Hour 3 - The anticipation

NFL reporter Dianna Russini joins the show in anticipation of the release of the NFL's regular season schedule

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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 noone Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
All right. I get into the schedule release. Not everybody does.
I remember years ago, I get into the draft. Peter
King doesn't like the draft. He was like that, it
doesn't do a thing for me. You and I like
the schedule release. Not everybody does. I get it. I
just I like order. I said this, like a day
has order. I like getting stuff done, and tonight I
get order to all my games. So it's like it's

(00:46):
like majoring in architecture. I like the order of stuff.
I'm a creature of habit, so I tend to like that.
You artists out there don't need order. You know I'm
not that anyway. Diana is to this nonsense.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Okay, I'm listening to this nonsense because I know you're
talking about me there.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
You're taking a shot at me, because you know I'm
not the biggest schedule freak.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I mean, I know the fans love it, and I
do understand having the answers right like, have an idea
what your fall is gonna look like, what you're gonna
be in two week you can get ready for. I know,
from the player perspective, they don't really get that into
it as much. They really are just about when's the
bye week, when's the Thursday night game?

Speaker 4 (01:31):
When are we on short weeks?

Speaker 6 (01:33):
When do I have to go to bad weather?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
You know, those are really the things that players care
about at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
I mean, you know who you're playing, You have an
idea at this point.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
So I just talked to a GM this morning though
that he's got a holiday game, and holiday games are tough,
I think, even though everyone knows what the season's about,
and that's pretty much sacrificing everything in your life.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
I don't think anyone really truly wants to play on
Christmas Day. But we'll see how that turns out.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Of course, Yeah, I thought. I thought the Jets getting
because they're rebuilding their O line. And as you well know,
if you talk to general managers, they will tell you
the hardest group to get to play well together is
the O line. That's why having veterans. So the Jets
have three new veterans, a rookie left tackle, and by

(02:19):
the way, veterans don't play in preseason much anymore, and
they open up with a Bosa on the road, and
I'm like, that's a that like a tough opener, right
for the Jets.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, you would think the NFL would just want to
give Aaron an easy first game, considering what we saw
him have to go through and what Jets fans had
to suffer through last year. Just a few plays in
it obviously all going down the drain from there. So yeah,
I definitely see this being a little bit of a
gauntlet coming out.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
For the Jets.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Definitely not an easy I wouldn't I wouldn't think of
it as an easy.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Schedule for the Jets opening up.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I happen to know some of the games that they
have coming up after that, and they're not great either.
So look, I think, just in general, I said this
to you probably this time last year, the New York
Jets have the potential to be great.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
If Aaron stays healthy.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
We know that they've tried to make some changes in
this offseason here, they move the staff around a bit.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
They made some changes on the offensive side.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Of the ball with the coaches, with some assistants, and
you know, it's the same story here in New York
though Colin Aaron Rodgers is running the team.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
They're listening to him, and they're.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Comfortable with it because they know that they're banking on
his success.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
They're banking on his improvements that he's made. I think
he's also learned a lot.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
And I've spoken to some people in that building about
who Aaron is right now, and he's not a point
in his life.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
We're going to see this tremendous amount of growth, right.
He is who he is at this.

Speaker 6 (03:45):
Point, right.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
But he had a little bit of an adjustment right
all those years in Green Bay and then coming to
New York and dealing with what he had to deal
with and seeing the things he had to say. But
obviously we've seen from the roster standpoint and even through
the draft process, Aaron Rodgers was well aware everything that
the New York Jets were doing.

