July 29, 2020 • 37 mins
Colin likes Aaron Rodgers no longer being passive aggressive about his future with the Packers, the Astros cheated and now must face the consequences, the Patriots never do anything at random, and Aaron Donald is one of the best players in the NFL.
Guest: Former NFL Head Coach Eric Mangini
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
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the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox
Sports Radio. Ah, it is a Wednesday. It is great
(00:27):
to have you when we are live and about to
get steamy Los Angeles. Wherever you may be and however
you may be listening. It is iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. We had quite a show yesterday, hard
to top Charles Barkley Last Hour stop by all sorts
of fun. Joey Taylor is joining me. Joy. How are
(00:48):
you today? Great? We're about to get steamy. Let's get
hot in La to get starting late today, It's gonna
get hot, not that kind of steam. It's like I
didn't get the men it's supposed to get now now.
I think it's been kind of chilly the basketball day
it has where I'm at on the beach, it's been
foggy and chilly. But they're saying it's going to get very,
very steamy. So you know what I M. It's funny
(01:12):
about my wife. You know, once twice a year we
have to have like the uncomfortable conversation about something, kids, money,
whatever it is, and my wife she says, you don't
like that talk about that. I'm like, okay, today we
got to talk about money, just money talk. And the
reason I'm not a real passive aggressive guy. You know,
if I if I think something, I'll say something, and
(01:34):
a lot of people don't like me for that, not
just on the air, off the air, I'll just say, hey,
this bothers me. I don't like passive aggressive and so
I and I think the reason I'd rather people be
aggressive is because, hey, it's painful initially. You know, good news,
bad news. What do you want to hear? I'm a
bad news guy. Give me the bad news first. Let's
get it out of the way and have a good life.
(01:54):
So I've always been hey, give me the bad news first.
I like uncomfortable conversations because it's painful initially, but then
it creates trust. I mean, if that guy, if my
wife can tell me the uncomfortable stuff, but I know
she's not gonna lie to me about the little stuff.
And Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers. I've been critical of him
through the years because I think he can be passive aggressive.
He went aggressive. He was interviewing on some podcast with
(02:18):
Kyle Brandt and I'm not sure Ringer or something like that,
and Aaron went into the most uncomfortable conversation an older
quarterback can have. I'm going to get replaced pretty soon
here it is talking about Jordan Love, first round pick
for the Packers at quarterback. Was I bummed? Out of course?
Who wouldn't be, you know, like I wanted to play
(02:39):
my entire career in Green Bay. I love the city.
I grew up there. Really scot twenty one, I'm thirty
six now and a lot of changes during that time.
But look, I get it. I see it completely clearly,
and then I'm not bitter about it. It just kind
of is what it is. Brady and Garoppolo, they had
this irritation for three years. Nobody wanted to talk about it.
(03:01):
In the end, New England gave Garoppolo away for a
second round pick because nobody wanted to talk about it.
It's one of the bad moves, probably not keeping Brady
but getting nothing for it that Belichick ever made. Chandler
Jones was not a great move, and Garoppolo for a
second round is not a great move because nobody wanted
to talk about it. Aaron's being brutally honest. I'm thirty six,
(03:24):
I've had two surgeries. You drafted them in the first round. Folks,
if you draft a quarterback in the first round, they
all play within two years. In fact, I believe the
last quarterback to be drafted in the first round who
didn't play in the first two years was Aaron Rodgers.
They're gonna play Jordan Love. They're gonna play him at
least next year. And again Aaron Rodgers is willing to
(03:46):
have a big boy, grown up adult conversation. Just look
at the facts. You know, they traded up, they drafted them.
I would say, they like them, they want to play
them now. I think quarterbacks should playing earlier, gives, you know,
give some latitude for young coaches and gms to you know,
to play there, to play their guys. And I get it,
(04:08):
I really do. Like I don't harbor any ill will
about it. Like was I bummed out of course? Who
wouldn't be, you know, like I wanted to play my
entire career in Green Bay. I love the city. I
grew up there, really scot then was twenty one. I'm
thirty six now, and a lot of changes during that time.
Aaron's own spaceship apparently I Love this FARV didn't end
(04:28):
in Green Bay. Peyton Manning didn't end An n By
Brady's now in Tampa Bay, Johnny Unitas, Uh, Peyton Manning,
Joe Namath. You generally, if you want to keep playing,
and Aaron does, you're not going to be in Green Bay.
And he just Aaron just took all the tension out
of the room. He's just Aaron just said, let's just
talk about this. You drafted him in the first round,
(04:51):
You're gonna play him. I get it. This is the
Aaron Rodgers I love. There's no, there's no This is
not being a disruptive player. It's being a totally honest player.
I was told by my agent years ago, and it's
the smartest thing my agent ever said. The company you
work for in the media makes the decision to get
(05:11):
rid of you at least a year or two before
they tell you. And I know that's true because in
the last year. I've seen two people who do what
I do for a living get demoted or lose a gig.
And I heard about those conversations three years ago. That's
the way it's working. Green Bay's having conversations right now
about Aaron Rodgers two collarbone surgeries appears to be slightly
(05:34):
out of his prime, really super expensive, you know, can
sometimes irritate certain executives or coaches. This is the conversation
you need to have. Jordan Loves going to play early,
and Aaron's adult about it, logical about it, aggressive about it.
This is not a bad day for Green Bay. Aaron
(05:56):
just took all that like tension in the facility. You
can ah, hey boom, you're gonna replace me. I get it.
Let's go play by the way. I'm not gonna let
you beat me. I'm gonna be great for the next
three years. They're not gonna I'm gonna make the packers
have to make a brutal decision because I'm gonna be
great for the next two to three years. There's no
tension here now, instead of Aaron not saying anything, and
(06:17):
all of us, like guys like me, are like, oh god.
They put Jordan Love in for a red zone offensive set.
This is oh, oh god, he looked good in preseason.
Oh why do you Aaron just eliminated all of it.
Be willing to have uncomfortable conversations. It's painful initially, but
builds trusts, which at the end, wasn't the reason Brady
(06:45):
left New England. Wasn't it like a trust thing, wasn't.
It wasn't because Belichick was a bad coach or Craft
was a bad owner. They weren't paying him, Like, Brady
didn't really trust they could get him weapons. Brady didn't
really trust that they'd go out and spend money in
free agency. It was a trust issue. Brady just didn't
(07:05):
trust that they would get him what he needs to
beat Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. To me, if I'm
Green Bay today, I'm like, thank god, Aaron just talked
about the one thing we're gonna have to kind of
talk about for the next three years. Speaking of talking,
Dusty Baker's the manager in Houston. He's very upset. Last
night the Astros cheaters play the Dodgers non cheaters, And
(07:29):
of course, the Astros won the World Series a couple
of years ago over the Dodgers. While cheating. Now that's
not to say if they had not cheated they would
not have won. Who knows, but it was egregious. They
were basically not just stealing signs. They were stealing signs
and relaying that information to all their hitters in Houston,
who it appears, were better because they knew exactly what
(07:51):
was coming off speed, fastball location, blah blah blah. So
last night, what do you know a Dodger pitcher sales
a ball on a three and occunt out over the
head of an astro and Dusty Baker does not like
it at all. You know, you don't throw it a
guy's head. That's that's that's that's playing dirty baseball. I mean,
(08:12):
now you're uh, you know, ending his career. And then
you know what really and raised everybody is when you
know he told Carlos, I mean, he struck him out
and he told him nicely to see, what are you
What are you supposed to do then? And that's a
good question. I want you to remember that sentence. What
(08:33):
are you supposed to do? Then? So what are you
supposed to do? Says Dusty Baker if you call my
batter a name, So Dusty, what are you supposed to
do when your team, the Astros, stole the World Series
from me, and all baseball did was, you know, fire
(08:54):
a GM and take away some draft picks. We didn't
get the World Series. Dodgers didn't get it. What are
they supposed to do? This is a sport that polices itself,
that is the culture. And what you're supposed to do
is now throw the ball at Astros. This is Baseball
has the most punitive repercussions in the world. Even in hockey.
