Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
It's the most magical time of the year, and I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about the NFL season. So make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Get the most live NFL games all in one place. Right now, you can save $85 when you bundle NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV. Sign up today at youtubetv.com slash Spotify. Device and content restrictions apply. Discount apply to first four months of YouTube TV, then $72.99 a month. Ends August 29th. Terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply. No refunds.
School is back, and Dick's Sporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks, and more. Plus, the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan, and Adidas. Find your first day fits in-store or online at Dick's.com. LeBron is not half the closer that Jamal is. I'm relentless. It's time to cash in. Let's get at this. Be tremendous. Relentless. I'm relentless. I'm relentless.
Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show, episode 111, from heaven, I hope. This, as always, is the Unundisputed, everything I cannot share with you during the debate show that is undisputed. Today, I will tell you all about LeBron James, master media manipulator.
Today, I will tell you all about Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboy wrecker. And today, as always, I will answer several of your probing, provocative questions, including one last second shot for my life. Who takes it? And how annoying is that? What a pro wants commercial that the Thunder players are in.
I can't wait to answer that question. But as always, up first, it is not to be skipped. So what we just witnessed just might have been LeBron James' greatest achievement ever, at least as a master media manipulator, as a blame deflector, as a puppet master manipulator.
I mean, think about what LeBron Ramon James just pulled off. Think about it. Game one at Denver. As the Lakers fought back into the game early in the fourth quarter, LeBron James checked out. He played, but he refused to participate until it was too late. LeBron James went for about eight minutes of that fourth quarter without shooting one shot while passing the ball to
to this teammate and that teammate and that teammate, especially to a cold-handed D'Lo. I think his message was, okay, I got criticized so much for how poorly I shot the ball in the fourth quarters of last year's Denver sweep that this time I'll see how much you like it if I let everybody else shoot, if I make everybody else shoot, right?
So LeBron was saying, here, D'Lo, here, Rui, here, Austin Reeves, you shoot it. I'll stay out of it this time and we'll see how everybody likes that. LeBron James clearly pouted through most of the fourth quarter, finally made his first and his last shot on a late uncontested layup, right-handed layup after the game had gotten completely out of hand.
And by the way, he did deserve every ounce of the criticism he received for the previous year's sweep by Denver, in which in those four fourth quarters, LeBron shot a combined seven of 23 from the floor and one of 10 from three. The Lakers were right there in all four fourth quarters and LeBron could not close LeBron.
I've said it all along. LeBron does not have the clutch gene nor the closer gene, which baffles to the point of tormenting me because he clearly has one of the highest IQs in basketball history, the highest IQ of current players. But he can't figure out how to get a game home that should be taken home, James.
Remember how game four, the closeout game out here in L.A. ended a year ago in the Denver sweep? LeBron had the ball in his hands twice at the end of the game, down two. Got late against the clock. Tried to shoot a fadeaway over on the left wing. Hit the side of the backboard. Final possession. Finally did put his head down, as I always pound the desk for him to do. Drove it, and Jamal Murray made the play of the game defensively.
As he cut off LeBron at the pass, got in his path, got two hands on the ball, made LeBron force the ball up through Jamal's hands and right into the line of fire of an easy block by his primary defender, who was Aaron Gordon. So twice LeBron had the ball in his hands and neither time even got the ball up to the rim.
Two chances to tie the game at the end of that closeout game here in L.A. Game 4 a year ago. But this time, did you hear anything about what happened in Game 1 and Game 2 in the national media? Did you hear much about him checking out in Game 1 and pouting? I didn't hear anything about it. LeBron James is the most overprotected superstar in sports history ever.
That's no exaggeration. The most overprotected. So how did game two end out in Denver this year? With LeBron James standing alone at the three-point line, unguarded for a potential game-winning, series-flipping, spell-breaking three-point shot, and he missed it. He had gone Michael Jordan with a little shove of KCP just the way Jordan...
Got away with just a tiny little shove at the end of game six out in Utah in 1998, Brian Russell. Jordan made his shot from just beyond the free throw line and held the pose for all in Utah to see at the Delta Center. LeBron missed. And Jamal Murray said, thank you very much. And as you know, he went right down to the other end and hit the game-winning shot, really the season, I'm sorry, the series-winning shot
season-changing shot over the long arm of the law of Anthony Davis. Nuggets go up 2-0, and that was really that. Would Jordan have made that three-point shot, wide-open three-point? Sure he would have. Kobe, you know it. Magic, come on. But did LeBron talk about that shot after the game? Was LeBron asked about that shot after the game, about missing that shot? No.
