August 7, 2024 • 30 mins
Colin believes the Patriots need to go after Brandon Aiyuk
The Steelers are rumored to be interested in improving at WR via trade
Scott Pioli from NFL Network joins The Herd to talk about his time with New England and Tom Brady
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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):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
One of my favorite guys former NFL GM twenty seven
years in NFL front offices, and I just it's just interesting.
I had lunch not long ago with the usc A
D Jen Cohen, and the model that's happening in college
football is that they're going to hire general managers and
because of the NIL and you know, these college coaches
aren't equipped to be capologists. They can't do this stuff either. Ads.
(00:48):
And so Scott Pioli today is advising. One of the
teams he's advising is the Utah You it's a great program,
five time Executive of the Year, so it's a real
thing happening. You're also an NFL network analyst. So we
were talking about earlier today Scott about Brandon ayuxt deal.
I like him a lot, but this is not the NBA. Okay,
this is not like outside of quarterback, the draft provides
(01:13):
terrific players every year, especially wide receivers. And I'm thinking
to myself, if you're the Niners, and it's a weird
proposition here, Scott, they're an older team. This win, they're
they're gonna have to pay brock Purty in about eighteen months,
so like this could be the year if you're a
general manager, do you cave a little here? Knowing that Kittle,
(01:36):
Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey debo, these are older players. This
window is shrinking. What do you do if you're the Niners?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Colin, you were being so much more thoughtful than so
many people I listened to out there talking about this,
because the whole idea is you have to have an
inexpensive player at one position so you can pay the others.
And right now they have a quarterback. It's in a
rookie contract, which is a blessing which allows you to
pay more at other positions. And with the circumstances situation
(02:06):
with Brendan Ayuk, they know how much you're spending on defense,
they know how much you're spending in other skilled positions.
You have to look at your roster offer and say, Okay,
how much are we going to put into this entire
quarterback room, into this entire wide receiver room. And this
becomes very complicated. And this situation, this doesn't mean that
they don't want them. I know that John Lynx and
(02:28):
Kyle Shanahan and that entire organization, those coaches they want Brandon.
But now this is what happens. You know, when you
have success, there will begin you will start to have
attrition just by the natural process of contracts getting more
and more expensive at other positions. And you know, one
of the things that you learn through free agency when
you have a good football team is you can't keep
(02:50):
them all. You can't. And it's one of those things
that you have to have that conversation with your coaches.
So to me, this is an interesting situation because I
go way back to the early Patriot times. We had
a different but similar situation like this with a widers
here that we loved by the name of Dion Branch. Yeah,
and he was coming off of a season where he
won the Super Bowl MVP. He still had time left
(03:12):
on his contract, but he wanted to get paid. He
wanted that second contract. We were in a place where
we were paying some other people different but similar, and
it unfortunately didn't work out. And that's the tough part.
You work to try to to keep it together. But
here's the important part in this Colin is that Kyle
Shanahan and the assistant coaches they need to stay out
(03:35):
of the business. And it looks like they're staying out
of the business. They're talking very little publicly about it
because there's always a chance that the player can remain
and you have to have those relationships. You know, let
the front office and the general manager be jerks in
terms of the contract, but you have to sustain this,
you know, this this model and these relationships in order
to make it work for the coaches.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So Nick Saban was talking on Hard Knocks last night
with Matt Eberflus, coach of the Bears. He said, the
reason you guys have such a failure rate at quarterback
you don't give much time. You have massive expectations and
the kids trying to live up to these expectations very quickly.
But then I flipped the telescope and I said, in
the last decade, there have been thirty two first round quarterbacks,
(04:20):
seven have hit and that doesn't sound like a big number.
But there's not seven great coaches, there's not seven great
left tackles. Maybe there's not seven great movie stars that
draw people into theaters in America. There's Tom Cruise and
a bunch of other talented actors. And my take is,
is it just the reality of the position. It is
so hard. You have to be cognitively bright, tough, a leader, accurate, strong,
(04:46):
And the truth is that it's such a hard position
that if you drafted a quarterback every year as a
good GM, you'd hit on about one out of five.
Maybe that's just the true.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
That's the truth. But Colin, you used on a number
of points here that I really like. It's you know,
it's it's not just the player and getting the right player.
A lot of it has to do with player development.
There's the rare quarterback that comes in that is so good,
like the Peyton Mannings of the world. You know, you know,
even though he had a really rough beginning, he was developed.
(05:22):
But you know, I go back to it again that
I was blessed to be in a couple of situations.
Even before the Tom Brady situation, I was with Vinnie
Testa Verdi in Cleveland, Baltimore and then the Jets, where
he had failed previously early in his career. And I
really believe that part of the problem was that Annie
testa Verdi. Hopefully the audience listening knows that name and
(05:43):
knows who he was. He was a terrific talent, but
he was put in a situation in circumstance with an
awful football team in Tampa Bay, and he wasn't able
to develop. And then when we got Vinnie Bill and
the coaching staff and Ernie Adams and all the people
that helped develop him, and then the play calling that
we put him in position to succeed, to accentuate the
(06:05):
strengths and limit the limitations, really helped him. Then I
fast forward to the Brady time and again you look
at the coaching staff that helped develop Tommy. He sat
the bench for a little bit over a year, and
in addition to Bill, there was Ernie Adams, there was
Charlie Weiss, there was Dick Raybyn God Rest his soul.
There was a tremendous group of people around him and
(06:27):
a great defense and an opportunistic special teams group. It
allowed him to develop. So it's part of it is
what you're saying. And you mentioned something about how smart
the quarterbacks have to be, and here's what I'll say
about the quarterbacks. To me, the most important things are
a accuracy. Arm strength I think is overrated. But I
also think when you're talking about the intelligence of a quarterback,
(06:50):
it's not just intelligence because very often, I can't tell
you how many times I've sat through interviews with players
over the years where you can get him up on
the board and they're sitting there with a they do
everything and they know cover two and then they know
all of it. The difference is how good a decision
can they make? And they can they make the decisions
(07:10):
under duress when they're getting punched in the mouth. Yeah,
that's what it's different. That's when it changes. So it's
not just intelligence, it's the ability to make good decisions
under duress.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Scott Pioli joining US former NFL GM five time Executive
of the Year. He now works for the NFL Network.
By the Way, NFL Network carrying seven preseason Week one
games live beginning tomorrow Panthers Patriots. So the Dak Prescott
situation is when we talk about we know we can
identify there's about five or six guys in this league
(07:44):
at quarterback that are great, but at any one time
seven teams in the league to nine are trying to
find a quarterback. And then you get to Dak, who
to me is a bit like Kirk Cousins, smart, grown up, intuitive, decent,
great at the podium, proud that he's your quarterback. Needs
to be carried a little more than he can carry.