(09:20):
If I bang one of your guys up against the
board and you send a thug out to beat on me,
at least I can throw punches at you. This is
what you do in baseball. As Dusty said, what are
we supposed to do? They called us a name? What
are the Dodgers supposed to do? Taken away draft picks
doesn't get him the World Series ring? This is what
you do? Well, he threw at his head. Name the
(09:44):
litany of players whose careers have ended getting conked by
a baseball Dickie Thon eighties Astros promising talent hit in
the head, played years later, but was about a two
fifty hitter. This is what you do listen. I'll never
be in a drug cartel, but if I was, you
don't steal from the boss. The repercussions they lop your
(10:07):
head off. I'll never be a mobster, but if I
was in a New York crime family, I'd never sell Heroin.
The bosses don't like it. Why you end up in
the Hudson. If you work in baseball and you are
willing to cheat egregiously, these are the repercussions. They throw
an orb at ninety eight miles an hour at you, ribs, butt, shoulders, head. Listen.
(10:34):
There are a lot of ways in life. I'm willing
to push the envelope and cheat. Speed limit sixty, I'll
go sixty five. What am I going to get a ticket?
I've jaywalked before. I want to get to a restaurant quicker.
Don't want to wait nine minutes for a light. What
am I going to get a twenty dollars ticket? I've
pulled up before seven minutes on the parking meter. I
think it's gonna take me ten I'll roll the dice
(10:56):
or a parking ticket. When the repercussions, you know ball,
I'm super aggressive. I may jump offsides oho a five
yard penalty. So what that's why so many edge rushers
they inch, they inch, they inch. They try to guess,
they try to guess the snap count. If we're leading
by a couple of touchdowns, you gotta throw to five
yard penalty. Okay, it's second and five, not second and ten.
(11:19):
But in baseball, these are the repercussions for cheating. It's
a sport that has the most punitive repercussions in the world.
Soccer didn't do this. Basketball a hard foul, all right,
you get a couple couple free throws. Football you're off sides.
It's a five yard penalty. Baseball, you cheat, I'm throwing
at you high. Then don't cheat like you gotta know
(11:46):
in your business what's the penalty for the crime. And
obviously baseball is not a carteller, a mob family, not analogous.
But there are places where the crime is a slap
on the wrist. That has never been the case in baseball.
You cheat, you are a target for a long long time.
(12:07):
They hold grudges in baseball, I mean forever. It's a
sport that's history is everything. And Houston ninety eight in
the ribs ninety eight high that's what you get sorry
taken away a few draft picks and fire in your
GM is not enough for the Dodgers. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter
(12:28):
not Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeartRadio app. So I have said, if people's resume shows
me a history of being smart, prepared, and manipulative, then
that's who they are. Most of the media in America
believes a bunch of things are happening for the Patriots
(12:51):
in the last three to four months, and they're all
just random. You know. They just had a camera guy
up in the Bengals press box to tape them. It
was just totally and every day, and we think the
Patriots are just doing something that Patriots say, you know,
it just we didn't have any idea. We find out
that they did have an idea and there was a
plan behind it, because there's a plan behind everything Bill
Belijick does. Yesterday, finally, an NFL executive went to Adam
(13:16):
Schefter and said about all the Patriots opting out at
the same time, he said, Bill's masterminding all of this.
Schefter said for what reason? And the executive said, I
don't know. But that's who he is exactly. Every time
that Patriots get caught with something, there's this we don't
know what you're talking about, and then we find out
(13:37):
they knew exactly what they were doing. You believe in
the last four months, these are all random occurrences. What
I'm going to speak of. Number one, they weren't remotely
aggressive in free agency. Well, they always go after a
couple of people. Two, they let some really good players
(13:58):
go valuable like Kyle Vanoy. They like that were marginally expensive,
all right. Number three, they didn't have any real plan
to replace Tom Brady. Sorry, Cam Newton was not a plan.
It was a bad news coming. Let's sign him. If
it's a plan, you wouldn't let the rest of the
market have a shot at Cam Newton. You went in
until everybody else had a quarterback. That's not a plan.
(14:20):
And number four, now all their players are opting out.
You think these are all random. This is the least
random coach in the history of the league. This is
the least random organization in the history of the sport.
They do nothing without preparation. But I think this is
one of the few instances where I think the fans
(14:42):
get it over the media. The media doesn't want to
say tanking, and I don't see it as tanking. The
word scares us. I don't think they're tanking. But I'll
give you an example. I sold some Starbucks stock two
or three days ago at a loss. Now why did
I do that. I never bought the Starbucks stock to
lose money. But over the course of this year, I
(15:05):
sold some stocks because I thought the market was too
heated up. I sold some docu sign some Shopify good
stocks i'd had. I made a lot of money and
I sold them. But that means capital gains. I'm gonna
pay taxes. So a couple days ago I looked and
I think, I thought I need a loss because I
don't want to pay all these taxes. And I look
at Starbucks and I'm like, you know what, I bought
it to make money. I don't think in the next
(15:27):
five years it's going to do nearly as good as
some other stuff. So I sold it at a loss.
I didn't buy it to lose money, but I sold
it as a loss to take a step backwards. Helped
me with my capital gains to get two steps forward,
won't have to pay as much taxes Nobody buys stocks
to lose, but to sell them sometimes to catch your
(15:49):
capital gain wins. The Patriots aren't building. They see there's
three A plus college prospects and about three teams in
league that need him, and they've got enough draft picks
where they can move in more. So we just we
keep winning super bowls. We got a bunch of equity.
We're up against the cap. Let's let a few guys
(16:13):
go not be aggressive. Let's see what we got in
Jarrett Stidham and oh darn if we go seven and
nine and have a nine pick and outside of Jacksonville
nobody needs a quarterback, we get one. I don't think
this is tanking. This is not tanking. It's restructuring. It's
selling a stock at a loss to help you with
some capital gains wins. Okay, So I don't see it
(16:36):
that and the other the other thing. Even my buddy
Ryan Rissillo, who I love, fell into this trap yesterday.
He said something. Listen, listen quote to the end of
this quote, Belichick's not telling all of these guys. Hey,
you know what, Patrick Chongtar just shut it down. I
just don't think Belichick is wired that way. I don't
think football guys are wired that way. I think the
only people that have ever really suggesting tanking are front
office people that have come from like non traditional football backgrounds.
(16:58):
And I think Bill is still wired to want to
win every single game, win this division without Brady, and yeah,
of course they're going to need a long term solution
to quarterback. But to tank for a high quarterback draft
pick when fifty percent of these guys flame out anyway,
no matter who's evaluating these guys, I think it's to
just punt on an entire year in the NFL is
(17:18):
so foreign to these guys. Okay, so Warren Buffett buy
stocks like Belichick, He's wired to buy stocks and make
money with all of them, but Warren Buffett occasionally sells
a stock. Belichick is wired to win all the games,
but he does see sell a little to gain a little. Secondly,
this narrative fifty percent of these quarterbacks don't make it
(17:38):
was true by entire life, It is no longer true.
Outside of Paxton Lynch, there hasn't been a first round
quarterback bust in six or seven years. Can't say Josh
Roles and yet because he's got no opportunity it's about
eighty percent make it. Because the league has changed. It's
more collegiate Schematically, players don't bust in the round. If
(18:00):
you get Trevor Lawrence, it's hitting. If you get justin Fields,
it's hitting. If you get Trey Lance, it's hitting. It's
no longer a fifty fifty proposition. Now it was my
entire life, my entire life, it was a coin flip
of a guy made it. It is not anymore. The
game is more offensive, the rules are more offensive. There's
more college schemes. This generation of college quarterbacks has been
(18:21):
thrown at ten thousand passes since they were nine years old.
These seven on seven, Elite eleven camps, it's changed everything.
The bust rate has plummeted. Mitch Truebiski seen as a bust.
He's got a winning record, he won a division, he
should have won a playoff game. Double doink, and he's
a bust. He's got a winning record. So it is
(18:45):
not tanking. It is I believe. I don't believe these
are all random occurrences, because I think the Patriots are
the least random organization in the history of the league.
Just how I see it. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but
I think they're going to end up in top ten
in the NFL in the draft. I do, I do.
They just don't have any playmakers. They don't have any
special players. Now that the High Tower and Patrick Chung
(19:07):
are out, who are their special players that don't have
any gam running for his life? Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd week dayson noon Easter ninety Empacific.
