After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We always like the sexier storylines, the more dramatic storylines.

We prefer to watch train wrecks. Ooh, here's a good way to describe it. You'll understand right away. Here's Amy Lawrence. I love this. Absolutely love this for so many reasons. But on this network, on this show, you'll not catch me accidentally singing it off tune at the top of my lungs. That was a different life and a different network, though I did recently realize that there's still a copy.

I just happen to have it. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. So as I mentioned before the top of the hour, the Cleveland Browns do extend their preseason start to Deshaun Watson in week number one. If the six-game suspension holds, he would not be able to compete all the way through the preseason, only at the beginning.

So maybe that's the logic. But we've got this appeal, potentially a legal charge, so that's obviously casting a black shadow over the NFL regardless of anything else that happens right now. Though I did enjoy the distraction that was the Lions' hard knocks and some of the fun quotes and bites and videos that have come out of episode one. I'm telling you, I'm all in on the Lions this season. We're going to adopt them here on After Hours. It's Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio, and we're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

When you need cash out of your home and a simple way to get it, Rocket can. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We've got a new video up on our YouTube channel.

I know lots of you checked out the video version of Ask Amy on YouTube in the last 24 hours. So thank you for supporting us and connecting with us even on our various social media websites. So we talked about hard knocks.

And just before we bring in Lindsey Rhoads, we've got some of the choice drops from not just Jamal Williams, but head coach Dan Campbell. All I think about is you guys. That's all I think about, man. That's all I can think about is you guys and how I set you up for the best possible, the best possible advantage I can give you to have a season. I swear to you, man, I just need you to trust me. That's all. Please. Let's be better tomorrow.

Doesn't matter if you have one ass cheek and three toes, I will beat your ass. There's no one in the NFL like him. Absolutely no one. And on that note, let's bring in longtime TV radio podcast host Lindsey Rhoads is joining us. She's got the NFL road show. She's entrenched in not just the actual football, but the fantasy football. And we're always pleased when she can join us from L.A. All right, Lindsey, I could go on and on and tell you all about my favorite bits and moments from Hard Knocks.

But we're one episode in. What stands out about the Lions on their Hard Knocks debut? Well, first of all, I need to say I am going into this year like an unabashed Lions fan, like going to buy shirts and restore the roar, all the hashtags I'm in. I'm really excited about this team.

And that is a relative excitement. I feel like I need to clarify that I'm not like suggesting this is a team that's going to go win the Super Bowl. But I love what I saw from them last year with a roster that was not as good as most rosters in the NFL.

But they were like fighting. You know, I could tell that Dan Campbell had won them over and that they were going to give him everything that they had. And I think that they have added to the roster this year. And I think they actually have a pretty good roster this season. And I think that they're going to be a team that like Vegas has them at six and a half wins. And I think that there is a strong possibility if I would bet the over on that. I like this team to surprise people this year. And by surprise people, I mean like be an average to slightly above average team.

You know, you're coming off of three wins. So all of that said, I loved Hard Knocks and I loved Dan Campbell. And his his metaphors are mixed and they're a disaster and it's kind of comical. But every time he talks, I am like, yes, I would 100 percent run for a while, run through a wall for you. Like he just gets me fired up. So I, I, I love him. I love. And they talked about it in Hard Knocks about how he has specifically told his coaches, like, I want you to be yourself.

Don't cut your hair because you think that that's what a coach should look like. You like you be you. And I think that that that really resonates right now, because I think that a lot of players and people, but players, most importantly, in this case, they they can send, you know, a B.S.

or from a mile away. So used. Everything has shifted towards authenticity. Like the media we consume is people talking like people. And so I think you can you can sense when somebody's trying to be something that they're not. And I love that Dan Campbell has just fully embraced like I am going to be me in all of the raw ways. And sometimes it doesn't play well, but like I'm me and I'm totally here for you guys and I'm all in. And I think that I got the sense last year and I definitely got the sense during Hard Knocks that that they get that feeling from him. And I think that they're going to want to play really hard for him this year. They're going to want to bite kneecaps, is what you're saying.

