← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
THE HERD - Hour 2 - Where Colin was right and wrong, the NFL Draft
00:41:42
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- [00:00]
Matt Hasselbeck
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
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- [00:35]
Colin Cowherd
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Julian Edelman
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Colin Cowherd
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It is over a billion dollars of payroll in the series and as we've often said, money does not buy wins. The Mets are two games under.500 and the Dodgers are on fire. And what's interesting, there's a we're reading a great story on it here during the break. What's interesting about it is the Dodgers could spend more. If you look at Ohtani and how his the reven that sh otani has created for the Dodgers and it it took a couple of years to pay off, but anybody could have signed him because he he generate. Now you could argue the Dodgers have done a better job of marketing him, but he, he generates, Ohtani generates so much money that a small market team could have bought him, promoted him, marketed him and if they were reasonably viable, you would have made your money back. So the Ohtani gamble has been unbelievable. Colin right? Colin wrong. As we often do in a Monday, here we go. Where Colin was right. I've said it before in sports, parody is overrated. Rory Tiger, Phil Koepka. The numbers are going to prove it. Rory McIlroy helps the Masters. Five of the world's top six golfers finished at least tied for third or in the top three. It was a magical event. If you take Rory out of that and it would have been Cam Young and Scottie Scheffler. You know it and I know it. It wouldn't have felt close to the same and the number wouldn't have been the same. Where Colin was wrong. I kind of figured the Doc Rivers thing would be fine. He's good inside the room. If he's not a great schematic coach, but he's older, he'd manage egos. Kind of a Joe Torre feel to him. Of the Yankees. It did not work out. It got worse. Two of the three seasons losing record didn't win a playoff series. So it probably couldn't have gotten worse for Doc Rivers in Milwaukee I was wrong on that where Colin was right but I said the Celtics culture, coaching Brad Stevens, they're still going to be really good this year. Well, they finished with the number two seed despite the Tatum injury and remember they moved off for their top nine players. Jaylen Brown had a took over as he's prone to do, really talented, really aggressive between Brad Stevens, Missoula, the culture, the intelligence in the building. How many other teams could lose four of their nine top players and Jayson Tatum for a majority of the season and still be favored to win the East? Where Colin was wrong I keep waiting for the Eagles to trade A.J. brown. Instead they added another receiver, Don Tavian Wicks of Green Bay who's a big target has kind of a case of the drops but he's super talented. I'm not sure what it means for A.J. brown, but the packers have a lot of receivers. They went first round last year to get another and Wicks became expendable. Is this portend of things to come? Perhaps, but another pair of another skill guy for Jalen hurts to maneuver with where Colin was right Billy Donovan the Bulls cleaned house. They kept the one guy who I've been a fan of for years. Listen, they've been poorly run. They've never really had a plan. It's kind of a make it up as you go roster that it's unbalanced, not enough size. But the Bulls cleaned house and Jerry Reinsdorf and Michael Reinsdorf came out and said listen, Billy Donovan needs to okay the gm. He's a Hall of Fame coach. If the new GM doesn't like him, we're not hiring him. Where Colin was wrong my surprise team in the NBA this year was going to be the Dallas Mavericks and then Anthony Davis immediately got hurt and Kyrie Irving never came back. Cooper Flag was remarkable but they're terrible. A much worse record than last season. Listen, ever since they've Mark Cuban sold it it's just felt like an unsettled franchise that just can't quite get their feet or their bearings. I thought they were with Cooper Flag and AD and maybe Kyrie Irving comes back late. It would be an offensive showcase and instead it was a hazmat spill where Colin was right. The NIL and the transfer portal. They're not perfect but boy they've made college basketball better. 18 1/2 million viewers. Michigan Yukon for men's hoop biggest audience in seven years. The transfer portal lets really good programs solve issues immediately and the NIL means more players from Europe are coming over and more really good players are staying. So the quality of college basketball is better because the rosters in college basketball are much older and it's working. It's not perfect, but it's working where Colin was. Right. I never bought into this. Oh, Travis Hunter for the Jags. He can be corner, he can be a wide receiver. Not in today's football. There's too much good coaching. Who wants a part time receiver? The Jags announced last week he's going to be a full time corner. Listen, it's hard to find corners. It's easy to find wide receivers. So this is probably the right move. The kid is super talented. But I don't, I don't really buy into the, the two way thing. In football it works for Ohtani. He can pitch and he can hit. But in football, how many quarterbacks and offensive coordinators want a part time star wide receiver? It never felt right for me where Colin was right where Colin was wrong. And with that 18 years in the NFL. Matt Hasselbeck is now joining us. We're a little more than a week away from the draft, so let's, let's talk this. Kirk Cousins get signed by the Raiders. I, I think he's gonna, I think Mendoza is much better than people think. I think he's gonna beat out Kirk Cousins. Kirk's wants to play, but I also think he's a good teammate. He's a quality guy. Would you be surprised if Mendoza just flat out came out and just beat Kirk Cousins soundly in preseason?
