Micah vs. Lawrence (Hour 1)

VIVE! From the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor, 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Friday edition of the Zach Gelb show. Coming to you live here across Elvergate, local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 375, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube. 855 212 42 27 is the number to jump on in.

That's 855 212. You could always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We will go to Minnesota. Coming up in 20 minutes from now, Matthew Collar will join us of Purple Insider. He is a Vikings reporter. We'll try to see if there is any legitimate interest from the Minnesota Vikings side when it comes to potentially pursuing the services of one, Aaron Rodgers, and at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific.

Time. We will do a little prospect profile today. We will tap in on the prospects from Penn State, Tyler Warren, and also Abdul Carter will do so with former Penn State football player Jason Cabinda, who will join us coming up in an hour from now. But I'll tell you, I didn't expect to start the show today talking about the Cowboys because the Cowboys right now are a giant waste of time, right? They're an organization where they're not really trying to win. They're just trying to create drama. They're trying to just find a way to get in the news and create headlines and, right, we talked about Micah Parsons yesterday, how I don't think it's a matter of if he's going to get a new deal done. I think it's just going to be a matter of when him and the drama Dallas Chokin' Cowboys are going to get a deal done.

Because we talked about it, right? Jerry Jones likes to wait. Jerry Jones likes there to be speculation. And Micah Parsons will provide that speculation, maybe have it feel as if it's a contentious relationship, because he'll open his mouth on his podcast and he will talk about what's going on with the contract negotiations. We had him on at the Super Bowl and he started it, right?

He said he doesn't intend on requesting a trade as long as he's getting taken care of financially. And the Cowboys still haven't done that yet. So, I wasn't anticipating us to really talk about the Cowboys. The Cowboys are making a big push for Cooper Cup. So, alright, you see that and you say to yourself, okay, well inevitably at one point during the show today, bring up Cooper Cup and talk about the destinations and maybe the Cowboys get in the mix and maybe he should go. But you wouldn't lead a show talking about just the Cowboys being interested in Cooper Cup. If this was three or four years ago, different conversation.

But in the last three years, Cooper Cup has only played in 33 games. So, I'm on the subway last night. You know, I was out and about in the city and I'm perusing social media. And when I'm on social media, I saw this clip of Demarcus Lawrence. And I'm like, alright, probably an innocuous clip, right? It's just Demarcus Lawrence talking about his new destination he signed with the Seattle Seahawks. And then I start to see this clip all over my social media feed. It wasn't just, oh, you saw it one time and I scrolled past it at first, not thinking anything of it.

I'm seeing it everywhere I scrolled on social media. So, this was Demarcus Lawrence yesterday via the Hawk blogger with Brian Nemhauser. And this is what Demarcus Lawrence had to say about the Dallas Cowboys. You know, Dallas is my home. Made my home there. You know, my family lives there. You know, I'm forever going to be there. But, you know, I know for sure I'm not going to win a Super Bowl there. So, yeah.

We here. So, I hear that comment, right? He knows he's not going to win a Super Bowl in Dallas.

And I sit there and I say, he's not lying, right? The drama Dallas Choking Cowboys have not won a Super Bowl or even been to a Super Bowl since 1995. They haven't even got to an NFC Championship game since the 1995 season.

I'll tell you, if I had a dollar for every time I said that during the course of the year, I would be a very wealthy man. But that's just the reality of the matter. That's just the facts of the matter. But I say to myself, Demarcus Lawrence, who, you know, was a very good player in this league. What did you do? And I'm not talking individually, but what did you do to help the problem in Dallas? It's not as if you were in Dallas for a sip of coffee after winning a Super Bowl somewhere else and you got there and you're like, oh, the toxic culture is just so toxic. You were in Dallas for your entire career up until the other day.

Since 2014, you were in Dallas for a decade. Last time I checked, did Demarcus Lawrence ever make a Super Bowl? No. You know what? That may be too big of a question there. Did Demarcus Lawrence ever get to an NFC Championship game?

Nope. So it's easy for Demarcus Lawrence to sit back and say, hey, if you go to Dallas, you're never going to a Super Bowl. You're not going to have a chance to win a Super Bowl.

But what did you do to try to turn that around? And I know someone will call in and will be like, oh, well, he was a four time Pro Bowler. Right? All right.

All fine. He only made one all pro team in his career with the Dallas Cowboys, and that was in 2017 when he was a second team all pro. And this is not me knocking the career of Demarcus Lawrence. Demarcus Lawrence has had a very good career.