I don't know. But I'm liking the you know, the other I'm trying to think of any speeches he gave that don't have curse words in. Oh, absolutely. And my favorite Dan Campbell moment is when he tries to convince them he's not a lunatic.

I say just embrace the lunatic because it's working for you right now. And it certainly is good TV with my apologies to coach. My favorite was Aiden Hutchinson spilling out some Billie Jean in front of the entire meeting room and the whole room just erupting for the chorus. I have watched that on a loop so many times today that I feel like I've got the entire video memorized because I'd seen the clip. You know, there were a couple of clips that had kind of become viral prior to me sitting down and watching the whole show.

So I'd seen the clip as I'm watching the show. I'm still sitting there with a smile like ear to ear smile on my face watching this scene. And I thought this is the kind of scene that like sells sports. You know what I mean? Like this is why people play this moment right here where they're all sitting there and having a blast.

And they're all united in this like fun moment, cheering on this rookie and singing a Michael Jackson song. Like that's why people ultimately do it is the feeling that they get from that. You know, like the stuff that you do between the white lines, obviously a huge part of it, very important. But what people talk about after they're done playing when they retire and they miss the game. Yes, that it's those moments and watching it. I was like, man, like that's that's that's it, you know, and you have that in little league. You have that in in all levels of sports, but like that's the moment you're looking for.

Absolutely. And I don't know if the Lions with this category, but we had this conversation on my show this week because every year in the NFL, about half the playoff field turns over. Whether or not the Lions with that category, we had a variety of answers. Teams that could, in fact, insert themselves into the 2022 playoff bracket. Who do you think are a few candidates who were not in the playoffs last year but should have those expectations for this season? Oh, my gosh, the Vikings.

Yes, that was a popular answer. The Vikings, that's one. And particularly since we're talking about the NFC North, I was thinking originally, as soon as you start talking about the Lions, like, do they have a path?

Is it possible? And I think that they do. I think the Bears are going to be awful.

So I'm going to take them off the table. And then it kind of becomes like for the second team coming out of that division, it feels like it could be the Vikings. The Lions could fight for that. But I think the Vikings are certainly going to be favored and should be expected to do better than the Lions. AFC is hard because there's so many teams that have made jumps, especially in the West.

Yes. And the Chargers are the obvious answer, right? Like the fact that the Chargers didn't go in that that last second game against the Raiders, where if the Raiders had just done on the solid, they both could have gone. We wouldn't have been subjected to watching the Steelers in the postseason.

That would have been fun. The Chargers are one of my favorite teams in the entire NFL. So that's the most obvious answer. I think that they have one of the best top to bottom rosters. And obviously the Bills and the Bucks fall into that category also. But I think the Chargers are easily the team that probably has like the lowest odds to win a Super Bowl that I think actually has a legit chance to win a Super Bowl.

Like that's the bet that I would want to make, you know, that I think is really I feel comfortable with. I love what they did in the offseason in terms of the additions that they made on the defensive side of the ball, bringing in the pieces that they did going into year three with Justin Herbert. It's like textbook roster building. And I love all the moves that they've made. And I'm the biggest Justin Herbert fan, like just massive, massive.

So that would be my most obvious one, I think. Well, and the Colts nearly got to the playoffs last year, too. They lost to Jacksonville in that final week and they add a Matt Ryan. I'm wondering how you feel about the Dolphins, because they're a team that's been part of a lot of chatter this offseason.

They still have Tua, but they've added some weapons. Almost feel like if he doesn't take a major step forward this year, then it's him. Lindsey, it's not what the team has done around him. A 100 percent, which is why I think that they have been brilliant in terms of how they've approached this offseason, because they've put so many pieces around him and they've taken away any excuses.

So they're going to get a fair evaluation of who he is as a quarterback. Now, I kind of think that he's going to step up and that the Dolphins are going to be pretty good and that they will be in the mix for a playoff berth that certainly with the potential to be the second best team in that division. I'm I'm a little bit worried about what I'm seeing and hearing coming out of Foxboro this year. Obviously, the Bills are the favorite in the division, but I think that the Dolphins could be in a position to fight for a wild card spot.

