[MUSIC] Fan morning shows 4.5.9 of the fan, man, and it's Frank Gunning. National Hockey League goal attending. What a thing, no. I mean, on the one hand, you got Jeremy Swaiman, who's got a nice long track record. By which I mean, never been the everyday starter. Well, nobody's an everyday starter, but never been the number one goal tender on that bro and steam unquestioned number one. Yeah, you're right. At times he's been the number one. He's also been the better part of a tandem where the other guy won the Vessna. Anyways, you got that. And then in Toronto, you got a guy who looks pretty good as a pedigree and it's 26. He's got a good cap hit and God was almost the reason that you got through another post season series and left the Stanley Cup playoffs with the best save percentage and that will not change. It's gonna be true forever. And he's backed up by Anthony Stollars, he'd been perfectly crumulant. Just quickly on the Joe Wall thing, nobody's gonna like, he doesn't have to like go play another game that's already happened in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it's gonna be like a Danny Janssen situation where the save percentage can go up or sorry, go down, that's not gonna happen, right? No. I'm not invested. No more games, right? I'm gonna stay there. Just checking. Yeah. The Danny Janssen thing is just throwing me for a loop. So I just make it sure. The last moment you'll remember from Joseph Wall is going post to post in a meaningless save attempt that resulted in a goal in game six. Well, last moment I'll have involving last moment memory I have involving Joseph Wall was reading like Luke Fox's tweet of him walking gingerly or something and I was going to be bad. Remember was shocking God, a revelation that was the maybe when I were in the building for six and we watch him make that save or try to in the shutout and we're going out. Wow. What a dumb thing. We watched that happen with our own eyes. That's true. God. I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. The the Maple Leafs lost in seven games to the boss Boston Bruins losing their number one goal tender. The best player on planet earth, at least goals for if I wanted to be really mean, I'd highlight that the much more was unable to get the pocket of his own zone that led to that scoring chance. Yeah. Yeah. If I wanted to be mean, I'd highlight that. And the Morgan Riley. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they. Yeah. Yeah, there's like a few things. Anyways, um, I think the Bruins are going to figure it out with Jeremy Swamin, right? Like we, we, we agree. Worst case scenario just goes to our absolute worst case scenario. He's going to be their goal tender. Yes. And they got Corpusallo there too, which is it's a who who knows like it's found money if he emerges as something. He's bouncing back. I hate to break it to everybody. That's a good goal tending situation. How do you view the Maple Leafs goal tending situation going into 20, 24, 25? I think the best, the best word to use is iffy, I think there's just a lot of different ways this could shake out like Anthony Stolarz is a guy that I think can give them a successful run of games. I will not feel good about him being the unquestioned starter at any given time, but like if he needs to take the net for a couple of weeks, I could see that going okay. I'm someone who's kind of bullish on Matt Murray. Like I think Matt Murray is going to play games for this team. I think he's going to play especially compared to what the memories are for him for people who've watched this team play really well quite, quite frankly. And I think Joe wall, the health thing is the only worry there. If he is between the pipes, I have no worries about Joe wall quite, quite frankly, or limited worries about him. And I think the way I would describe the Leafs goal tending is iffy for 24 or 25. Toronto Maple Leafs have two goal tenders here are their career high in games played. So for Joe's wall, it's 25 and they still are 28 that doesn't come close to adding up to 82. So yeah. So yeah, memory. Yeah. Sure. Great. Who played a grand total of zero games? Yes. Last year. That's good. Good stuff. Good stuff winning executive joins online right now. How's it going Mike? Ify. Yeah. Do you agree? Well, that's not a great word. No, no, I didn't say it was good. If it was good, he would have said good and said he said ify. No, I know. It's so optimistic, I guess. You don't want it. You're correct. It's such an important position. And obviously, it's the health and of wall is the key factor. I mean, I completely forgot about the Matt Murray signing. That's a LTIR dream there. But yeah, still ours is. I like the fact that he got the Stanley Cup experience. I think that's huge. I think you can see him with that. But Larson. Big guy. I don't think the Toronto market's going to worry him at all as far as the nerves and stuff like that. But it'll be interesting. Yeah. I guess because there's no really street cred. It's hard to be extremely optimistic. But you know, I think they're going to challenge each other well. And there is some depth there. That's for sure. Somebody said, as it was saying, swam an ass for 10 million. Yeah. That's the report out of Boston that he's asked for 10 plus. Yeah. What do you make? What do you make of that goal? It's ending is pretty important. He's pretty good. Is he 10 mil good? No, I mean, that's a lot of hugs. But him and his buddy there all. That's a lot of hugging going on there. That's a no. I don't think I think that position you've seen in it's obviously critical and he's very good. But for a team that notoriously their stars take less than they get work. That's a kick in the Wow. That stuff. Well, can you see them? But you look at that. I mean, honestly, you look at Barack, because Bob Rossi is really the last guy to, I mean, I guess price and Bob Rossi. That's the two guys. Yeah. The guys to go double digits. And I mean, price