← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
THE HERD - Hour 1 - Ravens are out of the Super Bowl Bubble, Lamar Jackson's contract, the Chiefs offseason plans
00:40:21
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human security usually means extra steps and complications, but with Apple Pay, secure payments are simple. Your transactions are authenticated with face id, touch ID or passcode, so security is built in when you check out. Plus, your name isn't shared with merchants and they don't see your actual card number. Whether you're shopping in store online or an app, protecting your money should be simple. Pay the Apple way. Terms apply. I'm Colin Coward from the Herd Whether you're a seasoned small business owner or thinking about getting started, you'll definitely want to check out season four of Mind the Business small business success stories from iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio and Inuit QuickBooks. In the latest season, hosts Austin Hanquitz and Janiez Torres are talking to self starters about the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and how QuickBooks helps you to get more done in less time. You don't want to miss it. Listen to Mind the Business Small business success Stories on the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll say it up front, I don't usually endorse supplements. Most promise shortcuts. Anybody who's done real work knows shortcuts fail, but I like EM drives. Every morning I put that protein powder in my coffee. It's practical. As you get older, energy dips and weight comes easier. That's biology. EmDrive boost and burn support steady energy metabolism and F burning, so effort actually counts. Clinically tested ingredients find that it sprouts Amazon or mdrive for men.com m drive for men who still show up. This episode is brought to you by UberEats. Big news Aldi is now on Uber Eats and you get 20% off your first grocery order with the code new Aldi 26. So whether your fridge is empty and you're too tired to shop, or you just ran out of essential ingredients in the middle of meal prep, don't worry. Fill your fridge in a couple of taps and get 20% off your first Aldi order on Uber Eats. For orders over $60, you can save up to $20. Ends February 28th. Terms apply. See app for details. Thanks for listening to the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and noon to 3 Eastern, 9am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd@foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to FOX Sports Radio. Well, the combine starts today in the NFL. We are live, we are in Chicago and it's the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening or watching, thanks for making us part of your day. One hour from now, I'll be introducing some futuristic new technology that I'm really excited about that I first saw about 9, 10, 11 months ago and it was freaked me out. And now you can consume it. I'll introduce that in one hour. So it's the combine week and a lot of business deals get done. And one of the business deals getting talked about is Lamar Jackson new contract. It's just remarkable to me and I've always been a huge Ravens fan and a big Lamar supporter. But just to give you an idea, I said yesterday the Ravens are done being a Super bowl bubble team. There's no possible way with what they're going to pay him. So his current cap hit is $74 million. Let me give you an example of what that pays for in Seattle, the Super bowl champs. That would pay for Sam Darnold, JSN, Devin Witherspoon, Nick Omanwary, the safety, Gray Zabel and DeMarcus Lawrence. And you'd still have $3 million left over to buy every Seattle, Seattle lifetime Starbucks card. The Ravens are out of the super bowl discussion with this new contract and they have to, theoretically, they also have to pay their all world center, probably the second best center in football, which sort of matters for a quarterback. So whenever I hear these fans say, it's such a moronic thing to say, give Blank Star the bag and you celebrate it. Well, I'm, I'm glad the player gets rich. But you want to know what wins in the NFL? Depth and flexibility like Seattle, team friendly quarterback deals like right now Chicago or Denver or Seattle or New England. The four highest paid quarterbacks the last four seasons, Aaron Rodgers, Joe Burrow and Dak Prescott twice all missed the playoffs. And I've always been a big fan of Lamar Jackson. But between his mom acting as his agent, his refusal to do off season camps, the mystery injuries, and let's be honest, the need to be the highest paid quarterback, that's the thing he wants to be. It started to feel like honestly, a little Kawhi Leonard where you're like mercurial mystery family to involve maybe. And then there's the stories about him falling asleep during meetings because he's playing late night video games, which was reported by somebody from the Baltimore sun who covers the team. So somebody leaked that out. Somebody in the Organization leaked that out. And I have a hard time believing a person who covers a team just wanted to alienate everybody and make stuff up. Of course the Ravens and Lamar deny it, but you know, one of the things that's true, Somebody in the last week listening or watching this show has been fired. Never forget, Walt Disney was fired. Oprah was fired. Steve Jobs was fired. It's not the end of the world. One door closes, as they say, another one opens up. But Jim Harbaugh was shown the door in San Francisco. Things have worked out pretty well. John Harbaugh was shown the door in Baltimore. And next year, Lamar Jackson will have a cap hit that is 20 times higher than Jackson Dart of the Giants. And I'm starting to think when I hear about this new contract situation with Lamar and Linderbaum is, did John Harbaugh escape a potential mess for the next several years? $74 million buys you 6 Seahawks and 3 million left over Eric