I really am. That's one of the teams I'm the most interested to see once they actually hit the field, put all these pieces together in week one, because I think Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle together will open things up for other people. This is a team that had just like the worst, I think, literally the worst separation. And like, no, Devontae Parker ranked last in separation last year in the NFL out of every wide receiver.

As a wide receiver core, they were one of the worst teams in the NFL at separation. And I think that that put Tua in a really tough position because he's having to throw the ball into a bunch of tight windows. And that obviously leads to fewer yards after the catch, just because they don't have space with which to work. It puts him in a position to throw more interceptions than he would like. The good news there is that he actually made the throws anyway into the tight windows. We know that he's not afraid to be aggressive.

You know, that could be the takeaway there. Now you put Tyreek Hill on the field. You take away Devontae Parker and you have one of the league's best separators. And you know that he's going to pick up Yak yards. And Jalen Waddle is very good in that department also.

It's going to open things up for everybody. Like there are subtle ways that adding these pieces that they've added this year are really smart strategically in terms of helping Tua's development, not just the obvious like and now they have a guy to stretch the field. And then in Jalen they have a guy they can, you know, bring out of the backfield.

Like there are a ton of different ways that these pieces are really smartly put together. And then obviously they made some changes on the offensive line and in the backfield. I mean, that backfield is crowded, right? Like none of them are like, you know, like a Najee Harris or anything.

But there are a lot of weapons there. So I'm really curious to see what they're going to do with all these people and what Mike McDaniel's will be like as a head coach. I think it's going to look very similar to San Francisco. It's going to be like a San Francisco South type of thing. All of the beat writers that I've talked to out of Miami say yes.

Everything you hear in that department is exactly what you should expect. I think that they're one of the more exciting teams in the NFL in terms of overhaul. Like I've reached a point in my career where I think those are the most interesting teams. Like, yes, the Bills are interesting. Yes, the Bucks are interesting. Yes, the Rams are interesting.

But I know what to expect. Like, I'm confident they're going to be good. I don't really have questions outside of, you know, who's going to be the Bills number three? Who's going to win the slot job? You know what I mean?

There are some there are some questions that I have that are interesting for fantasy or DFS or whatever. But when it comes to like, how different will the Dolphins be? How different will the Lions be? You know, how will I mean, I think the Falcons are going to be awful.

Who are the pieces? Somebody's somebody's going to step up and make plays for them. Yes, maybe not as many as we would like, but like who are going to be those people because they're not obvious. And so I think those are the more interesting stories in the NFL. Are the Jets going to be good or bad? You know, I don't know. They have a lot of young pieces and they could really take a step forward. As long as the owner doesn't make jokes about tanking and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose again.

But we know the NFL doesn't actually believe that happened, of course. It was a joke. Wink, wink.

Yes. We're spending a few minutes with one of our favorites, Lindsay Rose. She's got the NFL Roadshow, not only her personal podcast, but it's now part of the Sirius XM Podcast Network. And she's got a fantasy show, which I'm not really sure when it's time for me to jump into fantasy. So I'll ask Lindsay about that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio.

You mentioned San Francisco, so it popped in my head. Is there a good fit out there for Jimmy Garoppolo? It remains to be seen whether or not he's traded, but do you see a fit for him?

Not yet. So earlier this week with Jameis Winston, there were a few hours when we didn't know. You know, he'd left the field with an injury and we didn't know how serious it was.

And my brain went immediately to Jimmy Garoppolo. I think that it's going to have to be a team like that. Now, Jameis just has a sprained ankle. He is not expected to be out for very long.

So I don't think that that's the answer there. But I think for Jimmy Garoppolo has to be a team that is ready to make a playoff run. They don't have to be, you know, one of the clear and obvious Super Bowl contenders, but they need to be a team that's good enough that it makes sense to bring on any kind of salary in Jimmy Garoppolo. Like you need to be a team that says we're competitive and we need to stay afloat. And Jimmy is somebody who can help us stay that way. I don't think that it makes any sense. If you're a team like I had Bruce Murray from Sirius XM, NFL radio on my podcast this week, it comes out. Oh, it just came out.

