2 Pros and a Cup of JoeTuesday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, the Steelers need to be prepared to get what they paid for. The Browns should name Sheduer Sanders the backup right now, or else they’ll be in a bad spot. And NFL Insider, Pete Prisco talks about the biggest storylines heading into minicamp.
This is the best of two pros and a couple Joe with Lamar Aarings and rating Win and Jonas Knox on radio.
Because the NBA wants to take their sweet ass time with getting to these games, they've extended the talking points or the ability to talk through the in between of game two in Game three, but there's nothing really.
Worth talking about when it comes to that, So.
We just got to wait our turn and instead shift gears and focus in on the story that you thought was going to be done. And you thought we were going to move on and just focus on the stuff on the field, and then all of a sudden, the detail started to trickle out. When it comes to Aaron Rodgers and the saga and signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Who wrote this? Who wrote this? Expect who typed this out? When did Albert become Albert Brie? Mike Florio wrote this, Oh yeah, that was a profate Mike, you forgot an r. Yeah it's Breer. I don't know. I mean, even even the best of the best need editors. You know that, you know people to proof read it, at least you know Albert Albert Brie. I'm all right, who's that what what insider is that? Huh? Maybe he was hanging with Lee. Dang hey, Lee, I'm just saying it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Mike could have been, you know, bending and bending the elbow a little bit. You know, Mama's Mama's truth juice. You know. Uh, Well, listen, he really wanted to read it too, Lee. He's like man, he is like me. You see it, Albert Albert Briham Si, you say, oh my god, just ridiculous.
But that is one of the details that has come out when it comes to the Aaron Rodgers situation and the details of the contract that he did sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers. As we mentioned yesterday, we will get to hear from Rogers. He is scheduled to speak with the media in Pittsburgh later on today. We did an over under on how many questions before somebody asked him about the wedding ring or whatever that ring was yesterday. We'll await the results and have those results coming up tomorrow. Did they ask him, No, not yet, because they talk later today.
Today. The big day Soday's the big day. Today's a big day. He must have the mighty fallen if today is the big day because you're interviewing a guy you gave a one year deal of nineteen million dollars which somebody's only going to make like just one dollar over ten million.
I got news for you, anybody, I got news for you, anybody that's got Aaron Rodgers fatigue. Why don't you tell somebody in the NFL to do us as solved and get arrested. Okay, give us something else to talk about.
Or go or go do something else with your for weeks. Yeah, that dude, I'm so sick. I'll see you on a couple of months. Used to you too, biggest? You came in hot o. My god, I can't get out my mom. I literally can't it. It's like it's hard to unhear it and see it once you once you heard.
But uh so so with that, we do have the details, according to Albert Bree of s I doc is laid.
Out by Mike Floria. We'll listen it it happens. Who cares? But point is the incentives. Hey, I would have caught that.
The incentives that come along with the Aaron Rodgers contract or the following if he participates in seventy percent of the offensive snaps in the regular season. If that threshold is satisfied, here's what he'll get if the Steelers make the playoffs. Will go one at a time. You tell me how likely this is. Lamar Steelers make the playoffs and gets five hundred thousand dollars likely, Okay, if they earn a first round buy and if they win in the wild card round, Rogers takes at least half the snaps six hundred thousand dollars.
Depends, all right, depends.
If they win the divisional round. And you know, let's what can we spice this up a little bit? You got any game show music, maybe Pittsburgh Steeler polka in the style like let's go ahead and I'll go with the polka. Oh yeah, let's dust off a parole.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. You know they played the same thing for Groundhog Day.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy, one of them.
It's the same song, but they made it the Pittsburgh Steelers song, the original. Guys. Come on, I mean, people have a lot of perceptions about us. You know how we are. But didn't Steelers Polka come before? I don't know, I probably would, I don't know. That's that's a that would be a great trivia question. Yeah, there you God.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, Chuck Maull and all his friends, them Steelers.
How Joe used to dance? What do Italians dance like? Why do you want Italians dance like that?
Common?
So let me dump it. What maybe Dan's are like that? Okay, comeby man, let's do it.
Snail tramp, you can't. You can unsee that one either.
So so the we continue on the incentive of gravity, the incentive details of the Aaron Rodgers contract. If so if these Steelers, if they earn a first round by if they win in the wildcard round with Rogers taking at least half the snaps to get six hundred grand, If they win in the divisional round and Rogers takes at least half the snaps, seven hundred and fifty thousand.
Still doable. All of those are doable. I don't think they'll win the division but I think all like they could possibly. I think they'll make the playoffs. They could possibly win their divisional round in the playoffs, So are they going to win the AFC title Game?
Because if so, Rogers and Rogers takes at least half the snaps, he gets a million dollars.
