September 29, 2022 • 40 mins
Colin gives his grades for the NFC
Russell Wilson is not on the decline
Thoughts on Lamar Jackson's great start of the season
Guest: Greg Cosell
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
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Sports Radio. Ah, here we go, it's our two. We're
(00:25):
live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may
be and how wherever you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox
Sports Radio f S one. Greg co Sell less than
five minutes, Jason McIntyre joining us as always. I love
(00:46):
Cincinnati tonight in a triumphant win. Here's the problem. Everybody
in their mom loves Cincinnati tonight. So you know what,
a lot of times America is just full of smart people,
not Reagan nomment, especially on social media. So I gotta
tell you a little, a little inside story here. So
(01:06):
years and years ago, when I worked at another company,
one of the big managers over there, they were looking
for a radio person and we went to dinner and
he said, I want you to listen to this guy.
(01:26):
Do you think he's any good? And it was in
the football season, and he said, I'm gonna let you
listen to his Monday show. And I said, anybody can
do a Monday show during the football season. Go pull
his show from August eighth on a Tuesday. If he's
a player, he's interesting. Anybody sounds interesting on a Monday
(01:51):
after the NFL season, Go get me a Tuesday in August.
If he's good, hire him. Tonight is that night for Tua. Oh,
you get the Patriots at home, a northern team playing
in that weather in Miami, Buffalo, cold weather team coming
down to Miami. Defense on the field tonight. That deck
(02:15):
is stacked against tah Your defense was on the field
for ninety steps in that Miami heat, short week on
the road. Great quarterback On the other side, Twa gets
a lot of credit for bubble screens that become touchdowns
and blown coverages, hitting layup throws. Tonight is a Tuesday
(02:42):
show in August. Be great. Your defense is shot. Your
defense was on the field against Josh Allen running around
ninety plays in that heat. That's body cramps for two days.
You're banged up. They arguably have as good, maybe better,
(03:04):
maybe worse, but they certainly have the only other receiving
corps in the AFC that is equally frightening. And Joe
Burrow's great and you're banged up. That's where great is
at home. Northern teams in September, Miami weather. Nobody's really
seen McDaniel. Everybody's just trying to figure out what Mike
(03:26):
Mike McDaniel is. Now there's three games on tape of
what Mike McDaniel's tendencies are. Now you're gonna start seeing
people go, Okay, this is what he does. The first
two or three games of the year, you're taking Niner's tape.
You don't even know what the coach does. Now you
know what the coach does. Now you have a defense
that is shot. Now you're on the road. Now it's
(03:47):
a short week. Now, let me see two of tonight.
I'll start judging twa tonight. I'll judge that radio tape
Tuesday in August. You don't got to give me one.
October fifteenth, the Monday. That's a layup. Greg co Sell
forty three years NFL films. So it is amazing. When
(04:10):
you get the right coach with the talented quarterback Jacksonville,
it gets good really fast. And you know Doug Peterson,
offensive guy, Nick Serrianni, offensive guy to young quarterbacks. I
do think it helps. So let's let's talk about this.
Trevor Lawrence. You had said that he wasn't seeing the field.
You know he's growing. It's so let's let's talk about
(04:31):
him first. Did you see a little growth this week? Anything?
You saw their last six seven drives that were very effective? Yep. Well,
I think overall, Colin, you're seeing the impact of coaching.
And I've always been a believer in that, you know,
going back to when I started the business and was
fortunate to be around great coaches like a Bill Walsh.
And I think you're seeing that with Trevor Lawrence because
(04:52):
I noticed immediately week one, and it will be incremental, Colin,
but I noticed week one that his drop and his
set in the pocket were quicker. They're speeding up his feet.
He was a little deliberate. They're trying to shorten his
stride because he's always been a strider. He's very good
on the move, as we're seeing right here. That has
always been a strength of his game. But he needed
(05:14):
to be more efficient from the pocket, more compact, more
refined and you're starting to see that. So now he
can make throws in muddied, contested pockets, which, by the way,
you hardly ever saw in college, so you really didn't
have a great feel for how that would play out
in the NFL. So now you're seeing him have to
work when the pocket is being squeezed and you can't
(05:36):
stride when the pocket is being squeezed. So he's getting
better at that. So you can clearly see that on tape,
and the improvement is evident. But as I said, it
will be incremental. It's not going to happen on every
single snap. Now, Philadelphia is playing like the best team
in the league. So let's stay on Jacksonville. That defensive
front maybe the best defensive Jalen hurts. We don't think
(05:58):
of this right instinctively. This may be the best defensive
front he's faced so far this year in Jacksonville. What's
the tape say? Yeah, I mean again, you know, I'm
not in the prediction business, so I don't know what
Jacksonville's record will be when the season's over. But they
are really accumulating talent on defense, and a certain kind
of talent. Their defensive front is long and athletic, a
lot of multiple front looks, people that can play in
(06:20):
different spots. And keep in mind their DC came Mike Caldwell.
He came from Tampa with Todd Bowles. So what did
balls have in Tampa? He had Levante David and Devin White.
So what is he now putting together in Jacksonville? Foy
a lulacoon who's a very under overlooked i should say
player by media people not in the league, a really
(06:42):
good linebacker. And they draft Devin Lloyd who's six one
six two, So he's putting together a nickel linebacking unit
just like they had in Tampa. So this front group
is really really good. Now they're going up against arguably
the best O line in the NFL. And when you
watch the three games of Jalen Hurts, he has been
(07:02):
secure and clean in the pocket and able to really
pick out where he wants to throw the football. All Right,
Buffalo Baltimore could be a firework show. These are excellent teams.
So Lamar leads the NFL with twelve total touchdowns. What
are they doing and we know he's unique, what are
they doing schematically? Greg that is you know, that's a
different look or unique from the league because they're just explosive. Yeah,
(07:26):
they're totally unique, and they're very hard to prepare for.
Because think about this, Colin, I'm sure you talk about
this a lot. We live in an age of three
wide receivers. Okay, I don't know what the league wide percentages,
but clearly we live in an age where eleven personnel
meaning one back, one tight end, and three wide receivers
is the majority offensive personnel package. So think about this
(07:50):
with the Ravens that when you have to prepare for
them and you don't get a lot of time in
a week, especially if they're not in your division. In
three games, in three games, they have played only seventeen
snaps with three wide receivers on the show, they play
out of base personnel. So not only do you have
to prepare for Lamar, who you can't simulate in practice
(08:11):
with his speed, but now you have to figure out
how you want to play against a team that does
not play with three wide receivers that you're used to
preparing for every single week. Very interesting, you know, Buffalo,
I've said this. I watch Camon Big Band come into
this league and run around. I think how big they
are and they and they literally at thirty two, thirty
(08:33):
three years old, they're not the same player. Now. I
watched Josh Allen run around, I'm like, Okay, this is
great and cute and we all love this, all you
fantasy football fans. This is not gonna last. I've seen it.
Like I look at Buffalo and I'm like, you better
win a super Bowl in the next three years. I
don't think you can sustain your quarterback getting sacked four times,
running eight times, hit eleven times. What's the tape say?
(08:57):
And I think you're right. I've talked to coaches who
say that, as much as they love Josh, and it's
hard not to that you just can't play like that,
no matter how big he is. And we know that
he's competitive and all that good stuff, but it's really
hard to play that way. And I've said, going back
to last year when they really started to become past heavy,
that they're going to need to run the ball with
(09:19):
some kind of production. They'll never be a volume running team.
But you know, Josh Allen, you made the point that
they ran ninety plays last week against Miami. Okay, seventy
one of those plays where Josh Allen called drop backs.
You can't drop back that many times. It's just too hard,
not only on Josh Allen, it's too hard on your
(09:39):
offensive line. People never think about that. Yeah, it's really
hard on your offensive line. And they do not have
one of the best offensive lines in the league. So
Sunday night we get Mahomes Brady. It's very interesting is
we know what Tampa is, old quarterback, really nice weapons,
when healthy, very good front seven. Kansas City we view
(10:01):
as Andy Reid the great play designer, Mahomes the great
quarterback talent, but we kind of look past their defense.
But it's interesting, I mean we do because it's such
a firework show offensively, it when you look at the
Chiefs defense, because I know Kansas City's gonna put I
know Tampa's gonna put a little heat on Patrick. That's
(10:22):
just what they do. Can the Chiefs defense stack up
this week against Brady? Well, when you watch Steve Spagnola,
and I know Steve and I watched his defenses through
the years, he's very good and very sneaky with his
pressure concepts, and I think what he'll do is given
that Brady is obviously a pocket quarterback, they have to
(10:44):
sort out their offensive line that's been an issue through
three games. I think you're going to see situationally. Spags
bring pressure, and he's very good at how he kind
of defines that pressure. He'll show up a pressure look
from one side to get the protection to declare, then
back off that side and bring it from the other side.
