Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be 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's a Thursday, loaded up, here we go. Kevin Durant's already winning in Phoenix. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. Jay Mack is joining us. So we talked about this when Kevin Durant came over, and I predicted that there's a little big difference between truly great and truly very good and truly great works in any era, anytime. Wilt Chamberlain truly great, Jim Brown, true great, Walter Payton would be a star running back today like the truly great ones, any generation, any coach, any teammate, and Kevin Durant qualifies as that we fall in love with what guys doing the moment. But I mean the truly greats and it's a very tiny number. It's it's one percent maybe a players. Ever, and Durant was on display last night. Yeah, he was truly great against the Charlotte Hornets. Someone named JT. Thor was in the starting lineup. I don't know who that is. And I watch a lot of college basketball. Congratulations to kd on win number one. All right, let me start with this. So part of truly great not what the media thinks is great. Now what the fans not your merchandise sales. Part of truly great is you work with anybody. Kevin Durant works with anti vaxer's NBA basketball players afraid to shoot. He got Russell Westbrook to a final. Nobody works with Westbrook. He works with rigid guys, limited guys, old guys, new guys. That's the difference between Westbrook and Kyrie, who are one in seven with their new teams. They're really really good. Never ever has Westbrook or Kyrie won big without Kevin Durant or Lebron at their side. Patrick Mahomes is truly great any era. He would work. Tyreek Hill Left Oh won an MVP in the Super Bowl. Didn't matter that they rebuilt his offensive line the previous year, or he had a pedestrian wide receiver group. Mahomes is truly great. Lamar Jackson's really really talented, but you have to have a specific offensive coordinator, a specific set of players around him. There's a big gap between Westbrook, KD, Kyrie k D, Lamar Jackson, Mahomes truly all time great. Phoenix is not perfect. Chris Paul's old. They need another defender. DeAndre Ayton has some limitations. They could use more players on the bench. Watch them start reeling off doubles and move up in seating. And here's the thing Brady did this. Brady won a Super Bowl, created a dynasty with an old, rigid defensive coach. Then he went and got the loose offensive coach, the party animal in Tampa, first year, pandemic, no preseason. He won a super Bowl with that guy. He won with Dion Branch, Crazy, Antonio Brown, a college quarterback as a wide receiver, Julian Edelman, Gronk, Aaron Hernandez, good guys, bad guys, small guys, crazy guys, restricted guys, limited guys, Wes Welker, Edelman, didn't matter. Brady won. He won an MVP with Bill O'Brien. He won with Charlie Weiss, he won with Josh McDaniels. It didn't matter. He won with Byron Leftwich. That's truly great. You work with everybody, the coats, the player, the system. There are times you're not gonna win the championship or win the super Bowl. Westbrook's never won big without kd. Kadi's won with everybody. Kyrie's never won big without Lebron. Lebron wins with everybody. That is the difference. Mahomes lost Tyree Hill and everybody freaked out. Oh, I don't know. Kansas City ended up with a number one offense in the NFL the year before, rebuilt their own line this year. Pedestrian wide receiver, I mean, as good as Aaron Rodgers is. He lost Avante Adams. He went into the tank by Aaron Rodgers standards. So, and the thing about and here's the thing about what truly great does. You don't always have to have all the points. So in basketball, often if you're scoring a lot or you're good, it takes away from others. I mean, can you imagine last night Westbrooks first game of the Clippers, he drops twenty five points. He'd have been like, give me the ball, head down, get out of the way. Last night, Katie was phenomenal, and yet Devin Booker scored thirty seven points. Mahomes can be phenomenal, but Travis Kelsey has fourteen catches, Brady wins the Super Bowl. Mike Evans is unstoppable. The truly greats don't get in the way of other people's success. They don't suck all the oxygen out of the room. Kevin Durant walks in brand new guy, brand new system, unstoppable, and Booker almost scores forty. So don't put ninety eight percent of the players in NBA history now and forever in Kevin Durant's class. He is Mahomes. It just doesn't matter. Coordinator, tight end, wide receiver doesn't matter. Go look at the wide receiving corps for the Kansas City Chiefs, Sky Moore. I mean guy in Pittsburgh. They were tired of guy in Green Bay that was overpaid. Go look at that wide receiving corps. Number one offense in the NFL, in the stronger conference, in a good division. Here was kad after last night to win over the rugged Hornets. I feel like I fit in pretty well. Um. Everybody, everybody out there was trying to make me as comfortable as possible, coaches and players as well. And you know so, um, I just gotta keep keep grinding, man. And you know this, this jersey on me a look normal in a couple of you know, as games go on, as we start to keep building who we are as a team. And I'm looking forward to it though, truly historically great Kevin Durant. Mike McCarthy was at it again. You know what they