After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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That's BetterHELP.com slash positive. Hey, is that the new iPhone 15 Pro? Yeah, it's made with titanium and the Pro camera is epic. Just got it at T-Mobile. Nice. Yep, and I got their Go 5D Next plan, so now I have the freedom to upgrade my phone every year. Whoa, I gotta get to T-Mobile. Get our best deals on iPhone 15 Pro at T-Mobile.com.

One year upgrade requires Go 5G Next plan, financing new qualifying device and upgrading in good condition after six months with half paid off. Do you think there's a mathematical formula or some analytical category that can predict that Bryce Harper will hit a pair of home runs because Orlando Arcea laughed at him the game before? Do you think there's some type of analytical category that can tell you that's what's going to happen?

I think it's possible in this day and age. Analytics can only tell you so much. They can frame the sports patterns and history and stats, but they cannot account for Bryce Harper or Nick Castellanos or Jose Abreu at 36 years old who had, I think, 10 home runs all season.

Maybe something like that or most of the season. Don't quote me on that, but he's right now hitting the snot out of the baseball. Analytics can't account for the three teams in Major League Baseball with 100 wins possibly being out all short of the championship series. We're waiting to see what happens in Game 4 of Phillies and Braves, but can analytics also tell you that in the first two rounds of the baseball playoffs, none of the series would go the distance? And again, we're not quite there yet, but if the Braves don't beat the Phillies in Game 4, that's what we're looking at. Oh, Rob Manfred. He can't win. He finally gets the pace of play and the game times tightened up.

Average game two hours, 40 minutes, but he cannot get a Game 3 or a Game 5 to save his life. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Good morning to you. It is Thursday, October 12th. Wowsers got a couple of wrinkles in time this hour on the show. We've done a little football. We'll bring back part of my conversation with longtime GM, former NFL executive of the year Randy Mueller. So that's later on this hour.

If you miss QB news, kind of get you started and revved up for week six. Every ounce, even the bad stuff, my mistakes, when I sound like an idiot, when I laugh at something stupid I've done. Even those elements are included in the podcast. Every now and then when I say something dumb, I do ask producer Jay to take it out of the podcast, just so it's only heard by the live audience and not the thousands of people that listen to it back. I'm not one of those people that thinks if it's recorded that it should keep the imperfections.

Nah. If it's on tape and you can edit, take them out. We have that technology. Exactly.

That's what the technology is for. Anyway, podcast fully available every weekday morning when the show is done within minutes of me signing off and you hearing the boom or not. I mean, some of you get really upset when Jay forgets or messes up and I'm not going to cover. I'll cover for a lot of mistakes for producer Jay, but not that one. I get attacked. Well, I mean, as it should be, you come along, you're the 17th producer to work on this show and you can't maintain the tradition. Oh, come on.

I can maintain it. The one time wasn't my fault. I went up to the couple Fridays ago where... No, there were two.

It was Wednesday and Friday. But the one on the Wednesday was not my fault. It was to your fault. I'm not going to get too crazy behind the scenes here, but they got cut off. They went late.

Not my fault. I played the button. It went late. Nice. Like, it went late.

And on Friday, you guys left my home's left. So, you know. Oh, okay. Excuses, excuses. See, this is the type of thing that doesn't fly in October. Excuses don't fly in October, producer Jay. It wasn't my fault. That's why you're not cut out to be on the October stage in Major League Baseball.

Because you've got to be able to handle the pressure. Anyway, on Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page too, After Hours with Amy Lawrence, we do post the link. Jay posts the link to our podcast every weekday morning.

Easy to find. You can bookmark it wherever you get your podcasts. And that way, if you would like to hear me laughing at my stupid lines or my dumb mistakes 30 seconds into the show, that's it. I didn't even last 30 seconds before I had to drop the, oh, sorry, there goes the perfect show.

It's totally fine. Thankfully, the headlines on this Thursday morning will command more of your attention. Here, look at the shiny object, like home runs, which sometimes double as fireworks on the baseball stage. Hey, don't mess with Bryce Harper.

There's got to be some analytical formula that tells you that. Elder takes a peek back at first base. The right-handers pitch, swung on, belted, deep right field, and it's long gone for Harper. A second deck free run home run for Bryce Harper as he punishes that pitch from Bryce Elder.

