2 Pros and a Cup of JoeIt’s Football Friday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, and the Pacers comeback once again thanks to Tyrese Halliburton in the clutch. Aaron Rodgers finally decides to sign with Pittsburgh to get the taste of New York out of his mouth. And it’s very possible Anthony Richardson started his last game in the NFL. All that and more!
This is the best of two pros and a couple Joe with Lamar rating Win and Jonas Knox on radio.
And you know it's appropriate. We're listening to the Narcos theme song here as the show starts. Because there was an old method back in the day where Pablo Escobar, when he wanted to rid himself of his competitors, he would throw them into.
A lagoon full of hippopotamuses.
Oh it was he throw them in there.
He's got these pet hippos and he would throw him in there and just let him go at it. And I don't even think the Pablo Escobar could throw the Indiana Pacers in with a pawn full of hippos and get rid of them, because that.
Team does not die. They are a zombie.
They did it again last night. It's unbelievable. It's just it's unbel to watch that game. And I'm watching long, thinking, man, Okay, see better extend this. If you don't push it to twenty and you keep them within four five ish possessions, they're gonna figure this thing out. And as the game went down to the wire, they made play after play after play. Even lou Dort makes a great block on Nie Smith and you're like, oh, okay, well that was the real crucial play that had to be had. Pascal Siakam goes out of bounds, they challenge it, call stands.
Okay, see gets the ball back.
You're like, okay, that's the one that's gonna be ultimately what pushes Okac over the top. And it's just not because Indiana refused to die. Awesome Game one of the NBA Finals last night.
I mean, it was what the NBA if they could have drawn it up man. And I hate to be the I told you so type of guy, but it is I told you so type a moment where if Indiana wins that game, it's it makes the series more watchable, more interesting. If Indiana wins the game the way it was drawn up yesterday, it makes the series way more attractive to watch and want to be a part of. I mean, you think about it. In this game you're talking about the Pacers set a record on turnovers. That's how or excuse me, not a record, but it was the season high, season high twenty five turnovers, and yet they were still over able to overcome the deficit of the entire game, never led the entire game and the only time they lead is when they win. You couldn't have drawn it up any better for a viewer to want to watch, because it took you to the entire game. Unless at the point a time where they were down I want to say it was by at least fifteen. I want to say they were down by If you if you dowed out, if you dialed out in the second half, like the third quarter, based upon what the score was, then you missed. You missed the treat of a game. But to see the way Indiana fights back and claw their way back and get into games, the way that they do, they held to form this is you can't say that this was a luck game or you know they some way, somehow, you know, the OKC thunder gave the game away. They shot poorly, they shot poorly. And while OKAC shot poorly, you know what Indiana did. They just kept getting after it. They were slashing to the hole, which I was loving to see as they were being aggressive getting to the hole. They were kicking the ball out. Guys were finding their range. You start seeing contributions come from from different guys, you know. In the comeback, it just it's one of those games where you ask yourself, you know, did did okay see did okay see open up a door that they shouldn't have opened up in this series? Or was it one of those first game, first game jitters? You're at home. Sometimes being at home can actually play against you a little bit. You know, you you might not for some reason, you might not play as loose. And maybe it's because of the excitement. Maybe is because it's your home crowd. There's just certain reasons why sometimes teams play a little bit better, a little bit more relaxed when they're on the road. But this one was a hit scratcher. I think if you had to come up with a way to kind of sum up what last night represented, it was still a head scratcher that this type of a pendulum swing could take place in a game in the NBA Finals. To this, to this.
Degree, the guy who hit the game winner, Tyres Halliburton, spoke afterwards, there.
Was never a disbelief as a group. Honestly, you know, we never think the game is over ever. Honestly speaking, ever, like the never that never creeps in. I think we just keep talking as a group, is how can we walk this team down? So it's at twelve going in a halftime. We talk about, if we can win one quarter by six, one quarter by seven, will be in a great spot. We got to a six point game at the end of the third quarter and Sha hit a three, but we liked where we were, and then they went on a big run to start the fourth and we just say, okay, it's that fifteen with kid to ten. Well we got it to eight. They call time out, so we just stay with it. So this group never gives up. We never believe that the game is over until it hit zero.
And that's a real calculated zombie right there. That's one that's not just one of these Well I'm just going to get.
Up and eat everybody.
It's like, no, no, no, I'm just going to get up and this is how I'm gonna do it. It's gonna come in sections. It's going to go one body part by the next, and I'm going to figure out a way to make Halliburton wasn't even good.