LeBron has so many protectors in the media, so many apologists and defenders and blind witnesses, LeBron zombies who shape public opinion in his favor. If he was asked about checking out in game one, I didn't see it. I didn't hear about it. If he was asked about missing that shot in game two, I didn't see it. If he did say one word about owning LeBron,
checking out, owning missing that shot at the end of game two. I didn't see it. I didn't hear it. If he said a single word about, I now owe my team for my failure in the fourth quarters of games one and two, I didn't hear a peep about it because I don't think he did because he never does. No responsibility, no ownership. So the Lakers, as you know, lost game three, but
They did pull off hanging on to an 11-point lead entering the fourth quarter in game four because LeBron James finally started doing what I've been pounding the table for him to do for years and years, dating back to my cold pizza days on ESPN2 back in 2004. LeBron, you're the greatest driver of the basketball ever. You're ambidextrous.
You're an unstoppable freight train at 6'9", 270. Just put your head down and attack the basket the way nobody else can. Nobody can keep you from the basket. Denver couldn't. If they have to foul you, if you have to go to the free throw line, just go to the free throw line and make one of two if you have to. Make two of two. And finally...
After Denver had beaten the Los Angeles Lakers 11 straight times, LeBron drove it and drove it and drove it down their throats in the fourth quarter, game four out here in L.A., the pride game, and actually tied Denver in the fourth quarter 28-28, which allowed the Lakers to hang on to that 11-point lead and actually win a game against the Nuggets. Way to go, LeBron. So back it went to game five in Denver.
And would you believe that LeBron, in my view, got a weirdly amazing break early in the third quarter of that game? Anthony Davis merely bumped shoulders with Michael Porter Jr. of the Nuggets. Just bump shoulders. It's something that happens just about every possession of every NBA game ever played. Big men bump shoulders with big men. Yet AD went down like he'd been shot.
down on the baseline. He writhed for what seemed like, I don't know, three or four minutes. Oh my God, what happened? They finally said it was some kind of stinger that he experienced up in the upper shoulder neck region. He did continue playing, but he was still dragging around his arm like it was broken. And he clearly, Anthony Davis, became a liability on offense and defense.
AD scored one point in that second half of game five, one single solitary point. And LeBron, of course, highest IQ in basketball, knew full well that the pressure was completely off of LeBron bleeping James because now he had no co-star. No matter what happened, great or bad, LeBron had his excuse.
in his back pocket. A.D. was hurt, and D'Lo was called again. Remember the quote-unquote goat, as so many refer to LeBron. The goat always needs a scapegoat within arm's reach. LeBron had already made it clear he had little to no respect for his coach, Darvin Hamm. So Darvin was next in the scapegoat line of fire. LeBron, with
Most of the pressure off, really all the pressure off. Played great in the fourth quarter. Played free. Went into attack mode as he always should. At least on offense he did. Defense, not so much. There was that crucial play that Jamal Murray brought up just after the game was over. That failed block out of Aaron Gordon.
the crucial offensive rebound that Aaron Gordon was able to seize because LeBron didn't even try to screen him off. That was off a miss by Jamal Murray, and so Aaron Gordon kicked it back out to Jamal for a second chance, this one a three-point chance, and Jamal buried it and basically buried the Lakers. But to LeBron's credit,
He did go right back down. He put his head back down. He drove the basketball and he had the guts to get fouled and march to that free throw line and bury two free throws. Way to go, LeBron. I did not think you had it in you, especially given the fact that since you entered the league, nobody has missed more late and close free throws than you have, or I should say had,
But Jamal Murray once again said, no, I got this. He went right back down, as you well know. This time he went to his left instead of his right, off a pick by Joker, who got a pretty good piece of Austin Reeves, who did recover, did go up hard and strong, crossed Jamal's face, contested the shot. I thought he came close to getting fingertips on the shot, but the shot found nothing but net. Game, set, matchup.
Nuggets in five, Nuggets have won 12 of the last 13 against the Los Angeles Lakers. And you want to know the truth? The truth was in the last nine playoff games against these Nuggets, champions last year defending this year, the last nine against the Nuggets all boiled down to this. The Nuggets had Jamal Murray, best closer in basketball.
Well, the Lakers had LeBron James. That's it. I need to say no more, but I will. The Lakers led or were tied in this year's series of five games 75% of the time. I picked the Lakers to beat the Nuggets. Heck, I picked the Lakers to win it all because I really liked this roster. I would have liked it a lot better if Jared Vanderbilt, one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, had been able to play, and he could not. I would have liked much more.
Gabe Vincent, who was a big shot taking and making terror for the Miami Heat a year ago, even against Denver in the finals. I wish he hadn't had his knee surgically repaired and missed most of the year. Yeah, I wish they'd had Cam Reddish, Christian Wood. I wish, I wish, I wish, but they didn't. But they were still good enough to lead 75% of the time, lead or tie. It's a lot. In fact, 69% of the time, they flat out led.
