August 12, 2024 • 38 mins
Colin discusses the USA men's basketball team bringing home the gold behind Steph Curry's 4th quarter performance adding another line to Curry's historic resume. He tells you why he was right about the Cowboys and wrong about JJ McCarthy. Plus NFL insider Tom Pelissero joins the show to provide an update on where things currently stand with All Pro WR Brandon Aiyuk and the 49ers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
All Right, here we go, lie Man.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Los Angeles hits the Hurt. Wherever you may be and
however you may be listening, Thanks for making us on
a Monday part of your day. It was a glorious weekend.
I gotta watch like you did. All these rookie quarterbacks play,
(00:53):
and throughout the course of the show we'll talk about
each one one hour from now. Where Colin was right,
where Colin was wrong. Jmacoff Ryan filling in for him.
But I want to start. I had sort of thought
that the Olympics were done. I had watched them. Nothing
felt special. These were amazing, and a lot of it
was the men's basketball, which almost twenty million people watched
(01:17):
that gold medal win. That is insane. That's that is
the biggest number of fans that have watched a single
basketball game in this country in a long time, twenty
million people. So, and it came down to Steph and Lebron.
But primarily Steph is the only reason we watched that
game and won that game, not watched it, but won it.
(01:38):
And what's amazing about Steph all these years he's had doubters.
I remember when he got to the last finals. It
was against Boston, and I can remember the chorus of
people that said, well, you know, finals, MVP. I mean,
if you don't win one of those that, I'm like,
you're doubting him. Well, you still don't think he's great.
(02:02):
You don't qualify as an all time great. You just
look silly doubting Steph Curry. Take out Magic Johnson. He
is by far and away the best point guard ever.
Only Magic is close. And Magic couldn't score like this.
Magic elevated others, Magic could play more positions.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
He didn't do this.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And when other players like Lebron James not just look
at you, but kind of look at you in awe
and you can do things they can't. Lebron's the great
Swiss army knife in basketball. He can duplicate almost anything,
But he can't do what Steph does. And the next
greatest point guard, Magic Johnson, he can't do what Steph does.
(02:44):
Steph can do a lot of things nobody else, even
the great ones, can duplicate. Add in the IQ, the EQ,
the confidence, the leadership, the coach ability, the willingness, the
self awareness to let others dominate for a time. But
what's crazy is the shots that he takes would be
audacious looking for everybody in the league. If Aunt Edwards
(03:08):
took those shots, and we all love Ant, you'd be like, oh, yeah,
he has his game's not refined yet.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I like Ant.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's a bad shot for Ant, not a guy off
the bench. For most of the league, these shots are audacious,
and for Steph you're like, yeah, he's got to take those.
Steph's got to take these shots. And he did. And
Team USA is now twenty nine to oh when Steph's
playing for him twenty nine to oh. And a lot
(03:37):
of great players, you know, golf has a little bit
of this, Baseball's got some of this. A lot of
great shooters when they're off, like Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum
couldn't hit jumpers. He shrinks like he shrinks, Steph doesn't.
Steph's last two games, he didn't play good early. He
didn't good, he didn't play well early. His last two
(03:57):
games he shot sixty five percent from three, So he is.
It's not just that he's the best shooter ever. He
has the highest scoring ceiling ever. We all love Patrick Mahomes,
but all quarterbacks, it's six points for all the touchdowns.
And everybody knows Aaron Judge is great, but if the
bases are empty, it's one run. When you're really an
(04:20):
all timer, you can make all time greats feel less
than or outdated. Michael Jordan mathematically, Michael Jordan's mid range
game is outdated. Step back two steps, the skyhook outdated?
Why take a twelve foot hook like dunket or shoot
(04:41):
a three? Steph can make things and players and games
and people look outdated. There is only one guy and
only one reason Team USA won the Gold and it's
not Lebron.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It's Steph.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
He's the fastest, score more points faster than any but
he's done it. Shots that would be audacious by anybody
else in the league. You'll get your throw up, a
couple of uglies that may be the only other guy
that can shoot from twenty nine falling away with a
man in his face, and we're like, it's not a
bad shot. So I we loved to Barry Stars and
(05:17):
we did that. We wanted to bury far before he
was done, and this is just what we do. We
had Lebron was done four years ago. But what you're
watching there is nobody can duplicate it. When you shoot
shots that would be outrageous, would seem ridiculous, ill advised,
and yet with Steph you want him to take those.
(05:40):
Tatum struggled early. Tatum struggled, Steph struggled early. He's the
singular reason we won the gold, all right. So it
was an interesting weekend for all these rookie quarterbacks. Everybody
kind of looked like you thought they would look like
bo Nicks was accurate. Caleb Williams can move, Drake May's
(06:03):
got some rust he just needs. I feel like with
Drake May, we should just wait a year and then
come back in a year and make a judgment on him.
He's just not He's just not as polished as everybody was.
And you kind of knew that coming in. But Caleb Williams,
I love what teammates are saying about him because you
can't full teammates. DJ Moore said, outstanding, cole Comet the
(06:23):
tight end said second to none. So he had one
hundred and two passer rating, thirteen yard scramble, twenty snaps.
And what's interesting about Caleb is you have to, like
Jordan Love of the Packers, you have to go to
the year before he was drafted. So the year before
Caleb was drafted forty two touchdown passes, five picks, forty
(06:45):
five hundred yards. And then the final year at USC,
old line was a mess. The team was not competitive
by week eight. They wouldn't call certain plays because the
old line struggled. They didn't want to get him hurt.
But like Jordan Love, because college you can have really
good coaches get replaced by a really bad coach. In
the NFL, even bad coaching is usually competent. USC last
(07:09):
year had an incompetent defensive coordinator. They couldn't stop anybody.
Every game was attract me. Every game you had to
throw fifty times, but you couldn't. That's the way it worked.
So in college football, you can replace a good coach
or hire a coach that just isn't good. In the NFL.
You may be a bad fit, but most people are competent.
(07:29):
Brandon Staley as side. But I think when I watched
Caleb Williams, I feel like because Lincoln Riley was polarizing
and is and the way he left Oklahoma, and because
Caleb Williams was the first NIL star and the fingernails,
and he's emotional, he's polarizing. So there's some haters out there,
(07:50):
There's no question there's haters. Whereas a Baker Mayfield comes in,
he's a little shorter than he should be. He almost
looked plump. He not hyper athletic. Translate, American guys can
root for him. He kind of looks like them. Caleb
Williams doesn't. And the Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma for USC
(08:10):
and it's Hollywood, it's arrogant, it's USC. It's Southern California.
People that don't go to Southern California have never lived there.
Go to the internet. They're all experts on it. They've
all got an opinion on it. So don't allow your
feelings to get in the way of the truth. Here,
the arm, the movement, the confidence, it's just different. Mahomes
is a completely accurate comp and it's not his fault.
(08:32):
The nile exploded when Caleb Williams came to USC. One
of his early deals, he got all his offensive linemen paid.
If you remember the Heisman ceremony, he had his offensive
lineman there. I don't think he's a bad guy. I think,
as Jordan Palmer said Thursday on this show, I think
he got bored.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I think he was bored last year at USC.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And once they weren't competitive, once they weren't going to
get to the playoff, the coaches didn't want to call
certain plays. They didn't trust the offensive line. Link kN
Riley won in the Heisman. Lincoln Riley was not going
to get Caleb Williams hurt. He was not going to
play him lay in games. He was not going to
get him hurt. He would not call certain protections. So go,
like Jordan Love, go to the year before where Caleb
(09:15):
Williams took four and eight and an awful roster to
one play away from twelve to two, one play against Tulane.
And what's interesting is, as I was watching this, usually
big cities, not small towns or on the cutting edge
of things. You know many many of the you know
(09:36):
Silicon Valley in California or Wall Street in New York.
Cutting edge technology don't come from small towns, but little
small Green Bay in the same division has been light
years ahead of Chicago's offense forever, and I felt like
watching it this weekend, the Bears offense finally got Wi Fi.
It's like, oh, oh, no more, no more aol that weird,
(10:00):
clunky sound. It's all Wi Fi. It's magical, That's what
it felt like. It's gonna be efficient, it's gonna be dynamic,
it's gonna be a lot of wow. And he only
saw a couple of snaps, but it's it's I feel
like there's not one word to describe Chicago offense.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
There's like twenty and they're all bad.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
In the same division with small market Green Bay that
doesn't attract free agents. Green Bay has been doing offense
right forever and Chicago's never done it right.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And they got Wi Fi. And here's Caleb after the win.