(11:04):
He's very good. He'll play a lot of what we
call cover zero, where there's no free safety in the
middle of the field, so we just brings six and
matches up with five. He did that more last year
than any team in the league. So there will be
pressure that Spags will put on not only Brady but
that offensive line because when you see pressure fronts, you
(11:26):
have to sort that out before the snap of the
ball column because you can't change your protection in the
middle of the play. You know, Rams play San Francisco
on Monday night and it's really interesting. So the Rams
have really chaos at receiver. We think, oh, Stafford Cooper
cut mcvayh it's fine, Obj's not here. Two two out, well,
(11:46):
I think's a bust. Alan Robinson's not getting separation. Van
Jefferson is out and all of a sudden, this wildly
productive offense, which, by the way, Brian Allen the center
out for another month, Andrew what Worth tired. There's a
lot of duct tape and makeup being put on this.
They got a little bit of a personnel crisis here
(12:09):
at wide receiver. What do you make What is McVay
doing And by the way, it was it was exposed
against Buffalo. Okay, since then though, they're winning game, So
what is McVay doing. He's kind of you know, the
great coaches can mask issues. What is he doing since
then with this kind of personnel crisis. Well, one quick point,
(12:30):
the left tackle Noteboom, who was clearly exposed in that
opener against Buffalo, has played much better in the last
two games in one on one pass protection, So that's
a real positive for them. But what he's doing, because
you know, then Jefferson was not the big volume target
guy or the big numbers production guy, but he was
an important player and without him, mcveagh's trying to figure
(12:51):
out how this all works. And one thing he's done
in the last two weeks, and it's been really effective,
is he's taking Ben Scronik, who I'm sure nobody thinks
is a eight receiver and he's lined him up as
an eye formation fullback thirty snaps in the last two games,
and the play we're looking at right now was a
great example of him as an eye formation fullback working
(13:12):
through the line of scrimmage. The Cards defense did not
account for him catching a twenty six yarder, and here
he is as a lead blocker in the run game.
So McVeigh is an expansive thinker, as we know Colin
when it comes to offense, and he's taking a player
who's not a great talent. If he just played normal
wide receiver, he wouldn't be one of those guys that
catches eighty balls. And he's finding a way to make
(13:34):
him a part of this offense and be a factor
in the offense even if the ball is not in
his hands. That's I think that's really the genius of McVeigh.
That is why you are so great on that show,
this show. It's just that this is such great video.
And really because I watched this and I thought, yeah,
McBay is so clever. They've got real, really clever. Yeah,
(13:54):
I mean, they've got a real crisis at wide receiver here.
They really don't. So let's say to this Miami Cincinnati tonight.
Now I had said this Burrow didn't practice, had a
major surgery, didn't play in the preseason, and then so
he just didn't take many snaps. They had offensive line changes,
so like he scuffed in Week one, it was almost predictable.
(14:16):
Brady had the same issue Stafford because of arms sore
in the same issue. They all scuffed week one. So
I felt the second half against Dallas, I'm like, Okay,
I can see my untrained eye can see something they're getting, right,
Is there anything and last week against the Jets, but
is there anything that still concerned you with the Bengals
(14:39):
who played tonight in her favor? Well, it will concern
me tonight against this specific opponent because the Dolphins are
a very aggressive defense. They're very multiple with their fronts.
They put a lot of people on the line of
scrimmage Colin six guys, seven guys. Now, they don't always
come obviously, they'll back off at times. I mean Javon Holland,
(14:59):
the safety is is really good at being on the
line of scrimmage on the edge and then racing back
to be a deep safety and cover three. So the
offensive line for the Bengals will have a lot to
sort out, and it's a short week. So this is
no knock on Joe Burrow or the receivers who are tremendous.
I agree with what you said about the receivers in
(15:19):
our lead in here, but this is going to be
a tough game for this offensive line, and I think
there have Joe Burrows going to have to be very
conscious of getting the ball out. He can't sit in
the pocket. Now, there are times he can't, obviously, but
I mean in general, when he sees all those pressure
front looks, he's going to have to be very aware
(15:40):
of getting the ball out. All right. So obviously Mike
McDaniel has been a gift from the heavens, the football
gods to Tuat too. Actually has somebody that appears to
like him. You're obviously seeing some schematic changes with this relationship, yo,
for sure. And I think, look, I think that Mike
(16:00):
McDaniel clearly understands two with strengths and his limitations. Everybody
who's been around Two as a coach knows that he's
a certain kind of player. He's not a big arm guy.
You know, people see a deep ball and they think, wow,
that's an arm strains throw. When you throw a timing
deep ball, those are not armed strains throws. He's a
timing player, he's a rhythm player. He has to for
(16:21):
the most part. There's always exceptions. For the most part,
hit his back foot and the ball come out. Now,
coaches help you with that. Coaches who understand what they're
going to get from a defense in a given situation
can help with their play design. And quite honestly, Colin,
that really takes us to the play that I wanted
to show this week. So it probably makes sense for
(16:43):
us to see that play now because it was a
very big play last week against the Bills. It was
probably the play that really turned the game around. It
was a forty seven yard at a waddle on third
and twenty two. So here you're going to see the
two safeties. They're going to drop and it's going to
be covered too. The other part of cover two that's
important is you're going to have the middle hole defender.
(17:04):
Here it's the linebacker Edmonds. He drops deep. Okay, So
now what you want is you want to get Wattle
on this corner post route. That's where you'd like to
go with the football. So what do you have to
do is you have to control with routes the middle
hole defender. Sirfield does that with his route, and then
(17:25):
you have to control the backside safety and Hill does
that with his vertical route to the outside. So now
what you get is you get Wattle running his route
because it's covered two on a safety, this is exactly
what you want. He has a two way go and
he's going to run a corner post. So when he
breaks to the corner, that's safety turns to the corner
(17:48):
and now he's beat. He comes back inside and because
they control the middle hole defender and the backside safety,
there's no one there. Yeah, so if you're a safety,
you want him to have to go to the sideline,
not to the middle of the field because you cannot
count on help based on the complimentary routes. So this
was really brilliant design, well executed. I don't want to
(18:08):
say it was an easy routine throw, but it wasn't
a tight windows throw. Good stuff as owas Greg co
Sell forty three years at NFL Films. Thanks Greg, thanks
com appreciate it. You bet. One of the things he
touched on very early in that fifteen to eighteen minute
discussion was Josh Allen. We have another defensive coach, Sean
(18:30):
McDermott six years in can't develop a run game. I
like Sean McDermott, but look at the offenses that are struggling.
It's defensive head coaches. Pittsburgh can't get the coordinator or
offensive line right. It's four straight years, Mike Tomlin. It's
not that they can't coach. The league's pivoted away from
(18:50):
that side. And I like McDermott. They can't win close games.
They can't run the football. You gotta run the football
to some degree to win close because generally speaking, you
want to play keep away. The only way they run
it is Josh Allen. So you get to a point.
If they lose again in the playoffs this year because
they can't run the football, you're not only losing games,
you're shortening Josh Allen's career. Two things are happening in Buffalo.
(19:14):
You got to be able to see around corners in
business if you own a football team. We can't beat
the Chiefs. We can't run the ball, and I'm taking
years off my quarterback's life. Mahomes is generally not always,
but generally had a decent run game. You know. That's
why they drafted a center from Oklahoma. That's why they
spent money on that offensive line so Patrick didn't get
hit and they can develop a run game. We got
(19:35):
five six years with McDermott. O line's not very good.
I think it's better this year. They went out and
spent some money. The run game's not good. Look around.
See the big picture here. It's taking years off of
Josh Allen's career, so you better win quick. Twenty three
right around the corner. One more Herd. The Herd streams
(19:56):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within
the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Start Saturday Strong as Big Noon Saturday,
as fourth rank Michigan puts its dominant ground game to
the test against Iowa. Then it's a pivotal Big Twelve
class as ninth ranked Oklahoma State takes on number sixteen Baylor,
(20:16):
all on Fox and Fox Sports Appen. By the way,
just put Michigan football on noon Fox. I'm in every week.
I like everything. The fight song the unis Iowa's a
great play fight song. I love everything. You know a
lot of times you see on social media sort of
(20:37):
a casualness with integrity. I'm not a moralist, Okay, I'm not.
I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but
integrity matters. And from about nineteen ninety five to two
thousand and five, maybe two thousand and ten, baseball was
a soiled mess. You couldn't trust anything. And I see
(21:00):
a lot of this from people. Yeah, man, but it
was also really popular then porn. He is really popular.
Want your kids in it. We had a former president
that was popular with half the country, thank god he's
no longer in office. Popular and integrity can go hand
(21:22):
in hand. I think they do now in baseball with
Aaron Judge who tied Roger Morris's record last night, good kid,
and I believe a clean kid. If he didn't hear
it here it is there, there goes that he left
it us high, hell us far hid us gone number
(21:42):
sixty one. He ties Roger Morris for the American League's
single season to record, who has sixty run home runs.