And the Phillies take the 4-1 lead. It was Bryce on Bryce crime. I just said that in my own head. Did you? In your own head? Oh, that's scary. I say what's in Jay's head.

That's it. Never, ever again. Scott Fransky on Phillies radio, and this is in the middle of a flurry in the third inning, yet again for the Phillies against the Braves. Now, in this game, they actually fell behind. Braves scored the first run, but Nick Castellanos erases that deficit. He gets the third inning barrage started. By the time Bryce Harper comes up, there are a couple of guys on base, and still, it's not over. Bryce Elder actually wasn't done following that home run. He puts two more base runners on board after Harper goes deep, and then they finally make a pitching change.

Not that it did a bit of difference. Home out at second base. Stott aboard at first. The pitch. Swung on. Hit in the air. Left center field. Rosario on the run to the gap.

Still going. He can't get it. It's down for a base hit at the base of the wall. Bohm will score. Stott will score.

And how about that? It's another six-run, bottom of the third inning in Game 3 for the Phillies. Incredible.

J.T. with a two-run double, and it's six to one, Phillies. Oh, six-run third inning, and the Phillies fans were lit, as you can imagine. Four RBI on two home run for Bryce Harper.

So take my word for it. The second one was just as loud. And both times, both times, he rounds the base. Second base. Remember?

Same base he rounded when he got thrown out at the end of Game 2. It's fitting, right? It's a little bit ironic.

It seems almost poetic. As he rounds second base, this time in a trot, not running full tilt thinking he's going to score from first, he stares at Orlando Arcea. Now, why him? Well, it got back to the Phillies that after Game 2 and Harper's base-running gaffe, that they were laughing at him. How dare they laugh at him?

And as the story goes, or at least as it was told via telephone to the Phillies clubhouse, it was Arcea who dared to say, hahaha, attaboy, Harper. I mean, can you even take it seriously if it's Kawhi laughing at you? When was the last time Kawhi laughed, by the way? Oi, it's been a tough stretch for him.

They just told him this news that he's got to play every day. He's certainly not laughing anymore. He doesn't like that.

It's been a tough few years. There's no laughing for Kawhi Leonard. We've never heard it again.

We digress. So Bryce, both times, he's rounding second base. He is shooting daggers at Orlando with his eyes. Now, the first time Orlando doesn't look up. The second time, he's deadpan, staring straight ahead, pretending like he doesn't see Bryce Harper.

But really, there was no one in the ballpark who could avoid the fact that Harper was staring him down. I can't control where he looks. He can look wherever he wants to look. Through a translator, that's the response for Orlando. I can't control where he looks. He can look wherever he wants to look. I mean, what else are you going to say? So mad.

That's a good point. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS porch radio. The Atlanta Braves were hooting and hollering and laughing away at the historical end to game number two. And it wasn't as though RC had made those comments in front of a microphone. He did it in a clubhouse as part of a celebration. But the clubhouse was open. There were media people in there, and so other people heard it. And then I don't know if they went straight back to the Phillies clubhouse, but it got back to the Phillies pretty quickly.

And Bryce actually answers the question of this report that they were laughing at him and how it was interpreted in the Phillies clubhouse. Just my teammates. That's about it. You know, and they just kind of told me and they looked at me and they're like, what are you going to do? Oh, what are you going to do about it?

Parahome runs in four RBI. Is that enough? Is that what you're going to do about it? And was it about Arcea?

Anytime anybody says something, right? I mean, that's what it's all about. Did you enjoy staring him down? Yeah, I mean, I stared right at him. It was actually, I was a little bit worried about his neck. I thought he might somehow pop a disc or something. He was definitely watching his six because he's rounding the bases and it's unnatural for, I'm not even sure my neck goes that far around. Hold on. I mean, it hurts to turn your neck that far.

Thank you. It hurts to turn your neck that far around. So Bryce Harper not only stares him down as he's rounding the base, but his whole body is pointed toward third base and is, yeah, it looks like an owl, a cat.

Sugar does that sometimes. The cats have to have the ability to clean the fur on their back, so they got to be able to spin the head all the way around. They can go that far? Yeah. Cats are limber.

I guess that's the word I'm looking for. I wonder if Bryce did any neck exercises before the game thinking, all right, if I do round second, I'm going to have to stare at him, so I better get my neck all loosened up. Fluffed his pillows last night. Oh, could you imagine if he had slept wrong? Because this happens to humans, right?

