NFL Draft Week Headlines Plus Early NBA Playoff Heat

A top-10 draft pick gets flipped for an elite defensive tackle, a pass rusher becomes the highest-paid non-QB in football, and Pittsburgh is still waiting on a quarterback answer that may never come. Draft week doesn’t just reveal who teams want, it exposes what they’re afraid of, and we lean into all of it with real takes and zero patience for front-office nonsense.

We break down the Texans paying Will Anderson like the cornerstone he is and why locking up premium positions early can save you money later. Then we dig into the Dexter Lawrence trade from every angle: why the Giants could not refuse a second top-10 pick, why the Bengals finally acted like a serious contender around Joe Burrow, and what “overpaying” looks like when your defense can’t stop the run. We also hit the Trent Williams extension with the 49ers, the Cowboys turning Brandon Aubrey into a game-changing weapon, and the AJ Brown to Patriots rumors that could reshape both offenses.

After the NFL, we pivot to draft prospect best fits and then sprint into the NBA: play-in drama, Steph Curry turning back the clock, LaMelo Ball’s chaotic night that lit up the timeline, and quick early reactions to the first round of the NBA playoffs. If you’re tracking the NFL Draft, following playoff basketball, or just love sports stories with real stakes, you’ll have plenty to argue with us about.

Subscribe for the draft reaction pod later this week, share the show with a friend, and leave a five-star review if you want more weekly sports chaos. What was the biggest move so far: Bengals trading the pick, Texans paying Will Anderson, or the Steelers waiting on Rodgers?

Transcript

Welcome And Draft Week Hype

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Welcome back to the JB Sports Podcast. Today is Monday, April 20th, and we are back for another pod. April 20th, also known as 420. If you celebrate, you celebrate. Have fun at it. I am not one of those, but it is a funny thing to at least mention because literally I was just looking at my phone at some point today while I was at work or something, and I saw it. I was like, oh yeah, today's that day. So if you if you do if you do uh celebrate, go ahead, listen to the pod, and do what you want to do on a day such as today. But I wanted to make sure what we get on the podcast today, and Jace is not Jace, my co-host slash brother is not not slash, but also brother is not here today. I figured because we're gonna be doing another podcast later on this week, once the draft happens, reacting, reacting to such draft and everything, I figured I can at least come on, talk about some of the like the news that has been happening over the weekend and something some things that have happened last week, and heck today a few kind of things have popped up. So I want to at least get a pod out before the draft, kind of talk about some of the last little news and items before we get to that draft, and then leave everything that happens in the draft and around the draft for us to talk about on Friday or Saturday whenever we can kind of get that in. But we're gonna we are gonna do another podcast this week, pretty much mainly focused on the draft and only the draft. So that's the plan. I'm sorry I didn't get a podcast in last week. I was just getting later on in the week last week. I was thinking about what I wanted to do, and I got a little busy doing a couple other things because you know I'm I'm stupid and dumb and very because here's the thing. I understood like I was so good for so long and so consistent on trying to get a podcast out of a week, and then I've been really bad at it about it as of recently. And during the season we're very good because it's something always happening, so you feel like you're gonna get behind if you don't talk about it. But when it comes to the off-season, at least this off-season for me, it's been a little bit harder to get myself not that I don't want a podcast, I really do, and I but I just want to make sure that there's stuff to talk about. It is not just me or me and Jace kind of rambling on at each other talking about nothing, which again, some points can be very cool and fun of just sitting here shooting the shit and kind of like going back and forth, but I do want to make sure that if we're on here doing a pod and kind of putting one out, that there is some good content to listen to for anybody that has been listening because recent news, we've been getting a bunch of podcast downloads as of recently, like we're over like seven, we're we're like getting close to like eight thousand downloads total for the podcast since its life cycle, and this is like way more recently than over time. And I think over the last like month or two, we've gotten over a thousand downloads, and it's like all for all those things. Uh, for anybody that has listened and has shared our podcast with other people to try to have them listen, I do appreciate you. And all those downloads are definitely helping, and hopefully we can just keep building and building upon that. So, for that also, that also being a reason, I think we had like 300 downloads last month. Um, no, sorry, last week, and we didn't even put out put out a podcast podcast last week. So, for all of those reasons, I want to make sure I thank you guys too before I kind of get into the things I wanted to talk about today, that it's definitely appreciated. I'm happy to see that we have people out there that are willing to like download our podcast and like do the extra things of finding us and sharing and doing all of those things. We definitely love and appreciate it because let's be honest, I don't really have a lot of things in my life that I'm super positive about, like super like not positive, but secure about, right? Like, I have my job, do I like it? No. Do most people like their jobs? No. And for other things that I've talked about in my life, things that I have going on, like when it comes to talking sports, when it comes to like football and like watching this stuff and really having an opinion on this stuff, this is like the one thing that I can truly say that like I not only am proud that I say I I do, I like I really am. I I really am when I do this, I feel at most at home when I'm talking sports and like doing stuff like this, and I feel that most secure too, because I'm just sitting here like there's nothing, there's a lot of people that's willing to go out there and talk a lot of stuff about stuff they don't know about. I'm not one of those people. I'm not willing to sit there and lie or act like I know more than I know about things. And for me, being a normal simpleton, I think I'm relatively smart by comparison to a lot of people in the world. And again, there's a big spectrum out there, so I'm not trying to sit here and say I'm the smartest person in the world or anything, but I think I know a lot about a lot of different things, but do I ever feel secure enough uh enough about stuff to really go off and just talk about it without really without really having an extra thought? No, but sports is one of those things, which is why this stuff comes so naturally to me. So to anybody that gives the time of day to download our podcast, listen to our podcast, and just kind of listen to us talk, talk dumb shit all the time, um, I would definitely appreciate you. And um I'm gonna keep putting in good work to hope I hope I get better at this, hope me and Jace get better at this, to where we can keep building this thing and hopefully more and more people kind of get involved and maybe get to a point where this is my job instead of having to go to a go to go have a you know a normal person job of a nine to five. Again, not that there's anything bad about that, but I just think that talking to the sports thing is a lot more fun. So the more and more people get it get um get hooked onto this and hopefully they like us doing what we're doing, maybe that can change change our lives for it for the better if it does end up being a big enough thing. But until then, I'm gonna go ahead and sit here and keep doing the podcast as per normal, and that includes going on and doing this stuff on draft week, which I honestly I'm not gonna lie, kind of is like Christmas to a sports fan, especially if you're an NFL football fan, because it's just a big week, man. There's so many things going. You have a little bit of hope when you're talking about these teams that are gonna be drafting here soon. You have like all the, especially if you're like a college football fan and an NFL fan, this is like the all-in, all-in-one extravaganza for you, because not only are you gonna see the players, not maybe for your favorite teams, or maybe for all the bigger teams in college football that are big players and that you get to see go and transition into the NFL, which you think to be very talented or not very talented, because there's a lot of people out there that love to hate on players they have watched in college and don't think they're all that good. Again, I'm one of those people too. Um, I have had plenty of players that I've looked at and been like, why are they looked at to be as good as they are as they are or going as high as they are on the draft if they're not that good? Again, there's been plenty of players like that. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but just know there's plenty. And I'm more than happy to be the guy to be on the hater side if I don't think they're actually good. But you get that, and then you also get the if you're an NFL fan, you have your team, and you get to have the hope that whatever player your team drafts can be the player that changes your franchise. Or heck, let's be honest, it doesn't have to be like a total game changer, like a quarterback, but sometimes it's a great corner or great um defensive pass rusher and offensive line lineman to protect your quarterback or wide receiver to help make big plays. So, like, this is like for a football fan that loves both college and NFL, this is like a kid inside of a candy store type of week. And honestly, for a while now, I think for the last couple weeks, it's been like just a big old wait for this day that is coming up on Thursday. So without further ado, let me just go ahead and get to these news stories and stuff uh uh leading up to the draft because let's be honest, it almost felt like it was going to be a bork leading up to this draft because everybody knows who the first overall pick's gonna be in Fernando Mendoza. And it didn't really seem like uh there were and there wasn't a bunch of game-changing players. Like there is some really good Hall of Fame potential players that are coming out in the draft this year, but they're coming out in spots that aren't necessarily viewed as high high value positions. It's safety, it's linebacker, like inside linebacker. Um, it's just not a lot of positions where you're like a lot of flash, and like even the quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, as good as as much as people think he's gonna be a good prospect and he's gonna be the number one pick overall no matter what, to the Raiders, like not everybody sitting here saying he's gonna be the next Andrew Luck. Like, people are like he's the best one that you can get, and he's probably the only quarterback worth being drafted in in the first round. But because of that, he's kind of getting pushed up to where there's really no, like, would Fernando go number one in some of the past drafts that we've looked at as big quarterback drafts? Probably not. So there it there's just not a lot of intrigue around a bunch of different players in this draft because the draft is not really looked at to be as uh what's the word I'm looking for? It's not as um it's uh what's the word? What's the word I'm looking for? I'm not trying to say it's not as exciting, but there's not as many flash positions, flash players at big positions in this year's draft by comparison to others. So again, quarterback being one of them, of course. So it's just this is a draft for the real college, like real football nerds of both college and NFL football. And for me, no matter who the I I I get excited no matter what, because not only for my team do am I a nerd and I want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers go and draft a player that'll help our team and hopefully be a guy that'll change our team's fortunes um in the near future. But I love watching all the storylines, it's like a one, it's probably one of the last remaining reality television shows that's happening in real time, and that it just has all the drama in the world and everything. So I am definitely very excited about what's gonna happen starting this Thursday, and I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of people that are feeling the exact same way. So I know I've been rambling all this first 10 minutes of this podcast, just kind of waxing poetic about sports and greatness and la la la la la. But I'm super excited about what's coming up. So let's get it to the stories I want to talk about here. So this plan for today, I have the topics that I want to talk about for like new stories and stuff. I have 10 players that are coming up in this draft that I want to do best fits for. So I pretty much made it to where, hey, these are the teams that I feel like will be the best fit for these 10 players that I have picked. I don't want to go through a huge long list because it kind of gets boring, but I did pick 10 players that I think would be relatively interesting, just to kind of give like a hey, in a fantasy world where you don't have to worry about the order or anything, where would these players be the best fits or be mostly for I did mostly for the player, not necessarily for the team, but honestly, if it's a good fit for the player, it's gonna be end up being good for the team anyway. But I have the 10 players that I have will be best fits for team-wise, and then from there I want to do go like talk about a little bit of NBA because I've have been watching like pretty much all of the NBA playoff games so far, and I will say when the games are good and competitive, there's not much much else better when it comes to playoff, like when it comes to real like tense moments in sports when you're look talking about playoff basketball. It's been fun. I have to I want to talk about the Lamello thing that happened a couple weeks ago because again, that was a pretty early on, not a couple weeks, but it was like early on last week, the LaMello thing and the Hornets and talk about all that. But I want to talk about how the series have gone so far in the first couple games that are I think it's the first game that's really only happening. I think the second some of the second games are happening tonight um in the NBA uh in the NBA playoffs. But I'll leave that until the end because I do really want to talk football here. So let's go ahead and get to it and not have me ramble on anymore about what I plan on doing. So let's start with the topics that I want to go through first. Uh Houston Texans, I think this is the middle of last week. Houston Texans signed defensive end Will Anderson to a three-year,$150 million extension, making him the highest paid non-QB in NFL history. Honestly, I think it's honestly awesome the fact that they were able to pay him. I think they just said that they were going to give him his fifth year option. I think that was announced that not only for him, but for CJ Stroud as well, that they're doing the fifth-year options on both of those players. That doesn't that the fifth year isn't going into this year, but it would be for next year, right? But here's what I'll say I think everybody kind of knew when they said that they were going to do so, that you have to start you the earlier you get the deals done, the better you're off you're gonna be because it only gets more and more expensive. And the way I look at it is that with CJ not necessarily playing his best at the end of last season in the playoffs, that and Will Anderson being at literally at his best in the playoffs, and really he was going on a tear in the first round of the playoffs, and heck the end of the season going into the first round. What is it, first and second round when they beat the Steelers and then end up losing to the Patriots. Will Anderson was awesome, and people already look at him as like one of the best defensive players in football, if not the best defensive player in football, for the amount of madness. I mean, maybe not the because Miles Garrett exists, because Miles Garrett did, you know, beat the uh he did obtain the sack record last year. So maybe Miles Garrett, notwithstanding, but outside of him, it's looked at as Will Anderson being one of those top guys. So Will Anderson, he definitely earned he's definitely earned the money that he's getting. He's an awesome player. And when honestly, when it comes to this, is like, well, like I said, like I said before, it's it only gets more expensive. And if you sit there and wait on Will Anderson, it's all it's only gonna get more and more and more. And getting it done now just makes it a lot easier for them. And now the only thing they have to wait for is hope that CJ Stroud kind of turns around and he turns into the quarterback that not turns into because he's he I think he already showed in his first year that he can be a guy that can lead that team to great heights, and I think he's done that all three years. He's been to the