I wouldn't say great, but it's been a very good career. And Demarcus Lawrence was on some Cowboys teams that were very good. None of them great, though. None of them got to an NFC Championship game. None of them got to a Super Bowl. Obviously, none of them won a Super Bowl. So for Demarcus Lawrence to leave and then to just crap on the Cowboys, I thought was a little weak.

And also, can we just call a spade a spade here? I know the Seahawks have been to the playoffs a bunch. I know the Seahawks have won a Super Bowl and have been to more Super Bowls a lot more recently than the Dallas Cowboys. But this Seattle Seahawks team, you're not going to a team that's ready to win. Like I understand they just missed out on the playoffs last year. They totally revamped their team. They have a new starting quarterback in Sam Darnold who can't win a big game to save his life.

They just got rid of Tyler Lockett, who was great there for years, and they just got rid of DK Metcalf as well. So it's not as if you're going from, oh, I'm Demarcus Lawrence leaving the Cowboys and you're joining the Eagles. Or, oh, I'm Demarcus Lawrence, I'm leaving the Cowboys and I'm joining the Kansas City Chiefs. You basically made a lateral move for where the Cowboys are at entering 2025 and where the Seahawks are at entering 2025. And now you're pointing and laughing and you're kind of looking at the Cowboys and talking down on them. But once again, what did you do to change the narrative in Dallas?

And I'm not saying what he's saying is false. You know you're not winning in Dallas, but you were there for 10 years and you were a part of the problem why the team never got to an NFC championship game or a Super Bowl during your decade there. So I understand the message, but where it's coming from is weak, in my opinion. And I could understand maybe one player can't change an entire organization and there's an issue with the Cowboys and it obviously starts at the top with Jerry Jones, but there's got to be something more here. So it wasn't just that video. Micah Parsons sees that and then Micah Parsons jumps on social media and he goes, this is what rejection and envy looks like. This is some clown bleep. Now, I got to be fair here. This is the dumbest beef I think I've ever seen.

Seriously. DeMarcus Lawrence is in the wrong for saying what he said, and I don't fault Micah Parsons for clapping back. He should defend the Dallas Cowboys, but also there is merit to what DeMarcus Lawrence said.

And also, I could see maybe this is a little rejection. I don't think, though, DeMarcus Lawrence has now envy for the Cowboys. So it didn't just stop there. This is reality TV at its finest, folks.

You could tell this is why one of my my guilty pleasures is watching reality TV. And this is a reality TV script. So then DeMarcus Lawrence claps back. And he says, calling me a clown won't change the fact that I told the truth.

Maybe if you spent less time tweeting and more time winning, I wouldn't have left. Boom. Boom. Boom. Wow.

DeMarcus Lawrence. So this now adds more fuel to the fire. And I don't have a problem with players podcasting. I don't. And I don't usually have a problem with players tweeting. But I do acknowledge when players podcast and when players tweet, you open yourself up to saying stupid things. Like I'm on a platform in football season seven days a week outside of football season.

I'm on the air five days a week. I give many, many, many takes. Sometimes the takes I'm giving in the moment I think are genius and they end up being stupid. Right.

When you are an athlete, there are more eyeballs on you. So when Zach Gelb says something stupid, right, I could be the topic of the Internet and people could say, oh, cancel him. Or this guy's an idiot. You know, this guy's a moron. And they post like photos of me, like from years ago when I was overweight and things like that. And like they troll you, whatever.

That's fine. But when you are Micah Parsons, it turns into a conversation. Is the podcast and is the tweeting holding back the team? That's what the conversation turns out to be. And I forget who it was. But I think someone recently criticized and maybe no Kendrick Perkins.

That's who it was. Kendrick Perkins criticized Jalen Brunson for doing a podcast and Jalen Brunson had the perfect retort. He goes, we could be doing a lot worse things in our free time than podcasting. So he goes, I don't think that athletes 24 seven, sometimes we expect them. It's just wake up, go to the gym, go play your game, come home. Like athletes are people, too.

Now, their job provides a serious amount of dedication. But does Jalen Brunson have the time like once a week to do an hour podcast? Yes, he does. Does Micah Parsons have a time to be a great football player and podcast?

Yes, he does. But when you're not winning and when the team's not succeeding, that's going to be the low hanging fruit that people throw in your face. But it's clear there's been a brewing issue with Demarcus Lawrence and a disconnect in the Cowboys locker room because two Super Bowls ago. I remember that, you know, going into it was when they lost that game to Green Bay.