Dacosta at the combine talking about the negotiations with Lamar. Lamar and I have an agreement. We handle business kind of in house internally. As you all know, that worked well for us the last time and we will continue to have that policy moving forward. Have spoken to Lamar by a lot of different things over the last month. He's been very engaged. As I said, he was a big value to us in the coaching search. But we'll continue those conversations moving forward. All right, so the Lakers have been a topic this week. Rachel Nichols, in a little over an hour. Because Luca, as I said yesterday, the red carpet the Lakers rolled out for Luca, they had no idea it was made of red flags, um, that he remains in average to below average condition. Um, he no longer really attacks the basket with regularity and finishes at the rim. Settles for a lot of okay, jump shots and he doesn't play a lick of defense. And he non stop complains to the officials, which is really tedious after a while. A lot of technical fouls too. Um, the Lakers yesterday named a former college coach, Tony Bennett, who was at Virginia. That was the school that never scored any points. Smart guy. But he retired early. You know, they would win like 42 to 38, put everybody to sleep. But I actually, when I looked at the hire, I was like, that's kind of a weird hire. But he's going to be now like helping in their personnel search during the draft. And my take after thinking about it is will he sort of be the Brad Stevens to the Celtics? So they brought in Brad Stevens to coach and then gm and they've Done a really good job drafting and developing in Boston since Brad Stevens arrived as a coach and as a coordinate and as general manager, because it's weird with the Lakers. The Lakers have always been a transactional franchise. They did not draft Wilt. They did not draft Kareem or Kobe or Shaq or AD or LeBron or Luca. I mean, you got to go back to, like, 1979 and Magic Johnson and before that, Jerry West. They just don't draft. And with the new cba, with big trades and big, sweeping free agent moves are almost impossible because nobody wants to do the Lakers any favors. And if you look at the best teams right now in the NBA, I would argue it's OKC, San Antonio, and Detroit. Well, Detroit's four best players, they drafted OKC's best players. They got Chap Holmgren from tanking, you know, the San Antonio Spurs. It's all draft and develop. And so since Jerry west left, the Lakers don't really draft. And even with Jerry west, it's just not what they do. And with the new cbn, you could say, well, what about Austin Reaves? You don't get credit for drafting him. He's undrafted. You didn't even draft him. And Rob Pelinka, you can see him on the screen. Rob is not a scout. Rob was an agent who became a general manager. I'm not saying he's not a sharp guy, but his schooling and history is not in scouting. So the last six great Laker players are LeBron, Luka, AD, Shaq, Kobe, and Pau Gasol. It was transactional for all of them. It wasn't draft and develop. And so in the last three times, by the way, the Lakers really haven't shown an ability to draft well. And when they kind of do, they get impatient. A prime example, they drafted Lonzo Ball, who was all flash, and they could have drafted instead Jason Tatum, who was no flash. They went with the flashy guy. They drafted perpetually skinny Brandon Ingram, and the next pick was Jalen Brown. Yeah, and then they. They. They drafted d' Angelo Russell, historic flake who hasn't worked anywhere for more than, like, an hour. And they could have had Devin Booker. So when they draft and do get, like, really good picks, they've shown no ability to land them. And for the record, they moved off two of those draft picks quickly, so they're not terribly patient. So when I looked at Tony Bennett getting the job, I was like, that's weird. And I'm like, well, Boston went to the college ranks and it actually turned out great. And I'm, I'm not saying that Tony Bennett is Brad Stevens, but I will say this. The Celtics draft really well, really, really well. And the Lakers don't at all. And, and, and that's going to be important because as we've talked about, the NBA now is not a transactional league. And you've got to surround Luca with the right players. Chris Broussard was on it earlier this week. You have to go find athletes wing defenders and catch and shoot guys because Luka plays no defense and has to have the ball in his hands. Here's Bruon Luka. I don't know if he's ever going to win a championship and it's not
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because he's not individually good enough. It's because of the way he plays. He is so hard to build around
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because he's so ball dominant. And we've seen ball dominant players, but ball dominant players that shoot and score a lot are really tough to build around.
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Steve Nash, Chris Paul, they're ball dominant but they were pass first guys.
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Even LeBron when he was really in his prime and ball dominant, it was a challenge to build around him. So there's where we stand. The Ravens are renegotiating with Lamar. I view that as getting and moving out of the super bowl discussion. And the Lakers hire a retired college coach. At first glance, I didn't get it. Thinking about it, I sort of do. J Mack, I listen, I don't want to give away the house here, but J. Mac's got a little bounce in his step. Oh, come on. As the New York jets have made a trade this morning, that's what the combine is about. It's not just seeing guys work out in their underwear. It's. It's actually where everybody goes out all night. The GMs and, and the executives make deals during this week. So it's. Everybody's getting their trades ready and their free agent signings all fired up.