should in Dallas just take the podium away. You can interview him after games. Maybe no more podium talks. Um. So he was asked, Kellen Moore, they're very good offensive coordinator play caller. Mike McCarthy says, yeah, that was fine, and we were number two in the NFC and offense we were highly productive. But Mike McCarthy said this in twenty twenty three, Kellen wants to light the scoreboard up, but I want to run the damn ball so I can rest my defense. I don't have a desire to be the number one offense in the league. Kansas City was the number one offense in the league. Philadelphia was the number one offense in the NFC because I want to win championships. If we got to give up some production and take care of the ball, that's what we'll do because we have a really good defense. Wow. Yeah, the scoring thing seems to be working. Asked Cincinnati, in Kansas City and Philadelphia. It's it's really working. So does everybody understand how good Kellen Moore is at this job? And we don't use Kellen Moore as much as a topic, but think about this. The Dallas Cowboys are actually incredibly limited on offense. They are Zeke their star running back, Shot their left tackle Tyron Smith is available about every third week. They don't have a number two receiver. Dak is not that accurate to throw over the football. Dak tied for the most picks in the league, and they started backups in several games, and yet Cowboys finished as the number two offense in the NFC. And one of the things when you're in a business long enough. And Mike McCarthy's been in football thirty years, I've been in broadcasting thirty years. It's kind of my responsibility to be able to see around corners a little bit, see problems before they arise, So does Mike McCarthy get that Kellen Moore is now going to go to a better quarterback in Justin Herbert, a better left tackle and rush On Slater, Austin Eckler, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen capable tight ends, Kellen Moore's crush it by September and Dallas very likely because they've got to use that first pick on a corner. They don't have a second corner. Maybe a wide receiver maybe, but Dallas is probably going to pull back right. Zeke is washed. Tony Pollard's a free agent. He may just go. You're tight ends talented, he's a free agent. You can't afford him. You're pan Zeke and Dack too much. You're still paying Tyron Smith a lot of money. You got to save up money for Micah Parsons, your pan DeMarcus Lawrence a lot like It's very very likely that Dallas will be the same or pull back, and it's almost guaranteed. There's two guarantees in the NFL. Next year, Denver's gonna double their win total with Sean Payton bank on it, and the Chargers offense is going to get significantly better when they returning their left tackle and get a progressive offensive coordinator. You've got to be able to see around corners. By September, knock, people are gonna make They're gonna be making fun of you for this comment. And we not only have a cultural gap between offensive coaches and defensive coaches, some of these older guys Belichick going to a defensive coordinator as offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy saying I'll give up production. I mean Andy Reids the outlier, but what are we doing here? Just take the podium away, like what are we saying here? And what are we doing here? There's every reason to believe that Dallas could be better defensively next year. They've got to solve some secondary issues and they're going to draft that, but they're likely to not be quite as good offensively. Ask yourself this, If CD Lamb missed a month, who are they throwing to? Michael Gallup? The tight end may be gone, Tony Pollard could be gone. But when you're working in any industry for thirty years, you gotta see around corners a little. And this is going to be a ridiculous quote. By the first week of October, be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and nun Easter not Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. So last night's lakerwin was big. I sat and watched that last night and Dennis Shrewder rolled an ankle early and then came back and won. No Lebron, no a D. But the story is A D was one hundred percent pain free and didn't play. So baseball goes through a little bit of this. There's still a very active battle in baseball between what the manager wants to do and the analytic department and the GM wants to do and analytic teams. Slash nerds always want to go with the average. What is the data? What does it say? But sometimes in a game, in a moment, there's momentum and data can't track it. There are moments among alpha males when certain guys need to step up. There's these key moments. And last night A D should have played. He was a hundred percent pain free. He's gotten plenty of rest this year. They were on the road, Lebron wasn't playing, and reportedly Lebron been playing through severe pain in his last five or six games, and ad has a reputation, frankly, of being soft, and the medical staff reportedly held him out. That's one of those I'm playing now, Dennis Shrewder they won. Oklahoma said he's not much to look at, and Dennis Shrewder, despite a rolled ankle, played a really good basketball game, and so they won. But this was a step up moment, This was a leadership moment. This was I'm playing. This is Mahomes screaming at Andy Read on the sideline with a high ankle