So but we but we actually talked about this very thing. We talked about Daniel Jones and there have been some reports that he's not looking really good. Well, if you're halfway through the year and Daniel Jones doesn't look good. That is a situation where I don't think it makes sense.

Right. Because you don't have a roster that can go be competitive right away. So why would you bring on the salary? Like just let it ride with Daniel Jones or whoever else you have there.

Like don't go spending a lot of money to make yourself more competitive when you're not really built to be particularly competitive. So like that's an example of a team that where I wouldn't go make the move. The Saints are a team where I would if the circumstances presented themselves where for whatever reason you couldn't stick with your starter. But as of right now, I think that Niners have played it smartly in that somebody in the NFL is bound to go down. Right. And I certainly don't want that to happen.

But just hold him, hold it, keep holding him. And then then then deal him when the value is at its peak, when a team is desperate to bring in Jimmy Garoppolo. And I just don't think anybody fits that bill right now. Like there was talk this week about the Panthers shopping Sam Darnold. And I was like, who's even putting that out?

Yeah. What team? What team wants Sam Darnold? If Sam Darnold can't beat out Baker Mayfield to be the starting quarterback in Carolina. And I have been somebody who has said a million times that Sam's been in bad situations his entire career.

Right. We had about five games last year where he was in a good situation. And then Christian McCaffrey, who they built the whole offense around, goes down with an injury. All his wide receivers like led the NFL in drops like there are a bunch of things that for the rest of the year were not good for Sam Darnold. So and we all know it was a bad situation for him in New York. But if he can't beat out Baker Mayfield to be the quarterback of a team that we're expecting to be pretty bad in Carolina, then like who wants him? Who needs him? Who's going to pay him 18 million dollars to come be their quarterback? Like that's not going to happen.

So Jimmy, I think, is a step above that. I just I think it has to be the right situation. I don't think it's presented itself yet.

Definitely one of the questions of the preseason or as you say, Lindsey, into the regular season. All right. I've put it off as long as I possibly can. We have to talk about the Deshaun Watson situation in the latest development in Cleveland. Got to take a quick break, though. We're so excited to have you for a few extra minutes.

In fact, most of this hour, not something that I normally do. Lindsey Rhoads. The NFL Roadshow is with us here after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Because we've seen the evidence, she was very clear about the evidence. She reinforced the evidence that there was multiple violations here. They were egregious and it was predatory behavior.

Those are things that we felt were always really important for us to address in a way that's responsible. Here's Amy Lawrence, Commissioner Roger Goodell, explaining why the NFL is appealing the six-game suspension of one Deshaun Watson even as the team announces that he will start their first preseason game in Jacksonville coming up on Friday night. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence and Lindsey Rhoads, TV anchor and podcast host. She's got the NFL Roadshow and I recently listened to her conversation with Jim Trotter about the Deshaun Watson situation, among other things.

So Lindsey, I want to ask you two questions. Let's start with Cleveland. They are going to use Deshaun Watson in their preseason game. How would you evaluate the way the Browns are handling the situation to this point? Yeah, not great. But I mean, they made the move to go get him and offered him the highest guaranteed contract.

I mean, they sold their soul to bring him in because he's a very good football player. We all know that. So I personally, based on the the evidence that is out there that we can judge guilt or innocence by because, you know, you're never going to have a smoking gun in these types of cases. Right. There's never going to be a camera in the massage room for obvious reasons.

I don't want anyone taping my massage. Right. I feel like there is enough corroborating evidence that supports the stories of many, many, many of the women and the fact that there are so many women has, you know, is concerning to me. But I think that there are enough reasons to believe that the Browns either didn't particularly care and just prioritize the fact that he was a very good football player. And I think that they probably didn't look that that closely into it, you know, and there are stories out there about them not looking that closely into it. The attorney for the women saying that he didn't hear from the team prior to them signing him. So they say that they vetted him.

