Colin reacts to an impressive outing from Caleb Williams in his first preseason action of the year and what this tells us about our expectations for the Bears under first year head coach Ben Johnson
People are overreacting to what Browns QB Dillion Gabriel said during an interview and because of that, it hurts Shedeur Sanders
Colin gives his reasons why he feels the Cowboys will most likely have a horrible start of the season
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Episode Transcript
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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 3 (00:25):
All right, here we go. It is a Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now we're getting football games. Now, we're getting opinions. Now,
we're getting what looks like the makings. Okay, maybe not
Buffalo in Kansas City, but it does look like we're
getting kind of a feel for what's happening one hour
from now where Colin would write where Colin was wrong.
John Middlecoff is joining me this week for four days.
Jmac is on Vaca and we'll come back the following week. So, John,
(00:54):
I don't remember a preseason game Bill's Bears, which turned
out to be a blowout that I was more in
interested in watching the first two series.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
You feel that way, Yeah, that was the Bear super
Bowl last night and then went.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well it was Buffalo can't get into a super Bowl.
Bears had theirs in preseason not ideal for both. So
Caleb Williams of the Chicago Bears, I thought he looked decisive.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I thought he looked sharp.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
At one point he dirted a ball on a screenplay
smart play, get out of that, get out of the
negative plays. I think, basically, if you're a Bears fan,
it's been a rough camp. It's a new system, a
new coach. It hasn't been pretty. Even at Friday's practice,
there were false starts. It was a bit ugly. So
it's a big sigh of relief. There's a new system.
(01:38):
Caleb likes to freelance. His coach does it not necessarily
want that from his quarterback. So last night Caleb Williams
actually looked a little bit like Jared Goff. He quarterback
like Jared Goff. He dirted the ball on screens, he
got rid of and out of trouble, no negative plays.
When he had a guy open, he hit him. Now
(02:00):
we know he's not Jared Goff. I honestly feel like
Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. And you'll see this sometimes
where you'll see a crazy talented artist. Mary's an accountant,
and it's not ever perfect. That doesn't mean it can't work.
I mean Andy Reid is a creative. Mahomes is a
creative that's perfect. I think Sean Payton feels like bo
(02:22):
Nix can run my play, but he can also run
on his own.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
That feels perfect.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Ben Johnson, I feel he's got a little bit of
Kyle Shanahan run my play, and Kyle Shanahan's great, but
you're gonna have to let Caleb breathe. So to me,
this whole relationship is about because we know that Ben
Johnson is going to win the first several arguments in this.
(02:49):
Ben Johnson's a new coach. It's not a rich ownership group.
They're not flushing him out. Caleb struggled his first year,
so Ben comes in with leverage. But offensive coaches and
Andy Reid would tell you this, when you get somebody
as gifted as Mahomes and Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen
and Caleb Williams with that kind of horsepower, with that
kind of firepower, it is your job as a coach
(03:12):
to figure out how to maximize all that amazing clay.
All you need, because I think Caleb's got a little
Brett Farv, All you need is for that player. Mahomes,
Lamar Josh Allen, Brett Farv to be amenable to throwing
on time and on schedule and avoiding negative plays.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I don't care how gifted you are.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Josh Allen's not great if he's not on time, he's
not on schedule, and there's negative plays. Last year Caleb
was none of those consistently. So you don't You don't
have to be a perfect fit with Ben Johnson. But
nobody succeeds in this league running around. It's not high
school or college defensive ends. Here run four, five, five.
They can catch you and they'll punish you, and they'll
(03:56):
lean on you and sit on you and drive you
into the ground, whether it's lee or not, and you
won't play long. Go ask Lamar Jackson, who suddenly in
year two and three put on wait. Go ask Michael Vick,
who started staying in the pocket. I think Caleb Williams
comp when I watch him, is a little Brett Farv.
You gotta let him be a little bit of a gunslinger.
You gotta let him be himself. But Brett Farv mostly
(04:19):
played on time, played on schedule. He threw a lot
of bad picks. Far through a lot of bad picks.
You could get away with that. In Farv's era, I
think offensive coaching is smarter. I think turnovers are more punitive.
So I think this is a marriage stylistically that is
not perfect. But I know Caleb. I like Caleb. I
(04:39):
think he's coachable. But it may never be. It may
never be Stafford and McVeigh or read In Mahomes or
John Harbaugh and Lamar or it just feels like what
a good marriage. I don't know if this ever will be,
but what you saw was a glimpse of what it
can be when Caleb is on time and on schedule
(05:02):
and just get out of the negative place so much.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It's almost like being somebody that runs a movie studio.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Not everything has to be Good Fellas, Not everything has
to be Avatar. What you're trying to avoid is that
Disney movie, John Carter. You're just trying to avoid a
three hundred and fifty million dollar disaster as a studio head.
Not everything needs to be Moulin rouge and be a hit.
It doesn't all have to be that. Just avoid the potholes.
(05:33):
That is largely quarterback play. That is largely what Belichick
says about Brady. No negative plays. It was either you know,
second and six or second and four. It was never
second fifteen and third and eighteen. Get out of that stuff.
And I thought when he dirted the screen pass, I thought, oh,
that's perfect. That's growth from last year. Just just dirting
(05:53):
the screen path. You're like, okay, that last year he
would have tried.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
To make something out of it.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Now, in Ben Johnson's school of off, get out of
the play, give up the play, don't extend the play,
just get out of there.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Here was Caleb after.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
A month ago.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
I think I've grown a lot.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Now.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
My mind set is, you know, keep growing. If that's
handling everything at the line, handling everything, you know, and
taking things off other people's plates, you know, that's what
it is. And being able to do that consistently over
the next couple of years is you know important.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Okay. So I saw the media.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It was partially media and partially like people online. So
the quarterback battling now now the Cleveland Browns and Kevin Stefanski,
and I like Kevin Stefanski a lot, But you got.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
To offer some clarity here, guys.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You gotta tell us what's going on, because we're getting
into a t bow situation and This happens a lot.
I've seen this in the NFL with Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick,
Tim Tebow. Nobody wants a celebrity backup quarterback.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Years ago, Bill Parcells said one of the rules of
drafting was don't draft a celebrity quarterback. Yeah, that that's over.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Half of these got Baker Mayfield, I mean Sam Darnold
out of USC beating Penn State and a Rose Bull.
He becomes a celebrity. Half these guys are making seven
million bucks in college. Arch Manning's a celebrity. Get over it.
Draft him. So but but but this still holds true.
You don't want a celebrity backup quarterback, and that hurt
(07:27):
Tibo and Kaepernick and Cam Newton in New England with
Bell Belichick, is you know I like you Cam. We
can't have a superstar backup. You guys who love Shador
in Carolina wearing his jerseys, you're making him into a celebrity.
So if I'm a coach and I have to choose, Okay,
Joe Flacco's starting, Dylan Gabriel may be easier to deal with.
You don't have to deal with a nonsense. So this
(07:49):
weekend Dylan Gabriel went on camera and said something that
people blew way out of proportion.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
So here's what he said. You gave us some fabulous
wisdom on how you tune out the noise and you
don't let it infiltrate yourself. Will you share that with
everybody at home?
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I think it's just part of it.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know, there's entertainers and there's competitors, and I totally
understand that, and my job is to compete and that's
what I'm focused on doing.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That was not a shot at Shador Sanders. Shame on
everybody that said it was.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
Do not.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
You're hurting Shadeur. You're turning a non circus into a circus.
When he said that he was taking a shot at us,
he was taking a shot at guys like me. He
was saying, listen, there's people that talk about this stuff
in the air. They're entertainers. I'm a quarterback and I
don't know exactly who blew it out of proportion. But
(08:46):
when I was on my phone all weekend, the first
three or four hours of this, until I did some dickta,
I'm like, why is he taking a shot at Shador?
He wasn't so essentially everybody proved Dylan Gabriel's point, which
is all about clicks and look at me and no nuance.
He was not taking a shot at Shador Sanders. He
was taking a sh and he wasn't even really taking
(09:07):
a shot at the media. He was describing what the
media is.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Entertainers.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
They got to get ratings, they got to drive revenue. Yeah,
guilty is charged, Like I try to do a good
job of it, but like I want the most entertaining topics.
So the truth is about these guys. I have two
strong opinions. I think Dylan Gabriel's size is an issue.
I would have a hard time building around him. He's small,
he's serious, and he's business like like. I like his
(09:34):
temperament more than Shadur, who's silly and kind of goofy.
But I think Shadur was underdrafted. Shadour is bigger. I
think he moves well. I would choose Shadeur over Dylan Gabriel.
But Kevin Stefanski, he liked the seriousness, the accuracy, and
the way he ran an offense. Dylan Gabriel at Oregon,
I don't think either is transformational. And here's the thing,
(09:55):
what NFL gms really want from quarterbacks. They want you
to be Andrew Luck great and boring. Brady was mostly
boring when he played Peyton Manning got really really funny
when he retired. Most of your great quarterback even mahomes
with a huge personality, kind of hides in the offseason.