- [09:19]
Matt Hasselbeck
Yeah, I'd be shocked by that. I'd be completely shocked. You know, I think, you know, this is a copycat league and I think people look at how the Patriots handled Drake May. I mean, Drake May didn't start until October of his rookie year. Jacoby Brissette was the starting quarterback in the off season and training camp to start the regular season. And they gave Drake May the ability to kind of sit back and learn. Now there were other quarterbacks in his draft class that, you know, had a, you know, head start. Everyone's like, oh, maybe he's better, maybe he's better. And then just if you look in the two year window, Drake May takes his team to the super bowl and he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league, would have been the MVP if it wasn't for Matthew Stafford. So I think that that's the model and you've got Kirk Cousins who knows this Clint Kubiak offense just as well as anybody. And he's going to go in there and kind of, you know, more as caught than taught. And so I think just the opportunity for Fernando Mendoza to sit back and watch the way that Kirk Cousins leads this team and watches the way that a veteran handles everything top to bottom, 24, seven, seven days a week, I think that's the play.
- [10:21]
Colin Cowherd
It's interesting. I was reading a breakdown. It was a long read, but it was interesting about Mendoza under pressure, rolling out. And one of the first things going back and looking at his college film that the analyst said is he may throw out patterns better than any college quarterback ever. It's just absolutely automatic. What is the value?
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Matt Hasselbeck
Can I add about that though? My biggest concern for him might be something that people aren't talking about, they're not concerned of, but I'm concerned. I played with a lot of quarterbacks that were amazing in college, but they played in shotgun all the time and they never played under center. Played with one guy out of Georgia. He's the winningest college quarterback in NCAA history when he came to us. It's a big adjustment to go from shotgun all the time to under center. And Kubiak wants to be under center as much as anybody. That's the thing that, that I think Fernando's gonna have to work on the most.
- [11:14]
Colin Cowherd
The. There's an argument that college football, because of the nil, you're playing with older players, the offenses are a little bit more sophisticated now than several years ago because you have several 23 and 24 year olds, not as many 19 and 20 year olds. Whereas the NBA is getting younger, college basketball is getting older, college football is getting older. Guys are just, you know, European guys, guys are staying in. Does that matter that Mendoza, over the last two years in the NIL era, I mean they're bringing in all these are Mindy and it was an old, old, maybe the oldest college roster ever. Does it matter?
- [11:52]
Matt Hasselbeck
I think it's a great thing. I mean that's starts matter how many games you started matters. I think another thing that people aren't really talk about when it comes to these quarterbacks. Maybe three or four years ago they were signaling in plays from the sidelines.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
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Matt Hasselbeck
And then, you know, maybe two years ago they went for this coach to quarterback communication system where the green dot, you know, you call the plays in. So now all of a sudden instead of your, you know, hand signals just being like, hey, Garnet, red five. That's your play call. Now you're jumping into this like Jon Gruden sounding like offense where it's hey, we got red left. Swap tight Close. Z right, sprint right, gu. Corner, halfback flat. I wanted to break. And so these quarterbacks are coming really from a NFL style of hearing it come into their helmet, regurgitating it in the huddle, and then doing what you do at the line of scrimmage the way we saw, you know, guys like Philip Rivers do this year where he just owned it at the line of scrimmage. And that's, That's. That's the part of the game that, again, you don't test it at the combine necessarily. You test it on the chalkboard or these days on the whiteboard, on the grease board. But. But it is different from what it's been in, you know, say, four years ago.
- [12:57]
Colin Cowherd
So there's an interesting. Ben Johnson was quoted. People have talked about that Caleb Williams, as great as he was, especially late in games, completed about 58 and a half percent of his throws. I've always felt the number that I need you to be at, even if you're. But I'll give you a little bit of leeway if you're like Cam Newton talented or Caleb is like 61 and a half, 62. And I think there's. There are a lot of people that believe going from 58 to 63, it's not that many completions. But I also think that Caleb is so unique and so powerful. So much turbo. How do you bake in easy completions? Is it just. Just as easy as Ben Johnson coaching more underneath routes? Because games dictate routes and play calls? When you hear that, we got to get him, you know, I mean, Ben said we got to get him closer to 70%. And I'm like, that's not who Caleb Williams is. What would be a realistic number for his style for. For his skill level and Ben's offense?