I would argue I don't know how they could have possibly vetted him in a way that they felt comfortable based on the things that I have read and all things that are public knowledge. So I'm not a big fan of just the fact that they gave up as much as they did to bring him in. I am not surprised that they did. And I think we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that there were several other teams, the Panthers being one of them since we were talking about them that were would have been just as happy to put themselves in that position.

So it's not just the Browns, it's several teams in the NFL. But they're already so far down this road. They're invested. He's their guy. So is there anything that they can do, though, that would make it seem like they actually care now?

Because even their statement after the initial suspension, excuse me, annoyed me with the word triggered. But just in general, it feels like right now, as you point out, they're so far down the road. They're not even trying really.

Yeah, I know. I don't think that there is anything. I mean, what could they do? Let me turn that question back around to you. Is there anything that you think that they could do that would make you feel like there was some genuine or authentic concern about the things he's been accused of doing short of keeping him off the football field until they figure out what happens with the appeal?

Probably not. But the fact that they're ready to trot him out there, whether or not he is about to start a suspension, it just seems almost to be a smack in the face to anybody who doesn't agree with their moves, especially when you are likely to start a different quarterback at the beginning of the season. It's just odd. Everything about this whole situation feels like they're going to do their own thing regardless of what anybody thinks. I mean, yes, I think that that is true. I think we should expect them to do that. I think as soon as they signed him and paid him the amount of money that they did, I think that we knew that they were going to operate in this fashion. I think one of the things that gets lost in the decision that Sue Robinson made was that she effectively, like if this were a court of law and it's not and it's not treated like that, then we're talking about more of like the civil burden of proof.

Like, is it more likely than not? It's not beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt like it would be in a criminal case. And she effectively ruled guilty without using that word, because again, it's not a legal hearing, but she effectively said in her ruling that she thinks he did the things that he was accused of doing. She even used the words egregious and predatory. Like, she went pretty far in this.

She wasn't like, I don't know. She was like, no, the NFL won. They proved they met the burden of proof in this case.

I believe he did the things. The only reason she gave him six games was because, according to her, the NFL hadn't gone far enough in the past with their past punishments. And so she didn't see a precedent, which is why I am frustrated that the NFL in the appeal, which I don't necessarily think she would be offended by because she sort of laid it all out like this is on you. This is your punishment process. You haven't done enough.

Right. So if you're asking me to look at this as an independent person, I can't say that his punishment should be X number of games because you've never done that before. So I think that Roger Goodell really blew his chance to stand up and take ownership for the brand of the NFL and the power that that holds to say, like, she's right. She used these words. We believe he did these things, too. We haven't been strong enough in our disciplinary process in the past in these particular types of cases.

And we're not going to make that mistake anymore. We are going to come after this with the strength of our statements, like we're going to actually put some meat behind it in terms of the punishment. And I think the NFL specifically should have done that. I think they should have owned that punishment and that they could have pointed to her saying the independent person found him guilty. And so this is what the punishment should be for that type of crime, quote unquote.

And instead, he passed it off to somebody different. Yeah. So even if that person says, you know what, it's a year, the NFL can't even own that because they didn't decide to make the decision themselves. See, here's what I'm coming up with.

And Lindsay Rhodes is with us here after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Roger Goodell said on Tuesday that they don't count this as one case. Right. So she said he's a first time offender, though she clearly believed that he right that he was I know that he was guilty of the things that that he was accused of by these women, as you point out. And they only presented four cases.

We don't really know why. Maybe those were the four strongest cases, the best testimony. Maybe they had corroborating circumstantial evidence. But if it's not one case, then if you break it up into four cases and present it as four separate people. Then you can't say he's a first time offender when there's four separate people. The only thing I can think is maybe that's where the NFL goes with its appeal to this Peter Harvey, former New Jersey A.G., so that it's not one case. It's multiple cases. Therein, they have the basis for adding to the six games.

