Hour 1 – NBA All-Star Tanking, Chris Simms

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: Uh, nobody loves love the way I love love our one on this Thursday, Fritzy's here, Seaton, Marv, Paul, Yours truly, and of course the back room guys. Stat of the Day is always brought to you by Panini America. The official trading cards of the program. First hour brought to you by True Green. Don't waste another weekend doing your lawng care yourself. Partner with the official lawn care treatment provider, the PGA Tour, and get a golf course quality lawn the easy way. Sign up at truegreen dot com. Then sit back and relax, pull question, Play of the day, stat of the Day, all of that forthcoming. Good morning if you're watching this program, which you can do on Peacock, download the app or the NBC Sports Network, and good morning to iHeartRadio Fox Sports Radio in over four hundred cities that carry this award nominated program. Chris Simms will join us on loan from NBC Football Night in America as we look at the off season with the quarterback positions and who's going to try to fill those voids with free agency or the draft. So Chris will join us in twenty minutes from now, Chris mannix covering the NBA. We'll talk about tanking and also the All Star Game coming up this weekend. This is not going as scripted for the NBA because I thought the World versus the United States was a wonderful approach, maybe a last ditched approach to have a little bit of competition with the All Star festivities. But now you've got a few players who won't be playing in the game. Kevin Durant was asked a question yesterday. I'll give you the question and his answer and then we'll talk about it.

00:01:41
Speaker 3: I saw you saw the rosters were revealed and said, you're on that Old Heads team.

00:01:45
Speaker 4: Do you think the Old Heads will compete and try to win the whole tournament?

00:01:48
Speaker 5: Here?

00:01:48
Speaker 6: You should ask the Europeans the World team if they're going to compete. I mean, because if we look at Luka Dancis and Nicole oki Is, now let's go back and look at what they do at the All Star Game. Is that competition? So we have a questioned what they've been doing. But we're gonna question old his in the Americans. But these two dudes out there Luca and Yochas. They don't care about the game. Man, Oh, these dudes be laying on the floor. They shoot from half court. But you got worried about the old heads playing hard. I can read between the lines.

00:02:20
Speaker 2: Bro Oh Durant. He's funny. He's funny, he's feisty. But you know it's a fair point. He's saying we play hard.

00:02:31
Speaker 7: They don't.

00:02:32
Speaker 2: But the reason why Joker doesn't play hard in the All Star Game is that's not his style. The All Star the way that's played up and down, dunking, that's not his style. Luca, that's not his style. So he might single them out as not playing hard. I'm gonna guess if they are playing this weekend in the All Star Game, they will play hard because they're playing for their country or countries. And I think you'll see a more spirited I hope it is, and I'm not asking too much. It's not going to be the way it once was, but I would like to see some competition and maybe we'll get that with this format. We're running out of ideas when it comes to the All Star Game, and it's not mandatory or the future of the sports at stake. You know it's like the Pro Bowl, and I said that for years, they don't want to play in it. When it was in Hawaii. You wanted to be awarded the opportunity to go to Hawaii with your family and oh, by the way, we'll show up, run through a couple of plays.

00:03:32
Speaker 7: Hopefully we don't get hurt. That's it.

00:03:34
Speaker 2: You just wanted the designation of being a pro bowler with the All Star Game. Do I want to see them go out and maybe make it like Olympic competition. I'd love to, but it's not going to happen. So maybe you get something that is a reasonable facsimile of a pickup basketball game.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, Seaton, Yeah, I think the first problem is trying to make this mean something. Yes, that's the first problem. So that already were starting from like a deficit there, don't Do you think the NBA did enough to get the format the tweaks to the format out there so people understand what this All Star Game is going to look.

00:04:10
Speaker 7: Like because it is significantly different. Well, you have three teams. You have two teams from the United States and then you have the World team, right.

00:04:19
Speaker 3: And then what that each You basically play like twelve minute quarters in like a round robin kind of Yeah, I don't even understand it seedon, Well, I don't think it's complicated to understand. I just don't think that people know that it's changed that much.

00:04:31
Speaker 2: Well that you have three different teams and the quarters even then like I'm going to tune in and go, okay, maybe explain this to me a little bit further.

00:04:41
Speaker 7: But I thought it.

00:04:42
Speaker 2: You know, when you have three teams and you have one game, but try to combine three teams into one game, and it's the All Star weekend, and then you have the rising stars and now we just found out that Cooper Flag is not going to be playing in that this isn't going as scripted for. And then you got the commissioner who is going to be under fire this weekend about tanking because these teams they're not hiding it anymore.

00:05:07
Speaker 7: It's like, yeah, you know, we're.

00:05:10
Speaker 2: Gonna play our starters until the third quarter when that ends, and then we're gonna sit them down.

00:05:15
Speaker 7: Hey we might win, we might not.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: But it just feels like it's well it is. It's not a growing concern. It's a concern here. And I can't imagine what David Stern would be doing right now if he was the commissioner. Maybe it's not fair to Adam Silver, but David Stern would not be putting up with this.

