The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
12/06 Hour 3- CJ Stroud Capable of Leading The Texans to the Super Bowl.... Someday
- Oh. - Hear that? - Ah, okay, thank you. - Etsy knows these aren't the sounds of holiday gifting. - Mm, mm. - Well, not the ones you're hoping for. You want squeals of delight. (bell ringing) Happy tears. How did you, how did you know? And spontaneously written songs of joy. - I'm so happy, oh yeah, oh yeah. - Okay, this song needs a bit of work, but anyway, to get those reactions, make sure everyone on your list feels heard with handmade, hand-picked, and designed gifts from small shops on Etsy. Gifts like personalized jewelry, custom artwork, cozy style items, vintage pieces, and home decor to celebrate all of your favorite people and their specific kind of special. For original gifts that say I get you, Etsy has it. (screaming) - Welcome back to the Killer Bs. - On ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. - Now time to talk Texans with ESPN Texans reporter DJB NMA. Brought to you by Houston powder coders and the trafficking sports book at Golden Nugget Lake Charles. - DJ's big league and as he heard us talk about his lack of NIL, you decided he didn't want to talk to the Killer Bs. What would you have gotten NIL back in your day when you're playing Jukeo in Wisconsin? - I don't know, you guys should have said Jukeo instead it gets a lower level. It was, it was D2. - Mm-hmm, yeah, D2. - I mean, look, I don't, people that call out stats and remember, I had a hell of a time. I had a great time. I had plenty of opportunities. I got looks, I got, I got chances, but I played sports and I played sports longer than high school. And that kind of building relationships, experiencing the team thing, competing at a different level was an awesome time in my life that I will always cherish no matter what. - It's interesting now to see what players would have gotten when you played with them, especially when you had big time players in your conferences and then all of a sudden you realized, man, since today's day, they could be millionaires before they got to the league. - Did you play in the days though, where you left your glove out in the field? - No. - Let's go out to the HRNP guest line. DJB Anime covers the Texans for ESPN and ESPN.com. Joining us now, DJ, what's your take on the Aziz Al Shire? Kind of putting a bow to this. I think this is probably the last day we'll talk about it. What's your takeaway for all the transpired Sunday and then all the way through the appeal that was upheld? - Yeah, I mean, it feels like, you know, low-handed food at this point, when people, you know, still discuss it. But I would say from Sunday, I did feel like it wasn't a dirty hit, but it was an illegal hit. And based off of its previous history from this season, along with it, it was going to get suspended. I do think that the Mecos press conference on Monday probably hurt him just a little bit because there wasn't really much remorse or, you know, forgiveness or anything of the nature. And it kind of gave the impression that like, you know, not we encourage this, but we don't discourage this. And then obviously, you got some of the three games, that surprised me, that shocked me actually. And I thought that was going to get reduced. So a niggas serial, you know, basically calls the league out. I'll talk to one guy, one guy, across the league, 'cause he asking what I thought. And I thought, you know, I think, the serial kind of, you know, having the tantra tantrum, with different tantra, which is understandable, right? It's fair for him to be upset about that. I don't know if that's who. Him, Clark, the league, they might have seen that and been, oh, no, they're just holding top operation. They're just going, they're just standing ten toes down. (laughing) And what they're doing. I do think it was a little excessive. Really, it's crazy, in my opinion. I did think one was reasonable. Maybe, you know, two, and then I peeled down one. I do think that it is a little spooky or funky that one of the people overseeing the appeal was a radio person for Titans. So there's, you know, there's a lot of conflicting stuff, you know, it's a conflict of interest, but they're just what it is. They're going to miss them. There's some reports that Christian Harris will be back after the buy, but Christian Harris can't play football since January, man, like, like he hasn't put on, he hasn't actually, he hasn't put on, he hasn't put on pads in January. 'Cause even in training camp, he got hurt, like, oh, I mean, or I'm talking about life. Like, he didn't, he might have practiced one day and it was hurt, and then we came back, didn't make it through, he didn't make it past individuals. And they didn't even have past that day, 'cause it was Sunday when they got back from, I wanna say maybe Cleveland, maybe Cleveland, my certain right, but yeah, so he didn't put on pads since they'll play all game against the Ravens, which was January, what, 16 for something like that. It is, the next one they play is gonna be December 15th. It's gonna be basically 11 whole month, so he actually hits somebody in a game. So I have no expectations for, you know, what had Christian Harris is gonna look like when he gets back. I think it's very unreasonable to think he's gonna be like a difference maker, because again, like, you don't, I'm a big proponent, if you don't play football, you're not getting better, period, right? If you're going, if you're not practicing with a team, be ready, you're just not getting better. So that's kind of my whole entire take from the top down in regards to the suspension, to the replacement, to where they are now. - DJ, a couple of things, 'cause you covered some of the questions I was gonna ask you in that first question, but we were discussing, is Aziz allowed, yes, to stay away from the practice facility and everything like that, but is he allowed to interact with his teammates on text message and things like that so he can stay connected with the extra. - Yeah, you can do that, you just can't get the facility, so he basically won't be around for a whole month. - Wow. - I don't think you can talk to the coaches, though, right? Only