(08:05):
But you can win a lot of games, you can
win a division, you can win a playoff game, and
you get to a point now with with Atlanta's like, hey,
we have panics. But Kirk Cousins will make us a
grown up team immediately, and he will, and Dak will
keep you in the conversation. He's an absolute grown up.
During the controversy with the anthem, he brought the temperature
(08:25):
down in that locker room. I mean, he's just he's
as good a podium guys I've ever seen with Brady,
but he's good sixty million, sixty four. So do you,
as a general manager, would you go to an owner
and say, listen, here's the realities will be relevant. We
can win our division. But you have to understand mahomes
(08:47):
Alan Lamar like do you have these conversations as a
GM with an owner because the coach knows the truth,
but the owners sometimes struggle to admit the truth. What's that?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, you know there's so much wrapped up in that
colum because you know, we throw the word great around
way too much. And as being someone who's brought into
this game as an evaluator, you always had to differ
differentiate between below average, average, good, very good, excellent, great
and rare. And Dak Prescott has certainly been a very
(09:22):
good quarterback in this league, and he all those things
that you said.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
He is and has been, and he's not take he
what's clear is he can't take the entire team on
his shoulders. And that's not a criticism at all. I mean,
he's still a very good NFL quarterback. There have been
times where he has won games.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
But what doesn't get talked about enough too sometimes is
where's the rest of the team? Again, I go back
to our time with Tom Brady. Our first Super Bowl,
Tommy wasn't all that our second one. He was good,
you know, but we had a great defense, We had
an opportunitistic special teams. Like I said, there were people
we had a team built around him that was outstanding,
(10:04):
and as he matured and got better and became great,
that happened. But you know, go back to the salary thing.
This is a great question because you know, the people
see the numbers and they look at these deals sometimes
when they're done in a vacuum and it's like, oh,
my gosh, sixty million dollars. Well, I remember eat last
year when we started, what do we have like eight
or nine forty million dollars quarterbacks? And people say, this
(10:27):
guy's not that good, not Dak, but any quarterback. Well,
the going rate is the going rate, and if you
got one, you better keep them because I've lived life
without one, I've lived life with one. I've lived life
with an above average to good one. And if you
have one that can do a decent job, then as
a general manager, your responsibility is to build a better
(10:49):
team around that player. You can still win a championship.
So to me, the cost of the quarterback, that is
what it is. I mean, as Robert Craft used to
have a great line and says, hey man, that's the
cost of doing business. And right now, the forty plus
million dollar quarterback is what the average quarterbacks getting paid.
So if you want to be in that business, you
got to be in that business. But again, what you
(11:11):
need to do is build a really good football team
around them.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio
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Speaker 1 (11:22):
Finally, you know, I know we all know Caleb Williams
as talented. What's your evaluation on him? What concerns you?
What do you love Caleb Williams?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Well, always with a pit k Williams for him specifically
and players like him. Is My biggest concern is that
expectations are managed. And I think he's a tremendous talent.
I think he makes good decisions, which is important. We're
to see how he makes those decisions with you know,
with NFL speed, I'm really encouraged by the things. You know,
(11:54):
I have a great relationship with Ryan Poles, and I
think Ryan has an infrastructure in place within that organization
that is so good for players to develop. And again,
I'm a big believer in player development. I think all
of the things that you need to be a quarterback
that's going to be developed are in place at Chicago.
(12:15):
I think there's going to have to be a time
for patients, because you know, I believe in giving these
quarterbacks grace, just like I had talked earlier about girod
Neo on Good Morning Football. You first time coach, he
needs some grace. I think Caleb Williams right now has
players around him that are going to allow him to
grow and mature and develop to be a very good
(12:36):
NFL quarterback. And based on the things I see in
terms of his tools, he does have the ability to
be a great quarterback in this league.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Scott Pioli, NFL Network. Great seeing you. You look healthy,
you look happy. There is life after being a general manager,
is I know, all you guys, you know, once you
get out of it, there's a lot of fun things
to do in life besides deal with crazy owners all
the time. So it's great seeing that.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
For sure. Colin, thanks so much for having me. I
be all right, appreciate you, man.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Scott Pioli doing some work for the utah U. It's
a great program going into the Big twelve. And that's
what's really happening in college football is that because the
NIL is not going away, you're going to see general
managers hired some former NFL GMS. Scott Pioli comes in
and can run a college program and deal with the cap.
(13:30):
And you know there is no cap, but just the
management of how to figure out when you've got seventy
players you're paying. So it's it's something that's happening very
very quickly. In multiple schools I've talked to. They're they're
leaning on these NFL guys and take us through it.
They're almost like director of recruiting and dealing with with
a monetary portion of this. So it's happening and happening quickly.
(13:52):
Jmack with the news.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
No, no, this is the herd line news.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I think you love a good preseason practice skirmish with
the Lions, the Lions and Giants. Multiple fights have broken out.
You showed the Daniel Jones won earlier. Here it is, well,
there was a Moleak neighbors battle. Both clubs are gonna
have to pay up in response to these scuffles. New
York and Detroit will be fined two hundred thousand dollars
each pocket change of course for a billion dollar organization. However,
(14:24):
the fine comes after the league sent a memo to
all teams last month at fighting another unprofessional conduct.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Will not be tolerated at joint practices.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Clearly this fine.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Let me just say, here's Neighbors. The rookie given like
a little cheap shot. Neighbors claims that the kids said
something to him.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Do you know? Do you know why you're getting this
in these practices and you don't see these in the
preseason games because you practiced for like four days in
a row together. So it's just one of those things
where if you have three straight practices with a rival team,
you're getting fights. There are some things I can remember
years ago when I worked at the other places and
(15:04):
we had a gigantic meeting about Twitter, and everybody was like, hey,
you can't say this on Twitter. And I remember standing
up at the meeting and saying, it's not your device,
it's that Jack guy's device, and it's my Twitter account.
I'm not gonna tell me what I can put on it.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You can get rid of me after my contract because
you don't like what I put on it. You don't
control Twitter, you don't control my IG account. I can
do what I want with it, So insult.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
I approach you and say can you delete something?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
No? But they were just they didn't know how to
handle it. The NFL, now, because they're reducing preseason games,
is increasing the number of these practices. It's it's this
is the reality. You can't hold multiple practices with teams
and not expect fights. I mean, you get fights during
preseason games and games, but the game's over and you
(15:55):
leave town. If I beat you, I'm a receiver and
I beat you as a corner four times and talk
trash and I'm facing you again tomorrow. These aren't teammates
where you bro hug after it and say, man, I
was just getting old. Yeah, so you face that guy
the next day. Oh wait and the next day. So
you're gonna you're gonna see far more fights. And I
think you just can't control it some things. I mean,
(16:18):
you can warn people, but you have fights within a team.