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Listen, great trade for the Jets. We'll talk about it. Quick note. I just looked this up when you were talking about Tony Bennett, you know, to, to the Lakers and the Lakers botching a bunch of draft picks. So Tony Bennett is the guy who got Klay Thompson to go to Washington State back in the day. Washington State, okay. Tony Bennett goes to Virginia, recruited Joe Harris who became an Olympian. Malcolm Brogdon, Rookie of the Year. Ty Jerome, he's good at finding diamonds in the rough. Guys that maybe are overlooked or people think, oh, they're slow or not that athletic and they become great players. I love this. Tony Bennett moved by the Lakers. How about that? Lakers doing good things. Front office that you love from the Dodgers paying dividends.
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Yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IH Hard Radio app. Fox Sports Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a part of it. Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio. Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and catch all the videos from your favorite shows. Two pros and a cup of Joe, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Stu Godson company Live Covino and Rich, the Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington, the Jason Smith show with Mike Harmon and the Ben Maller Show Fox sports radio on YouTube. Subscribe. Hit that thumbs up icon and comment away Pay around the Corner and Around the Globe Apple Pay is accepted at millions of places worldwide. Wherever you see the contactless symbol in stores or the Apple Pay button online and in apps. Whether you're checking out on iPhone or Apple Watch, just double click pay and be on your way. Add your debit or credit card to wallet and you're good to go. Pay the Apple Way Terms Apply. All right, two Truths and a Lie. Here we go. I went to college with college football coach Jim McElwain, I began my broadcasting career doing play by play for the Las Vegas Stars, and I've been a Verizon customer for 15 years. Okay, I lied. All three are true. Verizon isn't as expensive as you think. In fact, if you bring in your ATT or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store, they'll give you a better deal. That's right, a better deal on the best network with the most ways to save on plans, streaming and phone deals. So take that AT and T or T Mobile. Build to your local Verizon store today. Get a better deal and start saving based on root metrics. Best Overall Mobile Network Performance U.S. 2nd Half 2025 All Rights Reserve must provide recent Consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply. Imagine never buying gas again. EVs are as easy to charge as your phone and perfect for everyday life. Drive daily with confidence everywhere you go. Most Americans drive 40 miles a day. Most EVs are equipped with 200 to 400 miles of range. They've got fewer parts, fewer repairs and fewer headaches. With hundreds of new and used EV models available today, there's an EV to fit every lifestyle and every budget. I love my electric vehicle. It's easy. No more gas stations. The way forward is electric. Learn more@electric for all.org support for the show comes from public. So it kind of feels like there's two types of investing platforms. You got the old school brokerages that look like they were designed in like 1995. Then you have those other platforms, the ones that feel less like investing and more like a casino. Public is neither. It's the investing platform for people who actually take this stuff seriously. You know, people who are serious about building their wealth. Because on public you can build a portfolio of stocks and options and bonds and crypto without all the bugs or the confetti. Retirement accounts. Yep. High yield cash. Of course. They even have direct indexing. Honestly, this is what investing platform should look like. Modern design, simple to use, and customer support that actually cares. Go to public.comcowherd and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.comcowherd ad paid for by Public
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we get all sorts of good stuff today at the top of the hour. Introducing a new feature that I think some of you will really like and I, I it kind of first time I saw it I, I couldn't quite figure it out and now it's, it's habit forming. I would say that the herd brought to you by Credible the no Bull zone sponsored by Credible. Great rates, none of the Bull. So the NFL combine starts today. But really it is a deal making venture and one of the teams that is really in an interesting spot is Kansas City. So they're pivoting as a franchise. So Patrick Mahomes 1.05 Super Bowls, three trophies. That's like Brady 1.0 in New England. Five Super Bowls, three trophies. The difference is the second part of the New England run for Brady also delivered four trips and three Super Bowls. And this Kansas City roster does not feel close. Too many holes. This Kansas City coach is aging. At 68, he does not have seven, eight years left. This Kansas City team is now in a brutal division and the division is a really important note here. So for years and years, because the jets, the Bills and the Dolphins were overwhelmingly dysfunctional, it allowed the Patriots a first round bye. They would stack their record and home field so basically didn't have to play in the first round. Well now you only get one bye per conference. In Kansas City's got to face Herbert and Harbaugh twice in division, Bo Nixon, Sean Payton twice in division, and who knows how good Fernando Mendoza is, but he's going to be better than Geno Smith twice in division. So there was always a great advantage for Brady and his dynasty. And I've said this before, when Nick Saban