The Show Episode 542

NFL News and Notes, NBA Playoff Update, MLB News

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Oh my gosh, host, about time we got back to the football. A bottle time you're back on your show talking about what you love most and what you we all know you like to do is the football. Well, before I get into it, let me tell you guys something. The last, what was it? Last six, seven, eight shows. It's the most downloads we've ever had altogether. So I stirred away from the football, occasionally had a few tidbits here and there. And the show had the most downloads ever. So what's that telling you out there? Not only do people want to hear football on this show, they also want to hear other sports and other things and other takes with the hosts talking about. Now I know it was a lot golf-oriented. We had the uh before the golf trip, we had the golf trip, then we had the masters, and then we kept on talking about the masters. Now, well, that week the host kept on talking about the mask. So we kept on going on and on about certain things. And, you know, it just led to going into other topics, talking about some baseball. And, you know, I got a baseball thing for it at the end to talk about something that I was talking about a few episodes ago. But we're back with a football show. Mostly football. Mostly football. So people don't get too excited when I drift off and talk about what's happening in the NBA playoffs right now. Just for a little bit. I know when last show we had the NBA playoff preview with the host NBA series parlay guarantee. Slow down on that after yesterday's results with one series. Looking great so far today at what's been happening out there. But first, Dexter Lawrence, formerly of the New York Giants, well, a few weeks ago, Dexter Lawrence, who's 28 years old, has already played seven seasons with the New York Giants, currently under contract. Currently.

