Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Are you sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. It is a Thursday, lots to talk about, closer and closer to football, live being Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one, Joy Taylor, next couple of days off, Jay Mack Jason McIntyre sitting in for Herdline News today. My man, you got a big tennis tournament starting this weekend for him. Good luck to you. About the Manhattan Beach Invitational. It is. We are about We're about sixty percent through the summer. Camps are now starting it. We're getting close. People start like lining up fantasy football teams now, start making their future bets. Is that where you're at right now? Yeah, a lot of futures being late. I do like the Green Bay Packers, Colin, you do not know. We will find out today. Let's start with this. Just because I like something more than your team doesn't mean I hate your team. And we live in this world now where if you just don't constantly lavish athletes with praise, you hate them. No. I like Kevin Durant. He's not lebron a little bit of a wanderer, but I like him a lot, love him actually. And Derek Carr came out and it's interesting. He's very smart about this. He's saying nobody likes us this year, and I don't believe that's true. They made the playoffs last year and they're better this year. But I like the Chargers more, the Broncos more in the Chiefs more. Think about how good this division is. It's pretty remarkable in my life. It's the greatest, most talented quarterback division ever, and it's not close. Mahomes is the highest passer raiding quarterback in league history. Russell Wilson now at Denver, has more wins by any quarterback in league history first ten years. Justin Herbert is the most productive quarterback in league history after two years. He did at year one with arguably the worst old line in the league, and Derek Carr has more fourth quarter comebacks, even more than Brady since he entered the league, the most in the NFL, they have four top ten quarterbacks in one division. The AFC South has none, the NFC East has none. In one year when Brady retires, the NFC South has none. The Raiders are really really good, I believe in twenty twenty two, and the Rams are showing you the way. There are five aitions you've got to be great at, and the Raiders are great at four quarterback, left tackle, edge rusher weapons. They're only missing an elite corner and they have pivoted now to a young, bright offensive coach. But to really show you how great it is, because all of us acknowledge it's that Aaron donald sack that sealed the Super Bowl for the Rams. That you got to have a great quarterback and a competent offensive coach. But what you really need to is to be able to put pressure on all these great quarterbacks. Look at the current list of edge rushers in the AFC West. There's never been anything like this. Max Crosby, Chandler Jones, Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, Bradley Chubb, Randy Gregory, Chris Jones, and Frank Clark. Eight of the top twenty get to the quarterback guys in the league. So it's the best quarterback division of all time. There's never been four elite quarterbacks ever in my life elite quarterbacks. And if you're still argued about Derek Carr, who took that tire fire into the playoffs in the AFC, the better conference, you don't get football. He has the most fourth quarter comebacks in the league since he entered, more than Stafford, more than Rogers, more than Brady, more than Mahomes, more than Alan, more than doesn't matter, doesn't matter how long they've been there, the most, more than Russell Wilson, quarterbacks, edge rushers, left tackle weapons. Just because I like Hamburgers more than pizza does not mean I hate pizza. This is the best quarterback division the Raiders could absolutely. I looked at it this morning. I went division to division. I think they're good enough to win four divisions in the league, but I think they're the fourth most talented team in their own division. I'll take Denver to win it. Chiefs Chargers make the playoffs as wild cards and the Raiders fish fourth, and I still think they'd win four other divisions. All right, So I saw something this morning that made me happy, made me really happy. I've told you before, I think college football is better when Texas is good, USC is good. In Miami is good. Miami makes people uncomfortable. I like that Mario Crystal Ball has said, yeah, we're gonna retire that turnover chain thing. Two words. Thank god. Miami was trying to create swagger and you can't fake it. You didn't have enough good players, so you tried to fake it and pretend you were cool. Now you used to be cool because you won games. That's why Joe Burrow is cool. He wins in Baker Mayfield's not. He wins less and tries to be The turnover chain is really, quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Alabama didn't really need one. They do take the ball away. Miami was a hundred and eighteenth in takeaways. That means San Jose State took the ball away more. I looked it up. Yukon Central Michigan Rutgers. Miami was celebrating this. Hey we trail twenty seven to ten. There's a ball on the field, fall on it, give me my chain. It was embarrassing. No city in America has more old guys trying to be cool that aren't than Miami. Mario Crystal Ball said enough, you can't fake it. You know what cool is, and it's really hard in