Last time I was out there on the field other
than practice, it was November eights eight, and it's you know,
you go that long without something, it's it's it's tough.
But now it's been great. The guys have made it fun.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
They made it easy on me to get out there
and and and and have the confidence you know that
we had out there. It's it's only gonna get better,
and we can't wait.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Also, Jade and Daniels probably made the first or second
best throw by any rookie quarterback. I thought most of
the quarterbacks looked like they were advertised, and this batch
of quarterbacks, Michael Pennix had a lot of starts Indiana
and Washington, bow Knicks had a lot of starts at
Auburn and Oregon. Jade and Daniels a lot of starts
(11:17):
Arizona State and LSU. So I feel like I knew
what I was getting. It was not one of these
drafts where I don't know what Trey Lance is. I'm
actually excited. His tape's great, he didn't played that much.
Or Anthony Richardson from Florida one year starting to the Colts.
I'm not really exactly sure. I'm getting glimpses of stuff.
(11:37):
It feels exciting. I'd rather be optimistic than negative and pessimistic,
but I don't know what I'm getting. I kind of
felt like bow Knix looked like bow Knicks was going
to look and so did Pennix, and so did Jade Daniels,
and I watched two years of starting at USC. That's
what Kayler Williams, that's what he looks like. So I mean,
it's I don't remember the last time you get little
(11:58):
early warning signs, signs of hope and desperation with rookie quarterbacks.
I thought even Drake may who was the least impressive,
he was kind of what I thought he would look like.
JJ McCarthy was better than what I thought he would
look like. We'll get to that top of the hour.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Well, we do this every Monday at this time. Strong opinions.
Sometimes we whiff, sometimes we hit. It's called Colin was right,
Colin was wrong, and here we.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Go where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I've been saying this with Jason Tatum. Steve Kerr feels
the same way Brad Stevens does. He doesn't know if
he can trust him around other stars to take hold
of the game. He went zero for sixteen on Jumpers
Don't blame Steve Kerr. Jason Tatum didn't hit a jumper
in the Olympics. He shrinks around other stars, and sometimes
(12:56):
when he's on the court for a star, he's kind
of invisible.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
This is what I've been saying for years.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's I know all the Celtic backers are mad at
Steve Kerr.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
It's not a Steve kerrishue.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Jason Tatum went oh for sixteen one jumpers like he
just he didn't make himself the best possible Jason Tatum.
And when your bench includes Anthony Davis and Bam gonna
buy you, you gotta work your way into playing time.
I've always been a little bit cynical of the greatness
of Jason Tatum and Steve Kerr.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Grees where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I thought the Olympics felt like they were sort of done,
and I thought they were spectacular. Simone Biles Katie ledeki
Team USA for the men it hit, it felt like
it was a rebirth. The World Cup over the last
twenty years feels like it has absolutely surpassed the Olympics
as the big every four year sporting event. But the politics,
(13:53):
in my opinion, are so ugly and divisive in America.
We were looking for good news and NBC in the
Olympics delivered it for three straight weeks. I could have
got another couple of weeks. It was like make him longer.
I thought it was just and it surprised me they.
I mean, I really was not jacked up to watch
the Olympics going in, and I thought it.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Was amazing where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, I said, Jaden Daniels is really good. And there's
a little Lamar Jackson here. He made the best throw
by any rookie arguably this weekend. It came on an
audible and here was his coach Dan Quinn talking about it.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I thought, of top gun, do I have permission to
buzz the tower? No? Ghost Rider? The pattern is full,
and so I think on that one he wanted to
ask for forgiveness and not permission and then throw, you know,
an absolute dime, you know, over the top to Damie
to go. So it was a really cool play.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It was, and he played well where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
JJ McCarthy, you know, I've been a little bit questioning
the greatness. Why didn't everybody move up the board to
get him. Well, I thought he looked better than I thought,
and I thought he moved better, played with a ton
of confidence. I mean he's got a little Sam Darnold
where he'll let it rip. I don't know how great
his arm is. It's good enough. But I thought he
(15:20):
played really well. Eleven to seventeen, one hundred and eighty
eight yards. Even his interception, I didn't think. You got
sometimes guys in the NFL are really good. It wasn't
a terrible interception. He had a passer rating of one
hundred and sixteen. He had two runs. He moved better
than I thought, so I thought he was clever, he
was nimble. Good for JJ. I still think Donald starts
(15:42):
week one. They got a pretty rough first four or
five weeks. But that was impressive where Colin was right
Michael Pennix. That didn't surprise me. And this proves once
again Pennis played well. It's okay in a league where
sixty quarterbacks will take a snap to have an old
guy coming off of surgery and a talented new guy
(16:04):
maybe sits on the bench waiting in the wings, and
I don't know how long he'll wait. But there's all
this pushback. How can you draft him and have Kirk Cousins.
Kirk Cousins is coming off surgery. They've got a good
old line, they've got good offensive pieces. Here's something that's
never a problem in the NFL. We've got one too
many good quarterbacks. You can always live with that. Where
(16:27):
Colin was raw, I tried to be so optimistic with
Justin Fields, and then I watched Justin Fields and he
took sacks and he had fumbles, and it's just it
just he looks hesitant. He doesn't get rid of the
ball quick enough. It's kind of who he is. Fumbles,
sacked twice, he struggles like nothing. He can be brilliant,
(16:51):
but he takes his eyes off the field whenever pressure's coming.
He's been hit so much he doesn't look downfield. He's
trying to find a lane to run it. Just as
I said when he was in Chicago, it shouldn't be
this hard for a big guy who moves well with
a big arm. It shouldn't look that hard all the time.
Where Colin was right, Ceedee Lamb didn't play for the Cowboys,
(17:14):
and despite the fact that Stets invented of the rams
through four interceptions, they could not score a touchdown. You
got four interced when's the last time that ever happened
in a game in the NFL where a team had
four picks, some in good field position, and you still
didn't get a touchdown. And this is my takeaway on
the Cowboys. There is not a team in the NFL
(17:35):
that is more dependent on a singular running back, tight end,
or wide receiver than the Dallas Cowboys are. And if
Cedi doesn't play, there's no juice, there's no pop. It's
a lot of guys, and they got to get that
contract thing figured out because nobody in the NFL is
given this Cowboy defense four picks. You're not playing stets
(17:56):
In Bennett in the regular season where Colin.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
I've tried to support.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Dion Sanders, even though I thought initially Colorado was a
weird fit. But I'm seeing the stuff that's kind of
repetitive with Dion Sanders.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
A lot of ego, very defensive.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
If you're gonna put yourself out there, coach, you're gonna
you're shooting a flare off into the sky every day.
Guess what, It's gonna attract people. And he melted down
this weekend with the usually very supportive Colorado football media.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Eric Christensen with CBS Sports Colorado, Tyler, I'm not doing
none with CBS next questions.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Above that, none of do with you. I love for you,
I appreciate, respect you, and none to do with you.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
They know what they did.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I'm here at Denver, not National. You are who you are, CBS, CBS.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh boy, time for the coach to grow up a little.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Where Colin was right, boh Nicks looked like the perfect fit.
I'm telling you, it looks like Sean Payton Drew Brees.
So he was, you know, he was exactly and he
moves much better than people are gonna give him credit for.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
He actually moves really well. He moves better than Pennix
I think.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I mean, there's a handful of starters in the league
that don't move like they moves better than Drew Brees.
At the end, he's accurate gets I mean, you see
how fast he gets rid of the ball there.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
That ball.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
You got to get rid of that ball fast. So
four or five for fifty yards and a touchdown. That's
just on third down. He was really really good on
third down where Colin was right. And finally you mocked
me nesson, everybody made fun of me. When I said,
keep your eye on Joe Milton out of Tennessee. The
(19:44):
kids got talent. He's got talent. The offensive line facing
four Decembers. He made this into a big play. Harball
liked him. I think Joe Milton's got talent.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Now.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
He was inconsistent the knocking him in college. He missed
open in receivers.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I'm I'm not.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Saying he's Caleb Williams, but he he looked great and
the crowd was into it. And I mean, Jacoby Brissette
is solid, but look at their schedule. They go on
a four game losing streak. Drake May has not looked
great in the pre seat. You don't think Joe Milton.
All I said was, I think I'd give that kid snaps.
I'd give Joe Milton snaps. Jim Harbaugh did, Josh Heibel did.
(20:25):
Go look at the last year and a half in
the SEC. Look at the offensive numbers he put up.