Break it up. And so it's not just one case. Yeah, I think what's most likely is that I think he probably rules this week. I think that there will be pressure from the NFL for Deshaun Watson not to take the field. I think that there will be people in the front office who say that is a bad look. We just had an independent arbitrator say he was effectively guilty of these relatively horrible things. Right.

And call him predatory and say that his behavior was egregious. And we're going to trot him out in one of our 32 brands like as the face of that franchise. And I think that they will think that that is not a good look for the NFL.

I mean, think about what that looks like the next day, you know, for for women's groups, for just people who are watching, for the women who were affected watching him trot out on the field to cheers. So I don't think that they're going to want that to happen. I think that they're going to try to expedite the appeal. I think that they will lean on this new arbitrator to to hand down a verdict ASAP. And I would be surprised.

I know nothing about this. This is just my read of the situation. I would be surprised if it didn't come down before Friday, before Deshaun Watson was scheduled to take the field, because I don't think that that's a good look for the larger picture of the brand. And I know that the NFL is all about protecting the shield. I would also be surprised if it was less than a year.

And I think that the the verbiage there is important. I think it will be a year as opposed to 17 games, because if it's 17 games, which is effectively a year, he could still play in the preseason. Right. He could still play that night because that's not included in the punishment. Whereas if they say it's a year like same same in terms of, you know, the larger picture, you that now includes the preseason. And until the NFL deals with this or until we figure out what happens next, there could be a legal challenge. But this is the story.

I don't think it affects the NFL's popularity because it seems to be impenetrable when it comes to its ability to roll with the punches and continue moving forward. But it is still the number one story in the league, period. Yeah. And I think that they would love to get that off the off the front pages, so to speak, and just be done with it. Yes. Agreed. And honestly, I'm just thinking, you know, we all know about Friday news.

Right. So if they did that on Friday, there are games, there are games on Friday. They grab attention on Thursday. There will be a bunch of games on Saturday and Sunday. Yes, it will. It will get knocked off the front pages in terms of NFL news right away, which is exactly what the NFL wants to happen. That seems kind of quick, though, by Friday.

So I'm not sure I agree with you there. All right, Lindsay, we've hit the serious stuff, the serious substance in the NFL. You are the fantasy queen. And so I need you to stick around for a couple more minutes.

We'll give people a taste of early fantasy strategy, plus that movie review I've been saving. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence and Lindsay Rose, the NFL road show. She's joining us here on CBS Sports Radio for a few more minutes. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Boy Scout. We're going to steal a few more minutes here with Lindsay Rhodes because we've got some really important stuff to get to. So Lindsay Rhodes of the NFL Roadshow TV, radio and podcast host. You are the queen of fantasy. You've got a year round fantasy show on Sirius XM, NFL radio.

When do I need to get deep into my fantasy prep? You might be a little bit behind, but my husband just did his first mock draft today. It was all it was all I could do.

He was like, OK, I'm looking at this for the first time. I'm going to do a mock draft here, Lindsay. So here are my options. And I was just like, I just wanted to do it for him. And I was like, I actually a much better exercise would be like, I don't know, you just you do what feels right to you and then look at it afterwards. But I was like, no, no, no, no, no.

These these are your options here. I know you have all of these guys available, but like half of these guys really aren't good options for you. So no. So I took them about five rounds deep. And then I was like, I really should let this go. I have I'm like 10 drafts deep into my my season so far. So wow.

Several more to go. But it's it's an interesting exercise. I really like the best ball draft. People ask you during season like, oh, how many leagues are you in?

Right. And you can only manage so many leagues in a season, in my opinion, where you're actually having to make moves and pay attention and pick guys up off of waivers and stuff like that. But that's all does is it allows you to put together a ton of rosters at this time of year. You get really, really used to figuring out where the trends are.

You can even play with it here and there. Say like, I'm a big running back, running back in the first two rounds per those end up being the rosters, the only rosters that I like. Like if I get twisted and say like, yeah, but Travis Kelsey is so much better at his position than the running back that I could get at the end of the second round.

You know, something like that. I never like the build. I never like the roster ultimately. But if you do best ball, you kind of can play with a few things and just see if like maybe this year is different.