the team-- - Probably not, yeah, not employees of the season. - I don't think he's about the coaches now. - Now, as it relates to the buy, it's obviously a very late time in the season to have a buy, but there's a push coming with the toughest porches in the schedule coming up, and we know that this team has had shortcomings in this stretch where they were supposed to win all three games. They didn't do that, they didn't look dominant as much as a lot of people would have liked, so how do they treat this buy aside from getting healthy? Are there things they're gonna try and change and implement and do differently as it relates for everything from the offensive line to play calling to just everything on both sides of the football, or is it more so just, let's get healthy, let's regroup, and then let's just go do what we gotta do when we get out of the buy. - Yeah, I think it's more regroup. Are we set mentally and physically? 'Cause, you know, to their credit, they've been at it the longest out of anybody in the league. Remember, they had training camp first, and then they had the Hall of Fame games, because even with the Hall of Fame games, the Bears still started when everybody else started, right? Where they started basically like a week for everyone else, they're basically almost in pads before people even got into the first day. So they've been at this whole, like basically for like, almost five months straight, but I would say changes, I mean, this December, there's only so many changes you can actually do, and I'd have to be like, you know, some are shuffling off an offensive line, who are they gonna bring? - Not necessarily shuffling, but is there anything they can, you know, anything they can do, whether it be, you know, schematically or otherwise, - I think, I think, I think if I were them, I would probably stick to try to run more gap schemes, 'cause I think this office would run far more quick. For that, I think trying to run outside of going, especially now that, 'cause, you know, once you put it on take, like, everybody's in the copier's, you know, the Tennessee day, where they basically would just sit in a couple of lanes, granted, you know, Joe had a big game against the Jaguars. But I do think that, you know, these next three teams, they're actually all pretty effective at stopping the run. I believe they're probably all in the top 12. In stopping the run, no Miami gave up 125 on Thanksgiving. But Josh, they could, like, most of it was basically, like, a couple of jet motions, a couple of jet sweeps, I never got good. Josh, they could only have 43 yards or 19 carries against Miami. And Josh and Joe has very similar running styles. Well, obviously, they could get you to the home run, but they have really good vision, and then they could fight through, you know, those yards will look awesome. Mine has a pretty good run defense. Obviously, Casey, Baltimore. I'm not sure they're all ranked in the top 12. So I think they just probably got to stick to what works the best, which is probably going to be more, a little more, you know, zone, I mean, gap schemes, with power, lambs, traps, things of that nature. I don't know how much I was like, 'cause the issue with, like, outside zone is Jared and Jews don't laterally move people off the ball, 'cause like, you got to be able, even when you, at least you were just in Kelsey, like, yeah, Jason, Josh, he would move laterally to work up field, but he could still move lives while working up field off the initial lateral movement. Maybe Jews and Jared can't do that, you know? And Nick, you were saying, like, Jews are the better center than he is, Gar, and like, that makes me just go, oh my God. You know what I'm saying? 'Cause like, you know, he wasn't even a good Gar, he wasn't even average Gar, and then my, in terms of the run game, he was fine in pass blocking, but in terms of running it, 'cause he can't really move anybody. So, I think they're probably going to have to like, stick to those. Obviously, they don't still go to you the outside zone, because so much of their play actually mirror off of that, but I think when it comes to like, really, I got to have it, stick into a lot of that, gasket, be that nature at all. Defensively, I already think it's really changed too much, especially with a Z out, a P tree out. So, you know, I think the body more about just resetting mentally and physically. Are you going to be able to reset physically and mentally during the buy? 'Cause I mean, yeah, it's a late buy, but it's a late buy for you too, DJ. - Yeah, I mean, I'm in DC right now, oh my girlfriend, so I'm resetting a little bit, but, you know, I probably needed a two-week buy, and I'm sure the players needed a two-week buy too. I'm not going to lie to you. (laughs) - Yeah, yeah. I hope you enjoyed DC. Like, has you got another one for me? - Oh, man, it's actually like really, really cold, like it's like in the 20s. I guess it was in the 20s, like, come on, man. - That's crazy. - Look, I can't analyze myself. - No, look, I moved away from Wisconsin for a lot of reasons, and one of them was, winter is no joke, and I do not want to be around it. - It's insane to me that I lived in North Dakota for a year. I lived in New York basically for 26 months, some of that. What was it in Jacksonville? Where in Jacksonville, I was there for like three months, and North Northern, Jacksonville can get kinda cold, or North Florida can get kinda cold, but like, I've been waiting for it for long, even getting like a hint of it, like, I felt like, I felt like such a wolf. - Yeah, all it takes is one summer in Houston to-- - Your bloods in that. - To dethrall, yeah, yeah, that's all it takes. DJ, enjoy the bye. We'll talk to you next week. Regroup, recover. - Oh, wow, I'll try. (laughing) - DJ B enemy, covers the Texan for ESPN, ESPN. It's good for him, he's got the girlfriend. I didn't realize the DJ was a-- - Oh, yeah. - Girlfriend up. I didn't know that he is. - She's front and center on the screen saver on the phone. - Oh, are you checking out his phone? - Well, when you sit next to him, depending on where we do shows from, he's got multiple phones. - I never noticed, yeah, I didn't-- - Yeah, he does have