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You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

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Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning,

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good morning, good morning.

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Buddy, happy happy happy.

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Fox Sports Saturday, NFL

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Draft, NBA Playoffs

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all going on. Man, it is a

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lot of fun, great time right

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here, fellas as we come you alive from the

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tire rack dot Com studios,

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tire rack dot Com, we're gonna help

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dot com the way tire buying

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should be. Jason Fitz Anthony

0:43

Gargano as also,

0:45

we have our man Figgi. He is awaiting

0:48

the birth of his child. So

0:51

I know, FITZI good morning.

0:53

I know.

0:53

We want to wish h Figgy and

0:56

his beautiful bride a

0:59

lovely day today as they await the

1:01

birth of their child. And uh

1:04

I knew uh miss fella or

1:06

fella coming into the world.

1:08

Yeah, I mean that was my first question. Do we know

1:10

the gender yet? Because are we getting an extra fella and

1:13

an extra fella to the crew, like and you

1:15

know that's the way that works. All of a sudden, his grandfather didn't

1:17

beam and we get an extra.

1:18

Fella dude, you

1:20

would be you are.

1:22

I don't know if you have any but you

1:24

would be an outrageous

1:27

uncle.

1:28

Like you would be cool as well.

1:30

You would be like the cool uncle.

1:32

You know what, I don't

1:34

have any any nieces

1:36

nephews, so yeah, I got like my

1:39

brother and I don't have any relationships, so

1:41

like his kids wouldn't be right in my life anyway.

1:43

But you know what, maybe I'll add this,

1:46

maybe maybe cool uncle is just like a thing that we now

1:48

ad.

1:48

Like I'm I'm see, let's

1:52

go like, I don't know if you know some

1:54

of your friends, your dear friends have

1:56

kids and stuff, and you know, you would be.

1:58

The cool uncle.

1:59

I love kids, I do.

2:00

I love them, I know, and you got that great personality,

2:03

so I think you would be uh because

2:05

listen, so I grew up I have

2:07

about like seven

2:10

eight like really really really close

2:12

friends, like we grew up when we were kids, and

2:15

so my kids call all my friends

2:18

uncle Boo, Uncle touch, Uncle

2:20

Joey's blood.

2:21

How was this happening? Like

2:23

even the kids in your life have cooler nicknames,

2:25

and it like this is what happens when you're like

2:27

like Philly uncle Uncle tuoc

2:30

uncle Uncle boo, like.

2:32

What are we doing here?

2:33

Like this is amazing.

2:36

And it's and it's funny. We uh

2:38

and the kids, like you know, they just oh.

2:40

It's uncle boo hey, Uncle boo hey, Uncle

2:42

teach like you know, and it's funny,

2:45

like they're a part of their lives, like they

2:47

come watch and play ball and

2:49

all that stuff. So I think that's that's

2:52

a that's a you thing, man. I think you would

2:54

be uh incredible at that.

2:56

It's partially because I'm still a child,

2:58

right Like that's the thing, Like I think you relate to that,

3:01

right Like, there's no I was asked yesterday

3:03

every year, I like to celebrate the end of the draft.

3:05

So at the end of the draft, especially going through all

3:07

the broadcast work I've done, I've been lucky enough to do that.

3:09

I'm very thankful. I always like to celebrate. So,

3:12

you know, tonight when I get back to

3:14

home, the question was where you want to celebrate. My first

3:16

answer is, like, I don't know how. Maybe Dave and Busters give some cake

3:19

and then play some video games, like I'm a child.

3:21

I'm a child, Like, oh, really, you want to do the cake?

3:23

Yes?

3:24

Cake? As always, usually I go someplace

3:26

and I get one of every dessert on the menu.

3:28

That's a very true story. And I just blow through them all because

3:30

I try and take care of myself in draft season. So

3:32

it's a splurge day. I usually I get one of every

3:35

I don't go to Cheesecake Factory. I couldn't handle that

3:37

many desserts. But I usually get like, you know, go

3:39

to like a nice steakhouse, but I don't order anything

3:42

other than every dessert on the menu. But

3:44

no, like tonight for the series, yeah, oh yeah,

3:46

yeah, yeah, yeah, a couple of years ago.

3:48

So wait, so after you get downe the direct that you're working

3:50

the draft for Yahoo, so you'll come back and

3:53

you'll treat yourself to

3:55

an all dessert night.

3:57

Yeah so correct, Yes, So, like I'm

3:59

in La right now because that's where yea who's

4:01

doing the stuff. So after this afternoon, I'm flying

4:03

back to Nashville. Actually, I'll get to Nashville tonight.

4:05

I will go to Dave and Busters and I'll probably

4:08

order like three or four because I don't know how many desserts

4:10

they have in the menu. But like a couple

4:12

of years ago, I want like cake. Yeah,

4:14

a couple of years ago, I went to Flemings, Right, yeah,

4:17

Flemings in West Hartford after the end of the draft,

4:20

and I sat down at the bar and I ordered like the

4:22

six desserts they had so like the key lime pie,

4:24

the cheesecake, the crembrewlet, the chocolate cake

4:26

and whatever else.

4:28

I think, how

4:30

them?

4:30

Yeah, I mean, look, I

4:33

was a fat kid for a reason. Like I take

4:35

good kill, but how do.

4:36

You handle all that? All

4:38

that, like that sugar taste, Like

4:41

I get like whacking up a dessert here and there,

4:43

right, but you're gonna you're gonna dive in

4:45

to six of them without any

4:48

savory.

4:48

Like people think that I'm exaggerating

4:51

here. I can eat an entire cake at a

4:53

sitting and that's no problem like that

4:55

there is, like there is no when

4:57

when I was every Sunday for years, I ate

5:00

a dozen double chocolate donuts and that was

5:02

during the Raiders game. Always a dozen double chocolate

5:04

donuts. And that's not the only thing. I mean, that's

5:06

just the kind of the way you get through the game. I get the

5:09

whole Like, oh, doesn't you Tommy hurt after

5:11

that?

5:11

Man?

5:12

Grow up?

5:12

If you're tummy hurts after a dozen donuts,

5:14

you know what what do we do?

5:16

Yeah, that's also give me you invest

5:18

you are inst Uh what

5:20

a what a wild? I mean, this draft

5:23

has been incredible,

5:25

man, what amazing theater. It

5:27

starts with obviously

5:30

Thursday and the first round and

5:32

the run on quarterbacks. Man

5:35

six in the first twelve.

5:37

We we thought it would be one, two, three, four.

5:42

I'm stunned the way it all put worked

5:44

out where it becomes, you

5:47

know, three and then six in

5:49

the first twelve.

5:52

That it's wild.

5:53

Man.

5:53

I'm gonna hurt my shoulder patting

5:56

myself on the back so hard here. But like, for

5:58

a minute, I got I mean

6:01

wrecked on Twitter. I got wrecked

6:03

by Raiders fans, my beloved fellow

6:05

Raiders fans, because I kept telling everybody

6:07

a month ago, like I think it was Field

6:10

Yates over a month ago that said. I asked him.

6:12

I was talking to Field and I was like, hey, Raiders

6:14

at thirteen, what do they do with quarterbacks? And he

6:17

was like, and I was asking about bo Nicks at one

6:19

point? You think they're interested? And Field said,

6:21

without hesitation, Bo's gone at

6:23

twelve to Denver. That's done. And

6:25

like, I was like, really, so, if you think quarterbacks

6:28

are gonna go one, two, three, four, and Nis

6:30

is gone at five, which is what I thought going into

6:32

the draft. You're telling me that there

6:34

will be five off the board before thirteen,

6:36

and He's like, yep, at least I've been saying

6:39

five off the board for a long time. Now

6:41

we got six. But I'm still sitting there. I'm

6:43

like, Okay, I was stunned by Michael Pennick

6:46

junior. We were all stunned by Michael Pennick junior.

6:48

But if you buy the theory that there

6:50

were gonna be five in the first half of the first

6:52

round, you're gonna have to be aggressive. So like,

6:54

of course six and twelve is that

6:57

I think a crazy amount, But my

6:59

god, it's just a new NFL. Like you

7:01

draft a quarterback high because if you're wrong, you

7:04

just get rid of them. Like the dead cap

7:06

number for Bryce Young today if he was if

7:08

he was cut, is thirty one million

7:10

dollars. That's nothing. So

7:12

teams just they're gonna keep rolling the dice every year.

7:14

Now, they're gonna just take quarterbacks every year

7:17

until they find the one they want.

7:18

Yeah.

7:19

No, and and listen, it's

7:21

when you start to look at it the league.

7:24

You still need there are teams

7:26

that still need quarterbacks, and we told about your raiders.

7:29

I mean that's just the bottom line, man, I

7:31

mean it was. It was just a

7:33

very incredible draft, which

7:36

really helped the value between

7:39

the receivers, the

7:41

quarterbacks, Joe all the run,

7:44

historic run on offensive

7:47

players. Just incredible,

7:50

man, I mean it was, well, I have

7:52

Tony draft is awesome. And

7:54

now you got Saban with

7:56

his flaming red hair. I didn't realize his hair

7:58

was that red. Yeah,

8:02

at Belichick. I mean, it's

8:04

pretty awesome to have like

8:07

the one of the like two of the

8:09

greatest football minds

8:12

actually out there talking about the draft.

8:15

I'll be honest, I love those two guys, all right.

8:18

There are two incredible Croatians,

8:20

and I think they're brilliant guys.

8:23

So I love listening to them,

8:26

and I find it just

8:28

really really interesting, really

8:30

insightful. I've

8:32

enjoyed this draft, I think almost as much

8:35

as any than ever.

8:36

Well, the funny thing is, you

8:38

know, covering it for Yahoo, what was amazing

8:41

is that once you had the run of six and twelve on

8:43

the quarterbacks, that meant everything pushed

8:45

back right, and so to your point, all of

8:47

a sudden, if you thought this was a deep

8:49

wide receiver class or deep offensive line class.

8:52

We all knew that coming in, but all of a sudden,

8:54

because of the way the board broke, like you got

8:56

teams in the twenties, like look at the Eagles.

8:59

All the Eagles did was like

9:03

they're sitting there, like, man, they walk into the weekend

9:05

thinking, golly, we need help, we need

9:08

help in the secondary. Who would have

9:10

ever guessed where they were picking in the twenties.

9:12

Then all of a sudden they'd be able to look at the

9:14

board and say, wait a minute, guys, we can have

9:17

any corner we want. Every

9:19

single great player is

9:21

still on the board at the position we need the most

9:23

help at and it's a value. And then in the

9:25

second round they sit around it's like, oh, what do you know, we

9:28

got to move up a little bit. But like a corner

9:30

that everybody thought could go in the first round,

9:32

that's a really versatile piece that could play safety and

9:34

do a million different things in Cooper Degen just

9:37

sitting there like this draft

9:39

broke so well for good teams that

9:41

all of a sudden, we're picking in the twenties saying, oh

9:43

my god, I cannot believe this guy is still on the

9:46

board because there was such a run of quarterbacks

9:48

in the open of the draft.

9:50

Yeah, I gotta tell you. I mean here,

9:53

we're sitting there going in.

9:55

I talked to to how would

9:57

just be a text and it was like from

10:00

the board man, you didn't have to

10:02

do you don't have to do anything. No, yesterday

10:04

got really busy, and what that

10:07

allowed them to do. They were willing to trade

10:09

up. So they were they were thinking it all along that they would

10:11

have to trade up. They wanted quarterback

10:14

or o line, right, and that was their

10:16

big deal cornerback. So when both

10:19

they have the choice, no one

10:21

thought that they would in their wildest

10:23

imagination that they would have

10:26

the choice between the two

10:28

best corners in the draft. So

10:31

you go Kenyon, right, you go Kenyon

10:33

Mitchell from Toledo, and

10:35

then you're in. The Eagles,

10:37

for example, had fifty and fifty three in

10:39

the second round. So then they were able

10:41

to consolidate that yesterday

10:44

move up to get Cooper de Gene from Iowa.

10:47

And now you got a kid that could play slot

10:50

corner, a kid that could play safety,

10:52

you know as well as and I talked to

10:54

uh to my man's

10:57

bags and we were talking about him, and he

10:59

said, you know, listen, I'm don't even hesitate putting on the outside.

11:02

So like you know, like

11:04

that's a that's a monster

11:07

draft. Like that, you come away and then

11:09

they love this kid off the edge from

11:12

Western Kentucky.

11:14

Actually I'm sorry Christian Kentucky,

11:16

Christian, this small college

11:19

player. It was a vic Fangio was

11:22

in love with him. So they

11:24

got him and it was so

11:27

for them. It was a great drift. I've

11:29

died to see what you think of the Raiders. We

11:32

uh going brock Boers get.

11:34

I love brun I think brock Bowers is

11:37

a star, but I'm curious that

11:39

what you think the

11:42

first round, you know, going all in on a on

11:44

a player like him.

11:45

Look, I think the most important

11:47

thing that you can find out about

11:49

your team and this this is what like the

11:51

the the push and pull of the world. We

11:53

all know that draft grades get clicks,

11:56

right, so everybody does draft grades. I want

11:58

to live in a world where we stopped great things

12:00

that we can't grade yet. But I think there's

12:02

one thing we know in the draft. You find

12:04

out the true identity of what

12:06

your team is trying to accomplish. You find out where

12:08

they think they are. You find out what their path

12:11

is and what their logic is, and if you

12:13

don't find that out, you got a massive problem. So

12:15

here I am sitting on the clock now.

