The Herd with Colin CowherdJason McIntyre fills in for Colin while sharing his "JMac 6 Pack" listing the top contenders in the NBA after free agency.
Jason talks to 2x All Pro Marlon Humphrey joins the show to tell Jason why the Ravens losing in the playoffs is not all on Lamar Jackson
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It's me Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowherd. He's enjoying an extended July fourth holiday. Boy, heck, guys living the dream baby. So it's me and Alex Curry in the Salt Mines. Alex, how we doing?
Hold it up? By the way, how was your July fourth? Any firework activity or not? One? Yeah?
I mean I did the standard like I think I talked about it when we were on the show last week. The Strand is just like immaculate vibes in hermos in Manhattan, and I have a couple of friends with strandhouses, so just yeah, just just know, Matt Staff just did the walk down the Strand like seeing seeing everybody else rage and have a good time and just waving from afar because I've officially been pregnant for every holiday since Thanksgiving.
Wow, that's been great. All right, Well that's exciting. You know, you got you got a big summer ahead, big summer. We're in the red zone. We're feeling good, we're feeling happy. Just hopefully she cooks for another week too.
All right.
We got Albert Breer coming up in five minutes. He's jet setting against well, all these guys taking summer vacations. We're just work. We grind, all right, let me let me quickly go. So a lot of NBA free agency has been decided.
Not everything.
Bradley Biel could still move. You've got big got Jonathan Kuminga. I don't know if he's adjusting the odds of anybody, but we decided to come up with a Jmax six pack as of now, the six pack of NBA teams that can win the championship next year.
Now, as I was reminded.
This morning, if we had done this last year at this time, it would have been Boston Celtics one through six. Everybody thought they were gonna repeat. They had a loaded team. They just won the chip. I mean they were absolutely stacked and didn't get out of the second round.
So keep that in mind.
No, defending champ has gotten out of the second round since the Kadi Curry Warriors. Let's have the six pack. Let's get started with. I think we're starting with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, mostly because they retain almost.
Everyone on their team.
They did lose tied Jerome rotational guy had a good season. But when you keep the core Garland coming off to tow injury in the in the playoffs, MOBLEI Allen Mitchell is a good team. DeAndre Hunters now had we'll have a full season.
Listen.
I know Cleveland, it's tough to think of them winning a chip without Lebron, but guys, the pieces are there for sure.
I think the Cleveland Cavaliers are one or two.
In the East.
Let's go to the next team and that is the New York Knickerbockers. Yep, do they still call them Knickerbockers either way. So last year, the Knicks added two new starters in Towns and Bridges. Obviously very difficult to dominate right out of the gate with two new starters. Well, now this year the Knicks I will have a new head coach, but it looks like they're going to retain everyone else from the starting lineup, added two guys to the bench.
I you know, listen, Mike Brown, I like.
Him if he plays his cards right and uses more bench and keeps his guys fresh for the postseason. I don't see why this isn't a fifty five to six win team, sixty win team, and I think they're top two in the East, maybe number one, and the garden home court advantage will be sick in the postseason. All right, let's go to the West because nobody else is good in the East, and we're gonna go Lakers.
I know, I know, Jay Mack, you're crazy. Were doing well. Let's see if they add Bradley Beild there for sure in.
The six pack, and I'm gonna put them here out of respect to I don't know, two of the five best players in the league in Luca and Lebron.
Oh, Jay, what happened against Minnesota? Well, I don't know.
They had like twenty games together to work out the Kings.
They had no center.
Can we just take a deep breath and say, like they lost to the Timberwolves and nobody really saw it coming, They're gonna be fine.
The Lakers are certainly one of the six best.
Teams in the league. Next up, Denver Nuggets. I like the offseason they've had. They're putting all their chips in for now. Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Jr. Feels like a slight upgrade, not a huge one because MPJ.
Is a much better scorer.
But I think Cam Johnson will be good. I like Bruce Brown coming.
Back getting off Russell Westbrook. I think they added.
Tim Hardaway to Yeah, Tim Hardaway, They've done.
A good job.
And remember Aaron Gordon was hurt in Game seven with the ankle or maybe they beat OKC. Next up the Houston Rockets. I think they've won the offseason more than anybody. I mean, they added Kevin Durant, look at this, they added Climp Capella, and they added Dorian Finney Smith. Essentially, the Rockets got better than anybody and they lost like nothing, Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green and a first round pick. I think you could look for guys like Reed Shepherd to step up big time. I would not be surprised at all if shen Goon is an All Star once again, Jabari Smith less pressure Aman Thompson rising star.
Houston's good.
I think the team to beat in the West Houston Rockets in the Jmax six pack.
And I know you're waiting.
On one last team, Okac Thunder.
I'm not gonna lie.
I had for a moment Orlando in this spot over OKC. Yeah, that's real. I could see Alex looking at me like Jmack, what's wrong with you. I'm just gonna remind you guys. SGA got paid, Chad Holbern got paid. There it's a different mentality and mindset among the players, and history bears this out. If you haven't won the chip, haven't gotten paid. Its front, front of office. That's a top priority. That's everything.