So you're bringing a rival team up for three straight
intense practices, you're getting.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Fights, and Dan Campbell's team, you know, they're biting off kneecaps,
they're not backing down from anybody.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's me cap biting Team New York.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Giants almost feel like it's us against the world. There's
some everybody's making fun of them relentlessly. So I don't know,
like I kind of like these skirmishes as long as
nobody gets hurt. You know, you don't want anybody seriously
injured missing time because dumb fight. Next up is ca
your favorite quarterback, Kyler Murray.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
He's healthy.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
However, the Cardinals do not plan to play him in
the preseason. Head coach Jonathan Gannon said the team likes
where Kyler is right now, and then he's doing everything
he needs to do to be ready for Week one.
Gannon also noted the team's upcoming joint practices with the
Colts as a reason to keep Kyler sidelined during preseason games.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Hmmm. I mean, he's got a rookie wide receiver. Probably
want to build some chemistry with him.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Can't do that in practice.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
I don't think it really overall doesn't matter because the
Cardinals sign.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I really think the majority of young coaches, Cardinals have
a young coach, They don't want to play any they're
good players. I mean, are you seeing these reports out
like a guy will like tweak his anklets like he's
out for the preseason. It just it gives these if
a guy literally has an ice cream headache, he's out
for the preseason.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Andy Reid announced today he's playing Momes and Company for
a quarter.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, no, no, Andy's older school. Yeah, he likes playing guys.
But a lot of these young coaches, new school, new
school guys, are like, I got no interest. This is
maybe the only head coaching job I get in my career.
I'm not having my quarterback get hurt. Andy's like, what
are you gonna do? One hundred million bucks, I got rings,
trophies everywhere. So Andy Reid is much more willing of
(18:05):
Bruce arians A Belichick. They're not worried about it. But
think how a young coach thinks. I'm in year two.
I'm in Arizona, impulsive owner. If I don't have a
quarterback and win three games, I could be fired. I'm
not playing my stars, and if I'm gonna go down,
I'm going down my way. So that's why a lot
of these young coaches that don't have a ring or
a trophy or kind of a cemented legacy, they don't
(18:26):
want to play any of these young guys. That's fair.
Speaker 6 (18:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
The final story is that Christian McCaffrey also not gonna
play in the preseason. He's got this injury that's kind
of nagging. It's a strained calf. I don't know if
it's similar to the Russell Wilson one, but he missed
Tuesday's practice and said McCaffrey will miss a couple of
weeks as well as all three preseason games due to
(18:50):
the calf injury.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
A prime example. Coach doesn't ever ring little pressure. Nos,
there's a little pressure on Kyle. How totally the job
keeps blowing those fourth quarter leads.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
I never reminds me Andy Reid in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And he got fired.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
How does that look in hindsight?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Eagles have won a super Bowl and Andy's won him.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
And Andy's dominating like Dia.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But I mean they've won. Doug Peters and won a
super Bowl goes down in Ja bil.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
And and Siriani screws up this year.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
He's gone. This is not a theory. I'm telling you what,
young coaches, I don't say you don't have a ring.
You can say what you want about Kyle and I
said this. I think the Niners a peaked. I was
just sent a text in between commercials. The Niners are
pissed at Ayuk because they know this year is huge
(19:45):
they gotta pay party next year.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
They do.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
They are They are mad at Brandon Nyuk are Sydney.
They are livid because they thought they had a deal,
they thought they were close. They are not happy at all.
Good I'm just telling him.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Yeah, no, no. After McCaffrey, he had a large workload
last year.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
You don't want to run him into the ground.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I'm surprised they don't kind of cap his carries at
some games.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
It's like, let's just do fifteen.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Let's maybe do.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I think they'd like to.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I' mean fine, bringing a bunch of backs. Miami seems
to find them all in the draft. They got some
new guy who's pushing Ah. They have a backup h
last year, how good he was, well, got hurt.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Niners have a backup. I like Mason. What's the backup
for the Niners.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
He doesn't have the pop of mccaffreys.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
The pop of McCaffrey.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I might, but nevertheless, that's not like a pop.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
He's the second best running back I've ever seen. Stop
to Walter Payton, Barry Sanders or Christian Mccafarry Sanders couldn't
catch like this. Barry Sanders, by the way, the minute
I love Barry Sanders, he retired, Let's stick around a while,
Adrian Peterson or Christian mcaffresh and McCaffrey. Peterson had a
huge fumble issue and couldn't catch. Wow, McCaffrey's second best
(20:55):
running back you've ever seen, to Walter Payton Sanders third.
Then it's a bunch of.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Guys, all right, Wow, that's just I'm actually I'm more
shook from that than the earthquake last night.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
That Christian McCaffrey is the second best back I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, I mean, I'm cycling through my head quickly, and
I'm trying to go through guys who I could challenge you.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I'll tell you a guy that was underrated. People have
no idea how good he was. Marcus Allen. Oh he
was awesome. Come on, he is both Jackson.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
I mean he didn't play again, he.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Got to play more than fifteen minutes. Like these guys
that have a half.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Hour Sean Riggins just kidding, it's.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Like these guys that have a half hour show. Oo
on three hours or I'm not interested.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Well, you're firing barbs of politicians now the rival network.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I'm jody, Can anybody joke anymore?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Is this the gum?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Is this the gum talk? This is the gum.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
This is what we like.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Gum gives me confidence, It makes me a little obnoxious,
bulletproof neuro gum is it's a it's like a I
don't know what it's like. It's a steroid or something.
It makes you just lose yourself a little bit. Well,
little eminem, lose yourself. You don't know that sounds I
do know you? Okay, Jay Mack with the news.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the
Herd line.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Maybe your best line on the show. Is it the gum?
That gum has really changed the entire network. You can,
very slowly, the whole network should be on that gum.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and noone Easter nine am Pacific.
Speaker 8 (22:27):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
baseball Talk, featuring the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, We've
got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
(22:48):
so do yourself a favor. And listen to Inside the
Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
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Speaker 1 (22:57):
During home emurgencies, every single counts go to simplysafecolin dot
com twenty four to seven monitoring agents twenty percent off today.
No safe like simply Safe. Okay, here we go. Uh.
The Diana Russini, respected journalist says the Pittsburgh Steelers, along
(23:18):
with other teams, are in communication and still negotiating for
Brandon Ayuk. No deals done for sources. Remember, they're not
paying Justin Fields or Russell Wilson anything, and they're not
paying George Pickin yet anything. They're paying TJ. Watt, Minka Fitzpatrick,
paying some guys on defense. They're not paying a lot
of their offensive players. They drafted a couple offensive linemen.