It's not like he had a great game.
He didn't have some some monster game that you look at and go, man, he willed his team to victory. But when he was coming down with that ball following the miss by SGA. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he was going to hit that shot. You just you felt it. I think the arena felt it. And there's probably Okay, see thunderfans that are looking around going.
What the hell happened? Yeah, and I'll tell you what happened.
What happened was the same thing that happened in every single playoff series that Indiana's been involved in.
Yeah.
You leave him hanging around for long enough. You don't step on the throat, you don't finish putting their head in the vice like that guy in Goodfellas and put it into the whole thing. You let him hang around and they ultimately end up making plays to win.
That's a fun.
Team, you know. I told you. Like the second hour they play the theme song one of the parts of Thirteenth Warrior. Yeah, and what I felt like took place in Last Games last night's game was comparable to a scene in Thirteenth Warrior. So there was a guy, he was one of the Norsemen that came with Bouvi to help with the evil that they had to fight against. That the village was that sent for for them. You know what they were facing. Well, the son of the king of the people that sent for Bouvie and his crew to come, you know, he was not as respectful and receptive to them coming to help. And he felt like him and his crew could handle the evil that was coming their way. And he had one big dude that was there, and one of the smaller dudes that bouv brought with him, you know, picked a fight with him. You know, and this this reminds me of that game last night, right, Okay, see the big, tall, strong dude, and you got this little dude over here, and he's he's digging. Everybody's digging trenches and he's throwing the mud on the guy right hits him with the mud boom, hitting, get him dirty. He's like, hey, little man, what are you doing? And he picks a fight with him. So they picked a fight. They get in the ring and you know, they're hitting their shields and he's just letting this big dude wail on him, just bang, bang, cracks his cracks his shield and I think they get like four shields, five ship in the fight or whatever. Little dude ain't messed up. Not one of the shields that this big dude is has ain't really made him do anything to make him feel as though he could hurt him. And the confidence of the big dude is growing by every single shield that he's crushing on this little dude. He gets to the last the last shield they're fighting, boom boom boom, and the big dude does it again bang, just like what the OKC Thunder was doing in his game, seemingly looking like they were just too much, they were going to overpower them. He breaks the shield. The little dude kneels down and and like looking like he's being defeated. It almost looks like it's just defeat. He's too weak, he's too small, he's not he's not nearly the warrior that the other guy is. And the other guy looks at you know what I guess would be the coach. He looks at the King's son and the King's sons like, yeah, doing you know, finish it? Chop that man's head off and show these norsemen they're not as tough as they think they are and they need to listen to what I need, what I'm going to say, what I want to do. So the guy picks up his he picks up his sword to go knock his head off, and the little dude hits him with one of them little like little moves like put sword in the big dude, put sword in a big dude. And when he hit him, he said he was a brave one, right, And so all this time you're beating the hell out of this dude. In the entire time, it was a strategy to get him to the proper place of where he wanted to get him and took him out. And then all of the village people are looking like they were confused. You know, they live by what they can see, but now you're giving them something that they can't see they got to think about. Keeps them off guard, and that maintains the fear the point of the story. Sometimes you can't judge it by the way it looks. Case looks like they're the big, big, strong dude that that can knock you down and take you out because they're so deep with their their you know, with their bench, they have so many strong starters. They got seven footers to go along with it. But you beat up on these dudes for for a half of basketball, really, really, I mean you didn't, you didn't beat them up as well as you should have in the second half, but for the most part, you still maintained your lead throughout the second half of the of the game until the end. And then at the end they make a move and chop your head off and looked at the crowd, and now the crowd is like all stunned, like, wait, did they just beat our champion? Like did they just take him down? They just took out the champion. And now, okaysee has to figure out how they're going to move forward in this series because what I felt took place in this first game, even though they didn't shoot their best. I bet you OKAC was ready to come out of that game and say, you know, we didn't shoot our best, but we defended home court. We had good we had a good showing. Even though guys didn't shoot well from the perimeter. Our shots weren't they weren't going down. Maybe our shots selection could have been better, but yet we were still good enough to win this game and win the game handily. You couldn't come out of the game saying that. Now now you had to say, dang, like we didn't play as well as we could have, but we had the game in hand, on our way to a victory. In some way, somehow Indiana found a way to beat us.
That's right.
That's a very very hard that's a hard riddle to solve. If I'm OKC, maybe they don't think too much of it, but maybe they are. You got one more game there, You got one more game there. And and I think this is such a pivotal game for OKC because they cannot allow, they cannot allow for Indiana to gain any more confidence than what they've gained being able to come out of that game the way they did.