- [14:00]
Matt Hasselbeck
Well, it's hard for me to give you a number because it's not about the number. It's about accuracy. And so, like, when you give me, like, you could have a high number, I'll just tell you what it's like in a quarterback room, okay? You could have a complete completion and get a plus or a minus on your grade sheet in the quarterback room. And there's something called a runner's ball. And so it could be a completion, but if it wasn't a runner's ball, you get a minus. It's a negative. And what is a runner's ball? A runner's ball is. This is how you evaluate it. If a wide receiver is running a route and he has to change his gait, at all. Change his running gate, that's a minus. Now, there are some situations where it's a back shoulder throw and you want to put it on the eight, not the four, and all that kind of stuff. But typically it's about being a runner's ball. So this, this idea of a 65% is this and 70% is that. You know, I think that can be misleading. Now, I will say this about Caleb. He improved in all the areas that I really felt like he needed to improve in leadership, body language, big time throws. Play action was a huge part of what he did last year. That was so good. Clutch, like all that stuff, the hard stuff, he did well, the accuracy. I would think that for all NFL quarterbacks, you can hit the open guy, you can give him runner's balls more than he did last year. Receivers will like it, Ben Johnson will like it. And that's, I think, what this team needs to take it to the next level. And certainly in Caleb's, you know, he's the guy with the solution. He's got. He's got the opportunity to be the. Be the change.
- [15:28]
Colin Cowherd
So I saw a reporter at ESPN, Jeremy Fowler had a 12 source story on Jalen Hurts. And the overriding theme was, you know, he's patting the ball. He's not doing what the coaches want. He's reluctant to change. And part of me thinks, well, you know, he's five, eleven and a half, six feet tall. There are things he may not see. You know, you always hear that you got to coach what's available. You know, Nick, certain coaches say coach the player the way you want him to be, not necessarily what he is. You tell me with Jalen Hurts, when you see a story and people are like, it's hard to. Hard to coach, reticent to change, kind of does his own things. He'll pat the ball, he drives the coaches crazy. Is what Jalen Hurts is really saying is, guys, I'm not comfortable with what you want me to be. I'm comfortable with what I am.
- [16:22]
Matt Hasselbeck
Well, I think Jalen Hurts is a really good quarterback, but the timing of that story that came out right after league meetings is when everybody's together, everybody's, you know, got cocktail hour together. And so the stories, I mean, it's what people are saying. And so I would say for Jalen Hurts, obviously he's a great quarterback, but there is some talk about questioning, I don't know, coachability, humility. And I think coachability and humility are two things that play really well in the locker room. Jalen Hurts is a well respected guy in the locker room, but ultimately, excellence on the field is what people are going to respect the most. Coaches and players. And so I think that this has been a little bit of an attack on him. And if I'm him and I want to unite the locker room, I just give off that vibe of like, hey, I know I've accomplished so much in my career, but I'm still going to take kind of a more coachable approach. And then for wide receivers, you know, when you have disgruntled wide receivers year after year after year, you know, that's. It's not great for a locker room. So I don't know. I'm a believer in the quarterback as a, as a whole, but I, but I do believe that when you have the wide receiver group feeling like they're not a part of it and they gotta beg for success, it's a bad place to be as an offense.
- [17:41]
Colin Cowherd
So you have gone to the combine for years and, you know, between talking to players and financial literacy, one of the things I said about a month ago that I like about Nil is that it gives you a little money in college now you don't go from struggling to buy a pizza to here's $9 million. Guys now have bank accounts and, you know, they're withdrawn 15 grand for the weekend to go buy stuff. And it's like, that's kind of semi pro. Ish. It's like 30% of the NFL. But I don't think we're going to have as many stories about financial calamity, which, like, became documentaries for about 15 years. So when you go now to the combine or you talk to rookies, what are the conversations like today compared to seven years ago?
- [18:33]
Matt Hasselbeck
You nailed it, Colin. It's completely different. And the financial calamities are just happening at a younger age. That's why we don't hear about them. But no, I remember, I mean, the year that Drake May and Bo Nix and Sam Hartman and all those guys came out, I'm sitting over there doing my normal spiel about estimated tax payments and your accountants and agents and all this stuff, and they're looking at me like I'm crazy. They're like, bro, we've been doing this for like four years now. Like, they, they basically sounded like they had agents in high school. I mean, Sam Hartman left Wake Forest to go to Notre Dame for a million dollars. He's taking a pay cut to go to the Washington Commanders. I mean, it's, it's very different. It's very different. But I would say there is maturity that's come from it. These guys, when they come into the NFL, they leave college, they're very much focused on the football because they've kind of gone over that first hurdle of being focused on the money and all the problems that kind of, you know, more money, more problems is, is not just a line. It's, it's a little bit true. So these guys come in with, I think more of a laser focus on what needs to be happening on the football field. But yeah, I felt like an idiot the first time that I said that. For sure. That's, that's just the reality where we are. I mean, high school kids that I have coached have agents right now. It's, you know, welcome to 2026 high
- [19:48]
Colin Cowherd
school kids you currently coach.
- [19:51]
Matt Hasselbeck
Yeah, yeah. How about it?
- [19:53]
Colin Cowherd
Oh, look, you know, you know, that's why it's funny, Matt. I don't get too worked up, you know, when the Michigan football with Harbaugh had that iPhone story about Connor stallions. And I'm like, it's hard for me to get worked up on scouting on an iPhone when you can now buy high school players, which five years ago was the death penalty for college sports. That was the worst thing you could do. That's totally legal. And now I'm supposed to get worked up over an iPhone watching Michigan opponents. I'm like, guys, I'm not. It's just, I know it's not ideal pre scouting like that, but are you.