He came out, I think during Super Bowl week. And he was saying to Marcus Lawrence, oh, we were burnt out. And there were a lot of players. I remember Stefan Gilmore, Brandon Cooks, Micah Parsons. They all refuted that. I even brought that back up to our buddy R.J.

Choppy, who does local radio in Dallas last night when I was trying to figure out what exactly the quote was. And he said, yeah, he said they were burnt out and it was a story and we kind of made fun of it and still do because we can't believe he said it because it was so ridiculous. Right. So there's the Marcus Lawrence saying something stupid two years ago, which was his belief. Maybe he was burnt out, but he made it a reflection of the entire team and the entire team didn't feel that way.

They rejected that notion. So now, two years later, you leave and on the way out, you're kind of sucking up to your new team. Right. That's not close to winning a Super Bowl either.

You pretty much made a lateral move. Sure. The Seahawks more respected right now than the Cowboys, I guess. But it's not as if the Seahawks are on the brink of going to forget a Super Bowl. How about just an NFC championship game? Right. Both those teams can make the playoffs this year.

Both those teams could easily just as miss it, though. So you're saying, oh, yeah, the Cowboys, you know, you're not going to win there. That's why I'm coming here to win. All right, fine. But then Micah Parsons responds and then you throw a haymaker back.

And that's where we're at right now. But if I had to take a side here, I actually think Micah Parsons is more on the right. I do. And I'm not looking to defend the Cowboys. I don't need to defend Micah. I have no problem calling him out when he says something that I think stupid.

Right. I said it to his face on this show. I don't understand why you won't call T.J. Watt when he said it to us.

A top five pure pass rusher. Take me through it. I don't get it. He's explained it.

I still don't get it. But in this case, I have no problem with Micah Parsons defending the Cowboys when Demarcus Lawrence said something that was unnecessary. And I don't think Demarcus Lawrence looks good here. I think, you know, Micah Parsons is sort of right. I don't know if it's envy, but clearly he feels some type of way about how things did go down in Dallas. And now he's just trying to drag the drama Dallas Choking Cowboys. And don't get me wrong. You usually don't need any help to drag the drama Dallas Choking Cowboys. And usually when you do so, nine point nine times out of 10, you're in the right for doing so. But I thought that Micah Parsons was in the right here and Demarcus Lawrence came off looking just rather petty.

And it seemed as if this was something that was extremely unnecessary. It is that Yelp show on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll go to Minnesota next. Matthew College's great job as a reporter covering the Minnesota Vikings for the Purple Insider. We're going to get all the latest on this speculation that maybe Aaron Rodgers could be going to Minnesota.

You know what's going on with JJ McCarthy. The Vikings also been in the news a lot this offseason outside of Aaron Rodgers with some of the moves that they made in the defensive side of the ball. We did see the Minnesota have a very good season last year. We talked about them in a very positive way for most of the season. And then the last two games, obviously that did turn with what did transpire up against Detroit Lions and also the L.A. Rams. So we'll talk to Matthew Collar.

We'll tap in on the Minnesota Vikings next. 15 past the hour off and running on a very busy Friday. It is that Yelp show on the Infinity Sports Network.

All right. Welcome back. It is that Yelp show on the Infinity Sports Network. We wait and wait and wait to see what the heck Aaron Rodgers is going to do and when he's going to do it. When is it going to happen? I have no clue. What I think will happen is that he'll be the next quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Do I feel great about that, though?

No, I do not. Obviously, we know the Steelers are in the mix, the Giants are in the mix, and then people are throwing the Minnesota Vikings now in the mix as well. Matthew Collar does a great job covering the Minnesota Vikings at Purple Insider, and he's kind enough to join us right now. Matthew, appreciate the time.

How you been? Well, you know, when your team signs a bunch of players and spends all the money, you think, all right, well, this is all according to plan. Rookie quarterback contract, J.J. McCarthy. And then every morning when I log on to social media and I see a new report, the Vikings are thinking about Rodgers.

I keep thinking this can't be right. We're not going to they're not going to do this again. Right with the Brett Favre thing. But what is interesting here is that the brass of the Minnesota Vikings, despite all the big money spending, has not spoken to the media.

They haven't called any press conferences. Kevin O'Connell hasn't come out and said, guys, stop with the Rodgers stuff. Come on. You think we're crazy? McCarthy's the guy. So the fact that we haven't gotten that and then Diana Rossini and so forth, people putting it out there that they're still thinking about, it makes me think that there is smoke or there's fire, whatever that saying is. But there might be something to them considering Aaron Rodgers.