It's a two run judge, and blast here comes the judge.
That young man in the glasses was Roger Morris junior,
Maybe not that young. After the game, he said Aaron Judge,
(22:05):
Now that's the real home run king. Well, I think
it means a lot in this not just for me.
I think it means a lot for a lot of people.
You know that he's clean, he's a Yankee, he plays
a game the right way, and you know, I think
it gives people a chance to look at somebody who
you know, should be revered for hitting sixty two home runs,
(22:26):
and not just as a guy who did it in
the American League. He should be revered for, you know,
being the actual single season home run champ. I mean,
that's really who he is if he hits sixty two,
and I think that's what needs to happen. I think
baseball needs to look at the records, and I think
baseball should do something. Listen, nobody questions that steroids created
(22:47):
more home runs. McGuire Sosa. It was fun, but it
lacked integrity. We're very casual with that now. I'm not
blaming any individual politician. It's just part of what it
is now. But it is important. Athletes, whether they should
be or not, tend to be role models. Aaron Judge
(23:08):
is a great role model. I believe Jay Mack with
the News No No, This is the herd line news,
all right. First up, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. They
got the big Sunday night matchup against the Bucks and Brady.
They just announced the game will be played in Tampa
despite the hurricane that tore through the game will be
in Tampaka. Um. Yeah, Brady and Mahomes head to head
(23:32):
was a pretty one sided Super Bowl because the Chief's
offensive line was hurt. But Mahomes gave some insight into
how long he wants to play if he can go
to forty five like Tom Brady. Yeah, I want to
play as long as I can play and I can
still have a chance to help the team get better. Um. Obviously, Um,
it's hard to play the two your forty five years old,
(23:52):
and I don't want to be out there just hanging on.
And I think you see what you see what Tom
is He's still playing at a very high level, and
I think that's that's why it's hard for them to
kind of give it up. When you're playing at a
high level, you don't want to you don't want to
leave it. Yeah, he's only twenty seven, by the way,
As another quarterback in Green Bay constantly remind you he
doesn't need the game and will retire soon. Mahomes is
(24:14):
like Russell Wilson's like dak Is like Lamar is like
playing as long as I can. It's easier to root
for those guys. I love how I'm sure the audience
caught that kid. Were this a Patrick Mahomes Tom Brady topic?
If you got in and Aaron Rodgers right in there?
But if you're gonna retire, Yeah, you have to mention
every fifteen minutes, like fans want to support you and
love you and wrap their arms around you. And if
(24:36):
we lose Aaron Rodgers to retirement, there's a big chunk
of the show we're gonna we better not replace it
with Justin Fields, that's for sure. Justin Field's up next.
He has less than three hundred passing yards Collins three games,
it's twenty twenty two. That's insane. Yeah, lois passer rating
among starters. Bears offense hasn't been able to get much going.
Field says the struggles, Hey, they're just part of the
process with the defensive coach. My response to that really,
(25:00):
just you know, get back to working, keep working, uh,
starting from your mistakes, knowing that you're not gonna be
perfect and just you know, moving on and just uh
you know, he said, in the fact that you know
we won the game, that's it's easier to you know,
correct mistakes after winning the loss, of course, so um,
you know, just correcting each and every mistake, and they're
just trying to be better in every aspect. I went
(25:22):
to Pro Football Focus this morning. Grades for offensive line.
They don't grade very well. They have. I think they
spent the least money on offensive line in the entire league.
But by the way, body language, guy, what does he
say about justin field right there? Like slouched, sleepy eyes.
He just doesn't look that interested. Like listen, I like
the Bears. I like him this weekend against the Giants. Yeah,
(25:43):
I'm way more concerned with his lack of completions that
his casualness. You saw Mahomes in the prior interview, standing
up straight like a man speaking eloquently. You're just like yo,
you know, listen, he didn't wear his hat backwards, So
I'm gonna go, um, listen to stats. Don't why he's um.
(26:05):
You know they're struggling. But again, this is the one
quarterback out of all these I said, you better be
patient because defensive coach, battle line, no weapons, goofy front office.
I have to give him the year. Goofy. Now, now
at the end of the year, if we're still into
seven completions a week, but of all the young ones,
I'm going to give him a lot of leeway this organization.
(26:28):
This is amazing to think about when named the last
great quarterback for this entire franchise. And I mean he
was great more than an hour. Rex Gross. No, he
wasn't a super Bowl. He's not great. Jim, he was
not great for it was a Bears defense wasn't great.
So they've never developed a great quarterback sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties,
(26:52):
two thousand, not one. Johnny Lujack. Oh that's not even
a real name, is it. No, I thought it was
a DJ. It was apparently a Bear quarterback in the fifties.
That was his name, Johnny Lujack. He also did afternoons
on ninety five points to Chicago's best rob go to
practice and then go to a radio radio and Benn
and backs. Then I have no idea. So no, I mean,
if you don't develop something in sixty years, I'm gonna
(27:14):
give him the kid a break. Yeah, I think we
hyped Darnell Mooney as his best wide receiver. I don't
know if he has a catch, but well, he's more
of a three year or two commet. I drafted him
in Fantasy, dropped him after like three minutes. I mean,
the guys have done. I do like the Bears this
weekend though. Uh final story, okay a little bit. Zion
Williamson took part in his first five on five scrimmage
(27:35):
the season. Zion look at that. Uh, despite not participating
in any of He's got a new ring. The earring.
It's like a Michael Jordan big school You know that.
I had two earrings when I was like My parents
said I could not get it in high school. I
went to beach week after senior year got them. Pierce
came home. My parents were not happy with me at all.
At any rate, um, Zion was not rusty. Colin and
(27:57):
head coach Willie Green said, Zion looked amazing. Any dominated
the scriminage. Big shocker there, right, Zia Williams and dominating.
I want to get back to this. So you had
two earrings. Yeah, if you look closely at my ears
and don't do it with the cameras, but I still
have the holes there. My kids asked, like, what's up
with that, Dad? I was like, yeah, I had two earrings,
not the hoops. I had the small hoop. So you're
one of those people that goes one of those guys
(28:18):
that goes on vacation to Jamaica comes back wearing bead No,
insolutely not. I Hey, whoa, what do you gotta get
your makeup on? Come on? You like a good red
strip every I'm not listen to you. What you're saying
is you're one of these people that I would admit
when I went to Europe, I came back here and
didn't want to work. I thought you were going to
(28:39):
say your backpack guy. No, Well, I mean I went.
I went to Italy, and I'm like, I just want
to walk around and drink espresso and hang out with
all these wonderful people. And because Italy is so chill
and it lost beautiful people in Italy, doo huh, Well,
my wife is beautiful. That's why I was with. I
didn't notice. But the point was we all are we
all have a little bit of this right, We're all
(29:00):
all Yeah. It was a rebellious stage. It was like
Cool in the nineties, a few of those Cool in
the nineties Haverings TV spring Break kind of error. All right,
I didn't know you were a rebel. Well, now my
son's becoming a rebel and that's not going well for
me at home. I'd love to hear that you keep
making things rough for dad. That's the way to do it.
Jmack with the News, Well that's the news. By the way,
(29:24):
I'm not saying anybody that wears beads is that nobody.
I'm saying when guys like him go to Jamaica come
back wearing beads. That makes me laugh. I had a
boss that did that once. No, I'm not joking. He
went to Jamaica for five days, came back with beads.
Was his name, Michael Jamaican f bead That's a whole
different thing. Was his name, Michael Scott by any chance,
but it was a very Michael Scott move. It happened
(29:45):
pre office. Oh wow, you know, I was ahead of
his time. People go somewhere, they come back and they've
been so influenced after four days on the beach or
anywhere that they're like they suddenly, you know, you start
becoming the place you visited for four days the person
you were for like forty eight. Yeah, that's my point.
On that point, be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays in New Eastern nine am Pacific on
(30:09):
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio App. Hey,
what's up everybody? It's me three time pro bowler Levarrington
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podcast called Up on Game? What is up on Game?
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler t J.
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Slash Herd terms and conditions apply. All right. Here we
go yesterday at this time we did AFC grades, we
graded every team in the AFC that we think matters.
We're going to do the same now gridiron grades for
the NFC. Jmac, here we go. Caylin will start. Since
(31:15):
you struggle so much yesterday with this, I'll start you
off with a lay up. The Philadelphia Eagles. I think
they're the A plus. Yes yesterday I gave Jackson del
An a plus because of their growth Philadelphia. I mean
they last started four and oh like fifteen sixteen years ago,
led all of their games by seventeen points. They've come
out strong early, so obviously on paper they've got a plan,
(31:39):
and then they execute it and then in the second
half they do as well, like unlike Green Bay, which's
good early not late both halves. They've obviously got a plan.
They make the schematic changes necessary at half. They're an
A plus. Dallas Cowboys lose their quarterback in Week one.