You mentioned the thought process and mentality of Oklahoma City after that game last night, SGA, their superstar, the MVP, spoke about it, following.
It as much as we can, we just got to treat it like every other game, every other situation we've been in. Yes, we haven't been in the situation, but it doesn't mean our character has a change er what we did last time. It's still basketball, still the game of basketball that we grew up playing. The rules don't change its because we're in the finals. So it's like we've been in a situation before and then other situation.
We handled it. We handled it well.
We were better for game two, and that's the goal.
They are currently an eleven point favorite in game two, so the overwhelming expectation is, well, they respond and they'll come back out. And it's like, look, you could feel any kind of way you want to feel about it. A lot of people said the same thing about the Knicks. Listen, they should have won that game in game one. One are the chances India and what happened? Indiana came out and they were actually better in game two, Like, that's that's the if. This would have been Indiana's best shot and their best shot was able to overcome a deficit by Okac who didn't make enough plays down the stretch. I'd feel better about it if I was a Thunder fan, because I would look at it and go, well, yeah, the likelihood of them playing that good again is small, especially on the road. The problem is Indiana didn't play that great. Halliburton didn't have a great game as far as his getting to the basket, you know, getting whatever shot he won. He was actually passed, like giving the ball up at times when he probably could have made a play at the rim. So I look at it and I go, this makes me that much more interested in game two, and it wouldn't not surprise me whatsoever if Indiana was able to keep that close. And if it's close as we've seen, I don't know that you trust any other team in the playoffs to make a play down the stretch.
And you do Indiana more than you know. What makes me think of a scene out of a movie, Like it's like that moment where Rocky punches Ivan Drago and he cutting, and he went back to he went back to the corner and Rocky's corners like you're cutting, you see, you see, he's a man, He's a man. And then Ivan Drago's sitting there like looking at it like this is blood. It's blood, it's my blood. It's my blood, right, and then he realized that this little man could beat him. And again comes back to the David and Goliath type of of storyline here, this is a David Goliath type of series. Obviously, Goliath being Okac, David being the pacers. I just think that this was a very debilitating loss. Like I understand what SGA is saying, and he's right, that's the right way of looking at it, that's the right approach. But jonas if I'm OKC. That is the worst loss that you could have possibly taken. Was the first one last night? Yeah at home?
Not great, not great, but great for us because it makes it that much more entertaining. It is two Pros and a cup of Joe here on Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox with you. By the way, we do have some good news for you here on this show. It's a football Friday. It's a damn Friday on Fox Sports Radio. You bet your sweet ass.
Come on, Bar, come on, yeah, yeah, we got some basketball. It's football Friday. But we got some basketball. We talked about the NBA. But it's a football Friday. It's a football. It's Friday. It's a football Friday. Football Friday. Come on, football football football, football, football football, football, football football Friday, Football Friday. What's wrong with Jonas? Did you just use the blow gun? What's wrong with Jonas? All right? Mark, Mark, come on now, Mark, let's do it. Let's do it for Eddie. Friday night is a football Friday. Yeah, fall Friday. Rock them, suck them, throw it, catch it.
It is a football Friday.
Here on. Be sure to catch live editions of two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Those Pittsburgh Steelers got some good news yesterday.
Did they?
Aaron Rodgers it's official, signs a one year deal with Pittsburgh and he will participate in next week's mini camp. No surprise whatsoever. Brady Quinn had called his shot on this, he had sourced this weeks ago, and here we are, lo and behold, Aaron Rodgers is in fact the starting quarterback now for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Congratulations to surprise and Steeler Nation.