I don't know. But I don't really get it because they drafted McCarthy 10th overall. So I've been obsessing over this like everyone else. I know you just asked, how are you? But that's where I'm at right now.

I understand it. So out of 100 percent right now, if I had to ask you, give me a number where you feel that Aaron Rodgers is going to be starting under center week one for the Vikings in 2025. What do you think that number is right now when we get inside your internal confidence? I still think that it's pretty low.

I would still go maybe 20 percent chance that that happens. I mean, I think what we know from all these reports is that Aaron Rodgers wants to be a Minnesota Viking. And I do not blame him when you compare it to the Giants, when you compare it to the Pittsburgh Steelers, you have the best receiver in the world. The Justin Jefferson, TJ Hawkinson, Jordan Addison, they brought back Aaron Jones. They've beefed up the offensive line. And oh, by the way, the head coach just got 14 wins out of Sam Darnold, who was previously considered one of the biggest busts of all time. And so if you're Rodgers, like, yeah, why wouldn't I want to play there in similar fashion to when Farve showed up with the Vikings and they had Percy Harvin and Adrian Peterson like that?

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. But from the Vikings perspective, that's where I cannot make it work, because even though J.J. McCarthy missed last season with knee surgery, he had made a great impression on this organization throughout training camp. I was there every day for training camp practices that he got better and better and better.

And there was a serious competition that I think was about to take another step right before he got injured based on how he played in the preseason. So the confidence even at the end where he got hurt last year was so high in J.J. McCarthy. And then the Vikings love the way that he handled the behind the scenes stuff. They trained him essentially to be QB one. They had him do in virtual reality, game planning, sit downs with the coach. And then they told us at the combine that he's doing well physically and he's back up to his normal weight. And those things, everything pointed toward J.J. McCarthy is the guy.

And I don't know why he wouldn't be. We've seen a lot of young quarterbacks have success in the league. Brock Purdy was year two in the Super Bowl. We saw just Jayden Daniels go to the NFC championship. I think quarterbacks are more ready now than ever to step into a situation like this. And you couldn't set it up much better for him. So I don't know why you would make the deal with the devil with Aaron Rodgers, who, by the way, is one thirteen of his last thirty four games. Has it been good with a Packers team that's well coached with a Jets team that was supposed to be well stocked and ready to compete? And that didn't work out.

This is just not a player who's been very good since two thousand twenty one. But, you know, sometimes head coaches, they can convince themselves, hey, if I just got Rodgers, then it's going to be Super Bowl time. And you never know. So I'm not closing the door until Kevin O'Connell comes out with McCarthy and says he's our guy.

The door remains open. Well, that's the other thing, too. It's like Aaron was so close to getting to another Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers and there at the end. Right. Did not play well up against San Francisco in the divisional round. Did not play well up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second half when Tom Brady threw three interceptions and he was home at an NFC championship game. Like if they bring in Aaron Rodgers, my interpretation, it's one year you delay McCarthy and you're going for a Super Bowl. But Matt, I don't think Rodgers has another Super Bowl in him. So that's why I feel like it's pointless for the Vikings to bring in Aaron Rodgers. Right. I mean, what were you doing in twenty twenty one? That's the last time the guy was a good quarterback.

And if we got to go back that far, then I think you're really hoping and dreaming at that point. And I've seen some people say, well, Rodgers can still spin it. And he played against the Vikings this year. We saw a handful of breathtaking throws, but you also saw that the offense tends to have to be Aaron Rodgers offense.

And I'm supposed to believe that it's going to be different here. I mean, all this stuff is I'm supposed to believe it's going to be different than with Matt LaFleur. It's not like he was with a bad coach before in Green Bay when that and it's not like that organization could have loved him anymore. He's an icon in Green Bay. And they said, OK, we've had enough of the Aaron Rodgers experience. It's time to move on. And then what, three, four years later, you're going to jump on that train.

I don't know. It's it reminds me of how I wasn't there a report that the forty niners wanted to bring in Brady and sit Brock Purdy for another year. It's like, come on, guys, just go with the younger player. I mean, Rodgers, even in the most even in the best light from last year. If you look at Rodgers performance, he was a mid quarterback. He was not even as good as what Sam Darnold was. So if you get mid performance from him, maybe a little better because he's got Justin Jefferson, you can see some exciting moments happen and some incredible throws that are still in the arm. But you're talking about if you make that deal with him, you better win the Super Bowl.

