GBag Nation
2nd hour of the G-Bag Nation: NFL News of the Day; Texas Ranger Cody Bradford joins the Nation; Cowboys roster cuts
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Or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides. Located 2250 South Sea Home Street in Englewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out. Head on over to the sharpestrides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl, Tasha McKia sent you. The sharpest rides, affordable, sexy, sharp. - Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandal, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's Fandal.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandal, an official sports book partner of the NFL. - Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandal.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800-522-4700. - Here we go, it's hour number two of the G-Bagnation on 105-3. The fan tell your friends, Cody Bradford's coming up at 320, the Alito High School, and Baylor Star. Join us for the Rangers player show here coming up in 20 time now for the NFL news of the day, and here's Chief. - All right, so the Cowboys have traded Peyton Henderson to the Chiefs, and at best it's gonna be a seventh round pick. And if he doesn't play or is not active enough throughout the season, then they will get nothing for him. But we shall see how that plays out. Now, plenty of other things going on, certainly around the Cowboys. You have the Dalvin Cook stuff. How about the Ties Bowser stuff as well? They're bringing in another edge guy to take a look at him. They move on from Carl Lawson, Ties Bowser. I don't know how much you know about him, Brodus, but-- - I watched him this morning. - You watched him this morning. Okay, so are you doing that in Krusty's corner? - Yeah, I'll talk about him, Krusty's corner a little bit. Yeah. - Well, that's a guy who I do know. I saw John owning note like has recorded 10 plus percent in terms of pass rush, win rate every year. He's been in the league. - Got some injury history. - But it's the injury history. That's really the big question there. - The knee and the Achilles or something, the film I had to watch was from 2022, 'cause there's no-- - That's how long it's been. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That's a true kicking the tires situation there. - Yeah, you know what? It might be a situation too, and the waivers should be in now, we're at 301. So everything should, we should be getting a notice from the cowboys of all the guys that they released. But I was hearing a name of, with wheat, Terrace wheat, you know, when we were talking to talk about guys, Muhammad, who they sign is gonna be suspended for week one, who they really, really liked. But because of the Lawson thing that we might be seeing that wheat, you know, because he could play edge, he could play inside, and he could play special teams, this guy might be a surprise guy that's on the team, at least through the first week of the season. - Well, the NFL apparently decided against using a more accurate electric measuring system for the stands. - Oh, they don't like this thing? - They don't like it enough to implement it. - They're not digging it, are they? - Yeah, they trialed it for the pre-season to measure first downs, and I guess they're like, hey, we have the technology for it, we proved during the pre-season, it can work, but we'd prefer not to use it. - It didn't work. - We'll stick with the index cards and the old people and the chain gang, and here's the thing. - Didn't work well enough. - It's like, I got respect for the chain gang. Those guys were still there, they didn't lose their jobs, just because AI was coming in to help them, they weren't completely dismantling the chain gang. So it's like, why wouldn't you have the best of both worlds? You still get the chain gang, you're still gonna get the moments where they're running out potentially with the chains or whatever, but you have the technology to do it, and instead, the NFL is like, thanks, but no thanks. - Were you at the game the other day? I know you, when we did the pre-game show, you were hanging around for a little bit, they had a measurement, and it didn't come off the right way. They were waiting for, they're waiting for the officials, like, we're gonna have a virtual measurement, and so we're waiting. - Oh, and it malfunctioned. - Waiting, waiting, waiting. And he goes, it's third down, and this much, he held up his hands, and I'm sure this is terrible radio, but he gave it the, you know. - He didn't specify the inches. - He just held up his hands, like, it's third and short. - Like he was talking about crowd sizes? - Yeah. (laughing) So that was the, they were waiting, and waiting, and waiting. - Okay, so I guess they don't have it dialed enough, 'cause any time I've seen it, like, watching on-- - That's been the problem. - From the house, it seemed fine. There's been some problem-- - But there's been some-- - Yeah, there's been issues that they haven't been able to do it in such a timely manner. They're trying to speed the games up and stuff like that, but there's times this thing's gone more than a minute, you know, of them waiting around for it. - Yeah, they got a troubleshoot that. I mean, it's not that big of a deal, you know. They got a good rhythm going, and, you know, they want to make sure they got it right