The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
12/04 Hour 3 - 6 years $165m for Alex Bregman, Should the Astros Pay That?
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You came in and within 2 seconds was like, "Why is Southern Charm on the TV?" It was weird? Isn't it weird that Southern Charm was on our TV? In the sports radio station? Yes. It was weird. Very quick, very defensive that you weren't the one to put it on there. I don't watch that show. Will you watch it now that you've been watching on mute for the last 2 hours? No, it looks like brain numbing. Brain numbing? Yeah. It just looks like a bunch of people that get lit up and then they go on binges overnight and then they talk about it the next day. It's not bad. It's pretty accurate. Pretty accurate description of the show without ever listening to it at all, just looking at it for the last 2 hours. Brian, are you watching the season premiere, Southern Charm tomorrow night? Oh, yeah. No, I've got a whole watch party going on. We're going to make some apps and have some cocktails. It's going to be a blast. Yeah, you probably need an espresso martini. Yeah. I think that's a given. It'll be important. It's December, so maybe some like peppermint flakes or something on there. It'll make a little festive. Not bad. I caught up on Land Man and Yellowstone two nights ago, caught up in the last 2 episodes of Land Man. You're not still looking for Kostner, right? No, no. You do have a Kostner body double, though. Oh, yeah. Keep the storyline going. No. What, you just see them off in the background or something? Well, I don't want to. I'm not. I'm anti-spoiler. So I'm trying to tiptoe what I'm talking about. I'm not. There's a word about me, but obviously there's a Kostner body double that is used in this episode, this season of Yellowstone. There's actually talks that they're going to renew it next year for season 6. Which I'm about to hit. Yeah. I'm okay with it. I'm in the spot for shows like that. I'm okay if they wanted to extend another season. I'd be all right with that. I wouldn't hate that. All right. What are your week 13 overreactions after this past week of the NFL? Usually we do this on Tuesdays, but the Aziz stuff just happened. What is your biggest overreaction after 13 weeks of the NFL season? 713-780-3776. Blankers. Do you have any? Yeah. I think the first one to me is all these people clamoring in Atlanta that you should sit down Kirk cousins and you should play Michael Pennix and I don't care if Brian McDonald is holding his hand up or not. I mean, this Falcons team has too much talent to now suddenly put a rookie quarterback that hasn't played all season in at quarterback and have any kind of expectations at all. Whereas as you have a guy in Kirk cousins that maybe he's not playing his best football of late, but at the same time, he's kind of the reason why you got off to the start that you are you've had and that you're in the race for a playoff spot to where why would you try and consider to do that now. And if you really want to kick him straight below the belt, he's going back to Minnesota this week. Not this week. In my plan, I would start him the week after, but I still think it's the wrong move and I wouldn't even consider it. And I know that people are just one of you done for me late leaves all the times. I just think it's ridiculous to think about sending cousins down at this point in the season. I wouldn't say though, it's just the last couple of weeks. Like you look at his overall stats. He has his worst yards per game since he's been a full time starter going all the way back to his third season in Washington, he's got his highest interception percentage since like 2019. I mean, he's not playing overall very well and you look at the schedule after they go to Minnesota. I mean, they've got games against the Raiders, Giants, commanders and Panthers. I mean, like one good defense in that group. I think if they lose because you play pedics, yeah, but if you if you if you lose to Minnesota, I think it's worth a shot to see what you have because that competition is bad enough to where Pennics can still win those games and how you drafted them. If you actually think he's worthy of the eighth overall pick, then he should be able to play better than what cousins have played so far. You drafted him with the idea that he was going to play two years behind cousins. Yeah, the cousins have to play poorly, but he doesn't have to play phenomenally to win that division. I mean, Tampa Bay has been slipping the last, you know, five weeks or so of the season and they're still in a tie with Atlanta because the Atlanta has also been losing those games run along with them. So you want to do it to give them a boost, like you think this would help them. I do. Better team. There's obviously the added benefit of finding out what you have going in the next season, but I think it might if they go to Minnesota in the offense, lays an egg, then I'd be willing to switch to Pennics going into the Raiders game. Yeah. See, I'm not really worried as much about the added benefit of seeing what you have because I mean, you're really committed to clinics for the next, you know, the rest of this year and three more. Like he is your quarterback of the future really regardless of what happens this year, but you're tied for the NFC South. So to me, it's all about playing the best guy, playing the best guy. That to me is the only thing that matters. Like you're tied for first place in the NFC South. You owe it to the rest of your locker room to play the best guy, but Brian's arguing that Pennics is the best guy. And I don't think he is. And I think that just from reading coverages to like at this point in the season, having a guy that's going to come in that hasn't taken regular season, significant reps at all, and you're going to try and put them on a crash course real fast and say it's going to be a better chance for this team to win and give them a boost. I just, I'm sorry. I just don't see it as a veteran quarterback that honestly has played his best football in the regular season. And you know, he's going to be motivated and maybe he gets a little extra juice from going back to Minnesota and then maybe they catch, but I don't want them to slip up. He said after Minnesota. Right. Okay. So okay, let him play the Minnesota game, but at the same time, do I want Michael Pennics trying to beat because you're