January 14, 2025 • 42 mins
Colin analyzes the Rams dominating win over the Vikings in the final game of the Wild Card Round and why Sean McVay has established himself as the 2nd best coach in the league after Andy Reid
Jerry Jones is doing his best to stay relevant
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Here we go. It is a Tuesday. What a week
we had last week? Not slowing down live in Los Angeles.
It's The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day.
We are packed today. Zach Ertz Nick right, Michael Urbanstoff
by jmack It. We all know Andy Reid's the best
(00:49):
coach in the league. But what Sean mcvaghy did last night, Wow,
that was a flex.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Hope you followed me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
On the Rams. Felt they did follow you on the Rams,
My friend, you talked me into it. Dinner is on me.
So let's start today's show, The Easy Show to do
the easy One. I'm not into Easy is Sam Donald stinks? No,
he doesn't. He's closer to Baker Mayfield than Patrick Mahomes.
(01:18):
He doesn't stink. You don't do what he did this
year in stink. If you look at the stats last night,
first downs, oh Rams had fewer than Minnesota passing, first downs,
Minnesota third down efficiency, Vikings way better, total plays, rushing penalties,
Vikings only had two. Rams had actually ten time of
possession Vikings, Vikings, Vikings, Vikings, Vikings. What I watched was
(01:41):
a coaching clinic. Brian Flores, who's really good, got worked.
The Rams first drive was seven plays, seventy yards touchdown.
As Greg Cosell noted, the Rams D line was going
to be a problem for the Vikings O line. Kevin
O'Connell going forward at midfield minute thirty left in the
first half, I thought felt desperate. This game was over
(02:04):
at half it was twenty four to three. You could
argue it was over midway through the second quarter. All
on coaching. The Rams put on a clinic. Brian Flores
is great. First play of the game, twenty five yards.
They're already in field goal position to Pooka Nakuah. The
common theme this weekend is young quarterbacks that fell behind lost.
You know, Justin Herbert lost and Sam Darnold lost, and
(02:26):
Jordan Love lost and the only one that won was
Jayden Daniels and he needed a doink. What I watched
last night McVeigh proving once again stint Sean McVay arrived
in Los Angeles. Only the Kansas City Chiefs have more
playoff wins. And he did it with a run team
with Todd Gurley, a run scheme, and then he did
(02:47):
it with Cooper Cup and now he's doing it with
an older Matt Stafford and Pooka Nakuah, and he's actually
doing it with defense. This Rams defense, the rookies. The
Rams have lead the NFL in rookie sacks, rookie fumble recoveries,
rookie pressures. The Rams do not miss on defensive draft picks.
They've missed on a couple offensive draft picks. But I'm
(03:10):
wat take Andy Reid out. If you're talking leadership, game management,
play design, culture building, it is almost unfair what the
Rams have in Sean McVay. I mean, Phil Jackson's an
all time coach, but Phil Jackson was very clear, I
coach superstars. You guys do the rebuilds. McVeigh can do rebuilds,
(03:31):
he can do young stars, he can build a defense,
he can go run first. He can go pass happy.
It doesn't matter. You give him an off season. He'll
rebuild a team. He'll rebuild the scheme. Remember a couple
of years ago he went to Seattle for the opener
in a rebuild year. Pete Carroll didn't know what he
was watching. I mean, they literally came in with a
completely different schemed run game. And I'm looking at some
of these Rams defensive stats since Week fifteen, including the playoffs.
(03:56):
The Rams lead the entire NFL in sacks and I
don't know if they can beat Philadelphia, but they match
up with Philadelphia and they are a different team than
the one that played Philadelphia earlier this year. I said
this for the last three weeks, this young defense, about
every three weeks you look up and they're noticeably better.
And I mean the starters have only played four games.
(04:17):
The last four games the starters defensively have played for
the Rams, They've allowed under ten points in all four games.
So there's only a handful of quarterbacks that can beat
the Rams, and Sam Darnold with this offensive line, is
not one of them. But we love to bury losers.
I mean that's what media does, right, You're a loser.
We bury you. I didn't think this game was about
(04:38):
the Vikings. I thought it was about a staff in
Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell that we felt all year
was an elite staff. Four drives into that game. Three
drives into that game. It was a coaching mismatch. The
Vikings could not protect Darnald, who's always held the ball
(04:59):
too long. So did Big Band, and so did Joe Burrow,
so did Andrew. Look. Some guys like to hold it
a second longer because they're big play guys. They like
to throw the ball down the field. Not Dincon Duncan.
But Sam didn't have a great night. But Josh Allen
could win that game with that protection. Lamar Jackson Maholmes
(05:20):
could win that game. Sam Darnold's not going to But
I said this weekend, we love to bury the losers.
I didn't blame the Packers for losing. I said yesterday
on the show, they're not as good as Philadelphia. They're
too young. Green Bay wasn't gonna win that game in Philadelphia.
It was the one game I said going into the
weekend my favorite bet was take Philadelphia. They don't even
have to play well, and they didn't and they can win.
To me, this game was about Sean McVay. I mean,
(05:42):
think about this. Kyle Shanahan is considered a very good coach,
and I think that eight years, four times under five
hundred and he is very reliant. And Shanahan's good. He
is really reliant on Christian McCaffrey. Mcveigh's reliant on Noddy Oh,
Jared Goff now I got rid of him. Matt Stafford,
(06:06):
don't go run heavy. He's proven he can win and
proven he can get to a super Bowl. So he's
not reliant on any one thing. You give Sean McVay
an offseason or an extra week like Andy Reid, and
it feels like a coaching mismatch against a Viking staff
that I think is one of the best staffs in
the league. The gap in preparation, the gap in game
(06:30):
planning in the first two to three drives of that
game was insane. Again, Barry Darnald Donald's closer to Bakerfield.
Baker Mayfield, Okay, he had a great year. They're gonna
move on. They're gonna go to JJ McCarthy. That's the NFL.
If you have a bad couple of weeks, at the
end of the year. Coaches get fired, quarterbacks get demoted,
people hit the free agent market. That's always been the NFL.
(06:52):
You only have so many games. They're scarcity. It's not
the NBA or hockey or baseball. You're gonna have bad
julyes and you're gonna be okay if you're hitting in August, September,
in October. That's not the NFL. You have a couple
of bad weeks, people move off you. But I McVeigh
was symphonic last night and numbers a game earlier this year.
Remember this game, Jmac when they played the Buffalo Bills,
(07:14):
And I came on the following day and I said,
I think that was the perfectly coached played game. The
best coach played game ball by any team all year
was the Rams beating Buffalo. They were as flawless as
you can be against the great team that first half. Nobody,
including the Chiefs, would have beaten the Rams in the
(07:34):
first half last night. I don't know how you coached
better or played better, or considering what's going on in
southern California, how you're more focused here, Sean McVay.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
After I thought we had a great rush plan, and
I thought, ultimately, it's always about the players bringing it
to life and having a real understanding of what we
were trying to get done, what was the intent. They
have really played excellent football as of late. They're peaking
at the right time. They're not showing any of that
youth that you would think, you know, as you play
your eighteenth game in the you know, in this season.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But I'm proud of them.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
They came through in a big way and they were
instrumental in us being able to advance.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, game was over by the fourth series. Let's talk
Sam Donald. And I know what you're all saying, colleing,
you love Sam Donald. I do, but I kept saying
all year, when's the shoe gonna drop? I know Sam's reckless.
I watched him in college, I watched them in the Pros.
But he was having like an MVP level season. And
it happens. We've seen quarterbacks like this, Ken O'Brien, rich Gannon,
whatever it is, guys have unbelievable, remarkable seasons. But the
(08:29):
truth alas comes out. Sam Donald actually had a very
Dak Prescott like season, won a lot of games. Everybody
likes him, players rally around him, coaches love coaching him,
wins a lot of games, and then he faces elite
competition and it doesn't look the same. So Sam Donald
was zero to four against the Rams and the Lions,
and he was eleven to zero against everybody else. And
(08:52):
the good news for Sam Donald is most everybody in
the league is everybody else. There is one Sean mcvahan Stafford.
There is one Detroit line offensive line. So Sam Darnald,
like Dak Prescott, you put up an eighty eight mile
hour fastball, he's gonna hit it out of the park.
He's got trouble hitting Kershawn his Primes curveball. He's not
(09:13):
gonna beat the great teams unless he's got really good protection,
a perfect game plan. So ninety percent of the league
isn't this Rams team or the Lions, or the Bills
or Patrick Mahome. The key is, then, don't Pam like
Josh Allen. Tampa got it right. They paid Baker the
contract that Sam should now get. The Cowboys screwed it up.
(09:38):
They paid Dak the contract because I think that Dak
Baker and Sam is kind of the same guy. Productive
players like him. You can build a little bit around them.