Or it was a total disaster because then you wasted everybody's time and didn't have McCarthy playing. I don't think that it's realistic to put them as a Super Bowl contender with the way Rodgers has played for the last several years. Matthew Collard, do you think there is a serious appetite amongst the fan base?

I know it's tough to get an entire pulse at a fan base, but if you were just, you know, how connected you are and you cover the team and you speak to so many fans. Is there a serious appetite for Rodgers or is this more just, hey, Aaron really wants to go there, but the fans are like, yeah, we're good. I think there's always a section of fans that want to see the world burn that because the Vikings never win the Super Bowl, they want to see the craziest thing happen. I mean, that's really true. They get bored, right? Oh, every year you win some games, you go to the playoffs, you get your face kicked in and like, that's it. So, hey, why not?

Let's do something crazy. There's always that percentage. But if we're doing percentages, I'd say 90% want JJ McCarthy. In fact, the obsession with JJ McCarthy got to the point where last year there were some fans who didn't want to see Darnold playing well because they were worried that he was going to play himself into another contract.

And he almost did. I think if he maybe didn't play so well or so poorly in those last couple games, but as the season went along, I think fans were still so into the JJ McCarthy plan. They were like, God, Darnold, calm it down a little bit here. Maybe like an eight win season would have been fine. They love JJ McCarthy.

He's the golden boy, the chosen one. Think about how rarely it's been in Vikings history since they've had a franchise quarterback. If you go back to Dante Culpepper, but then his knee gets hurt.

Teddy Bridgewater, his knee gets hurt. And before that, Tommy Kramer. Before that, Fran Tarkenton.

I mean, there's been so few examples of this. Meanwhile, everybody in Minnesota has looked to the east over there in Green Bay, the biggest rival, and they've always got their franchise quarterback settled. I think Vikings fans are desperate for this to be figured out and have had enough of this roller coaster of one year of case Keenum, one year of Sam Darnold, one year of Jeff George, one year of Randall Cunningham. I think they want a long term answer to build around in JJ McCarthy. The other thing I want to ask you about, I know you touched on it, Matthew Collar, does a great job covering the Vikings Purple Insider here with us as they're trying to gauge what the Vikings interest is on Aaron Rodgers. The McCarthy injury. We know he had the second surgery, right?

We found out about that in November. You talked about what the team said at the combine. And I know there's so many national pundits, you know, including myself, where we talk about the injury. And I keep on saying like, all right, you're bringing in Rodgers because you want to give McCarthy more time. In what world is JJ McCarthy not going to be ready by week one? It doesn't add up to me here when people talk about the injury with JJ.

Right. There's only a couple of reasons that you would potentially do something like this. I mean, one of them would be that you look into Rodgers eyes and are entranced by his previous great throws and success in the NFL. The other reason would be if you didn't fully believe that JJ McCarthy's recovery went as well as you had expected it to go, because meniscus tears are a little bit more on the dicey side than ACL where somebody tears an ACL. You snap your fingers, they're back.

Good to go. But with the meniscus, it can be a little bit more tricky. The Vikings actually had a young player, Cherie Floyd, a few years ago whose career ended because of a messed up surgery.

So you do worry a little bit more about that one. And throughout his recovery, he did lose a ton of weight, which when Vikings fans saw him on TV on the sideline, they were like, wait, that's is that JJ McCarthy? Because he looks like he went back in time and he's 16 years old now. But that's why when we heard at the combine, all right, he's back up to his weight. Imagine that kids these days can just lose weight, put it back on.

Don't you wish that could be us? But, you know, so he's all right. He's back up to wait. And Kevin O'Connell told us that he's going to be ready for the offseason program, which starts with the lifting and then the OTAs and all that. That to me was an indication. The guy should be ready to go. And as much as he learned about the offense and about the NFL, and I think he had a great front row seat for how hard the NFL is with Sam Darnold. One day they love you.

The next day they want you out the door. He saw what the amount of pressure how fast the game moves and work behind the scenes diligently to be ready for this year. I don't see why he wouldn't be. I'm with you.

I don't see why he wouldn't be unless they know something that we don't know. Let me get your thoughts on JJ as a player. So I like Michigan. I've watched every snap of JJ McCarthy's Michigan career. Do I think he's a great quarterback? No, I thought they asked him to be a game manager at Michigan. There are some moments where they asked him to do more and he played well in those games. But I know that he's a national champion.