Well, now they got the title.
SGA's got all the accolades, he's got all the money that hunger desires.
Not quite there. Yes they're young.
Yes, they're probably gonna win fifty to sixty games, maybe sixty two. I don't know that they're gonna win the Championshi. But again, you guys can better go for it. I'm not doing that. So there's the Jmax six pack heading into next season. Oh my gosh, who you doing these graphics?
For everyone listening?
You guys, there is a photo of j Mac on the screen that is.
So on brand I'm in a tank top. Yes, that's a good job. I think that's Timy or Scott. Shout out to those guys. All right, let's go to Albert Breer live from Nantucket. Yes, that is a big look at that tan on this guy. Oh my gosh, what are you doing this summer? He's just on a lobster boat. What's going on?
No? No, no, no lobster boat for me. But yeah, this is a couple of weeks. I shut it down. And one of my few strengths j Mack is my ability to answer. Everybody can see them on the screen now.
Yes, yes, I'm close in personal all right, before we get to NFL. I know you're a huge college football guy, and Dion Sanders came out this week and essentially, so we need a salary cap in college football.
So we're we went from like players.
Can't get paid five years ago to nil to salary like it's exploding at a pace that I don't think anybody could have foreseen.
Your buck.
Guys are always big spenders, but when you hear salary cap in college football, that just it just doesn't seem to make a ton of sense, does it.
I mean, I think I understand what Deon's saying, and I think what Deon's saying is a small version of a bigger topic that college coaches have been discussing for years now, which is we need guardrails. We need some sort of system that will put rules in place that everybody has to play by that you know, maybe isn't apples to apples from program to program based on what program you're at, but gives everybody a fighting chance. And you know, I think if you're at a place like Colorado, which is not you know, a blue blood at the level of Alabama or an Ohio State or at Texas, then it really does behoove you to have those sorts of guardrails in play and have some limits on how much you can spend. And so what'll be interesting about this to me at least is two things. The first thing I think would be, you know what this looks like with the nil piece, because even though there is that PETE the revenue share that goes up to twenty million, you do have like the other piece of it, which is nil, and our school is going to be able to spend above the twenty million nil. How do you classify nil versus money that's coming from the school. I think all of that needs clarification, you know. And then I think the other one that's really obvious is whether or not they unionize. And you know, forever and ever and ever, the NCAAA has pushed back against any sort of any sort of thought that these guys would be classified as employees. But if you're going to put a salary cap in place, it would pretty much necessitate a collective bargaining agreement, which would necessity unionization and making these guys employees.
So when you listen to Dion, it almost sounds like he's maybe losing out on recruits to I don't know, the Texas Text of the World. Here is audio of Dion talking about a salary cap need albut I.
Wish it was a cap, you know, like the top of the line player makes this. And if you're not that type of guy, you know you're not gonna make that. This is what the NFL does. So the problem is you got a guy that's not that durn good, but he could go to another school and they give him a half a million dollars and you can't you can't compete with that. That don't make sense say, all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent. And you understand during the white in the playoffs, it's kind of hard to compete with somebody who's giving twenty five thirty million dollars. So during freshman.
Class it is. It's crazy.
It seems that pays the more, pays the most is gonna be then in So.
Again, you're just wrapping about college football. Do you think we will see one here in the next like five years or is there just too much layer? Like you mentioned the word union that's insane for college football.
Come on, yeah, I don't know how you solve it. And you know, once the genie got out of the bottle, I don't think there was any putting it back in. But I also don't know how you put enough rules in place to make it fair for everybody unless you turn the guys into employees. And then if you're going to put a cap on what employees can make, well that needs to be negotiated with the employees, which would require the employees being in a union. So I like, there's no easy answers here, Jmac. I mean, it just sort of is what it is. And you know there, I think there was an opportunity over the last twenty years for the NCAAA, for the conferences to get a hold of this early, and get in early and try to fix this early and create some sort of order and rules and guardrails and all of that stuff. And unfortunately there wasn't the leadership at the NCAA level with guys like Mark Emritt to do that. Those guys were more concerned with just collecting every check until the until the money train stopped rolling, you know, And so now everybody else has left to pick up the pieces. And I think it's, you know again, it's sort of unpredictable which way that's all going to go.
All right, let's pivot to the NFL.
The new Quarterback Show on Netflix debuted, and it seems like Kirk Cousins is I don't want to say a sympathetic figure, but I mean, you're laughing. I think a lot of people are like, who cares about this guy?
He's made a lot of money.
I keep going back to this when the first when it first happened that they traded up for Penis six weeks after signing Cousins to one hundred million guaranteed. It felt like, WHOA, that's kind of dirty. Kirk Cousins. I feel like he was misled by Atlanta, Like if they had.
