NFL Offseason Mailbag: Mendoza Overhyped? Herbert, Hurts, or Darnold? Criticism for Dak?

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Sorry for the voice note, but can we get a takeaway tonight, Mum? Oh, no, no. We've got leftovers in the fridge. They'll do it, it'll be nice. Um, sorry. I'll eat it. Who's for pizza? Pizza! Sure, we can give you lots of data, but what really matters is friends and family. That's why we're happy to be your second most important network. Tesco Mobile. It pays to be connected. Terms apply. See tescomobile.com. Why Tesco Mobile? The volume. What is going on, everybody? John Middelkopf, 3 and Out podcast. How are we doing? My people, hopefully everyone is doing well. And, uh, living life, enjoying life. I am still in Los Angeles. I go home tomorrow. Then I actually go to Sacramento for a night for my buddies. He technically got married at the courthouse, but he's having a big party on Saturday night. So, uh, I'm excited for that one. See if some of my nice clothes still fit. You know, as a podcaster, you wear a lot of pullovers and shorts and sandals. We'll see if we'll see if I can still get those dress pants around the waist. Though the peptides started kicking, I'm starting to feel a little bit better. We're going to do a big mailbag today. A little weekend mailbag at John Middelkopf, at John Middelkopf is the Instagram fire in those DMs. Get your questions answered on the show. A little bit of a slower time, because all these teams are in draft meetings. There's no transactions. We'll probably dive deeper into the draft next week. But yeah, today will be a heavy, heavy mailbag. You guys know the drill. Just fire into those DMs. If you listen on Colin's feed, make sure you subscribe to the three and out feed. Obviously all the videos are up on Netflix every single day. Appreciate everyone checking that out. And, uh, I think we, I'm, like I said, I'm going to be home for a couple days over the weekend, uh, at my mom's and my brother's. But I'm going to try to record some stuff on Sunday night in reaction to the Masters. Mike go live on YouTube on Sunday night, probably from my brother's office, who has like a best internet known to man. I think they got Starlink. It kicks ass to take names. So I'll keep you updated to that on the social channels. But, uh, yeah, let's just, let's just dive into the pot. We will start today with, uh, he doesn't actually put his name. It's kind of like, uh, it says wash with the money sign. Question for the back. Do you ever miss your scouting days when you see all the mock drafts and get the itch to dip your toe back in? Would love to see you rank some of these college guys by position one to three or five, just to get your take on things from a scouting perspective. I think we'll hammer that hole next week because it's going to be slow. It's a good idea. Just maybe my favorite player, maybe a player I think is a little bit overrated. Uh, I just, everyone does a mock draft. It's the same players, especially in this draft. Uh, I love Sonny Styles. He's a guy doing a little digging. I clearly, I mean, he might go five, uh, but maybe we can hammer that home and do some, do some kind of get nerdy, get, get really nerdy. I think the hard part about this draft and listen, I've been doing this like this has been paying my bills much longer. This draft is a little boring. There's not that much star power and you know, part of that's the quarterbacks, right? I mean, people have been trying to make Ty Simpson a first rounder. Maybe he ends up a first rounder, not in a million years. Could I take him in the first round? I've been saying this over and over. Guys like Ty Simpson, guys like Mac Jones, I got no problem taking him in the third round. Mac Jones is going to play in the league for, who knows, if Chase DeAndrels can play in the league 14 years, Mac Jones can play in the league a decade and a half easy, but he's a backup and there's nothing wrong with being a backup. How Kirk Cousins is going to make $20 million over the next two years being a backup. So, well actually $20 million just to be the backup this year technically because he's making 10, right? And he's going to get 10 next year. So the Raiders are paying him 11.3 and the Falcons are compensating the other 8.7. So to be being a backup quarterback is one of the best jobs in America. As long as you don't really have to play and then you can just keep that gig going. But Mac Jones proven there are some guys that if they do have to play can be a really good player. And you know, my favorite draft since I've been doing this was a couple of years ago when the six quarterbacks, you know, bow nicks, penics, obviously the top guys, May, Jaden and Caleb, but J.J. McCarthy, that doesn't get any better. So hopefully next year is a loaded quarterback draft because that is the thing that most people talk about. And like I'm trying to appeal to the largest audience. Like the guard from Penn State is an awesome prospect. If I talked about him, I got a business and my wife would probably not be happy. So I just this draft also doesn't have great wide receivers. You know, it's crazy, but wide receivers and quarterbacks, you talk to some people, it's like, takes the only guy in most drafts that would sniff going in the top 20. We can get them Mackay Lemon next week who, you know, I like, but again, we'll dive into that. Good idea. That's why that's why we utilize you guys for for the mailback because you guys got good opinions, good takes and good thoughts. You and Colin are drooling all over Mendoza. Isn't the whole appeal of him that he is NFL ready? If he needs to sit, why not draft a project quarterback with more talent? Well, that guy doesn't exist in this draft. Mendoza has an average arm, weak mobility and played like shit against Miami. Also, they gave Kirk 20 million. Well, they didn't give 20 million. They gave him $11 million. They gave him $11 million. The Falcons are paying eight and a half, a little more than that. So they did not give him $20 million. They cooked the books because they had the Falcon situation that they could take advantage of. Mendoza is going to start week one. We actually played the cousin sound when he was with the Raiders. You know, I knew it. The moment they signed cousins, whatever a week ago, I've lost track of time. I'm like, I bet they make it. So when he shows up to sign his contract and be there, he is going to be in the building when Mendoza does his top. It's not top 30. It's because it's not