He was twenty seven and one. And I think with Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hockinson, if he's healthy, I think JJ McCarthy could be just as good as what Sam Darnold did this past year, if not better. What do you think the Vikings could do with JJ McCarthy if in fact he does get the baton handed to many as the week one starter? So that's interesting because when the Vikings drafted him, I think they thought he's probably quite a ways away. And I thought the same as you that they didn't even really throw the ball with this guy at Michigan. Like, are they drafting a game manager type?

Are they trying to get Matt Hasselbeck with Seattle or something here? But I think what they saw was the ceiling for JJ McCarthy and the growth potential. And then that's what I saw because last year when he first arrived for OTAs, I mean, he was very much a ball of clay. But as he learned more and more, he grew extremely quickly. And by the end of training camp, he was looking like someone who was ready to start week one. And not only that, but also looking like his ceiling is much higher than people painted it. I and I'll admit this is hyperbole, but I came home from a really good practice he had one day and said to my wife, I think we were told that we were getting Matt Hasselbeck, but it might be John Elway instead.

And I know that's over the top. But that really shows you, though, the progress he made in the development. And he was running the whole offense in training camp. And this is not an offense that looks like Michigan. It's not handoff first. This is on the quarterback shoulders. But the way he immediately took over as a leader, his arm talent, the way he handled the two minute drills and stuff like that.

I know these are practices, but I've seen a lot of quarterbacks have bad practices doing this stuff. So I think that by the end of that, they were so impressed. And then everybody saw the preseason game that they were ready to have him compete and had Sam Dar. Like if he had been healthy and Darnold started two and three or something, they would have been ready to turn it over to J.J. McCarthy, which is why I can't make heads or tails of why Aaron Rodgers is in this discussion, because all of us walked away. And Kevin O'Connell called McCarthy the franchise quarterback at the joint practices they had in Cleveland.

And I was there for that and thought, well, this makes a lot of sense from what I've seen. So I think that is ceiling after actually seeing him in NFL practices is probably higher than what it looks like in Michigan, because the way Michigan played football, which they won the national championship. So you can't really blame them for playing that way. And that's why I think this Roger stuff is more so Aaron wants to go there. I get your point why you can't totally rule it out because the Vikings haven't come out and said, hey, we're not bringing in Aaron Rodgers.

We're sticking with J.J. McCarthy. That's why I still think the Roger stuff is probably not going to happen. Yeah. The other thing, too, is when I see reports that they're thinking about it, I think, what did they not know? I think about a lot of things, too. You know, I think about dating Beyonce. It doesn't mean I get a date with Beyonce. All right. But but did they just start thinking like about that?

Maybe maybe a metaphor would be like I think about sometimes if I drove my car one hundred and twenty miles an hour or something, but I don't do it because it's way too dangerous. Right. It's the same thing where you're like, well, what if Rogers now? But until they come out and say it, then we're still going to sit here and wait in the layer of Aaron Rodgers that we've all lived in for how many years now. History really does repeat itself here with the same way with we're all waiting on five years ago. We're all waiting on Rodgers now.

All right. Last thing on the Vikings and has nothing to do with Darnold. It has nothing to do with Rogers, has nothing to do with McCarthy. You take a glance at what they've done this offseason, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They're able to get a long term deal done with buyer Murphy Junior. They bring in Hargrave. They bring in Jonathan Allen as well. How about some other non quarterback pieces here with the Minnesota Vikings, what they've done this offseason? Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing was the trenches.

It was the interior of the offensive line interior, the defensive line, because, I mean, you all saw what happened in the playoff game. And Kevin O'Connell doesn't want that to happen again. And they showed that they were serious about it. When you spend 18 million dollars a year on a guard who's been OK, I think there's a natural kind of recoil of like, wait a minute, really? That's how much money you're giving that guy.

But that's the guard market. And they needed to desperately improve that if J.J. McCarthy, assuming it's him, is going to succeed. Getting also a 32 year old center who's a great pass blocker and Ryan Kelly.

That's one of those. Hey, it's not going to lead sports center or whatever, but it's certainly a big thing for them to have a veteran like that leading a young quarterback. And then on the interior of the D line, they have had nobody who could pressure the quarterback there for like five or six years since they signed Sheldon Richardson back in 2018. And that was another area where we all watch the Super Bowl.

Football people are just like us where they go. They rushed with four on every single play. What if we rushed with four more often?

Brian Flores will continue to be a mad scientist. He's going to blitz. He's not going to rush with four every play. But you see the advantage of that when you have those interior rushers.