Told him drafting Pennix, he probably would not have.
Signed there, right, Yeah, And I think, like the on the Quarterback Show, he laid it out like as clearly as he's laid it out, or I think anybody's laid it out, which is more or less that the Vikings wanted him to go to year to year and I think a lot of us knew this at the time. And yeah, there was some reporting out there on this that he was looking for a multi year commit from a team that beyond just the money, beyond just the guarantees, you know, a statement like this guy's going to be our quarterback for the foreseeable future. And that's reflected in the contract that we negotiated with him. And again, like the Vikings were through going through this process of resetting their roster, of of getting some of the older players out of there, getting younger at key spots. You sow at the edge rusher position for example, was a really good, a really good, really good example of that, like where they move out to Neil Hunter and they bring in Andrew van Ginkol and Jonathan Gernard and they draft Alice Turner, and so like the the idea there was, well, yeah, Kirk, we're willing to bring you back, we're willing to pay you market value. But that does not mean we're not going to draft a quarterback. We're picking higher than we plan to pick for some time. And you know, if the quarterback is there that we like, we're going to take him. And that means we can't guarantee that you're going to be the quarterback in twenty twenty five and going forward. We'll give you the job in twenty four. But that's where it and the Falcons contract reflected that they were going to do more than that, that they were going to give him at least a couple of years of runway, and that it was going to be his show. And so you know, I think, you know, looking at that from an Apples to Apple's perspective, you know, Kirk looked at it and said, Okay, on one end, I'm going to get at least two years and if I play well more than that. On the other end, this team is probably going to take a quarterback in the first round and I may be out after a year and looking for a new home again in twenty twenty five. So of course he took the first option, not knowing the two options that the two teams will wind up in very similar situations at the end. And I think the other thing you noticed just just listening to him talk, and this is pretty obvious, is like he felt like the Vikings were very honest with him, and because of that, the Vikings lost the quarterback right. Whereas if you go back and you look at it, like he felt like the Falcons were wound up being a little bit dishonest, might be strong, but maybe misled him a little bit in the way they were going to handle them.
Yeah, let's go on to another story that just popped up. And you know, Jared Goff, a super nice guy, doesn't really rattle.
Cages or say stuff. He kind of called the RAMS.
I don't know if it was McVeigh or the RAMS organization immature for the way they handled his departure a.
Couple of years ago.
I'm looking back, you know, with Jared Goff as a starter, he and McVeigh were doing awesome.
They made the playoffs in three or four years like it was a good run.
Yeah, and they got to a Super Bowl and then to kind of not give him more of, like more than a one minute heads up that we're trading you. I don't know, did he deserve that? What's your read on how that kind of shook out?
Yeah, I mean I think, you know, if you listen to a lot of the stuff that Sean himself has said in the time since, he has a lot of regret from that. You know, he did go back and clear some of that stuff up and they have been able to re establish a relationship. I don't think it is what it was before and probably never will be, but I mean it was to the point where, you know, a year after the trade, one of the first texts that Sean got was from Jared congratulating him on winning the Super Bowl. So yeah, I think there was a lot of regret in the RAMS organization on the way things were handled down the stretch in twenty twenty and into early twenty twenty one with Jared Goff, and they wish they would have handled it better than they did. I also don't think that they anticipated that the opportunity to replace Jared Goff was going to come along as quickly as it did. If you remember that happened, that trade was agreed to now couldn't be consummated till March, but that trade was agreed to at the end of January, and so it was I mean, I believe less than two weeks after the Rams season ended, So everything kind of moved fast. And I do think the Rams have some regret over the way that they handled that and as much as they I think have worked out their differences, I think you can see, you know, in the way that Jared's talking in the documentary that he still feels a little stung by what went on.
Yeah, clearly, anytime you get bounced that way, it's brutal. Now, I mean, he's done well in Detroit. I don't know if they back So are you on board with the Lions probably backsliding a little bit this year?
Yeah, there's a lot that there, there's a lot that they have to replace.
Yeah.
I think Frank Ragnow is a really big boss. Like I I know the amount they put on him to to to to to to help run the show on offense and really help their young linemen and from a leadership perspective, from a play perspective, he's really good. Now they have some answers at the position Graham Glasgow, they draft Tate Ratlege out of Georgia. But to think that they won't take a little bit of a step back and what's been a massive stretch for strength with them along that offensive line, yeah, I think you'd be you'd be, You'd be fooling yourself at least a little bit not to think that they're that they that there's going to be at least some effects to to losing Rag now upfront. Then the other obvious part is the coordinators, right, So can Kelvin Shepard be what Aaron Glenn was? Can John Morton be what Ben Johnson was? Those are high bars to clear for those coaches. On the flip side, though, I think everybody needs to remember what the lines were at the end of the year. That was an incredibly banged up team. They were playing at an exceptionally high level when they were healthy, and they were able to withstand losses of guys like Aiden Hutchinson and Aleen McNeil. On the defensive side of the ball. They were down to I think only three or four like full time starters, like the guys they had planned to be their starters out there on that side, you know. So I think if you look at that and you figure they're not going to have as bad injury luck, and they've still got so many young players that are ascending, you know, you guys like Jamison Williams and Jamiri Gibbs and Brian Branch, you know Aiden Hutchinson himself coming back off the injury. That those guys are still on the way up. They still should be really good, even if they do take a step back.