more-- - Multiple phone phones, yeah. - He's got one girlfriend on one, and then the other girlfriend. Just kidding, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I good thing he's in DC, so he can do that. - I did not say that one. - I'm kidding. - Just no one just crap out there, dude, clicks. (laughing) He's got a burner phone. - That's when you use the anyways. (laughing) - Do you believe the Texans can win the Super Bowl? - Someday, was CJ Strat as the quarterback? Was CJ Strat as the quarterback for the Texans? Can they win a Super Bowl? Do you believe they will? 713-780-ESP and HRP. Listen or line, 713-780-3776. It's the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. (upbeat music) You found that Killer B's live in the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. - It's the B's, ESPN 97.5, ESPN 95. I think we went off the radio for a little bit. DJ had a hot take, that was too hot. Since the internet playing. All right, 713-780-ESP and do you believe the Texans can win the Super Bowl someday? Was CJ Strat as the quarterback? Kind of a continuing of the conversation yesterday about the narrative on Stroud pre-season top five quarterback, which is probably too high. Narrative now, huge regression, sophomore slump. You have people, dumb people on the internet asking if you'd rather have Bryce Young than CJ Strat right now. I think some people would have him outside of the top 10, which is probably too far. He's probably somewhere six through 10th in the NFL as the quarterback. But the bigger question is, do you believe he's that franchise type of quarterback that you can build around and win a Super Bowl? So do you still believe the Texans can win the Super Bowl someday, not this year? Maybe you do think it's this year, but someday with Stroud as the quarterback, 713-780-3776, what do you land on this? - Oh, I absolutely do. I absolutely do. And you guys know that as hard as I've been on Jordan Love, if there's a choice between the two guys regardless of how good the rest of the team is, I believe CJ Stroud is better than Jordan Love. And I believe that CJ Stroud then, to me, is capable of leading his team to the Super Bowl before Jordan Love is capable of leading his. And that's not judging the talent around them. I just think that CJ is already doing things that Jordan Love is still working to try and be able to do, which is to be able to hold back on throws instead of trying to throw into double coverage. And the way that CJ is handling and getting hands-on experience in handling just the intensity of the rush that he's experienced all season long, I think it's gonna help him in the long haul where Jordan Love has a tough time handling blitzes. - I don't know how you spun this into a Jordan Love Cup. - But I've been saying, because I'm saying that you just said Jordan Love's the top 10 quarterback. And earlier in the show today. - Oh, that was about an hour ago. - Yeah, what I'm just saying, so that it's, and they both came in, that they're both younger quarterbacks in the league. So for me, it's like, and obviously you guys know that I have a lot of friends and a lot of experience and watch a lot of Packers games. In my mind, it's never even been close that Jordan Love, that CJ is above Jordan Love. I still believe CJ is one of the top six, seven quarterbacks in this league, regardless of injuries and situation. And I believe that he can lead this team in this city to a Super Bowl. - I'm sorry, Jordan Love thinks crack in there. - I don't even know if I could take that as a compliment for CJ because of how low I know your opinion of Jordan Love is. Like, just that he's better than Jordan Love doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. - But that's not what I said either, because I think he's better than the top. - I'm having fun with him. - Yeah, I just say, I think Jordan Love gets a pass a lot as opposed to how critical people have been of CJ this season. And I think that just because of it, the offensive line struggles, because of the fact that he's lost key players on top of that. And the fact that everybody's looking at a sophomore slump, I just firmly believe he has everything you need in a franchise quarterback that can lead a team to the Super Bowl. - Yeah, Love has some like built in advantages. Like, I would rather be coached by the floor than if Bobby's slowing. So like that, I think that's probably like throwing into the pro for Love. The answer for me is yes. I believe that CJ Stroud capable of leading the Houston text in some day to a Super Bowl. There are things that need to help like improve, right? Like he needs to get better and continue his progression. Now he's still only a second year quarterback. Let's keep that in mind. So his progression will play a factor into this. I do think they need to protect him better. And then also like the collateral damage of like, continually getting hit over and over and over again. I think that can have an impact negatively on a young quarterback. So that's an area that they need to clean up quickly and immediately. But I certainly think that CJ Stroud is capable of leading and guiding the Texans to a Super Bowl win someday. Not to say it's going to happen because it's very difficult to happen. But I do think that he's certainly capable of doing so. - Yeah, I think he's just him, like his own talent, the own skill that we've seen from him individually is capable of not only winning one Super Bowl, but multiple Super Bowls. My concern and hesitation comes from, you know, they kind of went all in this year with the trade for mixing, the trade for digs, they spent a lot of salary cap space, obviously under Neil Hunter, some of the defensive free agents. And now you're inching closer to when CJ Stroud gets that massive, you know, contract that's going to be probably north of 400 million, it's going to be north of 60 million per year. And can they with obviously the holes that you guys talked about, like you need a lot of offensive line health. Digs is not going to be here. You're going to have to replace some of those weapons. It mixes obviously is 28 year old running back. He's not going to be here forever. So are you able to keep this roster at a place when CJ gets paid that keeps the team overall in a position to win a title? - It's kind of weird because they work against each other in two different fronts, like a young quarterback progresses in terms of, you know, how good he is relative to the rest of the NFL, right? The time he's drafted, you project a young quarterback to get better and better and better and better. It's a stock that's climbing, right? It's always moving upward. It's like Bitcoin, you know, to the moon. - Unless it's the two or the hot two of them. - Yeah, I mean, yeah, true. So, but at the same time, the economics of the NFL work against that young quarterback that's improving and improving and improving. 