Channing Crowder, Former NFL Linebacker

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One-year upgrade requires financing, qualifying, device and upgrading in good condition after six months with half paid off. Alrighty, we continue this exact Yelp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. I've known my next guest for a long time, former Miami Dolphins linebacker, now superstar in the media world with the Pivot Podcast, Mr.

Inside the NFL as well. And I do a weekly segment in football season in his radio program on 560WQAM, Hochman and Crowder. That, of course, is the great Channing Crowder. Channing, how you doing, my friend? I'm good, Zach. I see you with the hat off, man.

You got the frat boy, little moose pushover, bro. You look good, man. I ain't seen you like this before. Yeah, you know, and I have to get into work a little bit extra early to do your segment each and every week.

And Solana's like, can you pop on Zoom? I go, ah, do I really have to do my hair and all that? Let me get the ball cap on. And I'll tell you this, next time I come on, maybe I'll wear sunglasses and a baseball cap and see if you guys will talk to me with this whole Deion Sanders, Jay Norvell situation.

This is wild. Oh, yeah, man. You know, bro, Prime is going to do it. And he speaks of himself in third person, so I'm going to do it. He calls himself Prime. I'm going to call him Prime, Zach. Prime is going to do things differently, bro. What he's doing with Colorado right now ranked after turning over 80 plus players in his program, it's not going to be a trend because only Prime can do it.

Man, Prime's going to do what he wants to. I honestly, speaking of Norvell, speaking of Florida State, I think Prime was upset they didn't offer him that job. And that's why that's why he's lashing out.

And that's why when he was on that, he was he was on something and they played it and he didn't want to take credit. Like they were like, you're a Seminole. He was like, no, I'm not a Seminole.

If you see where I graduated from, I believe Prime is upset that Florida State didn't offer him that job. But right now, bro, I'm a Gator. Florida State is the best team in the state. Florida State, they turn that thing around.

They can play ball. Well, now with Jay Norvell, the head coach at Colorado State this week, talking about Deion Sanders, where, you know, I'll take his sunglasses off and his baseball cap off with the whole grown man when you talk to people's comments. I don't even get what Jay Norvell is doing right now at Colorado State. If you're going to talk smack and try to put your small program on the map up against Coach Prime, like just go guarantee victory.

It doesn't make sense what the head coach at Colorado State did. Yeah, Zach, I went to Norvell. But yeah, the Jay Norvell thing, bro, you have to fight back when you see what Prime does on social media and you see all the stuff he's doing for his team and that pregame speech last week, I don't know if y'all saw it, like that's big boy stuff like that. You know, I always talk about like a pregame speech when you're in the NFL, Zach, like I don't need a pregame speech. Everybody pay me $70,000 to go tackle somebody. I'm about to go play.

But as kids in college, 18 to 22 year olds, it gets them going. Jay is he's trying to match the energy, which is cute and all, but you just can't match it. Like I talked about what Prime's doing with Colorado. You can't match what Prime's doing out there. And I just think he's he's he's trying his best to get a terrible team going. That's about to get their ass whooped here in a couple days. No doubt about that. No doubt about that. Shannon Crowder is here with us.

We were talking about this before the show started. If you take all the quarterbacks and push them aside, is Tyree kill right now the most feared man in the NFL? Oh, yeah, especially how Mike McDowell's using him, but bro, he runs a 429 like the way they're using him. And if you're watching, they're motioning him the same side of the ball. They're not motioning him to see if they're a man or zone. They're motioning him to get them.

They're giving him a head start, almost like Arena League. They're motioning him out to get him at full speed when he breaks the line of scrimmage. And you're a corner on the outside that runs a 4-4, 4-5 and Tyreeks at 4-2 before he breaks the line of scrimmage. What are you going to do? Are you going to sit on that end cut or are you going to play it deep? Because he's going to catch all those crossing routes.

He's going to catch all that stuff he's doing. He's the most feared offense player in the league right now. There are some greats out there.

I'm not going to lie. There's Devontae Adams can ball, but he's not that fast. There's just a Justin Jefferson, the monster. He's not that fast, Zach. There's some guys that can play receiver and running backs. If you can't catch the ball in the backfield right now, you ain't get paid. But right now, you can bring all the receivers up in the league. I guarantee if you ask a cornerback, the last guy he wants to cover is the guy that runs a 4-2, that's running a 4-2 before the ball snaps. And I got to decide if I'm going to bail or I'm going to sit on one of these end routes.