All Right, So I saw this the the NFL Top
one hundred players. NFL dot Com players vote on this,
and players you know, they like mostly accurate, but players
(19:29):
like what they like, and they got Josh Allen in here.
Carson Wentz not I'm out. I'm a Vegas card dealer.
I'm out. List of stupid. But I'll tell you this.
The top ten has been released. Now, they haven't told
you the order of the top ten, but here's the
top ten players that they'll put him in order tomorrow.
Stefan Gilmour, Aaron Donald, Derrick, Henry, DeAndre Hopkins, Lamar Jackson,
(19:51):
George Kittell, Christian McCaffrey, Patrick Mahomes, Michael Thomas, Russell Wilson.
I don't know if I put Derreck Henry there. But
it's a pretty damn good list. But you want to
know what defines great in the NFL, one guy Aaron Donald,
not Patrick Mahomes. Aaron Donald is so good in a
(20:13):
clearly offensive league where clearly everybody appreciates offensive players. He
plays an unglamorous defensive position, and he's an dominant number
one player. When Lawrence Taylor was in his prime, if
I would have asked you who's the second best edge
rusher in the league, you could have argued over thirty guys.
That's how big the gap was. When Reggie White was
(20:35):
the best defensive lineman, I said whose second? You'd argued
over nine guys. That's how big the gap is. Aaron
Donald is so dominant in this league. The second best
defensive lineman to players is a guy who's always hurt,
JJ Watt at forty five. Patrick Mahomes is great, but
he's not as electric with his feet as Lamar Jackson.
(20:56):
He doesn't see the field like Tom Brady. He's not
as up is Russell Wilson. He doesn't have the lightning
release like Aaron Rodgers. And Mahomes is great, but there
are elements of Patrick Mahomes that aren't Russell, that aren't Brady,
that aren't Lamar Jackson, that aren't Aaron Rodgers. There are elements.
Donald is the best that everything. He's the best against
(21:18):
the run, He's never hurt. He's great in the locker room.
He has forty four sacks in forty six games from
an interior line position. If I say who's second best?
J J. Watt can't stay healthy, there is no second best.
I mean it's when you I mean there are things
that Russell Wilson does better than Patrick Mahomes. No defensive
(21:41):
lineman does anything better than Aaron Donald. He's the best
that everything, never hurt, great teammate, he has doubled on
every single snap and often triple team and you cannot
stop him. He is unbelievable. He is the three best
defensive guys I've ever seen. I'm not counting like safeties.
Ed Reid was set, Dion was sick in the box.
(22:03):
It's Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, Aaron Donald. That is it.
I don't even know who's second best, and nobody, even
though players acknowledge the number two defensive lineman is JJ Watt.
He Aaron is a mon and I love Fletcher Cox,
and I think Chris Jones is special. I don't even
think they're This guy is absurd, and our buddy Dave
(22:26):
Wanstat recruited him out of high school. He was not
a big recruit. That Aaron Donald is unbelievable. How about
this one. So I've been defending Aaron Rodgers a lot lately,
and I'm getting tired of it. But I defended him today.
He went aggressive, he talked about Jordan Love. I really
liked it. Aaron doesn't like me, he doesn't. He thinks
(22:47):
I'm always negative. I'm not ninety percent of what I
say is good. I think he's passive aggressive. I hate that,
and I don't think he's the easiest guy to get
along with. I've got proof, but be that as it may.
First ballot Hall of Famer, top six guy in the league,
I think I think he's moved a little out of
his prime, but he's still you know, he's top four
or five guys in the league easily. This though, I
(23:07):
couldn't do a show being nice, so the Athletic did
a quarterback tier pull. Mike Sander was on the show yesterday,
so he does this every year. He talks to fifty
coaches in the NFL, head coaches, coordinators, all that stuff,
and they vote on tiers, and Aaron was in the
first tier. That's fine, But when I read this, I cringe,
(23:27):
said one of the executives. You know, I've faced him
so many times. He's the same guy. The weapons around
him have fallen off. You know, before they had a
mix of young and old guys, a Randall Cobb and
Greg Jettings, James Jones adding Davante Adams, He's good. I'm
not none number one. So the insinuation here is Aaron.
You know, he just doesn't have the support time out,
(23:48):
pro football focus. I trust him on old line grading
Green Bay number four, Russell Wilson's old line number twenty eight.
Davante Adams is a number one receiver. Aaron Jones is
a number one back, good online, star receiver, starback. I'm
not saying it's perfect, but since Aaron Rodgers got the
(24:09):
starting job in Green Bay. We looked this up this morning.
He's had twelve Pro bowlers on offense, some of them
multiple two and three and four years. He said, twelve.
Tom Brady in twenty years in New England had eleven
in twice the time, and almost none of them outside
(24:32):
of Gronk, were like multiple year guys. It was a
one off. By the way. Russell Wilson all his time
in Seattle. Six offensive Pro bowlers, and I'm here to
tell you couple of them, Marshawn Lynch was a dog.
But there's some borderline all pros. So Green Bay has
(24:53):
overwhelmingly been a rock solid organization for Brett Farve and
Aaron Rodgers career. Now, culturally it is not a free
agent destination. You cannot blame Green Bay for that. They
don't have an owner, and it's culturally it's a tiny,
tiny town so that you can't blame green Bay for that.
That's just the reality of them. I mean, I got
nothing against the New Orleans Pelicans, but they're not as
(25:15):
glamorous as the LA Lakers. That's not their fault, that's
their reality. If you're five foot three, you'll never play
in the NBA. It's not your fault, it's your reality.
But Green Bay is a well run organization. They've almost
always given Aaron a number one receiver, a really good
offensive line that I bristle at that he just didn't
have the support. I'm not saying he's got Lamar Jackson
(25:37):
or Patrick Mahomes support. I'm not saying that. I'm not
saying even has Peyton Manning his career support in India.
I'm not saying that. But let's slow down and they
doesn't get help. Come on, give me a break on that.
Russell Wilson's old line has stunk since they traded away
Max Hunger. Four years of garbage. They can't get the
tight end position right. Doug Baldwin's his best receiver, he
was undrafted. Come on, they've whipped on a bunch of
(26:01):
first round pick. Green Bay doesn't whiff on a lot
of first round picks. Seattle does. So that I bristle up,
and you know I was being really you know, mostly
say nice things about Aaron, but that one I'm always like,
come on, come on, slowdown, slow down. I don't want
to hear about that. Green Bay's well run. There's five
organizations in the last twenty years that have almost always
been well run. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, green Bay, New England. You
(26:26):
would admit, though they bailed on giving him a defense
of any sort, though well bailed or I mean, it's
not like they haven't drafted defense for three straight years,
bailed or top free agents don't want to play in
Green Bay. I don't think they've bailed on it. I
mean they've gone heavy into the secondary, and they went
and got two free agent linebackers last year. I don't
(26:47):
think bailed's a fair word. I think they've I think
they've I think they've given him more than enough help
on the offensive side, and Aaron has been He has
helped elevate those players. Aaron deserves credit. Their defenses haven't
been as good, but there's a reality in this line.
He's got to go out and put up thirty five
points every game to win. Hey, I'm carrying this network
(27:07):
on my shoulders. Well, hear me complaining about it, Kath,
I'm a jerk today. I really one more Herd. The
Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a
week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live
or on demand whenever you like. Baseball ratings up one
hundred eighty nine percent and without fans. It tells you
(27:30):
how people are starving for sports in America. I do
think baseball is in a unique spot with all that travel.
It's it's a little bit of a global sport. I
think it's gonna be really hard for baseball, but I
think they're gonna get through it, and there's gonna be
stops and starts and it's gonna be difficult. But the
games have been great. I've been watching them. They've been fantastic.
Not as much juice without fans, but the networks Fox
(27:52):
has done a great job to give you some ambiance.
I've enjoyed it a lot. Eric Mangini three years a
Jets head coach. A couple of years in Cleveland. He's
coached under Belichick. Harball On Bill Parcel's part of three
Super Bowls in New England is joining us in Cape Cod.
Beautiful part of the country. So let's start with Jamal
Adams train. Let's start with that. So Saturday, I get
it on my phone and my initial reaction is good, Hell,
(28:14):
Seattle gave up a ton for a safety. Minka Fitzpatrick
got just one first round pick and he's terrific. So
that's my gut feeling. And then you can peel layers back.