00:05:34
Speaker 7: But I don't even know what you can do.

00:05:37
Speaker 2: You know, all the media rights. I think it was a total of like seventy billion dollars over the next eleven years. They're swimming in money. They don't know what to do with all the money that they're making. And if I'm a player, and let's say I applied this to Larry Bird. Larry Bird tried to eke out a ten year career back issues and he had to retire. What if Larry Bird played today and he did have a back condition, and I could maybe get fourteen years out of Larry Bird instead of ten, and maybe he played sixty five games, wouldn't you want that? Do I want Steph Curry to be able to play longer? Do I want Kevin Durant to be able to play longer? Lebron James to be able to play longer? And the answer is yes, I don't think the NBA cares about us. If we say the following, well, I go to one game a year. The NBA doesn't care about that. Now we do as you know parents, where you say, oh, I want to bring my kids to a game, but the NBA is worried about filling up the seats every single night. They want repeat customers, They want the people who are going to show up. And then you got the TV money as well flowing in. But I don't know if I got Commissioner Silver in a private moment and said, hey, if you're looking at the longevity of great players like Cooper Flag, he's going to have load management at some point in his career.

00:07:11
Speaker 7: They all do.

00:07:12
Speaker 2: Now, at nineteen, you can run all day, but he gets to be twenty six, now seven years, you know, on those legs, and then maybe you're going to have load management. It happens. But if I can extend Cooper Flag four more years by limiting him and you know, maybe he's only playing in sixty five, maybe seventy games, It used to be a badge of courage, like you wanted to play as many games as possible. Charles Barkley won the MVP of the All Star Game and he played on a stress fracture.

00:07:47
Speaker 7: He shouldn't have been playing in the game.

00:07:49
Speaker 2: Imagine Michael Jordan breaks his foot and then comes back and you know you're going to play the Celtics who are going to beat you in the playoffs. They never would have let Michael Jordan back intoday's NBA. They just wouldn't because they'd say, that doesn't make any sense. We're going to sit you down, we're going to get into the lottery, we're going to tank, and we're going to be better.

00:08:10
Speaker 7: So the philosophy has shifted.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: I never ever worried when I tuned into a game if the stars were going to play or not. Growing up, it was a great luxury. And about ten years ago, maybe a little longer than that, it all changed. But I understand it from a player's perspective. If I can imagine if you add four more years to Steph Curry's career, that maybe it would have ended.

00:08:36
Speaker 7: You know, at thirty six, that's over a one hundred and thirty million dollars by just being economical, smart, taking care of yourself, getting your rest. And I know we don't like it, but you know, we're in a completely different world what it was like when we were growing up.

00:08:56
Speaker 2: You know, Bill Russell played every game and Bob Coosey played every game. Yes, but in today's NBA, they're looking at this from a business perspective. The NBA has business and entertainment, but the player is thinking about I'm gonna sit out.

00:09:17
Speaker 7: I mean, look at Yannis. He's had a calf.

00:09:21
Speaker 2: I don't know how serious it is, but he's been out for a while, and we don't even blink anymore. We're like, such and such isn't playing like Kawhi. I'm always surprised.

00:09:32
Speaker 7: When Kawhi's playing, being like, oh, and Kawhi is having an unbelievable year he is, Yes, Marvin.

00:09:40
Speaker 4: But also you got to put this on the team also because they're protecting their investment, because these guys are making so much money. Hey, this guy has a stress fracture or he has a bad calf. They're not going to throw him out there. Hey, let's keep him out here in an extra two games.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: I know, I get it. I get it that this is it's business. It's our entertainment, but it's their business. Yeah, Pauling, you know.

00:10:02
Speaker 8: You're completely right about it. It's like a ship that's going one way and you can't turn it around. But if you look at what most fans think of it, they compare it to the NFL, and they'll always compare the NBA, which is considered not as rough and brutal as a sport, fair to say. And they sit out all the time, and football players they can't sit out because they have fewer games. But if you look at the ratings of the NBA finals the past fifteen years and load management they match each other, the finals keep going down and down and down compared to a generation ago, and that's a real problem.

00:10:31
Speaker 7: Yeah, Seeden.

00:10:33
Speaker 3: I think from the team perspective too though, I think it's probably important to remember that when you're the team, and yes, you're protecting your investment, but no one is bigger than the team. The team is going to keep going on after all of these people retire. There's you know, after Larry Bird, there's always going to be another Jason Tatum, and then there's going to be another guy. There's always going to be another guy that comes down the pike. And that's what teams are thinking about. This one guy is not bigger than the team. I don't really care who they are. They're not bigger than it's Lebron James is not bigger than the Lakers.

00:11:02
Speaker 7: Yeah, but you want to extend them. You want them to play four more years.

00:11:07
Speaker 3: Definitely, you want them to play four more years, for sure, but also not to the point where the team feels like we need you more than you need us.