(23:41):
They're not paying big money for their running backs yet.
So they're there. Pittsburgh is a good place for Brandon
Nyuk for a team the table to draft receivers, they
could add a piece here. It would also I think,
I'll be honest, I think Justin Fields and Russell Wilson
both throw a pretty good deep ball. I think Russell's
pretty accurate on the deep ball. I think Justin Field
(24:01):
isn't as accurate, but has a big arm. Here here
was Mike Tomlin today talking about the quarterback position. Asked
about the quarterback depth chart right now.
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Very much is a competition. What happens in the stadium
is weighted heavier than what happens in a practice setting
because it's more game like.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
You still view Russell is having that pole position and
be ahead of Justin and that.
Speaker 7 (24:26):
Yeah, I saw the depth chart that I released yesterday.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
That is real.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
I think everything is an audition. Everything that we do
is an audition, not only for him but for others.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Very interesting. So Brandon Aiyuk, I'm going to tell you
who's rooting for that Justin Field and Russell Wilson. That
is a And I also think in that division with
Baltimore and Cincinnati and Cleveland, if you're not as good
at quarterback in Pittsburgh's not. They don't have Lamara Burrow
or Deshaun Watson. So their takeaway is where we have
to make some room up and Cleveland in these negotiations too, well,
(25:01):
Pittsburgh's not gonna go wait a minute. They got the
better quarterback, they got the offensive coach. We're gonna let
him have Ayuk. So if I'm Pittsburgh, I'm playing keep
away from Cleveland potentially, aren't you where? Tell me where
with a Yuk?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Are the Steelers better offensively than anyone else in their division?
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Receiver better than who?
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Not the Bengals. They're not better in the Bengals a
receiver Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Pickens and recounting tight ends, and for counting tight ends,
it's different Mark Andrews. Wide receivers and tight ends don't get.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Paid the hass catchers. Okay, all right, fair, they're.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Better than Baltimore, and they're better than Cleveland.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Well right now, Cleveland has Amari Cooper and Jerry Judy.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Okay, that's not Pickens and Ayuk.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
No way.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I like Amari Cooper. He's not as talented as those two.
No way.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
I think you're under selling Cooper a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And I don't know why you like Jerry Judy. What
did he do in Denver?
Speaker 6 (25:55):
He's a Bilo.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
I like that, you know. I'm go and stay low.
Not everything is a value stock. Sometimes it's eight dollars
a stock.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And that's what I don't see a path out of
the cellar for the Steelers team, well I do in
the division, who.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Are they better than? First of all, Joe Burrell struggle
to stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
We stop Okay, we need to put a put a
pin in if they're healthy, let's just say everyone's healthy
all season.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Well, well, they're battling to the end. I think they
will battle to the end for a playoff berth. They're
just too talented. They're in that. I mean, I think
they're in the nine win category. But they could be
nine and six down the stretch fifteen games and lose
their last two.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
Can we call the Steelers schedule up there?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
The Steelers is no. The last six games are the
worst in the league. The last six games for Pittsburgh
are outrageously difficult. It's like the league's rooting against them.
I mean it is. I've never seen a schedule the
last two months look like Pittsburgh. I think we need
to up the stakes on a wager between us. It
is wager Wednesday. Today's Wednesday, right, Yeah, well that's a
(27:00):
good one. I like that, which that should be a
bit wager Wednesday. You want to what do you want
to do here? You got the Steelers going die or
ten wins? I'll take on the Steelers. You what's what's
the over under, what's the what's the draft Kings over?
Speaker 6 (27:12):
I think it's like seven and a half.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Well they don't think, what is it you got? But
take a second? Can you take a second?
Speaker 6 (27:17):
You get the audience.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I'm pretty good at that space filling thing. Face filling
and space filling. Uh yeah, okay, So what you're saying
is basically, you think Pittsburgh is going to be awful
and I think Pittsburgh's going to finish the season poorly.
There's a difference. But I love their half. Well, I
think that's what they are. I think they're an eight
(27:40):
and nine win too. I'll take the over if they
get AU.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Give me under if they don't get no deal.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
If they get AU, no deal for you, I don't
think it matters. I don't think he's worth half a win. Oh,
I think he's worth a win, Brandon, I think he's
worth a win, one win, one win. Yeah, he's getting
the ball. Well, you can't remember, you can't double him.
You can't roll coverage over because the pickens on the
other side, so you can't. He's getting single coverage. That's
(28:08):
a whole different ballgame. And if they can run the
ball effectively, and we like both their backs. You can't
jam your safeties in the box.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
That's a big if. By the way. Okay, so I
Yuke's getting open, can justin feels complete the pass?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Can Russ? Well, Russ, We'll see check down. That's why
they're an eight to nine win team and on a
thirteen win team. If they had Joe Burrow. If you
gave Joe Burrow this roster with Ayuk, it's a super
Bowl team, no question. You don't think it is. You
give Lamar Jack and that is a take. They're a
(28:39):
super Bowl team.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
I mean, anybody with Joe Burrow's a super Bowl team.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
That's not true. Carolina is not a super Bowl Fine league,
Oh that's not true.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
You get the Jets, Joe Burrow, they're at fifteen games.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
You give him a clunky old defensive coach and a
crappy old line and no big time weapons. He's a
he's an eight win quarterback. Patrick Mahomes is done do
anything with that. Well, that's what I'm saying is that
you're just saying, hey, just put Burrow on a tight
and it's not that easy.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
If you put Burrow on the Raiders, I guarantee you
they're a playoff team.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Guarantee take it to the back. Yeah, but the Raiders
have good players. They have no quarterback. Yeah, but I'm
saying they the roster's not inept. There are about five
rosters in this league. They're bad roster. Patriots, bad roster. Carolina.
Nothing there, Carolina's on the come up. Be careful there.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
Keep bashing the Panthers, keep an eye on them.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Where's that coming from. I don't get that at all.
I watched them last year.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Where were they were the Texans coming?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Where were they good? Like? They were not? The Texans
had a star left tackle and a pass rusher, and
there were things about the Texans they had players. Carolina
had nothing last year. Burns, that's it. And there's a
little burrow on the Seahawks. Oh no, that's a good team.
Super Bowl bubble, yes, yes, yes, but again I think
(30:00):
Pete under achieve the last one Borough on Washington. They're
not a super Bowl team, no bubble, no, no, But
they're a playoff team with Jaymee Daniels. That's what you're saying. Well,
I'm saying you can be the seventh team to get
into the playoffs and the worst team in the playoff.
I'm not saying Washington's a one seed. They're gonna be
there if they get in, which I think they can.