But They're reckless, a little bit sloppy. They're not going
to elevate the team as much as the team is
going to protect them. But they can make plays. But
the key is Tampa and the next team that pays
Donald can't pay them like Mahome Holmes. And that's what
(10:01):
the Cowboys did. They got a Baker and a Donald
and they paid him like Josh Allener Lamar Jackson. So
they're gonna go now with JJ McCarthy and they're gonna
give the young kid a shot. And Sam is absolutely
gonna have a market. I don't know where he's gonna go,
but Baker Mayfield had a market, held Gino Smith at
a market. Old Tom Brady and Kirk Cousins had a market.
(10:21):
But Sam season, Let's not take away from it. It
was remarkable. It was a great season. It was a
fun season. This team was picked to finish fourth, and
I don't put it all on Sam. Last night, young quarterbacks,
Jordan Love, Sam Donald, Justin Herbert still pretty young, that
fell behind or could not get protect Texans. I mean,
(10:43):
the Chargers couldn't protect Justin Herbert, The Vikings couldn't protect
Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield should have won that game. But
you know, Jayden Daniels is remarkable. This is what happens
in the playoff. Jordan Love got behind, got a little
reckless trying to make plays. There is no tomorrow. So
Sam's gonna be fine. He deserves a Baker Mayfield contract.
(11:06):
You can kind of build around him, but that's not
confuse it for what it is. And here's Kevin O'Connell after.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
What he was able to do this year when not
very many people thought he would be able to lead
a team to fourteen wins. I'm very rare for a
quarterback in their first year. And I think Sam would
be the first one to tell you could he have
played better tonight? I'm sure he would tell you that
he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise
you I could have. Could our team have rallied around,
(11:35):
you know, a play here or there to try to
keep that thing competitive?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
For sure? And I you know, I said Sam Darnold.
He was zero and four against the Rams and the Lions,
but he was actually like fourteen to zero against everybody else.
Sam was perfect except against the great teams. And you
know who beats the great teams? Not many quarterbacks four
maybe in the league. I mean, as good as Stafford
and McVeigh are, they're going to go to Philadelphia be
(12:01):
an underdog, probably not play as perfectly as they did
last night. Philadelphia played poorly, so everybody now is doubting them.
Yet they played poorly and being a good packer team.
So Philadelphia now go stays home cold Weather Rams play
a perfect game. It is hard to beat great in
this league. And Sam faced great last night. A great
(12:23):
pass rush, a great young defense, a great coach, great
efficiency by Matt Stafford. Sam's not going to beat that
without online all right, j Mac, Cowboys may have a
coach and it's and it's from the college ranks.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Stop it. You can't even say it with a straight face.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
But in all seriousness, for Jernald, everybody going on to
pile on him last night on social media.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
I thought it was a little excessive.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
All of a sudden, he was an MVP candidate for
what fifteen weeks, and now he's a total bum who's
not going to get paid by anybody.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
He's still gonna a market in the offseason.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Of course.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
It's like people just don't understand football or front offices.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Kurtos Kirk Cousins, who's not nearly as dynamic as Sam,
doesn't have Sam's arm, doesn't have Sam's playmaking, was older
and coming off of surgery, had a market. In fact,
even his cousins this year looked washed. I think you
and I have said this. He still has a market.
Aaron Rodgers is not close to what he was six
(13:26):
years ago. His season was a disaster. Aaron Rodgers has
a market. The key is front offices have to pay
the right number. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got it right
with Baker. It doesn't limit what they can do. The
Cowboys didn't. They paid Dak and Dak and Baker. I
think Baker's more talented than Dak. They're very close. I
(13:49):
mean Baker's more reckless, but a little bit more talented.
Dak is less reckless, but he's got a lower ceiling.
But one got paid like homes and one got paid
like a B to B plus quarterback. So Donald's in
that B to B plus stuff. If he gets some support,
you can't pay him like an A. Now, we thought
for a big chunk of the season, like week ten
(14:12):
through week sixteen, were like, you gotta pay, But this
is how the NFL works. Because of the scarcity of
games and because there's one game a week, and in
the playoffs their standalone games. There's a lot of pressure
from owners and executives. You gotta hit it in the
big games. Now.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
I will say I believe in brock Purty a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I like him. You know that.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
I'm team brock Purty, Colin if he holds firm, I
want sixty million, I'm not. I would take Sam Donald
at thirty million over brock Purty six. I'm sorry I
would and forty nine ers fins. You tell them that
and they're like, you're out of your mind, rock Party.
I don't think they grasped like double. He's not double
the player Sam Donald is.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
He's not.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You have to remember you can overpay a right tackle,
you can overpay a linebacker, but when you're overpaying a
quarterback and he is gobbling up twenty one percent of
your salary cap. There are certain things in life that
you can't make a mistake on. Day to day, all
of us make mistakes. I make fifteen a day, But
(15:11):
there are certain things, like the safety of your children
that you can't make a mistake on, and like in
the NFL. Not perfectly analogous, but you can make mistakes
on a slot corner and overpaying him.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
It's not going to.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Destroy your salary cap. You cannot make a mistake at quarterback.
It's just there's too much money involved, that's too big
of a cap percentage.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
And I'll remind people Sam Donald won fourteen games with
the Vikings and Kevin O'Connell. You don't think he can
duplicate that or come close to it with Lena.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean, I mean, I will say this, Sam Darnald
to the Raiders, if the Raiders got an offensive coach
and Johnson, I think he would be very, very interesting.
But you know it's like.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
With Shane Steichen. Maybe does that do anything for you?
If Anthony Richardson's not their guy?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And oh, I'll just tell you right now. I'll tell
you right now. Sam Darnold to the Colts is the
play Vikings. Don't want to face Sam again and roll
the dice on. He's better than McCarthy. Get Sam to
the AFC where you don't have to play him. JJ
McCarthy may be better. I would rather Sam not prove
(16:18):
me wrong. So if you can always get a guy
Belichick will give up Garoppolo. Let's just send him over
to San Francisco. I always understand that even if you
don't love a guy, if you think there's a little
bit in the back of our head because they don't
know what JJ McCarthy is, you don't know what he is.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
You're the only ones who have a clue. Though they
see him every day, they know to work ethic.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, be sure to catch live editions of The Herd
weekdays and noon eastern a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Jones on Monday morning to steal attention, drops the story
about Mike McCarthy could have waited, you know, but that's
not Jerry. And then last night a big playoff game,
Jerry Jones the attention seeker once again. Make sure this
leaks deon Sander and the Cowboys or interest that Jerry
Jones loves attention. But here's the issue, and this is
(17:07):
why you got to take the Deon Sanders thing seriously.
Cowboys training camp lowest attendants ever. When they play the
Packers the Niners, a third of the stadium in Dallas
is filled with Packers and Niners fans, so yesterday Jerry
and this is what he does. If he can't win
on the field, let's be relevant off it. He drops
that story last night to get the attention he wants it,
(17:30):
and he'll steal it. He wants to be relevant. This
is who he is. So if you can't win big
on the field, stay relevant off the field. And in
every industry I have found, it could be mine, it
could be politics, it can be football, it can be tech.
The grind wins, Detroit's front office, Philadelphia's front office, the
Rams never missing on defensive draft picks. You have to
(17:51):
accept if you coach the Dallas Cowboys, you have to
deal with Jerry's ego and Jerry's need for constant attention.
And Dion gets attention, he'll make them fascinating. Do I
think he's the best coach on the market, Well, we
don't know. He's coached small college football and Colorado, which
is sort of like small college football. So when people
(18:14):
question the state of the Cowboys, like Michael Irvin who's
on our show later, or Troy Aikman, when those guys,
Cornerstone guys question the Cowboys, you've got issues. And generally,
if you have a bad team in the NFL, and
that's what the Cowboys were this year. There are mechanisms
to make you really competitive, really fast, look at Washington
(18:35):
or the Texans or the Chargers. But when you have
dysfunction in ownership, you will always hit that ceiling. And
that's what Dallas has. So Dion makes them interesting. And
as Matt Moseley, a Cowboy insider, said yesterday on our show,
that's what they've become. At one point, young Jerry was
(18:59):
a and a risk taker and let Jimmy Johnson do
the football. And then after about four years, and this
is well documented, Jerry didn't like Jimmy getting all the attention.
And now it's really about attention. They're not relevant on
the field. I'd never talk less Cowboys than I did
this year. So let's stay relevant off the field. And
(19:20):
here was Matt Mosley yesterday.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
I thought Jerry was trying to get Mike to sort
of break up with him. This is where this thing
was headed the whole way. And so you know, the
players and Dak, they were all sort of lobbying for Mike.
But in the end, I'm not real surprised because I
looked up there at those stands and boy, that's the
one thing they'll get Jerry's attention. Even on Thanksgiving, people
(19:46):
were not coming to the games. It's almost never happens
with the Cowboys, and so I think he wanted to
make a move, but he tried to like salvage something
with McCarthy and offer him some real short term deal.
And I think Arthi said, I've had enough.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Mostly the bad teams at the top of the draft.