Yeah, no, if they win, stick and you know what, you want to know what's ridiculous about them doing that? I mean, I'm gonna just be honest. What's what's ridiculous about them doing that is if if you're expecting Aaron Rodgers to be that good, Okay, we get we can stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is I'm a stripper music. Hey hey, easy, now talking about my hometown. So here's the thing, right, if you're bringing Aaron Rodgers in, and you're bringing him in with the idea that he's that good where he can win the AFC North your division, or he can get you into the playoffs out of your division as a wild card. If you believe he's good enough to get you out of the divisional round, if you believe he's good enough to get you to the AFC Championship Game, if you believe he's good enough to get you to the super Bowl, why the hell did you give him this little ass one year contract? And if you're going to give him a one year contract, why did you give him a contract that is comparable comparable to a rookie because this isn't his contract comparable to cam Warts. It's less than that. It's less than cam Warts, So that that would be my this would be my question. This is where I'm having a hard time trying to keep these gators on the ground. Give me three claps in a woo. This is the problem I have with it again. And I said this yesterday. You know how they say the sayings to all these these athletes that are coming up. You can't go in the backyard and give and give a regular effort and expect all American results. You can't. You can't set the stage for the standard to be that high, and you're not setting the standard of what the belief is coming into it. So to me, it's like if you believe that you can do discounted parts on a car for the Daytona, if you think you could do discounted guys to help put the car together, if you think you could do a discounted driver to drive your car, and you put all these incentives in there, and you say, okay, if you if you come in first, if you come in second, we're gonna pay you all this money, which isn't even that much money, but we're gonna pay you all this money if you're able to go out there drive this car with generic parts, guys that aren't the best in the business, putting the car together, making sure they run the proper diagnostics of it, and this, that and the other, and know that the car, without a shadow of a doubt, is running at the highest of levels when you drive it and the driver is like, I don't know, maybe ranked thirtieth out of all the drivers driving. And you're saying, but if you're able to be as good as the top half of those guys, because if he's coming out of the AFC, that means he had to be better than Lamar Jackson. Let's not even go outside of the north just yet. You had to be better than Jackson. You had to be better than Burrow. You had to be better than Mahomes. You had to be better than Alan, you had to be better than uh Stroud. You had to be better than the upper echeleance players in the AFC. And you don't even get play, you don't even get paid like any of those guys. To me, this is a problematic situation because you're hadging your bets, You're feeling like you're getting a ton of value without having to pay for it. So I don't understand why you could think the results are going to be this profound, outstanding result when that's not what you paid for. I mean, and wasn't last year enough of an example. This is not the way to go about doing it.
I mean, we're not even done yet. Come, I mean, do you want to know how he can earn an extra three million dollars Aaron Rodgers if they win the super Bowl and if he's the MVP of the regular season, extra three million bucks?
I'm again again, I'll say again, I'll say if you, if you're if you believe that he holds that type of value at this point, will you bring him into your your organization where you would actually put those things which listen, a contract is a contract. You're going to put escalators and the incentives into the contract. Problem is is that you got to have somebody who stimulated and motivated by those types of incentives that are connected to those types of numbers. My biggest question to you, Jonas would be is are these incentives along with those accomplishments. Is it feasible to think that Aaron Rodgers is motivated by the dollars and the incentives to go after it and get it for the amount of time he's going to have to go out there and get it.
Well, that's why this another detail that came out yesterday about the tract which is kind of interesting. And this also pointed out by Mike Florio that sources tell him that Rogers would have played for even less than the Daily signed, but that his agent pushed him to take more. It's still not knowing how Rogers can pump up his pay from thirteen to nineteen, but at that time they were like, well, you know, one of the factors is winning the Super Bowl, etc. So, as we laid out, that's how you get to that number. But even at that number, reportedly Rogers would have taken less, but his agent said, no, take a little bit more. Now, whether or not that's true, I who the hell knows, But whether it's true or not, does it matter. No, And they got he's you have discounted Aaron Rodgers. So now he's doing the belt discount double check, not just for the commercial, for the insurance or whatever. He's doing it because that's his real reality right now. Well, and also the other aspect, and we kind of touched on this a little bit yesterday that people were pointing out was well, it was the Steelers third option because as we lay out, they wanted Matthew Stafford, they wanted to resign justin Field, so they settled on Aaron Rodgers.
Oh and by the way, what number were they option wise for Aaron Rodgers? I mean, nobody, neither one of them is coming to the party and has left the party Like me, dude, like me, I'm leaving the party with who I wanted to leave with. Otherwise I'm gonna leave alone. Like that's just not it's just not worth it to leave the party with somebody that you didn't want to leave the party with. But unfortunately for you, unfortunately for the other person involved, you didn't get who you wanted. Okay.
But I think that the way that that is laid out, okay, has made it behind the bar, has made it to sound way, it's made it to send probably not made it to sound way worse.
Than it actually is.