I got to ask you about the Kansas City chiefs. I think when you do tea he hits, you automatically have to talk chiefs at some point.
But Brent Veach made a.
Curious comment about Travis Kelcey, and I think he was just being honest, but it kind of sounded like maybe he can see the end for Travis Kelcey and like you could see him wear down.
But he was just being honest. I don't think it was a dig.
But I'm curious just to your thoughts on on Vech's comments on Kelsey.
Well, I mean he's turning thirty six, Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, so, I think I think if you're if you're being honest about it, like he's already that position, by the way, Like it's amazing he's made it as long as he has more tight ends where the tag of injury prone than I think at any other position. And the reason why is because of how difficult that position is on your body. So the fact that he's made it this far is really really remarkable. But yeah, they do have to they do have to plan for what's next here. They did give Noah Gray a contract extension, who's been his backup, and they drafted out a duke a couple of years ago, and the offense is going to look a little bit different. I mean, I I the weird thing is j mac like I look at it like I think Travis Kelcey could take a step back and they still could be significantly better on offense than they were a year ago. And it's for a few reasons. I think their tackle situation will be better. I don't know what combination of Jalen Moore, Juwan Taylor, and Josh Simmons will be out there tackle, but it should be better than what they were doing what they had at the end of the year last year. You know, and then Matt Naggi had this vision for the offense last summer that never came to life, and it was Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy on the outside, with Travis Kelcey and Rashie Rice running through the space vacated underneath. Hollywood Brown got hurt start of the year. He wasn't available till December. Rashie Rice went down for the year about a month in so you never got to see all that all together. Well, now you are going to get the chance to see it all together. And they think Rashie Rice has a chance to be one of the ten best receivers in football. What and Xavier Worthy's coming back in the second year and the Checko's healthy. So if you're better at tackle and you had this vision that come that that that that you had drawn out last year, that comes to life this year, I think they actually have a chance to be better on offense than they were a year ago, with the X factor, of course being Kelsey's age. The same way, I think the defense is going to be really good with the X factor being Chris Jones' age on that side of the ball.
Now, listen, I'm glad you saved that hot take for that moment because I'm shocked right now. I haven't heard anybody say that. Everybody seems to think regression is coming, you know.
Because you're all prisoners to the last thing you saw.
Not me, but other people probably. So that's interesting.
The world where the Chiefs offense is better with everybody healthy and the offensive line maybe, Well, you're an Ohio State guy, right, you know, you know the guy that they drafted.
Right, yeah, I mean like Simmons is, like, that's a devastating injury for like a big man, like the that's worse than the torn acl what he wants through the torn Pteller tendon. And I don't think it was perfect at first, but since the Chiefs have had him, he's checked all the boxes and physically he's a freak. So the beauty of it for the Chiefs is they don't need him to start day one. If he wins the job, great, But they brought in Jalen Moore to play that position from the Niners, who had been a film for Trent Williams. They have Juwan Taylor there who has been up and down but still has ability, so like they can kind of bring Josh Simmons along at his own pace, and you know, he's got the ability to be a top shelf tackle somebody somebody there compared to the Trent Williams. Maybe that's a little bit over the top, but he does have a lot of ability.
All right, we'll wrap up with this. Is there any update on TJ. Watt.
There's reports out there that like the fan base is starting to get divided over what to do with their beloved TJ.
Watt.
There's a report about someone family member of someone in the organization venting we can't pay him.
What are you hearing out there?
I just think I just think they're I think there's too much mutual interest in getting something done for them not to be for them not to get something done. The reason the Steelers went and got Aaron Rodgers is because with the core that they've built, the core that they've been highly competitive with but not at the top level with over the last four or five years, there may be a one or two year window left and that's TJ. Watt, Minka Fitzpatrick when he was still there before he got traded for Jalen Ramsey, which made them two years older. Cam Hayward's at the end, you know, with this group of players, it's about twenty twenty five. And I think that's part of what appealed about the situation to Aaron Rodgers is that he looks at it and says, everybody else is on my timetable here. These are my peers. We're gonna go chase a championship together. So if that's where the Steelers are, and TJ. Watt is at a point in his career where he has to go chase like he knows that the clock's ticking a little bit, he has leverage over the Steelers and that they need him to be part of that vision, but it also behooves him to be part of that team, you know, And so I just think there's too much mutual interest for them not to get something done. I do think the contracts for Miles Garrett and Daniel Hunter and Max Prosby done this offseason do complicate things a little bit, But at the end of the day, you know, I the way I see it, at least like the two parties involved here have have too much mutual interest not to find a way to get something done. I don't know if it will be at the beginning of camp or right before week one, but I would think that they'll find some sort of way to work this out.