They're getting a great draft pick, and they have a
ton of cap space. I mean, if you see how
much cap space next year, like New England has, but
the Cowboys have neither. They have neither because they overpaid
for a quarterback and they pay people too early that
(20:22):
are too average or too late, and so they don't
have a great draft pick, and they don't have a
lot of cap space. And so this will get attention
and keep them relevant absolutely next year, because they're not
relevant on the field anymore. They're not They're not relevant
on the field now. Dion, I don't know how it'll go.
(20:45):
I don't have a crystal ball. Could be a disaster,
could be great, but relevant. Interesting. Absolutely, We'll talk about
the Cowboys again. Jmckle the news No no, no news.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
This is the headline news.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
All right.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Let's start with Mike Vrabel, introduced as the new Patriots
head coach yesterday, said New England was the police he
always wanted to be and he's excited to work with
Drake Bay, but said this his time with the organization,
playing for Bill Belichick, it does not matter at all.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
I think it's it's special. It's unique having played here
knowing Bill. But again, we have to focus on things
that are going to help us win now, help our players,
and like I said, galvanized the building and the team
and our fan base. So I think that there's also
things I'm might try to explain to the players that
(21:43):
there's things that are interesting and there are things that
are important. I think me having played for Bill is interesting.
I just don't know if it's important to help in our.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Players, opposite of the Cowboys don't care about interesting. I
will make a prediction. Right now, are we recording Ryan?
Is this show being courted?
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I think we're live.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Not sure though. The New England Patriots, like the Broncos
in Washington this year, are my surprise team next year
in the NFL. Right, and when I picked the Broncos.
Everybody said, you know Sean Payton and I know Mike Rabel.
If you look at this league, the one way to
get good fast is a coach or a quarterback. And
(22:23):
one of the easiest ways to get good fast is
if you need receivers. Houston went and found Tank Bell.
You can find receivers in this league. This is a
playoff team next year in a division outside of Buffalo,
which is wildly dysfunction. No.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Wait, you waited on Denver until they got Bonnicks, and.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
But they've already got this pre draft, pre free agency,
like they've already got their Bonnick. So I've already got
the quarterback I live, So DEMI.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
See anything else you're you're good.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
We got Drake bay Rabel.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Who are we throw it to, doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
We're going to the player most like it, most cap
space in the league. So I have the coach, the quarterback,
most cap space, and outside of Buffalo, I know, I
got my eyes set on Buffalo. I don't have to
worry about the editing clowns behind me.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
There's nobody behind you in the division.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Well from bottom from now on. And you think, why
would I say this, I didn't talk Patriots this year,
this is gonna be the surprise playoff team next year.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
I will take the other side of that wager. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Where we'll be at this time next year, but if
I'm around to collect whatever payment you're going to give me,
Patriots are not going to the playoffs next year.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Call that adds, that's your boldest call since I've joined
the show. I mean, you have seen the draft of
free agency.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You have seen the schedule.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
If they gotta go to Spain.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Next year to play a game, I mean fourth place schedule,
I know what the schedule is. Gonna be easy, all right.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Next up is the Lakers.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
They played their first game back after a six day
layoff due to the wildfires here in southern California, and
the Lakers kind of like it. They did know, you know,
JJ Reddick was renting a house in the Palisades. He
lost his house. He's been to a lot, several players
had to evacuate. As for the game, Lebron was fantastic
against Webbin Yama, but the Lakers blew a halftime lead.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Yeah, wemby twenty three, eight and five. He didn't shoot
a billion three. So hopefully you're happy with that performance, and.
Speaker 6 (24:22):
After the game, Lakers new Edition Dorian Finney Smith talked
about the loss.
Speaker 9 (24:26):
We as cute the game plan like were supposed to,
but you know, coaches gave us, you know, they gave
us the right answers to the test. We just he
used to study.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Been a tough week, you know, you know, I mean, listen,
I'm kind of giving people in Los Angeles teams a pass.
I mean, what the Rams did, They're resilience and focus didn't.
Was it really impressive for the record. Tip of the
cap to the bid Wells and Arizona for their class
last night. Tip of the cap to the NFL to
(24:59):
pull it off, to the Viking staff, to the fans
that made their way from Minnesota and Arizona in Los Angeles.
I was a Scott van Pelta talked about this, the
quality of the crowd, the size of the crowd, for
something to pivot to that. How many of these fans
(25:19):
literally went online, bought tickets, got in a bus, got
in a plane to pull that environment off last night
and then to play like the Rams did when many
of remember the RAMS facilities are near these fires, they're
up north. I was just blown away. By the entire
(25:40):
spectacle of it. Last night, I thought, coming into it,
I thought, that's going to be kind of choppy the league.
The fans are amazing in this league. How did so
many Vikings fans get there? How many flights today from
Minneapolis to Phoenix. I think it helped that they just
Rams went right down the field in like four minutes,
score a touchdown, then they're up ten to nothing. Yeah,
and it just ball.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Then it was easy to get excited and just a
great performance from the Rams. As for the Lakers, they're
now seventh in the West, So I guess that means
Charles Barkley thinks they're their worst team in the league,
you know, since he thinks the Lakers are at six
and mitinc.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Final story, Colin, Let's look, we have the gambling line
set for the division round. We have one, two, three
big favorites. Although I'm stunned Casey was eight and a half.
Who is betting on Houston?
Speaker 6 (26:26):
I mean, guys, I don't know what we're doing out
there Baltimore taking money in Buffalo. I mean, I know
everybody loves the Ravens. Washington a big, big underdog in Detroit.
I noted yesterday.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
This is their third straight road game.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
There's a lot working against them. So the wise guys,
the casinos and then the DraftKings, you may not trust
Lamar Jackson in the playoffs. They do, they may Baltimore
a favorite. So the sharp crowd they like Lamar Jackson. Yeah,
so the fans. By the way, Lamar won his third
(26:59):
playoff game this weekend. Can we stop that he's never
good in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
He's good in the playoffs, that's right.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
Kansas has four wins.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Oh well, Mark Rock Perty has.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Four playoff Like, come on, what do we know? Lamar's good?
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Win this game in Buffalo and then.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Talk to me.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
I don't want to hear the hype this week Colin.
This sets up for another just monster teaser weekend.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
You know what teaser is?
Speaker 6 (27:20):
He has six point teaser six and a half. Who's
blowing and teaser? Which are these three big favorites?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Is losing?
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Do you think Casey's losing?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Absolutely not. They have no chance. I love, I Love
Kansas City is gonna win. I think Philadelphia played poorly
in one. That generally is a way when really good
teams play poorly and win, they almost always play well
the next week and the Rams cannot play as perfectly
(27:48):
as that it against Minnesota. So I like Philadelphia, I
like I like Kansas City.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
It's just not a big spot for the Ram.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
But I'll tell you this, I'll take the points with Washington.
So one of those is going to show up, either
the Rams or Washington. I think Jade and Daniels what
he did. Jaden Daniels may have to run for one
hundred yards.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
He might.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
They don't defend running quarterbacks well at.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
All, so that is not a great matchup for Detroit.
Detroit's gonna have to run the ball. And you know
what Detroit's game plan is, keep Jayden Daniels off the field.
I think they're gonna do a run centric game. I
think Detroit's gonna say mid to shorter passing run game.
We are gonna dominate time of possession. We want the
(28:35):
ball forty minutes, and if we can't stop Jaden Daniels,
we're gonna make him sit, watch get out of rhythm.
But if I was Detroit, what I don't want to
do is a track meet because Jayden Daniels does magic stuff.
Speaker 6 (28:47):
These are two teams that go for it on fourth down.
A ton and that can lead to some high varias.
Dan Campbell rolls the dice great point, Montgomery get stuffed
and it's like, oh.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Jeez, what are we doing.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
So there is some concern there, but the Rams spot
so they had to leave to go to Arizona, not far,
but then fly back now on a short week because
they've played last night, They've got to fly across the
country to Philly.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
It's gonna be coold. It's a tough one for the Rams.
But they did look really sharp last night. Colin.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
I mean, I think something tells me that they're gonna
they're gonna show up here in Philly. And mcveigh's just
too good of a coach. I think that's the biggest
coaching mismatch of the weekend.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Nicvavor siriannih that's why they have a shot.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
But you know, and I know the week after the
Rams played Buffalo and were perfect, they weren't perfect the
following week.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
And I thought the Rams first half was it was
like whiteboard stuff, We're gonna do this, this, this, this,
and all of it worked. So just for the record,
you're leaning Lamar. Obviously you don't have to get the
pick cas. I'm not gonna talk about that game until
we get closer. I last night, I'm sitting there looking
at stuff. I don't see what the rest. I don't
see what Vegas sees. I think Buffalo is gonna win
(29:55):
the game. I think Buffalo's offense has so much diversity
and balance, whereas I think the Baltimore offense if Zay
Flowers is one hundred percent, it becomes very Derek Henry
Lamar centric. The home team with more variables and options.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
I like, you could even tease Buffalo up to you know,
seven and a half.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
They're not getting blown out at home. That's not happening here.