before they change, but I think the disappointing thing here is they're, they're not using the technology to solve the biggest issue. They're kind of wading into this and being like, well, we could do that part of it, and, you know, maybe save us a minute or two a game and save the inexactness, but what we need is the precision of the spot, so you know with certainty where that ball was, and that's what we need the technology's help for more than anything. - Okay, Bobby just sent us over the 53 man. - He did. - He's got it for the boys. - Look at that, getting it done. - Look at this, that's our Cowboys insider right there. What a stud. Okay, names to know. Duce Vaughn made the team. - Congratulations, buddy. - Ryan Florinoy, rookie wide out, made the team. Buddy Johnson, linebacker, made the team. McQuamoo made the team. Well, let's go. Tyris Wheat. - Yeah, you got the job, buddy. - They all made the team. - Spanned forward. - Spanned forwards on there. Yep. - Yep. - Notable cuts, Josh Ball, Malik Davis, Justin Rogers, and Julius Wood. Julius Wood is one we hate to see go. Hopefully, he's a immediate practice squad guy, but if he gets claimed, that's gonna suck. - This morning, I was getting the vibe that he was on the team. And then I could say, I put him on yesterday on my 53 when we went through it, 'cause I felt like that he was gonna help them potential on special teams. We'll see if he comes back. This is not, I don't think the final roster by any means. We're gonna have to give this thing a couple of days in order to be. How about Buddy Johnson? Did you mention him? - Yeah, yeah, Buddy Johnson made it. - Buddy Johnson, yeah. I think the surprising one too, I mentioned was Wheat that he made it. I'm noticing Bobby's list. He doesn't have a lamb on this list. - Not active yet. - Yeah, that's the same. - He says a note down below, and adoga's gonna go on the IR tomorrow. - Okay, so that's what they're, but he's, but I guess they're gonna keep him under that reserve or did not report thing, because, or the designation, whatever designation he is. - Yeah. - And then I guess that allows him, that allows them to do the adoga thing and then switch it. So again, roster gymnastics going on with this team. - All right, well, doosfon makes it. And no Malik Davis, I think that's something we weren't sure if they were gonna do a few days ago and we're glad that they did it. But that running back room with Dalvin Cook, or if there's another guy that they like that could be out there, or whatever, maybe that changes a little bit. But Bobby notes that he doesn't expect Lamb to actually be on the 53-man roster until next week. So they will be doing some of those gymnastics here. - Yeah. - Okay, now we gotta get to the Mike Sando quarterback tiers, but I did wanna play this sound from Bill Belichick on with the Pat McAfee show. Here's his thoughts on this new NFL, the kickoff stuff. - I mean, you put the wall on the 30 instead of 25. I mean, big deal, but I'd rather do that than, you know, to kick into one of these guys that, you know, has got a chance to, you know, change field position on you in a hurry. So I think we saw more returns in pre-season, percentage-wise than what we're gonna see in the regular season. And again, remember, pre-season, I mean, first of all, the games, the other games, and second of all, a lot of the guys that are back there are just guys that, you know, teams won't evaluate. So it's a little different. They each start talking about kicking off to, you know, turpin and, you know, Duvernay and guys like that. I mean, I'd kick it out of the end zone. - Yeah, you know, I wonder what the, what the yardage is. The starting position is that would make people accept that risk. That's what you gotta do. Otherwise, just kill the play. - Yeah, I would say, and he suggested, like, if you wanna get kick-offs every time, just move the kicker back a little bit and he's gotta kick it from a further distance so that you have to get a return basically every time. - I've been watching a lot of film on these kick-offs here lately, and it seems to be that kickers are having a hard time getting the ball into that zone, that area that they're talking about. They're kind of trying to punch it and see, but then it's going through. They're getting it all the way to the end zone. It doesn't seem like the kickers have a really good grasp yet of how to make it, you know, without-- - Get it into the landing zone. - The landing zone, you know, they're kind of trying to punch it and it's going too far and now it's ended up on the three. There's been a lot of inconsistencies with this thing. You're thinking like, okay, well, they working on it? Or they just like, ah, we're not interested. I think the kickers have kind of screwed it up for the special teams coaches that kind of wanted to see their guys return it or cover. The kickers are just kind of like, we just don't have a good feel of how to hit the shot the right way or hit the kick the right way to make that work. Other NFL news right now, you have Odell Beckham Jr. going to start on the physically unable to perform list with the Dolphin Tohomis the first few games of the season. You have the Rams trading their leading tackler at linebacker Ernest Jones to the Titans. So those are a couple of the moves that have been made here as it pertains to the week one Cleveland Browns who are the