unknown 3:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Because of his play, because of the way the Giants uh defensive line is and the way he the stats are, and we'll we'll get to those stats in a minute. With him off the field, with him on the field, he wanted a contract. He was asking the Giants to, you know, hey, how about a little more money thrown my way? I'm 28, I got two years left. I want to be with the Giants. So John Harbaugh, who's the new coach of the uh New York Giants, uh, you know, believes that Dexter Lawrence is a valuable asset to the team. He said, let's try to work something out. They went on for a week about contracting. Talks broke down and discontinued. So everybody just assumed that Dexter Lawrence was going to be on a training block. And he was. Because he got traded yesterday. Now, all the talk out there prior to this was well, what is what does Dexter Lawrence want? What can the Giants get in return for him? Because the rumor out there was the Giants were looking for a first-round pick. Now, I don't know what team is going to give a first-round pick for Dexter Lawrence. What foolish team would be out there to give a first-round pick to the New York Giants. Oh, that's right, folks. The Cincinnati Bengals are. The Cincinnati Bengals traded a first round pick to the New York Giants. It happens to be the 10th overall pick in this Thursday's draft. So now the Giants will have the number fifth pick and the number 10th pick. Now, I said prior to what I just said about them trading the pick, I said, well, wait till you hear about Dexter Lawrence's stats with him on the field, with him off the field. This is now there. This is Dexter Lawrence. His career with the Giants. When he's not on the field, and when he's on the field, off the field. Giants defense ranks 32nd in yards per attempt at 8.4. Their success rate with Dexter Lawrence off the field, 31st at 4.1%. They're EPA plus 4.13, number 27th in the number 26 in pass success rate 40% of the time. They're number 23 in pressure rate, 32% of the time. That's what Dexter Lawrence off the field. With Dexter Lawrence on the field, number seven in pass success, number eight in yards per attempt, 6.6. Other teams, average of when Dexter Lawrence is off the field goes down almost a yard and a half when he's not on the field. Their sack right goes from 31st with him off the field to number 9 with him on the field. And their EPA 0.09 comes in at number 10 versus number 27 when he's off the field. So you can see how valuable Dexter Lawrence is. And the Giants tried to keep him, but they just couldn't come to an agreement on a contract extension. So you gotta say, like, well, he's only 28. He's got two more years left. That puts him at 30. What how much more was he asking for? What kind of a contract extension did he want? So you gotta think like a defensive tackle. Who's a big guy like that? Those guys, those guys seem to last into their mid-30s, I would say. Look at the Steelers, Cam Hayward. He's still going at it strong. Look at Vince Woolfort. How long he played potted up that middle. So these defensive tackles, you know, they they have a longer shelf life than you know, most of these guys that go after the quarterback, uh, you know, linebackers chasing down these young guys who are flying with the ball all the time. Defensive tackle who's good, uh, can hog up the middle, stop the run, free up other guys to you know get to the quarterback, because that's what Dexter Lawrence was doing for the New York Giants. They tend to have a little more longevity than most of these defensive players. So, you know, what was Dexter Lawrence looking for? Well, not only did the Bengals give away a first-round pick, they gave Dexter Lawrence an extension. Now you're thinking, whoa, they the Bengals, they must, they must have given him a three or four-year extension on top of the two years, I guess. Oh no. And you're like, well, Dexter Lawrence, excuse me, he probably wanted a five-year extension because that's what he's holding out for. No, he got a one-year $28 million extension. And you're like, that's what he was holding out for? That's what he couldn't come to an agreement with the New York Giants? All he wanted was one more year, added on to the two years left he has on his contract, and at $28 million, that's all he wanted. And the dummy Bengals, okay? Now they get him for three years because they just gave him a one-year extension. So they got him for 26, 27, 28. He's 28. He's 28 years old, and by the time he'll be dumb, he'll be 31. So the Bengals gave up a first-round pick for the use of a player who's good, who's a pro bowler, who has great stats. The Bengals gave up a first-round pick for a player they'll only have for three years. That's it. Now, if they had the tenth pick, I think. They would have had a top ten player. They would have had him for five years. Because the fifth year is, of course, remember, the fifth year is an option in the first round. In the first round, you get a fifth year option. They could have had that player for five years. Now they're paying Dexter Lawrence 20 million in 26, 19.5 in 27, and 28 million in 28. That's around 69, 70 million dollars. So they got a great player, but they could have had at the 10th pick, they could have had a cheaper player. Someone that would have been younger, somebody they could have developed on their team. I I don't know what the desperation here is with the Bengals on the defense. Yes, this draft class isn't heavily defensive tackle driven. There's not a lot of great defensive tackles. And if people, uh the teams ahead of them, they're after a defensive tackle who's good. He ain't gonna fall to the Bengals in case someone wants him ahead of them in the draft. The Bengals let their star pass rusher go in the offseason, Trey Hendrickson. He side with Baltimore. Remember, he was 31. So they traded a number one pick for another star defensive player who's three years younger, and they're giving him 28 million one-year extension. Only the Bengals, right, folks? Some people think it's a great great trade. Some people think it's great. Now, if you're the Bengals, you can't be too happy. Because now the 2026 season cap hits for the Cincinnati Bank. Joe Burrow, $48 million, Jamar Chase, $27 million, T. Higgins, $27 million, Orlando Brown Jr. $20 million. $17 million. And Dexter Warren's cap hit, you know he's getting paid $20 million in cash, but his cap hit for the season is always $16 million. That accounts for $52% of the team's salary going to a total of six. You have 53 men on an NFL roster. 