(30:20):
At this point, they're like Minnesota. They're getting in last weekend,
they're not getting in week twelve. Yeah, that's okay, all right,
we're done today. That's it. First things first is around
the corner, good stuff. Rachel Nichols joining us from Paris.
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
One of my favorite guys former NFL GM twenty seven
years in NFL front offices, and I just it's just interesting.
I had lunch not long ago with the usc A
D Jen Cohen, and the model that's happening in college
football is that they're going to hire general managers and
because of the NIL and you know, these college coaches
aren't equipped to be capologists. They can't do this stuff either. Ads.
(00:48):
And so Scott Pioli today is advising. One of the
teams he's advising is the Utah You it's a great program,
five time Executive of the Year, so it's a real
thing happening. You're also an NFL network analyst. So we
were talking about earlier today Scott about Brandon ayuxt deal.
I like him a lot, but this is not the NBA. Okay,
this is not like outside of quarterback, the draft provides
(01:13):
terrific players every year, especially wide receivers. And I'm thinking
to myself, if you're the Niners, and it's a weird
proposition here, Scott, they're an older team. This win, they're
they're gonna have to pay brock Purty in about eighteen months,
so like this could be the year if you're a
general manager, do you cave a little here? Knowing that Kittle,
(01:36):
Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey debo, these are older players. This
window is shrinking. What do you do if you're the Niners?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Colin, you were being so much more thoughtful than so
many people I listened to out there talking about this,
because the whole idea is you have to have an
inexpensive player at one position so you can pay the others.
And right now they have a quarterback. It's in a
rookie contract, which is a blessing which allows you to
pay more at other positions. And with the circumstances situation
(02:06):
with Brendan Ayuk, they know how much you're spending on defense,
they know how much you're spending in other skilled positions.
You have to look at your roster offer and say, Okay,
how much are we going to put into this entire
quarterback room, into this entire wide receiver room. And this
becomes very complicated. And this situation, this doesn't mean that
they don't want them. I know that John Lynx and
(02:28):
Kyle Shanahan and that entire organization, those coaches they want Brandon.
But now this is what happens. You know, when you
have success, there will begin you will start to have
attrition just by the natural process of contracts getting more
and more expensive at other positions. And you know, one
of the things that you learn through free agency when
you have a good football team is you can't keep
(02:50):
them all. You can't. And it's one of those things
that you have to have that conversation with your coaches.
So to me, this is an interesting situation because I
go way back to the early Patriot times. We had
a different but similar situation like this with a widers
here that we loved by the name of Dion Branch. Yeah,
and he was coming off of a season where he
won the Super Bowl MVP. He still had time left
(03:12):
on his contract, but he wanted to get paid. He
wanted that second contract. We were in a place where
we were paying some other people different but similar, and
it unfortunately didn't work out. And that's the tough part.
You work to try to to keep it together. But
here's the important part in this Colin is that Kyle
Shanahan and the assistant coaches they need to stay out
(03:35):
of the business. And it looks like they're staying out
of the business. They're talking very little publicly about it
because there's always a chance that the player can remain
and you have to have those relationships. You know, let
the front office and the general manager be jerks in
terms of the contract, but you have to sustain this,
you know, this this model and these relationships in order
to make it work for the coaches.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So Nick Saban was talking on Hard Knocks last night
with Matt Eberflus, coach of the Bears. He said, the
reason you guys have such a failure rate at quarterback
you don't give much time. You have massive expectations and
the kids trying to live up to these expectations very quickly.
But then I flipped the telescope and I said, in
the last decade, there have been thirty two first round quarterbacks,
(04:20):
seven have hit and that doesn't sound like a big number.
But there's not seven great coaches, there's not seven great
left tackles. Maybe there's not seven great movie stars that
draw people into theaters in America. There's Tom Cruise and
a bunch of other talented actors. And my take is,
is it just the reality of the position. It is
so hard. You have to be cognitively bright, tough, a leader, accurate, strong,
(04:46):
And the truth is that it's such a hard position
that if you drafted a quarterback every year as a
good GM, you'd hit on about one out of five.
Maybe that's just the true.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
That's the truth. But Colin, you used on a number
of points here that I really like. It's you know,
it's it's not just the player and getting the right player.
A lot of it has to do with player development.
There's the rare quarterback that comes in that is so good,
like the Peyton Mannings of the world. You know, you know,
even though he had a really rough beginning, he was developed.
(05:22):
But you know, I go back to it again that
I was blessed to be in a couple of situations.
Even before the Tom Brady situation, I was with Vinnie
Testa Verdi in Cleveland, Baltimore and then the Jets, where
he had failed previously early in his career. And I
really believe that part of the problem was that Annie
testa Verdi. Hopefully the audience listening knows that name and
(05:43):
knows who he was. He was a terrific talent, but
he was put in a situation in circumstance with an
awful football team in Tampa Bay, and he wasn't able
to develop. And then when we got Vinnie Bill and
the coaching staff and Ernie Adams and all the people
that helped develop him, and then the play calling that
we put him in position to succeed, to accentuate the
(06:05):
strengths and limit the limitations, really helped him. Then I
fast forward to the Brady time and again you look
at the coaching staff that helped develop Tommy. He sat
the bench for a little bit over a year, and
in addition to Bill, there was Ernie Adams, there was
Charlie Weiss, there was Dick Raybyn God Rest his soul.
There was a tremendous group of people around him and
(06:27):
a great defense and an opportunistic special teams group. It
allowed him to develop. So it's part of it is
what you're saying. And you mentioned something about how smart
the quarterbacks have to be, and here's what I'll say
about the quarterbacks. To me, the most important things are
a accuracy. Arm strength I think is overrated. But I
also think when you're talking about the intelligence of a quarterback,
(06:50):
it's not just intelligence because very often, I can't tell
you how many times I've sat through interviews with players
over the years where you can get him up on
the board and they're sitting there with a they do
everything and they know cover two and then they know
all of it. The difference is how good a decision
can they make? And they can they make the decisions
(07:10):
under duress when they're getting punched in the mouth. Yeah,
that's what it's different. That's when it changes. So it's
not just intelligence, it's the ability to make good decisions
under duress.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Scott Pioli joining US former NFL GM five time Executive
of the Year. He now works for the NFL Network.
By the Way, NFL Network carrying seven preseason Week one
games live beginning tomorrow Panthers Patriots. So the Dak Prescott
situation is when we talk about we know we can
identify there's about five or six guys in this league
(07:44):
at quarterback that are great, but at any one time
seven teams in the league to nine are trying to
find a quarterback. And then you get to Dak, who
to me is a bit like Kirk Cousins, smart, grown up, intuitive, decent,
great at the podium, proud that he's your quarterback. Needs
to be carried a little more than he can carry.