Maybe he's not a fluid, He's not this and that.
All I know, Joe Milton moves the ball. Colin Wright,
Colin Wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Eastern a Empacific Hey.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
What's up everybody. It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Harington,
and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast
called Up on Game?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 7 (20:56):
You assd along with my fellow pro bowler TJ Hoods,
Manzada and Super Bowl champion Yep, that's right, Plexico Birds.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
With teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with me
lebar Arrington, t J.
Speaker 7 (21:18):
Hutch Manzada, and Plexico Birds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Well Monday through Friday. You see him on the NFL
Network on The Insiders XM. Serious host, been doing it
a long time and knows what he's doing. Tom Pellisero
is joining us live. So Ian O'Connor's book is out
on Aaron Rodgers. I did a deep dive last night.
I'll probably finish it in the next couple of days.
I've read chunks of it and I was saying it's earlier.
(21:50):
Today we talked about Aaron. I've always been seeing as
sort of anti Eron, but I'm not. I mean, he
probably should have been up front about the vaccine, but
you know, he's not the only person that fudged on that,
so I'm not you know, I do feel o, Tom,
I kind of feel like this is an ending great
like far pivoted and eventually got to Minnesota and you're like, Wow,
(22:12):
he's still got it. I kind of feel like Aaron
needs a big year. He didn't have advertisers. He's kind
of on an island. I'm not even sure he's as
close to Sala as he was a year ago.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Like, am I wrong? It feels like he needs a
pop year?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Right?
Speaker 6 (22:31):
I think i'd say this Colin. Aaron's very aware of
how he's perceived. He's very aware of what people are saying.
He never, you know, you talk to the people who
are closest with him, they'll all say, like, Aaron will
never debate a subject unless he has researched it extensively.
And there's no subject on which Aaron Rodgers is a
(22:53):
better expert than Aaron Rodgers. And I think that you know,
this path of self discovery or whatever you want to
call it, that he's been on now for a number
of years. Has certainly created a really interesting individual. It's
also somebody who you know by the end in Green Bay,
and I was there for the working for the Green
Bay Prescazette when you know they had the far of
(23:15):
Rogers transition after the two thousand and seven season. You know,
Bret's dreams, like the things that he had in his
mind were just going back to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and riding
the tractor around his property and literally chopping wood all day.
That's what he wanted to do with Aaron. If he
walked away tomorrow and said I'm going to go work
at SpaceX and I'm going to Mars, you'd be like, yeah,
(23:36):
I can. I can kind of see that. But at
the same time, he could do that tomorrow calling and
he has it. And you have to ask yourself, why
is a thirty nine going on forty year old guy
who's made more money than he'll ever need in his
life and his one four MVPs, why is he still
going here? And I think that on some level, yeah,
there's the passion for the game, but there there might
(23:58):
be something to Aaron want to prove to whoever it is,
whether it's himself, the public, whatever, that he's got one
more magical run in him. And part of that, you know,
maywell you know, And again I'm not inside Aaron's head,
but I wouldn't be surprised that part of that is
he remembers what it was like at the end for Brett,
because Brett got traded. You know, they O seven, they
(24:19):
make that run to the NFC Championship Game. The Packers
want an answer him far of early. He retires within
like a month. He's he's talking to Greta Van susterin
and doing interviews about he's coming back and the Packers
don't want me and all this stuff. Oh wait, was
a battle for him with the Jets. Then O nine
he goes to Minnesota and but for that interception the
NFC Championship game, I mean, he might add another Super
(24:41):
Bowl trophy to the case with Rogers, same thing. The
first year with the Jets doesn't go well. Aaron somewhere
deep down inside, learned a lot from you know, Brett
and from watching it, and he's very aware of his surroundings,
very aware of what the environment is for him right now.
He knows that coming out one last great season, whether
(25:01):
it ends in a super Bowl, a playoff spot, an MVP. Whatever.
If he can show he can do it again, that's
gonna mean something to him before he goes on and
does whatever it is he's doing next.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You know, I was saying earlier, when you watch the
great ones, you often ask yourself, it could be messy,
it could be Lebron if they don't have a huge
physical advantage. I mean, Lebron's a big guy, but Wemby obviously,
But sometimes you'll just watch a great hitter, the late
Tony Gwinn and You're like, why can't everybody hit three fifty?
He takes that inside pitch, he hits it to the
hole in the left side. He makes it look so easy.
(25:34):
And conversely, I watched justin Field and I'm like, he
makes it look so hard. He's always he can't get
rid of the ball, the timing's always bad, he fumbles.
I really thought he had a shot to beat Russell,
and watched this weekend. I'm like, this is why he
drove me nuts in Chicago, and just let's just talk
(25:55):
about this quarterback battle because I think privately people are
in pitch. I would love to see him flourish and
pop and then I watch him and I'm like, oh,
it's like Zach Wilson. There's so many things that should
work and they don't. What do you make of the
quarterback situation in Pittsburgh right now, Well, Colin.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
You summarize, I mean, this is the Justin Fields experience,
which is, if you edit together his highlight plays, his
positive plays, you walk away, you watch one YouTube video
for commenttion like this guy might be the best player
in the NFL, and then you kind of watch it
down in and down out, and you see so much
what he does is creating off schedule within the offense.
Like I watched the decent amount of that game the
(26:34):
other day just because I was curious. I mean, the
poor herbig kid couldn't get a snap back to fields
like that put him in some tough situations. So I'm
not entirely gonna judge Justin Field's off that. But what
they've seen, from what I've talked to in Pittsburgh is
very similar to what we saw in Chicago, which is
a guy who can look really good at times. He's
one of the most dynamic guys with the football in
(26:54):
his hands in the entire league, and there's other times
where you see those things like they had in Chicago,
it's like, Okay, you got it. Something's got to be
in rhythm. You gotta be able to rip the football
when somebody's open. What I think is really interesting here,
Colin is the fact that they brought in an offensive
coordinator at Arthur Smith, whose offense kind of takes at
least some of the level of timing out of it.
(27:16):
It's very much a pound the football, run the football,
play action, take some deep shots, which also has been
where Russell Wilson has been at his best during the
course of his career. I know this with Mike Tomlin
in his history, whether it's with coaches, whether it's with players,
He'll stick with his guys and give them every opportunity
until he simply can't give them. Another one that I
(27:38):
think applies to Russell Wilson. He said throughout the offseason,
the Russ is in pole position. They've got him pushing
a blocking sled on the first day and a conditioning
drill and he pops his calf. Russ from everything I
was told the next day was like I can go,
I can practice. It's the doctors that have been holding
him back. Here. But unless Russ goes out and simply
plays terribly when he gets his preseason opportunity, I know
(27:59):
Mike Tomlin hasn't idea whether it'll start that second preseason game.
I believe Mike Tomlin again, just knowing how he perceives
the locker room dynamics, the building dynamics. He'll give Russell
Wilson the opportunity to go out there and play regardless
of what Justin Fields does. The real question to me
is how long do you go with that? How good
is this Pittsburgh team? Because you and I both know
(28:20):
if they start out six and three versus starting at
three and six, the dynamics are completely different in terms
of public pressure and everything else. But Mike Tomlin has
never been one that cave to public pressure. If anything,
he will push back. He'll keep Matt Canada a year
beyond where people are channing for the guy to be fired.
Why because he believes in them. Just like the Steelers
believe in their guys. They keep head coaches for twenty years.
(28:42):
They give Mike Tomlin an extension when he hasn't won
a playoff game in what six seven years here? So
I believe it'll be Russell Wilson when we come out
of the gate here, and I don't know that Justin
Fields is going to do a lot positive or negative
to change that in the short term. I'm interested to
see how, if it all, do they get fields on
the field when we get to the regular season games,
and just kind of how does that position play out
(29:03):
over the course.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So I had somebody ten days ago tell me a
former NFL player who's been a great source through the years, said,
Ayu's gonna sign. It's it's getting real close. Thirty six hours. Well,
it never transpired. Very good reporters everywhere. We're all over
the map on this. People that I respect widely were
it's in, it's out, it's over. He's in Pittsburgh, and
(29:25):
my takeaway is it was close, and he he was
offended by something. San Francisco's like, this is the number,
deal with it. And then he said I'm out, and
then he didn't like the choices and he comes back
and then San Francisco is not in a great mood.
And a friend of mine, John Middlecoff, said last night
he may be the only receiver that signs a four year,
(29:46):
hundred million dollar deal and is still bitter. Where are
we at with Brandon Ayuk and the Niners. I do
believe that if if you're a wide receiver mann they
scheme you open. It's like Cooper Cup is always open.