52% of the payroll is now going to six players. That means the other 47 players, you gotta pay the rest. Good luck, Cincinnati. Now, like I said earlier, the Giants pulled the fifth overall pick and the 10th overall pick now in this coming draft. Now the rumor is they're gonna go after a receiver to go along with Malik neighbors to help Jackson Dart out offensively. Now you think with the second other two first-round picks, which are in the top 10, you know they're gonna be going for another defensive player. So they're gonna replace a 28-year-old Pro Bowler with another defensive player to go along with that defense under John Harbaugh. And uh the way the uh Ravens used to draft with John Harbaugh in Baltimore, I'm pretty sure now, uh, not at all about the Giants GM, but John Harbaugh may have a little influence there on who they pick in the draft. He may have a little uh beat in uh Joel Schoen's ear to uh determine whether what guys they pick. So uh John Harbaugh, you know, could guide that Giants team to draft better players than they have in the past. So the Giants could very well upgrade quickly, uh, depending on how those draft picks panned out with having the fifth and tenth pick in the draft. They may be a little more lackluster defensively, because I gave you those stats with the Giants, with Dexter Lawrence on the field and off the field. They may have a little less oomph in their defense. And I'm surprised with John Harbaugh, with John Harbaugh being the defensive coach he is. I'm surprised he let Dexter Lawrence go away and it the Giants didn't pony up and pay him the money. I'm surprised that that that uh that that flew there under John Harbaugh. But hey, they might have a better, they they know more about the team than I do. And they and uh John Harbaugh and Joel Schoen probably have a different uh play in hand when they get to that draft come Thursday night with those two picks in the top 10. Now, speaking of defensive, oh, before I get on to the next thing, I forgot. There's a reason why the Bengals went out and got a Dexter Lawrence. Um opponents TDs allowed in 2025. And this could be a huge reason why the Bengals said, well, we need to do something defensively. Uh number one, opponents TDs allowed in 2029. Well, the Broncos allowed the least, most touchdown defensively. 29. Seahawks, your Super Bowl winner, was second with 31, Vikings at 32, Chiefs at 33, Eagles at 34, Texans, who they just wrapped up one of their star players. We're gonna get to that in a minute here. They came in at 6 with 35, Chargers with 35, 38, Patriots 38, Packers 39, Saints 39, Jaguars 40, Baltimore 42, Pittsburgh 42, Indianapolis, Pick Carolina 42, Browns and Falcons at 43, Niners at 44, Lions at 47, Bears at 49, Buccaneers at 49, Raiders and Giants at 49, Dolphins at 50, Commanders at 52, Titans and Cardinals at 55, 30th, the Jets at 57, the Cowboys at 31st at 59, and the most touchdowns allowed defensively in 2025 with six Cincinnati Bengals. That folks is why Cincinnati went out and got Dexter Lawrence and gave away a first-round pick to get him. Now, Houston, which we just said in that, there were sixth at 35 touchdowns allowed this year. They, this week, folks, extended their star defensive end Will Anderson to a three-year, $150 million extension. That makes him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history, and the dear, and the deal, the deal also includes a hundred and thirty four million dollars guaranteed. So Will Addison, you saw him uh you know down the stretch in those games, uh, were you know bringing Houston back from that awful start last year? You saw that defense tighten up, uh, and they were holding opponents relentlessly on the field last year. You saw it in the playoff game against the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers. You saw them all over Drake May in New England in that division game. They just couldn't uh overcome the CJ Stroud mistakes in that game. Uh this Houston defense is real, and they just paid their top guy big time money at three years, $150 million. Will Anderson is a defensive rookie of the year. He's a two-time pro bowler, first team all pro. He has 30 career sacks, 40, I'm sorry, 30 career sacks, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, 64 quarterback hits in his career. And now Houston sews up their best player on their defense. And boy, you want to talk about a team that spends a lot on their defense. Everybody mocks the Steelers. But man, Houston, they really spent a lot of money on their defense. Hey, and it looks like it looks like a team who spends a lot of money on their defense. So, of course, you know, when you when you've got young players like that and you got a defensive coach and you got a defensive scheme that works, and it's not old and uh tiresome like some other teams we know, uh coach uh resign. And um, you know, works out well, and you're able to pay your top players uh that kind of money. Uh, like I said, the draft, of course, is this Thursday. Uh Francisco Mendoza is going to be the number one pick in this draft. Uh, of course, he's the quarterback on Indiana, led his team to the national championship this year. And the Raiders are the ones who hold the cards right now. They got their first pick. You know they're gonna pick them. Uh, they're gearing up, and it looks like to be like uh he's the best QB in this class, and it looks like there won't be any other great QBs coming out of this class. Uh, you know, Ty Simpson out of Alabama maybe goes to someone in the first round who's desperate, who wants to pull the trigger. No, I do not see the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Tyson. They're the Will Howard kid out of Ohio State. I think Mike McCarthy, whether who knows what the hell Aaron Rodgers is going to do. I think Mike McCarthy rather take a chance and you know pull the strings with Will Howard, uh, if that's the case.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