So because if you just broke down each individual player that they're discussing here, well, they wanted Matthew Stafford they can get of course, other teams wanted Matthew Stafford. The Giants wanted Matthew Stafford, like there was other teams that were in the mix for Matthew Stafford. They didn't get him, then it was well they wanted justin Fields not bad enough.
The Jets wanted him.
Make yeah, I mean, let's let's not pretend like the other was an offer made. They were far apart on guaranteed money. But if it was so, if everything was going so smoothly, why did they still ride with Russell Wilson towards the end when Russell Wilson and the offensive coordinator Arthur Smith didn't even get along and people in the building wanted them to go back.
To Justin Fields, and still they didn't make the move. And by the way, if this is the deal you gave Aaron Rodgers, what did the dal look like you was offering justin Fields like that?
That's my point, is this idea that people are looking at this as, oh, well, he's just the third option, and they'd take all right, fine, But what does it matter if you actually broke all that down. Matthew Stafford was a pipe dream justin Fields. Clearly it didn't go well enough, else they wouldn't have let him out of the building or let him lose that starting job last year. And it wasn't because of injury or really poor play. They just wanted to give the opportunity to Russell Wilson. So Rogers is your guy. The incentive, the contract, all of that stuff. I don't think any of it matters. The bottom line is this is more than likely Rogers last year.
And if things go poorly enough as doesn't matter, Yesterdy. It doesn't matter for Aaron because you ain't paying me that much anyway, Like you gave me an opportunity to come play another year, Thank you, good night and God.
And I don't think that in the back of his mind, this is all about, well, super Bowl, super Bowl. I gotta win another super Bowl. I think he's at peace with it.
What is it? Then? Why are you doing it?
I think he wants to go out on a smoother note than what happened with the Jets.
That's my thought. My opinion is I think he looks at what happened with the Jets. You're not going on thun grows. You're not going to undo what you did and those two seasons with one season unless you win a super Bowl. I think it's I don't think And if he thinks that he's going to undo what took place in New York with the amount of talent that was on that team and he got a one year reprieve because he got hurt in year one. If he thinks that he's going to go into Pittsburgh and win a Super Bowl and that's going to erase everything that has happened in New York and he can walk out of the league in the game with a blaze of glory, that should be disturbing.
If he finished last year either on the bench, injured, couldn't come back to full health, or looked similar to how Kirk Cousins looked last year in Atlanta, I don't think Rogers comes back. I think the back end of last season and the way that the Jets wanted to maybe move on or distance themselves from him, I think he looked at that and said.
All right, screw it.
If there's a situation that I look at and go, oh, all right, no drama, no no weirdness tied to the organization, no dysfunction, if there's a place similar to what I came in the league with in Green Bay, it's probably Pittsburgh. And I think he goes out after a year with Pittsburgh.
Can you say that is what? Can we really say that about the Pittsburgh Steelers? All right? You might want to think about that. I mean, look, think about it. They just got rid of their number one receiver, who was their number one receiver before pickings.
But to their to their credit, when they've had issues elsewhere, whether it be Antonio Brown and all that stuff, you heard maybe some rumblings, it wasn't until those guys were out the building.
That you're like, oh God, I'm gonna pushback on that one. I think. I think there has been drama that has come out of the locker room far before, like long before those guys were being let go. I think the rumblings of what that locker room is like, what the deterioration of the culture of what the Pittsburgh Steelers have historically represented has been discussed. I think it has been discussed, and I think it has been a growing conversation since Ben Roethlisberger's last few years there. It's been that long that the conversation of questioning the like ask ask Terry Bradshaw, He'll tell you. You know, you sit there and you hear some of the older guys that played for the team and talking about it, even listening to Plexico talk about it at one point. The one thing that has been discussed by guys who have played there has ultimately, in a lot of regards, has been the same. It's like, people love Mike Tomlin. People believe in Mike Tomlin, but there's elements of what the culture that was rep presentation of what Pittsburgh was and has been historically has been deteriorating.
Yeah, but you can't even put them in the Jets in the same category of dysfunction.
You can't put them in the set. You cannot put them in the same category. That is true. That is very true.
And I think that that element with the Jets was probably a turn off. And even in saying that, Rogers was like, listen, I'm open to coming back. I feel good about how my body went and was progressing at the end of last year, and I'd like to give it another go, and they wanted to move in a different direction. I think he still believes that the back end of last season that he can still play at a high enough level that why not give it one more year?
Which one is better? A better loser or just a bad loser? Which one is better? What do you mean, which one's better? Would you rather be a better loser or just a bad loser? I'd rather be a better loser, would you? Yeah? Because then I can blame people around me. Hell yeah, see to me, to me. The Pittsburgh Steelers are a better loser, meaning they win, they go to the playoffs, they don't have losing seasons, but the expectations for them are so low for a team that wins, whereas the New York Jets, it's like everything is a bonus. If you do well. Bonus, win a game, bonus, make it to the playoffs. Bonus when your your division, bonus when your conference. Holy moly, the world is coming to an an. Let's not get make it to the super Bowl? Play for a super Bowl? Holy smokes? What comes next? As it rain? I mean, I'm just saying, bro, I'd rather be a bad loser than a good loser. So if you're gonna suck, suck. If I'm gonna lose, I don't want to be a fringe losers. It's false hope. And you know what it does. It creates false expectations and you know what, false expectations turn into rage, Yeah, but anger.