12:17

I think the Raiders were genuinely interested in Michael

12:19

pennixs junior at thirteen, he wasn't there, So

12:23

knowing that he wasn't there, I really thought,

12:25

Okay, they're going to take the best fat guy

12:27

on the board, or they're going to take defensive help. Right, there's

12:29

no doubt about it. My first

12:32

thought that as I'm sitting there on camera, Brock

12:34

Powers is selected and Charles Robinson,

12:36

our insider, was getting all the picks in advance, and he just looked

12:38

over. He's like, oh, you want to know, and I'm like, yes, it's

12:41

Brock Powers. And my jaw just dropped,

12:43

and I didn't really know what to say. And everybody

12:45

on our panel was like, well, how do you feel? I

12:47

was like, I feel stunned because the

12:49

Raiders have, finally, for the first time in

12:52

I don't know how long, made life

12:54

simple. Best player available,

12:56

Yeah, never gets you in trouble when you're

12:58

a bad team man in the board.

13:00

Breaks start reaching.

13:01

Yeah, there's this moment of I've spent years

13:03

having to defend well, why would you take that guy there?

13:06

And now all of a sudden, it's like, Nope, the draft

13:08

board just worked in a way where somebody that should

13:10

have gone in the top ten was still sitting

13:12

there at thirteen because of the way the board broke.

13:15

You just you take him. And frankly, they

13:17

did the second thing, the same thing in the second

13:19

round with the power Shopson.

13:21

By the way, Jackson Powers Johnson is

13:23

the Senate from Oregon.

13:24

I love that pick. Dude,

13:27

he is a stunt. I had

13:29

him going somewhere. I had him ranked

13:32

somewhere in the h or

13:34

in the twenties. As

13:36

far as prospects, we had him graded Baldy

13:39

and I watching all the film, I love

13:42

I love that pick for them.

13:43

Well, and what do those picks tell you? What

13:45

those picks tell you is that Tom Telesco, the

13:48

GM of the Raiders, now looked around

13:50

and said, Yep, we need to add talent, and we need

13:52

to stop worrying about fixing it right now and

13:54

start fixing it long term. But it doesn't matter if we

13:56

have a need for a weapon. We need

13:58

more talent. So it does matter whether because

14:00

you know, obviously they just signed Andre James,

14:03

their center, to a deal. Now they've anounce they're

14:05

going to move Powers Johnson to guard, which is something

14:07

he played also in college. We'll see how that plays out.

14:09

But I think what you think Jackson's

14:12

I think I think you can use him a guard.

14:15

In fact, I told to the Eagles about that too. I

14:17

think about you.

14:18

What you learn, though, is that Telesco's looking around

14:20

saying, I don't really give a damn what we have right now. I

14:22

got to make this team better. I'm gonna make this team

14:24

better every single pick, and that that to

14:26

me is it's such a stupid,

14:28

simple logic and something I haven't

14:30

felt for most of the last

14:32

twenty five years of my life. And the

14:35

first time we've been on camera for me

14:37

Covers, my seventh year cover in a draft, and it's the

14:39

first time I've walked away from the draft

14:41

saying, like, you know what, I understand exactly

14:43

what this team is doing right now. This team is best player

14:45

available, going to make themselves better.

14:48

Well, let's before We're gonna go through

14:50

each team, and over the course

14:53

of the first two days, we'll

14:55

go through each team and kind of take a look at it. But

14:58

the big story obviously was

15:00

Panics. And you know, I

15:02

told you I love Panics. We sat down

15:04

with him early in the process and I

15:08

just love I love his arm. Nobody throws outside

15:11

the hats like he does. He's got

15:13

a canon. I don't care about his age. His

15:16

medicals I'm told were good. And

15:20

the only thing is and let's

15:22

discuss this Atlanta with

15:25

the Cousins factor, I know they

15:27

look at it like it's the best of the world's best

15:29

for most worlds because he just sits.

15:32

There's no pressure on him.

15:34

And you got this kid, And if something happens to the

15:36

Cousins, especially after last year's with the Achilles,

15:39

you got you know, you're you're not dead in the

15:41

water, and you know you got

15:43

a chance to really own the the

15:45

NFC staff with both quarterbacks

15:48

going forward over the next decade.

15:50

Yeah, if that's the plan, I'm

15:53

just.

15:53

Telling you from that that was the plan from their stand.

15:55

Right, But then you could have communicated

15:57

that to your quarterback, right, And I completely

16:00

there's a moment here where you can't You can't convince

16:02

me of two things at once. You cannot convince me

16:05

that Kirk Cousins was a smart signing.

16:07

But then also tell me that by you

16:09

know, also reiterating, hey didn't tell

16:11

them we were going to sign we were going to draft a quarterback.

16:14

We didn't tell them we were gonna draft Michael Pennick junior.

16:16

And you also can't tell me they were surprised

16:18

because the first seven picks went chalk all

16:20

the way across the board. The first seven picks went chalk.

16:22

So when Atlanta was on the clock, they had

16:24

their choice of exactly these GMS

16:27

run scenarios. That was one of the easiest

16:29

scenarios to predict who was off

16:31

the board. Atlanta knew that scenario

16:34

was coming. They didn't tell their quarterback that

16:36

they just gave over one hundred million dollars too.

16:38

They drafted this other quarterback. They

16:40

at the same time, they chopped their entire

16:42

locker room off the knees. Damien

16:44

Harris was sitting next to me, and the first

16:47

thing is he said is as a player that just

16:49

retired from the league, he said, Man, I'm sitting

16:51

in them there and I'm saying, if they will do that to

16:54

quarterback one, if they'll do that to QB

16:56

one that they just gave all that money to what

16:58

do they do to me? They've lost trust in the locker

17:00

room, they've lost trust with their quarterback, They've

17:03

lost everything with this pick. Even though

17:05

I love Michael Pennix Junior, I hated

17:07

this pick for the Falcons.

17:08

Yeah, and how about you know what's fascinating

17:10

it's the owner right, Like you had to

17:12

explain to the owner, like how

17:15

does that work?

17:18

How do you working at Arthur Black and

17:20

you're explaining the Do you

17:22

saw the video of him explaining the pick? It's

17:24

like, oh my.

17:25

God, No, this is like if your girl comes in and

17:27

with their phone and she's just holding your phone

17:29

up because she found something. Like you're

17:31

sitting there you're like, I mean no, like

17:34

it's not really what you think, Like that's what was happening

17:37

right there. Arthur Blank's walking in saying I wrote

17:39

a check for what. No, no, no, it's not what

17:41

you know. You're busting Falcons got

17:43

busted.

17:44

I know that piece of it.

17:46

How do you not tell cousins? And how do you not

17:48

tell Arthur Blake? I know, how

17:50

is that? Like? If you look at the giants right

17:53

ownership, Marrett

17:55

goes all right, listen, if you guys take

17:57

quarterback.

17:58

I'm good with it. Like you know, I'm blessed the

18:01

quarterback.

18:01

If you think that JJ

18:04

McCarthy is the right pick there, then you go

18:06

JJ mccartt, which I think they should have.

18:08

They should have gone quarterback. But whatever.

18:10

The ownership's on board either

18:13

way. But didn't looked like Arthur

18:15

Black was on board.

18:16

Yeah, there's there's a lot to this. I

18:19

don't want to push.

18:20

Let's wallpack it. Come up.

18:21

We got lots. We can blow through commercials,

18:24

which we can't. We're

18:27

also we'll get in.

18:27

Trouble Marks in person. He can come in here and

18:29

punch me.

18:30

If we don't.

18:32

Are you're in STANDI here, I'm

18:34

looking the fellas

18:37

for me, would you?

18:37

I mean, I think I have to call it.

18:39

Yeah, that's awesome. All

18:42

right, we'll come back. We got lots to do with

18:44

the fellas Jason Fitz Anthony Gargano

18:47

as we hang out on a Fox

18:50

Football Saturday.

18:52

Fox Sports Radio has the best sports

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live.

19:05

Hey what's up, everybody, It's me three time pro

19:07

bowler LeVar Arrington and I couldn't be more

19:09

excited to announce a podcast called

19:12

up on Game.

19:13

What is up on Game?

19:14

You asked, along with my fellow pro

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Super Bowl champion. Yup, that's right,

19:21

Plexico Buruts. You can only

19:23

name a show with that type of talent on

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it. Up on Game We're going to be

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sharing our real life experiences

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loaded with teachable moments. Listen

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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you get your podcasts from.

19:46

All right, welcome back, fellas.

19:52

I heard you're wiggling right now.

19:54

There's so much going on.

19:55

Let's go. Yeah, I heard it, my

19:58

man, I got I got eyes now.

20:00

Now you got eyes on you. Look, everybody should

20:02

see this wiggle. I'm just saying we need to be on TV

20:04

while we're doing the Simulcaster show just to see the wiggle.

20:07

Yes, yeah, well we need to incorporate

20:10

that. Although you'd

20:12

see my crazy dogs

20:15

in the background.

20:16

Now you're not talking me out of it. Crazy dogs and wiggling

20:18

all of the same show. Let's go come

20:21

on now, Look, this is gonna be

20:23

the real because, like you mentioned earlier, we

20:25

were talking draft. I've cut you off before we've even gotten

20:27

into this thing. But let's be real. Like night

20:29

one of the NFL Draft, y'all who every single pick,

20:31

no commercials, and then we did two hours with the podcast

20:34

afterwards, slept yesterday, covered

20:36

every single pick, no commercials, did podcasts

20:38

and tapings afterwards. Took about an hour and a half. Nap

20:40

came over to the studio. I'm juiced, like

20:43

I am on one. The amount of caffeine

20:45

in my body right now would kill most people.

20:47

So like there's just gonna be wiggling like weird

20:49

things are gonna be moving. This is the way the show's gonna

20:51

go. It's gonna be a weird movie show.

20:53

Well, I love it, and listen,

20:55

I'm with you, you know, listen, I'm completely

20:57

with the old caffeine top.

20:59

I was.

21:01

Here on the East Coast, I got and I know you're

21:03

going all night, so you're on

21:05

fumes right now.

21:06

On caffeine fumes I've

21:09

got. I was up at four.

21:11

After watching basketball last

21:13

night late, so I got a couple hours

21:16

and after the draft, hoops

21:18

and it's a lot of fun. Don't forget. Shortly

21:21

after the show our podcast I'll be going up.

21:23

So have you missed any of the program, Be sure

21:25

to check out the podcast.

21:26

Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever

21:28

you.

21:29

Get your podcast, and I'll also be sure to rate

21:31

and review the podcast. Just search Fox Sports

21:33

Radio wherever you get your podcasts.

21:35

You'll see this show right

21:38

after we get off the air. Fellas

21:41

from the tire rack dot com

21:43

Studios. All right, let's get back to the

21:45

uh the panic situation, because

21:47

it's it's fascinating. Let

21:50

me first just put Panix to the

21:52

side, because I think you and I I loved

21:54

Mike right, so I love the kid and I'm

21:56

excited for him. It's

21:59

just so busy are some of

22:01

the quest ones? You just go what

22:03

like what you spend

22:05

one hundred million dollars? And it was funny. I

22:07

was talking to Baldi, He's like, well,

22:10

it's in the shorance policy.

22:12

It's because he's he was talking to some people.

22:14

In Atlanta and like

22:16

the defense is Hey, like,

22:19

we got a quarterback for the next ten years.

22:21

His name is gonna be Cousins, then Pennix

22:23

and Pedix is gonna in the perfect spot

22:25

learning from Cousins, but

22:28

it still negates the communication

22:31

aspect to Cousins, like you said, and

22:33

to Arthur Blank the owner, and in reality

22:36

too to the fan base because

22:38

at that point, like you got

22:41

another weapons, you got offensive line,

22:43

like you got other spots.

22:45

That you could build this football team.

22:47

There is a very real element to of

22:49

this that I will I'll just call

22:51

the culture of Atlanta, right, because

22:54

I've been lucky enough of my career to work with

22:56

some people that love Atlanta and call Atlanta

22:59

home and are justlant through and through. El Duncan

23:01

is one of the most Atlantean people I've ever

23:03

met, Harry Douglas, to the former Falcons wide

23:05

receiver. When you talk to those guys about

23:08

Atlanta all the way back to when Belichick was

23:10

interviewing, I remember talking to at the time

23:12

to Harry and saying, Hey, what are people in Atlanta

23:14

want? And he laughed as

23:16

he was like, not Belichick, because in Atlanta,

23:19

they want people that represent Atlanta. Atlanta

23:21

is a bigger thing than just who's

23:23

my team. It's who gets this city

23:26

from the music scene to the sports scene to all of it.

23:28

I mean, it's just just being real again.

23:30

I said last night, I was sitting next to Damien

23:32

Harris for the first two nights of the draft, just retired from

23:34

the league, happens to live about forty

23:36

five minutes outside of Atlanta, And the first

23:38

thing he pointed out when all of this was going

23:41

down and we were all shocked, He's like, look this

23:43

fan base. Who do you think this fan base is

23:45

going to gravitate to the person that reminds

23:47

them of Mike Vick, the left handed quarterback

23:49

that's black, that understands communication

23:52

with the culture of Atlanta, or Kirk

23:54

Cousins, Like there is a real when you talk

23:56

about the fans, the fans are going to

23:58

be behind Michael Penny from

24:01

day one because at some point, for

24:03

Atlanta, it's bigger than anything, like it's it's

24:05

about do you get us as

24:07

people because it's such an important part

24:09

of that. Michael Penick Junior is going to be such

24:12

a rock star. Like I love Mike,

24:14

I love what might could be to the Falcons.

24:16

I love all of that, but you have to acknowledge then

24:19

you've just created a storm, Like you've

24:21

drafted a quarterback that throws the ball with the

24:23

left hand instead of the right, So the delivery of the

24:25

ball is going to be different. You bring him into a locker

24:27

room that has young weapons. Who do the your weapons

24:29

going to respond to Michael Pennick Junior?

24:32

Or are they going to respond to Kirk Cousins? Like there's

24:34

just this moment, so it's fine, but

24:36

don't treat me like I'm stupid Atlanta, Like,

24:38

don't tell me about this insurance plan when

24:41

you just spent all this money and you're about to

24:43

get hit with tampering charges because you went

24:45

so or penalties for tampering because you

24:47

went so far to get Kirk Cousins.