dominated the sec, it was mostly because Georgia and LSU and a lot of the powers couldn't get their act together. When LeBron was getting to the finals every single year, it was mostly because he played in the east, he couldn't do it in the West. So the reality is the division's harder. There's now only one by per conference. The roster has holes. Andy Reed, 68 and Mahomes. Now he did sign a long term deal which makes like Brady, his contract a little bit more viable for the organization. They're not trapped with it like Baltimore is going to be with Lamar Jackson. But I mean Brady had the advantage until the Bills drafted Josh Allen for a 20 year period. There was one star quarterback in that division for 20 years, his name was Brady. And then Josh Allen suddenly came into the league and very quickly. Remember Bill Belichick's first six or seven times against Josh Allen, he's like, yeah, I can't stop him. The only thing that ever stopped him was like a nor' easter or I think it was Mac Jones may have beaten Josh Allen once. So I, when I, you know, I just. Albert Brers at the combine and he's talking about what Brett Veach is trying to maneuver around right now in Kansas City. One thing Brett Peach is really good at is looking at this stuff globally. So it's like, and I think this is the way that he's going to view it. I want to do more around Patrick Mahomes. Whether Kelsey's back or not this year, we need to put more premier talent around him. So like, how do you look at it? Do you look at it like we're better off getting a running back in the top 10 and then a receiver in free agency based on what's a, what's, what's available or are we better off doing it the other way around? Yeah, I, I don't know. I know where J. Mac falls on Kansas City, but I don't have him winning the division again this year. And you start looking at that Denver roster and that small Bo Nick salary. I think I'm taking Denver once again to win the division. Now they don't have A lot of draft picks, I would not be shocked if they go heavy into offensive line and rush end. But that means they probably can't solve their run game, which seems to me to be a primary issue. Why Mahomes is throwing on third and long much more now than 30 years ago.
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I mean, Colin, just from a basic standpoint, Patrick Mahomes, would you be shocked if he started the season on the PUP list and missed the first, I don't know, three or four weeks. He's coming off a major injury. That would not surprise me. I mean I'm seeing some early win totals again, you can't really bet it big because it's pre draft, pre free agency and there's like Chiefs ten and a half. I'm like, what is that? How are they close to a 10 win team? There just is not a lot of talent. I know Chiefs fans are all excited about Rita Mahomes. Colin, you know this like Kelsey's going to bounce. They don't have a lot of guys.
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No they don't. They, they need about four more players on the offensive side alone. When they moved off Joe Tunney and Ben Johnson immediately goes and grabs Joe Tuney and look what he did to the Bears interior O line once they moved off Joe Tuney. That's the vagaries of having a really expensive weapon and a really expensive quarterback and a really expensive defensive tackle. You have to hit on a lot of picks and they've missed on just enough picks to put them in the crosshairs of, you know, you. Like we say this before, you don't have to be great everywhere in the NFL to win the super bowl. But like Seattle, you can't be lousy anywhere. Think how good the Rams offense was this year coaching quarterback play. Bad in special teams, bad at corner. So like what you want is a team friendly quarterback deal. Well, they don't have it with Mahomes. It's not as punitive as Lamar or Josh Allen, but it's not team friendly. So you have to hit on more draft picks.
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Yeah.
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And if you miss and they missed on a sky more here or a running back there late in the first round, all of a sudden you look around and like, oh, we're bad at right tackle. We don't have a running back. So if you want to pay a quarterback top of the market, you have to be really. And remember when you have a star quarterback, you know this. You're drafting at the end of the first round, at the end of the second and third. That's that is a tough spot to find great talent. The Seahawks in the second round got Nick Almond worry and it's like that's about as good as you can do. Yeah. In the second round you have to hit stars at the end of rounds and you can do it. But I mean go to the last, you know, 10 drafts and not a lot of guys drafted at 29, 30, 31 who are all time players. J Mac with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline news.
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All right, let's get straight started with a team in the AFC west, the LA Chargers. Colin obviously got Mike McDaniel in the fold. That's a big get. And now the beneficiaries expected to be Justin Herbert. The GM Joe Hort tease said as much as in an interview at the combine yesterday
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through the interview process of the oc in our OC search, Mike talked about this is why we did this in Miami, because this is the person we had. Mike is a coach that will literally create his scheme, create his offense based around the players we have. And it's not that you go out and find this specific player. So I think his flexibility as a, as an offensive coordinator and play caller is what makes one of the things that makes him great.
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Did you bet Herbert to win the mvp?