But what was your initial take when you saw it?
The same thing that the fact that Seattle was willing
to give up two number ones really bailed out the
Jets because once you start going after the owner, which
(28:36):
is look, he had gone after that coach, he had
gone after the organization, and then he went after the owner.
So the Jets were going to have to make a move.
He couldn't stay there. So if you wait, you know
that that his value is going to come down. It's
not going to go up. So to pay that price,
it's that's the price that you would expect. There to
be multiple suitors where you had to you had to
(28:58):
push it that high. So Aaron Rodgers talked about the
elephant in the room. So if you were the coach,
Aaron came out yesterday on a podcast and said, I'm
probably not gonna end my career here. I'm not bitter.
But they moved up to get Jordan's love in the
first round. They moved up to get him. I'm older,
I'm expensive, And to me that my takeaway was, he
(29:22):
now releases all the tension out of the room. Everybody
can talk about it. We're all aware of the situation.
We don't have to walk on eggshells about Jordan Love
at practice. I loved it as a general manager. It's
like I can go up to Aaron and we don't
have to pretend it doesn't exist. But if you were
coaching Green Bay today and Aaron's come out and said, listen,
I see the future, I'm not in it here, would
(29:44):
it bother you? Well, I think that's that's the message
that they wanted to send when they drafted the quarterback.
When you make that decision, you're you're saying that we're
drafting the future. And Aaron Rodgers was the one guy
on that team that was untouchable. And Aaron at time, Look,
I don't know him, I've never dealt with him from
a coaching perspective, but I'm sure he's got a pretty
(30:05):
strong personality. And for a young coach, this sends a
message to him and to the rest of the team
that this is that there's nobody bigger than the team.
If anything, it's a great situation because Aaron played extremely
well last year and now if he thinks he's going
to be leaving either next year or the year after,
you're getting an even a higher motivated player because he's
(30:28):
working on contract years. He's working on his potential future,
which which isn't going to be in Green Bay. But
I don't think it's going to be next year, Colin.
I think if it were at least two years away
from that. Okay, so listen, nobody agrees with me on
what I'm gonna say. But nothing the Patriots do is random.
They're the least random team in the history of the world.
(30:48):
Everything's got a plan. So they didn't really go after
Tom's replacement, Cam Newton. They let everybody in the league
have a shot at him. You know, they brought him that.
That wasn't aggressive. They weren't aggressive in free agency. Let
really marginally expensive guys go. Now the whole team's opting out.
I don't think it's the worst thing in the world
to go seven to nine or eight and eight. They're
not tanking. But good lord, we got three A plus
(31:12):
quarterback prospects. They don't have a quarterback for the future.
How can I not be a little cynical and think
this feels like a sudden This doesn't feel random to me,
So tell me how wrong I am. Okay, you're completely wrong.
The Cam Newton situation that was a function of a
lottery ticket. All the risk is on Cam and that
(31:33):
they've got five hundred and fifty thousand dollars and on
cam And what does Tampa Bay have fifty million dollars
and on Tom Brady? So if he works out, he
works out. If not, they've got the two guys that
they had before. In terms of playing for a quarterback,
Bill has been a head coach. This will be twenty
six years. He's never drafted a quarterback in the first round.
(31:55):
He's got two of his kids on the staff. This
is a year where Tom Brady's moves on and everybody's
debating legacy. I don't think that that he's immune to that.
So the idea that he would tank or try to
lose to get a top tier quarterback, no chance. Tanking
is the wrong word. Couldn't you say he's rebooting. It's
(32:19):
a convenient time to reboot, just like it's a convenient
time sometimes to sell a stock. You didn't buy it
to lose money. But if you're gonna take a capital
gains hit, you sell a stock to help you on taxes,
you certainly didn't buy it to lose money. But there
are times where the timing. Golden State's a prime example.
Golden State, they're not tanking, but Steph got hurt, Clays
(32:40):
banged up. You know what, just a pretty good year
for us to take a step back to get a
lottery pick next year. What if I took the word
tanking out, he's rebooting. Well, look, I don't think that
they knew that this many guys were going to opt out,
because they would have Nothing is random, as you said,
and then they plan and they look towards the future.
(33:03):
So if you had anticipated this volume of guys opting out,
you you probably would have done some things differently. I
was surprised by that number as well. But it's and
I get your market analogy, and I get your stock analogy,
but this it's not the same. He has to reboot
(33:25):
almost every year. He's he's the king of rebooting. But
it's always rebooting with the idea of winning the division
and being in a position to go deep into the playoffs.
It's not rebooting in order to get a quarterback. He
doesn't draft quarterbacks high. That's that's not what he does.
And you know, as he as he gets further on
(33:46):
his career, it's hard for me imagine he's changing that
philosophy that that dramatically. So the NFL at shift gears
top one hundred players voted on by the players, so
some of its nonsense. They got Josh Allen in there,
but not Carson Wentz stupid. All right, whatever if I
said to you, I said to you, forget position. Single
(34:07):
best football player in the world right now, who is it? Well,
I would have to go with Patrick Mahomes. I think
that it's hard to argue against what he's done, and
then the type of force multiplier that he's been in
Kansas City, and the fact that he's he was able
to overcome some of those leads that they that they
(34:27):
had that so it would it would start with him.
You're talking about league multiplier stuff. Okay, I don't care
about position, So I would argue this. There are things,
there are things in the league that he's not the
best at quarterback. He's not as elusive as Russell Wilson.
He's not as explosive dynamic with his feet as Lamar.
(34:47):
He doesn't read the field quite like Brady. His release
isn't quite as fast as Rogers. Aaron Donald is so
good that there's no second you can't even pick up.
The number two ranked defensive lineman is a guy that
can't stay on the field. JJ Watt, who has like
fiftieth in sacks. Aaron doesn't even have a peer, And
it reminds me of Lawrence Taylor when Lawrence Taylor was
(35:08):
the best player in the league. If I ask you
who's the second back to Ed Rucher, there really wasn't
an answer. He was so far above everybody else. Look,
Aaron Donald is amazing when you just look at him.
Over the last couple of years, he's almost thirty five
sacks was it forty five tackles for loss and close
to sixty five quarterback hits and everybody's planning to try
(35:32):
to stop this guy. It's not like he's sneaking up
on anybody. You're game planning to make sure that he
doesn't ruin the game. And he still has that type
of production. Yeah, he's incredible at his position, and he's
an interior defensive lineman. You can slide the line and
get some help for him, and then he could also
keep backs in and try to deal when people are
(35:53):
game planning for him, and he's a disruptive. Yeah, he's
an incredible player. What was your first year in the NFL.
My first year in the NFL was like nineteen ninety four.
I think so Lawrence Taylor was out of the league. Yeah,
I watched a bunch of My dad growing up was
(36:13):
a Diehart Giants fan, so I watched a million Giants games.
It's like the only thing we could watch in our house.
So I got, let's see plenty of Lawrence Taylor, didn't,
you know, didn't take much to know even as a
young kid that he was different than everybody else. Was
Reggie White out of the league? Uh? No, Reggie was
(36:37):
still around at that time. Yeah, because that's what Aaron
Donald reminds me of. He's so much better than everybody
in his position. It's come. The thing with defensive lineman
is you you talk about that all the time as
as a head coach in his offensive staff, Who's the
one player that can ruin the game if we don't
take care of him, if we give him that that
(36:57):
single opportunity, who can single handedly ruined the game? And
every single time you're talking about Aaron Donald a year
and a year out, he's barely ever missed any time.
What's he missed two games in his career? Yeah, so
he's had impactful, uh level of production year and a
year out and miss no time. It's hard it's hard
to find a peer. Yeah, it sounds like you're backtracking
(37:20):
on that Mahomes comment. To me, that's what it's if
you finally know, how can you how can you possibly
take an interior defensive linement over a quarterback? You couldn't.
You can't do it, Colin. If that's the way you
see the world, I don't know. I like, Okay, I
know you're I know you're in a bad mood today.
So a non alcoholic beer is reportedly taken over the world,
(37:41):
and I said, I'm moving to Canada. I'm not drinking
non alcoholic beer. What's the point? Where where did you
hear that from? I heard it on Twitter beer commercials. No, Twitter.