kind of narrowing whatever the gap is in terms of the spread and how favored you're going to be and how much you should win by if you play Pennics at quarterback. I feel like you're also looking away too much of what Kirk Cousins has done in the past in his regular season. No, Kirk Cousins in his last, look, I'm not saying make the change. I'm just kind of being a moderator here in an arbiter between the two. I'm being that Tennessee sideline reporter. He hasn't thrown a touchdown in the last three games and he's throwing six interceptions. Like he has been pretty thinking bad and if he has another game against Minnesota, like he had against the Chargers, I think you have to. I'm cool. We'll give him another week, maybe even two weeks to see if there's anything left there. But if you put together four and then potentially five straight games of lousyness, but I think you do have to manage. So even if you want to manage the game with your quarterbacks, who has a better chance of managing the game if you dial down the offense, Pennics or, or, or Cousins? Cousins, the way he's played the last three weeks, the answer would be Pennics for me. The answer's cousins. Because I think if you're, if you're, I want to say dumbing in it down, but if you're kind of going more vanillaing, I think it's kind of insulting to Pennics too. Like he's been in this system for what, I mean, this is week 14. If you're giving him an extra, if you're giving him an extra week too, that's week 15. That's almost four months in the offense. He should know the offense, but he's still got to read defenses and, and do the things in the, in the league with, with game time reps that he hasn't had, but he hasn't had game time reps. But what do you think he's been doing during the week scout team? I think that he's been doing more than just, I would, I would, I would, I would wonder how many first team reps he's getting. Yeah. That's a, that's a good question. And also think the idea that rookies can't come in and compete right away is kind of being pushed aside. I mean, Stroud last year, obviously, Jaden Daniels and Bowdoin, Nick, Drake May at certain times. We're seeing rookie quarterbacks come in and play at a high level quicker than we have before. So I think the idea that penics has kind of come in and just be a disaster because he's a rookie. It's kind of an outdated thought. Yeah. I wouldn't hate giving him a look. Like if they're getting blown out by Minnesota, like, Hey, play the fourth quarter and see what it looks like. And if it's like, okay, we have some positive momentum there. Let's make the change. If it's okay, that was also lousy. Let's do with Kirk. Like I think there's some ways you can do it, whether than just the binary start, sit in two weeks, it's like, hey, cousins is playing lousy and we're getting hammered. Let's see what penics looks like. Yeah. I mean, it's one thing. If I'm not in playoff contention and I don't have a chance that I would really like at this point of season, if cousins is playing this way, then I really do want to see Michael Pennics because he is my future. Yeah. But he's saying it gives him a better chance now. Right. I disagree. And he can criticize, you know, whatever my way of looking at this is, I just think that as a veteran quarterback, reading defenses, even if you just have to have him manage the game more and not give him as much freedom, I think that there's enough weapons there enough talent on that team that in that division, you can't afford any kind of hiccups. Fair enough. Hey, I'm, I think I'm on the panic side of curses and continues to play bad. What overreactions do you have, Brian? The other one I had was I maybe this is an overreaction just because again, it's a rookie, but I think Brock Bowers has already established himself as the best tied in a football. You look at his numbers right now. I believe he's he's what he's yeah, he's he's on pace right now for 119 receptions for 1252 yards, both would smash the previous rookies records. One of them said just last year, 86 receptions by Samuel Porta. So go jump it up from 86 last year as the previous Ricky record all the way up to 119. And then he'd also smash the yardage record for rookie Titans was actually held by Mike Dica oddly enough. I mean, it's going way back, but he'd break that by almost 200 yards. It'd be at 1252, the previous one being a thousand and 76. He doesn't have the touchdown because the overall offense, not great obviously, especially after Devontae left. So they don't move the ball a whole lot, but I think Brock Bowers has established himself as the best Titan in the league. I don't know if I'd go best Titan in the league or at least receiving, at least the best receiving Titan in the league. If you want to factor in blocking and give that to Kittle, that's fine. But I think he's the best receiving option at Titan in the league right now. There's a lot of good options and there's a lot of guys that do a lot of good things. And I was going to say from a blocking and physical perspective as well, it's just not just receiving the football. I think you can look across the league, you look at guys like you can look at the fact that Mark Andrews is starting to come back again. He's really becoming a bigger factor each week with Baltimore, but you look at Laporta, you look at Kraft and Green Bay, Kraft. He's playing really good football for the Packers. I'm not saying he's in the same universe, but I'm saying there's a lot of good tight ends in the league. I'm not going to say, but he's that's kind of a straw man. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I have to say it. He said that Brock Bowers best Titan in the league. I'm just saying there's a lot of good tight ends in football. I'm not saying that Kraft's in the same conversation as Brock Bowers, but why are you saying that? Because I'm saying there's a lot of good tight ends to say he's the best in the league. I think there's, you can look at all the different guys in the league and say, do I think that he's already both blocking and receiving better than some of the guys that have been doing it for a longer period of time at a higher level? No, I don't. I just don't know why you brought in Tucker craft because I was trying to think of Vikings tight end that was traded from Hopkins and Hopkins. I think that one thing that I'm learning about Brian and in Blankers in the last 10 minutes is that Blankers puts a lot, not saying the either one is wrong. Blankers you put a lot of weight on history. What a player has done over a period of time. And Brian puts almost no weight on history for what a player is done over a period. Brian's ready to make changes and call a guy the best ever after two or three weeks. Blankers needs about two or three years. Guy's 100 crap. He's like the best tight end that's ever played in the NFL that I've ever seen. I think the Bowers is definitely in the mix. I think Bowers is definitely the mix from a receiving point of view. If you want to go strictly statistics, there's, I don't think it's a debate. If you want to go strictly numbers. Now, if you want to go eye test, well, maybe all time, like, I mean, he has chances to do things that tight ends have never done ever. For one season, but I'm saying like to establish himself as the best going forward, you got to continue to do it. Yeah. But who's the best right now? Like if you're playing a football game tomorrow and you can pick any Titan in the NFL to give you the best chance to win, which Titan are you picking? Like that, that to me is how you answer the question of who is the best Titan currently. It's not, well, who's had the best last, who's had the best three to five years? Who's had the best last three to five games? No, the way that you determine who the best is at their position is if you say you're playing a game tomorrow, your life is on the line. You can pick any Titan walking planet earth. Which Titan are you picking to try to save your life? I'm not. I think I would take Andrews before I would take I'm going Bowers way over Andrews. I think Bowers in the conversation. I think there are others in the conversation. The port is not having a great statistical season. Sam LaPorta is in that conversation for me. I think Sam LaPorta is fantastic. I think the only one I might take over Bowers is Kittle because of the blocking. He's so good as a blocker in addition to being a fan good receiver. Yeah, and a little older, but we're talking about the best Titan today. I think it's fair to have Kittle in the conversation. Kelsey's too old for me. Can Kate hasn't taken the step up that I need Dalton Schultz just kidding. Kyle Pitts has kind of really never lived up to expectation. You know, who's an underrated Titan whenever you have a good quarterback? David and joke. It was not bad. Oh, he's good. Yeah, I would in the conversation. No, no, no, no. He's good. Like it's more of a. I'm looking at Titans right now. Like David and joke. If he's ever available. Oh, man. I would love to see. He's a healthy receiver and he's physical receiver that we're sleeping on that needs to be in this conversation. Trey McBride. Oh, yeah. He's had a really good seat. Trey McBride belongs to the blocker, but he's a very good receiver. I would have McBride Bowers and Laporta as my final three and I have a fair I would probably lean Laporta, probably lean Laporta, but you're not going wrong with any of those three. I mean, and Kittle. I like Kittle because they got kittles definitely in the conversation. I throw Andrews in there because if you watch them the last couple of weeks to getting like to where he's really his old self again, high point in footballs with two defenders on him. His toughness, his ability to block and run. I just, I think he's, he's pretty damn good. Yeah. Yeah, he's, he is really thinking good and he, he hasn't had the slippage I thought he was going to have. Like you get to his age and you start to see guys really, really slip. Kittle hasn't really slipped at all. Oh, I mean, he's missed two games because of injury, but I mean, this is more of a fantasy football perspective, but you look at his consistency week to week, there's been no drop off. He's, he's great every single week, except for the two weeks he's been hurt. Yeah. Andrews is, Andrews is good, but he spooked me with how he started the year. That's what I'm going to say because he's coming off injury too, right? Yeah. And because the Ravens had a lot of blocking issues with their offensive line, they're keeping him to block a ton too. Yeah. Like I, and likely got off to the hot start. Really one. Really. Yeah. Yeah. I was, which helped me with it. All right. Christian Harris is possible to return against Miami, according to Nick Casario. How would you deploy Christian Harris? If he does return seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero ESP and it's the B's on ESPN, 97 five ESPN, 95. Hey, another quick word for doc Lindville. It's the holiday season and doc Lindville has a variety of different ways. He might be able to help you and or your significant other. He does Botox. He does spot treatments. He does plastic surgery. And of course he does what I always tell you about the neograph procedure and the PRP treatments to get your hair back and keep the hair that you have. Doc Lindville is right here in the medical center and he is waiting to help you. He loves helping Houstonians. He's told me time and time again, when it comes to the neograph, I just want as many people as I can to know about this procedure and know that it works. It's not all the gimmicks and the crap that doesn't. It's getting your own hair and taking some of it and putting it where you need it most. So it's all the same color. It grows the same direction. It fills in and it looks like you in your heyday again. It gives you self confidence along the way and you feel great about what he's been able to do. I'm telling you this because you get a free consultation with Doc Lindville and his staff because he wants to make sure he means it. He's not going to charge you the 150 bucks. He charges people off the street to come in to talk to him because you listen to us. You want to talk to him. You get a free consultation with Doc and his staff and he can explain everything. The neograph, the PRP treatments, which is actually like fertilizing your lawn. It takes the hair that's still on your head and makes it thicker and stronger and longer and it's going to show you results as well. He does the best. He's here in Houston. He loves ESPN 97-5 and he wants you to check him out. Go to 975hair.com right now and set up your first consultation. It's free of charge, no signing on the dotted line, no money out of pocket, no commitment to be made. They'll explain to you all the ways they can help while looking at your scalp and telling you what they think you need. You can make the decision from there. I tell you this because I did the procedure, I've done both that and the PRP treatments and I can't speak highly enough of Doc, his staff, and the results that I got. Check him out today. Go to 975hair.com. ESPN 97-5. Now back to Joel and Jeremy. 