24:49

Yet now you're like, oh no, but we need an insurance

24:52

policy, Like how how is that possible?

24:54

Those two things cannot align.

24:57

Well again, well, let's think about

24:59

it right for a second.

25:00

Because it's it's there's

25:04

seemingly no answers, So what's

25:06

the answer. So clearly

25:09

you got smart people, right, like

25:11

they're not dumb. Like you listen

25:14

as someone as a veteran sports

25:17

writer and you

25:20

know, now, sports broadcaster, I've been to Atlanta

25:22

a thousand times.

25:23

Right, all you need to do.

25:24

Is pass through Atlanta and pay attention for five

25:27

minutes and you realize that what

25:29

you said about that city is

25:31

you know first and foremost that it's

25:34

a city that wants to you

25:36

to understand it's not about

25:39

sports like Philadelphia and Boston

25:42

are kind of cousin cities, and you can throw

25:44

New York in it two with the Burroughs that

25:47

it's about sports, right like they

25:49

these cities love sports.

25:52

Phil love He's got an inferiority complex. It

25:55

wants to be loved, which

25:57

is why they love Bryce Harper Atlanta.

26:00

Uh, it's not just about sports,

26:02

like you said, it's about the culture

26:04

of that city. And so obviously

26:08

with a rich African American culture like you

26:10

look.

26:10

At Panics and if you if you

26:12

get.

26:13

To meet Mike, Mike when he feels

26:15

comfortable can really just kind

26:17

of take over.

26:18

A room for you.

26:19

So uh.

26:20

And the football standpoint is,

26:23

you spent one hundred million, hundred

26:25

So why do you do it?

26:27

I think in the moment, the

26:29

only smart football mind, I'm

26:32

gonna take all feelings aside. I'm gonna say, you

26:34

know what, you don't know how the draft board is gonna break.

26:36

So you go out and you get yourself the best quarterback

26:38

you possibly can, so that no matter what you are

26:41

in a situation where you can win. That's

26:43

the logic I put behind it. But if you're

26:45

going to do that, you have had

26:49

weeks, you've had months, You've

26:51

had time to make sure that Kirk

26:53

Cousins knows the plan. And

26:56

this is like me sitting

26:58

next to Charles Robinson. Charles was

27:00

was texting Kirk's agent right away, and Kirk's

27:02

agent was playing as day

27:05

immediately in response. We had

27:07

no idea, never saw

27:09

it coming. And part of where that

27:12

just to me speaks to like, how do you treat

27:14

people if that's how you'll treat your

27:16

quarterback? And there's a small

27:18

element of this of like, if that's what you want

27:20

me to believe, the logic is, how did you not explain

27:23

that to Kirk from the outset? Like the entire

27:25

quarterback market of the NFL changes

27:27

with Kirk Cousins signing in Atlanta versus

27:30

any other place he could got the whole draft

27:32

like.

27:33

It was unbelievable and set a whole

27:36

draft skew.

27:38

And if you're Kirk and you moved

27:40

your family down there and you made the

27:42

decision to take the money from them when you had

27:44

other offers, you did it because you intend to

27:46

play now. I hear it when they're like, hey, worst case

27:48

scenario. But let's also acknowledge

27:51

this is different than Jordan Love. Even

27:53

if you love Michael Pennick Junior

27:55

and you think, well, we're just gonna sit him for two years.

27:58

So by the time your quarterback actually

28:00

has any meaningful playing time, if you do this

28:02

plan, it's gonna be year three. He's gonna be twenty

28:05

seven years old at that point, and you're gonna

28:07

have to make a quick decision when he's twenty eight

28:09

about picking up that next option on him

28:11

when he's twenty nine. Like, this is a

28:13

different situation. I know we love to look at Brady

28:16

and Rogers and guys that are playing till they're forty,

28:18

but that's not every quarterback, especially

28:20

not every quarterback that's had multiple ACL

28:22

injuries. It might have multiple injuries

28:25

to deal with in his life, Like, we don't know that he's gonna

28:27

play untill he's forty, So your plan was

28:29

to use Kirk Cousins and then just basically discard

28:31

him for an old Michael penickx junior

28:33

at that point getting his first shot at all. This Like it

28:36

just doesn't make sense. It

28:38

just feels like it feels like

28:41

it lacks identity and purpose in every portion.

28:43

I mean, So here's what he says. This is

28:45

what font Tho, the GM of the Fountain says.

28:47

If you believe the quarterback, you have to take

28:50

him. And if he sits for four or five years,

28:52

that's a great problem to have because

28:55

we're going we're doing so well

28:57

at that position. So it's a simple as

29:00

if you see a guy you believe in at that position,

29:03

you have to take.

29:05

So then again, I'll go back to this,

29:07

like we're smart, and when we

29:09

were sitting there, we've covered this draft. Every person

29:12

listening to this right now that freaking

29:14

loves the draft. You read every mock known

29:16

to man. Let's remember how this draft

29:18

board went. Picks one, two, and three were

29:20

quarterbacks as predicted, right at some level,

29:23

quarterbacks as predicted. Pick four was

29:25

Marvin Harrison Junior, as predicted. Pick

29:28

five was Joe Alt as predicted.

29:30

Pick six was the only place that there was

29:32

a little chaos. It was Malik Neighbors

29:34

instead of JJ McCarthy, So that

29:36

is as predicted. Pick seven was

29:38

an offensive lineman as predicted.

29:41

If you're Atlanta and you say that, if

29:43

your answer is I love that. Find

29:46

me the simulation that you ran as

29:48

a group that didn't still get

29:50

you Michael Penix Junior at eight And

29:52

if you knew there was a chance you loved this

29:55

kid and you simply chose not to

29:57

tell your one hundred million dollar quarterback until

29:59

you were on the clock, shame on you

30:01

because that just breaks trust to the entire

30:04

locker room. So even if I buy the

30:06

logic, your communication of it sucks

30:08

to the people that actually needed.

30:10

Well, it's the thing, and so here's the other thing. So

30:13

after his pro day, they said a

30:16

contingency of eight people. Fine,

30:19

though the Kyle Smith,

30:21

who's the assistant gm Raheem

30:24

Mars, who's your coach? Uh

30:27

Robinson, who's your O C Right,

30:31

Tyler Yates is your quarterbacks coach?

30:33

They sent eight people there to

30:35

visit with him in Seattle.

30:38

So you

30:40

you come away your gogga

30:43

over this and you signed cousins to

30:45

this Megan deal. I

30:47

mean, you gotta you gotta

30:49

talk to the agent and say, at least tell them what's.

30:51

Going on, because if by who's the bottom

30:53

line?

30:54

The bottom line is, hey, Like

30:57

you gotta get everybody on board, like this is what we're

30:59

doing, and hey, Mike, if we take

31:01

you, there's a chance you you might

31:03

have to sit for I mean, think about

31:05

that what he said four or five years are you?

31:07

Are you insane?

31:08

I mean I feel bad for Mike in that situation.

31:11

He doesn't want to.

31:11

And I'll be pushing thirty right

31:14

and not having played.

31:15

This nap And then think about to all

31:18

the years you've been around the league, right, brother, think about

31:20

this. Kirk Cousins gets signed. What's

31:22

the first thing a quarterback does when they get signed.

31:24

They call all the weapons they're gonna be working

31:26

with you, and they're like, hey, let's go to the park and throw. And

31:29

we always lobbed this. We're like, oh, it's so great.

31:31

Like they're reaching out to the players and say let's

31:33

go throw.

31:33

Oh they had a uh uh

31:37

they flew to Shane the a gun, Yeah, and

31:40

flew and played catch on the

31:42

beach.

31:43

Right.

31:44

We make such a big deal of that, and we

31:46

know that that's what Kirk immediately does. Guys, that's

31:48

the type of guy Kirk Cousins is fine. Right, Well,

31:50

now Michael Pennock Junior gets drafted at eight,

31:52

he's gonna call the guys the same way because he wants

31:54

to work on his development, his timing. You've

31:56

now put Drake, London and Pijon and all these guys

31:59

in are really weird situation. Like as

32:01

a locker room, there is going

32:03

to be some disconnect, like there

32:06

was some element of like no, I'm not gonna And one

32:08

thing that the guys that will

32:10

tell you all the time is locker rooms need clear

32:13

leadership from the quarterback position. So where's

32:15

that coming from?

32:16

Now?

32:16

Well, the only other, the other the other piece

32:18

of it too is you know, Panis

32:21

is a guy that remember when

32:23

he got to Washington, he's in Indiana.

32:25

He turns Indiana into uh, they had that really

32:27

good year. They got his highest seven.

32:30

He goes into portal, goes to Washington.

32:32

Everybody who's leaving, Pulk was leaving,

32:35

Dounia was leaving. He has a

32:37

meeting with the receivers at Washington

32:40

and he obviously is a

32:42

charismatic kid because he convinces

32:45

them to stay.

32:46

And then they.

32:47

Go through this whole you know, great run

32:50

and last year to the National Championship, the whole

32:52

nine. But imagine like

32:55

you got a kid that that could talk to receivers

32:58

like that, and

33:00

now all of a sudden like your cousins.

33:03

I'm sure cousins got to feel like he's on the

33:05

outside of it.

33:06

Well, and I'll run

33:08

full circle back to what you were talking about

33:10

with the owner. If you're Arthur Blank, you're

33:13

not and I say this gently, You're not particularly

33:16

young at this stage in your life.

33:18

Right.

33:18

Part of the reason you wanted to go

33:20

all in on a quarterback and a new coach

33:23

and change the direction of everything is because

33:25

you're looking at it saying I want to win. I

33:27

want to see us get to that lance.

33:29

Like.

33:29

So, the thing of it is, if you told

33:32

me that this was the

33:34

Chiefs, I mean, I know it's a bad example

33:36

because of Mahomes. If it was a team like the Chiefs,

33:38

You're like, hey, perennial Super Bowl contenders

33:41

and they chose to draft a quarterback, I'd say, hey,

33:43

okay, kind of weird, but I get it. If you told

33:45

me this was the forty nine Ers, who when they reached,

33:48

admittedly for trade lance, their roster

33:51

was so dang stacked. You looked around, You're like, okay,

33:53

well you reached a quarterback. You got a great

33:55

roster. You can afford to take risk. The

33:57

Falcons were not without flaws from them,

34:00

and they came into the draft in a year where

34:02

they're supposed to be investing because they're trying to

34:04

win the NFC right now. Did the

34:06

Falcons do anything this weekend,

34:08

not just with that pick, but with their other

34:10

developmental picks. Did they do a single

34:12

thing that made them better towards winning

34:14

a Super Bowl this year? The answer to

34:17

that is no to me. And if you're drafting

34:19

for the future at the same time you're investing

34:21

epic money to win right now and

34:23

you still have flaws on your roster, I can't

34:26

make that plan makes sense.

34:28

No, no, all right, we gotta take quick

34:30

time out. I got to ask you

34:32

the Giants decision to

34:35

forego the quarterback, all

34:37

right, because I think that.

34:39

Was another grave mistake.

34:42

A team shouldn't tuk a quarterback takes

34:44

one and a team that needed to

34:47

pass one up. We'll talk about the Giants coming

34:49

up next. We're the Fellas Stason

34:51

Fitz Anthony Gargana right here on Fox

34:53

Sports Radio.

34:56

Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

35:01

Fellas from the Tirereck

35:03

dot Com studio Jason Fitz

35:05

Anthony Gargan Draft Edition

35:10

Wild Wild Stuff. So

35:12

we talked a lot about the Falconses. Everybody's

35:14

doing panics, and let's

35:17

go to a team that I think should have drafted

35:19

quarterback. I love

35:22

Milik Neighbors, so listen, you know,

35:24

I get it. Once upon a time took Odell

35:27

from LSU and

35:29

it really worked out. But that's

35:31

predicated that you have belief in

35:34

Daniel Jones. And I don't understand

35:38

what they see in Daniel Jones. I didn't get

35:40

the idea of

35:42

the when they came

35:44

in that second contract. I

35:47

don't get him. I don't think he's

35:49

any good. I think he stinks.

35:52

And listen, as someone who

35:55

covers the Eagles, I agree, you

35:57

know that's great. Stay stink, all

35:59

right. But I like what Brian

36:01

dabeles A sharp guy. I love Dabo

36:04

right. I loved him in Buffalo under Sean

36:06

mcdermany, who's a friend of mine, and I

36:09

was like, oh, that's a great hire by the Giants.

36:10

They got Dable.

36:11

You know, Dave b like going back when

36:14

he was hot, and he went back for one more years

36:16

O seeing the Buffalo Bills, then

36:19

goes to New York and I thought, wow, that's that's

36:21

a great hire for New York. He's going to turn that franchise

36:23

around. And what's

36:25

he seeing? Fitzie, Like, what do you

36:28

do? You do you make sense of that?

36:30

No, And here's the surprising thing, because

36:33

look, I thought quarterbacks were going to go one, two, three,

36:35

four, because I felt like the Giants were

36:37

a prime suspect to trade up to four,

36:40

Cardinals trade down to six. They stayed in range to get

36:42

one of the best wide receivers. Like that all made sense in

36:44

my brain. I sat there

36:46

as the Giants were on the clock and thought, my god,

36:48

if you're in New York, you gotta feel like a million

36:50

bucks right now. If you wanted JJ McCarthy,

36:53

he's sitting right there for you.

36:55

So the fact that they didn't take him, it's

36:58

particularly surprising to me. Look,

37:01

whatever quarterback they did or didn't want, it's

37:03

particularly surprising to me that they stuck

37:05

with the quarterback they have simply

37:07

because next year's quarterback class

37:10

doesn't look particularly great right now.

37:12

And that's real. If

37:14

you talk to people around the league, they'll tell you that it's

37:16

a quarterback class as

37:18

of right now. Sure a lot can change, but you

37:20

can't bank on change. Being

37:22

that, you can't look around if you're an NFL team

37:24

and say, well, maybe somebody has a

37:27

sudden Caleb is not.