Cowboys opponent. They're going to be keeping Dorian Thompson Robinson, the UCLA second year quarterback and they could be interested in trading James Winston. So that'll be something to monitor here as well. But we have the- Does that mean they got four guys? Do they have four quarterbacks now? The Browns? Yeah. Yeah, because they also have Tyler Huntley. Yeah. They have Watson, Robinson, Winston and Huntley. So they're carrying four right now. I guess at the moment they are. They probably won't for much longer, but maybe they can move on from Winston. I don't know. But I don't know how you can, I don't know how you can move on from Winston right now with the status of Deshawn Watson. But we do have the quarterback tiers. Okay, so here it is. The athletic, he does this every year. Mike Sandow, he's going to join us at four o'clock. But he goes around and he talks to a bunch of different NFL executives and coaches and he comes up with the top 30 quarterbacks in the NFL. No rookies because we haven't seen him play yet and he tears them according to the way the executives and everybody, the coaches decide to rank their quarterbacks. And so a tier one quarterback is described as a quarterback that can carry his team each week. The team wins because of him. He expertly handles peer passing situations. He has no real holes in his game. I would make the argument that Pat Mahomes is really the only guy that completely fits that. But they will say it's not only Pat Mahomes, it's Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. Those are the three tier one quarterbacks right now, according to NFL executives. And I'm fine with that, but I'd also be fine with there's Mahomes and then there's sort of everybody else. - Yeah, and I'm up for a conversation about Burrow 'cause I don't think we've seen enough of him, but Josh Allen, I feel like we've seen enough. There's massive game swinging interceptions or multi interception games. And I feel like overall the bill's talent has been just as good as what Kansas City's had. And Josh Allen hasn't been able to punch through one time. That's pretty suspect if he asked me. - Yeah, no, I mean, he's had some really awesome playoff moments. He's gone toe to toe in Arrowhead in a AFC Championship game over time. And he was right there. So I still have him being, if he's not the second best, he's the third best quarterback in the sport. But as you mentioned, the turnovers, that's like, okay, you do have a little bit of a hole here. So I would say Joe Burrow and Josh Allen would be tier two guys for me personally. But the way they do tier two is quarterbacks that can carry his team sometimes, but not as consistently, he can handle pure passing situation in doses and or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above tier three has a whole or two in his game. And this is where you'll see a handful of quarterbacks in tier two led by Lamar Jackson. Then you get to Matthew Stafford and Justin Herbert. Then you're at Aaron Rodgers, CJ Stroud, and then you get to Dak. So they have Dak at nine and has a tier two quarterback, which is where he was last year as well. - That's fair. How do you rank Aaron Rodgers? That one is tough to me 'cause I feel like I still wanna put him top three a lot of times. - He's got five. - You're going top five, Brodus. - Absolutely. - I mean, listen, we've never seen anything like this before a player at that age coming off that injury. So it's difficult. And you can see it here from the quotes from the executives and the coaches and stuff. Like, - Go bet against him. - Offensive coach says maybe he falls off, but I just know the last time I saw him play, he can carry it. I'm going off of that. But then you talk to somebody else who is a head coach, makes Aaron Rodgers a tier three quarterback according to this head coach. And he says you go back and watch those first four plays before he got hurt last year, he didn't look good. He says he looks old. If they can't protect him and they can't run the football, it'll be just what you saw, late stages in Green Bay. He became ineffective. I'm looking at what he is, not who he is. - The late stages in Green Bay, they were 13 and three, you know. - I think that last year, 'cause they didn't have, he didn't have Devontae Adams that last season. - Did they make the playoffs? Did they get beat by Detroit in the last game of the year? - Yes, yes. They had a chance at the playoffs and Detroit went into Green Bay. - And Detroit planned for nothing. - Detroit was playing for Pride. - Yeah, and they beat him. - And they beat. So that his last year in Green Bay was definitely underwhelming. They won like maybe nine games or whatever. - And until he completely falls off the map, I'm not betting against him. Okay, so that was two years ago in 2022, 26 touchdowns, 12 picks, deteriorating offensive line. No Devontae Adams. I could see it, and I think there's uncertainty there, but what are we looking at here? A 40 years old coming off and Achilles, I'm gonna have to believe that he can't play because I saw him compromised against the Cowboys with that bad calf where he was limping around and still figured out ways to get to pulling to the pocket to make the play. - He's like that snake. He got to cut the head off to kill him. That's hard. - So you guys would still have him in your top five going in. If you go back for one game right