That never happened before in NBA playoff history. These Lakers could play with those nuggets. But in the end, Denver had Jamal, who, by the way, is not half the player LeBron is for the first 43 minutes of games. I mean, Jamal shot 29% from three in those five games. Think about that, 29%. Did he make the big ones? You better believe he did. The crucial ones? You got it. The gotta-haves? Kaboom.
But LeBron is not half the closer that Jamal is. Not half the closer that Jamal is. The truth was the Lakers lost games one and two when LeBron pouted and when LeBron missed the game winner. The Nuggets won very simply because Jamal hit walk-offs in games two and five. They had Jamal. The Lakers had LeBron.
Was LeBron asked about any of this after game five? I didn't hear it. No, the narrative quickly turned to next year, just as it turned after the Lakers got swept last year. Remember that? When LeBron immediately dropped that bombshell, that I might retire bombshell? Completely changed the narrative, deflected the blame, completely changed the course of media history through the offseason.
This time, the question arose, is it possible he played his last game in a Laker uniform? And LeBron's answer was, I'm not going to answer that question. Now, he quickly added, I appreciate it because he really appreciated that silver platter opportunity to go 3M, as in Master Media Manipulator. Change the subject. Deflect the blame.
Make Laker Nation cry out, oh, no, no, no. Please don't retire, LeBron. Please don't leave L.A., LeBron. You had the greatest age 39 season ever. Please come back, LeBron. So he went from being in one question, the biggest reason the Lakers lost to the Nuggets, to a sympathetic figure. I've never seen anything like it before. Masterful. Aaron Rodgers used to do
similar masterful media manipulating during his Green Bay days. He was all-time great at it, but LeBron is the king of it. Obviously, LeBron didn't apologize for the way he played at the end of games one and two. He took no responsibility, zero ownership. All he cared about in the end was that he played very well in the fourth quarter of game five. So unlike last year when he failed
to even get those last two shots up to the rim at the end of game four, the sweep game. This time, he played very well in the lasting memory, which is the fourth quarter of game five. Really, that's all anybody could remember or could care about. And because of that, LeBron was very happy after that game the other night. Games one and two were just distant, irrelevant memories. Now the offseason theme will be
Please don't leave. Please don't retire. It'll be the theme until the Lakers give LeBron, still the face of the franchise and face of the league, a new three-year deal at $164 million to play with his son, Bronny, out here in L.A. for the next three years, out here in Hollywood, where LeBron loves to live. In the end, I just shook my head and said, you know, it's good being LeBron.
We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't a search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates for
♪♪♪
According to a recent Indeed survey, join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash Bayless. Just go to Indeed.com slash Bayless right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Bayless. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.
This is Paul from New York who asks, which is the NBA player you would pick if you had one shot to save your life? Great question, Paul. Till lately, I would have said Kyrie Irving because I've seen him hit so many big late clutch walk-off game winners, including the one, it wasn't a walk-off, but the one that won game seven for LeBron in 2015 finals out in Oakland.
But lately, I've come to realize one shot for my life, I want Jamal Murray taking it. And I'll have a pretty good shot at seeing another sunrise. This is Matt from Oregon. Why didn't you react with a video to the Lakers' Game 4 win over the Nuggets? Okay, good question. Fair question. And I'll have to go personal here, Matt.
I did do videos, post videos after all four of the losses. So I guess your inference here is, probably being a LeBron lover that you are, that I did not laud and applaud LeBron in the one game they won. Okay, so here's the truth, Matt. I'm just trying to hang on to my marriage. The game in question was played last Saturday night.
I had put my wife, Ernestine, through a Friday night, which is supposed to be our quote-unquote date night, nothing but basketball. I had put her through the entire Clippers at Mavericks game and the entire Timberwolves at Suns game on Friday night. She kind of likes the NBA, at least some teams, so she hangs with me and she watches and she watches and she...
Gets up and goes in the other room for a while, but she comes back and she watches and she's loyal to a fault and she hangs with me. But I had pushed her to the bitter end on Friday night. And even after I was finished, I was so exhausted from not sleeping because of all those late NBA playoff game finishes that I very quickly fell asleep while we were trying to watch some episodes that we had missed of Jeopardy, our favorite show.