sprain. The media freaking out, and Mahomes is like, I'm not taking my shoe off. I'm not taking my shoe off. Gemmi back in there. Anthony Davis, one hundred percent pain free, didn't play. Here's Darvin Haam, the head coach after. You know, he's frustrated as hell man. He wants to be out there, but he also understands the process of us managing his foot the right way and so and again is not like it's a stress reaction. So anything could set that thing off, and the more stress you put on it, the more score to react. So it's like you just have to let it, you know, not saying that it flare it up or anything. He's absolutely playing pain free, pain free. Can we stop pandering and coddling? That was a step up moment. And this is happening in the NBA now, and it happens in baseball, where you have analytic departments and their season long averages do matter. But when you find out in baseball you ask a starter to pitch on two days rest, you ask a starter to come out of the bullpen, the playoff postseason is not the regular season, and the averages aren't the same. We've talked about this in the NBA. Referees swallow the whistle in the postseason. They don't in the regular season. Everybody's equally rested. You're playing a team six seven straight games. They know your liabilities, they attack them. Playoff baseball, and right now the Lakers are in playoff mode. They had to win last night. This is not December, it's not November, it is it's March. You got to win now. They did. Chris Finch, the coach the t Wolves, was on the show yesterday and we talked about this, this load management. You know, these science departments among NBA teams. One of the fastest growing departments in professional sports is the performance department, you know, with sports scientists and all the people that are now giving us so much data about resting and recovering and being ready to play. Obviously we have to lean into what they say. It's not our decision as coaches. Unfortunately, in our league, and I've said this before, resting has become a bit of a status symbol. You're so good that they don't want to play you tonight because they need you later. Well, you're a team like ours, your five hundred, and you're fighting for your life. You got play every night, yes, and that's really what the league should be all about. Anyway, for Minneso. You gotta play for the Lakers right now. Lebron, you gotta play. Stars get whatever they want in this league. I mean Kyrie, Irving and Brooklyn. I'm not gonna get vaccinated. He got away with it. James Harden, I'm gonna be out of shape in Houston. He got away with it. You tell me. Ad couldn't go to the medical staff and say, yeah, I'm plan, fellas, I'm plan. Of course, he could be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noun Easter nine a Empacific. Do not confuse an outlier for a new reality. Russell Wilson was smaller than you'd like, got to a super Bowl, actually two should have won. Both won one, and suddenly everybody thought size doesn't matter as a quarterback. Here's the last four first round quarterbacks who were smaller than you'd like. Johnny Manzel, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Tua. How's that working out for you? So? I saw a piece of video yesterday Bryce Young at the combine walking by a prospect, and he looked like his little brother. I'm sorry, that's not what Brady and Gronk look like, or Dallas Clark and Peyton Manning or Big Ben or any of the top quarterbacks in their tight ends. I don't love it. It's sort of like when Trump became president. Well, he's a businessman. I want all my politicians to have a basic understanding of how, you know, government works. We got into this tiny home trend. Hey live in eighty eight square feet, my kids doing homework in the sink. I like my homes with space. I like my politicians to understand government, and I like my quarterbacks to have you know, six two ur up size. Bryce Young is small he's light, and he doesn't have a great arm. It's good, it's fine, it's okay. But you watch those you watch those videos, and my first instinct is you look small. Well, it's a tight end. Should see the defensive ends. You should see the offensive tackles. He's got to pass the ball over them. I don't know. It's something, right, Albert Breer. We talked about Bryce young lack of size earlier this week. If Bryce Young were six foot three and two hundred and twenty pounds, we'd be talking about him like he was Joe Burrow or Andrew Luck. You're looking at a prospect who's got very advanced football knowledge, who's got great feeling instinct in the pocket, who's a competitor, who's produced at a high level in one of the best programs and probably the best program in college football. And so he checks every single box and tangibles, tangibles, all of it. And the size isn't there, and so that makes it very, very difficult. I think the best comp I've heard out there, and one that I've heard from teams over and over again, is Drew Brees. You know, the big question here is going to be how he holds up. So Drew Brees tends to be a historic outlier. Russell Wilson was a more mobile version of Drew Brees. Accurate, more mobile. Those are outliers. Just because you had a cousin once lived briefly in an eighty nine square foot home, it's really not going to become a trend. People like a backyard in space, and they don't want their kids, you know, doing homework on the oven door, which you had to pull out. So let's take a deep breath. Small is an ideal Manzelle Kyler to h It's not ideal. It's not what you want. So this is interesting. I said this earlier. If Patrick Mahome Kevin Durant was on the market, a lot of teams were interested. Westbrook will be a Hall of Famer, so will Kyrie. They were on the market too, very small market. So if Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow Josh Allen were on the market, twenty six teams would make a call. Now we know Aeron's a little older, but you'd think he'd have somewhat of a market. Story Today, jets may not be as interested, says the Athletic as you'd think. Story today out of ten to see the Titans GM we're sticking with Ryan Tannehill and then Josh McDaniels of the Raiders considered a team that would be interested in Aaron. Here's what he said about the quarterback position. You know, look, the goal for us eventually is to have somebody that's going to be here for a long time. I think that, you know, you see the teams that are having success right now in our league, I would say in our conference and specifically in our division. You know, they're young players that were drafted by their clubs and they're being developed there under the same continuity. Raiders doesn't look like it, Jets doesn't feel like it, sound like it, Titans out. Where's the market? I've always felt Aaron's going to go back to Green Bay. But we always talk about do you check certain boxes? Aaron misses on a lot of boxes, So let's think about the boxes. Is he inexpensive? Is he young? No? Is he a franchise galvanizer? No, that's not really his thing. Is he always easy to coach? No? He couldn't stand McCarthy at the end, and he called out Matt Lafleur two days ago. Does he have recent playoffs success. No, there's a little Kyrie irving to Aaron Rodgers. No, there is one title, uniquely gifted, interesting personalities, but increasingly less reliable in the playoffs, and you're not sure where their heads at. I didn't even mention the VACS thing, did I If Herbert Maholmes, Burrow, Trevor Lawrence were available. You got twenty four teams on the phone. You got bad teams, the Jets, you got teams last year that were reeling, the Titans, the Raiders. Josh McDaniels got a winner, he's gonna get fine. Robert Sale has got a winner. They're gonna get fired. And they don't appear as interested. So what's the market? I mean it, really, there's an old saying in our business. You're a free agent. What's the market? That's your value? Companies overpay a lot of average people. What's the market? What is it? I mean? When bad teams with coaches on the hot seat and you're gonna be a Hall of Famer. This is the same thing with Kyrie, Kyrie and Aaron Rodgers. One title uniquely gifted. Nobody questions that first ballot Hall of Famers don't work well with a lot of people. There's some coaching stuff you're not sure about. And the truth is you haven't had a lot of recent playoffs success. It's the same guy says, it's a lot of the same stuff. Now, NBA guys have more power than NFL guys. But Kyrie's really expensive. Aaron's really expensive. That limits the market. You don't know where their head is at. That limits the market. Kyrie has talked about retiring early. Aaron's talked about retiring early. How good you are is determined by how many people are interested. If you're available to everybody. You tell me right now, what's the market? Well, let me put out one big difference between these two. Aaron Rodgers has four MVP awards, as in, he was the best player in the league. Kyrie Irving does not have four MVP votes in his career. He's never been the best. That being said, Colin, I just looked at the teams with the biggest cap space, because you know you need to afford Rodgers. Number one Chicago Bears. It's not gonna happen. Number two Atlanta Falcons could happen. Doubt it happens. Number three Las Vegas Raiders thought it would happen. Number four and they're gonna have to move some stuff to make to afford him. New York Giants they're gonna that's not gonna happen. Okay, So then the last two teams five and six Bengals forget about them, and the New England Patriots, and again they'd still have to move stuff around to afford Aaron Rodgers. So I'll now that you know that those are the teams that can maybe afford him. Where's Aaron Rodgers going? Green Bay? Right? That's where he's going. So and the report by the Athletic is today it will take quote more than people realized to acquire Aaron. You're gonna get have to give up two firsts and you're gonna have to move pieces because he's so expensive. Do you think this will ding his ego a little bit? That maybe teams could have been interested and nobody wanted him. Why just Tom Brady was forty three and he had him more of a market than this. The Chargers wanted him were shocked. In fact, I called the Chargers and I said, hey, I've heard Tom is going to be a buck And they were bummed. Out, so we know there was two teams and arguably three. There was rumors about the Colts. So Tom was forty four and had a market. Aaron's what thirty eight, thirty nine And by the way, the Dolphins got punished for tampering with Tom, so they eventually had another market. Yes, and there's a story to There are stories now that San Francisco is seeking a veteran quarterback next year and Mike Silver, who covers the Niners, says Brady is the obvious