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Bet Herbert to have a really exceptional season? Yeah, yeah. I don't think there's, I mean, listen, we, we've seen this in recent years. Ben Johnson leaves Detroit and you're like, wow, they really miss Ben Johnson. Shanahan left Atlanta. There was a hole at offensive coordinator at any one time. There are two or three offensive coordinators and two or three defensive coordinators. Jesse Minter, Mike McDonald, defensive guys to Miko Ryan's who are above class. They're, they're, they're. Mike McDaniel got two into a Pro bowl and Tua to the playoffs. Well, Herbert's bigger, stronger, less injury prone with a much bigger arm and more athletic. This is a, I mean there, there is a reason that Mike McDaniel had many offers and chose anytime. I hear fans say, well, Justin Herbert got win playoff games. Jim Harbaugh left Michigan, his alma mater, because of Herbert. And Mike McDaniel had six offers and he chose this one. Cross country, everybody's doing it because of Justin Herbert. That's why people are moving out to Los Angeles with the Chargers. Justin Herbert.
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Yeah. Herbert has the third best odds for MVP already. He got an MVP vote last year. Remember the controversial one that may or may not have cost Drake May I'll say this. Remember Mike McDaniel was in Miami and of course the Dolphins had the choice of Tua or Herbert back in the day.
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Yeah, I think it's interesting they just put up the stats on the screen. Herbert was missing both offensive tackles. It was the 32nd ranked offensive line in the NFL and yet look at his numbers. Honestly if. Look at those numbers. 11 and 594 passer rating, twice as many touchdowns as turnovers, 4200 yards and 66 1/2% completion percentage with the 32nd ranked offensive line. That's, that's. And, and, and a tight end and a wide receiver shy. And Hampton and Najee Harris are hurt all year. Yeah, I mean it's unbelievable the numbers he produced with what was around him
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health wise as the kids say. Justin Herbert carried last year, just carried the team. All right, let's move on to the Jets. Huge trade. Seismic deal. Okay. Not seismic in the NFL. The jets and the Titans. Now Robert Saleh is now in Tennessee. He obviously needs edge rushers so he goes out and gets a guy he knows, Jermaine Johnson from the Jets. Salah was with him in New York. Listen, Johnson was a little older, I think coming out of FSU was like 24ish player. He had a major injury so he missed a season. But he knows how to play in solace system and he is going to be motivated in a contract year here. Meanwhile, the jets get Tavandre Sweat from Tennessee who was awesome, graded out as the fifth best defensive tackle in the league according to Pro Football Focus, missed I think five games early and was very good. So the jets are pivoting to a 3, 4. I know you care deeply. They're going to draft at 2 now. They're measuring guys right now. And Reuben Bain just had like one of the shortest arm lengths of any edge rusher ever. So they're saying he's fallen out of the top 10. But the jets are going to draft somebody at 2. They've got Will McDonald on the other edge and now you've got sweat in the middle and Aaron Glenn's 34 defense rounding into form. I know, listen. Rare to get trades in the NFL but these are two starters making moves here. I'm sure you like it for Salah, right?
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Well, I. You have Jeffrey Simmons on the interior for Tennessee. So you have probably the best interior defensive lineman since Aaron Donald retired. And he's like, all right, I want to compliment him on the outside. So I think Tennessee is, I think you were a year early on him. I didn't have him as a playoff team, but I, I think they're going to pop. I think Tennessee is going to be really interesting. I don't love their ownership. Little political down there, but I will say I think Sol and Brian Dable, I think they know what they're doing. I think it's going to be a really fun team to watch.
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Now we'll wrap up with the NBA. Colin. And I'm going to be honest, I don't love this MVP situation. All because of this 65 game minimum nonsense. Essentially, SGA keeps missing games and he's now in jeopardy of not being eligible to win the MVP. Same with Jokic, Colin. They're 12 in odds, but Cade Cunningham is coming on strong. Now you were out last week. I said on the show, Cade Cunningham plus 1400 makes a ton of sense. Look at his odds. They keep shrinking. Well, but Colin, you know Cade's not the best player in the league.
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Well, it's not called, it's not called the best player award. It's called the most valuable. Cade Cunningham is the only dependable scorer for Detroit. It's a bunch of kids. The whole roster's 20 through 23 years old and Kate Cunningham is carrying that franchise. Now it's the east, but they're going to be a number one seed with one dependable. I mean, everybody knows Detroit's weakness. It's their half court offense. That's why when they play San Antonio and Wemby, it's a bad matchup because they can't score from the perimeter. They have to attack the basket. They're a terrible matchup against, you know, like a Wemby. So I think Wemby first of all is probably my choice for most valuable player. But he, he has a lot around him and Cade Cunningham doesn't. The other thing is people criticize this. Well, you got it. It's outrageous that you have to play 65 games. Well, in football, could you, should you win the NFL MVP if you play 13 team games? No. So the NBA's got a load management issue. That's why they enacted the 65 game limit. If you can't get to 65, then you're, you're, you're, you''re, you're not playing 20% of the games. I'm not giving you MVP.