All right, Albert Breer, thanks a lot for taking time out of your vacation and your family to talk football. Oh my gosh, what a good guy. All right, Albert, and enjoy all right, Thanks guys, all right, Coming up next here on the Herd.
Wait a minute, Dia, Am I reading this right?
Yannis making a definitive decision about a future in Milwaukee.
Alex says that for the next In the next segment, here.
On the Hurt.
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.
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up on Game? What is Up on Game? You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman, Zada and Super Bowl champion Yup, that's right, Plexico Burris. You can only name a show with that type of talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with me LeVar Arrington, TJ Huschman, Zada and Plexico Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast from.
Welcome back our number two here on the Herd. It's a gorgeous Friday morning in Los Angeles. It's me Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowhard. I did speak with the Big Guy yesterday. He is enjoying the burning embers of his summer vacation in Art's Unknown. I just like saying that because they used to announce a wrestling duel from Parts Unknown.
I don't know if you guys remember that.
Yes, I was a huge wrestling fan as a kid. I'm joined by Alex Curry, who track were you a wrestling fan or no?
No, I will say now, I appreciate the art of it because it is it's it's art, it's acting. And I think when you look at it that way like it's not you're like, oh, it's not real. It's like, oh no, it's real. These are incredible athletes. But it's theater.
It's theater. It's theater, so you.
Have to look at it like theater and I was a big theater nerd as a Thespian growing up, So like once I think I like equated it to that, I was like, oh, I get it.
This is cool.
Jake the Sake, Roberts Ultimate Warriors, don't know very Ames. I know The Rock. I love Duayne the Rock. Johnson, he's like my fave. It seems like a nice guy, all right.
Coming up here in like six minutes, Holy cow, we get an all pro NFL quarterback, Marlon Humphrey from the Ravens. You know, there's a new ranking out The best secondary in the league belongs to the Ravens. Interesting the way they're building it. But we'll talk to Marlon Humphrey soon. I want to go here. They love to do a good list on this show. They travel well online, so they came up with j Mac. We need a six pack of teams that can win the Super Bowl, and there's a couple obvious ones we'll get to. I could only find two in the AFC and four in the NFC. So here's my six teams as of right now, early July twenty twenty five, who can win the twenty twenty six Super Bowl. Let's start what that San Francisco forty nine ers. They had a terrible year last year, but it was due to injury. Now they get Brandon Ayuk should be back, although I'm seeing one report he may not start Week one. We'll see, but Ayuk should be a factor when he returns. Obviously, the young fellow they drafted last year, that Christian McCaffrey comes back. Trent William still breathing. I think this is going to be a great team. The schedule is the great determinant, with the Niners easiest by far in the league. They only face three playoff teams from last year. They don't face any of the top five quarterbacks in the league. Folks, the Niners are a Super Bowl contender. I would say a minimum of twelve or thirteen wins. Next up my pick to win the Super Bowl next year the Buffalo Bills. They've been knocking on the door for a few years. Josh Allen obviously tremendous. They came up a little short in the playoff game in Kansas City. We will not relitigate the terrible officiating in that one. Obviously, Buffalo huts some self inflicted wounds trying to pull off the tush push show, whatever you want to call it, repeatedly and it failed. The bill did add Joey Bosa, not a bad pickup. Josh Palmer from the Chargers Tredavius White. Not sure what he can give you as like a Nicol dime quarterback. But they also have a very favorable schedule and they've won the last five afcast titled Wow, it did not realize that it's been a while for my Jets. The the third team. I think they win the Super Bowl next year. A bit of a dart throw here Washington commanders so instantly I get pushed back. Well, the Texans had a good first year with CJ. Stroud, then they fell back a little, still made the playoffs. I thought Washington adding Laramie Tunseell and Deebo Samuel was just a stroke of genius. I think is a really good team. I think they'll push the Eagles in the NFC East. They're vastly superior to the Cowboys and Giants, and you just you look at the continuity, kept their head coach, kept both coordinators. Terry mcclaurin told out should be done here shortly, folks. I know they got slaughtered by the Eagles in the NFC Championship game. They will be much better if that win over Detroit in the playoffs. I mean, did Jayden Daniels making the leap in year two? I'm bullish on Washington. I think they could win the Super Bowl. Team number four, Yes, you got to go for the Philadelphia Eagles. They are favored to repeat. I do think it'll be a challenge. I would not bet them to repeat. Offensive line is formidable. Saquon Barkley coming off a heavy usage year scares me a little bit. You know, I have Jalen Hurts as the fifth best quarterback in the NFL.
They did lose their offensive coordinator.
They lost Makai Beckton, Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham, Darius Lay, CJ.
Gardner, Johnson. That's like six starters gone.