But it does leave leave a little bit of some interesting storylines for week one when they got the Jets, you.
Know, and it made for a good storyline today, you know, and in the heat of June, the dog days of radio ain no dog days. I don't need no cat days and need more it is.
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.
We were during one of the breaks. We were looking up at the TV and noticing that the the coverage of a certain team and player seems to have really really ramped up and seems to really really focus in and hone in on one player in particular. And it's not Aaron Rodgers. LaVar, you actually pinpointed this and spotted this, So I'll let you take the reins on maybe some people feeling some shame in the in and around the NFL based on the new coverage of a potential starting quarter of EVA.
I just think that coming out of the draft, it's almost like the coverage of the draft was based off of what was happening with Shador Sanders nothing else. Like there's not one storyline that people can go back and say, this was a dominating storyline from start to finish outside of the Shador Sanders conversation. Yep. So if you're by all stretches of the imagination, you're the media that's you. You're sensationalizing, you're covering, you're leveraging, you are benefiting off of someone else's misfortune. And whether it was true or not, the narrative is so strong and so guided by the influence of the people that are connected to Shadordan, namely is Pops that I believe coming out of the draft scenario, the narrative created a feeling and a sense of shame, and I think that the media felt a certain type of way. Media members felt, in particular, felt a certain type of way. They've said it as much. And these are influential people you're talking about, the likes of Stephen A. Smith and and guys like you know who's Who's the draft specialists, all Malchipe mel Kiper like you know, you have all these other guys as well Sanders, so you get into training or excuse me, the OTAs and and them being on the field, and what have you seen the entire time, whether it be social media or whether it be the reporting on the news, it's where what's going on with Shador Sanders?
Right?
What other team are we talking about the fourth string guy? There's no other team we're talking about the fourth string guy. In fact, I would venture to say most of the other teams we're not even talking about their first string guy. It's it's a very very interesting dynamic. That's that's developing here. What I truly believe is taking place is that you're seeing footage and content of Shador Sanders constantly being fed to you. And it's the passes. Name one incomplete pass you've seen them throw.
I saw a tipped interception, but that was on Twitter.
I did not I have not seen not one bad play of Shador Sanders making the round circulating on television on social I haven't seen one. So if you got a tip, good for you because you saw something that most people aren't seeing.
But to your point though, and whether there was an incompletion, a deflected interception, a touch like whatever he threw a slant route and for a complete the fact that we're seeing it on seven on seven, yeah on air. The fact that we're seeing Kelly like the way that we are you're being fed, is telling you're being fed Shador Sanders moving the offense up and down the field, getting them into the end zone, making completions and listen, I'm not here to try to put Shador.
Down at all. It's just an observation. Let me be clear on that. This isn't me saying this like you should hate Shador Sanders or hate Dion. That's in fact, it's total opposite. I'm a fan of them. I'm not against them. I'm a fan of them. But this is an observation as a media person, is that the stage is being set for Cleveland to be trapped. They're in and maybe that's why you saw the looks on them people's faces when they drafted, because for good or for bad, they're trapped.
You know what, I think part of it was tell me if this is a crazy thought. Clearly it was a Jimmy hasm decision. I think part of the motivation was this helps drown out some of the negative coverage over the Deshaun Watson backle because, as you pointed out, this is all we're seeing. Have you seen any Dylan Gabriel.
Have you seen any of his throws? Have you seen any of his throws?
I don't even know Dylan Gabriel could have changed and gone right handed in camp.
I would have known. Is he still on the team. Where's he at? Ain't seen us from?
And also, you don't hear a damn thing about Deshaun Watson, do you, other than his bachelor party.