Speaker 6 (04:02):
There.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
There are two teams in this league and they feel different.
They almost feel like the seventies, the Packers and the Steelers.
They don't make a lot of changes. Packers don't even
have an owner. They're really uh and I say this respectfully.
They're old school, but yet smart enough and well run
enough to win now, especially Green Bay. They get the

(04:24):
quarterbacks right. And then all of a sudden, you take
Russell Wilson Ciara Pittsburgh and I'm just fascinated to watch
it because he's not really on brand. I mean, Big
Ben could have drama, but Big Ben kind of felt
like Pittsburgh. They got the scruffy bear in the motorcycle
and it kind of felt like Pittsburgh. What do you

(04:48):
make Russell Pittsburgh? What are you just kind of your
vibe on it? I think it could go sideways. I
think it could be excellent.

Speaker 6 (04:56):
What do you make of it?

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Are people talking about it?

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (04:59):
I remember this Saturday morning, getting the text that he
was there and that this was going to work out,
and just thinking that I was making a mistake because
I was multitasking, that maybe I misread it. That Now,
like Tomlin and Russell Wilson, I know they like each other.
Like I'd seen them on the field before after games
when they would play one another, there was always just
a mutual respect that you could see and understanding. But

(05:23):
just when I think of who my Tomlin is, what
he's about.

Speaker 6 (05:26):
But I've even.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Learned as a reporter from him just observing him as
a leader and how he conducts his team with that
locker room looks like and then I think of Russell.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
They're just very different.

Speaker 6 (05:36):
People, right.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
So you have this marriage now and everything I gather
in terms of just having tons of conversations since this
went down is that they want him there.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
So that to me immediately says like this is fabulous
for Russell Wilson.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Knowing the environment he was in in Denver, which was
as bad as it possibly could get in terms of
him being just wanted right, it was very.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Clear there was no slow burn there.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
It was a pretty hard breakup and it's probably better
for both sides.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Right.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
So now here he is, they want him there, They're
excited by him, they enjoy him, and I really believe
in terms of the roster he is set up to
succeed here.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
And I think if he learned from his last experience,
which let's hope he has, I think if he just
puts the confidence and trust and belief in Arthur Smith,
I think that's where he can probably take off here
and do well in Pittsburgh. But it's really going to
come down to whether or not he's going to have
that ability to trust a coach again after what he

(06:37):
went through with Champagne.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
So the Houston Texans, this is one of the things
in baseball, you know, it tends to take years and
years of drafting and then hitting on a few players
to go from bad to good. It takes a while
to process. Same in the NBA you get a nineteen
year old played one year of college. But in the
NFL you can be the Texans awful, laughable in a
playoff team. Get the coach right, get the quarterback right.

(07:02):
Tom Brady was talking about c J. Stroud on the
Pivot podcast, talking about his humility, his mau churity is
he's got a plan there. And Tom talked about there
is a way to last in this league, not just
count there's a way to do it. And I just
wondered if you had any thought. I mean c J Stroud,

(07:22):
I mean his comp was Jared Goff. That's a good comp.
It's kind of blew everybody away, myself included blew me away.
How good he was yeah, like day one, Like what.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
Well, I have a lot of interest. I have a
lot of interest in this in terms of.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
How coaches and gms, even owners that are really involved,
how they judge these young quarterbacks coming out in the draft,
how they decide, how do they sit there?

Speaker 4 (07:44):
And you know, we just mentioned Sean Payton.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
He's a great example of somebody he knows right away,
right away, this is the guy.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
This is the guy. This is the guy. This is
the guy.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
He's very gray, he's very rarely gray on people. And
I've asked him before, like what do you look for?

Speaker 6 (07:56):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
What is the thing that says, yes, this person has
the maturity, they have the leadership, you know, And so
much of it is.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Just that toughness.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
It's the ability to take the criticism, the openness, it's
the humility. And it's what makes it so difficult and
so rare to find because it's you're asking a lot
of characteristics in playing the hardest position in sports to
be able to have the physical makeup and then also
have that emotional mental maturity to go along with it.