was obviously like at the time he was talked about one of the best ever, which I don't think we've ever brought Swam into that conversation. And Bob Rossi up until this year is still that contract that wouldn't go away. I mean, and obviously he said to his rebound in his career, but when they took over in Florida, that was the nightmare contract that couldn't be moved. And I guess when you've got Stanley Cup banner, you can say he's worth, he's worth 10 million. But Boston and Swamann doesn't have that. He doesn't have that. And I mean, I think if he comes in at six or seven, you're really happy. But holy smokes, 10 million. That's a lot of money for a guy that hasn't really gone on a deep, deep run. But I guess he also sees that he's got them in his spot. They've moved on from one B or one A, whatever the homework was. And it's funny because Montgomery there was quoted as saying 100% he'll be at training camp and stuff like that. And it doesn't sound like they're even close. But no, I wouldn't give him 10 million. Absolutely not. Yeah. I guess the arm is what Montgomery's looking at there. They're at worst case scenario. And then they go say terrible things about each other and then go sing kumbaya and have a nice training camp together. I guess worst case scenario there. You know, the thing I keep thinking about with it is when you think of highly paid players in this league, you know, there are guys who eventually don't live up to it. Like we see with John Tavares, right? Like, you know, he's not an 11 million dollar player in year six and seven of this deal. But when he was scoring 47 goals in the first year of it and continuing to be that through a few years of it, we didn't look at it. It does seem with goalies, though, this is the only place where you have these just true outlier contracts where you can just quite frankly, misevaluate a guy or misevaluate what he is in the situation. Like from the forward perspective, the only one I can think of of recent vintage that's been a monster contract that hasn't worked out at all, has been the Huberto in Calgary, right? Everybody else for the most part gives you something. But with goal tending, it just seems like these guys look at Babrowski, right? Like he's a vesda winner and a cup winner, or he's been the noose around the Panthers neck for parts of various different seasons. Like I think that's the problem with goal tending is it's just there is so many different ways it could go. Where is it? When you're looking at a skater that you're going to give, maybe not 10, but 892. There's just a floor that you understand you're going to get. Am I, am I on the right track, their foods? Yeah, I like it. I like your thought process, right? Because the player that you're talking about, I mean, as you said, you liked it at least when you're doing a contract like that, for example, when we did copitar or dowdy, right? Like they were guys that they ran out the contract and they were always, they were always good. They were really, there wasn't that really, you kind of thought there might be a little tail off, but really with either one of them that they tail off dramatically, which is ideal when you're giving out the big money. But he's yet to have that good year yet to lie back on. So you're not, you're not seeing an elite performance and thinking it's going to tail off. You're hoping and praying that he picks it up even get a whiff of what money being paid. So yeah, I know that's a great analogy with him and you're absolutely right, like when you look at the gold vendors that are, you know, the skinners of the world, it's like, yeah, I mean, Edmonton put their money in Jack Campbell's, you know, they put their money towards Jack Campbell to be their savior and he's already been bought out. So it's a very difficult position to, I mean, for, you know, the Leafs, it was supposed to be Samsonov and now he's not even in the picture. So yeah, it's quite a humbling position, I guess you'd say. And I think that's one of the reasons now that you, you know, obviously this big talk about Ascarov and the same thing, but there's so many, there's so many with that position, like for years, I mean, they'll, like, I used to go over to Europe and see Schusterken and Sorokin play and you knew there was something really special there. You're seeing them against elite of elite talents. They were playing on the Russian national teams with the best NHL Russian players already and they were, they were elite. They were the unquestionable number one starters, but you know, for every one of those at one time coming over, you know, Samsonov and Varlamov were supposed to be no brainer, you know, franchises. And I mean, as much as they're, they've done it up good. They haven't lived up to that, to that billing of an elite number one on a consistent level. So it's a tough position to be asking that much cake and all the names that I thought, like, I mean, I don't know how hamlet Hellenbux deal is, but how do you, how do you look at the guy that's one of the best, uh, eight five and eight five and say, okay, yeah, I'm worth at least a one and a half more than him. Like, I, that one just, I wonder who is agent is Scott Boris is. Yeah. Well, but here's, here's the thing, Feud's like he, he has them kind of over a barrel, right? Like he's a restricted free agent. And I guess he did not file for arbitration. He was arbitration eligible and decided not to file. He's a restricted free agent, but they, they've, they've told him explicitly by trading away all mark that you're the guy, you're our guy. And we're going to do what it takes to get you. And he knows that they, they need to buy up the unrestricted free agent years, which are coming in a couple. Like, I don't know if you're, if you're the, the Bruins, obviously you don't want to pay him 10 because yeah, he's, he, he's not even like Sergei Babrowski, whose contract looked horrible before reaching the cup final and then winning