'Cause the first five years of his career, 'cause he was drafted in the first round, you have him under contract for four years, you have the option for the fifth, he's gonna get better and better and better and better. But it's more difficult to field a really good team around him because the economics of the salary cap, you have to pay him more of a percentage of the salary cap. So it makes like year six through 10 or whatever, very, very difficult to win. And ESPN did a big thing about this, the start of the year, before the year, where they talked about the modern day salary cap and that these young franchise quarterbacks have the best chance to win in their first five years of their NFL career versus the next five years of their NFL career once they get that payday. So they kind of contradict each other, young quarterback getting better, but the price of keeping young quarterback getting higher and higher, thus the talent around him being lesser and lesser. So I think that the Texans can win it with him in year six through 10, but you would think that the best chance of them winning it was Stroud is in the first five years of his career. - And obviously Pat Mahomes is the exception because Pat Mahomes is the guy that, because we've heard over and over again about, you don't win a Super Bowl when your quarterbacks, getting that first big contract. And it's tougher because of what you said, trying to get the people and the pieces around said quarterback. And Mahomes is just such an unbelievable talent. He's been able to do it with the money that he's still been able to make. But when you look at it from my personal standpoint of just looking at his skill sets, we talked about his touch. We talked about the fact that in the Jacksonville game, he basically threw a ball 70 yards in the air. I mean, he's got the arm strength. He's got the touch. He has an understanding of the X's and O's. He's got a feel for the pocket. You're right that at the same time, when I think that this is a learning experience and trying to adjust to the pass rush on every play and how he's had to move the pocket slide around, move up, do those kinds of things. It also could be detrimental if he takes too many hits. But you hope that from an organizational standpoint, for all they've done to improve everything around the offensive line in the off season, they damn well better make it priority one to do whatever they have to do to upgrade this offensive line and make changes wherever necessary. Yeah, I mean, that's part of the equation too, right? Like you have to build around the quarterback. It can't be solely on the quarterback. The talent of the quarterback gives you a much better chance to win. On the Mahomes front, guess where Mahomes is at in quarterback contracts in the NFL? - I was gonna say, he took a discount. - He took a discount. - Seventh? - Nope. - Lower? - I would say like 12. - Tied for 12 for Kirk Cousins. So like Mahomes is an example of a quarterback doing his team a favor in order to keep them competitive. You know who else was very famous? - Brady. - Tom Brady. So like, if you wanna be a dynasty, and we're putting the cart way before the horse here, but the two greatest quarterbacks in recent memory in terms of Super Bowl pedigree are Pat Mahomes and Tom Brady. What do Pat Mahomes and Tom Brady have in common in the economy of the NFL? They were constantly, well, Mahomes only did it once, but they took team friendly deals to build up the rest of the team around them. It'd be very interesting to see what Stroud does. - And you also have to have an organization that's savvy enough to use it to remember on the Mahomes deal. It wasn't structured to just have, you know, start at a certain level and then go up and up. It actually went up and then down and up again based on other contracts that they had on the books for certain years to where it would help them depending on the years and what they were committed to salary-wise for key players from said years. So it goes up and down and up and down to-- - Kinda. It is kind of sporadic, but it's pretty stagnant then it goes way up for like three years and then down a little bit and then up again. So it's, I guess you're right. This year, which this is 24, he's making 30 set, his cap number this year is 37, but I wonder if they did this more because they're gonna restructure it and affect the cap number down the road. I don't know if it was so much the players that they had in their contract. I think it was more, they set it up this way to benefit them in a future restructure. I'm not smart enough to figure it out, but this year is cap number 37. Next year, it's 66, the year after that, it's 68 and a half, then it's 65, then it drops to 32, 5, 35, then up to 48 and then up to 48 and 31, 45 and 48. So I think that they, I actually think they did that in terms, I think that that is being, having the foresight with a contract restructure. - Maybe so, but regardless, it's still credit to the organization-- - But it's not up one year down one year, up one year down one year. It's more, it's more kind of middle of the pack up for several years than down and then work its way back up. - But even for the first couple of years, if he's down in the 30s, it allows you more flexibility while you still have guys on your roster that have brought to the level of a certain, of Super Bowl champion. But regardless, I mean, you can get creative in a multitude of ways. The flip side of guys that weren't willing to do that are the guys that are paying the price now