (31:53–33:00)
  • New streaming partnership implications: “These are all going to be packages they’re looking to sell... Netflix’s special events package — week 1, week 18, Thanksgiving, and two games on Christmas...” (33:11)

• Heavy Burden on Certain Teams

  • Some teams play up to 7 primetime games; others get none.
    “That’s a burden… the Rams have two short weeks in the first six weeks and have to play Friday again at Christmas.” (35:09–37:32)
  • Teams like the Jets, Titans, Raiders, Cardinals, and Dolphins are left out of primetime, increasing the burden on “premier” clubs.

• Steelers’ Roster and Aaron Rodgers’ Situation

  • Pittsburgh’s refusal to rebuild, insistent pass at “ripping the bandage off” and instead “leaning into an older roster… Rodgers has quite a bit of leverage.” (38:34–40:39)

• QB Competitions & Roster Building

  • “J.J. McCarthy vs. Kyler Murray: It’s real, but the context is competition now — not development. ‘No more tie goes to the 10th pick in the draft. Let the best man win.’” – Albert Breer (41:47–43:48)

• NFL Social Media Policy

  • Colin on viral posts: “You can get fired for a post, you’re not going to get a promotion for a post. I’d be very careful.” (44:49)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Aaron Rodgers:
  “His ego, his pride, his lever is ‘I’m going to make you uncomfortable and I’m going to control the time and the place of my off seasons.’ So this is just on brand for Aaron Rodgers.” – Colin (03:17)

• On Draft Conspiracies:
  “If you were ever going to rig a draft, it would have been this one... No, number one Washington, number two Utah... Bad teams got the picks. I don’t buy ‘rigged.’” – Colin (04:27)

• On Embiid:
  “He’s the only MVP to never make a conference final... that would have been a massive red flag for me.” – Colin (05:26)

• On Social Media & NFL Teams:
  “I always say you can get fired for a post... I don’t think [the league] loves that.” – Colin (44:49)

• On NFL Scheduling:
  “Thanksgiving and Christmas were insane this year... All of this is about creating something valuable for networks and streamers to bid on.” – Albert Breer (31:53, 33:11)

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• 02:00 – “Where Colin Was Right, Where Colin Was Wrong”
• 13:01 – Top 10 NFL QB Rankings (with explanations and snubs)
• 24:05 – NFL Schedule Analysis with Albert Breer
• 28:48 – International Scheduling, Rams & Niners unfairness
• 31:27 – Holiday games, ratings, and league broadcast strategy
• 38:34 – Steelers, Rodgers, and rebuilding philosophy
• 41:47 – J.J. McCarthy vs. Kyler Murray: true competition
• 44:49 – NFL teams’ social media antics and policy risks

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Tone and Style

Colin’s language remains witty, provocative, and highly opinionated. There’s a comfortable banter with guests (notably Albert Breer), and the show is peppered with signature “Colin-isms” and clear, smart, and often skeptical takes on league happenings and organizational strategy.

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Summary Takeaway

Even for those who didn’t catch the broadcast, this week’s episode offers a punchy yet comprehensive rundown of the NFL’s biggest stories — from quarterback hierarchies and organizational approaches to the larger media game behind league scheduling. The intersection of sports, business, and media is laid bare, with Colin’s unapologetic perspective and a critical eye towards both the league and its personalities.

Transcript

[A]