(08:27):
And I actually think there's separate things here. Y. I
think you can be a leader because I think most
people think leader maturity. I don't believe all quarterbacks in
the NFL right now are mature. There's a few immature
ones that I've come across, but they're really good leaders.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
That's okay. And then you have those few.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
You've got the Jared Goffs, the Matthew Stafford, the Dak Prescott's,
the Justin Herberts, the Patrick Mahomes, who they're the whole thing,
They're the whole brand. It's really I think what what
Tom Brady pointed out though, and CJ. Shrad what makes
him really just quite a unicorn, is that he is
so young and is already able to conduct himself and

(09:05):
understand how this works, which is really adding to the
story of why that was such a shock in terms of, yes.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
There were people around the league who knew he'd be good.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
But to have that mental emotional maturity to go with it,
I think that's really where Houston hit a grand slam.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
I want to ask you finally about an organization that
you know, well, for just years there was just everything
about Washington felt wrong. Now they've got a new owner,
a new jem, a new coach, and the Jade and
Daniels stuff I'm hearing is so encouraging. He's intentional, he's
got a plan for everything. And you know by the
way he went from you know, Arizona State to LSU,

(09:43):
So we went from kind of a nondescript program to
a star program, never in the news for the wrong stuff.
Productive worker been very easy in college football to get distracted.
Now in the NIL era, he never did.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
It just sometimes is he going to be not capable?
Is the number two quarterback gonna be the hit like
last year? Are you hearing anything on what the early
indications and talk of Jayden Daniels is.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
And here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
It was the talk of Jayden Daniels before if the
Commanders took them. It was the popularity and truly just
how much he connected with so many different head coaches
and gms that met with him during the.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
Process, just rave reviews across the board.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
I had dinner with the head coach at the combine
who had met Jayden earlier in the day, and we
spent the whole dinner just talking about this kid. And
that was not the intention of us having dinner and
catching up. We really had tons of other things that
we wanted to get to, but he really was shocked
how impressive he was in that meeting.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Now where we are now, and how he's been able
to conduct himself.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
I always listened to players that to me, like, yes,
the coaches are all gonna say.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
He's learning, they got a long way to go, and you.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Know, they give you all the coach talk, but the
players are the ones who know, and the veteran guys,
and when you hear the things that they're saying already
in Washington about the your ship already it's been a month,
you know, and the fact that he's been able to.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
Already make an impression there.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
You know, you mentioned Caleb Williams, and I think what
happened along the way here at CALEBS, because yes, the
Daniels buzz is phenomenal, and I do think he's gonna
have tons of success in Washington.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
I do think they made the right pick here.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
But the Caleb Williams to me, is the best pick
Chicago has made in terms of surrounding or the timing
of when they picked Caleb and what they did to
build around It's the best Chicago's ever done, probably for
any quarterbacks since you and I've been covering the league,
so when we constantly asking the question which working quarterbacks
to come out here and have.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
The most success based on the roster.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
To me, it's Caleb Williams because of what they've been
able to do.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
Commander's offensive line still worries me.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Colin.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
That's where I feel like we're going to see the
snag in some of their game. But you know, we'll
see if they can coach that up and make some
of those fixes, and maybe Jalen is able to work
around that. But we've seen it over and over, even
the great struggle of their online if their online's not strong.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Diana Russini the athletic. Great to see you. I like
the background. I like the mood of the background. It's
kind of very soothing, very nice to take.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
I go for the last time we were on, we
fought a little, so I thought that I'd bring a
little bit calm to the show, yelling at me, accusing
me of why you know, you know what it was.
You just didn't want to you believed, you believed my reporting.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
You didn't want to believe my reports. You were mad
about it. And then when Peter Schrager said it, You're
like Oh yeah, yeah, that's true.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
That's you.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
I'm like I said it on the show. But it's
all right, forgive you. I love you, guys.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Love.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Easter not Am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
All right, that is very smart. See we battled and
then she brought in a soothing color. It really noticeable.
You know, Ryan, you got to learn sometimes when you
get these veterans on you too. J Mack, You guys
are a couple of kids chasing hockey scores. You watch
a couple of pros on this thing. We're teaching the
things you can learn on this show. It's like it's
it's like a mentorship for free. Give you stuff. J

(13:10):
Mack with the news.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
This is the heard my news.