because you're looking at the cap hit of guys like Rogers with the Jets and Rogers with the Packers was a guy that always wanted every single penny and it cost the Packers in so many ways. But now he's paying the price 'cause they're like, why'd you only get to one Super Bowl? - He took a salary cap. - Eventually discount, Rogers did. - Rogers is less than my home. - Right now, eventually he did with the Jets but he's still on, I forget what the dead cap money is and what they owe him for next season regardless of how it is. - I think, well, he really did his deal to help him out. - Yeah, he did eventually, but he would never do that in Green Bay. He was trying to get every single penny all the time and because there was always articles and reporters and people saying if he really cared about winning as much as he says he did, do what Brady did, do what guys do. - I mean, I can't blame a guy for taking the money though. It depends on the motive of the player. Like, I don't blame Dak Prescott for getting $60 million a year. I ain't mad at that. I can't be mad at him for going out and becoming the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. But in terms of winning Super Bowl specifically, it shows you what they care about, right? And I'm not gonna flaw a guy for wanting money over championship trophies. But in the modern day era, you kind of have to be willing to take a cap hit as a star quarterback if you want to be on a consistent Super Bowl winning team. - And we knew Brady was driven by winning and that was always what he wanted the best team around him he could possibly have and he made no bones about it. - Yeah, so yeah, it'd be, Stroud with Mulligator will be interesting. It'll be interesting. But I do think he's capable of winning. Super Bowl Texas says of Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson can, so can Stroud. Much different era though. Like that was a long time ago when Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson won Super Bowl. - Oh, no doubt. - Would you put Nick Foles though in that conversation? - Kinda, but is he, even Nick Foles is a bit of an anomaly. Like he had a really good team. He had a really good coach at the time, but they also had an MVP caliber quarterback that year and he just rode the hot hand Nick Foles did. Like he wasn't their top quarterback, you know? - He just played at the end of the year. - Like if you, yeah, it's tough. It's tough to win nowadays without a really good Super Bowl or a really good quarterback. - Flacko was the last. - He was, I mean, people were calling him elite at the time. - I mean, that postseason, he went love and touchdowns, no interceptions. He was great in the postseason. It was kind of like Eli where Eli was mid, mid, mid, and then he would turn it on in the postseason, well, two times. - I think it's much more difficult to win a Super Bowl nowadays with a mediocre quarterback than it used to be in the Brad Johnson/Trindelfer era. Not to say it's impossible, but I think that the odds of doing it are much smarter. - Oh, no doubt, because you're much happier than ever before. And, you know, and we know how the entire offense seems to be focused on receivers in the passing game, and you can't just be a game manager as easily and carry a team, even if your defense is really good. - What would you say is the modern era, like with the salary cat thrown into it, the economics of the game? - Like when did it start? - Like, well, yeah, just like whenever you hear somebody say, like how it's currently, how it currently is in the NFL, like how far back would you be willing to go? - Manning, Colts? - I was talking about like a year, but I mean, I guess it's kind of the same thing. - 'Cause that's when it went past happy too. - I would, yeah, but Manning was kind of ahead. - The last, the last CBA was ratified in 2020, which isn't that long ago. - I would say it was before that. I would say where it's like, today's NFL looks like that NFL, maybe, I would say Manning, but Manning with the Broncos, like like 2014, 2015, that kind of feels like today's NFL. - Okay, so like even that's kind of towards the end of Brady in New England. - Yeah. - Okay. - Last five years of Brady in New England, yeah. - So if you go, let's just start in 2014 season. You got Patriots with Brady. You got the, these are Super Bowl champions. Broncos with Manning, Patriots with Brady, Eagles in 18 with Fols, who'd be the outlier here, the 18 season with Brady again, Patriots. 19, the Chiefs won it with Mahomes, 20 bucks won it with Brady, 21 Rams won it with Stafford, 22, Chiefs won it with Mahomes, the 23 season, Chiefs won it again with Mahomes. So like Fols is the only guy who you wouldn't count. Now, not Brady, Manning, whenever he won it with the Broncos was a shell. - Well, he was laughing. - Was a shell of himself, but- - They won that with the- - Those are all pretty dang good quarterbacks and won the Super Bowl in the modern era of the NFL. - Yeah, you're talking about two examples out of the last 11 seasons where a quarterback was less than a won a Super Bowl. - So it's tough. You don't have like that Super Bowl caliber quarterback. I mean, you're an outlier if you win it all. So that's why it's so important to have the quarterback that you think is capable of winning at all. So like we sit here and we talk about Stroud, is he top five, is he top? Who cares about where he's at in terms of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10? Can you win a Super Bowl with him? Yes or no, to me it's binary. It's not this, where's he out of the top 10? No, can you win a Super Bowl with him? Yes, can you win with a Super Bowl with him? No, to me that's the only question that matters. - That's why I think San Francisco is such an interesting case study this off season. Do you think that Brock Purdy is a guy capable of getting to that level and being at that level or is Brock Purdy like a guy that you've seen what he's gonna give you? It's more like a modern day game manager in a lot of ways but is San Francisco gonna be all in and committed to a big dollar figure and locking him up? - He wanted those last few. - That's right. - It's gonna be fascinating. Harder to win with mediocre