7-1-3, 7-8-0 ESPN, HRP listener line. Vegas has literally no one else to throw to and bad quarterbacks to check down a lot. I do think that plays into Brock Bowers numbers. I still think he's an insane talent and I think they were receivers. I mean it didn't work for Mike Meyers or wherever that other tight ends name. He was hurt. He was actually around. He kept another day. Yeah, yeah. He's not just some warm body absorbing targets because there's no one else. So on the flip side of that you should say well then from a defensive perspective we should just look to take Brock Bowers and we should be able to shut that down. Especially the last game there at Kansas City, one of top three defense of the league and he goes off for 13 catches. Yeah. Trey Tucker is not awful. He's pretty good in space. He's not bad. And Jacobi Meyers I think is an underrated receiver. Yeah, he's a slot PPR type guy sure. Like if you get a really good quarterback in there, like a young quarterback, like if shooter Sanders goes there, I think that a young quarterback could have success with that offense. Oh, no doubt. They need help in running back. You got some weapons and I'm not saying I'm not taking anything away from him and his ability. He's probably going to be one of the premier titers in this league for years to come. No, I was more to the texture. Nether texture says look at the back of the football card. I don't really know which one of you that's directed at quite frankly, probably my philosophy. Right? He's baseball card. I don't know. And Joku misses half the season almost every year. He does miss a lot of games. Bowers the Munster would have 20 touchdowns in the Lions offense. You would think so, but LaPorte is also a Munster and is having a quiet year. So I don't, it's weird, although he did have a two touchdown performance the other day. Sam LaPorte did a huge, huge two touchdown performance, seven yard receivers, six yard two touchdowns. One of the most bizarre statistical lines I think that's the weirdest statistical line ever seen. All right, Christian Harris possible to return against Miami, according to Casario, ESPN, YouTube shoot him a Gavin says, ready to see Christian Harris back. Nick Casario brought this up yesterday with the media. He said, you know, he's going to be back sooner rather than later, we think. I didn't want to put a timeline on it. Then when he talked with Vandermeer and Harris was a little more specific like, yeah, I think we're going to see him soon. Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle mentioned like two months ago, probably see him after the buy, which is really bizarre to know two months ago, we're going to see him after the buy. That's a very specific date for a long term injury. And then Aaron Wilson has been reporting, I think earlier today, yesterday, now you know, we say now has been reporting that we're probably going to see Christian Harris back for the Miami game, which is good because we assume the disease, our Shire will be suspended at least one game, probably two, maybe it sticks to three. But if you do get Harris back for Miami, how do you deploy Christian Harris carefully? Because at this point in the year, you need him for the long haul. And so you shouldn't be sitting here going, Oh, here's a guy that's going to be our savior and he's going to come in and he's going to do all these things like he did in the playoffs last year and be the kind of guy they can fill in and fill the void with the Z's out and you know, be a guy that we can count on. No, you got to be really, really careful with him because I got to believe when Jonathan Alexander and people are reporting that it's probably someone inside the building that said, look, at this point with the where this injury is, we are not going to do anything until he's absolutely ready. And once he's ready, we're going to try and make sure we condition him up before we put him on the field. And even still, they're probably going to watch his snaps. I would not expect him to do a ton or, you know, right away against Miami, it would be great to get him back on the field and then he's going to have to ramp it up where it's going to take some weeks, but I wouldn't rush him back or try and force the issue too much. Yeah. I'm 100% with you. And Demico, I think is 100% with you too. Like Demico Ryan's, while he's kind of aggressive with injured players during the middle of a game, he is really conservative with players whenever they're coming off of injury, especially long-term injury, they place Nico Collins on IR pretty quickly. And then when people thought he could be available to play, he did the whole dusty baker, gave him one more day off. This injury for Christian hair has been pretty significant. It's been mysterious. I had the whole walk through a training camp and then somehow like tore his Achilles as he was walking through on training camp one day, being facetious. I'm exaggerating, but he hasn't been seen since then. It was really, really weird. So he's missed like he's missed all a training camp, basically, except for that one day. So you're talking about a couple of months there. You're talking about 14 weeks of the NFL season. So let's just call it 20 weeks. Let's say that's, that's five months. He's been, he's been off of a, of playing in an NFL game, and then if you want to even date it back to last season, the last time he's played in a real NFL game, you're going on like eight months there, like eight, nine months since Christian Harris has played in a real NFL game. So I get you don't have a Z's outshire. Like I understand the fascination of Christian Harris finished last year really stinking good. I think he was trending up to being a top 10 linebacker in the NFL and then he's had this season almost washed completely away. The truth of the matter is, yes, you're going to miss his Z's outshire. Yes, it's going to be a difficult game, even though Miami's record's not great, but you have a two game lead on the division, you have the tiebreaker and said division. So it's kind of like you have a three game lead on the Indianapolis Colts. You're more than