a lot of areas of life, Like in pop culture, I thought the word krunk was still cool lit. No between music, there's new social media platforms. Songs go from hot to out overnight. Platforms cool too outdated. I mean Facebook, it's just our parent grandparents on that thing. Now it's tech talk. In a year, TikTok will be outdated. So it's hard in a lot of areas of life. What's cool, what's hot? What's now? Hell? If I know, I still say lit around the house, my kids ignore me. But sports is easy. Winning is cool. That's why Joe Burrow is cooler than Justin Herbert. He's winning more. That's it. It's not as jacket, but you're gonna wear that when you win. Joe Burrow wears sun classes and like a Joe Namath jacket, it's totally cool. It would not be nearly as cool if, say, of Daniel Jones work you'd be like, whoa, it's not appropriate. That's just not gonna work. So Mario crystal Ball understands what cool is great. Recruiting teams are tough as a two dollars steak, and they win a bunch of games at Oregon. And when Mario crystal Ball was at Oregon, they were cool. And they went to Ohio State last year. Do you see that game? Pushed Ohio State in Columbus all over the field. That's cool. Now a lot of people do that. Pushed them all over the field. Three and a half hours we all watched it. Buckeye fans left that stadium like the hell was that? Nobody does that? Does the Oregon did? That was crystal Ball recruit toughness win. Miami's got enough old guys wearing stuff trying to be cool. You can't fake it. And this whole we fell on a football. San Jose State took the ball away more than Miami, and Miami at one point was really cool. But they were always the coolest when they would play an SEC team and kind of like, not fear him. They'd play a Big ten team and not fear him. And I'll be honest with you, I covered Mike Tyson. You know the coolest thing about Mike Tyson is that he would wear a ripped up hoodie and black trunks. It looked like workout gear. I thought it made Tyson tougher. Guys come in, they've got an entourage. Sometimes they've got I mean, you remember when Fury was fighting and they've got you know, they're on this, They're on that, they're wearing this. Tyson would come in and he'd have like it looked like trunks he wore to the gym two days earlier, and a hoodie that he'd just ripped so we could breathe a little. That was intimidating. That was like Broke came to fight. Broke came to knock you out and go and leave in twenty minutes. Tyson was cool. Tyson was tough. Tyson had swagger and wore nothing, nothing of expense. The more a boxer wears he's tried to do hard, let me see a fight. So congrats to Miami. Rest of you programs can keep trying to be Miami, but just know this, when Miami gets it dialed up, from the weather to Mario to the city, because Miami can be really cool. I mean, I've seen David Beckham in Miami. He looks cool. You can be cool in Miami. The mini you try to fake it, it is totally uncool. It made me so happy when I saw his bailing on that thing. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Joe Lacob sometimes you know you're gonna get fined, but it's worth paying the price. You ever gone out nice restaurant there's no parking spaces and you park somewhere and you know you're gonna get a twenty dollars ticket, but it's like, it's close to the rest durant, there's no parking spaces, but the time you leave, it's dark out. You don't want to walk a mile to your car, and you're like, I'm gonna pay one hundred and forty dollars for dinner anyway, I'd rather pay twenty five bucks for a parking ticket. So Joe Lacob knew he was gonna get fined, and half a million dollars by the League is the equivalent of me getting a parking ticket Joe Lacob, owner of the Warriors, doesn't like how punitive the luxury tax is. He was on a podcast in the NBA, the hardest thing of all is the navigating this luxury tax. Yeahually, obviously the league wants everyone to have a chance, and right now there's a certain element out there to breed. Well, we quote checkbook win. You know, we won the because we have the most salaries. Aren't team right? We're truth is wrongly about forty million more than you know, than the luxury tax. And obviously it's self serving for me to say this, but I think it's an unfair system because our team is built by all eight top eight players are all drafted by this team. Joe Lacob is right. There are four groups to me that really matter in the NBA. Let's start with fans. They watch the games and fill the stadiums. Fans are really important players. No league without the players. Teams, you know, owners teams, they have the capitol, they have the building, and the league overall. You need your league to be healthy, viable. Why would you penalize any of those four groups? If you draft and develop your players, all four groups win. The fans win because ratings indicate fans want you to draft develop players. They love Dame and Yannis. I don't like all these guys that bounce around the league. Brooklyn's TV writings were garbage, so are the Lakers. So fans want you to draft, develop and keep your stars. It's good for the players. Steph Curry doesn't have to buy a new house and move his family around and put his kids in different schools and his wife's got to start all over. They live in the Bay, they're part of the Bay. They give charities in the Bay. Their kids can go to the same schools in the Bay. It's better for the players to