Is this a major shocker and a surprise? I mean, this is what we've been waiting for. Correct. Yeah, and then it's because nobody else wants them? Jeez damn well. I mean, if you think about it, he's in a situation where no one else wanted him. You clearly got a great understanding with with Pittsburgh in terms of what it is that you wanted out of the situation. It's a one year deal. I think there's a lot of people. I think there's a lot of mixed feelings about this. I think there are sides to this signing. You know, on one side, you have the people who are probably excited because he now comes in and regardless of what you think about Aaron Rodgers. The other side of it, people, the people that are on the side of Aaron Rodgers are clearly saying, we now have a quarterback that's better than the ones that we have on the current roster, and that would be a true assessment. Again, I don't know what the quarterback out of you know, out of out of Ohio state that was drafted to the team is. It's Will right Will Howard, Will Howard. I don't know what he will end up being as a pro. But what I do know now and today, as I've made mentioned quite a few times, you got to have somebody who can stand up to what you're going to see in the AFC North, when you see a team like the Baltimore Ravens or the Cincinnati Bengals. You gotta have a defense that can stand up to those offenses. And you gotta have an offense that can stand up and score points against the defenses that you're going to see against those top top end teams. And I'll even throw Cleveland in there in terms of what what Pittsburgh is going to have to see defense defensively, and we don't know what we may get from them offensively, but Stefanski has in the past been pretty good at figuring out ways to make the offense pretty formidable. So you get what you're looking for if you're a pro Aaron Rodgers. But I think the con Aaron Rodgers fans are looking at it like, Okay, you brought in Aaron Rodgers. That's great, whoopedee dude, you brought in a guy that's better than Mason Rudolph and Will Howard. That's what we're That's what we're basing the win off of. Because if you're basing the went off of just that solely and that alone, how many games was Mason Rudolph going to give you as a starter? Which, by the way, if Aaron Rodgers can't hold up under what he's going to see defeat defensively against these AFC North teams and just at his age, hold up against what he's going to have to do physically for the season, then you might see Mason Rudolph. It might have to be Will Howard the rookie. It might have to be someone different who carries this team forward. And so to me, I feel like the way this storyline unfolded, you have put the weight of the world or the city, we should say, on the shoulders of Aaron Rodgers coming into this scenario. If I'm Aaron Rodgers, you you have a chance to end your career on a high note and with a football town and a football fan base where you can be praised and admired and reverenced to the same extreme and levels that you experienced in Green Bay. Yeah, Or you could deal with the intensity of the hate and why did we do this? And why is he here? And this is crazy? You can deal with the disappointment and the anger of those same fans at the same intensity level that you see play out in Green Bay. Also, so it's a very It's to me, it's a fluid situation because I don't think anybody knows what the hell is about to happen in Pittsburgh. So intriguing storyline. It'll be interesting to see how he integrates. It'll be interesting to see how the media handles him, because it's not like the way Aaron Rodgers is is not how Pittsburgh is Aaron Rodgers has a very West coast Ish type of approach to things. Pittsburgh people get it out of the mud. They get up, they get their lunch pails, they get their hard hats, they go to the mill, they go to where they're going, and they work their asses off. Very blue collar, very very simple, very plain, and they just want to hear dudes say I'm come out and whoop your ass. Like that's what Pittsburgh people like. We call it stell Town because of the steel curtain, because we shipped steel, and we make Heinz products and Clark products, like we ship them out. We do what we need to do. We throw our steaks on those steal cooking pots and we go Pittsburgh style with our steaks. We're not playing around, no game playing. So I wonder I'm curious to when he gets his first interviews, how is he going to approach his interviews m unize versus you know, getting getting the uh the shot is not going to work. Trying to be clever and creative and how you create, you know, communicate, that's not going to work in Pittsburgh. So it'd be interesting to see how he handles things, how he carries himself and how that's received by the market that he's in right now.
So some people have made a big thing about the fact that the super Bowl odds for the Steelers didn't change after Rogers signed. Well, it's because it was probably already baked in that they knew he was going to sign. It wasn't a surprise as we laid out. So I look at it and I go, I don't think this is a super Bowl team.
I hope I'm.
Wrong, but I still think they're the third best team in the division. And I and I think to myself at the same time, Pittsburgh is a better team today with Aaron Rodgers than without him. And so the conversation becomes, well, why would Rogers if this isn't a super Bowl caliber team?
And maybe that's you know.
A long shot goal, and yeah, in a perfect world that would happen, why would Rogers want to sign with Pittsburgh? And my question and my thought on it is answer Well, my thought on it, I think there was other options for him. I think he could have gone elsewhere. He would have maybe had to have competed for a job, but I think Pittsburgh was appealing to him. For something that you laid out. I think he missed what he had in green Bay, and it was furthered with his experience with the Jets, and I think they're the appeal to him with Pittsburgh, and we don't know what the contract, what the numbers are. He said he would be willing to play for ten million dollars. I don't think it has anything to do with that, and I don't even think it has to do with chasing another Super Bowl. I think he wants to go out the same way that he came in. I think there was something about the green Bay experience, even though he's a California guy and all that, that I think he really missed because when he got to the Jets, I mean, you got an owner landing helicopters, you got a former coach who was a foot fetish guy. You've got people getting fired, them blaming Rogers players not wanting to be there or reporting and noto. It's like the whole thing was a disaster. Madden ratings to evaluate players by the owner's son. The whole thing was a clown show. And I think he looked at it and said, man, I could walk away right now. I've got my five hundred touchdowns, I'm a first ballot Hall of Famer. I got to play with my best friend again, DeVante Adams last year. I did everything I could possibly want to do in my career. I just want to end it on the right note. And this may result in a nine and eight season and Tomlin gets to stay five hundred, but he signs a one year deal because I think he's ready to go out the right way, and I think that environment in Pittsburgh makes sense for him if he wants to bookend his career and finish it off the way that it started. Pittsburgh I think was the most appealing landing spot for him.