00:11:16
Speaker 2: We'll settle on a poll question here. Chris Sims will join us. We'll look at some of these quarterback situations here. And man, there's some wild things that are out there, and you know they're not really reports, but it's kind of a what what was the word you used, Paulie where we try to get around saying it's a report linked, oh, link to ye linked.

00:11:40
Speaker 7: Yeah, I know there was an article.

00:11:43
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was on the mother Ship, but it talks about Joe Burrow and being linked to other teams. And you're going, okay, wow, what's And I said to Fritzy, all right, read it to me and he goes, I said, where's the Joe Burrow stuff? He goes, well, no, it's like the second you know part of the art.

00:12:00
Speaker 7: Yeah, Trey Hendrickson about Coles Cowboys, what teams is gonna go to? And then a little bourg towards the end is like about Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow is not going anywhere. He's different to his quarterback.

00:12:08
Speaker 8: But what is that, Yeah, Paul, it is from Yahoo Sports. Bengals already have Trey Hendrickson replacement lined up amid Joe Burrow trade rumors as if they go together at all.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: And then you read it and then they say the Bengals aren't trading Joe Burrow. But it's that link and then you click on it. It's clickbait and they got me, they got me. That's where you want to respond to somebody, you know, you want to yell at somebody like I stop that, you're better than that, But no, you got to click up, yeah, pauling.

00:12:39
Speaker 8: A big thing in journalism air quotes these days is say link to It's in Lewis saying there's a report that Trey Hendrickson is being pursued by blank blank. Like if you said today that you know what would be a great place for Joe Burrow to be the Miami Dolphins, they would use you and say link to the Dolphins. Yeah, and they tag it to Dan Patrick when you're not reporting.

00:12:59
Speaker 7: Yeah, that would be good. Though, if Joe Burrow went to the Dolphins, you just aggregated yourself. They were all in on him.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: You know, it was weird that we had heard that leading up to the draft they were going to offer like five first round picks for Joe Burrow in Miami and then of course the Bengals you know, took him. But and then it came out like earlier this year that the the Dolphins were trying to get Joe Burrow at the draft.

00:13:26
Speaker 7: I'm like, this is old news.

00:13:29
Speaker 2: They they did, they desperately wanted to get Joe Burrow, and now you got Tua. Maybe you don't even have ta So we'll talk to Chris Simms about a lot of these situations here because they're fluid. You're not quite sure we know what the Raiders are doing. But after that, is there a quarterback that somebody's going to go all in on and say that's our future? Because I don't see that. The parade yesterday, it was great to see probably eight hundred thousand their beautiful day there in Seattle. They're feisty, the Seahawks are got that chip on their shoulders still, you know, don't come at us and don't be saying something about my quarterback. And Sam Donald is just like, hey, thank you for believing in me, there weren't a lot of people believed in Sam Donald when they brought Sam Donald in. To be fair to the situation here, if you go back to when Sam was going to Seattle, it's not like it was, oh my gosh, we got Sam Donald. It was wait, we got rid of Gino and we got Sam Donald. A lot of people said that. A lot of people said that, all right, we'll get a poll question. The play of the Day is coming up. Stat of the Day is always brought to you by Panini America. We're back with Chris Simms after this Dan Patrick Show.

00:14:50
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00:15:01
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00:15:57
Speaker 7: You get your podcasts. Seaton Poll question, first hour, what are you thinking about?

00:16:05
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sort of workshopping here one. I just got to get the right number of letters to fit it in. But would you rather more games per season but less seasons, or more seasons but less games per Yes.

00:16:20
Speaker 8: Okay, I see where he's going. How about you could have a star player on a superstar player on your favorite NBA team ten years he plays eighty games a season, or fifteen years for sixty five games per season as an average.

00:16:35
Speaker 2: If he's staying on my team the whole time, Oh yeah, then I'm going to take the extra years.

00:16:41
Speaker 8: Even though you get to see him less.

00:16:43
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the time that I really care about seeing my superstar player is in the postseason, and if that leads to postseason success or availability, absolutely. Will I miss seventeen games that he wouldn't be playing in during the regular season, Yes, But if that means I've got four more, five more opportunities to win a championship, absolutely. Chris Sims joining us on loan from Pro Football Talk Live. He's co host with Mike Florio. Also was there working the Super Bowl for NBC Football Night in America. Do you think we'll ever get to the point where there is load management in the NFL.

00:17:24
Speaker 11: No, I don't think so, I don't. I mean, it's just, you know, the league is so close. One game is equal to five games in the NBA or ten games in the NFL and Major League Baseball, right, So No, I mean, I think the only time you get to load management is with certain star players. Maybe if they have some injuries and teams that are smart bring them along the right way. But no, I don't think that's ever going to be a thing in the NFL.

00:17:54
Speaker 7: Then explain to me what the Raiders did with Max Crosby or is that tanking?