play for one team. It's good for the team. The ratings are good, the merchandise is good. The team. It feels like you're all part of a family in Golden State. And it's good for the league. I mean, the league doesn't have to be antimobility. But everybody in the NBA knows the Derek Jeter, the Kobe Bryant, the Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was really awesome in Chicago. It felt weird in Washington. So the four key groups in this league the fans, the players, the league, and the team slash owners all win when you draft and develop, Why should that count against your luxury tax? Now, if you want to punish k D for wanting out, punish him. You want to punish Harden for quitting twice? Punish him, Ben Simmons, punish him, Kyrie Flaky, punish him. Why would you ever punish? Why can't more teams need to be like the Warriors patient draft and develop, coach their players hard, and then reward them handsomely when they're great. Why not make the luxury tax a percentage of non homegrown players? Wiggins? That goes against the tax? Iggy Bogett, k D totally get it. Tax the heck out of them. So teams to bring in a new player or poach a player, they got to think about it. But if you draft and develop players, the players win, the fans win, the owner wins, the league wins. Why does Steph Draymond and Clay why do they count against the luxury tax? The Warriors are the model for how to do it right. They occasionally will go recruit a guy, then tax them for getting KD. I get that, But don't punish Golden State for being the model. The standard of the league. They are absolutely what you want the league to be. Be concerned about tanking. Be concerned about a third of this league that in Week one upcoming this year. They're not committed to winning. They're committed to getting draft picks. Don't be concerned about the Warriors. The Warriors the way you want to do it. They occasionally will go get a player, often a veteran guy who's smart enough to fit into their system. K. D. Wiggins, Iggy, But that's the exception to their rule. You're punishing somebody for acing the test. Don't love it. I think Joe Lakeo in this instance is right, and he knew he was going to get fined, but he wanted to be heard. They only want over thirty five million in tax and pay one hundred forty million luxury tax. Is way too punitive. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noon Easter ninety em Pacific as America's honesty broker. I love Big Jay journalism. Let's break the story. It just happened. Arizona has rightly agreed to a five year deal with Kyler Murray. It just happened. Officially two hundred thirty million, one hundred sixty million guaranteed. He is now the second highest quarterback average salary behind Aaron at forty six. Now you say to yourself, woe folks, whoever signs the salary. It's the highest salary for six months. So by the end of the year or next year, it'll be the fourth fifth highest salary. So on, so on. I don't have a problem with it. Aaron makes fifty million, guaranteed, Kyler's gonna make forty six. This is something I've been ranting on for three weeks. I read all these stories about Kyler Murray. Well what's his ceiling? Well, who the hell knows what his ceiling is. We don't even know if he has the right coach. Yet, here's what you have to ask yourself. With elite talent, I don't care if it's a talk show host, it's a singer, it's an actor, it's a quarterback, it's a star soccer player. This is why you have to pay him. What are you without them? Because we all know there's a limited number of great in America. Ten percent of realistic agents sell eighty percent of the homes find the industry, there's not a lot of great. There's a lot of average, pretty good, very good. There's not a lot of great. So if you get somebody who's really really talented and his numbers have gotten better three years, narrow that again in a tough division, that again with a head coach many of you don't think is anything more than a glorified college coach. You pay him. I don't care what the salary is. Arizona is irrelevant in chaos and lousy without him. I don't worry too much to me. Once you know somebody is great, get on the phone, get their agent, pay them early, because the salaries are just going up. I was telling my wife this the other day. We had this discussion, and maybe it's just because we live in Los Angeles, which is just too expensive for everybody. I don't care if your middle class or upper class. It's just too expensive. Everything's too expensive to beautiful city, but it's expensive. And I said, we just bought a house a year ago. And I said, go on realtor dot com. It looks like a year later we got a steal for a house that we thought we paid a reasonable price for. Everything goes up. Everything. I just bought airline tickets for August, like double what they were a year ago. Everything goes up. Kyler Murray at forty six million, five year deal in three years, you're gonna look at that and go, oh, he's a six highest fade quarterback in the league. What is Arizona without him? I know what they were because it was three years ago. They were terrible and in this league. Jay Glazer said this years ago, and it is so spot on. What you don't want to do in this league is drive to the facility Monday through Friday or the stadium on Sunday knowing you've got very little chance to win. If Kyler Marie's your quarterback, you can win every game. Potentially, doesn't