They want you to be great and boring. If you're
(10:16):
not great, and neither one of these quarterbacks is, you
can't be the life of the party. I've said this
for years. There's two rules about backup quarterbacks in the NFL.
If I have to use you for two games, can
you win one? Can you just win one of the
two games?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I need you?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Two of my starters out for four Cooper Rush great,
he can win half the games. Starters should win sixty
five percent of the games. If they're great, Lamar, they
win seventy five percent of the games. And the other
rule about backup quarterbacks you should be able to put
a baseball cap and sunglasses on in your local mall,
walk around and nobody knows who you are. You can
(10:56):
never be a headline Tebow headline, back up, Cam headline,
Kaepernick headline. Shadeur's becoming that and this story again. You
think it helped Shaduur, it's hurting him. This story hurt
You know what the staff is saying in Cleveland this
morning that Jesus, maybe we just got to get out
(11:17):
of this nonsense. Let's just get out of this nonsense.
We got people thinking Dylan's taking shots. They'll get out
of this business because Chador's not good enough. Tebau was
not good enough to deal with the nonsense. So this
was a prime example of sometimes you squeeze so tight.
(11:38):
Shadure's my guy, and I love Shadur, and that guy's
trying to get Shadour. You're making this is such a
negative for Shador Sanders. This is what happened with Tibo.
He take his shirt off and walk through practice and
it was four live shots at ESPN, and after a
while coaches are like, you know what, I had a
coach tell me this. I kind of like him for
the locker room and the roster. He's a he's a
(12:00):
he's a good football player, but god, who wants that circus?
I mean, you want a playoff game in Denver against
Pittsburgh beat Tomlin. And they're like, we're getting out of
this business. Tibo could have been a backup somewhere. Nobody
wanted the nonsense and that's what this was, all right,
John Boy, I gotta tell you we don't want to
(12:21):
take too much from the preseason. I'd be a little
worried if I was Dallas a little no Micah, no Trayvon.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Diggs, good luck, Brian shot Nimer.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
There there is going to be. There is an art
to knowing when you know. They called it's a funny
line the Irish exit when you leave a bar and
you don't tell anybody.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, I've mastered it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I'm married to an Irish girl, so we've mastered leaving
the party and not given everybody a heads up. Some
people know when to get off the train, when to exit.
Mike McCarthy. A lot of you rolled your eyes at
my McCarthy. In six months, Mike McCarthy may be a
leading candidate.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
For other NFL jobs. We'll talk about that coming up.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Speaker 9 (13:16):
He's Mike Carmen, I'm Dan Byern. We have a fantasy
football podcast. Called I Want Your Flex.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's right, Dan.
Speaker 10 (13:23):
Every week we're gonna scour the waiver wire to find
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Speaker 9 (13:34):
Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Carmon and
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wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
All right, welcome back, Colin Wright, Colin Wrong. It's a
Monday top of next hour. John Middlecoff sitting in with me.
You've heard him on my podcast many times now fills
in regularly and we would love that. So the Cowboys
got dusted again at home. This time it's Baltimore. Now,
Baltimore dusts a lot of people in both the preseason
and the regular season. For whatever reasons, Baltimore is the
best preseason team in the league. I'm watching that thing
(14:03):
early and I'm like, yeah, it's going downhill fast. But
once again, Dallas's defense is a sieve.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
It's bad.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
And I got to tell you something right now, They're
opening against Philadelphia on NBC and they're going to be
thirty two million viewers. This is not going to be
open up against Carolina on the road in that one
o'clock window. So if the Cowboys are bad, it's going
to get ugly fast. Everybody's going to be talking about it.
And Mike is not going to be playing. He's unhappy.
Trey Von Diggs reportedly not going to be playing the opener.
(14:30):
He's not happy in This defense was second worst in
the NFL last year in total defense.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So it's a bad unit.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
It's not terribly deep, and your two best players are
unhappy and reportedly neither's going to play. So again, when
you open with Philadelphia, it will be the most watched
game in Week one. Arguably it's thirty million viewers. And
remember you've been the last two times you played the
Eagles forty one to seven and thirty four to six humiliating.
You don't have your left ty tackle, Tiger Guidon, the
(14:59):
rookie at all Oklahoma didn't play particularly well last year.
That doesn't mean he can't be good in year two.
That's a hard position for a rookie, but he's banged up.
The running back room is weak, Deck's coming off a
second injury, so it's now Here's I mean, I don't know,
I don't love to hire.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
As a coach.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't think Jerry Jones has a ton of respect
for coaches. If he did, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells
would have been treated differently. I think he tends to
hire people who need him. Jason Garrett wasn't being offered
head coaching jobs. He felt like he owed Jerry One.
Brian Schottenheimer was not being interviewed for top offensive coordinator jobs. Jerry,
(15:37):
you know, can feel like you, oh, Jerry One, Jimmy
and Bill Parcells didn't need Jerry Jones. Every other coach,
even McCarthy, who I like, kind of felt like he
was on the beach. He was looking for an opportunity.
Here is Brian Schottenheimer. I think this thing's gonna get
rough really quick, like week one. I think it's a
(15:58):
four or five potential win team. Maybe Dak get you
to six or seven. Here Schottenheimer again, after another ugly
preseason loss.
Speaker 11 (16:07):
We're not gonna say that that's just a preseason game.
We're not you gonna say, oh, we'll be fine. You know,
we're gonna we're gonna look at it because the fact
that you know, we really lost both halves. That is
something that you know, we have to get corrected. There's
too many good football players, too many good coaches for
us to perform the way that we did tonight. We're
not gonna panic and we're not pushing the panic button.
(16:28):
We're pushing the work button. And that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Uh, this is not panic button. This is doomsday clock.
You're on the doomsday clock. Who's got the briefcase? Like
this thing is gonna be It's gonna blow it fast.
That you don't have your two best defenders. Hasn't been
a good camp, getting pushed around in preseason, got pushed
around last year. And here's what's interesting. And I know
Mike McCarthy could drive me nuts. The Cowboys were always
(16:52):
too penalized, and I didn't love them situationally. But Mike
McCarthy went twelve and five, twelve and five, twelve and five,
one two vision titles, and then Dak got hurt and
had a winning record with Cooper Rush. So you can
roll your eyes at Mike McCarthy. He walked away from
this job. And there is a distinction between having a
(17:14):
disagreement with the owner and just saying no, I like Jerry,
I don't want to coach this wreck. He saw this
train coming. He saw this thing coming. And I'm gonna
tell you, in one year from now, and probably about
nine months from now March April, how many months that is.
When you're hiring coaches after the season, you're gonna look
at this mess and Mike McCarthy, people are gonna go.
(17:37):
He went twelve and five, twelve and five, twelve and
five and had the second best offense with Dak Prescott
in the league to Josh Allen and the Bills. You're
gonna start looking at that how people exit matters in
politics and in coaching, how you exit matters, And go
look at Mike McCarthy's dallas Dale put it on the
screen here. I didn't love his clock management. I thought
(17:59):
his teams were too panalized. But there's a lot of
ws there. And don't be surprised in stadium this year
if you don't see cowboy fans wearing buttons, I'm gonna
make my prediction. In New Orleans they used to wear
aints on the with the bags over their heads. You're
gonna have some. I miss Mike. Let's strike for Mike.
(18:20):
I miss Mike Banners. I like Mike Mark my words,
Mike McCarthy's name will come up again in Dallas because
it's not gonna be a great coaching search.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
There's not a lot out there.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
The great old guys like Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton,
they are taken, and a lot of the young guys
in college, Ryan Day Happy at Ohio State, Lincoln Riley
hasn't been what everybody thought. I don't necessarily think it's
gonna be a You're gonna have to rely on a coordinator,
and do you trust Jerry Jones at this point? Hiring
(18:55):
anybody just a thought because you watched that Baltimore game
like I did. This defense is in big trouble because
the NFC has some really sharp offensive coaches.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Really ready you go. You look at divisions.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I got Ben Johnson with Chicago, and Kevin O'Connell and
I mean Nick sirianni works and McVeigh and Shanahan. Like
the NFC. AFC may have the quarterbacks. I could argue
the NFC's got the sharp young offensive coaches and Dallas's
defense is a rack.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
John Middlecoff of The News No No turn on the
News this is the headline news, you.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Know, speaking of Mike McCarthy, his former quarterback and Colin
Coward's favorite player. Aaron Rodgers landed in Pittsburgh this offseason
and what looks like will be his swan song.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Reports came out that he's making thirteen million dollars, but
he could have made more but decided that was the
maximum amount he wanted to play for.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
What is your take on.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
This, Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rodgers Mike Tomlin twenty twenty five seasons.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, if you can't run the football, as you know you, John,
I'm old enough. I remember when the NFL had fourteen games,
and then it was sixteen, and now it's seventeen and
they're extending it to eighteen. So because statistically, defensive players
get hurt more than offensive players. They're in more violent collisions,
right like they're a defender's job often is to blow
(20:26):
a playoff offense is choreography, is that you have to
have a run game accompany your defense. You have to
keep your defense off the field. They can't have thirty
percent more snaps than other top feet That's why Philadelphia
and Baltimore's defense they get long rests, they stay healthier.