Josh Allen will keep them in. It should be a.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Hopefully better results than the wildcard weekend average. Morgan A
victor is fifteen points.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Wildcard weekend well, I mean the College Football Playoff the
first round was a little sucky, and after that the
games have gotten better. I like that. Yeah, I mean,
it's just just the reality is these wildcard weekends. To
expand the field, you put in teams that aren't as good.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
So, by the way, for Blazing five, you'll include Ohio State,
Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Right, yes, I will.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Excited for that.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That Barkley line was funny. I gotta be honest with you,
Jmack with the news.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The
Herd Line.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Jay Lab has the best audio products in the game,
wireless earbuds to luxury active noise canceling headphones. I got
a couple of pair of those. Find the Blue Box
at Walmart, Target, best Buy, or visit JLab dot com.
Love their stuff.
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Speaker 1 (32:30):
There's an old saying a's higher a's and b's higher
c's because they're threatened or insecure, or they just don't
have the vision, and that's usually what it is. I
do think the Bears should hire Mike McCarthy, and he
is reportedly going for an interview tomorrow in Chicago. He'll
(32:54):
be the twenty third person in the waiting room. I mean,
they're The line at the DMV is shorter than the
Bear's job search, but I think he checks the boxes. Now,
there's another story that Marcus Freeman, the brilliant young coach
of Notre Dame, could be the coach. He could be
(33:15):
Sean McVay, or he couldn't. But I trust brilliant people
to make brilliant decisions and have vision. I trusted Stan
Cronk to spot the greatness in Sean McVay, hiring him
at thirty. I trusted pat Riley to spot the greatness
years earlier with Eric Spolstra. I trust great to see
(33:38):
great I trust a's to hire a's. I don't trust
be's and c's to do my hiring. And I don't
trust the Chicago Bears to identify whether or not Marcus
Freeman is going to succeed, because if he does, he'll
own the room. And I think there's lots of average
(34:00):
people and insecurity in that room upstairs in Chicago. That
is my take, So I don't trust. It's almost like
when you know a parent makes one of the kids
executor of the will. It's the one they trust when
they're gone. I just trusted Stan Cronkey's vision as the
largest commercial real estate owner in the world. I just
(34:21):
trusted his vision. On McVeigh, he said he's smart. He's smart.
Pat Riley with Spolstra, I trust him. But Bill Parcells
forever banged the table on Dan Campbell. He just kept
calling owners in GMS higher. Dan Campbell. Parcells is one
of the three four best football coaches in my life.
(34:42):
Mike McCarthy is a safer choice. That's all. I trust
the Bears doing. He will right the ship. You know.
It's very similar to if you're a professional poker player,
go for it, do all in bluffs. If it's your
(35:03):
first weekend in Vegas. Just play the percentages. The Bear
should play the percentages. Just get McCarthy in, Just get
him in. He'll write the ship. He'll make you good,
redeemable and solid and probably get you into the playoffs
because his history shows you that. But listen, at some point,
(35:25):
anybody listening to me, anybody listening to me, you will
make a will. And when you make a will, you'll
make one of your kids the executor of the will.
And that's the one. You don't love them more or less.
But it's the one you trust. And I think trust
is really important in big decisions, and there's just not
(35:47):
a lot of people in the NFL I trust to
make those decisions. Cleveland thought they had a real gem
in Freddie Kitchens, the Chargers thought they had a real
gem in Brandon Staley. Were both fooled. The percentages of
Chicago getting fooled by a young whiz. And I think
(36:08):
Marcus Freeman's gonna be great. It's this is not a
Marcus Freeman issue. But there's only so many people I
trust hiring young guys in their thirties to run an
iconic franchise. Okay, So I was thinking about this and
the story came out this morning, and you know the
way J Mack often points this out, if we don't
love somebody, immediately you think we hate him. And I
(36:30):
thought Russell Wilson had a nice season. I thought his
last year in Denver with Peyton was pretty good, and
I thought this year he was pretty good. But in
the AFC, in a division with Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson,
pretty good is not the answer. So Russell Wilson said
yesterday he wants to stay in Pittsburgh Garrett.
Speaker 12 (36:49):
You want to come back next year.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, that's that's that's the that's the plan.
Speaker 12 (36:52):
I mean, obviously I love it here and everything else,
and I think we have a great football team. Obviously,
it didn't go in the way we wanted it to,
and I think there's a lot more to do. I
think that, you know, obviously, this place is the place
that I think can win a lot and all that
stuff too, and I think we have a championship calibert
football team.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
So the Steelers are broken and everybody sees it to
me except the Steelers, right, Pittsburgh guy. Every year in
this league, minimum four teams that made the playoffs will
not and fanzero is outraged. Like this year, I said,
(37:29):
Cowboys Niners are regressing. I predicted before the season Cowboys
and Niners will slide. Keep your eye on the Chargers
and the Broncos in Washington rising this year. I got
it right. Pittsburgh's not making the playoffs next year. They're not.
Burrow is arguably on any Sunday, the best quarterback in
(37:49):
the league, and Lamar Jackson's amazing, and a lot of
these great quarterbacks aren't getting worse than the AFC and
the young ones are getting better. So with Pittsburgh's current
staff and quarterback situation, they're not a playoff team. You know,
it's almost like it's similar to you ever watch the
Shark Tank and there's that person that comes on and
(38:09):
they're absolutely sure they have the next great you know idea,
and the billionaires are all kind of waiting for the
person to step down and rolling their eyes. Like Pittsburgh
thinks they got it figured out and they don't know offense.
I like Mike Tomlin completely tone deft offense. Offensive line
seven years, no good. They can't fix it. They're broken,
and it doesn't matter if they go get Aaron Rodgers
or Sam Darnold behind that offensive line and that inconsistent
(38:33):
run game. Donald and Aaron Rodgers and we saw Russell
Wilson aren't good enough. They're not gonna win big games.
There's no quarterback in college you can get. And I
hear this all the time for Steeler fan. We are
too good to get a great draft pick and get
a quarterback. That's funny. Baltimore is better than you, and
they got one in Green Bay's consistently as good as you,
and they got one. And the Chiefs were making the
(38:56):
playoffs with Alex Smith, and they got Mahomes. You don't
have the vision. You think you do, but you don't.
You think you got the next great idea, but you don't.
You don't get offense. That's where the league's pivoted to.
You're tone deaf to it. You can't fix the O line,
you can't fix the run game. Mike Tomlin the voice,
(39:18):
what he's identifying works on one side of the ball.
And if you look at Russell Wilson in the fourth
quarter during this five game losing streak, passer rating in
the sixties, completion percentage fifty eight, And I like, George
Pickens is a talent, but he's all talent, no leadership.
I'm not building around George Pickens. So this organization is
(39:42):
not a playoff team despite what happened. They've got to
feel some desperation and urgency instead of trying to be
the pace car and brag about, Hey, no losing seasons.
You're not Jacksonville. You're Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Steelers in the
seventies and eighties. You were the franchise of note. Certainly
in the seventies for sure. But and this is not
(40:05):
an indictment of Tomlin or Russell Wilson. Russell can start
in this league. I'm not building around him, but he
could start, and he had a good He beat the
teams he should have beaten. But the truth comes out
in the NFL the longer a season goes. The truth
came out eventually. The Chargers lack of playmakers, that was
the truth. You know, Sam Darnold and that offensive line,
(40:27):
that was the truth. Green Bay little, reckless, inefficient, not
playing well. The truth. Bo Nicks didn't play well over
the course of time. The truth. Just because you make
the playoffs doesn't mean you're not broken, doesn't mean you've
got it right. It means the middle bottom of this league,
(40:47):
like the NBA, is hard to watch. Usually, the NFL
has got like five bad teams at the bottom. This
year it's closer to twelve, and I think that is
because of the rule changes. Eventually, with the rule changes,
if you don't have a star quarterback, you can't compete.
I mean, who won the games this weekend? The quarterback
(41:08):
that played the best in every game. The quarterback that
played the best won the game. Doesn't mean until it
was the best quarterback, but the quarterback that played the
best won every game. So this quarterback room in Pittsburgh,
with this coach and his skill set just not good enough.
Then Marry made the plais have higher standards. He's not
good enough, all right, Jay Mack Top of the hour,
(41:29):
Nick right stopping by Michael Irvin. Also zach Ertz from
the Commanders is stopping by. I gotta tell you that
Commander's game at Detroit. If I was a Lions fan,
I'd be a little nervous.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Yeah, of course. Let me go back to Tomlin for.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
A sec twenty seconds.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
What do you do with Russell Wilson? If you want
to move on, what's your game plan? Is it justin fields?
Is I don't think it's Sam Darnald, I don't.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I don't think it's in the building. I think if
you want to fix the quarterback situation, you need a young, bright,
offensive coach that understands that side of the ball.