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Interesting.
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You're on. Fight back on load management somehow.
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So you're on.
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But.
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Well, this is not necessarily load management. SGA's been out with an ad thing. You'll catch miss time he was hurt.
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You know, that's the brakes. Sometimes you just get bad breaks. You twist an ankle, you don't win mvp. And also, I'm sorry, Cade Cunningham. Winning MVP does not bother me at all. Jaylen Brown's got an argument. He's been sensational without Tatum.
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Wembanyama is fourth on the odds, as you see on the screen. Jalen Brown 5. Luka is six guys that are not eligible because they've already missed too many games. Steph and Giannis, we can throw LeBron on there. He's not winning the MVP.
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I think availability matters a lot. I don't care how good, I'm not going to give the name out. Years and years ago I worked with somebody really good in local tv. Really good. And missed two days a week, just you didn't know if they were going to show up to work. Boy, when they showed up, they were great. When they showed up. It's the Kawhi Leonard situation. Everybody knows Kawhi. It's like a combo of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. We all know it. It's one of the five best players when healthy. I mean, LeBron's been saying this for years. The guy's like an all time talent the Clippers have tried to build around him. How has it worked when you don't know at 4 o' clock on game day if he's playing? They got a great coach, they have a bench, they have a rich owner. I mean, the Clippers have a new stadium, they got great revenue, but yet they're built around Kawhi Leonard. So I don't, I don't want MVPs playing 59 games. I think you're out. And Cade Cunningham, to me, is a great choice.
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So on the surface, I like your argument. That makes sense. The problem is we get into this rings debate and legacy and well, this guy has all these MVPs and Kobe only has one. And then you start digging it. You're like, oh, so the media fell in love with, you know, Steve Nash. Ask yourself like it. Steve Nash has two MVPs and Kobe has one. Come on. Well, like, I love Nash, you know,
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but nobody, none of us think Nash is better than Kobe. That's a straw man argument. Never in my life have I been talking about MJ and LeBron and said, you know, the difference is regular season MVPs. No, the difference is six for six. So regular season MVPs, in the big legacy argument, nobody cares. How many Kevin Durant, how many MVPs does he have? I don't know.
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I don't know.
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He's one of the great catch and shoot guys, top 20 players in the history of the league. So I don't think regular season MVP. We all know SGA is an all time top 50 player and, and I don't think more MVPs or fewer are going to move them up or down dramatically.
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Interesting. Okay, that's a take I did not expect from you. But that's why I love doing the show.
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All right, J. Mac with the news. Well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by the Herd line news. So I said this yesterday. I'm doubling down on this. It sounded crazy. So the Raiders, John Spytek, the new gm has said I will take calls on the number one pick. So I've said I would retain Max Crosby. I mean if somebody's going to give you two number ones and two threes, I mean you got to consider moving Max. But I would keep him because The Raiders have 10 draft picks. If they hit on seven of them, which is a reasonable number, that that's a lot of cheap labor. They'll be able to afford Max Crosby. They're not paying a lot of money to anybody outside of Max Crosby and they're getting a rookie quarterback. So I would keep Max Crosby's the soul of the franchise. But there's an argument that Fernando Mendoza is not Andrew Locke. He's not even potentially archmanning that you didn't really know who he was at Cal or the beginning of this year. And he's not a great prospect. He's not Drake Mays, not Caleb Williams. He's closer to Bo Nix. And so the Raiders GM has said I would take calls. I honestly believe this strongly. If I'm the Arizona Cardinals at number three, only got to move up two spots. I would call the Raiders and I would offer them three first round picks if we can draft one and you can draft three. And the reason I would do that a story came out and I said this yesterday and I'm doubling down on it. I saw this story this morning. Kyler Murray and the Cardinals GM Monty Osenfoort have not spoken this entire off season. So Cliff Kingsbury, who loved Kyler Murray, he wore Cliff Kingsbury out. The owner doesn't like him. He drove Steve Keim crazy. Now he won't talk to the current GM and the Cardinals and here's why that Fernando Mendoza is the opposite of Kyler Murray. Fernando Mendoza is an air freshener. Air for an organization with a bad smell and a lot of that smell is ownership. And a lot of it's Kyler Murray. He is small, he's a bit entitled, he's semi committed, he's not terribly verbal, he doesn't communicate with front office people. All of it the opposite to Fernando Mendoza, who is big, committed, humble, grateful, like