(08:05):
But you can win a lot of games, you can
win a division, you can win a playoff game, and
you get to a point now with with Atlanta's like, hey,
we have panics. But Kirk Cousins will make us a
grown up team immediately, and he will, and Dak will
keep you in the conversation. He's an absolute grown up.
During the controversy with the anthem, he brought the temperature
(08:25):
down in that locker room. I mean, he's just he's
as good a podium guys I've ever seen with Brady,
but he's good sixty million, sixty four. So do you,
as a general manager, would you go to an owner
and say, listen, here's the realities will be relevant. We
can win our division. But you have to understand mahomes
(08:47):
Alan Lamar like do you have these conversations as a
GM with an owner because the coach knows the truth,
but the owners sometimes struggle to admit the truth. What's that?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, you know there's so much wrapped up in that
colum because you know, we throw the word great around
way too much. And as being someone who's brought into
this game as an evaluator, you always had to differ
differentiate between below average, average, good, very good, excellent, great
and rare. And Dak Prescott has certainly been a very
(09:22):
good quarterback in this league, and he all those things
that you said.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
He is and has been, and he's not take he
what's clear is he can't take the entire team on
his shoulders. And that's not a criticism at all. I mean,
he's still a very good NFL quarterback. There have been
times where he has won games.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
But what doesn't get talked about enough too sometimes is
where's the rest of the team? Again, I go back
to our time with Tom Brady. Our first Super Bowl,
Tommy wasn't all that our second one. He was good,
you know, but we had a great defense, We had
an opportunitistic special teams. Like I said, there were people
we had a team built around him that was outstanding,
(10:04):
and as he matured and got better and became great,
that happened. But you know, go back to the salary thing.
This is a great question because you know, the people
see the numbers and they look at these deals sometimes
when they're done in a vacuum and it's like, oh,
my gosh, sixty million dollars. Well, I remember eat last
year when we started, what do we have like eight
or nine forty million dollars quarterbacks? And people say, this
(10:27):
guy's not that good, not Dak, but any quarterback. Well,
the going rate is the going rate, and if you
got one, you better keep them because I've lived life
without one, I've lived life with one. I've lived life
with an above average to good one. And if you
have one that can do a decent job, then as
a general manager, your responsibility is to build a better
(10:49):
team around that player. You can still win a championship.
So to me, the cost of the quarterback, that is
what it is. I mean, as Robert Craft used to
have a great line and says, hey man, that's the
cost of doing business. And right now, the forty plus
million dollar quarterback is what the average quarterbacks getting paid.
So if you want to be in that business, you
got to be in that business. But again, what you
(11:11):
need to do is build a really good football team
around them.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Easter not a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Finally, you know, I know we all know Caleb Williams
as talented. What's your evaluation on him? What concerns you?
What do you love Caleb Williams?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Well, always with a pit k Williams for him specifically
and players like him. Is My biggest concern is that
expectations are managed. And I think he's a tremendous talent.
I think he makes good decisions, which is important. We're
to see how he makes those decisions with you know,
with NFL speed, I'm really encouraged by the things. You know,
(11:54):
I have a great relationship with Ryan Poles, and I
think Ryan has an infrastructure in place within that organization
that is so good for players to develop. And again,
I'm a big believer in player development. I think all
of the things that you need to be a quarterback
that's going to be developed are in place at Chicago.
(12:15):
I think there's going to have to be a time
for patients, because you know, I believe in giving these
quarterbacks grace, just like I had talked earlier about girod
Neo on Good Morning Football. You first time coach, he
needs some grace. I think Caleb Williams right now has
players around him that are going to allow him to
grow and mature and develop to be a very good
(12:36):
NFL quarterback. And based on the things I see in
terms of his tools, he does have the ability to
be a great quarterback in this league.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Scott Pioli, NFL Network. Great seeing you. You look healthy,
you look happy. There is life after being a general manager,
is I know, all you guys, you know, once you
get out of it, there's a lot of fun things
to do in life besides deal with crazy owners all
the time. So it's great seeing that.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
For sure. Colin, thanks so much for having me. I
be all right, appreciate you, man.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Scott Pioli doing some work for the utah U. It's
a great program going into the Big twelve. And that's
what's really happening in college football is that because the
NIL is not going away, you're going to see general
managers hired some former NFL GMS. Scott Pioli comes in
and can run a college program and deal with the cap.
(13:30):
And you know there is no cap, but just the
management of how to figure out when you've got seventy
players you're paying. So it's it's something that's happening very
very quickly. In multiple schools I've talked to. They're they're
leaning on these NFL guys and take us through it.
They're almost like director of recruiting and dealing with with
a monetary portion of this. So it's happening and happening quickly.
(13:52):
Jmack with the news.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
No, no, this is the herd line news.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I think you love a good preseason practice skirmish with
the Lions, the Lions and Giants. Multiple fights have broken out.
You showed the Daniel Jones won earlier. Here it is, well,
there was a Moleak neighbors battle. Both clubs are gonna
have to pay up in response to these scuffles. New
York and Detroit will be fined two hundred thousand dollars
each pocket change of course for a billion dollar organization. However,
(14:24):
the fine comes after the league sent a memo to
all teams last month at fighting another unprofessional conduct.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Will not be tolerated at joint practices.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Clearly this fine.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Let me just say, here's Neighbors. The rookie given like
a little cheap shot. Neighbors claims that the kids said
something to him.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Do you know? Do you know why you're getting this
in these practices and you don't see these in the
preseason games because you practiced for like four days in
a row together. So it's just one of those things
where if you have three straight practices with a rival team,
you're getting fights. There are some things I can remember
years ago when I worked at the other places and
(15:04):
we had a gigantic meeting about Twitter, and everybody was like, hey,
you can't say this on Twitter. And I remember standing
up at the meeting and saying, it's not your device,
it's that Jack guy's device, and it's my Twitter account.
I'm not gonna tell me what I can put on it.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You can get rid of me after my contract because
you don't like what I put on it. You don't
control Twitter, you don't control my IG account. I can
do what I want with it, So insult.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
I approach you and say can you delete something?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
No? But they were just they didn't know how to
handle it. The NFL, now, because they're reducing preseason games,
is increasing the number of these practices. It's it's this
is the reality. You can't hold multiple practices with teams
and not expect fights. I mean, you get fights during
preseason games and games, but the game's over and you
(15:55):
leave town. If I beat you, I'm a receiver and
I beat you as a corner four times and talk
trash and I'm facing you again tomorrow. These aren't teammates
where you bro hug after it and say, man, I
was just getting old. Yeah, so you face that guy
the next day. Oh wait and the next day. So
you're gonna you're gonna see far more fights. And I
think you just can't control it some things. I mean,
(16:18):
you can warn people, but you have fights within a team.