one last year. Sergei Babrowski, when he signed that deal already had two vesnas, right? Like he was well established and you mentioned a hella buck, making eight and a half. But the, the difference is that Boston, they're in this place where they've, they've told him by trading away the guy that was the Vesna winner, that you are our guy in the age. Like the, the Bruins feel like they put themselves in a bind here. And did they tell him when they traded away the other guy that you get to have both your salaries? Yeah. Maybe. Holy smoke. Well, anyways, I mean, good, good for him. I just don't, that one just caught me. Like I, I mean, you hear the numbers being banter around the vote, then those might cost 13 five or whatever for dries idle and you're like, no, okay, that's, you know, that's probably your vote when he's with a swim and one just, I just think that's, that's great. And again, I guess it's probably good in the back way, the way to vote because it's a boss thing. As I said, they are notoriously this would drive can nearly nuts. Oh, for sure. Because they're absolutely known for their stars coming in, whether it be Bergeron, Chara, certainly March on pastor not coming in at a reasonable number because this is what it takes to be brewing. And then we're going to be successful because nobody puts themselves in an awkward number zone. That's far, if it's an outlier for what they bring to the table and, and clearly women, if that's the number that's being bantered around, he's, he's doing that. So I guarantee that if Cam Neely was playing, he'd run him right through the crease and training camp to make sure that he was more close to a six million dollar player. On one night. It's funny. You mentioned who the agent is. I did look it up. It's Lewis Gross. I mean, for Toronto people, that's the agent of William Kneelander. But I wonder for Boston people, that's the same agent as Tory Krug. There is not another Bruins client that he has. How much does, you know, I won't even say bad blood because I don't know what happened there. But obviously Krug was traded away. They'd got the deal done with the blues there. How much does the agent have a, you know, a working relationship with these front offices and how different can it be from kind of agent to agent team to team and how much can that kind of play, play into things here, foods matters. I think there's just a general, usually there's certain relationships that are stronger. But I mean, the best agent, each one's an individual case. I mean, they, they wouldn't have a lot of clients if they held every, they held a grudge on their, it's almost like when you hang out the phone on one and you pick up the phone on another of your same clients with the same group, you've got a press reset in a sense. You can't get too emotionally tied to if you thought one of your clients was hard done by it's just it, it, it really is unfair to the client that you're dealing with straight up at that time. So, and I know the Krug one was, I know the Krug was very, I think he's devastated of being moved out of Boston in the first case, but the, I mean, I don't think you can look at that as going in that, you know, I'm going to really dig in here because you screwed Krug, you know, this, you've really got to deal with it on an individual basis. I mean, at least the best agents. I mean, like the, the mars is in the bursons of the world and they, they deal with things on an individual basis and it's, it's what's for the best, that individual client, that's for sure. So we described the Maple Leafs goal tending situation as iffy. How would you describe their situation on left wing? Cause Elliot Friedman reporting that they're sniffing around left wingers. Now they got maybe Max Domi, the Bobby McMahon, Matthew Nye's and then beyond that Nicholas Robertson who still doesn't have a contract as a restricted free agent. How active should the Maple Leafs be in, in trying to address left wing? Let me, let me add in just one more fact there, foods of the five guys that played the most time on the left wing. Last year for the Leafs, the only two who were under contract are Nye's and McMahon and include in that is Robertson, who is the, the RFA there. Oh, I mean, obviously you'd like to be able to add somebody, you know, if you could add a body, I personally still think I'd like to see another defenseman preferly or right shot if it was out there, if I was looking to add, but no, I mean, any time you get some depth scoring, I know Brad would probably, with his background, he'd want somebody that's got some, you know, losing the Berthuzi kind of, a kind of snot and snarl that he brought to the game, ideally, you know, you'd look at a guy like whether he's available or not, ideally a guy like a Krause who I guess they're Utah now, but some of the score's goals that play hard to muck it up in the corners and get some griefs would be an ideal, an ideal fit, I think, you know, last year, what make a group with McMahon, I mean, I think that's another, if we talked about when the Leafs started the playoffs, you know, down in the Lander, then down a math use, I think quietly, McManway, he was really missed after those season he had and the consistency that he was starting to score goals. So, you know, I think somebody's going to have to step up the Robertson things an interesting one. I don't see him as some guys, you think, fresh start under Buru Bay. This doesn't seem like it's as fresh start as you'd get not really the type of player that I stand out to me that would be a Buru Bay player and the fact that he's not assigned at this juncture would probably be a bit annoying as well. So, maybe they can find something, a prospect of his help with a little different look would be would be using. I mean, it's pretty cool. We're talking about the other day as to all these offer sheets. It's amazing that you think that some teams are sitting there with major cap space with some of the