You sleep wrong. Your neck has a crick in it and he couldn't turn it all the way around. He would have had to backpedal to third base. Can you imagine that? Wait, is that allowed? Is that against the rules?

Do you have to be facing the same, the right direction? I bet you could crawl if you want to. There's no rule against it. Oh, please don't suggest that.

No one needs to see Bryce Harper crawl into third base. You know. You want to talk about getting plunked. Watch out for your neck.

You'll get plunked. And that may still happen. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. So, yes, Bryce admits he stared right at him. But you know what?

He's only going to make minor mention of that. Really, the case is he adores Philadelphia. I love this place. Flat out, I love this place. There's nothing like coming into the bank and playing in front of these fans.

Blue-collar mentality. Tough. Fighting every single day. I get chills, man. I get so fired up. Man, I love this place.

I signed here for a reason. To do everything I could to bring back a trophy to this town, to Mr. Middleton, to this organization. I got chills thinking about it because that's what it's all about. I absolutely love this place. I love every single person in this organization fighting and clawing every single day to get back to that moment. There were so many good times in, you know, 07, 08, 09, 2010, 11.

And I wanted to get back to that moment. He's a Hall of Famer. I mean, he's one of those guys that loves that stage. You know, he's always been very, you know, he's a special player. You put him in the spotlight and he's going to shine. Brian Snitker calling Bryce Harper a Hall of Famer. My response? I'll be honest.

The first time I heard it was already? That's a different debate for another day. He certainly can be. Not saying he can't, but... He definitely has changed the culture in Philly. The reason they paid all the money with the...

He has a 13-year contract, doesn't he? The reason they paid all the money, they're willing to wait through the injuries is because of the swag. Er, not swag. Swag is stuff.

Because of the swagger. Swag is what you get when you run a half marathon and they give you a medal and a t-shirt and all that jazz. Stuff we all get.

We all get, yes. Swagger is what Bryce Harper brings to the table. Somebody dares to laugh at him. You know he listens to sports radio, our affiliate WIP in Philadelphia. You dare to laugh at him and you're going to get two home runs and four RBI and the stare of a lifetime. And the rest of the clubhouse feeds on that.

They ask him, what are you going to do about it? So yeah, they've got great talent, no doubt. But they needed a toot.

They needed an identity. And Harper gives them that. Go big or go home, baby. That's these fillies. Has anything ever said more or been more accurate about these fillies than go big or freaking go home? No, they put their whole self into it. The freaking hokey pokey.

All in. And that's what makes them so much fun. And that's why the fans feed. Off of the atmosphere, the energy, the electricity, it goes back and forth and you can understand why Bryce loves it there. He left the Nationals. They win the World Series right after he leaves.

He goes to Philadelphia. They make it last year. They run out of gas against the Astros.

I don't know if we're headed for that, but I do know that there is value in not just the experience. But also in the fact that they're unintimidated by the Braves. And that they can find motivation in something as ridiculous as, ha ha ha, atta boy, Harper. It's not even an insult.

He didn't make fun of his mama. I mean, it's just something as dumb as, ha ha ha, atta boy, Harper. What?

It's so benign, it seems like. Now, here's the deal. The Braves aren't done yet.

They can obviously win two games in a row. And it's Spencer Strider now. See, this is kind of funny, Jay. I don't know if you saw this following the game. Or, I guess, the fans chanting, we want Strider, we want Strider. So, obviously, be careful what you wish for because that's a load. And this very well could be a game five headed back to Atlanta. In which case, a lot of this showboating and the staring down will be regurgitated and thrown back in your face.

So, right, be careful what you wish for. But it would be Spencer Strider. It will be Spencer Strider. And Max Fried would go in game number five. And, yes, Snickers, he's got confidence in his dudes. If we can't win one of those two games, or both of those games with those guys, then you know what? I feel pretty good about the next two starts that we got. Well, I think it's so funny that he said, if we can't win one of those two games, well, what good does that do you? Yeah, you have to. Not like upper debate here.

That sounds like something dumb, I would say. I mean, not quite as bad as Dusty Baker, but that was bad. Yeah, the Astros, they move on. The Diamondbacks sweep the big bad Dodgers. So here's what you don't want in Major League Baseball.