mean you will, but you know he can make plays others can't. He's the closest thing to Russell Wilson. He's even more elusive now than Russell. Is not quite as big. Maybe he doesn't read a defense, he's not as experienced, he's not as refined as Russell Wilson. But he's the closest thing to Russell in this league. And Russell is going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. So Arizona got their guy. He locked him in. It means It doesn't mean they're gonna win the super Bowl. It doesn't mean if I win the playoff games. It means they're relevant, they're bowl they could win a super Bowl, and that's the league. I hear this, talked about this yesterday. Oh what's their ceiling? Well, ceiling has so many elements to it. I mean Matt Stafford, what was his ceiling? Did you know he was going to come to LA and win the Super Bowl? You had you figured that out? You knew that. I mean for years we thought he was really good. Now we like he's great. What if the next four years he wins another that's more than Aaron Rodgers. So what is Matt stafford ceiling? Well, we didn't realize it until he got a legitimate organization, and so we really don't know. Do the Cardinals have a great owner? I don't know most thing. No, do they have a great coach? There's an argument to be made Shanahan's better in his division, McVeagh is better, and Pete's better. They may have the fourth best coach in their division. Not saying they do. There's an argument out there. So they're relevant this morning, here we go, I have him making the playoffs. I have him finishing second. I think they could win the division. I wouldn't be surprised. One hundred and sixty million guaranteed. That's you know, that's cartoon money, and we don't know what that is. It's just a lot of money. But two hundred and thirty million, one hundred and sixty million guaranteed. When I look at those numbers, I don't think it's outrageous. I mean, in the context of what we're paying people. You know, could you give him three hundred million if he was never hurt? You know. I do think there's an argument Arizona can make that, hey, we're gonna pay you early. You gotta give us a little break. We're paying ye early, and there are we are concerned a little bit. You've gotten dinged up a couple of times. So I think I look at this and I don't see it as team unfriendly. I don't know if it qualifies as team friendly, but I think it's a pretty good deal for the Arizona Cardinals. It's obviously it's gonna put Kyler. He's set for life, his whole family is. But I look at this contract a little like I look at the Patrick Mahomes contract. It's not too punitive to the team. Chiefs are fine. Chiefs can go out and get players. Arizona is gonna be fine. So I think anytime you get paid early, you take a little less. Usually that's the deal. Mahomes took a little less instead of going to the market. Potentially that's kind of the rule, right, you take a little bit less. And I think if Kyler would have waited a year, he could have gotten more. But in the end, he is a smaller athlete. He has been dinged up a couple of times. I think Kayler getting the money now is probably the smart play. Remember, even Lebron James knew Lebron James for years and years, took one year contracts. Then Lebron started getting dinged up, and Lebron's like, oh, I'll stick around for gobble years. And so I do think the injury thing here with Kyler is I am a little smaller. I do run around, put myself in harm's way. I'm gonna take the money early. I think that's good by he in his agent, I'm gonna take the money a little early. I think if I was Kyler's agent, I'd rather have the money now, Like Josh Allen, I can assure you you're gonna be around for a decade. If you told me Kyler play six more great years seven, shut it down. Josh Allen's plan for ND twelve, He's gonna be big, Ben, he gonna be effective. There's gonna be a long long list at the end because Josh run Jerunn and gets popped. It may not be pretty, but I think size athlete style take it now, little less. I don't know if i'd qualify this as team friendly, but I think both sides win. How about that? Both sides today win. So Colin, let me ask you real quick. The only quarterback left on the market now is Lamar Jackson. Okay, he's got an MVP, he's got more playoff wins than Kyler Murray? Is he going to get more than five for two hundred and thirty million with forty six million a year? I would pay him a similar number, which is we do sense a little bit of progression. But in division now with Deshaun Watson and Joe Burrow, if you don't have Lamar, I'll ask a question, what are you in a division with Matt Stafford. I mean, look at the look at the Arizona right now. I got McVan the division, Shanahan in the division, I may have the third or fourth best coach. I The one thing I know is Kyler Murray on any Sunday is the best quarterback in that division. There are sundays that Kyler last year, in the first seven weeks was the best player, looked like in the league, like he was insane. So I feel the same way about Lamar. What are the Ravens without him? You have to pay Lamar Jackson period. Remember over fifty percent of first round quarterbacks. With that's first round quarterbacks, they don't pan out one more. Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. And it just broke that the Kyler Murray signed a new contract. I think it's reasonably team friendly, but it also pays Kyler half a million more than Deshaun Watson. So the quarterback market can be predictably petty. And with that, Chris Sims joins us. You know Chris eight years dad Phil, He's on NBC NF analyst. Okay, So I'm kind of a believer. If you like something by it, you're not going to get the best price on good stuff, right, Like you know, if you go to the restaurant, you're probably overpaying for the wine. If you if you have a nice house you want and you want to stay in it for twenty years, just pay for the house. And I look at Kyler Murray's contract and I'm like, Arizona was irrelevant without him, they're relevant with him. I don't even care what they I don't even know if you can overpay for Josh Allen or Kyler Murray can ye, right, No, I don't think you can. You're right, I mean you just, hey, you got something special, you know, you don't just throw that out the door, or you know, let that go down the river there to find something new, You don't. Kyler Murray. One, Hey, he didn't have his best year last year. We know that he got injured and that kind of you know, disrupted things didn't play great at the end of the year. Are some things that we'd like to see him improve or be better, I'm sure, But man, he's got some elite traits about him that are special. I mean, we know that and I think the other thing too, to your point, Colin, and just why you know you don't let it like a guy like Kyler Murray. You're right, we don't even care about the Arizona Cardinals before he got there. Now they're in the playoff conversation. And I think what also gave him a little more power in this conversation, and you know rightly so is Hey. You know, they formulated the team around him. They're playing a system and getting personnel that fits Kyler Murray, so they gotta go forward with him. And I got no problem with that. He's super talented. You know, he's got the type of talent to be in that top top five conversation. He's top tennish for me right now, not top five, but hey, he's still young. It can improve. We know that. I mean, here's the way I look at Kyler. If you told me I got Kyler or Lamar and I like Lamar, I'd take Kyler. I think he throws a better football. I think his baseball background like Russell Wilson, he's a beautiful slider, he throws a perfect ball. The baseball stuff Russell and Kyler, you can tell they played baseball from the way they avoid contact, they slide the drop ball. And I think there's about five young quarterbacks I love. And by five, I mean you've been in the league like four years or less. Josh Allen, Right, Herbert Burrow, Kyler, and probably fifth would be Lamar. I don't count Mahomes now as a kid. He's got too many reps. So those are my five young guys. There could be more. We'll see what Trevor Lawrence. But if I said today with you Lamar, Kyler, choose one, who would you choose? Oh, it's a tough one. I'd probably take Lamar right now at this moment. I would you know, not to say that, you know, necessarily I don't believe that maybe Kyler could pass him up in the future. Here's my one issue with Kyler, And this is something you know when I go back down and do my quarterback rankings and do ball that I go back and watch and we know some of the flaws of Kyler Murray, and I think this is what concerns me. Like to your point, Hey, yeah, there's some pure throwing that's better than Lamar. I don't think Lamar gets quite enough credit for as good a pure thrower as he is. But here's the other thing. I would say that I give Lamar a little bit of the advantage of Lamar's a bigger man. Lamar can play in the pocket better than Kyler Murray Ken. That concerns me. You know again, Kyler, Hey, he can feast against the poor. But when we've seen teams that have played them a little bit or have talented defensive lines, and all of a sudden they figure out how to corral him and keep him in the pocket. That's what concerns me about Kyler. So even though Lamar's not stellar in that department, Lamar can move around, make awkward throws, and he's not as quick to get rid of the ball or be quite as antsy in the pocket when it does collapse as Kyler. That's why I may give him a slight advantage right now, Colin, the big story before this story at quarterback was Jimmy Garoppolo appears to be throwing. The Niners are reportedly thrilled with it. He's on the market. And there's two things we know about quarterback in the NFL. By the end of this year, there'll be seven teams that need a quarterback and half of the second thing we know is half the college quarterbacks drafted in the first round don't work. And I look at Garoppolo and I think to myself, boy, the New York Giants make a lot of sense here. You know inside that building, that new staff isn't loyal to him. The Mara family is not even loyal. They just want one more year. Does he to me, you're not pan Daniel yet? Boy? In that division is not going to be terrible forever. Chris, I think I would bring Garoppolo in if Daniel doesn't work. By the way, if he can't handle the Garoppolo pressure, he's not the guy anyway, I think. I think the Giants work. Yeah, I get you. I mean they got Tyrod Taylor there. Here's what I think the Giants wanted to work with Daniel Jones. You know, he's got a lot of things to like about his skill set that are still franchise ish traits. I think where you can build a team around him. Let's let's let's not forget this with Daniel Jones. It hasn't been like he's been in one of the worst