The sky is falling and they got two dubs. I'd
give them a B too many penalties, but they are
(32:01):
two and one with a backup quarterback. They've increased their
scoring an offense each week with a backup quarterback. They
also leave the NFL with sacks, but again they don't
feel disciplined and buttoned up. Way too many penalties. O
line still a little bit of a work in progress.
They got to be. I can't believe we're doing the
Washington Commanders after not doing the Jets yesterday. But the
(32:24):
Commanders one of the worst teams in the league. How
you grade them out? D? They've allowed fifteen sacks, most
in the NFL. Their defense has one takeaway. They have
a defensive coach and good defensive personnel. Almost a failing grade,
but I don't like to fail students early. We're only
in the first semester. The two and one fraudulent New
York Giants, how you give them? Agree? I would say
(32:45):
C plus. I mean, I do think Daniel Jones is
better than last year, but they have the thirtieth ranked
passing offense. They only have seven big plays. And I know, listen,
I know I'm beating up on Daniel Jones. But at
some point your young quarterback has to be the solution.
Because this is not baseball. There's a salary cap. All
these teams are imperfect. Burrow got to a Super Bowl
(33:06):
with a bad old line last year. I'm not saying
you have to get to the Super Bowl. You can't
be thirtieth in passing like there is some talent there.
You do have a great left tackle, so I give
them a C plus. How about Brady and the two
and one Bucks. They've had a lot of injuries, called
you give them kind of an incomplete here a lot
to give that, by the way, I would say a
B plus. They've overcome a lot. Their offense only three
(33:28):
offensive touchdown that's the problem. But I mean Chris Godwin,
Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Donovan Smith a left tackle. I
thought it was very obvious last week against Green Bay folks,
the Chargers aren't going to look the same without Rashaan Slater,
like you lose a runn't enough Donovan Smith. Grady's certainly
solid the good, so I give him a B plus
(33:48):
for overcoming even though it's not pretty with them optically
they don't score much, they've overcome a lot. Are your
favorite team in the league, the Green Bay Packers, who
are two in one. I should remind you before you
answer a C. They're twenty seventh ranked offense with Aaron
Rodgers and Aaron Jones, and they have five giveaways. So
they've been a little sloppier. They're not scoring a lot
(34:11):
of points. Aren't you concerned a little? No, you're not
not at all, not at wow, not at all. I mean,
look at the receivers. You just said. Tampa's receivers have
been all banged up. He's got a bunch of new guys,
two rookies out there, Romeo. Do you and I see
the Packers totally? Now? That's what makes it so beautiful.
But we can move on. Minnesota Vikings, who are two
(34:32):
and one, kind of lucky. They did smash the Packers
in Week one, but I don't know what the hell
is going on with them in the last two weeks. Right,
they're a bee. They beat Green Bay handily. They're two
and one. The only loss came on the road Monday
night football at Philadelphia. The best team in the NFC,
they're also the second least penalized team in the league.
They're healthy. They thumped a good team in Green Bay,
a team you like. So it's like, listen, they didn't again.
(34:55):
In college football, I'd be worried if Georgia was behind
an average team, but in the NFL, you're behind average teams.
They were behind Detroit. I look at it and think
they came back in one. That was a nice comeback
from behind win you you loss for the Viking, dude.
I had them in Survivor and they were well, that
(35:18):
explains your eggs. They did not cover the spread as well.
Let's go to Chicago Bears, but we kind of slammed
here justin fields. They are two and one, headed toward
maybe three and one column C minus. Only team with
more rushing yards than passing yards. In all three games,
they've had one hundred and five yards or fewer passing.
You don't have to be great at it, but let's
(35:38):
be honest. You've got to be a threat. And so
now on film people are watching this offense and they're
not even a threat to run. So I think it's
gonna get harder, not easier going forward. Speaking of threats,
the Detroit Lions only one and two, but man, they
are frisky. Oh I think it's a B plus. Oh
I think listen. I I know they're one in two,
(36:00):
but their offense is number two scoring offense. You know.
The other thing it was easy to dump on Jared
Goff when he left. Can we be honest about this
at least at home. Jared goffspan excellent. Yea, indoors he's great. Well, okay,
he plays over half his games and now he plays
Minnesota every year, so he plays more than half his
games indoors. Yeah, so I mean I gotta be a
(36:23):
It's easy to just relegate him like it's English soccer
to the lower division. I think Jared Goff, we gotta
do a Jared Goff topic that'll move the meter. I
think he's played better than even Detroit thought he would play.
I think he's been very good at home. Their offensive
coordinator has been phenomenal. That was Ben Johnson. I never
heard of the guy. Sewel's a home run at tackles.
(36:44):
Jeff o'cuda, the cornerback out of Ohio State, played extremely well,
locked up justin Jefferson last Yeah, no, I think. I think.
I think Detroit's interesting. La Rams, who you I think
had winning the Super Bowl back to back at the
beginning of the season, How he didn't. I had Buffalo
winning it, Buffalo over the ram So I have them
as a B. They have major injuries, worst rushing offense
in the NFC, and Matt Stafford leads the NFL or
(37:08):
NFC NFL with five picks. So they've been sloppy, but
a lot of it is I'll give them a high
grade a B because I don't think people realize after
Cooper Cup it's a little bit of a mess at
wide receiver. Let's go to the San Francisco forty nine ers,
your man crush, Lynch and Shanahan. I think they're one
and two and they got a tough one this weekend.
How do you grade out their first three games? B
plus Garoppolo will be better. More snaps defense, only team
(37:32):
holding their opponents under four yards a play. This is
a great defense. They're not healthy offensively. I worry about
Trent Williams being out, but again I think they've played
and we've they've had two quarters, are already on their
second quarterback, so it's not easy. Arizona Cardinals Kyler Murray,
(37:52):
I'd probably go D plush out. They've lost seven of
their last nine games. Their third down offense with k
is awful. Their defense is awful right now. They have
the worst scoring defense in the league, So you gotta
give me something like. You can say what you want
about Chicago, but they're playing defense. Rocan Smith is an
unbelievable player. You gotta give me something to grab onto.
(38:14):
What do I grab onto an Arizona, the quarterback, the coach,
the defense, third down? What do I grab on? There's
nothing to grab on. Do DeAndre Hopkins coming back in
like two weeks? Yeah, but he's not there now yea.
And we could wrap up with this Seattle Seahawks. Remember
I told the audience I would shave a Seahawks insignia
in my head if they had a winning record at
the end of the season. That is the best bet
(38:34):
I've ever made in my life. There's no chance they
will be nine and eight. I would give them a See.
I think they've been what we thought. But they beat
Denver and they were competitive against Atlanta. I mean they're
twenty eighth and total offense. So you know where they're
gonna draft first. They have a two first two seconds
and two fourths. They're gonna literally change their franchise. This
is the biggest draft in the history of the Seahawks.
Two first two seconds and I believe two fourths. So
(38:56):
after the fourth round is a lot of finger crossing,
but most nflgms leave your first round picks a pro bowler.
Your second round picks a starter, Your third and fourth
round picks start eventually fairly soon. So Seattle's got one, two, three, four,
or five, six, seven elite picks. My only thing with
that is, historically the Seahawks have done better drafting in
(39:16):
the mid rounds. They've kind of blown their early picks.
I'm calling it up here on the internet like shaky
picks in the last couple of years calling I'm trying
to be more positive with my hometown team. All right,
there we go, Gridiron, Grtz. This is interesting with God.
You did this yesterday at the end of the show
and it was funny. So when you criticize everybody criticizes
Jared Goff, you give me a quarterback and I'll tell
(39:38):
you if I take golf or the other quarterback. You
know where I'm gonna start things where Zach Wilson golf? Wow,
you almost look at incredulous. No, no brainer, yea, he
knows his limitation. We'll not running around in hero ball, Okay,
golf or Stafford Stafford golf or Gino Smith A. Damn it,
(39:59):
I'm off game. I'm off my game. All right. Uh,
let's go with Kurt Cousins. Who is Al God golf God? No? No,
what timeout? Time out? No? No, what time I watched
Goff on Monday Night Football out dual? Patrick mahomes. Now
you can all McVeigh you go that. No, I wasn't
all McVeigh. Come on, They scheming dudes open the entire
(40:20):
time out. How is how is Kyle Shanahan without Garoppolo?
He doesn't win. How's Belichick without Brady? You need the quarterback.
I've seen Golf going to big games and out dual guys.
Not consistently, but I've seen it. I've seen and I
like Kurt. He shrinks, he's on what does the football?
He says, the worst ever in the history of Monday
Night Football. Okay, one more, one more Jared Goff or
(40:41):
Jalen Hurts right now Jalen Hurts. Yeah, he's more dynamic. Yeah.