So you're bringing a rival team up for three straight
intense practices, you're getting.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Fights, and Dan Campbell's team, you know, they're biting off kneecaps,
they're not backing down from anybody.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's me cap biting Team New York.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Giants almost feel like it's us against the world. There's
some everybody's making fun of them relentlessly. So I don't know,
like I kind of like these skirmishes as long as
nobody gets hurt. You know, you don't want anybody seriously
injured missing time because dumb fight. Next up is ca
your favorite quarterback, Kyler Murray.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
He's healthy.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
However, the Cardinals do not plan to play him in
the preseason. Head coach Jonathan Gannon said the team likes
where Kyler is right now, and then he's doing everything
he needs to do to be ready for Week one.
Gannon also noted the team's upcoming joint practices with the
Colts as a reason to keep Kyler sidelined during preseason games.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Hmmm. I mean, he's got a rookie wide receiver. Probably
want to build some chemistry with him.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Can't do that in practice.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
I don't think it really overall doesn't matter because the
Cardinals sign.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I really think the majority of young coaches, Cardinals have
a young coach, They don't want to play any they're
good players. I mean, are you seeing these reports out
like a guy will like tweak his anklets like he's
out for the preseason. It just it gives these if
a guy literally has an ice cream headache, he's out
for the preseason.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Andy Reid announced today he's playing Momes and Company for
a quarter.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, no, no, Andy's older school. Yeah, he likes playing guys.
But a lot of these young coaches, new school, new
school guys, are like, I got no interest. This is
maybe the only head coaching job I get in my career.
I'm not having my quarterback get hurt. Andy's like, what
are you gonna do? One hundred million bucks, I got rings,
trophies everywhere. So Andy Reid is much more willing of
(18:05):
Bruce arians A Belichick. They're not worried about it. But
think how a young coach thinks. I'm in year two.
I'm in Arizona, impulsive owner. If I don't have a
quarterback and win three games, I could be fired. I'm
not playing my stars, and if I'm gonna go down,
I'm going down my way. So that's why a lot
of these young coaches that don't have a ring or
a trophy or kind of a cemented legacy, they don't
(18:26):
want to play any of these young guys. That's fair.
Speaker 6 (18:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
The final story is that Christian McCaffrey also not gonna
play in the preseason. He's got this injury that's kind
of nagging. It's a strained calf. I don't know if
it's similar to the Russell Wilson one, but he missed
Tuesday's practice and said McCaffrey will miss a couple of
weeks as well as all three preseason games due to
(18:50):
the calf injury.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
A prime example. Coach doesn't ever ring little pressure. Nos,
there's a little pressure on Kyle. How totally the job
keeps blowing those fourth quarter leads.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
I never reminds me Andy Reid in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And he got fired.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
How does that look in hindsight?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Eagles have won a super Bowl and Andy's won him.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
And Andy's dominating like Dia.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But I mean they've won. Doug Peters and won a
super Bowl goes down in Ja bil.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
And and Siriani screws up this year.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
He's gone. This is not a theory. I'm telling you what,
young coaches, I don't say you don't have a ring.
You can say what you want about Kyle and I
said this. I think the Niners a peaked. I was
just sent a text in between commercials. The Niners are
pissed at Ayuk because they know this year is huge
(19:45):
they gotta pay party next year.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
They do.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
They are They are mad at Brandon Nyuk are Sydney.
They are livid because they thought they had a deal,
they thought they were close. They are not happy at all.
Good I'm just telling him.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Yeah, no, no. After McCaffrey, he had a large workload
last year.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
You don't want to run him into the ground.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I'm surprised they don't kind of cap his carries at
some games.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
It's like, let's just do fifteen.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Let's maybe do.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I think they'd like to.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I' mean fine, bringing a bunch of backs. Miami seems
to find them all in the draft. They got some
new guy who's pushing Ah. They have a backup h
last year, how good he was, well, got hurt.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Niners have a backup. I like Mason. What's the backup
for the Niners.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
He doesn't have the pop of mccaffreys.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
The pop of McCaffrey.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I might, but nevertheless, that's not like a pop.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
He's the second best running back I've ever seen. Stop
to Walter Payton, Barry Sanders or Christian Mccafarry Sanders couldn't
catch like this. Barry Sanders, by the way, the minute
I love Barry Sanders, he retired, Let's stick around a while,
Adrian Peterson or Christian mcaffresh and McCaffrey. Peterson had a
huge fumble issue and couldn't catch. Wow, McCaffrey's second best
(20:55):
running back you've ever seen, to Walter Payton Sanders third.
Then it's a bunch of.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Guys, all right, Wow, that's just I'm actually I'm more
shook from that than the earthquake last night.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
That Christian McCaffrey is the second best back I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, I mean, I'm cycling through my head quickly, and
I'm trying to go through guys who I could challenge you.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I'll tell you a guy that was underrated. People have
no idea how good he was. Marcus Allen. Oh he
was awesome. Come on, he is both Jackson.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
I mean he didn't play again, he.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Got to play more than fifteen minutes. Like these guys
that have a half.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Hour Sean Riggins just kidding, it's.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Like these guys that have a half hour show. Oo
on three hours or I'm not interested.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Well, you're firing barbs of politicians now the rival network.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I'm jody, Can anybody joke anymore?
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Is this the gum?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Is this the gum talk? This is the gum.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
This is what we like.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Gum gives me confidence, It makes me a little obnoxious,
bulletproof neuro gum is it's a it's like a I
don't know what it's like. It's a steroid or something.
It makes you just lose yourself a little bit. Well,
little eminem, lose yourself. You don't know that sounds I
do know you? Okay, Jay Mack with the news.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the
Herd line.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Maybe your best line on the show. Is it the gum?
That gum has really changed the entire network. You can,
very slowly, the whole network should be on that gum.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and noone Easter nine am Pacific.
Speaker 8 (22:27):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
baseball Talk, featuring the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, We've
got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
(22:48):
so do yourself a favor. And listen to Inside the
Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
During home emurgencies, every single counts go to simplysafecolin dot
com twenty four to seven monitoring agents twenty percent off today.
No safe like simply Safe. Okay, here we go. Uh.
The Diana Russini, respected journalist says the Pittsburgh Steelers, along
(23:18):
with other teams, are in communication and still negotiating for
Brandon Ayuk. No deals done for sources. Remember, they're not
paying Justin Fields or Russell Wilson anything, and they're not
paying George Pickin yet anything. They're paying TJ. Watt, Minka Fitzpatrick,
paying some guys on defense. They're not paying a lot
of their offensive players. They drafted a couple offensive linemen.
(23:41):
They're not paying big money for their running backs yet.