quarterbacks 'cause even those dudes get paid. That's a great point. Have you got these mediocre quarterbacks who aren't even guys that are capable of winning the Super Bowl? - 10-year-old's got, yeah, 40-year. - Yeah, so like to me you have to, like Purdy, you're right, Purdy's a great case study 'cause you either have to make a decision if you can win a Super Bowl with him or not. And if you can't, even if he's mediocre and even if it costs you like two seasons of like being a nine-in-eight team or a 10-in-seven team, you gotta pull the trigger and not pay the guy. - Yeah, absolutely do. - I'm gonna pay the guy. All right, 7-1-3-7-8-0-E-S-P-N-H-R-N-P-L-listener line. BC Money, hand you winners when we come back. It is the B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. (bell rings) - Mommy, mommy, mommy. - Do these guys have any idea what they're doing? Probably not, but that won't stop them from making picks. This is busy money. All right, time to give you winners. We've been killing it on BC Money. We're four-in-one, two weeks ago. We ended this last week. $80 profit, two weeks ago. Profit of the year, $135. Started off with a bank roll of 1,000. We're up north of 1,100. Blankers in first place at 14-7-1. Anybody can get first place though. It's who comes in second that you really have to give a lot of respect to. That's me. That's a spin. - That's some elite spin there. - Brian's way back in the cellar at nine and 13. He's the only loser in BC Money, the only one with the losing record. - True. - I know I'm going to be with you. It's pathetic. I started off year 62, do the math. That hasn't gone well since then. - Yeah, it's three and 11. - Yeah, it's a good band, not a good record. - Three of lessons, a good band? - Yeah. - It's debatable. All right, Blankers, what you got? What's the first game you're selling to us this week? - I'm selling Saints at the Giants. I think the Giants are completely embraced, the suck in tank mode. They're going to go with Drew Locke. They don't have a whole lot around him, regardless. New Orleans still has car at quarterback. They still have a decent defense. They still have, even a Marquez Valdez Scantling, who has been catching deep balls and putting touchdowns on the board even with the injuries they've had at wide receiver. I think New Orleans looks more like a football team at this point in the season than the Giants. It's a five and a half point spread. I think the Saints win by a touchdown. - Yeah, this is what I personally didn't play. I do think the Giants have a lot of quit in them though. There's also thoughts of Malik Neighbors not playing in this game. They're best offense to player. Now, the Saints didn't lose their second-best offense player. Taste some Hill, who two or three weeks of years, the best tied in football. And then he's hurt for about 10 of those weeks. I personally didn't play it. I think it's going to be an ugly tight game that nobody's going to want to watch. I stayed away. - Yeah, that's my lead too. I just, I, the Giants are awful. I just told them that I think New Orleans is so mid that they now taste some hills out for the year. Are you probably their second best weapon behind Kamara? - I just don't think they're capable of winning a game by more than six points unless it's a panther or something. We got home. - Yeah, I know, I stayed away, but Blankers has been hot. - I know. - So should we, should we throw a little bit at it? - It gives me, it gives me pause. It gives me pause 'cause he has been. I mean, he's first place, he's obviously way hotter than I am. So you want to go a little bit with $20 bet? - Yeah, why not? - Just to see if he continues to stay hot. Like, I feel like we shouldn't, I feel like we shouldn't fade the guy in first. - I'm with that strategy. - All right, let's go with it. $20 on the New Orleans Saints. All right, first game of Minnesota, you guys. In the division, there's one team that's getting good quarterback play in the AFC South. That team is the Tennessee Titans. Jacksonville doesn't care. They put Trevor Lawrence on IR for shoulder, not a concussion. They're in the Travis Hunter sweepstakes. The Jags have entered Embrace the Suck territory. The Titans still want to play some good football. We'll let this do once to play some good football. He's trying to win a job for next year. Titans are at home where they're a much different team. They're much better in division too. They get up for their division games. Titans win this game by at least a touchdown. They're only given three and a half. Give me Mrs. Amy to win this game for the Titans. - I like Tennessee at home 'cause I think their defense is better than Jacksonville's defense. I think that as much as their offense has been up and down, their defense has been very steady. And I think that they're not gonna have any problem in the very immobile world of Mac Jones, of getting to the quarterback and doing some damage. And like you said, they're at home. I like Tennessee as well. And I think they'll cover the three and a half. - Yeah, I'm gonna take the Titans side as well. - Yes. - The one that I considered before I, you know, making different choices. But yeah, like I said, they're at home. They've got the better weapons. They have the motivation. They're playing the back of quarterback. I would, I would bet the Titans to win by at least six. - 100. - I don't wanna get crazy. - I don't wanna go crazy. - Play in the year. - I go 50, I don't wanna go 100. - Plankers. - If you guys wanna go 50, I was gonna suggest 40. - All right, that's good 40. I don't wanna bet that much. I don't wanna let her see kidding me. All right, what's the first game you're selling, Brian? - Miami at home, a six point favorite against the JETS, Jets, Jets, Jets. I just like, I don't trust the Jets right now. We saw them lose at home to Seattle. I believe that was last weekend. They're a team that's just completely falling apart. I know they're overall defensive rankings still looks good, but you look over the last few weeks, that too has gone down as well as their offense. - Miami's at home, they're still faintly in the playoff phrase, but they obviously have to have games like this at home and get some Jets. I think