Speaker 6 (13:17):
Okay, whatever that was. Let's go to the Calves who
lost Game four without Donovan Mitchell Colin. It's starting to
sound like he ain't playing a night. According to Sham
Sharania of You Know the Five Places he reports for,
h Mitchell is expected to miss Game five dealing with
that cap string, which is a major bummer. Now this
is where it gets interesting. Brian Windhorst, who I think

(13:40):
you know and I know I've had he comes on
my podcast. He is reporting that the Lakers and Nets
have offers ready for Donovan Mitchell.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
The Lakers, he's Lakers and who.

Speaker 6 (13:51):
And the Nets he's a big Nets Brooklyn Nets.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, not the next the Nets, I said Nets, right, Yeah, No,
I think you did. I just he doesn't fit with an.

Speaker 6 (14:00):
No, he doesn't fit with the next. Now that's they
should have offers ready or they will have offers ready.
Should he say, get me out of here. I don't
want the extension, they're ready. I think that the Calves
owner is going to be really ticked off for the
years this Like, guys, he's under contract, Why are you
going to you like.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Him better than Trey Young and most of the league does.
I just think Trey Young feels like LA.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
I mean, I'm smart, that's why.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well Trey Young ditched Clutch Sports. That means he may
go to San Antonio.

Speaker 6 (14:28):
Well, there was a report I forget where I saw this.
You know, listen, there's a lot of NBA satellite guys
who hear stuff and put stuff out there about whether
or not he would fit in Orlando with Paolo Benkaro.
Orlando needs to level up. They don't have a point guard.
They were close. They almost beat Donovan Mitchell.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
And Mitchell can be and am I being fair, He
can be a little selfish. I don't think that stars
are selfish, you know. I don't think that's great for Orlando.
I think they've got great chemistry. He may disrupt it
a little bit, so he could go to bad guy,
not a bad guy at all.

Speaker 6 (14:59):
I don't know that he gets it, accomplishes anything going
going to Brooklyn. That's why everybody's pointing the Lakers. But
I said it yesterday, Rachel Nichol said it today. It's
tough for me to see the owner of the Cats saying, oh, yeah,
Donovan Mitchell wants out, he wants to go to the Lakers. Sure,
I'll try to I don't.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
See that happening, Like, well, he isn't Donovan Mitchell a
Mets fan or something like that.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
I think his dad played for the Mets or something
like that.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, so I think he may want to go.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
Could make sense. Yeah, is there a world where he
ends up on the Clippers. If Donod Mitchell wants to
go West and the Clippers say we're gonna move off
James Hard. Do they entertain Donovan Mitchell? I think Miami,
the Miami Heat, they're always big.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
I think Miami would be like, you know, that's a
good call. I think Miami's interesting.

Speaker 6 (15:41):
I mean, you put together a Tyler hero package and Jacks.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Oh, I could see Miami Miami, Donovan Butler, Bam. That's
a title team. That's that's in the running for a
title team.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Oh that's really good.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, that's a really good team. Did you just come
up by the way, No, I mean you said it
and I took it off you. But by the way,
you know who loses an that scenario, because Boston's not
beating Denver Nicks, No, the Celtics, because they, by the way,
Miami's already got the better coach. Then you give me
Donovan Mitchell, Jimmy Butler and Bam, Bama Dogs the Dogs.

(16:14):
I got over. I got to him tying to share
the ball. Jason Tatum. I want to be one of
the guys, Jason Tatum, I'm telling you this Boston thing.
They got this. They already got the title room there.
They rebuilt their kitchen in their title room this year
and I don't know. I think they're gonna Are the
Celtics gonna become the Kings?