So they're there. Pittsburgh is a good place for Brandon
Nyuk for a team the table to draft receivers, they
could add a piece here. It would also I think,
I'll be honest, I think Justin Fields and Russell Wilson
both throw a pretty good deep ball. I think Russell's
pretty accurate on the deep ball. I think Justin Field
(24:01):
isn't as accurate, but has a big arm. Here here
was Mike Tomlin today talking about the quarterback position. Asked
about the quarterback depth chart right now.
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Very much is a competition. What happens in the stadium
is weighted heavier than what happens in a practice setting
because it's more game like.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
You still view Russell is having that pole position and
be ahead of Justin and that.
Speaker 7 (24:26):
Yeah, I saw the depth chart that I released yesterday.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
That is real.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
I think everything is an audition. Everything that we do
is an audition, not only for him but for others.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Very interesting. So Brandon Aiyuk, I'm going to tell you
who's rooting for that Justin Field and Russell Wilson. That
is a And I also think in that division with
Baltimore and Cincinnati and Cleveland, if you're not as good
at quarterback in Pittsburgh's not. They don't have Lamara Burrow
or Deshaun Watson. So their takeaway is where we have
to make some room up and Cleveland in these negotiations too, well,
(25:01):
Pittsburgh's not gonna go wait a minute. They got the
better quarterback, they got the offensive coach. We're gonna let
him have Ayuk. So if I'm Pittsburgh, I'm playing keep
away from Cleveland potentially, aren't you where? Tell me where
with a Yuk?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Are the Steelers better offensively than anyone else in their division?
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Receiver better than who?
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Not the Bengals. They're not better in the Bengals a
receiver Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Pickens and recounting tight ends, and for counting tight ends,
it's different Mark Andrews. Wide receivers and tight ends don't get.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Paid the hass catchers. Okay, all right, fair, they're.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Better than Baltimore, and they're better than Cleveland.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Well right now, Cleveland has Amari Cooper and Jerry Judy.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Okay, that's not Pickens and Ayuk.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
No way.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I like Amari Cooper. He's not as talented as those two.
No way.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
I think you're under selling Cooper a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And I don't know why you like Jerry Judy. What
did he do in Denver?
Speaker 6 (25:55):
He's a Bilo.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
I like that, you know. I'm go and stay low.
Not everything is a value stock. Sometimes it's eight dollars
a stock.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And that's what I don't see a path out of
the cellar for the Steelers team, well I do in
the division, who.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Are they better than? First of all, Joe Burrell struggle
to stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
We stop Okay, we need to put a put a
pin in if they're healthy, let's just say everyone's healthy
all season.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Well, well, they're battling to the end. I think they
will battle to the end for a playoff berth. They're
just too talented. They're in that. I mean, I think
they're in the nine win category. But they could be
nine and six down the stretch fifteen games and lose
their last two.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
Can we call the Steelers schedule up there?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
The Steelers is no. The last six games are the
worst in the league. The last six games for Pittsburgh
are outrageously difficult. It's like the league's rooting against them.
I mean it is. I've never seen a schedule the
last two months look like Pittsburgh. I think we need
to up the stakes on a wager between us. It
is wager Wednesday. Today's Wednesday, right, Yeah, well that's a
(27:00):
good one. I like that, which that should be a
bit wager Wednesday. You want to what do you want
to do here? You got the Steelers going die or
ten wins? I'll take on the Steelers. You what's what's
the over under, what's the what's the draft Kings over?
Speaker 6 (27:12):
I think it's like seven and a half.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Well they don't think, what is it you got? But
take a second? Can you take a second?
Speaker 6 (27:17):
You get the audience.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I'm pretty good at that space filling thing. Face filling
and space filling. Uh yeah, okay, So what you're saying
is basically, you think Pittsburgh is going to be awful
and I think Pittsburgh's going to finish the season poorly.
There's a difference. But I love their half. Well, I
think that's what they are. I think they're an eight
(27:40):
and nine win too. I'll take the over if they
get AU.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Give me under if they don't get no deal.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
If they get AU, no deal for you, I don't
think it matters. I don't think he's worth half a win. Oh,
I think he's worth a win, Brandon, I think he's
worth a win, one win, one win. Yeah, he's getting
the ball. Well, you can't remember, you can't double him.
You can't roll coverage over because the pickens on the
other side, so you can't. He's getting single coverage. That's
(28:08):
a whole different ballgame. And if they can run the
ball effectively, and we like both their backs. You can't
jam your safeties in the box.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
That's a big if. By the way. Okay, so I
Yuke's getting open, can justin feels complete the pass?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Can Russ? Well, Russ, We'll see check down. That's why
they're an eight to nine win team and on a
thirteen win team. If they had Joe Burrow. If you
gave Joe Burrow this roster with Ayuk, it's a super
Bowl team, no question. You don't think it is. You
give Lamar Jack and that is a take. They're a
(28:39):
super Bowl team.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
I mean, anybody with Joe Burrow's a super Bowl team.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
That's not true. Carolina is not a super Bowl Fine league,
Oh that's not true.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
You get the Jets, Joe Burrow, they're at fifteen games.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
You give him a clunky old defensive coach and a
crappy old line and no big time weapons. He's a
he's an eight win quarterback. Patrick Mahomes is done do
anything with that. Well, that's what I'm saying is that
you're just saying, hey, just put Burrow on a tight
and it's not that easy.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
If you put Burrow on the Raiders, I guarantee you
they're a playoff team.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Guarantee take it to the back. Yeah, but the Raiders
have good players. They have no quarterback. Yeah, but I'm
saying they the roster's not inept. There are about five
rosters in this league. They're bad roster. Patriots, bad roster. Carolina.
Nothing there, Carolina's on the come up. Be careful there.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
Keep bashing the Panthers, keep an eye on them.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Where's that coming from. I don't get that at all.
I watched them last year.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Where were they were the Texans coming?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Where were they good? Like? They were not? The Texans
had a star left tackle and a pass rusher, and
there were things about the Texans they had players. Carolina
had nothing last year. Burns, that's it. And there's a
little burrow on the Seahawks. Oh no, that's a good team.
Super Bowl bubble, yes, yes, yes, but again I think
(30:00):
Pete under achieve the last one Borough on Washington. They're
not a super Bowl team, no bubble, no, no, But
they're a playoff team with Jaymee Daniels. That's what you're saying. Well,
I'm saying you can be the seventh team to get
into the playoffs and the worst team in the playoff.
I'm not saying Washington's a one seed. They're gonna be
there if they get in, which I think they can.
(30:20):
At this point, they're like Minnesota. They're getting in last weekend,
they're not getting in week twelve. Yeah, that's okay, all right,
we're done today. That's it. First things first is around
the corner, good stuff. Rachel Nichols joining us from Paris.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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