So, Saturday night comes around, Lakers, and when it ended, she was waiting to eat the dinner she had prepared with me. She was waiting to watch our new favorite show called Sugar. Maybe you've seen it on Apple TV starring Colin Farrell. It's dark, but it's riveting. It's addicting. You can't binge it. You get just one dose of sugar per week. So,
When the game ended, I called it a night on social media just for the sake of my marriage. I decided I didn't want to do an I told you so video, a finally video, because LeBron had done what I've asked him, beseeched him to do for lo these many years. He had driven the basketball and driven home the Lakers in the do or die elimination game, the closeout game out here in L.A., game four.
I had tweeted my tail off about it, tweeted nothing but positives for LeBron. And so I decided just let my tweets do my talking, let my tweets stand. And I did. I stood down. And Matt, the last time I checked, I'm still married.
When it comes to towing, seeing is believing. That's why Chevy Trucks Advanced Camera Technology offers up to eight available cameras for 14 unique views, so you can focus on the view that really matters. Chevrolet, together let's drive. Learn more about Chevy Trucks at Chevy.com. Safety or driver assistance features are no substitute for the driver's responsibility to operate the vehicle in a safe manner. Read the vehicle owner's manual for important feature limitations and information.
This is Jack from Milwaukee. What time do you go to bed on weekend nights? It's a good question. So Friday night, as I just pointed out, I'm lucky, Jack, if I make it until 10 and fall asleep watching Jeopardy. By the way, I'm constantly waking up Ernestine when I wake up at two o'clock in the morning. So she sleeps fitfully herself. So she starts to fall asleep also by around 10.
This week, Monday night, was just a horror show for me. I think I finally got to bed after doing my social media responsibilities. I think I finally fell asleep at 11. I get up at 2 o'clock in the morning. So I was a wreck on Tuesday mornings, undisputed, just a wreck. I don't think I've ever felt worse. Eyes were watering, just felt like I'd gotten run over by a bus.
It's hard when it happens on Monday night. Even if you try to nap and catch up, you just can't catch up for the rest of the week. So come Friday night, I sleep for 12 straight hours. It's always 12. If I'm lucky, depending on just how deep tired I am, I don't even wake up to use the bathroom.
And then I'm kind of okay on Saturday. If I have a shot in the afternoon, I do take a little nap on Saturday. But Saturday evening, depending on our plans, what we have to watch, where we have to go, I try to stay up until midnight with Ernestine. Get up Sunday mornings at 8.30, get ready and go to church. So I try to get eight plus hours going into Sunday. And then of course, it starts all over again.
And as I always say, as much as I love the NBA playoffs, they are hard on my body and my psyche. Okay, suffer me this. This is about Gerald Wayne Jones Jr., my worst nightmare, the owner and operator of My Dallas Cowboys. So just for the record, just so we have perspective on this, one year ago right now,
I loved my Cowboys chances. You might recall that I loved them. Jerry had just struck again in the draft over the previous 10 drafts. Jerry had drafted the second most pro bowlers in all of pro football. Remember, Jerry has final say in the draft over the first usually three picks. Jerry's had a Midas touch, weirdly. He did play college football. He was a starting offensive guard for a national championship team,
1964, University of Arkansas. And he does have at his side a Will McClay who has a rare eye for NFL talent. So a year ago, they had just taken with the 26th overall pick, Mozzie Smith out of Michigan. And I'm thinking, here we go. We've got our Micah of the interior pass rush, the strongest man in college football, the
A freak of nature, Mozzie Smith, who could not only rush the passer but stuff the run, which is what we dearly and desperately needed. We took another Michigan player, Luke Schoonmaker, in the second round. And I'm thinking, way to go, Jerry. Fill that void left by Dalton Schultz.
We took DeMarvion Overshone out of Texas, a heat-seeking missile in round three, and I thought, Super Bowl, here we come. Kid Jalen Brooks that we took, I thought he was a seventh-round steal, but you know how I felt about our sixth-round pick, Deuce Vaughn, the steal of the draft. So I thought, little man who played so big for Kansas State, he'd be a change-of-pace igniter, a game-changer, a cherry on top.
of my dream team, Super Bowl, here we came, or so I thought. And then that happened. We lost Trevon Diggs Thursday practice ahead of the game at Arizona, and we went out to Arizona, and we dried up in the desert. We lost 28-16 to Joshua Dobbs. We became nothing but a desert mirage. Then we went to San Francisco, and we lost 42-10 in primetime.
Sunday night, 42 to 10, we lost that thing in San Francisco, I called it. Then we eventually went to Buffalo and we lost 31 to 10, got run off the field by the Bills. We did back into the division title, but then we got all time embarrassed and humiliated by the NFL's youngest team, the Green Bay Packers, in a home playoff game. We were down 27 to nothing before halftime and 48 to 16 early in the fourth quarter.