37:29

Caleb is not sitting there like he was

37:31

going into this year.

37:32

No, one hundred percent. And so if

37:34

you're the Giants, not only did you pass on a quarterback

37:36

this year, you put yourself in a situation where

37:39

you're gonna be under the gun

37:41

next year as well too if it doesn't work. Now, I

37:43

understand what. We just want to get more weapons, We need

37:46

more talent for the quarterback that we have.

37:48

I just when you are in striking

37:51

distance now, Daniel Jones

37:53

is going to be constantly compared to whatever

37:55

happens from J. J. McCarthy, Michael

37:58

Pennix Junior, and Bo Nix for

38:00

the rest of his career, right because

38:03

the Giants made a decision not to take

38:05

any of those quarterbacks and stick with the quarterback

38:08

they had in a year where everybody sort

38:10

of gravitated to that position. They

38:12

told you, thanks, but no thanks, And I just I

38:14

think the hardest thing is I have a hard time finding

38:16

what the eventual answer is if it's not

38:19

Daniel Jones, because they're not going to be in a prime

38:21

position with a great quarterback class next year.

38:23

And you know what is odd was

38:26

McCarthy seemed

38:29

like the perfect fit for New York. So and

38:32

you'll agree with this statement.

38:35

I talked to you know, scores of people

38:38

during the draft, like you do, and

38:41

everyone just gushes

38:43

over jj And the thing is

38:45

is because he just aces

38:48

like he understands what

38:50

to project. He is

38:53

perfect as the face of a franchise,

38:55

and a franchise like New York. He

38:58

could handle it like that

39:01

that kid can handle it. Seemed

39:03

to be a perfect fit there,

39:05

you know whatever, you project him as

39:08

good athlete, you know, good

39:11

arm. He may not pop like

39:13

any the top quarterbacks

39:15

were having the big arm like Panix, but

39:18

like he's got all those other intangibles.

39:21

What in the world like to me, Like

39:23

you had your face to your franch I'd sit.

39:25

There, especially if you're dable.

39:28

And I know, I think we all agree that this is

39:30

a make or break year for him at the quarterback. Yes, I'm

39:33

a big believer that. Look if

39:35

part of how you got there is your greatness in developing

39:37

Josh Allen, It's pretty easy salespitch

39:39

to go in and say, well we just don't have the right quarterback.

39:42

Let's go get one that I can develop and I can, really,

39:44

I can put my hands on from day one and we can start

39:46

this process over. It makes so much

39:49

sense for him as a coach. I

39:51

don't understand how we don't get to that

39:53

point. And maybe it's the Giant

39:55

saying, hey, we don't want to start what inevitably

39:58

becomes a bit of a rebuild with the new quarterback.

40:00

But you're gonna be there anyway. Like again,

40:03

I'll use the did you make it? Did you make up

40:05

ground against the best of the best. Did the Giants

40:07

get closer to being as good as the Cowboys

40:09

or Eagles with their draft pick? I still

40:11

don't believe in their quarterback, so my answer is no.

40:14

Yeah, I'm with you.

40:16

In fact, I thought

40:19

Washington had a great

40:21

trip. We'll start going around the team by team

40:24

coming up next hour. But I love what

40:26

the Commanders did. And

40:28

then you got a quarterback, new.

40:30

Team, new GM, new owner, new coach,

40:32

new quarterback, new everything in Washington,

40:35

So that means new benefit of the data. I think

40:37

they did pretty well with the equity they

40:39

had.

40:40

Yeah, I like it.

40:42

I think they're gonna built something where the Fellas Big

40:45

Hour coming up next anywhere right here,

40:47

Fox.

40:49

Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio.

40:52

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning,

40:55

good morning, good morning.

40:57

A buddy

41:00

h happy Yeah yeah yeah by Abby Fox

41:03

Sports Saturday Draft Edition.

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41:47

Jason Fitzanthony Gargano. As we're talking draft

41:50

and the whole thing. So we got into a conversation yesterday.

41:54

It's funny. I love Covino

41:57

and Rich They're fantastic and.

41:59

They're okay, yeah, okay.

42:02

And I heard one of the probos and

42:04

they were having a conversation that I was having

42:07

yesterday because we were all

42:10

talking about the role

42:12

of the girlfriend, right like we saw

42:15

who is in Isaiah Wilson and his mom, Yankee's

42:18

girlfriend off his lap. The

42:23

the role of the girlfriend at

42:25

the draft and what are places now

42:30

they got to learn the girlfriends that

42:33

truthfully, in the pecking

42:36

order of a young man when

42:38

it comes to this momentous occasion

42:41

in their young lives, that

42:44

they are.

42:46

Fourth. All right,

42:48

now, it all depends on

42:51

his mom or dad.

42:52

There are the siblings there that sort

42:54

of thing, but at

42:56

worst they're fourth on

42:59

the packing order. Mom is

43:02

always number one, Dad

43:05

is always number two, and should you know, should

43:08

be right there with mom, and

43:10

then comes siblings and

43:12

then the girlfriend blood

43:15

first when it comes to getting

43:18

the accolades of the draft.

43:21

Like seriously, you're

43:23

getting too nice.

43:24

Like, here's the thing.

43:25

Sit down.

43:26

The girlfriend shouldn't even be allowed to the party, right,

43:28

let's just be see. Here's the here's

43:30

the thing.

43:31

It's me.

43:32

He's not he's not thinking about the future.

43:34

Here a couple of things. Number One, if

43:36

this doesn't work, like if she's got a ring, Like

43:38

if it's Bo Nixon, it's his wife, then that's

43:40

the most important thing in the world, absolutely, one hundred

43:43

percent. If it's just girlfriend, like

43:45

okay, play this out couple of different ways.

43:47

Number One, you end up in love and

43:50

everything is perfect and you guys are together for

43:52

the rest of your lives. Great, all right, maybe

43:54

she gives you some grief, but that's

43:56

fine. That's that's that's the downfall.

43:59

The others the other side of it,

44:01

like you end up breaking up every

44:04

time that draft video plays for

44:06

the rest of your life, your ex's and if

44:09

you eventually get married to somebody else, she

44:11

gonna be mad. You're not even gonna know why

44:13

she's mad at you, and she's just gonna be watching

44:15

the draft. You're like, baby, I didn't even know you right then, It's like,

44:17

yeah, but you knew her and she was at your draft

44:19

party. She got to express that moment in your life, and

44:21

I did. Like, you don't want any of that. You don't want

44:24

that smoke. She shouldn't even be there. Keep me, you

44:26

know, like meet her later that night at the

44:28

party and make it.

44:29

You know, dude, I agree, Come on, listen, it's

44:32

even better. I'm with you.

44:35

I'm completely with you. Because

44:38

what's the uh, what's the hit rate?

44:40

Like we know that drafting

44:42

its center in the first round

44:45

is ninety six percent, right,

44:48

that's a good hit rate.

44:49

That's a very good hit rate.

44:51

What's the hit rate on a

44:53

twenty two year old dude about

44:55

to go into the league on

44:58

the girlfriend becoming

45:00

a successful marriage and.

45:03

Partner and wife?

45:05

Especially because like with like

45:08

is it the is it six

45:11

percent?

45:11

Like? You can't convince me that

45:14

it's any higher.

45:15

Here's the thing, too, Put yourself in his shoes

45:18

for a second. He knows most of the time if

45:20

he's a first or second round draft pick. He knows he's

45:22

about to get drafted. He knows he's about to get

45:24

rich, knows hes about to be famous, he knows his

45:26

dreams are about to come true. Now he can have

45:28

his girl sit on the couch with him, and that's fine, But

45:31

he also knows that with everything that's coming,

45:33

he can afford any ring he wants, and he is not

45:35

giving it to her because if I don't see a shiny, sparkley

45:37

ring on her finger, there's a reason he hasn't done

45:39

it. He knows his life's about to change, so

45:42

if he doesn't feel good enough to ring it up, then

45:44

he shouldn't feel good enough to put her on

45:46

the couch and take that moment away from mom. Like, that's

45:48

just And also to your point, my

45:51

god, if he does end

45:53

up marrying her and everything's beautiful, his

45:55

mom for the rest of their lives.

45:57

Every Thanksgiving, she's gonna she gonna

46:00

make some sort of common If she's anything like my mom, she's

46:02

gonna make some sort of common about who got the first hug

46:04

after the draft announcement, who got the first

46:07

hug? Like you just need, like your

46:09

mom to be a little angry, like you do one

46:11

one thing. You don't call your mom on a Sunday, and then all of a

46:13

sudden, three days later she's like, well, you know, I remember

46:16

the draft. I didn't even get the first hug I raised

46:18

you.

46:19

Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, no,

46:21

no, listen, that's the truth.

46:23

Like, and just think about this, right, and

46:25

then think about the role of dad. All

46:28

right, Now I have two

46:30

sons. Now it's you know, I don't

46:32

think that they're gonna be, you know, drafted.

46:35

They both play football. The chances are they

46:37

won't be drafted. But let's just say they do.

46:39

All right, let's

46:42

say they get drafted. Now,

46:45

who spends his

46:48

whole life right

46:50

all, you know, waking hours worried

46:52

about his sons, right,

46:55

going to practice, work it out

46:57

with them, getting them set, teaching

46:59

them out the lift, teaching him how to teach him how to

47:01

play the game, how to play the position right,

47:04

going in and doing the extra work with them, watching

47:06

the film with them, right like, you know,

47:09

listen, we do that stuff

47:11

all day long. I'm like, I was at a baseball

47:14

tournament freezing my ass off last

47:16

night, right talking

47:18

to him about you know, the whole thing. We get

47:20

to the field early, working him out, you name

47:22

it, right. I mean today

47:25

that I got a loved game and

47:28

luckily it's not you know, three hours from

47:30

uh wherever from my house.

47:33

It's a it's a little close by another game, and then I

47:35

got a lifting lifting session with the with

47:38

the my older son, right

47:40

so, and by the way, don't forget all

47:42

the expense of everything.

47:46

I deserve a hug on draft

47:48

day.

47:48

No oh yeah, no, you deserve like

47:50

the father son moment,

47:53

right, like there's a father son and

47:56

look like you know, as we've talked about before,

47:58

and I've always been very clear, like I don't have any relationship

48:00

with my parents at this point in my life. But I will say this, everything

48:03

I ever accomplished in my music career was because

48:06

my parents sacrificed everything to allow that

48:08

to happen. I have so much respect

48:10

for what has to happen for

48:12

your kid to get to the one percent of anything.

48:14

I was lucky to get to the one percent of music

48:17

at one point in my life. To get

48:19

there, it takes so many

48:21

people that do exactly what you just talked

48:23

about. And Like, we've been working together for less than a year,

48:26

and one thing that in the first few months became

48:28

a parent is that your priorities will

48:30

always be on what's best for your

48:33

family. Like that's part of That's one of the beautiful

48:35

things about you. It is like we could sit here and josh

48:37

around about a million things, but at the end of the day, it

48:39

is so clear that you will prioritize

48:42

that thing and it's an incredible Like I

48:44

respect the hell out of it, right, Like, and you talked

48:46

about the sacrifices that you've

48:48

made, but you don't see them as sacrifices because

48:50

they're putting your kid in a situation to get what

48:53

they want to have right and get to have everything

48:55

that possibly can make their life easier. When you think

48:58

about that moment, that draft moment to me, like

49:00

I watched The Raiders post the video

49:03

last night for Powers Johnson when he was drafted

49:05

and like his pops are sitting next to her, like and you

49:07

could just you see this moment

49:10

like because to your point, it's

49:12

about the the travel games

49:14

where you sat in the car Like for me, like it was

49:16

about like when I got into Juilliard as a little kid.

49:18

It was sitting in the car with my dad for

49:20

hours on that drive every weekend. We're

49:23

just sitting in the car talking, right, Like it's

49:25

just those moments are the incredible things,

49:27

Like yes, you get Mom

49:29

gets the first hug because she's mom, and like

49:31

if she doesn't get the first hug, she's gonna remind you the

49:34

rest of lefe shitting at first. So Dad gets the second

49:36

hug because the first thing Dad's gonna say is go hug your

49:38

mom, right like that that's just where that work, right,

49:40

But like second hug goes to Dad, like

49:42

and then third hug. If you got siblings, hug

49:45

sister then brother, Like we know this

49:47

is like it's that's just the respectful thing to do,

49:49

Like it's mom, Dad's sister, brother.

49:52

We got this exactly

49:54

exactly, and listen, Ah just

49:57

to be clear, it's their day.

50:00

Whatever it is, right, whatever accomplishment,

50:03

God blessed that they that happens

50:05

to them in their lives. It's their day. I want

50:07

them to shine. I you know, listen, we

50:09

don't need to live vicariously through them.

50:12

I don't need to do that. So I'm happy for

50:14

them. It is their day.

50:15

Don't you see more athletes too appreciating

50:17

that sentiment? Like everybody, not everybody.

50:20

Most of the guys I talked to leading up to the draft

50:22

for Yahoo, when I would ask, Hey, what are your

50:24

draft day plans? The overwhelming response

50:26

was I want to be around the people that got me there. Ye,

50:28

and like you can only bring a certain number of people with you

50:31

when you go to the draft site, like walking

50:33

stage. Even when I asked Damian

50:35

Harris on Yahoo, I asked him about his draft experience,

50:38

and he said, Man, I know for a lot of people, it's really

50:40

special that you get to walk the stage. I wasn't

50:43

drafted early enough that would be part of my journey anyway.

50:45

He's like, But for me, I just I wanted to be with

50:47

everybody that gave up everything for me to be

50:49

able to get there. I just I think that more

50:51

and more right now we see young guys the

50:54

being drafted into the league appreciating. Man,

50:57

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this crew.

51:00

I'm with you.