likely going to be a playoff team that plays a home game in the first round. I get wanting him desperately because of the scenario, but you need to be very careful with Christian Harris because one more injury for Christian Harris. His season is toast. No doubt. No doubt about it. And when you think about it, you do have bigger fish to fry. You should be a playoff team. You do have higher aspirations. And the fact is, is we've been harping all year on the lack of depth on this team. It's just, I think that fans should understand that because we've been so conditioned based on what we had to go through with Kyle Tucker to realize that you shouldn't take chances with any of the injuries with significant players, especially at this point in the season because of the fact that even the simplest of injuries seem to turn out into being months on end of waiting to get players back that could be helping you. This is the next case in case in line where you go, Hey, we've seen this. We've been through this. Let's make sure we don't do anything to screw it up because of the fact that if he's with you, and he does get his conditioning back by the time you get to the playoffs and the late season, he can be a very, very big factor in benefiting your defense. If he gets hurt again to your point, he's done for the year, and now your depth is even more at question. Yeah, I want him to play like 10 plays, like 10 or 15 plays, quite frankly, the most that I want to see. Now if it is somewhere between like 10 and 15 plays, would you rather see it sporadically over the game or would you rather give him like every third or fourth series? No, because you also have to worry about like the heating it up and then cooling it down, but at the same time, I would get him some reps and then I would, I would rest him and then get, you know, then I would almost say, I would almost get him reps like second quarter or first quarter, and then maybe I'll get him a series off, get him another series because he's still warm, then after halftime, let him stretch it out, warm it up, get him in the third quarter again, and that'd probably be about it for me because I don't want him to sit for any period of time if it's a close game or you really need your key defenders out there and then obviously go back out there and see if you can make a few more plays, and then you, you're more cold and you have a chance to get hurt even. So how many series was that about? Like four. Three, three, four. So depending on the length of the series, probably like 15, 20 plays, same window. Yeah. Yeah, he's on a pitch count for me. For sure. You cannot, because if you, look, we don't think that the Texans have this deep playoff run in them, but the Texans are going to try to do that as they should, obviously. If you're, if that is your planet, it is the Texans plan. It's way more important for Christian Harris to be as close to 100% in the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs than it is him playing 40 snaps because Aziz al-Shire suspended for a game. I mean, you think about it. What would you rather see Christian Harris trying to fill in to try and make do for Aziz al-Shire or late in the season, having Christian Harris next to Aziz al-Shire and being at his, you know, getting close to his top performance level again so that you can upgrade the level of your linebacker. Well, I want, I want him to be my goal is not next year at all. Like I'm not thinking next year, whatever I'm going to play off the rest of the season. Well, what do you want for the rest of the season? But like my, my entire goal with Christian Harris is building him up to be the best he can possibly be in that first round. But that's what I'm saying. I'm saying, I don't want to see him too much right now, tried to fill in for however long Aziz al-Shire suspended. I want him to be ramping it up. So then when Aziz is back, you put him next to Aziz and go, well, our linebackers are way better now. Yeah. Is it what's more valuable that the ramp up of getting him as close to 100% as possible in the wildcard round or him, him going all in on the game against Miami coming off to the by hopefully, hopefully he's in really good football shape and is capable of doing that. But even if capable, it's not happening, but that's why and football speed is different as we all know. But what I'm hoping is the reason why every, all these people were able to prognosticate the fact that, hey, it looks like the Miami game after the by is when he's going to come back. That's because he got back to where he was cleared health wise and now it's ramping him up and trying to do as much cardio and conditioning as possible so that when he does touch the field again, he's as close to being in game shape as he can be. Yep. 713 780 ESPN would be your game plan, a total Arlington's texting in that Lawrence was placed on the IR. Yeah. We, we keep up with sports. That was like in the three o'clock hour, man. Do you want Devin White long term with the Texans? I was a Cowboys man. Do you want Devin White long term with the Texans? Ask a texture? No, I don't think there's a place for him. I think that if there would have been a place for him, especially with all that we're talking about with the interchangeables that are being called on to play linebacker, that he'd be playing a more significant role than he is now. If they believe that he was a guy systematically and ability wise was a guy that you wanted around long term. If this was in his heyday with the Buccaneers, absolutely right now. I think if he had the ability and he had the fit, we would have seen it by now. We wouldn't. We were talking about him probably filling in this role. Yeah. Yeah. He's not long term. To me, he's a veteran role player that's filling his spot on this roster. He's not somebody you give an extension to. I don't think 713 780 ESPN plus your linebackers going into next year that you have under contract just off the top of my head. Like, I don't know. No, you it's contract situation. I can't imagine it's longer than a one year deal, but guys that you'd have on your contract disease was a two year deal, Christian Harris would be going into his fourth year. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Fourth and final year was not a first rounder. So it would be the final year of his deal, which is an interesting conversation to have. And then Henry Toa toa still in his rookie deal too. I mean, you have three linebackers under contract that would all be higher on the dev chart than Devin White. You're not. You're not signing Devin White. Like you're looking to fill those positions probably with young players and guys that help you on special teams. That was right place, right time for both guys. He needed a change of scenery to try and prove he could play. They needed anybody they could get with experience that might be able to be better than what they had. It's worked out for the rest of this season and then you tip your cap. Yep. 713 780 ESPN HRNP listener line. A new prediction on a contract for Alex Bregman six years, $165 million. Should the Astro sign Bregman for six years, 165 will they sign on for six years, 165 713 780 ESPN. He's ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95. You're back with a killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanket, Jeremy Branham, our good friend Eduardo Perez came on with us once like four or five years ago. Good friend Eduardo Perez, he predicts this six year, $165 million deal for Alex Bregman. I'm not really sure of Eduardo Perez's like predictions when it comes to players in the market. But he's around the game. Should they sign Alex Bregman to a six year, $165 million deal? So I don't think so because I don't like the six years. I don't mind the number as much if it averages out to be about 24 a year. No, it's 27 and a half. 165 divided by six. You're checking it? No, it's 27 and a half. Okay. It's math major for a semester biker. Super. Also own a calculator. Okay. I don't own a calculator anymore. Regardless, it's under $30 million a year. I hate the six year aspect of this. But if you want Alex Bregman back, I think that's what you're going to have to face. You're probably going to have to take on a year or so more than you wanted to and end up paying a little bit money with the chance that the ROI is not going to be there at the end of that deal. But if you want Alex Bregman back and you think he's going to be better for you for the next three to five years than whoever else you're looking at for your third base position and especially for the next year or two when it's you're trying to still stay world series capable, I think that he's going to have a market, you know, Soto's going to be the first domino to fall and when he falls, depending on who gets him and who doesn't, the who doesn'ts are going to be clamoring to try and make other splashes. Boston, if they don't get him, it's going to be looking at Alex Bregman. The Yankees, if they don't get him, will be looking at Alex Bregman. I just think that he's going to have suitors that are going to push that price tag up and it's going to make the Astros very uncomfortable. But if you're telling me six years and 165 gets it done, I'm, I would, I would be okay with it. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's a little over than what I was wanting. It's quite a bit over what I would really want to spend. Now the 27 and a half isn't a crazy AAV. It's actually a pay cut. I'm making $30 million this past year. So 27 and a half million dollar AAV is an awful 165 for six is pushing the boundaries of how comfortable I am making this deal. No, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to waffle on this. I don't want Bregman on that long of a deal. I don't think it's a crazy dollar figure. I really don't. And I could swallow this one easier than plus then like the $200 million stuff. But a 165 for six is too long for me. I don't think he lives up to that contract if we're putting, if we're putting a monetary value on the value of a player and the production of a player, I don't think that Alex Bregman over the next six years pays you back to $165 million worth of production. I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. But I think that you also have to take that's, that's a given, but it's, it's the price that you're willing to pay to retain the services of a guy that's been a big part of your franchise. That seems like your owner is more hell bent on or at least focused on trying to do something with than he has been the last, the guy's previous and also the fact that by the end of that deal, you're right. It's not going to be, he's not going to live up ROI wise. But by the end of that deal, salaries are going to be so much higher that you might be looking at less than average players making in that range to where at least for the next couple of years, I think the ROI would be good enough that you get because you don't have a lot of answers at third base. No, you don't have a lot of answers at third base. That's definitely true. But when you're in, I understand the Astros top five payroll, they go into the competitive balance tax. You're not going to be spending like the Dodgers and the Yankees, maybe even the Red Sox, maybe even the Cubs, maybe maybe, yeah, the Giants spin blue jays kind of weirdly spend like they'll spend and then they'll trade away their big contracts and then they'll spend the Soto. Yeah, they were trying to cut. So they're kind of, they're weird. So the Astros to me have to be a team that spends their money wisely. If you're not going to spend more than the Dodgers and get into these shootouts and turns with contracts, I think that you need to like outsmart them. If you're going to spend $200 million, you need to be getting $250 million of production from that $200 million. Squeeze out as much return on that investment you possibly can. And the Astros have gotten into a bad habit recently of doing a very poor job of that. Hosea Bray, $58 and a half million on a three year deal, nowhere close to that value. Rafael Monteiro, three years, $34 and a half million, nowhere near the value of that contract. And Josh Hader, you could throw in, yes, it's only been one year and there's still a lot that needs to be told on how that contract's going to pay off for you. But $95 million, he was okay in year one. He's not trending in a direction where he's going to pay off that 95 million. So I look at three decisions right there, two of them critically bad, one of them on the fence, probably not great. I don't, I just feel like the Astros have put themselves in a very, very difficult spot to continue to throw big contracts, even though it's not outrageous, 165 for six at players that aren't going to live up to that contract. No, the wiggle room is gone, right? You normally you have a little