It's like San Francisco. George Kittle's wide open. I know
he's not a burner. I would have a hard time
(30:08):
leaving McVeigh or Kyle Shanahan or Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
I think he's just best served there. What are you hearing.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well?
Speaker 6 (30:18):
I think Kyle Shanna would be the first one to
tell you it's a lot easier to scheme those guys
open when they're really good players. But you're right, that's
Kyle's greatest skill is being able to get people open.
I think that there's a fluidity to this situation that's
unlike many things that we've seen in recent years, and
there's tons of different dynamics at play. I'll give you
(30:38):
the short version based on what I know, Colin, in
terms of how this entire thing has played out. So obviously,
there would have been an opportunity way back in March
for the forty nine ers to get a deal done
with Brandon Ayuk. They thought at that time that what
AYUK was asking for was going to be out of
their price range. Then all of a sudden, you see
all these wide receiver deals that are getting done, and suddenly,
(30:59):
not only does that number probably fit right in line
with what these other wide receiver contracts would be, but
the AYUK number naturally goes up because he's seeing the
other contractually say well, now I need to get this
much money. So they had to sit down. Talker reported this.
I think it was back in June. It was around
the mini camp. They sat down. Both sides said some
things need to be said. You could put a lot
(31:19):
of stuff out there, making TikTok videos, mfing the security
gate to get into the building and recording this video,
staging it telling Jane Danersye, they said, you didn't want
to be back. Everybody got some stuff off their chest,
and the thinking was after the fourth July they'd get
back together and try to hammer out a deal. Well,
there really wasn't any progress or even negotiations on a
(31:42):
new contract prior to the start of training camp, so
AYUK starts to hold in. There's no end in sight.
It's apparent that they're not really anywhere in the same
ballpark on this. So about two weeks ago, the forty
nine ers re engaged with trade talks that they really
hadn't been since back before the draft when they got
some call and they were trying to get a first
round pick and more or a high first round pick
(32:04):
for Brandon Nyuk. They started just feeling out, Okay, what
could we get if we traded him? What would we
be able to get? And by the way, we want
a wide receiver as a part of any deal. That's
where the New England's come into play. That's where the
Clevelands come into play. Everybody knew roughly where the number
was with Brandon n Ayuk, and the forty nine ers started
selectively granting permission for Ayuk's agent to negotiate with the
(32:27):
other teams. Then all of a sudden, you know, the
Cleveland stuff starts to come out, and it kind of
came out after that one had already come to a head.
And then it was a week ago that you start
having you know, various reports about well this is you know,
this is a done deal for Ayuk to Pittsburgh. Well,
the reality was Ayu could sort of come to the
conclusion at that point the only place he wanted to
(32:49):
go to was Pittsburgh, but they were the team that
didn't have a receiver to send to San Francisco. So
what do the forty nine ers do. They start calling
all these other teams saying, Okay, if we make this deal,
can we trade for this receiver or that receiver and
other gms are going So the second week of August,
I'm not gonna cut you a deal on this and
help you out with my number one or number two
(33:10):
wide receiver. So the forty nine ers then regrouped. By
the end of last week they sort of had come
to the conclusion, Listen, the best thing we can do
is make this work with Brandon Ayuk, a guy we know,
a guy, we know how well he fits. We think
that we can get here. So they re engaged on
the contract negotiations. That was at the tail end Thursday,
Friday of last week. And you know, as we sit
(33:31):
here right now two thirty Eastern time, eleven thirty out
there in La calum we don't have a firm and
final answer. As Brandon Ayuk posted in an Instagram comment,
because where else. Responding to a tweet that I had,
he said, you know, there's two options. Pick one basically,
and let's go. That's a message to the forty nine
ers here that hey, either you meet my number or
(33:52):
I'm going to Pittsburgh. There's really no barriers, there's no
obstacles to getting something done with the Steelers if the
forty nine ers decide to go that direction, but absent
another answer for what wide receiver can help win the
Super Bowl right now, Colin, they want to try to
get this thing done with Brandon Nyuk and the card
they stole in their back pocket, they haven't played it.
I don't know if they will play it. But the
(34:12):
card they would have in their back pocket is saying,
you know what, we need you too bad. We're not
trading you. We're not going to trade you for less
than we could have gotten somewhere else just because you
want to go to Pittsburgh. You're under contract for fourteen.
You take our best offer, or you play this year
for fourteen. Again, We're not there yet. I don't know
that we ever get there. That's the one card the
forty nine ers have not yet played because they are
really trying to heal this relationship, and like a lot
(34:34):
of things, call them the way to heal. This relationship
is give them granded and Ayuk number he once.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Tom pellis our NFL network. Final question. Most of this
stuff bo Nix is going to be the starter. I
you think Drake May is not. It'll be next year
or something. Caleb's going to start, Jaden's going to start.
Most of these are pretty simple. The one that's really
interesting to me is Michael Pennock. So I defended Atlanta.
I said, folks, sixty quarterbacks take us app The best
(35:01):
problem to have in the NFL is we have two
quarterbacks that can win. That is not a problem. If
everybody shy something. I can live with Penick sitting for
a year. Mahomes, did Carson Palmer? Did Jordan love Farm?
I'm okay with it, and I do think kirk off
this surgery is pretty close to the end. And then
I watched Michael Pennix. It's a very good old line
(35:23):
and I'm like, they got weapons. I'm like this this
is interesting. I know they're paying kirk but it is
a surgery. He wasn't mobile before this. Is there a
shot maybe they would look bad? But is there a
shot that if they're not going to give snaps to
Kirk much in the preseason off that injury. What if
Pennix just lights it up for the next three weeks,
(35:45):
is there a shot? They're like, all right, well, yesterday
is today? The future happened way sooner than we thought.
That stuff happens in this league all the time, and
a lot of tom you know this front offices don't
want egg on their face. A lot of times they're like,
do let's flood it play out? But I wonder if
Pennix chops it up in the preseason, are we sure
(36:07):
the whole year.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
Is Kirks, think about it this way, Colin. The fact
that you're asking me that question on your very popular
talk show is exactly the environment that the Falcons created, righting,
Michael Pennix Junior. It's the fact that you have this
precise scenario that they had to fully think through in
terms of the environment. Because it's totally different to say,
(36:30):
you draft Patrick Mahomes. We got Alex Smith here, he
can sit for a year. It's totally different than hey,
we trade up and took Jordan Love. We still got
Aaron Rodgers. We can afford to wait. Kirk Cousins had
gotten one hundred million guaranteed six weeks before and like
an hour before they make the pick. They got Kirk
on stage whipping the towel at the draft party and
get the fans excited about this team, and then oh yeah,
(36:52):
they call him and hey, we're taking your eventual replacement.
There was always this scenario where when Pennix plays well,
I don't think there's any question calling that Kirk Cousins
starts in week one. It would be, in my opinion,
bananas to go away from that, just based upon how
you've set yourself up. What you said was your organizational
philosophy for operating the way that you did, and the
(37:13):
money you've already given to Kirk Cousins. But you and
I both know if Pennix does this in the preseason
and then we get to week one, well, remember you
got Kirk coming off the Achilles. You look great. When
I was down there in Atlanta, everything I've heard behind
the scenes is he's moving fantastic. He's an elite processor.
I believe that he'll be fine. But if it's rocky
out of the gate, if getting the rhythm and the
(37:34):
timing and the tempo, you got a first time play caller,
they start out ohing one, they start out owing two.
He throws an interception on the first drive. It's not
just that people are gonna be thinking, boy, well, they
need time here. It's also a matter of you create
this environment where the fans are gonna be chanting for
the other guy. That's the difficult part. I know that
(37:55):
Raheem Morris, Terry Fonta, everybody thought through all these things,
they were comfortable with it because they believe and they've
said this outright, We're never going to be in the
spot again. We're never gonna draft this high again. So
we got to take this guy.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Now.
Speaker 6 (38:09):
It's outside the box column. When you do unorthodox things,
it opens you up to a different type of criticism here.
It's a fantastic problem to have, but it's one that
even if the reckoning doesn't come here, you know, prior
to week one, come twenty twenty five, if Pennix plays
well in the preseason and maybe even gets some action
in the regular season, depending if Kirk you know, gets
(38:30):
dinged up at any point here, you're gonna have real
questions about a guy who's guaranteed money all the way
out into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Tom Pelasarro NFL network X. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Great seeing you again. Love your office, love your stuff,
good insight, good stories, my man.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Thanks again.