your top 30 players, but his quote unquote 30 visit, even though Mendoza is clearly the Raiders top player on their board. And they all spend time. They watch film together that day. And even cousin said, Mendoza is probably going to start week one. I talked about this a couple of days ago. It's going to be a tough situation for Clint Kubiak. It's probably not. Cousins not beating Mendoza out. Cousins going to be the backup. They quote unquote paid a lot for a backup. $11 million a lot for a backup. But when you have a rookie quarterback, when beside Max Crosby, you don't have that many guys in the linder bomb making a ton of money. They don't have a high price wide receiver. They don't have, you know, their tackle doesn't make premium money. They're running backs on a rookie contract or star tight ends on a rookie contract. That's why they were able to sign all these defensive guys. But it, I do believe that by the time they get to the middle of training camp and Mendoza has a firm grasp on the offense, Mendoza is going to be the starter. But he's not, not a good prospect. He's six foot five, 230 pounds. Greg Cosell said it today. That is a, that's a trait. Size is a trait. Turn up, put on YouTube and watch Ty Simpson. He doesn't look that big. Like not being that big is to me a negative trait. Right. So, so when you're six, four, six, like Drake May, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, look at Patrick Mahomes, he's fucking built. Size matters. This is a league full of grown ass men with Miles Garrett and Max Crosby and TJ Watt and all these guys chasing you around. You see the size of Leonard Williams? You see the size of Leonard. He is a enormous human being. So I think the notion that he doesn't have good traits, he doesn't have a great arm. He doesn't have average to above average arm. Well, those guys in the Shanahan Kubiak system have thrived since Elway. But those guys have kicked ass and taken names in this system. It is a system conducive. You don't need the biggest arm, but he's accurate. His, his, his like brain, his football IQ is an A plus, which matters playing quarterback. Oh yeah, he's tough, which is something we don't talk a lot about. If you are not tough, it is extremely hard to be a fantastic quarterback. Look at the top three quarterbacks over the last six, seven years. Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. I would say all have a plus toughness. All these MVPs, obviously Mahomes and Super Bowls, the other guys winning a bunch of games, elite toughness. Like that matters. Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert this year played with a broken hand or a wrist or whatever he had, lower arm injury, broken bone somewhere down there. I think it was like wrist, hand area. Aaron Rodgers this year, 41 years old. Same thing. It's like fucking cast it up. Let's roll. This isn't like, Hey, we're load managing. You're going to miss a month. That's not how it rolls on Sundays. You know, so Mendoza, I watched him. No one got hit harder than I saw at quarterback in college football. Then Mendoza got hit in that Ohio State game. First play of the game. Like most people, when that happened, you went Indiana season's over. He's out. Two plays later, he shook it off and came back in. That was when I was like, Damn, I'm sold. Not that I wasn't high on him and then he went on the run. I don't think he played like shit against Miami. So to act like Mendoza is some good prospect. Is he John L. Way into luck? No, but is he a damn good prospect? I believe he is. And I think one thing we do a bad job of, especially with quarterbacks. You know, it's like, well, if he was in the draft with so and so, well, he's not. And if he was, then the Raiders would, if like Drake may was in this draft, yeah, then it would be, they'd have a legit conversation. And who knows, maybe Drake may goes above him, but he's not in a draft with Andrew Lux not in this draft. Right. Caleb Williams not in this draft. He's in a draft with a bunch of guys that historically would go in the third round or later. And a lot of these guys obviously this year are going to. So I'm high on Mendoza. Had too much to drink at a hotel bar and got talked into a Hilton vacation timeshare meeting that gives us three nights in a hotel for $400. But I have to attend a meeting about a timeshare. Decided on Lake Tahoe for three nights. Please tell me Lake Tahoe is great and worth it before my wife divorces me for falling for this nonsense. Is it $400 a night for three nights? So $1,200 because if you got three nights in Lake Tahoe for a total of $400 that that is a steal. Forward me the link. You know, I would guess it's $400 a night. I've been saying this forever and let's use the golf tournament, for example. Most of those guys right the Kelsey brothers my homes all the quarterbacks the coaches whoever that have they didn't grow up on the West Coast specifically in California that have never been to Lake Tahoe. Do you notice what happens when they first plan the golf tournament. They always come back and they come back until essentially they're kicked out not allowed back because they're not quote unquote famous again. Charles Barkley has been playing for 30 plus years. I would imagine my homes and Josh Allen and the kind of that crew of guys will play as long as they are welcome there. Why? Because it's paradise. Lake Tahoe listen I no longer ski. I haven't skied and I can't even tell you the last time 20 plus years I loved it like when I was in junior high and high school used to go with buddies because Tahoe to me. There was way less traffic when I grew up in Davis. You get to Tahoe if there's no traffic like an hour and a half. Depending you know snow it can slow down when you're going through the Sierras but I just can't I don't want to get injured. I've seen my friends my good buddies wife Tori Ciel a couple years ago one of my buddies sons broke his ankle because he ran into a rock. I'm just like I'm not getting injured anymore. So I tell him the winner is not that appealing to me like it used to be when I was younger. Tahoe in the summer is like my wife looked at me the other day part of it is Arizona is pretty hot in the summer as some of you may now say I might just go to Tahoe for like a month. You can join me or not but but I'm going like oh yeah I'm going to join you. So I cannot recommend Tahoe more than in the summer. It's definitely more expensive than it used to be but it's just it's a vibe. It's it's the ultimate quote unquote Lake