financial flexibility where if you swing and miss a little bit or it's a little less than what you thought you can recover. But because of the multiples that you mentioned, the fact is, is there's no more wiggle room left and you better be damn sure and damn committed that when you do put pen to paper, if that's the kind of contract that you want to get from him, that he's going to be able to produce and live up to that, you know that, you know, he has been a staple, but you can't base it on that. What is he going to do going forward? He got off to the slowest of slow starts for a slow starter last year. Is that going to continue for the next three, five, six years? That could be a massive problem because it's probably going to get, he's going to probably struggle more or the struggles will continue. Breaking news out of the NFL, Aziz al Shire has had his three game suspension up held. He will miss all three of the games originally suspended for out versus Miami out versus Kansas City out versus Baltimore. I'm stunned by this, quite frankly, I thought it would be reduced down to a two game suspension. I guess that that previous relationship with the old Walker sideline reporter for the Tennessee Titans didn't carry a whole lot of weight or it was a bad one. Yeah. Yeah. Or it was a bad relationship. Wasn't having it. Yeah. So the three game suspension for Aziz al Shire has been upheld by hearing officer Ramone Foster who was jointly appointed by the NFL and the NFL PA Aziz al Shire goes from never being suspended, never being ejected prior to Sunday's game to getting a three game suspension. This shows you the NFL has all the power at once. And if they feel like a guy deserves a three game suspension, no, regardless of precedent regardless of history, like Nick Courseria was talking about yesterday, if the NFL feels like it's three games, it's going to be three games. And it seems like they had the hearing officers and the arbiters on the side of the NFL. It just seems like they can do whatever the hell they want. And you know, as much as we complain about what Rob Manfred does, the fact is, is that we know the NFL is king and Roger and his boys can do whatever the hell they want. And whether we and ex players and current players and others really kind of seem to sympathize with the length of the suspension and the fact that that was way too long and and way too impactful for a guy that's never been suspended before, you deal with what they throw down and they just decided to put their foot down. Yeah, that's, I'm surprised. I'm surprised too. I thought it'd be reduced down to two. So he's eligible to return week 18. So like that's the other like now as we transition into what does it look like whenever he comes back at three games is a long time. Week 18, you're talking about the final week of the regular season. It's going to be hard for the Texans to be at their best at the linebacker position. When you have Christian Harris, who's hopefully three games in to recovering and getting back to full strength. And then you have a kind of a rusty, cold as these outshire thrown into the mix. That's a tough ask for a defensive be playing at their best. That's a worst case scenario. And he cannot practice with the team. He has to be away from them completely. That's going to hurt as well because conditioning wise and just reps wise and doing things to keep him football shape wise, that's going to be a hell of a challenge. And that's going to be something that's going to hurt them. And you're right because of the fact that you still have less than in terms of your questions versus answers at the linebacker position as a whole and you don't know what you're going to get out of Harris. That's not a good proposition to be in if you're the Texans going into the playoffs. And plus you're getting a disease outshire who's away from all communication for his team for three weeks. You kind of worry about his headspace. They're a little bit too. Like what is these outshire? You're getting back. Not only is he rusty, but he's having to deal with a three game suspension where he can't talk to any of his teammates, any of his coaches. That's true. Is he going to be at the facility? Yeah, I believe so. Like you can't have any communication with him because Nick Castario, like part of his rant with the NFL was like, you're talking about player safety and like having the best interests of the player in mind. And you have you're spending a guy for three games who can't be around his teammates or talk to his teammates. Where is the where is the idea of being in the interest of like, you know, player health when it comes to that point of view from a mental point of view and not to mention like we mentioned earlier, the fact that you're taking his game checks away, his livelihood for his family for three weeks. That's a massive impact as well. And all you're left is time to think and you're supposed to stay in tip top physical condition and be ready to hit the ground running when you come back. That's going to be that's tough for the Houston Texans to be playing their best defense going into the postseason whenever Harris is going to be. We don't know what kind of Harris we're getting. We haven't seen him in eight months in the disease outshire coming off the three game suspension. Here you go back into the wolves in the final regular season game of the year. All right. 713 780 ESPN. We'll get a few thoughts on a these outshire suspension meetup help from you also our car wreck of the day. What are your car wrecks of the day 713 7803776. It's the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 92 5. Now back to the killer bees on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken. Jeremy Branham. So as these outshires appeal has been denied, he will serve a three game suspension. He'll miss the Miami game and city game Baltimore game. He'll be eligible to return whenever the Texans play the Titans in week 18, which maybe that game has stakes. Maybe we'll see if it has stakes or not, Texans hoping that Christian Harris will be back from Miami. His ramp up here is going to be difficult for that that Texans defense texture. Wow. We talked to Titans radio guys screwed the Texans. It's hard to know if that came into play at all. Like we'd have to put ourselves in the minds of all the parties that were involved here. But what are we doing? It didn't help. The guy's got a career already. I