00:17:58
Speaker 11: Well, I think that was more tanking. I think, yeah, I think it was that maybe more than anything is tanking. He was dealing with a little bit of injury. Maybe they're saving himself from himself. But yeah, that's not, you know, a load management thing there. The Max Crosby situation in general is going to be fascinating here as we go into the offseason, right because you usually sit there and go, wait, you don't trade a player of the caliber of Max Crosby and do that. But yet this is one of those where you can look at it and justify it a little bit, or at least go I could see them doing it. It's twenty nine years old, as we know. Hey, there's a formula in the NFL. Most defensive players hit thirty. Teams don't want to give them big contracts new contracts there, and the Raiders have so many needs on their football team. Wouldn't be shocked if he does get traded this offseason.

00:18:46
Speaker 2: He's one of my favorite players because he wants to play and he plays hard. Right, But if I'm the Raiders, I absolutely trade him. Yeah, absolutely, you know, I hate giving up on that, but I can't bring in a rookie quarterback with a rookie head coach and not have a good offensive line.

00:19:03
Speaker 11: Yeah, no, I hear you there, And you gotta wonder Max Crowby's got Crosby's getting to a point of his career where yeah, I don't know if he wants to sit around for the next two years and be a part of the rebuilding process.

00:19:14
Speaker 7: So yeah, I'm with you there, Dan in a lot of ways.

00:19:16
Speaker 2: All right, let's look at some of the quarterbacking situations. What's the biggest question mark you have?

00:19:21
Speaker 7: What team? What quarterback?

00:19:23
Speaker 11: Well, I think the obvious one is probably Pittsburgh a little bit. Just as far as where they go a playoff football team, we got no idea who the quarterback is going to be. I mean, Aaron Rodgers, mikeel McCarthy. It didn't necessarily seem like it ended the most perfect way when it was in Green Bay and now here they may be thrust it back together and then off of that, yes, do they bring them back, but is he can understand that, like the quarterback of the future is not on the roster of the Steelers, So like if they bring him back, is he gonna be okay?

00:19:52
Speaker 7: If like they draft Ty.

00:19:54
Speaker 11: Simpson in the first round, and then if they go two and five to start the year, is Ty Simpson gonna be in and is he gonna be able to deal with that?

00:20:00
Speaker 7: Right?

00:20:00
Speaker 11: So I mean that to me is probably the most intriguing one. I haven't thought about it as a whole as a league here yet. I'm still kind of transitioning at a super Bowl mode here, But I think that's the one probably i'd still pick if you let me think about it even more.

00:20:15
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out the Viking situation too. Yeah, right right, that's gonna be tough. No doubt. They're in a spot.

00:20:21
Speaker 11: They really are because as we talked about last year, their team right was playoff ready, maybe even super Bowl ready. Like I do think if Sam Donold played in the Minnesota Vikings last year, yes they would have gone to the playoffs. Definitely that they got to the super Bowl, I don't know about that, but yeah, they're in a spot where they definitely have to bring somebody that's you know, tried and true and proven to a degree, not only because if JJ McCarthy gets hurt, which is gonna be is becoming a thing, and if he doesn't play well, you gotta have a guy there that can at least come in those those scenarios and hold down the ford a little bit. But I also think you need a guy there to kind of have the hot poker next to JJ McCarthy every day a little bit, to be like, hey, you gotta be good today. You gotta be good today, gotta be good today. This guy's coming, he's practicing. He's a pro. He knows how to practice and look good in front of the rest of the football team.

00:21:09
Speaker 7: And I do think there's value in that for young quarterbacks. If I said you had to extend one, Rice Young or CJ.

00:21:16
Speaker 11: Stroud, gosh, I wouldn't have gone, no brainer CJ. Stroud right before the playoffs or the end of the regular season, like, no brainer. But what happened in here, Chris, Yeah, I mean it.

00:21:31
Speaker 7: Was questionable towards the end of the regular season.

00:21:34
Speaker 11: You know, I've had people go, oh, they think his concussion in the middle part of the year was still affecting him. Right, he has been in some different offensive systems, but man, he really lost his way towards the end of the year, lost his way with decision making, feel for the game.

00:21:51
Speaker 5: You know, the.

00:21:52
Speaker 11: Proper type of throws forgetting what his team was. I mean, I said to Mike Florio before, and I think this is why, you know, we were kind of talking about the Patriots and maybe there won't be the biggest bullseye on their back because of how the playoffs and Super Bowl went going in the next year. And I made the comment, You're like, yeah, I mean, hey, the Chargers game is underwhelming.

00:22:10
Speaker 7: The Houston game. You kind of felt like if CJ.

00:22:13
Speaker 11: Stroud just kneeled on the ball the whole game, Houston probably would have won the football game. Just kneeled on it every play, first, second down, third down, kneel on it. Defense will set us up for a field position. At one point we'll kick a field goal and win the game that way. Like I'm joking, but I'm not joking. It was that crazy. It was that bad. So I sit here now, I guess giving the edge to Bryce Young, but don't feel necessarily great about that. I mean, I know Carolina went into the year going, hey, we like where we're going, but we don't have our quarterback yet. We don't really know. We don't think we got the guy. We don't have the guy. Now, how he played better definitely. How do they feel about that? I'm sure they feel better, But I wouldn't sit here and just go, oh, we're just golden at quarterback with Bryce Young.