everything you question about Kyler Murray size. Well, Fernando Mendoza is huge commitment. You don't worry about that with Fernando Mendoza. He's like a workaholic. Gratitude, humility, staying healthy again. I watched Fernando Mendoza get clocked against Ohio State and Miami and Iowa and Oregon. That's not a concern. So. And you say to yourself, how can you give up three first round picks? The Rams have had one first round pick in nine years. They're the second best team in the league. If first round picks are so valuable, then ask yourself, how come the New York Giants, the New York jets and the Cleveland Browns aren't great? Because they always have a bunch of first round picks. They're always picking in the lottery, right? They're always picking in that top eight, top nine, top 10 lotteries, obviously NBA, but they're always picking near the top. And if it's so effective and so valuable, why do the Saints stink? The Raiders stink, The jets sting, the Cardinal stink, the Titans stink, the Brown stink, the Giants stink. They're always at the top of the draft. And my take is once you get a quarterback, I mean if you don't have a quarterback in this league, it's just a ship with no captain. It doesn't matter what else, what, what other cargo you have. The Cardinals have excellent wide receiver, tight end, running back talent. They have a sharp new offensive coach from the McVeigh tree. I got nobody to lead this team, so. And I don't know if, I don't know if the Raiders would listen, but I mean I. The Arizona Cardinals are such a landfill. I'm surprised the waste management open doesn't advertise all over their stadium. I mean, it is just a bad smell. And it could all be solved by getting the clean cut, hardworking, incredibly humble Fernando Mendoza. And I've met Kyler. I've always defended him. But I mean, when you start hearing story after story after story, they didn't talk to anybody in the building. And not great. And I, I like Mendoza better than I think the evaluators do. I think he's an A prospect. I don't think he's an A plus plus prospect. He's not Andrew Lock or Trevor Lawrence, but I think. Or Caleb Williams, but I think he's better than J.J. mcCarthy. I think he's I think he's a better talent than Bo Nicks. I think he's Matt Ryan plus Albert Burr yesterday Weigh why Mendoza is is probably a lock to go to Vegas, though, if the Raiders are offered something that is just completely off the charts and you say, if you're John Spytek, if you're Tom Brady, if you're Clint Kubiak, this is something we can rebuild our entire roster with and there's a great quarterback class coming next year. And if we aren't very good this year because maybe we aren't in a position to pull ourselves off the mat that quickly, like if we're going to be in the top five next year anyway, does it make more sense for us to take a historic offer? If that's out there for you, I think you have to consider it now. Now you could you can certainly debate whether the Cardinals are even equipped as a franchise to get Mendoza in house and make it work. I mean, that, that, that's an argument in itself. It's, it's a poorly run franchise, very much like Cleveland of the jets. But it just everything with Kyler Murray, it's just Mendoza feels like an air freshener to an organization that stinks. Everything about the quarterback situation is just, it just doesn't feel right. And it hasn't for years. He's got one winning season in seven years and I like, I think he's talented. I really do. I think, I think Kyler Murray's really talented. But you know, I was wrong on that one. I had much higher hopes yesterday. There there's something happening with the best college basketball player and nobody can quite put their finger on it. Or can they? We'll talk about that coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific pay around the corner and around the globe. Apple Pay is accepted at millions of places worldwide. Wherever you see the contactless symbol in stores or the Apple Pay button online and in apps, whether you're checking out on iPhone or Apple watch, just double click pay and be on your way. Add your debit or credit card to wallet and you're good to go. Pay the Apple way terms apply. All right, two truths in a lie. Here we go. I went to college with college football coach Jim McElwain. I began my broadcasting career doing play by play for the Las Vegas Stars, and I've been a Verizon customer for 15 years. Okay, I lied. All three are true. Verizon isn't as expensive as you think. 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I love my electric vehicle. It's easy. No more gas stations. The way forward is electric. Learn more@electric for all.org support for the show comes from public Huh. I wonder if this can beat the market. Everyone's talking about the NASDAQ 100, but let's get more specific. Software Actually, too broad. How about software that's already profitable? Companies that beat the last five quarters? Oh, and I want founders who are marathon runners. That's discipline. Yeah, let's see what that looks like. With generated assets on public you can turn any idea into an investable index. Just enter a prompt and watch the AI scroll screen thousands of stocks in seconds. You can then back test your index against the S&P 500, make adjustments, refine your criteria, and when you're ready, invest in what you've built. Go to public.com and build your own index with generated assets, plus earn a 1% uncapped match when you transfer your portfolio. 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on Earth returns to Fox. Alex Palou, Joseph Newgarden and Pato O. Ward lead the way as the 2026 Indy car season launches in St. Petersburg Sunday at noon Eastern, live on fox.