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. 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 Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Here we go. It is a Tuesday. What a week
we had last week? Not slowing down live in Los Angeles.
It's The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day.
We are packed today. Zach Ertz Nick right, Michael Urbanstoff
by jmack It. We all know Andy Reid's the best
(00:49):
coach in the league. But what Sean mcvaghy did last night, Wow,
that was a flex.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Hope you followed me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
On the Rams. Felt they did follow you on the Rams,
My friend, you talked me into it. Dinner is on me.
So let's start today's show, The Easy Show to do
the easy One. I'm not into Easy is Sam Donald stinks? No,
he doesn't. He's closer to Baker Mayfield than Patrick Mahomes.
(01:18):
He doesn't stink. You don't do what he did this
year in stink. If you look at the stats last night,
first downs, oh Rams had fewer than Minnesota passing, first downs,
Minnesota third down efficiency, Vikings way better, total plays, rushing penalties,
Vikings only had two. Rams had actually ten time of
possession Vikings, Vikings, Vikings, Vikings, Vikings. What I watched was
(01:41):
a coaching clinic. Brian Flores, who's really good, got worked.
The Rams first drive was seven plays, seventy yards touchdown.
As Greg Cosell noted, the Rams D line was going
to be a problem for the Vikings O line. Kevin
O'Connell going forward at midfield minute thirty left in the
first half, I thought felt desperate. This game was over
(02:04):
at half it was twenty four to three. You could
argue it was over midway through the second quarter. All
on coaching. The Rams put on a clinic. Brian Flores
is great. First play of the game, twenty five yards.
They're already in field goal position to Pooka Nakuah. The
common theme this weekend is young quarterbacks that fell behind lost.
You know, Justin Herbert lost and Sam Darnold lost, and
(02:26):
Jordan Love lost and the only one that won was
Jayden Daniels and he needed a doink. What I watched
last night McVeigh proving once again stint Sean McVay arrived
in Los Angeles. Only the Kansas City Chiefs have more
playoff wins. And he did it with a run team
with Todd Gurley, a run scheme, and then he did
(02:47):
it with Cooper Cup and now he's doing it with
an older Matt Stafford and Pooka Nakuah, and he's actually
doing it with defense. This Rams defense, the rookies. The
Rams have lead the NFL in rookie sacks, rookie fumble recoveries,
rookie pressures. The Rams do not miss on defensive draft picks.
They've missed on a couple offensive draft picks. But I'm
(03:10):
wat take Andy Reid out. If you're talking leadership, game management,
play design, culture building, it is almost unfair what the
Rams have in Sean McVay. I mean, Phil Jackson's an
all time coach, but Phil Jackson was very clear, I
coach superstars. You guys do the rebuilds. McVeigh can do rebuilds,
(03:31):
he can do young stars, he can build a defense,
he can go run first. He can go pass happy.
It doesn't matter. You give him an off season. He'll
rebuild a team. He'll rebuild the scheme. Remember a couple
of years ago he went to Seattle for the opener
in a rebuild year. Pete Carroll didn't know what he
was watching. I mean, they literally came in with a
completely different schemed run game. And I'm looking at some
of these Rams defensive stats since Week fifteen, including the playoffs.
(03:56):
The Rams lead the entire NFL in sacks and I
don't know if they can beat Philadelphia, but they match
up with Philadelphia and they are a different team than
the one that played Philadelphia earlier this year. I said
this for the last three weeks, this young defense, about
every three weeks you look up and they're noticeably better.
And I mean the starters have only played four games.
(04:17):
The last four games the starters defensively have played for
the Rams, They've allowed under ten points in all four games.
So there's only a handful of quarterbacks that can beat
the Rams, and Sam Darnold with this offensive line, is
not one of them. But we love to bury losers.
I mean that's what media does, right, You're a loser.
We bury you. I didn't think this game was about
(04:38):
the Vikings. I thought it was about a staff in
Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell that we felt all year
was an elite staff. Four drives into that game. Three
drives into that game. It was a coaching mismatch. The
Vikings could not protect Darnald, who's always held the ball
(04:59):
too long. So did Big Band, and so did Joe Burrow,
so did Andrew. Look. Some guys like to hold it
a second longer because they're big play guys. They like
to throw the ball down the field. Not Dincon Duncan.
But Sam didn't have a great night. But Josh Allen
could win that game with that protection. Lamar Jackson Maholmes
(05:20):
could win that game. Sam Darnold's not going to But
I said this weekend, we love to bury the losers.
I didn't blame the Packers for losing. I said yesterday
on the show, they're not as good as Philadelphia. They're
too young. Green Bay wasn't gonna win that game in Philadelphia.
It was the one game I said going into the
weekend my favorite bet was take Philadelphia. They don't even
have to play well, and they didn't and they can win.
To me, this game was about Sean McVay. I mean,
(05:42):
think about this. Kyle Shanahan is considered a very good coach,
and I think that eight years, four times under five
hundred and he is very reliant. And Shanahan's good. He
is really reliant on Christian McCaffrey. Mcveigh's reliant on Noddy Oh,
Jared Goff now I got rid of him. Matt Stafford,
(06:06):
don't go run heavy. He's proven he can win and
proven he can get to a super Bowl. So he's
not reliant on any one thing. You give Sean McVay
an offseason or an extra week like Andy Reid, and
it feels like a coaching mismatch against a Viking staff
that I think is one of the best staffs in
the league. The gap in preparation, the gap in game
(06:30):
planning in the first two to three drives of that
game was insane. Again, Barry Darnald Donald's closer to Bakerfield.
Baker Mayfield, Okay, he had a great year. They're gonna
move on. They're gonna go to JJ McCarthy. That's the NFL.
If you have a bad couple of weeks, at the
end of the year. Coaches get fired, quarterbacks get demoted,
people hit the free agent market. That's always been the NFL.
(06:52):
You only have so many games. They're scarcity. It's not
the NBA or hockey or baseball. You're gonna have bad
julyes and you're gonna be okay if you're hitting in August, September,
in October. That's not the NFL. You have a couple
of bad weeks, people move off you. But I McVeigh
was symphonic last night and numbers a game earlier this year.
Remember this game, Jmac when they played the Buffalo Bills,
(07:14):
And I came on the following day and I said,
I think that was the perfectly coached played game. The
best coach played game ball by any team all year
was the Rams beating Buffalo. They were as flawless as
you can be against the great team that first half. Nobody,
including the Chiefs, would have beaten the Rams in the
(07:34):
first half last night. I don't know how you coached
better or played better, or considering what's going on in
southern California, how you're more focused here, Sean McVay.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
After I thought we had a great rush plan, and
I thought, ultimately, it's always about the players bringing it
to life and having a real understanding of what we
were trying to get done, what was the intent. They
have really played excellent football as of late. They're peaking
at the right time. They're not showing any of that
youth that you would think, you know, as you play
your eighteenth game in the you know, in this season.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But I'm proud of them.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
They came through in a big way and they were
instrumental in us being able to advance.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, game was over by the fourth series. Let's talk
Sam Donald. And I know what you're all saying, colleing,
you love Sam Donald. I do, but I kept saying
all year, when's the shoe gonna drop? I know Sam's reckless.
I watched him in college, I watched them in the Pros.
But he was having like an MVP level season. And
it happens. We've seen quarterbacks like this, Ken O'Brien, rich Gannon,
whatever it is, guys have unbelievable, remarkable seasons. But the
(08:29):
truth alas comes out. Sam Donald actually had a very
Dak Prescott like season, won a lot of games. Everybody
likes him, players rally around him, coaches love coaching him,
wins a lot of games, and then he faces elite
competition and it doesn't look the same. So Sam Donald
was zero to four against the Rams and the Lions,
and he was eleven to zero against everybody else. And
(08:52):
the good news for Sam Donald is most everybody in
the league is everybody else. There is one Sean mcvahan Stafford.
There is one Detroit line offensive line. So Sam Darnald,
like Dak Prescott, you put up an eighty eight mile
hour fastball, he's gonna hit it out of the park.
He's got trouble hitting Kershawn his Primes curveball. He's not
(09:13):
gonna beat the great teams unless he's got really good protection,
a perfect game plan. So ninety percent of the league
isn't this Rams team or the Lions, or the Bills
or Patrick Mahome. The key is, then, don't Pam like
Josh Allen. Tampa got it right. They paid Baker the
contract that Sam should now get. The Cowboys screwed it up.
(09:38):
They paid Dak the contract because I think that Dak
Baker and Sam is kind of the same guy. Productive
players like him. You can build a little bit around them.