now, he's in the top five of guys you take. - His brain power. - Right, the brain power for sure. - The brain power, that's what makes him so dangerous. - I'd much rather have him than Dak Prescott. I'd much rather have him than Lamar Jackson. You know, I'd much rather have him than Josh Allen. I think the only two guys I'd rather have Armahomes in burrow. - Okay. Well, the quotes on Dak, you have him. Once again, he's at nine. They have him as a tier two guy. You have an offensive coordinator saying, "Hey, Dak can roll out of the bed "and throw for 450, it's unbelievable." It's just those moments in the playoffs. Niners, Packers, where you're like, if you want to be tier one, one of these times you're going to have to put that team on your back and will your team to win. - Yeah. It's so unfortunate what happened with his leg injury because not only did it make him a little bit slower, but it also has discouraged him to run. He should have been a dual threat quarterback that made up for his shortcomings in reading the field under pressure and figured out a way to get first downs, like he was in the process of doing against the Giants when he broke his leg. The offensive game plan wasn't working. Second quarter, he said to hell with this, I'm taking us down the field and we're scoring. And that's the player that Dak was before the injury. And that gave him a chance to be in tier one. - Yeah, that was, I mean, couldn't agree more. That would have been his best opportunity. And then of course, if he had a coach that was a super beast, I think he could have had some moments there as well that could really help elevate him, but he hasn't had that. And now he's consistently about the eight to 10th best quarterback in the league. - Yeah, yeah. And I think that's good enough to get the job done for sure. Lesser quarterbacks have been winning the Super Bowl, but the organization has to be aware of what your guy is. And that might be the biggest issue with self-evaluating your own guys with this football team, is they don't know when they have a Tony Rummel or a Dak Prescott that requires a significantly better team to win the Super Bowl with. You can't expect those guys to pick your team and carry it against, you know, what is oftentimes better rosters when you're talking about teams that Tony and Dak had that either couldn't run or couldn't play defense the majority of the seasons. Okay, Cody Bradford, Rangers player show, Mr. Alito. You know, he was the valedictorian there back in 2016, I think quite the big man on campus. So Cody Bradford set to join us next right here to the G back nation on 104. The seasons may be changing, but the deals at the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on, it's your girl, Tasha McKia. 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It's 214 or 817-333-3333. Jump online to Francklefirm.com. Also brought to you by cars for kids. Donate today, carsforkids.org. The Rangers Player Show is presented by Golden Chick and by Globe Life. Everyone has beneficiaries. Not everyone has life insurance. Globe Life, who's your beneficiary? As Rangers pitcher Cody Bradford joins you now here on the fan. Good afternoon, sir. How the heck are you? - Hey, thanks for having me. - Well, it's great to have you. I think we talked to you in spring training and you start the season three and oh, a one four O ERA. Then your back starts hurting. What were you thinking right then? - Yeah, I'm not really sure what to think. You know, it's kind of a weird deal. Last start against Oakland. Guess earlier in the year came out. Like y'all said, it was the third start and woke up the next morning and my back was just totally locked up and turned around on my wife. I was like, babe, something's wrong. Like something, this does not feel like normal day after tightness and went in and got it checked out and kind of just had all the findings of a strained muscle or something in my back. And a couple of days went by, didn't get any better, got an MRI the next week, showed some inflammation. So like, all right, let's put a little, you know, steroid shot in there. See if that calms the muscles down. Did that a week later? Still no, not much progress. And kind of we're all meeting the trainers and just scratching our head like, what's going on here? This is kind of weird. And I got some more imaging done and figured out after all it's a rib stress fracture. How that happens, I have no idea. It's just, I guess, wear and tear from pitching is what I've been told and just kind of a freak deal. But the team doc already said, yeah, all my time in baseball, I've never seen this one before. So there you go. - A real unicorn there was at the most pain, is that the most physical baseball pain you've ever experienced? - It's got to be up there. I mean, I broke my nose as a kid one time in tee ball. I heard pretty bad, but maybe it was because I was about six years old too. So, you know. - Did you ever have like a nasty bat or was it always pitching for you? - I was never a great hitter. There was a reason I was a PO in college and then a PO towards the end of high school. I was not gifted to hit baseballs. - Were you ever able to identify the moment? You know, the great home run hitter, Sammy Sosa. He suffered a broken bone in his back once after sneezing. - Yeah, I heard about that actually. I heard it was a rib or something, I