Town because the lake is enormous and it's just beautiful. It's very chill. Have a couple beers have a couple cocktails just look at the water. You can rent a paddle board rent jet skis just go swimming and buy a beach. It's the best. I don't know what heaven looks like. Don't know if I'll ever get invited in but hopefully it's got a little piece of Lake Tahoe up there because. It really is heaven like it's pretty special. No Vrable takes question. Well the last podcast I did that came out on Thursday I had actually recorded it on I guess I'm recording this on. Yeah what came out on Thursday I recorded on Tuesday partly because I was playing golf on Wednesday and I didn't know my time and if I would have time to record it and I wouldn't have time to record it. So I'm glad I did but obviously there was no mention of that the story did not break until after that was long gone to the producers and I was like I will talk about this later in the week. Now my my my fugazi is this before we dive into some of my takes. I think a lot of you assume being married. Everyone's marriage is different. Right. I like probably many of you are in a traditional marriage where it's kind of like baseball. There are a lot of unwritten rules that we don't have a handbook in our house of what we're allowed and not allowed to do. It's just kind of understood. We're in a monogamous relationship. There's no seeing other people. There's no flirting with other people and there's definitely no like you know cheating and the relate it's not tolerated right. And if if you were ever caught in pictures like that there would be a paper served to you divorced and your money would go bye bye. She'd take the kids and it'd be it'd be gone. So that's part of getting married. You're in a relationship with one other person. That's a relationship I'm in. But I also never assume that other people's relationship just equal mine and the older you get. So I think when people see those pictures which again I'll dive into in one second. People assume that like your relationship is no different than everyone's relationship. I don't believe that I haven't for a long time and from this point on I never will. So I to assume that they are just in normal monogamous relationships in their home. I don't go that far. Now when the pictures broke my first take and this is well out there is this this is a private investigation. These were not I've never been to Sedona. I've lived in Arizona for a while. My wife's been there a bunch. She's always wanted me to go for whatever reason the timing just hasn't worked. Her mom goes up there when she comes. It's beautiful. It typically at least in my understanding is a place that draws couples in. It's a place where couples go and a lot of like women go with their friends that that is the vibe up there. Right. In the place they were is essentially a couple's retreat. I said this about Tiger Woods and one thing I'm a little uncomfortable to do and part of it is I it's probably abjaded from Twitter. Like in 2026 I fucking hate the pile on. I think that's just loser mentality. Not that I'm not having the same conversations on text but every single person piling on like I'm just kind of not into that. Like I watch Tiger and maybe it's I had a child I'm maturing. I'm like you know he's got young kids. I'm not going to sit here and just take a giant dump on his situation with the Range Rover on its side. Him popping you know who knows what like everyone has the same takes. Like I'm just not as into that anymore when it comes to certain situations and like both these two people have kids. So while their spouses may be cool with it maybe they're not who the fuck knows. I'm not sleeping with either one of them. Right. But like she and listen I don't I don't know Mike Vrable at all. I never really spent time with them one time at the combine. I was with do staley at the main bar that everyone goes to when I stayed 44 in Arizona prime 47 or whatever. And we were at the bar and I was basically standing right next to him but I was it was one of those where I was like in the conversation but I wasn't saying much. So I don't know the guy at all. I don't know Diana that well the times I've been around her she's really cool. I like her like my first reaction is like she's cool. Right. But I've never hung out with her. She just she's seem cool the interactions I've had. I do think if they if their spouses do not know about this their children definitely don't you know he has older kids. Obviously her kids are young. I've always thought like in these situations it's so easy for people on the outside to just get on social media. I mean we've seen this with like people threatening fucking defensive linemen you suck on Twitter. It's like you would never say that to the guy's face not in a fucking million years because he's pound you in these situations. It's a little different. Obviously Mike variable would beat the shit out of most people but all these takes people would never say to their face. It's clear these photos what's going on like there is no conversation to be had. We all have the same reaction. They're sleeping together. Right. I got news for you a lot of people in pro sports are sleeping with other people just like a lot of people in society are sleeping with other people. That's their deal. That's their gig. I don't give a shit. The other thing that I kind of hang my hat on is I truly don't care. Right. Beside my wife and I guess maybe my close friends but even then like I'm not a dictated relationship guy. I do not care what you do sexually with other people. I just do not. That's on you. That's on you to figure out. Like maybe I'll judge you a little bit but like I'm not one of those guys like I just don't give a shit. I don't have the energy. Obviously those pictures when you first see him kind of funny it again all these people like there's no argument to be had. We know what's going on. I just hate this pile on world that we live in. I really do. What can be said it's going to be really hard for her to ever function online because everyone's shitting on her when I see the double standard for the guy. It's like well his fucking owner got a hand job on the day of the AFC championship game in South Florida before he flew out to Kansas City whatever seven eight years ago. You think Robert Kraft's wife I don't even think was in the dirt before he had the 30 year old on his arm. Like the world of the billionaire owners if some of these stories ever got out of those guys you