00:22:55
Speaker 7: I'm not ready to say that yet.

00:22:56
Speaker 2: You know, the draft is kind of sparse with what we think will be franchise quarterbacks. But I'm wondering about Mac Jones or Malik Willis. Feels like they could get that kind of I don't want to say Sam Darnold, but they could get that. Hey, we've gone through you know, the washing machine a couple of times, right, maybe now it's our turn. Now we're at an age where we can handle this.

00:23:17
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:23:18
Speaker 11: No, I think Malik Willis is a superstar, right. I would think he is the like the crowning gem of guys that's going to be out there as far as free agents that you can get no compensation trading any.

00:23:29
Speaker 7: Like, why wouldn't Pittsburgh go for Malik Willis?

00:23:32
Speaker 11: If I were them, I'd be looking at that. You're you're exactly right. I mean, Malik Willis has proven I mean he's got special talent, he has a special arm, he's got special mobility, he knows how to run the offense and do all of that. So yeah, you know, he's a great story here and again another story of like we looked at the draft and you know, again, I was a Malik Willis fan coming out, and it's like, Okay, yeah, I know Kenny Pickett can play in the pocket and he's very good in the meeting room. And I'm so sick of that damn dumb discussion all the time with some of these quarterbacks. And I'm gonna go, oh, yeah, how did that meeting room and in the pocket work for you, Pittsburgh Philadelphia Raiders?

00:24:11
Speaker 7: You know, how about the.

00:24:12
Speaker 11: Guy that has a ton of talent and can make game changing plays, It just needs a little polish and needs to be coached a little And that's where you know the league misses out on guys like that.

00:24:20
Speaker 7: But do you like Milake Willis more than Jordan Love.

00:24:25
Speaker 11: I It's closer than I ever thought it would be, right, And I'm really a Jordan Love fan. I mean again, I'm I'm the one that was like Jordan Love, I think is going to be better than Tua when he was coming out in the draft, right, So so I'm with that, But Malik Willis, I'm not gonna say he's better than Jordan Love Right now, I will say that I think he shows more potential to be a greater player than Jordan Love. That that's what I would say right now, But I got to see a little bit more before I say he's better than Jordan Love.

00:24:54
Speaker 7: And he's forty million dollars cheaper, right, That helps still, but he won't be forty million dollars cheaper after this off season that I think will change. What about Mac Jones' future, Well, Mac Jones is first off shown that he's capable of being a starting quarterback. We know that, right, And the guys like Shanahan and McVeigh and you know the Ben Johnson's in the world, the guys who have these unbelievable, intricate, hard offenses are always gonna like Mac Jones, just like Shanahan and McVay love the Kirk Cousins of the world and those guys because they can handle all the tricks that they have to offer to make the offense look tricky and awesome. Right.

00:25:30
Speaker 11: So that's where you know there's always gonna be love for Mac Jones. Now, he can't carry the team, right, you put them on crappy Jacksonville for two years ago with all that was going on there. Yeah, he's not Josh Allen, Lamar Mahomes. They're just gonna, hey, get on my back, guys, I'll get us through this time period here.

00:25:46
Speaker 7: No, he's not that.

00:25:47
Speaker 11: He needs system. He needs help, and when he does do that, you could see he can play at a high level. But at the same time, I don't think the forty nine ers in Shanahan are just gonna give him away. And not only will they have to be blown up by the trade, but the forty nine ers, as we know, were good and with healthy like there might be a Super Bowl team. And I knowing my buddy Kyle Shannan, I don't think he would leverage the future of the team and get rid of Mac Jones unless he's very comfortable with who his.

00:26:14
Speaker 7: Backup quarterback is.

00:26:16
Speaker 11: And I don't know if he's there with Curtis Rourke right who came off the ACL injury, coming from Indiana and being there and being that guy to hold down the fort if something did happen to Brock Purdy.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: We're talking to Chris Sims, Pro Football Talk Live co host Football Night and America analyst and in his podcast Unbuttoned. If Mac Jones was Seattle's quarterback this.

00:26:36
Speaker 11: Year, yeah, okay, I mean they'd be in the playoffs for sure.

00:26:42
Speaker 7: Okay, so you're not saying they would they would still have won the Super Bowl. No, I'm not gonna go there.

00:26:48
Speaker 11: You know, I think Sam Donald's talent is better than there's a reason. You know, Sam Donald was the number three pick and people thought he was going to be the slam dunk number one pick. Really, if you go back to that time, right, people were shocked that it was Baker Mayfield. Everybody thought, what, Sam Donald's going to Cleveland. But you know, he's got better physical ability than he gets credit for it. Right, You've heard Josh Allen talk about how Sam Donald spends the ball. I mean it's a perfect spiral that spins tight his arms, a little more explosive.