You said he had other options, Yeah, what were they?
I think he could have gone to Tennessee, Okay, I think the New York Giants would have been a possibility. I think that Minnesota had he had he waited, or had he been willing to sit behind a JJ McCarthy or even have a further conversation with Kevin O'Connell about that, I think that maybe would have been a possibility.
Maybe the Niners like it's.
It's not that there were a lot of options, But I do think that he looked at Pittsburgh and said that would makes sense. Look, the Saints could have signed him. He could have gone to New Orleans like that. That was another landing spot, potized.
I think those are all I don't think those are as strong options as you're making them sound. I think, just in short, this was his only option. Let's be clear. Those other ones you named, those aren't Those aren't real options. What about retirement, I don't think. I don't. I think if retirement was the sole other option that he had, he would have he would have retired. I think he would have retired. And and so to me, when he didn't retire in the timely fashion that it seemed like he was, you know, you got a choice you have to make, and he was shopping it around and everybody knew he wanted to try to get to Minnesota, and Minnesota seemingly or bought into what they may be able to get out of McCarthy. That was not an option that was on the table for Aaron Rodgers, not as a backup, not as anything. I just I don't I don't agree with that, and I don't believe that as far as any of these other teams that are out here. I don't believe those were legitimate options. I don't believe the New Orleans Saints was a legitimate option. I don't believe that, after all them quarterbacks they brought in to to New York, that it was a legitimate option. And it makes me very, very curious and very leary of the fact. We had the same conversation about Sam Darnald. Now, I'm not going to compare careers obviously of Sam Donald and Aaron Rodgers, but what I will compare is the level of interest. And it's interesting because it kind of dovetails into the Shador Sanders conversation as well. The market speaks, and when the market speaks, you gotta listen, whether you like it or not, whether you want to create a situation. I mean, god, Lee stephen Ay out here talking about Shador Sanders reminded him of the Colin Kaepernick situation, Like, you can sensationalize what the market says about you or not.
Who's Colin Kaepernick?
Dang, Yeah, Well it's been a while. You can sensationalize what the wise in the house of what the market says, but when that market comes out and it says what you are, that's what you are, and the market said that Aaron Rodgers is not good enough to be one of these quarterbacks that we're willing to risk taking in the offseason and adding him to our roster. There was only one team that was willing to not only meet with him and want to bring him in, but pretty much under the terms and the timeline that he felt comfortable with doing, and that was the Pittsburgh Steelers.
It only takes one.
It only takes one, but in a league of thirty one teams, because obviously he's not going to go back to the New York Jets. In a thirty one team pool, that only one is a team that to me, it's a very pivotal year for this team. And so for there to only be one team that wants Aaron Rodgers, my biggest question is how much does he have left? And if you're basing bringing him in and feeling excited about the season on who Aaron Rodgers was, I just feel like that's a dangerous decision to make if you're the Pittsburgh Steelers, and and could ultimately it could be it's a boomer bust situation. Jonas, Either it's boom and you look at it, and you say the GM did a great job, they took a chance, it worked out and here they are, or it could be a costly mistake. I think that if it doesn't work out, you may see changes come seasons in. I don't think it'll come in season, just because of the type of organization they are. But who's to say that if this thing goes as bad as it looked and seemed and felt in New York when he was there, I wouldn't be surprised if Pittsburgh made a change during the course of the season.
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
We mentioned the feel good news for the Indiana Pacers. If you're an Indiana sports fan, you gotta feel good about your Pacers. Gotta feel great about your Indiana Pacers. And then the cultural around and they decided, you know what, We're gonna draft Anthony Richardson to be our future franchise quarterback.
He's going to be the.
Guy, and we're gonna give him plenty of opportunities. And this was a pivotal year. It was a big year for Anthony Richardson and we're already off to a rough start. Take it away, Colt's head coach, Ainstaking.