names that out there that can be offered sheeted in. So, and what a quick way to put teams with all these teams up against the salary cap wise is it'd be amazing way to improve your team. Like, I look at Hungary and I'm like, excuse me, like, I'd be down, I'd be hanging in the ground Carolina Jarvis till the towers go home, man, looking at that kid as far as a Western hockey league player. It could make you a bit pretty darn good in a hurry. That's for sure. Oh, you mean should have been leaf Seth Jarvis that they had to give away to a jettison Patrick Marlow's contract? Yeah. How much of that do you think like, I don't want to make this specifically about the flames, but you mention it and we always hear about the old boys club. Like, how much do you hear? How much do you think that is Craig Conroy not wanting to come into the league and immediate and not come into the league? Like, obviously, he's been a part of it for a long time, including as a player and AGM and all that, but he's still relatively new into that job. How much of it do you think is not wanting to ruffle feathers or have a poor working relationship or something like that? Well, I don't think you're doing your team. It's it's there for a purpose. And I think Doug Armstrong, who is probably senior, most respected, if not one of the most respected general managers who, you know, he's the first guy that comes up to the guy is going to run team candidates that he can use something like that to make his team better. It's there for a reason it's there to make it better. I mean, this gentleman agreement, it's a rule. It's an absolute rule. So, you know what, you might be unemployed. You might not ruffle anybody's feathers, but if you know, Calgary doesn't get together, I'd rather have a job and be so I picked somebody off. Like, but it's like, I mean, I used to turn to the quick story was the illegal stick rule, right? Like, yeah, there's a gentleman, there's a gentleman's agreement. You know, I'm nobody's going to call him a legal stick. Well, I was coaching under 17. It would have been Rick Nash's year. I don't know, I all remember his mask as he scored all the goals. So, we're playing against Russia. And these guys work. They're beating us on six three mop and us and completely mocking our bench. The coach was made given hand gestures, whatever. In my word, he wasn't being a gentleman. And I knew that every guy in the ice had a banana. So, I called an illegal stick penalty. And then I called another illegal stick penalty. And then I pulled the goal tender. And for the last five minutes, I called six illegal stick penalties. And we proceeded to play six on three the rest of the game and Rick, Rick Nash scored a national hat trick. He'd be rushing by a goal. And he threatened to pull their team out of the tournament. This is the world under 17 jackets. We weren't playing pick up hockey. And I'm like, and the guy was like, and I said, what's he got set about? And the guy said, well, that wasn't gentlemanly. Well, I didn't think it's first of all, it's a rule. I didn't think he was being a gentleman himself. So, whatever, screw him, set him home. So, they didn't, they didn't reverse results. And the bottom line is, I just thought it's okay at night. But the thing is, the rule is there for reason. If it's not there. And obviously, it's not a way. I think at the NHL level, I don't even think it might not even exist anymore. But the bottom line is, if it's there, it's there for a reason. It's not just there to take up ink and a block. So, yeah, it's there. And I clearly think the offer sheet agents, you talk about agents, they absolutely love it. But until it's removed, it's the same thing like the college free agents that can hold out and allow teams to force to over-recruit or overpay or play them one game down the stretch to burn a year. These are all rules that are there for a reason. And if you, as a manager, don't use all your arsenal to make your team better, then you're really cheating your franchise. It's not a thing of a moral victory that, oh my God, I refuse to go down and sign Seth Jarvis to an offer sheet is my God. I won't be able to sleep at night if he scores 45 for me next year. Yeah. Yeah, you won't be sleeping because all the car horns will be honking on the red mile. That's why you won't be sleeping. That's it. There you go. You might pick up that $10 million contract. It's not scoring. It might look a little better with Seth Jarvis on his line. Yeah. Ultimately, nobody did end up fighting in a barn. So, yeah, there's that we know of. Yeah, that's true. Actually, I feel like, let's be honest, one guy would have been dying until that story. Yeah, that's true. Berkey and the Berkey low, but we would have heard about it for sure. He would have strangled with his untied tie. Yeah. Oh, that's why it's, and that makes perfect sense. That's not for low, but that's a great visual for me. I'm picturing it right now. It's got his sleeves rolled up. Feud's always a pleasure, buddy. Thanks. Have a great day, guys. See you up, Mike Feud, a two-time Stanley Cup winning executive. That was before Berkey, like, kind of fell into the untied tie thing, right? Like, you know, he's given the story about this before of. Really? Oh, yeah. I've heard it. Yeah. He does. He puts on a tie in the morning, but doesn't tie it until he has a meeting. So, I guess you just never had a meeting. That's the thing I don't know. Like, he un-ties it afterwards, right? Because I always say I'm at like 7 30. I was going to say, like, you know, there are a lot of 10 o'clock p.m. Eastern time meetings. This is also, this is also very telling to how he felt about the pre-show meetings when I would occasionally fill in on Hockey Central with you. Not real meetings. No. When, when I'm sitting in there, like, if you're running a breeze, yeah, no. Not a meeting. It's like, yeah, no. Nope. Uh, rival sons and clutch coming to OLG stage at Fallsview Casino on