Speaker 6 (38:45):
Love you behind that organ, Colin.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Always a pleasure, you bet
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sportsradio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
All Right, here we go, lie Man.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Los Angeles hits the Hurt. Wherever you may be and
however you may be listening, Thanks for making us on
a Monday part of your day. It was a glorious weekend.
I gotta watch like you did. All these rookie quarterbacks play,
(00:53):
and throughout the course of the show we'll talk about
each one one hour from now. Where Colin was right,
where Colin was wrong. Jmacoff Ryan filling in for him.
But I want to start. I had sort of thought
that the Olympics were done. I had watched them. Nothing
felt special. These were amazing, and a lot of it
was the men's basketball, which almost twenty million people watched
(01:17):
that gold medal win. That is insane. That's that is
the biggest number of fans that have watched a single
basketball game in this country in a long time, twenty
million people. So, and it came down to Steph and Lebron.
But primarily Steph is the only reason we watched that
game and won that game, not watched it, but won it.
(01:38):
And what's amazing about Steph all these years he's had doubters.
I remember when he got to the last finals. It
was against Boston, and I can remember the chorus of
people that said, well, you know, finals, MVP. I mean,
if you don't win one of those that, I'm like,
you're doubting him. Well, you still don't think he's great.
(02:02):
You don't qualify as an all time great. You just
look silly doubting Steph Curry. Take out Magic Johnson. He
is by far and away the best point guard ever.
Only Magic is close. And Magic couldn't score like this.
Magic elevated others, Magic could play more positions.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
He didn't do this.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And when other players like Lebron James not just look
at you, but kind of look at you in awe
and you can do things they can't. Lebron's the great
Swiss army knife in basketball. He can duplicate almost anything,
But he can't do what Steph does. And the next
greatest point guard, Magic Johnson, he can't do what Steph does.
(02:44):
Steph can do a lot of things nobody else, even
the great ones, can duplicate. Add in the IQ, the EQ,
the confidence, the leadership, the coach ability, the willingness, the
self awareness to let others dominate for a time. But
what's crazy is the shots that he takes would be
audacious looking for everybody in the league. If Aunt Edwards
(03:08):
took those shots, and we all love Ant, you'd be like, oh, yeah,
he has his game's not refined yet.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I like Ant.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's a bad shot for Ant, not a guy off
the bench. For most of the league, these shots are audacious,
and for Steph you're like, yeah, he's got to take those.
Steph's got to take these shots. And he did. And
Team USA is now twenty nine to oh when Steph's
playing for him twenty nine to oh. And a lot
(03:37):
of great players, you know, golf has a little bit
of this, Baseball's got some of this. A lot of
great shooters when they're off, like Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum
couldn't hit jumpers. He shrinks like he shrinks, Steph doesn't.
Steph's last two games, he didn't play good early. He
didn't good, he didn't play well early. His last two
(03:57):
games he shot sixty five percent from three, So he is.
It's not just that he's the best shooter ever. He
has the highest scoring ceiling ever. We all love Patrick Mahomes,
but all quarterbacks, it's six points for all the touchdowns.
And everybody knows Aaron Judge is great, but if the
bases are empty, it's one run. When you're really an
(04:20):
all timer, you can make all time greats feel less
than or outdated. Michael Jordan mathematically, Michael Jordan's mid range
game is outdated. Step back two steps, the skyhook outdated?
Why take a twelve foot hook like dunket or shoot
(04:41):
a three? Steph can make things and players and games
and people look outdated. There is only one guy and
only one reason Team USA won the Gold and it's
not Lebron.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It's Steph.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
He's the fastest, score more points faster than any but
he's done it. Shots that would be audacious by anybody
else in the league. You'll get your throw up, a
couple of uglies that may be the only other guy
that can shoot from twenty nine falling away with a
man in his face, and we're like, it's not a
bad shot. So I we loved to Barry Stars and
(05:17):
we did that. We wanted to bury far before he
was done, and this is just what we do. We
had Lebron was done four years ago. But what you're
watching there is nobody can duplicate it. When you shoot
shots that would be outrageous, would seem ridiculous, ill advised,
and yet with Steph you want him to take those.
(05:40):
Tatum struggled early. Tatum struggled, Steph struggled early. He's the
singular reason we won the gold, all right. So it
was an interesting weekend for all these rookie quarterbacks. Everybody
kind of looked like you thought they would look like
bo Nicks was accurate. Caleb Williams can move, Drake May's
(06:03):
got some rust he just needs. I feel like with
Drake May, we should just wait a year and then
come back in a year and make a judgment on him.
He's just not He's just not as polished as everybody was.
And you kind of knew that coming in. But Caleb Williams,
I love what teammates are saying about him because you
can't full teammates. DJ Moore said, outstanding, cole Comet the
(06:23):
tight end said second to none. So he had one
hundred and two passer rating, thirteen yard scramble, twenty snaps.
And what's interesting about Caleb is you have to, like
Jordan Love of the Packers, you have to go to
the year before he was drafted. So the year before
Caleb was drafted forty two touchdown passes, five picks, forty
(06:45):
five hundred yards. And then the final year at USC,
old line was a mess. The team was not competitive
by week eight. They wouldn't call certain plays because the
old line struggled. They didn't want to get him hurt.
But like Jordan Love, because college you can have really
good coaches get replaced by a really bad coach. In
the NFL, even bad coaching is usually competent. USC last
(07:09):
year had an incompetent defensive coordinator. They couldn't stop anybody.
Every game was attract me. Every game you had to
throw fifty times, but you couldn't. That's the way it worked.
So in college football, you can replace a good coach
or hire a coach that just isn't good. In the NFL.
You may be a bad fit, but most people are competent.
(07:29):
Brandon Staley as side. But I think when I watched
Caleb Williams, I feel like because Lincoln Riley was polarizing
and is and the way he left Oklahoma, and because
Caleb Williams was the first NIL star and the fingernails,
and he's emotional, he's polarizing. So there's some haters out there,
(07:50):
There's no question there's haters. Whereas a Baker Mayfield comes in,
he's a little shorter than he should be. He almost
looked plump. He not hyper athletic. Translate, American guys can
root for him. He kind of looks like them. Caleb
Williams doesn't. And the Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma for USC
(08:10):
and it's Hollywood, it's arrogant, it's USC. It's Southern California.
People that don't go to Southern California have never lived there.
Go to the internet. They're all experts on it. They've
all got an opinion on it. So don't allow your
feelings to get in the way of the truth. Here,
the arm, the movement, the confidence, it's just different. Mahomes
is a completely accurate comp and it's not his fault.
(08:32):
The nile exploded when Caleb Williams came to USC. One
of his early deals, he got all his offensive linemen paid.
If you remember the Heisman ceremony, he had his offensive
lineman there. I don't think he's a bad guy. I think,
as Jordan Palmer said Thursday on this show, I think
he got bored.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I think he was bored last year at USC.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And once they weren't competitive, once they weren't going to
get to the playoff, the coaches didn't want to call
certain plays. They didn't trust the offensive line. Link kN
Riley won in the Heisman. Lincoln Riley was not going
to get Caleb Williams hurt. He was not going to
play him lay in games. He was not going to
get him hurt. He would not call certain protections. So go,
like Jordan Love, go to the year before where Caleb
(09:15):
Williams took four and eight and an awful roster to
one play away from twelve to two, one play against Tulane.
And what's interesting is, as I was watching this, usually
big cities, not small towns or on the cutting edge
of things. You know many many of the you know
(09:36):
Silicon Valley in California or Wall Street in New York.
Cutting edge technology don't come from small towns, but little
small Green Bay in the same division has been light
years ahead of Chicago's offense forever, and I felt like
watching it this weekend, the Bears offense finally got Wi Fi.
It's like, oh, oh, no more, no more aol that weird,
(10:00):
clunky sound. It's all Wi Fi. It's magical, That's what
it felt like. It's gonna be efficient, it's gonna be dynamic,
it's gonna be a lot of wow. And he only
saw a couple of snaps, but it's it's I feel
like there's not one word to describe Chicago offense.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
There's like twenty and they're all bad.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
In the same division with small market Green Bay that
doesn't attract free agents. Green Bay has been doing offense
right forever and Chicago's never done it right.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And they got Wi Fi. And here's Caleb after the win.
Last time I was out there on the field other
than practice, it was November eights eight, and it's you know,
you go that long without something, it's it's it's tough.