Speaker 6 (16:32):
Oh stop it. The kids can't pick the finals. What
are you talking About's gonna be back in the finals.
Boston is not beating Denver. I said they're gonna get
in the finals. We'll see what happened. Denver's not a
lot to get there. They probably will, But what and.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
If if Miami lands Donovan Mitchell. Every Celtic fan who's
realistic is going crap. Every time Spolstra has close to
even talent he's beating Boston.

Speaker 6 (16:57):
Well, yeah, I think you're over reacting little bit, but
this you're trying to treat Jason Tatum like he's some
also rid, like he's a second tier guy like a
James Harden or something who doesn't show up in big games.
In this disrespect Colin. It's bubbling up under And I
know you're you're gonna be leaving the show at a couple
of sometime soon. And I've got some stuff ready in

(17:17):
the chambe The show sure going away for a day
and I'm hosting, and I've got some stuff ready on Tatum.
I don't want to get in the back and forth.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
But Tatum is that guy. I'm taking a day off.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
That's not taking a day off.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
You're trying to speak things into existence. I don't want
to leave the show is kind of finals. I'm getting
on a plane for three days and then getting on
a plane back to the show. Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 6 (17:41):
Next up, Bronnie James got in some work at the
Combine yesterday. Look at his floater game. Huh, Bronnie James.
Nice little floater there. He crushed some workouts. Remember he
shot nineteen of twenty five from three Athletically, he's crushing
it now. He did not grant interviews when he was
at us B, but spoke for the first time about

(18:01):
his goals yesterday. Now listen up closely.

Speaker 7 (18:04):
I would be happy about getting to the league to me,
thinking about playing with my dad, But that's like not
my mindset or not. I'm just trying to put in
the work and.

Speaker 6 (18:15):
See what it takes me. Fer Ronnie was.

Speaker 7 (18:17):
Just a nickname now, I was just given when I
was younger. But you know, everything that follows my dad,
and he would just try to, you know, link me
with that and all the greatness that he's achieved. Like
I haven't done anything yet, so I feel like it

(18:38):
needs to be that that the vibe in between Ronnie
and Lebron.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
You know, I will say this, I'm not an NBA
combined guy. And I mean I watched it yesterday. I
sat and watched it for like forty minutes yesterday. But
I'm not Ryan Rossillo camps out there. I mean, I
think he has a tent somewhere in the back of
the facility, like he'll sit there. He loves that stuff.
And I just I watch it, but I don't. You know, again,
the NBA draft is so different. None of these guys

(19:05):
are going to make an impact. But I did. I
did go online as I was watching it and read
a couple of places I think are pretty smart, savvy
personnel guys. And not only is he smaller, but he's
got a dip in his shot. You can't do that
in the NBA. You're not gonna get you can't. His

(19:26):
jumper needs refining. He's three and a half inches shorter
than they said, so he can only be a point.
You can't put him at Who's he gonna guard at
the two? So and again, I think he's a smart
kid and a good kid. But people were talking about
a shot and they're like, that's slow, that's not fast enough.
And I was like, and these are people I trust
that live for the combined.

Speaker 6 (19:47):
Let's back up a little to what he just said.
My dad's accomplished a lot. I haven't accomplished anything. And
it sounded to me think about when you graduated college,
way back in what sixty seventies. Rovers you graduate college,
do you want to like.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Go work with your with your parents?

Speaker 6 (20:03):
Do you want to go home? You want to get
the hell out of Dodge? Well, I don't know that
I'm believing all this lebron brownie stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
If my dad would have owned a hedge fund, I'd
work for him. He was an optometrist in a small town.
So I don't know. I think a lot of kids
want to work with their dad.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
I think a lot of kids want to be their
own person. Once you go to college. You did, but
I didn't want to be a doctor. Yeah, you want to.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Be your I don't.