Hour three necks
Thanks for listening to The 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. You're listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Ah, here we go, it's our two. We're
(00:25):
live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may
be and how wherever you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox
Sports Radio f S one. Greg co Sell less than
five minutes, Jason McIntyre joining us as always. I love
(00:46):
Cincinnati tonight in a triumphant win. Here's the problem. Everybody
in their mom loves Cincinnati tonight. So you know what,
a lot of times America is just full of smart people,
not Reagan nomment, especially on social media. So I gotta
tell you a little, a little inside story here. So
(01:06):
years and years ago, when I worked at another company,
one of the big managers over there, they were looking
for a radio person and we went to dinner and
he said, I want you to listen to this guy.
(01:26):
Do you think he's any good? And it was in
the football season, and he said, I'm gonna let you
listen to his Monday show. And I said, anybody can
do a Monday show during the football season. Go pull
his show from August eighth on a Tuesday. If he's
a player, he's interesting. Anybody sounds interesting on a Monday
(01:51):
after the NFL season, Go get me a Tuesday in August.
If he's good, hire him. Tonight is that night for Tua. Oh,
you get the Patriots at home, a northern team playing
in that weather in Miami, Buffalo, cold weather team coming
down to Miami. Defense on the field tonight. That deck
(02:15):
is stacked against tah Your defense was on the field
for ninety steps in that Miami heat, short week on
the road. Great quarterback On the other side, Twa gets
a lot of credit for bubble screens that become touchdowns
and blown coverages, hitting layup throws. Tonight is a Tuesday
(02:42):
show in August. Be great. Your defense is shot. Your
defense was on the field against Josh Allen running around
ninety plays in that heat. That's body cramps for two days.
You're banged up. They arguably have as good, maybe better,
(03:04):
maybe worse, but they certainly have the only other receiving
corps in the AFC that is equally frightening. And Joe
Burrow's great and you're banged up. That's where great is
at home. Northern teams in September, Miami weather. Nobody's really
seen McDaniel. Everybody's just trying to figure out what Mike
(03:26):
Mike McDaniel is. Now there's three games on tape of
what Mike McDaniel's tendencies are. Now you're gonna start seeing
people go, Okay, this is what he does. The first
two or three games of the year, you're taking Niner's tape.
You don't even know what the coach does. Now you
know what the coach does. Now you have a defense
that is shot. Now you're on the road. Now it's
(03:47):
a short week. Now, let me see two of tonight.
I'll start judging twa tonight. I'll judge that radio tape
Tuesday in August. You don't got to give me one.
October fifteenth, the Monday. That's a layup. Greg co Sell
forty three years NFL films. So it is amazing. When
(04:10):
you get the right coach with the talented quarterback Jacksonville,
it gets good really fast. And you know Doug Peterson,
offensive guy, Nick Serrianni, offensive guy to young quarterbacks. I
do think it helps. So let's let's talk about this.
Trevor Lawrence. You had said that he wasn't seeing the field.
You know he's growing. It's so let's let's talk about
(04:31):
him first. Did you see a little growth this week? Anything?
You saw their last six seven drives that were very effective? Yep. Well,
I think overall, Colin, you're seeing the impact of coaching.
And I've always been a believer in that, you know,
going back to when I started the business and was
fortunate to be around great coaches like a Bill Walsh.
And I think you're seeing that with Trevor Lawrence because
(04:52):
I noticed immediately week one, and it will be incremental, Colin,
but I noticed week one that his drop and his
set in the pocket were quicker. They're speeding up his feet.
He was a little deliberate. They're trying to shorten his
stride because he's always been a strider. He's very good
on the move, as we're seeing right here. That has
always been a strength of his game. But he needed
(05:14):
to be more efficient from the pocket, more compact, more
refined and you're starting to see that. So now he
can make throws in muddied, contested pockets, which, by the way,
you hardly ever saw in college, so you really didn't
have a great feel for how that would play out
in the NFL. So now you're seeing him have to
work when the pocket is being squeezed and you can't
(05:36):
stride when the pocket is being squeezed. So he's getting
better at that. So you can clearly see that on tape,
and the improvement is evident. But as I said, it
will be incremental. It's not going to happen on every
single snap. Now, Philadelphia is playing like the best team
in the league. So let's stay on Jacksonville. That defensive
front maybe the best defensive Jalen hurts. We don't think
(05:58):
of this right instinctively. This may be the best defensive
front he's faced so far this year in Jacksonville. What's
the tape say? Yeah, I mean again, you know, I'm
not in the prediction business, so I don't know what
Jacksonville's record will be when the season's over. But they
are really accumulating talent on defense, and a certain kind
of talent. Their defensive front is long and athletic, a
lot of multiple front looks, people that can play in
(06:20):
different spots. And keep in mind their DC came Mike Caldwell.
He came from Tampa with Todd Bowles. So what did
balls have in Tampa? He had Levante David and Devin White.
So what is he now putting together in Jacksonville? Foy
a lulacoon who's a very under overlooked i should say
player by media people not in the league, a really
(06:42):
good linebacker. And they draft Devin Lloyd who's six one
six two, So he's putting together a nickel linebacking unit
just like they had in Tampa. So this front group
is really really good. Now they're going up against arguably
the best O line in the NFL. And when you
watch the three games of Jalen Hurts, he has been
(07:02):
secure and clean in the pocket and able to really
pick out where he wants to throw the football. All Right,
Buffalo Baltimore could be a firework show. These are excellent teams.
So Lamar leads the NFL with twelve total touchdowns. What
are they doing and we know he's unique, what are
they doing schematically? Greg that is you know, that's a
different look or unique from the league because they're just explosive. Yeah,
(07:26):
they're totally unique, and they're very hard to prepare for.
Because think about this, Colin, I'm sure you talk about
this a lot. We live in an age of three
wide receivers. Okay, I don't know what the league wide percentages,
but clearly we live in an age where eleven personnel
meaning one back, one tight end, and three wide receivers
is the majority offensive personnel package. So think about this
(07:50):
with the Ravens that when you have to prepare for
them and you don't get a lot of time in
a week, especially if they're not in your division. In
three games, in three games, they have played only seventeen
snaps with three wide receivers on the show, they play
out of base personnel. So not only do you have
to prepare for Lamar, who you can't simulate in practice
(08:11):
with his speed, but now you have to figure out
how you want to play against a team that does
not play with three wide receivers that you're used to
preparing for every single week. Very interesting, you know, Buffalo,
I've said this. I watch Camon Big Band come into
this league and run around. I think how big they
are and they and they literally at thirty two, thirty
(08:33):
three years old, they're not the same player. Now. I
watched Josh Allen run around, I'm like, Okay, this is
great and cute and we all love this, all you
fantasy football fans. This is not gonna last. I've seen it.
Like I look at Buffalo and I'm like, you better
win a super Bowl in the next three years. I
don't think you can sustain your quarterback getting sacked four times,
running eight times, hit eleven times. What's the tape say?
(08:57):
And I think you're right. I've talked to coaches who
say that, as much as they love Josh, and it's
hard not to that you just can't play like that,
no matter how big he is. And we know that
he's competitive and all that good stuff, but it's really
hard to play that way. And I've said, going back
to last year when they really started to become past heavy,
that they're going to need to run the ball with
(09:19):
some kind of production. They'll never be a volume running team.
But you know, Josh Allen, you made the point that
they ran ninety plays last week against Miami. Okay, seventy
one of those plays where Josh Allen called drop backs.
You can't drop back that many times. It's just too hard,
not only on Josh Allen, it's too hard on your
(09:39):
offensive line. People never think about that. Yeah, it's really
hard on your offensive line. And they do not have
one of the best offensive lines in the league. So
Sunday night we get Mahomes Brady. It's very interesting is
we know what Tampa is, old quarterback, really nice weapons,
when healthy, very good front seven. Kansas City we view
(10:01):
as Andy Reid the great play designer, Mahomes the great
quarterback talent, but we kind of look past their defense.
But it's interesting, I mean we do because it's such
a firework show offensively, it when you look at the
Chiefs defense, because I know Kansas City's gonna put I
know Tampa's gonna put a little heat on Patrick. That's
(10:22):
just what they do. Can the Chiefs defense stack up
this week against Brady? Well, when you watch Steve Spagnola,
and I know Steve and I watched his defenses through
the years, he's very good and very sneaky with his
pressure concepts, and I think what he'll do is given
that Brady is obviously a pocket quarterback, they have to
(10:44):
sort out their offensive line that's been an issue through
three games. I think you're going to see situationally. Spags
bring pressure, and he's very good at how he kind
of defines that pressure. He'll show up a pressure look
from one side to get the protection to declare, then
back off that side and bring it from the other side.