playoffs all three years that he's been the starter, and they're just hoping that the last couple games that he experienced in this past season in the playoffs aren't going to be a referendum on what he's gonna be the rest of his career and that he can just kind of turn it around and go back to being that player that he was that first year where he was tearing up the NFL. And again, part some of those things that have to go on him when it comes to things he has to fix on his own. But I also think the uh the Texans have to give him a little bit of help by getting him a better offensive line and just kind of and heck, let's be honest, having healthy players around him because there's been so many guys injured, running backs, wide receivers going down like flies, where like he hasn't had consistency in that well in that way, on top of the fact that offensive coordinator, like they he had they they had an offensive coordinator chain from two seasons ago going into this past season, that did not look like it was working out all that well to begin, and then by the end of the season, it looked like it was getting better up until the playoff games where it everything just kind of went haywire for CJ. So Houston, I think, made a great decision by signing Will Anderson because that will, you know, they already know that he's gonna be their guy for their foreseeable future. So signing him now is definitely a huge deal, and getting the money that he's getting, again, right now sounds very expensive. The fact they're giving him that much money. I think they're like 150 million, and I think over 125 of it's fully guaranteed. So, oh sorry, 130 million dollars of that is fully guaranteed. So, like it sounds like a lot of money now, but over the next two, three years, like the defensive ends will only just stack on top of each other, getting more and more and more money. So, two years from now, that money you gave Will Anderson may just look like chump change based off of what guys will end up being paid in front of him, but because it just keeps stacking on top of each other, now it's my turn to get paid the highest amount if you're a player of that caliber. So signing Will Anderson to that deal is a very good idea for the Houston Texans, and I have no bad things to say about that whatsoever. And now their big hope is that CJ Stroud turns into the player they like he ends up being the player they need him, and that he has shown that he can be consistently. And from there, once you have your great quarterback and your great pass rusher, you can kind of build the team out from there because you know you have two Star Worth players on both sides of the football, a la Apache Mahomes, and why am I forgetting the um why am I forgetting the uh why am I forgetting his uh Chris Jones, Apache Mahomes and Chris Jones, like that, like having that combination of great quarterback, great pass rusher for a football team are great building blocks to building out a in a really good NFL NFL football team. So hopefully that'll work out for them, hope out work out for CJ and work out for the Houston Texans, that they can kind of have those building blocks figured out so you can kind of build out the team from there. Uh the next thing I wanted to talk about was the Giants. They made huge news over the weekend. I think this is on Saturday when the news broke. I was with Jason at the time, so which kind of threw add a little bit of uh little bit of hot fire onto this. The Giants traded defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence, to the Cincinnati Bengals for straight up for the 10th pick overall in this Thursday's draft. And then coming off of that, I think that either the day after or two days after, I think it was the day after, I think it was yesterday, um, the news came out that the Bengals were signing Lawrence to a one-year,$28 million extension, keeping him there for at least three years. And this is okay, so which side do I want to start with this? So let's start from the Giants side here, and then I'll get to the Bengals. For the Giants, this makes all the sense in the world because I remember talking about this weeks ago where it the news came out that Dexter Lawrence had formally uh formally asked for the trade because he was looking for an extension. The Giants weren't willing to give it to him, or it was over the last couple years he was looking for an extension, they weren't willing to give it to him for whether the amount of money or what the time framing, who knows whatever that the the um issues were there. But it got to a point where Dexter Lawrence was not happy with it anymore and he wanted to get traded. And this offseason, where he asked for such a trade, you have a new head coach coming in in John Harbaugh, and I think they asked Harbaugh a couple weeks ago about Dexter Lawrence, and Harbaugh waxed poetic about not how not only is he a building block for our team, he's like a a middle, I forget what they what he specifically called him. It was kind of weird the way he said it. But he pretty much made it very clear that hey, Dexter Lawrence is a big uh pillar to our success, our success as a football team. Sorry, I'm a little bit English as heart sometimes. And we want to keep him, we want to make sure we pay him and do all of that. But the rumblings underneath underneath the the main headlines were that things weren't going well there, and some of the contact between Dexter Lawrence and the organization had already soured before Jon Harbaugh even got there. And with all of that, it just made it very clear that Dexter Lawrence did not feel comfortable with the organization um there, whether Jaron Harbaugh was involved or not, and because of that, he won um Dexter Lawrence won it out and didn't matter how much money the Giants would come because again, think about the money that the Cincinnati Bengals gave him at$28 million in a lot for one of the best defensive tackles in football. Like Dexter Lawrence is a top five for sure, if not like I think he's probably like a top two defensive tackle for what he does in the NFL. I think he's a top two defensive tackle, if not number one. But I don't think they're gonna find anybody out there that's gonna say he is not at least a top five defensive tackle. So the money that the Bengals gave him, like the Giants could have easily paid him that type of extension without much of an issue. A one-year extension for$28 million is not necessarily a lot for a player of that caliber. But I just I think it was more about the things outside of money that really pushed Dexter Lawrence to really want to go down this route and be traded away from the Giants. And I think the the Bengals kind of were the I'm not gonna sit here and say that they were the beneficiaries of it because I do think they overpaid. But before I get to that, let me just get to the Giants now, because now without Dexter Lawrence there, they have gotten rid of I'm not gonna sit that no, he is their best defensive lineman on that team, but they do have a bunch of pass rushers on that team that you have to worry about. And yes, are you gonna have to kind of rebuild and like maybe put in new spot new players to kind of fit that mold? Yes, for sure. But I think the Giants feel like because they don't have to pay him that extra money, and with the players that they have in their roster, they feel pretty confident that they can. I'm not gonna sit here and say they're gonna be able. To replace that production one for one, losing Dexter Lawrence from that team. But they have made it clear that hey, we can survive it and make sure that we're still going to be able to be a team to be on the rise even without Dexter Lawrence on that team. So what do they get for making that change and now not having Dexter Lawrence? They now have an extra top 10 pick. Extra top 10 pick. Now not only do they have the number the number five pick in this year, in this upcoming draft on Thursday, they now have the 10th pick overall as well, which is what the Bengals, that was where the Bengals sat in there in the first round. And so now the Giants have two top 10 picks. And let's be honest, John Harbaugh is one of the better coaches in the NFL. So the idea that like you're going to end up being a much better football team after this year when Jarn Harbaugh gets his hands on this team and can kind of mold them to what a real NFL football team looks like. And I think if Jackson Dart keeps making um keeps taking steps forward and the offense, like you're they're going to get Malik Neighbors back, and he he can come back healthy and play very good football this season. On top of the fact they're going to be having much better coaching than what they've been dealing with over the last few years, there's not going to be many times with John Harbaugh as your coach that you're going to have a top 10 pick at all, let alone having two top 10 picks, two picks in the top 10. And I think with that being the case, I think that made it of made it, especially with Dexter Lawrence already making it very clear he didn't want to be there. Once the Bengals came through with a like an over-the-top offer of just straight up giving a 10th overall pick for Dexter Lawrence, I think it made it like it was almost a deal that the Giants couldn't refuse at that point. And now because of that, they get to turn one defensive player into now potentially having two impact players on your team to start from year one and hopefully help your team take the a big step forward going into next season. So I just think from the Giants' perspective, is that they took a player that already did not want to be there, that everybody in the NFL knew they would not want to play for the Giants, and they were able to turn that into a top ten pick overall in this upcoming draft. I think the Giants came out like gangbusters. I think they ran to the fax machine to make sure they got that that whole thing faxed off and got the trade done and ready to go. Because I just think that overall, I think I think this that I think Cincinnati way overpaid because not only did they have to give up that 10th pick overall, but then they had to sign him to the extension again. This extension really wasn't all that steep and wasn't crazy expensive. But the fact that you had to sign him on top of trading for him, it just felt like they overpaid a lot. They should not have like given up a top 10. I think they probably could have given up a second and something else. But giving up the 10th pick overall, I just feel like it was a little bit steep. Um, even I think still Dexter Lawrence is still one of the best players, best defensive tackles in football. But I just feel like it just felt a little rich to me, even if I can't put it into words how exactly I feel that is the case. I just feel like on first blush, you just say, hey, Dexter Lawrence for a top 10 pick, I think most people would look at it like, uh, I get it, but it seems like a lot. So I think I think the Giants are going to be able to make, no matter what they do, whether they get two defensive players or if they make a defense and an offensive player, I think they're gonna be able to get two impact players to add to that team, and I feel like that'll be a very big help to supercharge that rebuild for the Giants that John Harbaugh is now in charge of. So now, without like, let's go ahead and get to the Bangle side of this, which is as to why I think this all happened and what I truly feel about the deal in general from the Bengals' point of view. I think this move was incredibly desperate by the Cincinnati Bengals. And I'll get to what Jace thought here in a bit, but I want to give my thoughts first on this. I think this was an incredibly desperate move by the Bengals to make this move and get Dexter Lawrence in this like I just think it was incredibly desperate, and I feel like they overpaid for getting him. And again, he is an awesome player, top five defensive tackle in football. He's gonna go help them right away, and I feel like this does feel a need for their biggest weakness on that defensive side of the football. It is stopping the run. And the run gashed them all year last year, and it's been gashing them for years. They have not really been able to stop the run for a while on that team. So he feels a need to where even if they were to draft, have that 10th pick overall, they're gonna have to draft somebody that they hope they can turn into a great player to help them out long term. And I just think that they're using that 10th pick and sending it away for a veteran player that is, and he's only 28 years old, he'll be 29 during the season. So, and you're gonna get at least three years of prime Dexter Lawrence to where you don't have to worry about if that player is going to translate or gonna build them up. This player has already proven that he can do it in the NFL and do it at a very high level. Again, he didn't necessarily have a great year last year, but I do think some of the issues with the organization have to be taken into account in that. And we're never truly gonna know everything that goes on with that organization and how much things weren't going well to make him potentially not play as well as he probably could have. But I just think that with what he has shown the NFL, I just feel like you have to give him the benefit of the doubt that now in a situation where he feels like he's been paid, he's wanted, and all those that he's gonna be able to take a big jump and play a lot better next year for the Cincinnati Bengals. And the way I look at it is like I said, the Bengals were incredibly desperate. And I have to give a little bit of a thought to why the Bengals would make this move because the Bengals are not known as an incredibly um, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, aggressive organization when it comes to trading and going to get pieces to add to their team right away and play rather than going and getting the cheap talent that the draft it um offers you a chance to go get. I would say for a long time, the Bengals is like one of those organizations that for a long time that doesn't really play, doesn't really play all that aggressive, they act like they don't make a lot of money and and things like that. And heck, even with Joe Burrow on their team for a while, like think about the Trey Hendrickson thing. Like they kept pushing the Trey Hendrickson, they kept kicking that can down the road over and over and over again because they didn't want to pay the guy up until the point where they can't do it anymore, and he's he walks to go play with the Baltimore Ravens, and now you're gonna have to deal with him twice a year, and he's gonna come sack the suck sack your quarterback because you pissed him off over the last few years and wouldn't pay the guy. And their whole plan with the Hendrickson thing was keep kicking it the can down the road and then get Shamar Stewart in last year's draft and hope he can be the air apparent to Hendrickson, and that didn't happen because Shamar Stewart was not good at all at football. And that has been their philosophy for so long, and now it seems like they're totally changing it up this time around and giving up their top 10 pick that they could have potentially got one of the defensive um star buckeyes from Ohio State. Or they could have gotten one of the other, like they at their 10th spot overall, they could have gotten just the best defensive player available, and it probably would have helped our team. Probably outside of corner, because I think corner there isn't like a superstar corner in this year's draft, I don't think. I think Mansour Dolane is probably looked at as like the best one, but I think he has his issues straight line speed-wise. I think there is no sauce gardener they were gonna get at the 10th pick overall that'll help out their team as of right now. And even at that 10th spot, I don't think there was a defensive tackle that they looked at and was like was gonna be worth that 10th pick overall in general. So if you weren't gonna go offense, or you're not gonna go offensive line, I don't think the Bengals necessarily need to draft another first round offensive lineman, that there weren't a lot of picks for them to go, there weren't a lot of players for them to go get at this spot to where they thought was gonna be able to help their team right away, which is why I think it made very much sense for them to go just turn that 10th pick overall into Dexter Lawrence that they will know will help them right away for the next two, three, four years throughout the rest of that guy's prime. And when I saw this stat that the last time the Bengals, I think it was a stat talking about the last time the Bengals had traded away their first round pick. Traded there first round pick. So this is the first time the Bengals have traded away their first round pick since 1989. This so they have like the Bengals in general, as a business practice for a long time have pretty much made it clear that they're gonna use their own first round pick every single year, no matter what. And now this year, going into another season of Joe Burrow, where I do think that maybe Joe Burrow made it very clear that they have to take a real step forward defensively, and or maybe maybe he'll be willing to like go outside the team and maybe try to go look for another potential place for him to spend the rest of his career because of a lack of support by the organization to really turn that team into a winner, like I think Joe