And Mike McDaniels figured that out. He's doing an amazing job right now of utilizing him. Hell yeah. And his 4-2, Zach, you know Tyreek's 4-2, if you want to lean that way, Jalen Watto runs a 4-3.

Go ahead and go over there. Put all your efforts on Tyreek. And you got a guy that runs a 4-3 on the other side. The Dolphin offense should be very explosive. And to Ron Armstead coming back this week, I want to give a shout out to Kendall Lamb, Liam Eichenberg, who held down that left side last week. But the Miami Dolphin offense is about to be special, bro.

Talking to Shannon Crowder right now. So, we were talking about this the other day when I was on your show, the ceiling for the Dolphins this year. It's all dependent on the health of the quarterback and Tua Tungavailoa. If Tua's healthy this year, how far can you see the Dolphins going this season? They'll for sure compete in AFC. And I think that week one overreaction to something where I know the Bengals, they're going to get it together because Joe Burrow and Chase and T and all them boys, I know a lot of them, they're going to figure it out. The Buffalo Bills, I think, are on the downturn.

I really believe that AFC East is the Dolphins because now the Jets put out Aaron Rodgers is, you know, it's nothing. He was Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson, he couldn't win Connect Four at my house if he wanted to.

My son and daughter would be them. Zach Wilson's not that guy. And then I think the Bills are on a downturn.

So, the AFC East, I believe the Dolphins will win, but just overall in the AFC, don't discount the Kansas City Chiefs. Don't look at, Travis Kelce had, I think, 152 targets last year. Do you think those balls in the fourth quarter were going to Kadarius damn Tony, Zach, or they were going to go to Travis Kelce? Exactly what Kadarius Tony was doing.

They're called level routes, level crossers. He was running the Travis Kelce routes, and he's fast and he can get open but we saw he can't catch, so don't discount the Chiefs but right now, the Dolphins can compete and, it's, I, the hashtag of the year, Zach, is if Tua stays healthy. If Tua Tonga Valoa is on the field for 17 games, we're going to speak about him in the MVP race. You saw 466 yards, three touchdowns. That interception, it was almost like a punt.

He just threw it up in the air because it was third long. He is a monster if he's healthy and with McDaniel and all those weapons he has, this offense can get in the 30s, maybe 40s, every game and his defense is going to tighten up with Vic Fangio. The Dolphins ceiling is really winning the AFC and maybe going to the Super Bowl.

Hashtag if Tua stays healthy. Let me ask you about some of the games this weekend. Chiefs and Jaguars.

You talked about it. Chiefs lose the opening game of the season. They're 0-1. Now they're going into Duval, going up against a Jaguars team that I still think is underrated with what they did a year ago. Are the Chiefs in danger here of going 0-2 or do you think they bounce back this week? Oh, for sure. Is Travis playing?

I haven't seen any updates. But if Travis is not playing, they're for sure. Trevor Lawrence, we're going to talk about him in the conversation with the Jalen Hurts coming up. We're going to talk about him in the conversation with the Patrick Mahomes. Trevor Lawrence is an amazing football player. He is a generational talent and he is going to get those guys and now Calvin Ridley, they have their Travis ETN and I was just talking about the running backs Zach. If you look at the running backs now that are balling, look at what Bijan Robinson did in Atlanta.

His first NFL touchdown was a reception and he put that safety on skates and then he ran over two other guys and just got the hell on. You look at what Kyle Shanahan does in San Francisco with Christian McCaffrey. You look at the running backs that are thriving right now and they're receiving running backs. Travis ETN is right there with them. Travis ETN is a dog that can play.

So you have all those weapons. You add Calvin Ridley, you add who is it? Christian Kirk, you got? Evan Ingram. They have weapons there and Trevor Lawrence can make every single play.

I think this is the resurgence. You know my man Fred Taylor off our podcast The Pivot. Fred is so excited about this team right now and on defense there are no sloshes either. That damn Josh Allen and it's about to turn into the real Josh Allen with how Josh Allen is starting to play three interceptions on prime time.

That guy can play. The Jaguars are one of those teams that are about to turn around and for sure the Chiefs broke. I just said it like don't don't discount the Chiefs.