(11:04):
He's very good. He'll play a lot of what we
call cover zero, where there's no free safety in the
middle of the field, so we just brings six and
matches up with five. He did that more last year
than any team in the league. So there will be
pressure that Spags will put on not only Brady but
that offensive line because when you see pressure fronts, you
(11:26):
have to sort that out before the snap of the
ball column because you can't change your protection in the
middle of the play. You know, Rams play San Francisco
on Monday night and it's really interesting. So the Rams
have really chaos at receiver. We think, oh, Stafford Cooper
cut mcvayh it's fine, Obj's not here. Two two out, well,
(11:46):
I think's a bust. Alan Robinson's not getting separation. Van
Jefferson is out and all of a sudden, this wildly
productive offense, which, by the way, Brian Allen the center
out for another month, Andrew what Worth tired. There's a
lot of duct tape and makeup being put on this.
They got a little bit of a personnel crisis here
(12:09):
at wide receiver. What do you make What is McVay
doing And by the way, it was it was exposed
against Buffalo. Okay, since then though, they're winning game, So
what is McVay doing. He's kind of you know, the
great coaches can mask issues. What is he doing since
then with this kind of personnel crisis. Well, one quick point,
(12:30):
the left tackle Noteboom, who was clearly exposed in that
opener against Buffalo, has played much better in the last
two games in one on one pass protection, So that's
a real positive for them. But what he's doing, because
you know, then Jefferson was not the big volume target
guy or the big numbers production guy, but he was
an important player and without him, mcveagh's trying to figure
(12:51):
out how this all works. And one thing he's done
in the last two weeks, and it's been really effective,
is he's taking Ben Scronik, who I'm sure nobody thinks
is a eight receiver and he's lined him up as
an eye formation fullback thirty snaps in the last two games,
and the play we're looking at right now was a
great example of him as an eye formation fullback working
(13:12):
through the line of scrimmage. The Cards defense did not
account for him catching a twenty six yarder, and here
he is as a lead blocker in the run game.
So McVeigh is an expansive thinker, as we know Colin
when it comes to offense, and he's taking a player
who's not a great talent. If he just played normal
wide receiver, he wouldn't be one of those guys that
catches eighty balls. And he's finding a way to make
(13:34):
him a part of this offense and be a factor
in the offense even if the ball is not in
his hands. That's I think that's really the genius of McVeigh.
That is why you are so great on that show,
this show. It's just that this is such great video.
And really because I watched this and I thought, yeah,
McBay is so clever. They've got real, really clever. Yeah,
(13:54):
I mean, they've got a real crisis at wide receiver here.
They really don't. So let's say to this Miami Cincinnati tonight.
Now I had said this Burrow didn't practice, had a
major surgery, didn't play in the preseason, and then so
he just didn't take many snaps. They had offensive line changes,
so like he scuffed in Week one, it was almost predictable.
(14:16):
Brady had the same issue Stafford because of arms sore
in the same issue. They all scuffed week one. So
I felt the second half against Dallas, I'm like, Okay,
I can see my untrained eye can see something they're getting, right,
Is there anything and last week against the Jets, but
is there anything that still concerned you with the Bengals
(14:39):
who played tonight in her favor? Well, it will concern
me tonight against this specific opponent because the Dolphins are
a very aggressive defense. They're very multiple with their fronts.
They put a lot of people on the line of
scrimmage Colin six guys, seven guys. Now, they don't always
come obviously, they'll back off at times. I mean Javon Holland,
(14:59):
the safety is is really good at being on the
line of scrimmage on the edge and then racing back
to be a deep safety and cover three. So the
offensive line for the Bengals will have a lot to
sort out, and it's a short week. So this is
no knock on Joe Burrow or the receivers who are tremendous.
I agree with what you said about the receivers in
(15:19):
our lead in here, but this is going to be
a tough game for this offensive line, and I think
there have Joe Burrows going to have to be very
conscious of getting the ball out. He can't sit in
the pocket. Now, there are times he can't, obviously, but
I mean in general, when he sees all those pressure
front looks, he's going to have to be very aware
(15:40):
of getting the ball out. All right. So obviously Mike
McDaniel has been a gift from the heavens, the football
gods to Tuat too. Actually has somebody that appears to
like him. You're obviously seeing some schematic changes with this relationship, yo,
for sure. And I think, look, I think that Mike
(16:00):
McDaniel clearly understands two with strengths and his limitations. Everybody
who's been around Two as a coach knows that he's
a certain kind of player. He's not a big arm guy.
You know, people see a deep ball and they think, wow,
that's an arm strains throw. When you throw a timing
deep ball, those are not armed strains throws. He's a
timing player, he's a rhythm player. He has to for
(16:21):
the most part. There's always exceptions. For the most part,
hit his back foot and the ball come out. Now,
coaches help you with that. Coaches who understand what they're
going to get from a defense in a given situation
can help with their play design. And quite honestly, Colin,
that really takes us to the play that I wanted
to show this week. So it probably makes sense for
(16:43):
us to see that play now because it was a
very big play last week against the Bills. It was
probably the play that really turned the game around. It
was a forty seven yard at a waddle on third
and twenty two. So here you're going to see the
two safeties. They're going to drop and it's going to
be covered too. The other part of cover two that's
important is you're going to have the middle hole defender.
(17:04):
Here it's the linebacker Edmonds. He drops deep. Okay, So
now what you want is you want to get Wattle
on this corner post route. That's where you'd like to
go with the football. So what do you have to
do is you have to control with routes the middle
hole defender. Sirfield does that with his route, and then
(17:25):
you have to control the backside safety and Hill does
that with his vertical route to the outside. So now
what you get is you get Wattle running his route
because it's covered two on a safety, this is exactly
what you want. He has a two way go and
he's going to run a corner post. So when he
breaks to the corner, that's safety turns to the corner
(17:48):
and now he's beat. He comes back inside and because
they control the middle hole defender and the backside safety,
there's no one there. Yeah, so if you're a safety,
you want him to have to go to the sideline,
not to the middle of the field because you cannot
count on help based on the complimentary routes. So this
was really brilliant design, well executed. I don't want to
(18:08):
say it was an easy routine throw, but it wasn't
a tight windows throw. Good stuff as owas Greg co
Sell forty three years at NFL Films. Thanks Greg, thanks
com appreciate it. You bet. One of the things he
touched on very early in that fifteen to eighteen minute
discussion was Josh Allen. We have another defensive coach, Sean
(18:30):
McDermott six years in can't develop a run game. I
like Sean McDermott, but look at the offenses that are struggling.
It's defensive head coaches. Pittsburgh can't get the coordinator or
offensive line right. It's four straight years, Mike Tomlin. It's
not that they can't coach. The league's pivoted away from
(18:50):
that side. And I like McDermott. They can't win close games.
They can't run the football. You gotta run the football
to some degree to win close because generally speaking, you
want to play keep away. The only way they run
it is Josh Allen. So you get to a point.
If they lose again in the playoffs this year because
they can't run the football, you're not only losing games,
you're shortening Josh Allen's career. Two things are happening in Buffalo.
(19:14):
You got to be able to see around corners in
business if you own a football team. We can't beat
the Chiefs. We can't run the ball, and I'm taking
years off my quarterback's life. Mahomes is generally not always,
but generally had a decent run game. You know. That's
why they drafted a center from Oklahoma. That's why they
spent money on that offensive line so Patrick didn't get
hit and they can develop a run game. We got
(19:35):
five six years with McDermott. O line's not very good.
I think it's better this year. They went out and
spent some money. The run game's not good. Look around.
See the big picture here. It's taking years off of
Josh Allen's career, so you better win quick. Twenty three
right around the corner. One more Herd. The Herd streams
(19:56):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within
the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Start Saturday Strong as Big Noon Saturday,
as fourth rank Michigan puts its dominant ground game to
the test against Iowa. Then it's a pivotal Big Twelve
class as ninth ranked Oklahoma State takes on number sixteen Baylor,
(20:16):
all on Fox and Fox Sports Appen. By the way,
just put Michigan football on noon Fox. I'm in every week.
I like everything. The fight song the unis Iowa's a
great play fight song. I love everything. You know a
lot of times you see on social media sort of
(20:37):
a casualness with integrity. I'm not a moralist, Okay, I'm not.
I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but
integrity matters. And from about nineteen ninety five to two
thousand and five, maybe two thousand and ten, baseball was
a soiled mess. You couldn't trust anything. And I see
(21:00):
a lot of this from people. Yeah, man, but it
was also really popular then porn. He is really popular.
Want your kids in it. We had a former president
that was popular with half the country, thank god he's
no longer in office. Popular and integrity can go hand
(21:22):
in hand. I think they do now in baseball with
Aaron Judge who tied Roger Morris's record last night, good kid,
and I believe a clean kid. If he didn't hear
it here it is there, there goes that he left
it us high, hell us far hid us gone number
(21:42):
sixty one. He ties Roger Morris for the American League's
single season to record, who has sixty run home runs.
It's a two run judge, and blast here comes the judge.
That young man in the glasses was Roger Morris junior,
Maybe not that young. After the game, he said Aaron Judge,
(22:05):
Now that's the real home run king. Well, I think
it means a lot in this not just for me.