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We are live, the always entertaining brunch. Ryan Scalabrini is going to be joining us. It is great to be here. You know, we do it every Monday. Sometimes I have big opinions and they fall completely flat. So we're not going to waste any time where Colin was right. Where Colin was wrong on a Monday where Colin was right. Well, what a shocker. The Steelers have backed themselves into a corner because they have no urgency at quarterback. The GM admitting that, yeah, we know Aaron's in town, but we have no idea where he is. Listen, Aaron did it in Green Bay, he did it with the jets, he's doing it with the Steelers. His personality is. He's not going to be the highest paid quarterback or the best quarterback, but his ego, his pride, his lever is I'm going to make you uncomfortable and I'm going to control the time and the place of my off seasons. So this is just on brand for Aaron Rodgers. Where Colin was wrong. No, I did not think the knicks would score 80 plus points in the in a half, twice on the road in the playoffs. I think they're playing great offensive basketball. It's a very complimentary roster and it's very difficult to figure out how much of this sticks against like an OKC or, or San Antonio. But it doesn't matter for now. They've been absolutely great. I am shocked that they swept the Sixers because I think Philadelphia with Embiid and Maxi had two of the best players in the series. I'll take an L on this one. Where Colin was right. Yeah, you conspiracy nerds. If you were ever going to rig a draft, it would have been this one. The most generational draft in a decade. You could have given Dallas a greater pick. Make the Bulls number one in big city Chicago, Golden State with Steph Curry. No, number one Washington. Number two Utah. A bunch of unwatchable bad teams got all the best picks. So you know, small market Memphis, small market Salt Lake City, the dreadful Wizards, the Clippers even got one. Well, I don't buy, I don't buy rigged. It's a way to validate, you know, your happiness when your team is poorly run. The best GMs are running this league and most of those teams at the top, except maybe Utah don't have them. Where Colin was wrong. Well, Tom Pelissero reporting that J.J. mcCarthy and Kyler Murray, it is a true competition between the two. I think it's Kyler's job. I think you have to massage this based on the lack of confidence J.J. mcCarthy has had. But I also think that when you give up draft picks to move up to get JJ McCarthy, if he has a great camp, you have to reward him. But Palisaro saying in Minnesota, they view this as a coin flip. A 50, 50 position with Kyler and JJ where Colin was right. Joel Embiid swept. Joel Embiid not 100% healthy in another playoff series. Joel Embiid can't win a second playoff series. I acknowledge when he's healthy, he's remarkable. But he's the only MVP to never make a conference final. And he's now going to be owed $188 million guaranteed. That's a bad contract. I thought, you know, that the thing with Embiid is when a big guy is hurt early in his career, he'll be hurt often. And he missed his first two years in this league with injuries. That would have been a massive red flag to me. But talent is hard for a lot of GMs to ignore. And when he's healthy, you saw it in the previous series against Boston. He was dominating, but he was eventually what he's been since he arrived. Where Colin was right. Well, Austin Reeves, second straight playoffs, not 100% healthy. Second straight playoffs, not a very good plus minus. In fact the lowest of all the Lakers second straight playoffs. A team is hunting him. T Wolves did last year, OKC did this year. Again, I can like a player, undrafted, scrappy, the headband guy. But this is what I've been saying. What are your standards? Oklahoma City is going out of their way to hunt him in the series. And you know, people do that with Luka. So now your second star is going to get hunted. That's not championship level basketball. You can have a flaw or a weakness, but who are you going to protect him with? 42 year old LeBron Luca? It's turning out again. I know regular season Austin is terrific. Postseason Austin to me is not worth 240 million. Where Colin was wrong. Steve Kerr going to run it back. Ride or die. I mean, it's a very old roster, very little flexibility, not a lot of great draft picks. I don't think it's going to be terribly competitive because the best rosters in the West, Minnesota, okc, San Antonio, I would say Houston, they're all ascending. They're all going to be better. So the west is about young, ascending talent. The east, outside of Detroit, you know, you got some old teams, Knicks got some veterans, Cavs got some veterans. So I'm actually surprised Steve Kerr didn't take a year off retire or go to broadcasting. Where Colin was right, well, the Athletic, using an analytical analytical projection model, ranked rosters and Buffalo was third right after the Seahawks and Rams. I keep saying this. I know Billy Beane is low hanging fruit as a general manager. Look at their offense. Star quarterback, star left tackle, star running back, star tight end, Excellent wide receiver. D.J. moore comes to town. Brandon Bean gets beat up and I understand. Josh Allen's great, hasn't been to a Super Bowl. I understand. But my takeaway is guys, the Bills roster is not lampoonable. It's very good. Where Colin was right, the Dodgers are not ruining baseball. Here are your American League division leaders, Cleveland, Tampa and the A's. Meanwhile, the New York Mets are unwatchable. Meanwhile, the Pirates, Reds and Brewers are all outstanding and would be playoff teams. Yes, the Dodgers who can't hit this year, are stacked, but it's baseball. The Reds, the Pirates, the A's, Tampa, the Guardians, the Brewers. You know who stinks? The Mets and the Phillies are struggling. The Nationals in big market DC Once again, not very good. Stop with the little guy can't compete. Little guy struggles to compete in college basketball. Little guy Milwaukee, when well run is competing just fine in Major League Baseball. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app. Hey, this is Jason McEntire. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod, pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at the sportsbook and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts

[A]

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Visit decorators.com herd to get your free sample. That's decorators with A K Again, decorators.com herd maybe your story arcs don't connect in the middle a little, but if you start well, you end well. Usual suspects probably going to be end up being a really good movie. And I said with Sam Darnold it is hard to unsee the jets, but there's three things to me that matter for a quarterback because the because the year the league changes year to year, I'm not going to punish it too much. If you've struggled in the playoffs, it's hard to win playoff games. Go look at Bill Parcell's playoff record. It's hard to win in the playoffs. First thing I look at is production. I need touchdowns, I need yards, I need, I need mobility. I need you to be at least at some level, elevate others. Can you get the ball to your stars at minimum? Production. Second thing, durability. You got to be available to play. The third thing, and this is really a key to me, what is your current momentum? Are you an ascending player? C.J. stroud is not. Are you a leader? You are loved in a locker room. You are respected. You are ascending. You are a winning player. You are going in a direction. So production, durability, and what is your current momentum? Age matters. But Matt Stafford just won the MVP at 37. I'm not saying who I'm going to build around for five years. I am saying right now, production, durability, and where is your momentum? That is your top 10 quarterbacks. So I'm going to give you a few quickly who did not make the cut, but I think are very, very good. But we got 32 teams and we've never had more talented quarterbacks. Okay, this is a, this is the golden age of quarterbacks. So here's a couple that won't make it a Dak Prescott's very good. He falls just outside of the top 10. He doesn't have a lot of career momentum. He's had now two major injuries, lower body injuries, seven, nine one last season. Never been a great playoff quarterback. Not the end of the world. He's close, but he won't make it. Jaden Daniels. Oh, what a great rookie year. Well, he got hurt last year and that's always been his reputation. He got banged up his first year. He missed 10 games last year and he wasn't good. Before the injury, his passer rating was in the 80s. So I think he's super talented, but he's not going to make my top 10. This one's going to hurt. Jalen hurts no career momentum. Cannot get the ball to A.J. brown. Cannot see over the middle of the field. They scored fewer points than the New York Giants last year. They had a worse total offense than the Saints. He had fewer passing yards than Jacoby Brissette and he had four more starts with a stacked roster. I'm sorry, folks, the momentum is not good. Another Jordan Love. I like Jordan Love a lot. He is all over the map. He gets hot, but he's been injured in back to back years. Not for a long time, but banged up and I got like eight games over 100 passer rating and six games under 90. He's too inconsistent. I also am not going to have Trevor Lawrence on the list for the same reason. Trevor just turns the ball over too much and he's very streaky. He wasn't very good to start last year. He was red hot to end it. Then he goes home, playoff game against Buffalo and there's nothing. I don't know what I get week to week. Liam Cohen essentially saved his career and I was the world's biggest Trevor Lawrence fan. And another guy that's close but won't make it is is Baker Mayfield. Again, very good. 3 and 8 his last 11 games last year. Way too many turnovers. Leads the NFL and picks since 2018. So again, Jordan, these are. These are good quarterbacks, but they miss the cut. There's either injuries, there's inconsistencies, there's turnovers. Again, my standard is production, durability and current momentum. So here's how I would rate currently the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL. Number one is Josh Allen. And you can say what you want about the gm. You can say what you want. They don't have a Super Bowl. I'm not going to punish him. He's been very good in the playoffs. He's won 70% of his games with a defensive head coach that most of you didn't like. Seven straight years with 10 plus wins. I'm sorry, folks. He's been better than Mahomes two straight years. Patrick Mahomes would be number two despite his injury. It's the first injury of note in his career and reportedly he's going to be back in September. Each of his first seven years led the Chiefs to a division title and the AFC championship. That's very LeBron in the East. Sorry, don't get recency bias. He's amazing. Number three, Caleb Williams. Do you know what his numbers are the first two years? 