Anthony sustained an injury in his throwing shoulder. Felt some pain in it, Doctors, trainers checked it out. He's got some aggravation and his ac joint. So we're gonna set him out this week. Obviously, he'll sit out for mini camp. We'll see when he comes back. Not gonna put a timetable for training camp on it, but when he does come back, we'll ease him into throwing and then we'll go from there. The good thing is he's not gonna need a procedure right now, all right.
So same shoulder that he had ac joint surgery on in twenty twenty three, and now he's got something that's popped up yet again and they're gonna hopefully have him return at some point. No surgery yet, but the idea is at some point during training camp he's going to be there. But for right now he's out indefinitely, which does open up the door for Daniel Jones to take the reins and just keep this thing on trucking.
I mean, first of all, the door was already open even if Anthony Richardson's ac joint was perfectly fine and intact. I mean, I don't think anyone would dispute that piece of information. Now the question becomes, does this become a one horse situation with Daniel Jones and what the idea of moving forward, what that looks like for this team and for Daniel Jones. That's what I would say. There's there, I mean, there's just a lot of question marks surrounding the number two team from the AFC South. You're in a great position as a team to be able to possibly compete with Houston for you know, for that that that first spot and that automatic you know, get into the playoffs deal by winning your your your division. But when you look at this, this cold team, how do you find yourself feeling It's like you look at their their depth chart, you look at their their team, and you would believe that with the talent that they have, that they really could be a real contender. I mean, at one point, not too long ago, in the distant past, this was a team you looked at and said they have the makings of a super Bowl, a Super Bowl contending team and they're I mean, they have some players on defense, they have some players on offense. I mean, Jonathan Taylor at one point was contending and competing to be considered one of the top backs in this league. Now he's dealt with a couple different setbacks, but for the most part, Jonathan Taylor when he's on, that's a that's a pretty big piece of anybody's team puzzle. When you have a guy that can run the ball the way that he does, takes pressure off of guys like Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones. And we all know that Daniel Jones had Sakwon Barkley to take that pressure off of him. In New York, Michael Pittman Junior is a guy at the receiver's position that while he doesn't get spoken on the level of like the Jamar Chases and the Justin Jeffersons, you know, and that that type of that type of rating and ranking of upper echelance elite, you know, receivers, he's still a very very gifted football player. And keep in mind in the draft they got our guy out of Penn State, which I don't understand why people maybe try to downgrade him and not talk as highly about Tyler Warren because he wasn't the first tight end taking in the draft, but he is. If if you're asking me who was the steel of the draft, it was then Danapolis Colts getting Tyler warn one hundred, that's the steal.
So but teach Haryld that's fine.
Well you want that's the most valued pick for certain Again, that's a whole other conversation because because it could take you off into a whole nother conversation. If you get a guy in the fifth round and you drafted in the third round the same position, and you brought in two free agents and that fifth round the ends up being your starter, that says a lot about that team and a lot about the other teams in the league. I'm just saying, but that's a whole other conversation. I think that when you look at the Indianapolis Colts, Anthony Richardson is in a position to solidify a job and have that job with this personnel if he does what he needs to do. But it's also an opportunity for Daniel Jones to try to resurrect or salvage a career that maybe maybe he was unfairly judged. Maybe he becomes the villain to Sakwan Barkley being the hero in this storyline. I don't know, but I feel like the Colts are in a really, really good position in terms of being able to have a good season in that season being a win for their organization and for their team. And yet again you're having conversations of not being clear and not being sure on what Anthony Richardson is going to bring to the table, and as a high draft pick, what is he going to represent and what is he going to mean to this team and this franchise moving forward.
Anthony Richardson's not getting this job back, and for all intents and purposes, his career in Indianapolis is probably over. He missed he only started four games his rookie year because of injuries. He started eleven games last year, missed a bunch because of either injuries or he got benched and decided to take a knee during the course of a game. Obviously, young mistakes. Whatever the talent's there. We've detailed the touchdown throw we had Week one, I believe against Houston last year, which is one of the great throws you'll ever see in the NFL. But the problem is the injuries and the inconsistent play have cost him. And now you've got a situation where you've got a quarterback who is fighting for his career to be saved and a coach who's fighting for his job to be saved. Because of Indianapolis struggles this year, Shane Steichen's probably gone. So I look at it and I go, man, if Daniel Jones just plays serviceable football and keeps them in the fight, Anthony Richardson isn't getting the job back.
It's just not happening.