Given our expectations, given we were the two seed versus the seven, given the fact that we had Detroit as a possibility to have to come to Dallas, where we'd already beaten them in the regular season, the next game to get us back to San Francisco for our first NFC championship game appearance in 29 years. Given all that, given those circumstances, given
In my cowboy-loving life, been a fan since I was 10 years of age, I have never experienced a more humiliating and devastating loss than that, playoff loss than that. I can make a case it was the worst playoff loss ever by any team in the history of the league. I can make a case, 27 to nothing before halftime, 48 to 16 early in the fourth quarter. I still haven't recovered.
It was just flat out horrifying to me. It was such an all-time bad sign to me. And Mozzie Smith, the strongest man in college football, became, I think, our weakest link. I don't know what he was because he just ghosted the Cowboys during games. Schoonmaker became our fourth tight end at best. Overshown blew out his knee in training camp. I don't know. Deuce got loose in the preseason several times.
but he couldn't get untracked early during the real games, and he got lost on the bench for most of the season. Dak Prescott is now 2-5 in the postseason, and Micah Parsons, my man Micah, my old Micah, 11 from heaven, went from the next Lawrence Taylor to just Larry Taylor, just some Larry Taylor, just another guy. I don't know.
Down the stretch again, I kept looking for Micah, and I just saw Larry Taylor, just some guy. Had to file missing Parsons reports to find him during games. Yet Jerry told us he was all in going into the offseason. He was going to fix all of the above. And I waited for the bombshells to drop in free agency, and they only dropped in Philadelphia, not in Dallas. I mean, we signed Eric Kendricks? Yes.
Household name? Methinks not. We suffered a mass exodus of free agents, Tony Pollard and Tyron Smith, Tyler Biotish, Dorrance Armstrong, and I'm getting sick talking about it. It just gets worse and worse. The list gets longer and longer. Hankins and Dante Fowler and Gallup. I could just go on and on. Mass exodus. Getting sick even thinking about it.
All I heard was, we got to sign our big three. We do? We're going to throw good money after bad and bring back Dak for what, three more years? No. We're going to get CD done? Nope, not yet. Micah? I don't know. Is he worth all that money? I don't know. Can we at least get CD done? No. Meanwhile...
Over in Philadelphia, they signed everybody. They extended every single significant piece in their franchise, every single one. Sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, to the point that I thought, wait a second, do they have a salary cap 10 times the size of Dallas's? That's all I could figure out. Jerry Jones still has not signed C.D. Lamb. But of course, Jerry doesn't plunge in free agency. He drafts.
Free agency is too easy. You just go buy somebody. Jerry can't really take a lot of credit for that. Nope. He runs the draft. Can you believe the 81-year-old owner of the Dallas Cowboys still presides over the draft? No owner has ever presided over the draft except for the great Al Davis. Knew him well. I mean, Al Davis was a coach.
Then he was the commissioner of the AFL before he was an owner. So Jerry did play college football, but he presides over the draft? He does. Never happened before. How does he keep getting away with it? Because he's the owner and operator of the Dallas Cowboys. I mean, you can't vote him out of office. Who's going to stop him? He runs our drafts.
When you think about it, it's insane. The owner is running your draft. He's the final say. He has veto power. He listens to Will McClay and the scouts, the staff. But in the end, Jerry's going to make that pick because Jerry can not only take satisfaction, he can take credit because he picked those players. He can tell his friends over dinner, yeah, I picked that one over that one. I saw him coming a mile away. I knew.
I saw. I got that one and I got that one. And then they become like sons to him. So they're homegrown. And that's his calling card. That's his mantra. That's his claim to fame that we draft. We don't buy. We draft. Jerry doesn't plunge. He drafts. So I said, OK, Jerry, you got me.
You're on the clock and you're on the hot seat. I need four or five instant impact rookie starters from this draft. I'm on the edge of my seat. And then I was on the floor, rolling on the floor. I'm sorry. I give Jerry Jones an F for his free agency because he didn't even try, except for Eric Kendricks. Wait, what's that running back's name? Reese somebody? I don't know. Probably won't even be on the roster. Real game start.
I'll give Jerry an F for free agency. I gave him a D plus for his draft. I saw USA Today gave him a D because he made so many mistakes, at least in my humble estimation. And I've been studying this for a long time. Meanwhile, Howie Roseman in Philadelphia, he won free agency, give him an A plus for that. And he was one of the winners of the draft. Maybe the winner. I'll give him an A for his draft.
Howie Roseman is running rings around Jerry Jones as in Super Bowl rings. This is getting flat out scary, Jerry. I mean, Jerry is 81. I don't know. Is he losing his fastball? Is he losing touch, some focus, some grip on reality? Is he going Gil Brandt? I mentioned this before.