(20:46):
I think Pittsburgh's problem Mike Tomlin is incapable of building
a run game. Sean McDermott had some of these issues
until James Cook. The defense is on the field too long,
and that means more snaps for Aaron.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
They don't have a left tackle.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I if you go look at Pittsburgh's defense the last
several years, it has not been elite despite being the
most expensive defense in the league. And I'm going to
point to not TJ Water, Cam Hayward or Mike If
I'm gonna point to the fact you can't develop run games,
you can't keep your defense off the field.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Well, they got Arthur Smith, who became a big time
name with Derrick Henry. They draft Caleb I think in
the third round from Iowa, big physical back.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
We know the Rooneyes.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I mean they fired Bruce arians before because he passed
too much. They want to run the ball at his age,
I mean, his best friend. How did Aaron Rodgers resurrect
his career with Lafleur running the ball?
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Aaron Jones. They kind of settled it down in that
Shanahan offense.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
So listen, the honeymoon phase is in full effect training camp.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Rogers TJ got paid.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
What's it gonna look like when they lose a couple
of games, you know, and it starts getting weird. That
division is really hard, even the Browns. I mean, if
they're the worst team in your division, they got really
good players.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
They're tough to beat.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
They are.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The good news is their early schedule is workable. Their
late schedule, like last year, gets tougher because it's a
lot of Indivision games against the Ravens. I mean, you
look at the end of the year, it's the Ravens
and the Lions. It's the Ravens and the Bills, Burrow
Herbert Bear. But in early I get Jets, I get Patriots,
I get.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
A buye, I get Browns.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I get some home games that could go either way,
like Green Bay and Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
I get both of those at home.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
I might push back.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
I mean, obviously the Jets, I mean, I don't know
if they're going to pass average one hundred yards passing,
but Seattle's going to be pretty good. The Patriots are
going to be a completely different operation.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Minnesota is good.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
I mean those three games after the Jets are not
just Patsy's Colen.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Yeah, I mean we'll both agree on this.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Offensively, Pittsburgh, even the last year to two with Big Band,
they have lost their way offensively. So do I believe
a quarterback at forty one out of his prime, missing
a left tackle and Najie Harris can fix it?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I do not.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
I would agree with you there. Okay, we talked about
the Bears.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
What about the flip side the Bills, who last night
looked like the opposite of the Ravens.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
The preseason is.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Not going well for them.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Sean McDermott clearly was not pleased with this team's performance.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
Certainly not to our standard what we expect. Got a
lot of work to do, that's very clear. It doesn't
matter who's out there, ones, twos, threes, fours, whoever it is.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
We expect them to perform, and we expect our levels
of performance to be much better than that playing against
their ones. You know, I expect, we expect to to
compete with them, and that wasn't the case early and
then our two's are twos. Then who were out there
competing against their twos and our threes against their threes.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
It didn't get much better. I'm not worried Collin, are
you I'm not worried.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I almost consider the Ravens an exception, a really good
organization that cares and delivers in the preseason thirty eight
and nothing is really bad. What is your reason why
they were so disordered.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Let's take the Andy Reid crew. There's Andy Reid, John Harbor,
and Sean McDermott. But you know, those two guys learned
under Andy. I think Andy's training camps are really physical,
kind of old school, a throwback. Look at the Chiefs
the other night against Seattle, look terrible. They've been practicing
really hard, heavy legs. I think Sean McDermot, if you're
watching hard knocks, they're getting after it in practice.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
That was a big, big game for the Bears last night.
I mean they approached that the game plan for that thing.
Sean McDermott did not.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
For whatever reason.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Maybe it's a harball thing, but specifically John, he approaches
preseason games like they are a playoff game. He is
an outlier, so heavy legs. Josh Allen on the sideline,
the Bills and are different from the Chiefs because the Chiefs,
I mean, make the Super Bowl every year. Right, It's
all about January so how do you peak November, December
and into January.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
I mean, that's I'm watching hard knocks.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Usually on hard knocks, it's a team, so it's an
awful product. This is the first time where you're like, oh,
that's what a great quarterback looks like in practice. It's
one to watch, so I listen. I put zero stock
into that. That was all about the Bears road game.
I think if you look at the Chiefs and you
look at the Bills, both long.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Road trips and just late an eight. Now, if you're
a backup, you better be careful. You can't.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
You know, you don't want to get used to laying
eggs when you don't play very often in the regular season.
But when Josh Allen's on the sideline doing interviews in
the first quarter, I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Put much stock into the game.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Fair enough, Okay, a quarterback and a team that I'm
high on.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
The Green Bay packer Jordan Lovey return to practice after
getting surgery last week to repair the ligament in his
left thumb. Love is not taking the first team reps though,
to protect his thumb, but Lafleur has a plan to
get him some work ahead of Week one.
Speaker 13 (25:49):
I just went through everything. We're going to alter some
things to allow him to get involved. Do my favorite
seven on seven that I absolutely despise, but in some
instances it's good. So I'd rather do that than just
throw throw on air. So we'll incorporate some seven on
seven in the practice.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, Matt's not a seven on seven guy a lot
of by the way, he loves a good, tough, physical
run game, so it probably is the antithesis of everything
he believes in. Yeah, this has been to me the
mystery team. The Rams are a little bit of that,
but that's just because of Stafford's health. I keep going
back to this. The whole division's been noisy all off season.
(26:31):
Lions lose both coordinators, Bears are just noisy with Caleb
and Ben, the JJ McCarthy, Minnesota stuff, Green Bay. Some
of it's a small market, but I've earned nothing. It
has been silent, and that leads me to believe generally,
when it's quiet, you're either keeping really good secrets from
(26:51):
people that you don't want him to know, like people
are developing, or the fact is you've got everybody on
the same page. And I think I think this team
really likes and respect you know, it's still John I
think that either the youngest or the second youngest team
for the third year in a row.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
I'm high on the backers. I'm picking him to win
the division.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
This does make me a little nervous. I mean, what
kind of derailed their season last year? He got hurt
Week one, so you get an injury. Now we've still
got a couple of weeks. But this division is hard.
They're gonna go. I mean, part of the reason they
their passing game last year wasn't great. Now he did
a great job with the Mlik Willis. They've proven they
can win regular.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
Season games with Lake Willis.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
But if they're gonna win this division, they need Jordan Love.
Let's face it, to be a Pro Bowl level quarterback.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean, only one great quarterback didn't make the playoffs.
I mean, the one thing that guarantees you're going to
be a playoff team almost across the line is offensive
coach and really good quarterback. That almost guarantees you. I mean,
we would watch look at what Minnesota did last year
was Sam Darnolds, who we thought was done so a
Jordan Love and Matt Lafleura. If you just say that
out loud, the elite offensive coach, really talented quarterback, that
(27:59):
should be a playoff.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
We're gonna learn a lot about them.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Open up with the Lions, and then you get Washington
if you're two and oh, we're gonna call them one
of the best teams in the league. If they lose
one of those games, we're gonna have serious questions.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yep, John with the news, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by. Colin Wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Top of the Hour, Matt Hasselback, Dave Wonstat's got some
bare thoughts, Chicago Bears thoughts. Okay, so this I think
it may have happened Thursday or Friday. I was off Friday.
So the NCAA came down hard on Michigan, Well kind of.
They didn't have to vacate any wins, which is key,
(28:39):
and they find them a bunch of money. That's the
best punishment you could get for a big brand college program.
We want twenty million dollars. All right, we'll write a check.
They didn't vacate any wins.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Basically, the Connors Stallions situation, they found no definitive lie
to Harbaugh on Connor Stallions. It said at a minimum,
there was willful intent not to learn more about Connor
Stallion's methods.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
That's fuzzy.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
However, the true scope and scale of the scheme included
the competitive advantage, if conferred, will never truly be known
due to individuals intentional destruction of materials and information.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Okay, you're right, a check their fire.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
The bigger issue is if their current head coach isn't
the guy and you have to fire him in a
couple of years. There may be some coaches that are
scared off and don't want to take over the program.
But here's my thing on this. When you're a parent,
and I'm a parent, John's a new parent, I'm an
old parent, you get into a lot of situations where
(29:52):
something inappropriate is done, but you don't want to over
punish your kids.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
But you do want to punish your kids.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
You want to send a message to the other kids,
but you don't want to be out of touch, like
you don't want to be you know. And so I'll
give you an example, like, unless you work for Reno
nine to one one, a pot bust isn't really a
big deal in twenty twenty five. If you're a cop
and pull somebody over and you're like, hey, what's that
(30:23):
roachs doing.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
In your car? Nobody cares.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
The world changed, So I have a hard time getting
worked up over. Yeah, Connor Stallions, you know you had
a phone and he had a bunch of guys working
for him. Where's the link? Well, Harbor, where's the link?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Folks?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Do you understand how sketchy the transfer portal is?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
It is?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It is so sketchy and so dark and so muddy,
and people stealing players. It's a mess. And I'm for
the transfer portal, the empowerment of the player. It is sketch.