know you think these pictures are bad. The one thing I would say if I was that famous you got to be pretty cognizant of your surroundings. And I had a buddy text me that knows about Sedona that is in the world of like. Let's just say like knows the people that run that resort and people that go to that resort a long time that says those pictures are probably coming from surrounding houses because of the angle in which they were shot. I just clearly a private investigator my gut said it's one of their spouses. I just I don't know I mean I just don't care that much. I mean I really don't I'm not that bothered. Like I'm not the other thing. One angle is journalism. I'm not a journalist. I don't care how my journalists operate. Just feed me the information so I guess I've talked about. I guess that's the business I'm in. Like I'm not some moral high horse guy. I know what I'm OK and not OK and the way my relationship is and that's all I kind of worry about. But not a great look. I guess if you're in a monogamous relationship could be a relationship ender. But who knows. Maybe they're in open relationships. I got no fucking clue. But everyone like you're not going to find me tweeting about it and crushing them because I just I hate feel like I'm part of the crowd when it comes to that type of stuff because I think it's such low hanging fruit now and we just saw it a couple weeks ago with Tiger. We're seeing it again with this. And yeah I mean it probably I heard someone describe it on the Internet that you know for her because it's not like he's tweeting. It probably feels like she's you know every time she looks like she's drowning because everyone and I mean everyone is just obliterating her making fun of her. Well they just think it's funny because they don't actually care. Right. No one actually cares. No one really gives a shit. Right. We just go about our day. But this is going to have no impact on Mike variable. I mean literally none. And by all accounts the athletics said they don't care either. Now can she keep breaking stories. Will she have the same access. Time will tell. Right. I don't know. It's not the really business I'm in. But one time when we first started way different. I would say example is when we me and guy who did we did a local radio show in the Bay and then we transitioned to do that show as a podcast. You know first we just started zero. Right. We we just started a podcast but we didn't have any ads. If you don't have any ads just doing a podcast for free. And we're like what are we going to do. And we started building it up building it up. And then finally when the trade lance trade happened for the Niners our business like tripled. We went from doing pretty good to like six figures each crushing getting a bunch of ads. We're getting huge downloads views and business was going pretty good. One of our sponsors was a wine sponsor. It wasn't even just a wine sponsor. It was like this company where you could order wine and get it delivered to your house. And then they gave us a monthly subscription. They gave us a lot of money. We sent wine to the 49ers to John Lynch to Cal Shanahan to Parag to Adam Peters. And I remember John Lynch like whenever I got there sent me a text like bro you did not have to do I didn't even know him that well. And it was just that's why wouldn't I I'm not a journalist. They were great for my business. I'm a businessman. Right. And I think what you got to do doesn't involve sexual favors from me. But I just I feel very uncomfortable in this day and age about certain stories of just the pile on. And it's one thing when everyone's talking about a controversial play or controversial firing or whatever. But when these include people like Tigers like literally his life right or her like her career. I don't know. And yeah I'm a little biased. I've met her at she's school to me. So like I'd even consider her a friend. I don't know her that well. But it's like everyone's shitting on her. No one has any clue. Not not that we have clue. It's clear what happened. I'm not disputing like of course they were doing what everyone thinks they were doing. Like you don't go to that resort to like watch the game. It have some have some hummus. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet the official sports betting partner of the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. We talk football on the show. 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So the next time you need someone to get the job done right, get matched with quality candidates with an Indeed sponsored job. Visit Indeed.com slash NextHire and sponsor your job today. Question for the mailbag. Jed York said recently he didn't know Kirk was on the roster and that he was hopeful Brandon I. Yook would be on the team again. Is it concerning he seems so disconnected with the team? I know you're well connected. To me the Kirk thing, like, I don't need my own or dictating personnel. My buddy Mark, who lives in Arizona, who I'm playing in this golf tournament with in the middle of May, texts me. We've been texting on and off over the last couple of days. And he shot me a text like I played with Christian Kirk yesterday. Mark's kids played college football. He played college football. He loves football. And I was like, I didn't even know Christian Kirk was on the 49ers. So some of these moves in free agency that happened a little later, not everyone's dialed in. And Jed York is not living and dying with every transaction. Do you think Jed York knows Mike Evans on the team? Yes. Do you think Jed York knows they re-signed Dre Greenlaw? Yes. Do you think he knows they signed a guy? I haven't even looked at his contract. I bet Christian Kirk's contract guaranteed money is pretty small. Let's pull up Christian Kirk's contract. So they didn't give him nothing. They gave him a signing bonus under $2 million. Jed York runs a franchise that his family owns that's probably valued at $12 billion. So it's crazy to say, but chance he's not even paying attention to a couple of million dollars, which he's clearly not. I don't think it's that weird. I think the best owners, they have to sign off on bigger amounts of money, right? But under $5 million signings, couple weeks after free agency starts, who knows? Maybe he was on vacation. Maybe he's not sitting in the free agency room with his GM. I don't want my owner doing that. So I would imagine a lot of owners, some of these second and third wave free agent signings don't have that much knowledge. So I