Speaker 6 (20:28):
If you listen closely to what he just said, I
feel like there needs to be that divide between Bronnie
and lebron He's been in his dad's shadow forever. I
like the idea of this guy just doing his own
thing in the NBA, not going wherever his dad wants
to go or his dad following him. You know, he
needs to become his own man. Like I'm I'm rooting
for this kid.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
The greater the dad, the more average the kid as
an athlete.

Speaker 6 (20:53):
Yeah, because you're growing up in privilege and wealthy and
not having to work as hard. And this guy's a
hard worker by all accounts on the basketball.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
This is good.

Speaker 6 (21:01):
It's gonna be.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Tough for him though, well, I think also he's it's
not like a little thing. I thought he was six four.
He's six feet and a half, six to one and
a half. It's not the same thing. I mean. Also,
is the people I were on yesterday sitting there and
they were like, this jump shot is slow.

Speaker 6 (21:17):
He's like twenty twenty one years old, growing into his body.
It's gonna take some time. Probably gonna be in the
G League next year. Right wherever he goes, he's not
gonna be an NBA like coming off the bench as
a rookie, right, I guarantee you that's the worst hotel
he's ever stayed at the G League?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, can you name three G League teams.
There's one in LA.

Speaker 6 (21:35):
I think, yeah, they're the South Bay Lakers.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
I think right now.

Speaker 6 (21:41):
I haven't been to a game, but I've heard it's
a good experience.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
El Paso Explorers, Drango Dynamos.

Speaker 6 (21:47):
Let's I'm just making these. Let's wrap up with the
NFL schedule release. I know you're very, very excited. I
feel like you.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Guys are making fun of me because I like it.
I don't feel like you're supporting me. No, no, I'm supporting
Come on, bro, Diana.

Speaker 6 (22:01):
Diana was making funny clear. The NFL has announced four
additional international games to go with Packers Eagles from Brazil
in week one. Here we go, Jets Vikings in Week
five from London. I don't know if JJ McCarthy will
be starting.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Oh so another time. The Jets have to have a
difficult schedule.

Speaker 6 (22:18):
Yeah, they come back. I did see. Well, according to
the leak, they come back, and they don't play on Sunday.
They play on the Monday night football against Buffalo, So
an extra job.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Look at what the league is giving international audiences. The
Giants Carolina, New England.

Speaker 6 (22:33):
There's not enough beer in Germany for me to take on.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh yeah, I would never. I'll tell you though, I
want to go to Germany October Fest. I've had relatives
that have lived there. My son speaks a little of it.
I'm I'm going to go to Germany at some point.

Speaker 6 (22:52):
I'm happy.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
It's very I've known several Germans, very smart, intense. I'm
going to go there. Maybe we shake the show there.

Speaker 6 (22:59):
You want to, No, I'm gonna pass on Giants Panthers
in Germany. Sorry, but Jags Bears looks like a really
good game on paper. Caleb Williams, Verus Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Pretty good. I mean they don't you think they're sticking
it to the Jets again.

Speaker 6 (23:11):
Oh, the Jags are going Did you see that? Jags
are Week six and week seven?

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Nobody goes to Jacksonville games.

Speaker 6 (23:17):
Then they stay and they host the Patriots. I don't
even know if Drake is going to be starting by
week seven. It might be the Jacoby Brissett show.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's depressing j Mack with the news.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the
herd Line News.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Somebody that doesn't think that JJ Reddick high with the
Lakers would work. The utterly Inspired All Electric EQI sedan
from Mercedes Benz hundreds of customizable comfort settings. It's the
electric that recharges the vehicle and recharges you. The feelings,
all Mercedes, the choice, all yours. Learn more at mbusa

(23:56):
dot com, slash EQE.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern non a Empacific.