I think it means a lot for a lot of people.
You know that he's clean, he's a Yankee, he plays
a game the right way, and you know, I think
it gives people a chance to look at somebody who
you know, should be revered for hitting sixty two home runs,
(22:26):
and not just as a guy who did it in
the American League. He should be revered for, you know,
being the actual single season home run champ. I mean,
that's really who he is if he hits sixty two,
and I think that's what needs to happen. I think
baseball needs to look at the records, and I think
baseball should do something. Listen, nobody questions that steroids created
(22:47):
more home runs. McGuire Sosa. It was fun, but it
lacked integrity. We're very casual with that now. I'm not
blaming any individual politician. It's just part of what it
is now. But it is important. Athletes, whether they should
be or not, tend to be role models. Aaron Judge
(23:08):
is a great role model. I believe Jay Mack with
the News No No, This is the herd line news,
all right. First up, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. They
got the big Sunday night matchup against the Bucks and Brady.
They just announced the game will be played in Tampa
despite the hurricane that tore through the game will be
in Tampaka. Um. Yeah, Brady and Mahomes head to head
(23:32):
was a pretty one sided Super Bowl because the Chief's
offensive line was hurt. But Mahomes gave some insight into
how long he wants to play if he can go
to forty five like Tom Brady. Yeah, I want to
play as long as I can play and I can
still have a chance to help the team get better. Um. Obviously, Um,
it's hard to play the two your forty five years old,
(23:52):
and I don't want to be out there just hanging on.
And I think you see what you see what Tom
is He's still playing at a very high level, and
I think that's that's why it's hard for them to
kind of give it up. When you're playing at a
high level, you don't want to you don't want to
leave it. Yeah, he's only twenty seven, by the way,
As another quarterback in Green Bay constantly remind you he
doesn't need the game and will retire soon. Mahomes is
(24:14):
like Russell Wilson's like dak Is like Lamar is like
playing as long as I can. It's easier to root
for those guys. I love how I'm sure the audience
caught that kid. Were this a Patrick Mahomes Tom Brady topic?
If you got in and Aaron Rodgers right in there?
But if you're gonna retire, Yeah, you have to mention
every fifteen minutes, like fans want to support you and
love you and wrap their arms around you. And if
(24:36):
we lose Aaron Rodgers to retirement, there's a big chunk
of the show we're gonna we better not replace it
with Justin Fields, that's for sure. Justin Field's up next.
He has less than three hundred passing yards Collins three games,
it's twenty twenty two. That's insane. Yeah, lois passer rating
among starters. Bears offense hasn't been able to get much going.
Field says the struggles, Hey, they're just part of the
process with the defensive coach. My response to that really,
(25:00):
just you know, get back to working, keep working, uh,
starting from your mistakes, knowing that you're not gonna be
perfect and just you know, moving on and just uh
you know, he said, in the fact that you know
we won the game, that's it's easier to you know,
correct mistakes after winning the loss, of course, so um,
you know, just correcting each and every mistake, and they're
just trying to be better in every aspect. I went
(25:22):
to Pro Football Focus this morning. Grades for offensive line.
They don't grade very well. They have. I think they
spent the least money on offensive line in the entire league.
But by the way, body language, guy, what does he
say about justin field right there? Like slouched, sleepy eyes.
He just doesn't look that interested. Like listen, I like
the Bears. I like him this weekend against the Giants. Yeah,
(25:43):
I'm way more concerned with his lack of completions that
his casualness. You saw Mahomes in the prior interview, standing
up straight like a man speaking eloquently. You're just like yo,
you know, listen, he didn't wear his hat backwards, So
I'm gonna go, um, listen to stats. Don't why he's um.
(26:05):
You know they're struggling. But again, this is the one
quarterback out of all these I said, you better be
patient because defensive coach, battle line, no weapons, goofy front office.
I have to give him the year. Goofy. Now, now
at the end of the year, if we're still into
seven completions a week, but of all the young ones,
I'm going to give him a lot of leeway this organization.
(26:28):
This is amazing to think about when named the last
great quarterback for this entire franchise. And I mean he
was great more than an hour. Rex Gross. No, he
wasn't a super Bowl. He's not great. Jim, he was
not great for it was a Bears defense wasn't great.
So they've never developed a great quarterback sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties,
(26:52):
two thousand, not one. Johnny Lujack. Oh that's not even
a real name, is it. No, I thought it was
a DJ. It was apparently a Bear quarterback in the fifties.
That was his name, Johnny Lujack. He also did afternoons
on ninety five points to Chicago's best rob go to
practice and then go to a radio radio and Benn
and backs. Then I have no idea. So no, I mean,
if you don't develop something in sixty years, I'm gonna
(27:14):
give him the kid a break. Yeah, I think we
hyped Darnell Mooney as his best wide receiver. I don't
know if he has a catch, but well, he's more
of a three year or two commet. I drafted him
in Fantasy, dropped him after like three minutes. I mean,
the guys have done. I do like the Bears this
weekend though. Uh final story, okay a little bit. Zion
Williamson took part in his first five on five scrimmage
(27:35):
the season. Zion look at that. Uh, despite not participating
in any of He's got a new ring. The earring.
It's like a Michael Jordan big school You know that.
I had two earrings when I was like My parents
said I could not get it in high school. I
went to beach week after senior year got them. Pierce
came home. My parents were not happy with me at all.
At any rate, um, Zion was not rusty. Colin and
(27:57):
head coach Willie Green said, Zion looked amazing. Any dominated
the scriminage. Big shocker there, right, Zia Williams and dominating.
I want to get back to this. So you had
two earrings. Yeah, if you look closely at my ears
and don't do it with the cameras, but I still
have the holes there. My kids asked, like, what's up
with that, Dad? I was like, yeah, I had two earrings,
not the hoops. I had the small hoop. So you're
one of those people that goes one of those guys
(28:18):
that goes on vacation to Jamaica comes back wearing bead No,
insolutely not. I Hey, whoa, what do you gotta get
your makeup on? Come on? You like a good red
strip every I'm not listen to you. What you're saying
is you're one of these people that I would admit
when I went to Europe, I came back here and
didn't want to work. I thought you were going to
(28:39):
say your backpack guy. No, Well, I mean I went.
I went to Italy, and I'm like, I just want
to walk around and drink espresso and hang out with
all these wonderful people. And because Italy is so chill
and it lost beautiful people in Italy, doo huh, Well,
my wife is beautiful. That's why I was with. I
didn't notice. But the point was we all are we
all have a little bit of this right, We're all
(29:00):
all Yeah. It was a rebellious stage. It was like
Cool in the nineties, a few of those Cool in
the nineties Haverings TV spring Break kind of error. All right,
I didn't know you were a rebel. Well, now my
son's becoming a rebel and that's not going well for
me at home. I'd love to hear that you keep
making things rough for dad. That's the way to do it.
Jmack with the News, Well that's the news. By the way,
(29:24):
I'm not saying anybody that wears beads is that nobody.
I'm saying when guys like him go to Jamaica come
back wearing beads. That makes me laugh. I had a
boss that did that once. No, I'm not joking. He
went to Jamaica for five days, came back with beads.
Was his name, Michael Jamaican f bead That's a whole
different thing. Was his name, Michael Scott by any chance,
but it was a very Michael Scott move. It happened
(29:45):
pre office. Oh wow, you know, I was ahead of
his time. People go somewhere, they come back and they've
been so influenced after four days on the beach or
anywhere that they're like they suddenly, you know, you start
becoming the place you visited for four days the person
you were for like forty eight. Yeah, that's my point.
On that point, be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays in New Eastern nine am Pacific on
(30:09):
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio App. Hey,
what's up everybody? It's me three time pro bowler Levarrington
and I couldn't be more excited to announce a new
podcast called Up on Game? What is up on Game?
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler t J.
Hushman's Outa and super Bowl Champion. Yep, that's right, Plexico Birds.
(30:31):
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me LeVar Arrington, t J.
Hushman's Outa and Plexico Birds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your podcast from. These days, every
(30:54):
new potential hire feels like a high stake wager for
a small business. Post your job for free at LinkedIn com.
Slash Herd terms and conditions apply. All right. Here we
go yesterday at this time we did AFC grades, we
graded every team in the AFC that we think matters.
We're going to do the same now gridiron grades for
the NFC. Jmac, here we go. Caylin will start. Since
(31:15):
you struggle so much yesterday with this, I'll start you
off with a lay up. The Philadelphia Eagles. I think
they're the A plus. Yes yesterday I gave Jackson del
An a plus because of their growth Philadelphia. I mean
they last started four and oh like fifteen sixteen years ago,
led all of their games by seventeen points. They've come
out strong early, so obviously on paper they've got a plan,
(31:39):
and then they execute it and then in the second
half they do as well, like unlike Green Bay, which's
good early not late both halves. They've obviously got a plan.