47 touchdowns, 13 picks. Never hurt. Never hurt in high school, never hurt in college, never hurt in the pros. Got hit more than any quarterback in the league. Rookie year, not missing a snap. Unbelievably durable. Makes throws that only Josh Allen can make. He's number three. Number four. Again, not great in the playoffs. Justin Herbert, worst offensive line in the NFL. Made the playoffs. That is insane. He is beloved in the locker room. He is the most he could. You could argue he and Lamar Jackson are the most loved players in the NFL in their prospective locker rooms. Missed only six starts in his career, which is confounding because he's never had a good old line. Justin Herbert, number five, Matt Stafford. I mean listen, I know he's old, I know he's not mobile. He just won the mvp. What do you want me to say? They're favored doing the Super Bowl. I mean he's taken a bunch of mid round guys. Puka Nakua, fifth round made him a star. So I'm not building this for five years. He is a top five quarterback in the NFL today. Number six. And I think he's honestly on any given Sunday the best player in the league, Joe Burrow. Burrows durability is a big problem and you want him to win more. But I will say it again, I'm not sure on a fourth and seven trailing by four in a Super bowl. If there's a guy I want at quarterback more than Joe Burrow, I think he is one of the great all time talents. He got saddled with a cheap owner and a minimalist front office. Highest completion percentage and third highest passer rating all time with terrible O lines. He's an insane all time talent. You have to contextualize his career. So I'll put him at six. If he had the right, if he had Stan Kroenke and Annie Reid, he'd be number one. Number seven, Lamar Jackson. First time he really got hurt. I love him. He doesn't play like anybody, he doesn't move like anybody. Second, he has the highest passer rating, two MVPs, highest passer rating in NFL history. And everybody's like I don't know if he's a great pocket passer. I don't know the analytics guys like him. Highest win percentage by any quarterback in league history not to make a Super bowl again. I'm not going to crush guys because they don't win enough playoff games. I'll elevate you if you do. I'm not going to crush you if you don't. Number eight, Drake May battle line, hit and miss run game. Got to a Super Bowl. Finally going to get A.J. brown a number one wide receiver. That's what's being reported. I think that I, I think you'll see how special he is. Led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating at 23 in in with a bad old line in front of it. Number nine, the most disrespected player in the league, Jared Goff. All he does is win. He's the only quarterback in the league, the only one. Four straight seasons with 4,000 plus passing yards and strangely never misses a start. He and Caleb Williams they don't get hurt ever. High school, college pros, they don't get hurt. I've seen him get rag dolled in college. In the pros he not missed starts. Dad was a pro baseball player, got some good genetics. Dude just takes shots and has never hurt. And number 10, 35 and 10 in his last 45 starts. Sam Darnold Highest win percentage by any quarterback last two years in the league. Big athletic risk taking, no turnovers when it mattered. In the playoffs, still 28. Five different teams won. A disaster. But if you go, remember he was benched in Carolina, came back, went four and two. If you take his career starting then when he's quarterback in the NFL with the second highest passer rating. So again, I think there's five or six other guys. Dak Prescott's one of them, Baker Mayfield, another one, Jordan Love, who are very good players. But if you're talking about production, durability and current momentum and I know a lot of you were saying, well, Burrow's not durable. Burrows absolutely the prettiest, best, clutch quarterback. I mean I feel like it's like MJ before Pippen and Phil Jackson. You're like watching history and he just can't get the right components around him. So people will say I have Burrow rated too high. I think I have him too low. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific.