I don't see the Steelers taking Ty Simpson.

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And I don't know who else in the first round would. And, you know, he only had one year starting at Alabama. Some games were great, some games were okay. You know, they made the playoff, lost. So I just don't see uh Ty Simpson going very high in the first round at all. He may be an early second round pick. And the best part is they uh Francisco Mendoza is not attending the draft in Pittsburgh. He wants to be at home with his family and celebrate getting the phone call from the Raiders being at home. But Ty Simpson is going to the draft. And you got to wonder if the TV Networks, uh ESPN, and uh anybody else is gonna broadcast it there, you gotta wonder if they brought him in on purpose just to keep on showing the camera on him as teams needied team who need a quarterback skip over it. Because you know, they like to create the fake drama on draft night. And you know that when every time a team that needs a quarterback comes up and they draft someone else, you know the camera's gonna go right on Ty Simpson. He's gonna have some goofy face. It's just you know, this this just to create drama that's really not there, knowing that he may not be a pick in the first round. They still want to have him at the draft site and they still want to put a camera on him in the green room just to get his reactions. But uh speaking of this class not being a great QB class, now there's this uh thing going around on the Twitters what QB class is the best all time in a draft? They got five years listed uh with you know quarterbacks that everybody knows. Uh some people will say uh 1983 is the best draft class. That was with uh John Elway, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, and Ken O'Brien. I don't know about Ken O'Brien. Uh Ken O'Brien, of course, played for the Jets. Uh then you had to wait uh almost uh 21 years for the next great draft class of quarterbacks, and that was 2004. Uh that draft class had Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Big Ben, and Matt Schwab. And then you had to wait another uh 14 years uh to get a great draft class, and that was 2018. That class was uh Lebar Jackson, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, and Baker Mayfield. Now, three years ago, would you have said that draft class is good before Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield became better quarterbacks? Would you have said that was a good draft class three years ago? Beyond no, you wouldn't. People are only saying it's a great draft class now because Sam Darnold just won the Super Bowl and has had 28 regular season wins in two seasons, and Baker Mayfield has become a pretty good quarterback for the Captain B Buccaneers. Uh the other two, you know the deal with that. Uh 2020, people say is a great draft class. That of course has Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert, and Jordan Love. Um last time I look at that, uh Justin Herbert and Jordan Love. Well, either is Joshi Boy in Lemar. So I I I don't know. That's just worth it saying. And then the other alleged great uh draft class, uh, people are already saying I think people are getting way too ahead of themselves. Uh uh, the 2024 draft class, of course, that is with the Messiah. Uh Caleb Williams, uh Jaden Daniels, who I don't know, one good year. And uh Drake May, who led New England to the Super Bowl, and of course Bo Knicks, who uh had uh Denver as the uh you know number one seed, but uh got hurt uh uh in that game and couldn't be uh in the AFC Championship game, enabling uh New England to advance to the Super Bowl. So those are the five bad best draft quarterback classes of all time. That's what people are saying. And uh like I said, the 2026 class, that will never be on this because this is Francisco Middle. And who knows what's gonna happen next year with the 27th class, but uh that's what the people are all talking about uh this year is that there won't be a class like those five that I just mentioned. Now, of course, what better way to start off draft week with the memorable New York Dra New York Jets draft blunder montage. Now, I know we played this last year and we had a few laughs with it. You gotta play it again because it's it's just great how the Jets went all these terrible picks in the first round.

SPEAKER_06 26:46

I think it's a good selection, but the most surprising one selection.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

The crowd there was chatting for Ward Sap. That's that's my favorite one. They have all these Jets fans there when the draft was at Radio City Music Hall. They have all these Jets fans screaming for Ward Samp and they take a tight end.

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Take at this point in the time.