- [20:33]
Matt Hasselbeck
I think it was a little more than that. But I hear what you're saying now.
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Colin Cowherd
Now, are you pro nil?
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Matt Hasselbeck
Oh, listen, I'm pro all of it. I'm pro all of it. But I just think we've seen a lack of leadership from the ncaa and that's why we're in the situation that we're in sat back and sat on their hands. And now it's just, it's, it's, it's changed forever. You know, the tooth, toothpaste is out of the tube. So, you know, I'm pro player, I'm for the kids. I just think it's also a two way street here too. Everyone goes into the portal. Oh, I can't believe you're going into the portal. Well, guess what? When there's a new head coach coming in, a lot of times these kids are told like, hey, you don't have a home here. You have to go get, go get in the portal. And so I just think that the voice that we're not hearing from is the student athletes. And it's just very, very different than it was when I went to college, that's for sure.
- [21:22]
Colin Cowherd
Matt Hasselbeck, good seeing you, my man. Yeah. J. Mac, you're a fan of Nil and Portal stuff, aren't you?
- [21:31]
Jason McIntyre
Am I a fan? Of course. I love Nil. I think it's great. Honestly, this transfer portal for college basketball, I've been watching that more closely than the NBA off season because there's more movement, more money happening, a lot of big swings. I love this stuff. I don't see why people don't like it. You know, what's the argument against it?
- [21:49]
Colin Cowherd
Well, the argument against it is we always had college sports and then there was a line and then it was pro sports. And people are like, if you're going to pay them, I'll just watch the NFL. So there's, you know, traditionalists and purists. I understand that. Don't need to mock them. There's three or four things I really like. The downside is when you have a dramatic change in any business, leadership is really crucial. Well, we don't, we don't trust the ncaa. They don't know what they're doing right? So. So what happens is if, if there have been, you know, I said this years ago, the college football was an $8 billion a year business with no CEO, and that's what killed boxing. And why UFC emerged is Dana White and the Fertitta family. It's like you had a centralized form of leadership, and boxing's like, you know, every. Every boxing promoter, you know, doing it for themselves. And that's the problem with college sports now that it feels. And that's why we don't have a commissioner of college football, because the SEC want their guy and the Big Ten would want their guy. And what you should do is just go hire a massive, like, television executive who's tired of the TV world and says, I want to run college football. But the one thing that you can't deny, if you watch the College Football Playoff, I mean, Ohio State's getting Chip Kelly and Matt Patricia. Those are NFL coaches. And Ohio State's like, well, we have more NFL concepts because your locker room's older. And if you watch Michigan playing UConn, you're talking about, I mean, PJ Carlissimo came on last week. He goes, it used to be he would go do a college game and he would show up the day before and watch practice. And he goes, you could just tell from the size of the athletes. It was college basketball. He goes, you go now to a UConn or a Michigan or an Illinois game and it's NBA. It's, it's 7, 3, 6, 11, 6, 9, multiple athletes. So it's just bigger and stronger. We had a, we had a college basketball era where Virginia scoring 44 points and winning, that's not entertaining. I mean, that just doesn't do it for me.
- [23:52]
Jason McIntyre
Yeah. So by the way, don't you have the ratings to back it up? Wasn't this one of the most watched college football seasons ever? And the college basketball season was incredible. Like, I don't want to believe what people are saying on social media because that's kind of useless. But the actual proof is in the, oh, people are watching the sporting events on television, which people don't do anymore, Right?
- [24:11]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah. You couldn't watch the tournament. The quality of basketball in the tournament was just bigger, stronger, older athletes. It's like I have my issues with the NBA, but the talent pool today is greater than it's ever been. Everybody can handle the ball, everybody can shoot. I think the NBA's got some systemic issues, but the quality of the athletes, the length, the size, the ball handling, the shooting, it's out of this world. College sports is older, therefore stronger, bigger, smarter. And it just, it looks a little. Sometimes college football, you go back to the 60s, 70s and it was wing T. Yeah. And you know, Nebraska's winning a championship with one wide receiver out, out wide they never throw to again. That just doesn't. That to me is not progressive, smart football. And I think college sports feels more like pro sports today. One more herd.
- [25:02]
Jason McIntyre
The herd streams 24 hours a day,
- [25:04]
Colin Cowherd
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search herd to listen live or on
- [25:08]
Jason McIntyre
demand whenever you'd like.
- [25:11]
Colin Cowherd
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from the Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio. And in addition to hearing us live
- [25:17]
Julian Edelman
live weeknights from 7 to 10pm Eastern
- [25:20]
Colin Cowherd
on Fox Sports Radio, we are excited
- [25:22]
Julian Edelman
to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
- [25:25]
Colin Cowherd
That's right, you can now watch the Odd couple live on YouTube every day. All you got to do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube again.