You don't want to win 100 games. And the Orioles, they're on the way up. Dodgers and Braves, I mean, it's astounding to think that those two teams might be out again shy of the championship series.

There's a lot of soul searching going on if that happens again. But there is value in feeling the pressure, in having a very slim margin for error, for recognizing that every pitch, every at bat, every ball that you field on the playing surface matters. That there's so much riding on every single inning and every single game to the very end of the regular season. I mean, it's not an accident that the Diamondbacks and the Phillies, I mean, they clinched a little earlier, but they're comfortable in this space. The Diamondbacks, the Rangers, that they were being pushed or they were having to chase to the very end. Either way, I mean, to play baseball that matters all the way through, to me that's an advantage. And it's not just baseball. I mean, I used the Miami Heat as an example, but it's a great example from last year's NBA playoffs as well. All right, so the question is now, even before we get to the reaction from Dusty Baker and the Astros, what is the more impressive feat?

Considering all the variables, we're getting a lot of traffic on both Twitter, ALaw Radio, as well as our Facebook page. Five straight AFC Championship games at home, the Chiefs have accomplished that. Got to put the home part in there because that makes it even more impressive. Five in a row at home for the Chiefs or seven straight appearances in the ALCS for the Astros. Keeping in mind, there are only four guys left from the team that won the World Series in 17. They've changed almost everything about them and still seven in a row.

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It will be Hall of Flame material. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Left handed hitter back in the box. Waiting for a three two from Presley. Here it comes.

Strike three call on the outside corner. And that is the ball game. And that is the series. The Houston Astros defeat the Minnesota Twins by a final of three to two. And they take the ALDS three games to one for a seventh straight year. The American League Championship Series will include the Houston Astros. Seven.

Oh my gosh. Justin Verlander. It seems outrageous that he'd be the one who would spark and spearhead the locker room celebration.

That he'd give the speech to get it all started. Except you realize, even though he did go to the Mets earlier this year, he's been there for all seven. It started. You could reasonably make the case that this run, the missing piece for the Astros, was the trade for Justin Verlander at the deadline in 17. You could say that that is what brought it all together and put them over the top.

And even though he was gone and he was a Met for more than half this season, he's been part of every single one of these clubhouse brouhaha's. Nothing was going our bleeping way. I wasn't even bleeping here. We f***ing grinded.

I wasn't even f***ing here. At least I'm not the only one laughing. Jay and I find this extremely amusing and they obviously were laughing too. So we're getting a mixed bag response on Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page too.

I love the debate. And many of you are pointing to the Astros cheating. Okay, I gotcha. We know that they were cheating in 17. They're not cheating now. And the majority of the rosters turned over. Four guys left.

And Verlander was gone for part of the year, so there were three guys left. Not the same leadership. Not the same voices. Dusty Baker deserves respect. What he doesn't deserve is for you to listen to any type of story he might regurgitate because he doesn't care. He's like me sometimes.

He goes to recite a stat or a fact or a figure and it just doesn't come out the right way. What is it about this team every year that comes out consistently gets the job done when it matters most? Well, hey man, they believe in each other.

And the thing about it is I read an article by Bosta Oni that said the 77 and 78 Yankees or whatever it was, no, later than that, they had lost 14 out of 16 games and they backed in and then they won like the next 11 out of 16 or whatever it was. Dusty, I can't tell you how bad you butchered that. I can't tell you how bad you crossed that.

You cannot retain anything you read. You sound like my mother. I don't feel so bad that last night on the show I butchered at least one stat that I was trying to regurgitate now, but Dusty Baker's like, I don't care.

You sound like my mother. Just so you don't feel like the broadcaster was way out of line, that's Steve Sparks from Astor's Radio. He's been there forever. He's a former big league pitcher himself. He knows Dusty. They have a relationship.

So this wasn't him being fresh, but I love how Dusty's like, I don't care. You sound like my mother. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I was right, Jay. I looked it up. I confirmed.

I'm feeling myself right now. Astor's Rangers have never faced each other in the playoffs. They don't like each other. I've been reminded of that on social these past couple of hours because I accidentally said it was the Astros that listed a creed in the clubhouse.

For heaven's sakes, Justin would never allow that apparently. No, it's the Rangers and now they got to take their creed with them into the championship series. So Astros and Rangers, interesting.