[A]

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[B]

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So when you see volatility in your portfolio, you aren't just staring at a chart, you're reading a helpful explanation about why the stock is up or down. You can even go deeper with the built in AI Research assistant. It's all about giving you the information you need to invest with conviction. Be right More often, go to public.com and earn an uncapped 1% match when you transfer your investments. Public Investing for those who take it seriously Ad paid for by Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor all investing involves risk of loss. See complete [e-mail] disclosures here we go. Our number two on a Friday. Our friend Albert Breer, Senior NFL Reporter Monday Morning Quarterback will be joining us in a few minutes. NFL Schedule Release NFL Sometimes I sort of got going online last night. They you jump through hoops sometimes just get all the schedules out. I had to go team by team by team. But I thought last year Remember, the Patriots had the easiest schedule and I do think it matters. I've always been a believer in that. At one point they were on a 10 game winning streak and the furthest west they went was New Orleans. Look at what they did to the Patriots this year. They start at Seattle, two weeks later at Jacksonville, month later at Chicago. Oh, there's the Munich game at the Chargers. Like, listen, we know the jets are dysfunctional in most years and Miami this year especially is bad. If you take out the jets and Dolphins games in division, I'm just going to read you the schedule for the Patriots. If you took out the jets and the Dolphins at Seahawks, Steelers at Jags, Bills, Raiders at Bears, packers at Lions at Chargers, Bills at Chiefs, Broncos mean the the Patriots have never been more thankful they're in a division with the jets and the Dolphins. That is a rough schedule. Rarely do you see a team that's in the super bowl and then you see their schedule come up and go, yeah, they started owing four at Seattle, at Jacksonville, at Buffalo. That is rough. That is rough. Albert Brear is joining us. And I've been saying this about the schedule. Today is for instance, people said Chicago had the roughest schedule. But if you look at starts soft, they get the Lions, packers at home late and then in the middle, a dome and a warm weather team. As the weather turns in Chicago, an old journalist told me there's two ways to write the same story. There are a lot of different ways to take tough games. How you parse them out. Denver, brutal, Chicago. There's no the toughest two game stretches at the very end of the season, they get warm weather, dome team coming into Chicago and the weather stinks you during the break. You brought up something about San Francisco that I think is fascinating. Ice the NFL. So there's the Chicago schedule on the screen. So I mean look at this. Now here's my take on this. Is that yeah, all those home games to start. I mean that, that is. They want Chicago to be good in the news. They did not front load the schedule. They made it very negotiable. You had a thought on what. But the NFL does punish those. It's not a ping pong lottery. They. What did they do to the Niners that you noticed? Yeah.

[C]

So like and this is something a couple of people pointed out to me was like how when you're coming back from Australia, that game's on Thursday, but it's actually a Friday game over there and now you're traveling back 18 hours or whatever the trip is to get back to San Francisco, you've got to reacclimate, you've got to reset. And on the other side of that, they gave the Rams an extra day where the Rams are going to play the following Monday night. The Niners are playing that Sunday afternoon, which is an interesting twist. And you hear a little bit about some of the things that were going back and forth, and you go back to the owner's meeting, and Kyle Shanahan was vocal. Yeah. His criticism of the league with this and that they're putting us in Australia and they're already taking a home game away of ours and taking that home game away and putting us in Mexico City. And so I think half jokingly, he suggested, well, why don't you put the Rams with us in Mexico City then to even it out. So not only did they not do that, they gave the Rams the extra day of rest on the back end of the Australia trip.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

And, oh, by the way, within a month after the Australia trip, the Niners also have their first game with the Seahawks and a game with the Broncos.

[B]

So they got a little lippy.

[C]

Well, I know this. That international thing is a big deal for the owners. The owners really care about that. So I, I do think there's a little bit of an element of not wanting people complaining about having to go overseas. And it sucks for the players, it sucks for the coaches. Like, for the executives, it's great. They go over there, they'll have three or four dinners, they'll get to meet people, they'll see things, all that different stuff. Like, if you're in it, if you're a player or a coach, you're basically just going over there to play a football game the same way you would be if you were going to Cincinnati or Nashville or Tampa or wherever else. You know, it's just a longer trip and there's all kinds of logistical hoops you have to jump through. You wouldn't have to jump through otherwise. And of course, for all of those guys, the mindset is, how is this going to affect the, the, the, the. The bigger picture of our entire season?

[B]

Listen, speaking of international games, there's nine. And some of these games would be the best game of the weekend. And I, I think your point is well taken, is that the owners really care about this, and owners are ultimately commissioners, bosses. I actually looked. I actually looked at the Christmas games and the Thanksgiving games. Easily the best slate in my lifetime.