- [25:35]
Matt Hasselbeck
YouTube.
- [25:36]
Colin Cowherd
Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out on YouTube and subscribe. Some people have a Starbucks order depending on their mood. Morning coffee, weekend, something iced and fun. But now afternoons have a new go to because Starbucks just launched their new energy refreshers. They're the Starbucks refreshers flavors everybody already loves like the strawberry acai pink drink and dragon drink. Now with an added boost of caffeine to power you through the rest of your day. Plus, you can try new flavors like Mango Strawberry Energy Refresher or the Mango Dream Energy Drink. They're bright, fruity, super refreshing. When that afternoon slump hits, whatever flavor you like, Starbucks Energy Refreshers are exactly what you need to take on the moments that matter. So next time the afternoon slowdown kicks in, head to your nearest Starbucks and try one of the new energy refreshers. Or order one right now on the Starbucks app. We're lost and kickoff's coming up.
- [26:41]
Jason McIntyre
I don't want to miss the lineup. I'm gonna ask that man for directions.
- [26:46]
Colin Cowherd
Hi there. We're trying to get to the stadium.
- [26:48]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
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- [26:53]
Julian Edelman
Nah, I'm just kidding. Let me get my phone out.
- [26:55]
Colin Cowherd
How is there signal out here?
- [26:57]
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- [27:09]
Colin Cowherd
Actually, can you pull up the way
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Jason McIntyre
to a T Mobile store?
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- [27:38]
Colin Cowherd
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- [28:16]
Julian Edelman
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Colin Cowherd
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Julian Edelman
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- [29:48]
Colin Cowherd
Mets Dodgers start tonight. God, I'm just. Just the matchup of baseball's biggest payrolls ever. It's just fascinating to see the revenue that the Dodgers create. It just. They own their own local tv. So what happens in Major League Baseball is teams share the national television revenue. They don't share their local revenue. And just to give you an idea, the Dodgers local TV revenue just shows you how popular they are and how big Los Angeles is as a market is $330 million a year. Even good teams like the brewers are at 50 million in local TV revenue. And that's coming down. So yeah, it's an advantage. I mean, every. Listen, in college sports, you have historical and geographical advantages. I mean, it helps to be at Georgia football programs a lot easier than, you know, Montana State. I mean, there's advantages all through sports. I mean, go look at where the Winter Olympics are dominated with countries that have mountain ranges like, you know, there are advantages, but it's really not for the Dodgers.
- [31:01]
Matt Hasselbeck
It's.
- [31:02]
Colin Cowherd
It's. Think about this. The Dodger. I'll get into it later. It's. They could spend more is the point of this article. They're actually spending it wisely. They could spend much more. J. Mac with the news.
- [31:14]
Jason McIntyre
No, no, no, no.
- [31:15]
Colin Cowherd
Heard on the news. This is the herd line news.
- [31:19]
Jason McIntyre
Now you, now you got my beak wet. I want to hear what they could, huh?
- [31:24]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
- [31:24]
Jason McIntyre
All right, let's start with the NBA. Colin, let's go with the Golden State Warriors. You know Steph Curry, my favorite player in NBA history. Yes, that's a fact. It's been a rough season for him. They came in with high expectations. Now they're settling for the play in where they'll face the paperclips and Kawhi Leonard. Here's Curry talking about how excited he is for the play end, but it's not as exciting as it was at the beginning of the season.
- [31:48]
Matt Hasselbeck
This is such a unique year just
- [31:50]
Colin Cowherd
because of the way it's gone.
- [31:51]
Matt Hasselbeck
It's not like you've underperformed.
- [31:55]
Colin Cowherd
You've just been hit with so many
- [31:56]
Matt Hasselbeck
injuries that your expectation had to shift
- [31:59]
Colin Cowherd
because of, you know, availability.
- [32:02]
Matt Hasselbeck
So I'm trying to get as many
- [32:04]
Colin Cowherd
guys back, you know, to play in
- [32:08]
Matt Hasselbeck
time to make, you know, that this
- [32:11]
Colin Cowherd
playing game on Wednesday worth it. So I'm excited to have another game for sure. Listen, it's predictable old roster. I mean, this is, it's. I'm actually. It's the downside to having an iconic, beloved local player. Everything centers around Steph Curry and I love him, but they're a mile from Oklahoma City. They're all mile from San Antonio.
- [32:39]
Jason McIntyre
How different is this than the Giannis situation? Other than giannis is like 6,6ish years younger than Curry because the Bucks were going nowhere and all anybody's been screaming is, let Giannis get out. He got a title again. I love Curry. I love that run with the Warriors. We've got a marquee guy now reduced to the play in for the fourth time in six years. Yeah, the roster's going nowhere. What are we doing? Why is Curry having to languish? Yeah, languish in Golden State when he's still one of the top 10, top 15 players in the league.
- [33:09]
Colin Cowherd
Well, you have one of the smartest owners, one of the smartest coaches, one of the smartest superstars. But again, fall in like with your sports stars, fall in love with your family. Fall in like with sports, they've fallen in love with Curry. And so this is what you get. I mean, go.