think. And I don't know. I never felt it on a pitch for say, like there was never a snap or crack or anything. It was really after the game, I felt fine. And then the next morning I woke up and my whole back was locked up. So I don't know if it was a slept weird on it or if it was just something that happened overnight or like, I don't know. I don't know, I don't have answers for that, I guess. - Well, you gotta be feeling pretty good out there now. Is that all that behind you? - Yeah, a lot better. And now the Rangers did a great job with the medical staff. Went out to Arizona for a month to rehab and get a good routine out there. And then came back and, you know, praised the Lord, my body's holding up now and able to help the team out again. - As it pertains to your preparation, I hear you're a pretty detailed dude. Like, do you keep a journal? Do you take notes of all these different hitters and stuff that you're going up against? - Yeah, I do. I mean, I appreciate that. Anytime somebody recognizes detail-oriented, I'm appreciative of that. But not all of us throw a hundred. So I'm not the guy that can just go up there and be like, hey, I'm gonna throw my best two pitches today and roll the dice and see how it goes and dominate. You know, I definitely have to do my homework. And so being the student of the game, taking notes on hitters, doing a little bit more advanced scouting, all plays a big hand and certainly for me, trying to be successful at the big level. - And Cody, when you talk about your notes, is it one of those things where you kind of sit in the dugout and quietly do it while the game's going on? Or is it something that you go back and maybe with an iPad when you're sitting in your hotel room at night and something like that, you go through it then? Is it, how do you get to your study? How do you get through it? - Yeah, yeah, the both. I think it's paying good attention to guys who pitch similar to you before you do. And so for me, I know last year when I was in the bullpen, I would really watch Martin Perez and Andrew Heaney pitch a lot. And generally speaking, I'd really watch how Andrew through where and how he uses four seamenas change up. And then Martin, that's how he used his curve ball or I guess he calls it a slider in his basketballs too. And just kind of paying attention and seeing what works on other hitters to guys who are similar to you during the game. And then after the game, I'm obviously going in and doing some more advanced scouting on my laptop and in the hotel room before games to kind of look through some of the heat maps. I mean, the amount of data that's available on guys today, you can really have analysis paralysis and just get lost in weeds and stuff. But if you find something that works for you, that's all that matters. - I'm interested in this. Do they, with all the detail that you go through, when you go through a scouting report, say maybe the day you're pitching, do they have to tailor it different to you because of the amount of work you do put in? - No, I don't think so. I don't think it's tailored any different from the amount of prep the starting pitcher does. I think it definitely helps when the player comes ready to the meeting, to meet with the pitching coach and the catcher and they come ready with their notes and I come up my notes and, you know, "Oh wow, lo and behold, the notes match up." And you know, this guy is a, you know, struggles on curve balls or whatever. And it's like, that just gives me more confidence to execute pitches out on the mound. I mean, I think at the end of the day, Mike Maddox tells us what's the hardest thing to do in baseball as a pitcher is to trust your stuff. And so like when I'm going through these scouting reports, yeah, I'm trying to pick apart the hitter and see what's going to work, but I'm also trying to be confident. Hey, I know that I can throw my 88, 90 mile in our fastball to this part of the zone and be successful. And that just gives me confidence to execute that pitch when I need to. - Scotty Bradford here with you on your home of the Rangers. Is it that kind of hard work that got you valedictorian in high school or was it something else? - Yeah, hard work does go a long way in high school. You know, a guy gave me great parents that helped me along the way and an older sister to kind of cut the tone. And she was a really good student in high school. And of course, she helped me out too. And so I think, you know, just can't move between, up and support you in whatever you do. Give you the confidence to work hard. - Scotty, I'm not as smart as you are, but does that require a speech? Did you have to give a speech? - Yeah, I did give a speech. - Did you stress over that? Did you have to stress over your speech? - I did. I'm not a great public speaker here. So yeah, I'm pretty nervous. I definitely sweated through my shirt, big graduation. - Now, I've seen some of these valedictorian races go down to the wire. Like, was it, were you thinking about this quite a bit there at the end or did you kind of win in a landslide? - I don't really know. I know a guy who came in second, his name was Austin de Bransky. Me and him were, I know were up at the top, you know, kind of all the way through high school and competing with one another. But I don't know how close it was at the end, but it was definitely, it was definitely a goal. - I don't