I actually am fascinated by this idea. They went toe to toe all season long. And it took until the very last day of the regular season in a tiebreak.

Same exact record. They couldn't be on more equal footing right now. Can't wait for the ALCS. As for the National League, well, we don't have Philly's Braves component yet. We don't have the NL East component yet. But what we have is the Diamondbacks. Oh, man.

Flexing their muscles. They sweep the big bad Dodgers. And I gave some stats earlier.

But here's what you need to know. They jumped on the Dodgers in all three of these games. They had the lead and they never gave it up. That part blows me away, including two games in L.A. And so Dory Lovello, but not only was he watching his guys hop into the pool there at Chase Field, but he was also planning to party like it was 99. It's almost indescribable. You know, here we are standing on a celebratory field and there's been so much hard work that's gone into this. You know, look, I am so grateful to be a part of this organization and to celebrate with these fans, to celebrate with this group, this ownership. I couldn't be more thrilled.

And I haven't yet grasped how I'm feeling right now. I'm going to go in there. I'm going to go on a bender. I'm telling you, I might be disappointed for 24 hours.

That's for sure. I might go underground for a little while. If Dory Lovello doesn't surface in two days, somebody go after him.

Go digging down deep. Put like one of those track, GPS trackers on him. Make sure he has one of those, the prison bracelets or prison, one of those called?

Make sure you got one of those, a tracker on Dory Lovello. That's on MLB Network. So congratulations to the Diamondbacks.

Amazing. The Big Bad Dodgers. First NLCS since 2007. The last time they were in the playoffs or the last time they were in the division series, they were swept out by the Dodgers. So it took a while, but a little revenge. 0-7 for them.

Amazing. The Phillies obviously were there last year. But then the Texas Rangers being there for the first time since 11. There's some fresh blood.

There's some cool storylines. Right now, I think the moral of the story is don't laugh at Bryce Harper. That's obvious. Uh oh. Uh oh.

Watch out. It's going to get back to Bryce. And the second thing is don't win 100 games. Just the moral of the story of the last two seasons. Don't win 100 games.

It does you no good. Mets, Braves, Dodgers twice. Orioles about to be the Braves. I shouldn't say that. It could be the Braves twice. I don't know.

In Major League Baseball, like I said, in every sport, I think there is, as much as it's frustrating sometimes when things don't go your way, there is value in fighting to the bitter end because you're comfortable in the fight. On Twitter, on Facebook, on our YouTube channel, we're glad to connect with you. Good morning to you coming up. Well, a couple of things, we're going to split this next segment a little bit. So Randy Mueller, I asked him some tough questions. I did. Would you go after another quarterback if you were the Jets? Also, do you agree with me that Jared Goff is an early MVP candidate? Just kidding.

That was a really tough question. Anyway, Randy joined us earlier from the Pacific Northwest as we're getting ready for week six in the NFL. Also, one storyline that I think deserves a note. It's obscure.

Not a lot of people will be talking about it, but it's important to me. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Jones extends. Play fixed. Stands in. Throws to the near side. Caught by no. Knocked away.

Picked off on the deflection by Werner. And the fans march to the cars of the day. And the fans march to the cars. There's your empty. Oh, my God. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Yeah, to see it, to believe it, but the Patriots get shut out at home against the New Orleans Saints in week number five.

They fall into one and four. And for the second week in a row, Mac Jones is benched by Bill Belichick, though he will be starting in week six as the Patriots are mercifully on the road against the Raiders. A reunion of former Patriots and current Patriots. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Part of a discussion that I had with longtime NFL GM and front office executive Randy Mueller.

He's with the athletic now. He has the front office pod or has the football GM pod, excuse me. Asked him about making changes mid-season because there are even rumblings. I think some people calling for a change at head coach in New England with it going from bad last year to worse this year. The offense, Mac Jones, Bill Belichick getting a lot of the blame. There's certainly plenty of other issues to go around, but I want to pick it up there with Randy.

It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. If you're in a front office in the middle of a season, what would it take for you to change coaches or even get rid of coordinators? Yeah, it seems like that happens more often. I mean, back when I was a GM, I never believed in that.

I think you have to always ask tough questions. You have to have the awkward conversations sometimes with coaches and you maybe have to be willing to tweak and just be honest about where we're at. I think you see the short leash of patience nowadays, but that's society. That kind of ticked over into the NFL. Everybody wants changes.