- [33:26]
Jason McIntyre
They ask you for input. Colin, do you ride this out? Let's just ceremonies for Curry the next three years till it's over. Or do you just say, steph, do you want to still be here or do you want to go to a contender because we're up for starting over.
- [33:38]
Colin Cowherd
I mean, to me, Con Knippel, Steph Curry, Lamelo ball. He can move close to his family in golf. I just, I mean, people are outraged. I can't believe you'd consider trading Steph Curry. You really like this basketball. You think Steph's getting younger next year? I mean, I would just start Over. And I also believe because of NIL is that draft picks matter more now. I mean, go look at last year's draft and this year's draft. This year, we have three or four potentially transformational players. I mean, AJ Damonza goes to the Jazz in Utah. It's like, oh, Utah is going to be really, really good. To me, I just. The sentimentality of sports. Love sports. When it's happening, don't fall in love with it. Players age, like, move on 100% with you.
- [34:30]
Jason McIntyre
All right, let's go to the NFL. Let's move on to Fernando Mendoza and interesting setup here in Vegas. So he's obviously going to be competing with Kirk Cousins for the starting job. But Rich Gannon, a former Raider, has an interesting theory on who should get reps this spring.
- [34:48]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Here we go.
- [34:50]
Colin Cowherd
I would imagine that Mendoza is going to get just about all the reps. We want to get him as many reps as possible. Why? Because Kirk Cousins doesn't need a lot of reps in. In May, June and July. He does it. So we want to get the young rookie up to speed, and we want to give him as many reps as possible. And then at that point, when we get into the preseason, we can decide, okay, this kid's ready to play. Or, you know what? Maybe he's not ready to play week one. Let's go with the veteran, and let's find a way to eventually work him into the lineup. Yeah, I mean, for the first time in 20 years, I care about the Raiders. That's the power. I mean, honestly, that's the power. I mean, when. When Gruden got there, they were selling how this was. This was going to be, you know, this was going to be the future. And then you see stories. It unraveled quickly. And I've been a lot of stories recently about that. Athletic had a great one here a couple of weeks ago. Pretty telling. This is the first time I've actually thought of the Raiders and thought, hopefully they've got some new people in the ownership group. Brady's obviously involved in it. I think this kid's got the right sauce. I think that. I think the Raiders are going to be really interesting. And also, if you start looking at the draft, this general manager appears to like. I always believe that if sports isn't that hard, it's not easy, but it's not that hard. I can watch this GM for the Raiders over the last year, and it's like he's doing thoughtful, smart things that I think will work out. Like Mayock And Gruden, he had a power struggle and Gruden wanted to say in the first couple rounds, but reportedly got bored with the draft. And that's where Mike Mayock had success in the fourth, fifth, you know, Max Crosby, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh rounds. I just, I don't know. Between this GM Glenn Kubiak and this quarterback and some new ownership eyes and ears, I think the Raiders are going forward, may have the right stuff.
- [36:52]
Jason McIntyre
It's interesting. I hadn't heard anybody put it in perspective like that. The first time they were interesting in 20 years and I just in my head quickly was going back.
- [36:59]
Matt Hasselbeck
Who were.
- [37:00]
Jason McIntyre
What was interesting about the raiders the last 15 years other than the move, like go look at their draft history. Just littered with bus.
- [37:06]
Colin Cowherd
The Gruden hiring was fascinating, yes, but he'd become a television star. And the NFL's all about minutiae and the grind and details. When I, when I text people, I know people that are no longer general managers in the NFL and they've moved on and they're still following it or consulting and you know, you got to be careful about hiring TV people to do football jobs. It's hard. It's. You get one month off a year. It's a, it's an 11 month grind.
- [37:34]
Jason McIntyre
Yeah. All right, let's go to the final story. Colin, because I'm back from vacation, they wanted me to lob you a softball here. And it's about our favorite quarterback debate, Brock Purdy. So Kyle Juszczyk, the legendary tough guy fullback from the Niners, was asked about what it's going to take to give Brock Purdy respect. Colin, you're going to love this answer. Here we go.
- [37:56]
Matt Hasselbeck
I don't know what it is, what it's going to take for this guy to finally get like the respect that I think he truly deserves because I mean, season in, season out, he plays tremendously. And I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's just that
- [38:10]
Colin Cowherd
the fact that he's not a first
- [38:11]
Matt Hasselbeck
round draft pick, like if that is
- [38:13]
Colin Cowherd
just going to be the story for
- [38:14]
Matt Hasselbeck
his entire career and be kind of held against him maybe. But I love the guy, you know, as a person, as my quarterback, as a football player, like, he is the dude.