Burrow is worthy of because he's like one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL. So now looking at this spot where now the Bengals have made an incredibly aggressive move to get one of the best defensive players in football, the especially the best one of the best defensive tackles in football, that now I think they're kind of pushing things to a different level where they are really trying to be aggressive and to really fix one of their biggest weaknesses on that team where there wasn't an obvious guy to draft with that 10th overall pick to fix it, right? And I looked at it and I was so down on it when I first started, and the more and more I thought about it, the more I have to kind of give the Bengals some credit that they were able to make an aggressive move, even if it may is not guaranteed to work. Right? It's it's safer, it is you get to kind of sleep better at night if you go and draft a young player that you have the hope in the potential of that player potentially becoming the their best sells for your team to where you can kind of have them be that guy for you, right? But I think it's way more aggressive and way scarier to kind of give away that that lottery ticket opportunity that you have at that 10th pick overall to go get and already heck Dexter Lawrence is already an established player. I'm not saying he is not like he he is a great player in his own right, but you've already seen what that player is at his best, and it's like they're that lottery ticket, even still, even with Dexter Lawrence making making good on what he was supposed to be when he came, when he got drafted, and what he was supposed to be in the NFL, he's made good on that. And I think the Bengals gave up a little bit of that chance to be at the be on the ground floor with a player and build them up to turn them into the player that'll help them for a long time. And you're giving up a little bit of that to kind of get a more already established starter in the NFL that will that has a better chance of helping you right away. And it's just I have to give them credit that they were able to make this move because I just feel like it is aggressive, it is a little bit a little bit scary, but they made the move because they they I maybe they finally got it through their thick skulls that like hey, if we keep fucking around, Joe Burrow will make us find out and he will ask for a trade and he will get out of town. So I do maybe I have to give them a little bit more credit that they're willing to make a drastic move, even if it's not guaranteed to work. And that that's the part where I have to give them a little bit of credit because heck, even me as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, like the the Steelers have played it aggressive at points. I think that was in 20. When was that year that we that Ben got hurt and then we traded our first round pick away for Minka Fitzpatrick? I think that was in let me see here. I think that was in like 2017. 2019. So even the Steelers got aggressive at a point very recently and traded away their first round pick to get Minka Fitzpatrick. Again, totally different can of worms because they traded for him when Ben had already gotten hurt that season, and there was no quarterback to rely upon to kind of think you're gonna be a super a real Super Bowl contender. But even the Steelers got aggressive and like, hey, we can add a great player to our defense and make us a lot better. And even they have done it more recently than the Bengals up until what was that? A couple, yeah, sorry, Saturday, when the Bengals have finally decided to make a move that may not is not fully guaranteed to work. And by work, I'm not saying that there's a chance that Dexter Lawrence won't be a great player for them, but it's not guaranteed to work as in get them a championship. Like this move alone is not guaranteeing the Bengals to get back to where their defense is okay, where and Joe Burrow can just be the great player that he is and lead you to wins. And because of that, that's where I think it gets a little bit scary because I think Dex Lawrence will do what he has to do, but is whether they can build that defense around him to get to a level to where that defense won't be the reason why the Bengals can't the Joe like Joe Burrow can't get into the playoffs and put themselves in positions to win those type of games late in the season. That's where I think that's where I think the Bengals have to be given a tad bit of credit here because I'm I've always been the first person to talk about how unserious of a franchise the Bengals are and how much I think they never take a chance on actually just going for it. Even when they have a player of Joe Burrow's talents, I feel like I've I've been on the record on this podcast talking about how they're wasting what great years of Joe Burrow because they keep fucking around. So if I'm gonna be the person that'd be talking about how they're wasting wasting time and not doing the things they need to do to get after it, then I have to be one of the first people to give them credit for making a move that you know is incredibly ingress incredibly aggressive, but not guaranteed to get them to their ultimate goal. But but in the end term, I do think Dexton Lawrence will make them a much a much better defense because he he literally fits the biggest, the single biggest need for that defense is stopping the run, especially down the middle of the defense, and he is gonna eat up space in the middle of that defensive line to where and heck he'll get after the quarterback a little bit too because I think he can rush the passer a bit when they when he's not covering on running plays. I feel like he can do a lot of things that'll help out your defense a ton. And their secondary isn't all that bad. They put some real draft capital into that secondary, and are they a little thin at run at linebacker? Yeah, probably, but again, they're not they were they were not gonna get Sonny Styles in this year's draft, which I think is another reason why they thought that they weren't gonna be able to, you know, get a guy of that caliber at the 10th pick overall, which is why it made it easier to trade away that pick. So I just think all in all, I have to give the Bengals a lot of credit. So with so let me kind of turn this to where I th what I thought Jace what Jace said when he heard about this trade, because I was I looked it up and then I had to tell him while we were out about this trade, and his first reaction, he wasn't necessarily thrilled. Because his thoughts on this year's draft is that he wanted the Bengals to pretty much take the best defensive player available at the spot that they were at, and he was hoping for either a Sonny Styles, which wasn't gonna happen based off what he did in the combine, or he was hoping for Caleb Caleb Downs to fall to them, which was a possibility, but it's not very likely. Uh at least for me, I at least is what I don't think. I again I am a little bit biased in this fact because of how great Sonny has been for the Buckeyes. But I think all in all, most people were thinking that Caleb Downs is probably gonna go before 10. He probably won't be there by the time the 10th pick comes up. So with that being the case, like that even if I were to tell him that, there is still a chance based off of how things go. Because again, we never know what's gonna happen in the in the draft. Heck, this upcoming draft, the only thing that's a guarantee is that Fernando's being Fernando Mendoza is being picked at number one overall. But outside of that, we don't have a bunch of guarantees about how this thing is gonna go. So I so it would be it was gonna be hard for me in the moment talking to Jace about it, be able to say, hey, those guys aren't gonna fall to you at all. You should be very, you should be more confident about what this is, about how much of a need this feels for you. So I so it'd be very hard for press for me to like try to make that point to him in that moment, right? But I think he was he started off a little bit negative and then he hurt, and then that news on Saturday hadn't came out about the about the actual signing yet of having Dexter Lawrence for now three years instead of the final two years of his current deal, which again in j in like past years the Bengals have not necessarily they've made it they have not done things business-wise that would make you believe that they were going to do the right thing and once they trade for a guy that was looking for a new contract, to then not give him such contract and just say, hey, we're just gonna hold on to you for these next two years and we'll figure it out at some point. They've made like they've made some moves in the past that are very similar to you know what they what would it what it would have looked like if they hadn't signed, if like Dexter Lawrence wasn't gonna be signed, they were just like, hey, we have it for two years, why do we need to give you an extension for anything, right? So without that news coming out, because that news didn't come out until the day after, Jace is like, hey, if we sign him to an extension, I think it'll be a very good deal, but he wasn't necessarily confident that that was gonna happen. And the more he thought about it, he's like, Dex Lawrence is a great player, and I think he fixed he fixes like one of the biggest issues on our defense. Is it gonna to is it gonna make our defense great? Probably not, but I think it does he's he he totally believed that it was it was gonna help in like one of the biggest areas of concern based off the last couple years, and so like the more he thought about it, the better he th he felt about it. And then I sent him the news yesterday about the signing that they got him now having for three years, which will take him take the Bengals mostly through that guy's prime. I think he'll be he's 28 now, he'll end up being 29 during the season, but they'll have him for the next three seasons. That's through most of the guy's prime, and I feel like and it's not necessarily guaranteed that the neck over the next three years he'll do then just fall off a cliff because of the type of player he is, he's just a big body, he's not one of those guys that relies on supreme athleticism. So he may actually age a little bit better as time goes along because he's not necessarily a high-flying defensive tackle, he's more of a space eater that really helps in the run game, which is like kind of gives you an opportunity potentially for him to kind of be better for longer because of the type of player that he is. So I just think all in all, with how things look, I think I feel very good about what the Bengals did, even though it potentially takes away the lottery ticket of the Bengals getting a young, cheap player that they can that can be an all-pro for them for for long term, which again is not necessarily a guarantee based off how drafts go, because draft never goes perfect perfect to plan, right? So I just think maybe they gave up a little bit of that wonder, and I do feel bad for Jace that now in the first round of the draft, he has nothing to look forward to because the Bengals don't have a first round pick now. Like that's the part I feel bad for Jace for. I feel bad that he doesn't get to have that wonder of what can that lottery ticket get me? Because the lottery ticket's been used on somebody else. But again, that uh the 10th pick overall for one of the best defensive tackles in football, I feel like is still very good, but I just feel like it just it doesn't hit the same as getting that dunno dun and then having Roger Goodell go up and announcing the player and then getting super excited or super sad based off of whatever player it you did or did not want them to draft. So that's the part I feel a little bit bad for Jace for. But I think when it comes to actual football on the field, I think this is a very good move for everybody involved. And I do think that for Joe Burrow that is looking forward to some an instant impact on the defensive side of the football to make sure that Joe Burrow doesn't have to score 40 points every week to win football games. Getting Dexter Lawrence from that football team is a is is a huge deal towards me. Making it to where Joe Burrow doesn't have to be perfect. And again, Joe Burrow is very close to perfect a lot of the time. But it's just on those bad days where he throws a couple picks, you would like for the defense to be able to help out a little bit when he's not necessarily at his his top, tip, top form at all times. And adding a player like Dex Lawrence, I think, is a huge step towards that. And I feel like Joe Burrow is a very happy man that they the Bengals managed to do make a move like this. Because I honestly did not have any hope that they would ever make an aggressive move like this at all. Let's go ahead and get on to the next story here. 49ers signed offensive tackle, Trent Williams, to a two-year$50 million extension that keeps him there through the 2027 season. And this is a how old is Trent Williams? I think Trent Williams is 38 years old. Let me make sure. Make sure I'm not crazy here. Trent Williams, he's 38 now, I believe. He's 37. So he's 37 as of right now. This will take him through his year 39 season, so two years from now. And he even at his advanced age, advanced is probably a little bit a little bit crazy to say, but even at his older age, he's still one of the best left tackles in the NFL, and he's proved that on the field, right? But this, I'm not totally like, again,$50 million,$25 million a year. I don't think that's the highest for an offensive tackle, right? Um, top left tackle contracts in the NFL. Is that the top? No, Lermy Tunsil has the highest contract right now. He has an average of$30 million a year. Okay. So Larmy Tunsil's the highest one per year at$30 million. Trent Williams is sitting at around 27 based off of these last couple years that he has left of his contract. So it's not at the tippity top, but it's still not necessarily the like the most expensive out there. He's$3 million off. But here's my issue. How many how many games did Trent Williams play last year? Um Trent Trent Williams. Let's get to the Pro Football reference. I just want to make sure I get the amount of games right because I do feel like he didn't play a lot of games last year. Um he played 16 games. Game started 16. Did he let's see here. 2025. What games did he play? Offensive snaps. I know he played most of last season. Am I crazy? Was it the year before they didn't play a lot? Yeah, so the year year before he didn't play a lot. He didn't so last year he played 16 um 16 games, and then the year before he was he missed weeks 11 through 17. Okay, so last year he played all of his games. Because my main thing with Trent Williams is that he's still he's older, right? It is it is what it is, and he he is still proven when he's out there on the football field, even last year, he's still one of the best left tackles out there. And there hasn't been a little bit of a fall-off when it comes to the player that he is. But again, he started off at such a high level that even with some fall-off, he's still considered one of the best left tackles out there, even at 37 years old. But my only problem is that they keep push, he keep kicking that can down the road, and they have I'm not who knows whether they actually have a left tackle ready to go behind him if there's an injury or something like that. But that is something you have to think about with the age that he's at, and like it, whether you're how long you think he can be that tip-top form when it comes to health-wise form of version of Trent Williams. Like that health is what I think I worry about more than the actual play on the football field, because I think he's proven proven it for so long that he knows what he's doing out there and he's very skilled at the job that he does on the football field. But it's just the health factor is what kind of makes me pause a little bit by giving him the money they're giving him. And it's just he's just an older man, and one injury on that, because again, he is the best lineman on offensive lineman on that team by a landslide. And if he goes off of that, if he doesn't play, that line takes a huge step back because he isn't there. But now with the money they're giving him, they're not gonna go, like maybe they go and pick up a left of a tackle to be either the right tackle or be the tackle and waiting for if that injury does happen. But if they don't, or if they don't have an answer in-house on what happens if Trent Williams gets hurt, like that's a huge deal. And giving a guy like that$25 million a year over the next two years through his age 20s, sorry, his age 38 and 39 season, that is a big that's a potential issue the way I look at it. And again, nobody can necessarily guarantee that injuries will or won't happen, but I think that the older you get in the in the sport of NFL football, the more likely it is to potentially happen. And he is at an age where injuries are going to be very likely to happen. And part of it's luck, but it's just like the older you get, the more likely the luck is to kind of end up on the bad side of it for you. And it's again, he's still he's still a very talented player and he's still awesome even at 37, 38 years old. But it's just can the injuries hold up to where that money is well spent? And that's the question that I have about this. And because again, if he's on the football field, he's