mean, he's still doing radio. He's he's working. Why? Why are you going to give him a job in the league office that is something that's dealing with the week to week day to day functions of the NFL? You can't find other ex players that might be able to do these jobs. The fact that John Runyon is one of the dirtiest players in the history of the league and he's going to be the guy that's going to be passing judgments on if a play was dirty or not like the suspension. I have more of a problem with Ramon Foster being part of the appeal of the appeal process than I do with Runyon. Like the Runyon thing like, okay, well, he understands dirty football. Like, okay, I can understand that he doesn't have like any sort of interest involved with other teams. He is a neutral party. I don't have as much a problem with Runyon, although that last paragraph and that whole reprimand to Aziz al-Shiro was very unnecessary, but I have more of an issue of a guy who's employed by a specific team in the NFL making rulings on players that are in the NFL, especially division rivals. Like this is the Brady rule, but in a different way, right? If you're working for a said team, it doesn't matter what team it is, you shouldn't be allowed to make judgments or have commentary unless you're doing like a radio broadcaster, a TV broadcast. But other than that, you can't be making decisions on guys from other teams. Yes. Kind of silly. In your own division. It's really silly. It's really silly. Got into a fight and I cussed you out and they were going to suspend me and then you picked the length of my suspension. Like it's ridiculous. It just makes sense. It just makes sense. I mean, it made zero sense whenever we saw it today too, but it was like, whoa, maybe he has a good relationship with him because he spent time with him last year. It really does makes you, I have, I really don't have an issue with Runyon being the VP of whatever, because he doesn't have a, he doesn't have like a dog in the fight. Like he's not, I understand that it's, it's a, it's hypocritical and it's a contradiction because of his playing style. But at the same time, he's kind of an expert on that playing style. He kind of understands. He kind of gets it. But when you have a guy who's literally on, on the books of a division rival, you should have to take yourself out of the, like a judge or someone and they didn't recluse themselves. Yeah. Well, then you should have to, if the league isn't smart enough to do it, then you should be able, you should be the one that does it because it's good on you and it might help you keep both jobs. But when I looked at all these guys that are on this committee that could possibly be assigned this thing too, maybe Jory Nelson was the best guy to do it because he had no, he didn't play linebacker. He wasn't a dirty player. He was just a player. He played offense, but maybe he can judge speed of defense and maybe he could have helped, but you had a guy that was one of the dirtiest players of all time. And then you got a guy that's in your division, works for your division rival that's going to be the guy that ends up being the guy that makes the final decision. Yeah. You figure that he would have to be out of it. You have to either recuse himself or the league would be like, Hey, you can't have a tight and employee making a decision on a Houston Texan player. That's quite frankly ridiculous. Let's get to our car wreck of the day. 713-780-ESP, which are car wreck of the day. I got from the game last night in Golden state and the nuggets. The nuggets were out of time out and we're seeing Christian Braun Brown skipping. Brown Brown. Yeah, he called the timeout right in front of the officials and the officials and the officials decided to ignore him. And Steve Kerr lost his mind rightfully so like he's sitting there, he's he's sitting there, signaling the timeout right in front of you, and you're just going to ignore him when you know if the team signals that I like Chris Weber, you blow the whistle and then you find out he doesn't have any time out. They let that go and then again, I'm being back towards the end of the game. I thought it was big. Yeah. Why did they, why did they do that? Did they say? I didn't see if there was a pool reporter's answer after the game or not, but Steve Kerr took to the podium and went nuts. And then I also want to nominate Steve Kerr as well because Steve Kerr is like one of those guys that doesn't like confrontations with his players. He went into the post game after that and completely just undressed his boy. Yeah. I know you're talking about. Per diem jic. Yeah. Per diem jic. I saw that. And basically said I hope he hears this. Why don't you just call him into your office? It's kind of weird. That's bad. Yeah. It was, I thought that that was ridiculous too. I'm going to nominate Deontay Johnson. Deontay Johnson refused to go in the game for the Ravens the other day. And it's been, it's been, it's been, it's been, it's been, it's been in one game from the Ravens without pay for conduct detrimental to the team. He'll miss the game against the Giants after the buy. He went full Scotty Pippin. He got traded to a playoff team with full Scotty Pippin. I guess once a stealer, always a stealer, he's, he's going in for the Steelers against the division rival. You got one, Brian? Yeah. Quickly, apparently, uh, leaking Riley is rumored to be in the mix for UCF. It's what a amazing fall from going from Oklahoma and producing all these high splinters to USC with Caleb Williams. And now you're thinking about tucking tail and going to UCF deflecting all NFL inquiries by saying I'm a Trojan. I can't, I can't believe that one. All right. Who's winning? Here's one of the NFL. I was going to say Deontay. That's a pretty bad one. I'm going to go Deontay too because I nominated it. Deontay Johnson. You're the winner. All right. Does it for us? Thanks to Brian for the hard work. He's blank on Brian. I'm soccer matters coming up next. We're Glenn Davis right here on the ESPN 97 five. Your child's first step is a big step towards their future with first step by college invest. Every Colorado child born or adopted on or after January 1st, 2020 will receive a free $115 contribution to their college invest college savings account. Plus, we'll match a percentage of your contributions in the coming years helping you save even more. 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