they hammer the Jets and win by, I don't know, nine to the points. - I like them at home because it's not cold out. I like the fact that they have plenty to play for, whereas the Jets really don't, except for if you wanna believe that Rogers has to play for a job somewhere next year. And no Breeze Hall, no Garrett Wilson, they're sitting a whole bunch of guys with injuries with the Jets. I like Miami. - Are those official? - I believe they are. - I saw that with Hall. I didn't see that with Wilson. - I believe that they're, I believe I saw before the show that both of them are not gonna play on Sunday. - I knew it was trending that way for Breeze. I didn't know that with Wilson. - Breeze had played the last two weeks, I believe, right? And then I think they were sitting Garrett Wilson too. But regardless, I think Miami's got a lot to play for and they're trying to do whatever they can't stay in the playoff hunt. The six scares me a little bit, but I'll take the dolphin. - Yeah, I got some Garrett Wilson stock. I can't. - The recent Garrett or recent Garrett are out. Six doesn't scare me at all. - This is where money is won at this time of year. - I can't have Garrett Wilson missing this week. That'd be terrible. No, I like the Miami side of this too. I think they win by double figures. And the fact that you're getting this at less than seven, I'm a fan of. And look, the dolphins are also desperate. Like they don't have enough wiggle room to really lose any more games if they wanna be a playoff team. So yeah, dolphins, desperate, jets are not. Dolphins at home, two was back, much different team with two. I like the dolphins here a lot. - What do you wanna go for another 40 spot? - You are in less. I wonder if she's gonna $5 deduction. 'Cause she's in less than less. - 35. - Yeah, it's good 35. - That's fair, that's fair. I've earned it at this point. - All right, next game blankers. - I like the Buffalo Bills are hot. The Buffalo Bills are playing in the snow and doing a bunch of things. But I think that the Buffalo Bills are playing good football. They're playing a Rams team that looks like they're not. The Rams look like they're not very good right now. I like Buffalo getting out of the snow and being able to full throttle their offense on the turf in LA, the spread's only three and a half. I think Buffalo, I projected them around to win by a touchdown. I like the Bills at the Rams. - Yeah, I like Buffalo here too, they're rolling. They're a great regular season team. Rams are kind of mid too. Like I know they're sticking around, but they're sticking around because they're mid. Do I, I think I bet the Rams against the Eagles a couple of weeks ago and it looks so foolish. It was in LA too. I was like, oh yeah. - Yeah, it was. - I mean, benefit 'cause Joel and I flipped the goal again. - Look at me panning out times. Look at me making assists even whenever I make a bad play. I looked into that assist. Yeah, I think Buffalo rolls in this game too. I don't think the Rams can hang around with some of the above average teams in the NFL. I think they can be all the average bad teams in the NFL. I just don't think that they have the juice to keep up with the top teams. I'm on your side with this one. I think the Bills roll. - Yeah, especially since, I mean, the Buffalo defense isn't perfect, but where they're really, really good is against the pass and I don't think the Rams, even at home, can run their way into a victory against the Bills, so I would play the Bills. - Getting Milano back helps him against the run too. - Yeah, I think we should also consider that they are flying cross-country. So maybe we reduce the bet amount of bit 'cause I hate cross-country games. Team going cross-country. - This is a three-clog game, obviously, right? - I'm sure, yeah. - I would think in LA. - It's very, very rare. I think Kansas City played a new game a couple of weeks ago. That was really, really rare. - Yeah. - I might be just in for a bit. - It doesn't seem like that they would do it. - I'm sure it's a three. I think we should just keep that in mind. Cross-country flights, sometimes those team maybe in the cross-country flights, maybe, I don't know. Do you know? - I don't. - Okay. - But I'm saying a lot of times, teams combat that by leaving early and especially if they're going from cold weather to get used to the warm weather. - But we also have to account that Blankers have been hot. So I feel like the cross-country Blankers hotness, that Blankers so hot right now, I feel like they cancel each other out. So just throwing that out there as we try to determine the dollar figure here. - I'm fine doing 30, whatever you guys want to do. - How's that 40? He's at 31, do 35? Split the difference? - Yes. - Great idea. That's teamwork right there. All right, next game I'm going to sell to you guys. Cincinnati going to the big A in Arlington. Cincinnati, they're the better team than Dallas and a Dallas played some inspired football the other day. But Cincinnati, desperate. They can't afford another loss this year. They might already have too much damage. But Joe Burroughs playing at a very high level. Jamar Chase is playing at a very high level. They're trying to feed families as we get near the fantasy football playoffs these days. The Cowboys, they don't have enough juice offensively. Yeah, they're a good story, Cooper Rush, all of this stuff. I understand the Bengals defense is really bad. But that Arlington offense just isn't good enough to take advantage of the bad Cincinnati defense. I like the Bengals minus five on the road in the big A. - I like Cincinnati in this game as well. I like Cincinnati to score points, there's no doubt. And everything that you said about their offense rolling and especially Burrough and Chase is spot on. I just wonder if Dallas has completely folded up the tents and they realize that it's all but over and they're going to start planning vacations. They're at home, they finally won a home game. But I don't even think that matters. I like the Bengals as well. - I like the Bengals to win that it seems like I'm out voted, but I don't love the number. The Bengals defense is just awful. And the Cowboys, while obviously they got trashed by the