00:27:12
Speaker 7: Than people realize.

00:27:14
Speaker 11: You saw on Super Bowl Sunday his movement and getting out of trouble a few times was kind of special that way. So I do think he's capable of making some plays.

00:27:24
Speaker 7: That maybe Mac Jones isn't capable of making.

00:27:27
Speaker 2: Let's go back to the Super Bowl, and it felt like, and I said this a couple of times on the show. If you said to Patriot fans beginning of the year, you're going to the super Bowl, but you're not going to be competitive, would you sign up for that?

00:27:39
Speaker 7: And the answer is of course yes, yes. But man, it really feels like morale is low. After the way they were beaten.

00:27:48
Speaker 2: Your first round pick at left tackle gets you know, man handled, Drake May didn't look good through the entire postseason. So now handicap the Patriots going into next season knowing you have this super Bowl loss hangover.

00:28:03
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think they're still gonna be really good.

00:28:05
Speaker 11: They still got a lot of room on their cap space, kind of like what you alluded to. I mean, they were playing with house money. The fact that they got this far is incredible. I don't think they're going anywhere. I think they're gonna continue to be a really good team now. I mean, can they get back to the super Bowl and go fourteen to three?

00:28:21
Speaker 7: I don't know.

00:28:21
Speaker 11: They're gonna have a first play schedule next year, And if you look at the teams they're gonna play next year on the road and all that, it's like whoa, Okay, whoa, Yeah, it ain't gonna be the same, and I think, yeah, morale is down because, like what you talked about, they didn't play very good football in the playoffs. I don't want to use the phrase they lucked into things, but things certainly with CJ. Stroud's play, the way Stidham, the Broncos, the snowstorm, Yeah, that definitely helped out. And I think to your point too, and to me, the biggest story going into the game was that the guy that was one vote away from being the MVP was historically bad in the playoffs, like historically, and same with the left tackle. And then we got to the halftime of the game and it was like, whoa again, the guy that was one vote away from being the MVP, it's historically bad in the first half of the game, made one real throw in the first three quarters of the game. He stepped up and throw a deep curl route to step Von Diggs in the first quarter, and I would say that was the only throw he made in the football game until the touchdown drive to make it nineteen seven to start the fourth quarter. That's crazy when you say that out loud, right, And that's why I think morale's a little down overall. And they were dominated in the game, and it just didn't look good. But they shouldn't be down for long. It just should be about the game and the future is bright for the New England Patriots.

00:29:42
Speaker 7: Yeah, but why didn't they make adjustments? You got thirty minutes at halftime, Chris, Yeah, right.

00:29:48
Speaker 11: Well here here, so here with my I really I watched the game on film and you know, this is what I do and the podcast and Chris Sim's unbutton and all that. First, I think the Patriots new they knew they weren't the better team. I tell you in the pregame warm up, so that they didn't they knew they weren't the better team. I said this to Rodney Devin McCarty. You went to either side of the field. The Seahawks were up on their field like we're about to show everybody today. It felt like the Patriots are a little bit like I hope we play our best game and maybe we can pull it off.

00:30:17
Speaker 7: Right.

00:30:17
Speaker 11: That's kind of what it felt like on the field on Super Bowl Sunday, And I know Rodney and Devin mccorty kind of felt the same thing, to the point where you were like Seattle's so psycho. Rodney Harrison was like, I hope they don't run out of energy before the game's over. And I was like, Rodney Devin Witherspoon could not sleep for five nights in a row. He ain't gonna lose energy today. I was like, they're young and full of it and they're ready to go. But I do think the Patriots went in the game knowing that they weren't the better team. They knew they had to take chances on the defensive side of the ball, which is what you saw early on the game, right. I mean, Sam Darnold threw some passes and you're like, whooh, oh, my gosh. I mean they were gonna go for it on that side of the ball. And I think they knew, between the shaky play of their quarterback and the way and how good Seattle was, that they were just hoping to muck the game up, make it ugly. Oh it's nine to nothing, so what we'll put a drive together, make it nine to seven. Maybe Sam Darnold to make a mistake, and now we go up ten to nine, and now it's thirteen. That's what I think they went into the game thinking that was the only way they were going to be able to do it, but the fact that they couldn't run the ball at all then kind of shift the onus on to Drake May and the passing game and the pass protection and a bunch of other things you know that went along with it led to, you know, some really tough sledding in that department.

00:31:33
Speaker 7: It's an eight hour pregame show and you have a run, you have a rundown meeting where you get all the analysts together. Right at what point do you look at the rundown and realize that Rodney Harrison is going to question Tony Dungee's Hall of Fame vote? Was that one? Was that scripted? That that that was all a rundown?

00:31:53
Speaker 5: It was?

00:31:54
Speaker 11: It was?

00:31:54
Speaker 5: It was.