By the way, you can now pay high school players,
which was the unpardonable sin my entire life. And so
I gotta have a hard time getting worked up over. Yeah,
(31:11):
there's some shaky iPhone video. By the way, that is legal.
Scouting is legal. There's been an underground business on this
for fifty years in the sport. Did they go overboard? Probably?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah? Sure, okay, but where's the definitive link? Where is it? Okay,
you don't have it? So again, it's like with my kids.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It is you want to punish, slap on the wrist,
give us a big check bowl limitations, But let's not
go crazy here. The world's changed. You can buy high
school players. The transfer portal is completely sketchy. They're making
it up as they go, And so I know I'm
supposed to be so upset with this and supposed to
(31:56):
be so outraged when Jim Harbaughs says, yeah, I'm not
engaged on this.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Stuff either would I.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I don't live my life through the rearview mirror. It's
all about the windshield. I don't care what happened at
other places. Tomorrow's show and today's show.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Is the key. And Hardball is saying, I don't care.
I'm not going back to college football. I don't care.
Jay Wright left it early, Coach k left it, Roy
Williams left it, Harball left it, Saban left it. It's
a mess. I am four an I l I am
for the transfer portal, But.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Don't act like you're outraged about stuff. In a world
now where stuff that would get the death penalty is
now marketed and promoted and monetized, you just go buy
high school players. That was the one thing you couldn't do,
A twenty dollars handshake, a free dinner. Okay, do not
(32:53):
buy high schoolers now. That's encouraged. So I'm not that
worked up over it. I'm not think Michigan's bigger issue
is the Big Ten now has got really good coaching,
and last year was not great for Michigan. They did
beat Ohio State. That was cool, I guess, but it
wasn't a great year. And now they have a five
star quarterback and Ohio State's ohways. Frankly, if we're being
(33:16):
totally honest, if you take Jim Harball out of the equation,
Ohio State has been a better program than Michigan most
of my life. Michigan occasionally will get the right coach.
If they're patient, they'll win big. Ohio State can hire
a coach and win an hour later. Ohio State's the
only SEC program in the North. So you know, I've
(33:40):
been very consistent on this stuff. You're trying to get
me all worked up on Michigan.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's a roach in a car other than Reno nine
to one to one. You know, cops, you can't sell
me on that's a big crime in twenty twenty five,
little bag a roach whatevs. Couple having a good time.
So Hardball's not coming back. Slap on the wrist. Gotta
(34:08):
pay somebody. And by the way, the other thing is, well,
there's gonna be some recruiting limitations ll recruiting. You just
go buy guys in the transfer. If a booster comes
up and says, oh, you get nine less recruiting visits,
all right, we'll offer nine more NIL players. All the
stuff you can mitigate ninety percent of it. Write a
(34:29):
big check. NCAA doesn't give me any definitive link. I'm
not even sure if they did, if I would be bothered.
We have an update on Matt Stafford. This thing, I'm
telling you there's only one team in the league that
could win the Super Bowl or go four and thirteen,
and it's the Rams. Based on Matt Stafford's health update.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Next, be sure to catch live editions of The Herd
weekdays and noon Easter non a em Pacific.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
This is the moment it was announced everyone had. August
thirtieth Circle.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
The Arch Manning Era kicks off with a playoff rematch
for the Ages As Texas takes on the defending national
championship Ohio State Buck Guys on Big Noon Saturday. What
a way to get the season rolling. August thirtieth only
on focks.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
I still like Texas in the points. I just don't
know what Ohio State will do at quarterback. Ohio State
should win their favorite. They have to do best players
in college football. I think I'm gonna take Texas and
the points, and I think it's gonna be like that
Oregon Ohio State game last year in Osin.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
It's gonna be wild.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
There's gonna be a ton of scoring, and it's gonna
be the highest rated Labor Day weekend game in the
history of college football. So one of the things that
really good teams do is they keep secrets. The Rams
are really good at secrets. They had decided, you know,
a year before they let go a Jalen Ramsey or
a Cooper cup or a Todd Gurley, or maybe five
(35:56):
months before they let go of Jared Goff.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
They knew it.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Nobody else did so. I remember they held firm on
Matt Stafford. They love Matt Stafford. But Matt Stafford got
a one year deal. The bottom line is Matt Stafford
wanted multiple guaranteed years and the Rams wouldn't budge. And
because they have two first round picks, here is the
guarantee in next year's NFL Draft. Not even Cleveland can
(36:22):
guarantee this. The Rams are going to take a quarterback.
They are going to take a quarterback. So because no
team in the NFL right now could either win the
super Bowl or win four games like the Rams. It
all depends on Stafford's health because the backup is Jimmy Garoppolo,
who has aged very quickly and has been ineffective in
(36:42):
his last seven stars. So Stafford, this is a big story.
Stafford was at practice today and they have kept this
thing under wraps. They have been so covert and so quiet.
But the Rams move off people. Somebody on our staff
said this morning, I thought it was funny. Sean McVay,
is Belichick better dressed and with a smile. They move
(37:05):
off people a year early. They were they didn't want
to move off Matt Stafford. There was going to be
no long term deal. And so him being at practice,
we've all been waiting for this. Is he going to
practice because the defense is unbelievable. The running back room
now is really good. Devonte Adams. They drafted Terrence Ferguson
(37:26):
at tight end. They have a super Bowl team. The
left tackles had some blood cloths. If Stafford plays. They
can go toe to toe with anybody, including Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
I have him. But the Stafford thing, we're just sitting
waiting and nothing leaks. Nothing leaks. With the Rams.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
It is a lot like Belichick. Nothing leaked. They moved
off Randy Moss. You think they love him, they move
off him. And they've moved off multiple stars. So all
I know is watching this, having watched the Rams, they're
drafting a quarterback next year, and they may keep Stafford
for one more year to let the kid he can
(38:04):
be a mentor. But this is like a story that
you got to keep your eye on, all right. You know.
The other thing is when you're young, you're eighteen, you're nineteen,
you're twenty, you're twenty three, twenty four, more than any
time in your life. I can only speak from a
guy's perspective, Your mentors, your bosses have an immeasurable impact.
(38:28):
By the time you're forty forty five, you're stuck in
your ways. You are what you are. You're not very moldable.
But I look at Jackson, dar to the Giants, look
at the mentors he's had offensively three years of Lane
Kiffin and now Brian Dable. When I watch him play,
he is playing like he trusts his coaches. He's playing
(38:50):
with a ton of confidence, sitting in the pocket letting
it rip.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
He looks great. Now again it's preseason. You can't make
too much.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Justin Fields though, who has had Bears eber Fluse at
the end. Now he's got Aaron Glenn, he had Mike Tomlin.
Justin Fields looks lost. He looked lost in this game.
He looks lost. Who have been his NFL mentors? Defensive coaches?
So when I look at Jackson Dart, I think what
an advantage? I mean, you start looking at all these
(39:22):
great quarterbacks, a lot of them, Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Offensive coaches. You know last year Justin Herbert put up
some nice numbers.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Jim Harbaugh, former quarterback Mahomes Burrow, you know a lot
of these guys. Offensive coach Jaden Daniels had Brian Kelly
offensive side. In the cliff, Kingsbury and dan Quinn's the coach.
Kingsbury took over the offense. Dan Quinn acknowledged that's not
my room, that's Kingsbury's room.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
So Bo Nicks, Sean Payton.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
If you don't think who you land as your college
and your pro coach, it matters a lot. I mean,
Baker Mayfield looked pretty good in stretches. He did look
great with Freddie Kitchens. Like the coach matters, and I
think were Jackson Dart when I watch him three years
of lane, Kiffen into a coach Brian Dable that won
(40:14):
a playoff game with Daniel Jones, who reportedly is not
going to beat out Anthony Richardson with the Colts. So
Russell's gonna start. But you got to feel good. I
thought he was a bit of a reach in the
first round. I felt like he was a mid second
round quarterback. He's look really confident, and I think a
ton of it is Kiffen daball trusts his coaches.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Here's Brian Dable.
Speaker 8 (40:39):
Yeah, Russ is our starter and we're going to keep
developing Jackson here. Jackson just got to continue to work
to get better, and we got to help him get better.
What we're trying to do is help Jackson be the
best quarterback he can be, just like all the quarterbacks,
just like all the players on the team.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
So Brian's not going to give you a lot at
the podium, But I said this last week Lane Kiffin
could be a head coach in the NFL. Well absolutely
was briefly with the old Al Davis.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
It was a mess.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Lane Kevin did not want to draft JaMarcus Russell. He
pled with Al Davis. Al wouldn't listen. It went sideways.
But when I watched Jackson Dart and I watched Justin Fields,
Justin Fields, who's.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Been his guy?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
And that one And by the way, neither Jackson Dart
or Justin Fields to me are transformative players. Coaching's gonna
matter a lot, early mentors, early guidance, and Jackson's got it.