don't think it bothers me. Now the brand and I you thing, I was listening to my guy Tim Kawakami. That was somewhat of a weird comment. I think he's trying to help his guys out. Like, Jed, you're not going to help them get more leverage in this situation. You're not going to help them figure out how to like facilitate a trade here. So I don't know. It was kind of an unneeded comment. I thought the comment was kind of stupid, to be honest with you. I would not have said that. But I also think Jed's not dictating what they do or don't do. I also think he gave him a lot of money. Right. I mean, John Lynch, Kyle did, but ultimately, Jed signs the checks and they signed him to like a $75 million guarantee. Now, some of that's up in the air because he's given some back, but he's still going to earn in a couple of year period like $50 million. So Jed knows that. And that probably complicates the situation a little bit, but it doesn't. Again, kind of trivial stupid shit, I think. Question for the back. With the diversification of all these games, the Masters, NFL, especially NBA being on so many different streaming platforms, do you think it'll turn into a negative in the long term? Obviously, short term people are just going to pay the extra money. But with my Sunday ticket, the price keeps going up and being fewer games on the package on Sunday each year. It makes it hard for me to see how this is sustainable model. What do you think is the reasoning and is there a bubble on these streaming services? It's a good question. One thing with the streaming services, like Amazon Prime, they have the first couple rounds of the Masters in the morning. Well, what else does Amazon Prime have? Thursday night football. What else does Amazon Prime have? Baseball and basketball. So they have a bunch of content, right? Peacock. They have all these games. Football, basketball, golf majors. Same thing, Netflix is getting in the business. So I think you're getting a lot if you have these streaming platforms. What makes it complicated is for those of us, especially of an older generation, we are used to everything being on CBS, Fox, ABC and NBC, the channels that we just don't have to pay for. But those days are over, right? And we're never coming back. And I think we're just transitioning. I don't have the answer, but in 10 years, it's much more likely that everything is kind of in some form or fashion on the streaming platforms. And that's where I think we end up. Does it make it a little complicated? Yeah. Now, yeah. But it is what it is. It's not going to change. And why have these leagues gravitated to Amazon? Let's say they have all the money. Why do they sell stuff to Netflix? They have all the money. Why am I on Netflix? They're a lucrative business that was interested in the podcast space. This isn't that complicated of a situation from their standpoint. Now, your question is for us, the consumer, yeah, it's complicated a little bit. There's no disputing it, but it's not changing. So you either have to choose. Are you going to pay for it or are you not? I'm also a bad person to ask on this because I'm buying all this stuff no matter what when it comes to, like, I buy ESPN plus, right? Some of you probably don't. Well, some of you do because they have UFC or they've had UFC forever. I buy it for golf because I like watching the golf tournaments Thursday through Sunday. You know, Saturday, Sunday for ESPN plus, they have every PJ tournament before CBS or NBC turns it on at, you know, noon Pacific Standard Time. I was just watching a conversation on ESPN about tanking. God, we've been talking about tanking a lot too on this week. It's clearly a polarizing topic. I don't know if this would work in the NBA, but to prevent tanking in the NFL, I was thinking what Super Bowl winner gets the first overall pick. That way, there is more incentive for being the best team and major consequences for being the worst. Super Bowl champ might end up trading out of the spot, but at least it won't automatically go to a team that has bad for the last two months. What if Seattle had the number one overall pick right now? Is there any chance that they would take Mendoza? He fits the offense. And in a year, you could just transition to a guy making $10 million a year instead of $30 million, or would they just take Jeremiah Love and be like, we're going to win the Super Bowl for the next couple of years. It'd be fascinating. Here's the thing. There's a major difference in the NBA. I don't know if you saw, I wouldn't blame you. Who's watching Warriors Kings? But the Kings fouled Steph Curry's brother with a couple minutes to go for literally no reason, just because they wanted him to lose. The Jazz, all these teams are trying to lose. You do realize, up until the last couple of weeks, the Raiders were trying to win every game. The Jets tried to win every game. The Cardinals and Jonathan Gannon were not trying to lose. Part of sports, some teams are just going to suck, right? They're trying to win. That's the thing with football. None of these teams, again, the Max Crosby situation, he didn't like it. But I don't blame him at that point. I got no problem trying to lose the last game of the season, maybe even the last two games of the season. But no one in the NFL is actively trying to lose, like December 1st. And that's whatever, three and a half months into the season. So I don't think the NFL has an issue with it. I really don't. The NBA has kind of clouded the conversation. But I truly believe that everyone in the NFL is trying to win the overwhelming majority of the games. Quick college football eligibility question. Following up on your Dante Morteque. If when schools move away from the NCAA, why would they keep eligibility limits at all? It seems like programs would want to retain proven talent. More broadly, as budgets rise, could this start to change incentives for a certain tier of players? Not the elite guy, but the next group. We're staying in college as a known commodity is more attractive than entering the NFL. Could that meaningfully reshape how talent flows in the league? Well, then the NFL would have a problem. I talked to a buddy recently. I said, why do you think this draft sucks? And he says one major reason is a ton of underclassmen that would have come out and several would have ended up being in the first round and a ton of guys would have gone in the second and third round. Obviously, Dante Morte is the best example of like a guy going back that historically would have