But now it's been great. The guys have made it fun.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
They made it easy on me to get out there
and and and and have the confidence you know that
we had out there. It's it's only gonna get better,
and we can't wait.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Also, Jade and Daniels probably made the first or second
best throw by any rookie quarterback. I thought most of
the quarterbacks looked like they were advertised, and this batch
of quarterbacks, Michael Pennix had a lot of starts Indiana
and Washington, bow Knicks had a lot of starts at
Auburn and Oregon. Jade and Daniels a lot of starts
(11:17):
Arizona State and LSU. So I feel like I knew
what I was getting. It was not one of these
drafts where I don't know what Trey Lance is. I'm
actually excited. His tape's great, he didn't played that much.
Or Anthony Richardson from Florida one year starting to the Colts.
I'm not really exactly sure. I'm getting glimpses of stuff.
(11:37):
It feels exciting. I'd rather be optimistic than negative and pessimistic,
but I don't know what I'm getting. I kind of
felt like bow Knix looked like bow Knicks was going
to look and so did Pennix, and so did Jade Daniels,
and I watched two years of starting at USC. That's
what Kayler Williams, that's what he looks like. So I mean,
it's I don't remember the last time you get little
(11:58):
early warning signs, signs of hope and desperation with rookie quarterbacks.
I thought even Drake may who was the least impressive,
he was kind of what I thought he would look like.
JJ McCarthy was better than what I thought he would
look like. We'll get to that top of the hour.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Well, we do this every Monday at this time. Strong opinions.
Sometimes we whiff, sometimes we hit. It's called Colin was right,
Colin was wrong, and here we.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Go where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I've been saying this with Jason Tatum. Steve Kerr feels
the same way Brad Stevens does. He doesn't know if
he can trust him around other stars to take hold
of the game. He went zero for sixteen on Jumpers
Don't blame Steve Kerr. Jason Tatum didn't hit a jumper
in the Olympics. He shrinks around other stars, and sometimes
(12:56):
when he's on the court for a star, he's kind
of invisible.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
This is what I've been saying for years.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's I know all the Celtic backers are mad at
Steve Kerr.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
It's not a Steve kerrishue.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Jason Tatum went oh for sixteen one jumpers like he
just he didn't make himself the best possible Jason Tatum.
And when your bench includes Anthony Davis and Bam gonna
buy you, you gotta work your way into playing time.
I've always been a little bit cynical of the greatness
of Jason Tatum and Steve Kerr.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Grees where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I thought the Olympics felt like they were sort of done,
and I thought they were spectacular. Simone Biles Katie ledeki
Team USA for the men it hit, it felt like
it was a rebirth. The World Cup over the last
twenty years feels like it has absolutely surpassed the Olympics
as the big every four year sporting event. But the politics,
(13:53):
in my opinion, are so ugly and divisive in America.
We were looking for good news and NBC in the
Olympics delivered it for three straight weeks. I could have
got another couple of weeks. It was like make him longer.
I thought it was just and it surprised me they.
I mean, I really was not jacked up to watch
the Olympics going in, and I thought it.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Was amazing where Colin was right.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, I said, Jaden Daniels is really good. And there's
a little Lamar Jackson here. He made the best throw
by any rookie arguably this weekend. It came on an
audible and here was his coach Dan Quinn talking about it.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I thought, of top gun, do I have permission to
buzz the tower? No? Ghost Rider? The pattern is full,
and so I think on that one he wanted to
ask for forgiveness and not permission and then throw, you know,
an absolute dime, you know, over the top to Damie
to go. So it was a really cool play.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It was, and he played well where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
JJ McCarthy, you know, I've been a little bit questioning
the greatness. Why didn't everybody move up the board to
get him. Well, I thought he looked better than I thought,
and I thought he moved better, played with a ton
of confidence. I mean he's got a little Sam Darnold
where he'll let it rip. I don't know how great
his arm is. It's good enough. But I thought he
(15:20):
played really well. Eleven to seventeen, one hundred and eighty
eight yards. Even his interception, I didn't think. You got
sometimes guys in the NFL are really good. It wasn't
a terrible interception. He had a passer rating of one
hundred and sixteen. He had two runs. He moved better
than I thought, so I thought he was clever, he
was nimble. Good for JJ. I still think Donald starts
(15:42):
week one. They got a pretty rough first four or
five weeks. But that was impressive where Colin was right
Michael Pennix. That didn't surprise me. And this proves once
again Pennis played well. It's okay in a league where
sixty quarterbacks will take a snap to have an old
guy coming off of surgery and a talented new guy
(16:04):
maybe sits on the bench waiting in the wings, and
I don't know how long he'll wait. But there's all
this pushback. How can you draft him and have Kirk Cousins.
Kirk Cousins is coming off surgery. They've got a good
old line, they've got good offensive pieces. Here's something that's
never a problem in the NFL. We've got one too
many good quarterbacks. You can always live with that. Where
(16:27):
Colin was raw, I tried to be so optimistic with
Justin Fields, and then I watched Justin Fields and he
took sacks and he had fumbles, and it's just it
just he looks hesitant. He doesn't get rid of the
ball quick enough. It's kind of who he is. Fumbles,
sacked twice, he struggles like nothing. He can be brilliant,
(16:51):
but he takes his eyes off the field whenever pressure's coming.
He's been hit so much he doesn't look downfield. He's
trying to find a lane to run it. Just as
I said when he was in Chicago, it shouldn't be
this hard for a big guy who moves well with
a big arm. It shouldn't look that hard all the time.
Where Colin was right, Ceedee Lamb didn't play for the Cowboys,
(17:14):
and despite the fact that Stets invented of the rams
through four interceptions, they could not score a touchdown. You
got four interced when's the last time that ever happened
in a game in the NFL where a team had
four picks, some in good field position, and you still
didn't get a touchdown. And this is my takeaway on
the Cowboys. There is not a team in the NFL
(17:35):
that is more dependent on a singular running back, tight end,
or wide receiver than the Dallas Cowboys are. And if
Cedi doesn't play, there's no juice, there's no pop. It's
a lot of guys, and they got to get that
contract thing figured out because nobody in the NFL is
given this Cowboy defense four picks. You're not playing stets
(17:56):
In Bennett in the regular season where Colin.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
I've tried to support.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Dion Sanders, even though I thought initially Colorado was a
weird fit. But I'm seeing the stuff that's kind of
repetitive with Dion Sanders.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
A lot of ego, very defensive.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
If you're gonna put yourself out there, coach, you're gonna
you're shooting a flare off into the sky every day.
Guess what, It's gonna attract people. And he melted down
this weekend with the usually very supportive Colorado football media.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Eric Christensen with CBS Sports Colorado, Tyler, I'm not doing
none with CBS next questions.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Above that, none of do with you. I love for you,
I appreciate, respect you, and none to do with you.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
They know what they did.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I'm here at Denver, not National. You are who you are, CBS, CBS.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh boy, time for the coach to grow up a little.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Where Colin was right, boh Nicks looked like the perfect fit.
I'm telling you, it looks like Sean Payton Drew Brees.
So he was, you know, he was exactly and he
moves much better than people are gonna give him credit for.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
He actually moves really well. He moves better than Pennix
I think.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
I mean, there's a handful of starters in the league
that don't move like they moves better than Drew Brees.
At the end, he's accurate gets I mean, you see
how fast he gets rid of the ball there.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
That ball.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
You got to get rid of that ball fast. So
four or five for fifty yards and a touchdown. That's
just on third down. He was really really good on
third down where Colin was right. And finally you mocked
me nesson, everybody made fun of me. When I said,
keep your eye on Joe Milton out of Tennessee. The
(19:44):
kids got talent. He's got talent. The offensive line facing
four Decembers. He made this into a big play. Harball
liked him. I think Joe Milton's got talent.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Now.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
He was inconsistent the knocking him in college. He missed
open in receivers.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I'm I'm not.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Saying he's Caleb Williams, but he he looked great and
the crowd was into it. And I mean, Jacoby Brissette
is solid, but look at their schedule. They go on
a four game losing streak. Drake May has not looked
great in the pre seat. You don't think Joe Milton.
All I said was, I think I'd give that kid snaps.
I'd give Joe Milton snaps. Jim Harbaugh did, Josh Heibel did.
(20:25):
Go look at the last year and a half in
the SEC. Look at the offensive numbers he put up.
Maybe he's not a fluid, He's not this and that.