00:31:55
Speaker 11: It was I think kind of thrown into the rundown. And I'm not privy to all these conversations, but I think it was thrown into the rundown when the Hall of Fame made the most egregiously stupid, tropic thunder decision in the history of their their their their Hall of Fame with not putting Bill Belichick in with the most obvious should be first ballot Hall of Fame or ever. So, then it was like, well, we got to talk about this, and of course Rodney and Devin being from the Patriots and all of that. And then yes, throughout the week, you know, people started to question whether coach Dungee definitely did that and all that. So yeah, I think it kind of came organically and Rodney wanted to question Coach Dungee on that situation. And I didn't get to see the segment in total totality there, but it sounded like it went pretty good, even though Coach Dungee didn't quite answer the question all the way.

00:32:46
Speaker 7: Should he have answered the question?

00:32:49
Speaker 11: Well, you know me, I mean, I'm a big mouth to tell us says everything, So you know, yeah, he should answered the question. I would have liked him for him to answer the guy answering answered by not answering it. He answered it, Yeah, exactly right. I would have called Rodney for targeting. I would have had to flag him on that.

00:33:06
Speaker 4: Well.

00:33:07
Speaker 11: I thought Rodney might go harder, you know, I thought, you know, Rodney, Rodney, as we all know, like Mike Tyson at times, can be like a pitbull on the loose, and you're just like, oh, he's.

00:33:16
Speaker 7: In that mode, watch out.

00:33:17
Speaker 11: And I was kind of hoping the pit bull might get unleash during that interview, but he kept tame there and you know, stayed down leash.

00:33:24
Speaker 2: I guess thanks as always for joining us the entire season. We'll leave you alone for a little while.

00:33:30
Speaker 7: All right, just for a little while.

00:33:32
Speaker 11: You know, we got draft and free agency to talk about, so you know I'll be game for that whenever you're down.

00:33:37
Speaker 7: Thank you, Bud, all right, thank you. Tell those jerks I said, Hi, Hey jerks, he says Hi.

00:33:41
Speaker 2: Chris Sims Pro Football Talk Live co host Football Night America's podcast is Chris Sim's Unbuttoned Play of the Day up next.

00:33:49
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to and live.

00:34:01
Speaker 5: Oh My God.

00:34:02
Speaker 7: The Play of the day.

00:34:05
Speaker 10: My God play.

00:34:08
Speaker 7: This is the play of the day. Ship this out. Clippers find Kawhi looking to be the hero tonight.

00:34:15
Speaker 11: Leonard downa left, Dalley spins at the freaking line right, Otomber for.

00:34:18
Speaker 3: The lead, puts it in went two seconds left.

00:34:21
Speaker 7: Caul why Leonard is lethal?

00:34:24
Speaker 11: Pierre in Houston and the Clippers up for one O four one O two two seconds to play.

00:34:30
Speaker 2: Nineteen of his twenty seven came in the fourth quarter. Kawhi scored at least twenty points and thirty three consecutive games, a career high. Those aren't consecutive games that he's played in, though. That's courtesy of AM five seventy, the Clippers Radio network.

00:34:48
Speaker 7: That's your play of the day.

00:34:50
Speaker 2: Play of the day, brought to you by They've been doing it for over forty years, helping you find the right tires for how and what and where you drive. Ship Fast and Free back by Free Road hadizzard protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation, tire rec dot Com. The way tire buying should be. There's a stat a graphic that's making the rounds this morning. It goes like this. Two thousand and four, the Eagles lost the Super Bowl. Two thousand and five, the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl. Two thousand and six, the Bears lost the Super Bowl. Twenty years later, the twenty twenty four Eagles won the Super Bowl. The twenty twenty five Seahawks won the Super Bowl. The twenty twenty six Bears.

00:35:46
Speaker 3: Why would you think, let's put collectively our salaries on it right now?

00:35:49
Speaker 7: What we let's go pay out on that? Yeah?

00:35:52
Speaker 3: Can we find out the Bears odds of winning the Super Bowl? It just sounds like one hundred percent. We just found them out.

00:35:58
Speaker 7: PAULI you feel good.

00:36:00
Speaker 8: I don't like it, said aloud. I like quiet, simmering hope. If that's a word a phrase.

00:36:08
Speaker 7: Seaton update the poll results, please, that's the best.

00:36:11
Speaker 3: I'm all in. I'm all in on that. I'm a sucker for crap like that. Would you rather a player sixty games for fifteen years or eighty two games for eleven years? Okay, it's basically nine hundred games. One of them's nine hundred and two games, but basically the same thing. Okay, right now, sixty eight percent of the audience would rather eighty two games for eleven wow, over sixty games for fifteen.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: Oh, no way. I want you ready for the postseason. If you say you're going to play sixty but you're gonna be ready to go for the postseason, I'll take that. If I got fourteen years of that, absolutely, you have the Bears odds.

00:36:53
Speaker 8: First of all, I want you tired and banged up and dragging the postseason. Clearly, the Bears odds to win the Super Bowl next year. You can get that for around and Dylan is checking other places. Twenty five to one. Okay, should we throw a grand on it?

00:37:07
Speaker 7: So? What does it?