The one thing we saw with come on the starter, who's the start? The one thing we saw with Joe Flacco is him saying he doesn't want to be a mentor, he's there to start. And then the the highlight of him and Shador Sanders and Chador was doing some type of dance and was trying to get Flacco to do the dance and Flacco was like, I'm gonna go throw this ball, like I'm gonna go I'm gonna go qqb this this player or two. You know, it's just interesting because Cleveland is in a bad, bad, bad spot. If if Shador Sanders isn't what at at worse the backup. They are going to fry the media because of what I think, because of what they feel coming out of the draft and how they covered it, and how they've been shamed and made to feel like y'all took advantage of Shador Sanders. Y'all drove a whole entire draft off of Shador Sanders, and they're right. Whoever sang it, you're right. If Shador Sanders at worse isn't the backup on this team, there's going to be hell to pay through the media at best if he. If I am the head coach, the GM and the owner of this team, I'm naming Shador Sanders my starter today to day. You know why Joe Flacco love you to death. You gave us a good, good, good little run. You're a raven chick Rocks, Kenny Pickett, you ain't shown us that you that good at all. You here for an insurance policy, Kick Rocks, Dylan Gabriel. We took you with the third pick, third round pick. We feel really good about what you could possibly be. But do we ever see you as a starter. I don't know. It's a strong possibility that you're not a starter for our franchise, it's a very strong possibility, but my goodness, you probably can be a really, really good backup for us at some point in time. If I'm the Cleveland Browns. If you're looking at the coverage of Shador Sanders and the way all of this is kind of being properly placed on the table, you about to get served. If you don't see this coming, just name him the starter today. Name him the starter, and let him do what he's going to do for good, for bad, or worse, whatever it is, allow for him to do it because you drafted him. You drafted him, and it makes you start to think, did he drop in the draft because of his talent or did he drop in the draft because of his fame. That's the conclusion I've been coming to lately. It's his fame and it's his influence. You do not want when you hurt Stephen they call that man comparable to Colin Kaepernick. You have now made this a racial cultural compare in terms of why this man isn't being respected as a talent. You've taken it out of the realm of being a player and being a pro and you've placed it in the social and cultural expectations of a cultural and social and racially driven and activated America. Right now, it's dangerous, Like that's dangerous.
The conversations surrounding Shador have kind of muddied the waters on the evaluation of Shador, and I don't know how to separate the two from the standpoint of I'm not sure if he dropped in the draft because of talent or because of other stuff off the field, because it's not like he's been I don't recall him every getting arrested. I don't recall him ever getting suspended. I think they just are very vocal, very confident, and the Colorado program felt like a rock concert or a rap concert every time you went there, and it literally was they like they literally had concert. So there was just there was a spectacle surrounding it for a team that didn't really do anything other than improved significantly upon what they were before he got there and before his dad took over. So I don't I don't know where the evaluation of him is as a player, and and I don't know what to really legitimately expect as far as his role with this team, because if we get to the regular season and he's the third stringer and or they've got him, you know, sitting third string and and he's you know, not suiting up for games.
Yeah, better win. I don't. But it's think about the pressure you're putting on the starter. Think about the pressure you're putting on the backup.
Oh look, I brought it up to Albert Breer last week, and it was just like, hey, man, I mean, if you're Stefanski, you're kind you're in a tough spot. Dude like you, You've now been given right or wrong two quarterbacks and a quarterback situation from your owner. One of them is impossible to succeed with because Deshaun Watson is not even playing anymore.
And the other you're damned if you do, You damned if you don't.
If you start Joe Flacco and it's not gonna be shit or Sanders, then people.
Are gonna be like, well, you're gonna get You're gonna.
Get pressure from well, I mean, you're you're kind of a middle of the road team.
Why not give the young guy a shot? Of the storylines connected to that? How many different directions and angles can you come from talking about how the Cleveland Browns have handled that position in particular. I'll say this.
People can say whatever they want about preseason football, tell me you're not gonna watch those preseason games for the.
Brows this year. I'm in. I want to see him play. I want to see how this goes. It makes it makes the It's just the expectation, the amount of attention as you're you're mentioning, it just raises the stakes so high. And it's a fifth round draft pick, a fifth round draft pick, and he has been positioned. We have seen more highlights on ESPN, NFL Network, Fox Sports, Fox Sports FS one. We have seen more highlights of Shadors And this is important to understand this piece of it because this small detail of it will become a ginormous detail as we move forward. You are seeing oversaturated coverage of a fifth round draft pick completing passes over and over and over and over again. You're watching a fifth rounder in practice, not the game, not a game, not full pets. He's in practice, and they keep showing you clips like you thinking of one where to du dove and cut it going into the end zone, like they're creating NFL film highlights of Senor Sanders playing ball in practice and OTAs we ain't even got the training cat. This ain't even training cat. Can you imagine the coverage on schor Sanders when they get to training camp. They're gonna have a Shandor Sanders camp. Look.
I know that it was impossible because of whatever rules or restrictions it has.
But that's why I said.
At the time, if you were HBO, if you could swap out the bills for the Browns on hard Knocks, would you not do it? Like it'd be the best rated hard knocks they've had in years? Because people want to see how this plays out and how many how many completions have you seen cam Ward throw the number one pick in Ota?
I haven't seen one. Yeah, I have not seen one. Hot. I don't even know if Jackson Darts picked up a football yet. I have no idea. I haven't. I've seen Jackson Dark getting a lot of love and a lot of coverage from the media, especially from like the social media team of the Giants. Like I pay attention to all this stuff. I sit on my phone and I look at all the stuff going on, what's hitting the algorithms and all this and sports and da DA DA and NFL or NBA. I look at all these things. I'd look all day long. Shador Sanders. The coverage on him is.