If Daniel Jones, barring injury or poor play, I don't see. I don't see how this turns out well for Anthony Richardson. And I just think this was, as you mentioned, the door was opened when they may the decision to sign Daniel Jones. There's a reason why Daniel Jones wanted to go there, why he signed with Indianapolis, because I think he saw this as a real possibility, a real opportunity.
To be the starter there.
And now, if you're Indianapolis, if I was a Colts fan, I would feel better about my team going into this year with Daniel Jones. With Daniel Jones than I would Anthony Richardson just from the standpoint of at least I know what I'm going to get. At least I know what I'm going to get. It may not be the greatest quarterback back play at times, but it's not like Daniel Jones hasn't played good football for an extended period of time. He's got an offensive minded coach there in Shane Steikin who's done it with quarterbacks like he did in Philly. With Anthony Richardson, I think it was too much of a wild card, and I do think in agreement with you that Indianapolis is in a better spot today than they were yesterday.
We just had to wait and see how it plays out again. I think the the a f C South is just a peculiar, curious division. Now, can I ask the AFC deal.
Let me ask you a question, though.
All right, because last year when we were making our season picks, you were so disenchanted with the a f C South you didn't even bother of picking the order.
I don't even know if you actually.
Finished picking who you thought was going to win the division because you were just so bored with it, which I think is a natural reaction to the a f C South, Like if we're being honest, so.
Like why pick, Like what you're gonna You're gonna come to the same conclusion again this year the Jaguars are going to be a disappointment. It's like, Pete, It's like you're going to be a disappointment.
It's like somebody asked you, like, hey, which is your favorite parking lot?
I don't know who cares, Like, what do you mean I'm.
Gonna have to walk from all of them? Yeah, if they're in a parking space in like the front lot, which is like the Texans. If it's not a lot space in the Texans parking lot, then I don't want I don't want to go in part. I gotta walk from wherever ile.
So I'm going, hey, rank your favorite seven elevens. What do you mean they're all the same? Like, they're all the same. They're in a CD part of town.
You go there, you just hope your car is still intact when you get out to the like this is it is? What It's like, they're all You look at all these teams, they're kind of all the same. Like there's not really a like there's a reason why, you know, they probably invented the color rush game because it was like, hey man, how could we get people to actually want to watch Jacksonville Tennessee. I know, let's do something goofy with their jerseys and hope people are adjusting their televisions and we can draw rating because they've.
Got it on the TV long enough.
Like I just so.
Now you've got Indianapolis, who's in this spot that we don't know what the hell Houston's going to look like. They got a bunch of changes with their you know, their offensive coaching staff that they had to make.
You got CJ.
Stroud who's not throwing because of quote general soreness. Jacksonville who the hell knows. And Tennessee, he's got a rookie quarterback Shane Stikeen's looking at this like, hey man, I gotta save my job. We've got a quarterback who's banged up again and took a knee last year and we can't depend on him. I'll just ride with Daniel Jones and see if we can get this team out of the playoffs. And I can and I can save my gig here in Indianapolis.
That's what it feels like to me.
I mean, if you believe that Liam Cohen is going to come in and have people on the duvou and totally change what the cadence has been there in Jacksonville, then be excited. You know, it's just as open for Cohen and company to come in and assert and apply themselves into a situation where they could be atop the AFC South. Same thing could happen for the you know, I ain't gonna say Tennessee, but definitely for the Colts. I just feel like with Houston, I don't know what I'm going to get, but I do know they're going to win. This is what I do know. The Houston Texans are going to win because they have CJ. Stroud at quarterback. Now, how impressive will they be? Will they be able to stay at top of the AFC South? If I'm a betting man, I'm going to say yes. But did any of those other teams do anything to really shut down the gap between them and the Texans? I would say definitively no, you haven't shut down the gap. And listen, I think that that Travis Hunter will be an amazing addition to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but I do not look at them and until Trevor Lawrence proves that he's more than what he's been. I don't really I don't look at Jacksonville as favorably as I did when the excitement was still there for Trevor Lawrence and what he could bring to the table as a franchise generational quarterback. He's just been pretty pretty on Parr like and I would say maybe even one over Parr, you know.
But and that's that's given him the benefit.
Of the doubt, that's given him a little bit. That's yeah. So to me, I don't know what Tennessee is going to do. I still think like Tennessee is going to be a seller dweller, even though I have just watched I watched the McNair Untold Untold story yesterday, and he really did in his you know, inaugural year. He really did an excellent job with with Tennessee.