00:37:08
Speaker 10: So?

00:37:08
Speaker 7: What does that mean?

00:37:08
Speaker 3: If you put a thousand dollars on it, twenty five thousand, you get twenty five thousand dollars, a good chunk of change.

00:37:13
Speaker 2: That's not enough, that's what. Let's put one hundred thousands. Let's put one hundred thousand.

00:37:20
Speaker 7: A nine. You're talking to the wrong room of people. Yeah, that's that's your other group of friends. Vince in Austin, Hi, Vince, what's on your mind today?

00:37:29
Speaker 10: Hey guys, good morning. What an awesome, awesome energy yesterday with my homeboys. Drew Brees. I'm from Austin, Texas. He's from nearby West Lake. He went to Westlex High School. I went to Travis. My freshman OC was Ron Schroeder, who left the next year to go to Westlake. He became a legendary football coach in the state of Texas. He started us doing the four wide, no huddle, the shotgun snap and brog was crazy because we ran the power eye and we had no idea what we were doing. But heck, top man, he represented himself well yesterday and what a great career and getting good to be associated with that man.

00:38:13
Speaker 2: All right, well, thank you, Vince, opening up your scrap book there. I had a long time to tell that story on the show. Yeah, I gotta get an opportunity to tell the four wide and we ran you know, the power eye.

00:38:24
Speaker 7: All right, this is my window right here. Yep, now's my turn. Rich in Chicago. Hi, Rich, what's on your mind?

00:38:31
Speaker 5: Hey Dan? How are you too good?

00:38:32
Speaker 7: Bude?

00:38:33
Speaker 5: Good? Hey? You just CD strawed two days in a row. And I think you're just wrong about His offensive line is ranked twenty seventh in the NFL. He's got no skilled player that's ranked in the top ten in any category. He's got two seconds to throw to nobody open And you guys are just wrong about your assessment.

00:38:55
Speaker 7: This isn't my assessment.

00:38:57
Speaker 2: This is a team has to decide if they are going to do something with him. You saw Drake May got his team to the super Bowl. You're trying to tell me he's got skilled position players. You try to tell me he's got a good offensive line.

00:39:11
Speaker 5: And c J. Stroud they traded away the one of the best left tackles in the NFL and got nothing for him. They got a second round pick and a couple of third round picks. They have paid zero attention to the offense over the last three years.

00:39:24
Speaker 7: Okay, but do you think I'm the only one bringing up CJ. Strouden? Are you going to extend him?

00:39:30
Speaker 5: Absolutely, He's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

00:39:33
Speaker 2: So I'm the only one bringing up Is there a question of extending him?

00:39:38
Speaker 5: You simms? Who's just bad? The one that surprises me is Golick. I think I thought he would know better. But and Darnold is the perfect example. He goes to the Jets, the worst franchise in the history of the NFL, and people are saying he's a bad quarterback. It's like they can't put two and two together.

00:39:57
Speaker 7: The Texans were a playoff team the previous year.

00:40:01
Speaker 5: Tell me the additions they made to their offense besides Stroud.

00:40:05
Speaker 7: Yeah, but why aren't you yelling at the Texans? They they this is malpractice?

00:40:10
Speaker 5: Then Rich the people that you know incorrectly put the blame on c. DE Stroud.

00:40:18
Speaker 7: Well, he does take some blame, don't you think he looked horrible. He couldn't hold onto the football. I mean, those are some of the worst games that we've seen in recent memory for a quarterback. Now you can bring up the offensive line, but he was fumbling the ball. He couldn't hold on to it.

00:40:38
Speaker 5: Listen, he did not play well.

00:40:40
Speaker 7: But to.

00:40:42
Speaker 5: Say that there's some doubt about his future over that.

00:40:45
Speaker 2: Is, so you're going to give him fifty five sixty million dollars a year moving forward?

00:40:50
Speaker 5: Give it to Would you give it to Bryce Young?

00:40:53
Speaker 10: No?

00:40:54
Speaker 5: Comical? Okay, So who else would you give it to? What are they going to do? They're gonna go back into the draft? Is that what you're saying?

00:41:01
Speaker 7: No, maybe you get him for thirty five million.

00:41:04
Speaker 2: Maybe he realizes that he's not getting sixty million and and and maybe you do salvage something here. But am I giving you want to give him sixty million? Go ahead? I wouldn't. I wouldn't give Bryce Young sixty million dollars a year. But that'll be the going rate if you really love him, you think he's a franchise quarterback.

00:41:24
Speaker 7: Hopefully they build around him.

00:41:26
Speaker 5: You pay him what he's worth, and you don't beat people over the head for things that don't that they are out of their control. You're going to leverage him because they've got a crummy offensive line. You're going to leverage his ability to make money because they've got a crumby offensive line.

00:41:39
Speaker 2: Well, you then pay him sixty million. Good luck with that, Rich. I'm glad you're the president of the cj Stround fan club there. This isn't personal, Lane, Yeah, I know. This isn't personal.