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Now you know, right? We've talked about this in the past. Now the NFL plants fans into the stand uh when the when the team goes to pick. And they cheer like crazy no matter who it is, because they don't want any booing like it used to be back then at Radio City Music Hall. They want the people you know cheering their fans out. So they they grab a bunch of people, put the jerseys on, the team that's picking, just so that they can be to have the team representative. And whoever the pick is, the 10 to 12 fans that they grab from the audience to put the jerseys on, all go crazy and act like it's you know, like a great pick. If you pay attention, if you pay attention to this, folks, you'll see the same people two or three times wearing different uniforms. Because they're just paid fans by the NFL to root and cheer for your NFL on. So pay attention to that. If you really want to watch the draft and you really pay attention, pay attention to that because it's great how the the how the NFL throws that into these these, you know, to make it more exciting than it really is. Oh man, that that whole jet montage is great. I love playing that. I should play that every day. Every time we did a show, we should play it. It's great. This is the way the Jets fans react to their picks. That's the guest watching the Jets play every Sunday. That's the noise you hear from his living room every week when he watches a play. Um uh if you case you listened uh to the uh the last episode where we gave our um NBA series parlay guarantee play. Uh if you've been following along already, now I know there's still, I as I record this show here on Sunday afternoon, there's still two more games to go in the opening round of the series. You would say we're in great shape, except for one series, and that's the Lakers in the Rockets. And we got the Rockets winning the series, and I'm not sweating yet, it's only one game. One game. And um Kevin Durant, now I thought it was uh he had his appendix out. That's wrong. That was Joel Lemb who has his appendix out. I was wrong with reading the injury report. Uh Kevin Durant has some kind of lingering knee injury, and he sat out the first game against the Lakers, and the Lakers uh don't have Luca Donc, don't have Austin Reeves, all they got is Libron, and they steamrolled the Rockets in game one. And the Rockets are supposed to have the better team. Well, and a better coach. Well, they didn't look like it uh in that first game. So, uh, you know, and the Lakers are at home, so Rockets still have three games to go at their place. They just gotta win one game in LA, and I'm hoping they can do that. And the Lakers, I'm just hoping that that was a flash in the pan that we saw last night. That was just uh uh a lucky win by the Lakers uh in game one. So you know, moving forward, Luca and Austin Reeves don't play. I I don't I can't see the Lakers winning this year. And Durant's gotta come back. Durant's gotta come back. He said they said he's dated. He's gotta come back. Yo, the Rockets the Rockets traded with Phoenix to get Durant for these kind of games. And he's not gonna play? Kevin Durant's the weirdest, he's had the weirdest NBA career. Hasn't he? Yeah, he's just gonna weird. That's a whole nother topic on a whole another show with that guy. You know, with all the fake Twitter accounts that he goes back and forth with. That's a little crazy. A little crazy. Uh Kevin Durant. But uh Knicks won their game, hard fought game won. Uh tough game, tough uh Knicks guys were playing so hard in that game. Uh they took care of the Hawks in their game. Uh Denver beat Minnesota in their opening game, and uh Cleveland took care of business against Toronto in their opening game. And then today already, Boston blew out Philadelphia and Oklahoma blew out the Suns. Like I said. You know, there's no way uh the Thunder were gonna lose, no matter who they were playing. Golden State, whatever, whoever was gonna win that uh A seed on Friday night that we talked about. I thought Golden State would have gonna pull it off, but nope, it didn't. Phoenix did, but Phoenix is gonna get destroyed anyway. And they got killed today by Oklahoma in the first game. And that's just how that series is gonna go. By the way, the Oklahoma Phoenix series price for the parlay was minus 4,500. That's how much confidence uh people have in the Phoenix Suns pulling that off. Minus 4,500 for an Oklahoma. It's probably minus 6,000 now after that first game ass whipping that they put on him. But uh, you know, that's the uh that's the price you pay by being the A seed and not having a great season. You gotta go up against Oklahoma, which won 64 games, and Oklahoma later went to it. Uh the other series, uh Portland and uh San Antonio, which is uh going on uh tonight, and then the other series Orlando Orlando and Detroit is uh happening also tonight. So I expect the uh pistons and the spurs to both win those games, so we look good. Uh you know, heading into our Monday with those series parlays uh that we gave out. Uh one more thing for you guys on this show. Uh I know I talked about uh a few shows ago complaining about how the Pirates gave uh Connor Griffin a nine-year $140 million deal. And I was like, how come they're giving this guy this kind of a deal nine years $140 million? And he's only he at the time he had only played in what was it, what did I say, five or six games and they gave him that kind of a deal? Meanwhile, I was I was complaining about how Paul Steens, whose kitchen lights out, they won they haven't offered him any deal. And again, just to rephrase myself, again, I don't know what the situation is with the agent and what the team has done or anything like that with that.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