All I know, Joe Milton moves the ball. Colin Wright,
Colin Wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Eastern a Empacific Hey.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
What's up everybody. It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Harington,
and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast
called Up on Game?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 7 (20:56):
You assd along with my fellow pro bowler TJ Hoods,
Manzada and Super Bowl champion Yep, that's right, Plexico Birds.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
With teachable moments. Listen to Up on Game with me
lebar Arrington, t J.
Speaker 7 (21:18):
Hutch Manzada, and Plexico Birds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Well Monday through Friday. You see him on the NFL
Network on The Insiders XM. Serious host, been doing it
a long time and knows what he's doing. Tom Pellisero
is joining us live. So Ian O'Connor's book is out
on Aaron Rodgers. I did a deep dive last night.
I'll probably finish it in the next couple of days.
I've read chunks of it and I was saying it's earlier.
(21:50):
Today we talked about Aaron. I've always been seeing as
sort of anti Eron, but I'm not. I mean, he
probably should have been up front about the vaccine, but
you know, he's not the only person that fudged on that,
so I'm not you know, I do feel o, Tom,
I kind of feel like this is an ending great
like far pivoted and eventually got to Minnesota and you're like, Wow,
(22:12):
he's still got it. I kind of feel like Aaron
needs a big year. He didn't have advertisers. He's kind
of on an island. I'm not even sure he's as
close to Sala as he was a year ago.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Like, am I wrong? It feels like he needs a
pop year?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Right?
Speaker 6 (22:31):
I think i'd say this Colin. Aaron's very aware of
how he's perceived. He's very aware of what people are saying.
He never, you know, you talk to the people who
are closest with him, they'll all say, like, Aaron will
never debate a subject unless he has researched it extensively.
And there's no subject on which Aaron Rodgers is a
(22:53):
better expert than Aaron Rodgers. And I think that you know,
this path of self discovery or whatever you want to
call it, that he's been on now for a number
of years. Has certainly created a really interesting individual. It's
also somebody who you know by the end in Green Bay,
and I was there for the working for the Green
Bay Prescazette when you know they had the far of
(23:15):
Rogers transition after the two thousand and seven season. You know,
Bret's dreams, like the things that he had in his
mind were just going back to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and riding
the tractor around his property and literally chopping wood all day.
That's what he wanted to do with Aaron. If he
walked away tomorrow and said I'm going to go work
at SpaceX and I'm going to Mars, you'd be like, yeah,
(23:36):
I can. I can kind of see that. But at
the same time, he could do that tomorrow calling and
he has it. And you have to ask yourself, why
is a thirty nine going on forty year old guy
who's made more money than he'll ever need in his
life and his one four MVPs, why is he still
going here? And I think that on some level, yeah,
there's the passion for the game, but there there might
(23:58):
be something to Aaron want to prove to whoever it is,
whether it's himself, the public, whatever, that he's got one
more magical run in him. And part of that, you know,
maywell you know, And again I'm not inside Aaron's head,
but I wouldn't be surprised that part of that is
he remembers what it was like at the end for Brett,
because Brett got traded. You know, they O seven, they
(24:19):
make that run to the NFC Championship Game. The Packers
want an answer him far of early. He retires within
like a month. He's he's talking to Greta Van susterin
and doing interviews about he's coming back and the Packers
don't want me and all this stuff. Oh wait, was
a battle for him with the Jets. Then O nine
he goes to Minnesota and but for that interception the
NFC Championship game, I mean, he might add another Super
(24:41):
Bowl trophy to the case with Rogers, same thing. The
first year with the Jets doesn't go well. Aaron somewhere
deep down inside, learned a lot from you know, Brett
and from watching it, and he's very aware of his surroundings,
very aware of what the environment is for him right now.
He knows that coming out one last great season, whether
(25:01):
it ends in a super Bowl, a playoff spot, an MVP. Whatever.
If he can show he can do it again, that's
gonna mean something to him before he goes on and
does whatever it is he's doing next.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
You know, I was saying earlier, when you watch the
great ones, you often ask yourself, it could be messy,
it could be Lebron if they don't have a huge
physical advantage. I mean, Lebron's a big guy, but Wemby obviously,
But sometimes you'll just watch a great hitter, the late
Tony Gwinn and You're like, why can't everybody hit three fifty?
He takes that inside pitch, he hits it to the
hole in the left side. He makes it look so easy.
(25:34):
And conversely, I watched justin Field and I'm like, he
makes it look so hard. He's always he can't get
rid of the ball, the timing's always bad, he fumbles.
I really thought he had a shot to beat Russell,
and watched this weekend. I'm like, this is why he
drove me nuts in Chicago, and just let's just talk
(25:55):
about this quarterback battle because I think privately people are
in pitch. I would love to see him flourish and
pop and then I watch him and I'm like, oh,
it's like Zach Wilson. There's so many things that should
work and they don't. What do you make of the
quarterback situation in Pittsburgh right now, Well, Colin.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
You summarize, I mean, this is the Justin Fields experience,
which is, if you edit together his highlight plays, his
positive plays, you walk away, you watch one YouTube video
for commenttion like this guy might be the best player
in the NFL, and then you kind of watch it
down in and down out, and you see so much
what he does is creating off schedule within the offense.
Like I watched the decent amount of that game the
(26:34):
other day just because I was curious. I mean, the
poor herbig kid couldn't get a snap back to fields
like that put him in some tough situations. So I'm
not entirely gonna judge Justin Field's off that. But what
they've seen, from what I've talked to in Pittsburgh is
very similar to what we saw in Chicago, which is
a guy who can look really good at times. He's
one of the most dynamic guys with the football in
(26:54):
his hands in the entire league, and there's other times
where you see those things like they had in Chicago,
it's like, Okay, you got it. Something's got to be
in rhythm. You gotta be able to rip the football
when somebody's open. What I think is really interesting here,
Colin is the fact that they brought in an offensive
coordinator at Arthur Smith, whose offense kind of takes at
least some of the level of timing out of it.
(27:16):
It's very much a pound the football, run the football,
play action, take some deep shots, which also has been
where Russell Wilson has been at his best during the
course of his career. I know this with Mike Tomlin
in his history, whether it's with coaches, whether it's with players,
He'll stick with his guys and give them every opportunity
until he simply can't give them. Another one that I
(27:38):
think applies to Russell Wilson. He said throughout the offseason,
the Russ is in pole position. They've got him pushing
a blocking sled on the first day and a conditioning
drill and he pops his calf. Russ from everything I
was told the next day was like I can go,
I can practice. It's the doctors that have been holding
him back. Here. But unless Russ goes out and simply
plays terribly when he gets his preseason opportunity, I know
(27:59):
Mike Tomlin hasn't idea whether it'll start that second preseason game.
I believe Mike Tomlin again, just knowing how he perceives
the locker room dynamics, the building dynamics. He'll give Russell
Wilson the opportunity to go out there and play regardless
of what Justin Fields does. The real question to me
is how long do you go with that? How good
is this Pittsburgh team? Because you and I both know
(28:20):
if they start out six and three versus starting at
three and six, the dynamics are completely different in terms
of public pressure and everything else. But Mike Tomlin has
never been one that cave to public pressure. If anything,
he will push back. He'll keep Matt Canada a year
beyond where people are channing for the guy to be fired.
Why because he believes in them. Just like the Steelers
believe in their guys. They keep head coaches for twenty years.
(28:42):
They give Mike Tomlin an extension when he hasn't won
a playoff game in what six seven years here? So
I believe it'll be Russell Wilson when we come out
of the gate here, and I don't know that Justin
Fields is going to do a lot positive or negative
to change that in the short term. I'm interested to
see how, if it all, do they get fields on
the field when we get to the regular season games,
and just kind of how does that position play out
(29:03):
over the course.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So I had somebody ten days ago tell me a
former NFL player who's been a great source through the years, said,
Ayu's gonna sign. It's it's getting real close. Thirty six hours. Well,
it never transpired. Very good reporters everywhere. We're all over
the map on this. People that I respect widely were
it's in, it's out, it's over. He's in Pittsburgh, and
(29:25):
my takeaway is it was close, and he he was
offended by something. San Francisco's like, this is the number,
deal with it. And then he said I'm out, and
then he didn't like the choices and he comes back
and then San Francisco is not in a great mood.
And a friend of mine, John Middlecoff, said last night
he may be the only receiver that signs a four year,
(29:46):
hundred million dollar deal and is still bitter. Where are
we at with Brandon Ayuk and the Niners. I do
believe that if if you're a wide receiver mann they
scheme you open. It's like Cooper Cup is always open.