Patrick Mahones is going to figure out a way to win. But this back to back losing to the Lions which they shouldn't know if you know if if Travis Kelce was playing but also man it's a hell of a schedule they're playing so they can go 0-2. I still believe the Chiefs make the playoffs if they go 0-2 but it is a very good chance Zach that they go 0-2 starting this season. I know that the Ravens won last week what is up against the Texans the Bengals coming off that beat down by the Cleveland Browns but the Ravens they just have that feeling that the injuries are going to keep on going to bite them and be the death of that team. You've already seen now JK Dobbins is out for the year. Are you buying into the Ravens or is it they just have so many guys that have been hurt throughout the years. I can't believe those guys are going to stay healthy throughout the season. I'm buying into the Ravens because I know what John Harbaugh can do and I've heard people discount their defense.

My goodness bro. You have Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen right there in the middle Roquan had 16 damn tackles a sack. I think what two tackles.

Oh this man is a beast. This defense can play ball and I actually I'm a name dropper that you know my name gets I know that you when I was on your show yesterday you're waiting for me to mention that Ryan Clark was sitting right behind you. You were you were begging to mention him.

He was he was I'm gonna end up as a flowers. I actually coach day in high school, but did you really say they was my nickel cornerback, but he didn't know it. He played safety he played nickel he played outside linebacker he played defensive and he is just a stupid athlete. They flowers and Odell Beckham Jr. like they thought it was the best people on that team I said, we saw it, he can do it. So what they have with Lamar and now trying to utilize weapons where Odell's gonna have some big games.

They're gonna have some, I think they will be office rookie rookie Office Player of the Year the newcomer of the year. The Ravens, but I think because I think people are underestimating their defense underestimated what they can do defensively. The Ravens are never walking into a season when they can't hold teams under 20. They're going to put something together hold teams on the 20 Lamar got his money he's happy. Now he has weapons jk Dobbins, I feel sorry for the young kids two years in a row now season in the injuries, but that's what the league's about that availability if your ass can't be on that field we don't need you.

I know it personally where my injuries got me out of the league. The Ravens are for old school football run game toughness, you have a running quarterback, but if this if this defense can be what I believe it can be with the leadership they have in the line back and core, and if they can get into those because nowadays you're never going to hold a team to 20 some point, if you're scoring 18 to 23 points a game, you're going to lose. If you can start scoring high 20s low 30s even getting the 40 some games that those are the teams that are going to win if you look at it with the Eagles, who are who didn't have a great offensive performance that's why they're about to be the hell out of somebody tonight.

They're, they're, they're going to their offense is going to blow up tonight I believe that. But if you cannot score in the 30s and 40s on games, you can't win in this NFL and it's not what I love. I'm an old school, 2002, Derek Brooks Buccaneers I'm a 2000 Ravens Ray Lewis guy. I get right I'll get Ryan Clarkson love those oh nice dealers, bro, they were holding teams to 12 and 14 points a game. It is impossible in this new NFL.

So now your offense got to get into the 30s if you're really going to compete. Now, you're always honest Channing Crowder let's say you're in that Cowboys locker room we know how great that Cowboys defense is but the last two years in the postseason the quarterback has held them back, what would be your honest assessment of Dak Prescott if you were in that locker room. I will put that to the side, if I was in locker room my honest assessment back is he's never going to win a Super Bowl he's not good enough. I'm not a fan of deck I've been saying it for years, he's going he's going to mess up in the big moments, but if I was, if I was a D law if I wasn't Michael Parsons who's a friend of mine.

I would invite him to a nice dinner. I would sit him down that and I would tell him, you're the problem of why we're not winning this defense role. They brought in Stefan Gilmore to put on the opposite side of trial Trayvon digs, like, they have Malik Malik hooker was over there or vendor action Harper a lot back who both can play that front for Dante Fowler is a backup on that deep broke this defense is a monster defense. You have all these all pros that Martin is going to the Hall of Fame Smith, the tackle he's the Hall of Fame type player, you have all this talent, Tony Pollard CD lamb, you're bringing Brandon coach who's a blazer, bro.

I love this roster. And you know what's going to happen is what I say all the time that there's going to be a playoff game, you're going to be down by four. It's going to be a minute and 37 seconds left on the clock, and your ass gotta go get a touchdown and Zach, I mean, that is not going to do it I've watched that fail over and over again. The 49.