And if you can get them, they are worth their weight in gold. So I really think that they shored up all the weakness areas of their team and they've set it up. So if you're turning it over to J.J. McCarthy, he's got the line, he's got the receivers, he's got the defense and off you go.

And they have a legitimate chance to compete in his first year. He covers the Vikings for Purple Insider. Also make sure you check out a book that he did author.

Football is a numbers game. He is Matthew Collar. Matt, great insight. Appreciate it. Yep. Thanks for having me. There you go. Matthew Collar with us. We'll take a time out.

We'll come on back. We will update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio next. We'll do a news brief.

Update time first though. Here's the act man, Rich Ackerman. It's time to ask the pros. Do you, the listener, get to ask us a question brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts? Simply tweet your question at INF Sports Center at Zach Elbe's and hashtag askthepros. Be listening later in the show. We might answer your question.

Think O'Reilly Auto Parts while your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I don't know if Stuart Samter saw this news and I'll get to the audio in just a second. Are you guys this tapped in? Let's see. Do you have any idea of a sports couple that may have broken up? Have you seen any of this speculation? I think I know what you're talking about.

Go ahead. Give me the guess. The new Miami quarterback Carson Beck and I guess the girl that he was dating. You don't know which Cavender is which.

Yeah. So it's Hannah Cavender who is dating Carson Beck and they may no longer be dating. Well, it's not official yet, but there's a lot of speculation that they broke up and Haley Cavender, who is dating Ferguson on the Cowboys.

She tweeted out yesterday. I just want to say one thing because I can't be too crazy unfiltered on here. If your sister comes to you or your friends or someone that's really important in your life and they have a gut feeling about a relationship or a friendship, for example. And they just tell you that on a repeated basis. Trust your dang sister. Trust her. She's always right. I promise you. Or your mom. They're always right.

Anyways, happy Thursday. What a fall from grace for Carson Beck. Supposed to be the number one overall pick in the draft. You don't end up getting the job done in Georgia. You got to transfer to Miami. And now you're probably broken up with the Cavender. Now, I don't want to accuse anyone of anything.

If there was maybe some cheating, you know, we don't know what the other girl looks like, but it doesn't seem like things are going right these days for Carson Beck. We'll leave that at that. Alrighty, let's get to a little news brief here.

Miles Garrett on his new deal with the Cleveland Browns. I think the fans will see that my heart's in the right place. It's never been about money. It's always been about winning.

That's where my frustration lies. And I don't regret it. I feel like I went out and earned it by playing the best brand of ball that I know possible. And I plan to deliver week in and week out during the season.

It looks like the whole thing was a long game for you to get more money. So how do you tell fans, no, that's not it? I don't tell fans anything. I go out there and prove it. If it's about the money, then I can just pack it in and not go out there and give my best effort.

But I plan to be the best person possible in this locker room, be the best leader possible, dominating on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. So that really shows you what it's all about. That really proves it to the fans. No amount of words will. You know, if it looks like a duck, if it swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, then guess what?

It's probably a duck. So stop with this nonsense that it wasn't all about the money and that it's all about winning. You're staying in Cleveland. Once again, Myles Garrett, you are staying in Cleveland.

This is not even a destination that you could spin into talking yourself into being a winning destination. You don't have a quarterback. The Browns haven't had a quarterback in my entire life. So stop. You told me at the Super Bowl.

I believed you. This is all about the trade request to go win. And why are you then staying in Cleveland?

What changed? It wasn't that the Browns gave you this great plan. What great plan does Andrew Berry have? Like, stop it. This is all about the money.

The only reason you stayed in Cleveland is because they made you an offer that you couldn't refuse. Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense for Myles Garrett. Daniel Jones on the competition coming up with Anthony Richardson. A lot of respect for Anthony watching him. I think he's he's certainly a talented young player. And I think, you know, the competition aspect of it brings out the best in everybody.

And I think we're we're both interested in helping this team win games and whatever, whatever we can do to help that happen. It's a little weird that a backup quarterback got an introductory press conference, too. Yes, very weird.

That's my first thought. Why is he talking about this acquisition? Shouldn't he just go there and that's it? I think there's an answer to it. Sam, it looks like you have something that you want to say about this, though. I feel like I've seen a lot of these guys who are maybe not the biggest names who are signing with new teams and they're kind of having press conferences with a variety of different players. It's kind of like introducing them to the new media.