WOWD it is w I L D wild. I'm telling you think about You're going to stop. Everybody who's listening. You're gonna stop.
You're gonna take a moment, and then you're gonna take inventory, and then you're gonna realize that Shador Sanders is being positioned to all of you to be the guy for the Cleveland Browns, and if he's not, it is going to be every single reason he was let down. There will not be one person that says Shador Sanders isn't the starter or the backup because somebody actually was better than him. Now, whether it's true or not, I think the travesty here, honestly, here is the true travesty of this situation. Shador Sanders is a hell of a football player. That young man can play some football. He's been a clutch kid since eighth grade. I know it because he played in my game. The problem that's want to take place here is that same pressure that is going to be applied to the Cleveland Browns and to the starting quarterback or who's ever in front of them. Multiply that by however many fold you want to as to what that's going to look like for Shador Sanders, Because just as much as they'll build you up in these types of moments, we paid it off. We paid it off. We did what we were supposed to do. We hoard you, draft came, we used you, we rode you, We attached to the carts to Shador Sanders, and he delivered for our draft this year. You've been paid. We're even he gets in there. Whatever comes next is going to be based upon what his results are when he gets that operative. If he gets that opportunity, it's almost seemingly better that he not get an opportunity immediately, because he'll get more fan fare for being victimized then he will be for being the starter for the team. That's what's being set up. That's all of this. That's the travesty, because if he really is good, then he should be able to have the fair opportunity to be measured and weighed as being really good. I don't know that there is an environment that's being creative for him to have a fair opportunity one way or the other.
It's too far down the road. It's too far down the road. And it goes back to that same discussion. Sometimes backups, if they're too loud, aren't good backups. It's almost to the point to where if he's named the number two behind Joe Flacco, all the questions are going to be when's he gonna get a chance. The Browns are sitting at you know, I don't know, four and eight. They can outplay it. Yeah, you gotta be, you gotta be.
I would venture to say they might be undefeated, and they still be saying they'd be better. They're setting themselves up for failure. And then the moment they lose, why are you going to be saying, I told you if Shador was in there, they wouldn't they wouldn't have lost that one game.
And meanwhile, Jimmy Hasmum's like, don't have to hear about the Sean anymore?
Now you didn't you done? Brought in another one? Hey, that's all he did, and brought in another one. It is, and that this is not Shador sanders fault. By the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with blaming Shador Sanders. This has everything to do with how media works, how politics work, how influencing works, and and that's where we live. This is this is where we live right now. Is that a fifth round draft pick is so influential because of how strong and how clearly defined his brand is, that it has created this type of coverage, and that coverage will ultimately be the undoing of the Cleveland Browns this year if they're not careful.
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 right now.
Though you hear the music, you're the smooth operator tones, and you know that that means one thing. It is a Tuesday tradition. As we welcome in the great Pete Prisco, senior NFL columnist for CBS Sports, CBS, Sports HQ analyst. Get him on x at Prisco CBS. He's also a Florida Panther blowhard.
Pete.
Good morning and congratulations on the two to one series lead.
And series over by the ways.
Oh wow, you're calling it calling it.
I mean, look, one team can do so many things and has a goalie. The other team can do so many things and does not have a goalie.
Wow.
And I said before that game, I said, letting up that goal in over time I was gonna be a problem for Skinner and it was and they ended up yanking him and now they have goalie decision to make, so they're deeper. Edminton has the best player in the world, Conor McDavid, LaVar, Conor McDavid. There you go, there you go, And uh, Florida is just too deep for him. And then Edmonton tried to get tough last night and they kind of backfired on him as well. So uh yeah, I'm gonna call it series over.
Wow. All right, So I guess the pursuit of Aaron Rodgers is also over. He is now the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I actually watched the game last night. Uh yeah, come on, Pete, like you doubting, Uh.
Did you enjoy it? LeVar?
You know when I watch it, I watch it. I enjoyed my days in d C. I really, you know, did a lot of coverage on our radio show, so I got to learn, you know, learn it instead of just being a you know fan from Pittsburgh, you know, like Lemieux and Yoger and all those guys. But I didn't know the game. Then once I started doing radio in d C. You know, you're required to know what it is you're talking about. So I started learning about the creases and protecting the ice and icing and all that stuff. And goalie play is the key. You gotta have a dope ass goalie, you know. And you got to have some guys that are fearless and aren't afraid to get into the crease and do what they need to do. And yeah, I mean I like it. I like it. I don't watch it very very often ever since I've come out here, but yeah, I mean I watched last night and it definitely wasn't enjoyable.
You know, I was late to the sport too, I'll be honest with you. When I was younger, I was like a kid, and I didn't love hockey, and I watched it a little bit, but I loved it and then and then I had to cover it in Denver when I first started out doing some hockey out there, And and then you get used to it, and then you start learning the game, like you said, you understand it more and it becomes that much better. Now that I actually have a team I really like. I think it's great. It's fantastic. Fact I've enjoyed not just because of the Panthers being in it, but up until last night, series was better than the NBA series. And I've always been a big NBA guy, Man.