If you say the two, the two numbers 49 to that he can't sleep that night. We've watched it two years in a row, right, you're gonna put some people that can rush on it, and Dak is not going to be able to perform there. The problem with the Cowboys is they're overpaid quarterback, Dak Prescott, I've said 100 times and I did not believe that will ever get a ring on his on his right finger hit somebody married he's a good looking dude very far, but I don't believe that we get a ring. Last thing I'll ask you, and I want to ask you this because you're a former player. Now in the media Channing Crowder, the whole turf versus grass debate that has been going wild ever since the Aaron Rodgers injury.

What are your thoughts with with your experiences here. I played, I played on the old turf. I played on that on that as the Astro turf, that's that that was no no window, bro, that was no good I'm in South Florida my wife's Cuban no window.

No good. Against the bills one of those international games and they had an astroturf that is carpet on cement, that was terrible. The new turf with the look, the look black graded up tires in it is a lot better. I think it's probably good there went on with Stephen a Smith, I think two days ago, yesterday I watched that, and he was saying that some players love natural tough because it's faster it is faster it's a faster surface, but no player wants to get injured, and there is a higher chance that you look at the numbers look at the doctors, whatever they want to put, there's a higher chance of getting injured on the astroturf.

I played me personally as just a banger, like I wasn't no, I wasn't blazing I wasn't running down the sideline on go routes. I didn't see a difference in playing on Astro turf or playing on grass. But I know that I've listened and talked to enough guys that were were blazers and did run and all, and they say that the injury rate is higher. The chances the footing, the, the, the, when you cut how it how it sticks and how it doesn't slip. There's always a little give, even if it's a quarter inch there's a little give on grass. There's never give on Astro turf because it's plastic, it's plastic with little piece of plastic wrapped up into it. So that little give could be different ACF tear, a difference between like you're speaking of Aaron Rodgers, a different Achilles tear that little give is something and I do like you're saying there's an argument about right now and I know why you're asking me, but I do believe there's a higher injury rate on Astro turf, because of the fact that that natural dirt to root give. It's just stuck, it's, it's, it's stored into the damn to the, to the, to the bottom, so that that extra little something that that that natural graph, natural grass gives does mean something I think it does take down on injuries, but on the other side I understand the money. I understand the time it's going to take, I understand the finances is going to have to have grass in December 20 money the NFL could afford all that money they got it come on. It can't happen. Um, how the hell am I going to go grass in Green Bay on December 27, where am I going to grow up, I'm going to grow it in Puerto Rico and mail it to green.

You can't do it. The coolest thing I've ever seen was in Arizona, when Arizona, they have a dome, and the entire field slides into the parking lot, and look, it was a mess. They roll the grass and slide it back in.

That was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I don't give a damn how many rollers you have under the grass. What are you going to do at MetLife on December 29, you're going to roll it out to get snow on it and roll it back in. It just can't happen. They have to figure it out. I honestly my opinion is, they're going to, they're going to run this out like they run anything else I like that ran concussions out like they read because that will fit the damn movie speaking like he was an African and now people care about concussions. They want to talk about mental health for 40 years.

Come on now. They're going to run this damn turf thing out. They're going to keep this artificial turf until 20, my son might be in the NFL before they really try to get natural grass on every field.

I don't think I don't think it's going to happen but also, I don't think that it's important enough that the product is that bad without natural grass on every field, and I don't believe they'll, I don't believe they're going to dress up for a decade. All right, Shannon Crowder, you can see him everywhere pivot inside the NFL the ratings are going through the roof on CW he's telling me about yesterday, so we'll pat him on the back right there, and also 560 wq am inside the Odyssey family with my guys, Mark Hochman and also Alejandro Solana as well. Channing you're the best we appreciate it. I appreciate it. Anytime, man, let me know and I never seen like a frat boy you're in the frat are you a fighter. I was in an alpha epsilon pi which was my fraternity.

I tell you, I can see you under, under a balcony with a beer bone up to the next floor I can see it right now we've got your hair move stuff like that kegs and legs that's all say my friends all right. Walk the dogs school drop off meetings from 10 to three, take kids to soccer then no time left for a jog. When everyone else is relying on you. It's easy to put your needs last better help connects you with a licensed therapist online, so you can show up for yourself, the way you do for others. Visit better help.com slash positive to get 10% off your first month. That's better he LP.com slash positive facts are facts, like how contributing to employees financial security makes them want to work harder for their company. According to a 2023 study by principle 87% of employers say that better employee financial security means employees are more engaged and productive at work, the fact of the matter is that employees want to feel financially secure in their future. So consider this principle helps you invest in your employees by providing customized benefits and retirement plans to help keep your employees more engaged and productive.

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