But the Eagles are gonna certainly be an eleven win team, and there's just too much talent not to be in the Super Bowl discussion. Next up, Yes, surree the La Rams. They are really The arrow is super duper pointing upward for them. They had the best off season according to one report. You know they grade the moves. One report had the Rams having the best off season. Adding Devonte Adams certainly helps they lose Cooper Cup. But DeVante Adams and Pooka that is pretty impressive. And they're drafts the last couple of years. Between Pooka Jared vers Fisk, they've just hit home run after home run. Is a really really good team. If the offensive line holds up, they should make the NFC Championship. Finally, my final team of the six pack, they could win.
The Super Bowl.
And it's not just because he's coming up as a guest here, but Baltimore Ravens number one secondary in the NFL. Obviously, the Lamar Jackson a Derrick Henry combination.
Is just filthy.
You have to love adding JayR Alexander as like a dime cornerback.
They got him on the cheap.
Malachi Starks should form the best safety duo in the league. I know he's only a rookie, but Hamilton should be really formidable on the back end if the wide receivers can stay healthy. I mean, listen, if Mark Andrews doesn't drop a two point conversion, I don't know what the Ravens any Super Bowl do. They beat the Chiefs on the road. Is a really really good team. The Ravens will certainly be there. Ken Lamar deliver in January. That's the big question. So those are my six teams that can win the Super Bowl. The Jmax six pack. They love this photo and look at the.
Jets on a dinghy?
Is that? What that is?
A dingy?
An inner tube entertaine is safety tube or whatever. Someone goes overboard, you toss it to them.
Yeah, basically the Jets are overboard. We're a good fifteen years now.
I'll be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and neon Easter not a em Pacific.
All right, let's get to our guest, Marlon Humphrey joining the Herd, the all pro quarterback from the Baltimore Ravens at college football legend.
What's up?
Man?
How you doing?
Not that much?
Feeling good and joined the last couple of days before I got to start the real world.
So I'm feeling good.
Yeah.
Let me ask you what was the summer like? I mean you you've been on a hiatus. Did you go travel the world? Was you just grinding on football?
What was going on?
A lot of golf? A lot of uh, A lot of LESLIEP nights? I just had a well not just had but got a six month old now, so it's been a different offseason definitely not my norm.
But I just got into golf.
So golf's been greats football training and then a lot of family time and we just got had a family vacation.
So it's really good. But it's been great. Life's been really good.
Real quick.
On the golf, I find golf a little slow, you know. I liked up more up tempost stuff. How do you handle that transition? Football fast and powerful and golf is just like taking it easy.
Yeah.
I became a member of the country club that doesn't have a crazy ton amount of members, so people are going too slow. I just leave that hole, go to skip around a lot of different holes. So I've made it kind of as I don't know if I'm allowed to do that, so honestly, I might be telling on myself, but I've made it a little bit faster. But that is sometimes the bad thing of golf.
It takes. It can take some time to some slower players, and.
I feel like, if you're not you're gonna be a slower player. You at least got to be good. And most people that are slow are not good, So that needs to be a new rule for sure.
I hope your wife likes it when you say, hey, i'll be back.
In five hours. I'm going to play golf. My wife doesn't. Anyways. Let's get to the NFL aspect.
So Pro Football Focus recently ranked the secondaries of the league, and you guys are number one.
A is at a surprise, be obvious.
And see, you know a lot of defenses these days, Marlon are building. Hey, you just need edge rushers, let's start there. Cornerback is secondary safety and linebacker forget it. But you guys are kind of built different from the back end.
Yeah. I think for me, honestly, we were thirty second last year.
I believe last in the league, so for us to be ranked number one does not really mean anything to me. I just would love to not be last. I would love to be number one. That would be amazing, but I'm really focused on what we just did last year. We got essentially most of the same guys returning, so I would love to finish number one.
That'd be great.
But I do know right now, the only thing on my mind is we were the thirty second ranked and that was that. That's not cool, and that's just not very good. So I'm trying to fix that before we even think about being number.
One toughest quarterback you faced last season, all the.
Toughest quarterback I faced last season would probably.
I mean, he faced a lot of good ones.
That's a.
Oh Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow, I don't even know, Yeah, Joe Burrow a surprising second, even though we end up winning that game, but I felt we caught them on the earlier end. Jayden Daniels what, we caught them pretty early on. But I just remember, I'm like, man for his got to be a rookie. He was just so poised, so smooth, seemed like he never was really phazed. Honestly, so I think from a young, young talent perspective, he's I mean, he already.
Is a is a star, but he was He's pretty good.
Interesting.
So no mention of Josh Allen there. I don't know Buffalo fans are going to take that as a slight or did you you know it was Josh Allen easier.
To prep for.
No.
I think they their game well going up their playoff game plan.
It just was a pretty it was a playoff game plan.