September 12th for their two headed beast tour. To celebrate, we're giving away tickets and a $100 dining credit to the overtime sports lounge for each winner. And all you have to do, tune into the fan morning show, listen to the code word, then text the code word to 59590 standard message and data rates may apply. Today's code word is clutch. Text clutch to 59590 right now to enter for your chance to win. Give away another pair of tickets tomorrow. So be sure to tune in when we come back. CD lamb getting paid is Dak Prescott, the next to get paid. We'll talk to Andrew Brent, host of the business of sports podcast. Also, former Packers executive next is the fan. Morning show continues, Ben and spring gunning sports net 590 the fan. Covering the blue J's from an analytical perspective, J's talk plus with Blake Murphy. Be sure to subscribe and download J's talk on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning, Chose, four, seven, five, nine of the fan bananas, Brian gunning, NFL season getting underway a week from Thursday as the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, hosting the defending MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. And then we get a Friday night game in Brazil before a full slate of games on Sunday, just one Monday nighter, usually we get a double header Monday night first week of the NFL season too. No, that's coming. I think it's like in week three, we get a Monday night double header. But yeah, it's a pretty good debut game for the season is the Ravens, you know, it hasn't worked out for them in the postseason. Lamar Jackson racking up individual regular season statistics. And you got to, you just got to keep running them out there and hoping against hope that one year it ends up happening for them in the postseason. It's like I mentioned it earlier in our discussion about the Cowboys and CD lamb and Dak Prescott. It's just a whole different world in the NFC where anything's possible. Yeah. Yeah, the the Niners are an established, you know, perennial contender and they almost feel like a placeholder in that championship game. Sure. And like the Eagles, I don't know the way the season finished. Who the hell knows what the Eagles center feels like not small piece of the puzzle area, but it doesn't matter what happens to the Chiefs with that receiving core. They're going to be there and they're the immovable object. And it doesn't matter if you have a lead with 13 seconds left in a playoff game. They're going to beat you. Unless I guess you're the Bengals and Joe Burrow who are the only ones to have done it, right? Help us, Joe Burrow. You're only hope. I mean, literally, he's the only proof of concept. It's hard to believe. Well, Tom Brady, but he's no longer with us in a playing capacity. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And that was and because of an off side and, you know, what? Okay. Sure. Yeah. I mean, that was happened, man. Yeah. I know that's lit. Those are the two examples. It took like the insanity of D Ford offside and yeah, a weird like also maybe something physically happening to Patrick Mahomes in the second half of that football game, the championship game against the Bengals because just didn't look like Patrick Mahomes. Anyways, it's like, that's it. Yeah. If you're the Bills. Yeah. If you're the Ravens. Yeah. I mean, if you're the Jets, I guess, the Dolphins, the Dolphins. Yeah. It's very mean to the Dolphins. I do it all the time. Like the Jets and it's like the Dolphins are actually going to play off there. Sure. Sure. Yeah. No, no, I agree. But but but the Dolphins. Yeah. It's just it's such a different life in the AFC knowing that as good as you are, it just must be hard to put your brain to a place where you're like, yeah, but we were better than the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Well, and it's not just that if you're not one of those teams that feels like you have a cap on you because of the Chiefs, you're every single week going through a borderline elite quarterback. It feels like we didn't even mention CJ Stroud and Trevor Lawrence feel how you want about him. It's like, that's not nothing. Like, yeah, it's just the quarterback play in the AFC. It's unreal right now. It is. All right. Let's talk to Andrew Brandt, who publishes a weekly newsletter at the Sunday seven that you can find at my Sunday seven.com. You can also check out his Instagram reels at Andrew Brandt, his former Packers executive, also host of the Businesses Sports podcast, also contributed to Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated writing a business of football column for them since 2013 has latest is Cowboys deadline deal with CD lamb lives up to their reputation where he also gets into expectations with what while Dallas will do with QB Dak Prescott, head coach Mike McCarthy and Jamar Chase, Brandon, I you some contractual statuses still to be decided there. Andrew, thanks for doing this. How's it going? Morning guys. Good to be with you. You know, all those gigs you talked about. Now I start my full time gig today. I have, I run a program at Villanova. So school's back in session. So I teach my first class today. Like, how do you find time to eat? Like, where we're young and into shape, Andrew, can start molding minds. Can't wait. Yeah, no, like, or parents. Yeah, school is right around the corner. It truly is the changing season, for sure. Yeah, you know, I mean, working for the Packers, it's a it's a working for any team is a real, you know, it's a grind. And I have a lot of gigs, as you know, but this is a better life. And I've chosen this life because I've had teams call and things like that. It's just that I wanted to live my life a little more on my terms. There's nothing wrong with working for a team, but it's a crazy time, especially this time of year where you're just in the office all week long, pouring over way rewires, figuring out your team, because next week you turn it