51:02

Well, I gotta tell you, I was saying this

51:04

the other day. They were a friend of mine and

51:06

I was we were talking about it was yesterday because

51:09

I was I said that these

51:11

kids are impressive, like

51:14

they impressed me, these young people.

51:16

I gotta tell you, there's

51:19

a lot more respect.

51:23

I don't know, I got a good I get good vibes

51:26

from this draft class and these and these young

51:28

kids. I was impressed by the

51:31

by them, watching them, their demeanor, the whole

51:33

thing. You know, I would think back

51:35

to, like, you know, meathead stuff that when I

51:37

was a kid, Like these kids

51:40

look seemed pretty grounded to me.

51:41

Yeah. I think that comes with

51:43

the fact that we spend so much time talking about nil

51:46

and transfer portal and uh. You know,

51:48

one of one of the guys on the panel for the draft for

51:50

US came from Rivals. He works for Rivals, and he talked

51:52

about how more and more there are high

51:54

school athletes right now that already have brand

51:57

managers and all of these things. I think

52:00

the know you're worth. A society of young people

52:02

right now also know their opportunity,

52:05

you know, and so not everybody handles it the right

52:07

way. Certainly, you know, you can look at

52:09

some of the guys that have had incidents in the offseason

52:11

and say, man, you were getting ready for the draft, how'd you

52:13

do that? But for the most part, it

52:16

just feels like the people right

52:18

now elevated, ready to take the next step. Guys

52:20

and girls like you look at it the way the

52:22

WNBA draft, just what you saw a bunch of young

52:24

women that came in and knew from the outset

52:27

like, Hey, this is my opportunity, this is the way I'm

52:29

going to do this, this is what my career needs to be. Like,

52:31

there's a different responsibility

52:34

understanding an opportunity understanding

52:36

out of young people now that we've ever seen, especially

52:38

the ones that are living in that one percent.

52:41

Yeah, man, you're so right,

52:43

you're so right.

52:45

All right, let's get back to the draft

52:48

itself and to

52:51

go back to just to put the ball on it. We brought

52:53

up toward the end of the last

52:55

hour, and that was the future

52:58

of the Giants and the act

53:00

that they forego the quarterback and

53:03

take the leak neighbors and

53:05

listen, I love the leak neighbors, but I

53:08

still don't understand going

53:11

that route when I just

53:13

don't think Daniel jones Es salvages. I

53:15

don't even I can't fathom.

53:18

I don't see what they see. I

53:20

just think it's a complete and utter

53:23

mistake.

53:25

I think the craziest part

53:27

to me is that if you look at the NFC East

53:29

overall, I have no idea

53:32

right now what the Giants are actually trying to

53:34

accomplish. I have no idea, frankly,

53:36

what the Cowboys, the team I've been really kind to if

53:39

anybody's listening to any content, I've said, hey, the demise

53:42

of the Cowboys is overrated. I don't understand

53:45

some portions of their draft at all. Also,

53:48

I do understand where Washington is

53:50

going. I do understand where Philadelphia is going.

53:52

Like it's just it's so interesting to me

53:54

if you take your emotion out of it and what you want

53:56

as a fan, and you just look at it and say, what's

53:58

the direction. I don't know what the hell the Giants

54:00

are trying to accomplish right now.

54:04

Well said, I still got it. Go, You're

54:07

not going to compete for

54:10

the division. You're not so

54:13

Malik neighbors when

54:16

you look at them, like, I love

54:18

them all right, but he's a luxury.

54:21

Like I know you want to, you know, put

54:24

the pool in, but you know you got

54:26

no roof.

54:28

I mean to that. God, you're so right.

54:31

And the thing of it is, I'm going to go

54:33

back to if you believe, well man

54:35

that just a quarterback wasn't there for us this year,

54:37

so we're gonna go get Malik. Okay, but the quarterback is not

54:39

going to be there for you next year either, So what

54:41

what are you doing? You're either the Giants

54:44

are now on the clock to figure one of two things out,

54:46

how they're going to salvage the career of Daniel

54:48

Jones or what free agent quarterback they're

54:50

going to go overspend on that that's the only

54:52

way in a year that they have a quarterback solution. I do

54:54

not believe any team can look at

54:57

next year's draft as the solution to their

54:59

quarterback situation right now.

55:03

Crazy obviously, I think you're

55:05

right.

55:06

I mean, just insane, and uh, just to

55:08

talk about Washington for a second, I'd

55:11

love kind of their mindset. I

55:14

love, first of all, you know, It's

55:16

funny. You remember all the heat about Daniels

55:20

VJJ, and I

55:23

love the fact that they I'm a Daniels

55:25

fan.

55:25

I love the kid. I think the kid's going to be terrific.

55:29

Bye by far. Like, look, if I was sitting here

55:31

saying, man, the Raiders could have any

55:33

one pick out of this year's draft, it would have been,

55:36

uh, it would have been Daniels one hundred

55:38

percent. So yes, I'm with you on that.

55:40

Yeah.

55:41

And then uh so then let's take

55:43

a look at it.

55:43

Right, So you got you got Daniels,

55:47

and then I loved Greson

55:49

Newton, all right, who's defensive tackle from

55:51

Illinois they wind up getting

55:54

They go get a tight end and the kid from

55:58

Kansas State, yeah, Senate yep, Yeah,

56:00

and Ben Sinnett, who's terrific. You

56:04

go get another guard in Brandon Coleman that

56:06

like, and you get Luke McCaffrey white

56:10

out, who was a sit in space kind

56:12

of kid. I like,

56:15

I love their drafts. I thought they did a good job.

56:18

I think Newton is a star.

56:20

Yeah, they also got Sam Still. Oh that's

56:22

right, they too, right, And

56:24

like you're talking about a dB that started

56:27

at wide receiver. And so the funny thing

56:29

about him that I think it really has to be pointed

56:31

out is that it's rare to say somebody

56:34

his age has a lot of upside

56:36

and growth because he's like twenty four, and so you

56:38

sit there and say, yeah, he's a fifth year. He's twenty

56:40

four. He is who he is, No, he is, And he's only

56:42

been playing corner for a minute, right, Like, he's got two seasons

56:45

basically at corner works. So you're talking about

56:47

somebody still learning the position. That

56:49

is that good? Like, I think he's one of the steels.

56:52

I think he was one of the best picks. And Washington,

56:55

to me, they had a ton of equity

56:57

in the second and third round. They had a ton of picks, and

56:59

they used him in a really smart way, like instead

57:01

of instead of packaging things and trying to reach

57:04

up, I felt like they did a smart way of maneuvering

57:06

around the board and then taking as many

57:09

stabs at it as they possibly could. I think this

57:11

was a great draft for Washington.

57:13

Yeah, man, all right, let's do this. So let's

57:15

have a little bit of fun and go around

57:18

the around the league team

57:20

by team.

57:22

Uh will do that. Also, I have to

57:24

throw this at you and

57:27

Roger Candell talked about it the other day.

57:31

I've been bending figures here. I mean if

57:33

I told you, oh god, I

57:36

mean Lincoln Kenny and I started

57:38

to show like an eight the Fellas

57:41

seven, and shortly

57:43

thereafter I came up with I used to kill

57:45

him all the time with this Gargano

57:48

plan about what I wanted to do with the

57:50

NFL. One of the things I wanted to do was

57:52

an eighteen game season and

57:54

play the super Bowl on President's

57:57

Day. Like it just made no sense to me that

58:00

you have an American holiday in

58:03

the super Bowl played a week or two before

58:06

everybody's off in President's Day, Like,

58:09

why wouldn't you meld the thig? Why wouldn't

58:11

you go to eighteen games? Why wouldn't you do a double

58:14

pie? And it just is a neat

58:16

package. Well he hinted

58:18

at it, and after all these years

58:21

and they used to kill me him and figy, Oh my

58:23

god, all you want to do just leave it alone,

58:26

Leave it alone. But it's such a

58:28

perfect package to go

58:30

first half by second half by eighteen

58:33

games, run it, play the super Bowl

58:35

when everybody's off the next day. Tell

58:38

me that's not perfect, fitsy.

58:41

Tell me it wasn't an accident. The same

58:43

day they talked about that, they were also like, oh, we're gonna

58:45

let people wear the Guardian caps too if they want, because

58:47

player safety matters. Like I think, right,

58:49

yes, it is a perfect Everybody wants more

58:52

football. I want more football. You want

58:54

more football. It's inevitable. I think it's a

58:56

brilliant plan.

58:57

Yeah, thank you, Thank you, Fitzy, you

59:00

have an amazing foresight.

59:02

Thank you.

59:02

Jason Fits Anthony Gargana. Where the Fellas

59:05

hanging every Saturday right here on

59:07

Fox? All

59:09

right, welcome back Fellas from

59:12

the tire rack dot Com

59:15

Studios.

59:17

Jason Fitz Anthony Gargano, All

59:20

let's take a foray around the football.

59:23

We're not even gonna acknowledge here that the new Kids

59:25

on like Mighty Mark when New Kids on the Block and

59:27

KOTP Like, I don't know how I feel

59:30

about this. Mighty Mark was just like something that was writing,

59:32

was it in the wheelhouse? Where you're just like, that's

59:34

just because I wiggle. So now all of a sudden you're

59:36

thinking, like you.

59:37

Think, since you're here and I can actually see

59:39

you wiggle, it's that's the point.

59:41

I mean, I just don't know how I feel about wiggling to

59:43

the new kids on the block, Like, I mean, that's just and

59:46

although also like can you still have kids

59:48

in your name when you're like fifty, Yes, when you have

59:50

abs like they do, you can say whatever you want. Good

59:52

for them. They got bank accounts,

59:54

they got abs like new kids on the block doing it the right

59:56

way. Okay, go ahead, go ahead, all

59:58

that wish you.

1:00:02

Explain real quick before we get

1:00:04

to do it. Mighty Mark, give

1:00:06

me your eyes for a second. What

1:00:09

do you see from Fitsie?

1:00:11

There was no wiggling for new kids. I

1:00:13

refuse to wiggle for new kids, so I had an explanation.

1:00:15

But there's been some wiggling.

1:00:16

Go ahead, there's a

1:00:19

manly sort of wiggle when you

1:00:21

hear a good song. You know, anybody can tap

1:00:23

their foot or you know, just shoulder

1:00:26

movement. But if your hands come up, oh

1:00:28

yeah, and then you you

1:00:31

make a move like the like

1:00:33

the gopher and caddy shack. When you do that,

1:00:37

that's the point you gotta you know, you all

1:00:40

right, you know, but it

1:00:43

works, It works that way.

1:00:44

Also, like there's a lot of clapping going on in here,

1:00:46

Like there's a lot of coming in on the back.

1:00:48

See he tries to hide it. He doesn't turn his mic

1:00:50

on a little bit. When you start talking,

1:00:52

then he may turn his mic on, but before that, there's

1:00:55

a whole dance.

1:00:56

Well see here's the thing, like, okay, so can we

1:00:58

get in the weeds for a second. Like a lot of people don't realize

1:01:00

this, but we're usually not in the same room,

1:01:02

right, and so we're on these things that are called com rexes

1:01:05

as we do our show. And the problem

1:01:07

is comraxes have a tiny delay. So

1:01:09

sometimes when you're listening to the music, what you hear

1:01:12

is me clap and I'm like yeah, yeah, and it's

1:01:14

on time in my comrax But what you guys

1:01:17

hear is like it sounds like the widest

1:01:19

rhythm you've ever heard in your life. That's like a fraction

1:01:21

of a second late. I will remind you all. I

1:01:23

may not be able to dance well, but my rhythm is impeckable.

1:01:26

Okay, So I'm just a right,

1:01:28

I'm just I'm on one.

1:01:29

I'm sorry, cousin, No, I love it,

1:01:31

man, say we hit

1:01:33

a nerve and it all comes out highly

1:01:36

entertaining.

1:01:37

As you know, rhythm, you know, all

1:01:41

right, let's Uh, let's

1:01:44

go to a team by team it

1:01:46

is we look at the draft.

1:01:48

We'll start with Arizona.

1:01:51

So Arizona, obviously, uh,

1:01:53

they stand pat they do not trade

1:01:56

out. They take Marv

1:01:58

and look, with all the they had in

1:02:00

the war chests, it just makes

1:02:03

sense to get Kyler, the elite

1:02:05

weapon. And then they just

1:02:08

go right Darius Robinson

1:02:10

off the edge, who is

1:02:12

a beast, right.

1:02:14

I like Darius Robinson.

1:02:16

They get Max Melton, who's the corner

1:02:19

out of Rudgers, Trey Benson running

1:02:22

back from Florida State. Isaiah

1:02:24

Adams, she's a tackle from Illinois.

1:02:28

They get Elijah Jones, another corner from

1:02:31

Boston College. I

1:02:34

look like a nice draft from Arizona's

1:02:36

perspective.

1:02:36

Yeah, and I feel like it was a good identity draft.

1:02:39

I keep saying that. But look, number one, they get

1:02:41

Marvin, who most people had as the best

1:02:43

player in this year's draft. Take position out of it, best

1:02:45

player might end up being one of the best wide receivers

1:02:47

we've ever drafted. That being said, Kyler

1:02:50

Murray is now also going to be compared to

1:02:52

these quarterbacks that were still on the board that they chose

1:02:54

not to take. I understand why they chose. I'm just saying

1:02:57

that that's part of it. But after that, what

1:02:59

do they do? A deep, defensive minded head coach went

1:03:01

out and got a bunch of defensive players. And I

1:03:03

don't think we should be surprised by this at all. Like you

1:03:05

got a great weapon that's really going

1:03:07

to help your quarterback, and then you turn around and say,

1:03:09

we got to start getting some playmakers

1:03:11

on the defensive side of the ball. I think really strong draft

1:03:14

layers on overall.

1:03:15

Yeah, I do. I agree. I'm with you. Let's

1:03:18

go. We talked about Atlanta, We're gonna go knock buckle

1:03:20

order.