Everybody wants it to happen overnight. But I do think in a lot of NFL places, they don't ask the tough questions. I think it comes from ownership to start with, to be honest with you. You've got to have owners that are involved, that really care. I always felt like I did my best work when the owner was holding me accountable, was asking me the right questions or any questions.

I had to be prepared every day for that. I think it's the environment, the ownership, you feed off of them and I think it makes us all better and that's the goal. But I don't think change overnight or change because the media asks for it or change because the fans are screaming at the offensive coordinator for the last month, I don't think that warrants. That doesn't warrant change necessarily.

You know internally what the issues are and if you can't get them fixed in an awful amount of time, then obviously change happens. We're so excited to have Randy Mueller back on the show. It's been too long. Gosh, not sure how that happened, but we always appreciate his insight. He's a long time NFL GM and front office executive. Now with the athletic and has the football GM pod.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. The San Francisco 49ers right now, most consistent, one of the undefeateds. And I have been trying to get an answer to this question, so I'm going to throw it out for you Randy and you tell me what you think. How did so many teams miss on Brock Purdy and all of them did to the point where he was still there at the last pick of the NFL draft? You know, if I had to explain it, Amy, I would say it's the hardest part of the skill set to evaluate when you're looking at quarterbacks.

It's the ability to process and what makes you tick inside. I think the reason teams didn't draft him earlier is, you know, he's not 6'4", he doesn't weigh 230, he doesn't run 465 and a 40. So those special physical traits aren't as evident, but he has the accuracy, he has timing, he has anticipation, the same reason that some of these great quarterbacks, and we know the one in New England that played there for 20 years, same thing, didn't get drafted high because of the physical aspects that are easiest to judge. But how players, what's inside them and how they process information and how timely they process it, I think that's what separates them. And it's not an exact science when you evaluate players.

And we find it out every year with many guys who get drafted late and become stars sooner than anybody ever expected. Other than Brock, what impresses you about the Niners' start? Well, I think their defense is dominating. We saw it against Dallas the other night. I mean, they held Dallas eight first downs. Dallas had nine plays inside the 49ers' side of the 50.

That's crazy. You just don't see that in the NFL. And I like them on all three levels. I think the 49ers' pass rush, we know about it. I think their linebackers are as good as they are in football now. They just don't seem to have a weakness really on either side of the ball.

So I'm with you. I think they're the class of the NFL right now, but I really like their defense and the way they can do things to affect, really from a physical standpoint, what offenses are trying to do to them. When you see what the Niners' defense was able to do against the Cowboys, it kind of reminds people that Dallas has been inconsistent, not just to start this year, but through the tenure of Dak Prescott as a quarterback. There are always high expectations.

At times, he can look like the best of the best. And then against the Niners, that offense, it stalled. It went nowhere.

It seems so unproductive. What do you see with Dak Prescott and with the Cowboys, even as they made some changes this year in terms of their play calling in the offense? It's been, like you said, throughout his tenure, maybe even a little bit before, they really struggle hand in prosperity, in my opinion, Amy. They get on a roll. They all of a sudden kind of feel themselves as being this and hear everything that's being said good about them.

And then there's the deflating of the balloons. They either look really bad in a game like they did against the 49ers, or they lose to a team that they should beat, like Arizona or somebody like that. So they just can't stand prosperity for whatever reason. I think with regarding Dak, his inconsistencies have to be considered. And I know Terry Jones has said he wants him to be his quarterback forever. I get it. Nobody likes to forecast change, especially at that position. But the amount of money they're going to have to pay for an extension, I think is almost problematic, especially if you're going to get these kind of results.

It's been up and down. I think the biggest thing I see when I look at Dak is he's not quite as athletic as he was a couple years ago. He's not extending plays when he was at the peak of his career. And then he's just not seen the whole field.

And we had the same conversation a year and a half ago when he hurt himself when he had the leg injury. He came back and he was really rusty and it looked cloudy. His vision didn't seem to be right. And I think we're seeing a little bit of that now, especially in big games. People seem to kind of throw curveballs at him. And by the time he figures it out, it's too late. So I love Dak's intangibles.

I love everything about him as a person, as a player. It's just not, you know, I don't know that it's a lot above average right now. And I think the Cowboys have to consider what are we going to do contract-wise.