choice. So Tom's down forty five, forty six, He's still got suitors. Some people are saying the Miami Dolphins could get in the mix. They are fifteen million dollars over the cap. So as of and if you want to move off Tyreek Hill and all this other stuff away, yeah no, So I don't see the Dolphins happening. It's this has got to be a reality check for Aaron Rodgers, like whoa nobody wants me? Who wouldn't be in the Mahomes market, So Cincinnati wouldn't be, Buffalo wouldn't be. The Chargers have their guy cheap, so you know, like Trevor Lawrence, Jack's got their guy. There's four teams we know would not be but Baltimore with Lamar Hey would go with mahomesrs talented. We'll talk Ravens next hour. There's a lot happening there that is not good. But I mean Mahomes. Everybody outside of the guys that have you know, Philadelphia Jalen hurts Place sticks with their guy. I mean he was great in the Super Bowl, So Philly stays with their guy. And there's again, I could be overlooking one or two. There may be five teams in the league. You're like, we got a young guy, he's a cheap guy. We love him. We're not gonna blow the locker room up. I get it. Everybody else makes a call him. Mahomes Aaron's down to Green Bay and by the way, green Bay in a perfect world, I think would move off him. But it's the camp dead money. It just it just you're as good as your market. You get fired tomorrow. I don't care if you're a salesperson, you're a teacher. You're on the market. How long is it. When Kellen Moore was on the market offensive coordinator for the Cowboys, he was on the market for an hour. When Andy Reid got fired by the Eagles. He was on the market for he was on the beach for a week. A week. That's when you're talented. Cliff Kingsbury, fired by Arizona, goes on a trip overseas. He's not working this season. There's his market he's not is he getting get a head coaching? Look offensive, coordinate, Like a good point about your market? Like what is it? You can brag about it. You can tell me about your merch and your Instagram. What is your market? And I'm not trying to be negative here, but the Raiders, basically their coach comes out and says, what you want to do is draft Agung guy. And in the Jet story, in the Athletic and the Titans, GM said, verbatim, when are you? When are you? People? The media gonna get it? Ryan is our quarterback now and for the future. Go over the words so and I thought that was a great place. They're out. This is Steve Cavino and Rich Davis, and together we are Cavino Enriched, Cavino and Mitch. Thanks buddy, that's right, Cavino. Rich. Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show, heard weekdays from five to seven Eastern two to four Pacific, on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Every Cavino en Rich shows available as a podcast. Just search Covino en Rich wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe of such a rockin' dude. The show features our unique take on sports injected with some fun, humor and relatability. Listen to Cavino Enrich five days a week on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Rich. Hell, yeah, so we all know you're as good as your quarterback in the league, right, So I went back. I said, let's take a sample size of the last ten years first round quarterbacks. There have been thirty thirty quarterbacks first round quarterbacks and the history of the NFL, that's where most of your great quarterbacks are. With all apologies to Brock Purty, so first round quarterback has been thirty. There have been eight stars. Trevor Lawrence Burrow, Herbert Kyler, Murray, Josh Allen, Lamar Patrick, Deshaun Watson. Those are stars. Some are better than others, but they're stars. I mean, Arizona is a shipwreck as an organization. Kyler got into the playoffs, I mean literally, they were just absolutely and we don't even know if he ever had a good coach. We don't know if we didn't. He's a bad owner, bad coach. GM left. He got into the playoffs in a very good division. Kyler Murray's a star. There are ten starters. There's starters in the NFL. I don't have to love all of them. Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields, Mac Jones, two of Daniel Jones, Jared Goff, Jamis Winston, Marcus Mariot, to laugh all you won. They won a lot of games. Blake Bortles got to a playoffs. Teddy Bridgewater's borderline because he was hurt a lot. But they were starters in the NFL. You could win games. Last time, Teddy Bridgewater got five straight starts. You win five and oh and then there are startovers. It just didn't work. Never as good as you hoped. I mean, Baker Mayfield did get to a playoff game, but it's you know, it's Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Jordan Love hasn't played significant stretch in three years, probably won't play again this year. If he was great, he'd be playing. Dwayne Haskins, Baker, Sam Josh Trubiscite, Carson Wentz. I'd love to put on the starter thing, but just too much. He was all over the map. I mean they paid him a fortune. He was never worth the money. Paxton Lynch, Johnny Manzel, EJ. Mannual. So eight stars, ten starters, and twelve startovers. So what does that tell you? There's four quarterbacks with the possibility of being drafted in the first round. All four will be drafted in the first round. C J Strout, will Evis, Bryce Young, and Anthony Richardson from Florida. Statistically, one's going to be a star, one's going