come out. He would have been the number two pick. But there are a lot of guards and linebackers and wide receivers. It just would have been like the 48th pick or the 33rd pick or the 75th pick. Those guys now go back to school. I haven't thought about it with the question you posed. But if you just could never leave Ohio State and just make millions just guarantee your career, the NFL would then have a problem on their hands and would have to work with the governing bodies of whatever the SEC and the Big Ten Super League. They were running. So they're not quite there, but you pose a pretty good question because the NFL cannot let that happen. And I'm with you. Why wouldn't they just create their own rules? Part of the eligibility is you don't stay in college unless you're Chris Farley and Blacksheep for eight years. Some of us, you know, five and a half, but most of us, I had a college roommate that was done in like three and a half. So that would be a problem. Because then if they separate from the NCAA and Ohio State just has a football program and you can stay as long as you want, it is no longer associated with the school in terms of going to class. Now you could argue, are people going to class now? Because historically, you could argue, were they really going to class some of these schools now with online classes? No one's doing shit at some of these schools. So definitely an interesting question and would be a major problem for Rodge. And they would almost have to go to the bargaining table with those schools to make sure that they have some limits of you get five years to play or something. Which like you said, why would Ohio State or Oregon or Michigan or Alabama or Georgia agree to that? I don't know. Could get weird. Could get weird. Good point. With how quarterback contracts are exploding, you think the NFL is going to be able to get a good deal? You think the NFL is heading toward a model where good but not elite quarterbacks actually become the hardest asset to build around? It feels like once you pay that middle tier guy, your margin for error everywhere disappears. Also, how much do you think scheme versus quarterback talent really matters? We're seeing more plug and play success with certain systems. Do you think a top tier play caller can elevate an average quarterback into contender? Or does that ceiling always show up in January? One more. A lot of questions here. We'll just stick with the first two. I think you get a major problem and I don't never understand this. I would not extend a guy to a huge money contract if he's not an elite player. When they gave two of that money, it was insane. Honestly, I wasn't that comfortable with Trevor Lawrence's contract. I think some of these teams get way too aggressive. Right? Now, you could argue Dak Prescott was overpaid and he's still technically overpaid, but he's become a really good top seven, eight quarterback. So it's not an easy situation, but the Kyler Murray two of situations I never got. It never made sense to me. You can't pay great money for good players. In a perfect world, you get Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold who are pro bowl, fringe pro bowl guys. Not Baker last year, but a couple years ago. And you're paying them 30% less than the elite guys. This can't become the NBA where Luca gets the same max as a guy who's like a fringe all-star, because that's what a max guy at eight years in gets. And that's kind of what the NFL became with quarterbacks. And it kind of became that way with somewhat all wide receivers are not equal. Right? Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase are not the same as Brandon Iuk. And the $40 gave Brandon Iuk $30 million a year. It's like, this is insane. So I think it's actually on the specific GM and coach to know this is not worth signing this contract. But you're in this tough position. Are we just going to let them walk? Good organizations ideally don't want to franchise players because you have to pay them all that money. Where Jerry Jones is franchise tag George Pickens, but I would rather pay George Pickens one year $27 million than give him three years, $27 million every year and guarantee basically the whole contract. So I think it's very situation based. Like Sam Darlton, no issue paying him $30 million a year. Would I want to pay Kyler Murray or Tua $30 million a year? I would not. Do I want to pay Daniel Jones $40 million a year? I do not. It's just a very individual based situation. Tell me the player and I'll tell you what I would want to do. But every player is so different. There are some guys that, you know, JSN got $120 million. Is JSN just every year going to have 1,800 yards? Probably not. You got to overpay a little bit because of what just happened to your team last year, the success, his individual success for sure. But look at Puka. Started acting weird. They're like, bro, we're not giving you a contract. We're just not doing it. It's like, well, you're going to franchise that. We'll deal with next year when next year comes. But we're not copying and pasting this contract right now. It's not happening, which I appreciate the Rams. And if in a couple of weeks they draft a wide receiver at 13, that even adds more pressure to Puka. It's like, if you don't figure this out, this might be your replacement. He can either be your running mate or your replacement. I think good NFL teams kind of drive a hard bargain. It's like, JSN has got to retain Kenneth Walker. No, he doesn't. And he didn't. He let him walk. First-time messenger. Who would you rather start next season with if you're a head coach? Herbert, Hertz or Darnold? There's pros and cons to all three. Well, right now, Hertz, the lot going on. So he would not be the guy. Darnold just won a Super Bowl. Herbert has been atrocious in the playoffs. Now, he has never played on a team as good as Seattle's team, but there is no disputing in his playoff games. It has not gone well. But if I was a coach, I would take Herbert. Again, money factors in. Herbert makes a lot more money than Sam Darnold, though this year I think they're paying in actual cash like $25 million. Herbert, from a financial standpoint of what you have to pay him as a team, is not that much cash this year. But I would take Herbert. Now, if you wanted to push back, you're like, he shits the bed in the playoffs. And who knows, maybe he just becomes the worst playoff quarterback we've ever seen. But he's a really good player. I know someone voted him their MVP. I would not