offensive lines in football. It's been the worst offensive line in football. It's not even freaking close. The last three years. They can't do crap up front, So what's hard to play quarterback and really evaluate, in my opinion, what Daniel Jones is. To me, he's not the problem with the New York Giants or their offense. That's what I'll say, And Colin, what I would also say is I really think Daniel Jones has a higher ceiling than Jimmy Garoppolo. I don't know what Jimmy Garoppolo is. Jimmy Garoppolo solid, He's around the top twenty ish quarterback in football for me right now, he's not special. He's been fortunate to be with two of the best offensive minds in the game, and McDaniels and Shanahan who just serve up easy silver platter completion stor him all the time. And Daniel Jones, to me, he's big, He's one of the best running quarterbacks in football. He does all the little things off the field, which Jimmy Garoppolo also doesn't. You know, he's not the leader Daniel Jones is. I think the Giants want to make it work. I think they also know they haven't given him a fair shake, So I don't see that happening. And I don't know where the Garoppolo thing is gonna lead. I really don't. I'm very intrigued to see what team, you know, shows some real viable interest in him and tries to make a play for him with a guy again that I think the league's questions about how good he actually is, what kind of a leader is he? And now he's coming off shoulder surgery. Man, that's where I just I don't understand or I don't know. I guess. I'm just a guess right now. As far as Jimmy Garoppola, where he ends up? Now, I want to ask you question three minutes left on college football and the NIL it was created to be name, image likeness. Now it's just buying high school guys. I mean, that's what it is now. It's just but that was the unintended consequence of creating it and the NCAA not being ready to handle it. And Texas is one of the beneficiaries. Texas A and m Oregon's got a rich booster, like I it's legal, Miami's got ruise. Some of these schools have a booster or two and they'll write the check. And today it's legal. It's not what it was intended to be, but it is what it is. I am for player empowerment. How do we fix nil? So it's not just buying juniors out of high school. I know, I wish I had an answer for you, man, I do you know again, I'm all NFL. Of course, I'm always paying attention to football and all that. But I mean, does it seem a little ridiculous to a guy like me right now? Yeah? I mean we're giving million dollars to a guy where I'd go, Damn, I don't even know if I'd give that kid a scholarship to play with my college football team. He's got the million dollars. This is unbelievable, So it is weird. I do think it's something that they got to fix because I think to your point two schools like Texas with the big money, the big boosters, all the billionaires, it's only a matter of time before they get all these boosters involved and they start writing checks and can maybe dominate the landscape. So there has to be something done to your point to where we got to help out. Even when I was in college, man, I had to buy a lot of meals or guys on the team, and thank god Phil Simms and Diana Sims I had their credit card because it was hard for some guys. Guy that came from nothing. You know, you can only get two meals. You got a scrounge for the third, and life just isn't as easy as you think it is for some of these scholarship athletes, especially the stars, who are providing a lot of money for college. So I'm glad to see it given back. But you're right, it seems a little out of whack to me. Well, you gave your parents props on the show, so good. You're a good son. That's what I know. It's good. Chris's always as good seeing you you too, calling you the man. Talk to you Soonboddy, Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show, a Colt hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will? A world will we chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more. Every Week Explorer, some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. How important is the quarterback position? Deshan and Kyler Murray Kyler just signed today, have signs in the last couple of months for three hundred and ninety million dollars guarantee, and they have three playoff games and one playoff win between them. Dashawan in twenty nineteen won a playoff game. So it shows you the value of the position. And this is one of these things the only downside to this. So this happens all the time where we create legislation or we make a change jmact to something and we don't see the downside of it. You know. Gavin Newsom, California governor, pushed for player empowerment in the NIL and then UCLA said, yeah, we need more money to keep up with that. We're going to the Big ten. And now Gavin Newsom doesn't like it. If you create legislation and promote the NIL. You have to understand people will react to sudden monetary changes, right, People change, and so the NFL has moved very much toward an offense of leak. And I've said this multiple times. For most of my life, the middle of a football field was the defenses. Receivers did not want to go over the middle. The tight end would, and maybe occasionally you'd have a bigger receiver like a Michael Irvin who would. But there was a term used all the time, alligator arms. You could take a guy's head off. Then the NFL said, no more doing