I don't have an issue. Is Gardner Minshew getting an introductory press conference with the Kansas City Chiefs? Better. Greatest quarterback, backup quarterback in the history of the NFL. Have you ever heard of a guy by the name of Nick Foles?

Who? Or Jeff Hostetler? You know, just just throwing out two guys. You know, there was a Brady guy that came off the bench and he won a Super Bowl.

Whatever happened to that guy, though? But anyway, I think this is all intentional because Shane Steichen doesn't want Anthony Richardson to be his quarterback. I do believe that they will have Anthony Richardson start the season, but by November at the absolute latest, by the end of November, probably even earlier, Daniel Jones will be taken over as a starting quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. So I think they want to put more pressure on Anthony Richardson. They're then going to put him up there at the podium. He's making $14 million a year and they'll have a competition. So Anthony Richardson, as long as he's healthy, will win the competition.

But then since he's never able to be the guy for a consistent amount of time, then they'll get rid of him and go to Daniel Jones. Alrighty, let's go to DK Metcalf on the Steelers quarterback situation. They made me feel like they had the right decision, you know, with who was going to be throwing me the football. You know, I'm not making a decision in the quarterback room, so I'm just going to try to do the best of my abilities to help whoever they have out there throwing the football. You know, they make the correct decisions, you know, to bring the quarterback in here.

So I'm just going to roll with that. So I'm not going to sit there and say that he doesn't care who the quarterback is going to be, but he wanted to get paid. They gave him a five-year, $150 million deal and traded a second-round pick for him. So I don't think it's one of those things where it's like, oh, I'm only going to go there if I know who the quarterback's going to be.

The money talks here. And I think that they probably said, okay, we think we're either going to bring back Russell Wilson, who he knows a little bit, or we're going to go sign Aaron Rodgers. And even though Geno Smith has been fine in Seattle, it's not like there's that much of a difference entering 2025 between Geno Smith, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers.

So I'm sure he's just fine with it. Josh Allen. This is NFL Films.

Even the great ones. Maybe do some weird things before games. Josh Allen on his pregame ritual. I throw up before every game just because.

Interesting. Good for you. That's not nerves, because I know you're not nervous anymore. It's not nerves.

It's really weird. I think going back to college, when I played, I'd always have this mucus. I threw up before the Detroit game two years ago, preseason. Throughout the game, I didn't have any mucus, so I was like, I might have to start doing that. So after every pregame warm-up, I go inside and teammates will watch me and they'll cheer me on. Your teammates will cheer you on when you're throwing up?

Yeah. Get it out, Josh. Get the demons out. I got a couple other guys that throw up as well.

It's a family affair. Next time we have Deion Dawkins on you, throw up guy. I could see Deion fist-pumping. All right, Josh, let's go. Throw up. Come on.

Go, Josh, go, Josh, go. That's the response. I don't know who the reporter is, but she's like, good for you. I threw up before. Why is that good for you?

I thought that was weird. But Josh Allen, you know, what makes him great? Throw up before a game. Here's Omar Balo of Indiana. He calls out some Indiana fans after their latest loss.

We come here every single day. All we try to do is win for these people. But we lose one game, two games, and next thing you know, your DM is crazy. Like, death wishes.

Like, death threats and stuff like that. Like, nobody wants to live like that, you know, because this is not helping anybody. It's mentally draining, and nobody wants to deal with that for a whole five-month season. It's too much to take in for players and for coaches. I'm not talking about the true fans, because I'm with the heart of our back. But the people who pretend to be fans and were nothing but the worst for the team, I'm talking about those people.

So, I think there's a difference. Like, if you're a fan and you're being critical, and you're saying, oh, this player's not good, or this team's not good, I think that's different. If you're DMing someone and wishing death upon them, you're a scumbag, all right? Like, there's no other way around it.

Like, you're a horrible human being, even if it's like, oh, I'm just joking and trolling, I don't actually mean it. Like, you're just an idiot. You know, I know these guys are getting paid now, but they're still kids at the end of the day. They're still college students at the end of the day.

And even if they're pros, you shouldn't be doing that either. All right, we got to get some audio later on. I just saw that Bruce Pearl was on ESPN at the Auburn and the SEC tournament and defeated Ole Miss 62-57. And he said, quote, my guards aren't, and I can't say the last word I think on the radio, but puttycats, all right? So, maybe we'll chop that up and play that for you coming up later in the show, because I'm curious how it sounds. I'm just reading the headlines of it right now. Jase Cabinda will join us next. We'll do a little prospect profile on Tyler Warren and Abdul Carter.