[C]

It's unbelievable.

[B]

It's unbelievable. And first of all, the Christmas stuff is a direct hit at the NBA, that's obvious. But I will tell you this, that as well run as the NFL is and as intentional as they are, I don't think in my opinion they've necessarily done a great job on Thanksgiving for through the years. They've a lot of times the day after Thanksgiving there's more good college football games. I like, I thought Thanksgiving and Christmas were insane this year.

[C]

So here's what they're looking to do, right? Like, and I had Ani Boaz tell me this last year. He's their VP of broadcasting. I talked to Hans Schroeder about this yesterday and I think like part of what they're doing is, is there's a shift philosophically. It used to be that like you take like the 4 o' clock Dallas window on Thanksgiving and you would say, well we don't need to put a big brand name team in there because that's going to get a huge rating otherwise anyway. So like let's just throw whoever in there and that game will be propped up by the window. Yeah, last year that shifted. Last year they said let's swing for the fences, let's try to break records. So if you look in the opener they put the Cowboys opposite the Eagles and then on Thanksgiving they put Mahomes and the Chiefs opposite the Cowboys. And so the mentality had shifted a little bit to instead of using the window to prop up the game, let's use the game to prop up the window and really try to break records and all of that different stuff. And so I think you see that all over the schedule here. You've got the super bowl rematch obviously in the kickoff game. And then like you said, Christmas is unbelievable, Thanksgiving's unbelievable. Here's the other thing is these are all going to be packages that they're going to be looking to sell when they get to back to the negotiating table with the broadcast networks and with the streamers. And you already see it with what they're doing with Netflix, right? Netflix has got like what you call like quote unquote, this special events package. Week one, week 18, Thanksgiving, even the two games on Christmas, a five game package. That's really the idea here is like how can we create something that's valuable for the networks for the streamers to bid on. And obviously this has been sliced up different ways, I think where it winds up hurting you a little bit, Colin, because remember, this is a zero sum game. Go and look at week 16 on Sunday, right? That's that Christmas weekend right now. And look a couple games are going to fall out of the Saturday window. So this will change. But right now the one o' clock window is two Fox games, two CBS games, and that is it. Yeah. And then the late afternoon window is one Fox game, one CBS game. Now one of those games is Niners, Chiefs. That's a huge game, obviously, but that's six games total on Sunday afternoon.

[B]

Two more coming.

[C]

It's really light, you know, sorry, Scott Hansen, but it's really light there. So, like, that's where all of this is, like, I think incurring a cost

[B]

and they're going to have to figure

[C]

out how to navigate that. But that's why they want to go to 18 games, because they want more inventory to deal with this sort of thing.

[B]

Okay, So I, you know, the NFL bailed on something. I think they should have bailed on that. You don't have to put everybody on primetime once. And I think teams that are poorly run year after year, poorly owned, shouldn't be on TV. And the NFL's bailed on that. I was a little surprised maybe because of Brady's ownership. Fernando Mendoza, the Raiders feel bigger. I also think John Spytack, I think Spytek had a great draft and off season. Yeah, Linder, I agree. I, I think they have, they went and found six starters. Even Naylor, the receiver from Minnesota, I think said love Naylor.

[C]

I mean, the Kobe, Dean, Clay Walker.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I mean, they went and found six good starters. I was shocked that the Raiders didn't have a prime time. I mean, I, I look at this schedule. I mean, the Fox, I mean, again, Raiders, Rams on Fox. But there's some games here that I think are. I'm interested in.