But They're reckless, a little bit sloppy. They're not going
to elevate the team as much as the team is
going to protect them. But they can make plays. But
the key is Tampa and the next team that pays
Donald can't pay them like Mahome Holmes. And that's what
(10:01):
the Cowboys did. They got a Baker and a Donald
and they paid him like Josh Allener Lamar Jackson. So
they're gonna go now with JJ McCarthy and they're gonna
give the young kid a shot. And Sam is absolutely
gonna have a market. I don't know where he's gonna go,
but Baker Mayfield had a market, held Gino Smith at
a market. Old Tom Brady and Kirk Cousins had a market.
(10:21):
But Sam season, Let's not take away from it. It
was remarkable. It was a great season. It was a
fun season. This team was picked to finish fourth, and
I don't put it all on Sam. Last night, young quarterbacks,
Jordan Love, Sam Donald, Justin Herbert still pretty young, that
fell behind or could not get protect Texans. I mean,
(10:43):
the Chargers couldn't protect Justin Herbert, The Vikings couldn't protect
Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield should have won that game. But
you know, Jayden Daniels is remarkable. This is what happens
in the playoff. Jordan Love got behind, got a little
reckless trying to make plays. There is no tomorrow. So
Sam's gonna be fine. He deserves a Baker Mayfield contract.
(11:06):
You can kind of build around him, but that's not
confuse it for what it is. And here's Kevin O'Connell after.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
What he was able to do this year when not
very many people thought he would be able to lead
a team to fourteen wins. I'm very rare for a
quarterback in their first year. And I think Sam would
be the first one to tell you could he have
played better tonight? I'm sure he would tell you that
he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise
you I could have. Could our team have rallied around,
(11:35):
you know, a play here or there to try to
keep that thing competitive?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
For sure? And I you know, I said Sam Darnold.
He was zero and four against the Rams and the Lions,
but he was actually like fourteen to zero against everybody else.
Sam was perfect except against the great teams. And you
know who beats the great teams? Not many quarterbacks four
maybe in the league. I mean, as good as Stafford
and McVeigh are, they're going to go to Philadelphia be
(12:01):
an underdog, probably not play as perfectly as they did
last night. Philadelphia played poorly, so everybody now is doubting them.
Yet they played poorly and being a good packer team.
So Philadelphia now go stays home cold Weather Rams play
a perfect game. It is hard to beat great in
this league. And Sam faced great last night. A great
(12:23):
pass rush, a great young defense, a great coach, great
efficiency by Matt Stafford. Sam's not going to beat that
without online all right, j Mac, Cowboys may have a
coach and it's and it's from the college ranks.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Stop it. You can't even say it with a straight face.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
But in all seriousness, for Jernald, everybody going on to
pile on him last night on social media.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
I thought it was a little excessive.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
All of a sudden, he was an MVP candidate for
what fifteen weeks, and now he's a total bum who's
not going to get paid by anybody.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
He's still gonna a market in the offseason.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Of course.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
It's like people just don't understand football or front offices.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Kurtos Kirk Cousins, who's not nearly as dynamic as Sam,
doesn't have Sam's arm, doesn't have Sam's playmaking, was older
and coming off of surgery, had a market. In fact,
even his cousins this year looked washed. I think you
and I have said this. He still has a market.
Aaron Rodgers is not close to what he was six
(13:26):
years ago. His season was a disaster. Aaron Rodgers has
a market. The key is front offices have to pay
the right number. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got it right
with Baker. It doesn't limit what they can do. The
Cowboys didn't. They paid Dak and Dak and Baker. I
think Baker's more talented than Dak. They're very close. I
(13:49):
mean Baker's more reckless, but a little bit more talented.
Dak is less reckless, but he's got a lower ceiling.
But one got paid like homes and one got paid
like a B to B plus quarterback. So Donald's in
that B to B plus stuff. If he gets some support,
you can't pay him like an A. Now, we thought
for a big chunk of the season, like week ten
(14:12):
through week sixteen, were like, you gotta pay, But this
is how the NFL works. Because of the scarcity of
games and because there's one game a week, and in
the playoffs their standalone games. There's a lot of pressure
from owners and executives. You gotta hit it in the
big games. Now.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
I will say I believe in brock Purty a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I like him. You know that.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
I'm team brock Purty, Colin if he holds firm, I
want sixty million, I'm not. I would take Sam Donald
at thirty million over brock Purty six. I'm sorry I
would and forty nine ers fins. You tell them that
and they're like, you're out of your mind, rock Party.
I don't think they grasped like double. He's not double
the player Sam Donald is.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
He's not.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You have to remember you can overpay a right tackle,
you can overpay a linebacker, but when you're overpaying a
quarterback and he is gobbling up twenty one percent of
your salary cap. There are certain things in life that
you can't make a mistake on. Day to day, all
of us make mistakes. I make fifteen a day, But
(15:11):
there are certain things, like the safety of your children
that you can't make a mistake on, and like in
the NFL. Not perfectly analogous, but you can make mistakes
on a slot corner and overpaying him.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
It's not going to.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Destroy your salary cap. You cannot make a mistake at quarterback.
It's just there's too much money involved, that's too big
of a cap percentage.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
And I'll remind people Sam Donald won fourteen games with
the Vikings and Kevin O'Connell. You don't think he can
duplicate that or come close to it with Lena.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean, I mean, I will say this, Sam Darnald
to the Raiders, if the Raiders got an offensive coach
and Johnson, I think he would be very, very interesting.
But you know it's like.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
With Shane Steichen. Maybe does that do anything for you?
If Anthony Richardson's not their guy?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And oh, I'll just tell you right now. I'll tell
you right now. Sam Darnold to the Colts is the
play Vikings. Don't want to face Sam again and roll
the dice on. He's better than McCarthy. Get Sam to
the AFC where you don't have to play him. JJ
McCarthy may be better. I would rather Sam not prove
(16:18):
me wrong. So if you can always get a guy
Belichick will give up Garoppolo. Let's just send him over
to San Francisco. I always understand that even if you
don't love a guy, if you think there's a little
bit in the back of our head because they don't
know what JJ McCarthy is, you don't know what he is.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
You're the only ones who have a clue. Though they
see him every day, they know to work ethic.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, be sure to catch live editions of The Herd
weekdays and noon eastern a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Jones on Monday morning to steal attention, drops the story
about Mike McCarthy could have waited, you know, but that's
not Jerry. And then last night a big playoff game,
Jerry Jones the attention seeker once again. Make sure this
leaks deon Sander and the Cowboys or interest that Jerry
Jones loves attention. But here's the issue, and this is
(17:07):
why you got to take the Deon Sanders thing seriously.
Cowboys training camp lowest attendants ever. When they play the
Packers the Niners, a third of the stadium in Dallas
is filled with Packers and Niners fans, so yesterday Jerry
and this is what he does. If he can't win
on the field, let's be relevant off it. He drops
that story last night to get the attention he wants it,
(17:30):
and he'll steal it. He wants to be relevant. This
is who he is. So if you can't win big
on the field, stay relevant off the field. And in
every industry I have found, it could be mine, it
could be politics, it can be football, it can be tech.
The grind wins, Detroit's front office, Philadelphia's front office, the
Rams never missing on defensive draft picks. You have to
(17:51):
accept if you coach the Dallas Cowboys, you have to
deal with Jerry's ego and Jerry's need for constant attention.
And Dion gets attention, he'll make them fascinating. Do I
think he's the best coach on the market, Well, we
don't know. He's coached small college football and Colorado, which
is sort of like small college football. So when people
(18:14):
question the state of the Cowboys, like Michael Irvin who's
on our show later, or Troy Aikman, when those guys,
Cornerstone guys question the Cowboys, you've got issues. And generally,
if you have a bad team in the NFL, and
that's what the Cowboys were this year. There are mechanisms
to make you really competitive, really fast, look at Washington
(18:35):
or the Texans or the Chargers. But when you have
dysfunction in ownership, you will always hit that ceiling. And
that's what Dallas has. So Dion makes them interesting. And
as Matt Moseley, a Cowboy insider, said yesterday on our show,
that's what they've become. At one point, young Jerry was
(18:59):
a and a risk taker and let Jimmy Johnson do
the football. And then after about four years, and this
is well documented, Jerry didn't like Jimmy getting all the attention.
And now it's really about attention. They're not relevant on
the field. I'd never talk less Cowboys than I did
this year. So let's stay relevant off the field. And
(19:20):
here was Matt Mosley yesterday.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
I thought Jerry was trying to get Mike to sort
of break up with him. This is where this thing
was headed the whole way. And so you know, the
players and Dak, they were all sort of lobbying for Mike.
But in the end, I'm not real surprised because I
looked up there at those stands and boy, that's the
one thing they'll get Jerry's attention. Even on Thanksgiving, people
(19:46):
were not coming to the games. It's almost never happens
with the Cowboys, and so I think he wanted to
make a move, but he tried to like salvage something
with McCarthy and offer him some real short term deal.
And I think Arthi said, I've had enough.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Mostly the bad teams at the top of the draft.