Maybe I could put together something that looks like this. And then all you have to do during the season is check back in and see how your team is doing, because there's no maneuvers and best ball there. They're going to pull out your top scores. If it's, you know, two running backs and three wide receivers out of all your running backs and all your wide receivers, they're going to pull out the top two scores in the top three scores. So you just have to draft a roster that has high upside up and down the board so that you could potentially win a head to head battle, but you're not making those maneuvers.

So if you haven't gotten into it yet, best ball is a really easy way to do real prep for your home league. Because if you do mock draft, what I find or what I found in the past, if you go on a website and you just hop into a mock draft room, half the people are auto drafting after like three rounds. And it's not, you just don't learn anything. The whole point is to see what people actually do. So, you know, you could sign up for a best bully, put ten dollars down or whatever, and then just check back in throughout the season. If it works, it works.

If it doesn't, it doesn't. But it really preps you to see where the runs are and what's likely to happen. And if you don't take a tight end early, like where's Dalton Schultz going to go? You know, like you could get him relatively late and there's so much upside for him as a tight end. That's one of my favorite tight end targets, because you can get him later and fill your roster up with those high upside running backs and wide receivers. Don't go get an early quarterback.

That's the one thing I'm going to ask you not to do. And I know people get so excited. They'll just say Patrick Mahomes or something like that.

Like if it's, don't do it. I swear to you, the quarterback position is so deep this year. It's so deep. You could legit wait till round eight to even start thinking about quarterbacks. I don't think I can wait that long. I get too antsy. I get quarterback trigger happy. You're going to have to, unless you're playing with a bunch of people who have no idea what they're doing.

In which case all of the quarterbacks come off the board and then you have to make moves accordingly. There's so much depth. Okay. Okay. Breathing. I'll breathe. I'll breathe. I'm actually in, I'm in the league with Cynthia Freeland.

It's some pretty impressive women who are in this league, so we'll see what happens. But all right. Eight rounds?

I have to wait eight rounds? That's tough. But I'll do it if you give me this, because he's my kryptonite. If Travis Kelsey's on the board, I have to take him. I love me some Travis Kelsey in my fantasy draft every year.

I love him. Amy, Amy, are you in, are you in Cynthia Freeland's league? That's like, I think I might be in that league too.

What? No way. Yeah, she does a ladies league. Yes. Wait, are we in the same league and we didn't know it? It's possible.

It's possible. Unless he has like multiple ladies leagues. She's not that organized.

No, she's not that organized. Well, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to go check and see if you are in that league. And if you are, then ignore everything I just told you. Go draft Josh Allen in the second round, Travis Kelsey in the first round. There will be plenty of running backs for you later. Don't worry about it at all. Najee Harris was my first draft pick last year and he did pretty well.

I was happy with him. Yes. Okay. So, all right. So before we let you go, last week we tried to get you on the show and you were busy. You had plans, which is totally fine if you have a life, but you went to see, you went to see Top Gun Maverick.

What did you think? Okay. Do you think it's okay for me to say something that might be a spoiler? Yes.

It's been out for two months now. Okay. Okay.

Cause I have a hard time talking about like what my true feelings are if I'm trying to be protective of it. Everyone, everyone I know, everyone has said, it's great. You're going to love it. I loved it. Right.

So, so consistent. And I loved Top Gun. I'm super nostalgic about that movie from my childhood.

Lots of things attached to it. So I'm going in, I'm so excited. For the first half of it, I literally was like, how am I going to tell people that I'm the only person that didn't like it? Oh no. So for the first half, okay.

There's a qualifier here. The first half was, I thought very cheesy. Like there were too many callbacks to the first movie. I was like, I get it.

I get it. You're redoing Top Gun, but in 2022, I got that. We got it like, you know, the first 10 times that you did something from the first movie, but then once they get into the mission, oh my gosh, I loved it. I loved it, loved it, loved it. I walked away so excited about that movie.

Loved the experience. The second half totally made up for the parts in the first half that I thought were incredibly cheesy. The one thing that I will say is at the end, I legit don't understand why they did this. When he comes back and he goes to the bar to go get Jennifer Connelly's character, she's not there.