Pete, I do.
I am curious now that the details are out on the Aaron Rodgers contract, what does that tell you about the decision for Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers to do unite for this upcoming year.
Well, it's going to happen. It was always going to happen, and it's just a matter of when it happened. Because there was no conceivable way the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing with Mason Rudolph. They just weren't. And they knew ultimately that Rodgers would make the decision to come back and play, and they let him go on a timetable. And now he has to get in there and learn the offense. But he's been doing that. He's a smart guy, hild and they'll figure it out. And all of a sudden, now they have a legitimate quarterback. So it made sense from both sides. Look, he played well down the stretch, last year once he got past his injury, and remember all that talk about a couple of years ago, he's going to come back in December. Sure he was, because he clearly wasn't the same guy early last season. But once he got back in there at the end of the year, I mean he was. I mean once he got back healthy again at the end of the year, playing good footbally through what twenty nine touchdown pass That's more than a lot of guys ty Josh Allen for touchdown passes. So I think he's going to go in there and definitely upgrade the offense from what they had. Now, are they good enough to get to the playoffs? That's the question even with the Rogers, because the Steelers traditionally been a run heavy team that could run the ball and do good things in that area and stop the run and turn their pass rushers lose. Well, they weren't the same team last year in any of those facets, so I'm concerned from that standpoint. But they are significantly upgraded at quarterback with Rogers.
Can you help me with this one, Pete. I'm I'm of the mindset that you get what you pay for. You know, whether and even if it's a person that would be deserving of more, if they give you less based off of what their compensation is, then you know you have to deal with that based upon what you value that talent at I look at this contract. It doesn't screen to me. We have our franchise guy for a year to take us to a super Bowl.
It doesn't not to me. It's a one year deal. That's what the NFL. I mean, that's basically what The deal has got some incentives in it. If he takes the far away will get to you know, No, it looks I think.
He Well, you do value it, You you do value it. You look at it like that's a it's a good contract.
For a one year deal on a forty two year old guy. Yeah, it's a decent contract for a guys doesn't need the money. I have no problem with the contract.
But see that's my problem for the guy that doesn't need the money. Like, so you're we're going to put it on that, you know what I mean? Like, what are we? What are if if I want to get the best player for one year's time, I'm only give him a market value of the top quarterbacks. I'm going to give him a one year contract based off of what the market value is of guys of his caliber. Was old I got a.
One year deal for twenty one million.
I mean that's all. That's a comparison, that's not a good one.
But if they're on the same ballpark, those one year deals, they're usually the same. It's it's it's the question becomes what if he plays well and wants to continue playing, then all of a sudden you have to figure that out.
That's a complex that's a complex situation to find yourself in.
For certain Well, yeah, but but they haven't fixed the quarterback position, LeVar quarterback position. You're going to be playing this pluck one for a year game. I mean that that's the way it is.
Doesn't it make sense to you to do it two years in a row?
Doesn't make sense? No, But but they they missed on picket. If they did a picket, they would ticket.
They did picket.
So until you fix it, you got to keep trying to get guys like this to play. Is it the Is it the solution you want? Absolutely not. But in this scenario, would you rather have Mason Ludolf? Would you rather have Aaron Rodgers? I mean it's a simple It's a simple answer to an easy It's an easy answer to a simple question. It's Rogers time ten.
Where do you put the draft the draft pick in all of this? Because to me, I feel like, like you said, you are searching for that guy that can be your franchise guy who wants to keep doing rent a QB. You know, this is two years of rental QB. Is this is this just buying time to get you know, the kid out of Ohio State. Will Howard get him ready to go? Or is there another play here that you think future future wise, they're waiting to try to find the guy that's going to be the guy? Like, what's the reasoning behind Like I understand getting Aaron Rodgers, he he upgrades you from what you have, But is getting Justin Fields and Russell Wilson last year? You know, is that the solution to getting to this year where it's like, Okay, the solution is bringing in another guy that that is on a one year deal, you know, show me type deal. What is the what like if this is how you're doing things, what is the ultimate goal for this team?
They got to draft the quarterback eventually and get him early in the draft book. Howard is an interesting guy, but you can't expect him where he was drafted, to come in and become the long term answer. You hope maybe you hit it, but you don't know, and I don't think you'll know this year. But here's what you got to do. If you go in and Rogers stinks and that draft pick is bad, then you got to find to go into a deep quarterback class next year and get one. There's a ton of them next year's draft, by the way, and so a one year deal makes sense. They missed on picket, they tried it, they didn't hit it. Now now you go back, you gotta scramble. You get fields, you get Wilson, like you said, you get Rogers. You're scrambling. It's scramble mode. Well, if this doesn't work, you go back in next year. There might be nine guys or eight guys that you can pick a quarterback out of next year. If arch Manning comes out, nuss Meyer, Sellers, Leavitt, I mean the kid that transferred from cal to Indiana. I mean, there's a ton of guys in next year's draft back. Maybe he has a resurgence. So there's six, right, off the bat, you know, and I haven't even thought about the rest of them. There's a lot of them. So maybe you get your quarterback next year. You play with Rogers this year and get your quarterback next year. Look, I know people sit there say wall keep keep saying next year, next year, next year. But what are you supposed to do A play with Mason Rudolph No.