Texans, especially in the second half, I mean, they went on the road two weeks ago and won against the Washington team that's got eight wins and infirmably in a playoff spot. So it feels like for whatever reason, despite their season being on more than life support, than just life support, are playing some inspired football. And as bad as the Bengals defense is, I think they keep it inside the number. - Okay, so 20? - Sure, 20. - 20 on the Bengals. Do you know what's the hard knocks in season yet? - I watch, they viewed this week, right? - Yeah, Tuesday. - I watched the whole, which was just genius production and editing the way they went. They went from coach to coach. And then, you know, each positional coach in the Bengals Steelers game was awesome stuff. And then to see how it played out on the field, but yeah, I thought it was really well done. - I turned it on in the last five minutes before I fell asleep, but I do wanna watch it. I am gonna watch it. It seems, I watch all the hard knocks, even though they're not as good as they used to be. - Tomlin, I know he hates that crap. - Well, he didn't seem like it. - No, I was gonna say, but from the way he comes across on camera, people are gonna love Mike Tomlin even more. - Though, I fell asleep right after the Steelers scene, but Tomlin in that scene is meeting with the coaches. And he's sitting in his chair, reclining back, eating some chili cheese Fritos. - Yeah. (laughing) - The diet-- - It's hard, big. At one point, because they're going back and forth and saying, hey, your matchup is here, you gotta take advantage of this. And he says, to the linebacker, Harbig, you gotta get into, you gotta take advantage of Brown on the offensive line. - And then in the game, Harbig gets a strip sack for a touchdown, and Tomlin loses his mind. - Brian's given us the move along as a producer, saying you guys gotta shut up. - We're really ambitious too. - All right, Brian, you know what? No suit for you, no second game for you, Brian. You wanna give us the little wrap it up, guys. No second game for Brian, car wreck of the day. What's yours, 713-780-ESP-N. Comes up next, it's the B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. I gotta tell you, the greatness that is pro dunk hoop still. They make the highest quality basketball goals you'll ever find. Don't get the goals from the big box stores. This also makes for a great, great Christmas gift. Get a goal from pro dunk. Your kids want it, your wife wants it. If you're a woman listening, your husband wants it. They make the highest quality basketball goals you will ever see. 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Blankman, what you got? - Not sure you guys caught this or not, but last night, pre-national anthem. There was a guy in a lion's jersey that was a fan off the street that was just supposed to hold one of the flags, and he took it upon himself to go to the packer's sideline and start talking mess and pointing at Matla Floor. La Floor got ticked off, started cussing at him, and went back in him two separate times, wanting him thrown out. It's like, you get a chance of a lifetime to be on the field and hold the flag for the anthem, and you're gonna go talk mess to the coach or the other team. - Yeah. - That's not so good. - It's hilarious, I love it. It's great drawing my entertainment, but it absolutely should not happen. - Oh, it shouldn't happen. I didn't realize he was a flag bearer. - Yeah, he was just one of the guys that was supposed to just hold the flag, and he had the singer saying the anthem, and he was in a Brian Branch jersey, and he decided to have someone else hold the flag, and he walked over to the sideline and started talking crap to La Floor. - How far into the sideline did he get? - He was right up against the sideline, security had to get between the players, came at him. - Yeah, I saw the face-to-face. - He probably got that close, but I didn't realize he was a flag bearer. - La Floor finally stopped, walked back, and then like two seconds later, turned around and went back at him again. - I'm surprised La Floor actually said anything. - He said walk away. - He dropped bombs. - I wonder what he said to La Floor to make him react that way. - I don't know, but he was dropping some meth bombs. - I wonder if La Floor thought it was bush-leak, this was a flag bearer. - You can sneak it to the playoffs. I think that's what he said to him. Jordan loves Terrible, you can sneak it to the playoffs. - It's got, I mean, he had to, like if it was a random streaker doing that, I don't think La Floor would have the same reaction. I think he thought it was bush-leak because he was a flag bearer. I bet you that came into play. - Oh, sure, there's no doubt that if you're a guy that's supposed to be on the field for a presentation, and you want to go and think that this is your moment? - Like, would he have had the same reaction if it was a random streaker? - I don't think so. I don't think he would have. - I mean, if the streaker's talking messed to him? - Yeah. - I mean, maybe not the same reaction, but he'd still be ticked off. - I think it'd be less because-- - I think it all depends on what he said. - Yeah, maybe. I want to nominate Brian for getting us to wrap it up. We're talented here, Brian. - I was gonna nominate you guys here. - We need to be, are we gonna be out in time? - Because I wrapped you up. - Sure. - Because we got rid of your game. - All right, what do you nominate, Brian? You can't pick us. - You guys, I'm not being in your clock, man. - I'll throw it in an audible motion for Jalen Green shooting. Jalen Green shooting. - What's that? - Not very consistent, that old Jalen Green. All right, what's winning? - The flag bear. - Yeah, I like the flag. - You're a stock management. - I didn't realize he was a flag bear either. - Yeah. - Like, that makes it way worse. I thought he was a random streaker. - No. - He was just a d-bag. - Hey, look at that guy winning twice. He won it. His team won yesterday, and now he wins car wreck today. All right, does it for us, thanks to Brian. X-DOT thanks to Brian. - He's blank on Brian, and we'll talk to you next week, Houston. 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