have done that. But I think Herbert's really good. And I'm not, if you want to sell stock on him, I will buy some. I think eventually he has a good playoff game. So this before big Peyton Manning fan, when I was young, early on it was pretty ugly come January. And then it flipped. And I'm not saying Herbert is Peyton Manning, but I think he's pretty fucking good. And he's just got to exercise those demons. Now, the longer it goes, it becomes this elephant in the room. You know, no one cares about touchdown passes in a random October game against Denver, the Chiefs anymore. Right? I'll know you're good. You're going to go to Pro Bowls, probably eventually win a division with Harbaugh. You just, there's going to be a lot of pressure on him in the playoffs. But I would take next year, if I, in all things, be an equal money wise, I would take Justin Herbert. Can I push back on the Jason Lightlove big bucks fan? Our second half of the season last year, starting six and two was a disaster. The run game with Bucky and White was not the same. Ibuka went from looking like the steal of the draft to losing momentum and finishing week. The defenders under a defensive head coach with a heavy draft pick was pitiful. I don't think we have drafted a Pro Bowler since 21. We haven't signed to anyone. We let two offensive coordinators go who clearly were better head coaches than our guy. Evans is now gone and I don't think he wanted to leave Tampa, but he was fed up with Todd. I think this might be a season where the team performs or wear it down. Interested in hearing your take? Over the course of like five or six years from building up a couple years before Brady and then those three or four years with Brady, I think the last couple years no team had more drafted players on their team than Tampa Bay. I think last year was like 44, 43 of the 53 man roster were guys Jason Light drafted. And they had been winning the division and they went from Tom Brady and transition with Baker Mayfield to go to the playoffs back to back years. Last year was a disaster. I put that more on Todd and clear the offensive coordinator who got fired. But this is a massive year to me for Baker Mayfield. Like Jason Light is not going anywhere. If this year doesn't go well, Todd Bowles will get fired. Jason Light will keep his job. Jason Light has proven to be a pretty good drafter. And he was the salesman to land Tom and then obviously the transition to Baker Mayfield. Like you get credit for that. But they do have a lot of pro bowlers on the roster, right? Because so you draft, we haven't drafted many pro bowlers. Hard to make the roster when you got Worfs and Vita Vaya and all these guys already starting. I wanted to say witherspoon. It's not witherspoon. It's again my brain's a little outside of football season. You know, your guys good safety whose dad played the NFL. But I'm a believer in Jason Light. I don't know what to tell you. Now that being said, I like New Orleans win the division this year. And my guess would be he's a nice guy. I would guess that Tampa has a new coach in 27. Can I tell you about my friends at Quints? A well built wardrobe is about pieces that work together and hold up over time. I've known as I've aged. I've needed to get some stuff that, you know, I can wear to a high level event that I can wear to a nice dinner with my wife. Look at me. I'm wearing a cashmere sweater. If you would have told me that five years ago, I never would have believed you. But that's where my friends at Quints comes in because they work directly with factories and they cut out the middleman. So you're not paying for brand markup. Just quality clothing. Everything is built to hold up to a daily wear and still good season after season. This is going to last me for years. I really like it. I'm going to take the San Francisco for the Super Bowl. So here's the thing. Refresh your wardrobe with Quints. Go to quints.com slash 3 and out for free shipping on your first order in 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q U I N C E dot com slash the number three and out free shipping in 365 day returns. Quints.com slash 3 and out. Find out how to revive that plant. Yep, we've all been there. Plus you'll stay connected even when you run out of data. Get yours on EE today. Results for illustrative purposes and may vary. Check responses for accuracy, eligibility, credit check and terms of client. Credit by EE limited. Verify best network at EE dot kitty K slash claims. Huge Eagles fan. Love that you came up through the scouting side of this. Why doesn't Dak get the same quote unquote stacked roster criticism Jalen gets? Feels like they walked into similar situations, but Jalen has had more success. I get that Howie and Jerry are viewed different, but still the narratives don't line up. Also, I know middlemen is trending tagline. Just what about paying homage to a little guy with Jack coughs? Just kidding. You know, your listener base is full of degenerates. I feel you. Yeah, we can't. We can't do that. That's a little guy. I'm old enough to remember for the first. The Jason Garrett era and then definitely the Mike McCarthy era. Dak Prescott has got shit on. Dak Prescott has taken a lot of heat over the years to think that he has got a free pass would be not not a proper representation of the conversation around the Dallas Cowboy quarterback. Now, last year, he did not have a stack roster. He did though in the McCarthy era and he did not play well. It was a disaster in the playoffs. We're moving the Tampa game when they were Tampa was eight and nine. Dak threw five touchdowns in the Monday night playoff wild card weekend, but Dak has got destroyed. Right. And Dak's got crushed for being this overpaid quarterback. I think that's got a lot of heat. You know, I really do. Sometimes I think if I were those guys and you're just getting your shit on, you're like, I'm making 50, 60 million dollars. I'm the starting quarterback. I wonder if we think it's a bigger deal than those guys think. If your jailing hurts that article, say, OK, what does that mean? I'm starting quarterback. I see my direct deposits every week during the year. I don't exactly know how the pay periods work in the offseason, but definitely during football season. Do these guys care that much about the criticism? Because eventually you would get like this kind of hard shell where you just are somewhat, especially if you're a little older, able to kind of. I don't want to say quiet all the outside noise, but just kind of be