Pete Prisco joining us here on Fox Sports Radio. Pete, I want to ask you about this in regard to the Aaron Rodgers conversation, because one of the stories that was out there, I think was Adam Schefter reported this that Rogers was the third option for Pittsburgh, that they wanted Matthew Stafford, they wanted to bring back Justin Fields. So they then turn their sights to Aaron Rodgers. So listen, Matt Stafford. I don't know that anybody who truly believed he was going to leave the Rams. But the Justin Fields conversation is kind of interesting because why would Justin Fields unless the money was significantly different, and you know something more than I do, why would Justin Fields choose the Jets as opposed to staying in Pittsburgh and wanting to do it over again without having to worry about potentially getting bench for Russell Wilson for a year or two. Like why the Jets over the Steelers Unless the money was just that much of a difference.
The money was probably better. I think it was that he got his contract that the Jets was.
A little bit better.
And by the way, what did they do him well last year? Did they treat him well last year?
No? Yeah, okay, not that his standard I would assume, of.
Course not, of course not. And so I think it made sense for him to go to a place that wanted him and wanted him to be the starting quarterback. So I think they did their he did the right thing. And if Aaron Rodgers is his third option, it's because he's forty two years old. I mean, Aaron Rodgers can play for Aaron Rodgers at the end of last year was better than justin Field. I don't care what anybody said. But the question is is can he continue to do it? And that's why I think he's the third option.
Pete. I was having a conversation with Jonas earlier about the amount of coverage on Shador Sanders, and I think it's like a repayment of how maybe embarrassed or shamed people felt in the media going with the overwhelming narrative of Shador Sanders in the draft. He basically drove this year's draft and has continued to drive NFL headlines even now as a fifth round fourth string quarterback. I feel like the Cleveland Browns have placed themselves in a very very compromising position based upon the influence, based upon the fame and notoriety, and maybe the possibilities that exist with Shador Sanders. Now, I'll say this, I feel like where we're at now, Pete. Maybe the clarity now for me is that the teams that passed up on him, they didn't pass up on him because of his talent. They passed up on him because of finding themselves possibly in the same circumstances that the Cleveland Browns find themselves in right now.
I don't buy that. I don't buy that. It's a town. If he could play, they don't care what you do know, he would have if they would have thought he was better than a fifth round pick, they would have taken him in the fourth round or the third round, or some other team would have taken him. I don't buy that. And you know, we get so caught up in all that stuff. Lebar Well he didn't interview. Well, he was a pain in the ass. He was, you know, stand office in the interviews. His dad's a problem. His dad's going to be an influence, and he's got all the other stuff going. If he could play, he could play. It doesn't matter. None of that matters. And the reality is the NFL didn't think he could play. They didn't think he was a quality starting quarterback in the National Football League. Well, now he has an opportunity to go prove them all wrong. We've seen guys prove them all wrong. The greatest of all time proved everybody wrong. There's a six round pick. Well, here's the other part of it. Everything he does, like he'll throw a pass in the training camp and it gets somebody sends it out. One of those aggregators sends it out and says, oh, look how Crady looks. He's still running fourteen. There's a reason he's not getting the snaps until the fourteen And so he's got to be extraordinary to go win that job. If he if he's what he thinks he is and what his dad thinks he is, then go win the damn job. If not, and you don't play very well, you're probably going to be on the practice squad. And so I think that's where it is for him. Go either show up, show off and become the guy for the future, or you're probably going to be the fourth guy, and the fourth guy usually doesn't make the team. There.
He is the great Pte Prisco with us here on Fox Sports Radio.
Get him on X by the way, if you want some of that smoke. If you are an.
Edmonton Oiler fan and you want to try and fight, man, I'm telling you this.
Is why I saw.
You.
Guys didn't stay up at the end of the game. But there was a bunch of them last night and that yeah, oh yeah.
Pounded on.
But they haven't won a Cup in Canada since what nineteen ninety three?
Yes, it's my freshman year of high school.
Well that's how long ago that was. I was thirty three back then.
You look great, though, Pete, I know. Get him on X again at Prisco CBS. Pete always appreciate it. We'll do it again next week. There is Pete Prisco, senior NFL columnist for CBS Sports, CBS Sports HQ, analyst, always a beaming light of optimism here on the show, whatever he appears,