want to. - Only got our first transcript back, like freshman or sophomore year with class ranks on it. I was so shocked to see number one beside my name. - Now, de Bransky sounds like he might be a football player. - Yeah, what was de Bransky? What's he doing nowadays? - Brainiac linebacker. - Yeah, he was an Aggie, so. - Oh, wow. - I don't know. I haven't done a good job of keeping up with some of those guys, but I hope he's doing well. - I hope he didn't become one of those yo-leaders or something. - Yeah, yeah. - We were faulted for Gransky. (laughing) - Cody, is it annoying at all being a local guy? Or is everybody asking you, like, what's going on with the team? Are we going to start winning again? - No, it's not annoying at all. I think it's a true honor, gas, the pitch for the hometown team. And it's, like, I didn't even dream, dreams this big when I was a kid. And I'm super grateful for the opportunity that this org's given me and the trust that they give me and taking a starting role for right now. And, you know, when people ask, you used to be, not too many people ask, hey, what's going on with the team? Why isn't so-and-so doing this or that? Why aren't we winning game? Why aren't we going to win the World Series? And a lot of it, it's just, people love to support. - Nice. I've been really surprised that all the support that people have shown. - Yeah, just wear your ring. And when they ask that question to you, just show them the ring and then move on. You know, the kind of a thing? That's would be like, you know, when they ask you questions, just hold up your hand with the ring on and just, and then they go, oh, okay, I get it. And then you just can kind of move on. That buys you all the space you need right there, right? - That's right, that's right. - So what were you dreaming about? It looks like you went to Baylor and got a degree in supply chain management. What were you going to do, you think? - To be honest, I don't know what I was going to do. I know what I wanted to do before I wanted to go to college as an engineer. And first day of summer school, when they had the baseball team come in, I was a mechanical engineer at Baylor. And the joke is that the second day of summer school, I was a business major. (laughing) Which majors real quick, went into the first class and realized, yeah, I don't know. I thought I knew a lot about calculus in high school, but I wasn't near on the level that some of those other guys were in that class, so. But I wanted to work at SpaceX, come out of high school if the baseball didn't work out. And hopefully, I may not get that opportunity and may not need that opportunity, but God's provided for my wife's than I am in baseball right now. And then that's where we're meant to be. - So coming out of high school, dominant numbers, how did you not get drafted with, did you tell them I'm going to college no matter what? - No, I don't think any scouts reached out to me. Maybe one guy, maybe from like the eighties or something, but no, I popped out at like 87 or 88 in high school. So good numbers, but just not the wow, that not the draft ability and the projectability that guys wanted. - Had to get in the weight room. - Yeah, I definitely needed college to develop physically. I absolutely needed that. - Inside baseball here, we have a texture that has shown some love to your elite extension. How much work goes into that for you, Cody, because it is pretty dang impressive. - Yeah, that's just kind of, to me, a benign stat that I learned that I somehow have really good extension. My first year of pro ball didn't know a lot about analytics and the more I paid attention and watched and asked questions, the student I realized, wow, the reason my 89, 91 on our fastball works is because I have really good extension. So it plays up, it looks like our least of all close to home plate, 90 miles an hour plays like 92 or 93 or 94, I don't really know, but it appears it gets on the hitter quicker. And nothing I really worked on, that's just kind of been my mechanics, I guess through my whole life. But it's probably also one of the reasons I don't necessarily throw harder is because there's some mechanical things that go into that. And so actually, it's my belief that if I was able to shorten that up a little bit, I'd probably build the throw a little bit harder but to sacrifice effectiveness, I don't know if it would be worth it at this point. - Cody, does that have to do with flexibility too? Your ability to the way you push off and then get to your plant food, is that something that plays this guy? - The yoga guy, right? Does that apply? - Yeah, I like to think I'm pretty flexible but compared to where some other people, I'm definitely not. You know, I don't, that's a good question. I don't know if it is a flexibility. I think it's just kind of how the arm naturally unwinds and the motion and how the body works come at home. Yeah. - Well, Cody, they say to be a great pitcher in the major leagues, you gotta get comfortable being uncomfortable. I got a good feeling I'm gonna make you uncomfortable here for a second, but I'd like to play a game with you. I got three seconds of analysis. One of your teammates is being described here, one of your current Rangers teammates. Can you guess the teammate that is being described? Okay, I'm gonna play you some sound and then you guess. - Okay. - All right, here