1:03:21

Let's go to Baltimore and the Ravens

1:03:23

and they get Nate Wiggins, the speedy

1:03:26

corner out of Clemson.

1:03:29

I think good value at

1:03:32

that position. Drafting

1:03:35

number thirty of the first round. You

1:03:38

come away with Wiggins, who gives you good athleticism,

1:03:41

and Rosy Garden Roger Roseen Garden, who

1:03:43

I think was good value at the thirtieth

1:03:45

pick of the second round, the

1:03:48

tackle out of wash He did pure tackle

1:03:51

who you can develop. Yeah.

1:03:52

They also not for nothing. In the third round, get Adissa

1:03:55

Isaac out of Penn State.

1:03:56

Yeah.

1:03:56

And as we were sitting there and we read that off.

1:03:59

I literally said, I was like, I totally

1:04:01

forgot that he was even still on the board. And

1:04:03

he's really good. Like it's just Baltimore doing

1:04:05

what Baltimore does. They just sit back and they're

1:04:08

not afraid to have a boring draft. They're not afraid

1:04:10

to take you know, big fat guys, They're not

1:04:12

afraid to take difference makers that

1:04:14

everybody else is still kind of looking at. I thought

1:04:16

that was just really strong. And by the way, Nate

1:04:19

Wiggins was somebody that a few months ago people

1:04:21

thought was going to be a top half of the first round draft.

1:04:24

So, like, I know, size is a bit of an issue

1:04:26

for your like size as in weight is

1:04:28

a bit of an.

1:04:29

Issue for him, but man six and

1:04:31

seventy pounds.

1:04:32

Yeah, and that's being I mean one hundred and seven.

1:04:35

Like I feel like you might have worn like he

1:04:37

had weights in his shoes or something like it. It

1:04:39

felt like, yeah, but yeah, I love this draft

1:04:41

for Baltimore. Like, by the way, you're gonna hear this a lot.

1:04:44

I don't think there were a lot of really terrible drafts.

1:04:46

Go ahead, Yeah, no, yes, I'm

1:04:49

with you. I feel like I felt like the

1:04:51

same way. All right.

1:04:52

The Bills, obviously they needed

1:04:55

a receiver, Kean Coleman

1:04:58

out of Florida, out of Florida State.

1:05:00

They go Keon Coleman able.

1:05:04

You know, he ran a sub four to four forty.

1:05:08

I'm curious what you think. Actually,

1:05:11

Uh, it was a We ran a four

1:05:13

to sixty one. Yeah, he's got

1:05:16

size, but not Uh.

1:05:18

They were a little concern about not

1:05:21

running that four to four. The A lot of

1:05:24

receivers run.

1:05:25

A little slow, a little bit tough

1:05:28

when he gets jammed, like he has a little bit

1:05:30

of hard time with separation. But I'll say this, I

1:05:32

keep going back to Damien because I'm sitting next

1:05:34

to somebody that was just in that locker room, Damien here,

1:05:36

right, And Damien told me the night

1:05:38

before the draft that the Bills were completely comfortable

1:05:41

not taking a wide receiver at all because

1:05:44

this is the way they look at it. They look at Josh

1:05:46

Allen is going to get them between forty and forty five

1:05:48

touchdowns combined. All right, That's that's his

1:05:51

total number is going to be forty to forty five between

1:05:53

his rushing touchdowns and his throwing touchdowns. They

1:05:56

don't care where that comes from. As an offense,

1:05:58

they're not concerned about the hits that he takes. And

1:06:00

they look at it as a team and say, is there

1:06:03

really that much wins above replacement

1:06:05

if we bring in somebody else. Like when they

1:06:07

say they don't think they need a true number one, it's

1:06:09

because they believe that the difference between

1:06:12

you know, for everyone that thought maybe they were going to try and trade

1:06:14

for Debo or Brandon Ayuk or something like that.

1:06:17

If you're the Bills, they just looked around and said, hey,

1:06:19

we we like the room we have. And by the way, we

1:06:22

think that Josh is going to be good for forty five touchdowns

1:06:25

no matter who he has, and if he gets somebody great,

1:06:27

it's only going to make that forty five touchdowns.

1:06:29

So they view wide receiver there internally

1:06:31

far different than we view it for them. But yes, I

1:06:33

think Kean Coleman a good player. I think it's good

1:06:35

draft cole Bishop safety out of Utah, so

1:06:38

somebody that can hit, somebody that can run. I like

1:06:40

him a lot, So I think it was a good one for them.

1:06:42

Yeah, here's the thing though about

1:06:45

their thinking. And I get it. You're in Buffalo

1:06:47

and you know when it's time to win

1:06:50

in December and January.

1:06:53

You know, the weather's ridiculous, the whole thing.

1:06:56

Yeah, where's the space come from?

1:06:58

Man?

1:06:59

Like, I love the fact you got a run game now,

1:07:01

and that's great, and I love Josh Allen to death.

1:07:04

But where's the space on the field? Like,

1:07:06

that's where I think it's faulty

1:07:08

thinking. And you

1:07:10

know, we bring up Kean Coleman and

1:07:13

his lack of speed, like,

1:07:17

I don't know. I like Dolt Kaka from

1:07:19

that spot. I think he's a good weapon. Where's

1:07:22

your speed at?

1:07:23

It's not there yet, I would

1:07:26

be for me. I wasn't surprised they

1:07:28

went wide receiver in the second round. I was surprised

1:07:30

that that was the wide receiver pick. Remember that.

1:07:32

In order to do that, let's not get it twisted,

1:07:35

the Bills traded the Bills the

1:07:37

trader. Bills traded with

1:07:40

Kansas City, allowing Kansas City to get the

1:07:42

fastest guy that they could possibly get. Like, Kansas

1:07:44

City gets the exact wide receiver they wanted because

1:07:47

the Bills, the team that they keep beating in the way

1:07:49

to the Super Bowl, allowed that to

1:07:51

happen. So the Bills not only didn't get a fast

1:07:53

wide receiver that gives them speed. They traded

1:07:56

in a way that allowed Kansas City

1:07:58

to get speed and traded out of the

1:08:00

bottom of the first round where they again

1:08:03

could have had anybody they wanted. They still get a

1:08:05

wide receiver. But man, I think

1:08:07

some of those trades are gonna If Xavier Worthy

1:08:09

turns out to be who we think he's gonna be in that Kansas

1:08:11

City offense, we can all blame the Bills

1:08:14

for a long time.

1:08:15

I gotta tell you, I'm stunned

1:08:18

that they did that. Like I'm

1:08:21

stunned.

1:08:22

Now, that's where you put like if Andy Reid

1:08:24

in Beach, Like for those two guys, you put

1:08:27

the little red flags they do not call, do

1:08:29

not text, You put those markers around their name, and

1:08:31

when they call on draft day, you just send them straight to voicemail.

1:08:33

I'm not helping you for anything. Like Kansas

1:08:35

City always gets it right, So when they're calling,

1:08:38

I figure they're going to get it right. I'm not gonna

1:08:40

help them do that. I was stunned with that tr I too.

1:08:42

I know I was still to same like you trade

1:08:44

with Andy Listen, I

1:08:47

don't care what anybody says.

1:08:49

And he knows talent, right and he

1:08:51

knows offensive talent.

1:08:53

He knows quarterbacks, he knows receivers,

1:08:56

he knows offensive linemen, he knows

1:08:58

that stuff inside.

1:09:01

And you're gonna move when you need

1:09:03

that, say you have that same need

1:09:05

that they do.

1:09:07

Yeah, first of all, I think they messed up that

1:09:10

they should have traded up to try to get Brian

1:09:12

Thomas. When Brian Thomas is sitting

1:09:14

there at twenty three, why aren't

1:09:16

you on the phone trying to move up like

1:09:19

Brian Thomas. That would

1:09:21

have been a great pick for Buffalo.

1:09:23

I also think that when Xavier where

1:09:26

they just absolutely burns the Bills

1:09:28

in a playoff game for a touchdown, we're all

1:09:30

gonna look at it and be like, huh, much

1:09:33

like I mean, we praised the Eagles

1:09:35

earlier, and we praised Washington, but

1:09:37

Washington was the team that traded with the Eagles

1:09:39

to allow the Eagles to get Cooper Degen. The

1:09:42

first time Cooper Degen turned around and gets

1:09:44

a pick six on Jayden Daniels, We're

1:09:46

gonna we just need to remember that that's because

1:09:48

Washington allowed that trade down. I don't get rivals

1:09:51

trading with each other. I would never do it.

1:09:52

I would never do it. I would

1:09:55

never do it. I mean the other

1:09:57

thing too, is I was surprised. I

1:10:00

mean I like Pearsol. I like Pearsal

1:10:02

better than Coleman.

1:10:03

Yeah, and piersal is

1:10:06

somebody that they had better options.

1:10:08

You're right, And I think I keep saying

1:10:10

flavor of ice cream when I cover these wide receivers.

1:10:13

But it's like everybody has their favorite flavor

1:10:15

of ice cream. But also, when you're making

1:10:17

a perfect Sunday, you can't hodgepodge

1:10:19

a bunch of flavors that don't go.

1:10:20

Together and right.

1:10:21

And I think you are right that this is just

1:10:24

one big old bowl of like what are we doing?

1:10:26

You know, there's just it doesn't fit.

1:10:28

I don't I don't like the way they Again,

1:10:31

I'm a big believer in you've got to

1:10:34

create space.

1:10:34

It's just it's you know the one thing

1:10:37

about sports with a mobile quarterback ahead,

1:10:39

Yes, exactly, it's geometry,

1:10:41

man, It's what it is. You

1:10:44

gotta have speed. Speed

1:10:48

opens things up, right,

1:10:50

Like you gotta have guys that can work the middle,

1:10:52

you have the guys who work the outside.

1:10:54

You gotta have playmakers, right, And the same

1:10:56

thing like in the NBA, it's

1:10:58

spacing on the floor.

1:11:00

All right, that's why you need shooters, like you need

1:11:02

somebody to stand the floor and then

1:11:04

you can have all your post presence and like

1:11:06

it just it's all about spacing.

1:11:08

I did a film breakdown a couple of years

1:11:11

ago with a bunch of former players, and all

1:11:13

we did was look at at the time Kansas

1:11:15

City. We were looking at Tyreek and the

1:11:17

impact on how teams defend Tyreek,

1:11:19

right. And what the interesting

1:11:22

part about that was if you look at it the way

1:11:24

that you know, Frankly, Kelsey was just open

1:11:26

all the time, and I'm like, how is this happening? Well,

1:11:28

what was interesting is for anybody that goes back

1:11:31

and watches the all twenty two right, you

1:11:33

could see that the defense was not only backing

1:11:35

up for Tyreek, they were cheating to where they thought

1:11:37

the route and ball placement would be mean

1:11:40

and they were because they were cheating pre snaps

1:11:43

so hard. All Mahomes was having

1:11:45

to do was simply audible to these quick

1:11:47

little outs because there was no way to make

1:11:49

up the ground. For Kelsey, all he had to do was move his hips

1:11:51

one direction. He was wide open. That's what great

1:11:54

speed does. That's what Xavier Worthy is going to

1:11:56

do, by the way, for this Chiefs offense

1:11:58

right away, and that's what the I think, you know, we agree,

1:12:00

that's what the Bills need. They got a wide receiver.

1:12:03

I don't think they made Josh Allen's job any

1:12:05

easier in this process, and like, I just hate

1:12:07

that for Josh Allen.

1:12:08

By the way, I learned that the stuff off

1:12:10

of Andy Reid that way back in the day.

1:12:13

So he drafts, he's got

1:12:15

mcnabbed, he was a mobile quarterback. He

1:12:18

drafts Brian Westbrook, who was an

1:12:20

incredible weapon out of the backfield on

1:12:22

a wheel, great speed.

1:12:24

Guy right, like you know, home run type

1:12:26

of hitter. And then he goes and signs

1:12:30

Terrell Owens.

1:12:31

And so we were talking about the triangle

1:12:34

of having a mobile

1:12:36

quarterback Westbrook out of the backfield,

1:12:38

who you can put out on this in

1:12:40

the slot, and then outside got like Owens.

1:12:44

And so what happened was he had

1:12:46

a guy on the outside

1:12:49

that would just run, who was a speed

1:12:52

guy, would just run

1:12:55

go routes right, and it

1:12:58

was it just made a lot of sense that

1:13:01

you could put a guy like Todd Pickston wasn't

1:13:04

any good, but was fast,

1:13:06

and he would just get manned up all day long.

1:13:09

So once again he would have a

1:13:11

big play and it was all because

1:13:13

of the spacing on the field. He's like, look, I

1:13:16

know he can beat his man because he's fast.

1:13:19

He doesn't have great hands, but he's going to connect,

1:13:22

you know, every once in a while on a huge

1:13:24

play because they're just going to single

1:13:26

them up.

1:13:27

Well.

1:13:27

And look at the advanced analytics

1:13:30

on the poor performance in the red zone

1:13:32

for many offenses, in many quarterbacks, it's living

1:13:34

breathing proof that when you lose that spacing,

1:13:37

everything gets tougher. So if you don't

1:13:39

have a way to create that spacing from the twenty

1:13:41

to the twenty, right, Like, if you don't have the the ability

1:13:44

to create the spacing in the green zone, what

1:13:46

are you gonna do? And that's where I think to your point,

1:13:49

Like for years we sat here and said, man, I just need Buffalo

1:13:51

to commit to running the football. Fine, they've done that,

1:13:53

But now I'm looking at and saying, well, you got

1:13:55

to make the job easier for everybody involved

1:13:58

in that process. I don't think I really like key

1:14:00

On Coleman, the kid. I like ke Coleman

1:14:02

in some offenses, but in this offense, he doesn't

1:14:05

provide.

1:14:05

The way that when you don't have you got

1:14:07

no speed.