Colin Wright, Colin Wrang, Matt hasselback next for a lot
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 Foxsports 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 3 (00:25):
All right, here we go. It is a Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now we're getting football games. Now, we're getting opinions. Now,
we're getting what looks like the makings. Okay, maybe not
Buffalo in Kansas City, but it does look like we're
getting kind of a feel for what's happening one hour
from now where Colin would write where Colin was wrong.
John Middlecoff is joining me this week for four days.
Jmac is on Vaca and we'll come back the following week. So, John,
(00:54):
I don't remember a preseason game Bill's Bears, which turned
out to be a blowout that I was more in
interested in watching the first two series.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
You feel that way, Yeah, that was the Bear super
Bowl last night and then went.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well it was Buffalo can't get into a super Bowl.
Bears had theirs in preseason not ideal for both. So
Caleb Williams of the Chicago Bears, I thought he looked decisive.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I thought he looked sharp.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
At one point he dirted a ball on a screenplay
smart play, get out of that, get out of the
negative plays. I think, basically, if you're a Bears fan,
it's been a rough camp. It's a new system, a
new coach. It hasn't been pretty. Even at Friday's practice,
there were false starts. It was a bit ugly. So
it's a big sigh of relief. There's a new system.
(01:38):
Caleb likes to freelance. His coach does it not necessarily
want that from his quarterback. So last night Caleb Williams
actually looked a little bit like Jared Goff. He quarterback
like Jared Goff. He dirted the ball on screens, he
got rid of and out of trouble, no negative plays.
When he had a guy open, he hit him. Now
(02:00):
we know he's not Jared Goff. I honestly feel like
Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. And you'll see this sometimes
where you'll see a crazy talented artist. Mary's an accountant,
and it's not ever perfect. That doesn't mean it can't work.
I mean Andy Reid is a creative. Mahomes is a
creative that's perfect. I think Sean Payton feels like bo
(02:22):
Nix can run my play, but he can also run
on his own.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
That feels perfect.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Ben Johnson, I feel he's got a little bit of
Kyle Shanahan run my play, and Kyle Shanahan's great, but
you're gonna have to let Caleb breathe. So to me,
this whole relationship is about because we know that Ben
Johnson is going to win the first several arguments in this.
(02:49):
Ben Johnson's a new coach. It's not a rich ownership group.
They're not flushing him out. Caleb struggled his first year,
so Ben comes in with leverage. But offensive coaches and
Andy Reid would tell you this, when you get somebody
as gifted as Mahomes and Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen
and Caleb Williams with that kind of horsepower, with that
kind of firepower, it is your job as a coach
(03:12):
to figure out how to maximize all that amazing clay.
All you need, because I think Caleb's got a little
Brett Farv, All you need is for that player. Mahomes,
Lamar Josh Allen, Brett Farv to be amenable to throwing
on time and on schedule and avoiding negative plays.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I don't care how gifted you are.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Josh Allen's not great if he's not on time, he's
not on schedule, and there's negative plays. Last year Caleb
was none of those consistently. So you don't You don't
have to be a perfect fit with Ben Johnson. But
nobody succeeds in this league running around. It's not high
school or college defensive ends. Here run four, five, five.
They can catch you and they'll punish you, and they'll
(03:56):
lean on you and sit on you and drive you
into the ground, whether it's lee or not, and you
won't play long. Go ask Lamar Jackson, who suddenly in
year two and three put on wait. Go ask Michael Vick,
who started staying in the pocket. I think Caleb Williams
comp when I watch him, is a little Brett Farv.
You gotta let him be a little bit of a gunslinger.
You gotta let him be himself. But Brett Farv mostly
(04:19):
played on time, played on schedule. He threw a lot
of bad picks. Far through a lot of bad picks.
You could get away with that. In Farv's era, I
think offensive coaching is smarter. I think turnovers are more punitive.
So I think this is a marriage stylistically that is
not perfect. But I know Caleb. I like Caleb. I
(04:39):
think he's coachable. But it may never be. It may
never be Stafford and McVeigh or read In Mahomes or
John Harbaugh and Lamar or it just feels like what
a good marriage. I don't know if this ever will be,
but what you saw was a glimpse of what it
can be when Caleb is on time and on schedule
(05:02):
and just get out of the negative place so much.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It's almost like being somebody that runs a movie studio.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Not everything has to be Good Fellas, Not everything has
to be Avatar. What you're trying to avoid is that
Disney movie, John Carter. You're just trying to avoid a
three hundred and fifty million dollar disaster as a studio head.
Not everything needs to be Moulin rouge and be a hit.
It doesn't all have to be that. Just avoid the potholes.
(05:33):
That is largely quarterback play. That is largely what Belichick
says about Brady. No negative plays. It was either you know,
second and six or second and four. It was never
second fifteen and third and eighteen. Get out of that stuff.
And I thought when he dirted the screen pass, I thought, oh,
that's perfect. That's growth from last year. Just just dirting
(05:53):
the screen path. You're like, okay, that last year he
would have tried.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
To make something out of it.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Now, in Ben Johnson's school of off, get out of
the play, give up the play, don't extend the play,
just get out of there.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Here was Caleb after.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
A month ago.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
I think I've grown a lot.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Now.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
My mind set is, you know, keep growing. If that's
handling everything at the line, handling everything, you know, and
taking things off other people's plates, you know, that's what
it is. And being able to do that consistently over
the next couple of years is you know important.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Okay. So I saw the media.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It was partially media and partially like people online. So
the quarterback battling now now the Cleveland Browns and Kevin Stefanski,
and I like Kevin Stefanski a lot, But you got.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
To offer some clarity here, guys.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You gotta tell us what's going on, because we're getting
into a t bow situation and This happens a lot.
I've seen this in the NFL with Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick,
Tim Tebow. Nobody wants a celebrity backup quarterback.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Years ago, Bill Parcells said one of the rules of
drafting was don't draft a celebrity quarterback. Yeah, that that's over.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Half of these got Baker Mayfield, I mean Sam Darnold
out of USC beating Penn State and a Rose Bull.
He becomes a celebrity. Half these guys are making seven
million bucks in college. Arch Manning's a celebrity. Get over it.
Draft him. So but but but this still holds true.
You don't want a celebrity backup quarterback, and that hurt
(07:27):
Tibo and Kaepernick and Cam Newton in New England with
Bell Belichick, is you know I like you Cam. We
can't have a superstar backup. You guys who love Shador
in Carolina wearing his jerseys, you're making him into a celebrity.
So if I'm a coach and I have to choose, Okay,
Joe Flacco's starting, Dylan Gabriel may be easier to deal with.
You don't have to deal with a nonsense. So this
(07:49):
weekend Dylan Gabriel went on camera and said something that
people blew way out of proportion.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
So here's what he said. You gave us some fabulous
wisdom on how you tune out the noise and you
don't let it infiltrate yourself. Will you share that with
everybody at home?
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I think it's just part of it.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know, there's entertainers and there's competitors, and I totally
understand that, and my job is to compete and that's
what I'm focused on doing.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That was not a shot at Shador Sanders. Shame on
everybody that said it was.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
Do not.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
You're hurting Shadeur. You're turning a non circus into a circus.
When he said that he was taking a shot at us,
he was taking a shot at guys like me. He
was saying, listen, there's people that talk about this stuff
in the air. They're entertainers. I'm a quarterback and I
don't know exactly who blew it out of proportion. But
(08:46):
when I was on my phone all weekend, the first
three or four hours of this, until I did some dickta,
I'm like, why is he taking a shot at Shador?
He wasn't so essentially everybody proved Dylan Gabriel's point, which
is all about clicks and look at me and no nuance.
He was not taking a shot at Shador Sanders. He
was taking a sh and he wasn't even really taking
(09:07):
a shot at the media. He was describing what the
media is.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Entertainers.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
They got to get ratings, they got to drive revenue. Yeah,
guilty is charged, Like I try to do a good
job of it, but like I want the most entertaining topics.
So the truth is about these guys. I have two
strong opinions. I think Dylan Gabriel's size is an issue.
I would have a hard time building around him. He's small,
he's serious, and he's business like like. I like his
(09:34):
temperament more than Shadur, who's silly and kind of goofy.
But I think Shadur was underdrafted. Shadour is bigger. I
think he moves well. I would choose Shadeur over Dylan Gabriel.
But Kevin Stefanski, he liked the seriousness, the accuracy, and
the way he ran an offense. Dylan Gabriel at Oregon,
I don't think either is transformational. And here's the thing,
(09:55):
what NFL gms really want from quarterbacks. They want you
to be Andrew Luck great and boring. Brady was mostly
boring when he played Peyton Manning got really really funny
when he retired. Most of your great quarterback even mahomes
with a huge personality, kind of hides in the offseason.
They want you to be great and boring. If you're
(10:16):
not great, and neither one of these quarterbacks is, you
can't be the life of the party. I've said this
for years. There's two rules about backup quarterbacks in the NFL.