Gil Brandt was the cowboy draft master who made and then broke Tom Landry with his draft picks. He was way ahead of the field all through the 60s, 70s. He was scouting in places nobody scouted. A lot of those teams in the 60s were still drafting out of the street in Smith Magazine. The only legwork was done by Gil and his staff in Dallas.
And they drafted rings around the league in the 60s and 70s. And did Coach Landry ever benefit from that? But once we hit the 80s and everybody caught up, then Gil had to start reaching farther and farther and farther for his first round pick so he could show the world that he was the genius that he was cracked up to be. I've got to validate my guruship here, my draft master reputation here.
By reaching for him and for him, what a litany of swings and misses did Gil Brandt hand to Tom Landry through the 80s, and it broke Coach Landry. Rome rose, Rome fell, in large part because of Gil Brandt, who didn't even play high school football in Milwaukee, who was a baby photographer before he was hired for the expansion Cowboys to be their, quote-unquote, personnel director under Tech Schramm.
Is Jerry just losing it? I mean, what is going on here? Keyshawn Johnson on Undisputed keeps accusing me of being a typical overreactive Cowboy fan, overly negative, overly passionate doomsayer. No, Keyshawn, a year ago, I said they're going to the Super Bowl. Now they're going to miss the playoffs with this roster. I want you to think through this.
Jerry's draft strategy with me. Maybe talk me off the ledge. Tell me I'm overreacting, please, if you will. All right. So we start out with Dallas sitting at 24 in the first round. And I believe they're sitting on Graham Barton out of Duke. Heard it from a number of people, Cowboy Insiders. Think they were. By all accounts, Graham Barton is a stud, potentially perennial Pro Bowl player.
center, played left tackle in college. I'm not sure how that conversion happened so fast, but he's a designated center in pro football. Pros, pro, leader, baller, plug and play at center. And then you have the beauty of his flexibility. He could play some left tackle if needed. He could definitely play left guard if needed. He could probably play any position if needed. Beautiful pick for the Dallas Cowboys. Home run.
Jerry traded back to 29. I'm thinking, wait, do you know for a fact Graham Barton's going to be sitting there at 29? No, he didn't know for a fact. At 25, the next pick, the Green Bay Packers, Brian Gutekunst, the GM of the team that had us down 27 to nothing before halftime, took another offensive lineman, a left tackle named Jordan Morgan out of Arizona,
I don't know him. I'm not going to profess to know. I just know what I read. A lot of people liked him a whole lot. Remember, Green Bay lost Bakhtiari. They need plug and play at left tackle. And I'm assuming Gutekunst thinks that Jordan Morgan is a plug and play instant impact rookie starter at left tackle for Jordan Love. It's a mouthful. Is he right?
We'll see if he's right, Turr, than Jerry was because Jerry not only didn't take Graham Barton, he didn't take Jordan Morgan. And back, Jerry went to 29 and Green Bay said, thank you very much. And then Tampa said, thank you even more, Jerry, because at 26, Tampa said, we'll take Graham Barton. And Jerry sits at 29. Did he think Graham Barton would last? I don't know. Did he think Jordan Morgan will? I don't know what Jerry was thinking. I just know what happened.
We took Tyler Guyton out of the school I grew up rooting for, the University of Oklahoma. I know his game. I've watched him a lot for two years. He was at TCU. He is huge and athletic, 6'8". I saw that Will McClay said he's got some nasty in him. I did not see that. I'm just watching television. I saw a kid who struggles in run blocking. That's usually not nasty. I saw a kid who can pass block just because he can envelop.
But that mauler baller that Tyler Smith is out of Tulsa, I don't see that in Tyler Guyton. I see project. I see maybe good to great in two or three years. Who was right about this? Jerry, you're still on the clock, my man. Then in round two, at 56, Jerry took Marshawn Neyland. Most people liked him but didn't love him. I don't know. I didn't watch him at all because he was at Western Michigan. They went four and eight.
Marshawn Neeland made third team all-MAC. There were two edge rushers on first team, two on second team, and he was one of the two on third team. Is he a special player? I doubt it. I think Mel Kiper had him ranked eighth of his defensive ends, edge rushers. Huh, interesting. Meanwhile, guess what was happening in Philadelphia? At 20 in the first round, Howie Roseman took Quinion Mitchell.
I read a quote from Micah Parsons, who was live streaming, I think, for Bleacher Report. Micah said, and I quote, I'm honestly utterly disgusted by how lucky the Eagles are. I do not know how he, meaning Quinion Mitchell, fell that far. I thought he was a top 15, top 12 player, talent, and he fell that far right into their laps at 20-21.