They're getting a great draft pick, and they have a
ton of cap space. I mean, if you see how
much cap space next year, like New England has, but
the Cowboys have neither. They have neither because they overpaid
for a quarterback and they pay people too early that
(20:22):
are too average or too late, and so they don't
have a great draft pick, and they don't have a
lot of cap space. And so this will get attention
and keep them relevant absolutely next year, because they're not
relevant on the field anymore. They're not They're not relevant
on the field now. Dion, I don't know how it'll go.
(20:45):
I don't have a crystal ball. Could be a disaster,
could be great, but relevant. Interesting. Absolutely, We'll talk about
the Cowboys again. Jmckle the news No no, no news.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
This is the headline news.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
All right.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Let's start with Mike Vrabel, introduced as the new Patriots
head coach yesterday, said New England was the police he
always wanted to be and he's excited to work with
Drake Bay, but said this his time with the organization,
playing for Bill Belichick, it does not matter at all.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
I think it's it's special. It's unique having played here
knowing Bill. But again, we have to focus on things
that are going to help us win now, help our players,
and like I said, galvanized the building and the team
and our fan base. So I think that there's also
things I'm might try to explain to the players that
(21:43):
there's things that are interesting and there are things that
are important. I think me having played for Bill is interesting.
I just don't know if it's important to help in our.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Players, opposite of the Cowboys don't care about interesting. I
will make a prediction. Right now, are we recording Ryan?
Is this show being courted?
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I think we're live.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Not sure though. The New England Patriots, like the Broncos
in Washington this year, are my surprise team next year
in the NFL. Right, and when I picked the Broncos.
Everybody said, you know Sean Payton and I know Mike Rabel.
If you look at this league, the one way to
get good fast is a coach or a quarterback. And
(22:23):
one of the easiest ways to get good fast is
if you need receivers. Houston went and found Tank Bell.
You can find receivers in this league. This is a
playoff team next year in a division outside of Buffalo,
which is wildly dysfunction. No.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Wait, you waited on Denver until they got Bonnicks, and.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
But they've already got this pre draft, pre free agency,
like they've already got their Bonnick. So I've already got
the quarterback I live, So DEMI.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
See anything else you're you're good.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
We got Drake bay Rabel.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Who are we throw it to, doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
We're going to the player most like it, most cap
space in the league. So I have the coach, the quarterback,
most cap space, and outside of Buffalo, I know, I
got my eyes set on Buffalo. I don't have to
worry about the editing clowns behind me.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
There's nobody behind you in the division.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Well from bottom from now on. And you think, why
would I say this, I didn't talk Patriots this year,
this is gonna be the surprise playoff team next year.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
I will take the other side of that wager. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Where we'll be at this time next year, but if
I'm around to collect whatever payment you're going to give me,
Patriots are not going to the playoffs next year.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Call that adds, that's your boldest call since I've joined
the show. I mean, you have seen the draft of
free agency.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You have seen the schedule.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
If they gotta go to Spain.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Next year to play a game, I mean fourth place schedule,
I know what the schedule is. Gonna be easy, all right.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Next up is the Lakers.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
They played their first game back after a six day
layoff due to the wildfires here in southern California, and
the Lakers kind of like it. They did know, you know,
JJ Reddick was renting a house in the Palisades. He
lost his house. He's been to a lot, several players
had to evacuate. As for the game, Lebron was fantastic
against Webbin Yama, but the Lakers blew a halftime lead.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Yeah, wemby twenty three, eight and five. He didn't shoot
a billion three. So hopefully you're happy with that performance, and.
Speaker 6 (24:22):
After the game, Lakers new Edition Dorian Finney Smith talked
about the loss.
Speaker 9 (24:26):
We as cute the game plan like were supposed to,
but you know, coaches gave us, you know, they gave
us the right answers to the test. We just he
used to study.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Been a tough week, you know, you know, I mean, listen,
I'm kind of giving people in Los Angeles teams a pass.
I mean, what the Rams did, They're resilience and focus didn't.
Was it really impressive for the record. Tip of the
cap to the bid Wells and Arizona for their class
last night. Tip of the cap to the NFL to
(24:59):
pull it off, to the Viking staff, to the fans
that made their way from Minnesota and Arizona in Los Angeles.
I was a Scott van Pelta talked about this, the
quality of the crowd, the size of the crowd, for
something to pivot to that. How many of these fans
(25:19):
literally went online, bought tickets, got in a bus, got
in a plane to pull that environment off last night
and then to play like the Rams did when many
of remember the RAMS facilities are near these fires, they're
up north. I was just blown away. By the entire
(25:40):
spectacle of it. Last night, I thought, coming into it,
I thought, that's going to be kind of choppy the league.
The fans are amazing in this league. How did so
many Vikings fans get there? How many flights today from
Minneapolis to Phoenix. I think it helped that they just
Rams went right down the field in like four minutes,
score a touchdown, then they're up ten to nothing. Yeah,
and it just ball.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Then it was easy to get excited and just a
great performance from the Rams. As for the Lakers, they're
now seventh in the West, So I guess that means
Charles Barkley thinks they're their worst team in the league,
you know, since he thinks the Lakers are at six
and mitinc.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Final story, Colin, Let's look, we have the gambling line
set for the division round. We have one, two, three
big favorites. Although I'm stunned Casey was eight and a half.
Who is betting on Houston?
Speaker 6 (26:26):
I mean, guys, I don't know what we're doing out
there Baltimore taking money in Buffalo. I mean, I know
everybody loves the Ravens. Washington a big, big underdog in Detroit.
I noted yesterday.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
This is their third straight road game.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
There's a lot working against them. So the wise guys,
the casinos and then the DraftKings, you may not trust
Lamar Jackson in the playoffs. They do, they may Baltimore
a favorite. So the sharp crowd they like Lamar Jackson. Yeah,
so the fans. By the way, Lamar won his third
(26:59):
playoff game this weekend. Can we stop that he's never
good in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
He's good in the playoffs, that's right.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
Kansas has four wins.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Oh well, Mark Rock Perty has.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Four playoff Like, come on, what do we know? Lamar's good?
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Win this game in Buffalo and then.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Talk to me.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
I don't want to hear the hype this week Colin.
This sets up for another just monster teaser weekend.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
You know what teaser is?
Speaker 6 (27:20):
He has six point teaser six and a half. Who's
blowing and teaser? Which are these three big favorites?
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Is losing?
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Do you think Casey's losing?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Absolutely not. They have no chance. I love, I Love
Kansas City is gonna win. I think Philadelphia played poorly
in one. That generally is a way when really good
teams play poorly and win, they almost always play well
the next week and the Rams cannot play as perfectly
(27:48):
as that it against Minnesota. So I like Philadelphia, I
like I like Kansas City.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
It's just not a big spot for the Ram.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
But I'll tell you this, I'll take the points with Washington.
So one of those is going to show up, either
the Rams or Washington. I think Jade and Daniels what
he did. Jaden Daniels may have to run for one
hundred yards.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
He might.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
They don't defend running quarterbacks well at.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
All, so that is not a great matchup for Detroit.
Detroit's gonna have to run the ball. And you know
what Detroit's game plan is, keep Jayden Daniels off the field.
I think they're gonna do a run centric game. I
think Detroit's gonna say mid to shorter passing run game.
We are gonna dominate time of possession. We want the
(28:35):
ball forty minutes, and if we can't stop Jaden Daniels,
we're gonna make him sit, watch get out of rhythm.
But if I was Detroit, what I don't want to
do is a track meet because Jayden Daniels does magic stuff.
Speaker 6 (28:47):
These are two teams that go for it on fourth down.
A ton and that can lead to some high varias.
Dan Campbell rolls the dice great point, Montgomery get stuffed
and it's like, oh.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Jeez, what are we doing.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
So there is some concern there, but the Rams spot
so they had to leave to go to Arizona, not far,
but then fly back now on a short week because
they've played last night, They've got to fly across the
country to Philly.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
It's gonna be coold. It's a tough one for the Rams.
But they did look really sharp last night. Colin.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
I mean, I think something tells me that they're gonna
they're gonna show up here in Philly. And mcveigh's just
too good of a coach. I think that's the biggest
coaching mismatch of the weekend.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Nicvavor siriannih that's why they have a shot.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
But you know, and I know the week after the
Rams played Buffalo and were perfect, they weren't perfect the
following week.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
And I thought the Rams first half was it was
like whiteboard stuff, We're gonna do this, this, this, this,
and all of it worked. So just for the record,
you're leaning Lamar. Obviously you don't have to get the
pick cas. I'm not gonna talk about that game until
we get closer. I last night, I'm sitting there looking
at stuff. I don't see what the rest. I don't
see what Vegas sees. I think Buffalo is gonna win
(29:55):
the game. I think Buffalo's offense has so much diversity
and balance, whereas I think the Baltimore offense if Zay
Flowers is one hundred percent, it becomes very Derek Henry
Lamar centric. The home team with more variables and options.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
I like, you could even tease Buffalo up to you know,
seven and a half.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
They're not getting blown out at home. That's not happening here.