it is. - You know, what he's got working there between the knee and the waist is pretty impressive. Can you play that again? - Absolutely. You know, what he's got working there between the knee and the waist is pretty impressive. - Oh my gosh. Okay. You want me to name a teammate? - Guess a teammate. Guess a teammate. Yes, sir. - Yeah. I'm gonna say why at Langford. - Bye. - Oh my God. - It's so believable. - There we go. Nice work. Cody Bradford first. - Is that him? - Yes. You got it. You're one of like three dudes all season that is just absolutely nailed it. Hit it out the park. Nice work, Bradford. - Wow. (laughing) - You did it. - Oh my gosh. - How good do you feel right now? (laughing) - I feel like I just won the lottery card. (laughing) - Thanks, Cody. Give him hell. We'll be pulling for you. - All right. Nice out so much. - There he is. Rangers pitcher Cody Bradford. He freaking nailed it. That's awesome. - He knew who Sam's just talking about. - Yeah. - The Rangers player show brought you by Golden Chick in globe life. Everyone has beneficiaries. Not everyone has life insurance globe life. Who's your beneficiary? - Yeah. And we're gonna give him some pluckers wings for getting the answer right. How about that? - Oh, our gift certificate got eight pluckers in the DFW location. So thank you for Cody for making that happen for us today. - Eight pluckers and one crusty. - There you go. - Crusty's corner's coming up next. Where are we taking it? - Yeah, let me talk about some of these guys the Cowboys are looking at and maybe a couple of guys that they put on this waiver wire. We'll do that next. - Yes, sir. Thank you, Lucius. Mike Sando's coming up at four o'clock from the athletic. He has your QB tiers and we'll talk with him about where he put Dak and why, where he put the other guys, other NFL stories with Sando coming up at four. Here's Brodus with Crusty's corner. - Thank you very much, General. Appreciate that. Yeah, we have, we have cut down today. And I'm looking through the names and I'm kind of thinking, I'm gonna kind of walk you through maybe some of the decisions they had to make with players. And I'm interested in a couple of different things that they've done here. The first off though, when I went through my 53-man roster, I had a ball over Willetsco and they saw it the other way with ball being released. I kind of felt like that ball of the guard had been a pretty good option for them. They've got a good group inside. They might be worried more about the tackle situations and the tackle situation. And that's where I think Awesome Richards would rather play guard than he would play tackle. But I think they're saying right now, they're like, well, no, we're okay at guard. We need you to play tackle. And so I think Awesome Richards will probably be 'cause with Adoga being out for several weeks, they're gonna have to kind of piece that thing together. And I'm a little, I'm a little surprised. But I also understand though too, that if you watch Willetsco play in that Raider game when they were going up against the Raiders, first team defense, that he was able to hold his own. But man, there was some times of some struggle with the one-on-one stuff and things like that. So I would have probably gone ball myself over him but they didn't see it that way. Ryan Flourneway over Jalen Cropper. And there's two guys on this roster that had limited time and came the furthest and the fastest to get back on this roster. Where I thought as they're standing over there by us and not working out, I really believed I was thinking Flourneway, this looks like a practice squad, this looks like kind of a wasted kind of a year with him, him and Deuce Faunk. Both those guys, when you guys recamp, were on the courts, you didn't see those guys practice at all. But those two guys, the amount of ground that they were able to cover and get themselves back on this roster, I think says a lot about them. I was impressed with Flourneway and I'll tell you what I was impressed by. I was impressed with how physical he is as a blocker. I could see them trying to work with him and see if they can get him to do more on special teams. And a big body that if you're gonna make him active, that he could help you that way, I don't think Deuce Faunk can help you much on special teams other than a returner, the possibility there. So they're gonna have to kind of work around that. But Jalen Cropper lost this job. Jalen Cropper was looking outstanding throughout practices. And then they started playing games. And then he disappeared in the games. - Right, and a couple of fumbles too. - Yeah, some of the, he really, he was the guy that you felt like that was going to make this team. If you were going to carry six receivers, he was making a push to be that sixth guy. Well, you know, now he's probably looking at a practice squad spot if he doesn't get claimed. I mentioned Faunk, you know, you look at Malik Davis. Everybody was talking about, there was a lot of ringing of the hands and stuff about Malik Davis. Why is Malik Davis? Why are you carrying a special teams guy? Why is he not, you know, why are you gonna carry that? Emma, him is the third guy. Well, ultimately he is, he gets waived because of the special team stuff was probably not what they needed from him. Not good enough to where they needed him to be. And so, you know, when they look at that, I was, I'm hearing some whispers that he might not even come back on the practice squad. That's how Faunk-- I mean, he did, what did he, I don't understand what he does. I know, I understand too what you're saying, but that's, that I was kind of hearing. Makes perfect sense that he wouldn't be on your practice squad or on your team at all. Yeah. The fact that, that, that spanned Ford, the tight end, made it, I, this one, this one might be more about, and he made it over fan. And if you didn't have Hunter Lippke on this team, Faunk might be that guy, the Hunter Lippke type of a player. But spanned Ford, they put a lot of guaranteed money in him for a rookie. 