Twitter is totally accurate on everything. That's where I got
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
at Fox sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd is
the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox
Sports Radio. Ah, it is a Wednesday. It is great
(00:27):
to have you when we are live and about to
get steamy Los Angeles. Wherever you may be and however
you may be listening. It is iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. We had quite a show yesterday, hard
to top Charles Barkley Last Hour stop by all sorts
of fun. Joey Taylor is joining me. Joy. How are
(00:48):
you today? Great? We're about to get steamy. Let's get
hot in La to get starting late today, It's gonna
get hot, not that kind of steam. It's like I
didn't get the men it's supposed to get now now.
I think it's been kind of chilly the basketball day
it has where I'm at on the beach, it's been
foggy and chilly. But they're saying it's going to get very,
very steamy. So you know what I M. It's funny
(01:12):
about my wife. You know, once twice a year we
have to have like the uncomfortable conversation about something, kids, money,
whatever it is, and my wife she says, you don't
like that talk about that. I'm like, okay, today we
got to talk about money, just money talk. And the
reason I'm not a real passive aggressive guy. You know,
if I if I think something, I'll say something, and
(01:34):
a lot of people don't like me for that, not
just on the air, off the air, I'll just say, hey,
this bothers me. I don't like passive aggressive and so
I and I think the reason I'd rather people be
aggressive is because, hey, it's painful initially. You know, good news,
bad news. What do you want to hear? I'm a
bad news guy. Give me the bad news first. Let's
get it out of the way and have a good life.
(01:54):
So I've always been hey, give me the bad news first.
I like uncomfortable conversations because it's painful initially, but then
it creates trust. I mean, if that guy, if my
wife can tell me the uncomfortable stuff, but I know
she's not gonna lie to me about the little stuff.
And Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers. I've been critical of him
through the years because I think he can be passive aggressive.
He went aggressive. He was interviewing on some podcast with
(02:18):
Kyle Brandt and I'm not sure Ringer or something like that,
and Aaron went into the most uncomfortable conversation an older
quarterback can have. I'm going to get replaced pretty soon
here it is talking about Jordan Love, first round pick
for the Packers at quarterback. Was I bummed? Out of course?
Who wouldn't be, you know, like I wanted to play
(02:39):
my entire career in Green Bay. I love the city.
I grew up there. Really scot twenty one, I'm thirty
six now and a lot of changes during that time.
But look, I get it. I see it completely clearly,
and then I'm not bitter about it. It just kind
of is what it is. Brady and Garoppolo, they had
this irritation for three years. Nobody wanted to talk about it.
(03:01):
In the end, New England gave Garoppolo away for a
second round pick because nobody wanted to talk about it.
It's one of the bad moves, probably not keeping Brady
but getting nothing for it that Belichick ever made. Chandler
Jones was not a great move, and Garoppolo for a
second round is not a great move because nobody wanted
to talk about it. Aaron's being brutally honest. I'm thirty six,
(03:24):
I've had two surgeries. You drafted them in the first round. Folks,
if you draft a quarterback in the first round, they
all play within two years. In fact, I believe the
last quarterback to be drafted in the first round who
didn't play in the first two years was Aaron Rodgers.
They're gonna play Jordan Love. They're gonna play him at
least next year. And again Aaron Rodgers is willing to
(03:46):
have a big boy, grown up adult conversation. Just look
at the facts. You know, they traded up, they drafted them.
I would say, they like them, they want to play
them now. I think quarterbacks should playing earlier, gives, you know,
give some latitude for young coaches and gms to you know,
to play there, to play their guys. And I get it,
(04:08):
I really do. Like I don't harbor any ill will
about it. Like was I bummed out of course? Who
wouldn't be, you know, like I wanted to play my
entire career in Green Bay. I love the city. I
grew up there, really scot then was twenty one. I'm
thirty six now, and a lot of changes during that time.
Aaron's own spaceship apparently I Love this FARV didn't end
(04:28):
in Green Bay. Peyton Manning didn't end An n By
Brady's now in Tampa Bay, Johnny Unitas, Uh, Peyton Manning,
Joe Namath. You generally, if you want to keep playing,
and Aaron does, you're not going to be in Green Bay.
And he just Aaron just took all the tension out
of the room. He's just Aaron just said, let's just
talk about this. You drafted him in the first round,
(04:51):
You're gonna play him. I get it. This is the
Aaron Rodgers I love. There's no, there's no This is
not being a disruptive player. It's being a totally honest player.
I was told by my agent years ago, and it's
the smartest thing my agent ever said. The company you
work for in the media makes the decision to get
(05:11):
rid of you at least a year or two before
they tell you. And I know that's true because in
the last year. I've seen two people who do what
I do for a living get demoted or lose a gig.
And I heard about those conversations three years ago. That's
the way it's working. Green Bay's having conversations right now
about Aaron Rodgers two collarbone surgeries appears to be slightly
(05:34):
out of his prime, really super expensive, you know, can
sometimes irritate certain executives or coaches. This is the conversation
you need to have. Jordan Loves going to play early,
and Aaron's adult about it, logical about it, aggressive about it.
This is not a bad day for Green Bay. Aaron
(05:56):
just took all that like tension in the facility. You
can ah, hey boom, you're gonna replace me. I get it.
Let's go play by the way. I'm not gonna let
you beat me. I'm gonna be great for the next
three years. They're not gonna I'm gonna make the packers
have to make a brutal decision because I'm gonna be
great for the next two to three years. There's no
tension here now, instead of Aaron not saying anything, and
(06:17):
all of us, like guys like me, are like, oh god.
They put Jordan Love in for a red zone offensive set.
This is oh, oh god, he looked good in preseason.
Oh why do you Aaron just eliminated all of it.
Be willing to have uncomfortable conversations. It's painful initially, but
builds trusts, which at the end, wasn't the reason Brady
(06:45):
left New England. Wasn't it like a trust thing, wasn't.
It wasn't because Belichick was a bad coach or Craft
was a bad owner. They weren't paying him, Like, Brady
didn't really trust they could get him weapons. Brady didn't
really trust that they'd go out and spend money in
free agency. It was a trust issue. Brady just didn't
(07:05):
trust that they would get him what he needs to
beat Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. To me, if I'm
Green Bay today, I'm like, thank god, Aaron just talked
about the one thing we're gonna have to kind of
talk about for the next three years. Speaking of talking,
Dusty Baker's the manager in Houston. He's very upset. Last
night the Astros cheaters play the Dodgers non cheaters, And
(07:29):
of course, the Astros won the World Series a couple
of years ago over the Dodgers. While cheating. Now that's
not to say if they had not cheated they would
not have won. Who knows, but it was egregious. They
were basically not just stealing signs. They were stealing signs
and relaying that information to all their hitters in Houston,
who it appears, were better because they knew exactly what
(07:51):
was coming off speed, fastball location, blah blah blah. So
last night, what do you know a Dodger pitcher sales
a ball on a three and occunt out over the
head of an astro and Dusty Baker does not like
it at all. You know, you don't throw it a
guy's head. That's that's that's that's playing dirty baseball. I mean,
(08:12):
now you're uh, you know, ending his career. And then
you know what really and raised everybody is when you
know he told Carlos, I mean, he struck him out
and he told him nicely to see, what are you
What are you supposed to do then? And that's a
good question. I want you to remember that sentence. What
(08:33):
are you supposed to do? Then? So what are you
supposed to do? Says Dusty Baker if you call my
batter a name, So Dusty, what are you supposed to
do when your team, the Astros, stole the World Series
from me, and all baseball did was, you know, fire
(08:54):
a GM and take away some draft picks. We didn't
get the World Series. Dodgers didn't get it. What are
they supposed to do? This is a sport that polices itself,
that is the culture. And what you're supposed to do
is now throw the ball at Astros. This is Baseball
has the most punitive repercussions in the world. Even in hockey.