Josh Allen will keep them in. It should be a.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Hopefully better results than the wildcard weekend average. Morgan A
victor is fifteen points.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Wildcard weekend well, I mean the College Football Playoff the
first round was a little sucky, and after that the
games have gotten better. I like that. Yeah, I mean,
it's just just the reality is these wildcard weekends. To
expand the field, you put in teams that aren't as good.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
So, by the way, for Blazing five, you'll include Ohio State,
Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Right, yes, I will.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Excited for that.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That Barkley line was funny. I gotta be honest with you,
Jmack with the news.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The
Herd Line.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Jay Lab has the best audio products in the game,
wireless earbuds to luxury active noise canceling headphones. I got
a couple of pair of those. Find the Blue Box
at Walmart, Target, best Buy, or visit JLab dot com.
Love their stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Speaker 10 (31:14):
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Speaker 11 (31:19):
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Speaker 1 (32:30):
There's an old saying a's higher a's and b's higher
c's because they're threatened or insecure, or they just don't
have the vision, and that's usually what it is. I
do think the Bears should hire Mike McCarthy, and he
is reportedly going for an interview tomorrow in Chicago. He'll
(32:54):
be the twenty third person in the waiting room. I mean,
they're The line at the DMV is shorter than the
Bear's job search, but I think he checks the boxes. Now,
there's another story that Marcus Freeman, the brilliant young coach
of Notre Dame, could be the coach. He could be
(33:15):
Sean McVay, or he couldn't. But I trust brilliant people
to make brilliant decisions and have vision. I trusted Stan
Cronk to spot the greatness in Sean McVay, hiring him
at thirty. I trusted pat Riley to spot the greatness
years earlier with Eric Spolstra. I trust great to see
(33:38):
great I trust a's to hire a's. I don't trust
be's and c's to do my hiring. And I don't
trust the Chicago Bears to identify whether or not Marcus
Freeman is going to succeed, because if he does, he'll
own the room. And I think there's lots of average
(34:00):
people and insecurity in that room upstairs in Chicago. That
is my take, So I don't trust. It's almost like
when you know a parent makes one of the kids
executor of the will. It's the one they trust when
they're gone. I just trusted Stan Cronkey's vision as the
largest commercial real estate owner in the world. I just
(34:21):
trusted his vision. On McVeigh, he said he's smart. He's smart.
Pat Riley with Spolstra, I trust him. But Bill Parcells
forever banged the table on Dan Campbell. He just kept
calling owners in GMS higher. Dan Campbell. Parcells is one
of the three four best football coaches in my life.
(34:42):
Mike McCarthy is a safer choice. That's all. I trust
the Bears doing. He will right the ship. You know.
It's very similar to if you're a professional poker player,
go for it, do all in bluffs. If it's your
(35:03):
first weekend in Vegas. Just play the percentages. The Bear
should play the percentages. Just get McCarthy in, Just get
him in. He'll write the ship. He'll make you good,
redeemable and solid and probably get you into the playoffs
because his history shows you that. But listen, at some point,
(35:25):
anybody listening to me, anybody listening to me, you will
make a will. And when you make a will, you'll
make one of your kids the executor of the will.
And that's the one. You don't love them more or less.
But it's the one you trust. And I think trust
is really important in big decisions, and there's just not
(35:47):
a lot of people in the NFL I trust to
make those decisions. Cleveland thought they had a real gem
in Freddie Kitchens, the Chargers thought they had a real
gem in Brandon Staley. Were both fooled. The percentages of
Chicago getting fooled by a young whiz. And I think
(36:08):
Marcus Freeman's gonna be great. It's this is not a
Marcus Freeman issue. But there's only so many people I
trust hiring young guys in their thirties to run an
iconic franchise. Okay, So I was thinking about this and
the story came out this morning, and you know the
way J Mack often points this out, if we don't
love somebody, immediately you think we hate him. And I
(36:30):
thought Russell Wilson had a nice season. I thought his
last year in Denver with Peyton was pretty good, and
I thought this year he was pretty good. But in
the AFC, in a division with Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson,
pretty good is not the answer. So Russell Wilson said
yesterday he wants to stay in Pittsburgh Garrett.
Speaker 12 (36:49):
You want to come back next year.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, that's that's that's the that's the plan.
Speaker 12 (36:52):
I mean, obviously I love it here and everything else,
and I think we have a great football team. Obviously,
it didn't go in the way we wanted it to,
and I think there's a lot more to do. I
think that, you know, obviously, this place is the place
that I think can win a lot and all that
stuff too, and I think we have a championship calibert
football team.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
So the Steelers are broken and everybody sees it to
me except the Steelers, right, Pittsburgh guy. Every year in
this league, minimum four teams that made the playoffs will
not and fanzero is outraged. Like this year, I said,
(37:29):
Cowboys Niners are regressing. I predicted before the season Cowboys
and Niners will slide. Keep your eye on the Chargers
and the Broncos in Washington rising this year. I got
it right. Pittsburgh's not making the playoffs next year. They're not.
Burrow is arguably on any Sunday, the best quarterback in
(37:49):
the league, and Lamar Jackson's amazing, and a lot of
these great quarterbacks aren't getting worse than the AFC and
the young ones are getting better. So with Pittsburgh's current
staff and quarterback situation, they're not a playoff team. You know,
it's almost like it's similar to you ever watch the
Shark Tank and there's that person that comes on and
(38:09):
they're absolutely sure they have the next great you know idea,
and the billionaires are all kind of waiting for the
person to step down and rolling their eyes. Like Pittsburgh
thinks they got it figured out and they don't know offense.
I like Mike Tomlin completely tone deft offense. Offensive line
seven years, no good. They can't fix it. They're broken,
and it doesn't matter if they go get Aaron Rodgers
or Sam Darnold behind that offensive line and that inconsistent
(38:33):
run game. Donald and Aaron Rodgers and we saw Russell
Wilson aren't good enough. They're not gonna win big games.
There's no quarterback in college you can get. And I
hear this all the time for Steeler fan. We are
too good to get a great draft pick and get
a quarterback. That's funny. Baltimore is better than you, and
they got one in Green Bay's consistently as good as you,
and they got one. And the Chiefs were making the
(38:56):
playoffs with Alex Smith, and they got Mahomes. You don't
have the vision. You think you do, but you don't.
You think you got the next great idea, but you don't.
You don't get offense. That's where the league's pivoted to.
You're tone deaf to it. You can't fix the O line,
you can't fix the run game. Mike Tomlin the voice,
(39:18):
what he's identifying works on one side of the ball.
And if you look at Russell Wilson in the fourth
quarter during this five game losing streak, passer rating in
the sixties, completion percentage fifty eight, And I like, George
Pickens is a talent, but he's all talent, no leadership.
I'm not building around George Pickens. So this organization is
(39:42):
not a playoff team despite what happened. They've got to
feel some desperation and urgency instead of trying to be
the pace car and brag about, Hey, no losing seasons.
You're not Jacksonville. You're Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Steelers in the
seventies and eighties. You were the franchise of note. Certainly
in the seventies for sure. But and this is not
(40:05):
an indictment of Tomlin or Russell Wilson. Russell can start
in this league. I'm not building around him, but he
could start, and he had a good He beat the
teams he should have beaten. But the truth comes out
in the NFL the longer a season goes. The truth
came out eventually. The Chargers lack of playmakers, that was
the truth. You know, Sam Darnold and that offensive line,
(40:27):
that was the truth. Green Bay little, reckless, inefficient, not
playing well. The truth. Bo Nicks didn't play well over
the course of time. The truth. Just because you make
the playoffs doesn't mean you're not broken, doesn't mean you've
got it right. It means the middle bottom of this league,
(40:47):
like the NBA, is hard to watch. Usually, the NFL
has got like five bad teams at the bottom. This
year it's closer to twelve, and I think that is
because of the rule changes. Eventually, with the rule changes,
if you don't have a star quarterback, you can't compete.
I mean, who won the games this weekend? The quarterback
(41:08):
that played the best in every game. The quarterback that
played the best won the game. Doesn't mean until it
was the best quarterback, but the quarterback that played the
best won every game. So this quarterback room in Pittsburgh,
with this coach and his skill set just not good enough.
Then Marry made the plais have higher standards. He's not
good enough, all right, Jay Mack Top of the hour,
(41:29):
Nick right stopping by Michael Irvin. Also zach Ertz from
the Commanders is stopping by. I gotta tell you that
Commander's game at Detroit. If I was a Lions fan,
I'd be a little nervous.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Yeah, of course. Let me go back to Tomlin for.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
A sec twenty seconds.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
What do you do with Russell Wilson? If you want
to move on, what's your game plan? Is it justin fields?
Is I don't think it's Sam Darnald, I don't.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I don't think it's in the building. I think if
you want to fix the quarterback situation, you need a young, bright,
offensive coach that understands that side of the ball.
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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