that, We'll throw you out of the game. And now the middle of the field is the offenses part of the field. It is neutralized defenses. That's why you got to pay big money for a pass rusher, because you can't beat anybody sitting in coverage. Receivers go all over the field. I mean it used to be to get down the field quickly. In the NFL it was a sideline route. Supposed it was a flag. It was a sideline right now, steam route right down the middle of the field. Offense owns the middle, and that means the only way to stop teams is edge rushers, because you can't just sit back in coverage the Pete Carroll style. You know some of these coverages. Now that's Seattle's as their pass rush is diminished. He can't cover anybody for four seconds anymore. It's over. It's an arms race. Get quarterbacks, get weapons, and get pass rushers. And right now the AFC West is the best by far. So you know, I look at Kyler Murray. As the NFL has become more offensively driven, it has made the quarterbacks so valuable. And that's not necessarily a bad thing as long as they're upright and don't get hurt. And but this is this is the new world we live in. I mean, we see this all the time in America. There's legislation. It makes this industry way more important. And the coal has been fighting the government for years. Right, we would like to get off coal. We want to get into tech, we want to get into solder. And so I look at the top ten quarterbacks in the end of The highest paid quarterbacks now are Aaron Kyler, Deshaun Patrick, Josh. I don't have a problem with any of them. Now, I would not have paid Deshaun Watson that kind of money guaranteed, But he is better than Baker. He will win a bunch of games, and Cleveland, out of the Baker situation, had to do something big. I wouldn't have done it the way they did it, but I don't have You know, the annual salary doesn't bother me because in one year guys will move in and out of that whoever signs. There was a point that Kirk Cousins was the highest paid guy that probably a Matt Ryan at one point was Tony Romo at the end got a big deal. Everybody freaks out about it. I don't care about it, your annual salary. The bottom line is these guys are all exceptional and they all get paid. People are gonna push back on Kyler Murray that you know, he's a little immature. Folks, they're all like twenty four years old. What do you want I mean, they're twenty four year old kids in the public. I'm making hundreds of millions of dollars. What do you want them to be accountants? They're not. They're artists. So, you know, sometimes I think Aaron Rodgers and Kyler, in my opinion, do too much stuff out there a little I don't have the stomach for it. But that's who they are, that's their personality, and they're gonna leverage their brand and they're gonna have big opinions and they're gonna fire back. And you know, some of these guys scrub social media accounts. I don't like that at all, but it's just the world we live in. I'm not gonna be you know, the grumpy old guy screaming at clouds. It's if not everybody's the same, you know, Kevin Durant, Prickily, it Sol's Aaron Rodgers. It is what it is. It's not my cup of tea, but it is what it is, so I would have paid for it. I did this last week. I don't do a lot of quarterback ratings per se, but I hadn't done one in a while, and I said there was some story that came out and I said I would my top ten quarterbacks in the league Mahomes, Alan, Brady, Rogers, Russell Stafford Burrow, Herbert Kyler, and Derek Carr. Now I like Derek Carr more than everybody else, but he leads the NFL and fourth quarter comeback since he ended the league. I had like Dac eleven, Lamar twelve or vice versa. You know, there's about twelve guys in the league who I'd build my franchise around. You're looking at him right there. So to me, Kyler's size worries me. The injuries worry me a little, but I'd pay for it. Folks, what are the Arizona Cardinals without him? Irrelevant? Awful in that divisi and in chaos. I'd pay the money. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noun Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. There's no perfect actor, you know, there is no perfect quarterback. I'll give an example, so I would have paid Kyler Murray. So I'll go through all the quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes is perfect, noise not. We have seen three different five or six game stretches where his mechanics go into the tank. Thank god he's got Andy Reid there. Last year he at a five six games stretch and we knew this coming out of college. The scouting report on Mahomes out of college he was wild. He could mechanically get really loose. We've seen it now multiple five game stretches where it gets ugly. He unravels Andy brings him back, so he's not perfe Aaron Rodgers, Aaron's prickly, Aaron's Moody. You know, Aaron's talking NonStop about retirement. Aaron has a very low number of come from behind wins his last sixteen playoff games. He's under five hundred. He has trust issues, you know, like last year we saw it, he just wouldn't let it rip. He trusted Davante maybe Mercedes Lewis, and that's it. That's not a perfect quarterback. Tom Brady Old doesn't that mobility. I think Matt Stafford's pretty good, but he can be reckless. So when you say, well, Kyler Murray gets hurt and he's small, the the you can there's an argument to be made that in terms of perfect quarterbacks. Justin Herbert a four point