one of the best left tackles out there. I'm totally able to like agree with that part, but it's just can you guarantee me that he's gonna play all the games necessary over these next couple years? Like, that's where the question comes in. Next door I want to talk about the Cowboys signed kicker Brendan Aubrey to a four-year deal, averaging seven million dollars a year with twenty million dollars in guarantees. He's the best kicker in the NFL. I think he has the highest contract for a kicker in NFL history with getting having seven million dollars a year on his contract. So, like that is a big deal for the Cowboys because outside of Dak Prescott and that offense doing what they're supposed to do, the next biggest weapon for that team, but I would say Dak Prescott, the wide receivers, of course, but the next biggest weapon is Brandon Aubrey. He makes that he makes their job for the offense so much easier, especially in crunch time, is that imagine being down one point or two points or being down a field goal with not a lot of time left. Instead of having to go, you know, 60 yards down the field, you're starting to feel comfortable at around 50, 51, 52, 53 yards down the field because of how how almost money Brandon Aubrey has been over the past few years kicking long field goals. Again, the accuracy isn't always there, but they do challenge him to hit some very long ones from very far away. That's gonna impact the accuracy in general. But I just think that the fact that they they trust him to hit some of these long field goals that he's been hitting over the past few years is is definitely a huge deal. And because of that, it just makes it very imperative that you keep him in the fold for years to come, especially at his age. Like you have that's a weapon for your team you just can't get rid of. And on top of the fact, you're still kind of rebuilding your defense, and hopefully the this draft will kind of help them and take steps in that fact. But until that defense gets to a point where you feel confident in it, like having a kicker that you feel like you can get some big late field goals with is gonna be a huge deal. Because it's not going to be able to rely on your defense to get any stops anytime soon. So having a kicker you can rely upon, like Brandon Aubrey, where he'll be able to hit some long kicks, but during in shorter distances, he's a lot more accurate and everything. So, like, that's a weapon in and of itself, and having that for the Dallas Cowboys is definitely gonna be a huge deal. So, good job for them getting that deal done with Brandon Aubrey because again, he's the second biggest weapon for that team. So I can't say second because they do have Dak Prescott, George Pickens, and CeeDee Lamb. But outside of those three players, I think Brandon Aubrey is the next most important player on that football team right now. And I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that. I really don't. So good on them to get that deal done with Aubrey, and he Aubrey's gonna be a very rich kicker in the NFL. Very good for him. Next story that I wanted to talk about. It does seem real. Um, the rumored deal between the Eagles and the Patriots for AJ Brown uh seemed to be happening. I think the news it broke again today. I think Adam Schefter came out with a tweet that pretty much said, hey, the rumored deal that everybody was talking about happening post-June 1st between the uh Eagles and the Patriots are is probably definitely gonna happen, but that the deal hasn't been agreed to as of yet. So pretty much news is that hey, the rumor deal hasn't isn't necessarily agreed to, because it really technically can't be until after it's done post-June 1st, because the Eagles are trying to save money on the dead cap hit that it would hit their team with. So until that day happens where they can make the deal official, may even if they have the deal done if right now, they would never be able to tell anybody because they're trying to push that thing off until after June 1st, so they don't have such a big cap hit onto their on um such big such a big dead cap hit on their cap. So it's just like it almost almost like a re um reaffirming that like because I remember talking about this over a month ago, right? Because the rumblings were kind of coming out that this deal is potentially gonna happen, and that but if it did happen, it was gonna be after June 1st, and we and I kind of went went down the rabbit hole and was like, hey, why would you and all of that? And I don't want to necessarily want to go down that road once again um as to explain why I think like some of those dynamics are going on, but I think it is definitely imperative that like definitely important that it has now been pretty much reconfirmed. Because I don't think Adam Shefter's coming out and saying, like giving new life to this story unless he has some real news that this deal is definitely going to happen. Again, the deal has to be agreed to, and we've all seen the whole thing with um Max Crosby where the deal is agreed to and then it isn't because of some because of a failed physical from one side of the team one side of the teams that maybe didn't want the deal to happen after they've had a little bit of an opportunity to kind of rethink it. So like that part still has to be figured out, but it does seem like there is some real momentum to this deal actually ended up happening. And I think for all parties involved, I think the Eagles are done with with AJ Brown and all the antics. I think AJ Brown's done with the Eagles and all the antics they've been doing, trying to protect Jalen Hurts and the offense and kind of making him look look like the bad guy for so long, up until the point where he did become the bad guy because he couldn't keep his own emotions in check, and like he starts doing things outside of his character and like doing things to make him look like the issue when for so long he was just the truth teller for that team that nobody else wanted to be. And I think this helps the Patriots to where because, like, hey, they need a number one receiver to help out their young quarterback in Drake May. And I think AJ Brown can be that big security blanket wide receiver one that they've been looking for. And heck, they had it, they did a good job with with um with Diggs last year as their as their number one corner. I mean, sorry, as their number one wide receiver, but AJ Brown's a much better wide receiver than than Diggs at this point. And being able to add AJ Brown, because he has a big body and because he still has some really good speed, he can get you the big play, he can get you slants. Like he has he opens up your your offense to so many different possibilities, on top of the fact that AJ Brown already has dealt with Mike Vrabel, the head coach for that team before, because Mike Vrabel was the head coach at Tennessee with when AJ Brown was at Tennessee, the team he originally got drafted to. So, like, there it's already so much synergy there that I think it'll be a very easy transition from the eight from AJ Brown to go from the Eagles that have been a pretty much a dumpster fire offensively, to where I think he'll be a lot more comfortable playing with the Patriots, playing with a I would say probably a much better passer of the football as of right now than Jalen Hurts. A more at least a more consistent passer again. He's only done an over one season, he has to do it for more years in just one season for me to say for sure he's better than Jalen Hurts. But again, from what I've seen so far, I think I have a tad more confidence that that Drake May can stay on his his trajectory rather than whatever the fuck is going on with Jalen Hurts and his accuracies and his unwillingness to throw in the middle of the field and all of that other shit. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole once again. But I just think all in all this movie would be better for everybody involved, and it just it just sucks that all this has happened because it like when things look good for the Eagles, it looks so good and it looks so dominant. And now that you're this is like one of those first things of a team kind of getting pieced apart by different things happening, and if this happens, like the Eagles won't be the same team as they were before. Like the Eagles are not gonna come out of this being a better football team without AJ Brown on it. And heck, just because AJ Brown leaves, like not only losing the talent that he is, but that offense is still gonna be an issue that people are gonna have to deal with. Now you're just gonna have one less player complaining about it. But what happens when this offense is still an issue, and then Devontae Smith starts complaining? Are you gonna get are you gonna ship him off too? And again, I do think uh Devontae Smith has been a lot better about being a little quieter about his issues with the offense rather than AJ Brown. But I just think but I have no doubt that Devontae Smith is still is feeling that same type of energy about the offense and how it's been over the last couple years as AJ. He's just been a tad bit better about being a little bit more of a team guy and not necessarily talk taking it to the media every time he has an issue with it. But what happens when that that that guy ain't gone? Like that what happens when that guy that is turned into the truth truck to the truth teller is gone? What if Devontae Smith decides to take on that mantle as well and he ends up being the guy that's gonna be able to that's gonna be willing to air out the locker room if things aren't going the way they need it to go? That's where I think the issues come in. But I don't but just getting rid of AJ Brown is not gonna make you a better football team because he's not there no more. That's not that type, this is not what this situation is. The Eagles are gonna be a worse football team, they're gonna be worse off when it comes to player-wise offensively, but that like that's that's where the biggest thing is, and then on top of the fact that their offense is still gonna be an issue, like their offense is not gonna be fixed because AJ Brown is gone. So if you get rid of your best offensive player and then you don't fix the offensive issues that have been plaguing that team for a while with better offensive talent, how is it gonna look once they once they're less talented and then still have the same issues? It's not gonna be pretty. So I just don't know. It's a it's a weird one, but I just do think that at least it makes I'm happy that this whole saga will be over because for the longest time, literally for the last three years, it's been hey, are they gonna keep or get rid of AJ Brown because he doesn't look happy with the offense again? Like literally, it seems like a every week conversation throughout the NFL football season. And again, it kind of died down a little bit, not after this past season but the season before when the Eagles went on their run to win the Super Bowl, but like outside of that, this has been a storyline for years about the dynamics between AJ Brown, Jalen Hurts in the organization. So, like that that's gonna be it's gonna be one of those things that's like it's a weird one when something like this comes to an end, but it's just it's it's needed, man. Because like this this constant conversation about the that whole saga is definitely very tiring in general. So I just I I think it's gonna be long this move is long overdue for everybody involved, and I think it'll be a very fresh start for both AJ Brown and for both those teams involved where one team's not gonna have to deal with the diva-ness in AJ Brown anymore, and then the other team is more than happy to deal with a little bit of diva if they're getting a player of AJ Brown's caliber. All in all, I think it's a good move. Well, again, I think it depends on how much they give up and the compensation and stuff to get him. That's the part where I think it can make it a little bit iffier on how I feel about this whole thing. But I think as long as the compensation is right, I think this could be a win-win-win move for everybody. Um, and then the last storyline that I wanted to talk give a little bit of uh talk about is the Steelers. Uh I can only laugh because it keeps me from crying. So the news that came out today was that the Steelers have still have not heard anything from Aaron Rodgers about whether he is gonna come back and play for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the next season. Well, let me take a drink while I think about this. So this is again, I knew this was gonna happen. I had a little bit of hope that potentially Aaron Rodgers would be a little bit better and be maybe a tad bit more gracious about giving the Steelers a little bit of grace of telling them whether this deal whether he's gonna come back or not to kind of help them be able to plan for their future with or without him going into next season. But unfortunately, I mean, um Aaron Rodgers still has that in him to where he doesn't give a fuck. And he's more than happy to let the Steelers hang on his every word and hope and pray that he will come back and be the quarterback for this team, because the Steelers can't help themselves but feel like because Aaron Rodgers still is their best chance to be winning football games going into next year, that they are not gonna make any type of backup plan to kind of protect themselves from potentially falling on their flight on their face. If Aaron Rodgers just says no. And that's what pisses me off because the Steelers for the last two seasons, sorry, going into last year and now coming into this year, have put their all their hopes and dreams on Aaron Rodgers, a 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers, to hope that he comes back and is the football is and is the quarterback for our football team. Last year, it worked relatively well. I'm not gonna lie, it he did more than I ever thought he was going to, and there was a lot of issues on this football team to where I don't think he was the main reason why the Steelers didn't get farther in the playoffs. It was our defense, and I think all in all, I think he massed a lot of issues for our offense in the way that it was built, and the lack of talent and all of that. But he's still 42 years old. And the way I look at it is that now you've put yourself on that hook one more time, waiting on Aaron Rodgers to make his triumphant return, but there's still a chance he has a bad day one day and just says, heh, I'm done. I don't want to do this shit. And guess what happens if that happens? We have no other quarterbacks on our roster. I think I think it'll be Will Howard, our sixth-round draft pick from last year. Again, I believe in Will Howard. I think he has a chance to be a potential NFL guy, but that still has to be proven. I'm not sitting here guaranteeing that he'll be an NFL quarterback. And then Mason Rudolph, I think he's still on our team. I think we signed him to a deal to where he's still going to be on our team. But that's our quarterback room. And having picked 21 in this year's draft, with no with it not being a great quarterback draft at all, with only Fernando Mendoza being the best one, being worth the first round pick, and then everybody kind of having whispers about um why am I forgetting the guy's name? Why am I feeding the guy's name? Um hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I have his name here. It's Ty Simpson. With Ty Simpson being like the only kind of like stra like sh what is the word I'm looking for? The only kind of guy holding on by a holding on by the skin of his teeth to potentially being a first-round draft pick himself, and there's like a lot of issues why I don't think he's really worth the first round pick. It's like that, but that's the only guy even talked about as being a potential first-round pick at quarterback outside of Fernando Mendoza. So it is not a great quarterback draft, and the quarterback that would be potentially available for the Steelers, I don't even want them to take. So now, if we're we're hope, we're waiting for Aaron Rodgers once again, man. And I'm just like, why are we putting our seasons on the line on a 42 year old quarterback? And this would be one thing this guy was 35 and still was like close to his prime, but like Aaron Rodgers is not that anymore. Again, he's still. Very good, and I think he's still probably the Steelers' best chance at winning football games next year. But I'm just like, why are we putting all the eggs in that basket? Like that's where my issue is. And especially a 40-something 42-year-old, he can get he can step awkwardly one day. Heck, he got hurt two seasons ago on like the second play of the football game for the New York Jets. And popped an Achilles. Like that's still an option for a guy that age. He like he is not an Iron Man. Like, that's not gonna happen. And again, the whole Tom Brady thing kind of like warped our minds into thinking that a lot of other quarterbacks can do that. But Tom Brady is a one-on-one. The fact that he was able to do keep playing football to 45 years old is not for everybody. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is one of those quarterbacks that's gonna like break that mold like Aaron, like um Tom Brady did. So even if he does say yes and he does come back to the Steelers, but that his season can be over just like that. One bad hit or one him stepping wrong and popping an Achilles or an ACL. Like all those things are still on the table for him, and we're staking our whole season on him. And again, even with him, I don't think we're gonna go win a Super Bowl. But no, the Steelers are gonna keep putting like hanging on to every word for that guy, and we're gonna like put our season, our season in the balance because of it. And that's the part that kills me. I'm just like, I'd be more than happy just to throw out Will Howard out there and say, hey, we're gonna let you take your lumps, we'll figure out if you're the guy, and if you're not, we'll be a bad team, we'll have one of those top draft picks going into next draft and have a chance to go draft our long-term quarterback. But no, that's not gonna be the plan for the Pittsburgh Steelers. We're gonna hope for fucking 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers to come back and save the day. Fuck me, as a Steel Wars fan. Like that fuck me. Fuck me. I just I don't understand I'm I'm in such a bad bad space because of that. Because again, I respect the Steelers, the Steelers organization so much. They're they're don't say never say never mentality. The we're always gonna try to win, we're never gonna take off, take a year off, and like hurt in like and I think to a certain extent they feel like it's a disservice to the fans to be willing to lose for a whole season to kind of put yourself in a better position to build your team out long term. And on one hand, I can respect that, but on the other hand, based off of how the NFL structure is set up, the only way to get the players that'll change your franchise for the long term, especially at the quarterback position, is by having years where you're willing to suck, willing to suck, or just kind of setting it up to where you just have a bad year one year and you can go get the player that'll help reshape your franchise for the next 10 to 15 years, especially at the quarterback position. That's the only way it works. That's the only way it's been working for a long time. Name me the last quarterback that's like looked at as like an all-time great that was that like is like outside of a first-round quarterback. It does, it rarely happens, man. So few and far between. You're talking about the Brock Purdy being the Mr. Irrelevant, becoming the quarterback he's become. But like, let's be honest, would he work on the 31 other football teams outside of the San Francisco 49ers? I don't think he would. Who else are we thinking about here? Who else, like Jalen Hurts being a second round pick? Okay, fine. That's a pretty big one. He was a second-round pick, has won a Super Bowl, and been really good in another Super Bowl, but like he's not looked at as like a but like he's still a very good one, he's much better than what we have at quarterback right now. So it's hard for me to talk a lot of shit. But like, even he isn't necessarily like a guaranteed guy, but like what outside of that, what else? A lot of the quarterbacks that are like real guys in the NFL, they're first round draft picks because quarterbacks, if you have any sort of real talent to you at all in general, they're pushed up to the top. Like all like teams are hot to go get the quarterback of their future, and they they want to make sure they have as many years with that fifth-year option in the first round that you have, like, to make sure that happens. So, like, and I don't think the Steelers are a team that's gonna be able to like go find a gem in the draft and then build him up from the ground up. I just don't think that's what the Steelers' organization is as of right now. And I don't think Mike McCarthy is going to be that quarter, that coach to be able to get a quarterback and build him up that way. Again, maybe Will Howard can be that guy, but I'm like, think about the quarterbacks Mike McCarthy has dealt with. Aaron Fucking Rodgers, like that was a first-round draft pick. That fell to them. Like that that was not a that was not a project. Like that, like it was a very talented quarterback that turned into what he turned into. So don't mind me if I'm not feeling very confident that that Mike McCarthy is going to be able to build up a quarterback from ground up and be able to make him a guy. Like, I'm not feeling great about it. I'm really not. So I just sorry, I just get real frustrated about this whole Steelers thing. So as much as I respect this organization, I love the Steelers organization. They make moves sometimes where I'm just like, it's maddening. And I think most fans are willing to accept that. I think most fans are willing to see through the losing for one season and be like, hey, if you we lose for one year and we can turn our franchise around and get our quarterback of the future and do what we need to do, I think they'd be more than happy to take it, but it's the fucking pride about not wanting to have losing seasons that have like has warped everybody's brains into like making this shit so much harder. I just I just don't know, man. It just sucks. It just sucks. It just sucks. The way they're not willing to just kind of just have one bad season, it'll just it'll do so much good. But they won't do it. Again, I respect it on one hand, but in the other, I fucking hate it. Okay. That's it for all the stories that I want to talk about in today's pod. Um, I have a couple other things I want to talk about here. So I made a list of 10 players of the I already mentioned this before, but I'll re-talk about it again. Best fits for 10 NFL draft prospects that are coming out in this Thursday's draft. Okay. I didn't want to go through a bunch of names, so I just picked 10 and kind of thought it would be the most fun to pick those. So I just want to go through and I want to pick what I think would be the best teams for those teeth for those players to go to to kind of have, you know, a best chance for them to be for them to be successful and for the team to be successful because they're there. Okay. So the teams, the players I have here are Arval Reese, the linebackerslash defensive end from Ohio State. I have Sonny Siles, um, middle lineback from Ohio State. I have David Bailey, who is the defensive end from the from the Texas Tech. Jeremiah Lell, the running back from Notre Dame, Caleb Downs, the safety from Ohio State, Carnell Tate, the wide receiver from Ohio State, Jordan Tyson, the wide receiver from Arizona State, Kenyon Sadiq, the tight end from Oregon, Ruben Bain, the defensive end from Miami, and then Denzel Boston, the wide receiver from the Saints. Again, there is one glaring omission I probably should have included, but Makai Lemon, he's looked at to be a mid-first round draft pick. I just don't think so. And I feel like he has so many downsides as a player. And I think the only team that I think would be a perfect fit for fit for him would be the Rams. But they already have a player like that in Puka Nakua. Why would they pick up another player that Puka Nakua already fits the need of? Like, why would they have two, like, wouldn't you want a different wide receiver that has a different skill set to kind of accentuate them both? That's the reason why I didn't include um Mikhail Lemon in this. So without further ado, let's go ahead and get to the other all these players that I have and get to the best, what I think are their best fits. So I'll start with Arval Reese, who is a linebacker slash defensive end. I think a lot of teams looking at him as a potential pass rusher, get after the pass because of all the different, all the talents that he has, and he's a freaking cyborg. Um, and this is the part that gets me real quick. The people that look at him and say, I'm not sure if he's gonna translate to be a defensive end and really be able to make that transition. But here's my thing is that even if he doesn't make the transition well and he can't be a pass rusher in the NFL, he can still be an amazing off-ball linebacker, which is what I think adds to the guy's floor that'll still be able to give you some pass rush moments like in different um defenses, right? So even if he can't be a full-time defensive end and like be the what everybody thinks he could be a top defensive end one day, but at his worst, he can still be a really good middle line off-ball linebacker that'll that can then get after the passer every once in a while. But I do think he'll be able to make the can transition to defensive end very I do think he'll be able to, and he's such a freak of nature. I think he'll be able to get the job done if he's just given enough reps at it. And because of that, I think his best fit will be to air to the Arizona Cardinals. Not only because I think it'll be a great team to kind of go to there. They have an obvious needed defensive end, but I think that with the quarterbacks he'll have to go after, you're in the NFC West, you're going after um Matthew Stafford, you're going after Sam Darnold, and then you're going after Brock Purdy. Those are guys that have a little bit of athleticism, at least two out of the three have a tad bit of athleticism to them, to where I think and none of them are going to be able to get away from Arvel Reese, and I think he'll be given the spotlight to be able to be that guy, and they're not they don't have a defensive head coach as right now. I think it's more offensive, but I think that he he will have a spot, a spotlight there to go and shine right away. And as long as he keeps making the improvements he needs to to become a pass rusher, I think it'll be a great fit for him to go to Arizona. On top of the fact that I know that he isn't, he does have a chance to go to the Jets, but I just don't want any of these, but especially the Buck guys, to go to the Jets. That's just an awful franchise. Not really ran well. And for a coach that I don't think is going to be there long term. So I just I don't have any of these players going to the Jets. I'm like, I just I don't want any of I wouldn't wish going to the Jets on my worst enemy. That is a terribly run organization that I just think would be a death sentence for a lot of players to go to unless they somehow miraculously turn it around, but I just don't have a lot of confidence in that. So I'm gonna I'm not gonna have any of these players going to the Jets. Next one, I think Sonny Styles, um, lineback, off-ball linebacker, I think his best fit would be going to the New York Giants. I think they have an obvious need there. I don't think they have a lot of diff. I think they have an obvious hole at linebacker that I think he would be a very good fit with. They have a new coach in John Harbaugh that loves defense. And I think that he, Sonny Styles will be able to go there right away and be the leader of that defense. And I think he'll be in a big city. I think he'll have the biggest spotlight to go there and be the absolutely spectacular human and football player that he has been his whole time at Ohio State. And even before that, where everybody was raving about him being a spectacular human and football player when he was in high school and he was like a top five pick, uh a top five uh high school football player as well. So I just think with the Giants, I think he it would be a perfect fit for him defensively. He'll have a defensive-minded head coach that'll allow him to go and be the leader that he's supposed to be, and he'll be on a team that'll like love to accentuate all the things that he can do best. And I think he can pop he can literally absolutely do anything. He can run down your best running back, he can get after the quarterback if they get outside the pocket, he can go play in coverage and try to be in the middle of the field as well and kind of do some good things there, too. So with all the skills that he has, I think the Giants will be a perfect spot for him to go and do what he needs to do in the NFL. Next one, David Bailey, defensive end from Texas Tech. I think Washington would be a perfect spot for him because they have a defensive mind and head coach. They have an obvious needed defensive end to to kind of put a guy in there. And I think I do think David Bailey can I don't think he had necessarily has the ceiling of a guy like Arvell Reese, but I do think if he gets everything right and he has the right coaching, he can be put put in a good spot. I think he can be a very, very, very good pass rusher. And I think he he might be actually be a little bit better from the from the from the from the sorry the from the start. I think he actually might be a better pass rusher right now because I think Arvell Reese does have a little bit of transitioning to do when it comes to trying to build the skills up. I think David Bailey's probably a little bit better. He's gonna be able to start from day one a little bit faster, and I think he'll have a a quicker start in the NFL. But I just think with that, I think Washington's gonna be a perfect spot because they need real defensive help for that football team, and I think David Bailey would be the perfect guy able to kind of fill that need for Washington to get after the passer in that division against Dak Prescott and let's see, Dak Prescott now Malik Woolis. Nope, that's AFC East. Um Dak. It's um why am I forgetting uh his name? Oh no. Dak and then who are the four teams for the NFC East? This is a bad time to start forgetting teams and names all at the same time. This is awful. Um NFC Giants, which is hold on, I suck today at remembering stuff. Um, NFC East teams. God, Jalen Hurts, you have Dak Prescott, and you also have to deal with um why am I forgetting the quarterback's name? Jackson Dart. So those are guys that he'll be able to go after, and they they'll there's gonna be a real need to get after those guys. And I think David Billy would be a perfect fit for Washington. Next one, Jeremiah Love. I think his perfect fit would probably would probably be, I think he has a couple perfect fits where I think he would work at. I think I I pick Tennessee because I they already have a quarterback that I think is gonna be a really like a long-standing quarterback, and you know they can be one of the talented guys for years to come in Cam Ward. But I think he also he probably would probably be a great fit for potentially the Chiefs, but I think they already they already draft they already signed a running back, so the need's not really there. But I think Arizona would be a good fit, and I think the news is recently that the Arizona really might go ahead and take Jeremiah Love to add to that football team. They don't really have a quarterback ready to made and ready to go, but I think adding Jeremiah Love and then potentially getting a quarterback next year would be a huge deal, and then have it kind of kind of have everything around their potential next quarterback, I think would be a very good fit. But I picked Tennessee because the quarterback's already there in Tennessee, and I think that they they're in need of a big weapon. I think he can be the the and not to mention Cam Warwith as athletic as he is and has much of a weapon as he is with his legs as well as his arm. I think adding Jeremiah Love to that would only be a great thing, especially with the fact he can catch the football out of the backfield. He can pass, he can pass block pretty well as well. I think it's gonna be a it'd be it would be a great fit for him in Tennessee. Um yeah, I think it'd be good for everybody overall if he pent with Tennessee, but I think Arizona is also a great option too. And I think as of right now, a lot of people are saying Arizona might be the spot where he ends up going. But uh I think Tennessee would be a good spot too. Next one, Caleb Downs. I also have him as his best fit going to the Giants because now the Giants have two first top, sorry, two first round picks that end up being the top ten. I think there is a chance that this happens. I do think there the better chances that the Giants will probably go defense with their fifth pick overall and then probably go offense with the 10th pick overall, maybe go a wide receiver or an offensive lineman or something like that. So I think that's probably more likely what they do, one defense and one offense. But if they do go two defensive players, and if Caleb Downs drops to them at 10, I think that would be a huge deal to add two great buckeye defenders to that defense and really kind of shure up that team, that defensive side of the football overall, to help out Jackson Dart and make sure he doesn't necessarily have to start off like hot from the get-go in his second year to have a defense be able to make a take a huge step forward and kind of help out Jackson Dart to where he can go still go through his growing pains and kind of get better and get kind of get going with Malik Neighbors as a wide receiver one because again, Jackson Dart played all like every play that he played last year, he didn't play with Malik Neighbors at all either. So I do think it's gonna take a little time for that that um that meshing to kind of happen between those two players. So if you're able to get both Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs to help share up that defense, I think would be a huge deal towards helping them start off fast um from from just from the start in next season. But I don't know, it probably won't happen because I think the Giants might go offensive, like an offense player with that 10th pick 10th pick overall. But I do think it'd be a great fit for two Ohio State defenders to go to both go to the Giants, but I don't think it's gonna happen though. But I would I can I can only