(09:20):
If I bang one of your guys up against the
board and you send a thug out to beat on me,
at least I can throw punches at you. This is
what you do in baseball. As Dusty said, what are
we supposed to do? They called us a name? What
are the Dodgers supposed to do? Taken away draft picks
doesn't get him the World Series ring? This is what
you do? Well, he threw at his head. Name the
(09:44):
litany of players whose careers have ended getting conked by
a baseball Dickie Thon eighties Astros promising talent hit in
the head, played years later, but was about a two
fifty hitter. This is what you do listen. I'll never
be in a drug cartel, but if I was, you
don't steal from the boss. The repercussions they lop your
(10:07):
head off. I'll never be a mobster, but if I
was in a New York crime family, I'd never sell Heroin.
The bosses don't like it. Why you end up in
the Hudson. If you work in baseball and you are
willing to cheat egregiously, these are the repercussions. They throw
an orb at ninety eight miles an hour at you, ribs, butt, shoulders, head. Listen.
(10:34):
There are a lot of ways in life. I'm willing
to push the envelope and cheat. Speed limit sixty, I'll
go sixty five. What am I going to get a ticket?
I've jaywalked before. I want to get to a restaurant quicker.
Don't want to wait nine minutes for a light. What
am I going to get a twenty dollars ticket? I've
pulled up before seven minutes on the parking meter. I
think it's gonna take me ten I'll roll the dice
(10:56):
or a parking ticket. When the repercussions, you know ball,
I'm super aggressive. I may jump offsides oho a five
yard penalty. So what that's why so many edge rushers
they inch, they inch, they inch. They try to guess,
they try to guess the snap count. If we're leading
by a couple of touchdowns, you gotta throw to five
yard penalty. Okay, it's second and five, not second and ten.
(11:19):
But in baseball, these are the repercussions for cheating. It's
a sport that has the most punitive repercussions in the world.
Soccer didn't do this. Basketball a hard foul, all right,
you get a couple couple free throws. Football you're off sides.
It's a five yard penalty. Baseball, you cheat, I'm throwing
at you high. Then don't cheat like you gotta know
(11:46):
in your business what's the penalty for the crime. And
obviously baseball is not a carteller, a mob family, not analogous.
But there are places where the crime is a slap
on the wrist. That has never been the case in baseball.
You cheat, you are a target for a long long time.
(12:07):
They hold grudges in baseball, I mean forever. It's a
sport that's history is everything. And Houston ninety eight in
the ribs ninety eight high that's what you get sorry
taken away a few draft picks and fire in your
GM is not enough for the Dodgers. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter
(12:28):
not Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeartRadio app. So I have said, if people's resume shows
me a history of being smart, prepared, and manipulative, then
that's who they are. Most of the media in America
believes a bunch of things are happening for the Patriots
(12:51):
in the last three to four months, and they're all
just random. You know. They just had a camera guy
up in the Bengals press box to tape them. It
was just totally and every day, and we think the
Patriots are just doing something that Patriots say, you know,
it just we didn't have any idea. We find out
that they did have an idea and there was a
plan behind it, because there's a plan behind everything Bill
Belijick does. Yesterday, finally, an NFL executive went to Adam
(13:16):
Schefter and said about all the Patriots opting out at
the same time, he said, Bill's masterminding all of this.
Schefter said for what reason? And the executive said, I
don't know. But that's who he is exactly. Every time
that Patriots get caught with something, there's this we don't
know what you're talking about, and then we find out
(13:37):
they knew exactly what they were doing. You believe in
the last four months, these are all random occurrences. What
I'm going to speak of. Number one, they weren't remotely
aggressive in free agency. Well, they always go after a
couple of people. Two, they let some really good players
(13:58):
go valuable like Kyle Vanoy. They like that were marginally expensive,
all right. Number three, they didn't have any real plan
to replace Tom Brady. Sorry, Cam Newton was not a plan.
It was a bad news coming. Let's sign him. If
it's a plan, you wouldn't let the rest of the
market have a shot at Cam Newton. You went in
until everybody else had a quarterback. That's not a plan.
(14:20):
And number four, now all their players are opting out.
You think these are all random. This is the least
random coach in the history of the league. This is
the least random organization in the history of the sport.
They do nothing without preparation. But I think this is
one of the few instances where I think the fans
(14:42):
get it over the media. The media doesn't want to
say tanking, and I don't see it as tanking. The
word scares us. I don't think they're tanking. But I'll
give you an example. I sold some Starbucks stock two
or three days ago at a loss. Now why did
I do that. I never bought the Starbucks stock to
lose money. But over the course of this year, I
(15:05):
sold some stocks because I thought the market was too
heated up. I sold some docu sign some Shopify good
stocks i'd had. I made a lot of money and
I sold them. But that means capital gains. I'm gonna
pay taxes. So a couple days ago I looked and
I think, I thought I need a loss because I
don't want to pay all these taxes. And I look
at Starbucks and I'm like, you know what, I bought
it to make money. I don't think in the next
(15:27):
five years it's going to do nearly as good as
some other stuff. So I sold it at a loss.
I didn't buy it to lose money, but I sold
it as a loss to take a step backwards. Helped
me with my capital gains to get two steps forward,
won't have to pay as much taxes Nobody buys stocks
to lose, but to sell them sometimes to catch your
(15:49):
capital gain wins. The Patriots aren't building. They see there's
three A plus college prospects and about three teams in
league that need him, and they've got enough draft picks
where they can move in more. So we just we
keep winning super bowls. We got a bunch of equity.
We're up against the cap. Let's let a few guys
(16:13):
go not be aggressive. Let's see what we got in
Jarrett Stidham and oh darn if we go seven and
nine and have a nine pick and outside of Jacksonville
nobody needs a quarterback, we get one. I don't think
this is tanking. This is not tanking. It's restructuring. It's
selling a stock at a loss to help you with
some capital gains wins. Okay, So I don't see it
(16:36):
that and the other the other thing. Even my buddy
Ryan Rissillo, who I love, fell into this trap yesterday.
He said something. Listen, listen quote to the end of
this quote, Belichick's not telling all of these guys. Hey,
you know what, Patrick Chongtar just shut it down. I
just don't think Belichick is wired that way. I don't
think football guys are wired that way. I think the
only people that have ever really suggesting tanking are front
office people that have come from like non traditional football backgrounds.
(16:58):
And I think Bill is still wired to want to
win every single game, win this division without Brady, and yeah,
of course they're going to need a long term solution
to quarterback. But to tank for a high quarterback draft
pick when fifty percent of these guys flame out anyway,
no matter who's evaluating these guys, I think it's to
just punt on an entire year in the NFL is
(17:18):
so foreign to these guys. Okay, so Warren Buffett buy
stocks like Belichick, He's wired to buy stocks and make
money with all of them, but Warren Buffett occasionally sells
a stock. Belichick is wired to win all the games,
but he does see sell a little to gain a little. Secondly,
this narrative fifty percent of these quarterbacks don't make it
(17:38):
was true by entire life, It is no longer true.
Outside of Paxton Lynch, there hasn't been a first round
quarterback bust in six or seven years. Can't say Josh
Roles and yet because he's got no opportunity it's about
eighty percent make it. Because the league has changed. It's
more collegiate Schematically, players don't bust in the round. If
(18:00):
you get Trevor Lawrence, it's hitting. If you get justin Fields,
it's hitting. If you get Trey Lance, it's hitting. It's
no longer a fifty fifty proposition. Now it was my
entire life, my entire life, it was a coin flip
of a guy made it. It is not anymore. The
game is more offensive, the rules are more offensive. There's
more college schemes. This generation of college quarterbacks has been
(18:21):
thrown at ten thousand passes since they were nine years old.
These seven on seven, Elite eleven camps, it's changed everything.
The bust rate has plummeted. Mitch Truebiski seen as a bust.
He's got a winning record, he won a division, he
should have won a playoff game. Double doink, and he's
a bust. He's got a winning record. So it is
(18:45):
not tanking. It is I believe. I don't believe these
are all random occurrences, because I think the Patriots are
the least random organization in the history of the league.
Just how I see it. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but
I think they're going to end up in top ten
in the NFL in the draft. I do, I do.
They just don't have any playmakers. They don't have any
special players. Now that the High Tower and Patrick Chung
(19:07):
are out, who are their special players that don't have
any gam running for his life? Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd week dayson noon Easter ninety Empacific.
All Right, So I saw this the the NFL Top
one hundred players. NFL dot Com players vote on this,
and players you know, they like mostly accurate, but players
(19:29):
like what they like, and they got Josh Allen in here.