two biology major, big, can move, huge, arm, coachable. It's about it, like like Herbert is like Josh Allen's close, but he can be reckless. Herbert is the argument like and they say Herbert can be too mechanical, but Justin did not have a lot of holes in his game. He was a he was a tutor in college. He was a four two biology major, Big, move, strong, arm, lets it rip, isn't it doesn't your road when he throws a pick, I mean he has the best numbers ever in two years. Like Joe Burrow throws a lot of picks. Aaron Rodgers won't let it rip. Derek Carr, average arm, there's a lot of You can pick all these guys apart. You know, Russell Wilson sometimes we've heard Greg ko selsay this. He disrupts a play himself. He ad libs when he doesn't have to. He's a little short old lineman or six six, he's five eleven and a half. He sometimes moves out of the pocket when he should just sit and throw again. Herbert and Josh Allen, big strong mobile, you know, coachable. That's about as good as it gets. But I look at Kyler Murray and I'm like, we can pick all these guys apart. We can pick all of them apart. Michael Jordan never shot long distance well, could be brutal as a teammate, was never a great passer. Best basketball player ever, Lebron don't trust him late at the free throw line. Second best player ever. I mean it's you know, Magic Johnson, couldn't really shoot, not a great defender. So if you're looking for the perfect athlete, the perfect politician, the perfect host, it doesn't exist. He is not. There's no duplicate on the market in college for him. He's as good as anybody. I did my top ten quarterback list earlier this week or last week. He's one of the ten best. I'm paying all these guys, and they've all got flaws. Herbert, I haven't seen a big overarching flaw yet, but it's Mahomes, Alan, Brady, Rogers, Russell, Stafford Burrow, Herbert Kyler, Derek. I got Dak eleven, Lamar twelve. A lot of people disagree you'd have them in there. You wouldn't have Derek carr in, but he leads the league in fourth quarter comebacks and he arrived. That's a big thing to me. Can you play from behind late? That's why I dock Lamar and I elevate carr I trust Derek with three minutes to go trailing. He's a great come from behind quarterback. They all got issues. So Chris Simms earlier I talked to you know, he likes the swing and here's his thoughts, Hey, you got something special? You know, you don't just throw that out the door, or you know, let that go down the river there to find something new. You don't you know that he got injured and that kind of you know, disrupted things didn't play great at the end of the year. Are some things that we'd like to see him improve or be better, I'm sure, but man, he's got some elite traits about him that are special. We don't even care about the Arizona Cardinals before he got there. Now they're in the playoff conversation, and I think what also gave him a little more power in this conversation, and you know rightly so is hey. You know, they formulated the team around him. They're playing a system and getting personnel that fits Kyler Murray. Another thing to think about, and it's important here, is that the division has Sean mcvaghanant and the division has Kyle Shanahan in it. I believe those are the two best young coaches in the NFL, both through offensive coaches, and that's where the league is headed. I don't know if Cliff Kingsbury is a great coach, So I gotta have a playmaker at quarterback because there's no reason. Shanahan's got a long deal and McVey just signed an extension. Okay, so I know in my division, my shot to beat them probably not schematically I'm not gonna beat Shanahan twice a year schematically and in terms of building a culture. McVay may be the best young coach in America at that so I'm not necessarily going to beat him on culture, on schematics, How can I beat him? Kyler Murray's feet and arm, That's how I can beat him. Where are you located? You know? Sometimes? You know the reality is when Peyton Manning was in the NFL, all the teams in the division. Bill Polian told me this years ago. He goes, I knew when I had Peyton Manning, I would lead most of my games late. So I drafted pass rushers because I knew teams would trail late and be throwing. So we wanted to make sure we had an edge rusher. When Brady was in the AFC East Right, Buffalo would overpay for a pass rusher. The Jets would draft defensive lineman. Miami was always looking for pass rushers to slow down Tom Brady. If you're in an division with Kyle Shanahan and Sean mcvayh regardless of the quarterbacks, you're gonna have to win some shootouts. You're not holding those guys the seventeen points. You're gonna have to win shootouts. Kyler Murray, I like my chances in shootouts. He can do a lot of things off script, and I don't even know I may have the fourth best quarterback in the division. He's not mcvah and he's not Shanahan. Most would argue he hadn't proven he's beat Carroll. So you start looking around that division. Those are your six games that make or break your season. I mean, the reason the Packers keep winning their division and struggling in the playoffs is we keep getting fooled how good they are because they keep dominating an average, dysfunctional division. Arizona is the opposite. That thing is brutal. It's sec football. It's brutal. You're facing the best co which is the best rosters as smartest guys. Got to have a dude, Get God, have a dude.