to be a starter, and two are going to be startovers. And this is not considered a great Maybe there isn't a star in this one. We have had lots of drafts. There was the EJ. Manual drafted. There are drafts with no star quarterback. Next year you're gonna have too guaranteed minimum. Drake May at Carolina, Kayla Williams usc those are stars. Those are big time talents right now. They'd both be drafted one and two, or if they were available, that is without I've had every GM I've talked to said the exact same thing. Caleb Williams is number one Drake May's two this draft. So what does that tell you? Who is going to be the hit? And my takeaway is I don't know, but I think the most fascinating scenario is whoever Seattle drafts. Seattle has a lot of unique opportunities. Most of these are bad, crappy teams and bad rosters. Seattle isn't the Seattle's the most talented team of all those. Seattle as a super Bowl winning coach, a star left tackle, a star running back, a star receiver, a star corner, an ascending roster, playoff momentum, and thanks to the Russell Wilson trade, all sorts of draft picks. And you say to yourself, well, Seattle may take a defensive player. Pete Carroll said, slow down, we are never in this position to draft five. Well, we're not gonna be. We don't draft five ever in Seattle. We got to consider a quarterback. Here's Pete Carroll. Oh, we in the position we're in. We we are totally connected to the quarterbacks that are coming out. This is a really huge opportunity for us. It's a rare opportunity. You know, we've been drafting in the low twenties for such a long time. You just don't get the chance with these guys. So we're deeply involved with all that. Seattle. Look at those two ten teams drafting. Seattle's all the box stuff, star running back to help you out, star left tackle, star wide receiver, star coach. They've got their cornerback, don't don't have to draft that. They need an edge rusher that you could argue they don't even need a quarterback because Gino got them to the playoffs, so they don't have a lot of needs. They have momentum, they're not paying a majority of their really high end players, and they've got a boatload of draft picks. So you start looking at those top ten teams. None of these quarterbacks, in my opinion, are good enough to overcome chaos. Seattle doesn't have any. Seattle's got a playoff roster. I don't know. You start looking at those teams, I don't think any of these quarterbacks can overcome. Now, Philadelphia at ten is not taking a quarterback. So but the other nine teams there, Seattle is the only one. You're like, left tackle, star back, star coach, star receiver. They've got in their d line. Shelby Harris an elite defensive lineman. They've got that. Last year they had a home run in the fifth round at corner. They got a star corner um they like they got, they got star safeties. They really are ready to win. So you can buy the way you can bring your quarterback in wherever it is and he can sit behind Gino for a year. You don't even have to play him. So it feels like to me, if Seattle goes quarterback, this will statistically that will be the greatest potential for a star. I would counter, why not Detroit. They've got the other better offensive line, but they've got a great offensive coordinator, They've got an awesome receiver in Saint Brown. They're not taking a quarterback? Why not? Because they have Jared Goff. If Aaron Rodgers retired, Goff's in a short list of the best quarterback in the NFC of all their defensive Are we overreacting to a really good year with an outstanding offensive coordinator in a tremendous offensive line. If you are Detroit, he got he got, he got to you got to a super Bowl? Yeah five years ago was Sean McVeigh. If you're looking at Detroit and you say, wow, Jared Goffe's going to eat into the cap. He's like, you know, the tenth or twelfth highest cap hit among quarterbacks. What if we got a rookie quarterback in there and we moved on from golf. Yeah, it'd be great if it was Caleb Williams. None of these guys are I don't. First of all, Goff is six four and a half with a really nice arm, playoff experience, big game experience. You start looking at quarterbacks in this league, Goff is way higher than anybody wants to acknowledge. I like Derek Carr, Goff's better who had a better year last seasons? Gino Smith or Jared Goff. Jared Goff's a better player, easily easily. Jared Goff is easily a better quarterback. So why shall McVay move off of them? Because Sean McVay standards are way up here, and it's like to run my and it worked. I told you yesterday, you think I'm crazy. With all these injuries to Stafford and his contract, which is a little bit of a weight, the Rams, like the Rams behind the scenes, are not in love with Afford right now because he won't rework his deal, so he is limiting what they can do. The gap between Stafford and Goff is not as big as everybody thinks. One's got a better contract, one is younger, one never Jared Goff doesn't misstarts. You know, mcow when he was getting you know what kicked out? If you know what else he doesn't do. He doesn't run. He's immobile. He has cement shoes. You upgrade to a Bryce Young, a CJ. Stroud, You've now got a mobile quarterback. Ben Johnson adds a totally new element to his quarterback who can move. Gino Smith, by the way, very good with his legs last year. I do not like Goff. I just sounds like a love affair here. I just feel like if you reset that quarterback contract Colin with a young quarterback, with that offensive line, the weapons, the offensive coordinator, I think Detroit in a year or two is a super Bowl contender, super Bowl, not playoff super Bowl contender. Boy. Okay, all right, appreciate you participating. One more Herd. 