Carson Wentz not I'm out. I'm a Vegas card dealer.
I'm out. List of stupid. But I'll tell you this.
The top ten has been released. Now, they haven't told
you the order of the top ten, but here's the
top ten players that they'll put him in order tomorrow.
Stefan Gilmour, Aaron Donald, Derrick, Henry, DeAndre Hopkins, Lamar Jackson,
(19:51):
George Kittell, Christian McCaffrey, Patrick Mahomes, Michael Thomas, Russell Wilson.
I don't know if I put Derreck Henry there. But
it's a pretty damn good list. But you want to
know what defines great in the NFL, one guy Aaron Donald,
not Patrick Mahomes. Aaron Donald is so good in a
(20:13):
clearly offensive league where clearly everybody appreciates offensive players. He
plays an unglamorous defensive position, and he's an dominant number
one player. When Lawrence Taylor was in his prime, if
I would have asked you who's the second best edge
rusher in the league, you could have argued over thirty guys.
That's how big the gap was. When Reggie White was
(20:35):
the best defensive lineman, I said whose second? You'd argued
over nine guys. That's how big the gap is. Aaron
Donald is so dominant in this league. The second best
defensive lineman to players is a guy who's always hurt,
JJ Watt at forty five. Patrick Mahomes is great, but
he's not as electric with his feet as Lamar Jackson.
(20:56):
He doesn't see the field like Tom Brady. He's not
as up is Russell Wilson. He doesn't have the lightning
release like Aaron Rodgers. And Mahomes is great, but there
are elements of Patrick Mahomes that aren't Russell, that aren't Brady,
that aren't Lamar Jackson, that aren't Aaron Rodgers. There are elements.
Donald is the best that everything. He's the best against
(21:18):
the run, He's never hurt. He's great in the locker room.
He has forty four sacks in forty six games from
an interior line position. If I say who's second best?
J J. Watt can't stay healthy, there is no second best.
I mean it's when you I mean there are things
that Russell Wilson does better than Patrick Mahomes. No defensive
(21:41):
lineman does anything better than Aaron Donald. He's the best
that everything, never hurt, great teammate, he has doubled on
every single snap and often triple team and you cannot
stop him. He is unbelievable. He is the three best
defensive guys I've ever seen. I'm not counting like safeties.
Ed Reid was set, Dion was sick in the box.
(22:03):
It's Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, Aaron Donald. That is it.
I don't even know who's second best, and nobody, even
though players acknowledge the number two defensive lineman is JJ Watt.
He Aaron is a mon and I love Fletcher Cox,
and I think Chris Jones is special. I don't even
think they're This guy is absurd, and our buddy Dave
(22:26):
Wanstat recruited him out of high school. He was not
a big recruit. That Aaron Donald is unbelievable. How about
this one. So I've been defending Aaron Rodgers a lot lately,
and I'm getting tired of it. But I defended him today.
He went aggressive, he talked about Jordan Love. I really
liked it. Aaron doesn't like me, he doesn't. He thinks
(22:47):
I'm always negative. I'm not ninety percent of what I
say is good. I think he's passive aggressive. I hate that,
and I don't think he's the easiest guy to get
along with. I've got proof, but be that as it may.
First ballot Hall of Famer, top six guy in the league,
I think I think he's moved a little out of
his prime, but he's still you know, he's top four
or five guys in the league easily. This though, I
(23:07):
couldn't do a show being nice, so the Athletic did
a quarterback tier pull. Mike Sander was on the show yesterday,
so he does this every year. He talks to fifty
coaches in the NFL, head coaches, coordinators, all that stuff,
and they vote on tiers, and Aaron was in the
first tier. That's fine, But when I read this, I cringe,
(23:27):
said one of the executives. You know, I've faced him
so many times. He's the same guy. The weapons around
him have fallen off. You know, before they had a
mix of young and old guys, a Randall Cobb and
Greg Jettings, James Jones adding Davante Adams, He's good. I'm
not none number one. So the insinuation here is Aaron.
You know, he just doesn't have the support time out,
(23:48):
pro football focus. I trust him on old line grading
Green Bay number four, Russell Wilson's old line number twenty eight.
Davante Adams is a number one receiver. Aaron Jones is
a number one back, good online, star receiver, starback. I'm
not saying it's perfect, but since Aaron Rodgers got the
(24:09):
starting job in Green Bay. We looked this up this morning.
He's had twelve Pro bowlers on offense, some of them
multiple two and three and four years. He said, twelve.
Tom Brady in twenty years in New England had eleven
in twice the time, and almost none of them outside
(24:32):
of Gronk, were like multiple year guys. It was a
one off. By the way. Russell Wilson all his time
in Seattle. Six offensive Pro bowlers, and I'm here to
tell you couple of them, Marshawn Lynch was a dog.
But there's some borderline all pros. So Green Bay has
(24:53):
overwhelmingly been a rock solid organization for Brett Farve and
Aaron Rodgers career. Now, culturally it is not a free
agent destination. You cannot blame Green Bay for that. They
don't have an owner, and it's culturally it's a tiny,
tiny town so that you can't blame green Bay for that.
That's just the reality of them. I mean, I got
nothing against the New Orleans Pelicans, but they're not as
(25:15):
glamorous as the LA Lakers. That's not their fault, that's
their reality. If you're five foot three, you'll never play
in the NBA. It's not your fault, it's your reality.
But Green Bay is a well run organization. They've almost
always given Aaron a number one receiver, a really good
offensive line that I bristle at that he just didn't
have the support. I'm not saying he's got Lamar Jackson
(25:37):
or Patrick Mahomes support. I'm not saying that. I'm not
saying even has Peyton Manning his career support in India.
I'm not saying that. But let's slow down and they
doesn't get help. Come on, give me a break on that.
Russell Wilson's old line has stunk since they traded away
Max Hunger. Four years of garbage. They can't get the
tight end position right. Doug Baldwin's his best receiver, he
was undrafted. Come on, they've whipped on a bunch of
(26:01):
first round pick. Green Bay doesn't whiff on a lot
of first round picks. Seattle does. So that I bristle up,
and you know I was being really you know, mostly
say nice things about Aaron, but that one I'm always like,
come on, come on, slowdown, slow down. I don't want
to hear about that. Green Bay's well run. There's five
organizations in the last twenty years that have almost always
been well run. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, green Bay, New England. You
(26:26):
would admit, though they bailed on giving him a defense
of any sort, though well bailed or I mean, it's
not like they haven't drafted defense for three straight years,
bailed or top free agents don't want to play in
Green Bay. I don't think they've bailed on it. I
mean they've gone heavy into the secondary, and they went
and got two free agent linebackers last year. I don't
(26:47):
think bailed's a fair word. I think they've I think
they've I think they've given him more than enough help
on the offensive side, and Aaron has been He has
helped elevate those players. Aaron deserves credit. Their defenses haven't
been as good, but there's a reality in this line.
He's got to go out and put up thirty five
points every game to win. Hey, I'm carrying this network
(27:07):
on my shoulders. Well, hear me complaining about it, Kath,
I'm a jerk today. I really one more Herd. The
Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a
week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live
or on demand whenever you like. Baseball ratings up one
hundred eighty nine percent and without fans. It tells you
(27:30):
how people are starving for sports in America. I do
think baseball is in a unique spot with all that travel.
It's it's a little bit of a global sport. I
think it's gonna be really hard for baseball, but I
think they're gonna get through it, and there's gonna be
stops and starts and it's gonna be difficult. But the
games have been great. I've been watching them. They've been fantastic.
Not as much juice without fans, but the networks Fox
(27:52):
has done a great job to give you some ambiance.
I've enjoyed it a lot. Eric Mangini three years a
Jets head coach. A couple of years in Cleveland. He's
coached under Belichick. Harball On Bill Parcel's part of three
Super Bowls in New England is joining us in Cape Cod.
Beautiful part of the country. So let's start with Jamal
Adams train. Let's start with that. So Saturday, I get
it on my phone and my initial reaction is good, Hell,
(28:14):
Seattle gave up a ton for a safety. Minka Fitzpatrick
got just one first round pick and he's terrific. So
that's my gut feeling. And then you can peel layers back.
But what was your initial take when you saw it?