1:14:08

Guy again, I think you would need somebody as

1:14:10

a complimentarc Guy's one thing like you lose

1:14:13

Diggs. Diggs as a playmaker. Yep,

1:14:15

all right, we'll take quick to you. We'll come right back. Continue

1:14:18

our foray around the League of Fellas on

1:14:20

Fox Fellas

1:14:25

on a Fox

1:14:28

Sports Saturday.

1:14:31

Talking draft. Gotta

1:14:34

love the draft.

1:14:37

So six and twelve

1:14:40

first picks quarterbacks won't continue going around

1:14:42

the league, but six and twelve quarterbacks,

1:14:45

six and the twelve first picks quarterbacks, and

1:14:47

we all know that there is a you know,

1:14:50

there's going to be some that make it and some are

1:14:52

busts and some are okay. And what's

1:14:55

your vibe as

1:14:57

far as the breakdown hit

1:15:02

miss okay? I

1:15:06

love this question.

1:15:07

Uh, we go down in order. Caleb's

1:15:09

a hit to me. I think Caleb's an incredible

1:15:12

quarterback. I think we've overanalyzed the entire

1:15:14

thing. And by the way, I mean, for the

1:15:16

first time in the modern draft era, a quarterback

1:15:18

and a wide receiver are both selected by the same team.

1:15:20

In the top ten. He gets his buddy in Rollman Doonday,

1:15:23

who comes in and is immediately going to

1:15:25

make an impact on an offense that already

1:15:27

has a couple of number one wide receivers. I

1:15:29

mean, I think I think the Bears have sneakily

1:15:32

put themselves into the wildcard conversation.

1:15:35

The North is

1:15:38

ridiculous.

1:15:39

That's yoked man, Like I love every Emerald

1:15:42

God. So I think I think Caleb's

1:15:44

going to be great. I think the Bears are going to be happy, and I

1:15:47

think the Bears are about to have a generation of success

1:15:49

at the quarterback position for the first time

1:15:51

in team history. So that makes me happy for

1:15:53

Chicago. He's going to be an absolute rock star.

1:15:55

I love him that I loved you if that real,

1:15:58

just as a quick aside because you referenceding,

1:16:00

But if any city deserves some quarterback

1:16:03

lock, all right, And I'm

1:16:05

not talking about sid Lock all

1:16:07

right, I'm talking about

1:16:09

Chicago, man.

1:16:10

They need some luck QB lock man.

1:16:13

And I don't know, I like

1:16:15

it when the Bears are good. I just think it's it's fun.

1:16:18

Like when the Bears are a just a really

1:16:21

solid team, I just feel like it hits

1:16:23

for me. So like I'm rooting for Kayleb

1:16:26

Williams to be as good as like if he's two

1:16:28

thirds of the player, I think he's going to be. To

1:16:31

me, this is can't miss. They got the guy like

1:16:34

good for Chicago. Jayden

1:16:37

is interesting to me because I I love

1:16:39

Jayden. I told you like that was my number

1:16:41

one. My god, I want Jayden. He is

1:16:44

slight a frame. I called him a wee little man

1:16:46

and I was told that, you know, that's not a complimentary

1:16:48

thing. But he's just like he looks like a stick

1:16:50

figure, right, like when he was standing next to to

1:16:53

uh Cam Newton on the carpet at one point

1:16:55

on the NFL network, I was like, man if if

1:16:57

Cam like Fluffy's gonna blow him off

1:16:59

the stage. Like he's just a he's

1:17:01

a tiny, tiny person and he's playing

1:17:03

in the Cliff Kingsbury offense. And not to

1:17:05

oversimplify, but let's remember Cliff couldn't

1:17:08

even win at Texas Tech with Pat

1:17:10

Mahomes. So, like, I just don't believe in Cliff

1:17:12

Kingsbury. I'm sorry. So I realize

1:17:15

it's a little bit of a I think Jayden

1:17:17

is great, I'm not sure I trust Washington.

1:17:21

Okay, So on

1:17:23

this scale, like so you got Caleb

1:17:25

is a lock, let's go scale.

1:17:28

So one to ten. Ten they

1:17:30

work out ten that you know, it's

1:17:33

their tens.

1:17:34

I think Caleb is going to be one of the faces of the

1:17:36

league. I'm giving him a to Oakes.

1:17:39

I give James

1:17:41

six, yes, six and a half seven someone

1:17:44

in that like, because I think he's really good

1:17:46

man. I think he's really good, and I

1:17:49

think Washington had a really nice draft, so I give

1:17:52

that. I'm higher on Drake May. I'm curious

1:17:54

where you are on Drake because, like frankly,

1:17:57

I think Land and Drake may is is a good,

1:17:59

good pick. And I understand everybody says, well,

1:18:01

his play dropped off last year. Yeah, his web hats

1:18:04

off and like they lost. I

1:18:06

mean, yeah, I really like I like,

1:18:08

I think Drake may has a chance to be very

1:18:10

good.

1:18:11

Well it's funny like you said this, right, like,

1:18:14

because I think the same thing, right,

1:18:16

So I'm going I'm looking around

1:18:19

and I like the quarterbacks, Like honestly,

1:18:22

I like. I like them, and

1:18:26

you know, I know intellectually

1:18:28

that a couple of them

1:18:30

are going to be complete bus and

1:18:33

probably you know, only one or

1:18:35

two will stand out and have a like

1:18:37

long career. But

1:18:39

I kind of like the quarterbacks. I

1:18:42

like where they're at you know, I kind

1:18:44

of you know.

1:18:45

I mean a chance to be

1:18:48

that that sort of like, oh my god, draft

1:18:51

at the quarterback position. I think a lot of these guys

1:18:53

are have a real chance to work. I know they shouldn't,

1:18:55

but I think a lot of these guys have a real chance to work.

1:18:57

Yeah.

1:18:57

It's like it's like, look at look at JJ.

1:19:00

He's in a great spot. You got Jefferson,

1:19:03

you got a

1:19:06

terrific coach, you got like

1:19:08

a lot going for you in

1:19:11

Minnesota.

1:19:12

Well, and so here's something we we

1:19:15

had our guys reached out to

1:19:17

all the agents that they could. Yeah, and

1:19:19

they asked this question to a bunch of different agents,

1:19:21

if your quarterback kid, whoever they

1:19:24

might be, could land with any team, who

1:19:26

do you want it to be. Every single

1:19:29

answer came back Minnesota, every

1:19:31

single one. So you're talking because they got

1:19:33

the play caller, they got the pass catcher, and

1:19:35

they got the pass protection. Like if

1:19:38

Jay, any quarterback that went to Minnesota

1:19:40

was going to be successful, I don't love I don't

1:19:42

know Jay. I think JJ's incomplete to me, Like,

1:19:44

I'm like maybe, but JJ, Minnesota,

1:19:46

I'm all in. I give it like an eight.

1:19:49

Yeah, I hear you. H's

1:19:52

funny. It's like I think the same thing.

1:19:54

And even bow Nicks that

1:19:57

I'm you know, I was not like I was

1:19:59

luke warm at best as

1:20:01

a prospect, and I think at twelve is really

1:20:05

reaching. But I look

1:20:07

at it and go, you know what, Sean Payton,

1:20:11

that's a good spot form.

1:20:13

Man, I just don't trust that roster like a tough

1:20:16

spot. That's a five for me. I like bo

1:20:18

a lot as a kid, but tough spot with that roster.

1:20:20

God, that's gonna be tough.

1:20:22

Well not immediate. But

1:20:26

do I give Sean Payton too much credit? Like

1:20:29

because I think Sean Payton will

1:20:31

fix it.

1:20:32

I think Sean can do a lot with a little.

1:20:34

But man, that's asking a lot for even Sean

1:20:36

Payton.

1:20:37

Well at some point they I mean, I'm talking a

1:20:40

couple of years down the line. Fellas right here,

1:20:42

Fox Sports Radio.

1:20:45

You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

1:20:49

Well, good morning, good morning,

1:20:51

good morning, good morning,

1:20:56

buddy, Well happy, happy

1:20:58

happy Fox Sports Saturday. What

1:21:02

a or an embarrassment of riches? Right,

1:21:04

we have NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs,

1:21:06

and of course the draft.

1:21:08

Day three, This is the true gee

1:21:11

them.

1:21:13

Day three of the draft right, like you're

1:21:15

so right, Jason Fitzanthony gar got it

1:21:17

from the Tireck dot Com studios, Robbie

1:21:19

Sisher right like when

1:21:22

you go, oh my god, I can't wait to see who's on

1:21:24

the board now.

1:21:25

So I gotta be honest, brother. I owe

1:21:27

an apology to so many people that have done

1:21:29

great work for years on the draft, because, as

1:21:32

I've said a million times to you and on this show,

1:21:34

I love the Draft. I have loved the draft

1:21:36

my whole life. I remember where I was for key picks

1:21:39

in my life. I remember these moments. They stick

1:21:41

with me. I've always watched Day three

1:21:43

and for years as a fan, I would sit

1:21:45

there and I would yell at my TV. I yelled at

1:21:48

ESPN, I yelled at the NFL network every year,

1:21:50

and I'm like, damn it, it's the sixth round. I've

1:21:52

never heard of this guy. I don't need you talking

1:21:54

about what happened on Day one. I need

1:21:56

you to give me a breakdown on this player because I don't

1:21:58

know anything about him, and you're over here talking

1:22:01

about off season acquisition. I used to just

1:22:03

yell every year. Now, man,

1:22:06

after covering it, this is my seventh year I've covered

1:22:08

the digital show of a draft right six years for

1:22:10

ESPN, the first year with Yahoo. I'm telling

1:22:12

you, man, you get into about the fourth round.

1:22:14

Any on any of these you get into the fourth round,

1:22:16

you're like, so the Falcons

1:22:19

Panix, Like, it's just because you reached

1:22:21

the spot. We did it last night. We're sitting there on Yahoo,

1:22:23

We're going off on some of these picks, and then you just reach

1:22:25

a point where you're like, I a

1:22:27

fact I was taking here. Let's talk about the off

1:22:30

season acquisition of the I own an apology

1:22:32

to everybody, because like there is a spot where you're like,

1:22:34

let's just talk about quarterbacks. You who

1:22:37

knows what these guys? Who knows if a fourth,

1:22:39

fifth, sixth, or seventh round pick is good? And by

1:22:41

the way, if they are, that's a luxury. Like

1:22:43

you won the scratch scratch off lottery

1:22:46

ticket. Congratulations, go cash it, right,

1:22:48

Like there's.

1:22:49

Like unique talents right like you go,

1:22:52

you have unique situations injury

1:22:54

upside right, Like you take

1:22:57

a flyer to the guy that's

1:22:59

an injured guy, right, so whose

1:23:01

medical is not

1:23:03

good?

1:23:04

Right?

1:23:04

So you take a shot laid round, You

1:23:06

take a guy like the Eagles

1:23:09

a few years ago, to Jordan may Alatta, who

1:23:12

was a rugby player, right and

1:23:15

in the seventh round, a huge project,

1:23:18

and it just turned it just so happens that he

1:23:20

turned out to be, you know, a

1:23:23

stud left

1:23:25

tackle, right like you know, I

1:23:27

mean, that's just.

1:23:28

Like you're drafting for traits at this point, right like,

1:23:30

once you get four, five sixty seven, you're

1:23:33

just looking around saying, you know what, he's fast, I think

1:23:35

I can develop him. He's he's strong.

1:23:37

I think I can develop him. And that's where you have to trust

1:23:39

your coaches. Like I mentioned the reaction because

1:23:41

we did this really cool thing in the Who Sports

1:23:43

app that has been I think

1:23:46

one of the coolest things I've ever seen, honestly, are been a

1:23:48

part of with the draft where on every pick,

1:23:50

fans can give an emoji so they can give

1:23:52

like fire or cringe or humh

1:23:54

as an emoji response and then you immediately

1:23:57

see how like everybody else reacts to

1:23:59

it. And it was so funny to me. You'll appreciate

1:24:01

this as we went into last night. Even you

1:24:03

go, if somebody was drafted from a small

1:24:06

school, I don't care where, I don't care what school

1:24:08

they went to. If somebody came from a small school, nobody

1:24:10

had ever heard of them. They either got the cringe emoji

1:24:12

or the huh emoji if they came

1:24:14

from Michigan, Washington, Alabama,

1:24:18

any team that made the college football Playoff. Fire

1:24:20

fire, fire, fire fire. Right, Like, we're at that spot

1:24:22

now where people just want names they've heard

1:24:24

of at some point on a Saturday

1:24:26

to be acquired by their team, and they're like, oh, he's gonna

1:24:29

be real good. But I'm just telling y'all like, at

1:24:31

this point, if they make it to round four, there's a

1:24:33

reason they've made it to round four.

1:24:35

Yeah, spot on, spot

1:24:37

on. So how was it? How was the the

1:24:40

emoji kickoff?

1:24:41

Over a million people chimed in with emojis

1:24:44

over the course of the last couple of days. You know, we

1:24:46

had We had over one hundred thousand people

1:24:49

watched the show that we did night

1:24:51

one, which is for y'allhoo, you know, huge numbers.

1:24:53

So we're growing something that I really

1:24:55

love. I've said this so many times, but like

1:24:58

the biggest draft show we did in Vegas

1:25:00

that year for ESPN was the biggest one we ever did. It

1:25:02

was me and Dominique and Mina and Field

1:25:05

and Harry Douglas Spencer Hall.

1:25:07

We had ten million views. So, like I wind

1:25:09

everybody that the draft think about

1:25:12

this. Two hundred thousand people lined

1:25:14

up in Detroit stood shoulder

1:25:16

to shoulder for roughly six seven hours

1:25:19

to watch a job fair Like most of

1:25:21

these guys aren't even gonna make it in the league

1:25:23

and they stood around for hours. Just go huzza

1:25:26

when your team picks like that's it is

1:25:28

amazing to me the phenomenon that the draft

1:25:31

truly is now, Like we have spent the

1:25:33

first several hours of this show breaking

1:25:35

down the draft, and let's acknowledge the fact

1:25:38

that the Stanley Cup playoffs are going on right now and

1:25:40

the NBA playoffs, like the NBA.