dream, right? Next, Carnell Tate. I think his best fit would probably would probably be Kenneth Kansas City. And I hate to say that because I would hate for Patch Mahomes to get another great uh really good player to kind of add and be able to like actually consistently rely on a wide receiver on a week in, week out basis, and I think that's exactly what Carnell Tate would be for him. Again, Carnell Tate is awesome. I've seen him for do this stuff for years. He isn't necessarily a burner, but you don't have to be to be great in the NFL. And if you can kind of go from from literally from day one and have one of the best quarterbacks, no, sorry, the best quarterback in the NFL throwing to you, I think that'll only help your transition go better and better. And I think Carnell going to Kansas City would not only would Patch Mahomes make him great, I think having a consistent wide receiver to help out Patch Mahomes would would be a great fit as well. So I think Carnell Tate going to Kansas City would be a huge deal for him to kind of start start from day one and be able to start running and do very well um in the NFL. Especially with Andy Reid as your play caller, like all those things are kind of in your favor. I think Carnell Tate would destroy over there in Kansas City. Next player. Next player I got is Jordan Tyson. I have wide receiver from the um from Arizona State. I have his best fit being the Rams, and I say that because I think putting him, because I know they have Devontae Smith, and he's gonna be there for like the next year or two, but I think you can add him in as a potential slot receiver, or you can kind of switch them all out. I think Puka Nakua can play the slot and he can play outside as well as Devontae Adams, and then adding him, Jordan Tyson, as a third receiver to kind of add to that rotation, and then be the air apparent for Devontae Smith when he um when he ends up leaving either due to age or wanting to move on to a different team, and or maybe the Rams just don't want to pay the guy anymore what they're gonna end up paying. I think they're paying him a decent amount of money to be there. I think, or let's be honest, if Puka Naku keeps playing around and the Rams just kind of fall out of love with Puka Naku and don't really want to pay him big money to stay there long term, I think Jordan Tyson being there with Matthew Stafford and having a great play caller in Sean McVeigh would be a huge deal. And either he can be your great wide receiver one one day if Pukanakua ends up not being there long term, or he can be an awesome wide receiver two on the other side of Pukunakua. I just think that would be a huge addition onto what Matthew Stafford is as a quarterback and having a great downfield threat that has real speed, real burning speed to him rather than Pukunakua, not necessarily as fast a receiver again, hasn't stopped him from being one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. And then Devontae Smith has never really been the fastest receiver either, but I think that he kind of same like Pukunakua has just made made himself a magician in just getting open and just running very good routes. But adding a guy like Jordan Tyson with the twitch and the creativity after the catch that he has would be a huge add, not to mention the fact Matthew Stafford has not lost anything on his deep balls, so being able to kind of throw like throw over top of the defense with a guy like Jordan Tyson, with the brains of Sean McVay kind of putting things together offensively, would be a great fit, I think, for hit not only Jordan Tyson, but the for for the Rams, honestly. Like that would be a much better fit than having freaking um Makai Lemon, who was literally the exact same player Spukanakua, but not as good. I think it's just a lot better to kind of get a player with different skill set to kind of accentuate everybody. Next player, Kenyon Sadiq, the tight end from Oregon. I have his best for me, what I think his best fit would be to Baltimore. I really do think so. I think Lamar needs another pass catcher that they can rely upon. They still have Mark Andrews as their tight end one, but I don't think he's going to be there much longer. I think a lot like maybe a year or two more. He's already had a really good career so far, but I just think he's getting a little older. He's a little expensive. So I do think that would be nice to have another option once Mark Andrews is done. And on top of the fact that even without Mark Andrews, they like Baltimore loves two tight end sets, and they did lose. Why am I forgetting that tight end's name that they lost? Um why am I forgetting the guy's name? I can't think of it. Um Baltimore Tight end. I forget his name. He was their tight their tight end too for so long, and he was such a big weapon for that Baltimore offense outs on the other side of um of Andrews. And even when Mark Andrews get hurt, I this they literally would just put in Isaiah Likely and he would be just as explosive and a really good downfield receive uh threat from the tight end position. So I think being able to add a guy like Kenyon Sadiq to that offense, not only while they still have Mark Andrews, but to be the air apparent to Mark Andrews once he is done, I think would be a huge addition to that Baltimore offense. And again, I hate to say that because I think that would only make my my job as a Steelers fan much like having to watch the Steelers play against them twice a year would be much harder because I think Kenyon Sadiq is a big play receiver, right, uh big play tight end, ready to happen. Again, do I think he'll be as good as a Brock Bowers from day one, like Brock Bowers has been for the for the Raiders? No, probably not. But I do think because I just I just think Kenyon Sadiq would be a huge matchup issue for any defense that he plays, and being able to add him to be a big weapon for Lamar Jackson in that Baltimore offense would be a would be huge for any defense. Like they would stay up at night having to worry about Kenyon Sadiq and not giving up the big play to him. So he's just a matchup nightmare. I think he'd be great with Baltimore. Next player I have is Ruben Bain. Um I think his best fit would be with the Dallas Cowboys. I just think that from what he did at Miami from the defensive end position, he was a hellraiser. And even with the short arms, which I do think is an issue for that position specifically, but I just think that he proved in the college football that it did he just had the motor that made sure that didn't matter. And I think that as long as he can translate that to the NFL and kind of keep doing what he's doing, I think he'll be able to be a really good pass rusher in the NFL as well, even if I do have those issues with his long with his um the length of his arms and heck the rest of the industry does as well. But everybody, everything that anybody says about him is about the motor that he has and how I think with the talent that he does possess and the strength that he has, is that he'll be able to get through that. And with that, I think Dallas is a really good fit for him because they they have a real need for pass rushers, especially from the defensive end spot. And I think he'd be able to literally plop in from day one and be able to cause some real hell for all the offense that the Cowboys are going to have to face. And let's be honest, the Cowboys defense was their biggest issue last year, and being able to add a pass rusher to kind of get after the quarterback would be a huge help to not giving up a ton of points like they did last year. So I think that'd be a very good fit for Ruben Bain and for the Dallas Cowboys. And then last but not least, I put Denzel Boston as like the last one I want to make a fit for. I think he'd be a great fit for the Saints. I know that they have a top 10 pick, and I think that maybe they have a real chance to go pick one of those other wide receivers that I've already talked about, either Carnell Tate or um or Jordan Tyson. Maybe they have an opportunity to take one of those guys when they have their pick in the top ten. But, you know, because I have both those guys going to different potentially great fits for different teams, I think Denzel Boston being the big bodied wide receiver that he is, I think he'd be a great fit for the Saints offense. They have their quarterback, I believe, in Tyler Shuck. They have a wide receiver one in uh Chris Olave. And I think, and they have a real opening at wide receiver two on the other side of him. And I think Denzel Boston being a big body wide receiver that still has some really good speed, I think would be a very good complement to what Chris Olave is. And heck, even if Chris Olave can't be a number one wide wide receiver for them long term, and Denzel Boston takes that spot, that makes Chris Olave a great wide receiver too to put on the other side of Denzel Boston. I feel like those two kind of skill sets really do kind of play off each other very well, and especially now that they have a quarterback I think they can really believe in and um in Shuck, I think that would be a very good fit for Denzel Boston. I really do. And I just feel like that would be a very good fit um for both the the Saints, who definitely need more pass catchers since they uh traded away. Who was it they traded away? It was what was his name? Why am I forgetting his name now? He went to the he went to the uh they traded him to Seattle, right? Rashid Shahid. Yes. Um they traded away Rasheed Shahid to the to Seattle in the middle of the season. Again, good for him. He ended up going to win the Super Bowl, but that leaves a real opening on the other side of Chris Olave, and I think Denzel Boston will be a pretty good fit there. So those are the 10 players that I picked um in order to do the best fits that I think would work for all of those players. I think that's a pretty good list. I'm not sitting here saying that I'm a draft expert or anything, but I listen to a lot of things and um I'm I do a lot of research myself, and I feel like I just have so much fun doing this draft stuff, and I'm so excited for this Thursday's draft, even if it doesn't really have like a lot of the crazy quarterback names to rely upon or anything. I'm gonna have so much fun watching it. And I'm a guy that watches the first round. Literally, I will watch the whole first round no matter how long it takes. I'll watch um day two on Friday, both the second and third round. I'll watch all of that as well. And heck, going in even going into Saturday when they do the fourth through seventh um round picks, I'll keep track. I'm gonna again I'm not sitting here watching on television, just um watching all the picks go through. I'll probably do some other stuff, but I'll have it playing on in the background. I'll have it on my phone, I'll be keeping track because I not only want to see what the Steelers do, but I I love watching the rest of the teams make their moves as well. And there's like so much movement and trades and all of that. I have so much fun watching it all. And again, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably feel the same way. So um I can't wait for the draft to happen. I know you guys can't wait either. And uh I just can't wait. It's gonna be so much fun. It's gonna be a lot of fun watching this draft this year. Because there's not a lot of like guarantees in this draft, I feel like it makes it that much crazier because you just don't know where things are gonna go. It just makes it there's a real chance for so many other things to happen and like kind of change the way that the trajectory of this draft is gonna go. I'm just very excited for the unknown in this one. I really am. Alright. So now that I'm done talking about all the NFL and all the draft stuff I wanted to talk about, let me get to some of the NBA topics I wanted to talk about here because it's just is what it is. NBA bat like NBA playoffs are here, and I let me talk, let me start with this by talking about the Lamella ball of this all of it all, right? So early last week, if not late in the week, le late in the week, the week before, right? You have the the play-in stuff happening where that whole thing is happening between the 7, 8, 9, and 10, and they're kind of playing through and all of that. And let me see, for the eastern side, it was the Hornets on that for in that first game, it was the Hornets playing the Hold on, let me get to it. Let me see here. So the playing games were let's see here. Orlando and Philadelphia in the that was the 7-8 in the Westerns conference, and then it was the Golden State and the Clippers in the 9-10, right? So before I get to Lil Mellaball, I'll talk about those two games. I don't really want to take long on any of these because I kind of have a I want to talk about the actual playoffs that are happening right now. Um Orlando and Philadelphia. Philadelphia destroyed Orlando. Orlando didn't look great in that first game, um, Palo Vencero didn't play great, and it was like it was one of those things where like, did does Orlando even want to be here because of how bad they played? And this is on top of the fact that Orlando lost their very last game of their season to where they could have not been in the plane at all, and they lost that game and and kind of got knocked down to having to play in this plane in general, especially when most of the season Orlando looked very good, and Paolo looked like to be was playing much better basketball. And in that game against Philadelphia, it just did not look that way, and Paolo didn't look great, and the offense didn't look good at all. So it definitely changed up how everybody was thinking about Orlando. It's like, hey, can they like can they get knocked out of those playoffs altogether because of how bad they're playing and how bad Paolo looked? And Philadelphia played great, Tyres Max did what they had to do, but it just it just felt like Orlando was definitely not playing up to what they were supposed to be, right? Um in that second game, the second play-in game for Golden State and in the Clippers, Golden State had an awesome night. I think that was like the last game we'll probably see of Steph Curry, Draymond, and Steve Kerr all together. There was news coming out of that that that may be Steve Kerr's last game coaching for the Golden State Warriors, and who knows what's going to happen after this season. Because Curry played awesome. I think he had like 35 in that game, and he was hitting three. I think he had like seven threes in that game. He was playing great. It was really throwback Steph Curry. And I'll have to give Draymond a little bit of credit here, too, is that he turned back the clock as well, and he really locked down Kawhi in that late third and the fourth quarter to where Kawhi was sitting at like 19 points by the end of the game, and he had 19 points to like three quarters and then well like three and a half quarters. Sorry, yeah, and then Draymond said, No, you're not getting any more. And Draymond really did lock up Kawhi, and Kawhi had been playing his best basketball basketball he's played in years. So I have to give a lot of credit to both Draymond and Steph Curry for really turning back the clock and like really showing the I hate this sounds really cheesy when you say it, but like heart of a champion. And Steph Curry and Draymond really did show of that, and like they showed out in that game and knocked the Clippers out of the playoffs. And Golden State just played awesome. And it feels it really did give like the Steph Curry, it really did reaffirm how much Steph Curry is like amongst all the players in the NBA right now. If you had to pick a player, if you had to like say, hey, if I have one ticket I want to go buy to watch this player play at their best, Steph Curry's that one because he just plays so different, and watching him shoot us shoot the threes that he shoots and how magical it looks, it is like the hottest ticket I can think of buying right now amongst all the NBA players going. And maybe maybe Wemby, but pretty high up there because of how much of an alien that he is. But Steph Curry, man, it just looks different when he's playing at a high level, and he showed that in that game against the Clippers. And it really did give like people like a little bit of nostalgia for like how great Golden State was at its best and how great Seth Curry can still be. Again, he's a little bit, he's 38 years old, so it's not like he can do that all the time, but when he does access it, he can look as great, he can literally be look like he has played his best basketball yet. But it was just it was a very fun game watching them kind of knock out the clippers from the from the playoff play-ins altogether. And then on the eastern side, the 7-8 game was it was Charlotte and Orlando. No, it because the game before that was the was the 9-10 games, right? Yeah, Charlotte and Miami was the 9-10 9-10 game. Miami playing at Charlotte, right? Sorry, I I missed, I messed up on that whole thing. But the nine, the 9-10 game for the Eastern Conference was Charlotte and Miami, okay? And this is the game that kind of started off a whole bunch of madness based off how this game went. Charlotte, I think for the last half of this season, I found found Charlotte to be a very fun team to watch play on a night in, night out basis. They shoot a bunch of threes. LaMella Ball, as much as he looks so I'm not gonna say carefree, he looks like nonchalant playing basketball out there. He