The same thing that the fact that Seattle was willing
to give up two number ones really bailed out the
Jets because once you start going after the owner, which
(28:36):
is look, he had gone after that coach, he had
gone after the organization, and then he went after the owner.
So the Jets were going to have to make a move.
He couldn't stay there. So if you wait, you know
that that his value is going to come down. It's
not going to go up. So to pay that price,
it's that's the price that you would expect. There to
be multiple suitors where you had to you had to
(28:58):
push it that high. So Aaron Rodgers talked about the
elephant in the room. So if you were the coach,
Aaron came out yesterday on a podcast and said, I'm
probably not gonna end my career here. I'm not bitter.
But they moved up to get Jordan's love in the
first round. They moved up to get him. I'm older,
I'm expensive, And to me that my takeaway was, he
(29:22):
now releases all the tension out of the room. Everybody
can talk about it. We're all aware of the situation.
We don't have to walk on eggshells about Jordan Love
at practice. I loved it as a general manager. It's
like I can go up to Aaron and we don't
have to pretend it doesn't exist. But if you were
coaching Green Bay today and Aaron's come out and said, listen,
I see the future, I'm not in it here, would
(29:44):
it bother you? Well, I think that's that's the message
that they wanted to send when they drafted the quarterback.
When you make that decision, you're you're saying that we're
drafting the future. And Aaron Rodgers was the one guy
on that team that was untouchable. And Aaron at time, Look,
I don't know him, I've never dealt with him from
a coaching perspective, but I'm sure he's got a pretty
(30:05):
strong personality. And for a young coach, this sends a
message to him and to the rest of the team
that this is that there's nobody bigger than the team.
If anything, it's a great situation because Aaron played extremely
well last year and now if he thinks he's going
to be leaving either next year or the year after,
you're getting an even a higher motivated player because he's
(30:28):
working on contract years. He's working on his potential future,
which which isn't going to be in Green Bay. But
I don't think it's going to be next year, Colin.
I think if it were at least two years away
from that. Okay, so listen, nobody agrees with me on
what I'm gonna say. But nothing the Patriots do is random.
They're the least random team in the history of the world.
(30:48):
Everything's got a plan. So they didn't really go after
Tom's replacement, Cam Newton. They let everybody in the league
have a shot at him. You know, they brought him that.
That wasn't aggressive. They weren't aggressive in free agency. Let
really marginally expensive guys go. Now the whole team's opting out.
I don't think it's the worst thing in the world
to go seven to nine or eight and eight. They're
not tanking. But good lord, we got three A plus
(31:12):
quarterback prospects. They don't have a quarterback for the future.
How can I not be a little cynical and think
this feels like a sudden This doesn't feel random to me,
So tell me how wrong I am. Okay, you're completely wrong.
The Cam Newton situation that was a function of a
lottery ticket. All the risk is on Cam and that
(31:33):
they've got five hundred and fifty thousand dollars and on
cam And what does Tampa Bay have fifty million dollars
and on Tom Brady? So if he works out, he
works out. If not, they've got the two guys that
they had before. In terms of playing for a quarterback,
Bill has been a head coach. This will be twenty
six years. He's never drafted a quarterback in the first round.
(31:55):
He's got two of his kids on the staff. This
is a year where Tom Brady's moves on and everybody's
debating legacy. I don't think that that he's immune to that.
So the idea that he would tank or try to
lose to get a top tier quarterback, no chance. Tanking
is the wrong word. Couldn't you say he's rebooting. It's
(32:19):
a convenient time to reboot, just like it's a convenient
time sometimes to sell a stock. You didn't buy it
to lose money. But if you're gonna take a capital
gains hit, you sell a stock to help you on taxes,
you certainly didn't buy it to lose money. But there
are times where the timing. Golden State's a prime example.
Golden State, they're not tanking, but Steph got hurt, Clays
(32:40):
banged up. You know what, just a pretty good year
for us to take a step back to get a
lottery pick next year. What if I took the word
tanking out, he's rebooting. Well, look, I don't think that
they knew that this many guys were going to opt out,
because they would have Nothing is random, as you said,
and then they plan and they look towards the future.
(33:03):
So if you had anticipated this volume of guys opting out,
you you probably would have done some things differently. I
was surprised by that number as well. But it's and
I get your market analogy, and I get your stock analogy,
but this it's not the same. He has to reboot
(33:25):
almost every year. He's he's the king of rebooting. But
it's always rebooting with the idea of winning the division
and being in a position to go deep into the playoffs.
It's not rebooting in order to get a quarterback. He
doesn't draft quarterbacks high. That's that's not what he does.
And you know, as he as he gets further on
(33:46):
his career, it's hard for me imagine he's changing that
philosophy that that dramatically. So the NFL at shift gears
top one hundred players voted on by the players, so
some of its nonsense. They got Josh Allen in there,
but not Carson Wentz stupid. All right, whatever if I
said to you, I said to you, forget position. Single
(34:07):
best football player in the world right now, who is it? Well,
I would have to go with Patrick Mahomes. I think
that it's hard to argue against what he's done, and
then the type of force multiplier that he's been in
Kansas City, and the fact that he's he was able
to overcome some of those leads that they that they
(34:27):
had that so it would it would start with him.
You're talking about league multiplier stuff. Okay, I don't care
about position, So I would argue this. There are things,
there are things in the league that he's not the
best at quarterback. He's not as elusive as Russell Wilson.
He's not as explosive dynamic with his feet as Lamar.
(34:47):
He doesn't read the field quite like Brady. His release
isn't quite as fast as Rogers. Aaron Donald is so
good that there's no second you can't even pick up.
The number two ranked defensive lineman is a guy that
can't stay on the field. JJ Watt, who has like
fiftieth in sacks. Aaron doesn't even have a peer, And
it reminds me of Lawrence Taylor when Lawrence Taylor was
(35:08):
the best player in the league. If I ask you
who's the second back to Ed Rucher, there really wasn't
an answer. He was so far above everybody else. Look,
Aaron Donald is amazing when you just look at him.
Over the last couple of years, he's almost thirty five
sacks was it forty five tackles for loss and close
to sixty five quarterback hits and everybody's planning to try
(35:32):
to stop this guy. It's not like he's sneaking up
on anybody. You're game planning to make sure that he
doesn't ruin the game. And he still has that type
of production. Yeah, he's incredible at his position, and he's
an interior defensive lineman. You can slide the line and
get some help for him, and then he could also
keep backs in and try to deal when people are
(35:53):
game planning for him, and he's a disruptive. Yeah, he's
an incredible player. What was your first year in the NFL.
My first year in the NFL was like nineteen ninety four.
I think so Lawrence Taylor was out of the league. Yeah,
I watched a bunch of My dad growing up was
(36:13):
a Diehart Giants fan, so I watched a million Giants games.
It's like the only thing we could watch in our house.
So I got, let's see plenty of Lawrence Taylor, didn't,
you know, didn't take much to know even as a
young kid that he was different than everybody else. Was
Reggie White out of the league? Uh? No, Reggie was
(36:37):
still around at that time. Yeah, because that's what Aaron
Donald reminds me of. He's so much better than everybody
in his position. It's come. The thing with defensive lineman
is you you talk about that all the time as
as a head coach in his offensive staff, Who's the
one player that can ruin the game if we don't
take care of him, if we give him that that
(36:57):
single opportunity, who can single handedly ruined the game? And
every single time you're talking about Aaron Donald a year
and a year out, he's barely ever missed any time.
What's he missed two games in his career? Yeah, so
he's had impactful, uh level of production year and a
year out and miss no time. It's hard it's hard
to find a peer. Yeah, it sounds like you're backtracking
(37:20):
on that Mahomes comment. To me, that's what it's if
you finally know, how can you how can you possibly
take an interior defensive linement over a quarterback? You couldn't.
You can't do it, Colin. If that's the way you
see the world, I don't know. I like, Okay, I
know you're I know you're in a bad mood today.
So a non alcoholic beer is reportedly taken over the world,
(37:41):
and I said, I'm moving to Canada. I'm not drinking
non alcoholic beer. What's the point? Where where did you
hear that from? I heard it on Twitter beer commercials. No, Twitter.
Twitter is totally accurate on everything. That's where I got
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