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So a Darren Peterson in a stacked draft Appears to be a notch above everybody else. You can watch him four or five possessions and you get a Kobe feel. But he has missed 11 of 27 games and has perpetual injuries and cramps. And in the history of the NBA and college basketball, I don't know another player who's constantly missing games and time due to regular cramping. It happens just not a lot to NBA stars and college stars. So he's missing a lot of time. And there's a lot of consternation and disappointment in Lawrence, Kansas. So 99% of college athletes, you know, they, they're all in, they're committed. But we live in a new world. There's nil transfer portal and if you get, you know, you're the top guy drafted, which he will probably be the top guy drafted, it's $100 million check. So the, the only thing that I, you know, and I've said from the beginning, I, I, I think I would draft him number one. The only thing that gives me pause is what Jeff Goodman said yesterday on our show. If this kid was load managing, he would have shut it down six weeks ago. There's no reason he would have played. He was the clear number one pick. He wants to play. I think it's gone from physical calling, talking to people and kind of knowing the situation well enough. I think it's gone from physical to now mental as well. Whereas when this happens, he doesn't know how to work through it. Okay, and that's concerning to me because let me give you three other players who had some roadblocks mentally. Royce White, bust, Markel Fultz, mega bust and Ben Simmons after an all NBA early season became a bust. And it's not just a basketball issue, it's an athlete issue. It's a young person issue. Simone Biles, David Duvall, Jordan Spieth, the great pitcher John Lester, you know, this happens a lot. So I, it, it's again not just a basketball story. It's very, very rare. Now Matt Barnes, thoughtful guy, former NBA player, says, are we looking at just the beginning of something that the NBA has been dealing with for years, which is college load management? What's rubbing people the wrong way is kind of, I think he's exerting the business of basketball and I think this could be the new load management of top college players. Only he's the only one doing it because if you look at all this is a loaded freshman class and everyone else is playing every single game as many minutes as they can and having great seasons. This guy is still having a really good season, but he's on load management. Yeah, I, I, I, I don't know if it's load management. I would hope it's not load management. Uh, I defended college football players like Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette years ago when they said, I'm not going to play in a bowl game, I'm going to save myself. That I will defend. If you're playing one year of college basketball, just go play. If you're thinking about injuries, you're getting bad advice. I mean, you're getting really bad advice. Could be from dad, could be from a cousin, could be from a agent. You're getting bad advice. He is a remarkable player. I take him number one. I'm not a basketball scout, but he jumps off the television. I don't know exactly what to make of it, but it's, it's, you know, people can say, well, he's just cramping. Give me the second player ever in basketball at 19 years old that was missing multiple games due to cramping. It doesn't, it's pretty uncommon. So if he's dealing with something or going through something, listen, it's hard. Young people need support. He's probably got a lot of people in his ear. He is $100 million player. But it also looks like he doesn't, according to people who watch every minute of Kansas basketball, like Jeff Goodman, that he doesn't have the elevation he had six months ago. So he could, he could be dealing with something. But it's, you know, the load management thing. Of all the issues the NBA has, I've said, you know, you can say what you want about tanking. Tell me how the Utah Jazz are supposed to get better in two years. I mean, that's how OKC got Chet Holmgren and Cleveland got LeBron and Detroit got Kate Cunningham. So you can say what you want about the tanking stuff. I'll defend that. Of the two NBA problems, I think number one is load management. I'm, I'm a kid from a small town. I went to one Sonics game every three years. If you'd have told me as I got there, three of the Sonics weren't playing because they were resting. It wouldn't sit well with me and I probably wouldn't have gone back. And the second thing I would change in the NBA, I think it's gotten very repetitive. I would move the three point line into the bench, eliminate the corner three. But I don't think that'll ever happen. Baseball stodgy to its core, made multiple changes over the last five years. They've all worked. The progressive NBA refuses to alter the three point shot which feels so obvious to me. Hour 2 New technology next. Think Verizon is expensive? Think again. Anyone can bring their AT T or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal. So bring us your bill. Walk in running pogo stickin teleport if you can, ride on the back of a rollerblading yak or flying on the wings of a majestic falcon. Any way you can bring your AT and T or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network based on root metrics Best Overall Mobile Network Performance US Second Half 2025 all rights reserved. Must provide a very recent postpaid consumer mobile bill in the name of the person redeeming the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply. Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math. @t mobile.com switch and now T Mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits, plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. Imagine never buying gas again. EVs are as easy to charge as your phone and perfect for everyday life. Drive daily with confidence everywhere you go. Most Americans drive 40 miles a day. Most EVs are equipped with 200 to 400 miles of range. They've got fewer parts, fewer repairs and fewer headaches. With hundreds of new and used EV models available today, there's an EV to fit every lifestyle and every budget. I love my electric vehicle. It's easy. No more gas stations. The way forward is electric. Learn more at Electric for All Wasabi is purpose built to free your business from skyrocketing storage costs and fees from the big guys. 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