[C]

Yeah. And I, I always think the rookie quarterbacks are interesting. And I think you're right. Like, I, I probably would have looked at that and said, like, we get to November, December, Mendoza. I mean, at least history tells us Mendoza will probably be starting.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

And that's going to be of interest to people. So you could take a Raiders game in November or December and maybe throw it on a Thursday night. Right. Like, I thought that would have made some sense. But I mean, like, they're one of five teams. That's a crazy number. One of five teams to not get any primetime games. And again, I think this is like leaning back into that whole thing, like, and this is a bigger, you know, conversation about television and the way the contracts work and the fact that everybody is spending so much for the contracts and it isn't tiered as much as it Used to be where Monday Night Football costs less than Sunday Night Football. So you're okay giving maybe a little less to ESPN in that scenario. They feel like they've got to give a really good product to everyone, to all the different broadcast partners. And so, you know, it's. It's interesting. We talked about the give and take a second ago. Right. So, you know what the give and take is for this on this is, is that certain premier teams now are feeling the brunt of it and having to play all the midweek games. The Rams, and I've got this up now, like right in front of me, the Rams schedule. So they play that Thursday, which is a Friday in Australia, then Monday, then they've got another Monday game, four weeks after that. So that's two short weeks in the first six weeks of the season. Then they don't actually have a buy because they don't have a full buy because they've got that Wednesday game which was a buy in front of it, a Thursday after that, then they play on Friday again on Christmas. And so when you are taking teams, again, the five teams, the jets, the Titans, the Raiders, the Cardinals and the Dolphins out of the mix, that means you're, you know, putting more weight. You're putting. You're putting a heavier burden on the premier teams. And there are eight teams. Yeah. That have six or seven primetime games, which is an incredible number. But that's a burden that those guys, that all those teams have to take on.

[B]

So I have had a player and an executive in the NFL in the last five or six weeks question Omar Khan, and really what's happening with the Steelers. They got worked in the draft on Makai Lemon. Very embarrassing. This Aaron Rodgers situation is weird. He's in Pittsburgh. They don't know where he's at. That that's not good to get out. Now, in fairness to the Steelers, they are old school. They still spend more money than anybody on defense. I mean, they've been tone deaf for years. I mean, they went offense, but it's Mike McCarthy. We all said that's a safe hire. But I look at the Aaron Rodgers situation and I know Aaron. This is his personality. He gains. He likes control. He's going to do things on his watch. Now he gets surprised when the packers and the jets move off him. But this feels weird. What. What is going. I mean, by Aaron standards, it feels weird. What's going on?

[C]

I think there are two things. I think the first thing is like, I don't think ownership there wants to sink to the Bottom of the league, which has colored a lot of the decision making there. And I, I think like a lot of football people would tell you that this is probably the point to rip the band aid off. In fact, you could have made an argument for that a year ago. They were an older team a year ago, but they bring in Rogers to take the last swing at it and it didn't quite work out to the level that they had hoped. So, okay, like now in 2026, you rip the band aid off and this would have been the year where it's like, okay, like maybe we hire a Chris Shul to be our head coach, go with a 30 something guy like we've always done and we hit the reset button on the roster. Instead they go the other way, which I think telegraph they don't want to sink to the bottom of the league. So that meant bringing T.J. watt, Jalen Ramsey and Cam Hayward back. And if you look at what they did in acquiring veteran players, Michael Pittman, almost 30 years old, Jamel Dean, almost 30 years old, Rico Dowdle, a running back going into his eighth year, like those were their big time additions. So they've almost leaned further into what's an older roster that isn't built for Will Howard or Mason Rudolph. So now they're leveraged in, like you said, on trying to win now with this group here. And Aaron Rodgers has, you know, quite a bit of, of leverage in this situation. Looking at like where everyone is at, maybe he doesn't want to play for 10 or 15 million dollars next year. Maybe he wants a little bit more than that. Does that make things awkward? I still think that piece of it has to be worked out. I think the likelihood is that he's there. But I mean you already came for a cut rate last year, I think was 12 and a half billion dollars. You came for a lot less than what you're worth last year. Are you willing to do that again? Was there an expectation you would do that again? And if you want more, how much more? Like I think all of that, all of that plays into how this is going to play out over the course of the next couple of weeks before they get to their veteran mandatory minicamp.