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. Former NBA player for almost two decades, one of the great shooters. Eddie Johnson, Sun's broadcaster, NBA sixth Man of the Year. He's listening to us talk about this nonsense, and Eddie's like, can you just get to me? Can we get stop this nonsense talk. So I was a believer that Katie was gonna work. He was gonna work instantly. I think you guys should be favorite or co favorites because I think he's a catch and shoot. I don't think he takes away from others. I think you can get him the ball late in the clock. I think you have a high functioning team. Were you surprised last night, Eddie, how effortless it kind of looked no, not at all. Look, Kevin Durant is a hooper man. He continually tells us this. He loves basketball right. He doesn't like the other stuff around the game. He loves getting between the lines and playing and he plays the way. But he can fit into any offense. Why because he is effective off the ball. Just get it to him. I don't care if it's four seconds on the clock, He's gonna get a good look. Because he's seven foot tall, he sees over the defense, he's one of the purest shooters in the history of the game, and he's going to give you numbers. And so I felt like he would fit into any offense regardless where he is. I'm just happy that he's here in thing. So I've always liked Chris Paul a lot. And my takeaway, you know Devin Booker better than me, but he's kind of chill. He doesn't need all you know, Devin just a chill young guy. Minds me a little bit of Clay Thompson. He just's he's living his best life. He's having a good time. So and I think, so I think I don't see a lot of ego with this team personality. Okay, so you tell me because I think I think sometimes Kevin can be put off by conflict and that kind of stuff. Not a bunch of egos in Phoenix, not at all. I think it was a good bridge when Ricky Rubio came first as a point guard to help Devin understand that he's not gonna win if he's taking all the shots, if he's just searching to score seventy points. And I think Ricky Rubio really was a great transition to Chris Paul and when Chris Paul came in, I think Devin understood it right away. He didn't have to really just go aggressively because we know Chris Paul's very aggressive, and I just think they just mixed. And Devin wants to win. I mean, Kobe Bryant obviously was a great mentor and role model for him, and you know, he had a lot of conversations with him, and Devin knows he can score. But Devin wants to win, and I think he's going to do everything that he can to help Kade get acclimated to this team. Now, Colin, you saw last night, Devin took a ton of shots. He had thirty seven. And what I tell people is is Kadi is gonna make the game so much more easier for Devin because now he's not getting double team. He's going to get that Christine one on one coverage and that's gonna take a lot of pressure off to both of these guys. So I expect Devin to be honed in just looking for Trump for an opportunity to get a championship. He's not worried about anything else. Here's the concern is that Chris and Kevin are older, they can be brittle that this is a huge roll of the dice by the organization. It will work this year, maybe next year, and then Phoenix could be in trouble. Is that a fair criticism, No, that's a fair criticism. I mean, look, and most players know this. When they get north of thirty, you know you either going to be at the top or you're gonna start to slide down. The great thing about Kevin Durant and Devin Booker is they stay in the gym like they're prepared, like they're not going to give in to father time right away. And I think that's the beautiful part of these two individuals and that you can see it in regards to how quickly Kevin Durant comes back and how effective he is when he does get back from injury, Like he didn't miss a beat last night and he's been out over a month. So I think that's the one sign that you look for for guys Colin to see when they do come back, are they effective to wait and right and last night we saw Kevin Durant looking like Kevin Durant as he has all your long Yeah he is really he is really so much fun there very few guys like him that you can give him the ball early in the shot clock. He can score and you don't have to design stuff you If the play breaks down, you got four seconds on the clock, you give it to Kevin. He gets a great shot. I had reservations about Westbrook to the Clippers or Kyrie to Luca. I always said this about James Harden. Generally in basketball, some stars score and they take shots away from other players. Luca is a fascinating player. My buddy Jamack here loves him, and I'm like, listen, there's a little James Harden here. He's not a great defender. And now we're seeing how good Jalen Brunson is when he leaves them. Wow, how do you look? Did you play with guys in your ear that had a little bit of a hardened Luca feel? Where they're great, they're Hall of famers, they'll be all timers, but they kind of hard to play with. Yeah, I would throw Chris