Like I say, he's obviously the fair-haired boy and somebody that Jerry loves. I just don't know how they go about structuring a contract of $40 million for this kind of performance. There are many sports talk radio shows debating. But if you're the New York Jets, do you go out and get a different quarterback? The name Kirk Cousins right now is floating around. Randy, what would you be doing? I think they're on the right course right now.

And that may sound crazy. I understand Jets fans and their frustrations with Zach Wilson. I've thought all along if they could change the offense slightly to do some things that he does best. And I think Nathaniel Hackett has finally done that the last couple weeks. And I think that's why we see the progress. I think they're headed in the right direction with Zach.

And I think it doesn't mean that they couldn't still look for a veteran that upgrades them over what they have. But I think if the defense continues to play good, and I think the pressure is really as much on them, they've got to find ways to play better. We've talked about how great the Jets defense is in the past.

I haven't seen it. So they need to stand up and actually play good instead of just having people talk about them. And you've seen some of that. So I think Zach is fine for what they have right now. And I like that coming out. So I understood where his skill set was.

But I always thought that they needed to tailor make some things to fit that skill set. And I think they've done that the last couple weeks. Tell me you expected to hear that from Randy Mueller. I think it's fine. What they're doing with Zach Wilson is totally fine. It's totally fine. Hola, Aaron. You can't help it.

You have to chime in, don't you? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. By the way, Lions fans and Dolphins fans, I picked apart the 4-1 starts with Randy.

We talked about Lions and Dolphins and their fan bases, long suffering, and why they are where they are through five weeks. So make sure you grab the podcast. Again, we post the link every weekday morning on our show Twitter, After Hours, CBS, and on our Facebook page.

And then after that, you can bookmark and it'll take you right to it. Let's see. Couple of things before we hit the top. Now, we're going into Thursday, which is start of another NFL weekend. But you have to, well, you either have to watch Amazon Prime on your laptop or you have to have your clicker, your remote ready to go to get in and out of the app so that you can also focus on baseball because that's taking place this afternoon or this evening as well. Eight o'clock Eastern time in Philadelphia for game four of the NLDS. So we'll see whether or not we get a game five there.

But yes, Chiefs and Broncos. But also on Thursday, a story and an event that I will be following. The Shriners Children's Open. It's a golf event on the PGA Tour. Lexi Thompson will be teeing off in round one today. She's not a member of the PGA Tour, but she is the seventh woman ever to compete on a PGA Tour event, a PGA Tour track. And I love the fact that her focus is not on golf. She actually had other plans for this weekend, but when she found out the tournament wanted to invite her, she decided that she would change her plans.

She would make time for one specific reason. There's more than just playing golf. If I can inspire one individual, I feel like I'm making progress. And of course, yes, I want to play good. That's a whole nother story, but there's more to life than just performing well. And that's what I want to do.

I want to inspire others and whatever happens, it's just a blessing to be here. She said it was basically an automatic yes. On Tuesday, people asking her, how did you get here so quickly?

How did this play out? An automatic yes. And she used the word inspire five different times on Tuesday. If you don't know who Lexi Thompson is, just a quick background. She competed on the LPGA Tour, her first professional event at 12 years old. I mean, she's been in the spotlight for a long time.

Actually, it was the U.S. Women's Open at 12 years old in 2007. She was the youngest to ever win an LPGA Tour event four years later. And she's not anymore. There have been other younger women who have come along, but she's used to serving as a pioneer. She's used to forging a new path. And now, even though she's not the first, she has a goal. It's not necessarily to play the best golf, win the event, even make the cut, though I hope she does, because if she does make the cut, it becomes a bigger story and more and more people are paying attention to it. But I appreciate that Lexi has a different goal. I wrote a blog post once entitled Role Model, Not Supermodel. No one's ever going to mistake me for a supermodel. Just like no one's ever going to mistake Lexi Thompson for the best male on the PGA Tour.

Nah. No matter if people call it a gimmick, which some have, and you may think that's what it is, she has an opportunity to go toe to toe with some of the best in the game. And she has an opportunity to forge a new path, to be out there with people that don't look like her, talk like her, act like her, may even leave her alienated. And yet if she can inspire one little girl, or even a little boy, to play golf and to try something hard and to go through adversity, it'll be worth it to her. I love that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Boom!