Speaker 5 (24:03):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben
Maller with me and a lot to have you join
us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in
God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's
a spin off of it. Ben Maler show, a cult
hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if
you will a world will We chat with captains of
industry in media, sports, and more every week explore some.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Amazing facts about human nature and more.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
Listen to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 6 (24:32):
Or NFL season with NFL Schedule Release presented by Verizon
Every Game reveal What's Tonight at eight pm Eastern on
NFL Network and NFL Plus. A subscription required for NFL
Plus to learn more at NFL dot.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Com and NFL Network, don't stretch it out, just lay
them out and talk about it. And like these networks
they're like, here's like, here's the Titan schedule more after
this break. I don't want a lot of that nonsense.
Let's get to the good teams and give me the schedule.
NFL Network, whoever is gonna be on the show, don't
be playing around on this stuff and teasing with a

(25:07):
lot of chatter. Let's just get first up. Let's just
get the most important teams out West off the board.
Then we can move to the Titans. But you know
what they're gonna do, j Mac a lot of teasing.
Apparently the Jets opened with the Niners. You know, second
week is breaking news? Do we have a breaking news banner.

Speaker 6 (25:25):
Allegedly at the Tennessee Titans week two?

Speaker 1 (25:28):
So that is a layup.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
That's a win. And then they have the Patriots allegedly
on Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
That's another layup. OK.

Speaker 6 (25:35):
So here's the quarterbacks they face to start the season.
Brock perty, Will Levis, Jacoby Brissett or Drake May, followed
by Bonix. Then in London versus JJ McCarthy or Sam Darnold,
so you should.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Be five and one, four and one, four and one.

Speaker 6 (25:50):
And then they have the Bills, followed by the Steelers
and the Patriots and the Texans.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Jets don't face good quarter No, it's there's a reason.

Speaker 6 (25:57):
Yeah, here we go, here, here we go.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
They face a gauntlet of have nots. That's the big advantage.
Where's the Packers? A better team, face much better quarterbacks?
Golf a couple of times, and Caleb's going to be
a fascinating player a couple of times. Detroit's got a
first play schedule. Jets, as usual, have a losing schedule,
so it's soft.

Speaker 6 (26:19):
Well at the end, it gets a little tough weeks
fifteen through eighteen, allegedly.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
When they're in the playoff chase. Who do they face
Trevor la at.

Speaker 6 (26:26):
Trevor Lawrence versus Matt Stafford at Josh Allen that's Cole
Buffalo and at Tua and Miami in warm weather, Not
not difficult. They could go to two in those.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Gonna end on a four game skid, So you better
get the momentary.

Speaker 6 (26:39):
It's officially twelve and five. I've just bumped it up.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
You're ridiculous. I'm so excited. I really am. I got
to get out of the house after the show because
I'll be locked in all night watching this stuff. I
won't even who's playing in the NBA tonight Dallas and okay, see,
I'll watch a little bit of that.

Speaker 6 (26:56):
Mean other day Boston sixteen points.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
I'm not watching that passive Jayatum winning by twenty more.
All right, So this is interesting. So JJ Reddick, there's
a rumor out there now Mike Krzyzewski's name is being
thrown out there. He's gonna kind of legitimize the search
for the Lakers after Darvin Ham got hired. Remember Phil

(27:20):
Jackson was tied to it. He was consultant legitimizing the
higher which got some criticism. So Phil legitimized it. Coach
k can legitimize JJ Reddick because he's never been a
coach before. Here's you. Donnis haslim, very heady, veteran, smart guy,
had him on the show multiple times on a potential
j J Reddick hire to the Lakers.