If I have to use you for two games, can
you win one? Can you just win one of the
two games?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I need you?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Two of my starters out for four Cooper Rush great,
he can win half the games. Starters should win sixty
five percent of the games. If they're great, Lamar, they
win seventy five percent of the games. And the other
rule about backup quarterbacks you should be able to put
a baseball cap and sunglasses on in your local mall,
walk around and nobody knows who you are. You can
(10:56):
never be a headline Tebow headline, back up, Cam headline,
Kaepernick headline. Shadeur's becoming that and this story again. You
think it helped Shaduur, it's hurting him. This story hurt
You know what the staff is saying in Cleveland this
morning that Jesus, maybe we just got to get out
(11:17):
of this nonsense. Let's just get out of this nonsense.
We got people thinking Dylan's taking shots. They'll get out
of this business because Chador's not good enough. Tebau was
not good enough to deal with the nonsense. So this
was a prime example of sometimes you squeeze so tight.
(11:38):
Shadure's my guy, and I love Shadur, and that guy's
trying to get Shadour. You're making this is such a
negative for Shador Sanders. This is what happened with Tibo.
He take his shirt off and walk through practice and
it was four live shots at ESPN, and after a
while coaches are like, you know what, I had a
coach tell me this. I kind of like him for
the locker room and the roster. He's a he's a
(12:00):
he's a good football player, but god, who wants that circus?
I mean, you want a playoff game in Denver against
Pittsburgh beat Tomlin. And they're like, we're getting out of
this business. Tibo could have been a backup somewhere. Nobody
wanted the nonsense and that's what this was, all right,
John Boy, I gotta tell you we don't want to
(12:21):
take too much from the preseason. I'd be a little
worried if I was Dallas a little no Micah, no Trayvon.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Diggs, good luck, Brian shot Nimer.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
There there is going to be. There is an art
to knowing when you know. They called it's a funny
line the Irish exit when you leave a bar and
you don't tell anybody.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, I've mastered it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I'm married to an Irish girl, so we've mastered leaving
the party and not given everybody a heads up. Some
people know when to get off the train, when to exit.
Mike McCarthy. A lot of you rolled your eyes at
my McCarthy. In six months, Mike McCarthy may be a
leading candidate.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
For other NFL jobs. We'll talk about that coming up.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 9 (13:16):
He's Mike Carmen, I'm Dan Byern. We have a fantasy
football podcast. Called I Want Your Flex.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's right, Dan.
Speaker 10 (13:23):
Every week we're gonna scour the waiver wire to find
the pickups to turbo boost your fantasy lineup, sit starts,
fantasy football players rankings to get you ready to dominate
the competition.
Speaker 9 (13:34):
Listen to I Want Your Flex with Mike Carmon and
meet Dan Byer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts and
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
All right, welcome back, Colin Wright, Colin Wrong. It's a
Monday top of next hour. John Middlecoff sitting in with me.
You've heard him on my podcast many times now fills
in regularly and we would love that. So the Cowboys
got dusted again at home. This time it's Baltimore. Now,
Baltimore dusts a lot of people in both the preseason
and the regular season. For whatever reasons, Baltimore is the
best preseason team in the league. I'm watching that thing
(14:03):
early and I'm like, yeah, it's going downhill fast. But
once again, Dallas's defense is a sieve.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
It's bad.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
And I got to tell you something right now, They're
opening against Philadelphia on NBC and they're going to be
thirty two million viewers. This is not going to be
open up against Carolina on the road in that one
o'clock window. So if the Cowboys are bad, it's going
to get ugly fast. Everybody's going to be talking about it.
And Mike is not going to be playing. He's unhappy.
Trey Von Diggs reportedly not going to be playing the opener.
(14:30):
He's not happy in This defense was second worst in
the NFL last year in total defense.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So it's a bad unit.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
It's not terribly deep, and your two best players are
unhappy and reportedly neither's going to play. So again, when
you open with Philadelphia, it will be the most watched
game in Week one. Arguably it's thirty million viewers. And
remember you've been the last two times you played the
Eagles forty one to seven and thirty four to six humiliating.
You don't have your left ty tackle, Tiger Guidon, the
(14:59):
rookie at all Oklahoma didn't play particularly well last year.
That doesn't mean he can't be good in year two.
That's a hard position for a rookie, but he's banged up.
The running back room is weak, Deck's coming off a
second injury, so it's now Here's I mean, I don't know,
I don't love to hire.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
As a coach.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't think Jerry Jones has a ton of respect
for coaches. If he did, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells
would have been treated differently. I think he tends to
hire people who need him. Jason Garrett wasn't being offered
head coaching jobs. He felt like he owed Jerry One.
Brian Schottenheimer was not being interviewed for top offensive coordinator jobs. Jerry,
(15:37):
you know, can feel like you, oh, Jerry One, Jimmy
and Bill Parcells didn't need Jerry Jones. Every other coach,
even McCarthy, who I like, kind of felt like he
was on the beach. He was looking for an opportunity.
Here is Brian Schottenheimer. I think this thing's gonna get
rough really quick, like week one. I think it's a
(15:58):
four or five potential win team. Maybe Dak get you
to six or seven. Here Schottenheimer again, after another ugly
preseason loss.
Speaker 11 (16:07):
We're not gonna say that that's just a preseason game.
We're not you gonna say, oh, we'll be fine. You know,
we're gonna we're gonna look at it because the fact
that you know, we really lost both halves. That is
something that you know, we have to get corrected. There's
too many good football players, too many good coaches for
us to perform the way that we did tonight. We're
not gonna panic and we're not pushing the panic button.
(16:28):
We're pushing the work button. And that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Uh, this is not panic button. This is doomsday clock.
You're on the doomsday clock. Who's got the briefcase? Like
this thing is gonna be It's gonna blow it fast.
That you don't have your two best defenders. Hasn't been
a good camp, getting pushed around in preseason, got pushed
around last year. And here's what's interesting. And I know
Mike McCarthy could drive me nuts. The Cowboys were always
(16:52):
too penalized, and I didn't love them situationally. But Mike
McCarthy went twelve and five, twelve and five, twelve and five,
one two vision titles, and then Dak got hurt and
had a winning record with Cooper Rush. So you can
roll your eyes at Mike McCarthy. He walked away from
this job. And there is a distinction between having a
(17:14):
disagreement with the owner and just saying no, I like Jerry,
I don't want to coach this wreck. He saw this
train coming. He saw this thing coming. And I'm gonna
tell you, in one year from now, and probably about
nine months from now March April, how many months that is.
When you're hiring coaches after the season, you're gonna look
at this mess and Mike McCarthy, people are gonna go.
(17:37):
He went twelve and five, twelve and five, twelve and
five and had the second best offense with Dak Prescott
in the league to Josh Allen and the Bills. You're
gonna start looking at that how people exit matters in
politics and in coaching, how you exit matters, And go
look at Mike McCarthy's dallas Dale put it on the
screen here. I didn't love his clock management. I thought
(17:59):
his teams were too panalized. But there's a lot of
ws there. And don't be surprised in stadium this year
if you don't see cowboy fans wearing buttons, I'm gonna
make my prediction. In New Orleans they used to wear
aints on the with the bags over their heads. You're
gonna have some. I miss Mike. Let's strike for Mike.
(18:20):
I miss Mike Banners. I like Mike Mark my words,
Mike McCarthy's name will come up again in Dallas because
it's not gonna be a great coaching search.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
There's not a lot out there.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
The great old guys like Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton,
they are taken, and a lot of the young guys
in college, Ryan Day Happy at Ohio State, Lincoln Riley
hasn't been what everybody thought. I don't necessarily think it's
gonna be a You're gonna have to rely on a coordinator,
and do you trust Jerry Jones at this point? Hiring
(18:55):
anybody just a thought because you watched that Baltimore game
like I did. This defense is in big trouble because
the NFC has some really sharp offensive coaches.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Really ready you go. You look at divisions.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I got Ben Johnson with Chicago, and Kevin O'Connell and
I mean Nick sirianni works and McVeigh and Shanahan. Like
the NFC. AFC may have the quarterbacks. I could argue
the NFC's got the sharp young offensive coaches and Dallas's
defense is a rack.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
John Middlecoff of The News No No turn on the
News this is the headline news, you.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Know, speaking of Mike McCarthy, his former quarterback and Colin
Coward's favorite player. Aaron Rodgers landed in Pittsburgh this offseason
and what looks like will be his swan song.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Reports came out that he's making thirteen million dollars, but
he could have made more but decided that was the
maximum amount he wanted to play for.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
What is your take on.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
This, Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rodgers Mike Tomlin twenty twenty five seasons.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Well, if you can't run the football, as you know you, John,
I'm old enough. I remember when the NFL had fourteen games,
and then it was sixteen, and now it's seventeen and
they're extending it to eighteen. So because statistically, defensive players
get hurt more than offensive players. They're in more violent collisions,
right like they're a defender's job often is to blow
(20:26):
a playoff offense is choreography, is that you have to
have a run game accompany your defense. You have to
keep your defense off the field. They can't have thirty
percent more snaps than other top feet That's why Philadelphia
and Baltimore's defense they get long rests, they stay healthier.