You watched you watch that McNair doc Okay, what was your immediate just the whole it's probably more interesting than the AFC South conversation. All right, what was your immediate takeaway from watching the Steve McNair documentary, Because I'll tell you what mine was. It didn't it didn't tell me anything there was I took. I got nothing from it. Okay, yeah, we get it. Very very weird, a very weird situation. And it seems like more went on. Any answers, Nope, just speculations.
Awesome, and that's I walked away from it still wondering, like, Okay, it seemed like they came to the real conclusion that the girlfriend did it and maybe just maybe that's what it was. But I still feel like I walked away from it, like there was foul play. It could have been it could have been the guy that they they found that that sold the gun, that bought the gun, and if you guys watched the documentary you'll know what I'm talking about. It could have been him that did it, ran up on him, maybe stole something, whatever. I don't know because they didn't make it a point like could have been a robbery that took place. Was there anything missing? I don't think that they even went through any of that, like nothing was missing. When when they just came to the conclusion that she did both of them. She hit him and then she hit herself, you know what I mean.
Like the way they details it, well, she wanted to end up in his lap, and it's like, well if you if you make the decision to call it a day, I don't think you really get to determine where you land.
It's it's really don't.
Like it's like you know, throwing up a hail Mary and getting kicked.
Off and being like, damn, she was on the floor, right, she ended up on the floor. Yeah, just you know, all I'll say is Jonas is the first thing tristaid when she was watching, and she was like the wife. It was the wife. The wife would and got him. And I never thought of it that way. I never even looked at it that way, like dang, Like you know, you can draw different conclusions from it, you know that, Like they had the boyfriend as one of the main peace people that they interviewed to try to piece the story together.
Thanks for that thought. Now I got to clear all my messages, Jesus.
I mean, it's just there. I think there's different angles in which you could look at. They tried to blame the best friend of falling out. It could have been him, but there's the idea that they What I feel is interesting about that, Doc Jonas is that they positioned you to try to figure out who committed the crime. It wasn't this lady did it, And here's how she did it, here's why she did it. Here's definitive information that proves that this was who did it. I didn't come away from it feeling that way. I came away from that doc having more questions than you know to ask, needing answered than questions answered from watching it.
And it was if they were like, all right, the end, now you figure it out. No, that's not that's not our job. Our like it's been all these years later. The guy who's done a great job, by the way, on the Steve McNair murder suice, whatever you want to call it, armand Katayan, Yeah, has done a great job. And I think he's been pretty consistent if I remember correctly, that he doesn't buy the story like he doesn't buy just every detail of the story that's been laid out in the way and the way it all happened. It just it's a sad story, no doubt, But there's just something about it that has never landed right with me.
It just seems too too clean to direct it and put it on her.
And by the way, how about the fact that we're coming up on the sixteen year anniversary.
That's crazy. It's such a that one rocked the football communities to the core. I mean, there's so many people that can remember. I can remember exactly where I was too, the vehicle I was driving, the city at I was in, what I was doing, I was driving when that that information hit. It's one of the most airy, like empty, sad feelings, like numb feelings that you could possibly have. And I didn't even know Steve that well. We were at the Pro Bowl. The only time that I ever really spent with him and had a conversation was very brief, and it was at the Pro Bowl. We were on the elevator together, and it was the year he was a co MVP with Peyton Manning and we we were heading down to the lobby and had a conversation in the elevator, real real cordial dude, real good dude. Like you know, he was like, yeah, I'm just I'm glad youating in our division. Da da dad this, And now he was gassing me. And I liked it when the dude gased you up at that point in your career. So I don't know, man, I just I did come away from that that that untold with more questions versus like, how do you how do you come to the rest on the conclusion that it was a murder and a suicide deal? How do you come away with it as that's your conclusion. I felt like there was just a lot a lot of questions that were remaining at the end of that, and you probably won't get another documentary that clears it up. That's the interesting thing about it. They do a lot of stuff with with Brett Farr, but in reality, this is one of the ones where you'd be like then Aaron Hernandez, but this one has more storyline plot twist if they dig a little deeper, if you ask me, than even Aaron Hernandez a situation.
And that'll wrap up our preview of the could a girlfriend here on the show?
He could have been one of the other girlfriends. There was clearly other people involved that we didn't even really get an opportunity to even get them developed in the storyline, you know what I mean. And there's somebody sitting back somewhere like I really got away with this. Yeah, I really did this, and I'm still free. I'm really going to do it.
There you go and uh those are our picks to win the a f C South