They make the schematic changes necessary at half. They're an
A plus. Dallas Cowboys lose their quarterback in Week one.
The sky is falling and they got two dubs. I'd
give them a B too many penalties, but they are
(32:01):
two and one with a backup quarterback. They've increased their
scoring an offense each week with a backup quarterback. They
also leave the NFL with sacks, but again they don't
feel disciplined and buttoned up. Way too many penalties. O
line still a little bit of a work in progress.
They got to be. I can't believe we're doing the
Washington Commanders after not doing the Jets yesterday. But the
(32:24):
Commanders one of the worst teams in the league. How
you grade them out? D? They've allowed fifteen sacks, most
in the NFL. Their defense has one takeaway. They have
a defensive coach and good defensive personnel. Almost a failing grade,
but I don't like to fail students early. We're only
in the first semester. The two and one fraudulent New
York Giants, how you give them? Agree? I would say
(32:45):
C plus. I mean, I do think Daniel Jones is
better than last year, but they have the thirtieth ranked
passing offense. They only have seven big plays. And I know, listen,
I know I'm beating up on Daniel Jones. But at
some point your young quarterback has to be the solution.
Because this is not baseball. There's a salary cap. All
these teams are imperfect. Burrow got to a Super Bowl
(33:06):
with a bad old line last year. I'm not saying
you have to get to the Super Bowl. You can't
be thirtieth in passing like there is some talent there.
You do have a great left tackle, so I give
them a C plus. How about Brady and the two
and one Bucks. They've had a lot of injuries, called
you give them kind of an incomplete here a lot
to give that, by the way, I would say a
B plus. They've overcome a lot. Their offense only three
(33:28):
offensive touchdown that's the problem. But I mean Chris Godwin,
Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Donovan Smith a left tackle. I
thought it was very obvious last week against Green Bay folks,
the Chargers aren't going to look the same without Rashaan Slater,
like you lose a runn't enough Donovan Smith. Grady's certainly
solid the good, so I give him a B plus
(33:48):
for overcoming even though it's not pretty with them optically
they don't score much, they've overcome a lot. Are your
favorite team in the league, the Green Bay Packers, who
are two in one. I should remind you before you
answer a C. They're twenty seventh ranked offense with Aaron
Rodgers and Aaron Jones, and they have five giveaways. So
they've been a little sloppier. They're not scoring a lot
(34:11):
of points. Aren't you concerned a little? No, you're not
not at all, not at wow, not at all. I mean,
look at the receivers. You just said. Tampa's receivers have
been all banged up. He's got a bunch of new guys,
two rookies out there, Romeo. Do you and I see
the Packers totally? Now? That's what makes it so beautiful.
But we can move on. Minnesota Vikings, who are two
(34:32):
and one, kind of lucky. They did smash the Packers
in Week one, but I don't know what the hell
is going on with them in the last two weeks. Right,
they're a bee. They beat Green Bay handily. They're two
and one. The only loss came on the road Monday
night football at Philadelphia. The best team in the NFC,
they're also the second least penalized team in the league.
They're healthy. They thumped a good team in Green Bay,
a team you like. So it's like, listen, they didn't again.
(34:55):
In college football, I'd be worried if Georgia was behind
an average team, but in the NFL, you're behind average teams.
They were behind Detroit. I look at it and think
they came back in one. That was a nice comeback
from behind win you you loss for the Viking, dude.
I had them in Survivor and they were well, that
(35:18):
explains your eggs. They did not cover the spread as well.
Let's go to Chicago Bears, but we kind of slammed
here justin fields. They are two and one, headed toward
maybe three and one column C minus. Only team with
more rushing yards than passing yards. In all three games,
they've had one hundred and five yards or fewer passing.
You don't have to be great at it, but let's
(35:38):
be honest. You've got to be a threat. And so
now on film people are watching this offense and they're
not even a threat to run. So I think it's
gonna get harder, not easier going forward. Speaking of threats,
the Detroit Lions only one and two, but man, they
are frisky. Oh I think it's a B plus. Oh
I think listen. I I know they're one in two,
(36:00):
but their offense is number two scoring offense. You know.
The other thing it was easy to dump on Jared
Goff when he left. Can we be honest about this
at least at home. Jared goffspan excellent. Yea, indoors he's great. Well, okay,
he plays over half his games and now he plays
Minnesota every year, so he plays more than half his
games indoors. Yeah, so I mean I gotta be a
(36:23):
It's easy to just relegate him like it's English soccer
to the lower division. I think Jared Goff, we gotta
do a Jared Goff topic that'll move the meter. I
think he's played better than even Detroit thought he would play.
I think he's been very good at home. Their offensive
coordinator has been phenomenal. That was Ben Johnson. I never
heard of the guy. Sewel's a home run at tackles.
(36:44):
Jeff o'cuda, the cornerback out of Ohio State, played extremely well,
locked up justin Jefferson last Yeah, no, I think. I think.
I think Detroit's interesting. La Rams, who you I think
had winning the Super Bowl back to back at the
beginning of the season, How he didn't. I had Buffalo
winning it, Buffalo over the ram So I have them
as a B. They have major injuries, worst rushing offense
in the NFC, and Matt Stafford leads the NFL or
(37:08):
NFC NFL with five picks. So they've been sloppy, but
a lot of it is I'll give them a high
grade a B because I don't think people realize after
Cooper Cup it's a little bit of a mess at
wide receiver. Let's go to the San Francisco forty nine ers,
your man crush, Lynch and Shanahan. I think they're one
and two and they got a tough one this weekend.
How do you grade out their first three games? B
plus Garoppolo will be better. More snaps defense, only team
(37:32):
holding their opponents under four yards a play. This is
a great defense. They're not healthy offensively. I worry about
Trent Williams being out, but again I think they've played
and we've they've had two quarters, are already on their
second quarterback, so it's not easy. Arizona Cardinals Kyler Murray,
(37:52):
I'd probably go D plush out. They've lost seven of
their last nine games. Their third down offense with k
is awful. Their defense is awful right now. They have
the worst scoring defense in the league, So you gotta
give me something like. You can say what you want
about Chicago, but they're playing defense. Rocan Smith is an
unbelievable player. You gotta give me something to grab onto.
(38:14):
What do I grab onto an Arizona, the quarterback, the coach,
the defense, third down? What do I grab on? There's
nothing to grab on. Do DeAndre Hopkins coming back in
like two weeks? Yeah, but he's not there now yea.
And we could wrap up with this Seattle Seahawks. Remember
I told the audience I would shave a Seahawks insignia
in my head if they had a winning record at
the end of the season. That is the best bet
(38:34):
I've ever made in my life. There's no chance they
will be nine and eight. I would give them a See.
I think they've been what we thought. But they beat
Denver and they were competitive against Atlanta. I mean they're
twenty eighth and total offense. So you know where they're
gonna draft first. They have a two first two seconds
and two fourths. They're gonna literally change their franchise. This
is the biggest draft in the history of the Seahawks.
Two first two seconds and I believe two fourths. So
(38:56):
after the fourth round is a lot of finger crossing,
but most nflgms leave your first round picks a pro bowler.
Your second round picks a starter, Your third and fourth
round picks start eventually fairly soon. So Seattle's got one, two, three, four,
or five, six, seven elite picks. My only thing with
that is, historically the Seahawks have done better drafting in
(39:16):
the mid rounds. They've kind of blown their early picks.
I'm calling it up here on the internet like shaky
picks in the last couple of years calling I'm trying
to be more positive with my hometown team. All right,
there we go, Gridiron, Grtz. This is interesting with God.
You did this yesterday at the end of the show
and it was funny. So when you criticize everybody criticizes
Jared Goff, you give me a quarterback and I'll tell
(39:38):
you if I take golf or the other quarterback. You
know where I'm gonna start things where Zach Wilson golf? Wow,
you almost look at incredulous. No, no brainer, yea, he
knows his limitation. We'll not running around in hero ball, Okay,
golf or Stafford Stafford golf or Gino Smith A. Damn it,
(39:59):
I'm off game. I'm off my game. All right. Uh,
let's go with Kurt Cousins. Who is Al God golf God? No? No,
what timeout? Time out? No? No, what time I watched
Goff on Monday Night Football out dual? Patrick mahomes. Now
you can all McVeigh you go that. No, I wasn't
all McVeigh. Come on, They scheming dudes open the entire
(40:20):
time out. How is how is Kyle Shanahan without Garoppolo?
He doesn't win. How's Belichick without Brady? You need the quarterback.
I've seen Golf going to big games and out dual guys.
Not consistently, but I've seen it. I've seen and I
like Kurt. He shrinks, he's on what does the football?
He says, the worst ever in the history of Monday
Night Football. Okay, one more, one more Jared Goff or
(40:41):
Jalen Hurts right now Jalen Hurts. Yeah, he's more dynamic. Yeah.
Hour three necks
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