all over to the coaches. It's their deal then. Yeah, you know what? I wanted to hit on that because you had a couple of tweets talking about cut down day and the human component to that, because yeah, we as fans, you're looking at salary cap and depth charts, but like being in a front office in the NFL, how emotional can it be on cut down day? Well, I used to say that, you know, the only people that can be truly successful as general managers have to be just heartless. And nothing against them, but I think Bill Belichick had a great way of doing that. He just he never got attached. And that was hard for me, because I got to know these guys, especially veteran players. Green Bay is a little different because we're all stuck in this fishbowl all coming from other places in the country. We got very close, so you have to say goodbye. And it's hard. This is the nature of the game, as I tweeted so many jobs. I mean, so many players, so few jobs. You start with 90, you get down to 53 today, and there's practice quite a course. But as I tweeted, you know, the dirty secret of the NFL is that most of these players never had a chance. I mean, you're going to look at these waiver wires and see a thousand names and how many are going to be surprises, maybe five, three, you know, it's just that these are unknown players that got a chance and nothing wrong with that. Got an NFL training campaign check and hopefully make a practice squad. That's how you fill out your roster for the training camp. Yeah, it's, I mean, yeah, cut down days. It's certainly like a day that all those bubble guys would have circled there. But you're right from a league perspective. Like, it's not a it's not shocking household names that we're kind of kind of seeing there, even from like a cap perspective, right? Like those those maneuvers would have been made a while ago heading into the season. I don't know if you heard our conversation before. We were just saying how, you know, it really does feel night and day in terms of how the two conferences feel in terms of how they look. I mean, the chiefs are clear top dogs in the league, but man, like what a dogfight it is in the AFC with all the quarterback play there. And then you look in the NFC and, you know, I don't say that's taken anything away from a Jordan love or a Brock Purdy or even a Jalen Hertz, but man, that's a little bit of a different neighborhood than Josh Allen and Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes and CJ Stroud. What do you make in the disparity, at least from what I see of the quarterback play among the two conferences? You know, we'll see as everything, you know, there are always going to be teams that jump up that no one thought and teams that go down that no one thought the chiefs you keep talking about. They were not a good regular season team last year. They turned it on the playoffs. And everyone was wondering, you know, in the middle of the year, what's wrong with the Chiefs? I went to a game where the Eagles beat them. And anyway, it's just you never know. I do think in the NFC, there are four teams that I think will separate. And you mentioned some quarterbacks there. I think the Packers Eagles, Lions and 49ers will be in a tier above everyone. And it's hard to predict in the AFC. Obviously, the Chiefs will be there. The Ravens will be there. They're always there. They have a better run in game with Derek Henry. Is it going to be their year to sort of get over that hump? And then we'll just see, you know, it concerns me that Joe Burroughs got a wrist injury. It concerns me that Justin Herbert's coming off an injury. I think they're going to be some teams that everyone thinks it's really good that are going to be bad. And I think there's some teams that everyone can be bad. That's going to be good. Yeah, there always is. There's always a last place team that ends up in the playoffs year after year after year. Of course, the news yesterday was that CD lamb is the second highest paid non quarterback just behind Justin Jefferson. He led the NFL and catches last year. I mean, you wrote about how this is the way to negotiate with Jerry Jones. Just wait till the end. It'll give you your money. Is he worth it? You know, I think the thing I try to teach people, my students negotiating classes, the how good is not really a factor. And that just shocks people. You know, it shocks people. How good is not really the factor? It's timing in marketplace. You know, Dak Prescott is going to be the highest big quarterback, whether this week or next year, whenever he does the deal, there's no question. Do we need to debate Dak Prescott versus some of the quarterbacks you talked about? No, that doesn't matter. So CD lamb was the next guy. And he's at that level. So if you're the next guy, you're at that level, you get the deal. This is true for Toa. This is true for Jordan Love. This was true for Trevor Lawrence. Are they the best? No. But this is where negotiations, you know, when I negotiate contracts, many years as an agent, many years as a team executive, I realized and my my adversary realized we're not scouts. You know, we're not sports radio hosts. We're not, we're not going to debate. Is this guy better than that guy? It's like, what's the timing? Does he have a easy free agent? Does he have a year left? Does he have two years left? What's the market and the market for wide receivers? Oh my God. I mean, this is the time in in the history of the NFL to be a wide receiver. It has escalated more than any position. Think about receivers at 32, 34, nine a year and running backs hopping out at 10, nine a year. I mean, there's an inefficiency there that teams can take advantage of with running backs, especially running backs who catch the ball. So I don't, it started with the Vonda Adams and Tyree kill a few years ago. And it's just everybody's getting a big deal. That's crazy. Yeah. If you're, if you're good enough to be part of the club, it's just a matter