stop. Sporzingis in there too. I think he looked pretty good in Washington on the floor. You know. I think the tough part is with Luca and with James Harden when he was in Houston. I love to James Harden that we're seeing today is that he's given his teammates Harton is an opportunity to maybe if they do get the ball from him, they got more than three seconds to decide what they're gonna do. And I think with Luca, you don't get that in Dallas, and now with he and Kyrie, you got two guys that's pretty similar. And now those other guys aren't gonna get great looks. Casing point Tim Hardaway the other day, who should be their third score. He only took six shots and he made four of them and in thirty seven minutes. Wow. So between those two guys, they gotta learn to understand and trust other guys longer than the two or three seconds if thinking they have to set them up. And I think that's where Dallas is gonna run into it, and Kyrie's gonna get the blame. Obviously that's gonna follow him. But I honestly believe that he is trying. I mean, he is trying to do it the right way. It's gonna be difficult with Luca though. So I didn't love last night. A d didn't play and he was one hundred percent pain free and Baseball's got their analytic people, and they're you know, they're telling managers what to do, and managers are always saying, listen, there's momentum, and analytics don't tell you about momentum. And I thought last night was a great example. ADS had a reputation as soft and so pain free. Lebron out on the road, huge game and he sits, and I'm like, I don't like I don't you got to go to that medical department and say, fellas, I'm playing, I know what I make, I know what you make. I'm playing. I didn't like it at all. Where do you fall on this whole health science momentum in the league that just takes stars out regularly. I never missed a game that I was not injured. Okay, I was hurt a lot. It's just funny to me to players to day tend to think that they need to get close to a hundred percent to play, And I'm quick to remind players the moment that you put an NBA uniform, all you will never be one hundred percent, never like you will never this marathon of eighty two games, traveling, practicing, you don't have a chance to be one hundred percent. You try to build back to one hundred percent. It's like filling up the gas tank. Yeah, okay, you get down low, fill it up. Guess what, You're still gonna still have to run out of gas. Okay. And so I think they don't understand that, and I think it gets them in trouble. And they're listening to people that think from a science technology part that it's going to be better for them, But I think mentally it hurts them because then they tend to not play when they're nicked up. And I think that's the biggest problem with these players today. They don't practice a ton and they step back when they're nicked up. I actually agree with the Lakers colin last night and sitting Anthony Davis because of this reason. They didn't know how long Lebron possibly could be out, and if they lose Anthony Davis, right, if he aggravates it to a level where he can't play for two weeks, then they're definitely out of the playoffs. With Shay Guild just not playing last night, Yeah, they rolled the dice, but they rolled the dice well. Yeah, Shrewder played well. Finally, championship teams don't worry about seating much. Warriors have proven they can go into Boston and win a game in the finals, that they don't worry about that stuff. It's about getting the guys healthy. And I look at them now and I think they've figured their bench out, so Pool's gonna get them scoring off the bench. Cominga gives them athletic ability. Jamichael Green gives them a little size Defenceanzo gives them leadership, toughness can hit a jumper. I kind of feel like Clay's having a year Eddie. I kind of feel like they found it. It took him a while, but it looks like they figured the bench out. You buy that or not. I don't think they ever lost it. I just think that father time, as you know that with other guys, it's catching up to them. The Marathon last year, I thought took a lot out of them because I don't even know if they thought midseason that they could win a title, and all of a sudden they fell into it and they won one. And like Curry right now, if maybe it was good for him to have the injury so to speak, yeause it gave him a chance to rest and he'll be he'll come back and he'll be just as good. He's one of those guys too, that when he gets back on the court, he's gonna be productive. I just think that they're gonna be there and they're gonna be a problem. But for me, I just think that marathon man, that marathon year after year after year, and I've heard Draymond talk about it. It just gets laborious, and I just want to see if they're able to overcome that. I just don't know, but I'm not gonna go against them because I've been great. Papavi shut me up after thinking San Antonio would fall away for years and years and they were right there in your face. And I'm not gonna do that with Golden State either. Eddie Johnson, former NBA player, watched him for years. He was an automatic bucket. He could still hit a jumper today. Don't challenge him to a game of horse. You'll end up by You'll end up losing that one. As always, great Valley Sports, Arizona, My friend is great. Seeing you again. Thank you so much, Thanks Dyling, appreciate it.