1:25:42

Playoffs now, so post you

1:25:45

know what's funny, I have you know, so I have

1:25:47

I do everything of a notebook called Ball of School,

1:25:49

right.

1:25:51

I knew that about you, Like the little spiral up, Yeah,

1:25:53

that's that's on brand, yes sir, yes.

1:25:56

Yes, yes I can take your picture of it. You'll

1:25:58

laugh.

1:25:59

So I'll notes and everything

1:26:01

and like you know.

1:26:02

An outline of what we know I want

1:26:04

to bring to you and that we're going to talk about the

1:26:06

whole thing. And you

1:26:08

know, I keep looking to go bring

1:26:11

up the NBA because there's a lot of storylines

1:26:13

in the NBA. And you know, I'm consumed

1:26:16

in my own right because we have a series

1:26:19

between six Ers and Knicks, and it's like filly

1:26:21

New York. It's like a big deal, and

1:26:24

I you know, I just can't get there. I can't

1:26:27

find my I can't like kind of push myself

1:26:29

there. There's so many other things

1:26:32

with this draft for you

1:26:34

brought up Detroit, and I don't want any

1:26:37

more time to go by. I love

1:26:39

what Detroit did. I think Detroit

1:26:42

showed out.

1:26:44

Man.

1:26:44

I think that's a great

1:26:46

town. It's a great sports town.

1:26:49

I love the fact that the dressed in Detroit,

1:26:51

and I thought the city and

1:26:54

all the response was great, was

1:26:57

great. And taking

1:27:00

it from city to city, like it's like this

1:27:04

traveling play, Like I think it's

1:27:06

awesome. I remember when it was in

1:27:08

Philadelphia and it

1:27:10

felt like a like a almost

1:27:13

like one of those.

1:27:16

Concerts, right, Like it felt like

1:27:18

that kind of thing.

1:27:20

We had, you know, scores of people

1:27:22

on the Parkway leading up to the Art Museum,

1:27:25

and I mean I had to be you know, close

1:27:28

to a million people outside. It

1:27:31

was it was wild. It was like a festival, and

1:27:33

so I think Detroit really showed it.

1:27:36

Curiously what you think it's.

1:27:38

Been incredible for Detroit, but it's

1:27:41

it's one of the moves that the NFL makes that

1:27:43

I think has been overlooked as one of

1:27:45

the smartest things we've seen in modern sports,

1:27:47

because now you get cities that don't

1:27:49

really always have a shot at the super Bowl because

1:27:52

of their situations, whether it's weather, the stadium,

1:27:54

or whatever. You also get cities that may

1:27:56

not be in the same rotation they want to be in, and

1:27:59

the city shows up for three straight

1:28:01

days, and then when you start including the

1:28:03

broadcast that lead up to it, it's a week

1:28:06

focused on this one place, right And

1:28:08

what's so powerful? Like you talk about

1:28:10

Philly because at your core, you

1:28:13

are Philadelphia and you are proud of Philadelphia.

1:28:15

And I've had several people tell me, man, Philly

1:28:17

was one of the best locations I went. First time

1:28:19

I went to a draft, I went as a fan podcast

1:28:23

trying to make it. I went to the Chicago Draft. I had a buddy

1:28:25

that got me tickets to the theater, so I was able to

1:28:27

be in the in the room for the Chicago Draft,

1:28:29

and I knew right then. I think it's the most

1:28:31

incredible experience because fans

1:28:34

are just partying everywhere, and they've got exhibits

1:28:36

and setups that show off the city but also show

1:28:38

off teams, and you can get to do these interactive

1:28:40

things and there's this brotherhood to it. And for

1:28:43

me, I'm very lucky to the

1:28:45

two cities that mean the most to me in the world

1:28:47

are Nashville and Vegas. They've both had

1:28:49

the opportunity to host the Draft, and it's

1:28:51

so powerful because it just feels

1:28:54

like your city has the opportunity to show

1:28:56

the world how amazing you are.

1:28:59

It's the the pride,

1:29:01

the civic pride that goes into the Draft

1:29:04

is far bigger to me than it is around the super

1:29:06

Bowl. It's far bigger than it is to me around

1:29:08

just a championship game. It's different

1:29:10

than that, and it's become this tenth pole moment

1:29:13

for the league but also for the city that

1:29:15

hosts it, like Green Bay next year is going

1:29:17

to be wild as the host of

1:29:19

the Draft, and like I've been Bay,

1:29:24

there's nothing in that city. I played Green

1:29:26

Bay a bunch of times in the music business, right

1:29:28

like, there's nothing there. There will be that week

1:29:30

like that we get is going to be absolute camp

1:29:33

like everybody's going on.

1:29:34

I mean, honestly, you got to stay in Appleton.

1:29:36

That's where the.

1:29:39

Cells are. Like the fact that, like

1:29:41

how many fans are gonna pay whatever it takes,

1:29:44

because like they do the tours of Lambeou and you can do

1:29:46

a Lambeau leap at the end of it. Fans are all gonna

1:29:48

pay for that. Like everybody's gonna want to walk through Lamba.

1:29:50

Like it's such a cool experience

1:29:53

to just be around the football history rich places

1:29:55

and then to see Detroit really get to celebrate

1:29:57

some of the players that we you know, they're

1:30:00

legends, but we sometimes forget, like the Lions

1:30:03

don't have a great rich history

1:30:05

and tradition of winning. And boy they

1:30:07

have won through the course of this weekend.

1:30:10

Yeah, I was happy. I agreeed

1:30:12

it.

1:30:14

This is the beauty of the league, right,

1:30:16

the beauty of our love affair.

1:30:19

It's actually less to do with the league and more to

1:30:22

do with our love affair with

1:30:24

football. And you know

1:30:27

it's pretty it's pretty amazing

1:30:29

our love affair with it. So when

1:30:32

this schedule comes out, that's the next

1:30:34

big thing on the calendar.

1:30:36

Where we treat.

1:30:38

That thing and we already know the opponents,

1:30:40

but for some reason, the schedule

1:30:43

release is like this

1:30:46

like magical moment, and it

1:30:49

really what it does is it allows

1:30:52

for anticipation and

1:30:54

it's like, oh, week one and maybe we want

1:30:56

to travel and look at our schedule

1:30:58

and WS and l's and it's

1:31:01

all exercise and futility

1:31:03

doing that stuff.

1:31:04

But it's fun. I love

1:31:06

it.

1:31:07

I love it. But every year I also laugh

1:31:09

at the fact that right now you can google, like

1:31:11

I could go out and google Raiders opponents

1:31:13

twenty twenty eight, and of these

1:31:15

seventeen opponents, fourteen are already

1:31:18

known. For the next eight years. We know fourteen

1:31:20

of the seventeen opponents all the way across the board,

1:31:22

and we still flock to it.

1:31:23

Every year.

1:31:24

We're like, oh my god, I can't believe the schedule's out. Like it's

1:31:26

like, yeah, you can look and see the away in home

1:31:28

games and fourteen right fourteen to seventeen,

1:31:31

but you're right there, it's

1:31:33

yours. It's like, well, what did we get

1:31:35

a Christmas Day game? And like yes,

1:31:37

I mean we mentioned.

1:31:38

Christmas, Halloween, like yes, Thanksgiving.

1:31:41

Now that the league plays on Christmas and is about

1:31:43

to extend to President's Day, which is

1:31:46

usually NBA All Star weekend. Like the

1:31:48

NBA is just continually squished by the

1:31:50

NFL. At this point, Roger Goodell has

1:31:52

just made it his mission. It feels

1:31:54

like to make sure that they remind. It's

1:31:57

like the big brother reminding the little brother whose boss

1:31:59

at every turn.

1:32:00

Well, it's funny because we had this discussion Philly

1:32:04

the other day because how

1:32:06

we re he signed

1:32:09

AJ Brown through an extension, So

1:32:11

the Eagles signed AJ Brown through an extension,

1:32:14

and then the Sixers were playing

1:32:16

the same night, right, and we had the draft

1:32:20

and it's like they beat the Knicks to

1:32:22

make a like a huge game tomorrow

1:32:26

for that series. But like all

1:32:29

people are talking about is oh Aj Brown

1:32:31

and then the draft picks and then so it

1:32:34

gets dwarfed.

1:32:36

I said this, it's.

1:32:37

Brutal, though, like because you're an NBA fan,

1:32:40

I'm an NBA fan to but like you love

1:32:42

the NBA, right, and I'm just sitting here saying,

1:32:44

Okay, in a world where we've devalued

1:32:47

the entire NBA regular season, now

1:32:50

the first round of the playoffs, alls kind of doesn't matter,

1:32:52

Like what are we doing? Like it's just

1:32:54

how do you cut through the noise and you can't. The

1:32:57

answer is against the NFL, you simply can't.

1:32:59

So now like, yeah, you're trying to get everybody

1:33:01

round, because you're right, this Philly New York series

1:33:03

should be absolutely the stuff

1:33:06

the dreams are made of, and it's having

1:33:08

a hard time cutting through.

1:33:11

And I said this now, I you know again

1:33:13

they they have been stubborn to buy it. But

1:33:16

I want to get your opinion. When during

1:33:19

the pandemic and when they did the Bubble,

1:33:22

the Bubble Championship, they had a chance

1:33:26

to completely change

1:33:28

the NBA schedule, and

1:33:32

dude, I thought they really

1:33:34

messed up. Instead

1:33:36

of going back to October whole

1:33:38

thing. Why not start it,

1:33:41

you know, Christmas Day or

1:33:44

you were you know, pick an arbitrary day,

1:33:46

but like Christmas Day was always the de facto

1:33:48

start of the season. And then

1:33:50

you run it through where you have your NBA

1:33:54

Finals in August. At the end of August,

1:33:56

like.

1:33:57

It's there's nothing going on like in

1:33:59

there, like the times

1:34:01

change. People go, oh, you know, it used to be

1:34:03

TV.

1:34:04

You could never do anything in

1:34:06

television in the summer because of vacations,

1:34:09

and you know, people were out about

1:34:12

they weren't home watching a box.

1:34:15

Well, now you could be at for

1:34:17

every bar.

1:34:18

Every restaurant has scores of

1:34:20

televisions, and your tablets

1:34:22

everywhere, your phone is everywhere, so you're

1:34:25

constantly connected to watching

1:34:28

the games.

1:34:30

Not and also if you want to take

1:34:32

your kid to an NBA game, you tell me it's not easier

1:34:34

during summer break. To

1:34:37

me, it is like you're a thousands, right. I'd

1:34:39

start the season like, look,

1:34:41

we're not going to get rid of games. Nobody's going to get rid

1:34:43

of the inventory. So fine, just shift

1:34:46

the entire season, make it start on

1:34:48

Christmas, or make it start on New Year's I don't care.

1:34:50

And then run it through the summer. Give me the playoffs all

1:34:52

summer long, with the championship that ends

1:34:55

in mid August, and then all of a sudden

1:34:57

like, okay, well it can cut

1:34:59

through the NBA Final. Is gonna beat out

1:35:01

preseason football in some conversation,

1:35:04

right, yes, So then at least you're staying out of the

1:35:06

way because there's just not

1:35:08

enough space. There's not enough space for inequity.

1:35:10

For all of it to happen. No, and I'll

1:35:13

give you the perfect day. You start

1:35:16

on MLK Day. Oh,

1:35:18

that's strong, right, Like

1:35:21

you got the whole day, you run games

1:35:23

from morning until night. You

1:35:26

launch the whole thing, you

1:35:29

run it right.

1:35:30

And the beauty of it is, you

1:35:33

know, October

1:35:36

through the Super Bowl, your sport

1:35:39

is lost. It really is like

1:35:41

the playing game, all this other

1:35:43

nonsense, right, nobody cares about it. I

1:35:45

would then start the playing game. I'd

1:35:48

have the playing tournament right,

1:35:50

and I start a right

1:35:52

after the Super Bowl where you

1:35:54

had that window between the

1:35:57

Super Bowl and March madness, and

1:36:00

I would then I would have the playing game

1:36:02

playing tournament during that period

1:36:04

of time. And then again,

1:36:07

you know, I'm running it right

1:36:10

through my and my only competitor

1:36:12

is baseball. And it's

1:36:14

a perfect click companion because we

1:36:17

all want multiple sports going off at

1:36:19

the same time. It's to

1:36:21

me, it makes so much sense. I

1:36:23

just don't understand why they abandoned ship.

1:36:26

The other side to all of that is, remember that

1:36:28

now that we're about to get the college football Playoff,

1:36:31

like the expanded college Football Playoff,

1:36:34

that's going to change all of the attention in

1:36:36

December too. This is one thing I've talked to my buddies that

1:36:38

cover college football about all the time is

1:36:40

that for years you finish the regular season, you had

1:36:42

the whole holiday off to reconnect with your family,

1:36:44

and then you know, you go into the playoffs around

1:36:47

the first of the year, not anymore like the college FOOTBA

1:36:49

playoff is going to start the weekend before Christmas,

1:36:52

right, So just the NBA needs

1:36:54

to understand that the weekend before Christmas

1:36:56

is going to be all about college football

1:36:59

and then it's going to be into the new year and it's

1:37:01

going to go through. All of this is going to happen at

1:37:03

the same time that the NFL season is coming

1:37:05

to a head. On the expanded NFL season

1:37:07

that's likely going to go to President's Day, Like this

1:37:10

is all we are going to be more football

1:37:12

obsessed than we have ever been as a society

1:37:14

from December twentieth until February

1:37:17

twentieth. So now if you thought it was bad

1:37:19

before, the NBA is about to get absolutely

1:37:21

drowned until March madness.

1:37:25

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,

1:37:28

yes, it's so funny

1:37:30