250K. Yeah. And I bet you they were worried about putting him on the street and maybe getting him back because they probably competed against a lot of teams to get him in the first place. Yeah. What are his strengths as a player? Is he supposed to be a blocker? He's supposed to be a blocker. And there are times where he is not that. I think they're, I think they're betting on, we don't want to put him out there and him be gone. And then we missed and all of a sudden he develops. You know, they're, they're going to, I will say this, I believe he's the 53rd player on this roster though right now. I would say that him and, and wheat were probably, you know, probably the two guys 52, 53 there. But I was expecting a big time blocker and he wasn't always that. He's not the best pass catcher you have. This, this could be more about keeping him around because they're worried that they, if they put him out there and he's gone, he'll develop and they want to be the guy that develops. I'm surprised about Rogers, the defensive tackle being put out on the street. And this is more about Joseph, but you know, Mazi Smith, Mazi Smith, if you look at the defensive lineman of the tackles of the four tackles you have, he's the fourth guy. But Rogers, this one will be interesting. And we always say, well, they put him out there and they all come back and maybe they will, but Rogers to me, if I was watching tape of this team, I would, I would, hey, there's a big body guy with some range, with some pass rush ability. I, for a seventh round pick, I think you could do a lot worse for him, but he could be a rotational player for you. So I'm, they're probably holding their breath on that one. I had Julius Wood on this team, the safety. And I don't know if you'll get him back. Somebody will look at him and say, here's a guy that's physically very tough. He tackles well. If they had, people had some really good film from him or reports from his college days at East Carolina. They might circle back and say, wow, we like this guy. His pro tape is pretty, pretty good. I thought he would be the fifth safety just because he could play special teams for you make up for some of these spots where you don't have a lot of special teams players, especially on the, in the running back room. Royce Freeman, I thought showed well for a veteran guy. I was surprised that he got let go, but that's, you know, people are saying, well, hell, he's a better version of Zeke. And it might be true there, but they're going to keep Zeke and so Royce Freeman gets knocked out. I mentioned wheat over Lawson. I keep an eye on Muhammad who was also in this mix. They didn't have to do anything with him because he suspended for one game. But if you, if you told me of the three guys that played the other day, power rank, wheat, Lawson, Muhammad, I would say Muhammad, wheat, Lawson would be how I would power rank that group. So they kept wheat for a reason. Maybe when Muhammad gets back after the one game, they might flip that around. We'll see if that goes. And the last guy I want to kind of talk about is Buddy Johnson. - Oh, Cliff's own. - Yeah, Buddy Johnson. And I think the thing with Buddy Johnson, he's just, to me, when you watch him, there's a guy with size, there's a guy with range, there's a guy with toughness, there's a guy that tackles well, there's a guy that's very physical. That kid right there made the team because of all the things that I said. I, you don't mainly give a rookie linebacker-free agents, much of an opportunity because, but here they are rebuilding their room. Buddy Johnson, he bullied his way onto this 53-man roster the way he played. And so it got very evident that once we got down to the final preseason game, that this kid had a shot to make this team. 'Cause every time you watched him on tape, you know, that he was doing a much better job and then some of the other linebackers that were- - Yeah. - That had the opportunity. You know, I think it's, you know, it's unfortunate that the Nick vigils and guys like that- - Really Harvey. - Really Harvey, yeah. Those guys had opportunities, but Buddy Johnson clearly outplayed all those guys and he's very deserving of that spot on the 50th. - Hell of a job, Buddy. - Thank you, sir, Brian. - Thank you. - Alrighty, that'll do it for Krusty's Corner here in the G-Bag Nation. It is a Rangers game night. They're in Chicago to take on the White Sox pre-game at 6.30. Mike Sandal of the Athletic published his annual quarterback tier rankings. And he'll join us next to discuss the takeaways from that. - The seasons may be changing, but the deals at the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl, Tasha McKia. 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