(20:46):
I think Pittsburgh's problem Mike Tomlin is incapable of building
a run game. Sean McDermott had some of these issues
until James Cook. The defense is on the field too long,
and that means more snaps for Aaron.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
They don't have a left tackle.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I if you go look at Pittsburgh's defense the last
several years, it has not been elite despite being the
most expensive defense in the league. And I'm going to
point to not TJ Water, Cam Hayward or Mike If
I'm gonna point to the fact you can't develop run games,
you can't keep your defense off the field.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Well, they got Arthur Smith, who became a big time
name with Derrick Henry. They draft Caleb I think in
the third round from Iowa, big physical back.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
We know the Rooneyes.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I mean they fired Bruce arians before because he passed
too much. They want to run the ball at his age,
I mean, his best friend. How did Aaron Rodgers resurrect
his career with Lafleur running the ball?
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Aaron Jones. They kind of settled it down in that
Shanahan offense.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
So listen, the honeymoon phase is in full effect training camp.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Rogers TJ got paid.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
What's it gonna look like when they lose a couple
of games, you know, and it starts getting weird. That
division is really hard, even the Browns. I mean, if
they're the worst team in your division, they got really
good players.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
They're tough to beat.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
They are.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The good news is their early schedule is workable. Their
late schedule, like last year, gets tougher because it's a
lot of Indivision games against the Ravens. I mean, you
look at the end of the year, it's the Ravens
and the Lions. It's the Ravens and the Bills, Burrow
Herbert Bear. But in early I get Jets, I get Patriots,
I get.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
A buye, I get Browns.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I get some home games that could go either way,
like Green Bay and Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
I get both of those at home.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
I might push back.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
I mean, obviously the Jets, I mean, I don't know
if they're going to pass average one hundred yards passing,
but Seattle's going to be pretty good. The Patriots are
going to be a completely different operation.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Minnesota is good.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
I mean those three games after the Jets are not
just Patsy's Colen.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Yeah, I mean we'll both agree on this.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Offensively, Pittsburgh, even the last year to two with Big Band,
they have lost their way offensively. So do I believe
a quarterback at forty one out of his prime, missing
a left tackle and Najie Harris can fix it?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I do not.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
I would agree with you there. Okay, we talked about
the Bears.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
What about the flip side the Bills, who last night
looked like the opposite of the Ravens.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
The preseason is.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Not going well for them.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Sean McDermott clearly was not pleased with this team's performance.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
Certainly not to our standard what we expect. Got a
lot of work to do, that's very clear. It doesn't
matter who's out there, ones, twos, threes, fours, whoever it is.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
We expect them to perform, and we expect our levels
of performance to be much better than that playing against
their ones. You know, I expect, we expect to to
compete with them, and that wasn't the case early and
then our two's are twos. Then who were out there
competing against their twos and our threes against their threes.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
It didn't get much better. I'm not worried Collin, are
you I'm not worried.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I almost consider the Ravens an exception, a really good
organization that cares and delivers in the preseason thirty eight
and nothing is really bad. What is your reason why
they were so disordered.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Let's take the Andy Reid crew. There's Andy Reid, John Harbor,
and Sean McDermott. But you know, those two guys learned
under Andy. I think Andy's training camps are really physical,
kind of old school, a throwback. Look at the Chiefs
the other night against Seattle, look terrible. They've been practicing
really hard, heavy legs. I think Sean McDermot, if you're
watching hard knocks, they're getting after it in practice.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
That was a big, big game for the Bears last night.
I mean they approached that the game plan for that thing.
Sean McDermott did not.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
For whatever reason.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Maybe it's a harball thing, but specifically John, he approaches
preseason games like they are a playoff game. He is
an outlier, so heavy legs. Josh Allen on the sideline,
the Bills and are different from the Chiefs because the Chiefs,
I mean, make the Super Bowl every year. Right, It's
all about January so how do you peak November, December
and into January.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
I mean, that's I'm watching hard knocks.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Usually on hard knocks, it's a team, so it's an
awful product. This is the first time where you're like, oh,
that's what a great quarterback looks like in practice. It's
one to watch, so I listen. I put zero stock
into that. That was all about the Bears road game.
I think if you look at the Chiefs and you
look at the Bills, both long.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Road trips and just late an eight. Now, if you're
a backup, you better be careful. You can't.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
You know, you don't want to get used to laying
eggs when you don't play very often in the regular season.
But when Josh Allen's on the sideline doing interviews in
the first quarter, I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Put much stock into the game.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Fair enough, Okay, a quarterback and a team that I'm
high on.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
The Green Bay packer Jordan Lovey return to practice after
getting surgery last week to repair the ligament in his
left thumb. Love is not taking the first team reps though,
to protect his thumb, but Lafleur has a plan to
get him some work ahead of Week one.
Speaker 13 (25:49):
I just went through everything. We're going to alter some
things to allow him to get involved. Do my favorite
seven on seven that I absolutely despise, but in some
instances it's good. So I'd rather do that than just
throw throw on air. So we'll incorporate some seven on
seven in the practice.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, Matt's not a seven on seven guy a lot
of by the way, he loves a good, tough, physical
run game, so it probably is the antithesis of everything
he believes in. Yeah, this has been to me the
mystery team. The Rams are a little bit of that,
but that's just because of Stafford's health. I keep going
back to this. The whole division's been noisy all off season.
(26:31):
Lions lose both coordinators, Bears are just noisy with Caleb
and Ben, the JJ McCarthy, Minnesota stuff, Green Bay. Some
of it's a small market, but I've earned nothing. It
has been silent, and that leads me to believe generally,
when it's quiet, you're either keeping really good secrets from
(26:51):
people that you don't want him to know, like people
are developing, or the fact is you've got everybody on
the same page. And I think I think this team
really likes and respect you know, it's still John I
think that either the youngest or the second youngest team
for the third year in a row.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
I'm high on the backers. I'm picking him to win
the division.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
This does make me a little nervous. I mean, what
kind of derailed their season last year? He got hurt
Week one, so you get an injury. Now we've still
got a couple of weeks. But this division is hard.
They're gonna go. I mean, part of the reason they
their passing game last year wasn't great. Now he did
a great job with the Mlik Willis. They've proven they
can win regular.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
Season games with Lake Willis.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
But if they're gonna win this division, they need Jordan Love.
Let's face it, to be a Pro Bowl level quarterback.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean, only one great quarterback didn't make the playoffs.
I mean, the one thing that guarantees you're going to
be a playoff team almost across the line is offensive
coach and really good quarterback. That almost guarantees you. I mean,
we would watch look at what Minnesota did last year
was Sam Darnolds, who we thought was done so a
Jordan Love and Matt Lafleura. If you just say that
out loud, the elite offensive coach, really talented quarterback, that
(27:59):
should be a playoff.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
We're gonna learn a lot about them.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Open up with the Lions, and then you get Washington
if you're two and oh, we're gonna call them one
of the best teams in the league. If they lose
one of those games, we're gonna have serious questions.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yep, John with the news, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by. Colin Wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Top of the Hour, Matt Hasselback, Dave Wonstat's got some
bare thoughts, Chicago Bears thoughts. Okay, so this I think
it may have happened Thursday or Friday. I was off Friday.
So the NCAA came down hard on Michigan, Well kind of.
They didn't have to vacate any wins, which is key,
(28:39):
and they find them a bunch of money. That's the
best punishment you could get for a big brand college program.
We want twenty million dollars. All right, we'll write a check.
They didn't vacate any wins.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Basically, the Connors Stallions situation, they found no definitive lie
to Harbaugh on Connor Stallions. It said at a minimum,
there was willful intent not to learn more about Connor
Stallion's methods.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
That's fuzzy.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
However, the true scope and scale of the scheme included
the competitive advantage, if conferred, will never truly be known
due to individuals intentional destruction of materials and information.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Okay, you're right, a check their fire.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
The bigger issue is if their current head coach isn't
the guy and you have to fire him in a
couple of years. There may be some coaches that are
scared off and don't want to take over the program.
But here's my thing on this. When you're a parent,
and I'm a parent, John's a new parent, I'm an
old parent, you get into a lot of situations where
(29:52):
something inappropriate is done, but you don't want to over
punish your kids.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
But you do want to punish your kids.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
You want to send a message to the other kids,
but you don't want to be out of touch, like
you don't want to be you know. And so I'll
give you an example, like, unless you work for Reno
nine to one one, a pot bust isn't really a
big deal in twenty twenty five. If you're a cop
and pull somebody over and you're like, hey, what's that
(30:23):
roachs doing.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
In your car? Nobody cares.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
The world changed, So I have a hard time getting
worked up over. Yeah, Connor Stallions, you know you had
a phone and he had a bunch of guys working
for him. Where's the link? Well, Harbor, where's the link?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Folks?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Do you understand how sketchy the transfer portal is?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
It is?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It is so sketchy and so dark and so muddy,
and people stealing players. It's a mess. And I'm for
the transfer portal, the empowerment of the player. It is sketch.