Okay. Then fast forward, he appears to be back in the desert. She goes and gets him.

Why? Why wasn't she just there? Why in the world did they even have a scene where he went to get her and she wasn't there and then so that they made her go get him? Probably thinking in her mind that he's bailed on her yet again.

Like, I don't understand it. That was actually my cheesiest moment. I would agree with you. I would have been okay if she was in the bar. However, though, as much cheese as there was, when they started out with Danger Zone, that was it. I was hooked. I didn't care how much cheese they gave me after that, but that opening sequence with Danger Zone and the flights taking off and landing, I was already mesmerized at that point. And the number of twists at the end, oh my gosh, I thought he was dead like three times.

No, all of the twists were totally telegraphed. Like I knew every single thing that happened, I knew what was going to happen. I knew that the guy, forget his name now, the guy was the jerk who was a really bad teammate the whole time. I knew for 100% certainty he was coming to get them. Like that was obvious.

Like he's sitting in a plane. I thought he might go back before Rooster went back. Either way, you knew that everybody was going to go back. I knew going in, I thought that Maverick might die, that he would die saving Rooster.

But that was another thing. I knew he was going to go back and save Rooster. Like you knew that was coming at some point in that scene. Like there was no way he was just going to, they were all going to leave and everything was going to be fine.

Like he had to save Rooster at some point before the end of the movie. That was guaranteed. By the way, they stole a plane without anyone noticing. Right. And it worked.

It worked even though it was like 30 years old. No one noticed. No one had a gun and was like, they're moving a plane.

Why is that plane moving? Like what? Anyway, but all of this is to say like, you know, it had to be great action. Yes. There's all of this, like, okay, I will suspend my, my belief that that's totally implausible. Just tell me you left the theater smiling. Oh my God.

I loved it. Okay. Good. Okay. Phew. All right. Clearly you're far more perceptive than me. Anyone who hasn't seen it now, you don't need to. I just told you the whole movie, but I highly recommend it.

Yes. I just got a new TV actually in anticipation of NFL season. Mine was okay.

13 years old. Don't make fun of me. It wasn't a smart TV, but at least it wasn't a tube TV. So I upgraded and I got a new TV.

No, no, seriously. I upgraded. So it's a smart TV with Amazon prime on it since that's what we've got for Thursday night.

And now I'm thinking, Ooh, I might need a test drive it with a little Top Gun Maverick. So now I want to watch it again after this conversation. Wait, is it, is it out? Is it available to be watched?

I think, I think you can, if you pay through the nose for it. So maybe not right this second, but like pre football season, I could feel it. That would be great. I can't believe you knew all of the twists. I was totally surprised by all of them. I know I'm a nerd when it comes to movies. Okay. So this is so much fun. I feel like we could do, we could do so much more to, although I'm not letting you tell me any more of your movie stuff.

Cause I feel like I'm way behind the eight ball. Okay. So find Lindsey on Twitter at Lindsey underscore Rhodes, R H O D E S. The NFL road show is part of that Sirius XM network and her recent conversation with Jim Trotter. If you haven't heard it, you want to check it out. Also on Sirius XM fantasy and direct TV, because the season is four weeks away. Lindsey, this was fun. We need to do this again soon. Always fun. Always fun, Amy.

Happy to come on anytime. I can honestly say this about Lindsey. There isn't a topic probably that we couldn't jabber about, but also there are very few guests that I would either want to or be able to keep on the show for the better part of an hour and have it be interesting and fun. So I hope you enjoyed Lindsey on the show because I certainly did just organic conversation and a back and forth that covered a wide range of topics. Everything from NFL preseason and hard knocks and the lions and the dolphins and Jimmy Garoppolo the latest in the Deshaun Watson case plus fantasy because she's the queen. And clearly she had Top Gun maverick all figured out. All of our show, including our guests, are podcasted separately after hours, Amy Lawrence dot com. And just like that, we are halfway through. Did you hear the latest KD news? It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio.