Episode Transcript
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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
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This
is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowhern on
Fox Sports Radio. Ah here we go on a Tuesday
(00:29):
live in Los Angeles. The Dodgers season on the line.
Wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio FS one one hour from now. My
Herd hierarchy Top ten teams in the league. There are
a lot of good ones. They're a lot. I think
you'll be surprised by a couple of the back end.
(00:50):
Joey Taylor is joining me. That was a wildly entertaining
football game last night. It was great. I loved Eric Henry.
He might be my favorite player in the league. Yeah,
he's different. He's a refrigerator. That's like if you were
unpacking something, you made a big move with your family
and you had a moving truck and a refrigerator fell
out and went down the hill. That's what he's like tackling.
(01:12):
It's a runaway refrigerator. So like just once he breaks
in the tackles, it is just straight up and now
it's got a forrest gump fields and he's gone. It's
so great to watch. So at the end of the game,
there's a moment it's a fourth and one Buffalo, I
think the better team is on the road, and instead
of kicking a field goal to send it to overtime,
(01:33):
they go for it. And I can't believe how many
people are pushing back on that. Folks. There are times
in life that you play it safe with your retirement account,
shipping glassware, raising your children. You do not play it
safe on the road against the good football team. You
go for it. Of course, you go for it. I'm
(01:56):
gonna trust a coin flip over Josh Allen. I'm gonna
trust a kicker over Josh Allen. You have to understand
the temperature of the room. You're gonna get on a
plane after that game and fly two and a half
hours back with sixty alpha males. You're gonna start losing. Guys.
If you take your offense out for your worst athlete,
your kicker, special teams are backups. You keep your stars
(02:17):
on the field. You don't go to backups. Four reasons.
Number one, Brady Belichick built a legacy on going for
it in these situations. When you have a big, tall
quarterback fourth and one, you go for it. Number two
is I'm not going to give the ball back to
Derrick Henry, no, thank you. Number three is you keep
your best athletes on the field in crucial situations. And
(02:38):
number four is analytically, you go for it. Seventy five
percent of the time you get the first down, and
I'd say it's even higher when you have a six
six quarterback. When you go on the road, you have
to understand the temperature of the room. I talked to
Ray Lewis, one of the great players in the history
of football, wants about this. When you go on the road,
it's different at home, you come to our place, but
when you go on the road, it's all about mindset.
(02:58):
You gotta go steal something from in somebody else's place,
and you go on the road, you're gonna take more risks,
You're gonna be more aggressive. Statistically, the home team wins
sixty to sixty five percent in the NFL So when
you get on that plane and you're flying to a city,
and it doesn't matter if you're Pete Carroll doing something,
it doesn't matter if you're Belichick. When you go on
(03:20):
the road, you are more aggressive because you generally don't
get that one close call on the road. You don't
know the site lines as well. You're not as comfortable
in the hotel, you know what I mean, Like, nothing's
quite as comfortable. So you got to flip the switch
and you gotta go. We're gonna go super aggressive. You're
gonna take big risks. The other thing that never gets discussed.
John Harball earlier this year in September went for it
(03:43):
fourth and one. They were playing the Kansas City Chiefs.
They went for it, they got it, and they won
the game over Kansas City. And when they asked John
Harball after the game why I went forty, said, well,
because I got Lamar Jackson and they got Patrick Mahomes.
I'm not giving the ball back to Patrick Mahomes. Folks,
there's about seven or eight skill players in the league.
Forget quarterbacks, there's about seven or eight skill players in
(04:06):
the league. I don't want to go to overtime with them.
Tyreek Hill, DeAndre Hopkins, Derek Henry. I can have the
play perfectly defended and they bust a seventy five yard run.
They're just certain guys like I don't want to go.
I don't want to go to overtime with Aaron Rodgers.
He can do stuff I can't defend. I don't want
(04:29):
to go. I don't want to go into overtime. When
you go on the road, you're trying to win, not
extend the game. You're trying to end it, and there's
just a hand there were so many reasons you go
for it, and I thought we all know this. We've
talked about this ad nauseum in twenty twenty one. In
American sports. You can see it in baseball, you can
see it. I mean, the Astros, the Dodgers, you can
(04:52):
see it in basketball, the Lakers, aggressive get free agents,
Brooklyn aggressive wins. You're not trying to extend it, you're
trying to end it. And I love what Sean McDermott,
the head coach said afterwards. At the end of the day,
I trust them, and I'll trust him again when we're
(05:12):
in that situation again. So you know, I'll take Josh Allen.
As you said, sal ten times out of ten, we're
this far from from winning the game, and I owe
that to my players. You know, I believe in my players.
I've believe in our quarterback, so I trust my guys.
(05:32):
Obviously we didn't get it done in this case, um,
but I trust my players. This is something that never
gets discussed among the media, but it's constantly discussed in
the league. McDermott said, I trust my guys. Who were
his guys, his starters. Who are his guys, his eleven
(05:52):
starters on offense, as eleven starters on defense. These are
your star. You can't win in this league without star power,
Belichick now, can't win. Gotta have star power. You gotta
trust your stars. And I'm the reason John Harball went
forward against Kansas City because I got a great star
and I don't want to give it back to their star.
And the reason you go forward in Buffalo because I
(06:13):
got a star quarterback who needs seven inches and I'm
not giving it to their star. There's always been an understanding.
This is something the media doesn't talk about. You are
leading alpha males, they're millionaires. They're often walk into a room.
The guys want to be him. The women are attracted.
This is this is who you got. You got men,
(06:36):
you're leading men. You don't go to them guys, they
go for a tie, and that's not gonna work. That's
not gonna work. You gotta be super aggressive in spots
like that. Totally defend Buffalo. And I'll segue to this
because I think it's an important thing. Is we talked
about it this summer when the rumors were out there
(06:58):
about Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson and leaving the Packers
and the Seahawks. How much would you give up for
like Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers? How much would you
give up? And we're like, I don't know, five first
round picks, six folks. I was singing about this this morning.
Is that Another reason I would go for it for
(07:19):
Buffalo is primarily I like Josh Allen, there are twelve
quarterbacks in this league that I'm just always gonna go
for it with any reasonable situation. And going for it
there was reasonable. There's twelve guys that I know, and
it changes your franchise. You're going to give them complete
trust in the biggest spots. And he got thirty two
(07:41):
teams summer big, summer short, some are fast, summer slow, summer, old,
summer young. But here's the twelve guys that I would
always trust in the NFL. And I wrote a list
this morning. I wrote a list this morning. Here's the
twelve guys I would always trust. Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers,
Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Matt Stafford,
(08:03):
Justin Herbert Kyder, Murray, Dak Prescott, Derek Carne, Deshaun Watson.
When he returns the other twenty, you're on your own.
I don't trust him. These twelve teams should not be
on the phone when Deshaun Watson comes back trying to
move off their quarterback. If you can, if you can
drive to the facility and drive to the stadium every Sunday,
(08:27):
those are the guys I always roll with. To a fault,
I will go for it on fourth. The minute I
get into their territory, I'm absolutely going for it. And
sometimes even in mine. You know, here I am in
my own thirty nine yard line, fourth and a foot,
I'm gonna go for it. And I've said this before.
That's kind of where we are in the NFL right now,
(08:49):
it is such a quarterback league. Is that when you
look at those quarterbacks might takeaways. Those are your super
Bowl teams. They have a different mindset than the other
twenty teams in the NFL. Come on, they'd move off
Kirk Cousins in Minnesota tomorrow. Carolina likes Sam Darnold, but
he's probably not the future. Miami's been in multiple rumors
(09:10):
with Deshaun Watson, so is Philadelphia. So another reason is
I think, and by the way I think, Joe Burrow
and Trevor Lawrence, I'm probably a year away from putting
them in that group, But there don't have enough start
chet for me, and they don't have good enough offensive
lines where I'd feel on a big fourth down they'd
(09:32):
get protection, they'd have help. But the league, it really
comes down to this, do I have a guy, A
go for it guy. I think there's twelve teams in
the league that do and twenty that do. Not. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and
noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS
(09:52):
one and the iHeartRadio app when you watch last Night.
What makes Josh Allen a star is you pretty much
get the same Josh Allen winner Loo every week. Baker
Mayfield placed Thursday, he's beat up. I feel bad for
him because he has beat up. His shoulder pops in
and out. But my guess is he'll he'll gut it out.
I mean, the one thing about Baker, he's tough. He'll play.
(10:12):
But you know, I go on the internet and now
some Cleveland fans have put the palm palms down, some
Cleveland media and are acknowledging he's not as good as
his contemporaries. He probably somewhere between eighth and ninth best
quarterback in the AFC, and that's with Trevor Lawrence and
Joe Burrow getting better fast. And you know, I looked
it up this morning. Fifty two games is a lot
(10:33):
of games. We kind of know what you're after fifty
two games Baker Mayfield has had. He's not consistent. It's
all highs, it's all lows. He's funny, he's snarky. It's
great throw, it's bad pick. He has had one three
games stretch in fifty two games of sustained success, and
it wasn't great. It was weeks two through four last
year when he beat the lousy Bengals four eleven and one.
(10:55):
He beat lousy Washington sub five hundred, and he beat
lousy Dallas six and ten. That's it. That's it. In
those games he threw for five hundred and forty yards
total on average seventeen to twenty five hundred eighty yards.
That is it. Three losing teams. If you go to
his contemporary, I went to Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
(11:17):
and Justin Herbert. Not only of each of them had
multiple three game stretches of excellence, but their stretches are incredible.
Mahomes had a seven game stretch where he averaged three
hundred and forty four yards passing. Lamar had a four
game stretch where he had thirteen tds, no picks, five
(11:37):
rushing touchdowns, and a completion percentage of seventy six percent.
Josh Allen right now, three through six, he's got right
now a four game stretch. He's completing seventy percent of
his throws, throwing for three hundred twenty yards in a
passer rating of one twenty. Justin Herbert's a baby. It's
played twenty games quarterback, twenty games. He's had multiple three
(11:58):
game stretches where he's been better than Baker's one three
game stretch. Justin Herbert eleven tds no picks during his stretch.
So these are your contemporaries. These are the guys you
got to age with. They've all had multiple three and
four game stretches of excellence a month straight. Josh Allen
(12:18):
lost at Last Night, but he was excellent. Baker's had
one one last year, lousy Cincinnati, lousy Dallas and a
Washington team that finished up five hundred and in those
games you throw over one hundred and eighty yards. And
what's troubling is that he has the best rated offensive
line in the league and the best rated running back tandem.
(12:40):
Now Kareem Hunt's gone, but that's called like the NFL.
Nobody has the greatest blank, blank blank every year. So
this is all you can defend, you could. It's about
sustained success the great quarterbacks. Not saying Troy Aikman didn't
have a bad game, not saying Brady gets a stinker
every year. He had that one in Chicago last year.
(13:00):
Nobody's saying that's not part of the game. Nobody plays
great for sixteen weeks, But you can't be up down up.
That's not a franchise quarterback, certainly one I'm not going
to pay a lot of money to. So that's why
Thursday's game for Baker Mayfield is massive. Denver's not very good,
but you gotta win that game or you're sub five hundred.
The Bengals are better than they've been in a decade,
(13:21):
Baltimore is as good as they've been in a decade,
and even Pittsburgh now, although they're awful to watch and
incredibly boring, is now winning football games. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter
nine a Empacific. Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is
called All Ball. We usually talk all basketball all the time,
but it's more about the stories about what made these
(13:44):
people love their sport and all the interesting interactions along
the way. We talked to coaches, we talked to players,
We tell you stories. You download it, you listen to it.
I think you'll like it. Listen to All Ball with
Doug Gottlieb on the iHeartRadio, ap Apple Podcasts, or ever
you get your podcast. One of the interesting things about
(14:07):
Josh Allen's career. Grew up in a small town in California.
No pac twelfth school offered him. Fresno State didn't offer him.
In fact, when people would ask him where his hometown was,
he'd put Fresno down because it was the closest big city.
Fresno State didn't offer him. I understand people not offering
(14:28):
him out of high school because he was only six
one and really skinny, but boys have growth spurts it
like you know, somewhere between sixteen and twenty. Out of
junior college he was six six and two, fifteen athletic
with a really big arm one Division one program one
(14:51):
Wyoming offered him a scholarship. I find that fascinating. Listen
because of YouTube and TikTok and Instagram. If you're talented,
you're going to hit it that nobody is talented in America.
That doesn't succeed. If you're not succeeding, you're not as
talented as you think they'll find you. You can be poor,
you can be in the middle of nowhere. You can
(15:11):
still do YouTube, you can still do be funny on Twitter,
you can still do Instagram, Snapchat, have your stories. You're fine.
And in football we have one hundred and thirty programs
each carry three quarterbacks, most carry four and one program
He sent out hundreds upon hundreds of letters, hundreds of
(15:36):
highlight tapes. His junior junior college took him and they
said it was weird, said the coach. I was reading
it this morning. He said, he's putting up ungodly numbers.
He's a massive athletic kid, he goes. Nobody answered except Wyoming,
and it's it's he may be the last great sleeper
in football in America. Like they don't even exist anymore.
(15:58):
Like some guys are late bloomers, you get it. Like
he grew, he had a gross spurt a little later.
But the fact that a six six kid in California
with a big arm, in athletic and put up ungodly
numbers in junior college and nobody was interested, I'm fascinated
by that. You didn't you know Utass State, you know
(16:20):
Oregon State, Washington State, nobody I find that utterly fascinating. Well,
he's from a small town, folks. New York City does
not produce high school football stars. Our high school football
stars are in college stars all come from small to
mid size cities. Then that's not where you get high
school players in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. You get
(16:41):
him in Middland, Texas well. Secondly, well, he played a
bunch of sports, so he didn't go to you know,
the camps, the quarterback camps, all right, but that's only
like a fifteen year phenomenon, right Like before that, you
didn't get quarterbacks at those camps. So not every kid
goes to a camp. I mean, I guess, open your
email and watch the tapes if you're if you're a coach,
(17:05):
because six six Josh Allen with gigantic numbers in junior college,
one team offered him. It's like he's the last sleeper,
sleeper prospect in American football. Because I'm that story doesn't
even make sense. It doesn't even make sense. I got
out of high school. He was six one, six six
(17:25):
running around all right. NBA season starts tonight in earnest
and in the history of the NBA, this is just history,
there's about five teams that can win a championship, maybe
six tops. And so here's my very small, very very
small NBA championship pyramid. I would put Milwaukee at the top.
(17:49):
I would put the Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets right
beneath them, then I would put the Clippers. I do
think Kawhi Leonard comes back at the end of the
regular season. I do Kawhi Leonard. I do the Phoenix
Sounds and the Golden State Warriors. Now, I do think
both the Dallas Mavericks and the Philadelphia seventy six ers
feel like to me, if they made a big trade,
(18:12):
if Dallas went for it and maybe got a CJ.
McCullough or somebody with Portland made a big trade, or
if or if Philadelphia bails on Simmons, they have to
eventually and they could engineer a trade. So I think
Dallas and Philadelphia are teams to keep your eyes on.
I don't. I think Utah's really good, Denver's really good.
I just question if their championship level. But I would
(18:35):
say this, this feels like to me with this kind
of Laker group, this is the last chance to win
a championship. First of all, Westbrook doesn't play with anybody
well for long, even if it kind of works, kind
of a combustible player. His style. Number two is Lebron's
getting older and he's more injured. Number three is if
you look at Anthony Davis's last three years, he's kind
(18:57):
of declining for This is not an easy roster to coach.
Lebron's not easy to coach. Westbrook's not easy to coach.
Ads no not always motivated and ready to play. I
think it's there's a lot of turbulence. This could be
the last kind of run for Frank Vogel. I also
think it's the oldest roster. I don't think that I
know that in the NBA by a long shot. So
(19:20):
but I do think the one thing the Lakers have,
and this is how business works, is they don't have
a grenade factory. They have a very low implosion possibility.
If you look around the NBA right now outside of Milwaukee,
every other good team has got an issue. The Nets
got the Kyrie situation, a mess. Philadelphia is good mess
(19:44):
with Ben Simmons. Clippers are really really talented. You don't
know what you're getting with Kauai. If he comes back
with five games to play in the regular season, that's
not good enough. The Warriors, I haven't seen Clay Thompson
planned two years. Draymond's very value bull, but offensively there's
limitations and is James Wiseman gonna pop. Yeah, I don't
think he feels like a championship player. So you start
(20:07):
looking around the NBA, and one of the Lakers' greatest
strengths is that, you know, Lebron teams don't generally implode,
so they'll be good. Westbrook for a year will be good.
A d off a bad season should be better and healthier.
I just feel like, sometimes when your greatest strength is
we're not going to implode, it's going to be a
(20:29):
battle of attrition. We're not going to implode. I think
that's what That's what the Lakers really have going for him.
I don't think it's the easiest team to coach. I
think AD's declining. I think Westbrook is a hard hang
over time. I think the bench could be an issue.
They're absurdly old. In fact, I think they're the oldest
NBA roster ever. I think I'm right on that. But
(20:50):
Milwaukee's kind of grenade free. There's Milwaukee doesn't look like
there's gonna be any issue. So if you're if I'm
guessing today, I would say Lakers Bucks in the NBA Finals.
I do think, as I've said with Brooklyn, I think
Brooklyn could win the NBA Championship with k D and Harden,
I would just move on from Kyrie Irving. If I
could get two bench players, I'd be fine with it.
(21:12):
I think the Clippers have a chance to be interesting.
I think Denver's got a chance to be interesting. But
Yokich is a bad defensive player. You know, the Utah
Denver will be good in the regular season. I don't
think the West is as good as it's been in
the last decade, so Utah Denver could have really glossy
regular season records. I don't know if I see Utah
has the same problem. They don't have a guy that
(21:33):
can defend on the wing, a Lebron James. It's just
a problem. 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.
Herd hierarchy the top ten of NFL teams according to
(21:54):
College number ten. I'm gonna put the Raiders in there
because I think they're very viable offense of Lee, and
it's mostly for Derek Carr, who's already on his fifth
coach now. The Raiders he's second most passing yards in
the NFL. He has multiple touchdown passes in every Raider
game this year, every win for them. The offensive line
(22:18):
is regressed, they're swimming in chaos. They're not brilliantly run
or managed or coached. And here are the Raiders in
a tough division at four and two. Now, they don't
take the ball away at all. They got three takeaways
against Denver. They had three all season. So it's a
very limited team that has to win only one way
(22:38):
to shootout, but they deserve recognition. Raiders at ten, number nine,
the Titans. They're boring. They do it a different way,
but let's be honest, outside of an overtime loss to
the Jets, they'd be on a five game winning streak.
The Bills have a great pass rush, they didn't allow
a single sack last night. And Ryan Tannehill may put
(22:59):
you to sleep, but it's the ninth game he's come
back in the fourth quarter to win. By the way,
that that's the most in the NFL in that span.
So the reality is since he's become a Titan, he's
been a very good late game quarterback. And Derreck Henry's
the best running back by a mile. I think they're
well coached. They don't have the offensive firepower. They're not
(23:22):
going to be as flashy as Kansas City that they're
not controversial like a Cleveland. They're a really well coached
football team that can go toe to toe physically with
every team in this league. They're number nine, number eight.
I don't know what to do with Green Bay because
I don't think they're playing great football. And this is
every single year with Matt Lafleur. They've started five and
one and they just beat the Bears, and they always
(23:44):
beat the Bears. I feel they're very dependent on one
right wide receiver, Davonte Adams. I will say this, the
Packers defense sixteen straight games, they're not going to allow
a three hundred yard passer. I think they're pretty good
on the back end. They have one of the great
corners in the game that'll be coming back, Jayre Alexander.
It's a good football team. I don't think they're playing
(24:06):
brilliant football right now. It feels like it's dependent on
Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, and Davante Adams. But I put
him at eight. Number seven. Here comes Kansas City. They
are averaging three point one points per drive. What does
that tell you? They don't go three and out. Most
dangerous offense in the league. They've got to end the turnovers.
(24:29):
Now here's the good news. They're not punning, so the
offense is still fine when they don't turn it over.
They've had ten punts this year. That's the bizarre. It's
the fewest in the NFL. Here's the downside. Why I
only put him seven. They're allowing seven yards of play.
It's just hard to win in a quarterback league when
you're almost giving up a first down every play. So
(24:50):
it's a fireworks show. They cut down on the turnovers.
They're going to end up winning this division. Number six
Tampa Bay. I think they'll be higher than this in
a month. But three of their top four secondary players
are out. They're the most penalized team, but they're number
one in passing. They're gonna have three receivers over a
thousand yards. They have the greatest quarterback of all time.
(25:12):
Again this week, they're about five or six in the league.
I think in a month they're probably top three. Tampa
Bay at number six, number five, but I'll give Dallas,
even though Dallas lost to them, I think this morning,
Dallas is the better team. They lead the NFL in
yards per play six point six. They've out gamed every
opponent including Tampa Bay this year. They have only team
(25:34):
in the league that's six and oh against the spread.
What does that tell you? They're still undervalued by everybody
around the league. Vegas doesn't want you to bet the Cowboys,
the most popular team in America and go six and oh.
That's the team they don't want to be O and
six on. This defense is fast. I think they have
the best playmaking corner in the league. I thought tight
(25:56):
end was an issue, it's not. It's become very productive
as long as they're healthy on the offensive line. This
is as good and productive an offense outside of maybe
Kansas City as the league has. Number four. I'll give
it to the Rams because I think they're overall a
better defense than Dallas. But four of their five wins
have come against playoff teams last year, so they have
(26:17):
played a really tough schedule and they're winning games and
in eighteen straight games over three hundred yards offense, so
I think they're brilliantly coached. Matt Stafford gives them big
play potential. You know, their offensive line always feels old
to me, but every time I go to PFF it's
rated in the top four. They've cam Akers is gone,
but Sony Michelle and Henderson have been excellent replacements. So
(26:40):
Michelle comes from somewhere else. Henderson was already on the roster.
They look great this past weekend. There's no reason why
they can't win the NFC. There's nothing standing in their way.
They've got a pass rush, they've got a quarterback. They're explosive,
they can own the clock, they lead at half. They've
never lost under McVeigh number three. But I'd give the
Ravens a slight edge because I think they're so electric
(27:03):
at quarterback that are in a five game winning streak.
They're only lost to the Raiders. That's another reason I
put the Raiders in the poll. They'd be the number
one AFC seed right now. You know, it comes down
to this with Lamar Jackson. He's won ten of eleven starts.
He's won eighty five percent of his games, whether you like.
They're not always pretty. I mean against the Colts, they
were bad first half. They have bad quarters, you know
(27:25):
very much. Lamar's very much a rhythm player, and when
he's not in a rhythm, he'll have a bad half,
or a bad series, or a bad quarter. But they
are so electric and so dynamic, and I'm not sure
there's a roster in the NFL where guys are closer.
I got Baltimore at three, number two. I'm gonna move
Buffalo down one spot. By the way, they had more yards,
more plays, more first downs, more time of possessions than
(27:48):
the Titans. They came a banana peel on a slip
by Josh Allen from beating a good football team. I'm
not going to drop him more than one spot. This
is still an excellent football team. Seventy five percent of
the time, maybe ninety five percent. With Josh Allen, you're
gonna get a first down on that play he slept.
I'm not going to drop him. Bill's number two, number one.
(28:08):
What do you want me to do with Arizona? You
know the thing I like about Arizona. We pay all
this attention to Kyler Murray, and we should, but it's
not just that he's dynamic. He's completing seventy four percent
of his passes. So they've got veteran leadership. They can
get your short yardage. They can run the football, they
protect the quarterback, they get to your quarterback. I think
we're spending so much time saying it's all about Kyler
(28:30):
and DeAndre Hopkins. Although, yeah, that's great, that's the icing,
but the cake is really good here. They protect it,
they run it, they get after your quarterback. I really
like what Steve Kime did. J. J. Watt, the going
out and getting you know, Matt prador like veteran presence
on special team's offense defense. Right now, I gotta tell
(28:50):
you something. They're a hail Mary away from beating Cleveland
thirty seven to seven. In Cleveland. That a hail mary is,
you know, you start to think all game it's pretty competitive.
Wasn't competitive like at all? And Cleveland's good. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon
Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one
and the iHeart Radio app. Well. He's the founder of
(29:12):
the Quarterback Summit, a program that helps quarterbacks reach their potential,
and he is instrumental in the Josh Allen's story from
I still think it's remarkable that Josh Allen was six
six It was a string being out of junior college.
He put up ungodly numbers. He was six six, he
was athletic, and he sent out to hundreds of tapes
(29:34):
and video and e emails, and Wyoming's the only one
that offered. And so I've got asked Jordan Palmer because
I find that story fascinating. Not even Fresno State right
around the corner offered him. And Jordan Palmer, who was
at that game last night. By the way, Nashville joins
us live. So let me, just because you are instrumental
in the in the story for Josh, tell me the
(29:56):
first time you heard of him or saw him, Josh
show it was after he had this crazy year. I
think it was this sophomore year because he got to
Wyoming and broke his collar bone, didn't really play that
year and the next year kind of the like the
legend of Josh Allen started to grow, of this giant
human throwing balls all over the field and jumping over people.
(30:19):
He wasn't completing a lot of balls, and they didn't
win a championship, but he was making so many highlight
plays and and so I you know, I talked a
lot of folks in the agent community and the draft
community and analysts and and so to speak. And so
I just kept hearing murmurs about this guy, and I
invited him out to one of my camps. The other
he was a counselor with Sam Darnold Jarrett Stidham that weekend,
(30:43):
and I got a chance to see a big, strong
guy with a big arm throw it hard. But I've
seen a lot of those guys before. That's not unique.
And then my camps, it's not like you can judge
somebody's running ability. But I think what blew me away
was just how cool he was. And I know that
sounds cheesy and cliche, and he's a buddy, so yeah,
he's cool, but no, he's just that funny and he's
(31:03):
a magnet, and I go, man, he's got all these pieces,
and I just I had a blast watching him that
following really two years, and then the maturation and watching
him elevate being one of the elite quarterbacks in the
NFL right now is has been a blast. Yeah, it is.
You know, it's interesting with these young guys, we always
look at their arm and this and that, and you
talk about cool like I think one of Joe Burrow
(31:26):
and Dak are two guys that I think the cool
thing matters, Like I would want to play alongside Joe Burrow,
I'd want to play alongside dak He. I mean, are
there guys that you've seen through the years they're just
not a good hang They just don't have that thing
they have talent, Like, is the cool thing, the alpha thing?
A guy's guy Like Brady, he's very much a guy's
(31:47):
guy thing. He'll he'll chug beer with the best of them. Like,
is that a real thing when you when you have
these young guy because by the way, justin Herbert's very quiet,
maybe he's not a good hang. Well, there's not one
way to do it right. You don't have to have
a specific type of personality or a specific you know,
brand of comedy. But I will say there there are
(32:09):
guys and you know, a mutual friend of ours, Trent
Dolpher always calls him DC's dude qualities. You gotta be
a dude, you gotta be likable and approachable, and there's
not one way to do it. But you're spot on.
And there's so many different things that a quarterback has
to do that the media doesn't see that, the fans
don't see that doesn't show up in a fantasy football season.
(32:31):
It's the stuff behind the scenes. And you know, you
mentioned Joe Burrow, and I think back to when he
was drafted by the Bengals the peak of COVID. Everything
was shut down, no NFL offseason, and they took him
number one and they basically named him the starter. But
he had to win that team over via zoom. And
I heard stories about guys on the team who go
(32:52):
they could tell that this was a guy via zoom,
and so you've got to be able to do that.
And I think the best quarterbacks, if you really actually
filtered it down, one of the commonalities is that they
were really likable. Guys trusted them. Oh Line wanted a
block form, receivers wanted to get an extra rep for him,
the defense wanted to get off the field for him,
(33:14):
and the coaching staffs wanted to work with them and
develop them. And so I think it's a common trait.
If you created a player on Madden, you know, coolness
and personality isn't one of those attributes. But when you're
drafting a quarterback, and when you're offering a quarterback to
come to your college, and when you're going to pay
a quarterback, they better be maxed out in that attribute category.
Mahomes throwing a lot of picks this year? Why well,
(33:39):
I think the majority of your listeners have been following
Mahomes's career for three or four years now. I was
fortunate enough to watch him play a lot in college,
and what I'm seeing right now, he's playing the situation
he's in where protections not like what it used to be,
and he's running around a little bit more. That was
Texas Tech, yeah, him, and I mean they ran around
(34:02):
and had to make it happen, and he didn't take
three and a hitch and throw the ball on time.
Everything they were and they had to score every every drive.
They couldn't stop anybody. So I'm seeing more Texas Tech Patrick.
The problem is is he's had so much success. I
think he's just forcing it every now and then making
some spectacular plays and just not quite getting away with
some of the plays that he has in the past.
(34:22):
But I'll tell you this, I have no concerns over
Patrick Mahomes about developing bad habits or getting worse or
slumping on nothing. He's is just a patch, a little
rough patch that they're going through and I think just
as a football fan, I think it is great for
the NFL if Kansas City has to be a wildcard
this year because they're a team that could totally win
a Super Bowl yeah, and can totally go on a run,
(34:45):
They're just probably not gonna end up with the number
one or number two seed. Yeah. By the way, Trevor Lawrence,
I am kind of addicted to Jacksonville Jaguars football. I'll
never say that the rest of my life, but I am.
I watched every snap of Miami and the Jags, and
I gotta tell you a couple He had a lot
of turnovers first couple of weeks, and you do this
for a living, but man, he that dude has got it.
(35:07):
He doesn't get very good protection in Jacksonville. They gotta
shore up that offensive line. But I gotta tell you, Jordan,
he has a chance to be amazing. That's what I see.
He does the trajectory that he's on, and you just
think about the chaos that this young man's dealing with
right now with all the Urban Meyers stuff and this offseason,
and he has just handled himself so well. He's having
(35:30):
to compete. And I was on your show havn't. He
missed half the reps this off season because they gave
half of them to Gardner Minshew and a guy that
they traded, and so he didn't get to develop quite
as much as he could have, and you know, some
turnovers early and what we're seeing outside of the arm
talent and the ability, which is it's well documented, is
that you can throw this guy into any situation and
(35:51):
be pretty darn sure of what the product's going to
look like as a true freshman winning a national championship
taking over for you know, Deshaun Watson's legendary you know
seasons at Clemson and for that to not be a
big deal just came in in one one and then
for this year, all the stuff going on, that roster
has a lot left to be desired. They've got a
(36:12):
lot of work to do across the board on that roster.
It doesn't really phase him. He's just kind of going
through his progressions, making the plays that are there to
be made, putting the ball in play, which is so
important for these young guys to do, to not try
and make plays, but just put the ball in play,
take what they give you. And I just continue to
see him every single week, make fewer and fewer poor decisions,
(36:34):
and we all know what he can do when he
throws it. Finally, the kid at the Desmond and Ritter,
a quarterback many now believe is going to be the
first quarterback taken. You're the guy that sees it first
and knows him first. Tell us about him. What should
we look for in two minutes? Well, you know what
I love when I'm evaluating quarterbacks, confidence and maturity. I
talk about it all the time. This guy is going
(36:56):
to be, you know, upper echelon of guys that I've
been around at this age. From those two perspectives, confidence wise,
I think he believes I'm not putting words in his mouth,
but I think he believes that he's the best player
in the country. And then from a maturity standpoint, he's
you know, answered this season. I think thirty and four
or something like that. He's gonna end up being second
(37:16):
or third winning his college quarterback in the history of
college football. Quietly, but these moments at Indiana is a
big game for Cincinnati. At Notre Dame's a big game
for Cincinnati, and he's played his best ball on those stages.
And I think from a development standpoint. He's big, he's fast,
he's smart, he's committed, and I work with him in
the season. He's committed on a level that most college
(37:38):
guys aren't committed to to the details. And I think
that as he finishes this season it heads into the NFL,
these teams are going to fall in love with not
just his resume, but they're gonna fall in love with
the trajectory and the potential that he has. Desmond Ritter, Cincinnati,
all right, my man, Jordan palmergreat seeing you on a Tuesday.
Thanks man, Yeah, thanks for HAMI