- [38:26]
Colin Cowherd
Well, I think, I think actually Brock Purdy is appropriately respected. We don't think he's Josh Allen or Justin Herbert in terms of turbo and power. We don't think he's a great athlete, but he's better than Mac Jones. I think Brock Purdy Is he's had, he's had some injuries. He can get, you know, a little sloppy. I think he's appropriately respected. I think everybody, myself included, I think he's a nice B plus quarterback. I think he deserves a ton of credit. I think he's a hard worker. I think he's grateful and humble. I think, I think he's more athletic. I think I didn't give him the credit he deserves for athleticism. I watched him play in college a lot and my take on him in college was bit of a gunslinger, kind of reckless, a little small. But you put him within that system. So I think he's appropriately respected. I think if you ask, if. Let's say you asked, forget fans for this moment. Let's just say you asked GMs, where do you put them in the league? And I think most GMs would say, well, he got the perfect coach. Shanahan is great with quarterbacks. He's probably somewhere in that 12 to 16 space in terms of size, health, athleticism, jet fuel, power. You know, he doesn't, he didn't have first round traits, but he is, he, he's kind of a streaky guy when he gets hot. The one thing I like about him that, that, that you can tell a lot about a quarterback by how a coach coaches him. When Shanahan had Garoppolo, who was fine, they didn't throw the ball down the field a ton. They didn't throw it up the sideline a ton. That told you they didn't think Jimmy had a great arm, but they let, they threw it over the middle of the field. He was accurate with Brock Purdy. When I watch him, Shanahan lets him go. He lets him let it rip. So that tells me that Shanahan thinks he's more talented than probably I do. So I respect Shanahan. So Shanahan, the way he coaches him, it's aggressive. They take big shots down the field and that tells you Shanahan's got a better eye for quarterbacks than I do. And Shanahan thinks he's really talented.
- [40:36]
Jason McIntyre
It's interesting because you're saying a lot of nice things. Now I'm appropriately rated. I don't know what that means. If I said who's had the better career, Dak Prescott or Brock Purdy? What's the answer, Colin?
- [40:48]
Colin Cowherd
Well, there's, there's a lot of contextualization, I think.
- [40:54]
Jason McIntyre
Well, one had a Super bowl winning coach in Mike McCarthy. The other has not had a Super bowl winning coach.
- [41:00]
Colin Cowherd
Well, I think Shanahan's considered a little higher grade than McCarthy. I think they're, they're very different. I mean, that's, it's actually a fascinating question. I'd probably go Dak. I think they both have good leadership qualities. I think Brock when he's in a groove is more accurate throwing the ball when he gets in a groove. Dak used to be more athletic, but Dak with a lower body injuries isn't quite there's a lot to like about both. I it's a totally fair question. I've never heard it pose like that. I I'd probably go Dak over Purdy and I think both are b well, here's the thing.
- [41:39]
Jason McIntyre
If Dak were in San Fran and Brock were in Dallas and Brock was elevated because he was in Dallas, but Dak had the playoff success and going to two Super Bowls, I think it would easily be Dak Prescott. But for whatever reason a lot of people are going to say, oh no, it's not Brock, it can't be Brock, it's got to be Dak. But if you look at all the numbers, Brock's kind of got him and it's not particularly close.
- [41:59]
Colin Cowherd
Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, I think having Shanahan as a head coach is important. Yeah, I think that's fair. J. Mac with the news well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by the Herd line. Alan Schiff not got a great book on Rory McElroy. It's called appropriately Rory. I finished it last week and he'll be joining us next hour at this time. Chris Broussard, too, as we've talked some Dodgers, Mets. I I'm reading a fascinating article, Soup to Nuts on the series and the revenue and it is remarkable that the Dodgers actually could spend much more than that's how great their current revenue is within the franchise. Some thoughts on that next the Herd.
- [42:49]
Jason McIntyre
Be sure to catch live editions of
- [42:50]
Colin Cowherd
the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app. Some people have a Starbucks order depending on their mood Morning coffee weekend, something iced and fun. But now afternoons have a new go to because Starbucks just launched their new energy refreshers. They're the Starbucks refreshers flavors everybody already loves, like the Strawberry Acai Pink Drink and Dragon Drink, now with an added boost of caffeine to power you through the rest of your day. Plus you can try new flavors like Mango Strawberry Energy Refresher or the Mango Dream Energy Drink. They're bright, fruity, super refreshing when that afternoon slump hits whatever flavor you like, Starbucks energy refreshers are exactly what you need to take on the moments that matter. So next time the afternoon slowdown kicks in, head to your nearest Starbucks and try one of the new energy refreshers or order one right now on the Starbucks app. We're lost and kickoff's coming up.
- [43:58]
Jason McIntyre
I don't want to miss the lineup. I'm gonna ask that man for directions.
- [44:02]
Colin Cowherd
Hi there. We're trying to get to the stadium.
- [44:04]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Well, you're gonna take a left at the old oak tree at this here road.
- [44:09]
Julian Edelman
Nah, I'm just kidding. Let me get my phone out.
- [44:11]
Colin Cowherd
How is there signal out here?