By the way, you can now pay high school players,
which was the unpardonable sin my entire life. And so
I gotta have a hard time getting worked up over. Yeah,
(31:11):
there's some shaky iPhone video. By the way, that is legal.
Scouting is legal. There's been an underground business on this
for fifty years in the sport. Did they go overboard? Probably?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah? Sure, okay, but where's the definitive link? Where is it? Okay,
you don't have it? So again, it's like with my kids.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It is you want to punish, slap on the wrist,
give us a big check bowl limitations, But let's not
go crazy here. The world's changed. You can buy high
school players. The transfer portal is completely sketchy. They're making
it up as they go, And so I know I'm
supposed to be so upset with this and supposed to
(31:56):
be so outraged when Jim Harbaughs says, yeah, I'm not
engaged on this.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Stuff either would I.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I don't live my life through the rearview mirror. It's
all about the windshield. I don't care what happened at
other places. Tomorrow's show and today's show.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Is the key. And Hardball is saying, I don't care.
I'm not going back to college football. I don't care.
Jay Wright left it early, Coach k left it, Roy
Williams left it, Harball left it, Saban left it. It's
a mess. I am four an I l I am
for the transfer portal, But.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Don't act like you're outraged about stuff. In a world
now where stuff that would get the death penalty is
now marketed and promoted and monetized, you just go buy
high school players. That was the one thing you couldn't do,
A twenty dollars handshake, a free dinner. Okay, do not
(32:53):
buy high schoolers now. That's encouraged. So I'm not that
worked up over it. I'm not think Michigan's bigger issue
is the Big Ten now has got really good coaching,
and last year was not great for Michigan. They did
beat Ohio State. That was cool, I guess, but it
wasn't a great year. And now they have a five
star quarterback and Ohio State's ohways. Frankly, if we're being
(33:16):
totally honest, if you take Jim Harball out of the equation,
Ohio State has been a better program than Michigan most
of my life. Michigan occasionally will get the right coach.
If they're patient, they'll win big. Ohio State can hire
a coach and win an hour later. Ohio State's the
only SEC program in the North. So you know, I've
(33:40):
been very consistent on this stuff. You're trying to get
me all worked up on Michigan.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's a roach in a car other than Reno nine
to one to one. You know, cops, you can't sell
me on that's a big crime in twenty twenty five,
little bag a roach whatevs. Couple having a good time.
So Hardball's not coming back. Slap on the wrist. Gotta
(34:08):
pay somebody. And by the way, the other thing is, well,
there's gonna be some recruiting limitations ll recruiting. You just
go buy guys in the transfer. If a booster comes
up and says, oh, you get nine less recruiting visits,
all right, we'll offer nine more NIL players. All the
stuff you can mitigate ninety percent of it. Write a
(34:29):
big check. NCAA doesn't give me any definitive link. I'm
not even sure if they did, if I would be bothered.
We have an update on Matt Stafford. This thing, I'm
telling you there's only one team in the league that
could win the Super Bowl or go four and thirteen,
and it's the Rams. Based on Matt Stafford's health update.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Next, be sure to catch live editions of The Herd
weekdays and noon Easter non a em Pacific.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
This is the moment it was announced everyone had. August
thirtieth Circle.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
The Arch Manning Era kicks off with a playoff rematch
for the Ages As Texas takes on the defending national
championship Ohio State Buck Guys on Big Noon Saturday. What
a way to get the season rolling. August thirtieth only
on focks.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
I still like Texas in the points. I just don't
know what Ohio State will do at quarterback. Ohio State
should win their favorite. They have to do best players
in college football. I think I'm gonna take Texas and
the points, and I think it's gonna be like that
Oregon Ohio State game last year in Osin.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
It's gonna be wild.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
There's gonna be a ton of scoring, and it's gonna
be the highest rated Labor Day weekend game in the
history of college football. So one of the things that
really good teams do is they keep secrets. The Rams
are really good at secrets. They had decided, you know,
a year before they let go a Jalen Ramsey or
a Cooper cup or a Todd Gurley, or maybe five
(35:56):
months before they let go of Jared Goff.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
They knew it.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Nobody else did so. I remember they held firm on
Matt Stafford. They love Matt Stafford. But Matt Stafford got
a one year deal. The bottom line is Matt Stafford
wanted multiple guaranteed years and the Rams wouldn't budge. And
because they have two first round picks, here is the
guarantee in next year's NFL Draft. Not even Cleveland can
(36:22):
guarantee this. The Rams are going to take a quarterback.
They are going to take a quarterback. So because no
team in the NFL right now could either win the
super Bowl or win four games like the Rams. It
all depends on Stafford's health because the backup is Jimmy Garoppolo,
who has aged very quickly and has been ineffective in
(36:42):
his last seven stars. So Stafford, this is a big story.
Stafford was at practice today and they have kept this
thing under wraps. They have been so covert and so quiet.
But the Rams move off people. Somebody on our staff
said this morning, I thought it was funny. Sean McVay,
is Belichick better dressed and with a smile. They move
(37:05):
off people a year early. They were they didn't want
to move off Matt Stafford. There was going to be
no long term deal. And so him being at practice,
we've all been waiting for this. Is he going to
practice because the defense is unbelievable. The running back room
now is really good. Devonte Adams. They drafted Terrence Ferguson
(37:26):
at tight end. They have a super Bowl team. The
left tackles had some blood cloths. If Stafford plays. They
can go toe to toe with anybody, including Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
I have him. But the Stafford thing, we're just sitting
waiting and nothing leaks. Nothing leaks. With the Rams.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
It is a lot like Belichick. Nothing leaked. They moved
off Randy Moss. You think they love him, they move
off him. And they've moved off multiple stars. So all
I know is watching this, having watched the Rams, they're
drafting a quarterback next year, and they may keep Stafford
for one more year to let the kid he can
(38:04):
be a mentor. But this is like a story that
you got to keep your eye on, all right. You know.
The other thing is when you're young, you're eighteen, you're nineteen,
you're twenty, you're twenty three, twenty four, more than any
time in your life. I can only speak from a
guy's perspective, Your mentors, your bosses have an immeasurable impact.
(38:28):
By the time you're forty forty five, you're stuck in
your ways. You are what you are. You're not very moldable.
But I look at Jackson, dar to the Giants, look
at the mentors he's had offensively three years of Lane
Kiffin and now Brian Dable. When I watch him play,
he is playing like he trusts his coaches. He's playing
(38:50):
with a ton of confidence, sitting in the pocket letting
it rip.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
He looks great. Now again it's preseason. You can't make
too much.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Justin Fields though, who has had Bears eber Fluse at
the end. Now he's got Aaron Glenn, he had Mike Tomlin.
Justin Fields looks lost. He looked lost in this game.
He looks lost. Who have been his NFL mentors? Defensive coaches?
So when I look at Jackson Dart, I think what
an advantage? I mean, you start looking at all these
(39:22):
great quarterbacks, a lot of them, Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Offensive coaches. You know last year Justin Herbert put up
some nice numbers.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Jim Harbaugh, former quarterback Mahomes Burrow, you know a lot
of these guys. Offensive coach Jaden Daniels had Brian Kelly
offensive side. In the cliff, Kingsbury and dan Quinn's the coach.
Kingsbury took over the offense. Dan Quinn acknowledged that's not
my room, that's Kingsbury's room.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
So Bo Nicks, Sean Payton.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
If you don't think who you land as your college
and your pro coach, it matters a lot. I mean,
Baker Mayfield looked pretty good in stretches. He did look
great with Freddie Kitchens. Like the coach matters, and I
think were Jackson Dart when I watch him three years
of lane, Kiffen into a coach Brian Dable that won
(40:14):
a playoff game with Daniel Jones, who reportedly is not
going to beat out Anthony Richardson with the Colts. So
Russell's gonna start. But you got to feel good. I
thought he was a bit of a reach in the
first round. I felt like he was a mid second
round quarterback. He's look really confident, and I think a
ton of it is Kiffen daball trusts his coaches.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Here's Brian Dable.
Speaker 8 (40:39):
Yeah, Russ is our starter and we're going to keep
developing Jackson here. Jackson just got to continue to work
to get better, and we got to help him get better.
What we're trying to do is help Jackson be the
best quarterback he can be, just like all the quarterbacks,
just like all the players on the team.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
So Brian's not going to give you a lot at
the podium, But I said this last week Lane Kiffin
could be a head coach in the NFL. Well absolutely
was briefly with the old Al Davis.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
It was a mess.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Lane Kevin did not want to draft JaMarcus Russell. He
pled with Al Davis. Al wouldn't listen. It went sideways.
But when I watched Jackson Dart and I watched Justin Fields,
Justin Fields, who's.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Been his guy?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
And that one And by the way, neither Jackson Dart
or Justin Fields to me are transformative players. Coaching's gonna
matter a lot, early mentors, early guidance, and Jackson's got it.
Colin Wright, Colin Wrang, Matt hasselback next for a lot
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Colin Cowherd
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