of when you come up, not exactly where you kind of fit in the stature. I think that's, that's a really good way to put it. You mentioned Dak is going to get his when the time comes. I don't disagree with that. But how much has the floor changed for what teams are kind of willing to accept his quarterback play with how available they are in the draft? I mean, every year is obviously different. We're not going to see, I think it was five or six first round quarterbacks we had this year. We're not going to see that every single year. But if I'm the GM of a team, you know, and like the giants obviously like stepped in this a couple of years ago with Daniel Jones, it's like, yeah, maybe don't just give the guy the money because he's there. Maybe try your luck with another one of these young quarterbacks. Because it seems like there are plenty of them available. Am I off base on that? Or how does the amount of quarterbacks available seemingly coming out of the draft every year change how teams kind of look at that position in terms of paying whoever they've got? We have to see if that happens. It didn't happen with Jones. That was the one where is a team going to say, you know what? We're going to start over and pay a lot less, but start over. And Jones was the test case because the market was 40,000 a year and he got it. And I have so many giants fans. Why do we do that? Why do we do that? And I'm like, well, what is the option? The option is to start over. And maybe you hit. No, maybe you hit. I mean, this year, Williams and Daniels and May and Nick, are they going to all hit? No. Is one of them going to hit? Yeah. So we saw in the Giants off season hard knocks that they were looking to move up to take Drake May or somebody and start over there. But Jones would have a year left to be the starter and then then move on. But this is the decision. And I know you can say these guys aren't worth it. But from a team perspective, in that seat, what are you going to do? You're going to put hope on a rookie. Yeah, you're going to save some money. Great. But if you don't hit, it's a long way back. Yeah. I don't think anybody is comparing Daniel Jones to Dak Prescott, who finished second in MVP voting a season ago. Yeah, Dak Prescott's clearly the superior talent. I mean, he is a year removed also from leading the NFL with 15 interceptions. But yeah, he's, I think whoever pays him, and it's probably going to be the Cowboys or just, you know, they feel a different way than Daniel Jones. And I mean, we talked about Jerry Jones's negotiating style. Him being the owner is also like, it's a unique circumstance. I just like frankly, Andrew, because Jerry Jones good at this, because we just talked about a quote he had from one of the Cowboys reporters that he doesn't think anybody could do. And I guess every GM probably thinks this. Anybody could do anywhere near the job that he does as both the general manager, negotiating all these contracts and as well being an owner. I mean, having the insight into how he operates that Cowboys team, does he have a point? I mean, he's the boss. I just, I pointed out that he's these negotiations for top players don't make sense to me. I was very proactive with the Packers. He just seems to wait and wait and wait. Lamb misses training camp has no ramifications for doing that gets the deal he wants. You know, he could have gone to lamb early in the off season and gotten all the big savings and had him in camp. Now, maybe lamb's people were intransigent, but I don't get it. But let's just be clear. Jerry Jones is 100% good for the NFL. The media flocks to him. He takes all the bullets. He is very bullish on business and that's Roger Goodell gets the credit on terms of all these billions of revenues. But Jones is one of those owners, which is pushing and pushing to make this league as successful as ever. The proof will be in the pit putting on the team. You know, I went to the Packers blowing them out in Dallas in the playoffs. I thought they'd fire my old friend, Mike McCarthy. They didn't. I thought they'd, you know, it looks like they're going to ride it out with McCarthy in the last year and ride it out with Dak in the last year and see where they go. They got to pay Parsons next year. So we'll see. I just think they're on a, they're on a timeline. A lot of these, a lot of this team. Last one before they go, Andrew, how does this, this contractual negotiation and the resolution of the CD lamb deal impact the brand and I you situation in San Francisco? Well, the floor is higher, but you know that again, is he as good as lamb and Jefferson? There is a little bit of how good negotiation there. This is another player that's played it well. I hate to say it because his stubbornness and refusal to practice has worked in his favor. Reportedly, he's turned down trades to the Patriots and Browns and he doesn't have a no trade clause, but the Patriots and Browns aren't going to spend a lot of draft comp and money to get him if he don't want to be there. So he's kind of controlling the situation. The 49ers maybe step up and pay him, but what is that? Is it 26 year, 28 year, 30 year or they trade him to somewhere they really aren't getting the best deal, maybe Pittsburgh. So it's a bad thing for the NFL teams to see this happen because the player showing up and being a pain and you know what has worked. And let's, yeah, I don't see any other options for the 49ers. You know, they can say play out your contract and he's a he's a half ass player or they can give him a contract or trade him. Yeah, he's put him in a tough spot. You can check out my Sunday seven or the Sunday seven at my Sunday seven.com. You can also check out Andrew Brant on Instagram reels at Andrew Brant Andrew. Appreciate the time. Thanks so much for this. Always a pleasure guys. Thank you. Andrew Brant. I like to think when he said we're not sports radio hosts, he was talking about like the grave difficulty of our