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T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
T Mobile and US Cellular are coming together. So the network out here is huge. We get the same great signal as the city, saving a boatload with benefits. And there's a five year price guarantee, too. Okay, here's the turn.
- [44:25]
Colin Cowherd
Actually, can you pull up the way
- [44:27]
Jason McIntyre
to a T Mobile store?
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- [44:55]
Colin Cowherd
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- [45:33]
Julian Edelman
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- [46:31]
Jason McIntyre
The fastest racing on Earth hits the west coast as Alex Palo, Joseph Newgarden and The stars of IndyCar take on the streets of Long Beach. The road to the Indy 500 continues to Sunday at 5:30 Eastern only on
- [46:45]
Colin Cowherd
Fox so the Mets and the Dodgers will meet tonight in a baseball series. The Mets and Dodgers have ranked first and second in some order in total payroll four times since 2022. In 2023 the Mets rank first, Dodgers fourth. The only exception. So these are the two big spenders. A couple of things in this article by Jeff Passon and others don't underestimate the value of Shohei Ohtani. For the record, Shohei Ohtani played for the Angels in Southern California an hour down the road with Mike Trout, and they couldn't do anything pre Ohtani. The year before they signed Ohtani, The Dodgers were fourth in competitive balanced tax payroll. They got to about 260 in 2025. With Ohtani, it's at 417 million. So we love bets and Freddie Freeman and Max Muncie. Ohtani is a revenue generating outlier. The other thing is, according to this article, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but the Dodgers could spend even more if they wanted to. The dodgers allotted about 46% of their revenue last year to their payroll. That's below the major league average of 48%. So the Dodgers, now the Mets are spending much more that that's all Steve Cohen. But the Dodgers have built this incredible infrastructure of research and development and scouting so they just don't miss very often. Drama for the Dodgers is Edwin Diaz. His velocity's down a little. The former Met is now the Dodgers closer. So the again, the Mets spend a fortune and they are on a five game losing streak and just got swept by the A's. Okay, so money doesn't guarantee. It generally guarantees you're interesting because either you have star players who are struggling or flourishing or the expectations are high. So money guarantees, by and large are interesting. The Mets prove it doesn't guarantee anything beyond that. Here was here was Carlos Mendoza after being swept by the A's, tough homestead
- [49:01]
Matt Hasselbeck
overall, offensively, you know, you come back from that road trip feeling good about
- [49:06]
Colin Cowherd
the way you're swinging the bat. You win the first game here and then you can just have a hard time scoring from there. There'll be few innings where it's like non competitive at bats. Then we hit today. I thought, you know, there was few guys that hit balls hard at people,
- [49:23]
Matt Hasselbeck
but yeah, it's not creating enough traffic to do to put together a rally.
- [49:29]
Colin Cowherd
The other thing the article points out is this is where stars. I mean, when you go to Los Angeles, the tax rates 13 and a half percent. So your money's going to get gobbled up like. And players know that. But there's two or three places in the world that have perfect weather. Southern California. Southern California is one of the places. The taxes are high, but you can market and promote so well. And the other thing about the Dodgers and I, and I don't live in LA anymore, I go there, I'm going there tomorrow. One of the things I always appreciated about the Dodgers is they don't rest on their laurels. Yes, they lead Major League Baseball in attendance. Their stadium's awesome. And then they just went and spent a hundred million dollars on their stadium upgrades. I'm not sure what they're doing. I'll figure it out next time I go. But money guarantees expectations, right? That's why money equals drama. It guarantees expectations in baseball. It doesn't guarantee results. The brewers don't have a ton of money. They're incredibly well run. Same with the Guardians. So. The story by Jeff Passen and others, the Ohtani factor is unbelievable. Also speaking of Los Angeles, per shams, Luca will be back in the US tomorrow and the Lakers are going to reevaluate him. Austin Reeves will be out for a majority of the first round series. So, you know, if the Lakers could snag one of the first two games starts in Los Angeles, that who knows? Could Luca come back for, you know, game five and six? I think in the first round you get these longer layoffs, if I remember.
- [51:14]
Matt Hasselbeck
Yeah.
- [51:14]
Colin Cowherd
So, I mean, what you're hoping for is Luca comes back, you reevaluate him and you can get him. And if the Lakers could win that first game, can you get to a game four or five and Luca comes back at 85%.
- [51:26]
Julian Edelman
Yeah.
- [51:26]
Jason McIntyre
Now we got some drama. Cow herd. I know you're fired up, Luka Legend, by the way. I mean, I didn't know you could just go overseas and they could cure your hamstring in a heartbeat. And now you're back in action. Pretty cool.
- [51:40]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I think that's been done before. It hasn't been reported before.
- [51:44]
Jason McIntyre
Oh, okay. Once you get on that one scoop, I need the details.
- [51:48]
Colin Cowherd
Okay.
- [51:48]
Jason McIntyre
I got a back injury I need fixed.
- [51:50]
Colin Cowherd
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Jason McIntyre
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Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
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