I felt, and they didn't really have him do anything crazy that they didn't need to do. They were I thought their game plan was really good against us, and they just kind of kept us on our heels and we just couldn't really we couldrently make the plays we need to make. I think you see more. I feel like you see a little bit more from a quarterback in a bad way of when they score a lot of points on you and either you're ahead and they're trying to come back, and the quarterbacks really got to just full blown carry the team. But Josh Allen Bafar managed the game. Yeah, that playoff game in just a great way. And I obviously they beat us, and you know, we played Jalen Hurts, but that was another to me, a simple, simpler game plan. And so there was a lot of good quarterbacks, but the ones that seemed like, you know, this guy's pretty good obviously Joe Burrow and they dad it.
Yeah, let me quickly. You mentioned playoffs, so I'll ask about it. Listen. You guys have had some tough endings to the season.
Obviously, you know the loss in Buffalo was just brutal.
I'm just curious, what's the mood.
Like after that because every season you guys go and thinking we got a shot at the Super Bowl and then to come up short again. I don't know what was a vibe like do you remember that day pretty closely?
It's not the best I think it was a lot of uncertainty. I felt for myself, for some of the other guys to know if you they'd be around the next year, including myself, and so there's a lot of uncertainty.
Obviously, you know, teams change every single year.
Felt that you had a really good roster at the time, so yeah, it was just a lot of uncertainty. It was a lot of you know, kind of what happened, you know, what did we do wrong here?
But it was definitely.
You know, obviously every year if you don't win the Super Bowl, to you didn't get the objective. But over my past eight years, it was definitely a definitely a different feeling of just it was just different.
You know.
I don't know if it was because we felt we had a good team or what, but if I had to put.
Into words, it would be just a lot of uncertainty.
Yeah, I don't know.
If Lamar is a golfing partner but I'm sure you get this a lot. Hey man, when is Lamar gonna carry you guys one day in January? And I know it win as a team, loses a team, but he has had some playoff game where he hasn't been MVP calibers. What do you say to people when they when they ask you about or maybe nobody asked you about this.
I don't know.
Espestally, I don't get accet too often.
I think, I, you know, I have the player.
I don't really see it as a just quarterback only type stat. I know that's kind of how it is. It's all about, you know, the quarterback got But I just want to focus on, you know, how can we help, how can we play better? How can we win the game. On defense, There's been a lot of past Baltimore Ravens defenses that have you know, led teams. All I know is that the biggest stat is, you know, we haven't really had I think we've had one ton over and all of Lamar's playoff games.
So I know it's all about the quarterback.
But you know, when you look at the numbers, you look at the stats, you look at the reality the Baltimore Ravens defense hasn't really helped out at all or even done their part to.
Win some of these playoff games.
And that's kind of the biggest focus on us in the defensive room this offseason, and that'll be the focus in training camp and it'll translate.
To games a little inside football. But the gayr Alexander addition, does this change anything for you? Do you prefer playing on the inside outside? Does it matter or or because the secondary is pretty stacked right now.
Yeah, yeah, it didn't matter to me. I was super excited to add him to the to the squad. I actually tried to hit him up on Instagram, but he deleted his Instagram so I was like scrambling get his number. And then by the time I even could get it, I see him in the building and so I'm like, all right, sweet, and I talked to him, and I'm just super excited.
We got a lot of great players in our secondary of this year.
I think the way we want to play, who plays where matchups we put, you know, all our best guys in the field.
Yeah, I'm just super excited it.
I think you just can't go wrong adding a guy like that, and so I'm really excited for this year secondary and excited for us to just make a lot of plays and hopefully he'll he'll help. Like I said, with getting those turnovers in the playoffs. He've done it before and I look forwar him doing it again.
Let me quickly ask you, I noticed you played in twenty fifteen at Alabama on a loaded team with Derrick Henry.
Is that the most dominant team you've ever been on or was there a.
Ravens team you felt that was more dominant, because you, guys, I'm looking at the results twenty fifteen, You guys just eviscerated almost everybody.
We Yeah, it.
Would be it would be hard. I have been on the number one defense and in the NFL, But that that that that Alabama team was just next level. I think everyone on the starters ended up getting drafted into the NFL. You're breaking giving the ball at Derek Henry forty times a game, Nobody can stop it.
So there was there was it was.
It was honestly pretty crazy to look back from that team, and you know, obviously the next year we end up losing a Clemson, but it would have been great to repeat.
But that that that's the fifteen team. It was just it was just.
Loaded and I don't I don't know if there that domination is can only be done really at the college level.
But that was that was a great year.
Yeah, all right, we could wrap up. You got a movie, Nothing but a Winner. It's a documentary tell us about it being part of the process. What's that been like and any comparisons to football.
Yeah, so it was great.
I executive produced Nothing but a Winner, me and my sister, she's the actress in La. It was a great opportunity that got presented to me and I was able to be a part of it and kind of have inputs here and there and different things. It's basically just about you know, the history of two great coaches at happened to be at the universe Alabama. Some of the wins, some of the you know, ugly losses, the kick six for harburd fans out there, tune INTC they had, and you know kind of how Bama came up part to be, you know, with segregation and different things. First, you know, athlete African American athlete at the university.