job. Yeah, couldn't do that. It's too hard is what I that's how I chose to take that. You know who I hope was listening to that conversation. Is Jeremy Swamin and his representatives because it's not how good that's not how good. Yeah, who cares if you're a Vesna winner? No, I you shouldn't. No, because he's right. Because it's circumstance. It's like, when does your contract open up? What kind of situation is the team you're negotiating with in? Hey, you're only a restricted free agent, but so what the Bruins, they have no they there's no there's nowhere to turn. And I can't all mark back. They're not going to corpus alo and saying, hey, guy that was awful in Ottawa, you're our number one. And then what like trading the future of the the position of the French and like, no, no, no, no, no. So yeah, maybe that's the start of negotiations in and they come back and you figure something in the nines. But if you're asking 10, yeah, I mean, the the one thing that the organization can hold over you is, yeah, we're just not going to pay you. And if nobody's going to offer shoot you, then maybe you just don't play, but they don't want that either. Like you do hold all the cards. If you're Jeremy Swamin, just as Brandon, I you does, because he can say screw you, I'm holding in, you can't don't even get to find me. Same with the Jamar chase thing too, right? Like those got like holding in makes way more sense than holding out. Of course, apparently, like the CD lamb finds can all be rescinded because he's on his rookie deal. But yeah, the holding in things like, Oh, I'll show up. Yeah, I just don't won't do anything here. Yeah, what am I going to do? You ever gone to work and just had a light day? Not bad. Honestly, honestly, you're not all all that bad. The other thing that danced around in my brain from a hockey perspective about that, the idea of going to somebody early and I know nobody wants this now and like can be super unpalatable. And they I don't think something's happened before camp opens up here. But Sarah World, where the number they could sign Mitch Marner to for the Leafs is much, much different than the one they could sign him to at the end of this upcoming season, 100%. I got like, what is that? What is it? No, that's there's no world where Mitch Marner says, yeah, I don't, he's not making less. Yeah, he's like, I don't need a raise. We'll just read. We'll just do it again. Now that's not happening. And but that was where my mind immediately went on that. There's probably not a number that makes sense there because you're not like he's not taken less than knee lander. Okay, but like what about the equal deal, right? Yeah, what about 11 and a half, which is a raise. It's a very slight one that's strong on the player. That's the problem is that and the other and like kind of just being realistic here. It's like, you know, whoever Marner's age affairs, I think whoever his agent is is going to be saying, um, you know what the camp's going to look like in four years? Yeah, you know that guy who everybody loves here who wears a C and keeps doing those. Yeah, it's like that's they're going to look at that world. So the idea of you coming to him with the team, no, it had to be complete. Like I just want to, I just wanted to say I'm sorry to Leafs fans and do it. It's not going to happen. But that was immediately where my head went with this. Plus like since you sign the deal, which seemed to exorbitant at the time and you're like, I'm actually not that dissimilar a player to Austin Matthews and Matthews is put up stupid goal scoring seasons, but the point production and the like two way play and like the minute totals per game, like injuries have been part of the story for Mitch Marner. But during the regular season, he's largely held up his end of the bargain. Like there have been times. Yeah. And I know William Nylander took over this place when he got off to his incredible start and then went to Sweden and did the star turn and was the guy that was on the incredible point street too. Whereas like, who's the best non Austin Matthews player on this team? It's clearly William Nylander. Does he have a claim to be the best player on this team? And like, obviously nobody does. We're not doing that anymore. But yeah, Mitch Marner was he was in that role for a long time. And you know, a couple of postseason subs of the toe. I mean, from a negotiating perspective, probably doesn't change that. No, and everybody, it's just so informative that like everybody wants it to and everyone wants him to have to pay a price for the Leafs payoff playoff failures and like guilty, hand up, me too guys, I feel the exact same way. But it's not about that. It's not about striking a deal for me or striking a deal for you. It's what can he build good of whatever team, you know, he wants to play for. Yeah, I don't say that begrudging. Like, that's how all these guys look at it. Yeah. And you know, the careers don't, nobody plays until they're 60 years old. And like, there is, you know, there's a level of pride that's achieved when you're talking about the cap. What's your make money? Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, it is weird, though, how little conversation there is around Mitch Marner after like it was like hot in the streets. Very hot. New head coach. Yep. And Craig Marouba is going to, you know, tell them you're out of here. Like, and then it's just like, eh, nothing really like Brad for living didn't put the screws to him. Don't worry. When Camp opens up at all. So it tells me that fervor will be picking up that first media availability. But I'm telling you, I feel like we're going into a season where it's like, yeah, that's an end of the season discussion. Probably. Almost certainly. All right. All right. We'll be back tomorrow. I will. Another edition of the fan morning show, Ben and S. Brent Gunning, sports net 5.9 in the fan. Good morning. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]