doesn't really focus on defense a lot. He shoots a lot of threes off one foot. He is not a very serious player, and I think that's a very I feel like that's a very safe thing to say because of how he's been throughout his NBA career so far, six years in. Been very unserious, doesn't really make a lot of winning plays all the time. But I just think that adding um Con Kanipple, who's such a great buttoned-up player, and um who am I feeling forgetting the other player's name? Um the other player on their squad. I'm forgetting um hold on here. I'm trying to remember who the who the uh Brandon Miller, who is another good player. I think he's an all-star, I think he's a potential all-star at some point. Another great offensive player that is like it's a good all-around NBA player. Um those three together, especially in the second half of the year, were playing very good basketball. Very fun basketball to watch in game. And now getting this game in Miami where I'm like, okay, I want to watch Miami and them play. I was rooting for Charlotte because I'm like, Charlotte's just a very fun team to watch. And as much as I think Miami has like a team that's like just knows how to win basketball games, they play very smart, but it's just like it's not as fun watching them as Charlotte. So I went into that game, like, hey, I want to see Charlotte, and maybe if they can go on a run here, maybe they can just play some really good at playoff basketball, and I can just have fun watching them, right? And either you have this game play out, and very early on in the game, I think it was like in this first quarter or something like that, Lamella ball goes down, thinks he gets hit in the head, and then kind of goes, comes up and grabs Bam's ankle and kind of whips um takes Bam's foot feet out from under him, and he ends up getting hurt, and Bam actually end up ends up leaving the game and not playing the rest of the game, but he thinks it had like a back injury or something like that based off Lamelo doing it. And it was very obvious Lamelo did it on purpose, and he after the game they asked him about it, and he kind of played off like, oh, I got hit in the head and I didn't know what I was doing and all that. But I think it was very obvious that Lamelo Ball did what he did and he knew what he was doing by taking Bam Bam's feet out from under him. And it just kind of gives another another reason for people to not like Lamello Ball because he's been such an unserious player throughout his NBA career so far. But it but even being as unserious as he is, he's still a very fun player to watch. And when it comes to talent, he has all of it. He has very he's a very good passer, he can shoot, he can um has length. Like when it comes to being as unserious as he is on the basketball court, he shouldn't be because when it comes to the talents that he has, he has the talent, he has the length, he can shoot, like every he has everything you need to be a very good player in the NBA, if not potentially a Hall of Famer one day if he does the things he needs to do to get there, right? But he hasn't really made that, he really hasn't really made that a reality up to this point in his career. And now doing that with Bam and hurting him and taking him out of the game by doing what he did, it just gave another people a lot of other more reasons to kind of hate on um on ball, and it's just like he kind of earned it, right? And that's the part that kills me with it because I'm sitting there like even after that, because after that, it was he missed a bunch of threes in that game, he was taking terrible shots, and with how good Charlotte the rest of Charlotte's team was playing when it came to why am I forgetting names here? Um in that game, Con Knick Knippel didn't do anything in that game, he scored six points, he was two for twelve from the floor. But you had guys like Brandon Miller play very well, he had 23 points, and then Diobate, their center, had 14 rebounds, and um Kobe White had an amazing game. He had 19 points, five of eight from three, including like a game, um, a game tying three at the end of the game to take it to overtime. And even with all the madness in that game where Lamella Doll did Lamella Ball didn't shoot the ball that well, he went two of 16 from three. I think that's the record for most three-pointers missed in a playoff game of in NBA history. And he still had 30 points, though, with all that being the case. He's still at 30 points and he's hit the game-winning shot and at the end of overtime, but that was on the heels of him making a dumb play and getting the ball turned over and allowing Miami to hit the game, hit the um what was it? He ended up hitting a three to lead the uh to take the lead, and then sorry, he fouled sorry, he fouled um Tyler Hero on a three-point attempt to allow Hero to go to the line and hit a couple field hip hit a couple few free throws to take the lead, to where then Lamelo had to come back and hit the two-pointer to win the game. So it's just like all these things, and it's just such unserious basketball. But at the end of the day, it's still very fun to watch. And I'm sitting here like, I was happy that Lamelo Ball made the plays to win, ended up making the play to win the game, even if he made so many bad ones to get them to a point where they were going to potentially lose it. And and people called him a clown after that on television and all that, Nick Wright, and I feel like clown is a potential something that he has earned, even though I think it's a little harsh, but I think that he he's made it, he's made it very unclear, he made it very clear he has not been a serious player throughout his NBA career so far. And in that game, he was unserious of a player, and he hurt one of the more liked players in the NBA in Bam Atabayo by doing something very dirty looking in general, right? And coming out of that game, there was all the talk about whether he was dirty and whether you should be getting he should get suspended or fined and all that. He ended up just getting fined, but I was really hoping coming off of that they would like he would just like get the point and play a lot better and have to play just a little bit, just a little bit better, like get a chance to even through all that, I still want him to have the chance to take have the taste of playing high let high leverage basketball to where maybe it'll make him want to become a more serious player because he's tasted what real basketball, real stakes is like, and maybe he'll want to make a change to kind of be able to do that a lot more often. Um, so before I get to what that happened in the next round of that play-in, the 7-8 game on the west side, it was Portland and Phoenix playing. Portland beat Phoenix in that first play-in game, and I think it was Denny Adviha, who was had 41 points in that game. He's a bucket, man, and he was awesome. He played out played, he outplayed everybody on that Phoenix squad, and he played very good. But um, but yeah, that that game just it was competitive, but it just was it was a very actually both of those games were very good, and I feel like did did give the play-in a little bit of juice because honestly, up to this point, it wasn't a lot of very competitive games happening in the play-in, but then all of all these play-in games, you had three very competitive games in general, right? So I think Adam Silver, when he looked at these play-in games this year, ended up being very good matchups that played some very good compelling basketball to watch. So I do think the play-in ended up being a very good product this year in comparison to past years where it wasn't a lot of competitive basketball being played amongst the seven, eight, nine, ten seeds trying to vie in to get into the playoffs. So then getting the next round of the play in, you had Charlotte playing Orlando. Charlotte got blown out, the game wasn't competitive, and it just kind of sucks. Lamal Lamilla Ball didn't play well, and he was making take there's a lot of turnovers. I think there was like they had like 20 something turnovers. In this game, it was just very obvious that the Hornets were not good enough as a basketball team against Orlando Magic. And Pala Benquero coming off that first game in the play where he did not play all that well, came into this game very serious, and they just came in and took care of business from from Lily from the start of the game on. And Charlotte just could not get out of the hole that they kind of dug themselves in. Orlando, it was the first quarter. Orlando had 38 points to Charlotte 16, and it was just Orlando never looked back. And Orlando was a better basketball team that day, and it was wasn't a competitive game whatsoever. But I hope for LaMelo Ball's sake and for that Charlotte team's sake that LaMelo learns to grow up on the basketball court. Because if he does and make some real strides on kind of tapping into that talent that he has, I think Charlotte can be a very viable, like competitive team from here on out. I really do think so. But it's just until he does that, or until he ends up going somewhere else and they get somebody else for him, they're never going to reach that height. But I do think Lamilla Ball does have real talent inside of him. I just think he needs to access that and to try to grow up a little bit. And I do think they can make some real strides as a basketball team if he kind of takes those next steps in growing up on the basketball court. And then that in the playing the eighth seed game between Golden State and Phoenix, it seemed like Golden State kind of shot their last shot in that game against the against the Clippers. And just Phoenix kind of came out there, bullied them, game wasn't close. Jalen Green was awesome and had like 36 points. Like Phoenix just was a better basketball team. Golden State has kind of been flying on by the seat of their pants all year long, and they had that one last kind of hurrah from Steph Curry, but he just wasn't able to kind of put on the same type of effort to kind of get them to a point where they could have a chance to win this basketball game against Phoenix. Um, but you know, and I think after the after that game, it like uh Steph, Draymond, and Steve Kerr kind of came together and kind of like thanked each other, and it was a kind of like Kumbaya moment where Steve Kerr's like, I'm not sure what's gonna happen after this, but he's like he's like, I love you guys and all that, yeah. I appreciate you. And it kind of made it seem like there was a chance Steve Kerr won't be their coach long term, and on top of that, who knows what the future holds for a guy like Draymond if he's gonna be with Golden State long term or even Steph. Like, again, maybe Steph wants to go somewhere else, but again, I don't think it's gonna happen. I think Steph's gonna be a one jersey type of guy. Um, I think Golden State's gonna make sure of that. So, like, it seemed like an end of an era when it comes to the Golden State Warriors and Steph Draymond and Steve Kerr. Um, that part kind of sucked. But I think when it came to the basketball, I just feel like it was right that Phoenix beat them in that game. It was, it was how how it needed to go. So, from there, you go into the actual playoffs that have happened so far. I think there's been two games, sorry, one game for each matchup so far, and then you have a cut three games happening today that are like the second games of those matchups. And let me just I just want to kind of give a little bit of thought to these real quick before I get out of here. Um, you have the games that happened on Saturday, you had Toronto and Cleveland at playing at Cleveland. Cleveland won that game 126 to 113. I think Cleveland's just a better basketball team. You had decent play from James Harden in the playoffs, which is kind of surprising for me to see. He played very well. Um, but I think overall um Donovan Mitchell really was the engine for that Cleveland team. And I think that Toronto just doesn't have the talent to be able to match up with Cleveland and play, like play with them on a game-in-game out basis. I'm not sitting here saying that that game's gonna go four or five or anything like that. I think Toronto can make things tough because of their length, but I just don't think they have the offensive firepower to keep up with Cleveland for a whole series. So I do think Cleveland's probably gonna win that series, and I think it kind of showed that how different those two teams are between them. Even with Cleveland not necessarily playing the greatest of defense, I just don't think Toronto's gonna be able to take take advantage of that. So I think Cleveland's probably gonna be able to win that series. Um, even if Toronto can make it a little tough and maybe win a game or two to make the series a little bit longer than probably it should be. That next game on Saturday was Minnesota at Denver. You had um Denver winning that game 116 to 105. That game wasn't all that competitive. I think Denver took control of that game very early on. And as much as every time Minnesota felt like they were trying to get back into it and kind of like really try to score and get back in it, Denver just made another run. Um Jokic had a triple-double in that game. Uh Jamal Murray had 30 points in that game. And it just feels like if Anthony Edwards is not going to play otherworldly type of basketball, I just don't think Minnesota has the has the horses to keep up with the way that Jokic is playing right now on top of Murray. And I think this Denver team, I think is the best it's been ever since their championship. I think this team is better than the team that won the championship because they have so many different guys around Jokic to shoot the f shoot the basketball and play some really good defense. And Aaron Gordon is back and playing good basketball as well. So if, like I said, if Anthony Edwards is not going to turn into the next Michael Jordan and come out and just like play with his hair on fire and be like play like the best player in basketball, I just don't think Minnesota has enough to deal with what Denver is as of right now. On top of the fact that, you know, the other guys that Edwards has around him didn't really play that well in that first game either. Randall didn't play all that great, and Ruigo Bear actually played some pretty decent minutes for them. Um, but again, he just can't keep up with Jokic, man. And I just don't think they have an answer for the way Jokic plays and runs that Denver offense. So I I think all in all, Denver's probably gonna win this series in six, if I had to guess. Um, I just don't think they're gonna have a lot of issues because I think Denver with Jokic is playing very good basketball right now, and they they are a real problem for a lot of teams in the West. I think anybody other than I think Denver does have a little bit of a um an Oklahoma City issue, and I do think that's gonna be an issue for Denver if they end up meeting Oklahoma City because I think that Oklahoma City knows how to play them, and I think they're a real matchup issue for them. But outside of that, Denver is probably the best team in the West outside of them. Because I just don't think the San Antonio and Wemby has enough to beat them in a seven-game series as of right now. Again, that probably will change here in the next couple years, but as of right now, I think Denver would beat San Antonio in a seven-game series. So I think Denver is probably the second best team in the West as of right now. In at least left in the playoffs, of course. The next game that happened on Saturday was Atlanta and the New York Knicks. New York Knicks won that game 113 and 102. It was pretty competitive throughout it until the New York Knicks kind of pulled away there in the second half. Um, but I think this is gonna be a competitive series, honestly. I think as long as um Jalen Johnson, I think Jalen Johnson, right? That's who it is. Yeah, if Jalen Johnson can kind of figure things out and kind of be the dominant player that he's been with the Hawks all season long, I do think if he turns it on, he can make this Atlanta Hawks team an issue for the Knicks in a seven-game series. But until then, the Knicks just have a little bit too much when it comes to Jalen Brunson. I think they the game slows down to where Brunson can kind of take over the game a little bit more often than he can in the regular season. And the Knicks have a lot of size, and heck, let's be honest, the Knicks won that game and Kat really didn't play all that well. So if Kat can kind of figure things out and kind of get jumped back in and play some decent basketball, I think it puts the Knicks even that much more ahead of the Hawks. But you know, I think the Knicks are probably the much better team. And even though I think Jalen Johnson and the Hawks can make it a little bit more competitive, I think I probably lean towards the Knicks kind of finishing off that series in like five, five or six if the Hawks can't kind of figure some things out. And then the last game on Saturday, it was Houston at the um LA Lakers. And this game was a little bit weird because going into it, I think most teams kind of looked at as like LeBron's by himself. There's no Luca, no um WF, uh no, no, no, no, no. Why am I getting his name now? Austin Reeves, Austin Reeves. And no, no, those two players, they're literally two of their top three players are not there for the LA Lakers. And Houston's coming in, they've been playing