numb to it. But Dak's taken a lot of heat over the years. A lot. And the Eagles the last couple of years have been a way better roster than, I mean, Jalen won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. And they have 2000-year-old Russia. I got a fugazi for you. Our local neighborhood bar that we watch every major sporting event closed during Easter Monday. I'm all for employers, employees getting Easter off, but seemed like a headscratcher for them to be closed for the big game. Safe to say the vibes at a depressed, half-empty, Buffalo Wild Wings do not hit the same. Yeah, I think that's tough. If you're in the sports bar business, is it part of being open, you know, Monday's not a holiday, right? I struggle with holidays because the world I'm in, you know, I work on a lot of holidays. I mean, clearly Christmas, Thanksgiving, some are pretty obvious. But Easter Sunday, do a lot of people get Monday off? I'm probably the wrong person to ask. You know, I worked a job that's not even my job to, uh, on this Monday. So I didn't know that people were closed on that day. But I'm the wrong guy to ask. This is from Joseph. Great listen while I'm on the road working on the wind turbines around the States. Big Buffalo Bills fan. And was wondering what your take about the quote, OJ Simpson, name being placed on the new stadium because the fans still wear his jersey at the games. Should they leave it off? I haven't seen this. They're putting OJ Simpson, like on the Ring of Honor on the new stadium. He wasn't quitted. Glove doesn't fit. You gotta quit. My first reaction would probably be to leave it off. Are there a lot of OJ Simpson jerseys at Bills games? I'm not a big jersey guy. It would take some confidence to just show up to a game in an OJ Simpson jersey. Now granted in 2026, there's generations of people that don't quite understand, I think, the gravity to that situation. Right? When I was 1994, I think I was in fifth or sixth grade. My teacher had it on the radio. I think a lot of people have that experience. Either people brought TVs in, we were listening on the radio. My fifth or sixth grade teacher, I forget exactly what grade I was in, was a huge, huge sports fan. Her son, who was a year younger than me, was Division I college baseball player. She loved sports. She was cool. She was tough. I mean, Miss Parker, he used to fucking scream at my ass. I remember one time at a parent-teacher conference, I grew up in a different generation than some of you younger cats. When you got out of line, you got the occasional backhand. And one time I popped off at a parent-teacher conference, my dad came to it, which was never awesome. And I remember her saying something, I'm like, Dad, she's lying. That's not true. And I just remember, almost. He held us together, but I thought I was about to fly across the room. She kind of looked at me side-eyed. But my take would probably be leave OJ Simpson off. But I could hear the arguments from the other side. Again, acquitted. I think everyone assumes he butchered her and Ron Goldman. Obviously, Ron Goldman's family still does. Rightfully so. I'd probably believe the same if I was them. Most people just say, OJ's a murderer. So you want a person that's a murderer that played in the 70s. And again, do people really wear the jerseys? You've been questioned on the herd. If the opportunity presented itself, would you make being a full-time role on the show? This is my gig. And I'm very, very lucky that this is my baby. And this is what I built a business around through these guys and partnered with these guys. And Colin has been the best business partner I could ever ask for from just a standpoint of letting me do what I... No one tells me what to do. Financially, it's been more rewarding than I ever could have dreamed of when I got into the business. But I don't want to do anything else. This is where I'm at my best. And it's a grind. And I know a lot of people do multiple things. No one podcasts as much as me because that's my gig. And that's what I love to do. I would never give that up. The only way I would do anything would be doing more of this. That is what I aspire to do more of. And I would never move anywhere because I don't have to. I've been lucky enough. Now, you never say never things, you know, this podcast didn't exist like 20 years ago. So you got to be ready to change. But I've been very fortunate. I don't not only plan on ever leaving Arizona. I just keep expanding the business there. So I would say I enjoy doing this. It kind of gets the juices flowing, mixing it up a little bit. And just I get fired up watching the way that they operate his crew, a bunch of guys. But and someone asked me, I was actually looking for the DM that how this works. Is this one of those where, you know, colleges hits me up and I just show up or this is through Fox or this. And when I go with him, it has nothing to do with with three and out. This is all through Fox. So they got a lady that sets me up that flies me out, you know, like a travel lady through Fox. You know, Fox pays me for appearances, a daily rate. This has nothing to do with three and out the volume. This is completely when I'm on the show, this is a Fox run operation. This is a separate venture, obviously, but this it's not connected. And yeah, it's cool. I enjoy mixing it up and just kind of getting out of your comfort zone. Coming down here to Los Angeles. It helps that I live, you know, an hour, 20 minute flight away. But, you know, my wife today, I actually for the I haven't taken a nap. I own years, but definitely not since football season or, you know, when the baby's been born. So it's been a long time. I might have passed out from like one to three today and it was glorious. And the mistake I made then was my wife called me and I told her, I was kind of out of it. I was like, I just got up from a nap. She's like, it must be nice. Yeah, it was. It was fucking awesome. And let's enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the masters who Rory McElroy is currently as I'm finishing recording this, the final round just ended. And he's an elite. So Scottie Sheffler at a solid round. I would not mind. I think we would all agree a little Rory Scottie Sunday. I picked Bryson who tripled the 11th hole and looks like he's a disaster. John Rom was even worse today. So we might get a little Rory Scottie showdown. I know that's what we're all rooting for. Have a great weekend and I will talk to everyone soon. The volume. This is an I heart podcast.