And maybe they're just waiting to get him to play out his first contract with Pittsburgh Pires before they go get the U Jazz deal where they're gonna pay him a boatload of money.

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And maybe it's not Pittsburgh to play a boatload of money, maybe it's the Dodgers, Yankees, or Mets amongst those teams that are willing to pay all teams uh, you know, whatever how much money this guy wants in here in the pitch. But Connor Griffin, I was complaining, got that nine-year $140 million deal. Well, somebody broke it down. So for Connor Griffin, salaries in 2032 and 2033 increase by each in what happens from 26 to 31. So if he's NVP, he gets a million and a half bonus. If he's second or third in NVP voting, he gets 750k bonus. If he's fourth through 10th in MVP voting, he gets another 500k bonus. That only can max out the 2.5 million a year. Now, broken down the way that they pay in him, Connor Griffin gets 1 million in 2026, 2 million in 2027, 4 million in 2028, 6 million in 2029, 12 and a half in 2030, 21 in 2031, 26.5 million in 2032, and then 27.5 million in 2033 and 2034. And as I said, he could make all those other monies and bonuses based on his MVP finish, and they gave him a $12 million signing. So I was complaining that, oh, got nine years, $140 million. Well, he doesn't get all that right away. It's not the the the nine years isn't split evenly amongst $140 million, it's broken down, as I just said. So I think by looking at that deal, that's a great fair deal for Conor Griffin. Being in only five games, considering what he's done so far, and he's accomplished very little so far for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I'm with I'm with how they broke that contract down and how they did the salaries per year. I mean, he's only making 7 million in the first three years of the deal, 26, 27, and 28. Now I know he got the 12 million signing bonus, that's separate. I'm talking salary per year. He's only hitting 7 million of the 140 his first three years. So, you know, very, very smart contract by the Pirates. Kid's gonna have ups and downs, he's gonna learn how to play the game, he's gonna learn the major league pitching, he's gonna learn the major league way. So by not giving him all that money right away, it still makes him, you know, a little uncomfortable and beat with what he's doing out there, but at the same time, it keeps him focused to work towards those escalators that he has in his contract and becoming a better player. So when he gets older and he gets into the 2030s, he's making, you know, decent money per year. So I think that's a good contract for Pittsburgh now that I see the breakdown of it. And I was complaining right away about it. But well, that's all I got for you on this folks show. I appreciate again all the listens. You guys have been great. I don't know how many times I gotta say it. I can't appreciate it more than you know. And I'm gonna keep on coming on here and doing shows for you guys. And I love doing this too. I and I like I've said before many times. I wish I could do this every day for you guys to listen. And uh, you know, it's just this is how it is outside of here uh dealing with uh other uh commitments that I have, you know, of other you know, actually having a job. So uh that's the the the the hard part of uh you know committing and doing this show.

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But as always, you know where to get this show as the host of Steel DF on the Twitter, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, Podcast, and of course Amazon Music.

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And as always, folks, it's nice to be important, but more important to be nice.

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Well, uh, if you're in the background, we're gonna play today, we'll answer it. Hey, Avalanche has their new album, right to go.