Speaker 8 (27:43):
If it's JJ is going to be a cynical locker room,
You're going to see guys that are going to say,
is coach going to do a podcast after the game?
With Lebron, You're gonna have a cynical locker room of
guys that are going to side out everything JJ says,
because they're gonna wonder is it JJ's message or Lebron's message.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Now that is interesting, is it JJ's message or Lebron?
But could I not argue this? In the NBA in
the last three years, we've had forty two different coaches,
so plus two new hires next season. Players are cynical
on most of these guys, middle aged guy that never played,

(28:18):
they're cynical about him too. So now there's about five
coaches in the league that I think own the room
Spo Pop, TIBs, Kerr Malone as five. I think Chris
Finch has got it going. But those guys feel like
they could deal with a controversy in the room a
little bit. But it's hard. It's a young league getting

(28:42):
younger stars have unique power that NFL stars don't have.
And you know, if a star wants a guy out,
like Lebron, they go to a Cavs game, they sit
up front. You know, they kind of manipulate the situation.
So I do think Eudonnis makes a good point. If
you got a message is it from Lebron on But
here's the thing, you know, JJ Reddick and any coach

(29:06):
that has Lebron is going to do what Lebron thinks
is right or he won't be the coach long. So essentially,
any coach you hire, I mean, Darvin Ham got on
Lebron's bad side. He's out of work. So like the
idea that hey, JJ, this may have come from Lebron, well,
of course it did, because if Lebron doesn't get the okay,
every coach with him in his career outside of Spoe,

(29:29):
Spoe's the only one with the organization said now we're
not moving off him. He didn't like Spoe initially, So
I think Lebron's gotten a little more difficult to coach
through the years because you don't get any guarantees even
if he plays well, you're not getting to the finals.
And the truth is he probably wouldn't have gotten to
the finals had he played out West for a lot
of his career. The East was so awful and has

(29:50):
been mostly for since MJ retired. But yeah, I do
think there'd be some cynicism, but it's the NBA who
are players not cynical about, Like in the end, you
can take a coat like Robert Sala got a losing record,
never proven it. I think he's got the room. I
don't think he's lost the room. But what do you
roll in your eye? I think he's got the room.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
How do you have a room when you can't win
a game? I think he still has seventy three games
under five hundred.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
How do you have a room? I think. I think
in the NFL it's hard, you know, Dave Wanstadt says,
you can lose games. You lose three in a row,
you could lose the room. So that's when you get
in trouble. But by and large, I could not tell
you the last time I watched an NFL game and
I thought a team quit on a coach, I can't
tell you. I can't tell you ever. And now I've

(30:34):
seen Carolina was bad, but Bryce Young didn't have any weapons.
You watch NBA teams and you're like they have tuned.
I mean, I mean the Raiders people said kind of
may have sort of like quit on Josh McDaniels because
you watched how hard they played for Antonio Pierce, and
it was harder than they'd played for Josh McDaniels. So

(30:55):
that's not quitting. But I would say that that room
was uninspired with their head coach coach, and very inspired
with Antonio Pierce. You could see the intensity they played
with down the stretch with the same personnel. So that
was a team that was clearly more inspired. Once a
guy got out of the room.

Speaker 6 (31:11):
Here we go, didn't didn't. Chargers lose sixty three to
twenty one to the Raiders, remember that last season, And
I think that they quit on Brandon stalely that well.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I think I think Herbert wasn't there and Staley was
an awful coach. Maybe that's just not knowing what you're doing.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
But I think the team, the defense is quit. They
were like nobody wants he lost the room, right. I
think he was fired a couple of days later.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Like it happens. Yeah, I guess it does.

Speaker 6 (31:35):
But you're right, maybe Solis still has it. But you say,
you lose three games, you can lose the room. Look
three straight seasons.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I already have the Jets early schedule. They're going to
go four and one. I mean will be the Niners. No,
Will Levis and Drake may against that defense, that's that's
a double could be an ugly, choppy W, but it's
a W. The only way a Tennessee in the New

(32:01):
England could beat Aaron and the Jets is pass rush,
and that is a concern early in the season. But
I don't think New England or Tennessee is gonna have
a great pass rush.

Speaker 6 (32:11):
Can you imagine what I'll be like if they beat
the Niners on that opening Monday Night.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
I can tell you right now, I got an ice
cream headache. Won't make the show. I will call in
sick that Tuesday. I can already feel it chesh congestion,
See you tomorrow.