[B]

So it used to be you'd give a quarterback three years, maybe four, you know, and then you then, you know, the Mannings, Peyton Manning famously had like a year four where he a lot of interceptions and Eli was a little bit of a slow starter. That's not the league now usually by the second season. So you look at the Draft. Caleb Williams hit. Drake May hit. Jaden Daniels, one healthy hit. Bo Nix hit. I think Michael Penix is on the clock this year. Two is there. They'll, they'll, they'll, they'll go to two of them very quick by bringing in Kyler Murray and that. We've seen this in the league. Sam Darnold's a great example. Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith. In Seattle, we've seen quarterbacks who are talented go to places that have dysfunction upstairs and then they go to a well run operation. I view the Vikings as smart, well run operation. They got to get the gm. But I, I mean, to me the Signal is the JJ McCarthy thing. Publicly we'll say this, but it's over. Do you think it's a real competition?

[C]

I, I do, but I think the context of it's a lot different. I think what is lost here to some degree is that they did want to create competition for him last year. And because Daniel Jones had a better opportunity in Indianapolis and because Sam Darnold had a better opportunity in Seattle, they weren't able to get either of those guys back, but they wanted both. They wanted one or the other back and they wanted one or the other back in the room with JJ to compete with him. Now when that didn't work out, they went all in. They said, we're giving you all the reps, we're giving you all the work with your teammates. We're giving you a chance to build the confidence of everyone around you. And we know how that worked out. Right. So now I think they're doing what they intended to do last year, which is we're going to put the heat on you. You are off scholarship and we're going to see how you react. Yeah. And I think that it's probably a way of accelerating the process of evaluating him. Right in that, like, now he knows he's on the clock and now he knows that, you know, if he can't. And this is not like one of those situations where it's just like we're bringing in somebody to push them.

[B]

No.

[C]

Like Kyler's coming to win the job, you know, and so yes, it's a competition, but the context of the competition is different than it would have been last year. If they had successfully worked that out last year where Darnold or Jones had come back. I think the idea would have been like, let's see if, like, let's let J.J. beat him out. I don't think that's what it is this year. I think this year it's let the best man win. We've got some veteran players on our roster and a really good core. We're not going to throw this year overboard in the name of quarterback development. We're just going to put the best guy out there. And if the best guy is J.J. mcCarthy, God bless, he becomes the quarterback. But there is no, like, there's no more like, oh, yeah, we spent the 10th pick in the draft on him. So Ty goes to him. I like, I don't think that that's where it is at all anymore.

[B]

Yeah. All right. Albert Brear, Monday morning quarterback. That, that stuff on the Niners that you brought out is funny and I think it's accurate. Is. Listen, I'll give you one. Last night, I just said this last hour is the NFL told teams we're not going to edit your social media. We trust your judgment. Right. And some teams did really funny stuff. I did not. But they do not like friendly fire. I thought the Chargers social media team taking a shot at Vrabel, they don't like that. You know, they're, they're there. There's. I saw little tweets last night about. And I thought, I don't, I don't think that's smart. I don't love it.

[C]

The Chargers have a history with it, though. They took shots. Harrison Bucker, they took a shot at DeSean Watson. They took shot at Tyree Kill. Those are all sensitive situations, right? Yeah.

[B]

I don't know.

[C]

I'll tell you which one was good. The Titans one was awesome.

[B]

Oh, it was great.

[C]

I don't know. Great. Yeah.

[B]

No, I think, listen, social media is funny. I always say you can get fired for a post. You're not going to get a job promotion for a post. I'd be very careful. We've seen companies go sideways and. But I just, when I saw those, I thought, I don't know if the league loves that, but maybe.

[C]

Yeah. I will say this, though. For the char. The Chargers, it was subtle and I do think to some degree now the Vikings had a little reference in there. If you looked for it like, and I'm not talking about the fake reference. There was a, see the comments like, like, thing on the, on, on, on, on. On their reference to the Patriots. I like, I, I do think, like, if no one had touched it, then the story would have been that no one touched it. And so I think in that way, the Chargers kind of bailed everybody else out because now the league doesn't have to answer that question.

[B]

You're one Step ahead of me, Albert, as always. That's funny. Good seeing you, bud.

[C]

Good to see you, Colin. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Kyle Shanahan goes to the league meetings. He's complaining about the trip, and the Rams get an extra day off and they have to play an early game on Sunday. Listen, sometimes you just gotta zip it. Not not every meal should be shown on social media, not every opinion, not every mood we need to see on social media.

[A]

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[B]

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