All last year, I criticized the Eagles defense. Everybody laughed at me and scoffed at me. I said, they are so overrated and so torturable because of that secondary. And I always said, I got Quinn Young Mitchell. And in round two, the 40th overall pick, he took Cooper Dejean.
out of Iowa. That was Mel Kuyper's first-ranked cornerback in the draft. Quinion Mitchell was Mel's second-ranked cornerback. So he got them in reverse order, but he got one and two on Mel's board. And here come the Eagles, speeding back to life in their secondary where they already acquired through free agency, got him back. C.J. Gardner-Johnson, I love him. Everywhere he goes, good things happen. Good things will happen with him back in the Eagles' secondary. It is no longer torchable territory.
Then we get to round three. This is the pick that Jerry acquired by moving back to 29. It's the ninth pick in the third round, 72 overall. And I am out of my mind because sitting right before your very eyes, Jerry Jones, is Blake Corum. I told you last week, Blake Corum was one of my favorite players, if not the favorite in the entire draft, the running back who carried Michigan through
to a national championship. He's got some Emmitt in him. He's exactly Emmitt's size at 5'9", 205 pounds. Runs average sort of 4'5"-ish, 4'5"-3". But you want to talk about quick. You want to talk about wiggle. You want to talk about hard to tackle between the tackles. Blake Corham, we needed him badly.
Jerry took another offensive lineman. I like Cooper Beebe. I saw him a good bit when Oklahoma played Kansas State. He's a very good pick, but the pick was Blake Corum, who 10 picks later went to the Rams. Way to go. Congratulations, Rams. Meanwhile, what does Philly do in the third round? They take Jalek's Hunt. I think it was Mel Kuyper's favorite player in the draft. The edge rusher, sort of maybe the next Micah Parsons.
He's a Houston Christian, so you don't know how it will translate. But everybody just raved about explosive athletic ability and how he got him in the third round. While with our second third-round pick, we took Marist Leofau out of Notre Dame, another heat-seeking missile type, probably a special teamer, ranked 12th on Mel Kuyper's off-ball linebackers. Yeah.
Sitting on the board at that point was Marshawn Lloyd. I watched him a lot because I was watching Caleb Williams playing for stinking Lincoln Riley, my ex-coach at Oklahoma out here in Hollywood with USC. Every Saturday night, Ernestine said, we have to watch him again. We have to watch him again. We're going to watch Caleb. And while I'm watching Caleb, I'm watching this transfer from South Carolina light it up at running back named Marshawn Lloyd. Hmm.
Number three on Mel Kuyper's list of running backs. And one pick after we took the immortal Marist Leofow out of Notre Dame, Green Bay sat right there and Guttekin said, thank you very much, Jerry. I'll take Marshawn Lloyd. Who was right? Who was wrong?
Then as we descend down to the fifth round, sixth round, seventh round, there are a couple of good picks that Kalen Carson, everybody raved about his athletic ability. Maybe he'll be a Duran bland, although over the last two years he intercepted no passes at Wake. But was it a need? No. It's just best player available. That Ryan Farnoy out of southeast Missouri, the receiver, 33 on Kuyper's list of receivers. I don't know. Big upside maybe.
Everybody loved Nathan Thomas, Jerry's seventh round pick as an offensive lineman, Louisiana Lafayette. 15th on Mel's list. It was pretty good. Got him in the seventh round. Difference maker? I don't know. Maybe someday. Justin Rogers, defensive tackle, big, strong, nasty. I like the pick, but these are seventh round picks and sixth round picks and fifth round picks. These aren't instant impact. Got to have them.
Must have rookie starters. I'm sorry. I just don't see it. Given the expectations, given the needs, I'm going D plus. But Jerry was drafting like we just won the Super Bowl. Luxury picks, projects, upside. This team has more holes than L.A. Country Club has. Out here in L.A., you remember where the U.S. Open was played last summer? Yeah.
LACC has 36 holes, not 18, 36. That's how many holes we have on our roster right now, 36 holes. Eagles got Saquon. I mentioned CJ, Devin White, Bryce Huff, Paris Campbell, Mekhi Becton. They just kept signing free agent after free agent, and they've locked up all their key pieces to long-term contracts. The Eagles are so much better than they were last year.
When they collapsed down the stretch and lost six of their last seven after going 10-1, they're back to 10-1, and it's going to be a legit 10-1. And I'm hearing that they've solved the conflict between Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown that I told you about. I'm hearing that. So now our 29 years without an NFC Championship game appearance looks like it will turn into 30.