So a lot of different things going on with it. But just as basically.
A documentary about just greatness, how it form the process of it, all the great things that kind of is in the rich history of Alabama football and just winning coaches. That's the biggest thing is you can take away with your Alabama fan, not Alabama fan. It's just really a a documentary about just something great and it'll be out soon.
And it'll be it'll be really good.
Yeah, it sounds like July thirty first in theater's congrats on that. I'm curious. A lot of.
People look to set themselves up for a post career. You just turned twenty nine, so you got a ways to go. But is Hollywood where you want to go next? Or you know a lot of guys transition to the media, or you could you know, do what Cam Newton's doing and just start a podcast and trying to go rebel rouse that way.
What do you think in post career?
I had a lot of different thoughts. Media was one.
You know, Hollywood would be would be awesome if I if I chose that route.
There's you know, that's something I kind of think about.
You know, obviously, you do football for a long time and you're you kind of figure out what do you want to do after there's so many different ways you can go, but I would love to. You know, I always wanted to direct a movie. I always wanted to play in a movie. So I've always wanted to do something around that space. Maybe not full time. But the cool thing about all that is that's something you can do and do something else. But media, Hollywood, all those things are kind of things that interest me. And just we'll just have to see when what happens when I when I retire with the wife says, you know, so I always have a big part in that. I wish I could be a pro golfer. If I could do that, I would that would be the biggest one. But I think I missed too many reps when I was six, seven, eight years old.
You can't get back, and so.
The best I could do now was maybe break eighty one day of my life and I'll consider that my Super Bowl.
Hey, let me ask one more things. I just was watching those highlights and I thought about something. So Travis Hunter is coming into the league as an elite cornerback and wants to play both ways. I'm assuming in high school you were playing both ways and dominating. But Marlin, my big thing the second he said this, I was like, okay, so you got to play the Ravens, So you got to go tackle Derek Henry and space then go to the sideline and come back on and.
Run a bunch of passa. That's impossible. How on earth is he going to be able to do this?
And I'm just curious your thoughts on on did you play two ways in high school?
And yeah? Is this mission impossible for Travis Hunter?
I think, you know, he is very talented. I think he's me watching.
I think he's a really really elite DV based off the you know, a couple of games I saw this past year.
But to do both it seems very mission impossible.
As you know, I think Dion obviously did a little bit of it, you know, back in his day, but I just think the game has changed so much since then. Dion was clearly light and day the fastest guy out there. Nowadays, everybody's fast, you know. I think of Jason Kelsey, that dude's running up on you just as fast as as a receiver tight end. So I think he's really he got a tough challenge ahead. I think eventually he will realize, man, it's really really hard to do this at a high level where every week you're.
Playing a top NFL team.
It's not like college, where you know, there is teams on everyone's roster, where it's like this should be a pretty easy game.
And that's just not the case in the NFL.
And I think he'll I hope he has success with it, and I hope he just decides it's just too much for me as opposed to you know, he kind of struggles with it. But I definitely think he has the ability to do it, but I more just think the stamina to do it.
I don't know if anyone has that to do it for You played with.
Derreck Henry in college.
Now he's your teammate, have you I'm just curious, have you ever tackled him?
What the hell is that?
Like? The problem is he's so tall.
A lot of times you go low, his knee will actually hit your head, and it's it's a lot he's this stuff got to tackle. He's somehow, I don't know how, he gets stronger and faster in the fourth quarter while everyone else seems to be fatiguing, And I think that gives him a lot of his advantage. But his exception speed he's so tall. He's getting on the edge faster than what you think. And if you if you don't go now, it's it's bad and it's stiff. Arm will throw you around, but it's rough. It's something at the corner. You think, I shouldn't be doing this. I don't want to do this. The linebacker Delauna should be doing this. But when you do, got to do it, you gotta you gotta run your feet, try not to close your eyes and try to get him down.
Yeah, good stuff, Marlin Humphrey, check out is movie nothing but a winner. End of this month in theater's congrats on everything man, and good.
Luck this year. Yes, yes, thank you so much.
All right, Marlon Humphrey, who's a budding golfer who knew I had no idea, but I hope Travis Hunter was listening.
Did you, I mean, did you hear did you see the reaction? Alex? He almost started laughing. He's like, yeah, that's mischief. It's hard.
I mean again, like you, you never wanted to deter someone from reaching a crazy goal that we've never seen before.
I mean, people have to show. Hey, Otani when he.
Said he was going to be a power hitter and An's pitcher. Obviously, it's way different on your body baseball compared to football, but again, don't knock it until you until you try it. I think that's kind of most players' reactions are going to be what Marlin's reaction was, but again he's very impressed. Producer Golfer like like that was a good interview, pretty fun