It's like San Francisco. George Kittle's wide open. I know
he's not a burner. I would have a hard time
(30:08):
leaving McVeigh or Kyle Shanahan or Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
I think he's just best served there. What are you hearing.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well?
Speaker 6 (30:18):
I think Kyle Shanna would be the first one to
tell you it's a lot easier to scheme those guys
open when they're really good players. But you're right, that's
Kyle's greatest skill is being able to get people open.
I think that there's a fluidity to this situation that's
unlike many things that we've seen in recent years, and
there's tons of different dynamics at play. I'll give you
(30:38):
the short version based on what I know, Colin, in
terms of how this entire thing has played out. So obviously,
there would have been an opportunity way back in March
for the forty nine ers to get a deal done
with Brandon Ayuk. They thought at that time that what
AYUK was asking for was going to be out of
their price range. Then all of a sudden, you see
all these wide receiver deals that are getting done, and suddenly,
(30:59):
not only does that number probably fit right in line
with what these other wide receiver contracts would be, but
the AYUK number naturally goes up because he's seeing the
other contractually say well, now I need to get this
much money. So they had to sit down. Talker reported this.
I think it was back in June. It was around
the mini camp. They sat down. Both sides said some
things need to be said. You could put a lot
(31:19):
of stuff out there, making TikTok videos, mfing the security
gate to get into the building and recording this video,
staging it telling Jane Danersye, they said, you didn't want
to be back. Everybody got some stuff off their chest,
and the thinking was after the fourth July they'd get
back together and try to hammer out a deal. Well,
there really wasn't any progress or even negotiations on a
(31:42):
new contract prior to the start of training camp, so
AYUK starts to hold in. There's no end in sight.
It's apparent that they're not really anywhere in the same
ballpark on this. So about two weeks ago, the forty
nine ers re engaged with trade talks that they really
hadn't been since back before the draft when they got
some call and they were trying to get a first
round pick and more or a high first round pick
(32:04):
for Brandon Nyuk. They started just feeling out, Okay, what
could we get if we traded him? What would we
be able to get? And by the way, we want
a wide receiver as a part of any deal. That's
where the New England's come into play. That's where the
Clevelands come into play. Everybody knew roughly where the number
was with Brandon n Ayuk, and the forty nine ers started
selectively granting permission for Ayuk's agent to negotiate with the
(32:27):
other teams. Then all of a sudden, you know, the
Cleveland stuff starts to come out, and it kind of
came out after that one had already come to a head.
And then it was a week ago that you start
having you know, various reports about well this is you know,
this is a done deal for Ayuk to Pittsburgh. Well,
the reality was Ayu could sort of come to the
conclusion at that point the only place he wanted to
(32:49):
go to was Pittsburgh, but they were the team that
didn't have a receiver to send to San Francisco. So
what do the forty nine ers do. They start calling
all these other teams saying, Okay, if we make this deal,
can we trade for this receiver or that receiver and
other gms are going So the second week of August,
I'm not gonna cut you a deal on this and
help you out with my number one or number two
(33:10):
wide receiver. So the forty nine ers then regrouped. By
the end of last week they sort of had come
to the conclusion, Listen, the best thing we can do
is make this work with Brandon Ayuk, a guy we know,
a guy, we know how well he fits. We think
that we can get here. So they re engaged on
the contract negotiations. That was at the tail end Thursday,
Friday of last week. And you know, as we sit
(33:31):
here right now two thirty Eastern time, eleven thirty out
there in La calum we don't have a firm and
final answer. As Brandon Ayuk posted in an Instagram comment,
because where else. Responding to a tweet that I had,
he said, you know, there's two options. Pick one basically,
and let's go. That's a message to the forty nine
ers here that hey, either you meet my number or
(33:52):
I'm going to Pittsburgh. There's really no barriers, there's no
obstacles to getting something done with the Steelers if the
forty nine ers decide to go that direction, but absent
another answer for what wide receiver can help win the
Super Bowl right now, Colin, they want to try to
get this thing done with Brandon Nyuk and the card
they stole in their back pocket, they haven't played it.
I don't know if they will play it. But the
(34:12):
card they would have in their back pocket is saying,
you know what, we need you too bad. We're not
trading you. We're not going to trade you for less
than we could have gotten somewhere else just because you
want to go to Pittsburgh. You're under contract for fourteen.
You take our best offer, or you play this year
for fourteen. Again, We're not there yet. I don't know
that we ever get there. That's the one card the
forty nine ers have not yet played because they are
really trying to heal this relationship, and like a lot
(34:34):
of things, call them the way to heal. This relationship
is give them granded and Ayuk number he once.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Tom pellis our NFL network. Final question. Most of this
stuff bo Nix is going to be the starter. I
you think Drake May is not. It'll be next year
or something. Caleb's going to start, Jaden's going to start.
Most of these are pretty simple. The one that's really
interesting to me is Michael Pennock. So I defended Atlanta.
I said, folks, sixty quarterbacks take us app The best
(35:01):
problem to have in the NFL is we have two
quarterbacks that can win. That is not a problem. If
everybody shy something. I can live with Penick sitting for
a year. Mahomes, did Carson Palmer? Did Jordan love Farm?
I'm okay with it, and I do think kirk off
this surgery is pretty close to the end. And then
I watched Michael Pennix. It's a very good old line
(35:23):
and I'm like, they got weapons. I'm like this this
is interesting. I know they're paying kirk but it is
a surgery. He wasn't mobile before this. Is there a
shot maybe they would look bad? But is there a
shot that if they're not going to give snaps to
Kirk much in the preseason off that injury. What if
Pennix just lights it up for the next three weeks,
(35:45):
is there a shot? They're like, all right, well, yesterday
is today? The future happened way sooner than we thought.
That stuff happens in this league all the time, and
a lot of tom you know this front offices don't
want egg on their face. A lot of times they're like,
do let's flood it play out? But I wonder if
Pennix chops it up in the preseason, are we sure
(36:07):
the whole year.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
Is Kirks, think about it this way, Colin. The fact
that you're asking me that question on your very popular
talk show is exactly the environment that the Falcons created, righting,
Michael Pennix Junior. It's the fact that you have this
precise scenario that they had to fully think through in
terms of the environment. Because it's totally different to say,
(36:30):
you draft Patrick Mahomes. We got Alex Smith here, he
can sit for a year. It's totally different than hey,
we trade up and took Jordan Love. We still got
Aaron Rodgers. We can afford to wait. Kirk Cousins had
gotten one hundred million guaranteed six weeks before and like
an hour before they make the pick. They got Kirk
on stage whipping the towel at the draft party and
get the fans excited about this team, and then oh yeah,
(36:52):
they call him and hey, we're taking your eventual replacement.
There was always this scenario where when Pennix plays well,
I don't think there's any question calling that Kirk Cousins
starts in week one. It would be, in my opinion,
bananas to go away from that, just based upon how
you've set yourself up. What you said was your organizational
philosophy for operating the way that you did, and the
(37:13):
money you've already given to Kirk Cousins. But you and
I both know if Pennix does this in the preseason
and then we get to week one, well, remember you
got Kirk coming off the Achilles. You look great. When
I was down there in Atlanta, everything I've heard behind
the scenes is he's moving fantastic. He's an elite processor.
I believe that he'll be fine. But if it's rocky
out of the gate, if getting the rhythm and the
(37:34):
timing and the tempo, you got a first time play caller,
they start out ohing one, they start out owing two.
He throws an interception on the first drive. It's not
just that people are gonna be thinking, boy, well, they
need time here. It's also a matter of you create
this environment where the fans are gonna be chanting for
the other guy. That's the difficult part. I know that
(37:55):
Raheem Morris, Terry Fonta, everybody thought through all these things,
they were comfortable with it because they believe and they've
said this outright, We're never going to be in the
spot again. We're never gonna draft this high again. So
we got to take this guy.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Now.
Speaker 6 (38:09):
It's outside the box column. When you do unorthodox things,
it opens you up to a different type of criticism here.
It's a fantastic problem to have, but it's one that
even if the reckoning doesn't come here, you know, prior
to week one, come twenty twenty five, if Pennix plays
well in the preseason and maybe even gets some action
in the regular season, depending if Kirk you know, gets
(38:30):
dinged up at any point here, you're gonna have real
questions about a guy who's guaranteed money all the way
out into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Tom Pelasarro NFL network X. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Great seeing you again. Love your office, love your stuff,
good insight, good stories, my man.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Thanks again.
Speaker 6 (38:45):
Love you behind that organ, Colin.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Always a pleasure, you bet
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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