So what did Jerry do the day after the draft? He tried to flimflam us, tried to deflect blame, divert our attention, sleight of hand us. He announced, Zeke's coming home. Look, to me, I used to love Zeke in those first three years, but right now, Ezekiel Elliott is more washed than dishes on Thanksgiving night. His yards per game have gone down each of his yards.
what is it now, eight seasons of pro football. Gone down every single year from 109 that first year, that rookie of the year year, all the way down to 38 a game for what was left of Belichick's Patriots last year. He came to Dallas and carried six times for 16 yards. You know the story of the Roman emperor Nero, how he fiddled while Rome burned in the great fire. Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
Jerry's fiddling around while his Rome burns, while his Cowboys go up in smoke. I really like Jerry as a guy. I loved all the time I spent around him. But as a fan, lifelong diehard fan, Jerry Jones is my worst nightmare. And it's only getting worse. This is Calvin from Minneapolis. Who is the face of the NBA and the face of the NFL? Well, look, the NBA is still obvious and easy.
The king is still the king. Still LeBron. NFL, not so obvious. No, it's not Patrick Mahomes. Want to know the truth? It's Jerry Jones. Jerry bleeping Jones. Seriously, the most recognizable face in the NFL for casual and non-fans is Jerry Jones. Gerald Wayne Jones Jr., who until 1989 was just some guy, some unknown guy.
Oil man from Little Rock, Arkansas, who had lost his shirt drilling for oil. Then he struck it rich. He was allowed to buy the Dallas Cowboys because the previous owner, Bumbright, did not like Tom Landry.
And because Jerry Jones was the only bidder, this Jerry Jones character was the only bidder, this hit from the sticks was the only bidder who said, no, I'm bringing a new coach in. I'm bringing in Jimmy Johnson. I'm going to fire Tom Landry. And Bum said, sold only in America. This is Tommy from Chicago who asks, how annoying is the what a pro wants commercial that the Thunder players are in?
I love this question, Tommy. Look, you know the truth of this. Any commercial that plays every other commercial during back-to-back-to-back-to-back NBA playoff games just gets annoying just on repetition alone. But I must tell you, if I rise above this commercial, as I step back from it, I was pleasantly shocked that two members of the very young Oklahoma City Thunder, the youngest one seed ever,
in the third smallest market in the NBA, even got a national TV commercial. But I will give you this. It is such a weird concept to me. So they are playing off, if not sort of parodying, a 1999 Christina Aguilera song, a hit, What a Girl Needs. I like the song. I knew it in 1999 when it hit, but...
Shea Gilgis Alexander was one year old in 1999, and Chet Holmgren, also in this commercial, would not be born for three more years. So it's not like they grew up knowing and loving this song as one of their all-time favorites. I don't see how they could know this song. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I don't get it. Maybe I'm out of touch. But Chet's very good in the commercial. I think he's very lively and natural.
Throws in a few hand gestures. Got a nice smile. Shay's a little more reserved. But they have pretty good chemistry in it. But their rendition of the song is just unrecognizable. I don't really understand the conceit of the commercial, which is that once Chet plays off one line and delivers it...
Then Shay picks up and then Chet picks up and they start vibing off each other as if they both know the song like you'd know your all time favorite song. I just don't get it. I don't get the point of it. And so because I don't get the point after a while, I'm a little lost on the concept. But the reason I don't find it annoying at all, the reason I watch it every single time is that I'm fascinated by the fact that
That is, I think it's an AT&T commercial. So I'm fascinated that AT&T said, we want those guys. It's time for those guys because it's their time. They have arrived. They are arriving before your very eyes. And I'm going to say it again, as a native of Oklahoma City, born and raised, I never could wrap my arms around the 2012 thunder of KD, Russ, and James Harden. But these guys,
These guys are fun to root for and fun to watch. Final question from Nils from Fort Lauderdale. Do you still write, as in W-R-I-T-E? I think I'm always right, R-I-G-H-T, but do I still write? Interesting question. I do appreciate it. Nils, right now I don't write columns or magazine articles or certainly books, but
But I do write and I write a lot. I write every day, although I'm doing what you would call writing for broadcast, as in writing words that can easily be spoken. I write all the leads to all the setups for every topic on Undisputed. I write chunks of arguments for all the debates on Undisputed. I scribble them.
Believe it or not, I write much of the show I'm uttering right now, the Skip Bayless show, much of it written. In fact, as I speak, I'm reading words that I wrote about two hours ago. Yet Nils, God willing, I will write in the near future a way behind the scenes memoir of all the untold stories of all the shocking situations that
I've been through in this crazy business I've been in, lo, these many years. I will write a book of all my fitness secrets over these many years. I'm going to write another book on a taboo topic that's too hot for me to divulge at this moment. So I apologize, but I will leave you hanging. That's it for episode 111.
Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn for producing. Please remember, Undisputed, every weekday, 930 to noon Eastern, the Skip Bayless Show, every week.