a lot better as of recently. KD's been playing on a tear, and everybody's like, okay, well, if the re the Lakers don't have everybody they have, they don't have Luca, their best player, they don't have Austin Reeves, their third best player on that team. So how are the Lakers going to be able to win this series without those two players? And then the first thing that right before this game, it is announced that KD can't play the first game because he hit his knee in practice a couple days prior, and he wasn't able to go in this game and be able to play healthy, at least what the what Houston said. And the Lakers went out and won that game 107-98 from from Houston, right? Powered by Luke Kennard having 27 points, and LeBron didn't even have to play all that well for the Laker the Lakers to win. But here's the thing Houston without KD, they really don't have any sort of identity offensively. And I just think that even with even without KD in that game, the game was a lot closer than it needed, than it should have been. If you have LeBron as the best player on that floor with the rest of the LA Lakers, the game was still very close, much closer than what everybody thought it would be without KD in there. And I don't know, man. Again, if they if the Houston can't get KD back in the next game or two, I think this does make this this series a lot more interesting. But if they can manage to get KD back and he can play relatively he can he can be relatively healthy and play well, I think Houston should be able to win this series. But the longer this goes, if Houston that Houston won't have KD, it'll make it more and more likely that a guy like Luca can potentially make a return in this series. This series goes five, six, seven games. And Austin Reeves as well. I think both of those guys could potentially have a chance to come back and be able to play. Again, how effective they'll be, I don't know. But if KD can't come back at all, that makes to where this LA Lakers team has a real chance to win this series. Or if KD can only come back for three, like starting game three, and the lake and it's tied 1-1, and this this series really can go long term into the seven games, it makes it more and more likely that LeBron will be able to have some real reinforcements from either Luca or Austin Reeves. So what this series looked like it was going to be a pretty easy one for Houston in either five or six can potentially be a much different issue if KD can't come back sooner rather than later. I still would probably pick Houston because I do think hopefully KD will be able to come back in game two or game three. But it's just the longer this goes, the more likely the LeBron will be able to get some reinforcements, and that will not bode well for Houston at all. And then the games that happened on Sunday, I'll go through those real quick and then we'll get out of here. Um Philadelphia and Boston. Boston won that game running away 123 to 91. This game wasn't close whatsoever. Boston destroyed Philadelphia, and I just don't think Philadelphia has a real chance to kind of make this up unless Joel Embiid can come back. I think he hasn't played, he was playing there at the end of the season and playing well, then he ended up he ended up having to get an appendectomy uh like a week or a week or two ago to where they're not sure what when he'll be able to come back, and if he does come back, whether he'll be able to play real minutes. So without Joel Embiid playing with them and kind of evening out the score when it comes to how evening out the game for talent, I just don't think Philadelphia has a real chance to win this game, win this series against Boston, man, the way that played out yesterday. Jalen Brown was awesome. Jason Tatum coming back from the Achilles injury has been awesome. And both of those players, like I think Jalen Brown be having to play most of the season without Jason Tatum might have been the best thing for Jalen Brown possible because he has had to figure out how to be the number one option for this team, and it has made him kind of shure up some of the weaknesses in his game because he has had no running mate to kind of help him look um carry the team for most of the year. I think he had to kind of work through some of those issues he had in his in his game. And because of that, and then now you get Jason Tatum back, even if Tatum can't be isn't necessarily the most healthy and like all the way to 100%, it makes the Celtics seem so scary. And I think they're a better team than what they were last year because I think the guys outside of Tatum and Brown have gotten better. They have so many so many better role players than what they've had previously. They have so many guys that shoot the basketball, they they all know what their roles are, and they they all kind of live up to the moment. I think they're kind of like a they're built a lot like OKC, man. It's just everybody plays their role the way they need to. And it looks a little different when they're out there playing, um, in comparison to OKC, but I feel like the philosophy and the way they have their teams built is pretty similar. It's just they have they're so deep, there's so many different players that have to play a diff a specific role, and they all know what it is, and they go out there and play hard, and they play very good defense and they shoot well. Like that's that's very hard to play against, and I don't think the Philadelphia 76ers have a real chance to win this series um without Joel Embiid. So I think this this series might only be four games. I think this was of the first round matchups, this was the most lops. I'm sorry, not the most lopsided game. This is the second most lopsided game in this whole first in this whole first round first games. Like the Boston is just a much better team than Philadelphia right now. Um next one Phoenix in Oklahoma City on Sunday. This game was the most lopsided of all the first games of this first round. OKC won the series 119 to 84. This game was not close. Shea didn't even play all that great, and Phoenix just did not have an answer for how physical the Oklahoma City defense was. And let me tell you, it was annoying to watch at times because of how much um Lou Dort was playing. And again, I'm not trying to be mean to Lou Dort, but he plays basketball like a football player. They throw him out there to be the most physical guy possible, and they're gonna force those officials to make to make calls and make them have to play less physical. And it does annoy me a bit when they do that because I think with having their with OKC having their best player and Shea kind of be the guy that's extorting the rules, and he's just he's kind of like he's doing the James Harden thing and like looking trying to get fouls and knowing how to play perfectly. Again, I have respect for him. He's still a great player, even without being able to hunt foul bait, but he does that all the time, and then you have a player like Lou Dort who was literally playing basketball like a football player out there, and he's fouling all the freaking time, and you see him doing that to Booker and to anybody else he's playing defense against, it just makes it a tad bit annoying. But is because the lack of physicality that the Phoenix Suns have, Booker and that the rest of that team just cannot deal with the physicality that OKC has, and I think because of that Phoenix can't run a good offensive, they can't have a good offensive system to run through that that that defense that OKC has. And I think without that, I just don't think Phoenix has a real chance. I think this game, I think this is four games and out, man, for the Phoenix Suns. OKC is just a much better football much better basketball team than Phoenix right now. And I think the defense that OKC comes out with, I just don't think Phoenix has anything to combat that. And that's gonna be a real issue for the Phoenix Suns. And I just don't think they're gonna be able to win this series. Not win a game, let alone the series. Um, next game yesterday was Orlando at Detroit. Orlando won the series, one uh sorry, won the first game 112 to 101. This was another another long, not really competitive basketball game whatsoever. It was less competitive than the score kind of says that it is. They only Orlando only won by 11, but again, there's just the game just did not seem all that competitive. I just think that the issue with the Pistons, they're being the number one to seed overall kind of coming in and having to face Orlando. My problem with the Pistons is that they are so Cade Cunningham-centric. If Cade is not scoring the points, they really don't have anybody to rely upon to score outside of him. And I think because of the all the different options that Orlando has offensively to score, they have Paolo, they have Desmond Bain, they have Wendell Carter, they have some like Franz Wat Franz Wagner, Franz Wagner, um, to go out there and play. Like Jalen Suggs can hit some threes and like run the offense when necessary. They just have so many options to score that that that Detroit does not have, and on top of the fact that Detroit can't bully Orlando, because Orlando is just as big as Detroit, if not bigger, at certain spots. So the way Detroit plays is that they're trying to let Cade Cunningham go out there and score all the points, and then they're just gonna play super physical defensively and make it to where your team can't play their best ball, but Orlando's just as big, if not bigger, and then Detroit, so that physicality is not going to bother them. And because of that kind of physicality kind of evening out between the two teams, if not kind of favoring Orlando, the offensive skill that Orlando has that Detroit doesn't have makes it that much more apparent. And I think Detroit being the number one seed overall, playing so well throughout the year, this series is a super bad matchup for them. And I think Orlando actually might win this series overall. I'm not gonna sit here and guaranteed as of yet, because I do think Detroit can kind of come counterpunch and kind of figure some things out, but it's gonna be hard for them to kind of figure out who's gonna be another scorer on that team because they really haven't had one all year long. So I just don't know. I'm but I'm still slightly favoring Orlando to win this series, even though I think I'm not sure Orlando is as good of a basketball team as Detroit, but I just feel like all the strength that Detroit has as a team, Orlando is perfectly kind of built to match up against. And that's the part that sucks about it. Because Kate is an awesome player, he's great, he's playing very good ball, but it's just they just need more options outside of him to help score, and they just don't have it as of right now. I think that's going to be their undoing in this series. Um, and then last but not least, this is the last game last night, Portland at San Antonio. San Antonio won this won the game 111 to 98. This game wasn't all that really all that competitive for the most part. Wemby went for 35. Castle had his Castle played well. D uh Dearon Fox played all great in this game as well. And when they have all three of those guys playing great ball, you had Dev Vassal Vassel, the another player for um San Antonio playing good. They had then they just have so many other guys that can come in to play some good minutes. Let's just say this. Victor Wimanyamo only played 33 minutes. He didn't have to, they didn't they were breasting him so much in this game because of how much Portland just did not have the guys, especially offensively, that can play with San Antonio, man. Portland's best player is Denny Adviha, and he is awesome. He had 30 points in this game, but outside of him, they had nobody else that was really helping score throughout this game. Scoot Henderson was the was the next closest thing, he had 18 points, but that's just not enough. Especially when you have Victor getting 35 points, and then he went five of six from three. So not only did he have the defensive out um the defensive outing that he had, but he like he came out and like he scored a lot too. And I just don't think San Antonio has the horses to deal. Not to mention the not even the horses, it's not even just about talent, it's about the matchup itself, and I just don't think they have enough to make Wemby uncomfortable to be able to have him not play at his best. And with that being the case, without Portland having an answer for Wemby, I just don't think they're gonna be able to win this series whatsoever. This series might go four games, honestly. Five tops, honestly, like really. That's the way I kind of saw with that game playing out last night. And I don't know, man. It's just San Antonio is a much better basketball team as of right now. Audvi has awesome. But it's just I just don't think um I don't think Portland has the guys to match up with San Antonio right now. And I think San Antonio is gonna have a very easy series whether this game, whether this series goes four or five. So I I think I think uh San Antonio's gonna be able to take care of this series without much of an issue here. Um, and those were all the games that happen both Saturday and Sunday. There are games going on right now, because again, I am podcasting here. It's 9.16 at night. So there's two games actually going on. So you have the Cavs and Raptors playing right now, you have the Cat, they're currently up. Cavs are 97 to 86. They look like they're on their way to winning this series. Um, with a pretty pretty hefty lead with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Um again, like I said, I think the Cavs just have too much offense with for the Raptors. And then you have the Hawks and Knicks playing right now. That game is pretty close. Um, Knicks are up 49 to 48 with three minutes left in the third in the sorry, three minutes left in the sec in the second quarter. So that one still has to play out. There's still a lot of ball to play. So I'm not gonna say so that one can go either way. And then you have the last game night being the Timberwolves and the Nuggets. Those two teams are duke getting out at 10.30 tonight. So that one's gonna be a very good one, even though I think Nuggets probably win it. Maybe Anthony Edwards comes out and has a little has a little bit more fire under him offensively that'll help keep this game a little bit closer than the first one was. But again, I do probably lean toward the Nuggets winning that one. So those are the three games that are going on as of today. Um, and that's all I got, man. Uh so I do intend on doing another podcast with both me and Jason kind of reacting to the draft, probably either Friday or Saturday. So be stay tuned for that. We're gonna make sure we get another pod out this week. Um, it'll be mostly the draft. Maybe if something crazy happens in the NBA playoffs, I'll talk about that. But when I get Jason on the podcast, he's not a big basketball guy. So if it's not something absolutely amazing to talk about, it can't be Wemby or KD included, because he goes insane whenever I mention those guys. Um I don't think I'll be able to mention a lot of basketball. So I think it'll be mostly NBA draft based. I mean sorry, NFL draft based when we do another podcast later on this week. So we do intend on doing that one, so stay tuned for that. But outside of that, I don't really have anything else to talk about. And I know I've been going for over two hours now, so I don't want to kind of make this go any longer than it has to. So I don't I know this has probably been way longer than it's supposed to be, but again, I'm glad I got the football stuff out first. So what if you guys kind of tuned out the basketball stuff? I totally understand if you're not really into basketball. So that's about it for me. So let's go ahead and end this podcast out here. If you've been listening for a while, we appreciate you. If you're just now jumping on, hopefully you like us and enjoy us enough to join us on this ride of listen to us, talk about sports in the dumbest way possible. If this is the first pod you've listened to, make sure you go listen to a different podcast with both me and Jay Shawn here to kind of get a better idea of what our podcast is at its best. So make sure you go do that for us, we definitely appreciate that. And uh, if you do go listen to everything you want to kind of help us help us on, um join us on this ride, we'd appreciate if you could do a couple things for us. If you could like our podcast, subscribe to the podcast, rate the podcast five stars wherever you listen to us. We're pretty much available on all audio platforms out there. We've been getting a bunch of downloads lately, so we definitely appreciate it and just keep doing that for us. We'd love if you guys can do that. If you guys could also share our podcast with friends, family, enemies, anybody you feel like can enjoy the podcast we put out on a weekly basis for the most part, and then two times a week during football season, we would love if you can do that. And then last but not least, if you could follow us on Twitter and or X, whatever you'd like to call it, at JB Sports Pod is the podcast handle, at Javante Boozer is my handle, and then at Jace Boozer1 is Jace's handle, and that is about it. So I'll end the podcast here, guys. So thank you guys for listening. Thank you guys for always listening. Have a great day, have a great night, and we will see you guys in uh later on this week. Goodbye, y'all.